Chapter 88: Ambushed
Running, running wildly, running in a panic, Tan Xuan didn't expect that destroying the aura of this dark place would cause such a big commotion, shaking the ground and mountains, as if there was an earthquake. Fortunately, there was no other passage underground, and they didn't run into a dead end.
Finally, they could no longer feel the shaking, and Tan Xuan had already pulled Xiao Di to the place where they first fell.
"Ha...ha..." Both of them were gasping for breath. They were really tired. Xiao Di completely disregarded his image and sat directly on the ground.
"What did you do in that room after we left? Why did you make such a big noise? I thought I was going to be buried alive here."
After confirming that there was no danger, Xiao Di began to complain.
Tan Xuan smiled, somewhat embarrassed, "I didn't do anything. I just wanted to dissipate the negative energy here, so I used old Qiu's talismans to set up a formation. I didn't expect his talismans to be so powerful, beyond my imagination."
"By the way, where is Old Qiutou?" When Old Qiutou was mentioned, Tan Xuan remembered that they had a companion.
Xiao Di picked up the flashlight and shone it around, only to find some scattered bones on the ground. He had seen many dead bodies and bones before, so he was not afraid at all now. He said with a puzzled look on his face, "He should have run out before us. I remember he was still running out when I hid, and he didn't stop at all. How come I can't see him? Is there another way here? Did he run the wrong way?"
Tan Xuan shook his head. "Impossible. We ran all the way here. There is no other way. The road is so wide. If he falls, we will be able to see him."
As Tan Xuan spoke, he shone the flashlight around to see if Old Qiu had collapsed somewhere due to exhaustion. When Tan Xuan accidentally shone the flashlight below the hole where he and Xiao Di fell, he could not help laughing, because Old Qiu was climbing up by holding onto the rope, and had almost reached halfway up.
Tan Xuan picked up something from the ground and threw it at Old Qiu, scolding him with a smile: "You old rabbit, you ran away so fast without making any noise. You left the two of us behind, do you still count as a thing?"
“Ouch!”
A scream of pain came from old Qiu in the air. It was obvious that Tan Xuan had hit him with his casual throw.
"Mr. Tan, please stop hitting me. Falling from such a height is no joke. I'm not ignoring you. I think with you covering the rear, there will be no danger. And with my old arms and legs, not causing any trouble for you is the greatest help I can give you, isn't it..."
"Do you need my help? If so, I'll come right down."
"Come on, if you come down I'll have to go through more trouble. Go up and wait first, we can go up by ourselves."
Tan Xuan rejected Old Qiu's kindness. As for this kind of man who had been wandering around the world all his life, Tan Xuan certainly knew that he had the ability to say one thing to one person and another thing to another person. It was enough for him to say this, and one could not really expect him to sacrifice himself to save him in times of danger.
Tan Xuan pushed Xiao Di and asked, "Have you rested enough? It's about time for us to go up as well."
Old Qiu could just comfort himself and leave them behind, but Tan Xuan couldn't just ignore Xiao Di. Besides, he didn't abandon her when she was in danger just now, let alone this moment.
"oh."
Xiao Di took Tan Xuan's hand and stood up.
"ah!"
Xiao Di threw herself into Tan Xuan's arms, grimacing in pain and saying, "My foot!"
"Is it twisted again?"
Tan Xuan asked Xiao Di to hold his shoulders, squatted down and took off the shoe of the foot that Xiao Di was afraid to put on the ground, and found that Xiao Di's foot was very swollen.
Tan Xuan reached out and pressed Xiao Di's foot, and asked, "Does it hurt?"
Xiao Di took a breath of cold air, and tears started to flow. She pinched Tan Xuan's shoulder hard and shouted, "Do you think it hurts?"
Tan Xuan ignored Xiao Di's convulsions and reached out to press another spot. He lifted his hand slightly and asked, "Does it hurt now?"
Xiao Di wiped her tears and shook her head, "It hurts a little, but not as much as before."
Tan Xuan heaved a sigh of relief and helped Xiao Di put on his shoes. "It's okay then. You just sprained your ankle when you were running. The bone is fine. Let's go. We still have to climb up."
Xiao Di was very strong-willed, especially when she was sure that she was not in danger. Xiao Di planned to climb up by herself without Tan Xuan's help, and said that she had received professional training, not to mention climbing, even rappelling was no problem. As a result, when she just stepped on the rope, she remembered that her foot was injured. The injured foot, which was swollen like a swollen pig's hoof, did not allow her to step on the rope at all. So, whether she wanted to or not, she turned into a koala again, and attached herself to Tan Xuan with her hands and feet.
Tan Xuan's posture was very irregular, at least in the eyes of the trained Xiao Di, who really didn't want to comment, but his climbing speed was not slow. By the time Old Qiu climbed up, he had already climbed more than half of the height using his hands and feet, carrying Xiao Di on his back. Looking up, they could already see the light at the entrance of the cave. The light now was much stronger than when they fell down. At this speed, they would be able to see the light again in less than two minutes.
Suddenly, the rope in Tan Xuan's hand shook, and Tan Xuan's body shook, and then his heart sank. Tan Xuan knew that this was not a good sign, but unfortunately he couldn't hold the flashlight with his hands and couldn't see the situation above. He could only push his feet against the wall and didn't dare to move too much. Xiao Di also felt the difference just now, and lay on Tan Xuan without daring to move. Not only could he not control his heartbeat, he even held his breath.
Tan Xuan raised his head and shouted upwards, "Old Qiu, what's going on up there? Why the rope suddenly move? Is it loose or about to break?"
After staring for a while without hearing a response, Tan Xuan became even more anxious, "Old Qiu..."
"Hey!" The voice of Old Qiutou finally came from above.
"You bold devil, what do you want to do..."
After hearing what Old Qiu said next, Tan Xuan's heart trembled, and then he heard Old Qiu's shouting and the sounds of fighting coming from above.
Tan Xuan turned his head and told Xiao Di, "Xiao Di, hold me tight. No matter what happens, don't let go."
"Yeah!" Xiao Di nodded slightly and agreed in a mosquito-like voice. The amplitude was so small that it was not even as violent as her heartbeat, so Tan Xuan could feel it clearly.
Tan Xuan pushed his feet against the wall and climbed up with both hands. Not knowing what was going on above, he didn't dare to waste time. He had to climb to the ground as quickly as possible.
“Crack!”
The rope shook again, and Tan Xuan could feel that it was about to break, and the break should be very high up. At this point he could not care less and climbed up at full speed.
“Crack!”
The rope broke even more seriously, and Tan Xuan became more desperate. Looking at the cave entrance right in front of him, he held his breath.
“Ka…ba!”
The rope broke completely, and Tan Xuan's hands were free, and his body slid down. He quickly reached out to grab the wall in front of him, then pushed hard with his feet against the wall. Instead of sliding down, his body jumped up, and then he grabbed the stone at the entrance of the cave with both hands.
"ah!"
Looking at the cave entrance where daybreak was almost approaching, Tan Xuan breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, he did not fall down. Fortunately, he was agile enough, otherwise, two lives would have been lost. For a moment, he was unable to express his inner joy.
Before Tan Xuan could laugh out loud, he felt a sudden pain in his hand. The pain made him loosen his hand unconsciously. Then he saw a fist-sized stone falling from above his head.
"ah!"
Tan Xuan's body tilted and he almost fell down.
"You bold evil ghost!" Old Qiu's roar came again from above, and then the sound of fighting was heard again.
"ah……"
Xiao Di didn't know what was going on, and was frightened by the sudden situation and screamed. Her hands slipped and she almost fell off Tan Xuan's body. Fortunately, Tan Xuan caught her, otherwise she would have been injured more than just a sprained foot.
Although the light was dim, Tan Xuan could still see Xiao Di's frightened face. Tan Xuan smiled at Xiao Di calmly, "Don't be afraid, I'm here."
"Hold on tight, I'll take you up first."
Tan Xuan's body swung in the air, his feet touched the wall, then he grabbed Xiao Di's arm and swung it violently, throwing Xiao Di directly out of the cave. Then two "plop, ouch" sounds were heard, followed by Xiao Di's loud cursing.
"Tan Xuan, you bastard, you almost threw me to death, and my other foot was also twisted..."
Tan Xuan ignored Xiao Di's shouting and cursing. He grabbed the entrance of the cave with his arms and exerted force. He pushed the wall with his feet and jumped out of the cave directly.
"ah!"
Tan Xuan heard a scream from beneath him, he stood up and saw Xiao Di looking at him with tears in her eyes.
"Tan Xuan, I'm going to kill you."
"It was an accident, purely an accident." Tan Xuan quickly hid aside.
Tan Xuan looked to the side and saw Old Qiu sitting on the ground not far away. His torn robe had several new holes on it and he was holding a broken Lu Ban ruler in his hand. Looking behind Old Qiu, he saw a figure flash in the bushes over there and then disappear into the weeds.
"Where are you running to!"
Tan Xuan stood up and was about to chase after him, but was stopped by Old Qiu.
"Mr. Tan, don't chase after a desperate enemy. Be careful of being tricked into leaving the mountain."
Tan Xuan stopped and looked at the swaying grass and snorted angrily.
"Are you okay?" Tan Xuan walked up to Old Qiu and asked.
"I'm fine." Old Qiu picked up the other half of Lu Ban ruler on the ground, looking very depressed.
Tan Xuan knew that this ruler was Old Qiu's treasure, and he didn't know how to comfort him. He sighed and asked, "What happened just now?"
Old Qiu shook his head. "I don't know what happened. I just sat down and took a sip of wine when I heard your shouting. I turned around and saw a female ghost in white clothes lying on the ground biting the rope, so I started fighting with it. If it were any other time, the female ghost would definitely not be my opponent, but I had just climbed up and was weak all over, so I ended up at a disadvantage. Later, it took advantage of my unpreparedness and attacked you secretly, almost hurting you two... Alas! It was all my carelessness. I am sorry for you two..."
Old Qiu sighed, his face full of self-blame.
Tan Xuan patted Old Qiutou on the shoulder and said, "Don't say that. If you hadn't held it back from above, we probably wouldn't have been able to get up. By the way, how many of them are there?"
Old Qiu looked up at Tan Xuan and still blamed himself, "There's only one. If there was one more, I guess we would all be dead here."
"There's only one female ghost in white. Could it be this?"
Tan Xuan walked back to the cave entrance and picked up the rope that was tied to the stone. His face darkened, and he snorted coldly, "It ran fast this time. If I meet it again next time, I will make it regret becoming a ghost."
"What? Do you know that female ghost?" Old Qiu walked up to Tan Xuan and asked, then untied the rope on the stone and stuffed it into his bag.
Tan Xuan snorted again, "It's just a ghost. I guess it was left behind to check the situation. It ran fast this time. Next time I will make sure it dies."
"Let's go. Their lair has been destroyed by us. I wonder where these evil ghosts can hide after they become wandering ghosts. If they dare to show their heads, I will make them die completely."
