Hu Li and Jiang Yu didn't have torches on them, so they could only feel their way in the darkness.

This place seemed like a room for habitation, but all four sides were stone walls. Hu Li suddenly remembered something. He felt along the wall and indeed found a lamp holder. There was still a third of the candle left in the lamp, and fortunately, there were two flintstones beside it.

Hu Li lit the candle, illuminating half of the space.

It was very similar to what they had guessed.

It truly seemed like a place where someone had lived.

There was a stone table in the center of the room, and near the south wall was a stone bed. Although everything was made of stone, it was not difficult to see the intention behind it.

Jiang Yu leaned against the wall, tapping the wall as he walked.

Neither of them spoke but listened to the sounds coming from the wall. When Jiang Yu's hand fell, the echo was different from the previous ones. Jiang Yu pushed with his hand, but it didn't move.

Hu Li looked closely and saw a black spot higher than Jiang Yu. He said to him, "Jiang Yu, look up."

Jiang Yu raised his head, and his hand rose to a point two inches above his head. Whatever it was seemed incredibly heavy, and he leaned to the left with force. "Move aside."

Their hearts tightened for a moment.

Where they had arrived was an underground palace, or rather, they had intruded into the tomb of Prince Liang.

The tombs of princes and nobles were always filled with traps, designed to take lives. People die for wealth, and birds die for food, but neither of them was after wealth or food. They were unjustly facing death.

The mechanism was activated.

They were lucky; there were no hidden arrows piercing through them.

The door opened from left to right. It had been a long time since anyone had opened it, and the dust accumulated in the cracks instantly puffed out. Jiang Yu was caught off guard and choked by it, covering his mouth and nose, coughing lightly.

Seeing that Jiang Yu was safe, Hu Li reached out and took the candle, following Jiang Yu into the stone door. Hu Li turned around and held the candle high, searching for mechanisms in its original position.

Sure enough, he found a mechanism in the distance.

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Jiang Yu turned to the right, slowly closing the stone door. Hu Li shielded the candle and examined what was hidden behind the stone door.

This place was similar to the previous room, but the only difference was that all four walls were sealed, with no passage to the underground river. They didn't have to exert much effort to find the mechanism to leave the room, but when they arrived at another place, it was just another room, similar in nature.

It seemed like they had walked into a dead end.

They were trapped.

After realizing this, the two were no longer eager to find a way out but chose to sit down at the stone table.

"We can't stay here too long. We can't afford to lose the candle, but if we stay too long, we'll suffocate. The space is sealed," Jiang Yu said.

"It seems that the owner of this place can't stand the sight of blood and can only suffocate us," Hu Li joked.

"The nonsense in your sect is inherited," Jiang Yu rarely smiled and then said seriously, "Perhaps this is just the first step to approaching the underground palace."

"What kind of formation is this?" Hu Li pondered for a moment and suddenly got up to search the walls. He tapped the bottom of the stone door and soon found a hidden compartment.

The compartment opened, revealing a set of steps extending downward in front of the corresponding door.

Hu Li smirked and started down the steps.

"Why do you know so much?" Jiang Yu suddenly asked as he walked behind him.

Hu Li said, "There's only one path. You clearly found the direction, but you can still get lost because of the hidden mysteries. That's what my master said."

Things were far less complicated than imagined.

And much harder than imagined.

Seemingly contradictory yet convergent.

The two descended the stone steps and, at a broken junction, ascended.

Hu Li suddenly crouched down.

Damn it.

The stone steps led them to a cliff by the underground river.

If someone were on the river at this moment, they would have a clear view of the two of them.

Hu Li waved to Jiang Yu, signaling him not to move. Hu Li also took two steps back, hiding behind the stone wall.

He peered out with only his eyes, surveying the underground river.

They had come a long way, leaving the riverbank far behind, even farther than the boat of the two from the Moonlit Pavilion.

Hu Li looked into the distance, and the remaining cliffs were relatively low, unable to hide a stone house.

The feeling of being fooled surged within him.

"These few rooms are just appetizers," Hu Li said.

By now, Jiang Yu probably realized it too, looking deeply ahead.

Crossing over the low wall was the only way, but with nothing to cover them, running out like this would be suicide.

"Only those two from the Moonlit Pavilion came into this cave, while the others waited outside. With the old monk in their hands, if we rescue him, maybe we still have a chance. And we haven't seen the so-called underground palace yet. We'll act accordingly when the time comes."

The two stood still for a while. They were at the corner of the underground river, slowly moving forward with their bodies crouched down. When they turned the corner, they finally saw the situation on the other side.

The other side, linked to the underground river, had obviously been carefully crafted. The winding stone steps before couldn't be compared to it.

The floor was made of white marble with intricate cloud patterns, and in the middle was a rectangular raised platform extending to the wall, where twin dragons played with a pearl. The opposite wall was even more extravagant, the entire surface covered with white marble, with a gap in the middle, and the rest was breathtaking relief sculptures.

Hu Li had seen the most extravagant things in his uncle's house. After seeing Prince Liang, his uncle had gone from a peacock to a country bumpkin who hadn't seen the world.

Hu Li couldn't help but take a sharp breath and sighed, "Truly worthy of Prince Liang, such grandeur."

In the capital, the trend of extravagance had prevailed for more than ten years, and it was only after the new emperor ascended the throne that the atmosphere had improved slightly. Although he had seen much, he had never seen such a display. But soon, his attention was drawn elsewhere. The boat from the Moonlit Pavilion floated over, Scarface was still rowing the boat, and a person was sitting on the boat with their hands tied behind their back.

Unable to see the face, but Hu Li recognized by the smooth back of the head that it was the old monk from Qinglong Temple.

So, they had just brought the old monk in.

It seemed they tied him up because they had suffered losses from Hu Li and Jiang Yu before, now they were smarter.

The two quickly hid their bodies, trying their best to conceal themselves.

Scarface looked around, but there was no movement. He chose to stop by the shore, casually throwing the oar onto the boat and reaching out to pull the old monk.

The old monk dodged Scarface's hand by tilting his body and jumped from the boat to the shore.

Scarface snorted coldly and scolded, "Old thing, after guarding for so many years, you still don't know that the underground palace is in Qinglong Temple? Besides taking your life, what has your master given you?"