I am the villain in the book

A cold wind gusted, sweeping from the distant, vast snow mountains into the Mountain God Temple, scattering the dust kicked up by the collapse of the statue.

Looking at the cave entrance before them, Yang Liushi and Lu Huang exchanged a glance, their expressions gradually turning serious.

Clearly, this cave entrance could only serve two purposes.

“Your insight is brilliant, Madam.”

Lu Huang lightly flattered, his mood also relaxing: “In that case, there probably won’t be any great danger in this cave.”

“Perhaps it’s just a place where those wealthy households secretly store their property and treasures.”

“Yes, logically speaking, it should be like that.”

Yang Liushi looked at the cave entrance again, and other than a few stone steps leading into the depths, she couldn’t see anything more.

The two people’s analysis actually didn’t have any problems. This place was most likely a secret warehouse used by the wealthy households of Liangzhou City to store their wealth.

Even if it had other uses, it shouldn’t have any deadly mechanisms set up inside.

Or rather, no matter how powerful the mechanisms set up by these ordinary wealthy families were, they couldn’t possibly harm a Rank 3 expert like Lu Huang.

“General Lu, I want to go in and take a look.”

After repeatedly considering it, Yang Liushi finally made a decision.

She didn’t care about ordinary wealth, but she was afraid that the little fox was hiding inside.

If she didn’t go in now, but waited to bring helpers from Liangzhou City before entering, the little fox would have run away long ago.

Taking a step back, even if the little fox wasn’t inside, the Eclipse Pearl might have originated from here.

In short, there was no harm in immediately going in to investigate.

The only risk was that white light from just now.

If it was really an ordinary wealthy family’s treasury, then why would there be such a strange phenomenon as white light?

Yang Liushi couldn’t figure it out, but after considering everything, she still chose to enter the cave entrance to investigate.

Lu Huang, on the other hand, hadn’t thought so much at all. Hearing her words, he immediately nodded.

“Alright, then this humble general will go in and investigate first. If there’s nothing unusual in the cave, Madam can then enter.”

“Yes, General, please be careful.”

“This humble general understands.”

“...”

Soon, Lu Huang walked into the cave entrance, holding a torch in one hand and a saber in the other.

Yang Liushi stood outside the cave waiting, while carefully listening to the movements inside the cave.

The steady footsteps grew smaller and smaller, and after a dozen breaths, they could no longer be heard.

However, other than that, there were no other sounds, indicating that Lu Huang shouldn’t have encountered any sudden situations.

Bending down and squatting at the edge of the cave entrance, Yang Liushi had no intention of going in at all, but instead planned to wait for Lu Huang to return safely before making plans.

Although this approach seemed a bit unkind at first glance, Yang Liushi didn’t have any psychological burden.

In her heart, the only person who could make her willing to take risks, or even give her life, was Wei Changtian.

If Lu Huang was replaced by Wei Changtian, then Yang Liushi would never let the former enter the cave alone to explore the way, and would definitely take the initiative to ask to go in first herself.

Even if Wei Changtian didn’t agree, she would at least go into the cave with Wei Changtian.

But now... naturally, the more cautious the better.

The cold wind continued, the moon was bright and the stars were few.

Squatting among the rubble, Yang Liushi didn’t wait too long.

After about half an incense stick’s worth of time, the sound of footsteps reappeared, growing from small to large, and soon Lu Huang walked out of the cave entrance.

“General Lu.”

Yang Liushi asked softly, “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine.”

Lu Huang shook his head, his expression a little strange.

“Madam, there are indeed a lot of valuables stored in this cave, and there’s no danger.”

“However... Madam, you’d better not go in.”

“...”

Hearing Lu Huang say this, Yang Liushi couldn’t help but be stunned.

“General Lu, what exactly is in the cave?”

“Madam, it’s not that this humble one intends to hide anything.”

Lu Huang smiled bitterly: “It’s just that the scene in this cave is really a bit... alas, just the corpses that this humble one saw were no less than a hundred, including both human bones and animal bones, scattered all over the place.”

“Is that so?”

Yang Liushi widened her eyes slightly.

She hesitated slightly, but in the end, she still got up and walked into the cave.

“General Lu, please trouble you to go in and take a look with me again.”

“...”

On the other side, the extreme north of Tianshan.

Just as Lu Huang accompanied Yang Liushi into the cave for the second time, Wei Changtian and the others, after traveling for most of the day, finally stood on the mountain peak in the entire Tianshan mountain range that was closest to the Ji Kingdom border.

Just as Huang Sheng said, standing on the top of this peak could indeed allow one to see a large city in the distance.

However, it was currently late at night, and the lights in the city were sparse, making it difficult to see clearly.

“Young Master, that is Nanshan Prefecture City of the Ji Kingdom, and it is also the only way for the enemy troops to enter the mountains.”

Huang Sheng’s face was full of exhaustion, but his tone was somewhat excited.

His mission for this trip was to bring Wei Changtian here, and now he could be considered to have lived up to his mission.

“...”

“Okay.”

One step ahead, Wei Changtian nodded.

He looked a few more times at the blurry black shadow and the scattered lights in the distance, then turned his head and asked Zhang San.

“Haven’t Liushi and Lu Huang returned yet?”

“This... General Liang has not yet sent a message.”

Zhang San shook his head: “Therefore, Madam and General Lu should not have arrived yet.”

“...”

It’s already been three days.

The place where the two groups separated was only a day’s journey away from the Mountain God Temple. Even if Yang Liushi and Lu Huang had rested on the way, they could definitely arrive in one day at most.

Adding the time to return from the Mountain God Temple to Liangzhou City, Yang Liushi and Lu Huang were at least a whole day late.

More importantly, they haven’t returned yet.

So... what exactly caused the delay?

Shaking his head, although Wei Changtian still felt that nothing unexpected should have happened, he was still somewhat worried in his heart.

“Send a message to Uncle Liang, and ask him to send someone to the Mountain God Temple to check the situation.”

“Yes!”

Hearing this, Zhang San immediately took out the Mother-Son Jade, quickly sent a message to Liang Zhen, and then received a reply after an incense stick’s worth of time.

“Young Master, General Liang said that he will immediately order the scouts near the Mountain God Temple to go and investigate the situation.”

“Okay.”

Wei Changtian responded and slowly sat down cross-legged.

“Alright, everyone has been tired these past few days, let’s rest well tonight.”

“The three of us will take turns keeping watch at night, one hour each.”

“We’ll make other plans tomorrow morning.”