Chapter 560: Chapter 247: Skeleton

There were no sconces for lighting in the secret passage. The way down was quite dark.

Fang Shuwen took out a flint and lit it, illuminating the surroundings.

The steps spiraled down to an unknown destination.

In this cramped and oppressive environment, Luo Shuqing desperately gripped Fang Shuwen’s sleeve.

"Th-this place... is so scary..."

"Will there be any mechanisms, or traps?"

As he led her down, Fang Shuwen said:

"I’m not worried about mechanisms or traps..."

"Then... what are you worried about?"

"I’m worried about Arrays."

Fang Shuwen said helplessly:

"That stuff... I don’t know the first thing about it."

His proficiency in Arrays had stagnated. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to improve, but mainly because Yu Yaoguang genuinely wouldn’t teach him.

When the two of them had met before in the Eastern Domain, they spent their days traveling and their nights practicing Martial Arts.

There was simply no time for Fang Shuwen to ask for lessons on the study of Arrays.

So now, whenever Fang Shuwen saw a path leading underground, he felt a bit apprehensive.

The Array traps of the Lingyun Sect had left a deep impression on him.

’I just hope we don’t run into any here,’ he thought, ’or they’ll be quite difficult to deal with.’

Luo Shuqing, however, looked up and suddenly let out a laugh.

Fang Shuwen paused.

"What are you laughing at?"

"N-nothing..."

Luo Shuqing lowered her head, but she could still feel Fang Shuwen’s gaze on her. Only then did she speak.

"It’s just, I just feel like you’re omnipotent."

"Your Martial Arts are good, and you’re very, very smart, very capable..."

"I just didn’t expect there was something you couldn’t do."

Fang Shuwen shook his head gently.

"There are plenty of things I can’t do. Never mind Arrays, I don’t know how to deal with mechanisms or traps either."

"Besides, isn’t that normal? What’s so funny about it?"

"It’s not strange for others not to know things. A person’s energy is, after all, not infinite."

"But, but you’re Fang Shuwen."

Luo Shuqing said:

"You’re the Human World Demon God. I just thought... you, you should be able to do anything!"

"What Human World Demon God? Guard Fang sounds much better."

Fang Shuwen smiled.

"Then... from now on, I’ll call you Guard Fang?"

Just as Luo Shuqing said this, her feet suddenly stopped; they had reached the end of the steps.

The flint was also about to burn out.

Fortunately, Fang Shuwen was well-prepared and took another one from his robes.

This flint was a little different from the previous one; its bamboo tube was painted with red pigment.

When Luo Shuqing saw it, her eyes lit up.

"This was bought... bought from the Golden Bell Tower, right?"

Fang Shuwen nodded.

"They say it lasts a bit longer than a normal flint."

As he spoke, he opened it, blew on it, and the flame instantly leaped to life, pushing back the surrounding darkness.

This was a sealed space. Besides the staircase, there was only one path leading outward.

The two of them followed the corridor forward, but Luo Shuqing suddenly tugged on Fang Shuwen’s sleeve, then pointed at the corridor wall and said:

"Something seems a little strange..."

Fang Shuwen examined it closely and found that it was indeed a bit strange.

A corridor like this was man-made.

Even if the walls weren’t perfectly smooth, they wouldn’t be this irregular.

But now, both walls were covered in chisel marks.

It didn’t look like they were trying to smooth them, but rather as if something had been scraped off the walls.

Both walls were like this.

"You’re right... Someone did this deliberately. Perhaps there was something on the original walls that they didn’t want others to see,"

Fang Shuwen said softly.

Luo Shuqing asked, puzzled:

"But that’s not right..."

"This is, this is the basement of the Suhe Family’s ancestral hall, after all."

"It’s very secret. It would be very difficult for other, for other people to get in."

"Even if there was something they didn’t want, want others to see, they wouldn’t have to worry about it here, right?"

"Then perhaps it’s something that not even members of the Suhe Family themselves are allowed to see?"

This back-and-forth exchange made Fang Shuwen suddenly realize that the Suhe Family’s roots seemed to run quite deep.

And the Eight Forbidden Areas of the East Sea were, in some ways, actually very similar.

Thinking of this, he asked Luo Shuqing:

"Tingtiao Pavilion has a place like this under its ancestral hall. Could Qingxiao Pavilion have one under its grounds as well?"

"...I, I don’t know."

Luo Shuqing’s tone was tinged with a complex mix of emotions.

Fang Shuwen glanced at her.

"What were your days like at Qingxiao Pavilion?"

"They were just, just ordinary days."

Luo Shuqing clutched Fang Shuwen’s sleeve, following him forward as she spoke:

"My... my mother passed away after giving birth to my younger brother, and my father is the Pavilion Master of Qingxiao Pavilion."

"All year round, I, I barely see him a few times."

"When I was little, I just, I just played by myself."

"Zuo Xuan and Zuo Hong were always by my side, but, but it wasn’t the same."

"As for my little brother, he was, he was kept by my father’s side."

"I didn’t see him for the first time until he was three. I gave him a piece of candy, and he seemed... exceptionally well-behaved."

"Especially his chubby little cheeks. I, I always wanted to pinch them."

It was as if the floodgates had opened.

She rambled on about the past.

Almost all of her happy memories were because of her younger brother, Luo Shuyang.

Even though the siblings didn’t meet very often.

Perhaps it was because she saw him through the rose-colored glasses of an older sister, but in her eyes, Luo Shuyang was a very smart, hardworking, and well-behaved child.

And that was precisely why she was so heartbroken when her brother poisoned her.

The Pavilion Master of Qingxiao Pavilion—whether it was because he was busy with official duties or because he simply didn’t care about or value her—only saw her once or twice a year.

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