CHAPTER 661: [655] QING CHUAN CHENG WANGFEI 24 (1 MORE UPDATE)

Then they noticed at a visible speed that the bamboo forest could change in an irregular shape, Yun Mi furrowed his brows.

"Turns out there’s an array, seems like these Taoists have some skills."

The guards dispersed to scout around the boundaries to observe, leaving the couple alone.

With no one else around, Xiyuan couldn’t help but ask, "In your eyes, are they just typical swindlers?"

Yun Mi chided lightly, "Isn’t that the case? If it weren’t for elder brother’s obsession with elixirs, so many innocent lives wouldn’t have been harmed by these people. After all, he bears inescapable responsibility!"

His eyes full of disagreement and bold speech moved Xiyuan.

"You dare to say anything, lucky there’s no one here now, if others heard this,"

"What if they heard? Do you think if I didn’t say it, no one would blame him? Don’t be too naive! What of an emperor? He could still end up with an everlasting bad name!"

An everlasting bad name?

Xiyuan’s gaze flickered slightly. To her knowledge, Yong Zheng was still well-regarded, but which emperor doesn’t have desires? Kangxi and Qianlong were even worse than Yong Zheng. Particularly Qianlong, who wanted to emulate Emperor Kangxi by visiting Jiangnan under the pretext of inspecting the populace’s conditions, but in reality, he was just a prodigal, under a righteous banner, indulging in pleasure seeking.

If Kangxi had expanded the greatness of the Qing Dynasty, then Yong Zheng set the foundation by punishing corrupt officials and safeguarding an empire for Qianlong.

And if not for the financial backing from He Shen, Qianlong might have been broke by Jiaqing’s time, real money a complete squander, you know?

After Jiaqing, well, the Qing Dynasty thoroughly declined. And then there came Empress Dowager Cixi—can you say who wasn’t responsible?

"So what you’re doing now is trying to make amends in another way?"

But these living dead had no record in history, perhaps because the world in which she undertook tasks was fictitious.

Yun Mi sighed, "Sort of, but I am not a god, nor a doctor, ultimately I can’t help many more people."

"What about this array?" Xiyuan, not well-versed in these matters, saw Yun Mi observing for a while but he too shook his head.

"I’ll go find someone more professional to look into it when we get back,"

Once again they returned without success, honestly, Xiyuan felt quite discontented, but she bore it until the next morning. Finding a moment, she sneaked to the bamboo forest, standing at its entrance, she asked Liang Tian, "If I go in, can I come out?"

Liang Tian also straightforwardly answered, "Don’t underestimate the ancient artisans; the array might trap you, leaving you unable to exit for a lifetime."

"Don’t you catch a cub without entering the tiger’s lair? My eyes have a recording function, and I refuse to believe I can’t overcome it. You’ve seen the situation outside too, if we don’t find a way to develop a cure soon, then all of Daqing might be doomed!"

Liang Tian suddenly laughed, "Have you forgotten what I told you? I’ve already sent you a gift, didn’t you notice?"

A gift?

Xiyuan was stunned for a moment, thought hard, then suddenly clapped her hands, "Right, how could I forget? Initially, that guard and I were both poisoned, but now he’s encountered trouble while I’ve survived. Could your gift be referring to this?"

"Do you know why you could survive?"

This question made Xiyuan lose her voice again. Right, why could she survive? She certainly didn’t think the system would help her without reason.

Unless—her existence was valuable.

"That’s right, you are the only ’medicine’ that can save everyone. But how you’ll save them is for you to figure out. It’s easy for you to enter this bamboo forest, but whether you can come out depends on your fate."

Xiyuan looked at her space ample enough to sustain her for half a year, and with determination stomped her foot.

"Let’s just try. I have space to escape to avoid danger,"

Though she said this, she still warned herself to be vigilant, lest she carelessly lose her life with no path of reincarnation.

The arrangement of the bamboo forest’s array was somewhat similar to the one in "The Return of the Condor Heroes" on Taohua Island, but that was a television series and she hadn’t studied the Five Elements and Eight Trigrams. Although Liang Tian generously gifted her a book on the Eight Diagrams, she still felt clueless and feared she had to delve deeper to grasp the heavenly secrets.

Entering the array wasn’t difficult; the challenge was to walk to the correct spot. Once she stepped in, the bamboo forest stopped, she crouched down and carefully studied the soil beneath, discovering that the mechanism below supported the land’s movement. Because of the continuous operation, each patch of soil had clear isolation points—neither bamboo nor grass grew on these spots. However, where exactly the underground mechanism was still demanded her careful observation.

She didn’t dare to disturb the bamboo here, only moving randomly, using her eyes to gauge the directions of the paths. Then she realized that after entering, the bamboo forest would rearrange itself every quarter of an hour, making her feel like she was caught in a labyrinth, unable to find her way out no matter how she twisted and turned.

Fortunately, she had brought food and had space; tired and thirsty, she would enter to rest, reviewing the recordings and studying the book while resting.

By evening, she felt someone calling her from outside. Looking up at the sky, a day had passed, and she had only just started to grasp the basics.

She hadn’t left any messages when she departed, which was somewhat reckless, but how else could she explore this place before the royal family intervened?

Thus, no matter how the outside called, she continued in her space, eating when she should eat, sleeping when she should sleep, researching as needed.

After spending over seventy hours in the space, she finally had a clue. From initially entering in panic without any method, rotating aimlessly inside, she was able to find an exit path aligned with the bamboo’s movements. This was like navigating a maze, and after repeatedly going over it again and again, she finally found the entrance to the underground passage.

The purpose of this bamboo forest was clear—it wouldn’t harm you but could trap you to death. Who could withstand days without food and water?

The entrance to the secret path led downward, dark and a bit eerie. She took the prepared flint and torch from her space and, holding them up, cautiously walked down. As the entrance closed at that instant, a ghostly light shimmered on the walls and a foul stench filled the air, making the sinister passage all the more terrifying.

Then, she thought she heard a strange sound, somewhat familiar as if she had heard it somewhere before. Her heart tightened, she threw the torch into her space to extinguish it, took out a sword, and held it tightly in her hand...