Slowly regaining consciousness, Liu Da suddenly snapped out of his daze!
Right!
He remembered now. He had planned to capture Zuo Lin'an, but a specter had suddenly appeared behind him, covering his mouth and preventing him from speaking.
After that, his vision had gone black, and he had lost consciousness, only waking up just now.
“How long was I out?”
He instinctively felt around his body and found that his phone was gone.
But that was fine. He could check the remaining time on his Delayed Injury talent to deduce how long he had been unconscious.
“Only a few minutes?”
It made sense. With his current talent, it was impossible for him to stay unconscious for long even if he wanted to.
After confirming the time, Liu Da finally began to examine his surroundings.
“What a surprise. I'm actually not dead.”
When the specter had seized him earlier, he had thought he was a dead man for sure.
“Where is this...?”
Liu Da looked around and observed his surroundings closely. He quickly discovered that the space was extremely cramped and pitch-black, and everything he touched felt like cold stone.
It felt as if a cavity had been hollowed out of a massive rock, and he had been stuffed inside.
Before long, he spotted light filtering in from not far ahead.
It was an exit!
Liu Da slowly shuffled toward the exit. But after only a few steps, he discovered a skeleton lying there.
The presence of a corpse did not frighten him.
After all, the most terrifying things in a dungeon were the specters.
Liu Da carefully inspected the corpse. After confirming that it wouldn't suddenly reanimate, he cautiously bypassed the relatively fresh body and continued forward.
Reaching the exit, he eagerly poked his head out.
However, when he saw the scene outside, he was completely stunned.
“This place... is...”
A howling wind whipped his hair wildly, making it difficult to even keep his eyes open.
But it didn't stop him from seeing the landscape outside.
Below him was a bottomless abyss.
Above him was a gloomy, overcast sky.
All around him were steep, sheer stone cliffs.
“A... a cliff?”
He was on a cliffside!
He was shocked to discover that he was currently positioned somewhere slightly above the midpoint of a sheer cliff.
“W-why...?”
“Why am I here?”
Liu Da simply couldn't wrap his head around it. Why had the specter captured him but spared his life, only to dump him here?
“Are they keeping me as emergency rations?”
After a while, he gradually calmed down.
He began to contemplate how to escape.
Although he had stepped onto the path of cultivation, he still couldn't leave this place completely unscathed.
The wind outside was incredibly strong, and the cliff face was practically a vertical ninety-degree drop.
If he wanted to get out, he would have to climb the cliff face.
But he knew that if he tried, the chances of falling to his death were extremely high.
Moreover, he would definitely get injured.
And as long as he was injured, regardless of how minor the wound was, the countdown for his Delayed Injury talent would shorten.
If the remaining time shortened so much that it could no longer sustain him for three days, then he might as well be dead.
“Sss!”
He quickly withdrew his hand. A small cut had appeared on his palm, and bright red blood dripped down his fingers, though the wound healed almost instantly.
At the same time, his countdown was docked by over ten minutes.
Liu Da looked back at the spot where his hand had been. There was a sharp stone jutting out; he had simply been careless and cut himself on it.
A tiny scratch had cost him more than ten minutes.
He felt that even if he had godlike luck and managed to escape this place, the time deducted from any injuries sustained along the way would be enough to doom him.
With this realization, Liu Da completely abandoned any thoughts of escaping.
Still, he didn't give up entirely. He poked his head out once more and shouted at the top of his lungs.
“Chang Sheng!”
“Chang Sheng, can you hear me?!”
His only hope now lay with Chang Sheng.
But he quickly realized that his voice couldn't carry at all.
He was on a cliff, and the wind was howling too loudly.
No matter how loudly he screamed, anyone at the mountain peak wouldn't hear a thing.
Furthermore, there was no food or water here. As time passed without sustenance, Liu Da would inevitably grow weaker.
Of course, Zuo Lin'an was well aware of this.
As a cultivator, Liu Da could easily survive without food or water until the dungeon ended without starving or dying of thirst.
Observing in secret, Zuo Lin'an felt reassured after confirming that Liu Da had no way to escape.
For now, he would leave Liu Da where he was.
Next up was Chang Sheng.
What he needed to do now was prevent Chang Sheng from investigating the dungeon's plot.
As for specter attacks?
He could look for opportunities to launch tentative attacks on the hour. Of course, Zuo Lin'an's true objective wasn't to kill him, but rather to deplete the number of puppets in his possession.
At the same time, it would keep him on edge.
As long as all of Chang Sheng's time was spent defending against specters, he wouldn't have any spare energy to investigate the storyline.
Daytime passed quickly.
Unable to find Liu Da, Chang Sheng had no choice but to give up.
Later, for his own safety, he forced himself to strike up a few conversations with Zuo Lin'an, pretending they got along famously, and stayed by his side.
Of course, he would occasionally leave for brief periods during off-hours.
After all, he still had to search for clues regarding the path of survival.
However, as long as he wandered around the old residence, there was a chance he would encounter a specter.
It wasn't that he saw them with his own eyes, but rather that his puppets spotted them.
Every time, he managed to avoid them in advance.
Yet because Chang Sheng was too tense, he failed to notice that the places where his puppets spotted the specters were always very close to the "brother's" room.
And every time he steered clear, he just happened to miss the specter items.
Meanwhile, every time Zuo Lin'an scared Chang Sheng away, he would also snatch one or two puppets and destroy them.
Just like that, night quickly fell.
Once darkness arrived, the NPCs would naturally return to their rooms to rest.
As a result, Chang Sheng could no longer find an excuse to stay with them.
Watching the sky gradually darken, Chang Sheng took a deep breath.
“There's no other choice. I have to do this.”
He sent a puppet to scout ahead. After confirming it was safe, he crept outside the courtyard where Zuo Lin'an lived and found a hidden corner to conceal himself.
Next, he stationed his puppets around the area to keep watch.
If a specter appeared, he would immediately scale the wall and run to Zuo Lin'an.
He might be suspected of having ill intentions, but that was still far better than facing a specter.
After all, he still remembered the gruesome details of Tang Yuanhuai and An Miao's deaths that Liu Da had described to him.
He didn't want to die, and he certainly didn't want to die such a horrific death.
To his surprise, however, not a single specter showed up the entire night.
Chang Sheng remained on high alert all night. It wasn't until the first light of dawn broke that he finally stood up and left.
“How could this be?”
“The specters didn't attack me?”
He had no idea why the specters had spared him.
But he had to admit, this was a good thing for him.
“Wait.”
A sudden possibility occurred to him.
“Could the specters be trying to slowly drive me to a breakdown before killing me?”
Chang Sheng rubbed his temples, feeling a throbbing headache.
Being on guard all night had exhausted him.
But he knew now was not the time to rest. He had to make the most of his time and craft more puppets.
Only with more puppets would he have a better chance of finding the path of survival.
“Just bear with it a little longer. Once I clear the dungeon, I can sleep for as long as I want.”
Rate on N.U.
