If she had chosen a wolf-tooth club back then, the outcome probably wouldn’t be like this now.

The sound of howling wind filled her ears. The tiger’s den was extremely deep and long, very dark inside. Zanxing couldn’t see anything, only hearing the voices of Gu Baiying and the others pursuing from behind. Tian Fangfang said, “Junior Sister, are you still there?”

Zanxing: “…I’m here.”

The Golden Flower Tiger was just a fierce beast after all, and couldn’t withstand being chased by cultivators like this. Running to the back, it was probably also angered. Suddenly, it flicked its tail, and the tiger’s mouth exerted force. Zanxing felt the Panhua Stick gradually beginning to bend, and couldn’t help but urgently say: “Hurry up, I can’t hold on much longer!”

As soon as her words fell, the silver spear suddenly shot over, cutting through a silver light in the dark cave. The spear tip was aimed directly at the Golden Flower Tiger’s eye. Immediately after, a giant roar echoed throughout the entire cave. Zanxing felt the pressure on the Panhua Stick loosen, and the tiger’s mouth opened.

Zanxing was unexpectedly thrown out. This cave was extremely dark, with stones everywhere. For a moment, she was thrown dizzy and disoriented, not knowing what time it was. In the darkness, she felt a hand pull her up, and Gu Baiying’s voice sounded in her ear: “Get up quickly!”

“Master Uncle?”

Just as she was about to speak, she suddenly heard Mu Cengxiao shout: “Not good, it’s about to breathe fire!”

As if to echo his words, a tongue of flame suddenly shot out, illuminating the dark cave.

Only then did Zanxing see that on both sides of this cave, there were densely packed human and animal bones, some already very old. It seemed that what she had just tripped over on the ground weren’t stones, but these bones. These were probably all prey of the Golden Flower Tiger, and behind them…

She looked behind her and immediately felt her scalp tingle.

It had been too dark earlier, and she had been carried around chaotically by this big tiger, not knowing where she was. But now she could see clearly that where she and Gu Baiying stood, just half a step behind them, was a black abyss.

This blackness was very dense, not a bit of light could be seen, as if it continued thousands or tens of thousands of miles down. Dark and gloomy, like another sky leading to the underground, or like a giant beast lurking in the darkness, waiting to devour people.

The Golden Flower Tiger let out a long howl, and from its tiger mouth, suddenly spat out a long fire dragon. This fierce fire was different from ordinary fire, extremely hot and boiling. Skin that got close to the flames felt like it would be roasted into smoke in an instant. When the firelight hit the ground, it quickly traveled throughout the entire cave, so the whole cave was roasted by raging flames. That golden tail that emitted a faint glow swept once, and Zanxing was caught off guard, pushed backward by the stirred-up strong wind—

She heard Tian Fangfang’s roar: “Junior Sister!”

And Mendong’s panicked shout: “Master Uncle!”

Beneath her feet was a ten-thousand-zhang deep abyss, and wind roared in her ears, mixed with red fire waves. Zanxing felt her body sinking heavily downward, yet also felt like she was about to fly up. The entire world had turned upside down, not knowing whether she was going up or down, not knowing whether she was stopping or running.

After a very, very long time.

She felt something fluffy moving against her chest, and her whole body’s bones were aching with a sore, swollen pain. Zanxing touched her chest and pulled out an illumination talisman from her chest.

The illumination talisman burned at her fingertips. Zanxing heard a groan coming from beneath her. Looking down, she was lying on top of Gu Baiying. This person had probably been used as a human cushion by her and was currently frowning with an exceptionally ugly expression.

Zanxing was startled and quickly got up from Gu Baiying, asking: “Master Uncle, are you alright?”

Gu Baiying was helped up by her to sit up. He rubbed his arm and said irritably: “Not dead yet.”

Good that he was fine. Zanxing breathed a sigh of relief. When she was swept into the abyss by the Golden Flower Tiger’s tail, she hadn’t expected that Gu Baiying would jump down after her. If she had been alone in this place, facing all of this, it would have been somewhat despairing.

She stuck the illumination talisman on the wall. Mimi called out, her voice somewhat anxious. Zanxing looked around and was immediately stunned.

This was a stone chamber, square and neat, about the size of a small woodshed, with nothing in it.

No doors, no windows, no light. If it were a bit narrower, Zanxing would suspect whether this was a coffin.

But she and Gu Baiying had fallen from the cave. No matter what, they shouldn’t have fallen into this place. This place had no exit, so how did they get in?

“How are you?” Gu Baiying asked her.

Zanxing said, “I’m fine.” As soon as she finished speaking, she saw Gu Baiying take something out of his Qiankun Bag and throw it in front of her: “Put it on.”

Zanxing looked down. The Tianji Magical Robe had already had half a sleeve bitten off by the Golden Flower Tiger earlier, and later was burned by fire waves. Even though it could resist some magical attacks, this robe was now in tatters and looked somewhat improper.

She didn’t refuse, putting Gu Baiying’s clothing over herself. His clothes were ultimately a bit too big for Zanxing, so she pulled off her hair tie to use as a belt, tightening the clothes a bit.

“Master Uncle, how did we end up here?” Zanxing looked around left and right: “Didn’t the Golden Flower Tiger want to burn us to death?”

The Golden Flower Tiger was a fire-loving, fierce beast, and the fire spat from its tiger mouth also had spiritual intelligence, able to follow opponents. When they fell, this damned tiger had also spat fire, and Zanxing had thought she was done for.

“It was Yinli’s scales that protected you.” Gu Baiying glanced at her: “Merfolk are water-attributed, water overcomes fire.”

Zanxing suddenly understood. She hadn’t expected that the silver scales Yinli gave her would come in handy here. She looked up at the ceiling, which was a flat stone wall, and murmured: “I wonder how Senior Brother and the others are doing…”

“You still have the heart to worry about others?” Gu Baiying sneered: “Think about how to get out of here first.”

This stone chamber looked like it didn’t have a single crack, sealed seamlessly as one piece, like the center of a stone block had been hollowed out, and there were people trapped inside the stone.

Zanxing stood up and walked to the walls, knocking around: “No matter what, this place must have an exit, otherwise we couldn’t have gotten in. There should be a mechanism to get out hidden here. If we look for it, we can find it.”

But Gu Baiying wasn’t as optimistic as Zanxing. He sat in place, his voice cold: “I’ve already swept this place with my spiritual sense. There’s no mechanism here.”

“Maybe your spiritual sense made an error.” Zanxing disagreed. It wasn’t that she was blindly optimistic, but generally, this kind of falling off a cliff and finding a secret chamber usually indicated adventures and opportunities. She looked down at her palm, where the red mark hadn’t changed.

In the original work of “Nine Heaven Summit,” Mu Cengxiao had indeed found new opportunities in the secret realm, but there had been no Golden Flower Tiger. This fierce beast that shouldn’t exist in the original work had brought her here.

The tree wants to be still, but the wind won’t stop. She had originally wanted to try her best not to change the main plot of the original work, but the plot seemed to always push her toward an unfamiliar, dangerous path.

She didn’t know if this was a good thing or a bad thing.