Chapter 605: Rolling Stones

Looking at the deep and somewhat damaged path ahead, Kai Xin’s mind flashed with many memories from the past!
In the martial world back then, there was such a saying…
The Demonic Devil Cave:
One path leads to a land covered in gold; the other leads to the abyss beneath the earth.
In other words, if you succeed in traversing this path, a ground covered in gold is entirely possible. But if you fail, though you won’t lose your reputation, you’ll be trapped in the Demonic Devil’s Illusion Realm for three days before dying from its dangers.
Three days of stagnation, a near-death experience, and the chance of obtaining a random piece of equipment… enough to turn a skilled expert into an ordinary one.
“Let’s go in,” Xiao Bei urged, unable to contain his excitement as the Demonic Devil Cave fully opened.
The entrance alone was already impressive—there were countless rare hidden weapons and puppet components unavailable on the market. He was already thrilled, thinking this trip would surely yield great rewards.
In contrast, the others seemed much more cautious.
Yao Shi Wan Neng glanced around the entrance before saying, “This path seems a bit strange. I’ll go first.”
“Let’s go together, with the others following behind,” Kai Xin said. Although he recognized Yao Shi Wan Neng’s strong skill in setting traps, there were many traps inside the Demonic Devil Cave, some of which were hard to anticipate. He didn’t want Yao Shi Wan Neng to get into trouble there.
However, Yao Shi Wan Neng clearly had precautions. He took out a small puppet beast from his Qiankun Bag and, to everyone’s surprise, tied a rope to its tail along with a bell…
“This is a trap-detecting puppet rat,” Yao Shi Wan Neng explained. “Its weight is equivalent to that of a child, and it’s fast enough to trigger and avoid many traps. The bell serves two purposes: to prevent losing track of it and because many traps are triggered by sound.”
“How many of these trap-detecting rats do you have? Let me play with one.”
Xiao Bei stared at the tiny puppet rat with interest, only to receive Yao Shi Wan Neng’s disdainful look. “There are only three trap-detecting rats in the entire Tianji Valley. Each one requires one million taels of silver per mission, and they’re not that easy to destroy.”
“…”
Ignoring Xiao Bei, Kai Xin nodded in relief. He increasingly realized that bringing a professional along really did save a lot of trouble. Many trap mechanisms he couldn’t warn about in time, Yao Shi Wan Neng could likely detect in advance.
Following Yao Shi Wan Neng and the trap-detecting rats, everyone soon experienced the convenience they brought…

Some traps were triggered in advance—cold arrows, flying needles, poison, and collapsing traps shot from hidden holes in the mechanisms—all were skillfully activated by the treasure-hunting rat and displayed before everyone’s eyes. Watching the rat move effortlessly through the arrows, needles, and traps, the group felt extremely safe and followed suit, avoiding them without issue. However, Xiao Bei soon realized that Yao Shi Wan Neng remained very cautious, constantly checking the surroundings and twitching his nose from time to time. “There’s no need to be so careful. The little guy has already triggered the traps ahead; we just need to follow,” he said. “Nothing is omnipotent. It’s better to be cautious,” replied Kai Xin, glancing at Xiao Bei, who quickly tucked in his neck and stopped interrupting. “Ding ding ding ding…” The sound of the treasure-hunting rat running ahead echoed clearly through the passage. When they passed a strange broken bridge, everyone instinctively looked down at the bottom, only to see an endless abyss of darkness, sending a chill down their spines. “How can there be such a place?” They quickly crossed to the passage on the other side. Yao Shi Wan Neng, Yin Hu, and Kai Xin frowned and examined the area for a while before continuing deeper, still puzzled. After less than half a minute, the three stopped and looked ahead—a passage that rose slightly and was extremely smooth. In the middle of the passage lay a trail of small stones and shallow depressions. Suddenly! Yao Shi Wan Neng frowned tightly and rushed to the nearest wall, touching it with his hand. Yin Hu crouched down, closed his eyes, and tried to sense any sounds from the ground, his furrows deepening. Mo Mo and Feng Ling immediately noticed the three’s unusual behavior and spoke up. “What’s wrong?” “Did we run into trouble?” Yin Hu took a deep breath. “Things are bad!” As he spoke, his body began to tremble slightly. The entire passage started to shake slightly, with dust falling continuously. Everyone struggled to stay upright, realizing that the tremors were intensifying rapidly, and a pressing force was coming from deep within the passage at incredible speed! All of them showed expressions of shock… “Be careful! It might be falling rocks!” Yin Hu, with his experience, warned. But before he could finish speaking, Yao Shi Wan Neng urged the treasure-hunting rat to rush to the other side of the passage. The clanging sound was drowned out by the growing roar.

Soon, Yaoshi Wanneng turned to Kai Xin and said, “It’s a huge boulder that completely blocks the entire passage. The treasure-seeking rats are small and can escape through cracks. If we encounter it, we’ll be crushed into meat paste—there’s no way to pass through. Moreover, it seems impossible to destroy that boulder. We have to return to the bridge and wait until this wave of boulders passes before entering again.” The boulder was as large as the passage itself—a circular rock with a diameter of four or five meters.

Without delay, everyone turned and retreated.

At full speed, they finally managed to exit the passage before the boulders caught up, flying to the other side of the bridge.

Boom!!

Roar!!!

The massive boulder, carrying the force to destroy everything, rolled down the smooth passage until it crashed heavily at the broken bridge, sending a gust of wind straight at the six of them.

At that moment, everyone understood why there was such a bottomless broken bridge here.

“Let the treasure-seeking rats keep scouting ahead. I think there might be more than one boulder,” Kai Xin said gravely, staring at Yaoshi Wanneng. The latter nodded and replied, “In the passage ahead, there’s a shallow pit about every twenty meters where one person can hide to avoid the boulders. There are quite a few of these pits, so this section of the path must also be quite long.”

“Good. No time to lose! Let’s go in again!” Kai Xin led the way back into the passage, accelerating to its limit…

When they reached the previous location, the passage trembled slightly again—obviously, the second boulder had set off!!

Kai Xin kept moving without stopping, with the rest following closely behind. Soon, they found the first shallow pit on the wall…

“Leave someone behind!”

At Kai Xin’s command, Xiao Bei, who was at the back, rushed over first, followed by Fengling, Yinhu, Yaoshi Wanneng, and finally Mo Mo…

By the time Kai Xin found another shallow pit further in, the passage was shaking violently. Amidst the deafening roar, the boulder rolled in at astonishing speed, skimming past Kai Xin’s nose and crushing through the passage!