Outside the Mu Treasure Cave, the surrounding area was quiet; all the major martial artists had entered the deadly maze. During this time, Gu Yingjie was diligently guarding Zhu Mingyang, who was still recovering his internal energy. A small, anxious group of ten martial artists soon made their way to the entrance.
The small group only glanced at Gu Yingjie and Zhu Mingyang as they walked past without a word. They knew that to offend Gu Yingjie was akin to offending the powerful Gu Tingfang himself. Instead of stopping to question or provoke, they walked directly into the open stone gate.
Moments later, a desperate shout echoed from within the cave: "Gu Gongzi, help!"
Gu Yingjie turned, looking anxiously toward the cave entrance.
Another cry rang out: "Help!"
Gu Yingjie glanced back at Zhu Mingyang, who was safely recovering, and saw no immediate threat outside. Concerned by the plea, he walked into the cave to see who was calling for his help.
Shortly after Gu Yingjie left, Zhu Mingyang opened his eyes, having recovered nearly ninety percent of his internal strength. He looked around and found Gu Yingjie was not there. He stood up quickly, his heart pounding with the fear that Wang Zedong might have returned and recaptured Gu Yingjie. But then, rationality returned. He realized that Mu Dishi had left the cave, and there was no logical reason for Wang Zedong to return to take Gu Yingjie as his hostage.
The noise from the right side of the cave rang in Zhu Mingyang's ears. He quickly ran toward the right passageway, and there he saw several martial artists fighting against Gu Yingjie. He rushed forward, delivering a swift kick that broke one martial artist's hand and shattered the wrist of another.
Zhu Mingyang immediately grabbed Gu Yingjie by the arm and dragged him to stand behind his back. He hurriedly struck the three men in front of him, knocking them violently against the cave wall. When he turned around to face Gu Yingjie, his partner suddenly grabbed his neck with both hands in a deadly grip.
Zhu Mingyang seized Gu Yingjie's wrists. "Yingjie," he said, his voice strained. He used his internal force to gently push Gu Yingjie back toward the cave entrance. He pried Gu Yingjie's hands off his neck and held them tightly. "Yingjie, it's me. Mingyang..."
Gu Yingjie shouted loudly, his eyes wild. "Mingyang! I will avenge you!"
Zhu Mingyang pleaded with him. "Yingjie... look closely, it's me."
Gu Yingjie roared, his eyes wild with poisonous fury, "Xiaowen, go to hell!" He slammed his fist fiercely into Zhu Mingyang's left shoulder. "I already gave you the heir to the Gu Household, how dare you still rape and kill Mingyang! I'm going to kill you!"
With a powerful blow from Gu Yingjie, Zhu Mingyang was sent flying out of the cave. He hit one of the larger statues outside with a powerful collision that broke the stone statue in half. Zhu Mingyang fell heavily to the ground, spitting out a mouthful of blood.
Gu Yingjie, consumed by the delusion, grabbed a small statue in his right hand and flew toward Zhu Mingyang. He hurled the statuette at his partner.
Suddenly, Ma Jingguo rushed forward, kicked the statuette aside into the cave wall, and instantly began to attack Gu Yingjie.
Yan Zhanjin rushed to Zhu Mingyang. "Mingyang…" He helped Zhu Mingyang sit up. "Are you alright?"
Zhu Mingyang immediately shouted a warning. "Ma-xiong, there's something wrong with Yingjie, don't hurt him!"
Yan Zhanjin, seeing the severity of the attack, asked, "Did he hurt you?"
"He didn't mean it. There is something wrong," Zhu Mingyang insisted. He rushed forward and grabbed Gu Yingjie's right arm, while Ma Jingguo held Gu Yingjie's left arm, restraining him.
Yan Zhanjin and Miao Mingzhu walked quickly toward the struggling Gu Yingjie. Miao Mingzhu leaned in and asked Yan Zhanjin, "Do you smell it?"
Yan Zhanjin looked at her, confused. "What do you smell?"
Miao Mingzhu snorted. "I smelled a faint poisonous gas from him."
Zhu Mingyang pleaded with her. "Help him!"
Miao Mingzhu smiled cruelly as she revealed the horrifying truth. "There is no antidote. This medicine is produced in Persia and used in brothels and prisons. With a single inhalation, you can unearth a person's darkest desires or secrets."
Zhu Mingyang, desperate, demanded, "Help him if you know how!"
Miao Mingzhu looked at him triumphantly. "I've told you there is no antidote, and there is no harm to the body. When the drug is digested in his stomach, he will be back to normal." She delivered her final advice with a malicious smile. "At the same time, knock him unconscious if you don't want him to roam around like this."
Knowing that Zhu Mingyang would never bring himself to hurt Gu Yingjie, Ma Jingguo raised his hand, intending to strike Gu Yingjie unconscious.
Zhu Mingyang stopped him instantly. Zhu Mingyang looked at Ma Jingguo, his eyes blazing with anger. "What are you doing?"
Ma Jingguo argued, "You heard her. We have to knock him out."
Yan Zhanjin quickly intervened. "Ma-xiong, he'll wake up with a sore neck. I have a better idea." He took out a small pill and walked to Gu Yingjie, who fiercely refused to open his mouth, clenching his teeth tightly.
Gu Yingjie looked at Yan Zhanjin, his delusion twisting the doctor into his traumatic figure. "Father, you have already ordered Mingyang to be killed, so you should kill me too."
Yan Zhanjin, understanding the psychological nature of the delusion, played along. "Since you want to die so badly, open your mouth and follow Mingyang."
Gu Yingjie's teeth unclenched and he opened his mouth. Yan Zhanjin quickly stuffed the pill inside, and Gu Yingjie swallowed it. After a short while, Gu Yingjie slowly closed his eyes and fell limp into Zhu Mingyang's arms.
Zhu Mingyang looked at Yan Zhanjin with worried gratitude. Yan Zhanjin smiled reassuringly. "It's just a sleeping pill; he'll wake up in a few hours, don't worry."
Cao Yanmei stepped forward. "Let's rest here first and consider the next step." She then turned to Zhu Mingyang. "Where did my father and my da ge go?"
Zhu Mingyang, relieved to have Gu Yingjie safe, replied, "Left."
Cao Yanmei looked confused. "What do you mean?"
Zhu Mingyang explained, "There are three passageways to choose after entering the cave. Your father and your brother picked the one on the left. Yueguang Sect and other martial artists followed them."
Ma Jingguo immediately asked, "What about Mu Dishi?"
Zhu Mingyang replied, "He has already left."
Yan Zhanjin asked, trying to piece together the events, "How did Gu gongzi become like this?"
Zhu Mingyang shook his head. "I don't know. I found him in the right passageway. He was already looking like this."
Miao Mingzhu mused aloud, "There must be something in that right passageway that makes people act this way." She stood up and walked toward the cave entrance.
Yan Zhanjin quickly asked, "What are you doing, Miao guniang?"
Miao Mingzhu's intent was clear. "I want to know what made him like this. If I can find this plant, I will harvest it." She continued walking toward the front door.
Ma Jingguo stood up quickly and followed Miao Mingzhu.
Yan Zhanjin called out, frustrated, "Ma-xiong, what are you doing?"
Ma Jingguo replied simply, "I'll be back soon."
When Ma Jingguo and Miao Mingzhu reached the right passage inside the cave, Miao Mingzhu stopped. She looked at Ma Jingguo and smiled knowingly. "You want to follow me because you want that kind of poison, right?"
Ma Jingguo admitted his dark motivation. "I would rather own it than let you own it."
Miao Mingzhu smirked, confirming his deepest fear. "Your determination impressed me. You want to put your hand on it because you want to feed it to Mu Dishi. You want to know what lies deeply inside Mu Dishi's heart. If that person is you," she paused for effect, "or him."
Ma Jingguo proposed a partnership. "I suggest that we work together to achieve our common goals."
Miao Mingzhu tested his resolve. "If I refuse, what can you do?"
Ma Jingguo smiled, using his forgotten seniority. "If you were to refuse, I will use my title as your young master."
Miao Mingzhu laughed, dismissing his authority. "Don't value yourself too much."
Ma Jingguo simply replied with a knowing smile, "After you."
Miao Mingzhu smiled and accepted the truce, leading the way into the right passageway.
As Ma Jingguo and Miao Mingzhu entered the passage, it became intensely humid and hot. They were soon sweating profusely. Ma Jingguo touched the wall and quickly pulled his right hand away.
Ma Jingguo looked at Miao Mingzhu. "It's very hot."
Miao Mingzhu explained, "We must be deep underground now."
Ma Jingguo stated the danger. "With no water, we can't go further down."
Miao Mingzhu urged haste. "There must be an exit somewhere ahead of us, hurry up."
Ma Jingguo and Miao Mingzhu quickly left, looking for an exit. They soon saw a clear light. As they drew closer and closer, they began to hear laughter and giggles.
Standing in front of what they believed was an exit, Ma Jingguo and Miao Mingzhu found it was actually the door to an open area. Inside, they saw a chaotic, surreal scene: many martial artists were holding onto stones and laughing loudly. The open area was not large, and tall stalactites filled the space. Some martial artists lay dead, while others were still frantically picking up rocks and stuffing them into their robes. They noticed five different clans inside, each having collected a large pile of rocks by their side, which they were fiercely guarding.
"If you don't touch ours, we won't touch yours either," one martial artist yelled defensively.
The clan with more people soon attacked the clan with fewer people. After a short while, everyone in the cave began to kill each other over the piles of stones.
Ma Jingguo spotted a small pond. He leaned close to Miao Mingzhu and whispered, "You see there is water."
Miao Mingzhu's eyes were focused. "Don't touch the water. We should go now." She grabbed his hand, urging him back toward the door.
A martial artist who spotted them leaving shouted, "The two of them are trying to steal our treasures!"
Miao Mingzhu released Ma Jingguo's hand and instantly threw four pink balls at the martial artists chasing them toward the entrance. Suddenly, a new danger emerged: a stalactite protruded from the wall, and the wall itself began to move inward. Ma Jingguo and Miao Mingzhu heard painful screams from the martial artists trapped behind them.
Ma Jingguo shouted, his voice ringing with urgency, "Someone must have activated a trap switch! Run!"
As Ma Jingguo and Miao Mingzhu were running away from the chasing martial artists and the cave wall that was closing in to squeeze them, they realized that a strong wall was beginning to slide down from the top of the cave, sealing off the right passage entrance.
Ma Jingguo looked at the heavy stone wall slowly descending. This solid wall brought a painful memory to his mind: the ten-thousand-pound stone door of Mu Dishi's cave—the cave he considered home and desperately wanted to return to.
Ma Jingguo grabbed Miao Mingzhu's hands and threw her sliding through the gap of the closing stone wall to safety. Just then, a mad martial artist grabbed Ma Jingguo's shoulder. Ma Jingguo swiftly grabbed the man's hand, twisted it around, and struck him hard in the neck. As the stone wall slid toward the ground, more frantic martial artists surged forward and joined the chaotic battle.
Miao Mingzhu, safe on the other side, screamed, "Hurry! The wall is dropping down!"
Four more mad martial artists rushed toward Ma Jingguo. Just as they converged, ten leaves flew directly at the four attackers, momentarily stunning them. Ma Jingguo seized the chance, quickly broke free, and rolled past the closing stone wall. He was a mere ten inches away from being crushed by the dropping stone.
Ma Jingguo quickly got up, looking at Gu Yingjie who was being held by Zhu Mingyang and Yan Zhanjin. "Thank you," he said to Gu Yingjie, recognizing the source of the flying leaves.
Yan Zhanjin asked, trying to understand what the two had just escaped. "What did you guys see?"
Miao Mingzhu replied dismissively, "A bunch of crazy martial artists who treat stones as gold." She then looked pointedly at Gu Yingjie, who was still sedated but coming around. "Did you drink anything?"
Gu Yingjie replied, "No." He pointed toward the cave entrance. "I ate two wolfberries."
"How did you come to eat two wolfberries?" Zhu Mingyang asked, still holding his partner close.
"I heard someone calling for help," Gu Yingjie explained softly. "But when I entered the cave, I didn't see anyone. Since we weren't looking for any treasure, I didn't follow anyone, but I thought since you hadn't eaten anything last night, I picked some wolfberries for you."
Miao Mingzhu smiled, her eyes cold. "So, you used yourself to be the test subject."
"Mmm..." Gu Yingjie replied softly, his voice still weak.
Yan Zhanjin mused, "Generally, wolfberry is not poisonous."
Miao Mingzhu contradicted him sharply. "Generally, not, but the wolfberry grown here may be deliberately poisoned." She then turned her attention back to the mission. "Which way did my da shixiong go?"
Gu Yingjie confirmed, "Left. He followed Cao gongzi and leader Cao."
Suddenly, a whirring sound announced danger: Cao Wenyan was being pushed by a protruding stalactite toward the middle passageway wall. Gu Yingjie, recovering quickly, flung a leaf with precise internal force, cutting off the sharp tip of the stalactite, saving Cao Wenyan from immediate impalement. However, the sliding wall continued to crush Cao Wenyan inch by inch toward the newly blunted stalactite.
Then, a second wall slid up, and Wang Biming sprinted toward Cao Wenyan's back, clearly intending to deliver a critical blow.
Cao Yanmei screamed in terror, "Ge…"
Cao Wenyan was utterly trapped. If he let go with either hand, the unrelenting wall would shove him directly into the stalactite.
The sight of Wang Biming instantly fueled Ma Jingguo's rage. His obsession overcoming all caution, he quickly grabbed a handful of wolfberries and drew the knife hidden behind his belt. He leaped directly over Cao Wenyan's head and went straight for Wang Biming, who was moments away from striking Cao Wenyan. Miao Mingzhu quickly followed Ma Jingguo, eager for the action.