Feng Xiao had reasons for his actions.
He knew that the alliance between Xiao Lu and Kuhezhen was not entirely harmonious.
Both of them had only decided to work together to tear down the common enemy they acknowledged as the Great Sui, but right as their goals were about to be achieved, it was even easier to sway them.
To Feng Xiao, this was a manipulative variable.
Because his enemies might turn against each other, or they might not.
But since Feng Xiao and the group are not hiding, they could only wait for the enemy to strike.
When they first discussed it, everyone else had chosen to act first instead of waiting for the enemy to strike. They wanted to dismiss the Festival of the Buddha's Birthday and initiate a search all over the city.
It was Cui Buqu who ordered everyone to take cover in the dark, and they were not allowed to act rashly.
After the change of events at Prince Qin's manor, the Jiejian Bureau had already managed to find some clues, but in order to avoid alerting the enemy, they feigned reaching a dead end and pretended that the bureau members have fallen into chaos, making use of this to lower the enemy's guard.
They acted until this very day.
Cui Buqu is truly capable of seeing through people's hearts, Feng Xiao thought.
Although both Xiao Lu and Tuan Qinghe had never shown themselves in the Jianghu, they were top martial artists without a doubt.
Xiao Lu's wounds have not healed. Perhaps his skills would be slightly inferior, but if both of them combined their strengths, even someone as proud and as confident as Feng Xiao wouldn't dare guarantee that he'd win.
The bogus Emperor's existence was the key.
Once he was tossed down below, Xiao Lu would immediately give up on Feng Xiao and lunge to the bogus Emperor of Sui's rescue.
In Xiao Lu's plans, the bogus Emperor of Sui was an indispensable chess piece. Naturally, he could not allow something to happen to it.
As for what was happening beneath the pit—
The Emperor would never have dreamt that such a vast space existed beneath the Daxingshan Temple, like an entirely different world.
He could not see his own fingers when he reached out with his hand. He felt around that touched patches of soil that were obviously hammered before. This meant that someone had once been working in this place.
The Emperor recalled that Daxingshan Temple had been renovated twice; the first was when the late Emperor Wu of Northern Zhou intended to destroy all that represents Buddhism, and the second was after the Sui Dynasty was established. However, in both times Daxingshan Temple was renovated, it was above the ground to strengthen its structure. They have never meddled with anything beneath it. This place appeared to exist even before the Zhou Dynasty.
He used all of his strength pushing that corpse off of him. The bogus Emperor appeared to have passed out.
The Emperor could not clearly see who it was, but it was doubtlessly the bogus Emperor.
He originally wanted to get rid of him, but the Emperor had no weapons in hand, and his limbs were strengthless, and he could not even lift his hand. So, all he could do was to give the other two kicks that probably did not hurt.
The Emperor inhaled frantically, but it did nothing to soothe his worries.
How could he leave this place?
Could Feng Xiao free himself and come to his rescue?
What was going on up there?
He was lost as he realized he had no answers.
After waiting for a very long time and no one came to his rescue, the Emperor could only rise to his feet alone and fumble the uneven walls as he found his way around.
After fumbling for a while, he paused to fumble the wall next to him longer and realized that the unevenness on the walls was actually a large painting.
There appeared to be handsome horses, and people guiding them. A few people were standing as they were connected hand-to-hand. There was even a Bodhisattva sitting atop a lotus flower.
This is an underground maze! The Emperor immediately decided.
Due to Grandmaster Lingcang situated here, the Emperor knew more about Daxingshan Temple than he did with other temples. And yet, he never knew that there was an underground maze beneath it.
Since this is an underground maze, it would definitely be big. It might even be riddled with traps, hiding dangers unknown.
The Emperor could feel his back splattered with cold sweat.
He paused his steps.
At this moment, perhaps facing Xiao Lu head-on above ground was more favourable.
However, he was poorly informed about the paths here. It mightn't be wise to wait for rescue either.
Grrrr....
A familiar whimper resounded from all directions, fading in and out and existing from all perceivable angles.
It sounded like the cries of a baby, as well as the purr of a cat in the night. It was heavy with resentment and dense with hatred.
The Emperor was frozen on the spot as he listened closely to the sound to determine its source.
A hand finally reached out and placed itself on his shoulder.
Blood brimmed to his head. The Emperor instinctively wanted to fling that hand away, only to hear the other's voice.
It was familiar in every meaning of the word.
"Your Majesty, it's me."
After these words were said, there were even a few coughs.
It's Cui Buqu!
The Emperor wanted to say something, but because his heart was beating rapidly just moments ago, he released a series of choked coughs the moment he opened his mouth.
His coughs resounded in the layered darkness, echoing as it made this place feel even more spacious than he imagined.
Once again, another voice rang, "Your Majesty."
This time, it was the Vice Commander of the Zuoyue Bureau, Zhangsun Bodhi.
The Emperor's heart calmed, inhaling as he said, "You people…."
"Shh!" Zhangsun Bodhbi ignored all courteousness and immediately clasped a hand onto the Emperor's mouth, silencing him.
Cui Buqu explained in a whisper, "Your Majesty, there is a beast in these ruins. It's not wise to speak too loudly."
The Emperor's heart leapt into his mouth once again.
"What beast? How did you guys come down here?"
Before the Festival of the Buddha's Birthday, Cui Buqu had let Ming Yue and Qin Miaoyu do something for him.
He made them enter the maze's royal library to retrieve the construction plans of Daxingshan Temple.
There were as many manuscripts in the Imperial Library as there are fishes in the sea. It kept not only the ancient records of fallen dynasties, but also the ones that date back to the Han Dynasty. Although many of them were destroyed in the fires of war, the ones that remained were still great in number. It was not an easy task to find the construction plans of Daxingshan Temple within these manuscripts.
All the more, they only had the time of a single night.
However, Ming Yue and Qin Miaoyu did successfully find Daxingshan Temple's construction plans, even though they were only the draft from the Jin Dynasty because the very first draft had long been lost when the Jin Dynasty was at war with the Southern Dynasty. This copy was only saved because it was passed down by the former Qin Dynasty. On it was recorded the schedules of construction and the floor plans of Daxingshan Temple.
After that, Daxingshan Temple was heavily renovated a few more times. The current version of it was much more different compared to the plans.
Qin Miaoyu didn't know why Cui Buqu went through lengths to acquire this object. She had only taken it for Cui Buqu panicking until Cui Buqu pointed at a single sentence imprinted on it.
When the temple was first built, the Emperor of that time had once ordered them to chisel an underground maze to dedicate it to the Ashtamangala1, and that the vastness of the underground maze, as well as the Mahavira Hall, will be linked inside out as one.
It had been just a few words that others wouldn't be able to make heads or tails of.
What does it mean to link them as one? And how will they be linked?
Cui Buqu knew that on the day of the Buddha's Birthday, the Emperor would be listening to sutras within the Mahavira Hall; everyone else would be outside praying for blessings and burning incense. At that moment, Xiao Lu's focus would all be on the Emperor. And so, in the day, he'd brought Zhangsun as they quietly searched around the courtyard before finally finding a tunnel beneath the green bricks located at Jingshan Alley where some junk was placed.
As a matter of fact, from the way the dirt beneath the brick looked, this was an entrance that even Xiao Lu and the others had yet to discover.
Only after they entered did they realize that there was a wide space beneath the ground. It truly wasn't just restricted to Daxingshan Temple on the surface. It made all directions accessible and had Buddhist relics that belonged to the high monks of the former dynasty located in the eight cardinal directions with reference to the bagua. Surrounding these relics were poison animals that could not be named with traps all around.
The two of them had passed through those traps. Cui Buqu knew the arrays and traps well. With the addition of Zhangsun's martial arts, they were shocked but not injured before meeting up with the Emperor.
However, the Emperor no longer remembered where he had come from. In fact, surrounding them was a more concerning danger. It could be observing in the darkness at any moment, ready to pounce at its chosen victims.
Cui Buqu said, "There is a beast of unknown origin hiding here. It's very strange, and it appears to be intelligent. Even Zhangsun is no match for it. We could only step back and avoid being detected by it."
Zhangsun pursed his lips and said nothing.
He knew that Cui Buqu was extremely scarce with his words because Cui Buqu hadn't yet told the Emperor that, the beast wasn't only difficult to deal with, but it also had a look so terrifying that he wasn't willing to recall.
Zhangsun knew very clearly that he was not completely confident in bringing these two people out safely.
[1] 八宝[ba bao]: These are eight symbols of good fortune the gods made to Shakyamuni Buddha. The symbols are: conch, endless knot, victory banner, lotus, jewelled parasol, wheel of law, pair of fishes, and vase