My gaze swept back and forth across the faces of the few people, while Feng Ruoxing and Wang Xiaohuan also looked at me simultaneously.

The gazes of both men turned exceptionally cold, and their faces appeared eerily sinister in the moonlight.

As my hand unconsciously reached for the hilt of my saber, the fire that had previously died out rekindled with a few sparks.

Out of the corner of my eye, I instinctively glanced at the fire pit, where flames had already leaped up a couple of inches.

The extinguished fire was about to be lit again.

Whether Feng Ruoxing and Wang Xiaohuan were dead men would be verified at the moment the fire was restarted.

There's a saying in the arts: Don't look under the lamp, look again when the lamp is lit.

It means: When you feel like there's another person in your house, but you can't find them?

If you have the guts, turn off the lights first, then turn them back on immediately.

At that moment, you'll be able to see where that person is.

Similarly, if you suspect that the person in front of you is dead, but you can still see their shadow, you can turn off the lights and look again.

To ghosts and monsters, light is like a strong light to living people. Although it doesn't have any killing power, it can cause people to lose their ability to react in a short period of time.

However, using changes in light to expose the true form of ghosts and monsters can have consequences that ordinary people cannot bear.

Was the rekindling of the fire on the ground meant to startle ghosts?

As my mind raced, the fire on the ground suddenly shot up more than a foot high, instantly illuminating the surroundings.

But at the instant the fire flared, I swung my saber outwards.

However, my saber wind wasn't directed at Feng Ruoxing, but at Shi Fei Daoren behind me.

As the saber wind passed, Shi Fei Daoren's head flew into the air.

After the head rolled on the ground a few times, I turned to look at it.

Shi Fei Daoren's face became a blur in my vision, and after a moment, the facial features that had been gathered together on the head spread out again, changing into the appearance of another person.

I recognized him; it should be one of Bei Yan Yungui's subordinates.

My gaze suddenly sharpened: "Puppet Technique!"

At this moment, Feng Ruoxing also pressed his saber against the neck of Hua Zhongxian: "The three people you mentioned, are they the three exiled prisoners?"

I also looked at Hua Zhongxian: "You had planned to escape a long time ago, didn't you?"

"After those three escape, will they come to meet you? That's why you said that three people would come tonight. The first puppeteer has already arrived?"

Hua Zhongxian said calmly: "Is this your guess? Then why don't you guess what our purpose is in doing this?"

As I looked at Hua Zhongxian, Shi Fei Daoren's voice came from afar again: "Ren Xiaotao, we've done everything you asked us to do. It's time for you to send them on their way."

As I suddenly turned around, I saw Shi Fei Daoren standing in the distance again. This time, there wasn't a trace of blood on his body, as if he had just strolled up behind us.

He said, "Hua Zhongxian, quickly kill them. We'll be waiting for you at the next rendezvous point. No waiting after the deadline!"

After that person finished speaking, he walked towards the moat.

I said in a deep voice, "Take him down!"

The instant Wang Xiaohuan rushed towards the other person, that person jumped into the moat himself. When Wang Xiaohuan arrived, there was only a floating corpse left in the water.

When Wang Xiaohuan used a rope to tie the corpse's feet and dragged the corpse back, the corpse was like an ice cube that had been melted by water, already half dissolved.

Before long, the corpse turned into blood in my sight, leaving only a skeleton.

Hua Zhongxian said, "Who do you think made a move this time?"

Ye Yang took a few steps and used his sword to touch the corpse: "There are tomb robbers among them. That's the Wan Hua San (Ten Thousand Transformations Powder) that has been lost from the tomb robbing sect."

Later, I found out what Ye Yang's Wan Hua San was.

That was a secret medicine used by the earliest tomb robbers. At that time, the power of fire-powder was not as great as it would be in later generations. When tomb robbers encountered things like a Duan Long Shi (Dragon Blocking Stone), they would apply "Wan Hua San" to it, melting away the obstacles in front of them layer by layer.

Of course, Wan Hua San could not turn stones, copper, or iron into powder on the spot. That required a very long process.

I looked at Hua Zhongxian again and said, "So, you are the key to opening the Xianyang River secret passage!"

"It seems that I've been guessing wrong all along!"

Hua Zhongxian said with a smile that wasn't a smile, "How do you figure that?"

I said in a deep voice, "When we approached Shi Fei Daoren, we knew that he should have the key to entering the place of exile."

"I originally thought that thing should be some kind of token, or key."

"I didn't expect it to be four living people!"

I stared at Hua Zhongxian and said, "The four of you are actually the guards guarding the entrance to Ghost Gate Mountain!"

"Ghost Gate Mountain is not the real entrance to the place of exile. The entrance is in Blackwater Fortress!"

Hua Zhongxian laughed and said, "As expected of the Lang Wang (Wolf King) of the Liangjie Tang (Two Worlds Hall) who is famous in the martial world, you guessed our identities so quickly!"

"You guessed everything right!"

Hua Zhongxian restrained his smile and said, "I'll give you a piece of advice now, would you like to hear it?"