329: Chapter 329 Strange Information

Almost at the same time the Jade Slip disappeared, several streets away from Qian Gui's shop...

In a corner of an abandoned, dilapidated house that had long been uninhabited, with a leaky roof and half-collapsed walls...

The air distorted slightly, and Lu Chen's figure condensed as if emerging from the darkness.

He leaned against a cold, ruined wall, holding the Jade Slip he had "taken" from right under Qian Gui's nose between his fingers.

Just now, he had performed the You secret technique, combined with exquisite control of spiritual energy and a Divine Sense Realm far exceeding that of Qian Gui.

He had completed a near-perfect "telekinesis," the entire process silent, without even a breeze being stirred.

At this moment, his Divine Sense had already quickly scanned the interior of the Jade Slip.

The content of the Jade Slip was not complicated.

It was recorded with a slightly rough touch familiar to Lu Chen, belonging to Ding Wu.

The information was straightforward, without any embellishment or explanation.

First, there wasn't a single word about why he had betrayed them or why he had joined the Blood Gate.

It seemed Ding Wu took it for granted that this matter required no explanation, or perhaps he believed any explanation would be meaningless.

The focus was on what followed.

He clearly listed four names: Zhou Mo, Shao Qing, Lan Ni, and Kui Sang.

And noted: All four are alive.

Following that was a detailed location description, situated somewhere beneath Ruins Abyss City.

It appeared to be a secret prison established by the Blood Gate, located deep within the renovated underground warehouse of the original Black Flood Dragon Society; it had a hidden passage connected to the Forbidden Ground of the Blood Gate headquarters but was relatively independent.

More crucially, Ding Wu provided the guard situation of this prison.

Daily, two Late Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivators were on rotation, changing shifts every twelve hours.

Three layers of Restrictions were placed outside the prison: the Spirit-Locking Formation, the Wandering Mist of Illusion, and the innermost Blood-Evil Dragon-Trapping Formation.

He even briefly noted the general approach to breaking these three layers of Restrictions and the weak points of the spiritual energy nodes.

Especially for the "Blood-Evil Dragon-Trapping" Formation, he pointed out that its core Formation eye required a specific Blood-Evil Token to be opened without damage; otherwise, it would trigger an alarm and incite a counterattack from the Formation.

The information was detailed to the point of being... considerate.

Lu Chen held the cold Jade Slip, his eyes appearing deep and unpredictable in the bleak moonlight filtering through the dilapidated house.

There was no expression on his face, only a slight furrow of his brow revealing the internal weighing of options.

A trap?

Or... a lingering conscience?

If it were a trap, what was the purpose?

To use the lives of these four captured fellow disciples as bait to lure him out and then set an inescapable net?

Ding Wu had already betrayed them and knew he might return; setting a trap to capture and kill him to claim credit from the Blood Gate made perfect sense logically.

The information in this Jade Slip, especially the tips for breaking the Restrictions, could be the fragrant bait to lure him deep inside.

But... if it were a trap, some things didn't quite add up.

Ding Wu could have easily led people to lie in ambush around Qian Gui's shop or used a more covert and harder-to-trace method to pass false information.

Why risk sneaking in personally late at night and leaving such a clear trail of action?

And even specifically warning Qian Gui to leave?

More importantly, the information in this Jade Slip, especially regarding the prison's location and guard strength, seemed... not fabricated out of thin air but possessed a high degree of credibility, based on Lu Chen's observations and deductions of the Blood Gate headquarters during this time.

What if Ding Wu had a change of heart and was secretly passing information in an attempt to make amends?

When this thought surfaced, even Lu Chen himself found it somewhat absurd.

Could a traitor who could sell out an entire stronghold and cause the tragic deaths of many fellow disciples still care about old ties now?

But the human heart is complex.

Perhaps he had grown accustomed to even more cruel betrayals and infighting within the Blood Gate.

Perhaps it was some kind of fear of the future.

A great change is coming!

Or perhaps it was merely a trace of lingering unease that prompted him to make such a contradictory move?

By sending out the information, he could potentially save his former companions, warn Qian Gui, and clear himself as much as possible?

The two possibilities clashed fiercely in Lu Chen's mind.

Each had its own rationality and its own points of suspicion.

He slowly tightened his palm, the Jade Slip emitting a faint chill in his hand.

Moonlight filtered through the dilapidated roof, casting flickering shadows across his face.

After a long time, the hesitation in his eyes gradually settled, turning into a bottomless calm.

Whether it was a trap or an opportunity, the information provided by this Jade Slip was an entry point that could not be ignored.

The specific location where four fellow disciples might be alive and imprisoned was of immense value in itself.

"I need to... go and verify it personally."

Lu Chen whispered in his heart as a preliminary plan began to take shape.

He would not fully trust Ding Wu, but he would not easily let go of any clues that might save lives.

Verifying the truth and probing the reality was the key to the next step.

He put away the Jade Slip, and his figure merged once more into the shadows of the ruined house, as if he had never appeared.

Only the cold moonlight still quietly bathed the deserted ruins.

A few days later, beneath Ruins Abyss City, in an area far more ancient and more sinister than the surface buildings.

This was near the site of the original Black Flood Dragon Society headquarters, dozens of zhang deep underground, with intricate passages like a maze.

The air was filled with a persistent musty smell of dampness, a faint scent of blood, and a chilly spiritual energy constrained by Formations that was difficult to dissipate.

The stone walls had been roughly excavated, and in some places, one could still see traces of protective runes left by the former Black Flood Dragon Society, now covered or destroyed.

Even more were blood-colored patterns added later, with a style that appeared more eerie and ferocious.

Lu Chen, like a shadow—the true Dominator of this dark underground—quietly lurked deep within a naturally formed rock crevice.

This crevice was located several zhang above the side of a main corridor; it was narrow, hidden, and just large enough for one person to hide, offering an excellent vantage point.

It overlooked a relatively open area at the intersection of the corridors below.

And not far away was a doorway embedded in the stone wall, clearly reinforced with heavy metal and blood-colored runes.

This was the entrance area of the secret prison mentioned in Ding Wu's Jade Slip.

Over the past few days, Lu Chen had been like the most patient stalactite, frozen in this place.

He used the You secret technique to reduce his presence to the minimum, his breathing and heartbeat nearly stopping.

With only a trace of subtle and resilient Divine Sense, like an invisible spider silk, he extremely cautiously probed everything below.

He observed the guards' shift rotations.

Two Late Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivators, dressed in dark red blood-robes with cold expressions, changed shifts punctually every twelve hours.

During the handover, there would be a brief verification of rune tokens and a few low-voiced exchanges.

The content was nothing more than "nothing to report" or "increase vigilance," with a regularity so disciplined it was almost rigid.

He sensed the spiritual energy fluctuations circulating around that doorway.

Just as Ding Wu had described, there were three layers of Restrictions.

The outermost layer was the Spirit-Locking Formation, emitting a dull force field that imprisoned spiritual energy.

The middle layer, the Wandering Mist of Illusion, caused the light near the doorway to distort slightly, producing visual and Divine Sense-based misdirection.

The innermost layer, the Blood-Evil Dragon-Trapping Formation attached to the metal doorway, had the most ferocious aura.

The blood-colored runes wriggled slowly like living things, emitting a heart-palpitating Evil Qi.

At its core Formation eye, one could vaguely feel a tight structure that required a specific key to open.

The guards' cultivation, the shift times, the types and general strength of the Restrictions... all these details were highly consistent with the descriptions in Ding Wu's Jade Slip.

Even the guards' occasional low-voiced complaints about how heavy the Yin Qi was in this ghostly place, or wondering what important figures were locked inside, indirectly confirmed that prisoners were being held here.

After receiving Lu Chen's transmission...

Qian Gui had quietly packed up a few days ago, relying on the skills of concealment and adaptation he had honed through years of struggle.

He successfully left Ruins Abyss City by blending into a departing merchant caravan.

By now, he should already be on his way to the ruins of the Old Mine Pit.

Lu Chen's way of doing things was always to avoid involving the innocent and, even more so, to avoid dragging others down.

Qian Gui's early departure left him completely without worries, allowing him to focus single-mindedly on the matter at hand.

Several days of lurking and observation had caused the scales in Lu Chen's heart to tilt slightly toward the possibility that Ding Wu might not have completely lied about this matter.

Of course, this by no means meant trust.

Traps are often built upon nine parts of truth, only to conceal that most fatal one part of falsehood.

But at least, the possibility of rescuing the four captured fellow disciples had changed from a vague guess...

...into a specific goal with clear coordinates and a list of obstacles.

Having confirmed this, Lu Chen no longer hesitated, and his actions moved to the next stage—preparation.

He knew well that although the You secret technique was extraordinarily miraculous, allowing him to hide and sneak almost perfectly...

...and even briefly fade his presence, it was not omnipotent.

Facing multiple unknown Formations that might be linked to higher-level powers...

...especially Restrictions arranged by an eerie School like the Blood Gate, which might contain curses or Bloodline-triggered mechanisms, taking risks blindly and forcing a break-in would be extremely dangerous.

Once trapped deep within the heart of the Blood Gate, even a Core Formation Cultivator would find it impossible to escape.

He would never allow himself to fall into such a passive situation.

Therefore, what he needed was not a frontal assault, but to create an opportunity, cause chaos, or rather...

...prepare a "meeting gift" of sufficient weight.