67: Encountering an enemy

The Guozijian Students shivered on the riverbank.

Although the weather was slightly warmer, it was still late winter.

It was a lie to say it wasn't cold.

In addition, they had come to find trouble with Qin Chuan, so they had to maintain their demeanor—they weren't wearing much.

Standing on the riverbank now, they immediately looked ten years younger!

—They were all frozen stiff.

"Hiss, so cold. This Chen Wenyuan, he wouldn't really be playing a trick on us, would he?"

"Sh-shouldn't he?"

"You never know."

Just as they were in a dilemma, a polite little yellow weasel slowly walked up to them.

This yellow weasel moved with great grace, possessing a demeanor that these scholars couldn't quite describe.

".A refined scholar?"

"This beast is even wearing a Confucian robe!"

The yellow weasel glared displeasedly at the person who called it a beast, as if teaching him about manners.

Under its gaze, that scholar instinctively lowered his head, feeling somewhat in the wrong.

Then he immediately realized—why do I feel ashamed in front of a mouse?!

However, when he looked up again, he saw the yellow weasel moving along the riverbank.

The students were puzzled, then after a moment, they understood.

"It's... writing?!"

"Yes, and it writes better than you."

"How can you blurt out such a truth!"

Thus, under the astonished gazes of the group, a line of characters appeared on the muddy ground by the riverbank.

"I, Chen Wenyuan, am a revered Immortal Banished from Heaven, how can an unknown nobody like you meet me just because you wish to? I have left clues near the riverbank; whoever solves them first, I shall call him a Great Man!"

The students: ???

"Is he playing with us?"

"How about..."

"Ah, forget it, let's look."

At this point, the sunk cost of giving up was too great.

After an internal struggle, this group resigned themselves to their fate.

Even so, the feeling of being led by the nose by Qin Chuan still made them very uncomfortable.

The whole group was holding back their anger, waiting to see Chen Wenyuan so they could give him a good lesson.

Upstream.

Qin Chuan calmly observed these people through the yellow weasel's vision.

He told the yellow weasel to quickly scurry away, lest it incur their wrath.

He thought to himself: "Now is the time to test your abilities! O hope of the Great Zhou's future, please do not disappoint me."

In reality, this group did not disappoint Qin Chuan.

A moment later, surprised voices echoed in the river bend.

"There's space underground, Chen Wenyuan must be hiding there!"

"Where, where, where? Let me see!"

"There really is!"

"Charge! Beat him up!"

In almost an instant, the river bend was empty.

Qin Chuan: ...

He didn't know whether to say he overestimated this group's intelligence.

Or underestimated their hatred for him.

They really just went in without any investigation, huh?

There wasn't even a lookout on the surface.

You are all scholars, not mere brutes!

If he were truly to be enemies with such people, Qin Chuan felt he had a hundred ways to kill them, but they themselves would be helpless...

Qin Chuan sighed, steered his boat down the river channel, and came to the river bend.

He peered into the deep, dark opening where the group had entered—in the pitch-black environment, strange, jagged rocks covered the passage.

This group really dared to go down!

Qin Chuan sighed and could only follow.

—He only wanted this group to do free labor for him, not to send them to their deaths.

What if something happened?

But before going in, Qin Chuan pulled the yellow weasel over.

"You go ahead and scout!"

—Not to mention the dangers underground, what if those Guozijian Students played a trick on him?

He had to be careful!

"Squeak?! Σ( Д 彡!)"

The yellow weasel widened its eyes hard, as if asking Qin Chuan, 'You'd really let me take the fall?'

Unfortunately, it quickly realized that no matter how much it widened its mouse eyes, they wouldn't get any bigger, so it had to try another way.

Its small Confucian robe flapped, and its rat claws scratched on the ground.

Before long, a line of characters appeared before Qin Chuan.

Yellow Weasel: A gentleman mouse does not stand under a tottering wall!

Qin Chuan: ?

"You're quoting classics at me? Then have you heard that a mouse has one death, which may be heavier than an orange cat, or lighter than cat fur? Get down there!"

With that, he grabbed the yellow weasel and, with a 'biu' sound, threw it down.

—It wasn't that Qin Chuan was inhumane or didn't value a mouse's life.

He didn't dare provoke the small animal protectionists.

Mainly—the yellow weasel was not a mouse in the true sense; its origin lay in the poem "Xiang Shu," and at its core, it was a wisp of Haoran Righteousness.

Even if it died and dissipated, consuming some Haoran Righteousness, it could be reborn from the poem.

So—this fellow was truly more timid than a rat!

Hmm, it is a rat, so never mind.

—

In the pitch-black environment, the yellow weasel resentfully fumbled its way forward.

—Qin Chuan couldn't receive a complete picture from his side.

After all, the yellow weasel didn't have the ability to see clearly at night, and its inherent high myopia, though slightly enhanced, was still only that of an ordinary person.

In this pitch-black environment, it naturally couldn't see anything.

However, whether it could see or not didn't matter; as long as its sense of smell and hearing reacted, it was fine.

This underground passage was quite deep, at least a hundred meters long.

The Guozijian Students who had entered earlier were long gone.

The yellow weasel explored ahead, and Qin Chuan followed closely, maintaining a safe distance.

A moment later, the sound of rushing water came from ahead.

Underground river?

Qin Chuan immediately stopped and told the resentful yellow weasel to scout again!

The yellow weasel advanced dozens of meters, and then it suddenly opened up.

"Underground melting hole?"

Looking at the transmitted image, Qin Chuan said in surprise.

Then, he immediately rejected his own guess.

—This was definitely not naturally formed, but had been recently excavated!

Following the dark red light from the top of the space and the smell of sulfur in the air.

If not 100%, at least 80% here was an abyss stronghold!

Thus...

The yellow weasel moved forward again, and then it saw—

The struggling Guozijian Students.

"How could this be!"

Qin Chuan couldn't understand.

Although he didn't think much of this group's intelligence.

Their combat power, however, was top-notch!

In the outside world, he wouldn't dare say they could rival an army, but they could definitely take on a hundred.

But now they were about to be completely wiped out, and they didn't even seem to have any ability to resist?

"#@*￥%"

Deep whispers came, and Qin Chuan didn't understand their meaning.

But the next moment, as soon as the yellow weasel looked up, the entire mouse instantly dissipated.

"Not good!"

Just as Qin Chuan was thinking about how to solve the problem, a loud noise also came from the passage behind him.

"Who dares to harm my young master!"

"Listen, you inside, if you touch a single hair on our young lord, we will exterminate your nine generations."

"Do you know who you are making an enemy of!"