BAM!
As everyone was dropped downward, most of them plopped to the ground with their butt facing first.
"What is this place?" Chen Yanmu asked in confusion as she slowly stood back up. Upon glancing at the surroundings, she realized the original hole that they dropped in had vanished from sight.
However, her expression drastically changed when she noticed two unexpected people.
"Y-You... aren't you that instructor from the academy?" Chen Yanmu cried out in alarm as she hurriedly unsheathed her sword.
The two people she saw were naturally Jiang Ming who was holding Yuan Chunhua by the waist to brace the impact of the fall.
"Whoopsie, Yuan Chunhua, it seems like our undercover has been exposed accidentally." Jiang Ming laughed cheekily.
"You still have the nerve to talk nonsense right now?" Yuan Chunhua was in disbelief as she tried to push him away, only to find herself unable to muster any of her strength.
"What happened to my spiritual qi?" She realized not a single spiritual qi was residing in her body.
"Now you get it, Yuan Chunhua?" Jiang Ming smiled as he released his grasp on her and stared at Chen Yanmu.
"Heh, without spiritual qi, what threat can your group of people do to us?" He sneered coldly.
Chen Yanmu wanted to prove him wrong by circulating her dantain to churn out spiritual qi through her veins. Alas, even with a different method of activating spiritual qi, she could not feel an ounce of it coming out.
"How did you know so well that we aren't able to use spiritual qi?" Chen Yanmu gnashed her teeth and asked angrily. "Could this incident have been done by you?"
"I'll say... your father is an idiot, but it couldn't be possible for him to have an idiotic daughter as well, right?" Jiang Ming laughed aloud and shook his head.
"Ahh, I always heard of the term 'like father like son'. This is my first time seeing 'like father like daughter'. Both are irreconcilable idiots without a cure." He added.
"You-"
Chen Yanmu was so angered that she felt her scalp burning from the sight of Jiang Ming. Even though he had killed her father, her grudge against him wasn't that deep considering how she hated her useless father anyway.
However, with Jiang Ming constantly bickering and leaving her no room to retreat, she truly wished to strangle him alive right now.
"Enough, disciple Chen Yanmu. Right now is not the time to argue with him, but find out where we are and why we ended up here." This time, it was Elder Feiling who intervened and stopped her. She might be greedy, but she also understood the circumstances they are currently in.
Without any information, she didn't dare to waste energy with Jiang Ming. The most important task was to get out of this place they got embroiled in.
Suddenly, Yuan Chunhua realized something when she glanced at Elder Feiling and Chen Yanmu.
"What happened to Di Tianluo and the other elders?" Yuan Chunhua realized that they were nowhere to be found. Within the area, it was just her, Jiang Ming, Chen Yanmu, and Elder Feiling.
Upon her question, Elder Feiling knitted her brows as she also realized they had been separated.
"No wonder this brat was so daring to provoke you outright. It's currently 2 vs 2, and we can't use spiritual qi here." Elder Feiling snorted coldly.
Meanwhile, Jiang Ming felt like he was being insulted as he hurriedly explained, "Hey, you whatever Elder Feiling something. Don't spout nonsense and try to defame me! I can beat the crap out of all of you if I wanted to. Whether it's two or more people from you, ants will still be ants."
"..."
The scene was completely silent, almost like they needed time to comprehend Jiang Ming's vulgar explanation.
"Jiang Ming, must you really speak in such a vulgar manner?" Yuan Chunhua turned toward him and asked.
"Yuan Chunhua, you shouldn't question me in public like that. We should do that during our bedtime. There are still outsiders here." Jiang Ming grinned evilly as he blatantly took advantage of her again.
With these outsiders here, he was sure she wouldn't really punish him nor do anything outrageous.
'Haha, this Chen Yanmu finally did something useful for once. They can be my bodyguard when I speak like this.' He laughed inwardly.
Meanwhile, Yuan Chunhua was getting a headache as she retreated into the distance and said, "Forget it, you do you. Taunt however you like, but if they regain their spiritual qi somehow, then you're on your own."
"Tsk, being a tsundere might be cute, but overly tsundere is just plain annoying. You should really learn from my aunt no how to be tame when it's just us alone." Jiang Ming clicked his tongue.
Alas, his remark was ignored given how Yuan Chunhua had no interest in learning of the affair between him and her senior.
Sometime later, Chen Yanmu stuck close to Elder Feiling as they went to investigate the surrounding terrain.
"These walls look ordinary, but they seem to contain some mysterious element that blocks the spiritual qi." Elder Feiling tapped on the wall slightly and inferred.
"What can we do then, Elder Feiling? I just glance around and we seem to be trapped in a square environment without an exit." Chen Yanmu voiced her opinion.
Never did she expect a meeting like this to go astray. Not to mention, she didn't know the current situation of the other two elders and those from the 6 powerful clans.
As for the revenge against Jiang Ming, she didn't even care less when her life was on the line currently.
"I'm afraid that there's no way out unless we learn the mechanism of this place. Alas, that's not my field of expertise but Elder Tiekun instead. If he was here, then we might find something to leave this place." Elder Feiling said solemnly.
Chen Yanmu's face turned pale as she really didn't want to die here. She still had so much to do, and her cultivation path had just taken a step toward the pinnacle.
How could she be willing to become a corpse in this unknown environment?
Suddenly, she took notice of Jiang Ming, who was still calm and collected.
'That's right... didn't Jiang Ming realize we can't use spiritual qi from the get-go? Doesn't that mean he understood this environment and what actually happened?' Chen Yanmu thought.
Without caring about their grudges, she walked toward him and asked, "Jiang Ming, did you know where we are and how to leave this place?"
"What?" Jiang Ming showed a confused expression. He was not expecting her to ask him a way out considering their grudges.
Chen Yanmu ignored his expression as she continued, "If you can help us leave this place, then the matter of my father's death shall be cleared."
Her expression and speech were sincere. It was clear that she valued her own life more than anything else. Her father's death was merely a hit to her reputation and nothing else.
"You don't even care about your biological father?" Jiang Ming was dumbfounded.
"Hmph, aren't you the same as me, Jiang Ming? Why are you pretending to be a saint now that we are in this scenario?" Chen Yanmu was a bit irritated at his doubts.
"You also disregarded Kong Ming to no end and only cared about your aunt. Although no one in the capital city dared to mention this fact considering your ruthlessness, deep down, we all have some clues that the two of you have an illicit relationship. Otherwise, why would you treat your own family so terribly while you live in wealth?" She added.
Her straightforwardness shocked Jiang Ming, but what was truly a shocker was the fact that everyone knew about his illicit relationship with his aunt.
They had never displayed any public affection except to the limit between that of a nephew and aunt.
"How did they know?" Jiang Ming scratched his head, seemingly wondering about the time that he slipped off and revealed their secret relationship.
Chen Yanmu at this time shook her head. "Forget it, I was too blindsided to believe you would have a clue at where we are."
Seeing how he was clueless as to how they knew about their illicit relationship, Chen Yanmu lost all hopes in him.
Hearing Chen Yanmu, Jiang Ming felt his pride had taken a hit. Therefore, he quickly sneered coldly and revealed some bits of information, "Tch, aren't we just stuck in a Terrestrial Dimension? What's the big deal about it anyway when we simply needed to follow the rules of this place."
"Terrestrial Dimension?" Chen Yanmu paused her footstep.
"Duh, it was probably because of some energy fluctuation we did above that caused a rift in between the dimensions. It was no wonder why the Haze Forest was so dangerous. With this dimension secretly lying beneath the surface, how can the magical beasts above not go on a rampage daily?"
