Once the group heard Jiang Ming's explanation, they were completely baffled.
"H-How can this be?" Chen Yanmu held a listless expression as she plopped to the ground.
"We merely chose the Haze Forest because of its discreet location and the dangers that prevent others from thinking about coming here. How did it backfire and was caused by the energy fluctuation we emit?"
Seeing how Chen Yanmu acted like that, Jiang Ming whistles nonchalantly.
'Heh, if she knew the energy fluctuation was thanks to the Gamer's Cube, then I'll bet she wants to strangle me to death right now.' Jiang Ming thought.
What he said previously wasn't entirely false, but it wasn't also the entire truth. Back when he tried to strengthen the formation with the Gamer's Cube, it had somehow caused the dimension beneath to tremble at the pure energy fluctuation emitted by the Gamer's Cube.
The power of it caused Jiang Ming to once again be awestruck by the magical weapon he had obtained. It also made him realize to not use the power of the Gamer's Cube casually considering how priceless it was.
Despite knowing fully well that the entire situation was his fault, Jiang Ming was no fool to claim such a big credit.
"Hmph, if it weren't for all of you thinking about doing evil things, would we be stuck here?" Jiang Ming snorted coldly, pushing all the blames onto Chen Yanmu.
They were enemies, to begin with, so he showed zero remorse at blaming it all on her.
In fact, he felt joyful to see Chen Yanmu become even more depressed as she believed herself to be the actual culprit of their dilemma.
'Hah serve you right, bitch. Keep sulking over it despite not being the true culprit.' Jiang Ming sneered inwardly when he saw she was on the verge of crying. All that pent-up frustration at being dragged here was nullified if he could see her cry over her plot being spoiled.
Meanwhile, Yuan Chunhua was a bit suspicious when she saw Jiang Ming blatantly accusing Chen Yanmu of being the culprit of their situation.
'Why is he desperately pinning the blame on Chen Yanmu?' She pondered for a moment. And when she recalled the situation before they fell beneath the surface, a realization struck her mind.
'My formation... it was powerful but it shouldn't have been powerful enough to avoid the detection of so many powerhouses.' Yuan Chunhua thought. It was because most of the time her mission required her to spy on low-level cultivators that the thought of her formation not being secure enough had never crossed her mind.
However, she had miscalculated this time and didn't expect Chen Yanmu would bring three elders with the same cultivation realm as her. Normally, that would mean her formation could only be secure for a while before it gets detected.
Yet that didn't happen and from Elder Feiling's look of shock when she first saw them, it was clear she was in the dark that they were eavesdropping the whole time.
Without hesitation, she quickly pulled Jiang Ming's arm and dragged him toward a corner as she asked, "Did you do something to my formation and caused the energy fluctuation to erupt?"
Obviously, Jiang Ming would not answer honestly when he heard her question.
"Of course not, Yuan Chunhua. What do you take me for? If I was so powerful as to manipulate your formation and that you have no idea about it, then wouldn't I be a god by now?" He made sure to sound as sincere as possible.
Alas, given his terrible track record, the more sincere he was, the more Yuan Chunhua could confirm the whole incident was thanks to Jiang Ming. And when she put in the clues on how Jiang Ming was constantly pinning the blame on Chen Yanmu as revenge, everything became clear to her.
"You are really one despicable man, Jiang Ming." Yuan Chunhua sneered coldly. She was glad that she didn't fall for his flattery and had pushed him far away.
Jiang Ming held an aggrieved expression as he was truly dumbfounded. How did she become so smart to put two and two together to pinpoint him as the true culprit?
"Yuan Chunhua, you can eat the wrong food, but you can't speak wrongly." Jiang Ming tried his best to warn her not to come to a conclusion that quickly.
She had no evidence to prove that the incident was done by him. In addition, the Gamer's Cube was a top-tier secret that only Shuang Shu had seen before. Hence, he was confident that Yuan Chunhua could not prove her claim at all.
Meanwhile, Yuan Chunhua narrowed her eyes suspiciously as she stepped forward and placed her hand on the wall next to Jiang Ming. At her position, she was currently pinning Jiang Ming down on the wall- something that usually happens when a man wants to flirt with a woman.
Jiang Ming swallowed a mouthful of saliva nervously as he wondered why she was so hellbent on getting him to admit his fault.
They were on the same side whereas Chen Yanmu was the enemy. Why would she be actively helping her out?
"Answer me truthfully, Jiang Ming. What I hate the most in people is when they don't admit their own mistakes and blame it on others." Yuan Chunhua said with a fierce glint. Within her facial expression, there was fury that seemed to be bursting out at any time.
This was the first time Jiang Ming had seen her react in such a way.
Before he could even reply, Yuan Chunhua continued her words, "If you want to woo me, then the first condition is to be an upright and honest man that owns up to their own mistake. If you can't even do this, then please, never show yourself to me ever again." noVεLuSB.coM
Seeing how deadly serious she was, Jiang Ming didn't dare to joke around or tried to brush this off as something trivial.
He held a solemn expression and nodded his head slowly. "Although our current predicament was truly done by me, it was never on purpose. I merely wanted to strengthen the formation you set up as an extra security measure. I didn't expect the method I used had caused a rift in the dimension."
Yuan Chunhua squinted her eyes and stared deeply at Jiang Ming for a few minutes. Once she confirmed that he was speaking the truth and didn't cover any lies, she retracted her hand.
Her expression also returned to normal as she nodded, "Thank you for being honest. In my life, I despised those types of people the most so please don't become like that."
With that said, she turned around and walked away in a desolate manner, seemingly having a lot of thoughts in her mind.
Jiang Ming was clearly the most confused one as he realized he might have accidentally grasped a hint of her past. To despise such people and show such fierce action, Jiang Ming was sure it should have happened when she was young.
Sometime later, Jiang Ming decided to check the map to determine their current location.
A terrestrial dimension might be rare, but he had explored a lot of these areas in Cultivation Omega in the past. Thus, he was not frightened like Chen Yanmu who believed there were no escape paths.
After glancing at the map for a while, Jiang Ming knew it was the puzzle type of domain. A puzzle type consists of numerous factors that constantly change within the domain.
Although it wasn't the most troublesome one, a puzzle-type domain was still enough to make one rack their brain juice up.
He coughed for a few moments to gather everyone's attention, "I'm sure by now you all realized that we must work together to get out of here alive."
He then paused for a moment as he stared at Chen Yanmu and Elder Feiling, clearly looking for a response.
"Hmph, you are the only one that knows where we are, so just say what you have." Chen Yanmu crossed her arms.
"We can temporarily be allies for now, but once we get out alive, I can promise not to hunt you down and let you escape until our next meeting." Elder Feiling promised. She wasn't some stuck-up fool that could not adapt to the environment.
The environment currently calls for everyone to work together to get out of this place. If she were to still act stubbornly. Then she might be stuck here permanently.
Jiang Ming nodded his head when he saw them being cooperative with him. As for Yuan Chunhua, Jiang Ming left her alone for now since he was still a bit hesitant to chat with her after the previous confrontation.
"Since we are now temporarily allies, I shall now tell you the solution for us to escape. We must search for a hidden clue that we are trapped in and solve the puzzle to move on to the next stage." He announced loudly.
