“Why don’t you give it a guess?” Mi Li’s voice carried a slightly teasing tone.

“I don’t want to,” replied Zu An. Please, an auntie like you who has already borne a child should stop acting cutesy. Of course, he wasn’t daring enough to say those words aloud. 

“You’ll know once you unseal me,” said Mi Li. “Zhang Han has already claimed the upper hand. It won’t be long before he returns. Are you sure you want to continue discussing this with me here?”

“Shouldn’t you at least tell me how I should begin to release the Heaven, Earth, and Human seals?” replied Zu An. Surely you at least know that, right?

“Look ahead of you. You should see a passageway behind the altar. Walk to the end of it, and you’ll see a formation. As long as you stand on the formation, you should be able to trigger the Human Seal. If you can undo the Human Seal, the formation will automatically trigger the Earth Seal, and finally the Heaven Seal.

“I’m not sure what you’ll encounter within each seal, but one thing is for sure—you’ll be met with great danger. There’s a good chance that you might end up losing your life. If you wish to back down, there’s still time for you to do so.”

Zu An shot a glance at Chu Chuyan and said, “Why would I shy away from saving a person that I treasure?”

Upon hearing those words, a slight pinkish hue colored Chu Chuyan’s fair complexion. Too embarrassed to look him in the eye, she quickly averted her gaze. So much was bottled up within her heart that she wanted to let out, but she suddenly found herself at a loss for words.

Meanwhile, Qiao Xueying shifted her gaze between Chu Chuyan and Zu An, before sighing deeply within her own heart.

Zu An grasped Chu Chuyan’s hand and said, “Honey, I’m going to undo the seal now. Don’t worry, I’ll definitely find a way to rescue you. If I end up losing my life in there, you mustn’t marry another man. Otherwise, I won’t be able to rest in peace.”

Qiao Xueying glared at him silently.

This fellow really is as hateful as ever.

Chu Chuyan had been moved by the first part of his statement, but when she heard the second half of it, she did not know whether to laugh or to cry. “I would die as well if you lost your life inside. How would I be able to marry another man?”

“But what if some powerful sword immortal or other such being descends from the sky and saves you from Zhang Han’s grasp? I mean, that’s how it always goes in books!” 

Chu Chuyan’s face immediately turned scarlet. “You saw my book the other day!”

He lied to me, saying that he’d seen nothing at all! Just thinking about how another person had seen the embarrassing book title made her feel so ashamed that she wanted to dig hole and bury herself in it.

Zu An burst into laughter before walking toward the passageway where the Human Seal was located. As he walked away, he raised his hand and waved it as an expression of farewell to her.

“Ah Zu!” Chu Chuyan suddenly called out.

Delighted, Zu An turned around, expecting to hear something along the lines of ‘I’ll surely wait for you to come back. If you don’t, I’ll live the rest of my life as a widow’. Ah, it appears my sacrifice wasn’t in vain after all.

Unexpectedly, things turned out slightly differently. 

“Ah Zu, if you dare die in there, I’ll immediately marry another man!” shouted Chu Chuyan.

Qiao Xueying was flabbergasted. What’s wrong with the young miss?

“So, you must come back alive!” Chu Chuyan added quickly.

Her initial sentence had left him slightly deflated, but upon hearing her change in tone, his mood cleared up, and he replied heartily, “Roger that!”

Qiao Xueying bit her lips. Damn it, the young miss has truly been led astray by that fellow!

Zu An slowly headed deeper into the passageway. Unlike the underground passageway that he passed through earlier, this passageway was much more exquisite. The walls and floor were all elaborately carved into beautiful artworks.

The passageway itself was lined with all sorts of animal sculptures. With just a cursory glance, Zu An could pick out pairs of leaping horses, crouching tigers, prone elephants, wild boars, stonefish, bears, lions, panthers, camels, qilins, and so on. There were even some animals which he didn’t recognize, and he wondered whether they were mythological beasts, or perhaps creatures unique to this world.

Every few meters, he would pass a copper sculpture of a maid, gilded in gold. The maid was in a kneeling position, holding up a lantern. Its posture was elegant, resembling the sculpture of ‘Changxin’s Palace Lantern’ which he had seen in a museum in his previous life.

After walking for about a hundred meters, he finally came to a halt outside a stone chamber. He noticed that the stone chamber had an incredibly elaborate formation constructed around it, and at the very center of the intricate patterns was the character for the word ‘human’ (人).

This was likely to be the Human Seal that Mi Li had mentioned. He was just about to activate it using the method she had described when he suddenly heard footsteps. He turned around, only to see a willowy woman standing right behind him.

“Hm? What are you doing here?”

The willowy woman was none other than Qiao Xueying.

“It’s meaningless for me to remain with the young miss. Since I can’t free her from the black rope or protect her from the black-armored general, it seemed best to come with you and see if I can be of any help. Besides, I doubt that a third rank cultivator like yourself would be able to break the seal all by yourself,” replied Qiao Xueying.

“I sure do wonder why the world gave you a decent-looking face, only to ruin it with a vile mouth,” retorted Zu An.

Qiao Xueying rolled her eyes. “The same goes for you too.”

Despite their bickering, Zu An was still glad to have another person’s help. An additional pair of hands meant a higher chance of breaking the seals.

QIao Xueying took out some restorative medicine and ki pills and swallowed them. She hesitated for a moment before offering a set to Zu An as well. “Do you need it?”

Despite their differences, they were more or less on the same team now. It was only right for her to share her resources with him.

Zu An shook his head. He felt that he was in the perfect state at the moment. If he recovered from his injuries, the Phoenix Nirvana Sutra might lose its effect on him right away.

“Forget it then,” replied Qiao Xueying with a pout. She thought that Zu An was doing this out of spite, so she decided to ignore him.

The two of them walked to the corner of the formation. Zu An stretched out his hand towards her and said, “Give me your hand.”

“What?” Qiao Xueying was perplexed as to what Zu An was up to, but still offered her hand to him obediently.

Unexpectedly, she found her hand wrapped within a warm, firm grip. She immediately frowned at the abrupt physical contact. She was just about to blow her top when Zu An explained himself. “Mi Li mentioned earlier that we would be teleported into another space once we trigger the seal. We should hold hands, to avoid getting teleported into different locations.”

He wasn’t certain how this teleportation formation worked, but he had played plenty of games in his previous life to know that there was something called ‘random teleportation’. If they were to be teleported into different locations, it could mean a great deal of trouble trying to meet up with one another.

“Are you sure you aren’t just trying to take advantage of me?” Qiao Xueying eyed their linked hands with a look of skepticism. She wasn’t used to physical contact with other men, let alone this hateful fellow.

“You suspect that I’d take advantage of you?” scoffed Zu An. “Please! My wife is the number one beauty of Brightmoon City! Do you think that I would choose a washboard like you without breasts or a bum over her?”

“Who are you calling a washboard?” Qiao Xueying shot back through gritted teeth. To think that my perception of him actually improved a little earlier on. Tsk! I suppose a leopard can’t change its spots. He’s still as hateful as ever!

You have successfully trolled Qiao Xueying for 468 Rage points!

She tilted her head downwards to look at her own chest. Fine, it’s not very big, but it isn’t small either! Besides, did you say that my bum is small? You must be blind!

Just thinking about this was enough to make the blood rush into her head. She was just about to blow up once more when Zu An pulled her into the middle of the formation. There was a mysterious burst of light, and their vision suddenly blurred. They experienced a momentary feeling of weightlessness, as if they had fallen into a hole.

By the time they snapped out of it, their surroundings had grown much brighter. They were no longer in the dingy underground palace, but a grand city. Towering city walls and grand city gates sat right before their eyes, giving off an air of ancient majesty.

“Holy shit, how in the world are they that big?!” exclaimed Zu An.

Qiao Xueying’s face reddened. 

This pervert, staring at a person’s breasts. Hm? Wait a moment, how could there be a big-breasted woman within this seal?

She quickly lifted her head to take a look, but there was no one in her line of sight besides Zu An. She noticed that he was looking up at the sky, so she quickly followed his gaze, and froze.

Right before the city gates were twelve humongous copper giants, gleaming with a golden light. They stood in two rows before the city gates, facing one another. They were ten meters tall, even in a sitting position, and their feet looked to be at least two meters long. Their very presence was incredibly intimidating.

Qiao Xueying subconsciously leaned a little closer to Zu An before her heart would calm down a little. “How do we break this seal?”

Zu An pondered for a moment before replying. “Since it’s called the Human Seal, it should be safe to assume that it has something to do with humans. I don’t see any signs of humans around the area though… Do we have to enter the city in order to trigger the event?”

Qiao Xueying contemplated for a moment before nodding in agreement. “Let’s enter the city to take a look then.”

Judging from the tremendous height and span of the city walls, they could already imagine just how prosperous the city would be.

However, when they finally walked up to the city gates, they realized that they couldn’t open them, no matter how hard they pushed.

Zu An was strong enough that he should have been able to exert half a ton of force, which should have been more than enough to open this city gate. Yet, despite the two of them pushing in unison, the city gate did not budge. They tried pounding on it as well, but there was no response.

“Let me try flipping over the city wall to take a look.”

Qiao Xueying took several steps back before running forward and leaping upward toward the top of the city wall.

While fifth rank cultivators were still incapable of flight, they could easily cover great distances with their leaps, reminiscent of the qinggong[1] often seen in wuxia novels. Since she had even built up some momentum before her leap, she should have been able to easily get to the top of the city wall.

Yet, to her surprise, she realized that she was only able to reach about halfway up the city wall, even at the highest point of her leap.

So, she tapped her foot on the side of the city wall to push her higher. At the same time, a vine shot forth from her sleeves, heading for the top of the city walls.

To her astonishment, the city walls suddenly grew even taller, so that she was constantly stuck halfway up the city walls, no matter how quickly she tried to climb.

In the end, she had to give up and leap back down. “There’s something not quite right about this city wall.”

Zu An had also witnessed the astonishing sight earlier, so he understood what she was referring to. He took a moment to think things through before suggesting, “Should we try to ram the city gate down?”

With their combined strength, they should be able to exert a force comparable to those ancient battering rams commonly used in fortress sieges.

“Shoo! I’ll do it!” 

After her earlier failure, Qiao Xueying was anxious to restore her reputation in Zu An’s eyes. Her hair began to flutter in the wind, growing longer and longer before abruptly darting toward the city gates.

Zu An had personally tasted the prowess of her ‘hair whips’ before. They were powerful enough to tear apart the walls of his residence as though they were made of paper. Her prowess should be more than enough to smash a hole in the city gates.

Unexpectedly, when her hair finally smashed into the city gates, it produced nothing more than a loud, echoing bang. The city gates were otherwise untouched.

“Hm?” Qiao Xueying was stunned.

Unwilling to accept the outcome, she was about to give it another try, but Zu An stopped her. “Stop. Look behind you.”

Qiao Xueying quickly turned around, only for goosebumps to rise all over her arms. The twelve copper giants, which had been facing one another in two rows earlier on, had all turned their gazes toward them. 

The copper giants began rising to their feet, growing to over twenty meters in height. With massive strides, they made their way towards the two of them.

The ground shuddered under their heavy footsteps, as if an earthquake was rattling the earth. Zu An gulped fearfully and remarked, “Bloody hell… Are copper giants considered ‘humans’ as well?”