Da Hei didn’t bother to take a look and just hurriedly used the opportunity to paw at the sand next to the smooth ground. In a flash, a small hole had been dug up, showing that this smooth structure was not just on the surface, but was actually going deeper down into the ground.
Da Hei’s gaze narrowed, and he hurriedly stepped away, making it seem as if this place had been stirred up when Yun Bei Fen just fell down, and not because he had done anything. If they were lucky, those humans would be able to see it and figure things out by themselves. If not, he could only wait for Mei Chao Bing to return and then tell him.
The other disciples that had been too shocked to react immediately crowded around Yun Bei Fen, trying to make sure what was going on. Even the disciples on the other side of the area came rushing over with Yang Wu Huang in the lead.
He immediately bent down and pulled Yun Bei Fen to his feet, acting concerned. "What’s the matter? What happened? Was there some kind of attack?"
Yun Bei Fen immediately pulled back his hands, clearly not happy with Yang Wu Huang acting so intimately toward him. If this had been Mei Chao Bing, he definitely would’ve been delighted. But who wanted that Yang Wu Huang to get close?
Pursing his lips, he dusted off his clothes, and then picked up his sword, feeling a bit heartbroken when he saw that there were a few new scratches on it. This weapon had been used by Mei Chao Bing before, then it had been with him for all these years. Now, because of such a small accident, it was actually in a worse state. All those years of painfully taking care of it seemed to have gone to waste in an instant. Well, at least it wasn’t broken.
Yun Bei Fen patted it for a moment and then realized that Xiao Hui had also fallen down. He went to pick up the little bunny and hurriedly stroked its fur to try and calm it down. As for whether the spiritual beast actually needed any calming down … maybe that question was better left unanswered.
The others had looked him over in the meantime and seeing that he didn’t seem to be injured, they also calmed down. What exactly had happened … they also weren’t too sure.
Ao Jing raised his brows, and pondered for a moment but then shook his head. "Well, I don’t think it was anything much. Maybe junior martial brother Yun just missed a step."
When he heard that, Nian Tao who had stood next to Yun Bei Fen when it happened couldn’t help but look down and saw the place that Da Hei had dug up. He immediately made a sound of surprise and then motioned at the place. "Look at that! That smooth surface is actually going down into the ground."
Immediately, everyone’s attention was on that place, the previous question of what had happened forgotten.
Da Hei just looked on and quietly returned to a spot not far from Yun Bei Fen, sitting down and lazily watching the disciples busy about. Well, it seemed that his task was done. Mei Chao Bing should better thank him later on. Not that Da Hei thought that he would really care. To Mei Chao Bing, Yun Bei Fen’s safety was clearly the most important. If he heard that Yun Bei Fen had suffered even the slightest harm to make this possible, he wouldn’t be happy. Well, Da Hei could only hope that this brat wouldn’t tell him anything.
Meanwhile, the disciples investigated what they were seeing. In fact, it wasn’t too hard to imagine what this meant.
"Rather than just the ground above having been flattened, it seems that this is some kind of structure that is going into the ground. There might be something below our feet." Yang Wu Huang actually felt a bit complacent when he said this. Now, look at this! He had been able to figure it out. Thankfully, they hadn’t returned ahead of time. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to give the Elders this kind of information. In fact, now that they had a direction to investigate in, he felt that they could find out even more. "Well, we should investigate this clue further. Maybe there are more spots like this one that we can see from the top, or maybe there will be something that becomes apparent if we dig a little deeper."
The other disciples didn’t have anything to say to that, even though Yuan Lei glanced up at the sky. It was already getting late. If they returned now, they could still make it back to the town at about dusk. But if they stayed much longer, it would be dark. And that was something that would make traveling in the border region difficult if not downright impossible. But he also understood that right now might not be the best time to bring that up.
He sighed, and then immediately got to work together with Yi Ju, looking for places nearby that might show the same smooth surface aboveground. They just copied what Mei Chao Bing had done before and used a sweeping attack from the air to blow away most of the loose sand. But contrary to expectations, nothing could be seen.
At the same time, the other disciples had used their spiritual energy to press the sand away from the edge of the smooth surface and dig deeper into the ground. What they could see was still the same kind of smooth structure, just that they now realized that it was not just going straight down but was instead becoming wider further down. That was to say that this had probably been below their feet for quite a while already.
