“So what if I like looking at walls?” Mu Anxiao retorted.
“Fine, as long as you’re happy,” Queen Rabbit said, turning and walking away slowly.
Mu Anxiao breathed a sigh of relief as she watched Queen Rabbit’s receding figure.
In the woodshed, Feng Qishi leaned against the wall leisurely. The maid rabbit squatted by his legs, massaging them and asking, “Now can you tell us about Mu Anxiao?”
Feng Qishi yawned and said, “Don’t worry, with me here, you won’t die.”
“Why won’t you tell us what’s happening with Mu Anxiao?” Rabbit Number One asked unhappily.
Feng Qishi opened his eyes and stared at Rabbit Number One, asking, “Do you really want to know?”
“Yes,” Rabbit Number One nodded.
“Then I won’t tell you,” Feng Qishi said smugly.
Rabbit Number One pouted.
Feng Qishi’s lips curved as he looked at all the rabbit spirits present and said, “You all too. As soon as I arrived, you kept asking about Mu Anxiao, Mu Anxiao. I don’t even know who Mu Anxiao is.”
“You don’t know?” the maid rabbit said, stopping her massage.
Feng Qishi chuckled, “You little rabbits change your tune so quickly.”
“I don’t believe you don’t know Mu Anxiao,” Rabbit Number Two said earnestly.
“Tell me more,” Feng Qishi raised an eyebrow.
“You have the same celestial aura as Mu Anxiao. If I’m not mistaken, you were imprisoned here because of Mu Anxiao,” Rabbit Number Two analyzed.
Feng Qishi smiled, “As expected of rabbits, you think so much.”
“I don’t think too much, I just want to know her situation,” Rabbit Number Two said calmly.
Feng Qishi glanced at them and asked, “Do you really want to know?”
They all nodded.
“Alright, I’ll tell you, but only if you tell me what happened to you first,” Feng Qishi asked casually.
“The subordinates of that great demon said that if Mu Anxiao misspoke even once, they would kill one of us rabbits, and so on,” Rabbit Number Three explained.
“So, you were worried about your own safety,” Feng Qishi said seriously.
“Partly for ourselves, and partly for her,” the maid rabbit said. “Because one wrong word from her could harm herself.”
Feng Qishi sighed, “She’s doing much better than you all!”
“You mean, she doesn’t have to die?” the maid rabbit said excitedly.
“Yes, she doesn’t have to die,” Feng Qishi nodded.
“That’s great,” the maid rabbit smiled.
“Alright, can I rest now?” Feng Qishi said.
They all relaxed and said, “You rest, you rest.”
Feng Qishi closed his eyes without another word.
Meanwhile, Xu Lanyan and the black-clothed demon stopped outside the woodshed. The dog-headed demon nervously walked up behind them and said, “This is the entrance to the cellar.”
Inside, Feng Qishi closed his eyes and began listening to the conversation outside, thinking, *It’s that kid Xu Lanyan.*
Outside, Xu Lanyan walked behind the dog-headed demon and asked, “How do we get in?”
“Wait a moment,” the dog-headed demon said. He raised two fingers, then squatted down and drew a semicircle on the ground. He then closed his eyes and muttered something. The dry grass on the ground shifted, and the entrance to the cellar gradually appeared before them.
“We go down here?” Xu Lanyan asked.
The dog-headed demon nodded, opened the cover, and said, “You go down first.”
“What about you?” the black-clothed demon asked.
“I’ll follow you. You go down first,” the dog-headed demon said with a smile.
“Alright then,” Xu Lanyan agreed and jumped down.
The black-clothed demon glanced at the dog-headed demon, then stepped forward and followed Xu Lanyan down.
The dog-headed demon stepped forward and looked down into the cellar opening, saying, “I’m sorry, little brother.” With that, he squatted down, closed the cover, and resealed the cellar entrance.
Inside the cellar, Xu Lanyan landed steadily, conjured a ball of flame in his palm, and took half a step back, saying, “There’s not enough oxygen here.”
The next second, the black-clothed demon landed beside Xu Lanyan and said, “He sealed the cellar entrance.”
“I knew he would do that,” Xu Lanyan said, looking at the empty sides and shouting, “Rat spirit, are you there?”
“Could it be they weren’t imprisoned here?” the black-clothed demon asked, staying close to Xu Lanyan.
Xu Lanyan shook his head, “Impossible, they must be here.”
“You…”
Just as the black-clothed demon uttered one word, a voice came from beneath their feet, “Who are you?”
Hearing this, Xu Lanyan quickly asked, “Where are you?”
“Go forward, there’s a hole, but I advise you not to come down, as it’s hard to get back up.”
Listening to the female voice, Xu Lanyan said, “You all move aside, I’ll look.”
“You’re still coming down?” the female voice called up again.
“It’s fine,” Xu Lanyan said. He looked at the flame in his hand, squatted down, and felt around on the ground with his other hand, saying, “Is there a wooden board covering the top of that hole?”
“Yes,” the female voice replied.
Xu Lanyan patted the ground, then began to push aside the dry grass covering the board, and grasped the wooden handle.
The black-clothed demon stared at the wooden handle, excitedly exclaiming, “It must be right below!”
“Yes,” Xu Lanyan nodded and pulled upward with force. A gust of cold wind blew up from below, but his flame was unaffected.
Below, the female rat spirit looked up at the faint light from above and asked, “Who are you people?”
“Move aside,” Xu Lanyan said.
Upon hearing this, the female rat spirit quickly retreated several steps with the rat spirits behind her.
Then, Xu Lanyan jumped down.
The black-clothed demon took a deep breath and followed him down.
In an instant, they both landed. The rat spirits, unaccustomed to the firelight, quickly lowered their heads and closed their eyes.
Seeing this, Xu Lanyan turned his back.
“What are you doing?” the black-clothed demon asked, not understanding Xu Lanyan’s action.
“We haven’t seen such close light in a long time, we’re a bit unaccustomed to it,” the female rat spirit said with her eyes closed.
“I see,” the black-clothed demon said, looking at the considerate Xu Lanyan.
“You all get used to it, and then we’ll talk,” Xu Lanyan said with his back turned.
“Okay,” the rat spirits responded in unison.
The black-clothed demon stared at the flame in Xu Lanyan’s hand, saying, “It’s truly miraculous. The oxygen here is insufficient, yet your fire is still so strong.”
“Say less,” Xu Lanyan, not wanting them to know his identity, said this.
The black-clothed demon gave Xu Lanyan a simple smile.
“What are you smiling at?” Xu Lanyan asked.
“Nothing,” the black-clothed demon sighed. “I thought that dog-headed guy really saw us as brothers. Who knew he was just tricking us.”