Chapter 171: Human's Seal

"Guess?" Mi Li's voice gained a hint of playfulness.

"I can't guess." Zu An complained inwardly. *You're an aunt who's already had a child, stop trying to act cute and young,* he thought, though he would never dare to say it aloud.

"You'll know once you rescue me," Mi Li paused, then continued, "Zhang Han's side has already gained the upper hand and will be back soon. Are you sure you want to waste time discussing this with me?"

"Then you should at least tell me how to trigger the Heaven, Earth, and Human Seals, right?" Zu An thought, *You can't possibly not know even that.*

Mi Li replied, "Look straight ahead. Behind the altar, there's a tunnel. At the end of it, you'll find an array on the ground. Standing on it will trigger the Human Seal. If you can break that seal, the array on the ground will open, allowing you to proceed to the next level. The two levels below are, in order, the Earth Seal and the Heaven Seal."

"I don't know what you'll encounter when you trigger each seal, but it should be extremely dangerous—almost a death sentence. It's not too late to regret it now."

Zu An glanced at Chu Chuyan beside him and smiled calmly. "How could I regret saving the one I love?"

Hearing his words, a faint blush appeared on Chu Chuyan's delicate, flawless cheeks. She guiltily averted her gaze, too embarrassed to meet his eyes. She had many things she wanted to say, but at that moment, she couldn't utter a single word.

Qiao Xueying, standing nearby, looked at Chu Chuyan for a moment, then at Zu An, and secretly sighed, her thoughts unknown.

Zu An went to Chu Chuyan and held her hand. "Wifey, I'm going to break the seals. I'll definitely find a way to save you. And if I accidentally die, you are absolutely not allowed to marry another man, or I won't rest in peace."

Qiao Xueying was speechless.

*That guy is still as annoying as ever,* she thought.

Chu Chuyan had been deeply moved, but hearing his last sentence, she couldn't help but laugh and cry at the same time. "If you die, I'll die here too, won't I? How could I possibly marry someone else?"

Zu An said, "What if some domineering Sword Immortal suddenly descends from the sky and saves you from Zhang Han? You'd probably fall for him then, wouldn't you?"

Chu Chuyan's face immediately flushed crimson. "You *did* see it that day!"

He had lied to her back then, saying he hadn't seen anything. The thought of someone seeing such an embarrassing book title made her wish she could crawl into a hole in the ground.

Zu An chuckled, turned, and walked toward the Human Seal deep within the tunnel, waving goodbye over his shoulder.

"Ah Zu!" Just then, Chu Chuyan suddenly called out to him.

Zu An's heart swelled with joy. He thought she was probably about to say something tearful like, "I'll wait for you to come back, I promise not to remarry." His efforts to curry favor with his wife recently certainly hadn't been in vain.

To his surprise, what Chu Chuyan actually said was, "Ah Zu, if you dare to die in there, I'll immediately marry another man!"

Qiao Xueying listened, dumbfounded, wondering what had gotten into her mistress.

Then Chu Chuyan softly added, "So you absolutely must come back alive."

Zu An, who had been feeling down, heard her change her tone, and the gloom in his heart instantly vanished. "Alright!"

Qiao Xueying bit her lip, thinking, *Mistress has been with that guy for too long; she's actually picking up his bad habits!*

Zu An continued deeper into the tunnel. Unlike the tunnel at the entrance of the underground palace, this one was clearly much more exquisite. Both the floor and the walls were meticulously carved from marble.

Stone statues of various animals stood along both sides of the tunnel. Zu An quickly surveyed them, recognizing leaping horses, crouching tigers, reclining elephants, wild boars, stone fish, bears, lions, xiezhi, camels, and qilin. Each type appeared in pairs, standing on opposite sides.

There were also some animals he didn't recognize, unsure if they were mythical beasts or unique to this world.

Every few meters along the walls, there was a small bronze palace maiden figure, entirely gilded, kneeling with a lamp in her hands. Her posture was serene and elegant, and her form strongly resembled the Changxin Palace Lanterns he had seen in museums.

After walking nearly a hundred meters, he finally stopped in a stone chamber. He noticed that the floor of the chamber had an extremely intricate array pattern, with the innermost patterns faintly forming the Chinese character for "person" (人).

This must be the Human Seal Mi Li had mentioned. Just as Zu An was about to trigger the seal as instructed, he suddenly felt a stir and turned his head to look at the slender, delicate young woman behind him.

"Oh, why are you here?" The young woman was, of course, Qiao Xueying.

Qiao Xueying replied, "It's no use me staying by Mistress's side. I can't undo the black restraints on her, nor can I protect her when that black-armored general returns. I might as well come see if I can help, especially since you're only a third-rank cultivator, and it doesn't look like you can successfully break the seal."

Zu An couldn't help but retort, "Hey, I mean, you're a pretty girl, but why do you have such a mouth? You always say such annoying things."

Qiao Xueying rolled her eyes. "Same to you."

Despite their bickering, Zu An knew that having an extra person would increase their chances of breaking the seal.

Qiao Xueying took out some healing medicine and vitality pills, consumed some, and then, after a moment's hesitation, offered a portion to Zu An. "Want some?"

Although he was annoying, they were fighting side by side now, so they should help each other.

Zu An shook his head. His current condition was perfect; if his injuries healed, the burst effect of the Phoenix Nirvana Sutra would be gone.

"Fine, don't take it then," Qiao Xueying pouted, assuming he was just being contrary and deciding not to bother with him anymore.

The two approached the edge of the array. Zu An extended his hand. "Give me your hand."

"Why?" Qiao Xueying wondered, but instinctively extended her hand.

The next second, her hand was clasped by his. Feeling his warm, firm grip, Qiao Xueying's eyebrows twitched, and just as she was about to lash out, she heard him say, "Mi Li just mentioned that triggering the seal might send us into a new space. Let's hold hands so we don't get teleported to different places."

He wasn't sure about the teleportation mechanism. Having played so many games in his previous life, he knew some teleports were random. If the new space was vast and they were sent to different locations, it would be troublesome.

"You're not doing this to take advantage of me, are you?" Qiao Xueying asked suspiciously, looking at their clasped hands. She wasn't used to such intimate contact with a man, especially not *this* guy.

"Me, take advantage of *you*?" Zu An scoffed. "My wife is the most beautiful woman in Brightmoon City. Why would I be interested in someone like you, with no chest, no butt, flat as a washboard?"

"Who are you calling a washboard!" Qiao Xueying gritted her teeth. She had actually started to have a slightly better impression of this guy, but now she realized he was still the same annoying person!

Rage points from Qiao Xueying +468!

She couldn't help but glance down at her chest. It wasn't big, but it wasn't too small, was it? And what about her butt? Was he blind?

Just as she was about to explode, Zu An pulled her onto the center of the array. A strange light flashed, blurring their vision, followed by a momentary sensation of weightlessness.

When they regained their senses, they found their surroundings bright, no longer the dim environment of the underground palace. They were outside a magnificent city, with towering city walls and palace gates before them. An ancient, desolate sense of majesty washed over them.

"Holy cow, how big is that!" Zu An couldn't help but exclaim.

Qiao Xueying's face flushed. She thought, *He really is a lecher, always staring at people's chests.*

*Huh, wait a minute, why would there be big-chested beauties inside this seal?*

She quickly looked up, but besides Zu An, there was no one else in sight, let alone a woman.

Noticing he was looking up at the sky, Qiao Xueying instinctively followed his gaze and was also stunned.

In front of the city gate sat twelve gleaming golden bronze figures. These figures were colossal; even seated, they were incredibly tall, and their feet were enormous. Their mere presence, just sitting there, exuded an inexplicable sense of intimidation.

Qiao Xueying unconsciously leaned closer to Zu An, feeling slightly reassured. "How do we break this seal?"

Zu An said in a deep voice, "Since it's called the Human Seal, it's most likely related to humans. But looking around, we don't see any people. Could it be that we need to enter the city to trigger it?"

Qiao Xueying nodded. "Let's go into the city and see."

The city before them looked incredibly magnificent; one could easily imagine how prosperous it must be inside.

However, when they reached the city gate, they found they couldn't open it.

Not to mention Qiao Xueying, even Zu An's current strength was immense. By all accounts, the city gate should have been pushed open long ago, but no matter how hard they tried, it wouldn't budge. There was also no response from inside when they knocked.

"I'll climb over the wall and see," Qiao Xueying said. She took a few steps back, then ran forward and leaped directly towards the city wall.

Although a fifth-rank cultivator couldn't fly, their jumping ability was comparable to the *qinggong* (lightness skill) described in wuxia novels. By rights, after such a long run-up, she should have been able to leap directly onto the wall.

To her surprise, when she landed, she was still halfway from the top of the wall.

She gritted her teeth, pressed her toes against the wall to gain leverage, and leaped upwards again. At the same time, a vine shot from her sleeve, aiming for the battlements.

To her astonishment, the wall suddenly grew taller in mid-air. She jumped and struggled for a while, yet she always remained halfway from the top of the wall.

Resigned, she jumped back to the ground. "This city wall is really strange."

Zu An had also witnessed the astonishing scene. He said in a low voice, "Why don't we try just ramming the gate open?"

With his and Qiao Xueying's combined strength, they could certainly generate enormous impact force, which was no less than an ancient battering ram.

"Get out of the way, I'll do it!" Having failed to climb the wall, Qiao Xueying was eager to regain her pride in front of Zu An. Her beautiful hair visibly grew longer in the wind, rapidly extending as she crashed it into the city gate.

Zu An had personally experienced the immense power of her "beautiful hair" before; the walls in the Chu family mansion had been like paper in front of it. He figured this city gate would probably also end up with several large holes.

Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned. When her long hair struck the city gate, it made a deafening thud, but the gate remained completely unmoved.

"Huh?" Qiao Xueying stood there, slightly disoriented.

She was about to try again, unwilling to believe it, when Zu An grabbed her. "Stop trying, look behind you."

Qiao Xueying froze, then turned her head and suddenly felt a chill run down her spine. The twelve bronze figures, which had been seated in two rows facing each other, had all uniformly turned their heads to stare at them.

Immediately afterward, these seated bronze figures stood up one by one, instantly towering over them. Then, they began to stride towards the two of them.

Feeling the ground tremble violently beneath their heavy footsteps, as if an earthquake were occurring, Zu An swallowed hard. "Damn it, are bronze figures considered 'people' too?!"

***

This will likely be the only chapter for today. I will make up the missing ones later. Please bear with me.