Seeing the fear in Zhou Xuan's eyes, Wei Xiaoyu suddenly reached out and grabbed Zhou Xuan's hand tightly, saying, "No matter where we are, I'll be with you!"
Wei Xiaoyu's hands were warm; at least Zhou Xuan felt warmth at that moment. If it were any other time, or in the capital, and Wei Xiaoyu had said those words to him, he would have found it unbearable and might even have disliked her. But now, he genuinely felt that Wei Xiaoyu was a very lovely girl. Although he could not love her, he could not deny that Wei Xiaoyu was actually a kind girl.
"Zhou Xuan, can you tell me why we came here?" Wei Xiaoyu held Zhou Xuan's hand tightly, staring at him intently as she asked, "If you trust me, please tell me. From the moment we got off the plane, I felt you were acting strangely, and what happened tonight was even stranger. I won't blame you if you don't tell me, but I just want to tell you that since we're here, it's between the two of us. We should share everything. Don't keep everything bottled up inside, as if I'm just a supporting character here with you. I want you to know that I'm not just a pretty face!"
Volume 1, Chapter 340: Escape from Marriage
In fact, Zhou Xuan never regarded Wei Xiaoyu as just a pretty face!
However, after spending more time together and getting to know her better this time, Zhou Xuan realized that Wei Xiaoyu was not what he had seen before. What he had seen before was just a facade. Beneath Wei Xiaoyu's proud and beautiful exterior, she was actually just an ordinary and kind girl!
Zhou Xuan suddenly turned his head and leaned forward as if listening to something. Wei Xiaoyu was startled, thinking that Zhou Xuan had heard someone coming. She quickly leaned against the rock wall, but after listening quietly for a while, she heard nothing. She whispered, "What is it?"
Zhou Xuan shushed her, looked around, then pulled Wei Xiaoyu to a place with four walls and pushed her against the stone wall. Wei Xiaoyu was startled. Why was Zhou Xuan pushing her against this hard rock wall?
But just as she touched the rock wall, she instinctively pulled her body back forcefully, but at that very moment, Wei Xiaoyu's body sank into the rock wall without any resistance!
Zhou Xuan then squeezed in close to her. Wei Xiaoyu leaned in slightly. Although it was small, it wasn't uncomfortable. It was just a tiny bit bigger than a human body. It was just strange, though. She could see all the other holes in the area clearly. How come there was suddenly such a hole here?
Actually, it wasn't really a hole; it was just a small space, just big enough for her and Zhou Xuan to squeeze in. ()
As Wei Xiaoyu was thinking this, she suddenly heard voices, which sounded like two men.
"I don't know why the boss brought us here to do this and that. I don't think it's necessary. Why hide those antiques in this cave? Why not just transport them to the south?"
"Why are you so concerned about the boss's affairs? As long as he's paid, that's enough. We've both been paid well. Keep quiet, just do your job. Too much talk leads to mistakes, and loose lips sink ships!"
"Yes, yes, yes, I'm entirely counting on you for this."
The two men, one after the other, walked out in the direction they came from, talking and shining flashlights. When they passed the place where Wei Xiaoyu and Zhou Xuan were hiding, they didn't even glance to the side, completely ignoring the area around them. As they continued forward, even the sound of their footsteps gradually disappeared.
Only after the flashlight beams, footsteps, and voices had all disappeared did Zhou Xuan pull Wei Xiaoyu off the rock face.
As Wei Xiaoyu followed Zhou Xuan, she kept glancing back at the space where they had just hidden. She wondered if her observation skills had declined and she hadn't even noticed this.
Then she thought that she had undergone a lot of rigorous training, such as her hearing, which was much better than that of ordinary people. But she hadn't heard any noise just now, so how did Zhou Xuan hear the two people talking and making noise?
There's no reason for that. Wei Xiaoyu, always quick-witted, thought for a moment and then realized something. Was Zhou Xuan a hidden master? Had he been playing dumb all along? Otherwise, how could he have emerged unscathed from her first fierce attack, while exhausting her completely? That just didn't make sense!
Dan Ye overheard the two men who had just left talking, and she was almost certain that they were thieves who stole cultural relics, which also meant that they were antique dealers. However, this also meant that Zhou Xuan's arrival here was not just for fun, nor was it because he wanted to develop a relationship with her or spend time alone with her.
Thinking about all this, Wei Xiaoyu felt somewhat disappointed, but she also felt inexplicably mysterious about Zhou Xuan. This man, who was originally as pure and simple as a pool of clear water in her heart, suddenly became unfathomable!
Zhou Xuan didn't think that much about it. He didn't know what Wei Xiaoyu was thinking, nor did he have Ma Shu's ability to read minds. He just pulled Wei Xiaoyu deeper into the cave.
The small cave gradually widened as we walked further in, and after another hundred meters or so, we were surrounded by stalactites overhead, as if we had entered a bizarre and fantastical realm.
Zhou Xuan bent down and slowed his pace. Wei Xiaoyu also bent down. They could clearly hear voices ahead, and a large light was on.
The two bent down, and forty or fifty meters ahead, the Shangfeng men were burning a fire, drinking and talking. The firelight was bright, illuminating their faces clearly.
Wei Xiaoyu counted them; there were nine men in total, plus the two who had just left, making a total of eleven.
Zhou Xuan leaned close to Wei Xiaoyu's ear and whispered, "Be careful, they have guns!"
Wei Xiaoyu nodded. She understood the situation. Nine people with nine pistols. Since they had done this, it meant that these people were desperate criminals who would do anything for money. There was no room for complacency. Although she was quite skilled, she was so far away, and the people were in an open space like a square. Even if she suddenly rushed forward at high speed and attacked them fiercely, she would not be able to knock all nine of them down and render them unable to fight back in one carload!
As for whether it was necessary to take action against these people, Wei Xiaoyu didn't have an absolute reason. In short, her own safety was the most important thing. Taking action was acceptable if there was a possibility. Her purpose in coming with Zhou Xuan was only to clarify this case, but she couldn't ask them to arrest people.
Zhou Xuan was also very surprised. These people were within the range of his ice energy ability, but he could only detect them and had lost the ability to convert and devour them. He tried several times and it was the same!
This was the first time he had encountered such a situation since he acquired the ice energy ability. However, during the time in the sinkhole in America, when Zhou Xuan could not detect any information from the golden stone, he learned that his ice energy had no effect on things from the same place as the ice energy.
After probing the people in the cave for a while, Zhou Xuan finally discovered that they seemed to have a lingering scent of icy energy clinging to them!
I was stunned for a moment. Had these people been modified by that other person with ice-based superpowers? If so, then this would be troublesome!
This indicates that the person with the ice-energy ability lurking in the shadows had a purpose, but it's unclear whether he did it to deal with me or simply to make things easier for these people.
Of course, these people probably didn't know that the person had only used ice energy to stimulate and transform their bodies. They didn't have any special abilities, but Zhou Xuan had no way to use ice energy to transform and devour them, thus putting himself in an extremely dangerous situation.
The other side has nine people, plus the two who went out, making a total of eleven, with eleven pistols. Our side only has two people. If it were hand-to-hand combat, with Wei Xiaoyu there, we wouldn't suffer too much of a loss. But the problem is, his ice energy can't be used on these people—that's the biggest problem!
Wei Xiaoyu knew the situation was dangerous, but she didn't think as much as Zhou Xuan did, because she didn't know that Zhou Xuan had special abilities. Without gain, she wouldn't think about loss. She was only thinking about how to ensure her and Zhou Xuan's safety before dealing with the nine people.
However, she didn't follow the plan. Just as she and Zhou Xuan were keeping an eye on the people in front, the two people behind them came in. At this moment, she and Zhou Xuan were in an awkward position. In this huge space, the distance between them and the surrounding rock walls was thirty meters. It was impossible to run to the rock wall in one go. The two people who came back were more than forty meters away from Zhou Xuan. In addition, Zhou Xuan's attention was completely focused on the nine people in front. He was distracted and the distance was too great, so he didn't notice the people behind him coming in!
The two men clearly saw Zhou Xuan and Wei Xiaoyu crouching down in front of a stone pillar that stretched half a meter up from the ground, and immediately shouted, "Brother, there are two people here!"
The nine men there reacted as if their camp had been blown up, jumping up and pulling out their guns to surround them.
Zhou Xuan used his icy energy to deal with the two people behind him, but when the icy energy reached them, he discovered that both of them had functions modified by the icy energy, which he could not convert!
Eleven people surrounded the two of them, and one of them stared at them and shouted, "Say it, what do you want?"
Judging from the tone of his voice, it didn't seem like he knew their identities. Zhou Xuan felt a little more hopeful. However, since the ice energy couldn't work on these people, he was still just a cripple. And Wei Xiaoyu couldn't possibly fight eleven pistols with her bare hands!
The two men raised their hands, and a dozen men with guns escorted him to the fire.
When they reached the campfire, a dozen or so men sat in a semi-circle facing them. These eleven men ranged in age from over forty to twenty-seven or twenty-eight. Their eyes were fierce, clearly indicating that they were not ordinary people and were probably involved in a thousand murders and thefts.
Zhou Xuan had been secretly testing the waters with his ice energy, but he eventually realized that he couldn't transform any of the eleven people, so he had to think of another way.
Wei Xiaoyu bit her lip, secretly calculating in her mind that she couldn't possibly take away eleven pistols if a second person fired!
However, although none of these people were novices and it was clear that they had all done some ruthless things, their actions just now suggested that they did not have particularly strong fighting skills. This made Wei Xiaoyu feel a little more at ease.
The man in his forties brandished his pistol, glared at them sharply, and asked, "Tell me, who are you people?"