"I believe this is related to Miss Mo's desperate search for medical treatment. In order to find a way to cure your mother's illness, Miss Mo, you have come into contact with people from all walks of life. Among them, there must be someone connected to them. By making some inquiries, they naturally found out about your family, Miss Mo. Knowing that you were eager to save your mother, it became easy to set a trap. The next step was to find an opportunity to inform you about the Dragon Crystal Liquid. With your desperate desire to save your mother, upon hearing this news, you would undoubtedly treat it as a lifeline and seek information from various sources, unknowingly falling into their carefully planned trap. Li Long, am I correct in what I'm saying?"
"Hmph!" Li Long snorted, turned his head away, and ignored Qin Yu's words.
"Miss Mo, please think carefully. When did Li Long become your family's exclusive bodyguard, and when did you learn about the Dragon Crystal Liquid?"
Mo Yongxin raised her almond-shaped eyes and pondered for a moment. "Li Long became our exclusive bodyguard six months ago, and I learned about the Dragon Crystal Liquid five months ago."
"Right, their first step was to have someone infiltrate your side. Only after completing this step would they proceed to the next action: informing you about the Dragon Crystal Liquid."
"After you heard about the Dragon Crystal Liquid, the next step was to search for information about it. Do you remember the notebook of the old Feng Shui master?"
"Yes, I do. What's wrong? Is there something incorrect?" Mo Yongxin widened her eyes. The notebook was clearly from the Republican era and couldn't be faked.
"The notebook of the old Feng Shui master is genuine, but the notebook of his eldest son may not be." Qin Yu spoke, and a mysterious light flickered in his eyes. He paused for a moment and continued, "Many parts of the eldest son's notebook have been torn out. At first, I thought it was to prevent anyone from finding the cave mentioned in the diary. But the more I thought about it, the more it felt suspicious. If the intention was to prevent people from finding the cave, why not simply tear out all the records about the cave? Instead, it seems to be intentionally leaving some clues."
"The only possibility is that the contents torn out of the notebook were not written by the eldest son himself but by someone else with ulterior motives. This person wanted the people reading the diary to find the cave but didn't want too much information about the cave to be exposed. Perhaps the eldest son's notebook contained some records about the things inside the cave, and in order to keep it secret, he had no choice but to tear out those entries. Am I right, Li Long?"
"You... You..." Li Long stared at Qin Yu with a horrified and incredulous look. His face was filled with disbelief. This person's intelligence was truly terrifying. In fact, there was no difference between what he said and the truth. If it weren't for the fact that Qin Yu couldn't have been present at that time and none of the organization's members would betray them, Li Long would have suspected that Qin Yu had planted a mole within their organization.
"Li Long, you cunning snake! Quickly tell me who your accomplices are." The illness of her mother was like a thorn in Mo Yongxin's heart. Li Long's organization had used this matter to set a trap, something she couldn't forgive. Her beautiful face had turned completely cold.
"Qin Yu, these are just your speculations. Don't expect to get any information out of me."
"Hahaha!" Qin Yu burst into laughter, casting a disdainful glance at Li Long. He said, "I don't need your information. Once I meet He Ping, I'll know the whole truth."
While Qin Yu's expression seemed indifferent, the corner of his eye closely observed the drastic change in Li Long's facial expression when he mentioned He Ping's name. It was only a momentary glimpse, but it was enough for him.
"These red creatures must be extremely important to you, and it seems they can't survive without the Dragon Crystal Liquid. If I were to shatter the jade disc in your hands, would your plans completely fail?"
"How dare you!" Li Long glared at him with anger in his eyes, then lowered his voice and turned to Mo Yongxin, saying, "Miss Mo, it was indeed wrong for us to involve you, but if you allow me to take this jade disc away, the organization will surely reward you in the future."
"Hmph! If you want me to let you go, first tell me why you approached me and lured me into your prepared trap," Mo Yongxin asked.
"Well..." Li Long's face changed unpredictably. After a long while, he let out a sigh and said, "Mr. Qin is right. We have invested a lot of effort and even sacrificed many comrades' lives trying to break this Nine Stars and Three Combinations Formation. Unfortunately, we couldn't succeed. So we had no choice but to target Miss Mo. If Miss Mo had discovered this altar, she would have found a way to reach it. With the influence of the Mo family, it would have been easier to seek the help of true Feng Shui masters than for our organization. We simply wanted to leverage the power of the Mo family. There is no deep enmity between us and Miss Mo."
"No enmity? You set a trap to lure me in. Isn't that enmity? And what exactly are these red creatures that you value so much?" Mo Yongxin, a clever woman, immediately understood when Qin Yu gave her a certain look and continued questioning Li Long.
"Miss Mo, I don't know what these red creatures are exactly," Li Long sighed. "All I know is that they are highly valued by the high-ranking members of the organization. Please don't make things difficult for me. Your goal is to find the Dragon Crystal Liquid, and mine is these red creatures. However, if the Dragon Crystal Liquid is contaminated, its effectiveness diminishes. The Dragon Crystal Liquid in this disc is already useless. It's better to let me leave."
After saying this, Li Long struggled to stand up, but both his knees had been completely penetrated. As he made the movement, his entire body convulsed, and the pain twisted his face, causing large beads of sweat to continuously drip down.
"Qin Yu!" Mo Yongxin's face showed a compassionate expression as she turned to Qin Yu for guidance.
"I can let you go, but you can't take this disc with the red creatures!" Even if Li Long walked away, his knees being completely shattered would leave him disabled for life. However, Qin Yu couldn't let him take away these red creatures. Considering the organization's questionable practices, if these red creatures had any special significance, it would only bolster the organization's power, and Qin Yu didn't want to become an accomplice.
"Qin Yu, you're just someone Miss Mo hired. You have no authority to make decisions on her behalf!" Li Long roared at Qin Yu. If he couldn't bring back these crimson creatures, given the organization's style, he would be worthless and surely face a grim fate.
"What Qin Yu said is what I want to say. Considering our previous association, I can let you go, but you can't take this jade disc with you!"
Mo Yongxin's words shattered Li Long's hopes completely. If he couldn't take this disc back, he would be condemned by the organization upon his return. Right now, he stared at Qin Yu and Mo Yongxin, his eyes filled with resentment.
"If you won't let me take this disc, then you shall die with me!" Li Long suddenly burst into maniacal laughter, raising the jade disc in his hand and ruthlessly smashing it against one of the stone pillars inside.
"Crack!" Li Long's action caught Qin Yu off guard. He couldn't stop it in time and could only watch as the jade disc shattered against the eighth pillar, littering the ground with debris.
"You madman!" At this moment, Qin Yu no longer cared about Li Long's sinister laughter on the ground. He grabbed Mo Yongxin and tried to flee outside the Nine Stars and Three Combinations Formation. Li Long's action triggered the internal operation of the formation, causing it to transform endlessly. Once it fully activated, they would be trapped and unable to escape.
"It's too late. You can't run away," Li Long lay on the ground, watching the two running ahead. A cruel smile appeared on his face. Once the Nine Stars and Three Combinations Formation was fully activated, there would be no way out. However, his smile froze shortly after, as a stone slab beneath him suddenly split open. A sharp blade emerged from the stone, piercing through his entire body, leaving him riddled with holes and covered in blood.
Li Long died just like that. However, even in his final moments, his gaze remained fixed on Qin Yu and Mo Yongxin, seemingly wanting to witness their fate.
"Be careful!" Qin Yu suddenly pulled Mo Yongxin into his embrace as a sharp spike protruded from the floor where she had just run. If she had continued running, she would have been impaled and split in half.
Mo Yongxin's face turned pale, startled by the sudden appearance of the spike. She hadn't even noticed that her alluring figure was pressed against Qin Yu's body.
Not only Mo Yongxin, but Qin Yu also hadn't noticed. He felt the stones beneath his feet shifting, so he quickly held onto Mo Yongxin and rolled in another direction.
They rolled several times before finally coming to a stop. The spot where they had previously stood, just like Li Long's fate, had a stone slab with sharp blades protruding from it.
"This won't work. We can't go outwards anymore. Let's move towards the area of the Three Combinations Formation inside," Qin Yu assessed the surroundings and realized that within the entire formation, only the Nine Stars Formation had traps and various hidden dangers, while the area of the Three Combinations Formation remained calm.
However, Qin Yu failed to notice that on the three pillars inside, small openings had appeared, emitting faint red gas.
"Qin Yu, be careful!"
A sound of breaking through the air rang out, and several crossbow arrows were shot towards Qin Yu's chest. As Qin Yu heard Mo Yongxin's warning, he also heard the sound of projectiles. He immediately fell to the ground with all fours, avoiding the arrows.
"Damn it, they're coming again." Just as Qin Yu's body hit the ground, another spike emerged from beneath the earth. Helpless, he quickly contracted his abdomen and twisted his waist to the left, forming an arch shape, narrowly evading the spike.
"Quick, let's move inward," Qin Yu stood up, wiping the cold sweat from his forehead. In just a short moment, he had already experienced a close encounter with death. Seeing the chilling glimmer on the tip of the spikes, if one were to be impaled, it would pierce through the abdomen, resulting in an ice-cold feeling straight through the heart.