Chapter 227

They stayed in the secret room for a while longer, making sure there was no movement outside before they both walked out and returned to their lodging. However, no sooner had their front feet entered the room than chaos erupted outside.

The clamor made both Su Bei and Wu Jin wary, and they simultaneously recalled what had happened that afternoon. It had been the same kind of chaotic footsteps then, followed by the bad news that they had become suspects.

But at that time, they were completely unprepared, and this time was different. The two exchanged glances, tacitly and decisively choosing to hide.

Although they weren’t sure what had happened, it was always good to hide first. Even if Clan Leader He came, he couldn’t be certain they were definitely in their room right now. If it was good news or something they needed to come out for, they could just emerge. If it was bad, hiding for a while would give them some reaction time.

Both chose to hide in a recess in the ceiling. It was originally just a room design, but it was perfect for concealing people. Not only was it easy to hide, but the view was also good, allowing them to clearly observe the situation below. Moreover, it was a common adage that when searching for someone, people rarely looked up, making it difficult for anyone to notice something above their heads.

The people now were not those they were familiar with, but a group of unfamiliar underground humans. The middle-aged man leading them looked furious: “Search! See if they’re hiding here!”

A group of people began rummaging through everything, and soon, finding nothing, they regrouped at the entrance. A middle-aged woman shook her head: “Nothing found. They shouldn’t be here.”

“These outsiders are good at hiding,” someone beside them cursed furiously. “A bunch of murderers killing on our territory and still trying to escape, dreaming! I’ll dig three feet deep, but I’ll find them!”

A girl in the group hesitantly said, “Actually, we don’t have evidence that they’re the ones who killed them, do we? I heard some of them have been with Clan Leader He all along and had no opportunity to kill anyone.”

The leading middle-aged man sneered, “Heh, woman’s benevolence! Outsiders are all birds of a feather. Can you be sure they aren’t covering for each other? Besides, if they really had no issues, why would they flee when we held them accountable? Isn’t that clearly a guilty conscience?!”

That’s only because you wanted to apprehend them without questioning at the time. If it were her, she’d flee too. The girl grumbled internally, but ultimately said nothing more. She wouldn’t say something like “everyone else is drunk, only I am sober” at a time like this; getting ostracized by her tribe for a group of strangers wasn’t worth it.

After they left, Su Bei and Wu Jin jumped down from the ceiling. From the few words they’d overheard, they now understood the situation.

In short, someone had leaked the news about the six people killed being attributed to the outsiders, and most likely a few others fanned the flames, ultimately leading to the outrage of the underground humans.

The clan leader probably failed to appease these people. Jiang Tianming and the others, finding the situation uncontrollable, immediately fled. Now, it had entered a full-scale hide-and-seek phase.

Thinking of this, Su Bei couldn’t help but marvel at how well the author of King of Abilities buried plot threads in unexpected places. Who would have thought that the hide-and-seek mode in the Exhibition Match was also a foreshadowing?

The author didn’t set up the hide-and-seek mode in the Exhibition Match just to pad out the daily routine; it was to let them master hide-and-seek methods in advance, so they could put them to great use at a crucial moment!

When you think about it that way, it’s really considerate!

Su Bei silently rolled his eyes, then looked at Wu Jin, who seemed somewhat bewildered: “What do you plan to do next?”

“Follow you?” Wu Jin replied tentatively, mainly because he was a little afraid Su Bei might want to go solo.

Fortunately, Su Bei wasn’t against having teammates for now. He nodded and stated his plan: “Then let’s go find the others first and tell them how to leave.”

This was the most useful information they had gained from their trip to the basement. As long as they told this to the others, they could essentially ensure they’d be able to leave tomorrow noon.

During such a tense hide-and-seek moment, no one would likely have time to eat, so the two weren’t in a hurry to find them. They avoided the heavily patrolling and searching underground humans while checking places they hadn’t been.

There were a total of six tribes in the underground world. The Mud Tribe probably wasn’t hiding anyone, so Jiang Tianming and the others could only be hiding in the remaining five tribes. Among these five tribes, Su Bei thought for a moment and finally decided to head to the Water-Affinity Tribe’s territory.

Even if they hadn’t been to the other tribes, they had encountered related people or events. Only the Water-Affinity Tribe and one other hadn’t appeared yet. It was about time for them to make an appearance.

The Water-Affinity Tribe’s hall looked like a water curtain cave. The outermost circle was a flowing stream, water curtains fell from the walls, and wind chimes hung by the entrance, making it look very beautiful. It could be said to be the most beautiful of the six tribes.

Entering the tribe hall uninvited, as humans, would definitely attract a lot of attention. So, as soon as Su Bei and Wu Jin arrived, they hid behind the water curtain, enduring getting soaked, and slowly moved inside.

Wu Jin, his face full of confusion, relied on the sound of the water to cover his voice and quietly asked, “Do we really have to come here to look for them?”

“I guess they’re here,” Su Bei said just as softly, then conjured an ordinary gear and threw it towards the center of the hall. This was one of only two abilities he could use right now; the other was the ability to see the Destiny Compass.

However, this gear-conjuring skill could only create the most ordinary gears, and not many of them. This was the inhibitory effect the underground space had on abilities.

Most people wouldn’t notice such a small gear, and even if they did, they probably wouldn’t think anything of it. But Jiang Tianming and the others couldn’t miss it. They would definitely infer his arrival from this gear and transmit useful information back to him.

Sure enough, not long after, the gear suddenly moved on its own. Without a doubt, Jiang Tianming was here; only his ability among them could cause this effect.

Following the direction the gear moved, Su Bei looked towards a small room. He and Wu Jin slowly moved to the room’s entrance, and the door “sensibly” opened a small crack on its own.

Taking advantage of no one noticing, the two slipped inside, where they saw Jiang Tianming, Wu Mingbai, Zu Zong, and Huangfu Mingzhe.

“You guys actually gathered together,” Su Bei raised an eyebrow. “What’s the situation now?”

This place must be quite safe. Jiang Tianming led Su Bei and Wu Jin to sit down, then began to tell them the story.

After the two of them left, everyone first went to the Spirit-Communicator Tribe to talk with their clan leader. The Spirit-Communicator Tribe clan leader didn’t conceal anything, telling everyone about the Black Flash Organization’s attempt to recruit him.

He spoke frankly enough, and being an old acquaintance, Clan Leader He immediately dispelled most of his suspicions, preparing to discuss the current incident with him to see if he had a way to catch the missing outsiders.

However, at that moment, Wu Mingbai suddenly noticed that there seemed to be a problem with the surrounding underground humans. Just as Su Bei could see the Destiny Compass, Wu Mingbai, even with his abilities weakened, could easily sense Earth Element.

Originally, because underground humans lived underground, the Earth Element in their bodies was particularly rich. But now he found that the concentration of Earth Element in several surrounding underground humans was slowly decreasing. Although he didn’t know what was happening, this was undoubtedly a bad sign.

The Spirit-Communicator Tribe clan leader, also an underground human, had no such problem. Only the people in their group did. Wu Mingbai explained the situation, and after a discussion, everyone quickly realized that there might still be something harmful left by Cyril on the dead bodies, which had infected the underground humans who had been in prolonged contact with the corpses, like a virus.

No sooner had they arrived at this conjecture than they heard someone maliciously spreading rumors outside, claiming the outsiders were the killers. Then a group of underground humans, ignoring all explanations, rushed over, intending to apprehend them.

So, they played along, spreading out to divert the attention of those behind the scenes, while secretly investigating the issue with the corpses. At the same time, Clan Leader He and other informed individuals helped block the pursuers, preventing them from finding the group. They also found several safe houses for Jiang Tianming and the others; this was one of them.

“Wait, I remember we only left a short while ago, right?” Su Bei was greatly astonished. In less than two hours, how had they managed to stir up so much trouble? Conspiracies, escapes, investigations—as expected of the protagonist’s group, their trouble-making ability was beyond his reach.

Jiang Tianming shrugged helplessly and continued with what happened next: “Then, while escaping to the Gecko Tribe, we happened to run into those two. Zu… Classmate and Huangfu Classmate had indeed hidden inside the [Arena Ability]. At that time, they overheard Cyril and Li Xiang’s conspiracy and hid to prevent them from silencing them.”

“What conspiracy?” Su Bei asked, giving face, though he had already more or less guessed it.

Jiang Tianming’s words were similar to what he had thought: “It’s about using certain cells emitted from the corpses to control underground humans, then taking them to the surface to join the Black Flash Organization.”

As expected, Su Bei nodded calmly. “So, what do you plan to do?”

“Of course, we’re going to expose their conspiracy,” Huangfu Mingzhe said without hesitation. “Since the Black Flash Organization wants them to join, I must stop them.”

This wasn’t about temporary bravado. It was because if the Black Flash Organization truly obtained what they desired, it could have severe negative consequences for others. Giving an ordinary person a knife and giving a heinous criminal a knife would yield entirely different results, but this “knife” must never fall into the hands of the Black Flash Organization.

Jiang Tianming nodded in agreement, then turned to Su Bei and Wu Jin: “What about you two? Have you discovered anything during this time?”

“We found a way to leave,” Su Bei replied with a smile.

At these words, the four immediately widened their eyes in surprise. Although Jiang Tianming had guessed that Su Bei’s departure earlier was for some crucial matter, he hadn’t expected the other party to bring such a big surprise.

Zu Zong asked excitedly, “You found a way to leave? That’s great! Then Bowen and the others can be saved!”

After speaking, he suddenly remembered something and asked nervously, “So how do we leave? Can we leave now? If there’s no problem, let’s send the two unconscious people out first.”

“We can only leave tomorrow noon,” Su Bei briefly explained the method of departure, then righteously declared, “At that time, I will be responsible for safely escorting them out. You all can rest assured here and deal with the conspiracy.”

Everyone: “…”

Judging by his self-sacrificing expression and firm tone alone, an uninformed person might think he was staying behind to face danger himself.

“But you can’t fly. How will you take them up?” Jiang Tianming calmly raised the issue.

At these words, Su Bei was also forced to calm down. With his physical strength, he could carry two people, but climbing such a high place was a bit too much for him. More importantly, it wasn’t necessary, as there were people in their team who could fly.

“Let Si Zhaohua go when we find him,” Wu Mingbai offered the only solution. In their team, only Si Zhaohua could still fly in such a situation. While Huangfu Mingzhe could fly, that was one of his ability’s skills, not an innate personal ability.

Only Si Zhaohua’s flying ability, Su Bei’s ability to see the Destiny Compass, and Huangfu Mingzhe’s extremely robust physical qualities—these were innate abilities.

“Let’s stick to our current team assignments and cooperate,” Jiang Tianming said, pulling out a piece of paper with the locations of the safe houses provided by Clan Leader He. “You guys go search these locations one by one. Although they might not be in the safe houses, the transfer points must be in these rooms. Waiting there will likely lead to finding them.”

Su Bei nodded. Although finding people was also troublesome, compared to tasks like exposing conspiracies, this was certainly easier.

“Hey, you two, wipe yourselves with these later,” seeing them about to leave, Huangfu Mingzhe tossed two handkerchiefs, which looked to be of good quality, to Su Bei.

Having just passed through the water curtain, Su Bei and Wu Jin were soaked and indeed needed a towel or handkerchief to dry off. Unexpectedly, this guy was quite thoughtful, and even carried two handkerchiefs with him.

It was important to remember that ability items, including storage rings, couldn’t be used in the underground world. This meant Huangfu Mingzhe carried his handkerchiefs with him, and not just one, but two.

Not only him, but everyone else was also quite surprised. How to put it—it was like “a fierce heart, yet delicately sniffing roses.”

Noticing the surprise in their eyes, Huangfu Mingzhe snorted coldly and said arrogantly, “Put away your undignified expressions. A perfect person must always be perfect.”

“Doesn’t he feel awkward saying that about himself?” Su Bei deliberately whispered to Wu Jin beside him.

Wu Jin: “…”

The “perfect” Huangfu Mingzhe, exasperated: “Hey! I can hear you!”

The group split up, with Su Bei and Wu Jin heading straight for the Gecko Tribe, the closest to the Water-Affinity Tribe. Knowing that neither the Mud Tribe nor the Water-Affinity Tribe could be Si Zhaohua’s hiding place, only four safe houses in four tribes remained.

The most difficult part of this journey was undoubtedly evading the underground humans’ searches. Fortunately, because they didn’t know Su Bei and Wu Jin were on the move, assuming they were hiding in a fixed location, the searchers didn’t spend too much time on the roads. Instead, they focused more on searching rooms and water tanks, which made it easier for Su Bei and Wu Jin to move between locations.

It was also fortunate that Wu Jin’s low presence ability still worked here; otherwise, they might not have been able to successfully evade so many underground human searches.

Upon learning that his low presence ability still worked in this situation, Su Bei specifically asked why. It turned out it wasn’t an ability granted by his power at all, but Wu Jin’s own innate skill. Or rather, it was a developed ability from his long-term deliberate effort to reduce his own presence.

Su Bei’s conclusion for this was—a manga setting.

Just like Lan Subing’s good luck, these were all settings arranged by the author.

Knowing that their luck wasn’t great right now, Su Bei had no intention of searching diligently. He would hastily glance through each safe house, confirm it was empty, and then move directly to the next.

After searching all the safe houses and finding no one, Wu Jin finally couldn’t help but ask, “Shouldn’t we wait in a safe house? We might miss them by searching like this.”

“It’s fine, even waiting would be a miss,” Su Bei replied calmly, then thought for a moment, “Let’s go find Qiao Mu and the others.”

They might not find the others anywhere else, but they definitely could here. And if nothing unexpected happened, unless the author really wanted to kill these two, there shouldn’t be any more plot points for them until they were brought to the surface. Waiting in the Flora Tribe’s medical room would allow them to slack off to the maximum extent.

However, the underground humans weren’t fools. When they arrived near the room where Qiao Mu and Li Bowen were being kept in the Flora Tribe, Su Bei’s mental energy acutely detected several underground humans lurking in the shadows.

Clearly, they had long anticipated that Su Bei and the others wouldn’t abandon their companions and would definitely look for an opportunity to rescue them, so they specifically sent people to stake out the area.

Their idea was good, but they overlooked the practical situation, or perhaps underestimated the outsiders too much. Su Bei, standing in the shadows, precisely pointed out the hiding places of those underground humans to Wu Jin. Wu Jin entered from the outside, exposing himself to these people, and then quickly left.

A successful “lure the tiger away from its mountain” tactic created a safe passage for Su Bei, who took the opportunity to enter the medical room containing only the two unconscious individuals. Soon after, Wu Jin also shook off his pursuers using his low presence ability and came inside.

“What do we do next?” Wu Jin had great trust in Su Bei, believing that following him would surely not lead to mistakes. After all, the two of them were tied together now; Su Bei might trick him, but he couldn’t possibly trick himself, right?

“Let’s wait here. If Jiang Tianming and Si Zhaohua meet, he should tell Si Zhaohua to come here,” Su Bei replied while observing Qiao Mu and Li Bowen’s condition.

Their current state was very poor. Exposed skin showed scattered, dark scars, like overly ripe bananas, and their foreheads were covered in cold sweat. Despite being unconscious, their brows were tightly furrowed, indicating they were enduring immense pain.

Wu Jin understood what Su Bei meant. If Si Zhaohua and Jiang Tianming met, Jiang Tianming would definitely share their previous intelligence with Si Zhaohua, and then Si Zhaohua would surely come here.

But the question was, what was their role? Just waiting here? Wu Jin blinked, his meager conscience prompting him to ask, “Aren’t we slacking off? Isn’t this bad?”

Su Bei countered earnestly, “Slacking off? We are protecting Qiao Mu and their safety. Look at the ambushes the underground humans arranged just now; they clearly know we won’t abandon Qiao Mu and Li Bowen. Right now, they’re just ambushing around, but if it truly comes to a critical moment, do you believe they’ll definitely hold these two hostage to threaten everyone?”

That made sense. Wu Jin knew that what Su Bei said was genuinely possible. Seeing him nod, Su Bei continued contentedly, “Exactly, so by being here, we can effectively prevent such situations from happening. How can that be called slacking off? That’s called planning ahead.”

After this explanation, even though Wu Jin clearly knew Su Bei was absolutely just trying to slack off by staying there, he couldn’t find a way to refute him. Because Su Bei’s reasoning was correct, even if it was reasoning derived from the desired outcome.

They were enjoying a peaceful time here, while outside the plot was unfolding vigorously. It wasn’t until evening, when Su Bei was wondering where they should sleep, that Si Zhaohua and Wu Mingbai finally arrived.

As Su Bei had guessed, Si Zhaohua had indeed met Jiang Tianming and learned about the way to leave from him, coming to the medical room to find Qiao Mu and Li Bowen and take them out.

Because a significant tremor was required to open the true exit, Wu Mingbai, who possessed the Earth Element ability, also had to come.

Even though his ability was greatly weakened, the environment here was underground. For elemental ability users, the environment was crucial to their ability strength. And this underground environment undoubtedly greatly enhanced Wu Mingbai’s ability.

It could be said that among everyone, his ability suffered the least reduction, and could even be used in combat. Their ability to repeatedly evade the underground humans’ searches was also thanks to Wu Mingbai’s ability.

“Actually, I’m not entirely sure if I can create an earthquake strong enough to open the entrance,” Wu Mingbai pursed his lips, honestly expressing his concern. With his ability greatly weakened, even in his advantageous territory, he wasn’t completely confident he could perform perfectly.

Such worries were not unfounded. If he failed, and they had no way to verify, then Si Zhaohua would suffer harm from the spatial turbulence, just like Qiao Mu and Li Bowen.

Su Bei had indeed considered this issue. Since there was still plenty of time, it wouldn’t be difficult to solve: “The underground people aren’t without abilities. You’re not the only one here who can cause an earthquake.”

“You mean… the Mud Tribe?” Wu Mingbai instantly understood his meaning. “But will Clan Leader He help us?”

“The current situation doesn’t allow him not to help,” Su Bei said meaningfully. “If not, you can ask the Spirit-Communicator Tribe clan leader to persuade him.”

The Spirit-Communicator Tribe clan leader saw things much clearer than the Mud Tribe clan leader in this matter, so having him persuade would surely work. Their departure was now an unstoppable reality. The underground humans, to resolve the prophecy, could only choose to rely on the Black Flash Organization or the government.

And the former had already started playing dirty tricks, even killing many of their people. Unless Clan Leader He wanted to compromise with the Black Flash Organization, he would definitely agree to help Wu Mingbai.