Zhuo Zhan took the lead, followed by Chi Duan, Duan Fei, Zhuang Zi, and Duan Yue in the middle.

Although the space in the secret passage is not too crowded, it is still very tiring to crawl in a crouching position. In addition, it is pitch dark inside the secret passage, and you don’t know where the road ahead will lead. The deeper you crawl inside, the more profound you feel.

Deep fear came over me.

After crawling for more than half an hour, Zhuo Zhan suddenly stopped crawling. Duan Fei also stopped immediately when he saw this. Zhuangzi, who had been crawling sluggishly, was caught off guard and bumped into Duan Fei's butt.

"Damn it, Duan Fei, you bastard! Why did you stop so suddenly?" Zhuangzi rubbed his sore nose and cursed.

Fortunately, Duan Yue reacted quickly, stopped crawling immediately, and quickly reached back to support Chi's back.

"It's not me, it's Zhuo Zhan!" Duan Fei turned around and shouted in a low voice towards Zhuangzi.

"Shh," Zhuo Zhan said in a low voice, "Keep your voice down, we seem to be here!"

Zhuo Zhan used his fingers to prop up the top of his head, like a wooden board, but it was nailed. He pushed it hard, but it still didn't move.

Zhuo Zhan turned around and whispered: "Duan Fei, the board seems to be nailed, can it be opened?"

Duan Fei responded softly, ducked sideways, and exchanged positions with Zhuo Zhan.

"Be quiet, I don't know if there is anyone over there." Zhuo Zhan ordered.

Duan Fei pulled out a hair that had grown very long from his head, bent the end into a semicircle, and used magic power to harden it, and the hair instantly turned into a small iron hook.

Duan Fei inserted the hardened hair hook into the edge of the board, carefully slid it along the edge, and when it reached the nail, he pried up the hard little hook and used the force to push up the nail.

Just like that, after a while, all the places where the nails were nailed were lifted up.

Duan Fei carefully pushed the board aside and stretched his head to take a look, only to see the boots of two people shaking in front of his eyes. Duan Fei arched up again, but almost hit his head, but fortunately the two people in the distance didn't notice.

He looked up and saw that above his head there seemed to be a row of giant bronze cauldrons used for sacrifices. The space under the row of giant cauldrons could just be used as their hiding place.

Duan Fei couldn't help but secretly sigh at the cleverness of the armored rat. It was really good to find this cave entrance.

Everyone crept out of the hole one after another, huddled under the cauldron, and eavesdropped on the conversation between the two men in black boots.

"Hey, do you have enough essence and blood for refining the Gu?" said a rich male voice.

"Almost, this doll is the last one." Another slightly weak voice said.

"Hurry up and seal this doll with wax later. If we can't make it in time for tomorrow's day festival, we will all lose our heads. Please help me be more agile."

"I understand, Master."

"Isn't the great witch Zhu coming back from his visit to the king?"

"No, I've been out for more than half an hour."

It can be heard from the conversation between the two that they should be witch servants working in the shrine. From the pants and boots exposed by the two, it can be judged that the two are not of high rank.

The candlelight in the room was not bright, and everyone had to put their heads to the ground and close their eyes to barely see the furnishings in the room.

Zhuo Zhan scanned the room intently.

This room is not big, more like a dark room. There are many things displayed in the room, including copper tripods and clay pots covering both walls.

The two witch servants had their backs to them, and they were busy in front of the huge stone case. However, they could clearly smell a strong smell of blood, and they must have been preparing animals for sacrifice.

Opposite the two witch servants was a row of thick iron frames with high ceilings reaching the shed, on which were placed rows of dolls in gorgeous costumes. Zhuo Zhan glanced back and forth and counted them. There were eleven in total. This should be the Jin Dynasty.

As I mentioned before, the prayer paper puppets that float down the river during the day festival are probably the same.

But what amazed Zhuo Zhan was that even though the lights were dim, he could still barely see what the doll looked like. The dolls were very delicately made, and each doll had a different appearance. Although the expressions were all dull,

Thick eyebrows and thin eyes, each has its own characteristics.

Taking a closer look, Zhuo Zhan found that the doll seemed to be too lifelike, even more lifelike than the wax figures he had seen in the wax museum over there in the present world.

This...this...Zhuo Zhan looked at it carefully and was suddenly shocked. This was not a paper doll at all, but a real human child! Zhuo Zhan couldn't help but take a breath of cold air, and the hairs all over his body stood on end.

.

Others seemed to have seen the clues.

Duan Yue pulled Duan Fei's sleeve in horror, while Duan Fei hugged Duan Yue tightly and comforted his sister. Chi suddenly buried his head into Zhuo Zhan's arm, and even the farthest Zhuangzi was

Breathing heavily.

Thinking of lightning, Zhuo Zhan suddenly panicked. Xiaodie was taken to the shrine early in the morning. She was also a child who wanted to pray for blessings at the day festival. Could it be...

Thinking of this, Zhuo Zhan ignored the fear in his heart and nervously looked at the faces of the rows of dolls, not daring to express his anger, and his heart was pounding as if it was about to jump out of his throat.

However, after looking carefully at each one, Zhuo Zhan did not find Xiaodie inside.

Just as they were anxious, the two witch servants suddenly stepped away and went to get something from the shelf on the side.

The moment the two people dodged, everyone clearly saw a small body lying on the stone table, with a piece of orange-pink clothes piled next to it.

The little body was lying flat, and although the face could not be seen clearly, everyone still saw the big orange-pink bow tied on her head.

"Ah" a sharp cry broke the terrifying silence.

Zhuo Zhan turned around in horror, it was Duan Yue.

Duan Yue couldn't restrain her emotions when she saw the bow tie, and cried out. But at this time, she was hugged tightly by Duan Fei, and her mouth was tightly covered by one of Duan Fei's hands.

Through the dim light coming from under the bronze cauldron, Zhuo Zhan saw the large teardrops falling continuously from Duan Yue's eyes. For a moment, his heart felt as if a flood had broken out, and he was heartbroken.

"Who is it?" The two witch servants were also frightened. They were so excited that they immediately picked up the weapons on the weapon racks and looked around alertly.

Zhuo Zhan's heart tightened and he touched the ice tungsten sword on his back with his hand, preparing to be discovered at any time.

Suddenly, a black shadow swooped out from Zhuo Zhan's side and headed straight for the two witch servants.

I saw the younger one among them, the witch servant, waving his spear and stabbing it in surprise. The spearhead suddenly penetrated the black shadow and lifted it straight up.

Only then did everyone see clearly that the person being picked up by the spear was a large armored rat. It was already dead and blood was flowing down the spear body.

Zhuo Zhan suddenly turned around and looked to his side. Hu Zi lay down next to him at some point. This armored rat was released by Hu Zi.

I think Hu Zi must have been worried and unwilling to guard the entrance of the cave, so he got in when Jin'er wasn't paying attention.

Although Huzi was just a child, he was much more determined than Duan Yue and did not scream.

I saw him staring hard at the body on the stone table, tears falling continuously, his teeth had bitten his lip, and blood flowed to his chin, and the back of his hand was dazzlingly black and red under the dim candlelight.

Zhuo Zhan's nose felt sour, he hugged Hu Zi and wiped away his tears and blood with his sleeves.

"Master, it's a rat!" the young witch servant said weakly.

"Throw it away quickly," the older witch servant let out a long breath and wiped the sweat on his forehead with his hand, "I was so scared to death by this damn rat, I thought it was an assassin."

"No, Master, our shrine is heavily guarded, and this secret room is even more impregnated with copper and iron walls. How could there be an assassin? There must have been a rat plague recently. I heard the sound of rats digging at the earth while I was working a few days ago.

"

"Rates should not be careless. After finishing the day festival, you must check the entire shrine. If there are any rat holes, you must block them before the Great Witch Zhu discovers them. Otherwise, don't talk about you and me.

We witch servants have to move their heads."

The older witch servant's eyes widened and he gestured to his neck with his hand, making a beheading gesture.

"I understand, Master." The young wizard servant responded in a low voice.

Zhuo Zhan was about to breathe a sigh of relief when he looked up and saw a pair of bright eyes staring directly at him from the shadows beside the iron frame.

Zhuo Zhan was suddenly startled and broke into a cold sweat. He looked closely and saw that there was an orc girl squatting in the shadow, with curly horns on both sides. She was an orc.

Her wrists, ankles, and neck were all chained, and she was staring at Zhuo Zhan with an evil smile.

Zhuo Zhan's heart sank, thinking that this was over, the armored rat's death was in vain, and it was still discovered by the beast slave. It seemed that a battle was unavoidable.

Zhuo Zhan was about to draw his sword, but he found that the beast slave girl had no intention of exposing them, and still looked at them quietly with her hands on her knees.

Zhuo Zhan felt very strange, but he slowly retracted his hand that was touching the sword and waited to see what happened.

"Let's go to the dungeon and bring up a bamboo pipe. The ones we used in the morning are all sealed by wax. There is a little girl here who needs a new one." The older witch servant greeted.

I saw the witch servant master and apprentice walking straight towards the only empty wall in the house.

The young witch servant leaned over and turned the nine-headed phoenix candlestick on one side three times, pulling out the middle phoenix head, and a two-foot-square stone brick was immediately pushed out of the smooth wall.

The elder witch servant placed his entire right hand on the stone brick. The stone brick seemed to become soft and swallowed the witch servant's hand in an instant.

After a while, the stone slabs on the left side of the stone bricks rumbled back, and a door appeared. Following the light, you can see that on the other side of the door is a row of stone steps going down.

Zhuo Zhan thought to himself that this should be the passage from the shrine to the dungeon. No wonder the new Grand Witch Zhu insisted on building the dungeon inside the palace city and above the shrine after he succeeded to the throne. It turned out to be for the convenience of entry and exit at any time.

"Go down."

The witch servants and apprentices held candles and walked down the stone steps, and the stone slabs rumbled shut within a few seconds of them going down.

"They left, come out." The human girl stuck her face out of the shadow and said quietly.

Zhuo Zhan and others rushed out immediately. They didn't pay attention to the girl who didn't know who was our enemy. Instead, they rushed to the stone case to check on Xiaodie lying there.

Chi grabbed Xiaodie's new clothes that were piled aside and quickly covered Xiaodie's naked body.

Duan Yue hugged Huzi, covering his nose and crying.

"How's it going?" Duan Fei asked eagerly to Zhuo Zhan, who was listening to Xiaodie's chest.

Zhuo Zhan stood up slowly, his eyes full of sadness: "There is no heartbeat, and my body is stiff."
To be continued...