"Prey-identification mechanism?" Fei Yangnian looked thoroughly impressed, though he had no idea what it meant.

"That's right. This is what I just discovered. You know the two of us are both in here—so why do these tentacles only ever attack you, and never me?" Wei Zhao asked.

"Isn't it because they're reasonable and understanding…?" Fei Yangnian offered weakly.

Wei Zhao looked at him as though he were some rare and precious specimen.

"Uh…" Fei Yangnian broke out in a sweat and fell silent. Of course he hadn't believed such nonsense at first, but apart from that he truly could not think of any other explanation that made a shred of sense.

"There's really only one reason: you're covered in the juice unique to the twin-stemmed man-eating flower, and I'm not," Wei Zhao announced.

"The twin-stemmed man-eating flower's juice?" Fei Yangnian blanked for a moment, then it hit him—he really was sticky all over, and must have been from the very start. It was just that from the moment he was swallowed he had been in a peril more dire than any he had ever known, too busy worrying about his own life to spare a thought for such trifles.

"Exactly. That juice is how it identifies its prey. As long as you're smeared with it, you're its prey, and it will use every means at its disposal against you. But if you're not carrying any of it, then to the creature you're just a lump of air—it won't even notice you, just as it paid me no mind earlier," Wei Zhao explained.

He hadn't understood it at first either—not until he compared the difference between himself and Fei Yangnian and the truth suddenly dawned on him. In his own case, converting midway into the Primordial Spirit form had incidentally stripped away everything clinging to him. Fei Yangnian, of course, could never use that method, so the only option was to use the searing flames of the Frenzied Fire Fist to bake it dry by force.

Fei Yangnian chewed on this for a good long while before he finally understood. He glanced down at his own scorched, bedraggled state and shook his head with a bitter smile. "Then you didn't have to go about it that way, did you? You nearly scared me to death…"

That was the honest truth. Even if it hadn't frightened him to death, it had frightened him to the point of wetting himself—only for the Frenzied Fire Fist to bake that dry as well.

"Heh. How else was I supposed to get you out of danger as fast as possible?" Wei Zhao smiled.

"Uh, I suppose so. Thank you for saving my life, Senior Lin," Fei Yangnian said hastily, gratitude thick in his voice. Bedraggled he might be, but it beat losing his life by a wide margin.

"Think nothing of it—it was no trouble at all," Wei Zhao said with a dismissive wave. In any case, Fei Yangnian had done a few things for him back then; if not merit, there was at least effort. Given the circumstances, it would have been unjustifiable not to lend a hand.

It took Fei Yangnian quite a while to recover. He had not been lightly injured to begin with, and now he had been forced to take a Frenzied Fire Fist head-on. Even if it hadn't been at full power, it had charred a layer off his skin—that was no easy suffering to endure.

"Senior Lin, how do we get out of here?" Fei Yangnian asked, eyes wide and pleading.

Although the twin-stemmed man-eating flower no longer treated him as prey, and the green tentacles around them were no longer so menacing, being trapped in this place was no solution; sooner or later they would have to find a way out.

"Getting out is easy enough for me. It's you who'll be a bit of a problem," Wei Zhao said, looking him over. For his own part, Wei Zhao need only transform into the Primordial Spirit form to pass through unimpeded—he could leave whenever he wished. But now that Fei Yangnian was here, that wouldn't do; surely he couldn't just abandon the man.

"A problem? Senior, whatever you need, just say the word—I swear I won't so much as frown, even if it means climbing a mountain of blades or wading through a sea of boiling oil!" Fei Yangnian said, hastily thumping his chest, terrified that Wei Zhao might leave this dead weight behind.

"There's nothing to order you about. All right, get yourself into a corner so I don't hurt you by accident." As he spoke, a bomb of true qi and dan fire suddenly materialized in Wei Zhao's hand. Once Fei Yangnian had scrambled and rolled his way into the farthest corner, Wei Zhao pressed it straight down against the ground beneath his feet. It seemed to him that since this tree hollow was part of the twin-stemmed man-eating flower, even if the blast couldn't blow a gap open outright, there would surely be some other follow-up method to find.

Boom! This time the true qi dan fire bomb had not been detonated at full power, but it was still more than enough to destroy a space this small. The result caught Wei Zhao off guard: the tree hollow was indeed destroyed, but no exit appeared as expected. All was pitch-black in every direction, save for a fathomless opening in the ground below.

"Senior Lin, where is this?" Fei Yangnian asked at once.

"I don't know either," Wei Zhao said, shaking his head. He had already swept the area for several li around with his divine sense. The only thing he found was this: they were underground—and very deep underground at that.

If even Wei Zhao couldn't tell what this place was, Fei Yangnian was even more completely in the dark. He could only keep asking, eyes wide with anxiety: "Then what do we do?"

"Two options. The cautious one is to dig our way upward as we climb—sooner or later we'll reach the surface," Wei Zhao said offhandedly. It was a thoroughly foolish method, but it couldn't go far wrong; at worst it would cost them more time and effort.

"And the less cautious one?" Fei Yangnian asked.

"See that opening down there? We go down and take a look," Wei Zhao said.

"Let's not, if it's all the same. That opening gives me the creeps. Senior Lin, why don't we just dig our way up and out?" Fei Yangnian suggested.

"I'm rather curious about this deep hole, actually. Since you want to dig your way out, then let's part ways here." With that, Wei Zhao made as if to leap into the opening. Though the pressing matter at hand was to regroup with Leng Leng and the others, Wei Zhao couldn't shake the feeling that some strange, inscrutable aura emanated from below—and he would never feel at ease without finding out what it was.

"No, no, no—I'll come too! Wherever you go, Senior, I go!" Fei Yangnian said hastily. He wouldn't dare act on his own now for all the world. Having finally stumbled upon such a stout leg to cling to as Wei Zhao, he'd have to be a fool not to hold on for dear life.

"There may be some colossal danger lurking down there. Just make sure you've thought it through," Wei Zhao said with a noncommittal laugh. He wasted no more words, and leaped straight into the opening.

Fei Yangnian hesitated and agonized for a moment, then gritted his teeth and jumped down after him. "To hell with it—if I die, I die!"

The two of them plummeted through the darkness, one above the other. Fortunately the shaft was not wide; a slight stretch of hand or foot was enough to touch the walls, letting them control their rate of descent so they wouldn't hit the bottom too fast and too hard.

After some time, Wei Zhao suddenly called out a warning: "Looks like we're near the bottom. Be careful."

The words had barely left his mouth when Wei Zhao felt the view before him suddenly open wide. Not only did the space become immeasurably vast, but strangest of all, there was light this deep underground—below them stretched a lush, verdant expanse with a hundred flowers blooming in rival splendor. It was, by all appearances, a mysterious subterranean garden. (To be continued.)