Chapter 90 Fire Spirit Suddenly Appears (5)

  By the evening of June 11th, Huo Xiaoyao was dazed in the woodshed, his money had been spent and he was penniless again. If Old Zhang wanted him to pay for his stay tomorrow morning, Huo Xiaoyao could only leave the Big Road Inn and find another place to settle down.

  Don't look at Huo Xiao's current situation, but he is actually in a good mood. He thinks that since they have no money, it's not the first day they've been living like this. No one bothers them and they can live a carefree life. They can't find the Qingyun Inn, but every day they have something to do. When it's time to eat, they eat; when it's time to sleep, they sleep; when it's time to look for something, they look for it. What's the big deal? Why bother adding countless worries to themselves?

  Huǒ Xiǎo Yē was lying on a pile of grass, staring at the door and window of the thatched cottage, humming idly: "Qīng Yún Guest House, where are you? Qīng Yún ah Qīng Yún, guest house ah guest house... This 'qīng' is three horizontal strokes and one vertical stroke, with a moon below. This 'yún' is an upper rain radical and a lower cloud radical. Qīng Yún, hehe, Qīng Yún." As Huǒ Xiǎo Yē hummed, she used her hand to write the two characters in mid-air.

  Huoxiao Xie was writing and writing, a flash of fire in his mind, he suddenly sat up, and with his fingers on the ground, carefully wrote the two words "Qingyun" again.

  Huǒ Xiǎo Xié spat out the grass stem in his mouth, stared at the two words "Qīng Yún" on the ground and cursed: "Damn it, that's exactly what happened!" Huǒ Xiǎo Xié got up, opened the door of the woodshed, and ran into the front hall of the Big Road Inn.

  Mr. Zhang was sleeping on the counter, dazed and opened his eyes to see Huo Xiaoyi pushing open the door of the Big Road Inn and shouting at him: "I'm not staying here! I want a refund!"

  Boss Zhang opened his big mouth, oh-ed twice, and fell back down, muttering: "Checking out is just checking out, even if it's a woodshed, why make such a big fuss. Take your time, take your time..." His eyelids sank, and he fell asleep again.

  Huoxiao Ye left the Big Road Inn and ran straight to the outer wall of the Wang family's large courtyard. He arrived at the foot of the wall surrounding the Wang family's courtyard and began circling around it.

  The Wang family's compound was quite large, and Fire Little hurriedly walked for a while, still taking a moment to reach the west wall of the Wang family's compound. After walking forward for a bit, he arrived at the center of the west wall of the Wang family's compound. The western gate was strange, not attached to the wall, but instead protruded from the wall without any reason. On both sides of the western gate, every few dozen steps, there were several narrow small doors.

  Huǒ Xiǎo Xié stopped in his tracks, looked around to make sure no one was watching, and walked up to a small door. He examined it carefully, muttering to himself: "Not two roots." Huǒ Xiǎo Xié continued on his way, examining the second small door, saying again: "Not two roots."

  When Huo Xiaoyi walked to the third small door, he chuckled and saw that the thick and heavy small door was covered with dust, as if it had not been opened for a long time. There were no decorations on this door, only two yellow copper strips nailed on it, which looked incongruous and very eye-catching.

  Huǒ Xiǎo Xié walked up to the small gate, speaking in a low voice: "Clouds, clouds, clouds." Indeed, his eyes lit up, and on the stone steps below the gate, he saw an engraving of a cloud pattern. Huǒ Xiǎo Xié chuckled foolishly, muttering to himself: "Rain, rain, rain." Looking around, not far from the gate, there was a stone water basin filled with clear water. Huǒ Xiǎo Xié scooped up some water and put it in his mouth, then walked to the front of the gate and spat it out onto the cloud pattern. Wiping his mouth, he hummed: "Looks like the rain isn't enough yet."

  Huoxiao Ye did this a few more times, until the cloud pattern on the steps was soaked through. Huoxiao Ye spat out one last mouthful of water onto the cloud, cursing: "Still not opening the door?!"

  Huǒ Xiǎo Yè had just finished scolding, when suddenly a creaking sound was heard. The small grey door slowly opened a small gap. Huǒ Xiǎo Yè was overjoyed and didn't care about anything else, pushing the door open and entering.

  Huoxiao Ye entered the door and saw a narrow and long stone room, with no sky visible above. The walls on both sides were hung with dimly lit oil lamps, and it was unknown where they led to. Huoxiao Ye took a few steps forward, and the house door behind him slowly bounced back, clicking shut again, as if someone had operated it.

  Huoxiao Ye didn't care, and quickly walked along the stone path forward. However, after more than ten steps, he reached a dead end. Huoxiao Ye cursed: "Damn it!" He walked to the wall at the end and carefully felt it. The wall was smooth and very clean, as if someone had wiped it often.

  Huǒ Xiǎo Xié ran his hands over the wall from top to bottom, but there was no opening mechanism or gap. Huǒ Xiǎo Xié said in surprise: "There is no way out here, it's impossible to climb up or jump over, the wall is too hard to break through. Is this a dead end? Since we've finally found this place, let's just wait for a while."

  Huǒ Xiǎo Yè made up his mind and sat down, but before he could even sit stably, he felt the ground beneath him shake violently. With a loud rumble, one end of where Huǒ Xiǎo Yè was sitting suddenly sank downwards. It turned out that the entire floor was actually a massive trapdoor. Huǒ Xiǎo Yè let out a loud cry: "Ahh, my mother!" His hands flailed wildly but found nothing to grasp, and with a roll, he fell down.

  Huo Xiao Ye fell down about two or three feet and hit a steep slope. Huo Xiao Ye flipped over, trying to get up, but the momentum of the fall hadn't dissipated yet, so he couldn't stand firm. He rolled down the slope with a rumbling sound, rolling out more than six or seven meters before finally stopping.

  Huǒ Xiǎo Xié cursed and scolded as he got up, and in front of him was already a bright expanse. He had actually rolled to the bottom of the gentle slope. Huǒ Xiǎo Xié's heart was filled with great joy, and he took a step forward, stepping out of the gentle slope tunnel. Before him lay a spacious underground plaza, facing Huǒ Xiǎo stood a building, on the doorframe of which hung a huge black background red character signboard - "Qīng Yún Kè Zhàn" (Green Cloud Inn).

  Huo Xiao was overjoyed and shouted: "Finally found it!" He quickly ran towards the door.