Unseen Immortal of Three Hundred Years - Chap 72
Chapter 72
He surveyed the round room but found no trace of Yi Wusheng. However, there were some slight marks on the ground.
After Yi Wusheng fell from the trap door, he seemed to have been drawn deeper into the tomb by something.
Xiao Fuxuan didn’t delay any longer and immediately flew towards the depths of the tomb.
Having already walked the path once, he was naturally familiar with it when he retraced his steps. He even remembered the places where the statues of boys and girls were placed, so he paused briefly at each one, smashing the walls with his sword to take a look.
The more he looked, the darker his face became, because at every stop, he really could find a statue of a boy or girl.
The only difference was that the Great Sorrow Valley here had not “summoned” innocent commoners, so the statues of boys and girls were clean, without distorted bodies, scratch marks, or dried blood.
After walking all the way, there were still thirty-three statues of boys and girls, not one more, not one less.
Everything seemed like a kind of replication, but there was also an indescribable sense of unease.
As the tomb passage went deeper, this feeling became heavier.
Xiao Fuxuan flew to the end of the tomb passage and stepped into the largest round room.
As expected, this round room was filled with tall statues, like steep stone forests.
Ordinary people would need to look up high to see the faces of those statues clearly, giving a deep sense of oppression that made people afraid to speak loudly.
These towering stone statues also had niches at their feet, with inscriptions on the back of the niches, presumably the names of the statues.
The niches were covered with a thick layer of dust.
Xiao Fuxuan squatted down, reached out, and wiped away the dust, revealing clear words:
“Menggu, in charge of the Jingguan.
Houge, in charge of the Xuechi.
Sangfeng, in charge of the Budong Mountain.”
Even the statues standing here were exactly the same.
Xiao Fuxuan could even feel a faint array flowing beneath his feet.
In the mortal world, these statues at the bottom of the Great Sorrow Valley collectively formed a huge array, which was used to suppress Yunhai, preventing it from seeing the light of day forever.
In this chaotic passage from hundreds of years ago, Yunhai was still alive, uncontrollable. So, what was the use of this array now?
Xiao Fuxuan pondered silently, walking through the giant stone statues. Suddenly, he noticed a problem.
He finally understood why there was always a sense of unease here.
Because the tomb under the Great Sorrow Valley was not a complete replica of the mortal world, but the opposite.
In the mortal world’s Great Sorrow Valley, they had seen the giant stone statues with Sangfeng at the front, Menggu at the back, and Houge in the middle to the left.
But here, Menggu stood at the front, Sangfeng at the back, and Houge still in the middle of the group, but slightly to the right.
So, he had seen Menggu first, then Houge, and finally Sangfeng along the way.
The moment he realized this, Xiao Fuxuan recalled the statue of Yunhai at the entrance of the tomb and realized something was wrong.
He held up a white banner in one hand and a flower branch in the other, but his hands were reversed.
This entire tomb was not a replica but a mirror image.
Even in folk magic, one of the most commonly used things is a mirror, representing the projection of falsehoods as truth.
And there’s inversion.
Xiao Fuxuan frowned.
If we talk about projecting falsehoods, this place is false, and the present world is true. The arrangement here is almost the same as the present world, indeed capable of projecting falsehoods as truth.
If we talk about projection, since this place is arranged like this, there must be someone who wants to project something from here to the present world.
And if we talk about the inversion of the present world’s divine array, it functions as a suppression, making those suppressed never see the light of day. If it were to be reversed, wouldn’t it mean that the array’s effects would continue indefinitely, and dead wood would return to life?
Xiao Fu Xuan’s expression changed.
He pressed his palm against the sword hilt, and the tip of the scabbard thudded heavily, brimming with a surging force.
Amidst the burst of golden light, a loud noise was heard, and the hidden array underfoot suddenly became clear. The fluorescent lights were like long threads, flowing like water, crisscrossing into a huge net, extending all the way to the end of the giant statue.
The way the fluorescent lights flowed was indeed completely inverted.
The moment the array was forcibly activated, a strong wind rose in the circular chamber. The wind quickly shuttled through the giant statue, forming a whirlwind like a dragon in the blink of an eye.
The whirlwind swept fiercely towards a certain direction, following the flow of the array.
If in the present world, that direction would be where Yun Hai’s deep pit was buried.
Without waiting for half a moment, Xiao Fuxuan walked on the wind, taking a step of a hundred feet, and in an instant, he landed firmly at that spot like a wedge of a sharp sword.
As he landed, he heard a muffled grunt in the wind and caught a glimpse of a clear and thin shadow.
He pierced through with his sword once again, decisively stopping the dragon-like wind.
When the wind stopped, the long shadow revealed its appearance. It was none other than the fallen Yi Wusheng.
Since entering the temple in Great Sorrow Valley, Yi Wusheng had felt that something was wrong.
He knew deep down that he was at his last gasp, and his remaining soul was getting weaker day by day, like the gradually burning out of a candle, leaving only a tiny flicker of light.
But thanks to his destiny, this sense of vanishing was gentle, so gentle that he doubted whether he would feel any pain when his remaining soul completely dissipated.
But after stepping into the temple, his almost extinguished soul suddenly became restless.
At that moment, he firmly believed that there was something strange in the temple.
So instead of offering incense, he walked around the altar and, as expected, fell through the trapdoor hidden under the floor.
As soon as he landed, his remaining soul began to tremble violently.
It was evident that the strangeness did indeed originate from underground.
The feeling of trembling soul remnants was extremely uncomfortable, and he was so dizzy that he could hardly open his eyes. Yi Wusheng was in a state of almost complete confusion, relying solely on intuition, stumbling all the way to the end of the tomb.
Where he stopped was the strangest place.
Just standing here, he felt that the remnants in his body were almost trembling away.
It was an extremely contradictory feeling because the remnants were too restless, and he felt that he would fall down in the next moment, unable to get up again. But at the same time, he could feel a strange vitality.
It was like when a candle was about to go out, someone nearby blew a gust of wind, causing the flame to flicker forcefully.
He couldn’t see his own face.
If he could see, he would find that at that moment, his pale face actually showed a hint of blood.
The feeling of the trembling remnants was interrupted by a sword aura and a sweeping gust of wind. Yi Wusheng instinctively raised his sleeve to cover his face, planted his feet firmly, and forcibly stabilized his posture.
When the hurricane suddenly stopped, he lowered his wind-blocking sleeve, and with a dazed expression, he raised his eyes and saw a figure in black strong clothing, wearing a bamboo hat.
Yi Wusheng paused in his daze, a hint of astonishment flashed across his confusion.
After a while, the astonishment finally disappeared, and he shook his head and chuckled, saying, “No wonder.”
Yi Wusheng looked at the figure with the low-hanging bamboo hat and the unfamiliar appearance, and sighed softly, “Who I thought it was, turns out it’s you.”
Before Great Sorrow Valley, when he first saw this person, he felt that the other party was extraordinary. However, there were many practitioners in the world, and at that time, his mind was heavy, so he didn’t think much about it.
Now thinking back, it’s no wonder.
No wonder the other party didn’t look like a incense burner, yet came to this temple. He was probably following his trail.
Yi Wusheng gently bowed and said, “Tiansu.”
He actually wanted to say, “Tiansu, you’ve worked hard to come all this way.” But this journey was caused by him, so saying “you’ve worked hard” seemed too casual.
He actually wanted to say “ashamed,” but he was already standing in Great Sorrow Valley, even walking to the deepest part of the tomb, standing next to the grave where Yunhai was buried. In this situation, the word “ashamed” didn’t come out.
Moreover, he couldn’t care less, because the remnant soul had just settled down for a moment, and now it was trembling again.
For a moment, even standing was very difficult for Yi Wusheng.
But he had once been a swordsman and didn’t want to appear too weak. So he pinched his fingers to make himself more alert, and said, “Tiansu, there is something strange here, there should be a formation. Right here.”
With this question, he half-kneeled on the ground, pointing to the mud and stone on the ground, “Right here.”
After speaking, his hand did not retract but remained propped against the ground.
Because once he pulled it back, he would fall to the ground.
He chuckled bitterly in his heart, thinking it would be too embarrassing to fall and disgrace the Hua family.
But when his palm supported the ground, the remnant soul suddenly surged. It was as if a thin thread of vitality was flowing from his hand into his body.
Yi Wusheng blinked in the chaos and curved his fingers to lift his hand from the ground.
He frowned, hearing Tianxiu’s response.
Tianxiu said, “There is indeed a formation.”
Yi Wusheng had a vague premonition in his heart. “What is this formation used for?”
Yes, what was this formation used for?
In fact, the answer in their hearts had gradually become clear, but they were just lacking the final confirmation.
At this moment, Yi Wusheng’s vision was already darkening in waves, his fingers trembling. However, he forcibly stabilized himself, gathering his last bit of strength, and struck the earth with a palm.
This palm caught Xiao Fuxuan off guard.
He was momentarily stunned, seeing the earth and stones suddenly flying up and being overturned to the side, revealing a deep pit underneath.
The cloud on the tangled vine was still alive, so it was expected that there was no one lying in the deep pit. But the pit was not empty; it was entwined with luxuriant and twisting branches.
The branches were crisscrossed with wounds but thriving under the nourishment of the formation, covered in flowers.
At the roots of the branches, a strong smell of blood mixed with a faint fragrance suddenly spread out. The moment Xiao Fuxuan smelled it, he understood what it was.
Someone had taken a bit of their own flesh, blood, bones, and essence, created a formation, and used their own long life to sustain this formation.
Just by looking at this formation, one would never realize its purpose, because it only contained branches and flowers. It was as if the person who set up the formation had gone to such lengths just to cultivate a vine.
But unlike Xiao Fuxuan and the others, they had ventured into the Great Sorrow Valley of the mortal world, where they saw the buried Yun Hai in the deep pit, and even witnessed the vines growing out of Yun Hai’s chest.
At that time, Xiao Fuxuan and the others felt that the vines and Yun Hai were symbiotic. As long as the vines did not die, Yun Hai would remain alive. However, they did not find the source of the vines, so they could not investigate what exactly Yun Hai was symbiotic with.
Until today, until this moment, they finally understood.
The true root of the vines was not in Yun Hai’s chest, but here, under the nourishment of the array.
With this realization, the purpose of this mirrored underground tomb became clear.
Initially, they had not understood what Hua Xin had done to keep Yun Hai alive and existing in the world for so long.
Now, everything was clear.
Thus, life for a life.
