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墨書 Inktalez
Human Sacrifice
In the moonlit night, a terrified cry for help from Mr. Chang suddenly echoed within the Futu Stupa.
Wang Cong trembled in fear, saying, "Mr. Chang has already been eaten by the giant snake; how could he still escape?"
Chen Jixian replied, "I also suspect something is off. This cave must connect to the underground world of the Dragon Vein; going there is certain death."
I took a deep breath, snatched the flashlight from Wang Cong's hand, and then looked at Chen Jixian. "Let me borrow your gun."
Chen Jixian said, "Mr. Chang may no longer be himself. He was just snatched away by the snake and immediately escaped; there must be something wrong."
I ignored Chen Jixian and turned to walk toward the cave. Wang Cong asked, "Hey, Yang Hao, can I go down with you?"
"Wait up here," I replied before jumping into the cave and landing on the steps below.
To be honest, if it had been Chen Jixian who was taken away by such a large snake and then called for help, I would have definitely ignored him. He had pointed a gun at my head before; I hold grudges.
Moreover, my greatest fear is soft-bodied creatures, with snakes at the top of that list—especially an unheard-of White Python.
The reason I wanted to go down to save Mr. Chang was partly because I thought he was a good person who had always treated me with kindness and respect. Secondly, he was a master of metaphysics; if he had entered a forbidden area without any means of self-preservation, that would be quite surprising. To escape from the mouth of a giant snake and call for help in such a short time surely meant he had some method.
Regardless of notions of righteousness or not, I felt compelled to try and save him. Plus, I was curious whether there truly existed an underground world within this cave.
As I descended into the cave, I shone the flashlight around to illuminate my surroundings. The ground was littered with jagged stones, some piled together to form a mountain leading downward.
Beneath this mountain, I vaguely saw some glowing objects that looked like jade.
"Mr. Chang?" I called out in a strained voice, and my words immediately echoed back through the cave.
"Yang Hao!" Soon, Mr. Chang's voice echoed faintly from below.
I continued down the stone steps for a while, and suddenly the view opened up. I realized that these steps formed a ladder spiraling around an enormous Flame Column, leading further down.
This underground world was a Trench split open by tectonic movements. Over countless years, it had gradually taken shape, with numerous stones and molten rock forming magnificent mountain structures under the forces of nature. Some of these formations resembled a Futu Statue.
Mr. Chang lay on a nearby artificial stone platform, covered in a sticky liquid.
"Mr. Chang, how are you?" I whispered, quickly making my way to the stone platform where he was.
Suppressing my disgust, I pushed aside the mucus covering Mr. Chang's body. He coughed a few times and said, "It's good you arrived in time; otherwise, I would have suffocated in this disgusting stuff."
"How did you escape from the giant snake?" I asked in surprise.
Mr. Chang replied, "It’s thanks to your foresight. The snake fears Realgar. When I came here, I prepared extra just in case. The snake swallows its food whole; I wouldn't die immediately. So, I poured an entire bag of Realgar into its mouth, and it spat me out here—who knows where it went afterward."
I frowned as I looked at the densely packed caves on both sides of the mountains and suddenly recalled that the cave beneath the cliff on Winding Mountain Road might connect to this place.
Could that White Python really tunnel directly from the forbidden area to Futu Ridge?
Zhou Compass had seen in the Light Shadow from over six hundred years ago that Chang Yuchun mentioned to Li Shanchang about losing eight thousand elite soldiers just to catch a White Snake.
Each Ancient Elite Soldier was more formidable than an average young man today; how could that thirty-meter-long snake be so powerful? If it were released, wouldn’t the defenseless villagers of Futu Ridge be in grave danger?
I suddenly realized that perhaps the Old Scholar had nailed that woman inside the coffin and placed it in Cliff Cave to block the giant snake from emerging from the forbidden area.
Mr. Chang got up from the stone platform and said, "This is the altar used for sacrificing the Three Thousand Young Boys and Girls."
I then realized that the stone platform beneath our feet connected to the mountains on both ends. The platform had a diameter of about fifty meters, surrounded by a railing carved from white jade. In the center of the altar was a massive groove, with crescent-shaped, sharp copper depressions surrounding it. I could almost smell the scent of blood wafting through the air.
"These depressions are used to press a person's neck down to draw blood," Mr. Chang said, touching the edge of the groove. "The blood of Three Thousand Young Boys and Girls is mixed together and flows into the center of the groove for a blood sacrifice. However, I have one question: are they sacrificing to the Dragon Vein or to the great serpent?"
"Is there a difference?" I asked.
"If the sacrifice is to the Dragon Vein, then the original Dragon Vein would take on Jackie Chan's bloodline. If Zhu Yuanzhang's body were buried in the dragon's blood vein, his descendants would surely all be born as dragon kind. But historically, it seems that the Ming Dynasty Emperor was not such."
"So, you're saying that the target of the sacrifice has changed to the great serpent?" I questioned.
Mr. Chang nodded. "It’s possible that Li Shanchang harbored resentment and changed the target of the sacrifice to the great serpent. Chang Yuchun, being a mere brute, wouldn’t understand a strategist's method of killing. To take revenge, even after his death, he would want to raise an abomination that should not exist. The fact that the serpent's body is covered in hair is quite unusual. And look below."
I leaned over the stone railing and looked down, faintly seeing trees illuminated by glowing jade stones below. They extended for hundreds of meters in a winding trench, lacking branches or leaves, resembling white wooden stakes instead.
"What kind of trees can grow without sunlight?" I asked.
Mr. Chang's face turned pale. "Don’t you think those trees look like something?"
I chuckled nervously, suddenly realizing something that sent shivers down my spine; my legs felt weak and unresponsive. Mr. Chang said, "I was just joking."
"Mr. Chang, I think we should avoid such jokes. They're just wooden stakes; let's hurry up." I helped Mr. Chang toward the stone steps.
Suddenly, a whistling sound came from one side of the mountain. I shone my flashlight in that direction and caught sight of a white snake's tail disappearing into a cave.
That great serpent had been doused with a large amount of Realgar powder by Mr. Chang; its tongue must have been burned at this point. A snake’s vision and hearing are akin to being blind and deaf; they can accurately capture prey in darkness due to their heat sensors working in tandem with their tongues and nostrils. Now that its tongue was injured, it hadn’t attacked us for quite some time.
I used my flashlight to guide Mr. Chang as we ascended the stone steps; there were no railings around these steps at all, and if we fell, it would be certain death.
"Shouldn't we look for Zhu Yuanzhang's Great Ming tablet?" Mr. Chang asked.
I replied, "Survival comes first. Even if the giant serpent is injured, this underground world is a place of blood sacrifice, and there are bound to be other dangers. There's no need to waste time looking at a dead person."
"Alright then, let's head up first and not keep them waiting too long," Mr. Chang said.
I supported Mr. Chang as we ascended, and at that moment, the beam of the flashlight inadvertently illuminated a towering Magma Column that reached a height of a hundred feet. At the top of the Magma Column was a Crystal Coffin, surrounded by the ground covered in dense inscriptions—Yinwen.
Around the Magma Column, there were eight chains hooked onto the cliffs on either side, seemingly meant to secure the Magma Column and protect the coffin. However, beside the coffin, I noticed a pair of shoes—a pair of modern shoes.
"There's actually a Crystal Coffin here; this burial site is quite extravagant. As far as I know, aside from that Great Man who used a Crystal Coffin to preserve his body, historically even emperors haven't had such lavish arrangements," Mr. Chang said with keen interest in the Crystal Coffin.
The only person in history known to have been buried in a pure Crystal Coffin was that Great Man, but his remains were in the capital. Moreover, this Crystal Coffin looked different from his; although it was made of crystal, its surface appeared quite rough.
"That can't be Zhu Yuanzhang's coffin, can it?" Mr. Chang asked.
I shook my head and said, "No, look at the shoes next to the coffin."
Mr. Chang carefully examined the shoes beside the coffin and remarked with a strange expression, "Leather shoes?"
I nodded and replied, "These are Guo Huaiyi's shoes. I suspect he snuck in here; he's definitely up to something."
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