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墨書 Inktalez
Zhong Kui's Diary
"Is there really a need for discussion? Let's search each passage one by one; if one doesn't work, we move on to the next!" I looked at Qingcheng in confusion, feeling somewhat unconvinced.
"Uh, don't you want to know who is plotting against us from behind?"
As soon as Qingcheng spoke, I knew I had hit a soft spot. I could only smile wryly and ask, "Then do you know who it is?"
"In the Black Mountain Ancient Prison, didn't Liu An leave a clone behind?" Qingcheng asked me.
"Are you saying that the troublemaker is that clone? But didn't I already beat that clone to death?" I frowned.
"Yes, I can confirm that you knocked it out of existence." Xiao Qingcheng smiled and continued, "But can't Liu An have other clones?"
"You mean there’s also a clone of Liu An in this tomb?"
"Yes, that should be the case. Moreover, I'm sure these clones are connected to each other!" Qingcheng nodded.
Connected? These clones are just fragments of consciousness; how do they communicate? WeChat or QQ? My curiosity piqued, and I couldn't help but laugh, "How do they communicate?"
"You wouldn't understand!" To my surprise, Qingcheng's remark made my eyes roll.
"Alright, I won't ask about that. Even if they are connected, so what?" Hearing that the spirits guarding the tomb might be Liu An's clones eased my mind. After all, they are just clones—fragments of consciousness. At worst, I could just beat them into oblivion again.
Xiao Qingcheng seemed to know what I was thinking and said with a smile, "This time there aren't any divine beasts like Bixi that can emit such a presence, so naturally he doesn't have as much concern. One of those two Jin Luoers we encountered earlier must definitely be his transformation. It's just uncertain whether it's the Shoulder-Length Curly Hair or the Round-Faced Girl."
Listening to Qingcheng mention Shoulder-Length Curly Hair and Round-Faced Girl back and forth made me dizzy. I simply suggested, "I think it's a bit awkward; why don't we call the Shoulder-Length Curly Hair Jin Luoer and the other Round-Faced Girl Apple? After all, names are just symbols."
"Why can't it be the Round-Faced Girl called Jin Luoer?" Qingcheng smiled at me and said, "Alright, not this one, let's move on to Liu An. We confirmed that there is a Liu An here, right?"
"Yes, that's right!"
"I've read the Yin Yang Essays. The Siddhamantra cultivation method practiced by Liu An transcends the Yin-Yang Realm. The greatest feature of this method is that it can manifest countless forms," Qingcheng stated seriously.
"Is that really so special? The Golden Puppets we encountered underground in Sun City could also manifest countless forms," I replied dismissively, then patted Qingcheng on the back: "Aren't Daoists also able to transform into other people at will?"
"That's different. Whether in the Underworld or the Yang Realm, transformation merely alters the original body; no matter how much one changes, it's still just one person. However, with Liu An's cultivation method, once successfully mastered, he can simultaneously create up to seventy-two avatars, each capable of becoming another person. In that case, Liu An alone could film a blockbuster titled 'Confucius.'"
Although I didn't fully understand what Bai Xiao Qingcheng was talking about, it sounded impressive. I nodded: "So you mean each of his avatars can have its own independent consciousness, right? He wouldn't have placed seventy-two avatars in this tomb, would he?"
"Not quite that impressive. After all, Liu An's true self has already left our world. Those avatars are manifestations of his cultivation; it's impossible for him to leave all of them in the human realm. I estimate he could leave one or two at most; otherwise, he wouldn't have enough cultivation left to break through to the human realm, which is what you refer to as attaining enlightenment," Qingcheng explained in one breath. Seeing that I still looked confused, she summarized: "In short, there is an avatar of Liu An in this tomb."
After a pause, noticing my skeptical expression, she couldn't help but add: "Perhaps his own cultivation isn't a match for us; however, this tomb was built by him. He can use mechanisms to ambush us, just like that Copper Door we encountered earlier."
"I understand now. What should I do next?" After Qingcheng said this, I nodded in agreement; in my eyes, mechanisms were far more terrifying than ghosts.
Qingcheng asked me for a dagger and crouched down to draw a cross on the Ice Surface with it. She said, "Let's first locate ourselves; the center of the cross is where the Copper Door is located. These four passages represent four different areas; we'll label them one, two, three, and four."
Meanwhile, Qingcheng wrote 'one', 'two', 'three', and 'four' at the four directions of the cross.
She marked an 'X' at the end labeled 'one': "This is the entrance; we can rule this out."
"Okay!"
Next, she marked an 'X' at the end labeled 'three', continuing: "This is the slanted passage we just climbed up; we can rule this out as well."
"Mm!"
"Besides 'mm', can you say another word?"
"Oh!"
Qingcheng rolled her eyes in frustration, lowered her head, and made a big cross on the ground with a harsh stroke: "We're going through this passage next. If you answer with 'mm' or 'oh', I'll stab you with my knife!"
"Meow!"
Qingcheng got up and walked away, not even returning my dagger. I could only follow her, laughing as I said, "You might as well give me the dagger. My self-defense shotgun is already gone, and I'm counting on this dagger!"
This dagger was specially made; it wasn't made of steel but a special alloy that could withstand extremely cold temperatures. Otherwise, in such a low-temperature environment, it wouldn't just break if it touched the ice; it would shatter completely.
Xiao Qingcheng huffed and handed the dagger back to me while pulling out her Peach Wood Sword. Joking aside, in this underground setting, we couldn't afford to be without self-defense items.
I glanced at my phone; it was already past six in the afternoon. We had to find the Nine Nether Grass before dawn and rush to the train station. There were two trains from Feng City to Star City that passed through in the morning—one at nine and another at eleven.
The passage ahead seemed endless, twisting left and right while continuously ascending, as if we were climbing along the threads of a giant screw.
After walking for about an hour, the passage finally stopped ascending and stretched straight ahead. The ice in this passage also changed significantly; aside from the light blue ice beneath our feet, the ice above us and on both sides turned an unusual shade of blue.
This blue resembled the lake water in the Nine Dragon Pool at the top of Shoushan Mountain.
Taking a few steps forward, something suddenly rushed towards us from the side ice. I shouted in alarm, and immediately, Qingcheng's sword glowed brightly while I brandished my dagger fiercely.
Upon closer inspection, there was actually a fish about half a meter long on the other side of the ice block, separated from us by one ice block. It was clear that this ice block was roughly two meters thick, and as the water rippled beneath it, faint golden runes flickered on its surface.
I don't know what kind of fish this is; to me, all fish look the same, with a head, a tail, and two fins. Whether it's a grass carp, a catfish, a crucian carp, or a carp, aren't they all like that? But this fish in front of me—how should I describe it? Its entire body resembles a butcher's knife, long and flat, completely beyond my understanding.
How could there be fish outside the ice? Are we in the water?
I looked at Qingcheng in astonishment, and just then, Qingcheng was also looking at me in shock. We both stood there for a moment before simultaneously exclaiming, "Nine Dragon Pool!"
This passage twisted upward; unexpectedly, it brought us to the bottom of the Nine Dragon Pool.
It seemed that the light from my flashlight attracted those fish. Before long, hundreds of strange fish were swimming around the ice—red, green, blue, purple—colorful and quite beautiful.
"This ice is so cold; how could the water outside not be frozen? How are these fish still swimming? Do they eat Fire Spirit Pearls too?" I asked Qingcheng while pointing at the fish outside the ice.
Qingcheng took the flashlight from my hand and shone it around the walls of the passage: "Besides the ice beneath our feet, there is a layer of runes on the outer surface of the ice on three sides. It prevents the cold from leaking out. So although there's ice under our feet, the water around the passage is normal lake water."
After marveling for about ten meters, Qingcheng tugged at my sleeve: "Zheng Nan, wait."
Just as I was about to ask Qingcheng what was going on, she suddenly turned off the flashlight.
"What happened?"
"Look!"
As my eyes gradually adjusted, I was astonished to find that there was a faint white light inside this passage. Looking at Qingcheng, although I couldn't make out her features clearly, I could see her general shape.
There’s light in here?
Qingcheng pointed above: "That's moonlight reflecting in."
Just as Qingcheng pointed to the top of her head, a huge shadow moved faintly in the lake. I hissed for Qingcheng to stay still and slowly turned my head, but there was no movement outside.
Could it be that I was seeing things?
I shook my head and took a step forward, noticing that the object in the water moved again. This time, Qingcheng also saw it and rushed over to stand beside me, wielding her Peach Wood Sword.
Outside the passage, a large shadow was slowly moving. As long as we paused, it would remain still, seemingly waiting for us to make a mistake, ready to deliver a fatal blow at any moment.
"Uh, could it be our shadow?" I suddenly slapped the back of my head.
Qingcheng looked at the shadow outside in surprise, extending her arm and swaying it up and down, left and right. Sure enough, the shadow outside swayed along with her.
"Haha, who would have thought we were scared by our own shadow!" Qingcheng stuck out her tongue at me and laughed heartily.
"Haha, you're too timid; let's keep going." I felt a bit embarrassed saying this because I had also been suspicious just moments ago.
"Right! I know now!" Qingcheng exclaimed suddenly after taking two steps.
"What do you know?" I was startled by her sudden shout.
"I've figured out the secret of Nine Dragon Pool," Xiao Qingcheng continued to shout.
"What secret?" I asked curiously.
"The moonlight on a full moon night must be exceptionally bright, shining on the ice at the bottom of the lake. After reflecting, it projects things from this passage onto Lake Center. From above, it certainly looks like something is swimming around in Lake Center!" Qingcheng said proudly.
Hearing this from Qingcheng, I couldn't help but give her a thumbs up; her explanation made complete sense.
However, after hearing what Qingcheng said, I felt that something was off, as if I had overlooked something important.
What could it be? I focused and pondered.
What could it be?
What could it be?
Suddenly, a light bulb went off in my head. Damn, since we could see the shadows projected on Lake Center from outside, it meant that something must be moving inside this passage. With this thought, I couldn't help but ask Qingcheng, "Qingcheng, do you feel that there's something in this passage?"
Qingcheng didn't answer me but placed her finger to her lips and shushed me.
Seeing this, I also focused and listened intently. From the other end of the passage came a faint hissing sound. It sounded like something was rapidly approaching us, and suddenly two dim lights flickered to life at the end of the passage, quickly drawing closer along with the sound.
"Quick, turn on the flashlight!" I felt a chill run down my spine; my first impression of those dim lights was that they looked like eyes. Motherfucker, it couldn't be another one of those giant rats, could it?
Qingcheng turned on the flashlight, and as the beam illuminated ahead, we saw a python as thick as a bucket rapidly charging towards us from about a hundred meters away. Its body was golden with patterned scales, and those two dim bulbs were its eyes. Upon seeing the flashlight beam, the python suddenly reared up, squinting its eyes and opening its mouth wide to let out a piercing scream as it lunged towards us.
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