Chapter 2411: Old Times at the Mountain Gate Garrison

But it's tired of this. This underground passage is narrow and cramped—who knows what traps the opponent has set? The urgent priority is to break free and escape; they can't keep following the script the opponent laid out for them.

Behind the massive stone giant, countless demon troops crawled out through the huge breach, so densely packed it was like an ant nest had been stabbed.

The Earth Mother attaches great importance to the Panlong Secret Realm and dares not be careless, so she dispatched her main demon forces inside. The exact number is known only to her.

There is also an army guarding outside the Secret Realm, ready to reinforce them at any moment.

The Bear King also crawled out, looking around and shaking his neck: "Is this the core of the Panlong Ruins?"

This place is utterly desolate—no wild grass in sight, everywhere are ruins and broken walls blown by wind and sand.

"I don't see where the enemy is."

"They're hiding." The Earth Mother's deep voice echoed above the Somin Academy: "Search! Bring out your old methods and drive them out of their hiding places!"

"Be careful—" she especially warned, "there might be living people here!"

Living people? Upon hearing this, several demons swallowed nervously.

With a command from the Bear King, the demon troops split up and charged toward every corner of the Panlong Secret Realm!

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Inside Yujing City.

Mingke Xianren suddenly said: "We've arrived!"

They bypassed a bamboo grove, and ahead suddenly opened up, revealing a yellow jade mountain gate!

The mountain gate is very imposing—ten zhang long, three zhang high. Though called a "mountain gate," its size equals that of a temple in the modern world, and it is almost entirely built of yellow dragon jade.

Outside the gate hangs an eternal lamp, illuminating the yellow dragon jade with an orange-red hue and three-tenths translucency; within the jade, dragons and snakes seem to swim.

This jade is of supreme quality for making seals—throw it at any auction and it would fetch a good price—but here, it's merely material for building the mountain gate.

Beside the gate stands a huge stone inscribed with the three large characters "Changfeng Valley," majestic and grand. Especially the first stroke of the "Chang" character points straight to the clouds, like a sword descending.

However, the paint on the characters has completely worn off, and moss covers the stone. Fortunately, someone occasionally tends to it, so these three characters remain visible.

From He Lingchuan's perspective, he happened to see a corner missing from the right eave of the mountain gate, with a tree growing out from inside. Looking closer, the gate is actually quite worn, with some cracks where weeds and white moss have grown.

The weeds around the mountain gate are even taller than a person.

Now, desolation is the main theme of Changfeng Valley.

Behind the mountain gate lies a winding stone staircase leading upward, extending all the way into the mountain forest, likewise made of yellow dragon jade, but uneven and pitted.

He Lingchuan walked over, and two frogs jumped out from the grass pile, croaking as they scolded and fled.

This place sees few visitors.

The crowd followed the stone steps upward, and various buildings appeared on both sides—bell towers, drum towers, pavilions… but most have only their foundations left, making their original appearance unrecognizable.

Yet as they walked further ahead, suddenly they saw a great hall.

This hall is very imposing: black pillars, gold lacquer, vermilion roof. One pillar is carved with coiling auspicious clouds; the other bears countless curved lines, looking somewhat abstract.

Zhu Xiuer lifted her paw and lightly touched the pillar: "What is this? Water ripples?"

Along the way, they had seen similar patterns on many large stones.

"It's wind." Mingke Xianren also observed, "This should represent the flow of wind."

Unlike what they had seen along the way, this hall is almost undamaged, clearly having undergone meticulous maintenance.

The four stepped over the threshold and entered; the floor is also yellow dragon jade, and each step produces a clear, resonant sound, like striking a jade chime, with a lingering echo that brings a sense of tranquility.

Beyond the front courtyard lies a skywell, light pouring down from above and striking a large screen.

The screen's edge is made of bronze, resembling the material of He Lingchuan's Hauyuan Golden Mirror. However, everyone's attention was drawn to the center of the screen.

Because, there is actually a moving image on the screen!

The first thing everyone saw was soaring firelight.

The buildings inside the screen look familiar, but they are submerged in a sea of fire, with flames and black smoke spreading everywhere.

He Lingchuan immediately said: "This is also Changfeng Valley!"

Looking at the screen, it's as if they're holding a mirror—the scenery behind them is reflected in the screen, but everything is on fire.

At this moment, two figures emerged faintly from the blur, gradually becoming clear. At first glance they looked like reflections, but upon closer inspection, they were two people!

One is middle-aged, with narrow eyes and long brows, a mole on the glabella;

the other has a goat beard, white eyebrows sweeping over his eyes, exuding an immortal aura.

Both have their hands and feet bound with shackles, but not made of metal—rather, of stone. The other end of the stone shackles is connected to the ground, basically confining their movement to within the skywell.

The white-bearded old man looked at the four demons outside the screen, as if looking at four objects, his gaze and expression indifferent.

Meanwhile, the middle-aged man sat cross-legged on the ground, scratching his chin, muttering to himself, and couldn't even be bothered to glance at the four demons outside the screen.

He Lingchuan deliberately looked left and right, then asked:

"Where is the mechanism? Today we need to increase the dosage."

In fact, he had seen it—a human-shaped stone statue stood beside the screen, its facial details and expression extremely vivid.

It was lowering its head, face full of terror, staring at its own chest—

at the heart position, a sword was plunged straight in.

The statue is gray, but this sword is gold, brilliantly conspicuous and spotless, clearly frequently gripped.

This should be the mechanism.

Setting aside his nature, he now feels the Earth Mother using the long sword at the chest of this stone statue as a mechanism is quite creative.

Her hatred for this sect is truly expressed in every aspect without reservation.

Moreover, a whip is hung around the statue's neck—double-stranded. The whip tip is slightly forked, clearly used for a long time.

The middle-aged man showed no reaction to his words, still muttering faintly to himself.

One look tells he is mentally unbalanced.

"On what grounds!" The white-browed old man lifted his eyelids, staring at the three people and one demon outside the screen: "We're sitting here perfectly fine, and we haven't done anything wrong!"

"Do you need a reason to punish you?" Ling Jinbao coughed, "Mother Zun can do whatever she wants to you; you're nothing but her old plaything."

These two guys look formidable, still worth Mother Earth's special imprisonment.

If they truly are from Changfeng Valley, then it has existed for several thousand years to this day.

"If you're going to strike, do it quickly—stop talking nonsense!" the white-browed old man rasped, "You lot don't get arrogant; I've been here for several thousand years, and I've never seen any of you end well."

Ling Jinbao wondered, "Ah, old man, what do you mean by that?"

"It is the most vicious, despicable, and shameless person under heaven; if you serve under it, you're dancing on the blade's edge every day without knowing it—only when it truly needs you will your miserable beginning start."