Chapter 207

Ah Xiang desperately backed away: "I... I saw that what grew out of the stone hole was... a man's corpse, covered in a lot of human blood." After saying that, she covered her eyes, not daring to look at that bright red flower again.

During this time, we had great trust in Ah Xiang's eyes, feeling that with her around, we would avoid a lot of trouble, but this time I couldn't help but have some doubts. That bright, dripping red flower, though strangely grown, should absolutely be a plant—how could it be a corpse? The difference between the two... is simply too great.

Only Ming Shu had no doubts about Ah Xiang's words, while I and Pangzi were not so convinced. We both turned to look at Ah Xiang—what she said made no sense. Where is there a corpse? Where is there any human blood?

Shirley Yang pointed at the red flower growing from the stone hole and said to everyone: "Look, it has borne fruit."

I hurriedly looked at that red flower again. Roughly in the brief moment I had just shifted my gaze, it had actually completed the entire process of flowering and fruiting. At the tip of the tender green stem hung a spherical fruit resembling a longan. I, Pangzi, Ming Shu, and Shirley Yang are all well-traveled and have seen some strange things, but none of us had ever seen such a peculiar plant.

It appears the holes in this stone wall were formed by the plants inside bursting through. Since the stone holes are curved, we cannot directly see inside. Behind this cave, there seems to be another space, but what kind of place is it that can grow plants without sunlight or water?

I put on gloves and gently plucked that fruit. Peeling open the hard shell, dark red liquid immediately flowed out—like rotten blood, foul-smelling, with a small piece of flesh in the center that actually looked like human meat.

As soon as the fruit was picked, the green vine instantly withered and turned into a pile of gray dust. I quickly threw the piece of meat I was holding onto the ground and said to everyone: "This is almost certainly the blood bait of the 'living person's fruit'."

In the secret arts of feng shui, there is a school called "Hua," whose content consists of special cases regarding changes in yin and yang in feng shui. At special feng shui locations, unusual phenomena occur. The "Dragon's Peak Glacier" we mentioned is part of what locals call the "God's Snare Gully Glacier." Although it is one of the few low-altitude glaciers in the world, with Jade Peak holding it up and snow-capped mountains surrounding it, it is a place of exceptional feng shui in the Kunlun Mountains. Kunlun is the origin of the dragon veins of the world, and "God's Snare Gully" is the dragon's peak of the Ancestral Dragon. Its vital energy is abundant, surpassing all others. In fact, the gathering places of vital energy are not exclusive to the Ancestral Dragon—they are merely extremely rare. Precisely because the vital energy is too strong, corpses buried in special spots on the dragon's peak will not decay but become immortal. The immortal corpses in places of extreme vital energy are called "Xuanwu Giant Corpses." In the natural caves of such places, strange changes may even occur, such as transforming into something that continuously produces "blood bait"—the "living person's fruit."

The position we have now descended to is the bottom layer of the Ice Abyss. Here the altitude is only over a thousand meters, basically ice-free everywhere, with vast crystal stone veins scattered throughout. The "Black Tiger Mystic Altar" discovered here should be a kind of divine stove facility, built by the later Wheel Reincarnation Sect after the fall of the Demon State, used to worship the evil god in the Demon Pagoda, with main rituals conducted in such places.

I originally thought, by convention, that the black little forest-person statue was merely a symbol of some god, but I overlooked the great differences between Esoteric Buddhist mountain-water practices and Qing Wu techniques. Perhaps in the inland, a single god statue would suffice, but now thinking about it, if it were the Wheel Reincarnation Sect, they might actually use a real corpse as a sacrifice in this place where vital energy converges, to prove the divine manifestation of their teaching of eternal indestructibility.

I explained these things to Shirley Yang and others. It is necessary to find the entrance to the space behind the cave and go in to investigate. If we are lucky, we might find many clues about "E Luo Hai Cheng" or "Disaster Gate," at least giving us a macroscopic understanding, so that moving forward, we won't have to grope blindly like blind men feeling an elephant.

I also told Ming Shu that this place has strong vital energy and will not be dangerous, so just relax. If you don't want to come along, just stay here with Ah Xiang until we return.

Ming Shu now relies on me and Pangzi like a Great Wall, unwilling to leave even half a step, so he could only agree to bring Ah Xiang along. Thus, everyone searched in the cave for any mechanism or secret passage that could lead to the space behind where the "living person's fruit" grows.

Ming Shu asked me: "There's only one thing I don't understand. Before entering Tibet, I also did a lot of homework on Esoteric Buddhist feng shui. When the Demon State built the Demon Pagoda, Esoteric Buddhism had not yet formed a feng shui theory, so selecting burial sites was inaccurate. Looking at the position of this Black Tiger Mystic Altar, it seems to correspond to the Nine-Story Demon Tower. Is this really the most auspicious site with the strongest vital energy? If there is even a slight deviation, and we encounter a demon hole or a ghost hole, aren't we just going to die pointlessly?" I thought Ming Shu this old fox was trying to back out again, so I placated him by saying: "Although feng shui theory only came later, since mountains, rivers, and streams have existed, their configuration has been objectively present. Later people merely processed, organized, summarized, and concluded—like inserting a plug or something. This vast region of the Dragon's Peak is the source of the world's dragon veins, with vital energy gathering everywhere. Where could there be any deviant holes? So don't spread confusing rumors. I and Pangzi are iron-hearted; we've grown up not knowing what fear is. Your words can only scare Ah Xiang."

Ming Shu gained nothing from this, so he could only retreat to the side and stay silent. In this crystal cave, there are many stone platforms placed haphazardly. We moved them aside one by one, and finally discovered that behind a certain stone platform, there was a low passage. Inside was a half-circular slope winding upward into the inner part of the cave. Everyone put on gas masks, bent over, and crawled into the passage.

This passage was not long—after going halfway around, we saw a larger vaulted cave, about a hundred square meters or more. The exit was a suspended semi-natural platform. Looking down into the darkness below, we could see nothing but blackness—no bottom in sight.

I actually inferred that this was "blood bait" from the flower that grew human flesh. Besides that, I don't know much about this thing, because it's extremely rare, and I also don't know if it poses any danger. However, I have no intention of retreating in the face of battle. Since we've found such a place, if we don't uncover this secret and explore its depths, we will surely regret it deeply in the future.

This crystal cavern of the vaulted dome should be right next to our camping cave, while we are located several meters above it in midair. The corpse growing the "blood bait" seems to be below. Here it is utterly silent—aside from our breathing and... just no other sound or movement.

Since the helmet lights couldn't reach far, everyone leaned forward on the stone platform, trying to use "wolf eyes" to probe the terrain below. But the flashlight beams only illuminated the dense mass of "blood bait red flowers" beneath the platform. The plants were extremely concentrated, and their vines spread like ivy across the walls, blocking everything in the depths.

I softly called Ah Xiang over, asking her to first look down from the stone platform. Earlier she had seen the blood bait red flowers and said it was a man's corpse. Now I wanted her to use her eyes to look down again and see if she could find the root or stem of this "blood bait"—that should be where the "Xuanwu Giant Corpse" lies. Ah Xiang's eyes can only see within the normal range of human vision, without obstruction from things like ghosts or corpses in abnormal states. Even in pitch-black, lightless places, she can still see.

Under Shirley Yang's encouragement, Ah Xiang mustered her courage and took a look, then nodded to us to confirm. Through the gaps in the "blood bait red flowers," she saw a tall humanoid figure below, with all the plants growing wildly from that corpse. In other words, those "blood bait" are part of Corpse One.

I thought this below must be a sacrificial pit for corpses, and there must be more sacrificial offerings down there. So I had Pangzi find a few fluorescent tubes and throw them down to illuminate the terrain, to see if there was any place to land.

Pangzi had long planned to go down and search for valuable burial goods. Hearing me say that, he immediately tossed down seven or eight blue fluorescent sticks. The platform below was instantly lit by blue light, revealing countless flowers as red as fresh blood, densely covering the cave floor. Many had already grown blood bait fruits. Looking down from above, it looked like a flower bed in full bloom—except the flower color was monotonous, and under the blue fluorescent light, it appeared gloomy and heavy, like fake flowers made of joss paper, utterly devoid of beauty.

At the edge of the flower cluster lay a square boulder weighing thousands of jin, built from neatly cut ice mountain crystal stones. We were far away, and the surface of the boulder was covered with many "bait red flowers," so we could only see through the gaps that there seemed to be some symbols or carvings on it. Beneath the boulder lay a redwood coffin, its front blocking panel broken open with a large hole.

How could there be such a coffin in such a place? I thought that large square ice mountain crystal stone looked strange, so I intended to go down from the platform to see where it led. Just as I was about to move, my wrist suddenly tightened—Ah Xiang grabbed my hand tightly, her eyes full of terror. Without her saying a word, I knew she must have seen something again.

Shirley Yang also seemed to have heard some movement. She put her index finger to her lips and made a silencing gesture to everyone. I immediately abandoned the idea of going down right away, held my breath, lay flat on the stone platform, and together with everyone, turned off all light sources on our bodies, silently watching what happened below.

The few fluorescent sticks we had just thrown down had not yet gone out—we estimated the light would last about two more minutes. Then we heard a faint rustling from the stone cracks below. In the dim blue fluorescence, we saw only a green... thing—hard to describe, but its switch looked like a "small dog" with long green fur. It crawled slowly out of the stone crevice. This thing had no eyes—perhaps it had lived underground all its life, so its eyes and sense of smell had atrophied. It noticed no changes in the surroundings, nor did it detect anyone on the stone platform.

It kept greedily eating the fruits of the "blood bait," and as it kept biting and chewing, the red flowers that had lost their fruit withered one by one into ash. Soon, below, a male corpse over two meters tall was exposed.

Watching from above, my heart pounded—what exactly was this thing? Just as I wanted to look again, the light from the fluorescent tubes gradually dimmed, the weak fluorescence vanishing into darkness. Suddenly I felt an itch on the back of my hand, as if something had grown there. I touched it—and immediately felt something wrong, like a tender plant sprout had sprouted.