Chapter 144: Stone Chamber Rune Light Rends the Secret Door

Outside the door, it fell silent again for a few seconds, as if quickly weighing the pros and cons.

"Yes." Qin Yueyao's voice sounded again, this time seeming to carry an extremely faint, hardly noticeable meaning, as if she found it somewhat interesting, or perhaps she was simply making a decision, "Mr. Zhang is indeed a straightforward person. The Qin family accepts your terms. In half an hour, someone will meet us downstairs; we'll rendezvous at the entrance of the White Pagoda Temple."

Everyone arrived at the White Pagoda Temple; just as they stepped into the stone chamber, that aged earthy stench and yin cold clung to them like legs, several times thicker than last time they entered, almost viscous. The stone table and chairs were still the same, covered in dust. But the blackish runes on the four walls were off.

The ink color was deep and lustrous, as if something were faintly flowing beneath; it was no longer lifeless grooves, but like a pulse about to awaken in a blood vessel. The whole chamber's air grew heavy, carrying an indescribable oppression and agitation.

The bronze piece in Zhang Jun's bosom scorched him, making him shudder; the heat penetrated his clothing straight into his flesh, a burning pain, and it also carried an overbearing, undeniable directionality.

Beside him, Lin Xue also clenched her hand, instinctively grasping the azure crystal in her pocket. The stone exuded a piercing cold, numbing her fingertips; the chill was just as intense, seeming to match the bronze piece in strength, yet both pointed toward the same direction—the innermost part of the stone chamber, a stone wall that looked no different from the others.

The few Qin family members Qin Yueyao brought immediately scattered; two guarded the entrance, while the other two, wearing special work clothes and clearly versed in this, without a word ran to that wall, producing various strange probes and small hammers, and got to work. Their movements were practiced, obviously not their first time doing this.

At that moment, Zhang Jun's bronze piece and Lin Xue's azure crystal erupted simultaneously! The bronze scorched like a branding iron, the crystal chilled as if about to explode! A searing beam of light that warped the air, and a near‑solid azure chill, shot from each of them, striking different areas of that stone wall with precision.

At the points where the light struck, several runes buzzed and lit up instantly, as if instantly activated; the light raced along the grooves, tracing several twisted, intertwining, highly complex pattern nodes.

Lin Xue's body jerked violently; images of a black altar and blood‑red ravines surged uncontrollably in her mind. This time the vision was unusually clear—the eerie mark at the altar's center that made one's flesh crawl just by looking at it bore a seventy‑to‑eighty percent resemblance to the illuminated rune nodes on the wall.

"Left three… down five… right… right seven…" her lips moved, her eyes somewhat unfocused, her voice carrying an emptiness and drift that wasn't her own, her fingers unconsciously tapping in the air, as if being pulled by something.

"Quick! Press where she said!" an expert of the Qin family's eyes flashed bright, he let out a low shout. Another expert swiftly adjusted the motion of his hand, the instrument probe precisely moving to the position Lin Xue had spoken.

Indeed! The echoes from striking those spots were completely different, dull yet with a hint of hollowness. One expert held his breath, took out a specially made steel needle as fine as a hair, carefully inserted it into the minuscule crevice of one node, and gently twisted his wrist.

"Click." An extremely faint yet crystal‑clear sound of a mechanism releasing rang out in the dead‑silent stone chamber.

Immediately after, "click click click…" a series of even finer, denser sounds of mechanisms engaging and parts moving came from inside the wall, making one's scalp tingle.

Zhang Jun's heart leapt to his throat as he stared fixedly at that wall, his peripheral vision constantly scanning the surroundings, especially the corners' shadows. Qin Yueyao stood a few steps away, her face expressionless, but a glint in the depths of her eyes betrayed her tension. In this spooky place, who knows what might pop out the next second?

Just as a nearly invisible seam in the stone wall slowly opened, revealing an even more intricate mechanism structure flashing with a faint light within——

Then—sudden change!

The deepest shadow in the stone chamber's corner twisted violently, like a drop of thick ink diffusing silently in clear water. Three black shadows, nearly merging with the darkness, split off, moving so fast they left afterimages, bearing a gust of yin wind like that crawling out of a pile of corpses, and lunged straight at the two Qin family experts who were fully focused on deciphering the mechanism.

At the same moment, a vast, yin‑cold aura brimming with vicious resentment surged like a tsunami! It instantly filled every corner of the stone chamber, even causing the glow of the runes on the walls to dim slightly.

Zhou Qian!

That old ghost actually managed to sneak in too! And he brought helpers, using some strange method they hadn't noticed, appearing directly here!

Behind him were several more, likewise dressed in black, action‑ready attire, their aura dark and lifeless, their movements stiff and deathly still—exactly the members of the "Shadow" organization we had encountered before!

"Protect the master!" the Qin family guards at the entrance reacted instantly, shouting sharply; the two surged forward like tigers descending a mountain, bringing a fierce, vigorous force, and directly met the three ghost‑like black shadows. The yang‑rigid energy of ancient martial arts instantly clashed fiercely with the sinister, poisonous, crafty techniques of the heretical cultivators!

"Bang! Bang!"

Thuds rang out one after another; the narrow stone chamber instantly descended into chaos. Energy surged in all directions, stone chips rained down, and the light of the wall's runes flickered amid the fierce fighting, the tension reaching its peak.

Zhou Qian's old face was gloomy enough to wring water from, yet he didn't even glance at the melee; his gaunt figure flickered, shrouded in a thick, inseparable black mist like a poisoned arrow loosed from a bow, shooting straight at the secret door about to swing fully open—his aim unmistakable: get in first!

"You old thing, nice dream!" Zhang Jun snarled, without hesitation throwing his body across to block the secret door.

The pure yang energy in his dantian erupted without reserve, his whole body becoming like a small blazing furnace; the scorching air wave forcibly pushed back Zhou Qian's enveloping yin‑cold black mist by half a foot!

Lin Xue moved almost simultaneously, without a hint of hesitation, a flash placing her beside Zhang Jun. The profound yin internal energy capable of freezing bone marrow on her body was pushed to the extreme; a piercing chill spread, the ground beneath her feet instantly coating in a thick layer of white frost, even the air seeming to turn viscous.

One scorching like fire, one icy like iron. The two utterly opposite yet subtly complementary forces intertwined, forming an invisible yet incredibly resilient barrier that actually held back the advance of that heretical old monster Zhou Qian!

Zhou Qian's eyes flashed with a fierce gleam; he hadn't expected these two juniors joining forces to be so troublesome. His withered palm shot up, black qi coiling and twisting between his fingers, instantly turning into several black chains like living snakes, tearing the air with a shrill whistle as they lashed toward the two!