Chapter 182

"Besides the art of prophecy, our sect is also skilled in Qi Men formations," Duo Li Ya said with a calm smile.

"The art of prophecy sounds mysterious, but it's really just processing countless pieces of information and conditions, running simulations and deductions, and picking the most likely outcome from countless fate lines."

Duo Li Ya bore the demeanor of a grand master, one hand holding that huge beast-skin book, the other behind his back, speaking lightly and calmly: "And this shares its profound source with Qi Men formations..."

Lao Dao Feng laughed brightly, his triangular eyes softening considerably.

"Then please, Elder Duo Li Ya, help us examine this seal," Lao Dao Feng chuckled, personally leading Duo Li Ya closer to the black rock stratum.

The elites of the Blood Curved Blade all around sighed in their hearts.

In the present age, inheritances have been severed; knowledge of Qi Men formations and mechanism seals is something ordinary powers can never access. The Blood Curved Blade counts as one of the major powers in the Black Snake Domain, yet it only keeps two or three mechanism masters.

Those few mechanism masters are all treated by the Blood Curved Blade as ancestors to be venerated.

How can the Gold Wandering Spirit's luck be so good? Someone like Duo Li Ya voluntarily shows up to plot for them?

However, if this ancient relic truly is as Duo Li Ya said, and inside there really are many, many good things that could greatly boost the Blood Curved Blade's strength... then is he telling the truth?

The Blood Curved Blade and the Gold Wandering Spirit joined forces to unify the Black Snake Domain; afterward, Duo Li Ya withdrew, leaving the Blood Curved Blade and the Gold Wandering Spirit to settle their own victory or defeat.

This is a good thing.

Absolutely a good thing.

Hundreds of eyes stared fixedly at Duo Li Ya, watching him step with a strand of white light onto the black rock layer. He opened the beast-skin book with a golden seal and began to chant the complex incantation in a low voice.

On the pages of the beast-skin book, complex star charts appeared one after another, then began to rotate along a strange trajectory.

Lao Dao Feng also had several Blood Curved Blade Life Pool Realm experts staring blankly at those star charts, completely unaware of what they were. Only Wu Tie, comparing them to the knowledge left by Lao Tie, recognized the source of those star charts...

That is part of the magnificent, romantic Celestial River that Lao Tie spoke of. Wu Tie could even name those star charts.

Pinpricks of silver starlight flickered in and out of the star charts, revealing countless thin silver threads linking these thumb-sized silver specks. As Duo Li Ya chanted, the star charts flew from the pages and drifted down onto the black rock face.

The black rock stratum suddenly burst forth with a pure, deathly black light tide, utterly devoid of any impurity.

The immense light tide instantly filled the entire tunnel, several dozen meters in diameter and thousands of meters deep, enveloping everyone. Then the tide collapsed inward like a huge vortex, instantly sucking everyone in.

Wu Tie hastily slapped his waistband, and the Brocade Carp Sword unfurled thirty-six tiny brocade carps that joyfully circled him, leaping and dancing, forming a light net that tightly protected him.

At the same time Wu Tie didn't forget to shout: "Duo Li Ya... Xiao Bai Lian's words are unreliable... Are you breaking the seal... or digging a pit to bury people?"

The black light tide seemed to swallow all surrounding light, yet within the black light Wu Tie and the others could still clearly see everyone's silhouettes.

Hundreds of people turned to look at Duo Li Ya, clearly seeing his flustered and embarrassed expression... Thus everyone understood: it wasn't Duo Li Ya digging a pit to bury people; rather, this fellow had also blundered and inadvertently triggered the seal here.

All the cultivators of the Blood Curved Blade cursed in their hearts—Lao Dao Feng was right, Xiao Bai Lian is indeed unreliable.

A huge suction force surged forth, catching everyone off guard, with no time to resist... indeed they were powerless to resist, and were pulled by the black light tide into the black rock stratum.

All around, an immense pressure bore down, making bones crackle loudly.

Wu Tie's bones were extraordinarily hard and flexible; he easily withstood this pressure, though his flesh was pressed until it felt a faint ache.

Among the Blood Curved Blade cultivators, those at the Chonglou Realm were fine—they either released protective treasures or simply condensed pure mana into shields to guard their whole bodies.

As for those at the Sensing Mystery Realm, their strength was low and their mana not particularly strong; under the surrounding pressure they were crushed, hearing countless cries of agony everywhere as bones were ground to powder.

Wu Tie watched helplessly as a dozen or so Sensing Mystery Realm cultivators beside him were deformed by the pressure; before he could help, they were ground by the terrifying pressure into bloody balls of flesh.

Within the black light tide, a mysterious force surged; those flesh balls vanished and evaporated at extreme speed, turning into strands of pure blood qi that the strange force sucked away completely dry.

Wu Tie could even feel that, outside the black light tide, some strange existence let out a satisfied sigh.

Just like a dead fat man who's eaten and drunk his fill, patting his belly and letting out a contented burp.

Wu Tie shuddered, Lao Dao Feng shuddered, and quite a few adequately cultivated Blood Curved Blade members turned pale.

Here there is a great ominous thing, and moreover an ominous thing of immeasurable power.

Duo Li Ya called out urgently: "Be careful, before coming here I expended all my stored power to predict the outcome of this operation... We will encounter some danger, but we will definitely return with great benefits."

Before his words finished, the remaining over a hundred people's bodies jerked violently, the surrounding black light tide vanished, and they found themselves in a strange space.

Black mist filled the surroundings, and everyone hovered in midair.

Dozens of li ahead, a pitch-black pyramid stood towering.

Wu Tie roughly estimated that the pyramid's base edge could be ten kilometers, about ten thousand meters, and its height was not much different from the base edge.

The pyramid was immense and grand, its surface made of tightly fitted black stone slabs, smooth as a mirror, so much so that the seams between the slabs were invisible.

Facing them, the pyramid's base had a huge gateway, with two golden humanoid statues a hundred meters tall, each bearing a jackal's head, standing left and right. The golden statues wore golden armor, overlaid with large black patterns, giving an extremely mysterious feeling.

At the pyramid's summit, a black light sphere several meters in diameter hovered silently.

The edge of the black light sphere was a brilliant gold; black gives a feeling of deathly stillness and chill, even a sense of lifeless gloom that makes one want to sleep forever; but with that rim of gold, the sphere feels ancient and sacred.

The black light sphere hovered there silently, emitting black light that illuminated the whole space.

Black light... that's a very strange description.

The light is black, yet clear and pure, 'illuminating' the entire space, so that even the finest dust in the air can be seen distinctly.

Everyone's bodies were shrouded in the black light, their forms nearly turning translucent.

Everyone felt as if their souls were veiled by the black light, all secrets laid bare to unseen eyes; thus, including Wu Tie, everyone moved unnaturally, dodging whatever might be lurking in the void, watching them.

But it was useless; the black light enveloped everything, and everyone within it, no matter how hard they tried, could not block out the black light.

Boom—

A low rumbling sound came, and the pyramid's base gate, three hundred meters high and a hundred meters wide, slowly opened.

A thread of extreme black, opaque black light shot out; the black light whirled and danced rapidly in the void, circling Wu Tie and the others three times at high speed, then suddenly condensed, revealing a scorpion the size of a water jar, pitch-black yet crystal-clear, as if carved from black crystal.

The black scorpion hovered before Wu Tie and the others, its long tail lightly swaying, then it suddenly opened its mouth and let out a loud hiss in an extremely strange language.

The black scorpion's voice was cold and hard, like two pieces of iron striking each other.

But his language was too strange; nobody could understand what he was saying.

Only Wu Tie, having promptly found some traces of this language in the knowledge bequeathed by Lao Tie, could not possibly learn and master it in a short time.

Everyone stared fixedly at the black scorpion, some instinctively gripping their weapons and assuming a ready-to-strike stance.

On the black scorpion's head, a strange rune suddenly lit up, his body jerked, and this time he switched to a language that Wu Tie and the others could understand: "Well, learning a new language is not an easy thing... Why can't you learn the ancient and noble Upper Egyptian language... instead you insist I speak the common language you use?"

Upper Egyptian?

Egyptian?

Wu Tie quickly found relevant records in the knowledge inherited from Old Iron: pyramids, the mysterious black magic of mummies, ancient and noble spirits, hidden in an alternate space within the pyramids, awaiting a suitable opportunity to descend upon the world again……

And Common Language?

Wu Tie smiled faintly; that is the language they now speak, the language used by the powerful tribe that Old Iron once belonged to.

"Because I am strong, you must all use my language!"

Wu Tie also remembered how, when Old Iron said those words back then, he looked immensely proud and unbeatable.

"It doesn't matter anymore." The black scorpion's voice grew louder: "As the great Osiris's personal envoy, the reaper of the desert, the guide of souls…… and the final devourer of evil spirits, Lord Desa will not quarrel with you over these trivial matters."

The black scorpion laughed "ka ka" twice.

"I am Lord Desa, the companion beast personally crafted by Lord Osiris from his blood and flesh…… I'm sorry, when you entered, I devoured those weakest pieces of trash."

The two huge pincers clamped down hard, emitting a loud "bang", and Black Scorpion Desa continued to shout: "But it is precisely because of their sacrifice…… thank you for their delicious brains, I have learned the language you use……"

Wagging his tail, Desa roared loudly: "You must understand that if we cannot communicate, I may have no choice but to kill you."

Desa chattered on, while Lao Dao Feng and the others were still staring in shock at the massive pyramid.

For a long time, no one responded to Desa's words.

Desa didn't mind this either; it seemed he had been silent for too long, he happily muttered to himself for a full quarter of an hour, then let out a long breath, struck a lofty pose, and arrogantly asked: "You, why have you intruded upon the sleeping place of the great Osiris?"

Wu Tie narrowed his eyes, continuing to search his memory for relevant knowledge.

Fortunately, it was only some superficial information, not involving profound cultivation techniques or mystical secrets; Wu Tie quickly found the name "Osiris".

God of death, god of agriculture, plants, and abundance.

It's a strange combination of divine roles—he controls death yet protects agriculture and plants, and even bestows abundance upon all living beings……

Lao Dao Feng stepped forward two paces, arriving before Desa.

"We came here for the treasures of this place." Lao Dao Feng got straight to the point: "If there are treasures here, they belong to the Blood Curved Blade…… they belong to the chief of the Blood Curved Blade, me, Lao Dao Feng!"

The huge curved blade spun rapidly above Lao Dao Feng's head, a thread of fine red light shooting from its edge and imprinting itself on the midline of Desa's body.

Desa was visibly stunned, then all his movable joints began to tremble violently: "Profaner…… there are countless treasures here, even the great Osiris's 'Harvest Tree' is within…… but these are all the great Osiris's treasures, having nothing to do with you outsiders."

As Desa finished speaking, the fully charged huge curved blade flashed silently and struck him.

"Ding!"

The prolonged impact sound made everyone's eardrums ache intensely.

Desa was hurled backward several thousand meters by the massive impact of the blood-red curved blade, his tank‑sized body tumbling wildly as it flew.

Lao Dao Feng's curved blade was also rebounded hundreds of meters into the air, the rapidly spinning blade turning into a bloody moon in the sky, with sharp qi howling everywhere.

Wu Tie's keen eyes saw that Lao Dao Feng's near‑sneak attack left only a shallow mark on Desa's body.

Lao Dao Feng's blade should be an ancient treasure, but Desa's quality is evidently far superior, so Lao Dao Feng's curved blade poses almost no threat to him.

Desa flew backward several hundred meters, barely managed to stabilize himself, then roared as he flew back toward them.

A thread‑thin black light shot forward at great speed, and Desa's roar echoed through the void.

"You shameless, vile lowly race…… you dare offend the great Lord Desa…… you all shall die for me!"

Lao Dao Feng pointed a finger, recalling the blood‑red curved blade.

The six Blood Curved Blade Life Pool Realm experts behind him stepped forward simultaneously, standing shoulder‑to‑shoulder with Lao Dao Feng, and then all seven attacked at once.

Seven strands of blood‑red blade light swept across the void, following a strange trajectory that enveloped Desa, after which countless blade lights fell like rain.