Chapter 457: Nine-Tier Prison Tower

Knowing that the skull platform before her was most likely the entrance to the Ghost Fire Well, Hua Changxi slowly circled around the skull platform once.

The entire rift valley was deathly silent like a tomb, and the surroundings of the platform were desolate enough to make one's heart palpitate.

The ground was cracked like a spiderweb in many places, with dark green moss seeping from the cracks, emitting a stench mixed with decay and sulfur.

The ground, which might once have been paved with jade bricks inscribed with array patterns, had long been ground to dust by time, then covered by accumulated ashes and bone fragments over countless years; stepping on it felt soft as mud, yet bone-piercingly cold.

Four Vermilion Bird stone statues stood guard at the four cardinal directions, which should have been majestic and poised to take flight, but now they were covered in a thick layer of gray-black dust, as if forgotten and sealed away by time.

Beneath the Hall of Technique Transmission in Lingguang Hall, there was also a Vermilion Bird stone statue.

However, after Hua Changxi swore the 'Vermilion Bird Oath,' that Vermilion Bird stone statue 'awakened' from its slumber.

Later, as more and more people joined the Vermilion Bird Army, the eyes of the statue seemed to be infused with souls, becoming lifelike.

But these four Vermilion Bird stone statues before her seemed to still be in slumber, not yet awakened.

The skull platform was the same.

Apart from the large mouth that emitted ghostly qi and the two eye sockets where green flames flickered in and out of sight, the rest was also a scene of utter stillness.

The entire platform was like an abandoned gateway, with neither caretakers to tend it nor guards to patrol it.

After inspecting the area beneath the platform, Hua Changxi lightly tapped her toes, and her figure floated up like a crimson feather, landing steadily on the edge of the skull's wide-open mouth.

As her feet touched the ground, a dense yin-cold aura drilled into her body like a venomous snake, shooting straight up to her crown.

At the same time, the ghostly qi gushing out from the skull's mouth suddenly roiled and twisted, transforming into countless contorted faces that opened their mouths to screech, lunging straight at Hua Changxi's face.

"Boom~"

Flames surged up, blocking the ghostly faces rushing toward her. Bathed in fire, Hua Changxi's expression turned serious and vigilant.

After the ghostly faces dissolved, Hua Changxi, enveloped in flames, peered into the skull's large mouth, trying to see everything inside.

Unfortunately, aside from the pitch-black ghostly qi and the intermittently visible green flames, she found nothing.

Seeing this, a fire lotus once again took shape in Hua Changxi's hand, and then the fire lotus flew into the skull's large mouth.

As the fire lotus descended, the surging and boiling ghostly qi receded like a tide.

Illuminated by the fire lotus, a downward-extending passage slowly revealed itself—narrow, grim, like the throat of a giant beast leading to an unknown abyss.

"Hmm?!"

The fire lotus extinguished less than a hundred meters down the passage.

Hua Changxi was shaken by this.

To think, just now when she descended from the ground of the mass grave and melted the ghostly qi throughout the entire rift valley, the fire lotus didn't go out. Yet now, less than a hundred meters into the skull, the fire lotus had actually extinguished.

From this, one could imagine how astonishingly dense the ghostly qi was inside the skull!

Afterwards, Hua Changxi condensed several more fire lotuses and sent them into the skull.

Although the later fire lotuses penetrated a bit further, they ultimately could not escape being extinguished.

"Phew~"

Hua Changxi let out a breath. Since standing outside the skull made it impossible to probe the interior deeply, she would have to enter it herself.

"Boom~"

Hua Changxi's flames blazed brightly, and then a fire lotus quietly bloomed between her feet. The next moment, wrapped in the fire lotus, she stepped into the skull.

The interior of the skull was completely shrouded in ghostly qi, thick as ink. Inhaling even one breath would chill the soul and disrupt spiritual power. If she weren't burning with Nanming Lihuo all over her body, she simply couldn't stay inside for long.

Walking on the passage, the howling of eerie winds filled her ears, like the wailing of wronged souls; from time to time, she could also hear the sound of chains scraping against the ground.

The wailing and the scraping of chains intertwined, forming a grim and terrifying melody that echoed in every corner, sending chills down one's spine.

At the same time, the temperature inside the skull was extremely low—this cold wasn't ordinary cold, but a kind of yin-cold.

This cold could penetrate clothing, seep into the marrow, freeze a cultivator's spiritual power, and even freeze the soul. Even a highly advanced cultivator, after being wrapped in this cold for long, would feel their entire body stiffen and become unable to move.

"This is indeed a good place to imprison errant cultivators!" Being here was absolutely a form of torture.

As she continued deeper, the light grew ever dimmer.

Hua Changxi felt that if she withdrew the Fire Lotus, the only source of light inside the entire skull might be those flickering green ghostfires.

It seemed that even sunlight and moonlight could not penetrate inside.

The light of the Fire Lotus was compressed by ghostly qi, unable to illuminate far-off places, only sketching blurred outlines in the darkness.

Finally, after penetrating nearly a thousand meters into the passage, a spacious plaza appeared.

"Garrison Platform!" On the stone wall at the edge of the plaza, these three large red characters were engraved.

To the left of the plaza was a row of mystic iron stone houses, and to the right was a row of mystic iron cage houses.

Hua Changxi first looked at the mystic iron houses on the left, then at the mystic iron cage houses on the right.

The left ones were guard rooms, the right ones were prisoner intake rooms.

Obviously, the guard rooms were where garrison soldiers stood watch, and the intake rooms were the transitional area for criminals before punishment.

Hua Changxi did not look too long, but she lingered in the first guard room for a while.

For no other reason, a stone mirror was placed in the center of this room, with the words "Well Mirror" carved on it.

Hua Changxi wondered: if this stone mirror were activated, could it monitor the movements of the entire Ghostfire Well?

On the guard room side, there was no downward passage, so Hua Changxi went along the intake rooms deeper, and at the end, she saw stairs extending downward.

"What exactly is the layout inside the skull?"

"And where is the Ghostfire Well?"

Hua Changxi descended the stairs, and at the end of the stairs was a circular corridor.

On both sides of the corridor were densely packed prison cells, all built from black stone. Inside hung two chains condensed from ghostly qi; the chains were ink-black, with a faint green sheen on their surface.

"Well Prison, First Floor."

Hua Changxi saw a signboard at the junction of the corridor and the stairway entrance.

This meant she was now on the first floor of the Ghostfire Well prison?

The stairs continued downward, and soon Hua Changxi arrived at the second-floor corridor.

The layout of the second-floor corridor was exactly the same as the first floor.

Continuing down, the third-floor corridor had the same layout.

At this point, the Fire Lotus burning on Hua Changxi's body began to wilt—for no other reason, in some cells on the third floor, green ghostfires were actually burning on the chains formed from ghostly qi.

The corrosive power of ghostfire was dozens of times stronger than that of ghostly qi.

When she reached the fourth-floor corridor, the Fire Lotus could barely maintain itself.

On this floor, not only were ghostfires burning on the chains in the cells, but ghostfires also appeared in the corridor itself.

Hua Changxi knew she could not go deeper relying on the Fire Lotus. She stood on the corridor, looking downward.

Although her vision was filled with ghostly qi and ghostfires, by now she had figured out the layout of the space inside the skull—shaped like a tower, hollow in the middle, connected to the large mouth of the skull like a courtyard.

She no longer wanted to descend floor by floor.

"Boom!"

A fiery golden flame burst from Hua Changxi's body, flames soared, and her figure began to blur, elongate, and transform into a feathered form...

In an instant, the human figure vanished, replaced by a Vermilion Fire Bird bathed in flames—its feathers like molten gold, its eyes like the blazing sun, its tail feathers trailing crimson flowing fire.

The fire bird raised its head and let out a clear cry that shook the surroundings. Then, with a flap of its wings, it leaped down from the corridor like a fireball plunging into an abyss.

At that moment, the interior of the skull was fully illuminated by the fire bird—it was a nine-story prison tower.

Wherever the fire bird passed, ghostly qi melted away and ghostfires scattered!

In the end, only in the black well at the very bottom of the prison tower did green ghostfires still burn.