Chapter 365: Bird Totem

Although I knew the Copper Coin Person had no corrosive bloodstains left, I still took the wooden stick Li Qingying handed me and poked at the thing exposed on the right side.

Crack!

On the right side of the outer shrine lintel above the Copper Coin Person's back—the top row of the main deity's position—a small drawer suddenly popped out.

I'll handle it.

Li Qingying brought over a chair, stepped on it, craned their neck to look inside the small drawer, then took out a rectangular red‑lacquered wooden box and handed it to me.

I took the small wooden box, opened it, and saw a stack of pawn tickets inside.

I flipped through them, and indeed they were the pawn ticket stubs of Chen Ping and the previous eight female shopkeepers.

On the endorsements of all nine pawn tickets, the same seal was stamped.

That seal had no name, only a Sanskrit character… and that character was exactly the same as the one on the back of the amulet Chen Ping left behind!

I frowned, wondering what that Sanskrit character actually meant.

I had thought the endorsements on these nine pawn tickets would be "tadyatha".

Huh? Tadyatha?

Could the meaning of this Sanskrit character actually be "tadyatha"?

I took a picture of that Sanskrit character and sent it to Fang Chuanzong.

Fang Chuanzong is well‑versed and knowledgeable; he must have studied Sanskrit as well, right?

Even if he doesn't know Sanskrit, with his connections he ought to know an expert in this field—asking him is sure to be right.

This wall‑attached shrine is exquisitely carved, every part fitting seamlessly; if the mechanism hadn't popped out on its own, you wouldn't notice any small drawer on the outer shrine lintel at all.

Moreover, the mechanism likely popped out by itself because Chen Ping and the eight female corpses have already vanished from this world.

Otherwise, before this, finding the mechanism and successfully opening it would have been extremely difficult.

While I was thinking about how to deal with these pawn tickets, the ground beneath me suddenly trembled, feeling like an earthquake was about to strike.

I instinctively grabbed Li Qingying and ran outside.

My first reaction then was that the formation array of the pawn shop might have been broken, and the pawn shop was about to collapse.

That was purely a reflex.

But by the time I reached the courtyard, I had calmed down.

No.

The Copper Coin Person is still there—how could the pawn shop collapse?

What caused the ground to shake?

Boom!

A muffled bang came from the front courtyard; Li Qingying and I rushed over and saw that the seal stone covering the Eight Trigrams Well had shattered.

That muffled bang just now was the sound of the broken seal stone pieces falling down.

But perhaps this Eight Trigrams Well is somewhat deep, so the sound transmitted upward isn't loud.

We ran to the edge of the Eight Trigrams Well and looked down, seeing only a pitch‑black expanse.

Inside, it remained eerily silent.

The seal stone shattered, yet nothing crawled out of it… where are those resentful spirits?

"I'll go down and have a look," Li Qingying said.

I hurriedly grabbed her: "Don't act rashly……"

Just then, Jiang Sique came running in from outside.

I didn't know when he had gone out.

He panted, saying: "Done! Everything's done!"

I asked: "What's all done?"

"The river!" Jiang Sique finally caught his breath and said, "The stretch of the Pearl Plate River from the bend to where it merges into the Ling Sea has been completely dried up—it's too strange."

Ah?

I could hardly believe my own ears.

That's an entire river!

Moreover, this river has a source upstream and flows down to the sea—how could a section of it suddenly dry up for no reason?

We all ran westward.

Without even getting close, I could already see it—just as Jiang Sique said, this stretch truly had no water.

But heading south from the bend, the river water was clearly rushing along.

What on earth is going on?

Liu Junyan stood by the riverbank, while Hui Moqiong and the others were walking back and forth in this dried‑up stretch of the river, investigating something.

I ran over and asked Liu Junyan, "Āyàn, what's going on?"

Liu Junyan opened his mouth, but unusually he didn't know how to explain it to me; finally he said, "Let me take you up for a bird's‑eye view and you'll understand."

As he spoke, he wrapped his arms around my waist, leapt up, and directly brought me into midair.

He carried me like that, flying from the point where the river breaks at the bend all the way to where it meets the Ling Sea.

The bottom of the Pearl Plate River isn't flat; below lie many deep gullies, pitch‑black and unfathomable at a glance.

Those gullies crisscross, especially dense in the area opposite the pawn shop at the bend, whereas the stretch heading toward the Ling Sea has only a single water‑way that isn't too deep.

"No, Āyàn, go back—return to the section directly facing the pawn shop."

I mentally traced the pattern of those gullies, faintly sensing I had caught something, but it slipped away in an instant.

Liu Junyan brought me back, hovering in midair, waiting patiently.

Actually, it's not hard to imagine—earlier the Yin soldier formation and those coffins in the Pearl Plate River were all hidden inside these gullies.

Now the river water has dried up, foretelling that everything once hidden beneath here is gone.

Some have been moved away, like those remaining yin soldiers, while others have been completely annihilated.

After a while, Liu Junyan said, "Based on our experience, the deep ravine meridians in this part of the Pearl Plate River bottom ought to belong to some formation array, but no matter how we piece them together, we just can't make sense of it, which is strange."

Deep ravine meridians… formation array…

I shook my head: "No, not an ordinary formation array… I've realized, it's that Sanskrit character!"

Liu Junyan frowned: "Sanskrit character?"

I quickly took out the Buddha amulet to show him, and briefly told him everything that had happened at the pawnshop.

Liu Junyan's right thumb touched the Sanskrit character on the back of the Buddha amulet, his brows knit tight; he suddenly shook his head and raised his hand to vigorously rub his temples.

I immediately noticed his condition was off, quickly snatched the Buddha amulet from his hand, supported him and said, "If you can't make it out, don't look; I've already messaged Fang Lao, he'll help us find the answer."

"I'm fine," Liu Junyan said. "I don't recognize this Sanskrit character, but the Eighth Po may be sensing it, which is why I felt a moment of discomfort."

Once I was sure he was alright, I ventured: "Āyàn, if we set aside some side‑line distractions and look at the main trunks of those deep ravine meridians, doesn't it resemble this Sanskrit character?"

"Indeed it does," Liu Junyan said. "This Sanskrit character is likely closely tied to Ti Lan; back then Chen Ping was beguiled by Ti Lan, which is why he possessed such a thing."

I thought for a moment and said, "When the blood corpse was finally taken away, it dropped the Buddha amulet; I originally thought it was unintentional, but now it seems this is a crucial clue Chen Ping left for us."

Liu Junyan agreed with my view: "Perhaps once we figure out what this Sanskrit character is and what it signifies, many problems will be readily solved."

To our surprise, Fang Chuan Zong soon called us back.

But on the phone, he especially assured me that this character is not Sanskrit, but some kind of bird totem…