Chapter 500

This is a long, single passageway; the earth all around the passageway has been tamped down, and the oil lamps on the walls extend all the way to the depths.

Perhaps because it lies beneath a burial ground, the temperature in the passage is somewhat low, and a gloomy yin qi pervades.

Since there are no forks, I only need to walk straight ahead along the passageway—straight, turning, looping… The farther I go, the heavier the yin cold qi becomes, and the more uneasy I feel.

Along this way, besides the oil lamps, there is nothing else.

At one point I even doubted that Dilan was deceiving me.

Even if he isn't deceiving me, lingering too long down here makes exposure likely.

If Feng Xianqiu were to suddenly go mad and wander into my room, the consequences would be unthinkable.

Since we've come, there's no reason to turn back; otherwise we'd let Xue Feng down after waiting so long.

After walking about a li, the soil ahead suddenly changed.

From the initially tamped earth, it turned into gravelly soil, then into hard stone, until a stone gate suddenly appeared ahead.

On the stone gate was carved a huge 'Luan' totem.

At that sight, my heart leapt wildly.

We've arrived!

I instinctively reached for the Qian Gong key; holding it in my hand, I found there was no keyhole at all.

Obviously, I was mistaken; this Qian Gong key is not for opening this stone gate.

However, since Dilan didn't specifically mention how to open this stone gate, it shows the mechanism isn't hard to find.

I put away the Qian Gong key, took the Soul-guiding Lamp in one hand and felt the stone gate and surrounding walls with the other; after feeling around, I found no mechanism at all.

I immediately furrowed my brows and reexamined the stone gate.

Upon looking, I saw that the eyes of the Luan bird in the totem faintly held some red.

It was blood!

I instantly understood; I bit my finger and dropped a drop of blood onto the Luan bird's eye.

The blood droplet spread quickly over the entire Luan bird's body, the color gradually fading until it vanished completely.

The stone gate burst open with a boom, and a strong yin cold qi rushed at me, making me shudder.

Indeed, fresh blood is the key to opening the stone gate.

But it probably isn't just anyone's blood; otherwise the Luan bird's eye couldn't retain a bloodstain.

The interior of the stone gate was pitch black; I fully lifted the black cloth on the Soul-guiding Lamp, and golden Merit Light shone through, revealing that the stone gate I had just seen did not swing sideways or retract upward, but fell backward, its two ends resting exactly on a river.

The river water was dark, yet flowing; strands of yin cold qi seeped from the water… This current involuntarily reminded me of the waterfalls and streams of Cangwu Mountain.

However, the water in Cangwu Mountain is clear and warm.

This river flows from the bottom of the stone cavern; I carefully passed through the stone gate and stood before another stone gate opposite.

On this stone gate, too, was carved a huge Luan totem; I squeezed out a bit more blood and dripped it onto the Luan bird's eye.

The gate opened; the stone cavern ahead was clearly much wider than the path I had come on, with oil lamps lighting the walls at intervals.

The oil lamps cast a dim yellow light, illuminating only a limited area; I carried the Soul-guiding Lamp forward, and as I went, the ground beneath my feet grew wider.

Until the wall went from a single oil lamp to two facing each other.

After a while, the two facing lamps became four lamps pressed together.

At that moment, something resembling a Screen Wall appeared ahead of me.

The Screen Wall simply spanned ahead, with light leaking from the space behind it.

Carved on the Screen Wall was not a Luan totem, but a fire‑bathed phoenix.

However, this fire‑bathed phoenix appeared to be covered in wounds.

Was this caused by Nirvana?

I raised the Soul-guiding Lamp to look closer, and this sight shocked me greatly.

The scars on the phoenix's body were not really scars, but… sutures.

The entire phoenix, every key part of its body, had actually been sewn together.

A sewing monster?!

Seeing this, I truly felt as if struck by five thunderbolts.

So the sewing‑monster technique of Wangting Mountain actually came from the Feng Clan?

When I first encountered the existence of the sewing monster, my instinctive reaction was that this method came from the 'two‑skin craftsman'.

In short, a two‑skin craftsman is a corpse‑sewer.

In ancient times, two‑skin craftsmen mainly made a living following executioners and coroners, earning their livelihood by sewing corpses—such as beheaded criminals, those torn apart by five horses, and the dismembered bodies in dismemberment cases, all of which were made whole by the two‑skin craftsman.

The two‑skin craftsman tradition continues to this day; some walk the line between yin and yang, while others have evolved into forensic pathologists, embalmers, and so on.

But when this technique is found in the Feng Clan, it is generally related to shamanic arts.

Everything now makes sense.

I stared at the sewn‑together phoenix on the Screen Wall; at first glance it seemed nothing special, but the longer I looked, the stranger it became.

A strangeness that defies description.

Turning past the Screen Wall, the vista suddenly opened up—a huge cavern!

Around the cavern walls, oil lamps were lit one after another; in their light I saw many carvings on the walls, set in orderly succession.

I stepped forward and gave it a rough glance; the content of the pictures shocked me again.

Too bloody.

Starting from the eastern wall of the Screen Wall, there are all kinds of bloody scenes.

At first, there are scenes of animals having their ears, tails cut out, eyes gouged, etc.; these images reminded me of the Buddha Eye, Spirit Ear, and so on.

Then, the pictures gradually shifted from such small animals to humans…

I saw one cruel executioner after another, blade after blade of blood‑soaked Língchí dāo, corpse after corpse unrecognizable…… Even though they were merely carved pictures, they were enough to make my skin crawl, my stomach churn, and I felt like vomiting.

I forced myself to endure the discomfort all over my body, continued looking, unwilling to miss any detail.

Dìluán had Xuěfèng guide me here, revealing the secret of the sewn‑together monster before my eyes; only now did I truly feel his sincerity.

No longer did I doubt that he didn't want to keep hiding and biding his time for revenge; instead, he was determined to enter reincarnation.

No, he hadn't given up revenge; he realized that with his ability he could never match his master, so he chose to flee himself and then put these shocking scenes before my eyes, hoping to use my hand to avenge him!

He succeeded.

I don't want to avenge him, but I want to avenge all the victims they once persecuted!

I must uncover the truth and stop this from continuing.

In fact, I and my companions have always walked this path; we have lived and died together, never retreating.