The pale-faced monster behind me suddenly attacked, pouncing on me and pinning me to the ground, clawing at my neck and then trying to bite me. I had to use the triangular blade to block its mouth, while hearing its growls resembling those of a wild dog. Its saliva sprayed onto my face, but that wasn't the most frightening part. What was truly terrifying was another pale-faced monster charging towards me from the front, lifting its paw to strike at my head. These creatures' claws were like daggers; if it landed a solid hit, I'd probably lose half my head.
"Damn!"
I growled, trying to break free from the pale-faced monster on my back. Unfortunately, it was too strong, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get up, with its sharp teeth just centimeters away from tearing into my flesh.
“Bang!”
At this critical juncture, a bone flew over and hit the white-faced weirdo in front of me. This blow made the white-faced weirdo stop attacking me, and instead slowly turned around. It turned out that it was Shen Mengtian who threw this bone.
At this moment, she was still holding a long bone, probably torn from the nearby skeleton. She was shivering, full of fear on her face, with red eyes and obvious tear marks.
"Don't come any closer, I..."
She shook her arms, crying and shouting. The white-faced weirdo slowly walked over, and I knew something was not right. The girl must have done this to save me, but ended up risking herself!
"Run!"
I shouted loudly, but Shen Mengtian had no strength or courage to run. She took a step back and fell to the ground, looking like she was ready to sacrifice herself.
"Ah, run! Don't just sit there, run!"
Anxious, I couldn't care too much and shouted at the girl. But she was completely dumbfounded, unable to even stand up, let alone run. The white-faced weirdo roared at her and then swung its claws. Just as things were reaching a critical point, I heard a "swoosh," and a crossbow arrow flew past me, accurately piercing the white-faced weirdo's eye!
"Ah!"
The white-faced weirdo screamed in pain and anger, vigorously pounding the ground with its hands. I was surprised. At that moment, the white-faced weirdo on my back also started screaming in pain. I looked back and saw that two crossbow arrows had accurately hit the white-faced weirdo's back.
The heavy pressure was lifted. The white-faced weirdo staggered backward, and I quickly crawled forward. I grabbed a three-edged spike and stabbed the white-faced weirdo in front of Shen Mengtian, poking it five or six times in its lower back until I felt bones shattering and flesh becoming mush. My body was stained red with blood. The heavily wounded white-faced weirdo staggered back and tried to roar at me, but before it could make a sound, it fell down. Panting heavily, I looked at Shen Mengtian and asked, "Are you okay?"
The girl was completely stunned, shaking her head, unable to speak.
I wiped the blood off my hands and saw Zhu and the others running towards us with flashlights. Diane held a crossbow and had just fired the arrow. It seemed like my words had an effect!
Zhu wielded two thunderstone needles and headed straight for the fat man. One of the white-faced weirdos attacking the fat man tried to attack Zhu, but she skillfully dodged and launched a surprise attack from behind, piercing the white-faced weirdo's body with the thunderstone needles before swiftly evading. The white-faced weirdo tried to turn around and attack Zhu, but Wei Changping came from behind with a large axe, chopping the white-faced weirdo's neck in half with a powerful blow!
"Ah!"
The white-faced weirdo, holding its nearly falling head, fell down in agony and stopped moving.
On the other side, Gu Yu took out two machetes from his waist. The machetes looked like good steel, gleaming under the flashlight. The blades were about as long as my arm, giving off a thug-like vibe. He charged towards the white-faced weirdo next to Luo Yong, raised the machete in his hand, and stabbed the white-faced weirdo in the back. The white-faced weirdo tried to turn and attack Gu Yu, but he grabbed its throat. Then, with the other machete, he sliced off the white-faced weirdo's throat. Blood gushed out, and the creature was powerless against him.
The remaining three white-faced weirdos were quickly dealt with by Zhu and the others. I sat on the ground, breathing a long sigh of relief. My face and clothes were covered in blood, my arm was weak, and my hand was trembling. The fat man and Luo Yong were also in bad shape, with injuries to their arms, neck, and possibly broken ribs and bleeding from the mouth, looking very disheveled.
"Damn, I thought we were going to die here."
The fat man threw a cigarette over to me.
I was trembling so much that I couldn't even hold the lighter, let alone light the cigarette. The lighter fell to the ground.
"Snap!"
Unexpectedly, someone lit the cigarette for me. I thought it was the fat man, but when I looked up, I saw Gu Yu's face right in front of me. He looked at me, holding the fire with one hand and the knife with the other. I nodded slightly, lit the cigarette, took a puff, and said, "Thank you for saving me."
"If it wasn't for us, you would have been dead long ago."
Wei Changping opened his mouth while wiping the axe.
Gu Yu put away the lighter, squatted in front of me, and said in a low voice, "I could have watched you all die. Human life is worthless on the road, and hay can still be used to feed horses. But human life is useless. I saved you because you just said you had deciphered the four mechanisms inside. Don't tell me you were lying to me. I don't like being lied to..."
I smiled and tried to stand up, exhaling a wisp of smoke before replying, "I'm sorry, I did lie to you."
Before Gu Yu could react, Daian and Wei Changping had already picked up their weapons. Daian's crossbow was aimed at my forehead, and he cocked the trigger. My life was in immediate danger.
"**k, I saved you, and you dare to lie to us!"
Wei Changping shouted fiercely at me.
Fatty and Luoqiong quickly raised their weapons, having just escaped the difficulties of the pale-faced monsters, and now found themselves in a tense confrontation.
"At least we saved you, that's not wrong, right?"
Gu Yu looked coldly at everything around and held the machete with a slight trembling, a cold glint flashing, showing a chilling murderous intent.
"I helped you, and you help me, that's all relative. Fatty's grandfather knows an old leader in the military district. If you mess with us, I guarantee you won't end up well!"
I carried out the old man, and Daian sneered, "Nonsense, do you think we won't dare to touch you just because of this kind of talk? The military district's old leader? Why don't you say you're the Commander-in-Chief of the three armed forces?"
"You can ask Zhu if you don't believe me."
I pointed to Zhu.
Gu Yu slowly turned to look at Zhu, who nodded and said, "It's true, Cui Zhen's grandfather was an old Red Army soldier who used to work as a security guard for the big guys in Yezhi. They do have some background."
Gu Yu withdrew his gaze, but still looked at me coldly. Then suddenly took a step forward, so fast that I didn't react, and then raised the machete in his hand suddenly up to my neck, the cold blade pressed against the edge of my neck, and I could clearly feel the panic and fear in my heart.
"I have killed with this knife, human life is not something important to me. It may be important to others, but it is the same to me. If I kill you, I will risk my own life, I don't care about this..."
He looked at me coldly, like an angry wild wolf.
At this moment, I suddenly spoke, but Gu Yu remained silent, looking up at me.
"Continuing along this road will lead to a huge iron gate, and beyond that gate is an underground palace. I can assure you that I'm not lying. But no one knows what dangers lie inside. If you and your men don't have a guinea pig to pave the way for you, maybe you won’t be able to make it out alive in the end."
I was only halfway through my words when Wei Changping interrupted me, shouting, "We’ve traveled far and wide for so many years. We've never been afraid, what's to fear now? Do you think this little challenge can kill us?"
I ignored him and it’s clear to everyone who’s the leader here, as long as I could convince Gu Yu, everything would be settled.
"I don't know what you've encountered in the past, but to face such danger without even seeing the real treasure, it's the first time for me. You've seen the monstrous corpses in this place. It’s not hard to imagine what's inside the underground palace. If you want to save the lives of your men, then listen to me," I said solemnly.
"Go ahead, tell me," Gu Yu finally spoke.
"I'll be the guinea pig. As long as you spare my brothers, I can pave the way for you. Even if I only have one life, at least I can help you withstand a calamity. What do you think?"
My words surprised Gu Yu, and the expressions of Zhuzi, Luoqiong, and the others changed instantly.
"Xiaoshan, what the hell are you saying!" Fatty started swearing, but I ignored him, still looking at Gu Yu, "I'll pave the way for you. Don’t trouble my brothers. Consider it a trade, or a repayment for the life you saved just now, how about it?"
Gu Yu didn’t immediately respond, and I felt nervous, taking a deep breath, and didn’t say another word. After a moment, Gu Yu took the knife off my neck, and said, "I thought you were just a little thug, but you do have some guts. Okay, I’ll agree to your proposal."
I finally breathed a sigh of relief, raised my hand to smoke, but the cigarette had already gone out, and I hadn’t even noticed.
"We'll rest in place, replenish water and energy. Half an hour later, we'll set off and enter the iron gate," Gu Yu put away the machete and announced. Daian and Wei Changping put away their weapons, we split up and sat on either side of the passage. Zhuzi took out two water bottles and a few steamed buns from the backpack and handed them over. Fatty sat beside me smoking and said softly, "What are you thinking? Trying to show off?"
I shook my head while drinking water, then wiped my mouth and said, "Don't worry, I know what I'm doing."
In fact, I was lying to Fatty. I had no clue what I was going to do next. But to prevent Fatty from asking more questions, I just gave a casual response.
Fatty didn't say anything more, he knew my temper well, having been my brother for years. As I chewed the steamed buns and pondered, at this moment Shen Mentian walked over and stood beside me, saying in a low voice, "Thank you for saving me."
I looked up at her, unable to clearly see her expression in the darkness, and smiled, "It's mutual, helping each other out."
"Yeah, I wanted to tell you something," Shen Mentian squatted down next to me, leaning against me, and then whispered in my ear, "I like history and archaeology. Before going to teacher’s college, I wanted to major in archaeology. But later, because my parents didn't agree with me travelling around, I had to stay in Shanghai. This Xuanming Temple is a building from the Qing Dynasty, it should have been built 300 years ago."
I didn't pay much attention to what she said, because it was something we already knew. Actually, at that time, I didn’t really respect intellectual people who liked to bury themselves in books but lacked the courage to explore. "After all, a scholar is useless," I used to use this phrase to criticize those bookish types.
Hearing Shen Mentian's words, I casually shook my head and said with a smile, "We already knew about that."
"Oh, actually, what I wanted to say is, after going through the iron gate with you just now, I observed the architectural style of the entire palace and it felt very strange." When I heard this, I seemed to finally realize the crux of what she was saying.
"You’ve studied architecture as well?"
I asked with curiosity.
"Ancient architecture is part of archaeology and also one of the topics I must study. The architectural style of Xuān Míng Temple is similar to most temples built during the Qing Dynasty, with slanted roofs and flat tops. But when I saw the palace inside, the style was completely different. I observed the architectural style of the underground palace just now. It is in the shape of a pagoda, divided into three levels. The top is hexagonal, which is not uncommon in architectural style. But the special part is the building in front of the palace, it looks like an inverted gourd. This architectural style is not part of our Han ethnicity or the Central Plains' architectural system."
Shen Mengtian's explanation was a bit circuitous. After sorting out my thoughts, I understood that simply put, the surface Xuān Míng Temple was built during the Qing Dynasty, but the palace underneath does not belong to the architectural style of the Central Plains.
"Okay. And then what?" I asked somewhat dismissively.
"I think it might be the architectural style from Yunnan," Shen Mengtian's statement seemed to hit the mark.
I furrowed my brows and asked, "Yunnan's? "
"Yes, I visited Dali, Yunnan a few years ago. I saw the royal palace in Dali, and it's similar to this one. But it's much more luxurious than here, this palace looks more abandoned. And if it has three levels, then each level's space is relatively large. That’s all I can help you with. I've told you what I know, thank you for saving me…"
After Shen Mengtian finished speaking, she silently walked away. At first glance, her words seemed to have no effect on me. But upon closer analysis, there was some sense in what she said. First, the underground palace and Xuān Míng Temple might not have been built at the same time. Just imagine, if the buildings were constructed at the same time, why would they have different styles? Secondly, she mentioned Yunnan, based on the information given by Zhu earlier. Last time we saw the small monsters, they should be from the Corpse Witchcraft sect in Yunnan. Third, Shen Mengtian mentioned the term "abandoned". If conditions permit, perhaps we can find out the origins of this underground palace by checking nearby preserved county records or similar materials.
I drank some water, stood up and walked over to Zhu. When Li Dunzhu saw me, he looked a bit embarrassed. After sitting down, I said, "Brother Zhu, why are you so late?”
Zhu was taken aback, took a puff of smoke, glanced at Gu Yu and the others behind him, and whispered, "It's not that I don't want to let you out, it's Gu Yu's idea. He wants you to serve as cannon fodder for exploration. If we don’t open the door, and you can't find the mechanism inside, then you will have to find a way out, and it will become helping us to explore."
I wasn't surprised at all, I had already thought about this situation before.
"I have another question to ask, is there a sect of the Central Heaven Gate in Yunnan?"
I asked softly.
"Yunnan? There isn't much information about the Central Heaven Gate, but because it's not an independent sect, there are quite a few sects involved. In Yunnan, a part of the Mòtán sect has joined the Central Heaven Gate, and so has the Dábā sect, as well as some wandering monks in Yunnan. As for the Corpse Witchcraft, let me think...”
Zhu pondered for a while, then suddenly raised his head and said, "Shuyang!”
"What Yang?" I asked strangely.
"Shuyang, I once heard about his story, he's not a particularly famous figure, but he is considered quite renowned within the realm of the Corpse Witchcraft. Moreover, he is a native of Dali, Yunnan!"
A clue seems to be budding.