Home/ There’s A Beauty / Chapter 106 (Part 1)
The boy confessed that he was not a member of the Ji royal family, catching Liu Wen and the others off guard.
“How could that be? You grew up in the inner palace. If you weren’t from the royal family, why would the Empress Dowager and the late Emperor raise you? You should know that confusing royal bloodlines is a crime punishable by the extermination of nine generations of one’s family.” Or perhaps, the true owner of this body was Emperor Chun, and this person was the wandering ghost occupying the magpie nest? Liu Wen looked suspicious.
“No matter whether you’re pretending to be crazy or stupid, just go up and open the door!” ” Liu Chuanshan’s tone was extremely impatient.
Seeing his master nodding at him as well, You Shu had no choice but to step forward and press his palm into the concave pattern. He raised his eyebrows slightly and found that this door did have some mystery. The handprint on it was neither too big nor too small, perfectly matching his own. If it were someone else, it would surely not work out. It seemed as if the mold used when it was built was exactly his right hand.
The stone gate remained motionless for a long time. He took back his palm, pried open yesterday’s wound, let out a little more blood, and pressed it again, but it still didn’t budge.
“Still no use?” Liu Wen and the others were greatly disappointed.
“If it still doesn’t work, forget it. Let’s bandage the wound quickly.” Meng Changye tried to pull the boy away, but heard him whisper, “Let me try again.”
This gate was too similar to the Gate of Hell. If blood couldn’t open it, what about the Ziwei Emperor’s Qi and the Golden Light of Merit? There was no other choice anyway, so he would just give it a try. Thinking like this, You Shu concentrated all the Ziwei Emperor’s Qi and the Golden Light of Merit in his palm and pressed it down forcefully.
Liu Wen and the others witnessed his palm suddenly emit a dazzling purple-golden light, and they were immediately stunned. What…what’s going on? Has he become an immortal?
The relief carvings on the stone door absorbed the purple-golden light bit by bit, thus becoming a dazzling and magnificent sight. After a while, the creaking sound of the mechanism’s activation came from underground. The two doors that had been tightly sealed finally opened slowly, revealing a pitch-black and bottomless, downward staircase, and a chilly and sinister aura rushed towards them.
Everyone shivered from the cold air, their hearts pounding with fear.
“It…it actually opened! What is that golden light?” Liu Chuanshan looked at the boy with a hint of fear in his eyes. This scene was clearly beyond his comprehension; it was as if the mud he had previously despised had suddenly transformed into a bodhisattva in a temple. The others were also filled with awe and fear, thinking that as expected of someone with the legendary true dragon bloodline, he indeed possessed some divine abilities.
Only Meng Changye’s expression remained unchanged; he simply reached out and tightly gripped the boy’s arm. This person is too mysterious and unpredictable; I am afraid he’ll run away.
You Shu was also somewhat surprised, but quickly calmed down.
Liu Wen lit a candle to probe the air below and found no miasma, so he gathered his men and prepared to take them all down.
You Shu saw it and quickly stopped him, “Military Strategist, this gate is extremely similar to the gate of the underworld. What lies below is probably not a simple mechanism and underground palace; we might encounter some evil spirits. If you take everyone down, and we all encounter danger together, who will come to our rescue? Furthermore, with so many people, if someone triggers a mechanism, we’ll all be huddled together and die even faster. It would be better to send a few capable men down to investigate.”
Liu Wen planned to obtain the treasure through brute force, that is to say, no matter what kind of underground palace and mechanisms were there, all of them would be destroyed; a thousand men would be enough to deal with it.
However, he was still somewhat unsure of the young man’s abilities and therefore took his words very seriously. He also noticed that the palm print on the stone door perfectly overlapped with the boy’s right hand- any larger and it wouldn’t fit, any smaller and the gap wouldn’t be filled. In other words, unless this person was found, no one could open the underground palace, as if the contents of the palace were prepared specifically for him.
“Alright, then let’s send a few people down to investigate.” He nodded in agreement.
“I’ll go.” Several deputy generals and daring soldiers raised their hands in unison.
“I want to go too.” You Shu looked down at the bottomless steps, his eyes filled with confusion and sorrow. He vaguely sensed something below calling out to him, something very important.
“What are you going to do down there? Stay up here obediently.” Meng Changye had already planned to investigate himself, but he would never take the boy down with him.
The two of them tugged at each other for a while, but in the end, Meng Changye gave in. His ears were so red that they almost bled. It was all because the puppy was extremely good at coaxing people. He even said something like, “Wherever you go, I’ll go. Even if I die, I’ll die with you.” This made him go crazy with joy, yet he still had to maintain a dignified demeanor in front of his subordinates.
“Why are you so clingy? Will you die without me? Fine, fine, you can go, but you’re not allowed to leave my side for a single step, understand? If we encounter any danger, get behind me!” He said fiercely, his face full of annoyance, but in fact, flowers had already bloomed in his heart.
You Shu quickly nodded in agreement.
Liu Wen was already accustomed to the two of them being inseparable. He casually selected eighteen highly skilled soldiers, making a total of twenty, no more, no less.
Before descending, You Shu distributed the pre-prepared communication talismans and instructed, “These talismans contains a drop of my blood. Cut your fingers and drip a drop of your blood into it, and you’ll be able to communicate with me.”
He placed a triangular talisman on his forehead and demonstrated, “If you get separated from me, stick this talisman between your eyebrows, then silently recite what you want to say, and I’ll be able to hear you and communicate with you. If you enter a maze or some other similar place, and one person gets out, the others only need to close their eyes and follow the talisman’s instructions to get out.”
“You kid, are you spouting nonsense again? Aren’t you tired?” A deputy general sneered. If this thing were really that magical, he’d cut off his head and give it to Emperor Chun as a stool to sit on.
“Better safe than sorry. Do as Young Master Ji says,” Liu Wen said, pricking his fingertip and dripping a drop of blood. Everyone saw that purple-gold light just now; how else can we explain it now? Perhaps what this person said earlier about “one body, two souls, taoist arts, and ghost immortals”, it was all true. At this point, it’s always good to have an extra layer of preparation.
Meanwhile, Meng Changye had already dripped his own blood into the talisman, raising an eyebrow as he watched the blood droplet quickly merge into the yellow talisman, forming a faint light covering its surface.
“Good heavens, it’s really glowing! Is it really useful?” Liu Chuanshan also dripped his blood, then his face showed a stunned expression. Seeing this, everyone immediately stopped hesitating and pricked their fingertips to draw blood.
You Shu then took out a human-shaped talisman and handed it to the deputy general guarding outside. “This is the general’s natal talisman. If you find any signs of folds, damage, or charring on the talisman, you must go down and rescue people immediately.”
Although the deputy general was skeptical, he dared not delay and quickly nodded in agreement.
Having prepared torches, weapons, and rations, the twenty people slowly descended the steps. As soon as their backs disappeared at the end of the tunnel, the two stone doors closed shut with lightning speed, causing chaos among the soldiers outside.
Meanwhile, You Shu and the others, unaware that their retreat had been cut off, were making their way deeper into the underground palace. The staircase was incredibly long, seemingly endless, and it took them two hours to finally reach a flat area. Meng Changye held the boy tightly in one hand, raising a torch high in the other, surveying their surroundings.
This was a stone cave. The cave walls were covered with strangely shaped stalactites, and clusters of luminous mushrooms and ferns were dotted among the crevices. If the torches were extinguished, the blue, green, or fluorescent golden light emitted by these plants alone would be enough to illuminate the surroundings.
“I wonder how big this underground palace really is. There are only a few torches. We’ll light them when we need them, let’s put them out for now.” You Shu’s clear voice echoed in the cave.
Without hesitation, Meng Changye extinguished the torch, and the others thought it was reasonable and followed suit. Without the interference of flames, the light of plants becomes softer and more colorful, resembling a fairyland at first glance.
“What on earth is that? I’ve never seen a glowing wild grass in my life,” A deputy general said, reaching out to touch a clump of ferns.
Just as his fingertips were about an inch away from the leaves, the Military Strategist and You Shu warned in unison, “Don’t touch it! Be careful of the poisoning.”
A chill ran down his spine, and he was about to withdraw his hand when a living creature the size of a rat jumped out of the grass, squeaking as it pounced on his face and quickly darted into his mouth. This squeaking sound seemed to trigger a mechanism, and a dense array of small black shadows jumped out from the grass and crawled onto the deputy general.
“Aaaaaah… Waaaaah…” In an instant, the deputy general’s screams turned into muffled groans, followed by the sound of coughing up blood and heavy panting of a dying man.
Before everyone could even see what the shadowy figures were, they rushed forward with their swords, the blades slicing through the shadowy figures’ bodies, emitting chilling screams that made people’s scalp tingle. The man closest to them only managed a few blows before screaming, “Aaaaah, what is this thing? What the hell is this thing?!”
A few more people rushed over and slashed at the shadowy figures, their eyes wide with horror, because these black figures were not rats or beetles, but little people. They were as thin as firewood, with slender limbs, but their heads were huge. With a slight opening of their mouths, two rows of sharp teeth were exposed, gnawing at the body of the deputy general inch by inch. There were still a few little people squatting on the deputy general’s face, picking out the tongue from his mouth and stretching it out continuously.
The deputy general rolled and struggled, but couldn’t utter even a single painful groan. His companions, who had initially tried to rescue him, were horrified and hastily retreated, waving their swords.
Meng Changye tossed the boy to a deputy general, ordering him to take him far away, then charged forward with his sword. His swordsmanship was incredibly sharp, like a gust of wind, reaping the lives of the little people. In a few seconds, his path was stained with dark red blood and countless tiny corpses.
Encouraged, the other members of the group also rushed over, but unexpectedly, the strong fishy smell attracted more little people, who densely and layer upon layer climbed onto the cave wall and then rushed forward all at once. There were constantly dark figures scurrying around everyone, biting here and scratching there, making it impossible to guard against.
It seemed that they had a special fondness for human tongues. There would surely be a few who would pounce on their faces, use their sharp claws to pry open the gaps between the people’s teeth, pull out the tongues, and stretch them until they were cut off.
In a few moments, everyone’s bodies were covered with a dense layer of tiny figures, impossible to shake off, and some even nearly had their tongues torn off. Only You Shu was surrounded by a blank circle, any tiny figures that approached him would scream and flee, as if being burned by fire.
The deputy general responsible for protecting him was greatly surprised and saw him pounce on the general, scattering the little people.
“These things are hungry ghosts! Hungry ghosts from the Ghost Realm of the Six Paths of Hell!” He explained while pulling out several talismans from his sleeve and activating them with his Ziwei Emperor Qi.
The talismans instantly ignited, emitting a dazzling purple light. The hungry ghosts screamed in unison, then turned to ashes and vanished in the light. A few of them hiding in crevices where the light couldn’t reach, escaped this fate, but dared not approach again, rustling as they burrowed deeper into the cave.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, and without caring about their own injuries, they rushed to help the deputy general who was the first to suffer.
“Old Li, Old Li, how are you?” Liu Wen forcefully pinched the other person’s philtrum. Seeing that his tongue was still hanging outside and had been gouged out by the evil ghosts with many bloody and mangled wounds, he couldn’t help but feel a chill in his heart.
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