txolops Chapter 40 The Cave of Ten Thousand Souls
Chapter 40 The Cave of Ten Thousand Souls
Behind the ancestral mountain of Xuantian Sect, the wind blows horizontally across the broken cliff, like the back of a knife scraping bone.
The cold air seeping from the cracks in the rocks, mixed with old ash, incense, and an indescribable burnt smell, went straight into the lungs through the nasal cavity.
Huang Chen lay crouching behind a protruding black rock, half his body pressed against the cold rock surface, his breathing extremely low.
When he activated the Concealing Breath Technique to its fullest extent, he became like a cold, lifeless shadow, not even the hem of his clothes trembled.
A hundred feet below, a narrow crevice appeared in the cliff face.
The opening wasn't large, but three dull copper nails were embedded around it, with fine, dense lines of blood floating on them. If he hadn't possessed the Xuan Tian Sect's sacrificial vein remnant key, he wouldn't have been able to discern this hidden entrance with the naked eye.
Huang Chen raised his hand, and the broken key in his palm became slightly warm.
A chilling aura emanated from the key, echoing the three copper nails in the distance.
Click.
It's like some kind of old lock spring being unscrewed.
The cracks in the cliff face slowly opened by half a foot. There was no wind inside, only a thick, almost tangible, grayish-red mist that slowly billowed out.
Huang Chen didn't rush in.
He first glanced around to make sure the aura of the guards on the back cliff was still in the outer circle and there was no unusual movement, before turning sideways and disappearing into the crevice in the rock.
The moment I stepped inside, all the mountain winds around me ceased.
The ground beneath my feet wasn't smooth stone steps, but a layer of soft, rotten ash, making a slight "plop" sound when I stepped on it, like stepping into a pile of incense ash that had accumulated over the years. The walls were damp and cold, and occasionally a distorted outline of a human face would bulge out, only to disappear back into the depths of the stone wall before I could even make out what it was.
Huang Chen frowned.
This is not a secret passage.
This is a piece of "thing" that was forcibly pressed under the mountain gate.
The further you go in, the more pronounced that feeling becomes.
The passage ahead was irregular; in some places it resembled a natural cave, while in others lay broken flagpoles, shattered armor plates, and half-buried bone blades embedded in the stone. Besides the acrid smell of incense, the air was thick with the pungent, sweet stench of rust, decaying corpses, and bloodlust.
It resembles an ancient battlefield, cut in half and then nailed down beneath the ancestral mountain by a grand formation.
Huang Chen's eyelids twitched slightly, and his bloodlust senses began to stir on their own.
The atmosphere around us was thick with resentment.
The pressure was so great that his blood and qi were slightly suffocated.
After rounding a crack in the wall, a faint light flickered.
Then came the child's suppressed sobs.
Huang Chen stopped in his tracks, pressed himself against the shadows, and slowly peeked out half of his face.
Ahead is a sunken cave.
Inside the cave stood seven black iron sacrificial pillars, draped with yellowish cloth strips and bone bells. In the center stood a three-legged sacrificial furnace, its mouth spewing eerie green flames. The firelight cast flickering light on the surroundings, illuminating pale human faces.
That's not a living person standing there.
It is the soul.
Dozens of remnant souls were strung together by iron chains and circled the sacrificial furnace like livestock. With each rotation, a wisp of soul fire was drawn into the furnace.
An old Taoist priest sat beside the stove.
His Taoist robe was washed until it turned gray, but the cuffs and collar were stained with large patches of black, oily grime. His face was sagging, his cheekbones were high, his eye sockets were deep, but his eyes were frighteningly bright, like two beads soaked in corpse oil.
He made a hand seal with one hand and held a handful of thin soul talismans in the other, stirring them into the furnace from time to time while chanting softly.
This man is the old Taoist priest who guards the mountain.
Standing to his left and right were four disciples of the Xuantian Sect who guarded the pulse.
One of them was the youngest, with a bluish complexion, a guardian token hanging from his waist, and a rope in his hand.
At the other end of the rope were six human children, so thin they were just skeletons. The oldest was no more than ten years old, and the youngest looked only five or six. Their ankles were all chafed and bleeding.
The young disciple frowned, as if annoyed that they were walking too slowly, and kicked them.
"Stop crying!" he hissed. "Being able to enter the sacrificial lineage is your good fortune."
"If you howl again, I'll cut your tongue out."
The boy at the front was kicked and fell to the ground, his knee scraping against the gravel and drawing blood. He gasped in pain but dared not cry out, only shrinking back.
Another disciple guarding the meridian scoffed, "Junior Brother Ding, why waste your breath talking to a bunch of mortals? Once Master refines these child souls, and the incense offerings at the Ancestral Hall are stable, there might even be a reward tomorrow."
'
The disciple guarding the vein spat and dragged the children forward by pulling on the rope.
"hurry up!
'
Huang Chen stood in the shadows, his five fingers gradually tightening.
The knuckles are turning white.
The fire in my chest didn't explode immediately; instead, it grew heavier and heavier, like a stone pressing down on my blood.
His gaze swept over the sacrificial pillars and then over the fine array patterns on the edge of the sacrificial furnace, and he quickly discerned the clues.
This is not a simple soul-burning exercise at all.
The Xuantian Sect used this fragment of the ancient battlefield as an underground soul vein, using the remnants of human souls and the life-giving souls of children as firewood to feed the soul-binding array and the ancestral hall incense system above.
No wonder the aura of Zushan always carries an indescribable gloom.
The tablet above is the spirit tablet of the ancestral master.
What's burning below are human lives.
The old Taoist priest guarding the mountain suddenly stopped chanting incantations, his thin, bony nostrils twitched twice, and he looked up at the dark passage.
"The wind has changed."
The disciples were taken aback.
The disciple guarding the pulse, Ding, instinctively turned around: "Master, is someone there?"
The old Taoist squinted and let out a hoarse laugh: "It's not a person, it's a rat that's crawled in."
'
Huang Chen didn't wait any longer.
With a flick of his right hand, the Wind-Stabilizing Pearl fell into his palm.
The moment the spiritual energy was poured in, the swirling gray-red malevolent mist around them abruptly stopped, as if it had been firmly pressed down by an invisible hand. The bone bell stopped shaking, and the smoke billowing from the furnace fire also stopped in mid-air.
The old Taoist priest guarding the mountain's expression changed drastically: "Who!"
The next moment, the crimson light of the Twelfth Grade Karmic Fire Lotus suddenly shone brightly.
Instead of raining down relentlessly, it first transformed into a thin curtain of fire, protecting the six children along with the two remaining souls that were about to be sucked into the sacrificial furnace.
The firelight shone on the children's faces, and the boys were all stunned.
The disciple guarding the meridian, Ding, cried out in alarm, "Someone is attempting to steal my meridian!"
Huang Chen has arrived.
He burst out of the darkness, dust and debris exploding beneath his feet. He was like a ferocious beast pouncing on the ground, instantly reaching the nearest disciple guarding the meridian.
The disciple had just drawn his flying sword, and before he could even raise it to level, Huang Chen's fist had already slammed into his chest.
boom!
The sound of bones breaking was dull and muffled.
The disciple's chest collapsed on the spot, his back slammed hard against the sacrificial pillar, and he couldn't even spit out all the blood in his mouth before his head tilted to the side and he fell down.
"Stop him!"
"The old Taoist priest guarding the mountain shouted, and with a flick of his soul token, more than a dozen gray-black soul shadows rushed out of the furnace.
The other three disciples also hurriedly offered their swords.
The space inside the cave was already cramped, and as soon as the flying sword took off, it brought with it a sharp whooshing sound. Huang Chen did not dodge, but grabbed a falling iron chain with his left hand and pulled hard, causing another disciple to stagger forward.
He followed up with a knee strike.
Click.
The disciple's jaw shattered, and teeth and blood sprayed into the air.
Huang Chen seized the sword and slashed it with his backhand.
A cold glint passed by his throat.
Before the corpse could even fall, the guardian disciple Ding had already lunged to the side, a black talisman in his hand, his face contorted with rage: "Die!"
'
The black talisman exploded, turning into a plume of foul-smelling black smoke that rushed straight towards Huang Chen's face.
Huang Chen raised his hand and pressed down, and a wisp of crimson flame split off from the Karmic Fire Red Lotus. The black smoke made a strange "sizzling" sound as soon as it hit the flame, and was instantly burned into a hollow.
The disciple guarding the pulse, Ding, nearly popped his eyes out: "Karmic Fire?!"
'
"You don't even deserve to acknowledge it."
Huang Chen took a step closer, moving so fast that he was just a blur.
The disciple guarding the meridian hastily retreated, slashing horizontally with his flying sword. Huang Chen turned his head to avoid the blade, letting it graz his shoulder armor, then grabbed his wrist and twisted it outwards.
Ka!
Wrist fracture.
Before the disciple Ding could even utter a scream, Huang Chen had already pressed his other hand against his face and slammed him hard into the stone ground.
boom!
Gravel flew everywhere.
His face sank directly into the pit, his nose and cheekbones were shattered, and blood was flowing out along the edge of the pit.
Huang Chen didn't stop, and grabbed his hair and hit him a second time.
Smash it again.
Until the body twitched twice and then stopped moving.
"bite!
Slay evildoers and gain karma points!
"bite!
Slay evildoers and gain karma points!
"bite!
Slay evildoers and gain karma points!
System notification sounds exploded in my mind one after another, cold and clear.
The last remaining disciple guarding the meridian completely collapsed, turning and fleeing towards the exit of the passage, screaming, "Help! Someone's here—"
As soon as the sound rang out, Huang Chen grabbed a broken sacrificial pillar from the ground and hurled it.
call!
The section of the black iron sacrificial pillar pierced the air like a short spear, entering from his back. The disciple was sent flying, a burst of blood erupting in his chest, and he was pinned directly to the stone wall.
Inside the cave, only the flames of the sacrificial furnace crackled and leaped within.
The old Taoist priest guarding the mountain twitched, and his eyes finally changed.
"Good, very good." He stood up, his sleeves billowing, and the array patterns under his feet lit up in circles. "Dare to sneak into the ancestral mountain to worship the veins and damage the foundation of the ancestral hall."
"You little beast, you will stay here today and pay for this soul vein with your life!"
As soon as he finished speaking, all the soul tokens in his hand flew out.
Seven branches, nine branches, thirteen branches.
Each one was entwined with mournful wails, as if the soul had been nailed into a magical artifact.
The eerie green flames in the sacrificial furnace suddenly leaped up, pulling dozens of remnant souls in mid-air together, transforming them into a gigantic ghost face that lunged at Huang Chen and bit him down.
The children huddled together in fear, and the youngest one finally cried out, "Mother—!"
Huang Chen felt a sinking feeling in his chest and pushed the Red Lotus Fire Curtain even thicker by three points.
"Squat down, don't come out!"
After he finished shouting, his feet trembled, and instead of retreating, he advanced.
The ghostly face lunged forward, its chilling aura almost freezing one's very soul. Huang Chen felt a slight pain in his sea of consciousness, but he stubbornly pressed on and charged into the center of the soul fire, unleashing a flurry of punches.
The fist struck the ghost's face like it was smashing into a pile of rotten flesh made of mud and bone.
boom!
boom!boom!
Each punch shattered a large number of vengeful spirits.
The old Taoist priest guarding the mountain grinned maliciously: "Useless!"
The resentment here is endless; what are you going to do to waste your time?
As he spoke, he formed a hand seal and pressed half of his palm into the sacrificial furnace, pulling out a ball of viscous soul fire and patting it against his chest.
boom!
The old Taoist's energy surged, and a layer of dark red veins bulged on his thin body, even stretching his skin so much that it cracked open in several places.
He took a step forward, and a distorted phantom image of a Dharma body vaguely appeared behind him, covered in incense smoke, but with human bone chains wrapped around its head.
Huang Chen's eyes turned cold.
This old thing doesn't just use the Soul-Burning Feeding Array.
He himself was also part of the formation.
The old Taoist priest guarding the mountain struck with his palm, which was covered in gray-white flame patterns. Huang Chen raised his arm to meet the blow head-on, and the two forces collided, causing the floor of the cave to suddenly sink.
boom!
Huang Chen took half a step back.
The old Taoist priest guarding the mountain was also shaken so badly that his arm went numb, and a look of shock and anger flashed across his face: "Your physical body..."
Huang Chen didn't give him a chance to finish speaking.
When the Wu Clan's battle body was pushed to its limit, its blood and qi roared like thunder, and a dark current of crimson gold seemed to surge beneath its skin.
He stepped forward and lunged forward, his fist, elbow, and shoulder striking in close quarters.
The old Taoist priest was skilled in soul fire and soul-binding formations, and what he feared most was this kind of unreasonable and domineering close-range attack.
The first punch shattered the protective incense.
The second elbow strike broke three ribs.
The third shoulder strike sent the old Taoist priest guarding the mountain crashing back to the altar, smashing half of the altar's handle off.
The old Taoist priest spat out blood, his soul tokens flying wildly as he desperately tried to create distance.
Huang Chen stepped on the hem of his Taoist robe, grabbed his neck with one hand, and lifted him up like a chicken.
"Is it satisfying to feed the spirits of children to the formation?"
'
The old Taoist priest guarding the mountain was choked until his face turned blue and purple, but he was still grinning maliciously: "How many can you save? The ancestral hall burns incense every day, and the sacrificial veins devour souls every night."
you--"
Huang Chen smashed all of his teeth with a single punch.
"I have a question."
'
Another punch.
"You answer one question."
'
The old Taoist priest guarding the mountain was hit on the head, which was thrown back, his back teeth spewing blood and foam, yet he still managed to slur his words: "You've disturbed the sacrificial meridian... the sect will—"
Huang Chen was too lazy to listen anymore.
He dragged the old Taoist priest along and strode toward the three-legged sacrificial furnace.
Inside the furnace, eerie green flames churned, and within the flames were countless writhing human faces. The temperature wasn't high, but the malevolent aura was terrifyingly heavy. As one approached, one could hear a dense chorus of cries, as if someone were blowing air into one's ear.
The old Taoist priest guarding the mountain finally panicked, kicking his legs wildly: "No! Stop!"
You can't—
Huang Chen grabbed the back of his head and slammed him against the edge of the stove.
Boom!
The skull is fractured.
Smash it again.
Boom!
The third blow caused his entire upper body to collapse.
Huang Chen held him down and forcibly stuffed him into the sacrificial furnace.
The eerie green soul fire roared up, and the old Taoist guarding the mountain screamed in agony. He grabbed the edge of the furnace with both hands and struggled frantically. His skin and flesh were charred black in the blink of an eye, and the veins on his face crawled around like worms.
Huang Chen kicked him in the back.
puff.
He was completely thrown into the furnace.
The screams lasted for three breaths before suddenly stopping.
"Ding! Slaying a wicked person grants a massive amount of karma points!"
'
At the same time, the array patterns around the sacrificial furnace began to crack.
The dozens of bound remnant souls seemed to suddenly break free of their ropes and soar into the sky.
A cracking sound came from the top of the grotto, as if something that had been pressed down for tens of thousands of years had finally loosened a little.
Several children huddled inside the curtain of karmic fire, staring blankly at Huang Chen, forgetting even to cry.
Huang Chen turned around, his breathing still a little rough.
"Those who can stand up, come here."
'
The boy at the front, whose knee was injured, wiped his face and asked cautiously, "You...you're here to rescue us?"
Huang Chen glanced at him and nodded.
"right."
The child's lips trembled, then he suddenly burst into tears and scrambled towards us.
The other children rushed over, but fearing to touch his blood, they could only shrink to the side and sob.
"bite!
Rescue the humans being sacrificed and gain a large amount of merit points!
"bite!
Merit points increased!
System notifications sounded one after another.
Huang Chen didn't look at the panel immediately because the ground beneath his feet had already started to shake.
After the sacrificial furnace collapsed, a thin crack appeared in the stone wall behind it, which had always been sealed by black iron chains.
There was no wind in the crack, only a dark red fire.
It is not the Red Lotus Karmic Fire.
It is an older, fiercer fire, more like a fire burning from the depths of resentment.
Huang Chen shielded the boys behind him and quickly approached.
As the crack widened, an extremely sharp and murderous aura rushed out, making his temples throb slightly. Buried within the crack was a piece of pitch-black remains, neither quite chiseled nor quite awl-shaped, its surface covered with cracks, and its edges still clung to petrified dark brown blood crust.
The raging fire enveloped it, causing the surrounding chains to crackle and pop.
Huang Chen only glanced at it before the system panel popped up automatically.
[Special ancient weapon fragment of the forbidden type detected: Soul-Destroying Chisel Fragment]
【Special Feature: Counters Soul Binding, Array Eye, and Incense Offering Avatar】
Status: Available for collection
[Note: This item has a natural conflict with the ancestral hall's spirit tablet and incense system.]
Huang Chen's heart skipped a beat.
Grass.
This thing has come at just the right time.
He reached out to grab it, and the resentment immediately surged up his palm, scorching his skin.
Huang Chen grunted, simultaneously activating his Witch Clan Battle Body and the Karmic Fire Red Lotus, forcefully suppressing the resentful fire.
The next instant, the fragment of the ancient weapon fell into his palm.
Shen.
It wasn't the weight that was heavy; it was the murderous intent that weighed down on me, like a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood pressing down on my hand.
"receive."
With a thought, the fragments of the Soul-Destroying Chisel were stored in his storage space by the system.
The grotto trembled again.
Huang Chen then took a moment to glance at the panel.
My karma value skyrocketed, and my merits increased dramatically, with the numbers jumping almost nonstop. More importantly, the system's judgment on the Soul-Destroying Shards was crystal clear—specifically targeting Soul Binding, Array Eyes, and Incense Offering Appearances.
As Huang Chen stared at the words, the first thing that flashed through his mind was the phantom of the soul tablets that had been nurtured by incense for many years above the Ancestral Hall.
The offering is made to the ancestral master.
Below, people's souls are burned.
This is the perfect tool to stick in.
The cracks at the top of the grotto were increasing, and loose stones kept falling down.
A boy was hit on the shoulder and shuddered in pain.
Huang Chen put away the panel, turned around and picked up the youngest child, then whispered, "Those who can walk, stay close to me. Don't run around, and don't look back."
'
The older boy nodded through gritted teeth: "I'll help them."
"good.
'
Huang Chen raised his hand and withdrew half of the Crimson Lotus Fire Curtain, concentrating the flames around the group to block the aftershocks without being too conspicuous. He then rushed towards the side cave along the same route.
The gray mist churned up again in the passage, and the rumbling of the collapsing sacrificial vein behind them continued in waves.
The children stumbled and fell as they ran, their breathing ragged.
While slowing down and waiting for them, Huang Chen also kept his eyes on the outside world. There were fluctuations in the energy above the ancestral mountain, but it wasn't chaotic enough to wake the entire sect.
The inner layer of the sacrificial vein was already hidden, and it was sealed by the Xuantian Sect's own heavy array, so the commotion was temporarily kept underground.
As they approached the exit, the boy with the injured knee suddenly spoke softly, "Big brother..."
"Um?
'
"My shoe fell off."
Huang Chen looked down and saw that the child was indeed barefoot, with the sole of his foot worn raw and bloody.
Without saying a word, he simply lifted the child onto his back.
Hold me tight.
'
The boy quickly hugged his neck, his voice still trembling with tears, "I...I'm not heavy."
Huang Chen squeezed out from the crevice and returned to the cold wind on the back cliff.
The moonlight outside was pale, and when the wind blew, the children huddled together as if they had just been pulled out of a nightmare.
Huang Chen pressed his hand against the cliff wall, and with a slight turn of the sacrificial vein key, closed the entrance again.
The stone seams closed up, as if nothing had ever happened.
Only his cuffs were still dripping blood.
The youngest child nestled in his arms, lifted his dirty little face, and whispered, "Big brother, are we really out?"
Huang Chen glanced at the dark mountain road and lowered his voice.
"They're out."
He then bent down and pulled another boy who was about to collapse onto the makeshift vehicle made from the remnants of the flying boat. With a wave of his hand, he concealed the group's presence with his black wind-blown cloak and led the children into the deeper darkness behind the ancestral mountain cliff.