“Mr. Cui… what do you think?”
After a short while, Yan Sheng and his companions also came down, observing the pool of water with grave expressions.
“This fiend previously fought to the death without retreating, stubbornly holding onto his den. How come today he suddenly seems to have gained insight…?”
Qiu Yi muttered resentfully from the side, casting a veiled glance at Cui Jue.
As a practitioner of the Daoist school, he naturally had tensions with the Legalists. After all, one pursued transcendence beyond worldly affairs, while the other sought to place everything under the rule of “law.” It was no wonder they couldn’t stand each other!
“The White-Bone Demon has already left… and he has taken all the Evil Qi crystals with him! For this triple Evil Vein to form another crystal, it will take at least fifty years!”
Cui Jue stood up, his sharp eyes scanning the surroundings. “However, this fiend’s retreat wasn’t due to his own intelligence or sensing danger—it was because someone else interfered!”
“Who was it?”
Yan Sheng’s face darkened, clenching his fist so hard that the air exploded with sound. The overwhelming yang energy and vigor forced Qiu Yi to take several uneasy steps backward.
“There’s a fifty percent chance it was that spy who escaped earlier!”
Cui Jue said calmly, immediately causing Qiu Yi’s face to flush red, his lips quivering as if wanting to argue.
Yan Sheng waved his hand, halting the hostility between the two factions, and continued, “Our only option now is to head to the other evil vein. This time, we’ll position ourselves around it, spare no expense, and launch a forceful assault to gather the crystals… Moreover, we must not let that person escape!”
At this moment, facing this unknown entity that had preempted them, the members of the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs were all consumed with fury—they wished they could tear its flesh from its bones and sleep upon its hide!
…
Unaware of having already incurred such deep resentment from so many people, Wu Ming had now arrived before the ruined capital of Shengjing.
“The mountains and rivers remain, as the setting sun reddens again…”
The setting sun was like blood, and the broken walls still stood. Yesterday’s events seemed vividly clear, yet the dynasty itself had long been buried in history.
Wu Ming clearly remembered the scene of following Ji Yi’s army to the gates of Shengjing back during the god-task. Yet now, this once prosperous and wealthy capital, unrivaled in the world, had already become a wasteland.
Even the soil layer was barren and covered with an unsettling gray-black hue, as if it had lost all vitality.
“Slaughter Qi!”
Wu Ming clearly understood the culprit behind all this. “Back then, Emperor Shang Jie gathered all the weapons in the land, melted them down to forge twelve golden statues, and employed sorcery techniques to perform blood sacrifices. Originally, the statues already contained extremely potent metallic baleful energy. Later, when the mandate of the Shang dynasty and the dragon energy of the Zhou dynasty were sealed, the slaughter Qi merged with the dragon energy, amplifying its power. Had the twelve golden statues been completed as intended, they would have become supreme treasures, unparalleled in heaven and earth, safeguarding the nation’s destiny! Alas, fate had other plans…”
“With the twelve golden statues destroyed and the dragon veins already damaged, they were further contaminated by the slaughter Qi, naturally rendering Shengjing useless. Ji Yi did not establish his capital here but forcibly relocated the capital’s populace… This was a great act of benevolence. Had they not moved, they would eventually have perished here! However, the Shangzhou region also declined afterward…”
The once impregnable city walls, which even an army of a hundred thousand couldn’t conquer, were now mostly collapsed.
Moreover, the traces of that massive earthquake from years ago still remained, allowing Wu Ming to easily enter the city and gaze upon this scene of deathly silence.
“Hmm? The slaughter Qi isn’t actually that strong…”
Wu Ming slightly furrowed his brows in surprise. “It appears the Taoist priests from Yuying Palace truly exerted their utmost effort during the grand sacrificial ceremony back then… However…”
He arrived at the edge of the imperial palace, gazing at the ritual arrays and patterns that only spirit eyes could see, spread across the void and earth veins, with a cold smile on his face. “Gathering? Rather than suppressing?”
Normally, to eliminate slaughter Qi, the best strategy was direct destruction, while the second-best was to suppress it in one place with multiple layers of seals. However, the arrays Wu Ming observed were guiding and gathering the Qi instead.
“This array has been continuously maintained for three hundred years, obviously tended to regularly… drawing in the dragon-slaughter Qi that disperses into the void. Where could it be heading?”
Following the direction indicated by the array, Wu Ming advanced without hesitation and soon reached the core of the imperial city.
The Shang dynasty palace had been continuously expanded over generations of emperors, covering two hundred thousand mu with one hundred and eight palaces and over ten thousand houses, all gilded and magnificent.
Even though it had been repeatedly looted and stripped bare by later forces, the remaining broken pillars and shattered tiles still clearly conveyed the royal majesty of its former days.
Normally, such ruins would be overgrown with vegetation, teeming with rats and birds, becoming a paradise for strange creatures. However, due to the slaughter Qi, this place was desolate and barren, cold and silent. As Wu Ming walked through it, he felt as small as an ant, and the immense sense of deathly silence pressing upon him was enough to drive ordinary people mad!
“Although suppressed by Daoist techniques, such heavy slaughter Qi naturally makes this place dangerous…”
Wu Ming knew this was no illusion. If ordinary people stayed here too long, they would likely have their minds invaded by the slaughter Qi and go insane.
At this moment, he opened his heavenly eye, following the ritual arrays spread throughout the palace, and arrived at a certain location.
“It’s actually here…”
Wu Ming’s eyes twitched involuntarily as he looked at the square before him. “If I’m not mistaken, this is the core location where the twelve golden statues fell. The first batch of dragon monsters also emerged here, right?”
In his eyes, the sky filled with slaughter Qi was being gathered through the omnipresent ritual arrays, like rivers flowing to the sea, and concentrated underground.
How terrifying was the accumulation of slaughter Qi originally in the imperial palace area?
Not to mention, the ritual arrays inscribed during that grand ceremony had further drawn in the slaughter Qi from the entire capital region!
“Carving spirit into formations, gathering the aura of slaughter, and condensing it into the earth veins—this is an artificially crafted six-slaughter formation!”
Wu Ming counted on his fingers, his expression shifting once more. “No! This place bears divine retribution, forming the Celestial Sha; earthly calamities form the Terrestrial Sha; and the fall of the twelve golden statues constitutes the Human Sha. The three malevolent forces of heaven, earth, and humanity have already converged. This isn’t a Six-Slaughter Vein—it’s a Nine-Slaughter Extinction Vein!!!”
A mere triple-slaughter Yin Vein outside was enough to elevate a skeleton spirit to near-demon-god status. What kind of power would this legendary nine-slaughter Jue Vein possess?
“Now I have no doubt at all—the dragon monster that the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs wanted to seize must be beneath this square!”
A sharp gleam flashed in Wu Ming’s eyes. “But… how do I get underground?”
As he pondered, a ripple of Daoist energy spread out from his body.
“Who’s there?”
Shortly after, two Daoists hurried over in alarm, clearly Wu Ming’s strategy of stirring the grass to scare the snakes had worked.
“You two—are you disciples of the Yuying sect?”
The traces of the Yuying sect were heavy on these two, which couldn’t escape Wu Ming’s perception. After all, he had even seen the earthly immortal scrolls of the Yuying Daoist techniques.
“We are… but may we ask who you are?”
Caught off guard by their sect being identified, the two Daoists were somewhat startled and immediately asked.
“I am Zheng Jun from the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs, under the command of the Director! Show me to your master immediately! If something happens to the dragon monster because of your delay, can you bear the responsibility?”
This heavy accusation immediately left the two Daoists somewhat dazed.
They could only stammer, “We are just apprentices serving our master. Such a major matter should be decided by our master. Please follow us, sir!”
The stranger knew they were Daoists of the Yuying sect, was aware of the dragon monster matter, and was an official from the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs. The possibility of him being a fraud was greatly reduced.
The two Daoists immediately had no doubts about Wu Ming and led the way in front.
Creak!
With the sound of a mechanism, a wall slid open before Wu Ming, revealing a steep slope sloping downward.
“Please, sir!”
One of the Daoists smiled politely. “Our master is cultivating in seclusion below!”
The other one, being more alert, walked ahead himself to show sincerity.
“Hmph!”
Wu Ming naturally wasn’t afraid of these two minor Daoists playing tricks. He stepped forward first and immediately noticed something upon entering. The tunnel on both sides was extremely wide, even featuring stone steps, bearing a weathered look, clearly not newly constructed.
“This place was originally a subterranean warehouse from the Shang dynasty, which we slightly modified for surveillance purposes!”
One of the Daoists flattered as they walked.
“Surveillance?”
Wu Ming’s expression remained unchanged. As he continued downward, he estimated that after walking several hundred zhang, they arrived at a location resembling an underground palace.
“The scale and difficulty of this project… unless it was the work of the ingenious craftsmanship of the Mohist school combined with supernatural powers, it would be absolutely impossible!”
Wu Ming inwardly commented as he entered the grand hall.
This underground palace had an unusual structure. The hall was open on all sides, with countless mirrors reflecting the dim light along the copper pipes in the caves, creating a maze-like atmosphere.
The copper pipes were embedded in the walls, no more than an inch in diameter, but seemingly very long and deep, with many twists and turns. Faintly, the sound of wild beasts roaring could be heard.
Inside the grand hall, large oil lamps were burning.
In bronze basins over a zhang in diameter, oil filled them to the brim. The wicks, as thick as an adult’s arm, burned with flames like torches, illuminating the entire hall brightly.
There were a total of eight such “torches,” placed in the eight trigram positions, casting clear shadows on the walls of the palace.
Within this shadowy display, an even larger underground palace appeared before Wu Ming’s eyes.
“So this place is just an observation post… The real underground palace lies beneath the Shang dynasty imperial palace and covers an area of ten thousand mu…”
Wu Ming was speechless. Such a magnificent sight could only be described as a divine miracle.
“And these bronze mirrors, lamps, and copper pipes form a vast monitoring network, further assisted by Daoist techniques, allowing full surveillance of the entire underground palace…”
Wu Ming sighed inwardly. “Unless it’s a divine miracle, this underground palace must have been built over decades or even centuries by the Shang dynasty, using the entire nation’s resources and the craftsmanship of the Mohist artisans…”
Although the Shang dynasty had already fallen, for the first time, Wu Ming felt that this dynasty was so mysterious.
First of all, even with the exquisite craftsmanship of the Mohist school and the power of the demon god, constructing this underground palace must have drained immense national resources and shortened the dynasty’s lifespan, casting serious doubt on its true purpose.
Moreover, how did King Jie of Shang come up with the idea of building the twelve golden statues? That remains a permanent mystery in history.
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