Chapter 101: The Source of Malevolence!

Zhang Enpu shook his head. “I’m not sure. In the previous painting, Zhu Youxiao, the Tianqi Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, was clearly already dead—how could he come back to life and become emperor again?

That clearly doesn’t make sense. According to historical records, Emperor Zhu Youxiao should have fallen into water while traveling, developed a chronic illness from the incident, and later died from it. The content of this painting… just feels eerie somehow.”

A chill ran down Liu Dashao’s spine for no apparent reason.

“Let’s go,” Zhang Enpu said, casting one last glance at the mural. He pointed toward the circular doorway at its center. “We’re going deeper now, getting closer to the main event. Everyone, keep your hands ready.”

One after another, they passed through the circular doorway. To be prepared for any danger, Tian Guoqiang led the way, shotgun in hand, ready to fire at any mummies they might encounter. As they walked, Tian suddenly stopped. Liu asked what was wrong, and Tian pointed ahead, his voice filled with disbelief, “Good heavens, where is this place?”

Before them appeared an artificial cave the size of half a football field. The ceiling was studded with countless jagged rocks, resembling sharp knives and axes. In the center of the cave stood a pond, but instead of freshwater, it was filled with blood-red liquid, emitting a shocking stench so strong it made them want to vomit. In the middle of this blood pool stood a platform made of black stone arranged in the pattern of the Eight Trigrams. At each of the platform’s eight corners stood a differently colored flag, covered in strange and bizarre talismans. It looked like a magical formation. At the center of this formation lay a human-shaped white jade coffin. The entire formation exuded a chilling, sinister aura. Intense malevolent energy surged from the formation like rolling black waves in the air.

Everyone stared blankly at the formation in the center of the blood pool, too shocked to speak.

After a long while, they finally regained their composure and slowly approached the blood pool. Bubbles kept rising and popping on the surface, making a popping sound. The entire blood pool sounded like boiling water, bubbling with strange noises. A string of questions exploded in their minds like bubbles—had the Tianqi Emperor gone mad? Why was his coffin sealed with a magical formation? And what exactly was the purpose of this blood pool?

This was the first time any of them had ever seen such a bizarre scene. They looked at each other in stunned silence.

After a while, Zhang Enpu suddenly said, “I vaguely recall that the records of past Celestial Masters mentioned something about such blood pools and magical formations.”

“What? Are you saying…” Liu Dashao looked at Zhang with astonishment.

Zhang shook his head. “I have this feeling that something has gone wrong somewhere. Think about it, all right?”

Bai E’rlai asked, “Everything here is visible, but I’ve looked everywhere and still can’t find an exit.”

Tian Guoqiang said, “You idiot, if the secret passage were that easy to find, would it even be called a secret passage?”

Liu Dashao patted his chest proudly. “Now is the time to test our intelligence! Comrades, use your wisdom and find the secret passage that leads us out of here!”

With that, he exchanged a glance with Zhang Enpu, and both turned their eyes toward the white jade coffin in the center of the formation.

Bai looked at them, stammering, “Y-You… you’re not planning to go into the… the formation, are you?”

Liu nodded. “He who does not enter the tiger’s den will not get the tiger’s cub. Since we’ve come this far, how can we retreat?”

Zhang Enpu’s fighting spirit was ignited by Liu’s words. “He’s right. Perhaps the answers to all our questions lie inside that coffin!”

“But how do we get onto that Eight Trigrams platform?” Tian asked.

Bai chimed in, “Yeah, we can’t possibly swim through that blood pool, can we?”

Zhang shook his head. “Let’s rest first. We’ll figure it out after we’ve regained our strength.”

They sat down in a circle. It had been a long time since they last had water, and they hadn’t noticed how thirsty they were due to the constant tension on their journey. Now that they had relaxed a little, they realized their throats were parched. The four of them shared a pot of water. Although it didn’t fully quench their thirst, they felt somewhat refreshed. There was only one pot of water left in their bag, so they couldn’t afford to waste it unless absolutely necessary.

Suddenly, Bai shouted, “Hey, I’ve got an idea!”

Liu almost jumped out of his skin. He looked at Bai in confusion. “Do you have a way to get over there?”

Bai pointed upward. “Aren’t there chains up there? We can just climb across them!”

Chains up there?! Everyone quickly looked up. One end of a thick iron chain was firmly embedded in the stone wall, while the other extended toward the ceiling above the Eight Trigrams platform. As they followed the chain with their eyes, they noticed something hanging from the ceiling above the platform. Although the chain was suspended in midair, it had initially gone unnoticed due to the dim lighting and the stalactites on the ceiling blocking the view.

The chain was about five meters above the ground. If they used a human pyramid, they should be able to reach it. However, the distance from here to the Eight Trigrams platform in the center of the blood pool was more than ten meters. Once they started climbing the chain, they couldn’t let go halfway—if they fell into the blood pool, it would be no laughing matter. Although they didn’t yet know whether the blood pool was harmful to the human body, it was better to avoid contact for safety’s sake.

They rested for a few more minutes before deciding to send three people to the platform on the other side while leaving one behind as backup. Liu immediately thought of himself, Tian Guoqiang, and Bai E’rlai, since the three of them were young, strong, and physically fit. Crawling across the chain to the formation should be a piece of cake for them, as long as they could overcome their fear of the blood pool.

But to their surprise, Zhang Enpu insisted on joining them this time. He said he had some knowledge of such formations and wanted to avoid any accidents due to their ignorance.

Liu thought Zhang made a good point, but he was doubtful whether Zhang’s frail body could handle the climb.

Zhang took off his Taoist robe. “Don’t underestimate me. I’m in great physical condition.”

Liu left Bai behind as backup. Bai was unhappy, saying he wanted to see if there were any ancient mummies inside the formation.

Liu replied, “Come on, you jinx. Those mummies aren’t something to joke about. If there really are any, we’ll have to sacrifice you to feed them.”

Tian handed his double-barreled shotgun to Bai. “Good comrade, the nation’s border defense depends on you!”

Bai sighed. “Brother, it’s truly a regret of my life that I can’t charge into battle with you.”

Those two were always like lovers, cracking jokes every time they saw each other.

Liu took off his coat and backpack to reduce his load but still strapped the gun to his back just in case. Once everything was ready, they began their climb.

Bai was the strongest and broadest, so he served as the base. Tian straddled Bai’s shoulders, and Bai let out a deep grunt before lifting Tian high. Then Liu nimbly stepped onto Bai’s shoulders, climbed onto Tian’s back, and with a powerful push from Tian’s shoulders, grabbed the chain with both hands. He called out to the others, “I’m going first!” and quickly started crawling forward, hand over hand.

Tian turned to Zhang. “Master Zhang, it’s your turn now!”

Zhang nodded, nimbly jumped onto Wang Jian’s shoulders, climbed up to Tian’s shoulders, grabbed the chain, and followed Liu forward.

“Hang in there, buddy!” Tian said as he slowly stood on Bai’s shoulders. Counting “One, two, three!” on the third count, Bai pushed upward with all his strength. Tian stepped off Bai’s shoulders with a powerful jump, grabbed the chain, steadied himself after a few swings, and started climbing up behind Liu and Zhang.

Below, Bai watched them nervously, afraid they might slip and fall into the blood pool. Zhang and the others were now suspended above the blood pool, the bubbling crimson liquid below them releasing a strong, foul stench. They dared not breathe deeply, holding their breath as they crawled forward.

Before long, they reached the area above the formation. Layers of malevolent energy surged like storm clouds above the formation. As they entered this dark, chaotic aura, everything seemed to spin—strange, eerie sounds filled their ears, making their minds reel and tempting them to just let go and end it all.

Suddenly, Zhang shouted behind them, “Dashao! Bite your tongue hard and keep crawling forward!”

At his words, Liu immediately clenched his teeth. The sharp pain cleared his mind slightly. He quickly crawled forward a few more meters. Suddenly, he noticed that at the end of the chain was a huge drum made of oxhide, about two meters in diameter. Three other chains from different directions converged on this drum, suspending it in midair. Written on the drum was a single character—Liu looked closely. It was the character for “Ming,” the dynasty’s name.

As Liu was staring, Zhang and Tian caught up. Tian shouted from behind, “Dashao! Hurry up and get down! The wind up here is crazy—I’m about to be blown away!”

Liu stretched his arms as far as he could, relaxing his body to reduce the distance to the ground by nearly two meters. He looked down and estimated the height of the coffin below—about one and a half meters. With that, Liu loosened his grip slightly and landed steadily on top of the human-shaped coffin before jumping down onto the platform. Zhang and Tian followed his example. They waved at Bai on the other side, signaling that they had arrived safely.

Now the three of them stood on the Eight Trigrams platform. Made of some unknown stone, the platform gave off a bone-chilling coldness. It wasn’t very large, about twenty or thirty square meters. At each of its eight corners stood a differently colored flag. Zhang explained that these were soul-summoning banners, said to be capable of calling forth spirits. Other than the strange talismans on them, they didn’t seem particularly special, so the group ignored them and focused their attention on the white jade coffin.

The human-shaped white jade coffin had a unique design. Thin wisps of cold mist continuously rose from its surface, dissipating into the air. The coffin was incredibly smooth, icy cold to the touch, and emitted a faint glow that shimmered like a mirage.

Tian looked at the others and asked, “Should we open the coffin?”

Liu said the decision should be left to Zhang. Whether to open it or not depended entirely on him.

Zhang looked at the white jade coffin and then at the others, his expression grave. “The evil energy here is extremely strong. Opening the coffin could bring unforeseen danger—but we must do it nonetheless.”