Chapter 63 of Journey to the West: Heaven's Dark Gold

  Facing this dilemma in front of us, I and Tie Yi discussed it and decided to continue moving forward. After all, we're going to die anyway, but moving forward might still give us a chance to survive.

  With a decision made, our footsteps were much faster than before. Since Tie Yi was scouting ahead, I quickened my pace and closely followed the agile figure of Tie Yi.

  As we continued on, the speed at which the rock walls closed in on both sides seemed to accelerate greatly. Before we knew it, the path had narrowed from a width that allowed two people to walk side by side to one where only one person could pass through. The exit ahead still seemed far away, and Tie Yi remained silent as he continued forward, the light from his wolf-tooth sword casting an eerie bronze glow on the walls. We didn't have time for idle chatter, so we quickened our pace, hoping to find a way out before the stone walls completely closed in on us.

  It wasn't long before the distance between the stone walls on both sides forced us to proceed sideways, at this pace, after a few minutes we would become part of the stone wall, my body felt the cold friction with the stone, gradually extinguishing my hope for the road ahead.

  As I was lost in thought, Tie Yi's footsteps suddenly stopped, and I accidentally bumped into him. "Why aren't you walking?" I curiously leaned over Tie Yi's shoulder to look ahead, but surprisingly, there was no road ahead. Was this a dead end? But that shouldn't be right, I clearly felt the wind on the road just now.

  At this moment, the rock walls on both sides converged unexpectedly. I patted the shoulder of Tie Yi and slowly closed my eyes to await the impending death.

  It's strange that as the two rock walls gradually closed in, I didn't feel like I was going to be squeezed to death like I had imagined. Instead, it felt soft and fluffy. In a daze, I felt like we were in an enclosed space, bright and heavenly.

  This is a space of about over ten square meters, with the white light-emitting quartz rocks all around, making the entire space bright and shining like daytime. In the center of the space, there is a circular platform surrounded by three layers of stone steps, with a black thin stone pillar standing in the middle.

  I have a very strong feeling that this thing is the Millennium Black Gold we've been searching for in vain. I can't explain why, but I'm absolutely certain.

  "Thousand-year-old black gold?" I said to Tie Yi.

  "Thousand-year-old black gold!" Iron Clothes nodded slightly.

  "Are we dead?" I asked Tieyi.

  Tieyi didn't say anything, I shouted loudly, "Let go!"

  This guy quietly and forcefully pinched a big chunk of flesh on my back with at least 720 degrees of rotation!

  "You're kidding me, right?" I yelled with a grin on my face.

  "If it hurts, then he should still be alive!" Tie Yi said indifferently.

  I touched the bruise on my back and couldn't utter a word of nonsense. This guy looks harmless but is actually very vicious!

  But at this moment of life and death, I couldn't care about arguing with him. We unconsciously moved closer to the center of the stone platform together.

  As I took a closer look, I found that the black color of this stone pillar was not as dark and shiny as the black rocks I had just encountered, but rather a very murky black with a faint white halo around it.

  Tie Yi reached out to pull out the thin stone pillar embedded in the stone pedestal, but as soon as his hand touched the stone body, a strange thing happened.

  As soon as the iron clothes touched the stone body's hand, a light beam like an electric current was emitted. With a cry of surprise from the iron clothes, I suddenly saw that the iron clothes' left hand had turned into an ice pillar emitting cold air, and a thick layer of frost had completely frozen the iron clothes' left hand and arm.

  This sudden scene made me shocked and my mind was in a mess, I stood there not knowing what to do or what could be done. Looking at Tie Yi's ferocious expression, even this iron guy couldn't bear the pain that far exceeded my imagination. Subconsciously, I wanted to grab Tie Yi's arm, "Don't touch, my arm is frozen stiff, if touched now it will definitely shatter into pieces, can only let it slowly thaw."

  I stood there, frozen in uncertainty!

  It's clear that Tie Yi is trying very hard to control his arms, but it seems to have no effect. I look at the black stone pillar and sweat profusely, saying "What should I do?" But there is no response from Tie Yi. I turn my head back and almost fall over, and at this moment, Tie Yi is standing behind me like an ice sculpture.

  The whole body is wrapped in a thick layer of ice, looking very eerie!

  Tie Yi won't be dead, will he? The moment this thought emerged, I suddenly felt a sense of emptiness throughout my body, desperately calling out Tie Yi's name but getting no response.

  I recall Tie Yi standing in front of me, saying "so I'll die first" with a smile. I recall Tie Yi waving the bronze mirror at me with a smile. A heart-wrenching feeling surged up my chest, and I spat out a mouthful of blood, which landed squarely on the stone pillar. As a result, eight crimson characters appeared in mid-air around the slender stone pillar:

  Devouring the dark gold, the beginning of heaven's record.

  At this moment, my brain is as nimble as a bean, hearing the two words "ignite" and I start rubbing my hands fiercely. After a while, with a crackling sound, I actually lit up the fire, and a faint golden flame appeared on my hands.

  But just as I ignited the Devouring Abyss Hand, my hand somehow moved on its own and stretched towards that thin black stone pillar. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't control it. As I waited for the ice and snow to invade me like a suit of armor, I grew anxious and broke out in a cold sweat. It seemed this time I was destined to not escape this calamity.

  Little did I know, as I steeled myself for the chill of becoming an ice sculpture, I didn't feel a hint of coldness. Instead, a surge of heat emanated from my chest, making me feel like my body was being infused with flames. The world in front of me rapidly distorted and stretched, leaving me dizzy and on the verge of explosion.

  I involuntarily let out a shrill scream, the entire space was filled with rolling crimson light, and with a dull explosive sound, I fell to the ground, fainting.

  "Chui Ming, Chui Ming"... As I heard the voice calling me, I slowly opened my eyes. The first thing that came into view was Tie Yi's face, covered in sweat. "Well, it seems we've ended up dying together after all. Are we in the underworld now? Have you met my ancestors yet? And Cow Head and Horse Face, Black and White Impermanence... those are familiar faces..."

  "What are you thinking, you haven't done anything and you want to die? Where is it that easy? Take a good look again, we're still here, not dead." As my consciousness gradually recovered, I found that indeed we were still in that suddenly appearing enclosed space!

  In my right hand, I was holding that thin black stone pillar, but for some reason it seemed to have shrunk a lot. The entire body was pitch-black and transparent, revealing an icy cold sensation. It wasn't until now that I realized the clothes on my upper body had disappeared, and at this moment, I was lying naked on the ice-cold stone surface. The Xuanwu diagram on my chest was starkly visible before my eyes, with a scorching color enveloped in a faint halo.

  I stared at Tieyi, "Wasn't it you who stripped me naked? What do you want to do?" I quickly covered my chest with my hands. Tieyi gave me a white eye and said, "What are you thinking? Your figure is so..." I was furious, "You're the one who's so... your whole neighborhood is like that, your whole village is like that."

  As I spoke, I swung the stone pillar in my hand as if to hit it, but through touch, I found that there were patterns on the stone pillar. I opened the wolf's tooth and shone it on, and indeed, there was a Xuanwu diagram on it, at least several times smaller than the one on my chest. I was certain that this stone pillar was the thousand-year-old Wujin I had been searching for. But what did this stone have to do with the Thousand-Year-Old Ink mentioned by Father? It was so rough and didn't look like a brush at all, let alone having hair. Sigh, never mind, let's get out of here alive first.

  At this time, I just remembered what had just happened. "Tie Yi, weren't you frozen into an ice stick just now? What's going on? I remember there was an explosion earlier and I think I fainted." As for what happened earlier, I really didn't know what happened, the fragmented scenes couldn't be pieced together to form a complete memory.

  At this moment, apart from the feeling of hunger in my stomach, it seems that I won't die. Tie Yi sat on the ground, looking at me and saying, "I don't know why, when I approached that stone, my hand involuntarily wanted to touch it. Who knew that as soon as my hand got close to the stone body, a chill ran down my fingertips, just like my body was frozen in place. I tried with all my might to pull out my arm, but there was no sensation at all. Afterwards, my entire body quickly became like being frozen in an ice block.

  "But strangely, although I was frozen, my sensory organs seemed to be unaffected, so I could still see everything that had just happened."

  At this time, Tieyi was exercising his body while taking off his own shirt to cover me. I quickly put it on, because although the two of us were about the same height, Tieyi was much more robust than me, okay, add another "much" here, so after putting it on, it was a bit too big.

  "Since you just saw it, who exactly took off my clothes? Why is there not even a hair left here?" I look forward to Tie Yi's explanation to satisfy my curiosity.

  Tieyi cleared his throat, "Just now when I saw you cry a handful of snot and several handfuls of tears, I really was moved for a moment. I remember just now, after seeing your hand on the stone, my body gradually had a warm current flowing in, with a kind of melting feeling."

  At that time, I saw a flame on your chest, it was definitely a flame, which appeared from the moment you touched the surface of the stone. When the flames on your body gradually faded away, you became what you are now. If I'm not mistaken, the clothes on your body should have been burned to ashes. Yes, just now your eyes were blood red, and at the same time as that red light flashed by, I seemed to hear many wailing voices, like many people crying out in despair.

  "If I'm not mistaken, it should be the people who died in the mine who made that sound." Looking at this guy's expression and my understanding of him, what just happened is obviously true, but why do I have no feeling or memory of it?