Chapter Thirty-Six: Nine Worms

  I was taken aback: "Do we know each other?"

  The fire witch's eyes seemed to flash with a hint of loss: "In the end, it was still a case of 'the things are gone and people are different'."

  I was confused by what she said, and the Fire Witch's eyes returned to their usual coldness. She spoke to us with a respectful tone, "If you all want to break through, welcome to enter the Castle of Flame Pavilion." She intentionally raised her voice when saying the name of the castle.

  I took a step forward, and Old Three grabbed my clothes from behind and whispered, "Second Brother, be careful, it's a trap!"

  I turned back to ask Lao San, "Do you have a better way?" and followed Huo Po into the castle. The others hesitated for a moment before also following in.

  As I entered the door, it was a dimly lit and narrow corridor. The fire witch led the way in silence at the front. The corridor was relatively spacious, with many animal heads irregularly hung on the walls. I carefully examined these animals, which I had never seen before. They had gray skin, a pair of sharp ears pointing upwards, amber-colored eyes that seemed to be suspended, and a broad upper face with a pointed lower face. There were two recessed holes where the nose should have been. No matter how you looked at them, they resembled the house-elves in "Harry Potter". Some of the heads had their eyes tightly closed, while others stared at us with their eyes wide open.

  I used to see Western castles in American dramas with cow heads hanging, which was very stylish and had a decorative effect of warding off evil spirits. The head of the little elf-like creature in this castle not only has no aesthetic feeling but also makes me feel creepy.

  I leaned over to Old Xiao and whispered: "What's that thing hanging on the wall? It looks so terrifying!"

  Xiao Lao wiped the sweat from his forehead and said, "This is Gao Bian."

  Lao San suddenly shouted loudly on the side: "What? You two have pastries? Take them out quickly, I'm starving." The castle was originally quiet, and Lao San's loud question made his voice linger in the castle. I helplessly glared at him, but surprisingly found that the heads that were previously closed-eyed suddenly opened their eyes. My heart suddenly skipped a beat, it turned out that these heads were alive, were they buried in the wall with only their heads exposed?

  I continued to ask Old Xiao: "What is Gao Bian?"

  "It's a kind of evil creature that can shake the sun and moon with just one attack, shocking heaven and earth, and making ghosts and gods weep. One alone is enough to tear us all apart, let alone so many here." Old Xiao spoke while his whole body trembled, I rarely saw him so unsettled.

  After passing through the long and dark corridor, I entered a spacious great hall. In the center of the ceiling of the great hall, there was a small sun that illuminated the entire room. Upon closer inspection, it seemed to be some kind of gemstone. Inside, six pillars supported the great hall, and the surroundings were empty, with nothing much around. However, the floor was very messy, with unknown things scattered all over the place in fragments.

  Huǒ Pó stopped in her tracks, turned around and bowed to us, saying seriously: "Everyone, the Nirvana Array has arrived. Whether or not you can break through it depends on your divine powers. I advise you not to think about escaping. You should already have an understanding of how formidable Gāo Biǎn is. If you try to escape, you will end up like them." Huǒ Pó pointed at the fragments on the ground.

  I took a closer look and suddenly gasped, the fragments scattered all over the ground were bone residue, some were torn pieces of clothing, and there were clumps of hair, dried blood and flesh. Had Gao Bian ripped to shreds those who were about to escape? This wasn't just ripping apart, it was almost pulverized. My whole body couldn't help but tremble, I turned my head back to look at them again, everyone's face had turned pale.

  Karamay took a deep breath, calmed himself down and said to Huo Po: "How to break the formation, please teach me, senior."

  "The blood of your family drips into its mouth one by one."

  I looked in the direction she pointed, and on the side was a stone statue of a phoenix. The phoenix was majestic and lifelike, with its body surrounded by swirling flames, as if it were about to take off. It faced us with its mouth open, looking so vivid and powerful.

  Lao San muttered to himself: "You said drop blood and it's really dropping blood?"

  Karamay hastily stopped him and said in a commanding tone: "Do it!" Old Three shut his mouth and didn't say anything else.

  We walked to the stone statue of the phoenix, and Fu Ma was in front. I handed him the dagger, he cut his finger and dripped a drop of blood into the phoenix's mouth. Strangely, the blood disappeared instantly. Fu Ma was stunned for a moment, then Huo Po looked at him, shook her head and said: "You can go now."

  "Can we leave the castle now?" Fu Ma asked in puzzlement. Huo Po didn't say a word.

  Lao San and Karamay also followed suit, just like Fu Ma's situation, the blood disappeared instantly, and Huo Po just shook her head without saying anything.

  Lao San said in a low voice to Karamay: "There won't be any conspiracy, will there?"

  Karamay moved his lips and said: "Wait and see." If you don't look carefully, you can't tell he's speaking.

  Yang Cangcang's toe was high and proud, dripping with blood. She turned her head towards Lao San and the others, but unexpectedly, the phoenix's body emitted a white light, and the fire cloud behind it also ignited, as if it were alive. We were shocked, our eyes wide with amazement, and it wasn't until much later that it gradually dissipated.

  Yang Cangcang was also frightened by this situation, saying: "This... what's going on?" Huo Po didn't say anything. After the phoenix dimmed, Xiao Lao also didn't have any reaction.

  I was just about to cut my finger when Huo Po suddenly stopped me and said: "You don't have to, you can definitely do it."

  "What can I do?" I stared at her in astonishment.

  "You can start the formation, both you and that girl can."

  "How does this array start? Once it's started, we can leave, right?" I asked excitedly.

  The fire witch nodded in agreement: "As long as the formation is activated, you can leave here safely, but this formation requires a sacrificial ceremony, and only you and this young lady are qualified to take on this role." She pointed to the altar in the middle.

  On the altar there was a large square stone pit, and around the stone pit were three phoenix stone statues that looked like the one just now.

  "What's a Bon Festival? What's it for?" Yang Cangcang asked in confusion.

  The fire witch smiled and said, "Miss is indeed clever, after the incineration ceremony, she will become a ghost. The so-called incineration ceremony is to be burned by the fire on this altar, and the person who is burned will become an array spirit. After the incineration ceremony of the array spirit, the rest of the people can leave."

  "What did you say?" Lao San furiously shouted, "Do you want to burn Er Ge and Cuan Cuan alive?"

  The fire witch looked at Lao San coldly and said, "Either one of them will do."

  I stared at Yang Cangcang in silence, she also looked at me with a strange gaze, everyone was at a loss for words, no one spoke.

  Lao San cursed viciously: "Damn it, what a stupid rule! I don't agree, let's just kill this old woman and make a run for it!" As he spoke, Lao San drew out his cleaver, Karamay pulled out her baton, and Fu Ma also took out his knife from his waist.

  The fire witch let out a cold laugh: "I was originally just a wisp of thought, no different from death. Don't mention whether you can kill me or not, even if you could, it would be pointless. First take a look behind you."

  We turned back to take a look, and our hearts were racing with fear. The tall and flat creatures that had been hiding in the walls earlier all came out, staring at us with their amber-colored eyes. They weren't very tall, only about one meter high, with gray bodies. They stretched out two claws, revealing sharp fingernails like knives.

  Huǒ Pó's voice became serious: "Everyone, it's best to offer a sacrifice. Dying one by one is better than all of you being buried here, isn't it? Moreover, the Liú Huǒ Jiǎo ( Array of Nine Deaths and One Life) has a reputation for being extremely deadly, but there is still a 10% chance that the person who sacrifices themselves will survive. Why not take a gamble?"

  The three phoenixes on the altar suddenly spewed fire from their mouths, and the previously dim giant stone pit ignited with a roaring flame. The fire witch looked at us two and said: "Please." Everyone else was silent, and both I and Cang were hesitant to look at each other.

  I don't want to die, it's not that I'm afraid of death, my purpose in coming to the Western Regions is to find Grandfather and Father, and ask them to tell me the whole story. Yang Cangcang seemed to see through my thoughts, and smiled lightly, saying: "Are all the arrays of the Dahua Ancient Country like this? One moment you can only walk six steps, one moment you have to die one person out of six, it's just that we can't let us retreat completely, right?"

  Lao San said with a sob: "Ceng Ceng you..."

  "I didn't belong to your team in the first place, let me go, Jun Yang still has more important things to do, it doesn't matter, just consider me dead forty years ago at the Scorpion's Tomb." Although she spoke lightly, tears kept welling up in her eyes.

  I was deeply moved at the time, and I couldn't just let a girl save us old men. I sighed, looked at them and said: "Then let me take a gamble, if I lose, my grandfather and parents will be in your care." Before I could even glance at them, I rushed to the side of the stone pit ahead of Yang Cangcang, looked down and saw that below was an endless sea of flames. I swallowed a mouthful of saliva, closed my eyes, and jumped down.

  Faintly I heard the shouting and wailing from above, I felt my body sinking down, a burning pain like a knife cut on my skin, before long I couldn't bear it, the pain made me faint.

  Dazed, I stood alone on the grand hall, others didn't know where they went, Huo Po slowly walked towards me, looking at me with kindness and said: "Even after reincarnation, you still retain the heroic spirit of the former emperor."

  This made me feel very uncomfortable, I said word by word: "I am Zhou Junyang, not Shang Huang, I am who I am."

  "Zhou Junyang, you have won the bet. If you had even a hint of reluctance, you would have turned to dust long ago. Only one with a heart of sacrifice and magnanimity is worthy of being a king."

  I frowned and said: "Huo Po, what are you talking about? You mean I'm not dead, we can leave now?"

  Huǒ pó zài wǒ miàn qián yuè lái yuè mó hu, jiàn jiàn de xiāo shī le, wǒ màn màn de zhēng kāi le yǎn jing, fā xiàn wǒ réng rán zài dà diàn lǐ, tā men jǐ gèrén dōu dài zhe lèi hén de kàn zhe wǒ, wǒ kàn le yī yǎn zì jǐ, wán hǎo wú sǔn, dùn shí kāi xīn de bèng le qǐ lái.

  Yang Cangcang hit me hard and said with a crying tone: "You scared us to death."

  Old Three shouted: "Second Brother, you're going to die! We've broken through the enemy's formation!" The several of them were overjoyed and lifted me up, running wildly around the great hall. Suddenly, I felt an intense itching in my ear, and a black insect flew out from inside it, circling around us.

  Xiao Lao stared straight at the insect and shouted in disbelief: "Jiuzhong?"