Chapter 45: The Old Man of Heavenly Secrets

  The mummy's entire body was emitting a faint golden glow, which was somewhat similar to the color of the nine insects. When they saw this golden light, they were like mice seeing a cat, revealing fearful expressions and trembling as they hid behind me. I looked at them in confusion, wondering why they were so afraid of just a beam of light.

  The corpse in front of me is changing, the dry and tight skin that was stuck to the bones just now has gradually relaxed and opened up, the skin color has changed from dark yellow to normal skin tone, his hair started growing and gradually became shiny, and the facial features on his face have become increasingly clear.

  I hadn't noticed before, but seeing the corpse's transformation almost scared me to death. The upper half of its body was no different from a normal person, but its lower half was segmented, with six legs in addition to the two hands on its upper half. It looked exactly like a shrimp, and I couldn't help but shudder all over my body.

  "This... this old man is a shrimp?" Fu Ma said intermittently.

  "I'm not blind, and my eyes seem quite spirited." I replied in a low voice.

  He looked at me with a smirk on his face and said, "I'm talking about the lower half of his body, he's a shrimp."

  The old man's golden light gradually faded away, and what was once a dry corpse is now a lively person sitting in front of us, with a crooked smile on his face. It would be more accurate to say that the corpse was not an old man, but rather a middle-aged man with an old man's voice.

  He had a head of shoulder-length black hair, with a warm and smooth complexion, almost without any wrinkles on his face, looking like he was just over thirty years old, in stark contrast to the dry corpse image from earlier. He tilted his head, his bright and piercing eyes gazing at us, his sharp gaze seeming to be able to see through people's hearts, my heart couldn't help but tremble slightly. "Are you the ones who disturbed my peaceful slumber?" The ancient voice sounded again.

  "You... you, are you human or ghost? Or... or a shrimp?" Fu Ma stuttered.

  The old man curled his lip: "You're staring at a person who isn't wearing clothes, isn't that too impolite? Why don't you all turn around?"

  Lao San snorted: "Who would turn their back on their enemy? Do you think we're stupid?"

  "Suit yourselves!" The old man shrugged and made a nonchalant expression.

  I hesitated for a moment, turned around and faced away from him. Everyone behind me was looking at me in confusion. "This old man's abilities are definitely above ours. If he wanted to attack us, he would have done so already. Let's all turn around," I explained.

  After I explained it like this, everyone was hesitant, but they all turned around. After a while, the old man smiled and said: "Alright, you can turn around now."

  When I saw him again, he had somehow found a white robe and put it on. The style of the robe was somewhat familiar, and I remembered that the stone statue of the emperor in the Scorpion Tomb wore something similar. Was this some kind of fashion trend in their ancient Five Nations?

  "Who are you, after all, a human or a ghost?" Lao San looked at him vigilantly.

  The old man leisurely combed his hair and slowly said, "Except for him, no one else here is worthy of talking to me." The 'he' in the old man's words referred to me, and my heart suddenly skipped a beat. The old man smiled benevolently at me: "I am Tianji Old Man, do you still remember me?"

  I burst out laughing and quickly shook my head: "Really can't remember." Tiān Jī Old Man? As soon as I heard this name, I thought of Gu Long's "The Little Li Flying Dagger". It seems that this old man is not an ordinary person. On Bai Xiao Sheng's list of famous weapons, he was ranked first!

  "Huǒ pó also asked me this before, was I very familiar with you guys in the past?" I slowly calmed down and asked doubtfully.

  The old man's eyes revealed a hint of sorrow, and he sighed: "It's not just recognition, thousands of years ago, you also came here, I personally drew an oracle for you, time can indeed change a person's nature."

  "A thousand years ago? I've only lived for over 20 years, okay?"

  "Oh?" He was slightly surprised. "You still don't know your own identity? You are the reincarnation of King Huang of the ancient country of Dagu."

  "I am not a reincarnation of anyone, nor am I anyone's shadow. I am who I am, Zhou Junyang!" I said stubbornly, with discomfort in my heart.

  The old man cast a look of approval at me: "Good, you are indeed you, Brother Junyang. You have kept your promise and returned to fulfill that vow from thousands of years ago."

  "A promise from ten thousand years ago? What promise, I'm here to find my family. Since you're the Heaven's Secret Old Man, you must know many secrets. Do you know where they are?" I asked anxiously.

  The old man sighed and said, "The heavenly secret you want to probe is a calamity for us, I can see one or two things, but I will have to sit in meditation for thousands of years because of this."

  "Can you speak human language?" I said with some impatience, is this how a superior being speaks? Half leaving and half staying, why bother speaking at all.

  "Ten thousand years ago, you came to the Tianji Cave Mansion to find me and asked me to divine a heavenly number for you. The price of this divination was that I would sit in meditation for ten thousand years. Now, after ten thousand years have passed, you have come as promised. You are destined to be born, this is the path you chose yourself at the beginning. You once made promises to me and your people, hoping that you can fulfill them soon."

  "Heavenly Master, you've been reading too many fantasy novels. I'm just here to find my family members. Once I find them, I'll leave. What promise are you talking about?"

  "I'm afraid everything is not as simple as you think, their disappearance was just the fuse, and besides, they are not your biological parents." The old man Tianji said with a hint of meaning.

  When I heard him say that, my heart skipped a beat. I remembered what the half-alligator man in Ze Array had said before - your grandfather is not your real grandfather. Now Old Man Tian Ji is saying the same thing, so where did I come from? Did I pop out of a stone seam?

  Fu Ma, who was standing aside, couldn't hold back his temper and said: "You two, are you done yet? Are we invisible or something? Old man, if you know what's good for you, tell us how to get out of here. Otherwise, I'll break your legs."

  The old man shrugged his shoulders and sneered: "Here, he can go out, but I'm afraid you will stay in this life forever. When the fake becomes real, the real also becomes fake."

  "Stop speaking in such a mysterious tone, Jun Yang. Be careful around this person, I think he has ill intentions." Kalamayi glared at Tianji Old Man with hostility.

  "Don't waste any more time, I promised the Queen back then that when we meet again, I'll continue to divine for you. This divination will require me to sit in meditation for another ten thousand years, but as long as it can help us get through this calamity, it's worth it. Don't let these people disturb me while I'm divining." The Heaven Mechanism Old Man said solemnly.

  Suddenly, under the stone slab where he was sitting, a Tai Chi Bagua diagram emitting golden light appeared. It was different from what I usually saw, as there were many dense texts and calculations similar to the Nine Palaces Grid on this diagram. The Old Man of Heavenly Machine closed his eyes, pinched his fingers, and kept muttering something in his mouth.

  "I watched the old man making a big show, seemingly stalling for time. Jun Yang, didn't you notice?" Yang Cangcang asked me with an unusual serious expression, her brow furrowed and face cold.

  "I don't know either, what's the point of waiting for him to finish?"

  "We can't wait for him to finish, this kid doesn't know what he's doing, wants to go out and put his energy on him, taking advantage of him being busy calculating, hurry up and force him to open the cave door." Xiao Lao said with a raised voice.

  They rushed towards the Tianji old man despite my obstruction, and the old man smiled slightly with half-closed eyes, releasing another burst of golden light. They twisted their faces in pain and quickly retreated behind me, staring fiercely at the Tianji old man, their gaze could have killed him multiple times if it were possible.

  "You bunch of fools, I knew you'd be like this. Earlier was just a pretence, now it's for real. Zhou Junyang, if you can't even block them, don't think about going out." The old man continued to close his eyes, leaving me shocked and at a loss.

  Their behavior has made me start to suspect that something must have happened to them after they came out of the Mirror Palace. The five of them seem to have changed into different people. The originally taciturn ones have become garrulous, while the original chatterboxes have turned into ice blocks with a bad temper. They keep mentioning going out, as if going out will make things better?

  "No matter what, I want to wait until the old man finishes divining." I called out to the nine insects, looking at them seriously. "Whoever takes another step forward, I will freeze him in place." My tone was not to be doubted, and the nine insects seemed to feel that they had gained face, flying around me with an air of triumph, changing between three different colors from time to time.

  "Zhou Junyang, you ingrate, after all we've done for you." Xiao Lao's face turned red with anger.

  Fu Ma shook his head: "I've saved you so many times in vain, I really misjudged you."

  Others glared at me with malice, as if I were a heinous criminal. I listened to the cold ridicule and sarcasm of my former comrades-in-arms, and it was unbearable. No choice, this time I chose to trust my own judgment.

  Suddenly, the sound of "ta-ta" footsteps came from the depths of the cave, and several of us looked back in surprise. Who would enter the mountain cave at this time? Was it another team? Or did everyone really say that there were pursuers behind, was the old man Tianji really delaying time?

  I stole a glance at the old man, he was still pinching his fingers and muttering to himself, but what was different was that I found his previously rosy cheeks were starting to turn pale, his hair was also starting to show white hairs, which were rapidly increasing in number, fine wrinkles appeared on his face, and sweat dripped from his face onto his robe.

  The footsteps were getting closer and closer, and the few of us held our breath, staring at this unexpected guest. I didn't know why I was so unusually nervous. We always fear some unknown dangers, but in fact, when you muster up the courage to face them personally, those so-called dangers are often just your own imagination, and people usually lose to their own hearts.

  I saw a black figure walking towards us from a distance. We shone our flashlights on it at the same time, and were immediately stunned. Then we shouted in unison: "Wu Zihan!"