Chapter 53: The Grand Temple of the Ancient Country

  Karamay said loudly, "The monster in the jar seems to just want to force us out of this secret room. Let's hurry up and retreat, don't engage in a meaningless battle, it's not worth it."

  "Who are you? Why do you know me?" I asked the stone urn, but there was no answer. At the same time, in a row of broken jars on the left, corpses were rapidly decaying, and Lao San stood still, unsure what to do.

  Karamay shouted: "What are you looking at, hurry up and run!" As he said that, he ran towards the stone gate, and we all came back to our senses and followed him in running out.

  Behind us, the corpses had fully transformed and were chasing after us. Perhaps they had been soaking in the ** for too long, but their movements were very slow. The few of us ran quickly to the door, and Old Three and Karamay hastily closed the stone gate. The black corpse closest to us was not far from the stone gate, and I also hurried over to help push the door. Just as the door was about to close, a black corpse suddenly stretched out its hand and got it stuck in the gap between the doors. Old Three didn't say a word and swiftly drew out his cleaver, chopping down fiercely. A mournful cry came from inside, and we took advantage of the moment to immediately shut the door. The secret room fell silent once again, as if nothing had happened at all. The yellow light reappeared in the gap between the stone doors.

  I stood at the gate, staring blankly at the stone door, my mind filled with doubts. Who was the person inside the stone jar? Why did he say we would meet again? What were they trying to do in this secret room? And what ancient ritual was being performed to summon what creature? This ancient country of Daiyue was indeed shrouded in mystery.

  Karamay patted me on the shoulder: "Don't think about it, maybe the answer you want is only known by moving forward." I nodded and followed everyone to continue walking along the tunnel, which seemed to extend endlessly forward, and was obviously an upward slope.

  We walked for an unknown period of time, and Karamay suddenly stopped. I looked ahead and it seemed that we had already reached the exit of this tunnel. There was a faint blue glow emanating from there. The few of us rushed to the front and couldn't help but gasp at the sight before our eyes.

  This should be the grand hall of the ancient country of Dài Yuè, with a deep blue semi-circular roof that shimmers with points of light, like the vast night sky. In the center of this semi-circle is a six-sided crystal-like gemstone that emits a faint blue glow, illuminating the entire hall. What's strange is that the front of the hall is shrouded in a dark mist, making it impossible to see the scenery inside. It's also unclear how this mist was produced.

  Twelve massive Roman columns supported the entire temple, and these twelve columns were carved into different figures. In fact, I recognized one of them at a glance - it was Emperor Huang. I had seen his stone statue in the Scorpion Tomb, which looked almost identical to this one. But who were the other eleven people who could rival Emperor Huang, the king of the Daiyu Kingdom? I was pondering this question.

  Suddenly, Yang Cangcang shouted loudly: "Zihan——" She ran over in three strides, and I saw Wu Zihan lying in front of that black fog, fallen in a pool of blood, with his heart still bleeding profusely. Next to him was placed a golden basin filled with fresh blood, which seemed extraordinary as well. The outer sides of the basin were carved with four giant ghost faces, each making different expressions: joy, anger, sorrow and happiness.

  "Wu Zihan, wake up!" Yang Cangcang cried out, shaking Wu Zihan vigorously. We were all stunned, having witnessed Wu Zihan's abilities throughout our journey. Who could have injured him to this extent?

  "What are you still staring at, Karamay? The hemostatic drug!" Yang Cangcang shouted like a madman, scaring Karamay, who let out an "oh" and quickly rummaged through her bag to find the hemostatic drug. Yang Cangcang took it and immediately applied it to Wu Zihan's wound, which was on the left side of his chest. I suspected that someone wanted him dead. Yang Cangcang's tears almost welled up in her eyes as Lao San also forgot about being aloof and rushed forward to help.

  "How is he?" I asked tentatively.

  "It's okay, the bleeding has stopped, and there is still a breath, but it's very weak." Lao San said seriously.

  "Who exactly brought Zihan here?" Karamay asked with a frown.

  Hearing that Wu Zihan was fine, Xiao Lao let out a sigh of relief and began to stare intently at the blood pool on the ground, crouching down to examine it carefully.

  "What's wrong, Old Xiao? Is there something mysterious about this basin?" I asked.

  Xiao Lao paused for a moment before answering, "The material of this basin is very special. You see it can emit such dazzling golden light in such dim light, and this material...” Xiao Lao hesitated, “I've never seen it before, it's not gold or copper.”

  "It's probably some kind of alloy," Fu Ma guessed.

  "It's not like that, and if I'm not mistaken, the painting on this pot should be a four-faced ghost, which is a totem used in very ancient divination techniques. By putting human blood into it, one can ask about a person's fate, measure good or bad luck, and peek into the future. But... why would it appear here? Is someone trying to divine Zihuan brothers' future? Or does he himself want to know?" Xiao Lao analyzed.

  "He woke up!" Yang Cangcang exclaimed excitedly, and the few of us who heard it were all invigorated, rushing to gather around Wu Zihan's side.

  Wu Zihan slowly opened his eyes, saw us all there, and forced a faint smile on his pale face. He looked very weak. Yang Canzhen asked him questions from the side, but Wu Zihan barely had the strength to answer. He glanced at me, then slowly raised his arm, pointing to the bloody basin on the ground, and then pointed to the black fog in front of us.

  "Your meaning is to sprinkle the blood in the basin on the dark fog?" I asked doubtfully, Wu Ziheng almost didn't even have the strength to nod, he just winked at me.

  My intuition told me that my guess should be correct, I picked up the golden blood basin and poured it towards the black fog. Suddenly, the black fog dispersed like oil pollution encountering a cleaning agent, and it all scattered away with a whoosh.

  The black fog gradually dissipated, revealing a towering statue of a goddess, at least three stories high. This statue was all too familiar to me, although I had never seen it with my own eyes. The three-headed, six-armed female deity gazed at us with an eerie smile, its three heads seeming to follow us no matter which angle we approached from. Each of the six hands held a different ritual instrument, emitting a faint golden glow in the dim light, like the bloodstains on the ground.

  Karamay suddenly knelt down on the ground, looking at us with a bewildered expression. He bowed and, seeing that we were all staring at him, hesitantly explained: "This should be the god worshipped by the ancient country of Daisu, since we've come to their territory, we should pay our respects."

  "Xiao Lao, what kind of god is this?" Fu Ma asked.

  "This really got the better of me." Xiao Lao scratched his head in embarrassment.

  The black fog gradually dissipated to both sides, slowly revealing the entire grand hall. In an instant, I stood there stupidly, staring at everything in front of me, as if a bottle of five flavors had been knocked over. The people around me were also almost shocked into speechlessness.

  "Grandpa!" I shouted, my heart surging like a huge wave. In these days, I had imagined many scenes of meeting Grandpa again and again. I wanted to say so much, but this time I couldn't utter a word. After going through so much, I finally found Grandpa, and suddenly I let out a long sigh of relief.

  "Old Zheng? Old Zhou?" Xiao Lao's lips were trembling with excitement.

  On both sides of the goddess statue, there is a grayish-white stone pillar. My grandfather and Director Zheng were tied to the pillars with a strange rope. They seemed to have fainted. We called out many times, but they both had their eyes tightly closed. I rushed over to rescue my grandfather, but was stopped by Old Xiao.

  "I shouted in anger: 'Why are you pulling me? I want to go save my grandfather.'"

  He narrowed his eyes and examined it carefully for a while, saying: "Jun Yang, little friend, something is wrong. The stone pillar behind Old Zhou and Old Zheng has a problem. Take a look, isn't there a human head carved on that stone pillar?"

  I took a closer look, and indeed as Old Xiao said, it seemed to be the portrait of a woman. The two pillars were identical, and this woman's head had no eyes. Her hair appeared to be a group of snakes coiled together, and with the greyish-white color, it looked truly terrifying.

  "This is... " Karamay seemed to have thought of something, "Medusa from Greek mythology? Just short of an eye."

  Xiao Lao nodded and said to us: "Not bad, the head on this pillar is Medusa. It's said that anyone who sees her eyes will turn to stone. This head doesn't have eyes, which makes us feel a lot more at ease. But this hair... I'm afraid if we get close, it'll turn into real snakes. Don't you guys feel a powerful aura around Lao Zheng and Lao Zhou? Someone has set up a big array here."

  "Director Zheng and Director Zhou seem to have something stuck on them?" Yang Cangcang shouted loudly as she squatted beside Wu Zihan, her night vision eyes always spotting crucial clues before the rest of us in dim light.

  Xiao Lao cautiously walked in to take a closer look at the things on their bodies, Wu Zihan seemed very anxious, stretched out his hand and pointed at Xiao Lao, constantly winking at Yang Cangcang. Yang Cangcang shouted: "Xiao Lao, Zihan doesn't let you get close, you'd better come back."

  Xiao Lao saw that and walked back with a huff, asking Yang Cangcang: "Can you see what's stuck on their bodies? Draw it for me."

  Yang Cangcang nodded with satisfaction: "That's right, my Xuan clan's eyes are famous for being good." She carefully examined it for half a day, "It seems to be a talisman, painted with dragons and phoenixes flying about." She drew the pattern of their chest talismans in Xiao Lao's palm, while Xiao Lao stared at his palm, motionless.

  "How can it be both Greek mythology and painting symbols, isn't this a combination of Chinese and Western styles?" Old Three interjected, seeing no one responding to him, he pouted his mouth and stopped talking.

  "It's a good thing that Brother Zihuan is here." Xiao Lao sighed, "This talisman has set up a transmission array. If it weren't for Brother Zihuan reminding me, I might have been transmitted to the other side of the world by now."