Chapter 39: The White Jade Goat Sacrificial Temple

  Liu Yi, who had been practicing Taoist meditation techniques for many years without interruption, had extraordinary willpower and was not affected for the time being. He rushed forward quickly and knocked out Ma Li Gua with a palm strike, who still wanted to continue fighting the statue.

  When he was about to go and rescue others, the eyes of the stone statue in front of him suddenly moved. He seemed unbelievable, blinked his eyes and looked carefully again. This time, with the help of moonlight, it was clearer that the black sheep's white eyes not only moved but also flew out from the eye socket.

  "Delirium, delirium!" Liu Yi muttered to himself, biting his tongue tip. The intense pain made him even more awake, and precisely because of this wakefulness, he suddenly saw the scene in front of him with greater clarity.

  As the first white eyeball flew away, all the white eyes on the stone statues around seemed to have received some kind of summons and flew out, gathering in mid-air with the first one as the center. They looked like a certain type of insect, but Liu Yi couldn't think of what it was for a moment.

  "Ah!" Liu Yi shouted, pulling Ma Liujia's body and rushing to Lu Zonghan's side. He struck the opponent's temple with his elbow, controlling the force so as not to take a life. Then Lu Zonghan cried out and fainted to the ground.

  Liu Yi then saw himself jumping around, and one after another, he rescued Professor Zhou Tao and Ke Kexi, putting them all behind a statue. Suddenly, Liu Yi saw a white eyeball fly in front of him, and this time he couldn't dodge it. The white eyeball bit his right cheek, and Liu Yi let out a loud "Ah!" and slapped himself hard on the ear.

  A loud slapping sound, in this quiet night, sounded particularly jarring. Due to the great force of this slap, a blood-red palm print appeared on his right cheek.

  Liu Yi only felt a burning pain on his face, and then he saw him move his palm away from his right cheek and place it in front of his eyes, as if to check if the "white eyeball" had been slapped dead or not, but found that his palm was empty.

  He looked back in astonishment, and the white eyeballs that had been floating in the air before had all disappeared, while the black sheep-headed human statues were still silent in the darkness, with their white stone eyes intact.

  "Could it be that I've also fallen for it."

  Liu Yi rubbed his head, and a suspicious thought arose in his heart: "Appearance is born from the mind. On this journey, I've seen many strange and bizarre things, so my subconscious must have decided that this black sheep was strange too, which is why I had an illusion."

  Thinking so, he went to rescue the few people who had fainted on the ground one by one. The eyes of the rescued people all showed a dazed expression. Liu Yi simply told everyone what had happened, and everyone was shocked in their hearts, especially Lu Zonghan, who touched his bleeding head and thanked Liu Yi.

  Now, no one dared to curiously stare at the black sheep statue anymore. They lowered their heads and hastily marched forward until they reached the front of the jade stone goat's big mouth in the middle. During the process, except for that oppressive feeling which didn't disappear, there wasn't any danger.

  ……

  Professor Zhou stroked the giant white jade sheep's head stone wall, feeling a coolness passing through his palm and spreading throughout his body. He suddenly withdrew his hand, thinking to himself: "Could it be that jade is not formed?"

  Malacca had been staring at the red eyes of the white stone sheep's head since he woke up, and now he was lost in thought looking at those two night pearls, estimated to be "staring with desire", but it was really troublesome to walk with a football-sized guy, only to see him shake his head and give up on his mind.

  Korvus had been excited ever since he set foot on Lake Heart Island, as an uninitiated junior priest of the tribe, he came to this sacred place for the first time to explore the secrets guarded by the tribe. How could he not be thrilled? Although it was a bit against tribal rules, it was also inevitable, and the Sun Mother would surely not blame him.

  Lu Zonghan stood aside with a gloomy face, probably thinking of his brother due to the pain in his own head.

  In front of them, this huge white stone sheep head, from the production point of view, is very similar to the seven-star crystal goat head that Liu Yi's father mailed to him, except that one has eyes and pearls, while the other has eyes but no pearls.

  Liu Yi looked through the "mouth" of the giant white stone sheep head, and saw a "white screen wall" blocking his line of sight, unable to see what was inside.

  Everyone looked at each other and nodded, then rushed into the "mouth door", from behind, they seemed to be swallowed by a sheep in one mouthful.

  They bypassed the white jade screen wall, and the religious atmosphere became even stronger. Moreover, it was faintly emitting a bloody smell. In fact, when they were outside the "Sheep's Head Gate", Liu Yi, who had a keen sense of smell, had already smelled the bloody smell, but at that time he thought it was the smell from Lu Zonghan's forehead and Ke Kexi's fist. However, after entering, it turned out to be otherwise, with many corpses scattered all over the ground.

  "It should be those poachers' corpses in front of us, they died a good death!" Ma Liu Ka said coldly while flipping over a dead body.

  This situation occurs here, and everyone is not surprised; if there were no corpses, people would be surprised instead.

  Whether it is Ma Bufang's stone wall handwriting or Kekexi's narrative, this sacrificial place has a guardian named Shouyang Jun with the body of a sheep and the body of a human. It is likely that the thieves who rushed in front of them had a small battle with the guardians in this great hall, from the bullet holes on the white jade stone walls all over, and the black red blood stains, the situation does not seem to be too intense.

  On the ground, apart from the poachers' corpses, no bodies of the Guardian Ling Army were found.

  In the four corners of the grand hall, there were four long-lasting lamps. Above each lamp was a small stone pipe that dripped down some oily substance with a ticking sound, which should be the fuel for the long-lasting lamps, but it was black and unknown what it was.

  Liu Yi looked around and found that the grand hall was majestic and powerful on the outside, but inside it seemed rather ordinary. Except for a golden and resplendent sun goddess gilded carving, there were no other decorations in the grand hall.

  Everyone felt extremely strange, this sacrificial place should be the last stop of their current trip, and it should have hidden a great secret. However, there were no murals or records on the walls inside the grand hall.

  Liu Yi thought to himself, "The poachers who brought Keke Mu here to offer sacrifices must have had a reason for doing so. Since there's a dead body inside the main hall, it means that this place must be hiding an entrance to the Goat Jade Palace that Keke Mu spoke of!"

  He thought so, and walked towards the golden statue of Mother Sun, while Kekesi knelt on the ground, crawling forward with three steps and one kowtow, until he was ten meters away from the golden statue of Mother Sun, where he continued to kowtow like a kowtowing insect.

  Liu Yi looked up and saw the golden statue of the Holy Mother, with a huge body, dignified appearance, not smiling or speaking, revealing its majesty, sitting upright in the center of the great hall, with both palms facing upwards on her knees, in a meditative posture.

  He carefully observed the statue of the Virgin from head to toe and especially paid attention to the fingers of the Virgin.

  According to the family, when encountering this situation, generally one or two fingers out of ten will be abnormal, either pointing to the sky or pointing to the ground, hinting at the location of the mechanism.

  After his careful observation, he was disappointed. The palms of the Virgin Sun were flat on her knees, and all ten fingers pointed to the gate of the Grand Temple, without any strangeness.

  He couldn't see the reason at all, and then asked Korksi, who had been kowtowing since he entered the main hall: "What you said is that the entrance of the Qilin Jade Palace is in this main hall, right? Where is the entrance? Has your father mentioned it to you?"

  Kokxy raised his head, glanced at the Sun Mother, and seemed to feel that he had desecrated her dignity. He hastily lowered his head and said, "Father said that as long as we sincerely worship the Sun Mother, she will naturally open the Jade Palace Gate and welcome home the returning children!"

  Liu Yi was suddenly speechless, feeling that he couldn't rely on this guy. He shook the rope in his hand and directly hung it on the ear of the golden statue of the Virgin Mary. With a whoosh, he flew up and landed directly on top of the golden statue. He wanted to check at close range if there were any mechanisms or other things existing on this statue.

  Keke Xi heard a strange noise, raised his head and looked at Liu Yi in horror: "Come down quickly, the Holy Mother will blame us..."

  He finished speaking, as if to exonerate Liu Yi, and knocked his head violently without stopping, muttering in his mouth: "Holy Mother, don't blame, don't blame!"

  At this time, Professor Zhou Tao and several others had also searched the entire hall from top to bottom, not to mention the entrance, but even a mouse hole was not found.

  Liu Yi jumped down from the golden statue of the Virgin Mary, and saw that the wolf-toothed flashlight was flashing left and right. In less than a minute, he had removed the golden statue from his head and examined it from front to back, but found no buttons or mechanisms, nor any small holes to drill into. To his surprise, the statue turned out to be hollow inside!

  "Grandma's, I've seen so many adventures, but all the experience is completely useless!"

  Liu Yi cursed and flew down, just as he was about to land on the ground, in front of Keke Xi who was kowtowing, the tightly sealed ground suddenly cracked open, and a huge beam of light burst out.

  The big hole that had burst open was where Liu Yi was about to fall, and he was suddenly shocked, wanting to avoid it, but unfortunately in mid-air there was no place to borrow strength, and he instantly fell straight into the hole. The people in the great hall immediately heard a "splash" sound of falling water.

  Judging from the time it took for things to fall and the sound of water splashing up, the pool below wasn't very high off the ground, probably only about two meters.

  The people who were about to rush over to rescue but didn't make it in time suddenly felt relieved.

  Kokxy raised his head and said in a low, mysterious tone: "I told you before, desecrating the sacred statue of the Golden Mother will bring retribution! I also told you that if we worship her devoutly, she will invite us to enter..."

  "Revenge for the wool ball!" Ma Liuji shouted loudly, and without saying a word, he picked up Ke Kexi and jumped into the hole. Professor Zhou Tao and Lu Zonghan also followed suit, estimating that there was no great danger below.

  At this time, Liu Yi's loud shout came from afar: "Don't come down!"

  His words came too late, and all that could be heard was the sound of "splash, splash..." as he fell into the water.

  Then everyone gathered in the underground water pool, and then, the crack on the ground actually slowly closed automatically.