Chapter 49: Soul Refining Corpse Oil Pool

  "Damn it!" Ma Liu kicked a mouse flying with one foot.

  He still harbored a grudge against the mouse for "squeezing" him.

  The huge rat corpse suddenly flew down into the black water below.

  "Boom, boom, boom, boom... Boom..."

  The crowd heard the sound, and suddenly they were stunned. Obviously, only one old mouse was kicked down, how could it make so many splashing sounds? So they ran to the edge of the platform and looked down at the water pool below, investigating what had happened. If they hadn't looked, they would have been fine, but as soon as they took a look, they were shocked.

  In the black water, four or five large rats appeared again, swimming towards the platform below them, looking like they were going to take revenge. It is estimated that these rats jumped down from the nearby mountain wall holes, and it was clear that this place was the lair of these large rats.

  These mice swam to the bottom of the platform and climbed up the rock wall.

  As the rats climbed up to their platform, Malacca lay on the platform with his butt in the air, holding a rifle and started firing at the rats' eyes, basically taking down one rat with two bullets.

  The mouse that had been blinded by the blow suddenly fell into the dark water, like a headless fly, and swam around frantically inside.

  Just as Ma Liu and Lu Zonghan were dealing with these few big rats, Liu Yi took a look at the environment of this place.

  Overall, the place they were in was a cylindrical abyss, except that the top of the cylinder had no lid and you could see the moon in the sky. Below was a black water pool, and in the center of the pool stood a large square stone platform. If it were drawn as a flat map, it would look like an ancient "round-square hole" copper coin.

  From the details, on this deep cliff wall, eight large platforms protrude, and the platform under Liu Yi's feet is one of them. Below the platform, a stone bridge extends from the cliff wall to connect to the central stone platform in the water pool, roughly drawing an "米" shape.

  And on the cliff wall of the abyss, there are many holes, but it is unknown whether they are rat holes.

  Liu Yi was guessing when he suddenly found that on the wall of the cave where his line of sight reached, a pair of small yellow eyes appeared, and then more small yellow eyes appeared as his line of sight swept across.

  "We've entered a rat's nest!" Professor Zhou Tao exclaimed, looking around at the beehive-like holes on the stone walls.

  Korksi standing beside him was sizing up the place with a thoughtful expression, wondering what he was thinking.

  " Splash!" A big rat on the wall of the cave jumped into the black water.

  Immediately afterwards, countless giant rats were seen under the moonlight, jumping into the dark water with a squeak, like competing in a diving competition.

  "One, two, five, twenty... Oh my goodness!" Ma Liuji didn't even have time to count anymore, his eyes were dizzy and he stared blankly at the holes on the surrounding walls, as a swarm of giant rats rushed out, leaving him stunned.

  Not just him, but everyone else was also shocked beyond measure.

  There are too many...

  Hundreds and hundreds of them...

  What a commotion it is when several hundred giant rats as big as tigers jump into the water together?

  A grand and extraordinary momentum!

  The originally calm pond suddenly turned into a dark, turbulent sea, with water splashing everywhere and the moon's reflection in the water shattered, never to be whole again.

  The water level in Hei Shui suddenly rose by more than two meters under the jump of a mouse...

  In the water pool, mice gathered, their bodies covered with water from the pool, under the moonlight turned black and shiny, looking extremely greasy.

  Liu Yi frowned and looked at the greasy old mouse in the center of the water pool, saying: "What is this thing in the water pool? It doesn't seem like water?"

  Lu Zonghan, who had been waiting impatiently on the side, pulled out a hand grenade, pulled the pin and threw it into the water, shouting: "Blast you all to death, you bunch of bastards!"

  The grenade drew a beautiful arc in the air and fell into the pond.

  "Boom!" The explosion sounded, rumbling loudly, and the corpse of the giant rat flew in the air with flames.

  "Boom...!" Another massive, muffled sound erupted, and the black water in the center of the pool was actually ignited, with flames shooting up into the sky. The fire spread rapidly from the point where the hand grenade had landed, burning everything in its path, but it stopped just 50 meters away from the platform.

  The flames were scorching hot and bright, the smell of burnt offerings wafted through the air, and a large majority of the rats in the water had been set on fire. They struggled to stay alive, but only a small number managed to escape, fleeing in all directions without any regard for their surroundings. Some even stupidly ran into the flames, while others dove into the water and started swimming vigorously, soon reaching the stone walls at the edge of the pool. Chirping loudly, they climbed up the walls, completely ignoring Liu Yi and his companions.

  Upon witnessing this scene, everyone was overjoyed. Unexpectedly, the central part of the pond's surface wasn't water, but other combustible oily substances.

  "Could it be petroleum?" exclaimed Malacca.

  Only heard Kexi whispering beside him: "It's corpse oil!"

  "Ah, I'm talking about oil!" Malacca said with a smirk.

  "I'm talking about corpse oil!"

  The hoodlum looked at the young man in front of him who was over a meter tall and said, "Who is this..."

  After bustling about for half a day, everyone hadn't even introduced each other yet. Now that the big mouse alert had been lifted, the crowd sat on the platform to take a short rest. After brief introductions, Humphrey told everyone about their itinerary after entering Death Valley.

  It wasn't until then that Liu Yi realized that the black cave actually had more than one hidden door, but he didn't know where the foreign witches and the Ma family army had arrived.

  It's useless to think too much, people who are destined to meet will naturally meet.

  Liu Yi turned his head and asked Ke Kexi: "What did you mean by saying that the water in the pond was corpse oil?"

  Only then did Keke Xi stand up, pointing around in a circle and saying: "Everyone sees that the eight platforms on the periphery plus the eight stone bridges connect to the central square hole platform. This is the legendary 'Eight Trigrams Refining Corpse Formation'..."

  He paused for a moment, then continued: "Legend has it that when Wang Mang's men attacked the ancient Qiang tribe, the Ling Shu Qiang people were also determined to defend their sacred land with their lives. They cast a curse on themselves called 'Evil Spirit Curse', which was said to make their souls immortal and wander the mortal world seeking revenge. This curse was far more terrifying than wearing red clothes before death. The enemy was so frightened that they captured the Ling Shu Qiang people alive, built prisons, and locked them up. Due to the large number of prisoners, some of the living were eventually cursed into becoming small mice, while the dead were thrown into the Bagua Corpse Array and refined into corpse oil. It's said that this can refine a person's soul to nothingness, and when the array is activated, all vengeful spirits from people or animals in the surrounding area are absorbed into the array, leaving no yin energy around. The people or animals being refined would never be reincarnated again - it's an extremely evil array, I didn't expect it to be real!"

  Liu Yi and others were shocked and frightened. At this time, Lu Zonghan said: "No wonder when we just entered the cave earlier, we didn't feel any yin energy. It seems that this is the answer!"

  Everyone suddenly realized.

  Professor Zhou said, "Perhaps these large rats rely on the corpse oil here to survive. Let's give it a name, let's call it 'corpse oil mouse'. According to my estimate, this corpse oil should be insoluble in water and separate from natural rainwater, which creates the phenomenon of fire in the middle of the pool and no combustion around it!"

  During this period of raging fire, those mice who escaped with their lives did not dare to stick out their heads again and all became shrinking violets.

  The big fire illuminated everyone's face, and Liu Yi and others were savoring the dry compressed biscuits in the aroma of roasted mouse meat. They planned to go to the square platform in the middle of the Shui Tan after the big fire went out to take a look. They were extremely curious about this array eye well mouth, but they didn't know what secrets were hidden inside.

  A raging fire, burning souls and destroying bodies, burned for more than three hours without going out. The only thing that had been consumed was the oil from the corpses. The water at the edge of the pool first boiled and then evaporated.

  The stone bridge connecting the middle of the Shuiyuantan was also scorched red by the big fire at first, and as the momentum of the big fire decreased, the stone bridge gradually cooled down.

  The temperature in the entire space became quite high, Malacca was intolerant of heat and had already sweated profusely, grumbling and complaining as he tied his safety rope and led the way down to the platform, followed by everyone else.

  Standing on the stone bridge, everyone saw that the originally dark and murky water pool had seen its bottom, only with some pits and holes in the distance still burning.

  From a distance, the stone platform in the middle of the pool looks like a "T" shape, and the pillars are smoked black and shiny by the big fire.

  Many people walk on the bridge over the water, proceeding with caution.

  "Are there still bullets?" Malacca raised his rifle and asked Lu Zonghan.

  "It's gone!" Lu Zonghan said, throwing the rifle in his hand into the black pool. He then pulled out a black cane from his backpack, which was made of Xuan Tie material and had been modified at the top to fire bullets, serving as his defensive weapon.

  "Grandma's, no bullets left, this rifle is useless!" Ma Liuji muttered and threw away the rifle in his hand. Along the way, they had been fighting monsters, and the little ammunition they had was finally gone after the battle with the giant rat.

  They feared that the oil mice would suddenly come out, being careful to prevent them, and the timid big rats seemed to have been scared by the big fire, no longer daring to show their heads.

  Everyone came to the circular platform without any obstacles, and the platform was carved with strange patterns, like a tangled mess, not finding any principle, no one could understand. But Muffled Bottle and Korksi carefully observed the strange patterns.

  Lu Zonghan stood in front of the well mouth in the middle of the platform, pointing to the dark well mouth and said: "I don't know if there is poison below, we also don't have detection equipment, if we go down rashly, I'm afraid..."

  Malacca interrupted him, "Afraid of the ball? I'll go down first and take a look. If it's not dangerous, you can come down too." Koxing said that key is to open the last layer of the door, maybe this wellhead is the entrance to the ultimate destination, have come so far, die anyway!

  Liu Yi shone his flashlight and said: "Estimated depth is about 2 meters or so."

  "What are you waiting for, let's go!" Ma Liuji said with a big grin, his mouth biting on a long wolf-tooth flashlight, and he walked to the wellhead by himself, climbed up the well rim and jumped down first. Then there was a "thud" sound of landing, followed by the friction sound of sliding.

  Inoue and the others exchanged a glance, thinking: "This is indeed a passage!"