Volume 2: The Ancient Country of Lando Chapter 37: No Room for Retreat

  I stopped Zhou Xing and said, "Don't be in a hurry, I think there might be some trickery here, maybe the sound really doesn't belong to this world. Let's figure it out before we go over, otherwise if it's a trap, we'll be in trouble. You tell everyone what you heard, what was the sound saying to you?"

  Zhou Xing shook his head: "It's not saying our words, but I can feel it, it's calling me over."

  We were surprised and didn't expect it to be like this. Oil son frowned and said, "Damn, what is this thing? It can't be a ghost, right?"

  Liu Dapao said to me, "Young master, I think we'd better stop being suspicious of everything. Anyway, we'll have to move forward in the end. Why not take advantage of our current energy and go take a look at what's ahead?"

  Su Qin said: "Let's set off now. That voice keeps calling out to Old Zhou, if we delay any further, he will be driven mad."

  Everyone seems to have this opinion, and I can only nod in agreement. The group of people shoulder their equipment and start heading deeper into the cave.

  The flashlight's power was almost gone and couldn't be used freely, so everyone searched for materials and worked hard for a long time, finally making about ten simple torches, plus the two lanterns in the spare package, which were enough to last for a while.

  Only to see the cave in front of me divided into several paths, like a spider web, complex and confusing, it's similar to the layout of the Witch King's tomb. However, walking deeper, I realized that the space here is even more massive than the Witch King's tomb, it's simply a larger maze.

  Zhou Xing carefully identified the direction of the sound while cautiously searching for an exit, and we also dared not to be careless, slowly advancing behind him.

  In a short while, the scene in front of me suddenly became clear and bright. The ground ahead sank into a circular depression with a diameter of over ten zhang. I looked around at the winding stone walls and then at the circular depression in front of me, feeling that this circle was too regular. When the flashlight shone on it, it faintly reflected an unusual light, so I knew that this circular depression was not simple. I hastily called out to everyone to come and take a look.

  It wasn't until I got closer that I realized this disc was actually a huge crystal embedded in the ground, and the light from my flashlight couldn't penetrate to the sandstone beneath it, nor did I know how much larger the crystal was below.

  Su Qin's hands were clasped around her chest, and she tilted her head in wonder. "This crystal doesn't seem to be naturally formed, but it's also impossible for humans to manufacture something like this. What purpose does it serve being buried here?"

  I also found it strange, just as I was about to walk into the crystal disc for a closer look, Zhou Xing suddenly stopped me and said: "Wait, the sound I heard... seems to be coming from underneath here."

  As soon as he spoke, the crowd hastily retreated a few steps. I didn't expect that the voice came from the bottom of this crystal disc. I thought that this snow peak was the most unique among the "Thirteen Broad Pearl Dragons" in Yulong Snow Mountain, with an internal space generated over tens of millions of years, so there are many things here that exceed our understanding. And this crystal disc in front of me is the most difficult thing to understand that I have ever seen. Zhou Xing said that the voice calling him came from here, could it be that under this large crystal, something living was being suppressed?

  "Damn it, I think we've fallen into a trap. There must be some kind of monster under the crystal, and it's been trapped for thousands of years. Now that someone has finally arrived, it's making a sound to lure us closer, trying to get us to set it free. Everyone be careful, don't touch anything you shouldn't."

  Liu Dapao also said: "Young Master Fang is right, this place is not simple, we'd better be careful."

  As I spoke, the snow python beside me suddenly grasped my sleeve and pulled it, stretching its head to let me look far away. I raised my eyes and saw that there was a large stone slab standing upright, square and obviously man-made.

  So I led everyone around the crystal disc and walked in front of the large stone slab.

  Su Qin leaned in and took a closer look, "You see, there are murals on this!"

  I concentrated and looked closely, only to see that this large stone slab had many murals carved on it. Due to the long years, they had become extremely blurred. Su Qin let us not touch the stone slab, took out some lime powder and slightly treated it, and finally saw the general outline.

  Zhou Xing swept his eyes over us and said: "The inscription on this stone slab is about the origin of the Dragon Ball."

  Su Qin looked at it for a moment and nodded, saying: "Zhou Xing said that the archaeological team excavated the barbarian ruins and partially deciphered the Ya Shen tribe's text. The stone slab has the words 'Dragon Pearl' engraved on it. Combining this with the mural, the whole story should be like this."

  In the era of great chaos, the two realms of heaven and earth were in a state of utter confusion, and the human world was even more chaotic. The ninety-nine tribes of the Central Plains, the seven tribes of the North, and the eighty-one tribes of the Southern Barbarians fought each other, with wars lasting for many years without end, until the birth of the Yellow Emperor later on.

  The Yellow Emperor was born in the Ji Water, so his surname is Ji. He was originally the son of Xuanyuan, a minor tribal leader, but according to legend, he was born from the belly of a dragon and grew up on the Xuanyuan Hill. In reality, he received the mandate of heaven, had great virtues, and became the king of the world. Therefore, there were omens of earth virtue, and thus the name Yellow Emperor came into being. Later, the Yellow Emperor unified various major tribes, with Jiang surname Flame Emperor and Man King Chi You forming a tripod-like balance of power.

  But it is said that the Yellow Emperor had a capable man under him, named Feng Hou, who was good at summoning wind and rain, and also understood the ancient divination of Fu Xi. In the year when the Yellow Emperor fought against Chi You, after several years without victory, he ordered Feng Hou to divine how to capture this demon king. Feng Hou asked for 49 days of divination, and finally got the result.

  The original Honghuang matter, Fu Xi's ancient hexagrams had the heavenly machine early on. The great trend of the world will eventually merge after a long division. Huangdi's great war with Chiyou was the first merged number to appear in human history, and it must be 99 returning to 1 to succeed. After hearing Feng's words, Huangdi knew that this "99 returning to 1" referred to the unification of the 99 tribes of the Central Plains. Although all the people were now united in their hearts, there was still the Yan Emperor tribe that had not been merged, no wonder Chiyou could not be defeated.

  After the wind, Huangdi was not worried. From the perspective of the hexagrams, the matter of 99 returning to one had been arranged long ago and would be in the Zhouluo area. Huangdi immediately led his troops to Zhouluo to camp. It was at this time that Yandi was greatly defeated by Chiyou and driven to Zhouluo. Yandi knew that the situation was already over, and for now, he could only merge with Huangdi and ask Huangdi to fight a decisive battle against Chiyou.

  Then Yan Emperor came to visit, Huang Emperor welcomed him. At this time, the sky suddenly changed, and a huge dragon danced in the air. The divine dragon coiled in the air for seven days without leaving, and finally fell into the mountain. Huang Emperor led his troops into the mountain to search, but did not see any trace of the divine dragon, only a three-eyed strange beast lying on a crystal plate, with a giant pearl shining brightly in its mouth.

  This is the origin of the Three-Eyed God and the Dragon Pearl. The Yellow Emperor used these two divine objects to ultimately capture all the evil spirits, defeat Chi You, and seeing that Chi You's demonic nature was extremely fierce, he worried that even after death, Chi You would still bring disaster to the world. So, using the crystal plate on which the Three-Eyed God had lain, he sealed Chi You's soul in the snowy mountains of the southwest.

  It wasn't long before the flood suddenly broke out, and Chi You's matriarchal tribe took advantage of the chaos to summon the "barbarian" birds from the snowy mountains, riding on them to escape the flood, and bringing 22 barbarian tribes with them to escape from the Yellow Emperor's prisoner camp, hiding in the desolate and uninhabited deep mountains.

  The Yellow Emperor's tribe could only temporarily retreat to Zhuolu, and the war finally came to an end.

  Later, we all know that the maternal clan riding on the "barbarian" bird to escape the flood under Chi You's command was the later Ya Shen tribe. This tribe was born from the flood and died from the flood, it can be seen that even the most powerful divine power often cannot escape the two words "fate", but it is said that they hid in the Lan Palace at the last moment, predicting that they would be reborn after thousands of years, and it is unknown whether this is true or false.

  However, in the murals, there is a slight mention of this matter.

  The Yaoshen people began to worship the strange bird as their god after they escaped the flood with its help. At first, the Yaoshen witch king divined at the volcanic mouth that the Yaoshen would be destroyed by the flood disaster. The Yaoshen queen's initial thought was not to build a palace, but to lead a team of people to the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, wanting to invite out their god, namely the strange bird, to help them escape the great flood.

  However, the first pair of barbarians they found were two corpses. At that time, the goddess queen thought that even the gods had abandoned them, and she cried bitterly with her people. Who would have thought that at this moment, the dragon pearl in the queen's hand suddenly emitted a ray of light, shining on a nearby orchid, and in an instant, this orchid suddenly bloomed, splitting into two strands that drilled into the bodies of the two barbarians. Before long, the two barbarians opened their eyes and flew away together.

  The goddess queen was overjoyed at the sight, believing that this flower had the effect of resurrection. She immediately ordered people to search for the seeds of this orchid in the snowy mountains everywhere. When the queen and others returned to the tribe, the queen used her magic on these seeds and created the Golden Horn. Then, she instructed the tribespeople to take one seed each, and if they died later, as long as the Golden Horn was blown, the seeds in their abdomens would quickly sprout and bloom, allowing the tribespeople to be resurrected again.

  It was for this reason that the queen later built the Orchid Palace and sealed all the Yaoshen clan members inside.

  You Zi listened and looked a bit disheartened, saying this was too far-fetched. Birth, aging, illness, and death are the natural way of things, how could eating a flower possibly bring someone back to life?

  Liu Dapao said, "I don't quite believe this either. In the ancient books of our sect, it is recorded that the best elixir for prolonging life is the jade essence at the bottom of Mount Kunlun. It is said that taking it can extend one's lifespan by 49 days, but there is definitely no such thing as an elixir that can bring people back to life after they have died. This kind of thing simply does not exist."

  I nodded and said, "The resurrection is definitely fake. As for the orchid discovered by the goddess of Asia that year, it's not necessary to investigate now. What I care about... is the first half of the mural, the story of Huangdi sealing the soul of Chiyou..."

  Liu Dapao pointed to the crystal disc behind him and said, "Could this crystal disc be the one that Huangdi used to seal away Chiyou's soul? So... the voice calling out for Little Zhou... is it Chiyou?"

  "I said, 'Who knows what it is, Chi You or something else. This plate is a legendary divine object that the Dragon King brought down to the mortal world. Whatever can be pressed by it is not a good thing. If we let it out, it will be terrible.'"

  Su Qin said to us: "This crystal disc in the mural is called 'Seventy Creation Disc', it may be that it and the Three-Eyed God, Dragon Pearl are all things from outside the sky, not things on earth, can't be measured by common sense. Maybe the reason why the orchid can move is because it was irradiated by the unclear rays of the dragon pearl, causing a variation in the biological body. As for what's being pressed down by this Seventy Creation Disc, I think..."

  Just as Su Qin's words had fallen, I suddenly felt someone pat my shoulder. As I was about to instinctively turn around, Zhou Xing's face changed and without saying a word, he pulled me away in one swift motion. Before I could even figure out what was happening, I felt something whizz past behind me with a "whoosh" sound, followed by everyone's shocked cries.

  I knew there was a situation, so I quickly turned around and stood up straight, turning the flashlight towards that flying thing. Suddenly, all I saw was a ghostly figure like a dead body rapidly moving away from us, soon disappearing into the darkness.

  I took a deep breath, thinking that this thing was the monster that had been entangling us all along. It once blocked our way, and I thought we had gotten rid of it after sliding down the icy cliff for thousands of meters. Unexpectedly, this neither-human-nor-ghost creature actually chased us here. Could it be that this thing is a ghost guarding the Orchid Palace, determined to drive us out and kill us off?

  Youzi seemed to be in a hurry, raised his gun and wanted to rush up, but was stopped by Liu Dapao. At the same time, Xue Mang on the side also showed some signs of restlessness. I knew that chasing after it now would not end well, so I patted Xue Mang's head, signaling it to calm down. Turning back to the crowd, I said: "This monster is not simple, we've already suffered greatly from it several times before. If we let it entangle us again, we'll probably have no way out. I don't have a good solution now, what do you think we should do?"

  Youzi said to me, "What else can we do? You're a good person in every way, but you're too indecisive. When something happens, you always think of retreating, but now the situation is such that there's no room for retreat. We can only take up our tools and fight it out with them!"

  I said to Oil, "It's not that I always think of retreating, but that thing is too formidable. We can't play hard, and there's still a ghostly thing under the 70th floor. How can we be reckless? Don't forget, the corpse ants that surrounded us before, and the ice abyss trap, are all related to that thing. What if it comes up with something even more sinister this time, forcing us to release the things in the 70th floor, then we'll really have no way out!"

  At this time, Su Qin suddenly said: "You all stop arguing, look up! Now it's really retreat without a way out!"