Longzang

Chapter 289 Ending
The girl, whom he initially thought was just a decoration or ornament, suddenly moved. A crimson sword aura instantly appeared in Wei Yuan's hand, and he almost thrust it out. But upon closer inspection, he realized that the girl's eyes were tightly closed, and she hadn't moved at all.

At this moment, Sun Yu suddenly said, "Everyone, use your Dao power to protect your bodies. The resentment here is too strong and can gradually turn people into Yin spirits."

Wei Yuan quickly examined his entire body and indeed found that some extremely subtle parts of his flesh had unknowingly lost sensation. Wei Yuan immediately ordered all cultivators to retreat outside the underground space. Only the cultivators of Taichu Palace had the strength to protect themselves, so they continued their exploration.

Sun Yu examined the young men and women in the hall and found that their physical bodies were still alive. Unlike the little girl, they could be considered living people. However, their bodies lacked vitality and souls, like empty shells.

The group inspected several nearby halls, and they all had the same appearance, except that a few wooden niches were empty and not filled.

After viewing more than a dozen halls, Wei Yuan went down one floor. The halls on this floor were much the same as the ones on the previous floor, except that the boy and girl in the wooden niches seemed to be a little younger, around twelve or thirteen years old.

After examining several teenagers and taking blood samples for testing, Sun Yu said, "Same species, same origin."

"Are they all brothers and sisters?" Wei Yuan asked.

"Not necessarily, but they are definitely of the same bloodline, very closely related," Sun Yu said.

Wei Yuan went down another level; this was the last hall outside the plaza, and beyond that was the plaza itself. This hall was different in style, all built of stone, and had a sinister and eerie atmosphere.

Wei Yuan pushed open the palace door and stepped inside. The scenery changed as he passed through, revealing a dimly lit room filled with burning red candles. By this time, Wei Yuan was no longer surprised and simply observed.

The bride sat on the bed, her auspicious red dress so vibrant it looked as if it had been stained with blood. The young groom, also dressed in auspicious attire, entered, closed the door, and then approached the bride, preparing to lift her veil.

Wei Yuan suddenly felt inexplicably nervous, as if he would see something he shouldn't see if the veil was lifted.

The young groom held the edge of the veil with both hands, and suddenly exhaled a thin stream of white breath, which struck the bride between the eyebrows. The bride sat motionless, her body stiffening.

The young man moved with lightning speed, pushing the bride onto the bed, lowering the curtains, and then extinguishing the red candles. He took off his wedding robes and left through the window.

But after he left, the curtain was suddenly pulled open a corner, and the bride, still covered by her veil, peeked out, glanced in the direction the groom had fled, and then silently lowered the curtain again.

The scenery before Wei Yuan's eyes shifted to mountains and fields, and the young man and woman ran and flew all the way, moving further and further away from the city behind them.

The scenery changes again, and the quiet courtyard from the beginning reappears, but it hasn't been decorated much yet.

The young man had grown a short beard, and the woman's features now exuded a mature charm. Together, they planted flowers and grass in the courtyard, tending to the garden. Suddenly, a baby's cry rang out from inside the room. The woman hurriedly got up, not caring that her hands were covered in mud, and ran back into the room.

The young man finished adding soil to the last flower before getting up to go inside and take a look.

He had just lifted his leg when he suddenly froze in mid-air and slowly turned his head back.

The courtyard gate opened by itself without any wind, and a woman stood outside. She was bald with blue eyes and had a half-smile on her face. She said softly, "You have the blood of our ancestor flowing in your veins. The world may be vast, but you have nowhere to go."

As the scenery faded, Wei Yuan returned to reality.

In the hall before us were four square pools, now dry, though they should have been full of water. In the center of each pool stood a strange Buddha statue, its eyes glaring, four arms holding a treasure vase, the mouths of which faced the pools. The statue was entwined with lifelike depictions of naked, alluring women, poisonous snakes, scorpions, centipedes, and other creatures.

Several skeletons lay at the bottom of the pool, and another skeleton was lying on the edge of the pool, seemingly trying to climb out, but its lower body had disappeared.

The group searched the hall for a while but found no clues and had no idea what the place was for. Zhang Sheng looked at the Buddha statue for a while and frowned, saying, "This Buddha statue seems to be a legacy of a secret sect, but it's also somewhat different."

"Let's go check out other places," Wei Yuan said.

This floor is filled with halls that all have this structure with four square pools inside, and many of them contain broken and incomplete skeletons.

Further down is the plaza, with several halls built along its edge. In the center of the plaza is a high platform, requiring one hundred and eight steps to ascend. At the very center of the platform stands the hundred-foot-tall lotus pillar. Up close, the monster perched on the pillar appears even more lifelike, as if it might break free of its chains at any moment.

The halls at the edge of the square were in disarray, with most of their belongings removed. Judging from the interior layout, they were likely used for alchemy, but it was unclear what kind of elixirs they were refining.

There wasn't much to see here, so the group continued onward. Upon entering the plaza, Wei Yuan sensed something amiss, as if countless people were watching him. He immediately stopped, looked around, and simultaneously tried to communicate with the Red Lotus Bodhi, hoping to borrow its energy to enhance his Wisdom Eye ability.

The red lotus bodhi leaf swayed and was about to fall again, which startled Wei Yuan, who quickly stopped it. Wei Yuan was already heartbroken to have used a bodhi leaf to treat his fatal wound, and now he was just observing his surroundings, so there was no need for such a big fuss.

At this moment, Zhang Sheng also said, "Something is not right here."

Ji Liuli summoned the Nine-Layer Demon-Suppressing Pagoda. This time, the bronze lamps on the pagoda lit up simultaneously, emitting a faint, clear light. As soon as the light appeared, Ji Liuli appeared to be struggling, and his aura rapidly declined.

But under the clear light, one figure after another began to appear in the square, and they were all young men and women standing in the wooden niches!
They were expressionless, all turning their heads to look at the crowd with pupil-less eyes.

This sight shocked Zhang Sheng, who exclaimed, "These are all souls! No wonder those young men and women outside, though only empty shells, still possess life force."

Ji Liuli said, "Their souls are all trapped in this square. The resentment of tens of thousands of people, the karma that prevents them from entering reincarnation, has made this place a place of yin and desolation. These young men and women should not be ordinary people; they must have something special about them." Wei Yuan suddenly sensed something and looked up at the high platform, where a circle of altars was set up around the central lotus pillar. Beneath the lotus pillar, a swordsman in plain clothes stood with his hands behind his back, looking up at the monster bound to the lotus pillar.

Wei Yuan pointed to the platform and said, "The answer might be up there. But be careful."

Ji Liuli withdrew the pure light of the Demon Suppression Tower and instead emitted a dark yellow light, which he then used to bless the group. He said, "I can only bless them slightly. If the power is too great, it will cause fatal damage to the souls here. They have no physical bodies to protect them and are quite fragile. They can only exist for so long in this Yin-desolate place."

All cultivators have their own means of self-protection, so there is nothing wrong with that.

Wei Yuan led the way towards the high platform, keeping a distance from the others. The swordsman in plain clothes was of unknown origin and attitude, but the general principles of his inheritance could be transformed into a single sword strike to kill a Dharma Avatar. In other words, even if he was unwilling to pass on his inheritance, he still had the ability to unleash a deadly attack.

Wei Yuan ascended the high platform step by step. The swordsman in plain clothes still looked at the bound monster and said softly, "This is my wife, Shuya."

With a loud bang in Wei Yuan's mind, the scenery changed again.

It was the same grand hall, and the same person standing high above. But this time, the hall was unusually dark and gloomy, with light from an unknown source illuminating only a corner of the room.

The hall was unusually cold, which made Wei Yuan shiver involuntarily.

Before the throne, a woman was held firmly by two tall warriors. She screamed and struggled desperately, but could not break free. Beside her, an old man held a little girl who was not yet two years old in his arms. He was coaxing her while holding her little hand. Suddenly, he tightened his grip, and a cracking sound was heard. A heart-wrenching cry echoed in the hall.

With a thud, the young man knelt on the ground and said, "Father, I'm willing to do anything! I only beg you to spare them! The new clothes are also your flesh and blood!"

A bald woman with blue eyes appeared and walked step by step toward the young people, her clothes slipping off one by one. She said, "As long as we give birth to the children that our ancestors need, they can regain their freedom."

The young man trembled slightly as he was pushed to the ground, offering no resistance.

The scene shifts to a dark alleyway under the cover of night.

The woman was running desperately, carrying a five- or six-year-old girl, glancing back every now and then. But suddenly she fell, and an arrow had somehow pierced her leg.

Despite the pain, the woman pushed the little girl away, shouting, "Run! Run!"

The little girl, bewildered, tried to hide in the woman's arms. The woman, anxious, suddenly slapped her across the face, saying, "Nobody wants you! Get out of here! Get out that way!"

The girl was terrified and took a few steps back before finally running away into the distance. The woman breathed a sigh of relief, watching the small figure disappear into the distance. As long as she crossed the next intersection, she would be out of the great formation, and someone would come to meet her and take her away from this hellish place.

But the little girl ran back, grabbed the woman's arm, and tried with all her might to drag her away. At that moment, the bald, blue-eyed woman slowly emerged from the shadows.

The scene changes again, and the little girl is lying in the hands of the statue at the top of the lotus pillar, barely alive.

Numerous servants moved back and forth in the square, carrying infants one by one into the hall for bathing. Elixirs were continuously sent out from the alchemy room, dissolved into medicinal soup, and fed to the infants.

At this moment, a thin sword light suddenly shot out from between the eyebrows of an infant, rising straight up to ten feet!

The tall and imposing man appeared, picked up the baby, and laughed loudly: "Born with the Thousand Autumns Sword Body! The secret technique is indeed effective, hahahaha! That little bastard is useless now, hmph, if she hadn't diluted my bloodline, why would I have waited until now?"

He left carrying the baby, and the bald, blue-eyed woman slowly raised her hand and pointed at the lotus pillar.

The numerous cultivators seated around the lotus pillar attacked simultaneously, unleashing true fire that ignited the pillar. The flames rapidly rose, burning towards the top of the pillar.

The woman, who had been bound, suddenly went berserk, flung away the several Dharma Immortals holding her, rushed towards the lotus pillar, and transformed in mid-air, revealing her demonic form.

The tall, imposing man snorted and threw a chain from afar, binding the demon. But the demon, who had been a woman, still leaped up desperately, coiling around the lotus pillar, using her body to block the raging fire and prevent it from spreading to the girl at the top of the pillar.

The little girl was already delirious, only repeatedly saying, "...Don't send me away, don't send me away..."

The demon was gradually reduced to charcoal by the true fire, but she remained motionless and silent.

A surge of resentment rose into the sky, darkening the entire square.

A sharp, high-pitched voice faintly said, "With this resentment, the pill can extend lifespan even more..."

The young swordsman's eyes lost all light, his head slowly drooped, and he lost all vitality.

Two more sword techniques appeared in Wei Yuan's mind: the first sword, "The Beginning of a Thousand Autumns," and the last sword, "The End of Ten Thousand Generations."

(End of this chapter)