The Spirit World

Chapter 5: The Blond Cowboy and the Black Swordsman

【cihuo】

A ball of fire flickered in the darkness. The faint light from the torch gradually stabilized, casting long slanted shadows on the surrounding walls, and the oil on the torch made a sizzling sound.

Two long and slanted figures also instantly appeared on the wall of the cave. They were of similar height and walked slowly and cautiously in the narrow cave path with their bodies hunched.

A man wearing a soft cowhide cowboy hat, his golden hair blending into the firelight, held a torch and looked firmly at the dark cave ahead.

A man wearing a black soft leather trench coat, holding a rapier in his left hand, ready to deal with any crisis that might come at any time.

There was a lot of dust on their faces, and their faces looked gray in the firelight. There was even green blood in some places, which appeared black under the firelight.

"Are you sure this is the place?" the man in the black windbreaker asked calmly.

"The tomb of Quetzalcoatl is right here," the blond man replied calmly, "there's no mistake."

But they tried to keep their voices as low as possible as if they were afraid that others would hear them, but they were still very loud in the narrow corridor-shaped cave.

They moved forward slowly, but their pace and spacing were very regular, because the torches alone were clearly not enough to illuminate the rest of the way. Their even and somewhat rapid breathing echoed in the quiet cave, and the only sound left was the sound of their footsteps.

They try to avoid making other noises so that they can hear other movements clearly.

"Something is approaching from behind!" the man in the black windbreaker warned: "It's already catching up!"

He put away his rapier: "Quick!"

After saying that, he pulled the former's arm and ran in the narrow space. There was a faint blue light on his body, which slightly lifted the blond man up, and his eyes began to become bright, one blue and one yellow, like an eagle's eyes.

He half leaned against the wall to avoid getting lost.

"Don't!"

The blond man, who hadn't reacted yet, used one hand to hold down his hat to prevent it from being blown away by the extremely fast speed. He was already being pulled off the ground and half flying in the air. He was very angry: "If I encounter a trap like this, I'll die immediately!"

"Shut up!" The man in the black windbreaker seemed very anxious and spoke loudly, as if facing a great enemy: "That thing is very dangerous, and you don't have spiritual power or magic, so try not to start a fight in such a small environment."

"Then you can't either"

[Boom!]
Before the blond man could finish his words, a huge noise echoed in the cave. Their eardrums seemed to be oppressed. The huge sound in the cave caught them off guard, and the pain around their ears took a long time to go away.

He stopped talking angrily, and then looked behind him with a vigilant face. His body, which had already left the ground, was about to be dragged to the ground several times, but was lifted up by the blue light and returned to the air.

【Boom boom】!
【Boom boom】!
The sound of [donglong] gradually came from the distance.

The man in the black windbreaker dragged the blond man who was already off the ground and ran at high speed in the cave. The torch was so fast that it looked like a red line and two blue lines crossing the cave together, until it went out with a [pu] sound.

The eyes of the man in the black windbreaker became brighter and brighter, and two blue lines gradually illuminated the pictures on the wall. The cave was very long, and faint self-luminous sources began to appear, like crystal powder scattered in the air. The blond man looked at the murals flashing on the wall in surprise, and instinctively wanted to break free from the black windbreaker's pull, but in the end he failed. He could only watch them disappear from his sight with a look of slightly distressed eyes.

Looking behind where the voice came from, he put his hat tightly on his head, wanting to say something but ultimately keeping silent.

In his heart, he secretly rejoiced that this road should be a corridor depicting the achievements of Quetzalcoatl during his lifetime and there were no traps, so he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Exit!" The man in black ran out of the cave and calmly jumped onto the platform at the exit of the cave. His eyes returned to normal and the blue spots on his body began to fade.

The blond man also stopped. The sound of "boom" came from the cave corridor again and again. Although this was another secret room, it was spacious and open. Although it was dark because it was deep underground, it was clearer because of the blue light. Not far away was a huge bronze door that was tightly closed. There was nothing on the platform.

There are bright spots of light here, and the high platform leads directly to a low-lying ground. In the air above and in front are several colorful flags of strange colors. On the flags is painted a mighty giant snake with wings. The power of the snake lies in its eyes. The eyes are pointed and round, with dazzling vertical pupils, tilted upwards, and extremely arrogant.

As if they were declaring their sovereignty over this place, their owner - Quetzalcoatl - must have a strong spirit.

"Go down first." The man in the black windbreaker looked back at the exit, and the rumbling sound began to increase rapidly.

He grabbed the blond man's shoulders and jumped down. The low-lying area began to become clear, and the damp lowland was emitting blue light, as if welcoming them. The pillars of colorful flags were around the depression, and they held the colorful flags high in the sky, as neatly as welcoming soldiers.

The blond man was pulled again without paying attention. He subconsciously put his hand on his cowboy hat and jumped down.

Then, the two of them walked forward cautiously and quickly in the depression, only to find that the huge bronze door in front of them was getting farther and farther away, as if it had not moved, and the blue light spots around it also did not seem to have moved. After walking for a while, it was still the same.

"Something's wrong, Skarner!"

The blond man looked at the man in the black windbreaker and whispered, "We are not moving!"

Skarner drew his rapier from his waist, jumped up with a whoosh, and slashed several sword qi diagonally in the air full of blue light spots, hitting the flagpoles around him. [zeng]! The flagpoles gave off a steel texture when they encountered the sword qi, and the sword qi was instantly dissipated.

Skarner fell, backed away, and walked towards the nearest flagpole, with the blond man following closely.

[Boom!]
【Boom boom】!
The sound of [boom] in the corridor became louder and louder.

"There is a strong demonic aura here. You have no spiritual power and you don't know magic, so you can't see it..."

Skarner felt around on the surface of the flagpole and said, "The evil spirit is all diffused from inside, just like smoke." Then he made way for the blond man. After all, analyzing ancient artifacts was not his strong point.

"Ah, if I had known I would have brought Tang Zilong's magic eye with me! Then I would have been able to see the evil spirit!"

The blond man walked closer, shaking his head with a bit of regret, and leaned his hand on the flagpole, staring at the ancient patterns on the flagpole. He half-supported the flagpole, and the bag on his waist was bulging, shaking as he moved. The color of the flagpole was a strange blue, blending in with the surrounding light spots.

Suddenly, he had a flash of inspiration, as if he knew something: "Based on our experience in the corridor and the ancient books that record the tomb of Quetzalcoatl, his tomb should not have any defense mechanism."

"As one of the oldest gods, he possesses a powerful power of purification! After being defeated by the god of thunder, he was buried here by his followers and was no longer worshipped by the world. His followers could not bear it and deliberately turned the cemetery here into a hidden palace without any mechanisms for the world to worship in secret! It is impossible to place the evil flags that he hates! These Quetzalcoatl flags were deliberately planted here!"

"The purpose is obvious!"

"You mean?" Skarner tilted his head.
"Yes! These flags are like battle flags. They are placed here as if on purpose to prevent us from moving forward! Someone found the secret tomb of Quetzalcoatl before us! Much earlier! Even hundreds of years!"

The blond man put on his cowboy hat and said, "Damn it, we might get nothing this time! Quetzalcoatl's rebellion against the gods has offended many gods! There is little his followers can do!"

He pointed at the platform and said, "Take me there. I need to see the formation of these flags clearly. Maybe there will be some clues. The most urgent thing is to open the bronze door quickly and leave here."

He remembered something again: "If I'm not mistaken, the corridor must contain records of Quetzalcoatl's rebellion against the gods!"

Without saying a word, Skarner came to his side, lifted him up and jumped onto the platform.

[Boom!]
[Boom!]
[Boom] The sound was getting louder and louder. It was about to reach the exit of the corridor. It felt like it was about to burst out, and the sound of booming was gradually filling the secret room where the two of them were.

The two people in the secret room were not panicked at all, as if they had not just escaped.

In such an open area, Skarner was indeed prepared. The blond man touched his long blond hair and stared at the direction of the flag. Skarner touched his chin and stood at the entrance of the cave with his hands crossed, waiting for something to come out. The blond man ignored the loud noise behind him, and only Skarner's hand kept tightly gripping the hilt of the sword.

The two of them formed a team with clear division of labor. If they didn't have the strength, they wouldn't have acted alone and gone down into such an ancient tomb.

The flags are placed in a staggered manner from the center to the outside in the four directions of east, west, south and north. The distances are disordered but regular. There is a total of 7 flags, with one more in the north and one less in the south, one more in the east and one less in the west. Blue spots of light float more or less around the 7 flags. In the northeast direction?

There was only an unknown wall.

Southwest direction?

There were some tiny blue spots of light there, just like at the exit of the corridor at this moment, the blue spots of light gathered together and flowed at the exit.

Doom!

At the exit, a huge stone flew out of the cave like an arrow, splashing dust and making a rumbling sound! Skarner, who was waiting at the entrance of the cave, drew his sword and kicked the ground, then jumped up and faced the huge stone in the air!
【boom! 】

There was a loud noise when the huge rock collided with the rapier in mid-air, and Scarnati's right hand trembled constantly.

The boulder and Skarner separated in mid-air. Skarner landed to the right and the boulder landed to the left. Skarner stomped the ground with his right foot and rushed towards the boulder with the tip of his left foot. At the moment when Skarner rushed over, the boulder was still in the air because of the weight. It made a "rolling" sound of stones colliding and underwent subtle changes in the air. "Hah!"

Skarner shouted and slashed the Western sword diagonally. In a flash, the huge rocks exploded and reassembled with a bang. With the stubborn stone as the head, the fine stone as the eyes, and the pillars as the limbs, it turned into a stone-like humanoid creature. It used its arm to block the Western sword and pressed it down.

Skarner used the soft power of the rapier to dodge and quickly passed through the stone man's hand and reached down, then stabbed the stone man's neck with his backhand. The stone man did not react in time and took the heavy blow. [Buzz] Blue magic energy burst out from Skarner's body and was transferred from his arm to the rapier. The rapier immediately filled with blue light and attacked the stone man's neck violently.

If it were an ordinary person, he would have been killed by this vicious move if he had not dodged the attack. However, the stone man was fine. After half a second, he raised his stone arm to hit Skarner again. Skarner's eyes flashed with golden and blue light, and he jumped out like a shadow, several meters away, keeping a distance from the stone man.

The blond man was still standing behind him, thinking, not caring about any movement behind him. It seemed that in front of him, there were only these ancient lines and elusive words.

"Skarner, let me check it out!"

After saying that, the blond man jumped off the platform, and rolled down slowly when he landed. He was completely different from the one who had to be supported to jump up and down just now. His blue pupils did not emit any magical aura, but were bright and glowing. He loved adventure, and such a puzzle made him very excited. It seemed that he had found the mystery of these flags.

He rolled to cushion the force when he fell, and thanks to professional training he was able to use the force to get down to a low depression. The youngest doctor in the Principality of Allan ran with his passion in a secret room in the cemetery filled with blue light several hundred meters underground, running towards the flag.

"Sure enough." I don't know if Skarner meant that the rapier couldn't hurt the stone man or because the blond man rushed towards the flag with golden eyes to decipher the code.

He slid the rapier across his hand and then held it horizontally, pouring his blood into the sword, filling and wrapping it with the blue magic energy bursting out of his body. The rapier seemed to be alive at this moment, vibrating in Skarner's hand like a beating heart.

The thumping heartbeat was surprisingly loud in the quiet room where there was no longer any rumbling sound.

[Oh, humble mortal, what trouble have you encountered to wake me up? ] It was the sword that hummed.

"Hmph!" Skarner snorted coldly and ignored the sword language. The blade of the rapier began to be surrounded by red energy. Skarner's eyes were fixed on the stone man rushing over, and he did not dare to relax at all.

After being pulled away from them, the stone man rushed forward again. There was nothing unusual on his body. It had been following them since it came out of the previous secret room, wanting to kill them and guard the tomb!
[You're asking for help but still have a sour face. Hahaha, I really like you more and more! ] Jian Yu said with a hint of joking.

"Shut up!" Skarner raised his sword, which he was holding horizontally. Suddenly, strange red patterns appeared on the sword. The stone man had come to him. Skarner closed his eyes and swung his sword. A strange red sword energy hit the stone man. Bang! The stone man was pushed back! Huge cracks appeared on his body.

[Just a small minion like this! You are too weak, my dear little Kana] Jian Yu's smile obviously increased a lot.

"Shut up!" The golden light in Skarner's golden pupils was much stronger than the blue light. Skarner had fought with the stone man in the previous secret room, and the Western sword could not penetrate his body to cause damage, which made Skarner suffer a great loss.

The stone man continued to rush over regardless. Skarner swung his sword again, and the sword energy rushed forward. This time the stone man jumped into the air and slammed down at an extremely fast speed, not giving Skarner a second chance to swing his sword. Skarner dodged in an instant, and the sword pierced through the heart and landed behind the stone man. The stone man was not paying attention, and turned around again and slammed over.

【Don't overestimate your own abilities! 】

On the other side, the blond man continued to feel around the flag. He had already looked at all the flagpoles and now he had turned his attention to the wall of the secret room. "Here? Or here?" He pressed hard on the wall of the secret room, feeling for the mechanism that might be triggered.

The northeastern wall was unusually dry and felt hot to the touch, which was obviously abnormal underground, while the southwestern wall was unusually slippery, which also seemed strange. The joints at the corners of the due north and due south walls showed some signs of being broken, while the corners of the due east and due west walls were intact.

It should be here! The blond man held his cowboy hat sideways and fumbled around the northeast corner like an old woman.

Click! The metal mechanism made a crisp sound.
Kakakakaka! !
"Ha, I guessed it right," the blond man shouted excitedly. Along with the sound of the mechanism, the flag of Quetzalcoatl kept turning, and the feathered serpent on the flag had a strange red evil light in its pupils. The blue light spot turned from blue to red, and the fiery red color instantly dyed the blue secret room red.

A huge gap appeared in the middle of the secret room wall in the northeast direction, and it turned out to be a huge stone door.

The blond man was so excited that he wanted to turn back to tell Skarner the good news, but the northeastern stone door suddenly opened, and a bloody mouth with a fiery red color rushed towards him. It was too late to jump out of the attack range!
The blond man forced himself to fall sideways on the ground and rolled over, avoiding the attack, but a flame remained on his trouser legs. The bloody mouth rushed to the ground, smashing the low-lying stone slabs. It was a huge fire snake! Its whole body was wrapped in flames, and the flames seemed to be erupted from itself and wrapped around its body. Its huge flaming wings were shining in the secret room.

The fire snake suddenly twisted its body and raised its triangular head, with its body several meters up in the air. It roared for having just hit the wall, and the flames from its body swayed in the direction of the roaring wind.

The blond man rolled on the ground to get away from the fire snake, staggered to his feet and ran towards the platform. "Skarner!!!" the blond man shouted in a broken voice, "Snake!!!"

Skarner was on the high platform, cutting the stone man with his sword energy. The stone man didn't feel any pain but couldn't avoid all of Skarner's chaotic sword energy. His body was scratched with stone chips and covered with crisscross knife marks.

Its stubborn stone skull had been cut in half, and the single eye of the stone was emitting a faint light. However, it pursued Skarner tirelessly and fiercely, but it was also cut by the sword energy and was eventually repelled. Skarner's movements were faster, and the light emitted by his golden pupils was even more bizarre. The stone man was unable to catch up and seemed to be passively beaten.

"SKANA!!!" "There's a snake!!!"

【waste!!】

Skarner was forced back to the exit by the stone man. He dodged the stone man's hammering arms and ran off the platform.

【boom! 】

A sword energy flew over, and the blond man who was being chased by the fire snake lay down to avoid it. The sword energy slashed at the fire snake that was swooping down to bite the blond man.

In an instant, the fire snake's flaming wings soared into the sky, and then dived down to block the sword energy. [Bang!] The collision sound of magic energy and the air wave blew the blond man over. The blond man dragged on the ground and hit the flagpole with a [bang!] sound. The blond man spat out a mouthful of blood.

"I'm going to die!" He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and quickly climbed up, trying to climb up to the platform using the protruding stones under the platform to take refuge.

A gust of wind blew past the back of his head, and a huge stone fist rushed towards him. The blond man slid down from the protruding stone with a gurgling sound, his clothes were already torn.

"Damn it!" The blond man cursed inwardly and ran towards Skarner again, "Skarner!!" "There are stones!!"

As for Skarner, the fire snakes coiled together and looked at the strange man in black. The sword in his hand was emitting a strange red light. There was even a bit of murderous intent in his red eyes, which he was afraid of.

In a flash, the fire snake roared and attacked Skarner from the flank. Its flaming wings struck directly from the right side. The speed was so fast that ordinary people could hardly see it, but Skarner saw it clearly. He divided the red sword energy of the rapier into two and slashed at the two enemies, especially the position of the fire snake. The sword energy was so majestic that it emitted an unimaginable dazzling red light.

Skarner chased after him and slashed at the fire snake with his sword. At this time, the blond man had already run to Skarner's side, panting. He turned around, and the stone man had caught up with him and was about to hit him in the head with a heavy punch.

"Ah?" The blond man shouted and squatted down to avoid it. The pressure from the stone man cracked a small part of the low-lying floor.

The blond man slid out from under the stone man's crotch, took out the item from his waist and pressed it, and a huge magic bullet hit the stone man's back fiercely. [Bang!] The stone man was knocked back and fell under the high platform, hitting the thick rock layer.

The stone man's heart was pierced by Skarner but he was safe and sound. He was hit by a huge magic bullet and could not move for a short time. There was a little smoke floating on him. The weapon in the blond man's hand was like a pistol, with a small caliber, but the caliber of the magic bullet fired was unimaginably large.

"That bastard Tang Zilong, if this goes off, won't everyone be dead?"

The blond man blew out the smoke from the magic gun in his hand and wiped the sweat off his face. The dirt on his face was mixed with sweat, making his entire face smudged.

Skarner also defeated the fire snake in one fell swoop, but the knife could not penetrate the fire snake any further. The tiny lines on its flame scales were about to burst. The great pain made it retreat to the side, looking at Skarner with hatred.

[Fire Feathered Serpent "炵"! I didn't expect to meet a traitor here!!! Hahahahaha, prepare to die!!!]

Skarner rushed towards the fire snake that had been repelled. The fire snake dodged and tried to wrap around Skarner. Skarner chopped and slashed the part where the fire snake was about to wrap around and suppressed it. Skarner kicked the fire snake and stabbed the fire snake's jaw with his sword. The red sword blade went up from the jaw and pierced the entire head. The fire snake rolled on the ground in pain. After a long time, the movement gradually weakened. The red light spot also slowly turned to the original blue color because of the disappearance of the fire light, and it illuminated everything around it again.

Skarner put the rapier with red sword energy on his waist. The rapier shone silvery white. Skarner's black eyes returned to normal after the strange light faded. He came to the blond man who was squatting and studying the stone man. "Pyros, have you found a way to the next door?"

"Of course! Who am I?" The blond man did not look back, but concentrated on studying the structure of the stone man. "I am the handsome Paros! The youngest and greatest archaeologist!"

The body of the fire snake began to show signs of abnormality. Its flames began to fade, and it was covered in white light from head to tail. The light shrank into a ball, and a small white snake quickly jumped out from the white light. It came towards the two of them, opening its already small mouth as if to bite them. Skarner stepped on its tail and threw it into Pyros' arms.

"Ah!" Paros yelled and threw the little white snake away. The little white snake bit the back of Paros' hand. Paros shook his arms fiercely and yelled, "I'm going to die!" Like a crying child, his whole body curled up in fear.

He was so scared of snakes that anything that looked like a snake could scare him, even a thick rope.

"Is this the greatest archaeologist?" Skarner suppressed his laughter and put the little white snake into a breathable bottle and handed it to the cursing Pyros. He looked in the direction of the bronze door and said, "Look, the door has changed."

"Except for the snake!" Paulos straightened his cowboy hat from where it had been tilted due to his misconduct just now, pointed at the little white snake in the bottle and cursed, "I told you to bite me." He shook the bottle like a child, and put it into the bag on his waist as if to relieve his anger. Both sides of his waist bag were bulging with this time's harvest.

He looked in the direction that Skarner pointed, and an unprecedented feeling came over him. The bronze door that had just been turned by the mechanism suddenly changed its appearance. It originally looked old and dilapidated, but now it has a sense of splendor.

The murals above also began to show Biewang's spirit. The heroic figure of Quetzalcoatl riding on a flaming feathered serpent and the scene of thunder and lightning in the sky were vividly portrayed before our eyes. He led his subordinates and believers to resist the invasion of the gods. The carved clouds seemed to be floating, and the beating of war drums and the majesty of the feathered serpents seemed as if a great battle was taking place on the door.

"The followers of Quetzalcoatl have put so much effort into this. But it's a pity that someone else has gotten there first." After a long time, Pyros stood up, put the stone man's eye stone, which was still emitting a faint blue light, into his pocket, and took a deep breath.

"Come on, let's reveal Quetzalcoatl's true identity!"

Pyros looked at the huge bronze door with a determined look. The heroic Quetzalcoatl carved on it was struggling against a beam of lightning. His eyes were made of rubies and sparkled under the blue light.

"I am the greatest archaeologist!" He patted the dust off his cowboy hat (which doesn't exist) and said proudly.
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(End of this chapter)