Infinite Puzzle City

Chapter 806 Gu Xuan's Tomb Chamber
The blue water rippled and splashed against the shore.

Li Qing and the others had to look up to see clearly the spirit tombstone in the huge abyss beneath the deep water.

"I never expected that this tomb would actually be underwater."

Li Qing recalled the past. The tomb they had explored was empty, containing only a scroll of incantations and information about the landing of the Lost City. They did not find Gu Xuan's true tomb.

It turns out that Gu Xuan hid his true form underwater; no wonder he couldn't find it back then.

"Let's go."

At this moment, Jin Chanzi shouted, signaling them to prepare to leave.

"Where to go?"

Li Qing turned to look at Jin Chanzi, wondering what this guy was up to now.

“Of course we should go down.” Jin Chanzi pointed to the underwater tomb passage. “Now that the tomb passage is out, we should go down. You were looking for Master Zhou and the others, right? I reckon they’re already inside the tomb passage.”

Hearing Jin Chanzi say this, Li Qing was immediately skeptical, looking at Jin Chanzi with suspicion, wondering how this little Taoist knew all this.

However, he was not an indecisive person. Since he had decided to trust this kid, he simply didn't ask any more questions and nodded: "Okay, let's go."

The group abandoned the main path. Liu Mu carried Li Qing on his back, while Qing Hai carried Wu Man on his back. The group jumped off the terrace and quickly landed by the lake.

Jin Chanzi raised his hand and drew a talisman in the air. The talisman then unfolded and transformed into a blue light shield that enveloped everyone.

"This is a water avoidance order. As long as we don't leave, we'll be guaranteed to stay dry."

Jin Chanzi explained to everyone, and then led them to follow him slowly into the water.

Sure enough, the golden toad was reliable; the cold groundwater was immediately blocked by the light shield.

This move greatly shocked Li Qing.

As a member of the Wild Maoshan sect, Li Qing was well-versed in magic and proficient in talismans and array formations, making him a highly learned and versatile individual. However, this was the first time he had ever seen such a technique.

“Grandpa, these are just minor tricks. Although you are getting on in years, it’s still not too late for you to become a beginner.”

Jin Chanzi said to Li Qing with a smile.

Li Qing did not refute these words, but frowned as if he was pondering Jin Chanzi's words.

Lu Cheng's eyes lit up, and he asked, "If I become a beginner, will my master's physical condition also improve?"

“Of course.” Jin Chanzi nodded. “As long as they are alive, no matter how old they are, this is an opportunity.” As he said this, Jin Chanzi turned to look at Li Qing and said meaningfully, “The only problem is that some people are too old-fashioned and unwilling to accept it.”

Upon hearing this, Lu Cheng immediately understood and turned to Li Qing, saying, "Master, why don't you give it a try? I heard from Xiao Ran that as long as you become an entry-level practitioner, your physical fitness will be greatly improved, and you can even become younger."

Li Qing frowned, neither refusing nor immediately agreeing, but simply saying, "Let's wait and see."

Lu Cheng wanted to continue persuading him, but Jin Chanzi pulled him back and shook his head at him: "Let the old man think about it himself. This kind of thing is up to him."

As they spoke, the group had already ventured deep into the lake.

Even with the water-avoidance order that could isolate the lake, the chill still made people feel like their skin was about to stand up.

The temperature in this water is even colder than a cold storage room.

As they slowly descended, Lu Cheng suddenly noticed that there were many coffins on the stone walls on both sides. Some were made of jade, and some of ebony, but each coffin was very valuable. These coffins were stuck in the cracks of the rocks and were covered with mycelium of various colors.

The constantly flashing fluorescence on the mycelium illuminated the entire cave.

"Hey, even though they're dead, their consciousness remains in the mycelium. So many years have passed, their spirit is probably still alive. They died a worthy death."

Jin Chanzi looked at the coffins with a half-smile, seemingly disdainful of these people's pursuit of immortality.

The water gets deeper as you go down.

Before long, they had descended dozens of meters, the surrounding paths began to narrow, and many transparent ice crystals grew on the surrounding stone walls.

Although the mycelium here was shimmering, it was not enough to illuminate the way ahead, so they needed to use flashlights to move forward.

“Young Taoist priest, you said before that my brother and Amei were both here. This place doesn’t seem like it’s where they could have come down.”

At this point, Li Qing inevitably began to have doubts.

After all, it's impossible for a normal person to enter this place; the water temperature alone would be enough to freeze a person to death.

He knew Lao Zhou's abilities; if he hadn't used his special skills, it would have been impossible to get to this place.

Faced with Li Qing's questioning, Jin Chanzi did not explain, but simply said, "Just keep walking forward and you'll arrive."

"Master, I think the Taoist priest will give us an explanation."

Lu Cheng trusted Jin Chanzi as always, just as he trusted Xiao Ran.

Seeing this, Li Qing didn't know what to say and could only follow along.

After passing through the cave, the light suddenly brightened, and Jin Chanzi immediately led everyone upwards.

"Wow!"

As the water splashed open, a huge cavern appeared before them.

It was less a cave and more a huge palace.

The massive dragon pillars, like anchors to the sea, supported the hall in front of them.

Each of these dragon pillars requires several people to encircle, and their surfaces are covered with dark golden mycelium. Their roots are deeply embedded in the frozen soil beneath the ground, while their other ends extend to the dome, shimmering with starlight-like fireflies.

The palace floor was covered with a thick layer of frost, frozen together with the remaining mycelium, producing a faint, echoing crunch when walked upon. Besides the dragon pillars supporting the dome, a much larger altar stood in the center of the hall.

The entire altar is made of a single piece of dark, cold jade, exuding a chilling aura.

Above the altar, several enormous "chains" formed by the twisting of strange, ice-blue mycelium hung suspended in the air, their source seemingly connected to the darkness of the dome.

Beneath the chains, a row of crystal coffins were neatly arranged.

"this!"

Everyone was shocked as they looked at the enormous hall before them.

At this moment, Lu Cheng came to his senses, and as if he had thought of something, he turned around and looked at Jin Chanzi: "Is this the other side of that mountain city?"

"This should be."

Jin Chanzi nodded, though he wasn't entirely sure if it was true.

"Then how did you know the tomb passage was here?"

All eyes turned to Jin Chanzi, especially Li Qing. They had searched for so long without finding Gu Xuan's coffin, but Jin Chanzi, on his first visit, directly revealed the true entrance to Gu Xuan's tomb, which surprised them greatly.

At this point, Jin Chanzi stopped hiding it and explained, "Actually, the entrance to the tomb passage was marked on the mural we saw earlier, but you just couldn't see it."

After saying that, Jin Chanzi turned to look at Liu Mu and Qing Hai: "You two should have figured it out by now, right?"

Liu Mu and Qing Hai nodded: "We understood half of it, but we didn't understand the other half either."

"These two can still talk?"

When Li Qing saw Liu Mu and Qing Hai speak, he was startled, not expecting that the two corpses were still alive.

“Master, they actually have their own thoughts, and they are not entirely zombies.”

Lu Cheng explained quietly.

As soon as he finished speaking, Li Qing realized what he meant and glared at Lu Cheng fiercely: "You little brat, you knew better than to say it, you did it on purpose, didn't you?"

"No, no, no, I'm just afraid that you, Master, won't be able to accept it."

Lu Cheng quickly began to explain.

Li Qing pouted and said, "I'm almost dead, what can't I explain?"

Having said that, he stopped pursuing the matter and said to Jin Chanzi, "Little Taoist, please continue."

"Actually, there's not much to say. The mural contains information left by Gu Xuan. The meaning is too long to explain in detail, so let's talk about it later. First, let's look at those coffins. If I'm not mistaken, Master Zhou and the others should be inside them."

Upon hearing Jin Chanzi's words, everyone was greatly surprised and hurriedly walked towards the coffin below the altar.

These crystal coffins were covered with a thin layer of frost. Lu Cheng glanced at them and noticed some strange marks on two of the coffins.

So he walked up to the two coffins, wiped them a few times with his sleeve, and then took a closer look.

"Master, I'm here."

Li Qing walked quickly to the coffin and saw Zhou Shang lying inside, with strands of dark golden mycelium tightly enveloping his body.

Upon closer inspection of the other coffin, it was indeed Ah Mei lying inside.

"Yes, it's them. Quickly open the coffin."

Li Qing breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing the two men and quickly signaled to Lu Cheng to rescue them.

Liu Mu and Qing Hai walked to the coffin and examined it carefully. After a moment, they looked at each other and said to Lu Cheng with troubled expressions, "We can't open it. There isn't even a crack in this coffin."

As he spoke, Liu Mu pushed the coffin left and right a few times and found that it was completely integrated with the ground without any gaps.

"How could this happen? How did they get in?"

Li Qing lay on the coffin, stubbornly trying to push it a few times, but he couldn't budge it at all.

Seeing this, Lu Cheng looked at Liu Mu and asked, "Can it be broken open?"

"This..." Liu Mu hesitated, "It should be possible, but... I'm afraid that if we break open the coffin, neither of them will survive."

The two men had plenty of ways to break the coffin, but the problem was that the two people lying inside were just ordinary mortals. One punch would likely kill either of them, regardless of whether the coffin broke or not.

Upon hearing this, Li Qing frowned and turned to look at Jin Chanzi.

Jin Chanzi understood immediately and explained to Li Qing, "There's nothing I can do about this; we can only wait for now."

"What are you waiting for?"

"Once this game is over, it should be soon."

Jin Chanzi gestured for them to calm down, took out food and drinks for them to rest, and prepared to explain to them what was going on.

Seeing this, Li Qing was anxious but had to be patient. However, at that moment, Li Qing glanced at the coffin next to him and suddenly noticed the shadow of another person inside.

The coffin was covered by a thick layer of frost, but one could vaguely make out the clothes on the person inside that looked familiar.

Li Qing narrowed his eyes, walked to the crystal coffin, and wiped the coffin clean with his hand.

Suddenly his body stiffened, his eyes stared straight at the coffin, he opened his mouth, and tremblingly uttered that name!
"Phoenix Hammer!!"

(End of this chapter)