Starting from the imperial palace guards, his clones spread all over the world.

Chapter 504: Deformed Person

Liang Jin and his group made their way through the intricate, dark, and secluded passages of the Nine Abyss Rock Prison. The surroundings were so quiet that they were almost oppressive, with only the sound of their footsteps echoing between the stone walls.

Along the way, they encountered many damaged mechanisms, with old gears, broken ropes, and twisted metal parts scattered all over the ground, silently telling of the dangers of the past.

On the ground, ancient skeletons lay scattered about, their white bones gleaming with a chilling light in the dim light.

Surprisingly, they found no trace of a fresh corpse.

This peculiar phenomenon is enough to show that the expert among Zhao Xiling's group is extremely capable, having a thorough understanding of the structure and mechanism distribution of the Nine Abyss Rock Prison.

That is why they have been able to make their way through this perilous land without losing a single person.

The terrain inside the Nine Abyss Rock Prison is so complex that it resembles a huge and mysterious maze, with winding and crisscrossing passages. One could easily lose one's way if one is not careful.

Fortunately, Zhao Xiling and her group left some traces, some shallow and some deep, which became a guide for Liang Jin and his group to move forward.

Soon, the group entered a vast area.

On both sides are towering cliffs that seem to stand like giants, and in the middle is a wide road that can accommodate ten carriages traveling side by side.

On the rock wall, huge holes had been carved out by human hands, and each hole was sealed tightly by a prison door made of black iron.

Judging from its appearance alone, this is undoubtedly the prison cell area.

As soon as everyone arrived at the entrance to this area, they all stopped in their tracks.

"What a strong smell of blood!"

Everyone present was a master of martial arts, with an exceptionally keen sense of smell. They instantly detected the thick, almost tangible, bloody scent that permeated the air.

They had been relatively safe along the way, but the sudden appearance of blood here undoubtedly foreshadowed impending danger.

In an instant, everyone tensed up, becoming alert and vigilant, their eyes scanning the surroundings warily, not missing a single corner.

Liang Jin walked at the front as always.

He strode onto the wide road and walked beneath the massive rock wall.

Soon, he came to a fire pit that had been overturned on the ground.

Liang Jin bent down, held the brazier upright with both hands, then took out some firewood and put it into the brazier. Next, he took out a tinderbox, shook it gently, and a faint flame rose up, igniting the firewood.

As the fire intensified, the bright light spread rapidly from the fire pit to the surrounding area, illuminating a large region.

Under the light, pools of blood on the ground came into view.

The blood was bright red, clearly having flowed recently, and still exuded warmth.

Even more bizarrely, some clothing remained on the blood, floating haphazardly in the pool of blood.

Liang Jin slowly walked to a pool of blood and bent down to examine it carefully.

All that could be seen was a large amount of hair mixed in with the blood, but strangely, there was not a trace of bone or flesh.

And this blood was horribly thick, like foul-smelling pus.

The entire outfit remained intact on the ground, the shoes were still in their original place, and a weapon lay nearby.

Clearly, someone had recently met with misfortune here, and their death was extremely gruesome.

It looked as if a person had suddenly melted away like ice without warning, leaving only a pool of pus and blood, with only hair, clothing, and weapons remaining.

Liang Jinzhi stood up and looked around. He found that the pools of pus and blood around him were all in the same condition, but he could not find a single intact corpse.

Looking at the horrifying pools of blood before her, Wen Hengrong was filled with fear. After hesitating for a long time, she finally mustered up the courage to ask:

"Should we... or...?"

"Should we leave first?"

Those who followed Princess Zhao Xiling were all renowned masters in the martial arts world, and most of them were far more skilled than Wen Hengrong.

The pools of blood before us now signify the deaths of numerous masters.

She could even identify some of the experts by examining the remaining clothing and weapons.

Seeing so many experts perish here, Wen Hengrong's fear intensified, and her voice trembled slightly.

Upon hearing this, Shen Cangming snorted coldly, his face full of disdain:

"If you're scared, you can go out by yourself."

He had always disliked Wen Hengrong, and now, hearing her cowardly words, his disgust intensified, so he naturally retorted angrily without any mercy.

Upon hearing this, Wen Hengrong smiled awkwardly, her lips moved, but she ultimately didn't dare to retort.

After all, Shen Cangming was the infamous "Cangming Sword" senior, with extremely high prestige in the martial arts world, and she dared not offend him easily.

At this moment, Liang Jin did not hesitate at all and continued to move forward.

He secretly used the [Thousand Mile Tracking] tool to check and found that all the people whose names he knew, including Zhao Xiling, Canxin, Ding Feng, Gu Jinfu, Cao Xian, and Mu Mu, were still alive and well.

Clearly, the danger here only poses a fatal threat to those whose martial arts skills are not high enough or who are not valued.

Seeing that Liang Jin had made his decision, the group, though apprehensive, had no choice but to grit their teeth and follow him on his journey.

When Liang Jin reached the cell, he suddenly stopped and peered into the cell through the crack in the door.

This glance made him frown instantly:

"Huh?" "Is this even human?"

Liang Jin could clearly see that the skeletons of the prisoners in the cell were in a very strange shape.

These skeletons appear to have undergone severe deformation, with the lower half of the skeleton twisted and serpentine, resembling a snake's body.

There are indeed some deformed children in this world. Some people are born with their legs joined together, while others are born with severe skeletal deformities.

But Liang Jin had never heard of or seen anything like this before, where even the bones had become like snake bones.

So, filled with doubt, he continued walking toward the remaining cells.

After inspecting more than a dozen cells, he finally determined that there were serious problems with the prisoners who had been held there years ago.

Because the remains of all the prisoners in the cells had been deformed to some extent.

In milder cases, the general shape of human leg bones can still be vaguely discerned in the legs; in severe cases, the entire body, except for the head which still retains a faint human appearance, has been completely disfigured.

"It seems this place is indeed full of strange things."

Liang Jin frowned.

The fact that so many people with deformities gathered together is not particularly outrageous in itself.

Even in Liang Jin's previous life, deformed people were considered a valuable resource under certain circumstances and would be collected by the national court.

Historically, some emperors also enjoyed keeping deformed people for amusement or for sacrificial purposes, such as dwarfs, hermaphrodites, and emaciated people.

During the Tang Dynasty, it was fashionable to keep dwarf slaves. Dwarf slaves were people who were short in stature.

At that time, the Tang Dynasty emperor regarded dwarfs as important tributes and strictly ordered Daozhou to send one dwarf to the court every year.

However, the number of naturally occurring dwarfs was extremely limited and could not meet the needs of the court and the emperor.

As a result, local officials in Daozhou went so far as to place normally developing children in earthenware jars, with only their heads exposed, and provide them with food and drink. They used this extremely cruel method to artificially create deformed dwarfs.

Besides pleasing the monarch, people with deformities often played an important role in sacrificial activities.

In ancient times, there was a very important rain-seeking ritual called Yu Ji. During the Yu Ji ceremony held by the state court, a crucial step was to burn a "shaman" alive.

The so-called "shaman" refers to a deformed person whose face is turned upwards due to skeletal deformities.

In the ancient people's beliefs and customs, they believed that because these deformed people faced the sky, they were in danger of getting water in their noses whenever it rained. Out of pity, the heavens would stop the rain after seeing these poor people.

Therefore, the ancients firmly believed that as long as the male widow was burned to death, the rain would naturally resume.

Therefore, when the power of the state or the imperial court is used to collect deformed people, it is often possible to gather a large number of them together.

However, the situation here is quite different from before.

Because all the deformed people here share a common and striking characteristic—

They all exhibited a deformed state of having human heads and snake bodies!
While there are many people with deformities in the world, it is absolutely impossible for so many people to have such similar deformities at the same time.

On the contrary, these deformed people do not look like they have natural deformities, but rather... deformities caused by human intervention!
Just as the Daozhou officials created dwarfs through artificial means, Liang Jin had a vague feeling that these deformed people here must have been turned into this way by some special and terrible means.

However, the technology and methods to twist human bones into snake shapes are truly horrifying and inconceivable, exceeding the scope of ordinary people's understanding.

Those who had been following him naturally also noticed this strange situation.

Wen Hengrong couldn't help but exclaim in surprise:

"Is this a monster's lair? Why are so many monsters imprisoned here?"

"Isn't this the imperial prison? Isn't this where criminals are imprisoned?"

Her beautiful face was now filled with terror, her eyes wide open, clearly terrified by this extremely bizarre situation.

However, Liang Jin keenly noticed that neither Shen Cangming nor Zhao Bao had any expression of fear on their faces.

As a member of the Youhuan clan, Shen Cangming might have some connection to this strange situation, which is why he remained calm and unsurprised.

But what about Zhao Bao?

He shouldn't be so calm.

Liang Jin narrowed his eyes slightly, thinking to himself:

"Could it be that Zhao Bao learned some secrets about this place during the days he was trapped in Zanglong Ridge?"

Liang Jin was full of questions, but Zhao Bao seemed unwilling to say more, so he didn't press him for an answer.

So, Liang Jin took a deep breath, calmed himself down, and continued on his way.

Seeing this, Wen Hengrong quickly followed closely behind him, no longer daring to wander far away, as if Liang Jin was her only support at this moment.

Zhao Bao, on the other hand, remained silently at the rear, his expression calm and unfathomable.

But this time, they hadn't gone far when an unexpected event occurred.

Wen Hengrong suddenly stood still as if frozen in place.

Her voluptuous body began to tremble uncontrollably, and she uttered incoherent murmurs.

When Liang Jin turned around and looked at her.

Her expression was extremely distorted, her eyes were bloodshot and almost bulging out of their sockets, and two lines of bloody tears slowly flowed from her eyes.

What was once a charming and alluring woman has suddenly become more terrifying than a vengeful ghost!
(End of this chapter)