The invincible female ghost is a bit love-struck.

Chapter 280 Stay! Stay!

Each name that falls off transforms into a wisp of gray-white shadow.

The figures had no facial features or complete bodies. They paused briefly in mid-air before drifting away from the stone corridor.

Some wore old coats, some leaned on wooden canes, some carried an empty bowl, and some had ropes for chopping firewood on their shoulders.

None of them looked back, as if they had finally found their way out.

The black-robed figure behind the stone wall raised his hands, trying to pull the gray-white figures back in.

But every time it grabbed one, the figure would slip through its fingers.

"Leave."

"There are seats for you here."

"Leave."

Its voice grew softer and softer, as if it came from the deepest part of the mountain.

Not a single person responded.

As the last gray-white figure passed through the crevice in the stone wall, it suddenly stopped, turned its faceless face, and bowed slightly in the direction of Lu Yuan.

Then, it dissipated into the darkness outside.

The stone corridor suddenly became much emptier.

The old objects in the niches stopped shaking, and the seven pottery jars also quieted down, leaving only the black jar that was pressed down by the Soul-Revealing Mirror still trembling slightly.

The giant eye inside the stone bell finally revealed a sliver of gray-white light.

That line wasn't looking at the crowd, but at the shadow beneath Lu Yuan's feet.

Lu Yuan immediately understood.

"It's not trying to open its eyes."

"It's trying to recognize its own image."

"What will happen if we admit it?" Wang Chengan asked.

"Once you recognize the shadow, the shadow belongs to it," Lu Yuan said. "Once the shadow belongs to it, the person can still move outside, but the soul will remain here."

Upon hearing this, Xu Erxiao quickly pulled the shadow under his feet back.

"Why is this thing as cunning as an abacus?"

"Iron Abacus works for it." Lu Yuan stared at the giant eye behind the stone wall. "It existed before Iron Abacus and knows better how to use people."

The figure in the black robe suddenly dispersed.

Its black robe billowed up piece by piece, revealing the upside-down black tree behind it.

The black tree roots burrowed into the stone platform, while the trunk hung suspended in mid-air, and the grayish-white embryonic core in the central depression was pulsating rhythmically.

With each beat, the giant eye inside the stone bell opens a little wider.

"The main embryo and the true eye are connected," Lin Zhaoxuan said. "If the eye is fully open, the embryonic core will also awaken."

"We can't let them close," Lu Yuan said.

Wang Cheng'an asked, "Then what should we do?"

Lu Yuan did not answer immediately.

He turned to look at the black jar that was being held down by the mirror.

The black paper on the black jar had torn into several pieces, and on the exposed jar body, there was a circle of fine characters engraved.

Previously, the fog was too thick, and people couldn't see clearly.

At that moment, illuminated by the light of the oil lamp, Lu Yuan finally saw clearly.

Those words were not names, but rather an old phrase repeated over and over: "The eye is the door, the fetus is the lock, the name is the guide, and the shadow is the food."

Four lines form a circle, and the circles are connected.

Next to the character “名名引”, there is an extremely fine notch.

Lu Yuan squatted down and used the tip of his knife to pry along the notch, and a thin piece of pottery immediately fell off the outer shell of the jar.

A rolled-up black strip of paper was visible inside.

When the note was unfolded, it turned out to be the writing of Tie Suanpan.

The handwriting was crooked and the strokes were heavy, as if the hand was shaking badly when it was written.

The text at the top only has a few lines: "The main offering is not in the jar."

"The jar is just a way to collect names for the eyes."

"To sever the true eye, first sever the embryonic root."

"The embryonic root is not on the stone platform, but on the road where offerings are made."

"At the end of the road, there is an overturned well."

After reading it, Lu Yuan handed the note to Lin Zhaoxuan.

"Dump the well?" Wang Chengan asked.

Lu Yuan looked towards the valley behind the stone wall.

Most of the red cloth around the altar was torn, but a few black threads remained intact.

Those black lines passed through the stone bell, through the upside-down black trees, and finally extended deeper into the valley.

One of them is extending diagonally from below the stone platform.

Unlike other power lines that are connected to wooden signs, it is connected to an old road hidden at the bottom of a valley.

"The true source of life is in the mountains, not in this cave," Lu Yuandao said.

"This is its face and eyes." "The roots are even deeper."

Lin Zhaoxuan looked up: "Should we destroy the true eye inside the stone bell first, or go find the overturned well?"

"Sever the embryonic root first," Lu Yuan said. "The true eye has no embryonic root to support it; it's just a skin that can see."

"But to get to the well, you have to pass through this main cave first."

"Right now it's using our shadow to fill in the gaps in its name, we have to force it to reveal its true nature."

He raised his hand and pointed to the few black lines that were still intact.

"Second Brother, bring me the red cloth."

"Qinghe, lower the oil lamp."

"Cheng An and Zhou Heng, guard the left and right flanks."

"Lin Zhaoxuan, don't touch the Soul-Illuminating Mirror."

Everyone quickly adjusted their positions.

Song Qinghe placed the oil lamp on the ground, and the flame spread forward along the stone bricks.

As the lights dimmed, the shadows of the crowd were no longer cast on the wall, but instead stretched long and thin, converging towards the bottom of the stone wall.

Lu Yuan picked up the red cloth strip and walked along the salt line to the very front.

Instead of pressing the cloth strip over the shadow, he wrapped it around the thickest black line.

"The return journey isn't about going back," he said. "It's about tying what you've gone out into its own orbit."

After he finished speaking, he tied a reverse knot.

The red ribbon, which had originally faded, suddenly blew out a layer of dark red, as if it had been soaked in old blood again.

The wooden piece at the end of the cloth strip made a soft sound and slid forward an inch along the black line.

The giant eye inside the stone bell immediately closed slightly.

The man in black robes let out a low growl.

"You can't touch that line."

"Where does it connect to?"

"Don't touch it."

"Who is it connected to?"

"cannot"

Lu Yuan pressed the short knife down onto the black line.

The black line struggled violently, and all the black water on the ground flowed backward, rushing towards the stone bell.

The old objects in the niche also made a clanging sound, as if countless people were knocking on the door simultaneously inside the mountain.

Lu Yuan did not let go.

"explain."

Large pieces of the inscription on the black-robed man's body have fallen off.

One of them flew to the front of the stone corridor and landed right on the ground.

The paper read: "For a celebrity."

Wang Chengan glanced at it, his face darkening.

"Give it to a celebrity?"

"What is this?"

"The one who gives a name to the land to support," Lu Yuandao said. "Not the one who supports the land, but the one who gives the name."

"They collect names outside the mountains and then send them here."

"As soon as he entered the mountains, he followed this route down."

"Dumping the well is their final closing point."

"Are there people outside the mountain doing things for it?" Song Qinghe asked.

Lu Yuan was silent for a moment.

"There should be." "But not the one we're looking for right now."

"Besides us, everyone else in the mountains is unclean."

"Slay the main body first, and the road outside will naturally collapse."

Upon hearing the word "slay," the man in black robes abruptly raised his head.

The black wooden plaque covering its face finally fell off completely.

A huge hole was exposed in the center of the faceless head.

The void wasn't black, but rather filled with countless layers of gray-white eyelids.

They overlapped each other, slowly turning outwards.

"You think you can kill me?"

When the sound came, all the niches in the stone corridor responded at the same time.

"I'm in the mountains."

"The mountain is on my back."

"If you cut off your eyes, the mountain will close them for me."

Lu Yuandao said, "Then let's peel the mountain apart as a whole."

He suddenly pulled up the black wooden plaque.

The thick black line was lifted three inches off the ground, and a ring of thin white nails buried in the cracks in the stone was immediately exposed below it.

There are nine nails in total, arranged in a crooked eye shape.

The nails that the iron abacus planted back then.

However, these nine bone nails were not used to suppress the evil god, but were instead entangled by the roots of the upside-down black tree.

"The iron abacus is gone, leaving only ashes on the road."

Lu Yuan stared at the bone nails and said in a low voice, "He buried something here as well."

"He wants to nail the embryonic root?" Lin Zhaoxuan asked.

"He tried to nail it in," Lu Yuandao said, "but he was alone at the time, and the bone nails couldn't hold him down."

"Now we have the Soul-Revealing Mirror, the Black Wooden Tablet, the Salt Thread, and the Ashes He Left Behind."

Whether it works or not depends on this one time.

Wang Chengan asked, "How do we do it?"

Lu Yuan handed the black wooden plaque to Lin Zhaoxuan.

"Place the black wooden plaque in the very center."

"Zhou Heng, the abacus is placed on the east side."

"Cheng'an, the west is sealed with cinnabar."

"Second Brother, sprinkle salt all over the nine bone nails."

"Qinghe, raise the oil lamp high and shine it on the root of the embryo."

Everyone acted at the same time.

Lin Zhaoxuan pressed his hands on the black wooden plaque, and as soon as the plaque touched the bone nail in the middle, the entire black line immediately trembled violently.

Zhou Heng forcefully shoved the abacus into the crack in the stone.

The abacus was cracked. When the wooden frame got stuck on the bone nail, the beads rolled off one by one, but instead of falling to the ground, they were attracted by the black thread and turned into a string of tiny gray beads.

Wang Chengan scattered cinnabar along the west side.

The cinnabar landed, forcing the black water to disperse.

Xu Erxiao poured almost the entire bag of salt next to the bone nail, and the salt grains made a series of fine cracking sounds as they fell.

Song Qinghe held up the oil lamp.

The firelight finally reached the base of the embryo.

It was a grayish-white fleshy root, hidden deep within the upside-down black tree.

It emerges from a crevice in the mountain wall, its surface covered by a thin black film, beneath which many tiny points of light are slowly moving.

Every ray of light is like an eye that has not yet opened.

"I can see the roots." Song Qinghe's voice was strained.

Lu Yuan grabbed the black ash from the abacus in his palm and smeared it with the blade.

The blade was immediately covered with a layer of grayish-white light.

This isn't the Iron Abacus coming back to life.

It was the techniques and records he left behind that were used to eradicate the root of the problem for the last time.

The black-robed figure behind the stone wall suddenly lunged forward.

It didn't cross the wall, but a large dark shadow squeezed out from the crack in the stone, turning into countless hands, reaching for Lu Yuan's back.

Wang Chengan turned around and stood in front of him, throwing a handful of cinnabar at him.

The shadowy figures were burned away, but then reappeared from both sides.

"Cheng'an, protect the lamp!" Lu Yuan shouted. "Don't worry about me!"

Wang Chengan grabbed the abacus and smashed it several times at the dark figure.

Zhou Heng rushed over and placed a salt line between the two. The moment the black hands touched the salt line, they recoiled back into the cracks in the rock as if they had encountered red-hot iron.

Upon seeing this, Xu Erxiao simply grabbed the remaining half of the red cloth strip, wrapped it around a black hand, and pulled it outwards with force.

He pulled the black hand out of the crevice, revealing a series of overlapping faces underneath.

"Second Brother."

"Help me."

Xu Erxiao's face was deathly pale, but he did not let go.

He gritted his teeth and wrapped the red cloth around his black hand.

"None of you are."

The wooden "回" character on the red ribbon shone brightly again.

When the black hand was illuminated by the red light, it immediately turned into a wisp of black smoke, which rolled back against the stone wall along the red cloth strip.

The giant eye inside the stone bell trembled violently.

Through the crack in the eyelid, a patch of true darkness finally appeared.

That blackness wasn't in the pupil.

It is a bottomless pit.

A deep voice came from inside the cave: "You must sever your reproductive organs."

"Then let's exchange one person for him."

As soon as he finished speaking, something suddenly grabbed the shadow beneath Xu Erxiao's feet.

He slid backward, his knee slamming heavily onto the stone steps.

"Second Little One!"

Wang Chengan reached out to pull, but a black line wrapped around his wrist.

The black line wasn't tightened; instead, it quickly wrote a word on the back of his hand.

"eldest son."

Wang Chengan's expression changed drastically.

Two words also appeared on the back of Zhou Heng's hand.

"Old friends".

A very faint gray mark appeared on Song Qinghe's shoulder.

"nameless."

The identities of the three people were revealed simultaneously.

The evil god no longer tried to manipulate them from their hearts, but instead forced them to play their cards directly.

Lu Yuan's eyes turned cold.

"It can't hold on any longer."

"So the competition for names began."

He raised his sword and slashed at the dark figure at Xu Erxiao's feet.

The blade hit the ground, and the shadow split open in response.

Xu Erxiao felt light and rolled forward two steps.

Lu Yuan turned around and slashed at Wang Cheng'an's hand again.

"clang!"

The moment the tip of the knife touched the words "eldest son," it was repelled by an invisible force.

Wang Chengan groaned in pain, and the words on the back of his hand became even deeper.

"Brother Lu, I can't cut them off here!"

"It's not 'slaying'," Lu Yuandao said. "You tell me yourself."

"What did you say?"

"Say you didn't write it."

Wang Cheng'an gritted his teeth and roared at the giant gray-white eye, "I'm not the eldest son!"

The words on the back of my hand did not disappear.

Lu Yuandao said, "We'll see."

"I'm not the eldest son!"

"We'll see!"

"I'm not the eldest son!"

On the third time, the characters on the back of Wang Cheng'an's hand finally cracked.

Lu Yuan sliced ​​through the crack with a single cut.

The ash residue scattered into black ash.

Zhou Heng also shouted, "I'm not one of the old folks!"

Song Qinghe protected the oil lamp: "I am not nameless!"

The identification marks on the hands of the three people shattered simultaneously.

Only the shadow beneath Xu Erxiao's feet was half-pulled into the stone wall.

Lu Yuan turned to look at him.

"Second son, you're not a runaway."

"What are you?"

Xu Erxiao was stunned.

He looked at Lu Yuan, then at Wang Cheng'an, his lips moved for a long time, but he couldn't say anything.

He has always been called Erxiao.

No one ever asked him what he wanted to be.

Lu Yuan didn't urge him on, but simply held the knife between the black line and the shadow.

"Think for yourself."

"Your name wasn't given to you by someone else."

You have to admit it yourself.

He grabbed the shadow at his feet.

"I am Xu Erxiao."

"

"It's my own name, and I recognize it!"

The black line emitted a sharp sound.

This was the moment Lu Yuan had been waiting for.

He thrust the blade into the point where the black line met the shadow, and then sharply slashed upwards.

The shadow completely detached from the black line.

Xu Erxiao leaned back, and Wang Chengan quickly grabbed him.

At the same time, all nine bone nails lit up simultaneously.

Salt, cinnabar, black ash, the Soul-Revealing Mirror, the black wooden plaque, and the remnants of the old abacus converged in the cracks of the stone, forming a narrow white line.

The white line runs upwards along the base of the tire.

The roots of the upside-down black tree began to shrink.

The grayish-white embryonic core in the center of the stone platform emitted a muffled sound, and a crack appeared on its surface.

There was no blood or flesh in the crack.

It has only one smaller, darker eye.

It had just opened its eyes when it was illuminated by the light of the oil lamp.

The light in Song Qinghe's hand suddenly flared up.

The tiny eye seemed to be branded with a hot iron, and suddenly shrank back into the embryonic core.

"Now!"

Lu Yuan shouted sternly.

He gripped the knife with both hands and cleaved it down at the thickest part of the fetus's root.

The blade pierced through the black membrane.

An extremely cold aura emanated from the root of the fetus, and the entire stone corridor was immediately covered with a layer of white frost.

The aura contained a roar that sounded inhuman.

"You can't cut me off!"

Lu Yuan did not stop.

With the first cut, only half of the embryonic root split open.

As the second strike landed, the blade was held back by a powerful force.

Lu Yuan's arm went numb, and blood seeped from the base of his thumb.

Wang Chengan, Zhou Heng, and Xu Erxiao rushed over at the same time, and the three of them pressed down on the back of the knife together.

"Brother Lu!"

"Push harder!"

"I'll help you press it!"

The blade continued downwards.

The black wooden plaque shook violently.

The mirror of the Soul-Revealing Mirror was covered with cracks.

The giant eye inside the stone bell slowly opened, and the gaze from the darkness was fixed on Lu Yuan.

"Lu Yuan."

"You severed your embryonic root."

"Your name will become a new root."

Lu Yuan looked up at the giant eye.

"That depends on whether you have the ability to stay."

He suddenly pulled out the last bone nail from his waist, bit his fingertip, and smeared the blood on the nail tip.

This bone nail wasn't left by the abacus.

It was previously pulled out from the bed of true eyes underground.

The bone nail had been soaked in the black mist inside the fetus, and Lu Yuan hadn't touched it. Now it was perfect for nailing the broken end of the fetus's root.

"The nail is driven in, and the old debts are returned to ashes."

"Salt seals its mouth, cinnabar silences its name."

"The Soul-Illuminating Mirror shines brightly, the Black Wooden Tablet is in town."

He drove the bone nail hard into the split fetal root.

"Break!"

With that final thud, the embryonic root finally broke.

There was no loud noise.

There was only a very soft "pop".

It looks like a blister has burst.

Subsequently, all the red lines snapped simultaneously.

On the altar in the valley, wooden tablets fell one after another.

The cracks on the surface of the stone bell rapidly widened, and the giant eye inside the bell was bombarded by countless gray-white names, causing its eyelids to twitch.

The upside-down black tree in the main cave lost its root support, and its trunk split in the middle.

The grayish-white embryonic core rolled out and hit the edge of the stone platform.

It didn't break.

Instead, it split in two.

One half resembles a dried-out fruit shell, while the other half reveals a deep black hole.

A soft laugh came from the hole.

"You think severing the roots means cutting me off?"

Lu Yuan stared at the half embryonic core.

"I know."

"This is just to force you out of the mountains."

"You have no power supply."

"What will you use to make a living?"

"The name remains."

The sounds came from all directions.

The ashes of the identity tags that had been burned off on both sides of the stone corridor were suddenly swept up by a gust of wind and gathered again towards the half-embryo core.

"As long as there are still people who remember the name."

"As long as people still call out the name."

"As long as people still pass by the foot of the mountain."

"I can grow back."

Lu Yuan's expression did not change.

He looked at the black jar.

"So this is its true nature," Lin Zhaoxuan said in a low voice, "The purpose of offering a name is not just to raise it."

"It also leaves a way for it to be reborn."

"Yes," Lu Yuan nodded, "but it forgot one thing."

"What?"

"A name can be remembered." "It can also be changed."

Lu Yuan walked to the half of the embryonic core and picked up the black jar.

"They collect people's names in jars, thinking that as long as the names are left behind, they will belong to them forever."

"But these names have already been removed from the identity cards."

"Now they are nameless."

He looked at the gray and white figures gradually dissipating deep within the stone corridor.

"Those without a master's name cannot be directly worshipped as evil gods."

"Someone needs to re-identify them."

"9

Song Qinghe understood.

"So you're going to return the name?"

"We can't return them all," Lu Yuan said. "Some names have been shattered, and even the original owners can't be found."

"But those things that can be sent out of the mountains should be sent out first."

"Burn what you can't give away."

"As long as they no longer remain in the land of sustenance, the evil god will have no food to revive."

Wang Cheng'an looked out of the stone gate: "But this mountain is so big, how are we going to send these names out?"

Lu Yuan turned the black wooden plaque over.

The black spot on the back of the card has cracked, revealing a very shallow white mark.

"Follow the broken power supply line."

"The power supply line originally sent the name in."

"Now, by reversing the roles, we can send our fame out."

He turned and looked at the end of the stone corridor.

The black wall there had cracked open, revealing a downward stone path behind it.

The stone path had no steps, only concentric circles of white bone imprints leading downwards.

At the very bottom, the faint sound of water could be heard.

"The well is just behind us," Lu Yuandao said. "Once the embryonic root is severed, the well will be exposed."

"Let's go down the well and bring the remaining offerings back to the surface."

"Then find its true form."

Xu Erxiao looked at the half-formed embryonic core: "Shouldn't we smash this thing first?"

"Smashing it will cause a 'flame explosion,'" Lu Yuan said. "It will scatter all the offerings from the jar onto us."

"At that time, no one will be able to tell who they are."

"Seal first."

Lu Yuan took out the last piece of yellow paper and stuck it on the fetal core.

There were no words written on the yellow paper.

He dipped the tip of his knife in blood and wrote only the character "静" (quiet).

As soon as the word was spoken, the laughter from the fetal core immediately subsided.

Wang Chengan and Zhou Heng worked together to move several pieces of rubble and placed the embryonic core on the edge of the stone platform.

Xu Erxiao sprinkled the salt in circles.

Song Qinghe then used an oil lamp to illuminate Lu Yuan's hand.

Lu Yuan placed the cracked abacus across the core of the fetus, and finally pressed the black wooden plaque down in the middle of the abacus.

"You idiot," he whispered. "I'll settle this score for you too."

"The person is dead, so stop letting it act in your name."

The white mark on the black wooden sign flashed.

The fetal core finally became completely quiet.

Deep within the stone bell, the giant eye remained open.

It looked at Lu Yuan, its gaze seemingly piercing through the stone wall and landing in his heart.

"You will come looking for me."

"I know."

"You will go to the deepest part of the land of sustenance."

"I know that too."

"Your name will be waiting for you there."

Lu Yuan looked up: "Then you just wait."

"I'll burn your name when I get inside."

He turned and walked toward the stone path.

Wang Chengan followed, and when he passed the abacus that was pressed on the fetal core, he suddenly stopped.

"Brother Lu, this abacus—"

"Stay here."

"Just leave it like this?"

"He guarded the door his whole life," Lu Yuan said, "and in the end, his schemes protected this false eye."

"This isn't him coming back to life."

"It was something he left behind after his death, finally ceasing to hold evil gods accountable."

Wang Chengan nodded and said nothing more.

The group walked into the stone path.

As soon as I took my first step, a muffled thud came from the stone wall behind me.

The giant gray-white eye closed.

All the niches in the stone corridor went out at the same time.

But just before darkness completely enveloped everything, Lu Yuan saw something through the crack in the Soul-Illuminating Mirror.

The valley behind the stone bell is collapsing.

The upside-down black tree has broken into many black roots.

In the center of the altar, the figure of the man in black robes also began to disintegrate.

Below the altar, there is still a thin, almost invisible black line that runs through the valley, through several mountain hollows, and into the deeper mountains.

The line did not connect to the altar, nor to the stone bell.

It is connected to a well that is upside down underground.

Nine stone tablets stand around the well.

Each stele has a single character engraved on it.

The first eight pieces are blurred, only the ninth piece is clear.

"born."

Lu Yuan paused slightly.

"Brother Lu?" Xu Erxiao asked.

"Below the well, there's not just the embryonic root," Lu Yuan said. "There's another survivor."

"The evil god's true form?"

"Perhaps." Lu Yuan gripped the short knife tightly. "It could also be a second life it gave itself."

The deeper you go down the stone path, the clearer the sound of water becomes.

The sound of the water didn't resemble an underground river; rather, it sounded like someone was scooping water with a spoon, one scoop at a time.

"Whoosh."

"

"stop."

"Whoosh."

"stop."

Each time the sound of water subsided, a small point of blue light would illuminate both sides of the stone path.

The blue light illuminated only names.

Some are engraved on bones.

Some were written on the tree bark.

Some are imprinted on the stone walls.

Others are just a single stroke, as if they were just written and then erased by something.

Zhou Heng looked at the names and suddenly whispered, "Weren't these the ones that just came out of the jar?"

"No," Lu Yuandao said, "this hasn't been installed yet."

"Duojing is the last section of the supply route."

"Only when the name is placed in the well can it be considered truly delivered to the original body."

Wang Cheng'an said, "Then I'll just wipe them all away now, won't that solve the problem?"

"You can't erase them," Lu Yuan said. "These names belong to someone."

"Forcibly erasing it is tantamount to erasing the very roots of a living person."

"We need to block the road and then send out the name."

"But who can answer?"

Lu Yuan glanced at the Soul-Illuminating Mirror in his hand.

Within the cracks in the mirror, a faint grayish-white light was flowing.

"The mirror can be used."

"Black wooden plaques can be used for beating."

"Red cloth can attract."

"Salt lines can be sealed."

"The few of us have to forge a path to resist extradition."

At the end of the stone path, a stone chamber appeared.

The stone chamber was small, with a well in the center.

The well is not opened downwards, but rather the wellhead is facing downwards, with the entire well body suspended upside down above the stone.

Thick, black water hung from the well's edge, dripping upwards instead of falling to the ground.

From deep within the well, came the sounds of "whoosh" and "stop".

Nine stone tablets were placed around the stone chamber.

The character "生" (life) on the ninth stone tablet was emitting a very faint red light.

Lu Yuan stood at the entrance of the stone chamber but did not go in.

"Don't step in the center of the stone chamber."

"That's not a well opening, that's an eyelid."

He looked at the overturned well and said in a low voice, "There's someone in the well."

The sound of water stopped.

A soft sigh came from the stone chamber.

"You've finally arrived."

The voice is very young.

He's too young to be an evil god.

It's more like a child who has been trapped at the bottom of a mountain for many years and has never grown up.

Xu Erxiao whispered, "Are there people inside?"

"I don't know," Lu Yuandao said, "but it wants us to think it is."

Suddenly, a drop of black water dripped down from the well.

The drop of water fell into the center of the stone chamber, but instead of spreading out, it condensed into a wet eye.

His eyes darted around, finally settling on Lu Yuan.

"You cut off my genitals."

"You've put many people's names here."

"They stayed voluntarily."

"Voluntary support does not equate to voluntary demolition."

"They need to live."

"What you're giving them is immortality, not life."

The voice from the well fell silent for a moment.

"You don't understand."

"I understand," Lu Yuan said. "You're afraid of dying."

"So you take other people's names, shadows, bones, and memories and piece them together into a skin that will never die."

"You support so many people, not to protect the mountain."

"It's to prolong my life."

A soft laugh suddenly echoed in the stone chamber.

"So what?"

A strand of black hair slowly drooped down from the edge of the overturned well.

A small copper bell hung at the end of her black hair.

The bell did not ring.

But everyone heard the bell ring.

"bite.

"

In an instant, the shadows beneath the feet of Wang Chengan, Xu Erxiao, Zhou Heng, and Song Qinghe froze simultaneously.

The words on the stone tablet began to light up.

"long."

"son."

"old."

"people.

"

"none."

"name."

"born."

The last character, "生" (life), was so bright it was blinding.

In the center of the stone chamber, a thin crack appeared in the floor.

From within the crack came countless voices: "Stay."

"Leave."

"Leave."