Divine Root Bone

Inside the room on the right, Su Qingyao lay on her back on a hard wooden bed, her fingertips unconsciously stroking the edge of the bed, her brows furrowed with an unyielding caution.

She was meticulous and always cautious in her actions. Upon entering, her eyes immediately fell on the bare walls, devoid of any light. Now, alone in the quiet room, her suspicions grew stronger. Even the most rudimentary mountain inns would have small windows for ventilation and light, but this place had sealed off all the rooms, leaving no gaps to the outside. The stifling, deathly space felt like a sealed coffin, imprisoning her within its confines. Her fingertips lightly touched the cold wall, a faint, almost imperceptible smell of decaying earth filling her nostrils. A chill ran through her as she secretly speculated that the shopkeeper's sealing of the windows was no ordinary arrangement. Either something unspeakable roamed outside at night, or this sealed room concealed some kind of scheme, deliberately isolating the flow of energy between inside and outside, locking the cultivator within.

Lin Wanqing, in the room to the left next door, was equally restless. Leaning against the wall, she repeatedly scanned the sealed walls around her, her heart filled with confusion and apprehension. When she entered, she had only glanced at the room briefly without giving it much thought. Now, alone in the enclosed room, a suffocating sense of oppression enveloped her. The windowless walls made her feel as if there were eyes watching her from the shadows behind them. The more she thought about it, the more uneasy she became. She secretly shared the same doubts as Su Qingyao. This completely enclosed guest room was too abnormal, exuding an inexplicable eeriness.

Previously in Shou'an Village, the three inner disciples who were at the back of the group were assigned to three single, enclosed huts at the innermost part of the courtyard. The three were in three separate rooms, not far apart. At this moment, they were already firmly bound by the evil soul-controlling threads summoned by the puppet woman in the graveyard. The threads hidden in their flesh and blood were constantly tightening.

Back in Shou'an Village, the three had already begun to show signs of abnormality. Large beads of cold sweat poured uncontrollably from their bodies, and their physical bodies seemed to be slipping out of their control. Their minds were clear but imprisoned by evil power. They wanted to open their mouths to warn others and rush out of the room to warn their fellow disciples of the danger, but their throats were as if they were being tightly choked by an invisible hand, and they could not utter a sound. They could only let the puppet woman control their bodies from afar with silk threads across the many houses.

At this moment, they were in a windowless, airtight cage-like hut, cut off from the flow of spiritual energy between heaven and earth. Death energy accumulated inside, and the suppressive power of the soul-controlling threads suddenly surged.

Inside one of the rooms, an inner sect cultivator suddenly sprang from his bed, his limbs twisting grotesquely and uncontrollably. His neck bent backward at an angle defying the limits of human skeletal strength, the cervical bones creaking and grinding. A thick layer of cold sweat soaked through his robes, dripping from his chin and forming a black, sticky puddle on the blue bricks. His once clear pupils were now shrouded in a deathly gray mist, only a faint sliver of consciousness trapped in a frenzied panic deep within his soul. His lips trembled incessantly, yet no cry for help could escape. Beneath his meridians, the outlines of pale black threads faintly appeared through his flesh, winding around his internal organs. With each contraction, the life force within him faded, his movements increasingly resembling those of a puppet devoid of self-control—a pattern strikingly similar to that of his senior brother, who had been corrupted by evil power earlier and was on the verge of losing control.

In the second small hut next door, a second inner sect cultivator stood stiffly before the wall, his fingers digging into the sealed surface, nails cracking and bleeding. His consciousness desperately tried to pull his hands back, but his body wouldn't obey. Large beads of cold sweat mixed with blood from his fingertips streamed down his arms, his muscles convulsing uncontrollably. Beneath his skin, black threads constantly moved, coiled, and tightened, devouring the last vestiges of his independent soul. His once bright eyes were now completely numb and empty, only the lingering fear in his heart churning wildly, yet all avenues for communication and action were sealed off by the evil power, leaving him helplessly at the mercy of the threads.

In the third room at the innermost end, the third inner sect cultivator huddled on the ground, trembling violently. Cold sweat soaked through his clothes, clinging to his skin, and he shivered uncontrollably as if he had fallen into an ice cellar. He clearly sensed that the soul-controlling threads within his body were eroding the foundation of his soul. His thoughts were perfectly clear, yet his limbs and bones felt completely alien to him. Even moving his eyes required all his mental energy. The aura of a living person around him was rapidly fading, and his body was gradually transforming into a mindless corpse puppet. The evil's control was intensifying. If this continued, within half an hour, he would become a mindless killing tool in the puppet woman's hands, completely at her mercy.

The three sealed, windowless huts were deathly silent, except for the faint, suppressed sounds of bones grinding, fingernails cracking, and bodies trembling. These sounds were completely isolated by the thick, sealed walls. None of the other Qingyun Sect disciples who were recuperating in the courtyard noticed that deep within the courtyard, their three fellow disciples were undergoing a bizarre manipulation that was corrosive to the bone and devouring the soul.

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After enduring an unknown amount of time in the house, three light knocks suddenly echoed in the dull and silent courtyard, landing precisely on Su Qingyao's door.

The sudden, piercing knock on the door amidst the silence instantly made Su Qingyao's heart tighten, her heightened vigilance gripping her mind. Being at the peak of Qi Refining, she instantly conjured a protective shield of inner energy at her fingertips, her spiritual energy flowing silently around her, ready to strike at any moment. She slowly walked to the stone door and gently pushed it open a crack.

A woman stood outside the door, one of the five rogue cultivators who had traveled from the Southern Region to this place, her cultivation also at the peak of Qi Refining. Upon seeing who it was, Su Qingyao's tense expression eased slightly, but her eyes still held a hint of confusion. She softly asked, "It's the middle of the night, everyone is resting in their rooms. Why aren't you resting? Why are you knocking on my door?"

The female cultivator from the Southern Region looked troubled and subconsciously glanced back at the guest room behind her, which had its walls sealed off. She whispered her frustration: "My room has no windows on any of the four walls. It's as closed off as a cage. Being alone here makes me feel suffocated and restless. I can't sit still any longer, so I thought I'd go out for some fresh air."

These words struck a chord with Su Qingyao's long-standing doubts. After a moment's thought, she nodded in agreement: "I was also wondering about this. Since we have nothing else to do, let's go for a walk together and see if it's just our two rooms that don't have windows, or if all the guest rooms in the inn have this strange layout."

The two stepped out of the courtyard together and strolled leisurely along the inn's corridor, exploring the area. The night was thick, and the entire courtyard was eerily quiet. As they walked, an unusual scene came into their view—many guests who had previously stayed indoors suddenly pushed open their doors and stood silently at their doorways, slowly raising their hands towards passersby in the distance, beckoning them to come closer.

The cultivator who was beckoned looked bewildered and confused, completely unaware of the other party's intentions. Yet, as if drawn by some invisible force, his steps moved uncontrollably straight toward the person.

Along the short corridor, the two had already encountered two or three such strange and silent invitations. At first, they thought they were just familiar fellow disciples meeting up and didn't think much of it, but they felt a little uneasy.

But as the two walked around the entire backyard and prepared to return to their residence, the strange scene before them suddenly intensified. Four or five doors on both sides of the corridor were wide open, and countless figures stood silently at the doorways, their eyes lowered, saying nothing, only repeating the gesture of beckoning with their hands. The deathly silence sent chills down their spines.

Su Qingyao and the female cultivator from the Southern Region exchanged a glance, both seeing deep apprehension in each other's eyes. Knowing they could not linger here, they immediately decided to split up and return to their respective residences to inform their fellow disciples of the strange scene they had just witnessed, sharing the danger with each other.

After hastily bidding farewell to the female cultivator from the Southern Region, Su Qingyao immediately rushed to Lin Wanqing's room on the left and knocked heavily on the stone door.

"Wanqing, are you inside?"

There was complete silence inside the door; there was not a single response.

Su Qingyao's heart skipped a beat. She knocked on the door again, the dull thud echoing down the corridor, but there was still no response from inside. A sense of foreboding rushed to her head. Fearing that Lin Wanqing had met with misfortune, she activated all the energy in her dantian, poured all her strength into her arms, and slammed them against the heavy stone door with a loud crash!

"Boom—"

The sealed stone door swung open with a loud thud, revealing an empty room. The tables, chairs, and beds were intact, but there was no sign of Lin Wanqing.

The moment Su Qingyao saw that the room was empty, cold sweat poured down her body like a spring, the hairs on her back stood on end, and a bone-chilling cold shot from the soles of her feet to the top of her head. She dared not linger and turned to rush to Zhang Yang's room in the middle, wanting to tell him about the matter immediately.

Before she could even raise her hand to knock on the door, Zhang Yang's calm and steady voice came from inside, speaking slowly and deliberately: "Come in."

Su Qingyao pushed open the door and entered, only to find Lin Wanqing already standing calmly in the room. The huge weight that had been hanging over her heart suddenly lifted.

It turned out that Lin Wanqing was alone in the windowless, enclosed room. She felt oppressed and suffocated all around, and her heart was filled with fear and unease. However, she did not have Su Qingyao's meticulous mind and did not notice the strange phenomena that kept appearing in the corridor. She was simply afraid of being alone, so she set off early to Zhang Yang's room to keep him company, just in time to avoid Su Qingyao who had returned to report the news.

Inside the small house, Zhang Yang, Su Qingyao, and Lin Wanqing were all together. The windowless room completely isolated them from the deathly silence outside. Su Qingyao suppressed the lingering fear in her heart and told Zhang Yang everything that had happened when she went out to investigate.

"The entire backyard of the inn is filled with sealed, windowless rooms. At midnight, many guests open their doors and stand silently, only raising their hands to beckon passersby closer. At first, I only saw two or three such incidents, but when I returned, there were as many as four or five. The summoned cultivators were clearly full of doubts, but they were unable to control themselves and went forward. This place is full of eeriness and is definitely not what an ordinary inn should look like."