e-booksonline Chapter 262 The Living Cellar
Chapter 262 The Living Cellar
Chapter 262 The Living Cellar (4200)
As soon as that eye of the altar opened, the entire valley seemed to be held down by an invisible hand.
The wind stopped, the fog stopped, and even the white figures surrounding the air circle froze for a moment, as if they hadn't expected the person under the altar to actually open their eyes at this moment.
The mountains were already gloomy, and now, with that dark eye staring at them, everyone felt a tightness in their chests, as if a wet stone had just been pulled out of a well was pressing down on them.
Lu Yuan's eyes sharpened: "It's getting up."
As soon as he finished speaking, the mat covering the mouth of the jar was suddenly lifted upwards.
It wasn't blown away by the wind, but rather pushed up by that thing inside.
The moment the mat flew up, everyone saw that the mouth of the jar was not an empty cavity as they had imagined.
Instead, it was a twisted, dark shadow with thin red lines interspersed within it, resembling blood vessels or hair.
The shadowy figure had no complete shape, but one could vaguely make out a curled-up outline, like a person, but thinner and longer, with its spine almost forming a line.
Zhou Heng cursed, "Damn it, what kind of monster is this?!"
Lu Yuan didn't reply, but instead flipped the copper coin he was holding in his palm over, ran his fingertip across the coin's eye, and whispered a short incantation: "The copper opens the yin eye, revealing the true form."
"If an evil body is hidden, first destroy its shadow."
Immediately afterwards, he raised his hand and flicked it, sending the copper coin flying toward the mouth of the jar, where it struck a black nail with a "clang" in mid-air.
The black nail was already slightly loose, and with that impact, it snapped off with a "crack".
As soon as the broken nail fell, the two thin bamboo poles by the altar trembled simultaneously, and the paper banner shook violently as if a corner of the formation had been pulled off.
The dark figure inside the black jar emitted a very low and high-pitched hiss.
The sound didn't sound human; it was more like the sound of dozens of sheets of paper being suddenly torn apart.
The sharpness carried a fishy smell, and the fishy smell carried resentment.
Zhou Heng and Xu Erxiao couldn't help but cover their ears, their faces turning pale.
Wang Cheng'an stubbornly refused to back down, though his forehead was covered in sweat, he was still tightly clutching the talisman in his hand, his eyes fixed on the mouth of the jar, and he didn't dare to breathe too heavily.
"Brother Lu!"
He shouted in a low voice, "This thing is coming out!"
Lu Yuan said coldly, "Fine, then come out."
"I'll wait for it to show itself."
After saying that, he suddenly put his feet down, and his whole demeanor changed, as if he had been pulled out of the mountain wind and turned into an iron stake driven into the ground.
With his left hand he performed the Thunder Incantation, and with his right hand he brought his sword fingers together, his knuckles taut and white.
He spoke aloud, reciting an extremely long incantation for suppressing the altar: "Heaven and earth are boundless, the universe borrows its power."
"The mountains will not cover me, the waters will not drown me."
"The altar has its gate, and the gate has its own feng shui features."
"I will now use my body to stabilize the altar and my breath to seal your mouth."
"Press down on the Azure Dragon on the left, and press down on the White Tiger on the right."
"The Vermilion Bird guards the front, and the Black Tortoise lies in ambush behind."
"If an evil altar is set up, first cut off its path."
"Hurry, hurry, as the law commands! Suppress!"
As he uttered the last word, "镇" (zhen, meaning "suppress"), Lu Yuan's sword finger fell straight down, forcefully striking the invisible line of energy on the ground.
In an instant, it sounded as if a deep, muffled thunderclap echoed through the valley.
The thunder didn't come from the sky; it seemed to have been unearthed from the depths of the earth, causing the entire ground to sink.
The dark figure at the mouth of the jar, which was about to flip over, was forced back down by a third of its body by the shock.
But it was these three points that truly enraged that thing.
The black jar suddenly trembled, and the black eye at the bottom of the jar suddenly opened wide, with a dark red ring appearing around the white of the eye, like blood that had been boiled for too long.
Immediately afterwards, the white figures all around him roared and pounced, their numbers doubling from before.
"Hold on!"
Lu Yuan shouted sternly.
As soon as the group of white figures crashed into the air circle, they were like pieces of paper touching a flame, making a series of hissing sounds, breaking into layers, but they would come back together again, and then pounce on each other again.
The black eye on the jar's rim widened, its pupils almost bulging out of the jar, staring intently at Lu Yuan.
Lu Yuan knew that it regarded him as the first mouthful of yang energy to be swallowed.
Instead of retreating, he advanced, suddenly changing his stance.
One step, Yu step; two steps, turn the Qi; three steps, press the position; four steps, return to the center.
Each step was taken with extreme lightness, yet with remarkable stability.
With a flick of his fingers, the sword seemed to draw an extremely short, invisible line in the air.
Immediately afterwards, Lu Yuan chanted an incantation in a low voice, yet it sounded like a piece of iron scraping against a stone, cold and hard: "Heavenly light falls upon the seal, earthly fire forms the talisman."
"Where my feet are, there is the right path."
"I borrow a stick of incense from the Zhenlong Temple, a breath of righteous energy from the mountains beyond the pass, and a trace of yang fire that has not dissipated from my body."
"Today I will shatter your altar and cut off your evil path."
Upon reading the last sentence, he abruptly raised his eyes, a cold glint flashing in them, and directly shouted: "Imperial Edict!"
As the sound rang out, it seemed as if something in the valley had truly been frozen in place.
The black eye at the mouth of the jar twitched violently, as if it had been stabbed hard by some invisible needle, and the black shadow that was about to roll out was suddenly stuck in mid-air.
Lu Yuan had been waiting for this very moment.
He suddenly lunged forward, directly towards the front of the black altar.
At the same time, the eye in the black jar finally went completely mad.
It opened the mouth of the jar and emitted a strange sound that was both crying and laughing. The dark shadow inside the jar swelled up and, like countless wet hairs, suddenly flung out from inside, rushing straight at Lu Yuan's face.
"Fellow Daoist Lu!"
Song Qinghe cried out in surprise.
But Lu Yuan's eyes were extremely cold.
He didn't even turn around. He simply flipped his left hand in a lightning seal gesture, pressed the copper coin forward sharply with his right hand, and said clearly, word by word, "Lightning does not strike the blind yin."
"Today I will open your eyes, and I will also close them."
"Hurry, hurry, as the law commands, break the eyes!"
Before the words were finished, the copper coin crashed straight into the dark shadow at the mouth of the jar.
The next instant, the entire black jar seemed to be ignited from the inside, suddenly arching upwards, and a thin, bright white line burst forth from the deepest part of the jar.
As soon as the white line appeared, all the white shadows around emitted a sharp shriek, as if their backbone had been snapped.
And the black eye at the bottom of the jar showed genuine fear for the first time.
It began to shrink back.
But Lu Yuan would never give it that chance.
He raised two fingers together, slashed them sharply in the air, and shouted, "Cheng An!"
"Connecting Talisman!"
Wang Chengan almost instinctively raised his hand, and the yellow talisman that Lu Yuan threw at him landed right in his palm.
He quickly stuck the talisman on his left hand, pressed down his wrist with his right hand, and turned his toes slightly inward, half-squatting and half-standing, while loudly reciting the short incantation.
Although the voice was childish, it carried a very genuine sense of righteousness.
The yellow talisman suddenly felt hot in his palm, and a circle of pale golden flames rose from the edge of the paper, forcing a white shadow that was lunging at his back to retreat half an inch.
But at that moment, the black eye at the bottom of the jar suddenly rolled over.
The shadow that had retreated suddenly returned in the blink of an eye. Instead of retreating, it darted outwards like a live snake along the white line at the mouth of the jar.
Lu Yuan's expression changed drastically: "This is bad! It wants to use your yang energy to turn the tables!"
He raised his hand to press down, but he was still a step too slow.
The dark figure darted out and lunged straight at the talisman in Wang Cheng'an's hand!
Wang Cheng'an felt a sudden heaviness in his palm, as if he were holding a piece of iron just pulled out of an ice cellar, so cold it made his skin numb.
Before he could react, the originally pale gold talisman suddenly cracked open with a "snap".
Lu Yuan's gaze darkened, and he shouted sharply, "Don't let go!"
"Suppress it!"
"As soon as you let go, it recognizes the door!"
Wang Chengan gritted his teeth, his face turning red, and stubbornly refused to let go, the veins on the back of his hand bulging out.
Seeing this, Lu Yuan knew that the kid had really held on, and his heart immediately settled down. He took advantage of the half-step gap and suddenly retreated.
He flipped his hands three times in quick succession, stomped his foot heavily, and shouted loudly, "Before the True Dragon Temple, there is a clear lamp; beyond the pass, in the mountains, there is an old fire."
"I borrow true Yang through the righteous law to seal your altar eye and cut off your path of return!"
"Hurry, hurry, as the law commands! (As you command!)"
As soon as the word "combine" was uttered, Lin Zhaoxuan, Zhou Heng, and Song Qinghe almost simultaneously pressed their talismanic power towards the center, following the directions Lu Yuan had previously taught them.
Even Wang Chengan and Xu Erxiao were drawn forward by that righteous energy at that moment.
Six people, six breaths of yang energy, were twisted into a rope by an invisible hand.
The black eye in the black jar finally panicked for the first time.
It suddenly contracted, and the mouth of the jar made a loud "bang," causing the entire mat to collapse.
Immediately afterwards, the dark image at the bottom of the jar was forcibly pushed back, emitting a sharp cry of extreme resentment.
Then, with a "hiss," a large plume of black smoke shot out from the crack at the bottom of the jar.
The black smoke had a sweet, fishy smell, and it was so strong that it was almost impossible to open one's eyes.
Lu Yuan raised his sleeve to block the view, but his eyes were fixed on the mouth of the jar.
Because he knew that this wasn't completely over yet.
Sure enough, after the black smoke dissipated, although the large eye in the mouth of the jar closed half an inch, the black nails around the jar began to make very faint cracking sounds one after another.
It's as if something inside the jar is going out of control.
Further into the mountain path, a more urgent and chaotic sound of wooden fish could be faintly heard.
Boom, boom, boom.
It was like a death knell, or a summons for the soul.
Lu Yuan slowly exhaled, his eyes even colder than before.
"Those on the main altar finally couldn't sit still any longer."
In the mountain valley, although the altar's eye was temporarily suppressed, the fog did not dissipate; instead, it became even thicker.
The old mats pressed down on the road, the paper banners fluttered in the wind, and the wooden fish calmed the spirits—this entire altar setup had only been partially opened up by them.
The real, hidden breath has probably already quietly retreated deeper into the mountains along the path.
And its retreat means that the next round will only be more ferocious.
The fog is still there, the mountains are still there, and the sound of the wooden fish is still there.
The sound was much farther away than before, as if it were coming from deeper into the mountain.
Through layers of soil and tree roots, it knocks dully on people's hearts.
Lu Yuan stood still, not in a hurry to chase after the jar.
He first lowered his eyes, staring at the few broken black nails on the edge of the black jar, then looked at the charred hole on the mat that had been pried open by a copper coin, and his face gradually darkened.
"It has retreated."
Lin Zhaoxuan said in a low voice.
Lu Yuan slowly spoke: "The main altar already knows that this side has been breached."
"If we chase after it now, we might not be able to find its true form; we can only follow the exhaust fumes it left behind."
Zhou Heng swallowed hard, his voice dry: "Then—should we still chase after them?"
Lu Yuan didn't answer immediately, but instead reached into his bag and took out the copper coin.
With a gentle rub of the fingertip, the black residue clinging to the edge of the coin had turned gray and dried, as if something had drained away its yin energy.
Even so, a faint, sweet, metallic taste still lingered in the money.
This is not the scent left by ordinary ghosts.
It's a jar of air.
It is the lingering vapor from offerings made in the jar.
Lu Yuan flipped the copper coin into his palm, glanced at it coldly, and said, "Chase."
"Now that it has spoken, it can't just keep one eye here."
"They've already taken half of the road here."
After he finished speaking, he turned to look at the old wall shrouded in fog.
The walls are not high, half collapsed and half standing, with blue bricks and yellow soil mixed with old wood, like a dilapidated courtyard left over from decades ago.
The gate to the courtyard is long gone, leaving only two crooked gateposts with traces of faded red paint still clinging to them.
The red paint had long been washed away by wind and rain, turning it into a dark brown color, and it looked like dried blood.
The black wooden stakes in the courtyard that used to hang paper banners have now fallen silent.
It was too still.
Lu Yuan knew that the real thing was often not at its fiercest during the commotion, but rather in the moment when things suddenly quieted down after a period of noise.
"Don't go into the hospital yet."
He raised his hand to stop the crowd: "Walk half a circle around the outside and look for the root of the altar."
"The black jar wasn't buried alone; it had to have roots."
"The root must either be underground or connected to something else."
"That one glance just now revealed the core of the altar, but what lies beneath it remains to be seen."
Lin Zhaoxuan immediately understood and nodded, saying, "You mean, this is just the entrance to an altar, and the one who truly sustains this path to the underworld is someone else."
Lu Yuan nodded and slowly walked towards the side of the old courtyard: "First, find the root of the altar."
"The eyes of the jar can be closed, but the roots of the jar will not be uprooted. This place will grow back on its own in the future."
After circling around to the east side of the old courtyard, the fog thinned a bit, and everyone could see a row of broken bricks pressed against the base of the courtyard wall.
Fine moss grew in the cracks between the bricks, but there were also a few unusual black lines stuck to the moss.
The black thread looked like grass roots at first glance, but when you touched it, it was soft yet firm, like hair that had been wrapped around someone's head, or like a piece of hemp rope that had been burned until it was almost burnt out.
Lu Yuan squatted down, gently flicked his finger, and his brows immediately furrowed.
"It's a fuse."
Everyone was taken aback. Then Lu Yuan continued, "Someone took pubic hair, twisted it into thread, mixed it with incense ash and bone powder, and buried it at the base of the wall."
"One end of the thread connects to the altar, and the other end connects to the road."
"The eye in the jar feeds on the air from this thread."
As Lu Yuan spoke, he suddenly raised his hand and gently tapped the base of the wall.
After he finished knocking, he bent down and listened quietly for a while, his expression changing slightly.
"The bottom is empty."
Lin Zhaoxuan also bent down to take a look, then reached out and touched a slightly loose brick, whispering, "There's a hidden layer here."
Lu Yuan nodded: "It's not a hidden compartment, it's an old cellar."
"And it's a living cellar."
The moment the words "living cellar" were uttered, the expressions of the group changed.
In the remote mountains beyond the Great Wall, the term "living cellar" is not used lightly.
Dead cellars bury things, live cellars nurture things.
If there really is a cellar below, and it is still ventilated, allows for circulation, and connects with the surrounding area, then it means that this place is not simply for burying goods, but rather for maintaining a certain status.
Lu Yuan did not act immediately. He took a half step back, looked up at the top of the wall, then at the terrain, and said in a low voice, "The east side belongs to wood, and wood can generate wind."
"The wind blows from here, and the energy from the altar spreads into the mountains."
"They buried the roots of the altar here, which is like taking advantage of the east wind to send the yin fire into the mountain."
Zhou Heng was a little confused, but he didn't dare to ask. He quietly took half a step back, afraid of getting in the way.
Lu Yuan pulled out a thin incense stick from his bag. The incense was short and grayish-white in color. It was not the kind of incense commonly found in temples, but a type of incense he had mixed himself.
Crush half an inch of the incense stick to reveal a tiny speck of very faint black ash.
Lu Yuan did not light the incense, but instead stuck it into the mud at the base of the wall, and muttered, "The incense does not worship the gods, but only in the cellar."
"The anger doesn't invite ghosts, it only shines on the hidden trough."
"If there is a deep mouth, it will reveal itself through fragrance."
"If there are yin veins, they can circulate with the smoke."
"Hurry, hurry, by the law's command, open the cellar!"