Chapter 39: A series of mysterious locks

This stone chamber is more like a shell than a square. The lowest space is the one where we fell through the passage, and the highest space is the one with the fox-covered wall.

The huge portrait of the blue-eyed fox was at the low end of this chamber. I held Ru Xue up to knock on the pair of enchanting heart stones, which was just right and not too strenuous.

The sound of the hammer still echoed in the stone chamber. Everyone was waiting with a heavy heart and an unknown feeling about the road ahead, and no one spoke.

Except for Wu Lao Gui, he was very interested in drifting into that passage again and again. Occasionally, he would come back and say that the passage was extraordinarily beautiful, how about this and that! Unfortunately, no matter how beautiful it was, it was still shrouded in mist, and we couldn’t get much interest out of it.

In less than ten minutes, Ru Xue finally knocked down the last pair of Meixin stones. As soon as I put her down, the stone chamber began to shake violently, much more violently than the previous two tremors.

I held Ru Xue and rolled to the wall, and chunks of mud from the ceiling fell. I quickly protected Ru Xue in my arms.

At that moment, I heard Ru Xue say softly in my arms, “Chengyi, being able to love someone like this is already…” Unfortunately, the sound of the shaking was too loud, and Ru Xue and I were shaken to the other side again. I couldn’t hear what Ru Xue said next.

But I couldn’t bear to not hear clearly, so I asked loudly, “Ru Xue, what did you say?”

In the midst of the strong shaking, Ru Xue smiled. Her smile was so beautiful that it made my heart beat as it always did. She shouted at me, “I didn’t say anything. I just wanted to tell you that it’s a very good thing.”

I didn’t doubt it, I just held Ru Xue a little tighter. In such a violent shaking, I always felt a sense of transcendence of life and death.

After a minute of shaking, everything finally calmed down. After such a violent shaking, this stone room had become a bit messy compared to before. The smoke had not dispersed, and there were many clods of earth on the ground.

Before we had a chance to catch our breath, I suddenly felt a flash of light in front of my eyes, and then I saw a new bug lying on Ru Xue’s shoulder. This bug was still from the same “series,” but it was much longer than the first one, with two pairs of wings, and three purple stripes on its body, but much thicker than the first one.

This bug gave me a more terrifying feeling! I didn’t understand why they were so ‘attached’ to Ruixue?

Before I could say anything, I suddenly heard something even more amazing. It was the howling of the wolf cubs, one after another. I didn’t have to think about where the sound was coming from. It was the wolf cubs surrounding us next to the snow cave. They really hadn’t left!

I don’t understand why they are howling at this time, and they are howling in a hoarse voice, feeling like a fire burning their asses. It is amazing that the howling can reach my ears through such a deep bottom and those winding caves.

Hearing the howling of the wolf cubs, the three bugs lying on Ruoxue’s body were about to move, and that movement was terrifying, revealing their ferocious appearance.

Ruxue sighed inexplicably and said softly, “Go ahead. I can’t stop them anyway. Just stop now.”

I looked at Ruoxue in a daze. Who was she talking to? But Ruoxue didn’t answer my question. Instead, the three bugs on her body answered me. After Ruoxue said that, they suddenly flapped their wings and flew away from the hole we came in.

“Ru Xue, were you talking to them?” Although these bugs were close to Ru Xue, I felt the same kind of instinctive disgust towards them as I did towards the demon bugs in the Black Rock Miao Village.

I felt that I needed to talk to Ru Xue. If I could destroy these bugs, I wouldn’t leave them behind. I was sure that I was right about this feeling.

Ru Xue looked at me, her expression still calm. She said, “If I tell you it’s not, will you believe me?”

“I believe you, but don’t you think you should give me an explanation?” My expression became extremely serious. I love Ru Xue. I can die with her, but I will never let her go wrong with me. I once told Qiangzi that if you become a demon, I will lock you up and guard you.

This is especially true for Ru Xue. If she is wrong, I will guard her no matter what, and stop her, even if I have to do nothing. I absolutely will not allow her to go wrong. This kind of worm that devours everything is a disaster to think about.

Chengyi, I will give you an explanation. But not now. What I can tell you now is that these bugs have woken up from their slumber and are hungry. The hungrier they get, the more vicious they become. If they are not fed, I cannot guarantee what will happen after that. Chengyi, you have to believe me. The bugs will not harm me, but I cannot control them. Ru Xue looked at me seriously and said,

“And…” Ru Xue paused and continued, “they are not as powerful as the evil bugs, but they can suppress my new life-giving bug, but they are not deliberately targeting it. You may not understand what I’m talking about, but you will eventually understand.”

I don’t understand why Ru Xue brought up the topic of the life-form again. Her life-form died in the Black Rock Miao Village, and she later cultivated a new one, but is this related to this bug?

The only thing I could think of was also just suppression, but… My mind suddenly felt like it had been electrified, and I thought of something else. Purple, it was that purple again. Could it be that this bug also had something to do with Kunlun?

If so, why didn’t Ru Xue just say so? Why did she hint at it in such a way? I looked at Ru Xue, and Ru Xue looked at me. In that moment, it was as if we had exchanged a thousand words.

She was telling me that she was helpless and that I should not pursue the matter.

I only wanted to convey one thing: no matter what happens, I will always be by your side.

After a few seconds of silence, Ru Xue turned around and picked up the scattered enchanting stones one by one, carefully took out a handkerchief, wrapped them up, and handed them to me.

I looked at the bag of stones and said to Ru Xue, “This is useless. It has already been sealed with other powers. What use is it to me?”

“Maybe it’s useful. You keep it,” insisted Ru Xue.

I was really going crazy from all this confusion, but in the end I didn’t refuse Ru Xue, and I put the bag of enchanting stones in my bag.

“Let’s go,” Ru Xue said, as if relieved, and smiled as she beckoned us to go down.

“The bugs, they’re not coming to get you?” Lao Zhang asked, a little taken aback.

“They? They’ll come looking for me after they’ve eaten a few wolves! Don’t worry, Lao Zhang, I said not to go too far, they won’t open up a killing spree.” Ru Xue explained for the first time, Lao Zhang is after all a mountain man, a person who truly loves this mountain, is most disgusted with killing everything, that is destroying their roots.

A few wolves? Could it be that these wolves are afraid to come down to this snow cave because of those few bugs? It is said that animals are the most sensitive to danger. Could it be that they are not afraid of the blue-eyed foxes that I thought they were at first, but of these bugs?

The more I thought about it, the more confused I became. I simply didn’t want to think about it anymore. I just knew that the purpose of this time was the Kunlun Tomb, and the essence of the trip was incidental. In the deepest part of my heart, I had another thought, and that was that no matter what, I would never let go of Ruoxue’s hand.

With this in mind, we finally entered the downward passage. There was surprisingly little dust here, and it was clean. Although it was dark, we could see as far as our eyes could reach with the help of the flashlight. It really was as exquisite as Wu Laogui had said.

Of course, I can’t evaluate how exquisite it is, I can only see that the green stone passage is meticulously detailed, with reliefs on both sides. I can’t see the content clearly, but I can also feel the magnificence.

Like the stone chamber above, the darkness here seems to be substantial, and it is even more difficult to penetrate. I wonder if the darkness I see is due to light or something else?

But after a few steps, Wu Laogui bounced and floated in front of me, saying, “Chengyi, there are also lights on the wall, and there is also undried lamp oil in the lights!”

Could it be that there is also a magic stone here? But according to the properties of the magic stone, if there were one, we would have discovered it long ago.

However, I soon saw the lamp that Wu Laogui had mentioned. Unlike the strange wall lamp, this lamp was very simple in style, but there was nothing strange about it. I took out my lighter to light the lamp, but found that the light was not the pale blue flame, but a normal yellow flame!

Why is that? If so, why hasn’t the oil in this lamp dried up over the years? Could it be that someone else has been here? As soon as I thought about this, I felt a new layer of fog envelop my heart.

But Chengxin brother shouted, “The legendary lamp of perpetual light? Taoist alchemy?”

And Lao Zhang exclaimed, “This mural!”