booktalesy Chapter 124 Medicinal Guide
Chapter 124 Medicinal Guide
Chapter 124 Medicinal Guide (3K)
One hundred and fifty li.
The shortest stone tower appeared directly in front of us.
The tower is only three zhang tall, and half of the top has collapsed, with rubble piled up around the base.
Moonlight shone through the collapsed gap, revealing that the tower was empty—at least on the surface.
Xu Hao walked to the east side of the tower base.
The third brick.
He reached out and pressed it in, pushing it all the way in, and twisted it half a turn to the left.
Click.
The brick is sunken.
A section of the wall at the base of the tower slowly slid inward.
A dull gust of air, mixed with years of dust and the smell of rust, wafted out from the crevice.
Passageway.
It is four feet wide and six feet high, barely enough for one person to bend over and pass through.
Xu Hao squeezed in sideways.
The stone door behind us closed automatically, cutting off the moonlight.
He held his breath in the darkness.
No light is needed.
The Prison Suppression Technique's ability to sense the earth's veins was actually clearer in this completely enclosed underground environment.
The passageway slopes downwards, its direction matching that of the underground cavity.
He took the first step.
The sound of the sand and gravel being crushed by the boots was amplified three times in the passageway.
Then he heard another voice.
It came from deep within the tunnel.
Breathe.
It wasn't his own.
The frequency is extremely slow, with three breaths per set, and the interval between inhalation and exhalation is precise to the millimeter.
A rhythm possessed only by those who have undergone rigorous training.
But this person is not moving.
Waiting.
Wait for him to come.
The passageway was four feet wide, just wide enough for one person to pass sideways.
Xu Hao stopped in place.
His left hand rested on the hilt of the Devouring Sea Blade.
The breathing sounds ahead remained unchanged.
Knowing he was coming, they didn't run or rush, but waited there.
"I thought only Sha Fanzi knew about the secret passage," Xu Hao said.
The sound echoed back and forth twice in the passageway.
A dry voice came from the darkness.
"When he discovered this road twelve years ago, he stepped on a tripwire I had laid out."
The owner of the voice spoke slowly and deliberately, as if they were having a conversation.
"I didn't kill him then. Killing a small-time ore trader would only attract attention. Keeping him around would help me keep an eye on things outside."
Xu Hao's eyelid twitched.
This person has been in this passageway for at least twelve years.
It predates the sand-turning machine.
It predates the Wusheng sect.
"Who are you?"
A sound of fabric rustling rang out in the darkness.
The other person stood up and asked.
There was a brief pause.
"The Bureau of Astronomical Observation?"
"no."
"One of the Prince of Zhenbei's men?"
"Count as half."
The other party remained silent for three breaths.
Then he let out a low, hoarse laugh.
"Okay. We're not enemies, but we're not necessarily friends either. Let's meet first."
A small light appeared deep within the passageway. It wasn't a tinderbox, but a thumb-sized piece of red gold stone that had been activated by a burst of energy, emitting a dark red glow.
The area illuminated was small, just enough to outline the other person's silhouette.
elder.
Thin and withered, like a piece of poplar wood that has been dried in the desert for decades.
Her hair was completely white, tied up in a bunch and tucked into her gray robe.
The wrinkles on his face were so deep they could trap a fly.
But his eyes were brighter than one would expect for someone his age.
Qi and blood fluctuations indicate the mid-stage of the Inner Strength Realm.
To be able to maintain the circulation of Qi and blood at the mid-stage of the Inner Strength Realm in a mineral vein with such a high concentration of black iron is no ordinary feat.
The old man held up the red gold stone and looked Xu Hao up and down.
Their gaze lingered on his bare right arm for a couple of breaths.
"Iron Bones." The old man's tone changed, from probing to confirming, "You've practiced the Earth Vein Tempering Technique."
It's not a question.
Xu Hao had no need to deny it.
At this density of mineral veins, the metallic patterns in his bones couldn't hide the brilliance of the red gold stone shining through them; the patterns shone faintly under his skin, as if he were wearing a hollowed-out iron armor.
"Old man, answer my question first." Xu Hao took two steps forward. "What have you been doing squatting here for more than ten years?"
'
The old man inserted the red gold stone into a crack in the wall.
"Guard the things."
"Guard what?"
"A nail."
The passageway was quiet for five breaths.
"You know about the Dragon-Suppressing Nail." Xu Hao's tone was not rising; it was a statement.
The old man's white eyebrows twitched.
"I don't know it's called the Dragon-Suppressing Nail. I only know that something is buried under here, and as long as it's not pulled out, the Crimson Sand Domain will be at peace." He gestured with his chin towards his feet. "Thirty-three years ago, my master left me here and said one thing: 'Sit here and don't let anyone touch this stake. Anyone who does will be killed.'"
"Who is your master?"
"He's dead." The old man said it bluntly. "He left thirty-three years ago after saying those words and never came back. He was either at the Opening Aperture Realm or higher. This old man couldn't see through his cultivation level."
A hermit in the desert. His lineage and origins are unknown, but he is indeed guarding the secondary nail of the Dragon-Suppressing Nail.
Thirty-three years.
An old man from Neizhuang County has been squatting in the restricted area of the underground mineral vein for thirty-three years.
An ordinary martial artist would have been worn down by the interference field of the Xuan Tie long ago.
The old man has survived to this day; his cultivation method must be unique.
"A bunch of bald monks came three months ago." The old man leaned against the wall of the passageway, his knees cracking a few times. "The leader was a monster whose life force couldn't be detected. They dug in from the top of the dragon bone platform, and I watched from below. At first, they just wandered around the passageway, touching the inscriptions and drawing talisman arrays. About half a month ago, they started to dig seriously deeper into the underground palace."
"And now?"
"Last night, they dug down to the outer wall of the inner sanctum where the stakes are stored." The old man's voice finally showed emotion—a kind of gritted-teeth hatred. "I couldn't stop more than forty people by myself."
The secondary nail in the Six Nails Diagram in the sea of consciousness flashed again.
One breath at a time.
"lead the way."
The old man pulled the red gold stone from the crack in the wall and turned to walk deeper into the passageway.
The pace is slow but steady, with the soles of the feet gliding along the ground without lifting the heels. This is the way people who work in underground mines for long periods of time walk, keeping their feet on the ground to reduce the time they are separated from the mine and maintain the circulation of qi and blood.
The passageway leads deeper and deeper.
The air is so dry that my nose is itchy.
The walls were transformed from rough-hewn rock surfaces into smooth stone slabs, and the inscriptions on the slabs went from incomplete to complete.
Xu Hao reached out and touched the wall.
The sensation transmitted through his fingertips confirmed his judgment: the stone slab contained high-purity red gold, and the entire wall itself was a huge energy-conducting structure.
"Ahead." The old man stopped, and the crimson stone shone towards the fork in the road on the left. "This leads to the top of Dragon Bone Platform. The bald monks come down this way."
The other fork in the road on the right was completely dark, without any light.
"This leads to the inner palace."
The old man walked into the fork in the road on the right.
After walking less than thirty steps, I stopped.
A wall appeared in front of us.
It's not a wall from a building; it's newly built.
Rough stones mixed with some grayish-white adhesive blocked the remaining space in the passageway.
Symbols were drawn on the wall.
It's not the bone magic runes of the barbarians, but another kind of runes with smooth lines and delicate strokes, rotating around a bare "empty" character in the center.
The teachings of the Wusheng sect.
"It was built yesterday," the old man said in a low voice. "I tried to take it apart. But this grayish-white stuff isn't mortar; it's something alive—it crawls onto your hand if you touch it."
Xu Hao squatted down and observed for two breaths.
"It's not made from living creatures. It's made with the blood of living creatures." He smelled the stench of the Crimson Gold Scorpion. "Scorpion blood mixed with bone powder, it's corrosive after drying. It will burrow into human skin."
So that's how the cages of red gold scorpions the transport team carried were used.
Xu Hao stood up.
Extend your right fist.
There was no infusion of protective energy.
There is no starting move.
Smashed it down.
The fist slammed into the gray-white stone wall.
The entire passageway shook.
Rock fragments flew everywhere, and the grayish-white adhesive material crackled and popped. The talisman array of the Life Sect broke off at its center, and the light went out.
One punch, and a wall shattered.
He pulled his fist back; there were no cuts on his knuckles.
The skin had a bluish-green sheen and was completely free of scratches.
The old man behind him raised his white eyebrows above his forehead.
"————You didn't use your inner energy just now."
"7
"no."
The old man stared at his fist for three breaths. Then he uttered two words.
"abnormal."
After the wall crumbled, a murky stream of air rushed out from inside.
It smelled of blood, burnt smell, and an indescribable, rotten sweetness.
The smell of living things, the smell left after a large number of living things have been killed.
The passageway suddenly opened up into a wide space.
They stepped into a domed hall.
The light from the red gold stone could not reach the edge—the hall was at least a hundred feet in diameter.
The dome is twenty feet high and is densely covered with ancient inscriptions, each character emitting an extremely faint light.
In the very center of the hall, a circular pit with a diameter of three zhang (approximately 10 meters) was dug out.
The pit walls are neat, indicating that they were dug by hand.
A section of dark gold object can be vaguely seen protruding from the strata at the bottom of the pit.
Dragon-Suppressing Nail.
The top of the secondary nail has been dug out.
A circle of vessels was placed around the circular pit.
Earthenware bowls, copper basins, and stone troughs were filled with solidified dark red liquid.
blood.
Cow blood, sheep blood, and scorpion blood are mixed together and oxidize in the air to turn a dark brown color.
The blood sacrifice magic circle spread out from the edge of the circular pit, occupying one-third of the hall's floor area.
The lines are spiral-shaped, converging from the outside in, ending at the dark gold nail top.
The methods of the Wusheng Sect.
Instead of following the path of martial arts and qi cultivation, they used blood sacrifice and demonic arts as driving forces to gradually loosen the seal.
But there was no one in the hall.
empty.
The old man noticed it too.
"That's not right." He frowned. "There were at least a dozen people working shifts here last night."
Xu Hao scanned the entire hall.
There was only one exit on all four walls, which was the passageway they had come in through.
He closed his eyes, and the earth vein perception of the Prison Suppression Technique spread out.
The information coming from the soles of his feet made his pupils shrink.
The weight of more than forty people pressed down on the rock strata directly above the hall.
It's not inside the rock strata—it's on top of the rock strata.
Dragon Bone Platform.
They all retreated to the ground.
"trap."
As soon as he finished speaking, the stone door to the exit behind him slammed shut.
The entire hall was sealed off.
The inscriptions on the dome have all gone out.
In the darkness, the blood sacrifice array lit up.
Dark red light surged from the spiral lines and poured down the walls of the circular pit.
At the bottom of the circular pit, the Dragon-Suppressing Nail began to vibrate violently.
A voice fell from the dome.
It doesn't come from a person's mouth; it's transmitted through some kind of resonance.
Calm, indifferent, like chanting a sutra.
"You come from the north, carrying the aura of a dragon and the spirit of a soldier."
"This humble monk guessed you would take the secret passage, so I left the door open."
Grey-robed priest.
"Thank you for saving this humble monk the last step."
The sound disappeared.
The spiral of the blood sacrifice array is spinning faster.
In his mind's eye, the flashing of the Shuozhou secondary nail on the Six Nails Diagram suddenly stopped.
It's not stable anymore.
It went from flickering to a continuous dimming.
Someone is pulling out nails.
Using the earth vein dragon energy contained within his Iron Bone Realm bones as he stepped into the hall as a trigger, the blood sacrifice array was activated to complete its final loosening.
Xu Hao looked down at his feet.
A dark red light was creeping up the sole of his boot.
He was the final ingredient in the medicine.