booktalesy Chapter 270 True Eye Bed
Chapter 270 True Eye Bed
Chapter 270 The True Eye Bed (5400)
Lu Yuan's "Excuse me" seemed to split the gloomy aura in the entire underground room by half an inch.
The moment the black smoke spewed out of the jar, the oil lamp in Song Qinghe's hand jumped violently, the flame almost shooting straight to the edge of the lampshade.
Her face turned pale, but she remained steadfast and did not put the lamp away.
The half-body that emerged from the black mist first consisted of the shoulder, then the neck, and finally the head covered with thin skin.
Once the thing fell into the firelight, everyone could see that it was not a complete "divine body" at all.
It's like a shell that's been nurtured, prematurely matured, and sewn together.
The shell is not fully formed yet; the bones, tendons, and skin are all half-real and half-empty.
Thin black threads hang from the edges, like umbilical cords or roots pulled out of the soil.
What's most unsettling is that its eyes are no longer the grayish-yellow pupils I saw in the mirror before, but two almost completely black pupils, as black as two bottomless wells.
When it looked up, it didn't look at Lu Yuan at first, but instead looked at the black wooden plaque behind the altar.
Lu Yuan's heart sank immediately.
It wasn't looking at the cards; it was finding its way.
Recognize the path that borrows a name, recognize the path that provides sustenance, recognize the roots that have grown all the way.
"It wants to go back to its roots," Lu Yuan whispered. "Stop it."
Upon hearing this, Wang Cheng'an's palms were sweating profusely, but without the slightest hesitation, he immediately grabbed a piece of broken wood from the side and held it horizontally in front of the altar, his voice tense: "Brother Lu, I'll block its breath!"
"Don't block it head-on, use its momentum!" Lu Yuan shouted. "It's not steady yet, it's weak. The harder you try, the more excuses you give it to break free."
Xu Erxiao panicked and quickly patched up the salt lines on the ground, his voice hoarse: "Brother Lu, where should I put it?"
"Press it down by its feet!" Lu Yuandao said. "Don't press down on its body, press down on its roots!"
Xu Erxiao gritted his teeth and immediately squatted down to slap the salt into the layer of black soil turned up at the foot of the jar.
As soon as the salt was added, the black soil hissed and emitted a puff of white smoke, like hot iron being plunged into water, causing the thing's shoulder to shudder violently.
It finally turned its face around.
Only after this turn did everyone truly see its face.
It wasn't a naturally formed face, but rather looked like several layers of skin were forcibly stacked on top of each other.
His forehead was too high, his eye sockets too deep, but his nose bridge was so thin it was almost unrecognizable. The cleft at the corner of his mouth stretched from his ear all the way to his jaw, as if someone had forcibly ripped it open with a thread.
The bottom layer of skin is so thin it's almost transparent, and you can vaguely see the outlines of other faces slowly floating beneath it.
Song Qinghe's hands grew cold as she looked at it, and she whispered, "What exactly is this thing?!"
"A shell that has been offered up." Lu Yuan enunciated each word. "It is not a born god, but an evil embryo that has been nurtured by eating fame, eyes, and paths."
No sooner had he finished speaking than the thing suddenly raised its hand and grabbed.
This grab wasn't aimed at a person, but rather at the cloud of black gas it was spewing out into the air.
The black mist suddenly swirled back between its fingers, as if it had swallowed a portion of it back.
At the same time, its shoulder blades widened slightly, and a series of extremely dense and fine creaking sounds came from its back, as if the bones were being reconnected one by one.
"We can't let it retract its energy!" Lu Yuan shouted.
But then, as if suddenly regaining his senses, Tie Suanpan, lying on the ground, let out a weak yet almost manic laugh: "Too late—too late—you've already released it!"
Lu Yuan glanced over and a fierce look flashed in his eyes.
Even now, this person still dares to be stubborn.
"Shut up," Lu Yuan said coldly.
Iron Abacus seemed not to hear, and struggled to raise his head, his eyes red as he stared at the evil fetus at the mouth of the jar. His voice trembled, but carried a ruthless, desperate air: "You really think that eradicating the root is enough?"
"Do you really think that once the cards are destroyed and the rope is broken, it can never be restored?"
"It's had enough to eat—it could have walked a long time ago!"
Lu Yuan realized in an instant that Tie Suanpan was going to completely ruin the final situation.
He guarded the altar in his early years, and his methods were not clean to begin with. Knowing too much, he was most likely to drag others down with him before he died.
"Cheng An!" Lu Yuan hissed, "Gag him!"
Wang Cheng'an immediately reached for the red paper on the ground. Just as he was about to step forward, Tie Suanpan suddenly flipped over and, as if in a final burst of energy, raised his hand and grabbed Wang Cheng'an's wrist.
His hands were frighteningly cold, his nails were deeply embedded, and he exuded an aura of death.
Wang Cheng'an was startled and instinctively tried to struggle, but he didn't expect Tie Suanpan to stare intently at him, panting, "Your surname is Wang—you're surnamed Wang, aren't you?"
"You're on the list too—you're on it too—"
Wang Cheng'an's expression changed drastically, and he shouted angrily, "Nonsense!"
Iron Abacus smiled strangely, his eyes darting around, as if he had really seen something he shouldn't have: "Once the name is revealed, there's no escaping it—none of you can escape it—"
Lu Yuan's heart sank upon hearing this. He stepped over the iron abacus and kicked its arm away. He then slapped a soul-suppressing talisman into the iron abacus's mouth and said coldly, "You won't live to finish reading this."
"Stop causing trouble here."
Iron Abacus felt a lump in his throat, and the talisman made a faint "hissing" sound when it was pasted on.
He struggled twice, but the madness in his eyes grew stronger.
Lu Yuan knew he couldn't stay any longer.
In the end, such people are not helpers, but survivors.
Once the survivors are led astray by evil forces, they will only drag the whole situation into deeper trouble.
Just as he was about to add another move, he suddenly heard the evil fetus let out a very soft inhale.
Lu Yuan suddenly looked up and saw that the thing had tilted its head slightly, its gaze passing over Wang Chengan, Xu Erxiao, and Song Qinghe, and landing directly on him.
In that instant, Lu Yuan felt as if some cold fingers were slowly stroking his back along his spine.
It is recognizing him.
It's not about recognizing living people, but about recognizing "people who can break the deadlock".
When an evil entity opens its eyes, the first person it seeks out is not necessarily the nearest person, but rather someone who can block it, cut it off, and force it back.
It has its sights set on Lu Yuan.
Lu Yuan's eyes did not flinch in the slightest. Instead, he took half a step forward and coldly met those dark eyes.
"Have you seen enough?"
The evil fetus's lips slowly twitched upwards.
It doesn't speak like a human, but in that instant, almost everyone heard a whisper that seemed to rise from the bottom of a well: "Name—change name—".
Zhou Heng suddenly turned pale, covered his ears, and gasped, "It's calling its name! It's calling its name!"
Lu Yuan said in a deep voice, "Don't answer!"
But it was already too late.
After the evil fetus uttered the word "name," the black wooden plaque that had been dug up on the ground trembled slightly on its own.
At the very bottom of the list of names, a character that was half-covered by cinnabar and salt ash suddenly lit up.
"It wants to use your name to open the door!"
Lin Zhaoxuan shouted, a hint of surprise showing in his eyes.
Lu Yuan lowered his brow.
now it's right.
The other party was deliberately pressuring him to agree, forcing him to consider himself part of the organization.
As long as his mind is disturbed, even if it's just for a moment of acknowledgment, the evil fetus can find its way up through the name.
Lu Yuan, however, refused to take the bait.
With a flick of his wrist, he tore off the yellow talisman from between his eyebrows, ran his fingertips across it, and then pressed it sharply against his throat, uttering a low growl: "The name belongs to me, the path belongs to the path."
"You can't borrow it."
As soon as the talisman was pasted, Lu Yuan felt a slight burning sensation in his throat, and his voice became slightly deeper, which just severed the name line that was burrowing into his heart.
The evil fetus's eyes suddenly darkened.
It seemed that it hadn't expected Lu Yuan to use such a method, which was almost like self-proclaimed fame, to forcefully determine the appropriate name.
Meanwhile, Xu Erxiao had already taken advantage of this brief gap to lay the salt line along the foot of the jar to the front of the black wooden plaque.
"Brother Lu, the threads are all in place!"
He shouted.
Lu Yuan didn't turn his head, only saying, "Okay."
After saying that, he took a step to the black wooden plaque, raised his hand to grab the section of the eye nail that Zhou Heng had pried open earlier, suddenly lowered his body, stuck the short knife into the ground, and exerted force with both arms at the same time.
"Zhou Heng, get up with me!"
Lu Yuan shouted.
Zhou Heng was already waiting nearby, and immediately pressed the broken piece of wood down with all his might, the two of them exerting force simultaneously from above and below.
With a dull, piercing squeak, the bone eye nail was finally pried loose by half a finger.
However, just as the pressure eased, the evil fetus at the altar suddenly let out a sharp, almost ear-piercing long howl.
Its arms suddenly stretched outwards, tearing the yellow cloth apart. Black mist, carrying several strands of charred yellow cloth, shot into the sky, heading straight for the copper bell and the four round mirrors hanging in the air.
"mirror!"
Lu Yuan shouted sternly.
Lin Zhaoxuan reacted extremely quickly, leaping forward and shattering the nearest round mirror with a single palm strike.
The mirror shattered, scattering fragments that deflected the incoming black mist by half an inch.
However, the other two mirrors were not able to avoid it in time. Enveloped by the black mist, the shadow of the evil fetus immediately appeared in the mirrors.
Although the shadow was blurry, it seemed to have grown hands, reaching outwards through the mirror.
Song Qinghe was so startled that she took a step back, almost dropping the oil lamp.
Wang Cheng'an reacted quickly, grabbing her wrist and whispering urgently, "Hold on, Brother Lu is still ahead!"
Song Qinghe gritted her teeth and nodded, not letting the light go out.
She knew that once the light went out, it would truly become the secret door to the evil fetus.
Lu Yuan had already pried the eye nail up another inch, the veins on the back of his hand bulging. Beads of sweat dripped down his chin from his forehead, but he didn't even wipe them away.
"Abacus!"
He suddenly shouted.
Iron Abacus's mouth was pressed down by the talisman, so it couldn't make a complete sound; it could only squeeze out a whimpering sound from its throat.
Lu Yuan sneered: "If you guard this jar until the end, you'll end up feeding yourself with it."
"Since that's the case, then I'll use your life to put an end to this."
As he spoke, he suddenly ripped the soul-suppressing talisman off Tie Suanpan's mouth, and before the other could react, he grabbed his chin and dragged him forcefully in front of the black wooden plaque.
Iron Abacus's eyes widened instantly, and a hoarse gasp escaped his throat: "You—"
"You should have died before the altar long ago," Lu Yuan said coldly. "Dying now is the end of your debt to this land."
Tie Suanpan felt as if he had been whipped from the bone, and he began to struggle violently.
It's not that he's not afraid of death; he's terrified of death, which is why he still wants to live even now.
But Lu Yuan no longer gave him a chance.
Iron Abacus struggled to lift its head, and was met with the lit-up name on the black wooden plaque.
In that instant of eye contact, the black light in the eyes of the evil fetus at the altar suddenly intensified, as if it had finally found the most suitable substitute, or as if a pre-tied line had suddenly taut.
Iron Abacus froze, his eyes widening instantly.
Immediately afterwards, the thin black thread that was wrapped in the earth veins under the black wooden plaque suddenly shot up from the soil and, like a live snake, coiled up along the iron abacus's ankle.
"Don't touch me!"
Iron Abacus screamed and kicked its legs wildly.
Lu Yuan remained expressionless and slapped another Soul-Suppressing Talisman on the back of his neck.
"Didn't you want to guard the altar?"
"Then let's hold out until the very end."
As soon as the talisman was applied, Tie Suanpan's scream was stuck in his throat, as if something was pulling him out from the inside.
Lin Zhaoxuan watched this scene, his brows twitching slightly, but he did not stop it.
He knew that Lu Yuan was making the safest possible resolution.
People like Tie Suanpan only cause trouble if kept around. Now that he's run into that powerful figure, he might actually shield the bureau from some evil influence for a moment.
Sure enough, as soon as the black silk wrapped around Tie Suanpan's body, the evil fetus seemed to smell blood and suddenly opened its mouth, letting out a low roar.
The sound wasn't loud, but it felt like it was scraping right through the bones of everyone, making their teeth ache.
It needs to borrow the life of the iron abacus to first stabilize its root system.
Lu Yuan certainly wouldn't let it have its way.
With a quick twist of his hands, he finally pried the eye-suppressing nail out completely.
"rise!"
The moment the nail was removed from the ground, the entire cellar seemed to tremble suddenly, and the white line marking the lineage beneath the black wooden plaque began to vibrate wildly.
The evil fetus swayed violently, as if it had lost half its breath.
It got angry.
He was furious very quickly and directly; the skin on his entire face was trembling slightly, and the light in his dark eyes was almost bursting out.
"Cheng'an!" Lu Yuan shouted, "Vermilion!"
Wang Chengan was already prepared, and upon hearing the sound, he immediately threw a whole bag of cinnabar at the feet of the evil fetus.
The cinnabar flew up like a shower of crimson fire.
A puff of white smoke suddenly appeared on Xie Tai's shoulder, as if he had been burned, and he shrank back half a step.
Xu Erxiao seized the opportunity and immediately added the salt line, forcibly pushing it a bit closer to the jar.
With quick reflexes, Song Qinghe moved the oil lamp forward an inch, and the light shone into the eyes of the evil fetus.
The evil fetus was suppressed by three forces, and suddenly let out a sharp shriek, with black energy surging outwards from its body like waves.
Lu Yuan knew that this was the most crucial moment.
If it loses its last breath, it may not be able to climb out along the veins of fame.
But then Tie Suanpan suddenly went mad, kneeling on the ground with a thud, grabbing Lu Yuan's trouser leg tightly, and howling incoherently, "Don't kill me—don't kill me—I'll tell you—I'll tell you the last thing—it's not a god—there's something else below it—"
Lu Yuan's eyes turned cold, and he raised his foot to kick him away.
But Tie Suanpan managed to squeeze out a very short sentence: "There's another real eye bed—at the very bottom of the cellar—"
Lu Yuan suddenly stopped moving.
The next instant, Tie Suanpan seemed to have exhausted his last breath. His whole body suddenly convulsed, his eyes rolled back rapidly, and a trickle of black blood spilled from the corner of his mouth.
It wasn't that Lu Yuan didn't finish the job, but that evil fetus had already used the black silk to take half of Tie Suanpan's life away.
Iron Abacus fell straight down at Lu Yuan's feet, its eyes wide open, dying with its eyes wide open.
But there was no longer any light of life in those eyes.
Lu Yuan glanced down at him, his expression unchanged.
Such a person deserves to die.
Iron Abacus's death, in fact, confirmed one thing for him.
Beneath the true form of this evil god lies an even deeper layer of "True Eye Bed".
In other words, what's in this jar right now isn't even the bottom.
It's just the outer shell.
The real treasure is hidden at the very bottom of the cellar.
Just as Lu Yuan was pondering, the evil fetus suddenly let out a very strange low laugh.
Surprisingly, it didn't pounce on Tie Suanpan when he died. Instead, it slowly raised its head and glanced at Lu Yuan.
That gaze even carried a hint of "I've remembered it."
Lu Yuan's heart tightened, and he immediately realized something was wrong.
It is not retreating.
It was in the instant before the iron abacus died that it completed the new recognition of its identity.
It recorded the path at the very bottom of the cellar, and also Lu Yuan, the one who broke the deadlock.
"It's going to run away."
Lin Zhaoxuan suddenly spoke.
Before the words were finished, the black aura behind the evil fetus suddenly surged like a tide, as if countless invisible hands were pulling it down.
Its shoulders, neck, and back sank down little by little, and it actually shrank back towards the bottom of the jar.
"Want to go back to the real eye bed?" Lu Yuan said coldly, "Not so easy."
He grabbed the abacus from the ground and smashed it against the mouth of the jar.
The iron abacus was an old object with heavy copper edges. When it was smashed, it hit the evil fetus squarely on the forehead.
With a clang, the evil fetus's head was smashed to the side, and the black energy was momentarily disrupted.
Seizing this brief moment, Lu Yuan immediately said to Wang Cheng'an, "Cheng'an, take your red paper and seal the jar!"
Then he said to Xu Erxiao, "Erxiao, pour all the salt in!"
Then he said to Zhou Heng, "Push all the broken mirror pieces to the edge of the altar, so it can reflect its own image!"
The three of them moved almost simultaneously.
Wang Chengan folded and pasted the red paper sheets one by one, quickly sealing them onto the crack at the mouth of the jar, his fingers rubbing red from the edges of the paper, but he didn't loosen them.
Xu Erxiao grabbed the salt bowl and poured the remaining salt into the jar all at once. As soon as the salt hit the jar, a string of tiny white bubbles burst open.
Zhou Heng dragged the broken pieces of glass and pushed the largest pieces to the edge of the altar. The reflections of the mirrors refracted, making the shadow of the evil fetus appear crooked.
The evil fetus was momentarily at a loss, and even its downward shrinking momentum became chaotic.
Taking advantage of the situation, Lu Yuan pressed down with his short sword again, the tip of which pressed against the thin black threads at the bottom of the black wooden plaque. Then he shouted in a low voice, "Break!"
The knife fell.
The thin black thread snapped.
At this moment, the entire black wooden plaque trembled violently, and the name on the plaque, which had been flashing on and off, suddenly dimmed by more than half.
The evil fetus let out a nearly furious roar, its entire face twitching as if on fire, and black energy spewing from its nose, mouth, eyes, and ears.
But in the end, it couldn't escape unscathed by leveraging its reputation.
Because the lineage has been severed, the gate to the altar is now only half open.
Lu Yuan looked up at it, his eyes showing no hesitation.
"Since you're already halfway out..."
"Then don't even think about going back unscathed."
He reached out and pulled out the last blood talisman from his robes.
That talisman was different from the previous ones; the paper was darker, and there were even some old watermarks on the edges. This was Lu Yuan's trump card, a door-fixing talisman that he wouldn't activate unless things truly collapsed.
He flicked his fingertip, and the blood talisman stuck to his palm, then pressed it directly onto the mouth of the jar.
"Use my blood as door studs."
"I will serve as the boundary marker."
"Certainly!"
As soon as the talisman was placed, the evil fetus that had half-retracted at the mouth of the altar suddenly stiffened as if it had hit an invisible wall.
Lu Yuan was also jolted by the recoil, his shoulders trembled, and a metallic taste rose in his throat, but he swallowed it down.
Seeing that his expression was off, Wang Cheng'an called out urgently, "Brother Lu!"
"Don't come any closer!" Lu Yuan shouted, stopping him. "Keep an eye on your side!"
Xu Erxiao gritted his teeth, his eyes reddening: "Brother Lu, this thing is still moving!"
"It's good that it's moving," Lu Yuan said in a low voice. "The more it moves, the more it proves that it can't go back to the real bottom."
As he said this, he suddenly glanced at Lin Zhaoxuan.
Lin Zhaoxuan instantly understood. With a swift movement, the short knife in his hand was already inserted into the last gap under the black wooden plaque, forcefully lifting one corner of the plaque upwards.
When the black wooden plaque was lifted, a patch of extremely dark soil was revealed underneath, with faint red lines embedded in the soil, like some kind of eye pattern that had accumulated over many years.
"That's—the edge of the True Eye Bed."
Lin Zhaoxuan said in a deep voice.
Lu Yuan's eyes narrowed slightly.
Indeed, the real truth lies not inside the altar, but beneath it.
The so-called altar, plaque, rope, and mirror are nothing more than a few layers of skin covering it.
Now, they have torn off most of that skin.
The evil fetus seemed to realize that something below had been exposed, and its face suddenly contorted in pain.
Instead of trying to retreat, it turned around and lunged into the air, as if to smash all four broken mirrors and use the reflection from the broken mirrors to escape.
"It's trying to escape using the mirror!" Zhou Heng exclaimed in surprise.
Lu Yuan's face turned cold, and he immediately shouted, "Cheng An, smash Zuo Jing!"
"Second Little One, splash salt on the mirror's feet!"
"Qinghe, turn the lamp to the east wall!"
"Lin Zhaoxuan, give me the knife!"