booktalesy Chapter 271 The door is about to open!
Chapter 271 The door is about to open!
Chapter 271 The door is about to open! (6200)
Wang Chengan gritted his teeth, picked up the already half-cracked lens, and smashed it hard on the ground.
The lens shattered, and a corner of the evil fetus's shadow instantly disappeared.
Xu Erxiao then sprinkled salt on the mirror's base, and as soon as white steam rose, the mirror's base immediately became unstable.
Song Qinghe turned the lamp and shone it directly on the broken mirror on the east wall, causing the shadow of the evil fetus to be distorted.
Lin Zhaoxuan then threw the dagger directly to Lu Yuan.
Lu Yuan caught it in one go, and with a backhand slash, the blade sliced through the tail of black mist extending from the jar.
With a "plop," it felt like a piece of wet, cold tendon had been severed.
The evil fetus let out an extremely sharp roar and suddenly leaned backward.
The next moment, the red lines under the black wooden plaque suddenly lit up, like countless fine blood vessels emerging from the soil.
A series of muffled "thump, thump" sounds suddenly echoed throughout the cellar.
Like a heartbeat.
Like the earth's eye opening.
Lu Yuan's heart sank, knowing that the real eye bed below had been forced to react.
"Back off!" he shouted sharply. "Everyone back to the wall! Don't stand in the middle!"
But just as everyone retreated, the evil fetus took advantage of the brief chaos and suddenly reached out a hand towards the already dead body of Tie Suanpan.
The hand gripped the abacus, as if drawing out some last bit of life.
Lu Yuan's eyes darkened, and he immediately understood what it wanted to do.
Using the last trace of familiarity from the dead, he forcibly returned to the true self.
"Don't even think about it."
Lu Yuan took a step forward and plunged the short knife in his hand into the ground next to Tie Suanpan's chest.
With a twist of the hilt, the last black thread between the hand and the corpse of the abacus was firmly pinned.
After the black line was nailed in place, the evil fetus's hand froze in mid-air, its five fingers twitching, unable to pull it out for a moment.
Taking the opportunity, Lu Yuan said in a deep voice, "Cheng'an, fire tumbler!"
"Second Little One, salt!"
"Qinghe, bring the lamp closer!"
Wang Chengan immediately threw the tinderbox, Xu Erxiao sprinkled the last handful of salt over, and Song Qinghe gritted her teeth and pressed the lamp an inch closer.
With the combined pressure of fire, salt, and lamp, a cloud of black smoke immediately billowed from the evil fetus's hand.
It suddenly shrank back, letting out a low growl like a wild beast.
Lu Yuan knew that this was his last breath.
He made a hand seal with his left hand, pressed his right hand on the hilt of his sword, and whispered, "Didn't you want to open your eyes?"
"I'll turn it off for you."
With that, he suddenly twisted the hilt of his knife, lifting up the red paper with the black thread around the edge of the eye next to the corpse of the iron abacus.
Then, using the remaining force of the short knife, he directly slapped the piece of red paper into the crack at the mouth of the jar.
As soon as the red paper was inserted, the mouth of the jar immediately seemed to be welded shut, and the evil fetus's entire face twisted violently under the cloth.
The black mist poured back from its mouth, nose, eyes, and ears, making an extremely teeth-grinding "hissing" sound.
It could no longer shrink.
At that very moment, the heart-pounding "thump, thump" sound from deep within the cellar suddenly stopped.
The stop was extremely abrupt.
It was as if someone had forcefully shoved that deeper eye back into the earth at the most crucial moment.
In the brief silence, the evil fetus finally let out a low, almost broken howl, then its whole body collapsed suddenly, as if it had been cut in half.
The black mist, the outer shell, and the half-formed face all collapsed rapidly in the firelight.
In the end, only a wisp of charred, damp earthy smell remained, sinking down the mouth of the jar.
The yellow cloth fell back down, and the surface of the jar collapsed flat again.
Everything seemed to have finally quieted down.
But this silence lasted for less than three breaths.
Lu Yuan stood there, his face pale and almost bloodless, but his grip on the knife did not loosen.
He knew it wasn't over yet.
Although the real eye bed was pressed back, there were too many survivors in this place, the Yin Road was not severed, and although half of the lineage was cut off, there were still remnants.
He's just a stickler for details.
It's completely dead.
Lu Yuan looked down at the corpse, but his gaze remained completely unmoved.
The fact that such a person died here is a way of settling the last bit of dirty debt in this game.
He slowly exhaled, his voice so low that only he could hear it: "Iron Abacus is dead."
"It's time to empty this jar of blood."
Just as he finished speaking, a tiny white light suddenly appeared again in the previously darkened red line under the black wooden plaque.
The white light was very small, as small as a grain of rice.
But when Lu Yuan looked over, his heart suddenly turned cold.
Because that wasn't a final burst of light.
That was something even lower down, the first slit of an open eyelid.
That tiny white light, the size of a grain of rice, was quietly embedded in the deepest part of the red line below the black wooden plaque.
If Lu Yuan hadn't been standing at the center of the situation, and if he hadn't been so sensitive to the "half-alive, half-dead" aura within the Yin Formation, others would probably have just mistaken it for a random patch of white dust.
But he knew it wasn't true.
That's a slit in the eyelid.
It was the first moment when the "real eye bed" below opened.
Lu Yuan did not move immediately.
He stood very steadily, and even his breathing was a beat slower than before.
He knew all too well what he feared most in this situation: not that the enemy actually opened their eyes, but that he himself lost his composure first.
What evil things like most is when you're about to lose your composure and then destroy the whole situation yourself.
"Keep quiet."
Lu Yuan said in a low voice, "Read my eyes."
Wang Chengan, whose face was still pale, immediately shut his mouth and nodded heavily upon hearing this.
Xu Erxiao didn't dare to be negligent either. His right hand was still pressed against the salt line, and he was half-squatting, like a raccoon that could pounce out to mend the line at any time. His eyes were fixed on Lu Yuan, but he didn't look at that little bit of white light.
Song Qinghe lowered the oil lamp even further, and once the flame was steady, she asked softly, "Lu Yuan, what is that?"
"The thing down there is starting to wake up," Lu Yuan said. "It's not the one in the jar, it's the one on the next level down."
Upon hearing this, Zhou Heng felt a chill run down his spine: "There's more below?"
"Yes." Lu Yuan's gaze fell on the thin red line around the base of the black wooden plaque, his voice calm to the point of being almost ruthless.
"The iron abacus is guarding not just one level of altar, but two."
"The things above are for viewing, the things below are for sleeping."
Lin Zhaoxuan frowned slightly upon hearing this: "Real eye bed?"
Lu Yuan nodded: "You can call it that."
"The upper layer is for recognizing people."
"The lower level is where it truly borrows a path, a body, and a life."
As he said this, he raised his hand and wiped the blade on his sleeve. The bloodstains were not wiped away; instead, they stained the blade even darker.
"Iron Abacus is dead, the roster is incomplete, and most of the names on the black wooden plaque have been wiped out."
"But the white light is still there, which means it's not completely useless."
"It also wants to open its eyes from underneath."
Xu Erxiao swallowed hard, his voice strained: "So what do we do now?"
"Stay calm first." After Lu Yuan finished speaking, his gaze swept over the clump of black ash that was still slowly collapsing in front of the altar.
"We just forced it back, and it won't dare to pounce for a while."
"But if we don't breathe our last, the evil paths in other parts of the mountains might be alerted."
Wang Cheng'an immediately realized, "Brother Lu, shouldn't we seal the cellar entrance first?"
"Yes," Lu Yuan said, "but it's not a complete blockade."
"To seal oneself off is to bury oneself as well."
"We need to leave some survivors, a way out, and we also need to cut off the most crucial part of this thing."
Zhou Heng stared at the tiny white light beneath the black wooden plaque and asked with difficulty, "How do we determine it?"
Lu Yuan did not answer immediately, but first looked up and looked around.
In this underground room, the mirror, lamps, red rope, salt ring, rice bowl, black jar, yellow cloth, and black wooden plaque had all been stripped of their outer layers.
But now, the shadow in the corner is noticeably deeper than before, as if something is slowly gathering in the corner because of the collision.
Especially the side of the east wall.
Originally, there were the fewest broken mirrors, but now, at the bottom of that section of the wall, a very thin line of black water has seeped out and is crawling out along the cracks in the bricks.
"There's a leak over there."
Lin Zhaoxuan's eyes darkened, and he said in a low voice.
Lu Yuan saw it too.
That's not ordinary seepage; it's dampness caused by the return of yin energy.
Before the true eye bed is fully awake, it will first feel its way out along the old air, the old path, and the old name.
If it touches a living person's feet, even if the eyes are not fully open, it can still drag half of the person's soul away in their dream.
"Cheng'an," Lu Yuan said, "Go to the east wall, cover that black water line with salt, and then pat the cinnabar off your body to prevent it from crawling out."
Wang Chengan responded and immediately went around it.
"Erxiao, you follow him, and don't stop."
"Yes, Brother Lu."
The two walked towards the east wall one after the other, their movements extremely fast.
Wang Chengan sprinkled salt on the black waterline, and sure enough, thin white smoke rose with a "sizzle," and the thin line on the ground shrank by half an inch.
Xu Erxiao then followed up by using cinnabar to patch the thread, making it as red as a thin vein of fire.
Seeing that they were cooperating well, Lu Yuan felt a little relieved.
These two junior brothers were indeed trained for nothing.
He looked at Song Qinghe again and saw that she was still holding the oil lamp steadily, with the flame not tilting and the light not spreading. He nodded and said, "Lower the lamp a little, don't let it shine on the wall, let it shine on the ground."
Song Qinghe did as instructed.
With the oil lamp's flame dimmed, the white light on the ground appeared even more glaring.
That little white spot, like a slit of an eyelid emerging from the soil at the base of the black wooden plaque, was small, yet becoming increasingly clear.
Lu Yuan knew he couldn't delay any longer.
He bent down and picked up the abacus that he had smashed earlier from beside the corpse of the iron abacus. The copper edge was stained with black ash and bloodstains, and it felt heavy in his hand.
"Lin Zhaoxuan," Lu Yuan said, "lend me your knife."
Without the slightest hesitation, Lin Zhaoxuan immediately handed over the dagger.
Lu Yuan took the knife, but did not rush to use it. Instead, he turned the abacus over and looked at the bottom of the plate by the light of the lamp.
The bottom of the plate was originally smooth, but now several very shallow indentations have appeared, as if someone had repeatedly touched it with their fingernail countless times.
Those indentations are not something a normal person's fingers could leave; the curved parts look more like a series of warp lines worn away.
"The abacus is not just for arithmetic."
Lu Yuan said in a low voice, "It is also a tool for guarding the plate."
"As long as the vessel remains, the name remains; if the vessel breaks, the name is lost."
"When Iron Abacus died, its body wasn't completely shattered, which is why the True Eye Bed didn't fall apart all at once."
Upon hearing this, Zhou Heng hurriedly asked, "So, are we going to smash the plate now?"
"Smashing it might not clean it up." Lu Yuan shook his head. "This plate is connected to the bed below. Smashing it will only disperse the residual energy and cause other places to absorb the energy."
"Then what should we do?" Zhou Heng pressed.
Lu Yuan's eyes turned cold. He raised his hand and lightly traced the shallow marks on the bottom of the abacus with the tip of his knife. Then he suddenly murmured, "Abacus, abacus, you calculate human lives, others calculate yours."
Upon hearing this, Zhou Heng, Wang Chengan, Xu Erxiao, and the others were all stunned.
Lu Yuan continued reading, his voice slow and even somewhat deliberate: "On the plate is a name, under the name is a debt, in the heart of the plate is blood, in the blood is a door. If the door is not opened, the debt will first return to the earth. If the earth is not collected, the eyes will surely roll back."
With each sentence he read, the tip of his knife lightly tapped the bottom of the plate. The taps weren't heavy, but they felt like they were striking some hidden joint.
The next moment, a faint wisp of black mist slowly rose from the shallow marks on the bottom of the abacus.
The black mist resembled ash or smoldering mud, creeping outwards in a thin stream.
"They're out."
Lin Zhaoxuan's gaze sharpened.
"Hmm." Lu Yuan nodded. "The iron abacus contains his own old debts, as well as the bottom line of this cellar. He didn't dare to touch it when he was alive, but his death has forced some of it out."
As he spoke, Lu Yuan suddenly thrust the short knife into the abacus, the tip piercing through the center hole of the abacus, and then twisted his wrist sharply.
"Click."
A very faint cracking sound.
The narrow hole in the center of the abacus was enlarged slightly.
At the very instant the crack appeared, the white light beneath the black wooden plaque suddenly leaped.
It seemed to be suddenly pulled by something, and it shot upwards along the edge of the hole.
Lu Yuan's eyes flashed with anger, and he immediately flipped the abacus over and pressed it down hard on the ground.
"Now!"
He shouted, "Cheng'an, cinnabar!"
"Second Little One, salt!"
"Qinghe, the lamp illuminates the center of the plate!"
"Zhou Heng, hold that black wooden plaque down firmly!"
"Lin Zhaoxuan, don't let the corpse energy go astray!"
The group reacted very quickly.
Wang Chengan lunged at the abacus, grabbed some cinnabar, and sprinkled it around the edge of the abacus.
After the cinnabar fell, the black aura at the bottom of the plate tumbled as if it had been burned.
Xu Erxiao added salt by the handful, and when the salt and cinnabar met on the ground, they subtly pressed out a ring of red and white lines.
Song Qinghe lowered the oil lamp's flame to its most direct position, illuminating the center of the abacus. The flame flickered, and the white light immediately revealed half of its outline.
Zhou Heng gritted his teeth and pressed his hands firmly against the black wooden plaque to stop it from shaking.
Lin Zhaoxuan stood behind the corpse of Tie Suanpan, stepping on the remaining tail of the black mist that was still trying to escape.
Lu Yuan himself knelt in front of the abacus, his left hand on the knife and his right hand gripping the edge of the abacus, and said in a low voice, "If you want to use the abacus to get up the bed down there, I'll cut the abacus in half first."
"If you insist on recognizing my name, I won't let you."
"If you try to open the door, I'll tell you to break it down first."
After he finished speaking, he slammed his palm into the center of the abacus.
With this strike, the bottom of the abacus emitted a muffled "boom," as if something inside had been forcefully pushed back down.
The white light suddenly became chaotic, splitting into two points before shrinking back into a line.
But Lu Yuan did not let go.
He knew this wasn't a victory; it meant the pressure had been pushed even deeper.
Once the True Eye Bed realizes that the exit is blocked, the next step is often not to force its way in, but to first borrow the dreams, energy, and reputation of the living, and then slowly chisel the door open from another direction.
"Listen up, everyone."
Lu Yuan's tone was calm, yet carried an undeniable coldness: "This thing isn't dead."
"It's only been suppressed temporarily."
"No one should walk alone tonight, no one should lean against a mirror, and no one should look at the black water."
Wang Chengan immediately replied, "Understood, Brother Lu."
Xu Erxiao quickly added, "I'll guard it and prevent it from climbing again."
Lu Yuan nodded and was about to get up when he suddenly heard a very soft "clunk" coming from the soil under the black wooden plaque.
Like fingernails scraping against a wooden board.
He paused, his gaze immediately darkening.
"wrong."
Lin Zhaoxuan heard it too and whispered, "There's still some movement down there."
Lu Yuan did not answer, but slowly reached out his hand to the patch of soil that Zhou Heng had loosened earlier beside the black wooden plaque.
He brushed aside a layer of loose soil, and as soon as his fingertips touched what lay beneath, he felt a small, damp, and cold object.
It is neither a root nor a rope.
Like — a finger.
Lu Yuan felt a chill and immediately pulled the thing out halfway.
It was indeed a finger.
Pale, swollen, with black nails, as if it had been buried in the ground for a long time and then soaked in water.
The strangest thing is that the break is uneven, as if it was bitten off.
Xu Erxiao gasped, "Whose fingers are these?"
Lu Yuan didn't reply immediately, but his brows furrowed even deeper.
"Not human."
Lin Zhaoxuan said in a deep voice, "Or rather, it wasn't left by a living person."
Lu Yuan took the severed finger under the light and examined it closely, discovering that there was an extremely thin horizontal line engraved on the back of the finger.
Below the horizontal line is a crooked old mark, like some kind of code.
"This is the guide buried in the jar."
He whispered, "Someone left it there on purpose."
"Who would keep this?" Zhou Heng asked.
Lu Yuan glanced at Tie Suanpan's corpse, then at the black wooden plaque, his voice calm, yet chillingly so: "Who else could it be?"
"Iron Abacus was not only the guardian of the altar, but also the one who left a way out."
"Nothing in this cellar exists in isolation."
"The black wooden plaque, the name-binding rope, the eye-suppressing nail, the iron abacus, the handrail, the mirror, the lamp, the salt, and the rice—it's all a set."
Wang Cheng'an felt a chill run down his spine: "So, Iron Abacus already knew about this finger?"
"He probably knows," Lu Yuan said calmly. "Besides, this severed finger wasn't buried just today."
As he said this, he suddenly turned the severed finger over, and saw that there was a very thin red thread wrapped around the broken end.
The red thread did not break; instead, it burrowed deep into the soil along the broken finger.
Lu Yuan's eyes suddenly turned cold.
"Found it."
"This is its second path."
"The second way?" Xu Erxiao asked, puzzled.
"That's right," Lu Yuandao said. "One path is fame, the other is power."
"When the bloodline is severed, it tries to find a way out."
"Whoever it touches becomes its path."
Wang Cheng'an's teeth chattered as he asked, "What about this severed finger?"
Lu Yuan looked at the severed finger and suddenly sneered, "What do we do?"
"Of course, let it break on its own."
As soon as he finished speaking, he raised his hand and placed the severed finger next to the corpse of the abacus.
He then pulled out the thinnest piece of yellow paper from his pocket, on which a tiny road-blocking talisman had already been written.
"Cheng'an, fire."
Wang Cheng immediately handed over the tinderbox.
Lu Yuan wrapped the paper around his finger, lit a spark, and a thin layer of fire immediately rose from the edge of the paper.
But as soon as the fire started, his finger twitched suddenly, as if trying to retract.
Xu Erxiao's scalp tingled: "It's still alive?!"
"It's not alive," Lu Yuandao said. "It's the remnant of the road being drawn out."
He was quick on his feet, pressing down with the tip of his knife to pin the severed finger to the edge of the abacus. Then, with a flick of the flaming paper, the entire talisman was instantly burned through.
As soon as the fire penetrated, a very thin layer of black oil immediately appeared on the surface of the fingers, and the black oil even had an extremely unpleasant sweet and fishy smell.
As soon as the smell wafted out, everyone couldn't help but frown.
"Cover your mouth and nose," Lu Yuan whispered. "Don't inhale."
Song Qinghe quickly raised her sleeve to cover her nose and mouth, while the oil lamp remained steadily lit.
When the paper money burned out, the severed finger seemed to have lost its roots. With a gentle pull, the red line at the break point began to turn gray and become brittle, as if the air at the bottom had been sucked out.
"It's broken."
Zhou Heng said in a low voice.
"It's not completely severed yet." Lu Yuan looked at the severed finger, his eyes growing colder. "It's only temporarily cut off. To completely sever it, we'll have to turn this entire cellar upside down."
Just then, a very light knock came from outside the cellar.
It wasn't a knocking sound coming from above, but rather like someone standing outside the door, lightly tapping twice with their knuckles.
"Thump, thump".
Everyone fell silent at the same time.
Wang Cheng'an instinctively turned around, but Lu Yuan's eyes flashed sharply, and he immediately stopped him: "Don't watch the door!"
The knocking on the door didn't stop; instead, it knocked three more times.
"Thump, thump, thump."
Then, an extremely soft and delicate voice drifted in from outside the door, like a woman's voice, yet also like a child's, so light it seemed to float: "Is anyone inside?"
Song Qinghe's face turned pale instantly, and her hand holding the lamp trembled slightly.
Xu Erxiao felt the hairs on his body stand on end, and his voice became dry: "Brother Lu—this voice is wrong."
Lu Yuan did not answer immediately, but his gaze suddenly fell to the ground.
The sound outside the door wasn't from a living person knocking.
It's like borrowing someone's voice to see if there's anyone else inside who can answer the door.
He slowly stood up, still holding the dagger in his hand, and said in a very low voice, "Don't answer."
"Whoever answers, open the door for them."
The soft voice outside the door rang out again, this time closer, as if it were pressed against the door: "Lu Yuan—are you in there?"
Upon hearing this, Wang Cheng'an's expression changed drastically, and he almost lost his voice.
Lu Yuan merely raised his eyes coldly, without even twitching his eyebrows.
Because he could tell that this wasn't just a casual remark.
This means the other party has already found out his name.
The other party is using the path left behind by Tie Suanpan before his death to return and find him by following his old name.
"It also wants to use my name."
Lu Yuan said in a low voice.
Lin Zhaoxuan stood to his side and said in a deep voice, "Then don't let it in."
Lu Yuan nodded, then suddenly slammed the abacus on the ground and pulled out a tiny packet of black ash from his pocket.
The black ash was a mixture of grave soil and incense ash he had collected on the road, which was best at suppressing the yin energy at the entrance.
He sprinkled some soot towards the crack in the door and whispered, "The door is dead."
"People are alive."
"Borrow your name, and I will call you a name that will never fall to the ground."
As soon as the black ash settled, the noise outside the door indeed quieted down for a moment.
But then, a pale hand slowly reached in from under the door.
The fingers were long and slender, with bluish-black nails, and there was even a small patch of damp soil on the back of the hand, as if it had just been pulled from the ground.
Wang Chengan gasped, almost instinctively wanting to rush over.
Lu Yuan was faster than him.
"Cheng'an, hold down the two little ones!"
He shouted.
Wang Chengan immediately reached out and grabbed Xu Erxiao, who was about to step forward.
Xu Erxiao's eyes reddened with anxiety: "Brother Lu, its hand has come in!"
"Don't touch it even if you see it," Lu Yuan said. "It's just probing the door, not entering."
As he spoke, the short knife in his hand spun slightly under the lamplight, the blade, stained with the previous evil aura and the blood of the iron abacus, dimming faintly.
Lu Yuan stepped to the door, but instead of touching the hand, he pressed the tip of his knife against the bottom of the door and said coldly, "Who's outside?"
Give your real name.
It became quiet outside the door.
The pale hand also stopped.
Then, a voice almost identical to the one before rang out from outside the door: "Iron Abacus."
Lu Yuan's eyes suddenly sharpened.
"You're already dead."
The voice outside the door suddenly paused, then slowly chuckled.
"The abacus is dead."
"But the road is still there."
Before he could finish speaking, the hand that had reached in suddenly yanked inwards and grabbed the inside edge of the door panel.
The next instant, the entire door seemed to be pushed in from the outside by something, and the door frame made a tooth-grinding creak.
Song Qinghe's face turned deathly pale: "The door is about to open!"