booktalesy Chapter 272 Eye Embryo
Chapter 272 Eye Embryo
Chapter 272 Eye Embryo (4600)
At that moment, Lu Yuan suddenly raised his knife, slamming the back of the blade against the door bolt, and shouted, "Lin Zhaoxuan, come and ring the doorbell!"
Without saying a word, Lin Zhaoxuan immediately rushed forward and, together with Lu Yuan, pressed down on the door panel from both sides.
The force outside the door was immense, making both of their shoulders and backs tense, but the door ultimately failed to be forced open.
Xu Erxiao didn't care about anything else at this moment. He grabbed a handful of salt from the ground and stuffed it directly under the door crack, causing a layer of white steam to rise immediately.
The hand outside the door recoiled abruptly, as if burned.
Lu Yuan narrowed his eyes and immediately pulled out the short bone nail that he had just pressed down from the bottom of the abacus.
He bit his fingertip, smeared a little blood on the nail head, and then hammered it hard into the crack in the wood next to the door bolt.
"Smash the door!"
The bone nail was driven into the wood, and a very low scream came from outside the door, like a woman's scream or a child's scream, as if it had just been wiped away.
Immediately afterwards, the hand that had reached into the crack in the door suddenly pulled away, leaving a small section of black fingernail on the inside of the door.
Lu Yuan looked at the fingernail without any change in expression. He simply picked it up and threw it directly into the abacus.
"It can't get in."
He said in a low voice.
But at that moment, the voice outside the door suddenly changed.
No longer delicate, no longer human.
Instead, it turned into a very soft sigh.
The sigh drifted in through the door, as if it came from a very, very far place, or perhaps it was coming from under the body of the iron abacus inside the door.
"Since we can't get in through the door—"
"Then begin from your feet."
As soon as he said that, the ground suddenly shook.
It wasn't a violent tremor, but a very slight shudder, as if something had turned over underground.
Lu Yuan's expression suddenly changed, and he immediately looked down at the thin white light that he had previously suppressed under the base of the black wooden plaque.
The white light brightened again at some point, and this time it wasn't the size of a grain of rice, but rather like an extremely fine needle, slowly lifting upwards.
"broken."
Lin Zhaoxuan said in a low voice: "The real eye bed needs to be turned back on the ground."
Lu Yuan sensed something was wrong and immediately shouted to everyone, "Everyone back to the wall! Quickly!"
The group quickly retreated.
But then the thin, white needle-like light suddenly trembled and slowly rose from the soil, as if an invisible eye was pushing its eyelids out from the ground.
The air in the entire cellar suddenly felt as heavy as mud.
The light from Song Qinghe's lamp was dimmed slightly at that moment.
Lu Yuan's heart sank.
This time it's not about borrowing a road, a name, or a door.
It's borrowed land.
The real eye bed started to roll over.
He knew that if he delayed any longer, and the thing at the bottom really came up, the entire cellar would collapse.
But just then, Wang Cheng'an suddenly let out a very short exclamation: "Brother Lu! Over there!"
Lu Yuan turned his head sharply and looked in the direction he was pointing. He saw that next to the body of the iron abacus, the edge of the broken handle that he had burned was slowly seeping out a new red line.
This time, the red line didn't burrow into the ground, but climbed up along the corpse of the iron abacus, as if searching for new survivors.
Lu Yuan understood instantly.
Before he died, Tie Suanpan had already connected himself to this game.
His body is not completely cold yet, and there is still a trace of life left. The True Eye Bed needs to take advantage of his last breath to turn him over.
"The body must not be allowed to touch the ground again."
Lu Yuan whispered, "Cheng An, fire!"
"Second Little One, salt!"
"Qinghe, move the lamp onto the corpse of Tiesuanpan!"
"Zhou Heng, come with me and lift the body off the ground!"
Upon hearing this, everyone immediately did as instructed.
As soon as Wang Chengan lit the tinderbox, Xu Erxiao threw salt all over the area around the corpse of the iron abacus, and white steam immediately rose up.
Song Qinghe shone the lamp directly onto the corpse. As soon as the light shone, several bluish-black lines appeared on Tie Suanpan's deathly pale face, as if something was moving under the skin.
Zhou Heng gritted his teeth and stepped forward, along with Lu Yuan, each on one side, forcefully lifting Tie Suanpan's corpse half a foot off the ground.
Just as the body was lifted off the ground, the needle-like light from the ground suddenly missed its target, shrinking abruptly in the soil and emitting a very low "clucking" sound.
Lu Yuan's eyes sharpened.
"It can't catch the familiar body anymore," he whispered. "Then we'll have to retreat."
But before he could finish speaking, the black water line that Wang Chengan and Xu Erxiao had previously suppressed suddenly bulged on the other side of the ground, as if countless tiny things were crawling out from underneath.
Lin Zhaoxuan's expression darkened: "There are other ways."
Lu Yuan glanced at it and immediately understood that the abacus, the guiding hand, the black water line, and the hand reaching out from outside the door were all a set of ways to get through.
When a real eye is about to be turned over, it won't just go to one spot, but will test all four sides simultaneously to see which side is loose first.
"It's probing the distribution of survivors," Lu Yuan whispered. "Whoever causes chaos first becomes the door."
Wang Cheng'an's teeth clenched as he listened, but he still managed to keep his voice down as he asked, "So how do we defend now?"
Lu Yuan looked at the tiny white light under the black wooden plaque, his eyes growing colder.
"If you can't hold on, cut it off," he said. "Since it wants to use this land to make a comeback, then cut off its connection to the land first."
"How do we determine this?"
Lu Yuan did not answer immediately, but suddenly turned his gaze to the black line on the east wall.
The black water line should have been suppressed by salt and cinnabar, but it has now quietly seeped an inch longer, as if licking the cracks in the bricks in the shadows.
He suddenly realized that the true "earthly energy point" of this place was not in the altar or the talisman, but at the base of the wall.
"Zhou Heng," Lu Yuandao said, "go and pry open that pine brick at the bottom of the east wall."
"Huh?" Zhou Heng was taken aback.
"Go quickly." Lu Yuan's tone became more serious. "That's the air vent it used to turn over in the soil."
Zhou Heng dared not ask any more questions and immediately rushed over, crouching down to pry open the base of the wall.
As the stone brick loosened, a small patch of dark, damp mud was revealed underneath, with half a rotten copper coin and a piece of whitish bone embedded in it.
"This is... a land grant?" Zhou Heng exclaimed.
Lu Yuan's eyes grew even colder when he saw the thing: "Not bad."
"Tie Suanpan and his group not only guided the way, but also buried money at the base of the wall to stabilize the dark side of the entire wall."
"Now that the bone fragments are exposed, the earth's energy is starting to bite back."
As he spoke, he shoved the bone nail in his hand into the ground, then pulled out the last handful of incense ash from his pocket and threw it violently into the loosened mud pit.
As the incense ash fell, it was as if it had been sprinkled into boiling oil. Immediately, a burst of fine black bubbles rose from the depths of the mud pit, as if something below was being burned.
"Again!" Lu Yuan shouted.
Upon hearing this, Wang Chengan and Xu Erxiao immediately added all the cinnabar and salt to that area.
The black water line indeed shrank back, and the slight tremor on the ground also weakened.
Just when everyone thought they could breathe a sigh of relief, a soft footstep sounded outside the door.
It wasn't just one person.
There seem to be two or three.
It's more like walking barefoot on damp earth, step by step, slowly making your way to the door.
Song Qinghe's face paled: "There are people outside?"
Lu Yuan's expression turned solemn as he slowly shook his head: "It might not be a person."
He had barely finished speaking when a soft knocking came from outside the door.
But where are the windows in this cellar?
The knocking wasn't a knock on the door, but rather a knocking on the inside of the door panel, as if something had been stuck to the door and was being tapped on the wooden surface by fingernails from the outside.
"Thump—thump—thump—"
'
Each sound was eerily soft, yet it sent chills down one's spine.
Immediately afterwards, a faint wet stain slowly emerged on the inside of the door panel.
First the forehead, then the bridge of the nose, and then the mouth.
It looks like someone has pressed their face against it, and it is slowly taking shape.
Wang Cheng'an's eyes narrowed: "That is..."
Before he could finish speaking, Lu Yuan stepped forward and stabbed the door panel with his short knife.
The moment the knife tip pierced the wooden board, the wet face outside the door contorted in pain, letting out a shrill scream.
At the same time, the tiny white light from underground flashed suddenly, as if startled by the sudden movement, and then shrank back again.
Lu Yuan finally understood.
The thing outside didn't come alone to ram the door.
It and the underground true eye bed are positioned one above the other, mutually leveraging each other's strengths.
Those outside want to open the door, those underground want to turn over.
If they come into contact, everyone in the cellar will be swallowed whole.
"Cheng An!" Lu Yuan shouted, "Bring out that packet of ashes!"
"Second Brother, spread the salt in a cross shape!"
"Qinghe, the lamp shines on the door, not the floor!"
"Zhou Heng, hold down the corpse of the iron abacus, don't let it rise again!"
"Lin Zhaoxuan, come with me and nail the door shut!"
Everyone acted almost simultaneously.
Wang Chengan poured a packet of paper ash directly onto the inside of the threshold, while Xu Erxiao quickly laid out a cross-shaped salt line on the ground, forcefully cutting the doorway and the center of the cellar apart.
Song Qinghe turned the lamp towards the door panel. The firelight made the wet face even clearer, and it looked just like the face that Tie Suanpan was most familiar with when he was alive, with a stiff smile at the corner of his mouth.
Zhou Heng pressed his hand against the corpse of Tie Suanpan, his palms sweating profusely, forcing himself not to look at it.
Lin Zhaoxuan picked up a piece of broken wood from the side and, together with Lu Yuan, pressed the joint between the door bolt and the door panel inwards.
As Lu Yuan pressed on, he said coldly, "You're using Tie Suanpan's face, his name, and his path."
"But the iron abacus is dead."
"If you really want to come in, you'd better finish off the last bit of your pent-up anger from Iron Abacus."
The wet face outside the door suddenly became extremely distorted, as if it was being held back by something, wanting to retreat but unable to.
The next moment, a very low gnawing sound suddenly came from outside the door.
It's not about biting wood.
Like chewing on a bone.
Everyone heard it and felt a chill run down their spines.
Lu Yuan stared at the hand that was gradually turning white under the crack in the door, and suddenly whispered, "Just as I expected."
"It's eating the shell it left behind."
These words were spoken very softly, but everyone understood immediately upon hearing them.
It did not come from nothing.
It uses the abacus as a final shell, relying on its household registration, remaining name, and remaining path to try to wrap itself back into a form that allows it to go out.
What Lu Yuan is doing now is forcing it to bite into the shell from inside the shell, until it gets itself confused first.
"Add another layer," Lu Yuan suddenly said.
Wang Cheng'an was taken aback: "What?"
"Take out whatever else you have in your arms that can be used to seal the door," Lu Yuan said. "Don't worry about its price, just use it to seal it."
Wang Chengan hurriedly took out the remaining old talismans, half a red thread, and a small packet of grass ash from his pocket, gritted his teeth, and stuck them to the door.
Xu Erxiao also untied the last piece of hemp rope from his waist and wrapped it around the door bolt twice.
Seeing this, Song Qinghe hesitated for a moment, then took a small copper hairpin from her hair and handed it over: "Can this be used?"
Lu Yuan glanced at her, took it, and inserted it directly above the crack in the door, whispering, "Yes."
"It has a metallic smell and can suppress the vaginal opening."
After stacking the items together, the wetness on the door panel began to slowly fade, and the bone-grinding sound outside the door also weakened.
But Lu Yuan was not at ease.
Because he knew it was only temporary.
The real eye bed and the hand reaching out from outside the door are still there, but they have been temporarily covered up.
The real challenge in tonight's game isn't defending, but securing the win.
He raised his head, his gaze falling once again on the tiny white light beneath the black wooden plaque.
That ray of light was even thinner than before, almost shrinking back into the soil.
But Lu Yuan became even more wary.
It hasn't disappeared; it's hiding.
Moreover, it was hidden too quickly and too smoothly.
"It wants to wait until dawn," Lu Yuan suddenly said.
Zhou Heng was taken aback: "Huh?"
"The Yin creature borrows a path underground, unafraid of the darkness, but afraid of the reversal of the Qi at dawn," Lu Yuan said. "It's shrinking now, waiting for the Yang Qi outside to change, so it can take advantage of the Earth's Qi to rise again."
Lin Zhaoxuan frowned even more upon hearing this: "So, the night isn't over yet."
"Yes." Lu Yuan nodded. "It's still early."
Having said that, he stopped looking at the door and the altar, and instead turned around and walked to the body of the Iron Abacus, squatted down, and stared at the face that had lost all life.
Tie Suanpan died a gruesome death; his eyes were still wide open, and there was black blood at the corner of his mouth. His whole body looked as if it had been hollowed out.
But as Lu Yuan watched, he suddenly reached out and touched behind his left ear.
He took out a small, extremely thin piece of paper.
There are words on the paper.
Zhou Heng was startled upon seeing this: "Iron Abacus has something else on him?"
Lu Yuan unfolded the paper, and in the firelight, he saw only half a line of small characters, the ink extremely faint, as if written hastily before his death:
The real eye is at the bottom of the cellar, after the door opens three times.
After reading it, Wang Cheng'an felt a chill run down his spine: "Three-tone 'after'? What three-tone 'after'?"
Lu Yuan's gaze was deep as he looked up at the door, the altar, and the ground, and slowly said, "There were three knocks on the door just now."
"The ground shook three times."
"The jar beeped three times."
"The abacus is not leaving any words."
"He is counting the hours for us."
Lin Zhaoxuan's expression shifted slightly: "So, in other words, there will be a major change after three sounds?"
Lu Yuan nodded, his fingers slowly gathering the note together: "Yes."
"It's not waiting for dawn."
"It's waiting for those three sounds to fade away before it can take a proper breath."
"If we can't hold it back, the real eye bed will take advantage of this and flip over."
"If it's suppressed—"
He paused, his eyes finally turning completely cold: "We have to go down into the cellar."
Upon hearing this, everyone fell silent.
Go down into the cellar.
Go down into the deeper, true eye bed.
Xu Erxiao's throat was dry, and after a long while, he asked, "Brother Lu, are we really going down?"
"We have to get it over with," Lu Yuan said. "If we don't, we'll never be able to finish this."
"The upper floor is ruined, the Iron Abacus is dead, the lineage is severed, and we've even covered up the outer shell."
"But if the real eyes below are not completely nailed down, there will be a second Iron Abacus, a third Black Altar, and a fourth Living Cellar in these mountains in the future."
As he spoke, his voice was soft, yet as heavy as iron.
"This game isn't just about one pot of wine or one card."
"This entire ley line was used to feed an evil fetus."
"If you want to cut ties, you have to cut them off completely."
Wang Cheng'an's palms went numb from hearing this, but he still gritted his teeth and said, "Then I'll go too."
"I'm going down too."
Upon hearing this, Xu Erxiao immediately chimed in, "I'll go too, Brother Lu, I'll go with you."
Lu Yuan looked at them, a very faint hint of reassurance flashing across his eyes, gone in an instant.
"You guys guard the top first."
"It's not that I don't want to take you, it's just that it's more dangerous down there."
"In that place called the True Eye Bed, a living person would not survive without taking a single breath."
Before Wang Chengan and Xu Erxiao could say anything more, Lu Yuan raised his hand to stop them.
"Don't argue."
"Someone at the top has to be watching."
"If things change again after I leave, you two will have to take the fall."
The two weren't completely clueless, and upon hearing what he said, they could only nod.
Lu Yuan then looked at Song Qinghe: "You stay on top too."
Song Qinghe was taken aback: "I can't go down?"
"No," Lu Yuan said. "Your eyesight is good, and your lighting is steady, so it's best for you to stay up there."
"When I go down, you must guard the door and the mouth of the jar."
"If I can't get out from down here, you'll be the ones holding me down above."
Song Qinghe pursed her lips, and finally nodded: "Okay."
Lu Yuan looked at Lin Zhaoxuan one last time.
Lin Zhaoxuan met his gaze, but without asking whether he would agree or not, he calmly said, "I'll go with you."
Lu Yuan did not refuse, only saying, "Okay."
"Your knife is sharp; it'll come in handy later."
As they were talking, there was another sound outside the door.
"Thump."
Third tone.
Immediately afterwards, the tiny white light from underground trembled violently, as if it had taken a breath, and rose an inch upwards.
A soft "click" sound came from the corner of the entire underground room at the same time.
The lime fell, and dust swirled around it.
Lu Yuan's eyes sharpened, and he immediately shouted, "They're here!"
Almost simultaneously, he lunged at the black wooden plaque, gripped it tightly with both hands, and with a low growl, forcefully pulled the half-buried plaque outwards.
The moment the wooden plaque was unearthed, the white light beneath it suddenly shone brightly.
Like an eye that had been closed for a long time, finally opening half a crack in the soil.
At that moment, everyone's shadows flickered violently on the wall.
In that swaying shadow, Lu Yuanqing clearly saw that beneath the black wooden plaque, within the circle of red lines, a smaller, thinner face, almost like that of a baby, slowly emerged.
The face had its eyes closed, but the corners of its mouth were moving, as if it were smiling.
Lu Yuan instantly understood that this was the final offering from the True Eye Bed.
It's not an eye.
It's an eye pregnancy.
He gripped the wooden plaque tightly, his voice low and cold: "So you were hiding here."
"7
The eyelid of the blemish trembled slightly.
It was as if they had heard what he said.
It's about to wake up.