Chapter 40: Beixiang Tunnel
He Jia’an hurriedly issued orders to the local branch organization to recover the feathers, trying to retrieve all the other Ushi-Oni feathers as much as possible before the birth of a second out-of-control scattered feather Ushi-Oni.
They had already spread a curse named “blessing” to the world once, and they absolutely could not spread the Ushi-Oni’s curse to the world again.
This seemingly prosperous human world couldn’t afford such trouble!
And that Boss Lin, exactly who was he? Was he a mad human, or an abnormal god wearing human skin?
The mystic investigators didn’t expect that this night would be extraordinarily busy…
The Ushi-Oni feather matter could still rely on the help of branch organization members, but He Jia’an and the others could only try their best not to think about the possibly serious consequences that might arise, because they still needed to focus on handling the current Huo Gu matter.
Of course, though they called it handling, He Jia’an and the others had no 100% confidence in resolving the anomaly affairs related to Huo Gu. After all, what they faced was an unknown dimensional race, and they didn’t even know the basics about the opponent—what chance was there of success?
But this was the work and duty of mystic investigators: to stake their lives on confronting that unknown probability of success. Thus, even if they never returned, they had to charge forward without hesitation.
According to Huang Qitao, the location where he and the sacrificed law enforcement officers encountered an attack by modified creatures under Huo Gu was in an abandoned tunnel in Shenzhou named Beixiang Tunnel.
Back then, Huang Qitao followed the clue of the members of the mysterious society that his deceased wife had joined, tracing it step by step, and finally found information about “Beixiang Tunnel” in the materials left by a deceased member.
The mysterious society’s first society leader appeared fifty years ago. At that time, Beixiang Tunnel hadn’t even opened yet—it was still an unnamed hill. When he led society members to camp and barbecue on the barren mountain where Beixiang Tunnel was located, one member accidentally discovered a suspicious cave in the mountain.
Led by the society leader and a few bold society members, they decided to explore deep into the cave. By a stroke of coincidence, they discovered a seemingly bottomless abyss beneath the cave. They went up and down the spiraling stairs for a full hour before finally reaching underground, and below ground they found that this place actually had tombs inscribed with unknown runes. In one of the tombs, they discovered an altar and ancient book left inside, and from the shocking and unconventional illustrations in the ancient book, they obtained “advanced” knowledge related to Huo Gu.
Relying on their cleverness and astonishing perseverance, these people later deciphered from the ancient book left by Huo Gu the ritual of wishing transaction with this dimensional life race Huo Gu. After they tried holding one ritual, some among them were frightened by the strange phenomena that appeared during the ritual, but after tasting the pleasure of having their wishes come true once, they could never forget it.
Unfortunately, they discovered that this ritual seemed to allow each person to participate only once in their lifetime.
In order to share this secret, the first society leader decided to pass it down from generation to generation within the society. However, times changed, and by the generation of Huang Qitao’s wife and Li Jiahong’s wife, because the society leader was promiscuous by nature and died in the wish he himself had once made before he could hand over to the next society leader, the society was thus discontinued.
After Huang Qitao examined old maps from the Shenzhou City local library and compared them from multiple sources, he confirmed that the hill where Beixiang Tunnel was located was exactly the mountain that the first society leader and the others had explored back then. But that cave had long been buried and hidden during the tunnel development process.
After the tunnel opened, the tombs were disturbed by human interference, angering Huo Gu, so Beixiang Tunnel had been plagued by strange incidents and continuous misfortunes since opening, and finally had to close the tunnel.
The subsequent events need not be repeated: Huang Qitao and his accompanying law enforcement officers violated the peaceful sleep site of Huo Gu’s clan and were mercilessly mutilated and killed by the modified creatures sent by Huo Gu.
Next, what He Jia’an and the others would face was likely everything that Huang Qitao encountered back then, or possibly even worse.
Although they were experienced mystic investigators in handling anomaly affairs, this didn’t mean they were omnipotent and could emerge unscathed from all unknown anomaly affairs.
They finally arrived at the Beixiang Tunnel entrance. The car stopped in front of the entrance. After the three got out, looking at the pitch-black tunnel entrance before them, the sense of unease in their hearts began to stir again. Yu Lianyun even seemed to hear some strange language drifting in the air—the voice was noisier than flying mosquitoes, disturbing the mind.
Before officially starting the action, the three were already mentally tense. They opened the car trunk, fully armed themselves, and with anxious hearts, slowly stepped into the tunnel that was as deep and dark as a wriggling worm’s mouth.
Before leaving at last, Yu Lianyun couldn’t forget to look back at the sky. That giant bird suspending Li Jiahong—its figure was now circling in the air, far from the earth, just quietly watching them, as if waiting for them to leave first before landing.
Sure enough, only after Yu Lianyun and the others had all entered the tunnel did the Ushi-Oni incarnated by Jiang Gu finally bring her husband down to the ground.
Li Jiahong looked at the car that He Jia’an and the others had parked in front of him and found that the trunk lid wasn’t closed, with several complete sets of armed protective gear still inside. This was obviously deliberately left for him by He Jia’an, Yu Lianyun, and the others.
After Li Jiahong put on the armed protective gear, he said to his wife, who had transformed into a strange bird, “Honey, let’s go too.”
It was unknown whether the Ushi-Oni still retained the original person’s consciousness. Those eyes that disregarded everything at all times were daunting to behold, but Li Jiahong still insisted on calling her honey and sought her opinion.
And perhaps the Ushi-Oni did retain Li Jiahong’s wife’s will, so she followed him obediently into the tunnel together.
It was pitch black ahead. Li Jiahong held the flashlight taken from the car trunk, its limited light illuminating the front, while the Ushi-Oni led the way ahead, taking him deep into the tunnel bottom. It seemed the Ushi-Oni could sense the correct route.
Walking was slow. Li Jiahong followed behind the Ushi-Oni, curious how the Ushi-Oni, clearly with a pair of raptor claws, could still walk steadily on the descending stairs. Those pitch-black giant eyes also allowed her to see in the dark. Following behind her, he didn’t have to worry about bumping into things in the darkness or missing a step and falling into the “ten-thousand-zhang abyss.”
After an unknown amount of time, Li Jiahong, who had descended the stairs until his whole body was sore and weak, finally reached underground. It was a pitch-black space of an underground tomb chamber filled everywhere with mysterious runes.
As if sensing something, the Ushi-Oni turned her neck, looked toward a tomb chamber with light leaking from the doorway, then flapped her wings and flew low and fast. Li Jiahong followed behind and entered the tomb chamber from which the light was coming together with her.
In front of Li Jiahong was a sarcophagus that had just been pushed open, with a tall rat person corpse lying inside. Under the flashlight’s illumination, the shadow beneath the rat person corpse rippled actively, like a black lake.
Just as that letter said, He Jia’an and the others had already successfully entered another dimension through the shadow of Huo Gu’s corpse—the world where Huo Gu existed.
Please collect and vote or whatever. Also mentioning again, while the investment period hasn’t ended yet, everyone please invest in this book enthusiastically—it’s a no-cost business deal with profits. By the way, tomorrow’s update will be a 2-in-1 big chapter, coming a bit late.
