Chapter 103: Toad’s Mouth, Worm’s Path, Nine Twisting Loops
Hu Ba Yi and Wang Pang Zi couldn’t help but feel a burst of surprise upon hearing Xue Li Yang’s words.
The Mu Chen Pearl was the key to curing the Ghost Cave curse on them, and it was indeed hidden in the Tomb of King Xian!
“That’s great! As long as we find the Mu Chen Pearl, our curse will be saved!”
“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s hurry up and dig up the tomb of old King Xian’s zombie!”
“Don’t rush!”
Xue Li Yang’s eyes were fixed on the Town Tomb Record, and her expression suddenly changed slightly.
“On the back of this Town Tomb Record… is the Tomb of King Xian built in the sky?”
She saw that on a large relief on the back of the Town Tomb Record, a magnificent palace was suspended in the sky, surrounded by colorful clouds and swirling with immortals and spiritual beasts, looking exactly like a heavenly palace of immortals!
The palace was a divine path, and on both sides of the divine path were majestic and perilous mountain ridges, making the Tomb of King Xian appear as ethereal and detached as a castle in the sky.
Upon seeing the Town Tomb Record on his back, Hu Ba Yi couldn’t help but sneer.
“What heavenly palace! To me, it just looks like King Xian went crazy wanting to become an immortal, so he exaggerated on the Town Tomb Record!”
Xue Li Yang frowned and said.
“Many clues say the Tomb of King Xian is inside the Water Dragon Swirl, what’s going on with that?”
Su Mo said with a faint smile.
“The so-called water dragon might just be a waterfall, and the Water Dragon Swirl is merely the rainbow produced by the waterfall’s flow under sunlight. It was also called the Immortal’s Bridge by the ancients. Nowadays, many so-called high monks claim to achieve rainbow transformation upon their death, but it’s all just a yearning for becoming an immortal!”
Hearing Su Mo’s words, Xue Li Yang and the others felt their shock at the Town Tomb Record greatly diminish.
Wang Pang Zi grinned and said.
“Old King Xian really went crazy wanting to attain immortality. This old scoundrel is a corrupt and incompetent ruler. When I dig open his tomb, I’ll chop off his head and use it as a ball to kick!”
After a brief discussion, the group left the Husband and Wife Banyan Tree and continued forward. After walking for about four to five hours in the northwest direction, they saw a large area of flower trees ahead. Countless butterflies swirled and danced among the flowers, and a stream flowed gurgling from a flower bush, creating a remarkably beautiful landscape.
Hu Ba Yi, holding the Human Skin Map, quickly identified the entrance to Insect Valley based on nearby landmarks.
The group passed through the flower trees and the stream, and saw more and more ancient ruins ahead. The two bare stone mountains at the entrance of Insect Valley looked particularly striking and abrupt, resembling the bulging eyeballs of two toads!
Hu Ba Yi glanced at the Human Skin Map and pointed to the toad on the map.
“This is the entrance to Insect Valley. These two stone mountains are the toad’s eyes, and the entrance to Insect Valley is the toad’s mouth!”
Wang Pang Zi, however, patted the compass in his hand and said in confusion.
“Huh? Is this compass broken? Why is it spinning randomly!”
Xue Li Yang smiled and pointed to the two bare stone mountains.
“These two stones are likely meteoric iron, rich in magnetism, which is why your compass spins erratically here!”
Wang Pang Zi suddenly understood and thought for a moment.
“Could it be that the Beautiful Country airplane that was delivering arms crashed near the Husband and Wife Banyan Tree because of the magnetic field interference from these two stone mountains?”
Su Mo glanced at the two stones and nodded.
“That’s true, but in reality, the magnetic field here is very chaotic, and it’s not just because of these two stone mountains!”
Through his Zi Wei Guan Xiang Fa and Great Yin Meditation Technique, he could already see that the magnetic field around the Tomb of King Xian was extremely bizarre. The Husband and Wife Banyan Tree was a deep vortex, continuously absorbing Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy to nourish the ancient corpse of the Pythian Python guarding the vortex. Near the entrance to Insect Valley, there was an invisible horizontal line that cut off all contact with the outside world.
Su Mo knew that this horizontal line was the Insect Severing Path that King Xian had buried there to isolate snakes, insects, rats, and ants from the outside, preventing them from entering the tomb area and damaging his resting place.
Beyond the Insect Severing Path, the terrain gradually opened up, resembling the shape of a horn, which was very similar to the description of the toad’s mouth on the map.
As they were walking, a patch of lush flowers and grass in front suddenly moved without wind, its leaves swaying as if dancing, startling Wang Pang Zi who immediately unsealed his Chicago typewriter.
Xue Li Yang quickly raised her hand to stop him.
“Don’t move, this is just dancing grass. Once disturbed by people or animals, it will shake its leaves as if dancing, and it’s not dangerous at all!”
Hu Ba Yi and the others watched the large clump of dancing grass with curiosity and amusement. They saw the grass leaves shaking like ghost grass, and finally, they gradually parted to reveal a fiery red stone gourd, over a meter tall!
Hu Ba Yi couldn’t help but be surprised.
“Why isn’t it a toad statue, but a gourd? According to the ‘Hua Zi’ chapter of the Sixteen-Character Yin Yang Feng Shui Secret Technique, a sacrificial altar or a ancestral hall should be built here!”
At this moment, Wang Pang Zi called out from ahead.
“Old Hu, there’s a toad here!”
Su Mo and the others quickly walked over and saw that directly opposite the fiery red stone gourd, under a canopy of vines, was a shrine dedicated to a Mountain God.
This Mountain God temple had long been dilapidated and entwined with countless vines, retaining only its basic structure. The wooden materials inside had long since rotted away. Inside the great hall, the two mud sculptures of mountain ghosts and gods both had green faces and fangs. One held a fiery red gourd, and the other held a toad in both hands.
Hu Ba Yi suddenly realized that both the toad and the gourd were the Mountain God’s magical artifacts and spiritual beasts!
Turning past a jade stone screen in the center of the shrine, at the end of the rear hall were placed nine giant toads with imposing postures.
Upon seeing these nine imposing toads, Hu Ba Yi immediately recognized that they embodied the Nine-Bend Cycle technique from the Sixteen-Character Yin Yang Feng Shui Secret Technique. His heart stirred, and he said to Su Mo.
“Master, I know how to open this. I’ll do it!”
Su Mo knew he had read the fragmented version of the Sixteen-Character Yin Yang Feng Shui Secret Technique extensively, so he nodded, knowing that this kind of mechanism wouldn’t be difficult for him.
Hu Ba Yi then asked Fatty to help, and according to the number of the Nine-Bend Cycle, from left to right, he rotated the nine stone toads one by one, coordinating with the incantation from the ‘Dun Zi’ chapter.
After completing all these actions, the Mountain God temple remained unchanged, and no tunnel appeared.
Hu Ba Yi couldn’t help but scratch his head.
“This is clearly the Nine-Bend Cycle technique, why…”
Wang Pang Zi laughed.
“Old Hu, your method didn’t work, did it!”
Su Mo smiled at this moment.
“The entrance isn’t here!”
Saying that, Su Mo turned and walked outside the Mountain God temple. He saw that the giant fiery red stone gourd outside had already split in two, and a tunnel entrance appeared from beneath its base.
“So the entrance was outside!”
Hu Ba Yi’s mouth gaped in surprise.
“I really didn’t expect that!”
Wang Pang Zi laughed.
“Old Hu, although you know how to open doors, you’re still far behind Master!”
“That’s true, I definitely can’t compare to Master!”
Saying that, the group waited for the foul air in the tunnel to dissipate somewhat before entering. The tunnel was dark and damp, the air within felt extremely cold, and it was pitch black inside.
Wang Pang Zi then took out two cold flame torches, lit them, and threw them ahead. As the cold flames lit up, a shimmer suddenly appeared ahead.
On both sides of the tomb passage were piled countless bones, both human and animal, as well as many ivory tusks, all placed there casually.
These bones had long since rotted for thousands of years, all tinged with a grayish-white color, shimmering in the light of the cold flames, appearing dark, cold, and full of eerie terror!
