Chapter 54: The Queen Of Jing Jue’s Memories
In the blink of an eye, the snake swarm had almost completely flooded the platform outside the Ghost Cave, and even the path Su Mo had taken to arrive was covered with the snake swarm.
Su Mo was currently carrying Xue Li Yang on his back and had no desire to get sidetracked further, so he immediately turned and ran toward a small cave not far away.
With a few leaps while carrying Xue Li Yang on his back, he jumped into that cave.
This was a fissure formed between the mountain’s belly, only a little over one person’s height. Su Mo knew it led outward to the ground, so he continued forward along the fissure.
Rustling sounds kept coming from behind as the snake swarm closely pursued Su Mo, pitch black like a surging tide.
Seeing the snake swarm chasing at an extremely fast speed, Su Mo gathered his inner energy and let out an angry roar toward the cave entrance.
“Retreat!”
This roar, infused with the power of the Kirin Sacred Blood and the Buddhist Lion’s Roar, made the entire cave buzz and hum. Even though Xue Li Yang had tightly covered her ears, her eardrums still rang chaotically from the vibration.
The snake swarm was shocked by this angry roar and retreated one after another, receding like a tide with a crashing sound back to the cave entrance.
Seeing that the snake swarm was no longer pursuing, Su Mo continued forward while carrying Xue Li Yang.
After just a few steps, Xue Li Yang suddenly said from behind him:
“Put me down. I… can walk on my own!”
It turned out that Xue Li Yang had only lost consciousness and fainted when she was hung upside down by the Queen of Jing Jue, but her body had not been harmed. Now feeling that her energy had recovered somewhat, she asked Su Mo to put her down.
Su Mo immediately untied the rope binding Xue Li Yang to his body and set her down on the ground.
“What happened when the Queen of Jing Jue hung you upside down in the air just now?”
Xue Li Yang was silent for a moment, then said:
“I gained some of her memories…”
Su Mo was startled upon hearing this.
Xue Li Yang glanced at Su Mo and said:
“Do you know, before coming here, I dreamed of this Ghost Cave, even the Queen’s coffin and the iron chains on it. I could even dream of something crouching on the coffin, though it was unclear in the dream. Now thinking back, that huge thing crouching on the coffin in the dream was very likely the Corpse Incense Magic Lotus!”
“In the dream, a voice was calling me, urging me to enter the Ghost Cave in Zaghrama Mountain. But after actually seeing the Queen and gaining part of her memories, many things now seem clear to me…”
At this point, Xue Li Yang couldn’t help but sigh, her eyes filled with sorrow and pain.
Su Mo listened silently beside her without speaking.
Vaguely, he seemed to guess some connection between the Queen of Jing Jue and Xue Li Yang.
As they were speaking, a square stone house suddenly appeared ahead of them.
The stone house was not very large, only a few square meters or so, with a huge ancient stone box placed on the ground, looking dusty and very archaic.
On both sides of the stone box sat two people cross-legged, their bodies long since shriveled, skin turned grayish-brown, looking like they had been dead for at least a thousand years.
Xue Li Yang looked at the patterns painted on the stone box and suddenly said:
“The Journey to the West records that two ancient sages are buried in Zaghrama Mountain. These two wouldn’t be the people mentioned in the book, would they?”
Su Mo glanced at the two mummified corpses and shook his head:
“This tomb chamber is so crude; it doesn’t match the status of ancient sages. Moreover, a tomb cave in such a rocky mountain completely violates Feng Shui principles. Since they are ancient sages, regardless of their tribe of origin, they must have been buried in a place with excellent Feng Shui, but there is a malignant fissure under this mountain, so it’s impossible to use for burying sages!”
Xue Li Yang nodded and carefully looked down at the patterns on the stone box.
She saw several patterns carved on the stone box. The first pattern depicted a child pointing at the sky, with many people below fleeing in all directions. The second and third patterns depicted tornadoes wreaking havoc, blowing houses, people, cattle, horses, and livestock to countless deaths and injuries, but the people around the child had clearly followed his guidance and escaped the wind disaster.
The fourth pattern, however, was extremely eerie.
The painting showed four people in total, with one of them opening the stone box.
Xue Li Yang frowned and said:
“This seems like a prophecy painting, depicting that four people will enter here and open this stone box, and among these four, one is an evil ghost… But this prophecy doesn’t seem accurate!”
Su Mo couldn’t help but sneer upon hearing this:
“Prophecies aren’t always accurate. There are only you and me here; where is any evil ghost!”
Unlike the original story, due to Su Mo’s appearance, only Su Mo and Xue Li Yang had arrived in this cave, while Hu Ba Yi and the others had taken Professor Chen and left the Queen of Jing Jue’s underground palace via the original path.
Hao Ai Guo and Sa Di Peng, who died in the original story, were safe and sound, and Ye Yi Xin, having received aid, should also not die at this point.
And due to Su Mo’s appearance, the floral fragrance of the Corpse Incense Magic Lotus had not reached the level of bewitching minds to cause death.
Therefore, Su Mo’s appearance had essentially changed the entire storyline!
After speaking, Su Mo directly opened the second layer of the stone box.
Inside the stone box was an ancient book made of sheepskin, covered entirely in Ghost Cave script.
Su Mo immediately handed the book to Xue Li Yang. After flipping through it, she said:
“This records the founding history of the Jing Jue Ancient Kingdom and the origin of the Ghost Cave, which is very similar to the memories of the Queen of Jing Jue that I received!”
After saying that, she told Su Mo the Queen’s memories she had received.
In ancient times, there was a Sacred Mountain in the Western Regions, which is this Zaghrama Mountain. Originally, four tribes lived here.
Later, people discovered a cave in this mountain. The cave was bottomless, and no one could descend to explore it. Everyone wanted to know what was inside this Ghost Cave, so a High Priest ordered the creation of a jade eye, hoping to uncover the secrets of the Ghost Cave through the power of the true god.
The High Priest held a grand sacrifice, using the sacrificial rite on the jade eye to borrow the power of the true god and see the true situation below the Ghost Cave through the eye.
But the jade eye instead brought disaster. First, the High Priest’s eyes suddenly went blind, and he soon died unnaturally.
Then, many strange snakes emerged from the Ghost Cave. These snakes had monstrous eyes on their heads, and a monster with a human head, snake body, and four limbs appeared. It would hatch huge egg-like snake eggs, producing hundreds of strange snakes at once.
If allowed to multiply unchecked, the four tribes of Zaghrama Mountain would all perish, so the four tribes produced two sages. They killed the mother snake and led their people to clear out all the snake beasts.
Then, this tribe migrated far to the east to escape the disaster, and Zaghrama Mountain welcomed a new tribe—the Jing Jue people!
