Chapter 21: Game of Thrones

I looked at Chenpi A Si's expression and immediately felt something was wrong. This old guy had been silent all the way here, only saying a few words at critical moments, and never had any annoyed expression, but now, it was obvious that he was really furious.

Monk Hua also noticed this and became nervous , asking, "Old man, what's going on?"

Chenpi Ah Si looked very unhappy and said to us, "The dragon veins here have been tampered with. This three-headed dragon is fake, and the direction of the dragon head is wrong."

My heart skipped a beat and I quickly took out my compass to look. Sure enough, no matter how I turned it, the needle was pointing to the black stone turtle. Apparently, this strange thing had a very strong magnetism.

I immediately understood what Chenpi A'si meant: when looking at Feng Shui veins , direction is very important. Just now, all the way here, Chenpi A'si relied on this compass and the compass he knew by heart to determine the direction and direction of the dragon vein. However, there is a magnetic carving buried here , and it is so large that when we approach this mountain, the north-south direction of the compass will definitely be affected. Then the basis he used to judge the direction of the dragon vein was completely wrong!

The pattern of the three-headed dragon was judged based on this wrong premise, so it must be false!

In other words, this is not the dragon head at all. The "Kunlun fetus" and the huge ice dome outside have no theoretical basis for existence. They are all illusions! They are all psychological hints that lead us into this trap!

Wang Canghai must have thought that anyone who could find this place must have considerable Feng Shui attainments, so he had already made preparations. Before we entered the mausoleum and were not on high alert for four or five minutes, we had already fallen into his trap.

I suddenly felt a sense of powerlessness . "Kunlun Fetus", Ice Dome, such a clever design, turned out to be just a trap! Wang Canghai really has a deep understanding of tomb robbery. I have always laughed at those architects who believe in Feng Shui. Feng Shui did not bring any blessings to the tomb owner, but instead became an invisible direction for tomb robbers. But we made the same mistake and set a trap for an ancient person.

Now we are playing a game with a man who has been dead for hundreds of years , but we are defeated before the first round even starts. It's a bad start.

Fatty and Panzi still didn't understand. I explained the matter to them , but Fatty still didn't believe it and said, "It's impossible. How could there be such a big magnet at that time?"

I sighed. "This stone turtle must have been carved from a magnetic meteorite. It is extremely valuable, but Wang Canghai used it to press his tomb. It seems that in order to protect Yunding Tiangong, Old Wang has put in a lot of effort."

" Fuck , that's impossible." The fat man still refused to believe it and said, "This place is built so formally..."

Halfway through his speech, he realized that the building style of this spiritual palace was indeed formal, but there was nothing necessary for a spiritual palace inside. In fact, we had already discovered the flaw, but no one expected that the entire spiritual palace would be a trap. It was just because its style was too formal.

Chenpi A's face turned pale and he said nothing. He just stared at the stone turtle fiercely with a very scary look.

Monk Hua and I discussed that we were doomed. We definitely didn't have enough food to go back to Sansheng Mountain. We might have to go back to the mountain village for supplies. This round trip would be a waste. Besides, we were all seriously injured. We would have to rest after returning to the village. We couldn't afford to waste that time. Even if Aning and the others walked slowly, they would have arrived.

We still don't know the purpose of Uncle San's arrangements, but no matter from which angle, we are already at a disadvantage.

Thinking of this, people can't help but feel a little irritated. In fact, no one is responsible for this matter. However, when people encounter setbacks, it is always good to have someone to blame. Otherwise, they have nowhere to vent their anger and can only be depressed. Others' faces are not good either, but there is nothing they can do now.

Seeing that we were all a little discouraged, the fat man said, "Forget it, let's go back quickly. We just took the wrong road. Let's go out and try again. There are only a few people like Aning, it's impossible for them to transport all the things out. Let's move quickly and pick up the leftovers!"

When I heard that his mind was full of Yang Luo, I suddenly felt a nameless fire, sneered and shook my head and said, "You know what? Uncle San almost sacrificed his own business to slow down the progress of Aning and others, but we were still a beat slower. If we go back and come back, I don't know how much we will be left behind by them. Uncle San may be in danger. You only know about Mingqi and don't care about anything. Don't yell here."

Fatty was also unhappy after hearing this and wanted to choke me, but Ye Cheng held him down and said, "Okay, okay, now is not the time to quarrel."

The atmosphere suddenly became awkward. The fat man shook Ye Cheng off, cursed, and went to the side to smoke. Monk Hua waved his hand and said, "It's a wasted trip. Everyone feels bad. Now the main thing is to find a way to remedy the situation. Let's calm down and think about what to do."

The fat man said, "What remedy? I don't think it matters. With such a big magnet sticking out here, anyone who comes here will be in trouble. You dare to say that Aning's gang didn't get caught? Maybe their orientation is all wrong, and now they have been beaten into honeycombs by the border guards. We should explore this place, take away everything we can, and then turn back as quickly as possible, reorganize our equipment at the foot of the mountain, and don't waste time. Since we have been caught, how can we not face reality?"

I know the fat guy is actually right, and maybe in the end we will have to go back the same way he said, but his argument is not welcome here now.

Pan Zi immediately shook his head: "It's easy to say, but if you are asked to go back the same way now, are you sure you can make it back? Even if you know the way, we have been walking for a whole day. You are thick-skinned and don't feel tired, but we can't bear it. Even if we want to go back, it must be tomorrow morning. The worry of the young Third Master is justified. If we delay time like this, all the arrangements made by the Third Master will be in vain."

The fat man went crazy when he heard this : "Third Master, Third Master, go to hell with Third Master! You don't even know what that old jerk is thinking, what the hell are you talking about ? Why should I, a fat master, get involved in your family affairs? I'm here to look for artifacts , I don't care, I'll go after I'm done, you guys can go die with that old ghost."

As he said that, the fat man picked up his bag, turned on the flashlight, and walked back to the corridor. However, after only two steps, Menyouping blocked his way and stopped him from going any further.

The fat man was a little bit jealous of Menyouping and didn't want to get angry with him, but he couldn't lose face either, so he asked, "What are you doing? Don't stop me from making money."

Men You Ping said: "Don't you find it strange? When we got here, everyone seemed to be very anxious. Even Wu Xie got angry."

When Menyouping said this, the fat man was stunned. He immediately turned his head to look at me, and everyone's face changed. I also felt a pang in my heart.

Yes, the nameless fire just now just started suddenly, and there was no reason for it. I don't know why, but I suddenly felt a sense of irritation emanating from my heart. Fatty was such a person before, and I have heard all kinds of unreliable words. Why did I get angry? This is not my character.

With the way I do things, even if someone really said something unpleasant, I would not bully him in such an occasion, and the fat guy's reaction just now was too big.

Could it be that the surrounding environment was really affecting me? I turned around and looked around. It was pitch black. When I shone my flashlight, I found that only a few of us had bright flashlights in the entire dark space. The darkness in other places was like a black fog that surrounded us. It was very depressing. But even though it was depressing, I felt that this was not the source of my inexplicable anxiety.

"What's going on? It seemed like something really weird just now, and I suddenly got angry." The fat man also came to his senses and asked Monk Oil Bottle.

Men You Ping said to us: "I don't know either, but I think this is more than just a magnet. You must stay calm now. It's useless for you to argue just now. Since this is a trap..." He paused and said: "Wang Canghai spent so much effort to set up this place. Since he let us in , I don't think we can get out."

The irritation in my heart suddenly surfaced again. When I thought of Menyouping's words, I suppressed my anger and said, "What should we do now?"

Men You Ping said nothing, but just glanced at Chen Pi Ah Si, who also glanced at him. He said, "Since we've been trapped, we can only take one step at a time. It's too early to conclude whether we can get out. But no matter what, we must destroy this turtle, and then search here to make sure there is no such thing, otherwise we will come here several times and the same thing will happen again."

Everyone glared at the turtle, obviously never hating this animal more than now.

If a large magnet is broken, it will only become a small magnet, which will still affect the compass. The only way to completely eliminate magnetism is to burn it.

We took out the fuel from the smokeless stove and poured it on the turtle, then the fat man lit a cigarette, took a deep puff and threw it in, and the fire started. The heat of the smokeless stove fuel was extremely high, and we felt the hot air wave coming at us all of a sudden.

Monk Hua took out the compass and watched the needle inside move.

Soon the turtle was burned red, and even the bricks around it were burned red. We all took the opportunity to lean against the brick pit to keep warm.

There was no wood available for burning, so the high-purity fuel was quickly burned out. In about half a cigarette's time, only hot bricks and a red turtle were left underneath.

"How is it?" I asked Monk Hua, and when I leaned over to take a look, I saw that the needle was no longer pointing at the turtle, and the magnetism had disappeared. He walked around with the compass a few more times, making sure there were no other magnets underground, and then nodded and said it was done.

We should not stay here for long. Since it is a trap, we have no desire to stay here any longer. After a few people packed up, I thought about what Menyouping said: if we can get in, we may not be able to get out. I already had a bad feeling in my heart. Could it be that after we entered this back hall, something has changed outside? What unknown changes are waiting for us?

A few not-so-good images flashed through my mind, but I immediately denied them. Now it's just speculation, there's no need to scare myself, just take it one step at a time.

But my premonitions are always surprisingly accurate when bad luck strikes. Just as we were about to go back into the corridor, suddenly, from somewhere in the back hall, a series of "clacking" sounds came.

The sound of "Ka La Ka La" was very crisp and piercing, and we all heard it. We immediately stopped and turned to look.

The sound did not stop but continued. I listened for a while and found that it was coming from the brick pit where we had burned.

We were wondering what the sound was, and walked back carefully. We looked out and saw that the turtle at the bottom of the pit had cracked, with a large number of cracks spreading on its shell. At the same time, we saw a strange black gas floating out of the cracks at a very fast speed, instantly expanding and rising into the air, like a huge soft-bodied creature squeezed out of the turtle's body.

Then, the black air and the darkness above our heads connected together and kept wriggling. Looking at its shape, it was surprisingly similar to the black totem we had just seen in the hall outside.

"This is... Changshengtian!" the fat man shouted with a pale face.

"Don't scare me." Monk Hua said, "Maybe the turtle is hollow, and it expanded due to heat and contracted due to cold, so it cracked and something inside was burnt."

The fat man changed color and said, "Hollow? Then is this black smoke poisonous?"

"It shouldn't be, without this first--" Monk Hua said. Before he finished speaking, Men Youping suddenly made a gesture of silence, asking us not to speak.

His actions made me break out in a cold sweat and I quickly covered my mouth. Everyone held their breath and looked around, wondering what had happened.

I turned my head around and heard my heart pounding like a drum, but there was nothing unusual around me. However, in this extremely quiet back hall, in addition to the cracking sound of the stone turtle, I heard a very, very faint "sparse" sound coming from some corner.

I listened for a long time but couldn't figure out what the sound was, or even where it was coming from. It was as if the sound was entering my brain directly.

As I was talking , I subconsciously turned around to look. At this time, the Jade Gate of the Ling Palace had closed by itself. Behind me was pitch black. When I shone the flashlight, I saw that only a few of us had bright flashlights in the entire dark space. The darkness everywhere else was like a black fog that surrounded us.

This kind of darkness was very depressing , I don't know if it was a psychological effect or something else. I was just about to say to them, "We can't stay here for long! We'd better get out!" Suddenly, Menyouping made a gesture to silence us all.

His actions made me break out in a cold sweat and I quickly covered my mouth. Everyone held their breath.

I heard my heart pounding like a drum, but at the same time, I also heard a very slight "sparse" sound coming from somewhere in the extreme silence.

I listened for a long time but couldn't figure out what the sound was, and I couldn't even sense its location. It was as if the sound was entering my brain directly. This spiritual palace is inside the ice dome and it is impossible for it to be blown by the wind. This sound was definitely not the sound of the wind.

The black smoke above was growing thicker and thicker, and the sparse sound was becoming more and more frequent. Soon, this sound could be heard from all directions, and the people who heard it began to feel itchy all over.

Menyouping's expression became uglier and uglier. He kept turning his head, looking at the black air gathering above his head, and muttered to himself, "There's something in the smoke!"

Monk Hua listened to the 'sparse' sound and looked at the stone turtle again. He seemed to realize something and his face changed suddenly. "Is this smoke insect-scented jade? There is insect-scented jade in the turtle! Wang Canghai wants us to die."

"What is insect-scented jade?" I asked.

No one answered me, but I knew I would find out soon. Men Youping pointed at Shunzi lying on the coffin bed at the side, motioned for Lang Feng to carry him on his back, and then pointed to the corridor in front: "Run, don't look back! No matter what falls on you, don't stop, keep going until you get out, quickly!"