Chapter 459: Chapter 395: Nine-Story Demon Tower
The corpse was that of a man, with only the upper half remaining, dressed in a garishly colorful garment, eyes wide open, dead without closure.
Before they could examine closely, the surface of the lake began to stir once more. One by one, corpses emerged from the dark waters. Looking across, they saw a connecting mass of bodies, easily in the hundreds or thousands. Within moments, the lake was blanketed by the remains.
These corpses were strikingly fresh, showing no signs of decay or bloating. Yang Xiao even suspected that if he touched one, it would still feel warm.
Few bodies were intact; many were missing limbs, and some had heads cleaved diagonally, leaving half hanging off their necks. Such extensive carnage was not the result of a simple brawl but a war, with many corpses clad in armor amidst the dead.
Apart from these, there were also corpses dressed in monk’s kasayas, Taoists’ vestment robes, patchwork garments, and various other bizarre outfits. Yang Xiao’s first thought was this was a massacre of martial arts factions by the Official Army.
The next second, a rumbling sound came from behind, along with a cascade of splashes. Yang Xiao and the others abruptly turned to see the wooden bridge they had traversed collapsed, and the collapse was rapidly spreading toward the spot where they stood.
"What should we do?" Mi Shu’s face paled with fright. Now that the bridge had collapsed, effectively cutting off their retreat, falling into the waters below full of grotesque floating corpses was too ghastly to imagine.
Although the lake was littered with bodies, the water around the reflection of the pavilion was tranquil, untouched by any corpse. At the same time, the pavilion grew sharper in view. In front of it, a wide staircase of white jade stretched across the water’s surface, mere steps from where Yang Xiao and his group stood. It was an illusion that suggested just a leap, and they would land on the steps.
An even more terrifying scene occurred: the corpses beneath the water, as if on cue, began to move, all turning over to face up, staring blankly at those on the bridge.
Seeing the collapse creeping ever closer, Yang Xiao knew the time had come to make a decision. He slowly backed up, then sprinted and leaped towards the pavilion in the lake. In an instant, he plummeted toward the water. But the moment his body touched the lake surface, a miracle happened. The water remained undisturbed, and Yang Xiao vanished.
The next second, Tong Han Cheng Cha’s eyes widened as she saw Yang Xiao reappear on the white jade staircase in front of the pavilion.
With no time for thought, each person leapt, one after another. At the moment of contact with the water, Tong Han felt the world flip upside down. After a dizzy spell, her feet found solid ground. As she looked up, an unprecedented sight shocked her — a nine-story tower loomed before her, massive in size. Despite having only nine levels, it seemed grand enough to touch the heavens.
At that moment, a Blood Moon hung in the sky. Its dark red glow shed light that cast an ominous hue over the world, dispelling darkness and painting the scene with a sinister undertone.
A pungent smell of blood filled the air. Behind them was a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, the scene eerily silent.
Unlike the sight on the lake, the nine-story tower wasn’t ablaze. The interior was pitch black, like a monster lurking in the night.
Yang Xiao, who had arrived first, was staring straight ahead at a white jade staircase matching the tower’s nine levels, also comprising nine steps, each nearly one meter high and over twenty meters wide and long. These stairs seemed not for humans, more akin to the legendary Ascension Platform.
Yet considering the nine-story tower wrapped in surges of Evil Qi, calling it a Demon Tower wouldn’t be far-fetched.
Between the nine-level white jade staircase and the Demon Tower stood a vast platform with several silhouettes.
With bated breath, Yang Xiao immediately recognized the figure at the center, the red-robed woman he had glimpsed once before, with a Big Red Blood Coffin standing beside her.
All doubts cleared, Yang Xiao confirmed this trial wasn’t about the Feng Family Mansion but the world of the former owner of the Drama Robe.
Beside the red-robed woman stood several figures. Counting them, Yang Xiao saw a total of eight people, precisely, eight individuals surrounding the woman in the center.
This was a battle, eight against one. As Yang Xiao peered more intently, his vision gradually sharpened, and he recognized a familiar face among the eight attackers.
It was a middle-aged man clad in a rough, animal-skin coat, with a broad, fleshy face, a bald head, a flat nose, and small eyes glowing with a dangerous light. He looked intimidating, but that wasn’t the key point. The critical detail was the stick in his hand.
Yang Xiao knew that item all too well as it was the very Human Bone Staff he held in his hand, snatched from Huang Sanbing!
This fierce-faced middle-aged man was also depicted by the original owner of the Drama Robe for Yang Xiao, who had suspected the man was the robe’s owner’s arch-enemy. Now, seeing him confirmed it all, this ambush must have led to the fall of the robe’s original owner.
With this in mind, Yang Xiao scrutinized the other seven attackers. Their attire and weapons were assorted and varied.
One was a Taoist in a purple vestment robe, his hair styled straight up, shaking a Bronze Bell in his hand.
A monk with a guillotine knife in hand, his clothes unbuttoned and unkempt.
An individual dressed in a patchwork robe made from tattered fabric, wearing a hat filled with feathers, resembling someone dressed up for spirit-channeling rituals, leaning on a Soul Summoning Banner by his side.
A slender woman in a five-colored garment, with yellow paper on her face, and faint corpse spots visible on her neck.
An armored general who doesn’t hold a weapon, but instead cradles a Spiritual Plaque against his chest.
An elderly man in plain clothes, wearing black and white cloth shoes, his eyes tightly shut, with an old threshold placed in front of his feet.
In addition, there’s someone wearing a double-winged black gauze cap, this person gave Yang Xiao the weirdest feeling. They seemed quite young, dressed meticulously as if hailing from a noble family, yet no matter how hard Yang Xiao tried, he couldn’t make out the person’s face, as if it were obscured by an indecipherable mist.
However, unlike Yang Xiao’s reaction, Mi Shu’s eyes lit up when he saw the group standing around the Big Red Blood Coffin, "Great, it’s really the Blood Coffin Ghost King mentioned by Mr. Chu, now we’re saved!"
After speaking, he looked at Yang Xiao with the same hopeful gaze as Cheng Cha, which made Yang Xiao feel uncomfortable; even the hair on his back stood on end, "Why are you looking at me?"
"Come on." Cheng Cha encouraged him, "Last time riding a few Resentful Infants wasn’t a big deal. Now, Chu can really show his might."
Upon hearing this, the blood in Yang Xiao’s veins ran cold, and he quickly gestured for them to be quiet. If the original owner of the Drama Robe heard this, he probably wouldn’t even have the chance to kneel and apologize.
After waiting for a moment, the nine individuals on the platform remained still like statues, with only one path before them: to climb the nine levels of white jade stairs. Yang Xiao had the feeling that the Nine-Story Demon Tower was the destination of their journey.
And there, perhaps they could discover the secret of the original owner of the Drama Robe.
"Let’s go." Yang Xiao led by example, being the first to step onto the white jade stairs, with the other three following behind.
Each step was more than 20 meters long and wide, like a small platform in itself. As they moved towards the second level, a bell-like sound suddenly reached their ears.
It wasn’t a clear ring; it was deep and muffled, with a slow frequency, like the kind used by corpse drivers. Each toll struck their hearts, making them very uncomfortable.
Almost instinctively, Yang Xiao raised his head to look towards the distant platform, where the person resembling a Taoist was holding a bronze bell that was now swinging slowly.
Soon the others noticed as well, halting their steps and remaining alert. However, after a long wait until the bell sound faded, nothing happened.
The party of four, not daring to relax, continued to ascend to the second level. But no sooner had they placed their hands on it to gather strength, the ground beneath them began to shake. Not only their footing but the entire white jade staircase trembled. In the next second, the step they were on split open and, as the cracks widened, the entire staircase divided into four irregular vertical sections, separating them, with a black abyss beneath the cracks.
Fortunately, no one fell. Looking down into the abyss, there were dark waters below—which should be the world they had entered from, filled with dangerous floating corpses.
Seizing the moment when the ground stopped shaking, the four quickly climbed up to the second level. But this time, an accident occurred: the Spiritual Plaque cradled by the general suddenly turned towards them, and in the next second, a dim halo engulfed Yang Xiao, imprisoning him in a very narrow space, unable to escape despite his attempts.
At the same time, the red moonlight dimmed, and to everyone’s surprise, they discovered the Blood Moon above was disintegrating bit by bit, being eroded by darkness.
Right when the Blood Moon completely disintegrated, a Spiritual Plaque suddenly appeared before Yang Xiao. It was as if he’d been struck in the mind, his knees buckling uncontrollably as he knelt down, his forehead hitting the ground repeatedly. First blood flowed, until his head was smashed to pieces and brain matter and blood poured out, yet he did not stop.
After an unknown length of time, Yang Xiao came to as if awakening from a dream, the restraints on him gone. Staggering to his feet, he tried to flee, but then he heard Mi Shu’s cry of surprise. When he turned back, the scene before him shocked him: there, a little girl with a topknot knelt on the ground, her body leaning forward, head against the floor, completely motionless.
This was exactly his posture just moments before, and he recognized the little girl—she was the ghost from the Ghost Lantern, who had been buried alive by the Feng Family with her eyes gouged out.
He couldn’t describe his feelings at that moment. The little girl seemed to have been ripped out from his body, now substituting him in the kneeling position.
The Spiritual Plaque had summoned the ghost from his Resentful Eye and even managed to control her. Yang Xiao had never imagined such a scene.
What he didn’t expect was that something even stranger was yet to come. His body and face were devoid of any blood, and Mi Shu and the others had never even seen any Spiritual Plaque.
