Chapter 1992: Chapter 1989: Ancient Tomb?
The four of them quickly entered the underwater cave. After swimming for a while, the water grew shallower and shallower until they finally surfaced and climbed ashore.
Zhang Lingyu waved her hand, and the Barrier vanished. The two girls’ clothes were still perfectly dry, not a drop of water on them, still as elegant as ever. Lin Tian and Xu Feibai were another story, water streaming down off them.
But Lin Tian had his own trick. He raised his hand, and a ball of purple flame appeared. The purple fire swirled around him once, and his pants instantly turned dry as before.
"Want me to..." Lin Tian stretched the purple flame toward Xu Feibai, intending to help dry his clothes too.
Xu Feibai frowned, a hint of wariness flashing in his eyes. He took a step back, clearly rejecting Lin Tian’s kindness. "No need."
"Lingyu, that Xu Feibai seems afraid of Lin Tian’s fire." Zhang Lingyu asked in a low voice.
Though she spoke quietly, Xu Feibai obviously heard. He lifted his gaze and glanced at Xiao Manxuan, as if his eyes were saying: I’m even more afraid of your flames.
Zhang Lingyu smiled and murmured, "Everyone is afraid of his fire."
The little girl blinked her big, watery eyes, not quite understanding Zhang Lingyu’s words, and since Zhang Lingyu had no intention of explaining further, she had to drop it.
Lin Tian ignored the two girls’ conversation. He stretched the flame forward to light up the path ahead, carefully examined it, then walked inward, saying as he went, "This cave might’ve formed naturally, but it clearly shows signs of being manually modified. No idea what the people before us built this passage for?"
"Could it be a tomb passage?" Xiao Manxuan guessed softly.
The three of them all turned to look at her, and the little girl smiled sheepishly. "Hehe, I just watched a tomb-raiding movie recently, so I couldn’t help myself."
"You’ve reminded us of something. It really might be an ancient tomb, and the Jade Pendant on Yao Xiaoke probably got flushed out of that tomb by the water." Lin Tian said, slightly excited.
Xiao Manxuan agreed. "Exactly. Building a tomb passage underwater is really well hidden."
"No way, it’s really an ancient tomb?" Xiao Manxuan was both shocked and thrilled. She’d only ever heard about such things before and was now getting to experience one herself.
Lin Tian didn’t pause, speeding up as he moved forward, but after only a few dozen meters, he suddenly found there was no path ahead—it was a dead end.
"This is a Dragon-Sundering Stone." Lin Tian stepped up, felt it over, then knocked on it a few times with a bang-bang-bang before reaching his conclusion.
"Once a Dragon-Sundering Stone is lowered, it’s meant to completely seal a tomb passage. There are no mechanisms to open it. How do we get in?" Xiao Manxuan looked toward Lin Tian. Whenever they ran into trouble, it felt like things could always be resolved smoothly as long as Lin Tian was there.
"You all step back." Lin Tian waved his hand, signaling Xiao Manxuan to retreat, and extinguished the purple flame in his hand at the same time.
The passage instantly fell into pitch darkness. Lin Tian’s hands curled into claws and suddenly grabbed at the Dragon-Sundering Stone. With a crack, his fingers sank straight into the stone gate, his fingers like swords that could pierce anything.
He pulled upward hard. Kacha-kacha—the screech of grinding echoed, and the massive Dragon-Sundering Stone was actually lifted up by him, revealing the passage behind it.
Zhang Lingyu snapped her fingers, and a burning talisman paper appeared in her hand. The bright flames lit up the passage within and also illuminated Lin Tian’s heroic figure as he lifted such weight.
Xu Feibai didn’t react much, Zhang Lingyu had a good idea of his capabilities, but Xiao Manxuan’s eyes went wide. She’d only ever seen Lin Tian fighting before and hadn’t expected his strength to be great enough to raise a Dragon-Sundering Stone, which weighed over a thousand catties.
"What are you still standing around for? Get in." Lin Tian was exasperated when he saw the three of them just staring. If he’d known, he would’ve just used the Heavenly Tribulation Sword to cleave the Dragon-Sundering Stone in one stroke instead of wasting energy like this.
Only then did the three hurry through. Lin Tian once again raised it single-handedly, switched hands and walked inside, then released it. With a boom the Dragon-Sundering Stone slammed down, the tomb passage jolted violently, and dust billowed everywhere.
Zhang Lingyu flicked her fingers, and the burning talisman paper flew out, transforming midair into a flaming Fire Bird. The Fire Bird flew inward, completely lighting up the passage. Watching this illumination technique made Xiao Manxuan intensely envious—it was just way too cool.
The four followed the Fire Bird onward. They hadn’t gone far when a huge underground space appeared before them, at least the size of two basketball courts.
The space was circular, and in the middle stood a high platform. The base of the platform was square, but the upper level was round, carrying a faint meaning of "round heaven, square earth."
At the very center of the platform was a dark red stone pillar. The pillar’s surface was uneven, seemingly carved with something. In front of the pillar was a stone table, and there seemed to be something placed on the table.
"Doesn’t look like a tomb. It looks more like an altar." Lin Tian looked around several times and didn’t see any coffins. Instead, he found the high platform oddly familiar, because the Zhang Family also had a similar altar.
Except the Zhang Family altar had the spirits of the four Divine Beasts guarding it, while the altar before them only had a single stone pillar.
"It’s not ’like,’ it really is an ancient altar. Searching high and low only to find it without effort—we didn’t find the Qiong Gou Jade, but ended up finding an ancient altar instead. Saves us a chunk of trouble." Zhang Lingyu said, delighted and overjoyed.
She had mentioned before that the ritual to open the Netherworld passage required an ancient altar. She hadn’t expected one to appear here.
"Lin Tian, what are those round things on the altar?" Xiao Manxuan suddenly spoke.
Lin Tian changed his position and saw that there really were round things up there, looking somewhat like...
With that thought, he sprinted toward the altar, and the other three followed. Just as they were about to step onto the stairs, a creaking sound came from beneath their feet, as if they had stepped on something.
Lin Tian looked down and saw that it was a piece of bone. The bone had originally been covered by dust, and only showed once he stepped on it.
"B-bone..." Xiao Manxuan’s voice trembled slightly, because she realized there was a bone under her foot as well.
Zhang Lingyu frowned, formed a hand seal with both hands, and softly chanted, "Borrow the law of the Wind God—scatter!"
A strange gust of wind rose out of nowhere, blowing all the dust off the ground and revealing what had been hidden. Scattered remains lay all around, a jumble of bones strewn everywhere, no way to tell if they belonged to animals or humans.
The bone beneath Lin Tian’s foot turned completely to powder with that single step, clearly having been there for a very long time.
Suddenly seeing so many bones, even the bold Xiao Manxuan felt uneasy, her heart fluttering. She involuntarily moved closer to Lin Tian—only by staying near him did she feel safe.
"Are these human or animal bones?" Xiao Manxuan asked quietly.
"Humans, and animals. They were very likely...offerings." Lin Tian pointed at the altar, frowning.
On top of the altar, those round things, untouched by dust, finally revealed their true form: skulls scattered across the whole altar, some human, some animal. Their hollow eye sockets seemed to stare at every person who came in, as if telling of the agony they suffered before death.
"So cruel, actually using humans for sacrifice." Xiao Manxuan clenched her fists tight. At that moment she forgot her fear. As a modern person, kind as she was, she simply couldn’t accept human sacrifice!
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