Chapter 19 Xiangweng Temple ⑤ - Testing the Waters: It just suddenly occurred to me, and I felt...

"..."

Lan Shuyin was speechless for a moment, reflecting on how impure her thoughts were, that she had actually detected a hint of flirtation in his words.

She composed herself and greeted him calmly, "We meet again. Are you here looking for treasure again?"

Kui Li's lips curved into a faint smile, and she answered readily, "Yes."

"Oh no! This poison is contagious!" Chen Yi's exclamation abruptly interrupted the somewhat awkward small talk between the two.

On Qi Weiwei's bitten arm, a horrifying bluish-black color quickly appeared, spreading faintly upwards along the blood vessels.

"What do we do now?" Zhong Jinguo's voice tightened, completely at a loss.

Kui Li bypassed him and, without saying a word, swiftly used cable ties to bind Qi Weiwei's hands and feet as well.

Then, he glanced at the open backpack on the ground, casually pulled out a piece of gauze, and stuffed it into her mouth without hesitation, showing no mercy or tenderness whatsoever throughout the process.

Since Qi Weiwei did not resist, and even acquiesced to it out of fear, Chen Yi and Zhong Jinguo, who were standing next to her, looked reluctant, but they were just frozen in place at a loss.

"you……"

"You don't want what just happened to repeat itself, do you?" After doing all this, Wei Li took a few steps back and said calmly, "There is no cure for the poison of the Viper's Kiss. ​​Think about how to protect yourselves."

His calmness, evident in his words and actions, bordered on coldness.

Lan Shuyin sighed inwardly, but had to admit that this was the most rational arrangement at the moment. In this unknown and dangerous situation, any unnecessary emotions could be fatal.

In the silence, Chen Yi adjusted his glasses and gazed into the distance—

Around the stone coffin, the eerie serpentine tassels seemed to awaken collectively, their dark purple stems slowly twisting like snakes, their eerie green tassels swaying and turning silently like venomous snakes flicking their tongues.

He took a deep breath and pondered, "None of the existing records mention a tomb of this size hidden beneath the stone pagoda of Xiangweng Temple... We must find a way to contact the Jiang family to see if they know about it or have given any instructions."

He turned to Lan Shuyin and the other two, explaining in a calm tone, “The Jiang family is the sponsor of our investigation. The Jiang family’s ancestors funded the construction of Xiangweng Temple, and according to them, the temple’s pagoda houses several important relics left by their ancestors. Due to the passage of time and the changes the temple has undergone, they cannot be sure whether these things are still intact, so they entrusted us to come and confirm them.”

The Jiang family? Lan Shuyin's heart stirred slightly—could the mysterious patron who entrusted her with this task also be surnamed Jiang?

She subconsciously turned to Xuan Bingbing, only to find her friend staring at Wei Li with a strange expression, her gaze seeming to burn a hole in the other's face.

It seemed that Xuan Bingbing's expression had been somewhat unusual ever since Wei Li appeared.

"What's wrong?" Lan Shuyin asked softly.

Xuan Bingbing seemed to wake up suddenly, shook her head and said softly, "No, I just feel that this person looks a little familiar."

"Yes, yes, he looks like your future boyfriend." Lan Shuyin teased him as usual with her favorite joke.

However, this time, Xuan Bingbing did not respond as usual. Instead, she seemed to be choked and showed a complicated expression of "I've seen a ghost."

"We need to figure out how to get out of here first. There's no signal at all in this godforsaken place... What are you doing?!"

Zhong Jinguo's astonished voice interrupted their conversation.

Kui Li strode towards the stone coffin in the center.

What's even more puzzling is that he played a strange melody as he walked.

The whistle was melodious and gentle, carrying an indescribable ancient and exotic charm, its eerie rhythm echoing softly in the sealed tomb chamber.

The whistle had barely sounded for a moment when a dense buzzing sound of wings echoed from all directions in the dark corners!

As if summoned by an invisible force, countless grave flies converged into rolling gray-black vortices, fearlessly rushing towards the wildly dancing serpent tassels!

Hiss—

The demonic plant was thoroughly enraged. Its pale white fangs shot out menacingly, and its eerie green, snake-like forked spikes twitched wildly, precisely piercing and sweeping away wave after wave of grave flies.

The corpses of insects fell like raindrops, but more grave flies continued to pounce, almost suicidal, briefly suppressing the deadly forest of fangs with their bodies.

Under the cover of this chaos, Kui Li made his move.

He weaved through the crowd, precisely avoiding all the dancing threats, and in an instant approached the thickest and darkest main plant of the spiky tassel. With deft movements, he used several high-strength cable ties to tightly bind and secure the dark green tassels that were constantly spitting out their tongues at the top!

The very next second after the awns were completely bound—

The main plant seemed to be struck by an invisible thunderbolt. Its entire stem suddenly straightened into a straight line and trembled violently, emitting a low-frequency vibration that was almost a mournful cry!

Even more chillingly, all the other serpentine tassels in the tomb chamber seemed to have their strings cut at the same moment, stiffening up and twitching violently twice.

Then, as if all their life force had been instantly drained, they all withered and collapsed.

There's even a saying about dealing with this kind of demonic flower: "To catch the thief, first catch the king."

Amidst a stunned silence, Wei Li turned around and nodded slightly to them, "It's ready."

Chen Yi and Zhong Jinguo immediately stepped forward and began collecting samples.

Kui Li strolled back to Lan Shuyin's side and leaned casually against a stone beast, his slender fingers idly playing with an extra cable tie.

Seeing that he made no attempt to conceal his methods and seemed unconcerned about his secret being exposed, Lan Shuyin was both surprised and curious.

She couldn't help but ask, "Kui Li, how do you know Hui Wen Sui's weakness?"

Kui Li slightly raised his eyelashes, his gaze lightly landing on her face, a meaningful curve appearing at the corner of his lips. "Having lived long enough, one naturally knows a little about strange and unusual things." His voice was gentle, with a touch of nonchalance.

Sensing the reservation in his tone, Lan Shuyin didn't press the matter further, instead bringing up another matter that had been lingering in her mind, "Do you and Ni Changye have a collaboration?"

Kui Li raised an eyebrow in slight surprise, leaning forward slightly to close the distance. "Why do you ask that?"

Lan Shuyin said, "I heard that Ni Changye obtained the Blood Orchid of the Breath of Earth." This was also a test.

This was both a test to see if he was truly the one who stole the Blood Orchid of the Breath of Earth, and a test to see if he was truly involved with Ni Changye.

However, Wei Li chuckled lightly, neither admitting nor denying, "Your information network is quite impressive."

“A nasty guy we know was on his last legs,” Xuan Bing interrupted abruptly, her tone inexplicably sharp, “but these past two days I heard he got some kind of miraculous blood orchid and suddenly recovered—could that be your doing?”

Lan Shuyin paused slightly, sensing a hint of hostility in her friend's unusual tone.

To this, Wei Li only responded with a lukewarm smile, "Fortune and misfortune are intertwined, and the world is unpredictable. Who can say for sure?" He added, "Actually, what they said is not entirely accurate."

Sensing that Wei Li was intentionally changing the subject, Lan Shuyin paused for a moment, but still followed up with the question, "What do you mean?"

“The Jiang family was not the main contributor to the construction of Xiangweng Temple.” Kui Li’s gaze swept across her face almost imperceptibly. “Back then, they were merely vassals of the Qiangquan Fengzhi family.”

"Feng Zhi?" Lan Shuyin's heart skipped a beat.

The name was like a needle, instantly piercing her memory.

That strange note with the words "Feng Zhi Zhao Yin" written on it... Could "Feng Zhi" refer to this family? Is there such a coincidence in the world?

She's a bit unbelievable.

Kui Li nodded, his tone carrying a detached indifference as if observing the dust of history. "In ancient times, this region belonged to Qiangquan. There was an ancient family of spirit mediums in Qiangquan called 'Fengzhi'. They worshipped the spirit god for generations and possessed power and secret arts that were beyond the reach of ordinary people, almost monopolizing the faith in this place. Unfortunately, they committed many evil deeds and were ultimately punished by heaven, leaving not even a trace of their bloodline behind."

He said "what a pity," but there was no trace of regret in his playful tone; instead, it sounded more like a cold mockery.

Just as Lan Shuyin was about to ask more questions about the "Fengzhi family," Chen Yi, who had already collected samples in the distance, suddenly shouted, "There's something wrong with this stone coffin!"

Upon hearing this, Xuan Bingbing immediately ran over.

Lan Shuyin instinctively tried to follow, but her arm was gently tugged from behind.

She turned around in surprise and met Wei Li's fixed gaze.

“A couple of days ago, I happened to see a news report.” Wei Li’s voice was not loud, as if she was afraid of frightening her. “It was about a four-person cultural relics survey team that encountered an accident in the Xiangweng Mountain area. It is said that all of them were hit by falling rocks and none of them survived.”

Lan Shuyin was taken aback. "What do you mean?"

"It's nothing, I just suddenly thought of it." Wei Li's lips curled up slightly, his tone as casual as if it were just a casual remark, "I just felt I should tell you."

"Thank you." Lan Shuyin suppressed the slight unease that arose in her heart because of his words, turned around and walked quickly toward the stone coffin in the center.

The stone coffin was mostly cracked due to the falling boulder, and the lid had been completely pushed open by Zhong Jinguo, leaning against the side.

At this moment, Chen Yi knelt beside the coffin, holding a powerful flashlight in one hand and carefully pointing the lens of a portable translator at the inner wall of the coffin with the other, his brows furrowed and his expression focused.

"What's wrong?" Lan Shuyin asked as she approached.

“This stone coffin… is not the main coffin where the body was placed.” Chen Yi adjusted the angle of the translator. “Look, there are no remains inside the coffin, only a set of neatly folded women’s clothing from the Republican era. This is clearly a cenotaph.”

The beam of the flashlight moved slowly, illuminating the inner walls of the coffin.

Sure enough, the room was empty, with only a few pieces of dull-colored silk and some metal ornaments lying quietly inside.

“This is even stranger.”

Chen Yi focused the beam of light on the inner wall of the coffin. "These inscriptions are not in the usual epitaph format. They are more like a biographical record, or rather, a narrative that has been deliberately preserved."

The translator's screen flickered slightly, intermittently displaying the recognized text.

Chen Yi focused intently on deciphering the characters flashing on the screen, reading them aloud one by one, his voice exceptionally clear in the silent tomb chamber:

"This tomb is respectfully erected for... Feng Zhishi, to clear her name."

Feng Zhi Zhaoxue? This name sounds so similar to "Feng Zhi Zhaoyin" on that note! It's like... sisters?

Chen Yi, oblivious to Lan Shuyin's unusual behavior, continued reading, "The inscription reads: 'Born in an unlucky year, month, and hour, her fate is extremely weak, yet her spirituality is extraordinary. She is considered an excellent vessel to serve the underworld gods... From a young age, she was raised in a dark room, tempered with medicinal feed and the method of burying acupoints, in the hope that upon reaching adulthood, her body and soul would be offered up to communicate with the netherworld...'"

Upon hearing this, Zhong Jinguo pondered and said, "This doesn't sound like a commemoration; rather, it sounds like a record of some cruel process of domestication and sacrifice."

Chen Yi nodded, "That matches up. The mummified statue enshrined above is very likely that of 'Feng Zhi Zhaoxue'."

A note from the author:

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