Chapter 121: The Array Locks the Ruins, the Secret of the Stone Stele
"Leave ten people outside to keep guard! The rest of you follow me down!" Xiao Yu made a prompt decision.
He walked in front, holding a torch, while Chu Xuanyi followed closely behind, holding Ah Jiu's hand.
The stone steps spiraled downwards, not too deep. After walking about a hundred steps, they arrived at a spacious underground space.
There was no trace of dampness or mold here. Instead, there was a faint aroma of medicinal and sandalwood, refreshing the heart. Every few steps on the wall, a fist-sized night-shining pearl was inlaid, illuminating the entire secret room as bright as day.
The layout of the secret room is simple.
Along the wall stood rows of tall rosewood bookshelves, filled with a variety of books and scrolls. Chu Xuanyi glanced at them and saw titles such as "Commentary on the Shennong Herbal Classic," "Detailed Explanation of the Qimen Formation Diagram," and "Shangqing Lingbao Talismans," all long-lost precious tomes written on the spines.
On the other side were placed alchemy furnaces, medicine grinders, and various instruments for drawing runes. This was obviously the place where the ancestors of the Lin family practiced alchemy.
In the very center of the secret room is an altar carved from a whole piece of white marble.
There was no spirit tablet or incense burner on the altar.
There is only an ancient stone tablet that is half a person's height and completely black.
The moment they saw the stone tablet, Chu Xuanyi and Xiao Yu's breathing stopped.
The stone tablet was densely engraved with countless extremely complex golden runes and mysterious patterns! Those runes seemed to have life, slowly flowing under the light of the night pearl.
Just one look at it makes people feel like their soul is about to be sucked in and crushed to pieces!
“This… this is…”
"That's right."
"Seal Diagram of the Netherworld Spiritual Vein!"
The complete supreme treasure that is enough to completely suppress the Heart of the Underworld has finally been found!
"Just...just found it like that?" a black-armored soldier whispered.
"This isn't 'just found it,'" Xiao Yu said with a wry smile. He glanced at Ah Jiu, who was curiously examining the stone tablet beside him. "If it weren't for Ah Jiu, we'd probably still be wandering in that gray fog, until everyone has turned into insane lunatics."
He took a deep breath, calmed his excitement and walked forward slowly.
As he got closer to the stone tablet, the invisible pressure grew stronger. When he was three steps away from the stone tablet, he felt a powerful repulsive force, as if an invisible wall had blocked his way.
Seeing this, Chu Xuanyi immediately took a step forward, but was stopped by Xiao Yu who raised his hand.
"Don't move." Xiao Yu stared at the runes on the stone tablet. "This stone tablet is spiritual. It is repelling us. The power on it is too strong. If we force our way close, we will only be countered by its power."
"Ajiu, come here."
"Oh." Jiu responded obediently, and ran over with his short legs.
A strange scene happened.
Ajiu had a smooth journey and walked directly to the huge stone tablet that was several heads taller than her.
She stretched out her small hand and curiously touched the cold and complex golden runes on the stone tablet.
The moment her fingertips touched the stone tablet—
Buzz!!!
The entire stone tablet suddenly burst into a dazzling golden light!
The previously static runes and patterns on the stone tablet suddenly came alive! Like thousands of golden fish swimming across the black surface, they rapidly swirled, reorganized, and evolved. Finally, directly above the stone tablet, they condensed into lines of golden, ancient characters that exuded a majestic aura!
"This... this is..." Xiao Yu was so frightened by the sudden strange sight that he stepped back repeatedly and subconsciously protected Ajiu.
“Don’t be nervous.” Chu Xuanyi’s eyes were filled with shock and ecstasy. “The stone tablet… has recognized Ah Jiu’s bloodline! It has taken the initiative to reveal the contents of the seal to us!”
Those characters are not the common fonts used in Da Qi today, but a more ancient and complex seal script, the "celestial seal script" that can only be seen in the most core secret books of the observatory.
Fortunately, Chu Xuanyi, as the national teacher, happened to recognize this text.
He looked at it intently and read it out in a low voice word by word.
"'The Heart of the Netherworld is not from this world. It is the source of destruction brought by the Black Bone Evil Clan from the 'Death Realm'..."
The first sentence was like a thunderclap exploding in the minds of Chu Xuanyi and Xiao Yu!
The dead world?!
Where is that place?
Chu Xuanyi continued to read, his voice becoming a little dry due to extreme shock.
"...This creature feeds on the dead energy, resentment, and fear of all living things. It can corrupt the earth, erode the dragon veins, and sever all life. As long as its heart remains, the dead energy will continue; when its heart awakens, heaven and earth will mourn. When it fully awakens, the vast land of China will be reduced to endless scorched earth, and billions of lives will become walking corpses, forever doomed. This world... will become the frontier of the dead world..."
Xiao Yu felt cold all over after hearing this, and a chill went from the soles of his feet to the top of his head.
The ghost thing beneath Prince Yu's mansion is no ordinary evil! It is a "cancer cell" from another world, and its ultimate goal is to completely transform the world they live in into a "death world" filled with death and despair!
"Madmen... Prince Yu and the Wugut tribe are all completely crazy!" Xiao Yu growled, gritting his teeth. "Don't they know that if they let this thing out, they will die too?!"
"Perhaps... they simply don't care." Chu Xuanyi's face was so gloomy that it looked like water could drip out of it. "Or perhaps, for the Wugu Tribe who believe in the 'Realm of Death', death may be the ultimate destination they seek."
He suppressed the fear in his heart and returned his gaze to the stone tablet.
The words on the stone tablet begin to tell a little-known secret that has been buried for thousands of years.
"...When Emperor Taizu first unified the empire, the dragon energy was still stabilizing. The Wugu Demon Clan seized the opportunity to cause chaos. Beneath the capital, they set up a bloody sacrifice formation, hoping to awaken the Netherworld Heart and overthrow the Divine State. In this critical moment of life and death, I, Lin Xuan, the first ancestor of the Lin family, joined forces with the first imperial preceptor and led all the Xuanmen cultivators in the world to a decisive battle with the evil clan beneath the capital..."
"The first national master?" Chu Xuanyi's heart moved. Isn't that the founder of his lineage?
He continued reading.
"...This battle was horrific, the sky darkening, the sun and moon losing their radiance. Only one in ten Xuanmen cultivators survived. The first Imperial Master sacrificed his life to suppress the Nether Heart, his soul annihilated. I, too, suffered severe injuries, my life force fading. However, the Nether Heart is connected to the capital's earth veins and cannot be completely destroyed. Otherwise, the capital's dragon veins would collapse with it, bringing chaos upon the world..."
"…In desperation, I expended the Lin family's thousand-year destiny, using my bloodline as a lock and my soul as a nail to barely seal this heart. However, this seal is not foolproof; it will loosen every hundred years. Therefore, I established an ancestral precept that the descendants of the Lin family must not leave the capital for generations. They must use the power of their bloodline to maintain the seal and safeguard the nation's destiny. This is the fate of our Lin family, a curse from birth…"
Seeing this, Chu Xuanyi and Xiao Yu fell silent.
Why can the Lin family become a family that controls the country's destiny?
Why can't every generation of the Lin family leave the capital?
That is not glory, but a heavy shackle forged with blood and life that has lasted for thousands of years!
What they protect is never some illusory national destiny, but the people of the whole world!
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