The fire flickered and shadows danced in the intersection of light and darkness.
The stone steps extend deeper and deeper, like an endlessly descending nightmare.
The faint sound of human voices coming from deep underground was indistinct, like the whispers of countless little ghosts.
Ding Weixiang stopped and gestured to the two people behind him to look in the direction he indicated.
Shadows stood on the stone steps a hundred steps away. Young boys and girls stood face down on the steps one after another. Except for muttering something, they were almost motionless, like a group of clay figurines buried with the dead.
The rotating stone steps converged at the bottom and sank into a pool of black water at the bottom of the funnel-shaped cave.
The pool of black water looked to be only about ten feet square in size, but because of its color, it seemed deep and bottomless. In the middle of the water, a coffin carved from transparent crystal stone was half-sunken. The inside of the coffin was also pitch black and unclear.
The old woman stood on the last step, looking at the coffin quietly.
Two people stood in the dark water beside the coffin. They were Shen Linlin and Shen Yangyang, dressed in pure white. They stepped forward, one on each side, and lifted a skeleton-like body from the coffin. They then carefully wiped its skin and hair with a plain white silk cloth, not daring to lift an eyelid.
At first, she thought the figure in the coffin was a corpse that had been soaked for a long time, but after a while, the "corpse" actually moved its eyes and woke up.
"Welcome to the Patriarch!"
The deafening shouts rushed up from the bottom to the top of the cave, carrying with them the shouter's unshakable faith and a blindness that was almost ignorant.
Yes, this is Chen Shian’s original body.
The old woman knelt down tremblingly and crawled to the side of the pond. She took out the jar of sugar from the basket and respectfully handed it to Chen Shi'an's "real body".
"Respectfully request the Patriarch to grant me blood."
The bulging eyeballs embedded in the skinny skull rolled, then he opened his eyelids and looked at the old woman in front of him. After a long time, he slowly raised his left hand, extended his index finger with long, sharp nails, and pierced deeply into his right arm.
The expected fresh blood didn't gush out. The shrunken skin seemed to have long lost its moisture. The old woman waited for a long time before finally seeing a few drops of turbid blood. But her face was still filled with joy. She carefully smeared the few drops of blood between the candies, fearing to waste even a single drop.
Xiao Nanhui, who witnessed all this, felt his stomach churning. Although he didn't eat the candy, the nauseous feeling lingered.
Fortunately, fortunately she didn't eat the candy.
"Since you're here, why don't you come closer?"
An old voice rang out from the coffin, colliding and scraping against the rough rock wall, making people's bones chill.
"It was very interesting to hear what the Patriarch said that day, but what I saw with my own eyes today is far more than words can express."
"The three-day appointment has not yet come, and you have gone to such great lengths to come here. Have you already made up your mind and are you so impatient to exchange what you need with me?"
"The Patriarch once said that the words in the brocade cannot be explained by anyone other than a member of the clan. Since the Patriarch wants to use this as a bargaining chip, can he prove that the Shen family is the descendant of the legendary brocade clan?"
The lines on Chen Shian's withered face changed, as if he was faking a smile, but also as if he was enduring something.
After a while, he gently closed his eyes and sank into the crystal coffin. The next moment, the short, fat child who had been lying beside the black water suddenly stiffened, then opened his eyes and stood up.
"As expected, the mind in this young body is more clear-headed." Innocence faded from that blunt face, replaced by a dull maturity. "If I can't prove myself, what can you do? A hundred years ago, there weren't many people you could trade with."
Does this mean they have no choice?
Xiao Nanhui stared at the round face, as if he could see the corrupt soul hidden beneath the flesh.
"He's been a monster for a thousand years and has forgotten how to speak human language. Why waste time talking to him?"
Chen Shi'an frowned and managed to make a cold and disgusted expression on his face.
"Who are you to speak to me like that?"
Before she could say anything, Su Wei had already spoken.
"Whatever she thinks is what I think, and whatever she asks is what I ask." After a pause, he added, "There is no one in this world who requires her to bow down to him before we can have a conversation."
If someone else said this, it would be a bit laughable, but when he said it, there was a certainty that could not be questioned.
Indeed, if he said it doesn't exist, then it really doesn't exist.
Xiao Nanhui couldn't hide the smile on her face, and Shen Shian finally began to look her in the eye. That chilling gaze wrapped around her from head to toe, and it took a long time for it to fade away.
"It's a pity you didn't eat the candy." He finally turned his gaze away and looked at Su Wei again, smiling a bit cunningly, "It seems I shouldn't have asked you for the Buddhist beads. I should have asked you for a person."
"You can't afford her price."
"That's right. It's just that nothing in this world is priceless. Where there's demand, there's buying and selling. Otherwise, you wouldn't have risked coming here."
Xiao Nanhui looked up at the Shen family members standing around him, and some thoughts entered his mind.
"You expected us to come tonight?"
Chen Shian laughed, and his young voice made the laughter sound a bit shrill.
"Even though you knew I had other plans for you, and this cave seemed so dangerous and treacherous, you still came. Because no one can resist the unknown power and... the temptation of eternal life."
"Nothing in this world can last forever."
Shen Shian did not refute.
"Perhaps. But compared to you and me, whose lifespans are only a hundred years, tens of millions of years is considered eternal life. Those who possess such immortality have often been revered as gods in ancient times. I once said that the family that burned the bones was deceived by the so-called gods, resulting in their decline and continued existence to this day, but I never told you the details. Now that the opportunity has arrived, why don't I tell you the story?"
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