Chapter 444 The Holy Stone People Are Now Calling
From a distance, Black Castle appears to be at the end of the underground city. But once you get there, you discover that there is a swift-flowing moat between them, where a large amount of snowmelt flows and converges, creating a tremendous roar in the water.
A long black and white bridge spans high above the city moat. The design has two ends: the black end leads from the underground city to the castle, while the white end leads from the castle to the underground city.
Wang Jun drove Yu Sui to the entrance of the Black Bridge, where people who needed to return to the workshop lined up and moved forward in an orderly manner.
Yu Sui discovered that these soldiers didn't recognize faces, only eyes.
Those who do not have any ulterior motives and wish to pass through here must present their identification cards and have them confirmed by Wang Jun before being allowed to pass.
The black gate in front looked incredibly heavy, like a towering mountain blocking people's way.
This is the first gate to enter Black Castle. From here, the crowd begins to split, with some heading towards the houses on the left and right sides of Black Castle, and others heading into the castle itself.
Ah Ling made a gesture to Yu Sui and walked towards the workshop cluster on the left.
"Employee badge?" Wang Jun, the guard in charge, asked. Ah Ling grabbed Yu Sui's hand and pleaded pitifully with Wang Jun, "There were so many people on the street just now, and we were in a hurry. Our employee badges fell off in the crowd. Can you help us? I promise I'll find the supervisor to get new badges for us tomorrow!"
Wang Jun, number 779, coughed softly and sternly ordered, "This is a one-time exception! Go now."
"Thank you, brother!" Ah Ling grabbed Yu Sui and ran forward.
The houses in front were built against the mountainside, and the mountainside was covered with countless houses with lights on.
Du Zheng whispered to Mei Liangyu, "You have to go to my room."
Mei Liangyu glanced at Yu Sui, and A Ling said, "Men and women can't live together. The supervisor will come to check the rooms later."
"Go ahead." Yu Sui winked at Mei Liangyu.
The two then parted ways, and Ah Ling led Yu Sui toward her room.
They are in a relatively high position, and there is a similar up-and-down movement to the Dragon Ladder, but it is not as stable and beautiful as the Taiyi Dragon Ladder.
The outermost walkway back to the house is a suspended path with very low railings, only reaching Yu Sui's thighs. A slight stumble could easily cause her to fall.
"Here." Ah Ling happily pushed open the door, pulled Yu Sui inside, and then closed it.
There is a small door on the main door that can be pushed open from the outside to peek into the house.
The room was small and sparsely decorated, containing only a bed, a table, and a chair. Two water glasses sat on the table.
"Because people die every day in the workshop, and new people come in, they don't check the number of people; they only check if there are worms in their eyes," Ah Ling explained to Yu Sui.
"What does the workshop do?" Yu Sui asked, standing at the door.
"It's the 'Resurrection Incense' you mentioned." Ah Ling tilted her head to look at her. "Everyone works inside every day, and they can go to the city once every three days. Today I could have played in the city for a long time, but..."
She looked at Yu Sui: "What are you looking for here?"
"How did you know?" Yu Sui asked, feigning surprise.
Ah Ling snorted twice: "Everyone who comes to the underground city says they're looking for something. I don't know what they're looking for, but they all want to go inside the castle."
She pointed towards the castle, but all she could see inside were dark walls.
"Do you have a solution?" Yu Sui asked.
“Of course I have!” Ah Ling sat on the edge of the bed, tilting her head back. “But what will you give me in exchange?”
Yu Sui was still curiously looking around the room. She walked to the wall at the corner of the bed, reached out and touched the cold stone wall, and instead of answering, asked, "Who was it that just relayed the order to Wang Jun?"
“It’s the voice of destiny,” Ah Ling said. “We call it destiny because whoever it wants to die, will die.”
Yu Sui chuckled softly upon hearing this.
That is, the voice transmitted through the amplifying stone is not the same person as the famous sage who was chasing Gu Gan above.
Ah Ling thought Yu Sui didn't believe her, so she hurriedly said, "I'm telling the truth! I used to have a friend who offended the heavens, and the heavens said he had to die, so he died right in front of me!"
"Moreover, destiny can decide who leaves the workshop, and it can also decide who comes to the workshop."
“He will help us treat the insect disease,” Ah Ling said. “If we are chosen by destiny, we can get rid of the bad insects in our eyes, return to normal, and leave this place.”
"Shall we go to Black Castle to treat the insect disease?" Yu Sui asked.
“Yes,” Ah Ling said. “That’s the royal city. The master and the destiny are inside. We make incense and offer sacrifices in the workshop. After we have made enough offerings, we will have the opportunity to enter the Black Castle to meet the master and the destiny and ask them for help in healing.”
Yu Sui stood by the stone wall, her back to A Ling, and said, "Your eyes are different from other people's."
Ah Ling paused for a moment, then proudly said, "You figured it out! Theirs are defective, they're made by bad insects, so they can't see the patterns and colors of the clothes, they can only see the shape of the clothes."
"But I'm different, I can see colors."
“That’s not what I meant.” Yu Sui turned around and pointed to her eyes.
"Others don't have this ability."
Ah Ling said, "I discovered this by chance. Don't tell anyone, or I won't be able to bring you into the royal city."
Yu Sui asked, "How did you get your parasitic disease?"
Ah Ling slammed her hand on the table: "Are you going to give me the candy or the pretty clothes or not?"
Yu Sui took a box of candy out of the mechanical box and placed it on the table.
Ah Ling, however, stared intently at her mechanical box.
Yu Sui noticed but didn't say anything. A Ling didn't ask anything about the puzzle box either, but quietly made a note of it, opened the candy box and looked inside: "What kind of question do I have to ask to get me pretty clothes?"
"Do you know where the people who were captured and taken to the royal city are?"
"You're here to find someone?" Ah Ling stood up from the bedside. "There are so many! I'll take you tomorrow!"
Yu Sui said, "How can you distinguish between day and night when you're underground?"
Ah Ling pointed outside: "When the drum sounds, it will be dawn."
Yu Sui didn't speak.
This is the opposite of what happens outside, because it is already daylight outside the well.
"You offer incense to the people in the royal city. Just now, the Voice of Heaven said that whoever catches the intruder will receive thirty incense sticks," Yu Sui asked her. "Is the thirty incense sticks he mentioned the products from the workshop?"
“The incense is very tempting. When someone suffers from worm disease and is in so much pain that they wish they were dead, just one whiff of it can make them feel better. But we are only responsible for distributing the materials and making the incense. Only the supervisors can have access to the finished incense,” Ah Ling sighed. “My worm disease is different from theirs. It’s not as painful, so I don’t want the incense. I would rather have sweet candy and pretty clothes.”
Ah Ling raised her hand to cover her face and yawned, rubbing her eyes as she said, "I need to sleep for a while. Be careful, as long as you don't leave this room, there won't be any problems."
"However, you'd better be asleep by the time the supervisor comes to check."
"Because you are very beautiful."
After Ah Ling finished speaking, she lay down on the bed.
Yu Sui was still staring at the stone wall. She reached out and touched it, a guess forming in her mind.
This conjecture was confirmed by Mei Liangyu.
Mei Liangyu, who was also standing in front of the stone wall inside the house, was certain that the mountain wall in front of him was the raw material for the fire-absorbing ice stone, which is what people now call the sacred stone.
The strange dark brown patterns and cracks on the mountainside looked like tear stains left after being thrown into a furnace and exploding.
The city built houses on these mountain walls, which conveniently concealed the eye-catching and intriguing patterns on the walls.
Du Zheng sat in the back muttering to himself, "What do you want to do here?"
“The royal army is everywhere in the royal city, and there are also some in the workshops. They are incredibly strong, very skilled, and there are many of them. You are no match for them.”
"There are even more experts in the royal city. No one can escape the voice of destiny. I advise you to hurry up..."
When Du Zheng saw Mei Liangyu turn around, he was so frightened that he immediately stood up: "What are you going to do?"
“That woman’s eyes are different from yours,” Mei Liangyu said.
Du Zheng: "Ah Ling? Don't even think about hurting Ah Ling! She's just too kind and soft-hearted, that's why she helped you intruders!"
Hearing him say that about Ah Ling, Mei Liangyu couldn't help but smile, vaguely recalling when she heard people praising Yu Sui for being simple and kind in Taiyi.
"Those royal soldiers are all ninth-rate sorcerers at the seventh or eighth level. Don't you even realize that?"
Du Zheng frowned: "I don't know about these things."
Mei Liangyu could tell that many of the people who glared at him were Ping Shu people, so they had no power to resist the Wang army.
As for Ah Ling
She was also a person of the Ping Shu (a type of martial arts), but she possessed special powers due to an insect disease.
Shi Yuezhen doesn't seem to have said whether she was ever a member of the Ping Shu sect, or at that time, she didn't have these concepts at all, and like Du Zheng, she was unclear about the boundaries.
Although talent in the ninth category can generally be detected between the ages of five and eight, it can actually be developed before the age of eighteen.
The test is most accurate for people aged five to eight, but regardless of age, if the test shows that the person is of average ability, it is generally accurate.
"What's in the workshop?" Mei Liangyu asked.
Du Zheng seemed wary and unwilling to say more.
Mei Liangyu took out candy from the puzzle box and gave it to him.
Du Zheng: "..."
He didn't actually like to eat it, but he wanted to give it to Ah Ling.
Mei Liangyu stood in front of the table, looking at him with a half-smile. Du Zheng finally reached out and took it, carefully wrapping it in a cloth, saying, "The workshop has three main areas. We are in the sorting area, responsible for drying, packing and classifying cordyceps."
That's it?
Du Zheng added, "Ah Ling is in the incense-making area, and my sister is there too."
It sounds like this is the Orchid Poison Workshop, and has nothing to do with the Abyss of Vipers.
Is it in the castle up there?
He could only confirm it by getting close to the capital.
Mei Liangyu looked back at the wall. Before her was a natural fire-absorbing ice stone mine, inside which was the Orchid Poison Workshop. Above that was the Abyss of Vipers, which was why the Dan Kingdom provided the land, the Ji family of Qingyang provided the medicinal herbs, and Nanjing provided... people?
Did the Fire-Absorbing Ice Stones get here from the Mechanical Clan? No, they had no reason to. The four Taiyi families already effectively controlled the Dan Kingdom. If they wanted to mine the Fire-Absorbing Ice Stones, they could do so openly and honestly; there was no need to go underground.
Now that the strange fire foretells a crisis, no one else dares to make a move against the Mechanical Family.
So the appearance of the fire-absorbing ice stone mine here... was it all an accident?
There are no signs of mining or refining. Don't the people underground know that this is a sacred stone?
"How long have you been here?" Mei Liangyu asked.
Du Zheng said, "I don't remember. I've been here as long as I can remember."
Suddenly, the sound of birds flapping their wings came from outside. Flocks of red-eyed crows flew up to the houses on the mountainside, and with one claw, they knocked open the small door in front of the house to check the situation inside.
Du Zheng said, "The supervisor is here, quickly pretend to be asleep!"
It is a beast kept by farmers.
Mei Liangyu disappeared into the darkness. The red-eyed crow that flew past the door looked around, found nothing amiss, spread its wings and flew away, and the small door slammed shut again.
After the crows flew away, Mei Liangyu walked to the bedside and looked at Du Zheng, who was lying down. Du Zheng realized something was wrong and was about to get up when he said, "What are you doing..."
Mei Liangyu stretched out his hand, and black incantations appeared on Du Zheng's forehead, causing him to pause. A pair of eyes peered into the depths of his soul, and all his memories were unearthed and scattered on the ground.
As Mei Liangyu searched, Du Zheng's consciousness instantly returned to the beginning, to the days when he saw himself wandering in a freezing town with his sister, until one day they were taken away and emerged from a black pool.
From then on, his eyes lost their color and he could only see the shapes of objects that were formed from air.
Mei Liangyu stopped, and Du Zheng collapsed to the ground, clutching his head, tears streaming down his face.
"I... I remember now..."
They weren't born in this underground city; rather, they were suddenly transported to this hellish place one day when they were young.
Mei Liangyu also discovered from Du Zheng's memories that this was not a rebuilt Black Castle where Shi Yuezhen was located after its destruction, but another stronghold that had existed for a long time.
Around that black pool, there are traces of inscriptions bestowed by famous people, so those who emerge from the pool forget their past memories and believe they were born there.
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