Chapter 1027 Blood Within the Gate
“Xiaoxuan…”
Ouyang Rong hesitated, wanting to ask her if she was feeling unwell, but then realized that Xiao Xuan's discomfort might have been caused by something he had just done unintentionally.
He silently withdrew his hand, swallowed the words that were about to come out, and changed them on the spot:
"Sorry, I bumped into you. I was going to go inside to look for you, but you haven't come out yet..."
Huang Xuan buried her head, suppressing her shyness. As soon as he withdrew his hand, she almost immediately covered her waist with her small hands, as if by conditioned reflex.
The strange, tingling sensation did indeed subside like the tide, but for some reason, Huang Xuan felt a vague emptiness deep inside. Her face was burning hot, and her mind seemed to be spinning from the heat, making it difficult for her to understand these subtle feelings for the time being...
Hearing the young man's gentle words, the young Taoist nun nestled in his arms glanced at him quickly and said:
"Brother Tanlang, you absolutely mustn't go in! I almost got lost, and it took me ages to find the entrance. Luckily, there was that big white ball of light."
Before she could speak, she felt a lightness all over her body. It turned out that Ouyang Rong, who was lying on the ground, had grabbed her shoulders with both hands without saying a word, turned over and stood up, and lifted her up as well.
Huang Xuan lost her balance and instinctively grabbed his arm, touching the well-defined muscle lines on his thick, hard arm. After she realized what was happening, she immediately pulled her hand away.
After Ouyang Rong steadied her, he also let go and took a step back. His hand withdrew almost at the same time as hers, almost in sync... Both of them seemed to have touched a scorching hot charcoal brazier in winter, and immediately let go, not daring to linger.
The atmosphere was a little strange, but luckily the fairy was there. She was a perfect third wheel, a true atmosphere killer. There was no environment she couldn't ruin.
Miao Si crossed her arms, her face tense, and rode up on her big white steed. She reached out and pinched Ouyang Rong's ear, scolding him:
"Why did you rush in so fast? You didn't even discuss it with this fairy maiden before rushing straight in. Do you know how much I... Do you know that if Xiaoxuan came out a step later and you went in first, you would get lost and die? Do you know that? What if something happened? You wouldn't be able to save Xiaoxuan, and you would end up getting yourself killed instead? Did you even think about it? You're the most reckless person ever, without a doubt..."
Upon hearing this, Huang Xuan frowned slightly, bit her lip, and looked at Ouyang Rong:
"How could my beloved brother make such a foolish mistake? Why did you go in looking for me? Didn't we agree to wait for me outside...?"
Seeing that Ouyang Rong didn't budge even when his ear was being pulled, as if ignoring her, Miao Si angrily used both hands to pull his ear harder:
"Exactly, exactly. When you were trying to persuade Xiaoxuan just now, didn't you tell her to calm down? Well, be strict with others and lenient with yourself, right?"
Ouyang Rong didn't answer, but just looked at her. After a while, when the little ink spirit finished babbling, he tilted his head slightly and asked her:
"Discuss? What's there to discuss? It's definitely not going to be you, Lady Immortal, going in. In the end, I'll still be the one going in. There's nothing to discuss. Do you think you'd be the one charging ahead?"
Miao Si: "..."
What Ouyang Rong said seemed to make a lot of sense, and Huang Xuan, like Ouyang Rong, looked at Miao Si, whose body was stuck.
The atmosphere on the field became slightly awkward.
Under their gazes, Miao Si's eyes darted away, then, seemingly deeply hurt by Ouyang Rong's gaze, she turned around, glared fiercely at him, put her hands on her hips, and said defiantly:
"How did you know I wasn't going if you didn't ask?"
The more she spoke, the more certain and confident she became.
"You brat, you think you know me so well, but you don't know me at all. Humph."
Ouyang Rong asked calmly:
Is it possible that I just understand you too well?
With a wave of her small hand, she said domineeringly:
"Absolutely not! If you know me, why don't you ask me? Don't you know that this fairy cares about her followers too? I don't want them to go in and die in vain."
Ouyang Rong's expression remained unchanged as he calmly said:
"But the goddess immortal won't be the first to step forward."
We've come full circle again, haven't we?
Miao Si's forced composure crumbled, and she leaped forward, pouncing on Ouyang Rong.
"Watch me bite you to death! I'm always surrounded by nesting dolls, and just seeing your wooden face makes me angry!"
Faced with the little ink spirit's attack, Ouyang Rong didn't move an inch. In fact, before the little ink spirit even reached Ouyang Rong, it was already caught by Huang Xuan halfway.
"Xiao Xuan, let go! This kid's got a problem if you don't discipline him for three days!"
Upon hearing this, Ouyang Rong suddenly remembered that it had indeed been a long time since he had dealt with Xiao Mo Jing, no wonder she was so itchy... He nodded.
"Alright, let's get down to business."
Helpless, Huang Xuan stopped Miao Si and finally managed to calm her down as she was panting heavily.
Seeing that the two had stopped bickering, Huang Xuan breathed a sigh of relief, then lowered her head, looked at her empty hands, then at the ground, her eyes searching around as if looking for something.
Seeing this, Miao Si also became obedient and dared not delay the important matter.
Ouyang Rong suddenly asked:
"What is Xiaoxuan looking for?"
In fact, Ouyang Rong had been observing Xiao Xuan ever since she came out of the dark gate.
Miao Si seemed to remember something and suddenly asked:
"Did Xiaoxuan bring anything out? I didn't take anything. Xiao Rongzi is the closest to you, he's the worst..."
Huang Xuan remained noncommittal, her eyes scanning the ground, but still finding nothing. She then turned to Ouyang Rong and Miao Si with a serious expression and asked:
"Brother Tanlang, have you seen a mirror and a handkerchief?"
"Mirror, handkerchief?"
Ouyang Rong and Miao Si exchanged a glance and both shook their heads at Huang Xuan.
After a moment's hesitation, Ouyang Rong spoke:
"I didn't see Xiaoxuan bring anything out. She just fell. If you did, did you drop something somewhere?"
Huang Xuan first frowned slightly, then, as if remembering something, she suddenly turned around and looked at the motionless black door on the mural.
"Brother Tanlang, wait for me here! Please don't go in..."
She turned around and rushed back into the dark door.
Ouyang Rong and Miao Si didn't react for a moment, and by the time they saw it clearly, it was too late to stop them.
“Xiaoxuan…”
Ouyang Rong subconsciously reached out to pull her, but could only raise his hand in vain and shout this sentence at her back.
"Brother Tanlang, wait for me a moment, I'll be right back, it's alright..."
Huang Xuan left behind only one sentence before disappearing into the dark gate.
Ouyang Rong was somewhat stunned, and his face gradually showed a thoughtful expression, while Miao Si was anxiously pacing around on the fish's back.
"Xiao Rongzi, how could you not take care of her? Why didn't you hold Xiao Xuan back? You let her go in again! What are we going to do... You, you don't know why I didn't hold her back. I tried, but I'm too weak to hold Xiao Xuan back at all..."
Ouyang Rong remained silent, his eyes fixed on the dark door, as if waiting for something.
The Peach Blossom Spring painting, which had just skillfully avoided the collision between the brother and sister, returned to Ouyang Rong's side.
"Little Rongzi..."
Ouyang Rong suddenly spoke, interrupting Miao Si:
"Don't speak yet."
Miao Si glared at him fiercely: "You..."
Just then, a strange movement occurred at the dark gate.
Miao Si followed Ouyang Rong's gaze and looked over.
A seemingly aloof young Taoist nun slowly emerged from the dark door.
She was holding two objects in her hands.
He held a mirror in his left hand and a handkerchief in his right.
Ouyang Rong's gaze was immediately drawn to the two items.
Miao Si breathed a sigh of relief and asked curiously:
"What did Xiaoxuan go in for? What's it like inside?"
Huang Xuan walked over, holding two objects, and said softly:
"It's very dark inside; I can only see clusters of light. But the floor inside the door is flat, so I won't trip..."
She paused, then looked at Ouyang Rong, gesturing to what he was holding, and said somewhat apologetically:
"I was holding them in my hand just now, and after I bumped into Brother Tanlang, they fell to the other side of the door. I just went inside, and luckily they didn't fall too far, so I was able to pick them up."
Ouyang Rong asked:
What is this?
Huang Xuan handed him the mirror:
"After I entered, I saw several large orbs of light inside, each a different color. This was one of them, emitting a dazzling golden light. It was also the closest one, so I went to find it. It looked very close, only about ten steps away, but in reality, I walked quite a distance, which took up some time..."
Her tone was still somewhat shaken, not as calm and composed as she appeared:
“Brother Tanlang, actually the location of the light orb kept changing... There was complete darkness in front of me, and I could only see the light orb, so I could only keep walking with my head down... In the end, I followed the light orb of the big white thing all the way out. I couldn't tell the path at all, and I could only keep following the changing location of the light orb…”
Ouyang Rong looked closely and saw that it was a square mirror, about half a foot long and wide, with a polished copper surface that was smooth and reflective.
Looking at the pattern on the back, it looks very much like the style of the Qin Dynasty.
"And what about this handkerchief?"
Miao Si stepped forward, looked him over, and asked curiously.
Ouyang Rong accepted the ancient mirror.
The mirror looks ordinary.
Huang Xuan held up her handkerchief, gesturing to the two of them, and said:
"Brother Tanlang, do you still remember the source of that water droplet sound?"
"Remember."
"I followed the sound to that place, but I couldn't see the shape of the object clearly. Just to be on the safe side, I touched it with my handkerchief in my palm..."
Huang Xuan paused for a moment, then slowly said:
"This thing looks like a human figure. I tried to move it, but I couldn't. The touch through the handkerchief... feels like human skin, and it's also cool to the touch."
The air was silent for a moment.
All eyes were on Huang Xuan's handkerchief.
As she drew near to the light of the torches and the white sturgeon, she unfolded her handkerchief.
On the young woman's clean handkerchief, there was a strikingly bright color.
red!
Blood red!
A color ranging from red to dark purple!
Whether it was psychological or not, the strong smell of blood entered the noses of the two people and the spirit, and was extremely pungent.
This blood is the blood of an unknown creature!
Inside the hall, adorned with ancient tomb murals, a strange, pitch-black door stands out starkly in the dim light, its contents—blood collected from the creatures within—a testament to its power.
At this moment, everyone seemed to feel a cold wind blowing around them.
They were deep inside an ancient tomb, but they felt a chill in the air.
The little ink spirit riding on Big White's back shivered.
She couldn't help but ask:
"Whose blood is this?"
Ouyang Rong approached, stared at him for a moment, and suddenly said:
"It's not necessarily a person."
Miao Si couldn't help but glance at the quiet, pitch-black door:
"So, the sound of dripping water is actually the sound of dripping blood? What we've been hearing all along is the sound of this person's... this being's blood dripping?"
Huang Xuan didn't speak, but turned her head to look at Ouyang Rong.
The latter pondered for a moment, then nodded to Miaosi:
"The immortal lady's sense of smell is indeed correct; something is dead inside this dark gate."
He then turned to Huang Xuan and praised her:
"Xiaoxuan is good to be cautious; she didn't reach out and touch it."
Huang Xuan nodded: "After I went in, I also vaguely sensed that the source of the water droplet sound was somewhat ominous. My intuition told me not to get too close, so I came up with this plan..."
She paused, then asked Ouyang Rong in a low voice:
"Brother Tanlang, do you need me to go back in and bring this bleeding creature out?"
Ouyang Rong pondered for a moment, then shook his head:
"Don't touch it yet. We don't know what it is. Although you said it's humanoid, it's better to be safe than sorry. It's normal for some unclean things to appear deep in this ancient tomb. We have to be careful."
"etc."
Miao Si, who had been staring blankly at the handkerchief, suddenly snapped out of her daze, called out to the two of them, pointed to the blood-stained handkerchief, and looked up to ask:
"If the dripping sound comes from it, then why is the dripping sound continuous? At least we've been able to hear it ever since we came in... Does it have that much blood? And if this thing is dead, could it have died recently? Otherwise, this ancient tomb is three hundred years old. If this door had been closed for three hundred years before we opened it, how could there still be a corpse bleeding? This is too strange, Xiao Rongzi."
Ouyang Rong and Huang Xuan exchanged a glance, both of them looking somewhat solemn.
"Your analysis is correct; that makes sense."
Ouyang Rong nodded slightly, his expression serious:
"Therefore, this thing is very strange and should not be touched."
Huang Xuan suddenly said:
"It is most likely already dead, otherwise I would have been able to detect it. When I got closer, it showed no signs of movement or life, just like the other glowing dead objects inside the door."
Upon hearing this, Ouyang Rong stepped forward, took the handkerchief, first examined it closely, and then sniffed it.
His brows were furrowed.
It smelled of human blood.
Miao Si gradually sensed it too, and confirmed something. She muttered to herself:
“Little Rongzi, this is your human race. I’m not wrong, someone died inside this door.”
A guess arose in Ouyang Rong's mind, but he was not sure.
He ignored the clever idea that was leaning in and glanced back at the blood-red bronze gate outside.
Whether this guess is correct or not remains to be seen, but not now.
Ouyang Rong refolded the blood-stained handkerchief and temporarily put it away in the Peach Blossom Spring painting.
Huang Xuan and Miao Si silently watched the taciturn young man's silent movements without saying anything.
Finally, Ouyang Rong's gaze fell on the mirror that Huang Xuan had taken out.
After examining it for a while, he suddenly asked:
"Xiaoxuan said what color the orb of light was again?"
"Golden, a dazzling golden yellow."
(End of this chapter)
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