Chapter 202 Your Excellency Wants You
Unbeknownst to anyone, Li Yundang's eyes had turned bloodshot. The pale moonlight shone on his face, making his eyes appear like two pools of blood, exuding a chilling aura.
Not only Li Yundang, but everyone else was the same. As if controlled by an unknown force, they kept searching for treasures in the night, muttering incantations to themselves.
Ye Li felt a chill run down her spine when she saw this scene.
"They...there's a cloud of black mist beneath their feet..."
Mu Xi's voice trembled, as if it were being squeezed out from deep in her throat. Her fingers gripped Ye Li's sleeve tightly, her knuckles turning white. "A lot of black energy is overflowing from the ground."
Ye Li followed her gaze, but could see nothing. She could only feel a suffocating sense of oppression in the air, as if something was secretly watching them.
"What else did you see?"
Mu Xi stared intently at the disciples, her face growing increasingly terrified. "Those black energies... they seem to have turned into hands, pulling something out..."
Her voice grew softer and softer until it was almost a whisper.
Ye Li frowned, her gaze sweeping over the disciples who had already lost their minds. She pointed a finger at the sword, and the runes on the blade instantly lit up, the white light particularly dazzling in the darkness.
Her voice was as cold as ice, “Tell me, where are your hands?”
"There! Beside his arm!"
Without hesitation, Ye Li flashed her sword and slashed down in the direction Mu Xi pointed.
The moment the sword sliced through the air, she felt an invisible resistance, as if something was desperately resisting her power.
With a flick of her wrist, the sword's edge swiftly severed the resistance.
With a "thud," Li Yundang seemed to lose his support and collapsed softly to the ground.
It works!
Ye Li's eyes lit up, and she immediately followed suit.
The sword light drew sharp arcs in the night, severing all the black energy surrounding the other disciples.
As the black aura dissipated, the disciples collapsed to the ground, as if they had lost all their strength.
Ye Li crouched down and gently pried open their eyelids; their pupils had returned to normal. She breathed a sigh of relief, her tense nerves relaxing slightly.
Suddenly, something occurred to her.
Looking up, I realized that Feng Jingxuan was no longer there.
Ye Li frowned, a sense of foreboding rising in her heart.
When did he leave?
The terrain here is concave, surrounded by towering rocky mountains. If he leaves from above, she will definitely notice.
Unless... he didn't leave from up there!
Ye Li thought of something and asked Mu Xi, "Take a look around, is there any entrance?"
Mu Xi obediently checked, and after searching around, she shook her head, "There's no entrance, but..."
She pointed to one of the spots, saying, "The black aura there is exceptionally dense."
Mu Xi was pointing to a tree hole.
That tree, like the trees outside, had roots instead of a canopy at the top.
It appears to have existed for hundreds or even thousands of years, with its roots layered and twisted together, resembling countless thick, giant snakes coiled together in the cool moonlight.
This tree doesn't seem quite harmonious in this treasure trove of blooming flowers, perhaps precisely because of everything hidden within it.
At this moment, Ye Li was standing in front of the tree, the dark tree hole blending into the night.
The moonlight fell on the mottled tree bark, but when it reached the tree hole, it seemed to be sucked in, illuminating nothing at all.
Ye Li asked Mu Xi, "Can you see what's inside?"
Mu Xi peeked out slightly, but only glanced at it before pulling back. "I can't see it, but black gas is constantly gushing out from here."
Ye Li's expression was solemn. It seemed that this was the key to Twilight Cloud Island.
She told Mu Xi, "It might be dangerous down there. You wait for me up here, I'll go down alone."
Mu Xi nodded, then found an open space and pretended to be dead, just like the other disciples.
Ye Li stood in front of the tree hole, gazing at the dark entrance.
The entrance to the cave was like a bottomless abyss, waiting for her to step into it.
She took a deep breath, gripped her sword tightly, and leaped into the air, her figure disappearing into the darkness in an instant.
Deep within the tree hollow, black mist surged, as if countless eyes were watching her from the darkness, awaiting her arrival.
-
Ye Li's body plummeted rapidly, the wind whistling in her ears, mixed with low sobs, as if someone was whispering and laughing in her ear.
Her heart pounded like a drum, and she gripped her sword tightly. The runes on the sword emitted a faint glow in the darkness, illuminating a small patch of space around her.
Even though the tree hole looked only a few feet above the ground from the outside, her fall took an unusually long time.
That feeling of not knowing the depths is terrifying.
Finally, she landed on the ground.
The ground was wet and cold, like stepping on some kind of viscous liquid.
She steadied herself, looked up and around, and the sight before her made her pupils suddenly contract.
This is a huge underground space, with the walls covered with countless clay figurines.
The clay figurines are so lifelike, as if they were just copied from living people, with clear skin texture and even the details of hair and clothing are exactly the same.
Their expressions were contorted with pain, their eyes wide open, as if the fear and despair of their past lives still lingered in their pupils.
Some of the clay figurines have their mouths wide open, as if they are screaming silently, while others have their eyes tightly closed and their brows furrowed, as if they are enduring some kind of unspeakable pain.
Their bodies were fixed to the wall, their postures stiff and bizarre, as if they had been forcibly twisted into this shape by some force.
However, what was most chilling was that Ye Li saw a familiar face, and the one facing her was none other than... Chen Dajing!
No, it's not just Chen Dajing.
She had seen some of these people at the Tianmen Sect just a few days ago.
She even asked them about Abi's situation.
If these are the real people, then who are the ones in the sect...?
A chilling sensation crept up Ye Li's spine, and just then, footsteps approached from afar.
The sound was amplified many times in the empty tree hollow, sending chills down one's spine.
The person emerged from the darkness and stood before Ye Li. "You've finally come."
At this moment, Feng Jingxuan seemed to have shed his hypocritical, charming and easygoing mask, and his aura was completely different.
Ye Li took two steps back, her grip on the sword tightening, her voice barely audible as she forced out through clenched teeth, "You did it! What did you do to them!"
Feng Jingxuan smiled, looking at the lifelike clay figurines on the wall. He gently brushed his hand across the cheek of a female disciple, saying with pity, "Why be so angry? I only helped them change their bodies."
Ye Li suddenly remembered what Xie Sixing had told her.
Humans are alive, but puppets are dead.
If a person dies, then the doll is alive.
Ye Li sometimes saw her fellow disciples, and sometimes saw the puppets on the wall, sending chills down her spine.
As she tensed up, Feng Jingxuan suddenly approached her. "But you don't need to worry, I won't turn you into a puppet, because Your Majesty wants you..."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
