That old Liu, he won't even rest in peace after he's dead!
I cursed inwardly, feeling a growing unease.
The tremor we felt beneath our feet wasn't the deep shaking of an earthquake, but rather something seemed to be breaking through the earth beneath our feet.
Suddenly my expression changed: "Underground, scatter!"
"Puff! Puff! Puff! Puff..."
Several muffled cracking sounds rang out almost simultaneously. Right around where we had just been standing, seven or eight dark red veins, which looked like magnified blood vessels, burst out of the ground.
"Damn it, what is this thing again!" Li Huai's eyes widened, and he couldn't help but curse.
They all looked at me, but I didn't say anything.
This thing, covered in damp mud and with a nauseatingly sweet and fishy smell, writhed and enveloped the space around us like tentacles!
Immediately afterwards, a mixture of blood and putrid stench filled the air, and dark red blood gushed from the holes they had drilled into the ground.
No, that substance was even more filthy than blood. It flowed rapidly across the ground, connecting with each other to create a complex and eerie pattern on the surface.
I stared at the pattern for a moment, then realized that I had seen it somewhere before!
Suddenly, I slapped my forehead and blurted out, "This is a formation, a blood sacrifice formation! Old Liu wrote it down in his notebook!" My heart pounded. This wasn't something Old Liu could have done alone; the Empress must have been involved!
Suddenly, a bold idea popped into my head.
Could it be that the goddess was deliberately pretending to be afraid of the flashlight beam so that Old Liu would offer up his blood as a sacrifice?
After all, Lao Liu's hatred for us runs deep. We disrupted his plans and rendered his long-term schemes futile. It's impossible for him not to hate us and not want to perish with us.
"Hehehe," a sickening laugh suddenly came from behind the temple door. This time, the sound was filled with undisguised greed and smugness. The two vermilion doors trembled slightly and cracked open.
"Stay here, Blood Food..." The fragmented voice crept into our minds.
"Playing tricks!" Luo Tianhe cursed angrily, pulling out his baton and smashing it hard against the nearest throbbing blood vessel.
With a "bang," the baton seemed to have struck a puddle of cowhide; the thing recoiled sharply, leaving only a shallow mark on its surface.
This sudden stimulation from Luo Tianhe caused the thing to writhe even more wildly and lash out.
He hurriedly dodged, almost getting swept away while trying to shift the blame.
I tried to cut it with the lightning sword, and when the blade cut into it, I felt a clear resistance, like cutting into a piece of resilient rubber.
Li Huai raised his flashlight to shine on these things, but the strong light had little effect on these evil creatures that had broken out of the ground.
Li Huai put down the flashlight with some annoyance. He thought that since the goddesses in the temple were afraid of strong light, these things should also avoid strong light!
But to my surprise, they didn't react at all.
“These things seem to be driving us toward the temple gate!” Zhao Jianguo shouted hoarsely.
Unlike us, he had nothing to hold him back, yet he stubbornly dragged his father's corpse along.
Because of his limited mobility, he couldn't dodge in time and was grazed on the calf by a blood vessel. His trouser leg was immediately corroded, leaving a large hole, and his skin felt like it was on fire.
I looked, and sure enough!
These twisting things, though seemingly chaotic, actually blocked off all escape routes in other directions, leaving only the side leading to the temple gate with slightly less pressure.
If we were completely unaware, we would definitely head towards the temple gate.
Looking at the vermilion gate with a small crack, I realized that the human skin that had been pasted on the locust tree had been moved and was now stuck tightly to the center of the gate!
It undulated slightly, as if it were breathing.
The chilling aura seeping from the crack in the door grew stronger, and I could almost see a glimpse of red in the darkness.
You must not go into the temple, absolutely you must not go into the temple. Once you enter that place, your life and death will be completely out of your control!
"Stand back to back, don't let them get separated. These things are afraid of items with strong yang energy!" I said quickly, while grabbing the last handful of glutinous rice from my bag, mixing it with all the remaining incense ash, cinnabar and iron filings in my pocket, and scattering it in all directions.
When the glutinous rice and incense ash came into contact with the blood vessels and the filthy blood flowing on the ground, they immediately made a hissing sound and emitted a faint black smoke.
The movements of the tentacles also slowed down slightly.
Seeing that this method was effective, Luo Tianhe followed suit and scattered the Five Emperors Coins he was carrying on the ground.
Li Huai even took out a money sword and stuck it directly into the ground.
The temple doors trembled more and more violently, and the cracks in the doors widened. A powerful suction force began to pull at our bodies and souls.
My consciousness started to blur.
However, the facial features of the human skin pasted on the door became clearer as our consciousness blurred.
It even gradually began to emit faint sobs and curses similar to Lao Liu's voice, staring at us with utter resentment!
I bit my tongue, which brought me back to my senses, and then I quickly slapped each of the dazed Li Huai and the others across the face.
They woke up with a start, all showing signs of lingering fear.
Li Huai was so frightened by the suction force and the terrifying scene he had just witnessed that his legs went weak and he could barely hold onto his flashlight.
Zhao Jianguo held onto his father's ankle tightly, his eyes filled with despair and resentment.
Are we really going to perish here?
I am filled with resentment. Maya Village, Heishui Village, Anning Girls' High School, Ping'an Orphanage...
We've braved so many dangerous places, why should we stay in this little Burial Dragon Ravine?
My gaze swept rapidly across the surroundings.
Formation, blood vessels, filthy blood, temple gate, human skin...
Old Liu sacrificed everything he had to activate the formation. The formation nourished the things in the temple, and the things in the temple controlled these evil beings through human skin and the formation. Wait, human skin!
I suddenly realized the key point: it's this human skin!
Old Liu sacrificed everything, so why was there still a skin left behind? And this skin is just like a living thing, able to run around on its own.
That human skin is the connection point. Old Liu's resentment and residual control, as well as some of the power of the things in the temple, are all attached to it!
"Luo Tianhe, forget about those blood vessels. Our goal now is that skin on the door. Find a way to destroy it!" I shouted to Luo Tianhe, who was still struggling to hit those blood vessels, while taking out the three remaining talismans from my pocket.
I bit my fingertip and drew a blood talisman.
"I know, but how do we get across?!" Luo Tianhe shouted, looking at the wildly dancing obstacles and the increasingly strong suction in front of him.
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