Chapter 58
Dark. Damp. Silence.
Only the faint glow of the silk in his hand cast a faint blue halo in the absolute darkness, barely illuminating the slippery stone steps and the cold, rough wall beneath his feet. The fluorescent watermarks flowed slowly, like a living thing, revealing a hint of the eerie.
Gu Linzhi leaned against the icy wall, panting heavily. Every breath brought a ripping pain and a creeping numbness to his ribs. The venom of the blue spider saliva slowly worked its way up the veins of his arm, bringing a tormenting mixture of burning and itching. The chill of the Chilling Heart Pool, combined with the pre-existing cold poison within his body, threatened to freeze him. Only the faint spark of fire in his heart clung to it, maintaining a shaky glimmer of clarity.
He raised his head with difficulty, using the fluorescent light to look at the arrow mark on the stone wall. The mark pointed downwards, and this secret passage seemed to be sloping deep into the ground.
There was no way back. Once the stone door behind him closed, it would be extremely difficult to open from the outside. He could only move forward, following this path that might be the only escape route left by Su Wanwan, or... a deeper dead end.
He gritted his teeth, supporting himself with his uninjured arm, and scrambled down the steep, slippery stone steps. His steps were unsteady, most of his weight resting on the stone wall, making a subtle scraping sound. In the darkness, his senses were magnified to the extreme, and every sound sounded like the beating of a drum.
After walking down about twenty or thirty steps, the passage became flatter and the air was no longer so polluted. There was a faint, cold fragrance coming from it, which was completely different from the rich wisteria fragrance outside.
The fluorescent marker ahead disappeared.
Gu Linzhi stopped and cautiously raised the silk fragment in his hand. In the dim light, he saw that he was standing at the end of a narrow passage, with a seemingly ordinary stone wall in front of him.
Dead end?
He frowned, examining the stone wall carefully. It was polished relatively smooth, with no obvious cracks or buttons. He reached out his hand, enduring the excruciating pain, and carefully felt along the cold stone wall.
As his fingertips brushed against a certain spot, he suddenly felt a faint, warm touch, distinct from the surrounding stone. He peered intently, and beneath the fluorescent light, he could discern a faint, shallow indentation in the stone wall. The shape... seemed to be a feather?
A thought struck him, and he immediately pulled out another object from his bosom—the cold object that Su Wanwan had given him in the sea of fire, a white token that he had always kept close to his body. It was a material neither gold nor jade, and felt warm to the touch. On one side was an owl, wings spread, ready to take flight, and on the other was a complex cloud pattern.
He tried to press the token into the feather-shaped depression.
Fits perfectly!
"Click." A very slight mechanical sound came from inside the stone wall.
Then, the seemingly seamless stone wall before him silently slid inward, leaving a gap just wide enough for one person to pass sideways! An even clearer scent of cold fragrance emanated from the door and hit him in the face.
Gu Linzhi didn't hesitate at all and immediately squeezed in sideways.
The moment he entered, the stone door behind him closed silently again, blocking off the way in.
Inside the door, it wasn't the cramped chamber one had imagined, but rather a rather spacious underground stone chamber. The air was fresh, evidently equipped with a good ventilation system. Several luminous pearls, emitting a soft white glow, were inlaid on the walls, casting a hazy light on the interior.
The first thing that caught his eye was a large white marble table in the center of the stone chamber, with several embroidered cushions placed beside it. On the table were some women's dressing utensils, but more of them were things Gu Linzhi was extremely familiar with—medicine pestles and grinders of various sizes, porcelain bottles, jade jars, and several open notebooks filled with beautiful handwriting.
This seems to be Su Wanwan's secret medicine room and...residence?
His eyes quickly swept across the room. On one side of the stone chamber stood a simple stone bed, covered with a plain brocade quilt. On the other side were several tall bookshelves, filled not with books but with a variety of bizarre objects: minerals, plant specimens, and even a few peculiarly shaped Northern Di bone artifacts.
What attracted his attention most was the wall facing the stone table.
That wall wasn't stone, but rather covered in a special dark silk. Embroidered on top of it was a vast and intricate vein pattern, woven from countless hair-thin ice silk threads!
Gu Linzhi's pupils suddenly contracted!
That wasn't just any map or embroidery. The ice silk threads shimmered with a subtle silver light, outlining a vast and sophisticated intelligence network! Within it were visible the watermarks of the "Yunze Society," the spider totems of the "Snow Spider Pavilion," the official names of the Dajing court, and even the tribal markings of the Beidi royal court! Each node was connected by threads of different colors, marked with tiny, indecipherable symbols and names!
This is the core map of the huge intelligence network that Su Wanwan, as the "Purple Owl", controls, spanning the court, the martial arts world, and even enemy countries!
Although he had guessed it long ago, witnessing this huge and terrifying secret presented in such a direct way still made Gu Linzhi feel a chill, which even temporarily overwhelmed the pain in his body.
Su Wanwan... who are you? And what do you want to do?
His eyes subconsciously searched, and soon, in a corner of the atlas, he found a name circled in vermilion thread—Cao Wushang. Next to Cao Wushang's name, there were several vague code names that seemed to have been deliberately concealed or had yet to be identified.
And in the very center of the atlas, which is also the most conspicuous position, what is embroidered is not anyone's name, but a small but extremely delicate golden honeycomb pattern, and next to it is an ancient seal character embroidered with thinner silver thread: "Mother".
Buzzing Hive?!
This is the core item related to the strange copper whistle mentioned by the old boatman and Cao Wushang!
Just as Gu Linzhi was deeply shocked by the intelligence map, the sharp pain in his ribs and the numbness in his arms came back violently. He groaned and almost lost his balance. He quickly held on to the white jade table beside him to avoid falling.
Injuries and poisons must be treated quickly!
He forced himself to look at the medicines and notebooks on the table. He reached out with a trembling hand and picked up an open notebook.
The handwriting on the notebook was elegant and calm, recording the properties, formulas, and experimental results of various poisons and antidotes. One page happened to detail the toxicity of "blue spider saliva", the symptoms of its onset, and... the antidote!
"Blue spider saliva is potent and can kill instantly upon contact with blood... However, it is sensitive to cold. 'Ice Soul Grass' or extremely cold internal energy can suppress its spread. Using golden needles to detoxify can resolve it..."
A glimmer of hope suddenly rose in Gu Linzhi's heart! Extremely cold internal energy? The last thing he lacked in his body at the moment was the cold poison!
He immediately continued reading and soon found records about "cold marrow syndrome" (which was very similar to the symptoms of cold poison in his body), as well as prescriptions and acupuncture diagrams on how to relieve the erosion of cold air and strengthen the body.
Su Wanwan seemed to have anticipated that he might come here and suffer such harm!
He didn't have time to ponder the mystery. He immediately followed the instructions in his notes and quickly searched among the numerous porcelain bottles on the table. Soon, he found a jade bottle labeled "Ice Soul Powder" and a needle bag containing several golden needles of varying lengths.
Without hesitation, he poured out a little ice soul powder, mixed it with the remaining water in the jade bowl on the table (he didn't care about that), took a little orally, and applied the remaining powder directly to the wound on his arm caused by the poison needle.
A powerful chill instantly erupted from his wound and internal organs, clashing violently with the cold poison in his body and the scorching heat of the blue spider saliva! The intense pain nearly made him faint, but he gritted his teeth and saw that the strange blue color spreading from the wound on his arm had indeed stopped spreading and even began to slowly shrink!
efficient!
He immediately picked up the gold needle and, according to the diagrams in his notes, identified several acupuncture points on his shoulders and arms. With trembling fingers, he inserted the gold needle with difficulty.
He wasn't a doctor, so his acupuncture was unsystematic and forceful, relying solely on brute force and a familiarity with the body's meridians. After several injections, poisonous purple-black blood began to slowly seep out from the wound, dripping onto the white jade table with a slight hissing sound and a fishy odor.
As the poisonous blood was discharged, the numbness and burning pain in the arm gradually eased.
But before he could even catch his breath, the old wound under his ribs, inflicted by the Nether Palm and the chilling power of the Ice Soul, suddenly erupted due to his actions and the stimulation of the Ice Soul Powder! A terrifying chill, like a flood bursting through a dam, instantly swept through his limbs and bones!
"Ugh!" Gu Linzhi could no longer hold on and suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood with icy chips. He fell forward and landed heavily on the cold ground. His body curled up and trembled violently and uncontrollably. His teeth chattered and his consciousness was quickly swallowed by the boundless cold and darkness.
The white owl token rolled from his loosened hand and landed next to the fluorescent piece of silk that had also fallen to the ground.
The dim fluorescent light illuminated his rapidly losing color face and his eyelashes that were covered in frost.
Just when his consciousness was about to completely sink, he seemed to hear an extremely slight "click" sound coming from a corner of the stone chamber, as if a mechanism was turning.
Then, a stronger, yet strangely soothing, cold fragrance filled the air.
A blurry figure in a lavender dress seemed to step out of the wall, silently approaching his side and slowly squatting. A cool, delicate hand gently touched his burning forehead.
That touch... familiar...
Is this... an illusion...
Su Wanwan
In his final consciousness, only this vague thought remained, and then he completely fell into endless cold darkness.
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