Chapter 23
Bang!
The violent collision and the dizzying tumbling pulled Lin Yibai out of her deep coma. As she gradually regained consciousness, waves of dull pain began to spread throughout her body, causing her to gasp.
She struggled to open her eyes, only to be met with a heart-wrenching darkness. A cold, hard touch spread across her back, hands, and feet. She felt trapped in a small, cramped space. Every breath carried the uniquely cold, dusty air of the stone walls, oppressing and suffocating.
She was startled and wanted to get up, but she was shocked to find that her hands and feet were bound by solid black iron, which hurt so much that she couldn't move!
Where am I?
This small space and cold touch are so much like... a coffin.
After a brief moment of confusion, the memories before she lost consciousness came flooding back to her like a tide.
Something strange had happened at the Fallen Immortal Cliff, and she had asked Luluo to go out and investigate. But before she could report back, she...remembering the sharp pain at the back of her neck, her face suddenly changed -
She was attacked by surprise!
She must have been trapped in this coffin by the person who attacked her. She just didn't know what that person's motive was, and where she was now.
The surroundings were still churning, and she struggled through waves of dizziness and fear, but all her efforts were in vain, unable to shake the solid sarcophagus even a bit. Just as despair, like icy seawater, threatened to overwhelm her head—the entire sarcophagus seemed to collide with something! A deafening roar echoed, and then the tumbling became even more violent...
When everything around her became quiet again and the sickening spinning finally stopped, she opened her eyes with difficulty and found that the coffin lid above her head was shaken open with a gap!
A dazzling light, different from the absolute darkness in the coffin, suddenly poured in, stinging her eyes that had not seen the light for a long time.
The instinct for survival overwhelmed everything at this moment. Lin Yibai endured the excruciating pain that felt like his body was falling apart, gritted his teeth, and struggled to hold the edge of the coffin lid with his bound hands, then used his bleeding forehead to hold it firmly. Then, using all his remaining strength, he pushed the extremely heavy stone coffin lid upward bit by bit.
"Oh...oh..." Heavy panting echoed in the coffin. Every time she exerted force, it pulled at nerves in unknown places, causing her excruciating pain.
After an unknown amount of time and tremendous effort, she finally managed to push the coffin lid open wide enough for her to escape! Seeing this, she didn't even have time to rejoice, and quickly used her hands and feet to crawl out.
The cold black iron chain rattled as she moved, grinding her wrist bones painfully.
She finally rolled out of the sarcophagus in a very awkward posture, and fell heavily on the cold and wet ground, splashing some cool mud.
Lin Yibai collapsed to the ground, coughing violently, greedily swallowing the strangely cold air from the outside world. Trapped in darkness for so long, his vision was still a glare of white. After several breaths, his vision gradually cleared like a receding tide.
What greeted my gaze was a pervasive, impenetrable pale mist. Like a living thing, it silently flowed and entwined, shrouding everything in a hazy, deathly gray. I could only vaguely discern what seemed to be a narrow valley, dotted with jagged rocks and devoid of any sign of life.
"Where...is this?" she muttered to herself, her voice hoarse from exhaustion and dehydration.
She struggled to sit up and looked around, trying to figure out the direction in this strange white fog - but just as her head subconsciously turned to the right, her sight suddenly met a pair of eyes.
A pair of extremely clean, even innocent eyes.
A young man who looked to be about fourteen or fifteen years old was squatting quietly not far from her, his hands hugging his knees, his chin resting on them, just looking at her quietly and silently with a bit of pure curiosity.
"Ah--!" Lin Yibai didn't expect that there would be someone next to him. He was immediately scared out of his wits. He screamed and almost instinctively crawled backwards using his hands and feet.
——In her panic, she didn't even notice that the heavy black iron chains that had been tightly bound around her hands and feet, after she climbed out of the sarcophagus and landed on the ground, silently turned into fine black ash like a dead tree completely weathered by time, and quietly drifted away.
She panicked and retreated to a cold rock, her back pressed against it. Her heart was pounding like it was about to explode. She pointed at the boy and said in a trembling voice, "You...are you a human or a ghost? Why are you peeking at me? What do you want? What do you want?"
The young man was startled by her violent reaction and scream. He tilted his head slightly and his expression became obviously confused, as if he didn't understand what she was saying at all, let alone why she was so scared.
Lin Yibai panted rapidly, staring intently at the other person. Seeing the young man remain motionless for a long time, maintaining a look of pure confusion, her pounding heart finally calmed down a little, and an absurd thought involuntarily popped up:
...Is this kid a mute?
Thinking of this, she suppressed the surprise and fear in her heart, and with difficulty moved her eyes away from the young man, wanting to look around more carefully to see if there was anyone else here.
But then, her breath suddenly stopped -
Not far away, she saw another equally rough and ancient sarcophagus lying there quietly. The lid was already open and slanted on the coffin. The inside was pitch black, almost exactly the same as the one she had just crawled out of.
The style of this stone coffin...why does it look so much like the sacrificial coffin used to seal the original body into the mountains in the original novel?!
And the strange mist all around...
Lin Yibai's pupils suddenly contracted, and a cold realization suddenly rushed out from her heart like a poisonous snake!
Could it be possible...that she has already entered Yunshan? !
In the original novel, where Lin Yibai was eventually chopped up and eaten by a demon, his soul scattering to pieces?!
The huge shock was like ice water being poured down on her head, making her limbs instantly cold and stiff, and even her fingertips unable to move at all.
The fatal disaster that she tried every means to avoid finally came.
*
At the same time, another area in the mountain was also shrouded in a pale miasma.
Yan Bujian walked step by step in the thick fog. The ground under his feet was soft and damp. He could not hear any sound when he stepped on it. Only his own breathing and heartbeat were roaring in his ears.
He recalled what happened before he fell into a coma.
The air in the dungeon was still cold and damp. He remained quietly in the darkness, guiding the spiritual energy through his body over and over again as usual, completing the circulation of energy. But unexpectedly, just as the flickering shadow of the torch on the wall twisted imperceptibly, a precise and fierce blunt blow struck the back of his neck...
When he opened his eyes again, he saw this strange world after the coffin lid was shaken open.
He stood quietly in the fog, his handsome but cold face still showing that silent and calm expression.
Before this, the guards outside the dungeon had inadvertently whispered when changing shifts, saying something like "The sect leader needs a person with extremely strong blood energy this time" and "The human sacrifice for the Yunshan Grand Sacrifice has finally been found"... At that time, he did not pay much attention to it, and just thought that he was being defiled by another shady business of the Demon Sect.
Now, what else does he not understand?
He was selected.
He became a sacrifice in the so-called "Yunshan Grand Sacrifice", was put into a stone coffin, and thrown into the legendary forbidden area of the Bodeng Sect - Yunshan.
But...why is he still alive?
Since it was a sacrifice sent into Yunshan, shouldn't it have been torn to pieces and devoured, its soul shattered, by the mountain existence that the Bo Deng Sect wanted to worship the moment it set foot here?
Why is he even able to walk freely now?
Thinking of this, Yan Bujian's expression was as cold as ice. He did not show any joy of having survived by chance. Instead, he became more alert.
This temporary peace may foreshadow a greater crisis.
After taking a deep breath, his eyes gradually became firm.
He firmly believed that he would not die here. At least not now.
He still has too many accounts to settle.
Several familiar faces suddenly flashed through his mind - the cold-blooded man who had thrown him into the dungeon and treated him like a piece of trash; and the woman with frosty eyes who attacked him without a word... Finally, what froze in front of his eyes was the face of a girl who looked pretty and charming, but was actually vicious and hypocritical.
His eyes suddenly darkened, his knuckles clenched white, as if he were trying to squeeze the deep hatred into his palm. Hatred, like poison ivy, instantly wrapped around his heart, bringing a sharp, stabbing pain, but also instilling in him an unparalleled will to survive.
No matter what lies ahead, he must survive. Only by staying alive can he get out of here and make those who owe him pay the price they deserve.
Thinking of this, he no longer hesitated and walked with firm steps towards the deeper and thicker pale fog ahead. His figure was soon completely swallowed up by the dead silent valley.
He continued walking forward, and the pale mist around him seemed to have life, flowing and thinning around him. After an unknown amount of time, it finally disappeared quietly like the receding tide.
However, the world did not become clearer after the mist faded. Instead, a pale emptiness appeared. This vast and deadly emptiness, with nothing in sight. He stood there, as if suspended in a lonely nothingness.
He gradually stopped.
Despite being in this unknown area, his stern face remained unfazed, only frozen with a beast-like alertness. The dark red birthmark beneath his eye, resembling a tiny sword mark and a constant presence since birth, suddenly began to burn without warning, its temperature rapidly increasing to a scorching heat, a faint crimson glow emanating from it. Beneath that thin skin, something seemed to sense this lurking danger and began to stir violently, eager to break free!
He stood quietly in the center of the boundless white, holding his breath and concentrating. Every muscle in his body was tensed to the extreme. All his senses were like the most sophisticated net, spreading out into the endless space around him, waiting for the arrival of the unknown danger.
He didn't wait long.
After a while, in the deep and dead silence that was so terrifying, an extremely slight but extremely clear "click" sound suddenly came.
The sound was like the shattering of glass or the collapse of ice, and it was particularly harsh in the absolute silence.
——Immediately afterwards, less than three feet in front of him, a tiny light seeped out from the void.
Then, an object slowly rose from the faint light, turning from virtual to real, and quietly floated in front of him, emitting a soft halo, becoming the only light source and coordinate in this endless space.
When Yan Qingqing saw the appearance of the object clearly, his cold face, which had been frozen for thousands of years, couldn't help but crack for a moment.
His pupils contracted slightly, revealing a rare, almost stunned emotion.
"This is……"
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