As frozen corpses were pushed onto the bridge, the hollow ice blocks on it shattered.
Looking at the bridge, riddled with holes, Song Laosan's eyes flashed with relief. He gave me a thumbs up: "I didn't expect this bridge to actually have a problem. If it weren't for your reminder, we probably would have been done for. The saying 'specialization is the best policy' is indeed true. Your Duan family really knows how to handle things in this Yellow Springs region."
Although my ears were stuffed with cloth, the sound of the monks chanting sutras still disturbed my peace of mind. Eager to escape this place, I ignored Song Laosan's flattery and stepped onto the bridge: "Let's cross the bridge as soon as possible! Although there are some records of underground palaces in the Judge's Records, I have never seen a temple built in a tomb!"
Song Laosan walked beside me and took my arm: "That's true! When I first heard the name 'Pagoda of Bliss,' I was completely baffled. Now it seems that the evil monk wanted to create a paradise where all Buddhas pay homage, hence the name 'Pagoda of Bliss'! That pagoda should be a tomb tower, but we didn't see a seven-tiered pagoda when we looked from above!"
The monkey shone its flashlight in the direction of the temple: "Could that pagoda be built behind the main hall, and being blocked by it?"
Although Song Laosan had destroyed all the hollow bricks on the bridge, we couldn't afford to make a mistake at this height. We proceeded cautiously and finally reached the other side.
The moment I stepped off the bridge, I felt a softness beneath my feet.
Looking down, I realized I was standing on a soft patch of grass.
The temperature inside the cave was extremely low; my hands and feet were so cold they were almost numb. How could grass possibly grow at such a temperature?
When I first saw the statue, they both said it was my hallucination. But now, the grass under my feet looks and feels incredibly realistic, so I couldn't resist bending down to take a closer look.
Just as I bent down, Song Laosan next to me exclaimed, "This is bizarre! This is fucking bizarre! There are so many human skins on the ground here!"
Those words startled me.
I thought the sensation under my feet came from the grass, but I never imagined that I was stepping on countless human skins.
At that moment, I was somewhat glad that I was hallucinating. At least I saw a patch of grass, which was much better than seeing human skin all over the ground.
Along the way, we have seen hundreds and thousands of corpses, but the human skin covering the ground did not frighten them.
Although the feeling of walking on human skin was psychologically uncomfortable, we did not stop and soon reached the outside of the temple.
The temple was built against the mountainside, with the walls extending to both sides. I could see the bright lights inside even through the walls.
A row of lanterns stood outside the temple's courtyard wall, their lanterns casting a blood-red glow on the temple walls.
The complex of buildings in front of me is exactly the same as the one I saw on the ground before, the only difference being the temple gate.
The first time I saw the Ghost Temple, its gate was like a grave entrance, low and cramped. But now it's a pair of large red doors, looking particularly grand.
Song Laosan walked to the front of the stone gate and tried his best to move it, but he couldn't: "Such a big stone gate must weigh at least several tons. There must be a mechanism or a horizontal stone blocking it inside!"
"Were you scared out of your wits after going into the tomb? This isn't the tomb passage; the courtyard wall is only this high. Why did you need to go through the gate?"
The monkey rolled its eyes: "I'll go check the situation in the yard. If everything's alright, we'll just climb over the wall and into the yard!"
I saw the monkey walk toward the courtyard wall, but I did not stop him.
What I saw at that moment was completely different from what they saw. I was unable to observe the situation correctly and could only rely on what they saw to make a judgment.
The monkey was agile from a young age. After a short running start, it grabbed the top of the wall with both hands and supported its body on the wall.
"Buzz!"
As soon as the monkey stretched out its body, I heard a whooshing sound coming from afar and flying past overhead.
Immediately afterwards, the monkey's body also fell off the wall.
"monkey!!"
I saw the monkey fall down and ran towards him quickly. My first thought was that he had triggered a mechanism.
"I'm fine!"
The monkey got up from the ground, touched himself all over to make sure he wasn't hurt, and then wiped the cold sweat from his forehead: "After I pressed down on the wall, I felt the bricks on the wall sink down. Luckily, I reacted quickly, or I would have been skewered like a candied hawthorn!"
"We've been too simplistic! Judging from the terrain, this should be the core of the Demon Monk's Tomb. How could it not have protective mechanisms?"
Seeing that the monkey was alright, Song Laosan breathed a sigh of relief: "In my opinion, it would be safer for us to go through the door."
To prevent the monkey from taking any risks, I observed the surrounding environment, walked directly to the edge of the courtyard gate, and stood in front of a relief sculpture.
This relief depicts three snakes coiled together. The middle snake has nine segments, while the other two snakes have eight segments, corresponding to the Bagua (Eight Trigrams). Each segment of these snakes is further divided into three smaller sections.
I tried turning the three snakes, and the relief was indeed a movable mechanism.
At this moment, Song Laosan ran to my side and shone his flashlight on the stone carving: "Xiao Duan, when did you discover that there was a stone carving here?"
As I was intently studying how to activate the mechanism, I casually replied, "The mechanism is so obvious right here, can't you see it?"
"It's pitch black, how are we supposed to see anything!" the monkey interjected. "Young Master Duan, after I fell, my flashlight got trapped under me. How did you get to my side so quickly?"
After hearing what the two of them said, my train of thought, which was originally focused on studying the mechanism, was instantly interrupted.
Instead, a chill permeated the air from the inside out.
yes!
How did I manage to see this mechanism?
According to Monkey and Song Laosan, the three of us saw completely different things, and their perspectives were more normal than mine.
This means that the lanterns and such that I see now do not exist in their eyes.
Therefore, everything I saw must have been an illusion, and I was in darkness.
But in this darkness, I clearly found the monkey's location and successfully located the mechanism. The location of the building was exactly the same as what they had seen.
This shows that although what I saw was different from what they saw, it was real and not something I imagined.
I reached out and touched the stone wall in front of me; it was a real, tangible feeling.
If everything we see can perfectly overlap.
Then hallucinations occur.
Was it really me?
Or is it the monkey and Song Laosan?
Not only was I surprised, but Monkey and Song Laosan also looked at each other with a hint of fear in their eyes.
At this point, we thought we were only one step away from opening the Demon Monk's Tomb, but we suddenly realized that we didn't even know what it really looked like.
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