During the flight, Xu Le saw a wasteland, and in the middle of the wasteland was the stone tablet he had seen before.
"What's going on? Last time I came here, I remember this was a forest. How did it suddenly turn into wasteland?" Xu Le had an ominous premonition. He reduced his flight speed and slowly circled the stone tablet a few times, but found nothing unusual.
It flew to the front and stopped, and there were still the inscriptions left by Jinghongzi, without any changes.
Xu Le used his mental power to control the three tokens and embed them into the three grooves. Then, he kept a certain distance and carefully observed the stone tablet.
After the three tokens were embedded in the stone tablet, the three black birds on the pattern emitted divine light, then flew out of the tokens, flapped their wings, and flew in the air for a while before entering the stone tablet one by one.
After the last black bird entered, the stone tablet began to vibrate, and a massive aura surged in all directions. A vast and ancient energy, like an exploding nuclear bomb, spread outwards. Xu Le, who was closest, was pierced by this energy, feeling a tightness in his chest, as if a mountain was pressing down on his shoulders, threatening to crush him to the ground. The stone tablet began to tremble, then slowly moved aside, revealing a pitch-black passage.
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Chapter 48: The Selfless Jinghongzi?
Fortunately, this aura came and went quickly, disappearing in the blink of an eye. Xu Le resisted this pressure by force, and sweat dripped down his body, soaking the silk robe.
Xu Le dried his body with fire, then slowly walked to the exposed passage and probed it with his mental energy. However, the mental energy that could originally be used as eyes to explore was like a blind man inside; he could see nothing and feel nothing.
I have no choice but to go down myself!
Xu Le lit a small fireball in his right hand and slowly walked down the steps.
The passageway was dry, with a faint smell of seawater.
Seawater? Where did the seawater come from?
Xu Le was puzzled, but he continued walking. After some time, a wooden door appeared in front of him.
Opening the wooden door, you see a table in the room with two books on it, and a chair next to it with a skeleton on it.
The skeleton is not pale, but rather has a golden and jade-like color, crystal clear, like a beautiful work of art by nature.
The room wasn't large, but it had a small door that was firmly sealed by several talismans. After Xu Le entered the room, the cinnabar on the talismans kept lighting up and then going out, repeating this over and over again as if something was trying to break through the small door.
Xu Le didn't rush to grab the two books on the table. He walked up to the skeleton and bowed respectfully three times. After all, no one knew whether the guy was dead or alive, so it was always good to be polite.
Then Xu Le stepped forward and picked up two books, one called "Taoist Canon" and the other "Ziwei Numerology". After putting away the two secret texts, Xu Le slowly walked towards the small door and reached out to remove the yellow talisman.
"I advise you not to do this." An aged voice came from the silent room. Xu Le turned his head and saw a white flame burning in the eye sockets of the golden skeleton that had been perfectly normal, cold and lifeless.
"Greetings, senior!" Xu Le was unsure of this person's strength, so he bowed first.
“I’m about to die, so consider these two books a gift to you. Just pass them down properly. As for the things inside the gate, I advise you not to touch them.” The skeleton’s mouth didn’t open, but its voice clearly reached Xu Le’s ears. “A drop of blood of an evil creature is sealed inside. Years ago, I accidentally fell into a spacetime wormhole and was entangled by this thing. I used all my strength to barely suppress it.”
"What kind of evil creature is it?" Xu Le asked curiously. From the aura he had sensed earlier, he could tell that Jing Hongzi was quite powerful. His mere pressure was enough to easily suppress Xu Le. If he were to make a move, he could probably crush Xu Le with a single finger.
“I don’t know what kind of creature it is, but its power is extremely filthy, filled with evil and madness, and it always seems to be saying a name, Cthulhu…” The two ghostly flames in the skeleton’s eye sockets began to fluctuate, as if recalling that evil power.
"Cthulhu? How is that possible!" Xu Le exclaimed, unable to hide his astonishment upon hearing the word.
"Do you know Him?" The flames in his eyes flickered more intensely, as if they might burst into flames at any moment.
"I know a little. Cthulhu is a powerful evil god, a monster with a humanoid outline, a huge octopus-like head, an unknown number of tentacles covering its face, a rubbery body covered in scales, claws on its forelimbs and hind legs, and a pair of long, narrow wings on its back. Anyone who sees it will go mad."
However, he spends most of his time in slumber, with only his kin active outside. If Cthulhu were to awaken, it would be a horrific catastrophe that destroys the world.
Xu Le was also somewhat relieved that he hadn't recklessly opened the seal, otherwise he would have had to escape through the Gate of Myriad Realms.
“No wonder, I, a dignified celestial being, was crippled by a single drop of blood. So you are a great being.” Jing Hongzi’s voice was somewhat sorrowful, and also somewhat self-deprecating. Then he looked at Xu Le and asked, “You are not from this world, are you?”
"I came to this world by chance." Xu Le concealed the existence of the Gate to All Realms, only saying that he came here through some fortuitous circumstances.
After all, the Gate to All Realms is such a powerful artifact that anyone would covet it; one must always be wary of others.
"Is that so? I am not from this world either. I am a diviner from the Shang Dynasty, responsible for interpreting the stars and divining for Your Majesty. But who knew that the high and mighty sage would transfer the mandate of heaven for a mere game, causing the downfall of my Great Shang, and even Your Majesty ascended the Deer Terrace and committed suicide by self-immolation." Jing Hongzi roared in grief and indignation, and a vast aura burst forth, mysterious and profound. That was the power of an immortal. Xu Le, who was standing to the side, was caught off guard and spat out a mouthful of blood, which sprayed onto the ground.
"I'm sorry, I got too excited." Jing Hongzi calmed down and continued to recount the past.
Back then, he was a diviner in the Shang Dynasty. Unfortunately, the secrets of heaven were all concealed by the sages. All he could see were preordained arrangements. Otherwise, he could have reminded Emperor Xin, so that he wouldn't have burned himself to death on the Deer Terrace.
Later, Ji Fa led his army to conquer Chaoge, and he managed to escape. However, he encountered a spacetime turbulence in the outer space and was entangled by this drop of evil god's blood, eventually turning into his current form.
As for the Shang Dynasty in this world, it was nothing but the lingering regret of the defeated. Unfortunately, a fake can never become real. Four hundred years ago, when he looked at the Shang Dynasty with the same national name and the same totem, he felt that it was just self-deception. In addition, with the constant erosion of the evil god's power, he had no choice but to find a remote place and sacrifice himself to suppress the evil god.
"What you see now is the last wisp of my divine consciousness. I won't live much longer. Since that's the case, I will give you all that I have learned in my life." Jinghongzi said to Xu Le with a tone of melancholy and relief, just like an elder who cares for his juniors.
"Thank you, senior!" Xu Le stepped forward, relaxed, and trusted this senior he was meeting for the first time.
Jinghongzi looked at Xu Le with approval. The faint white flame detached from the skeleton and flew into Xu Le's body, but as soon as it entered, it entered a starry sky.
"Where are you?" Jing Hongzi's questioning voice echoed in the void, and a ball of eerie white fire transformed into a human-shaped form in the void.
"Senior, are you going to keep up the act? Your acting skills are quite good." Xu Le's teasing voice came from all directions of the starry sky, making it impossible to pinpoint its location.
"What acting skills? Hurry up and show yourself. I will pass on my life experience to you. I am about to go see His Majesty." Jing Hongzi's tone became somewhat anxious, as if he really wanted to accompany the late king.
"Still pretending? You're not actually Jing Hongzi, are you? You should be the soul born from his skeleton or that evil god inside the gate, Cthulhu."
Xu Le had long felt something was wrong. The trees around the stone tablet had all been annihilated, but this so-called Jinghongzi said that the evil god was suppressed by him and could not possibly come out, which obviously did not match the situation outside.
Then, Jing Hongzi's act of sacrificing herself for others made him feel that something was clearly wrong. Putting himself in Xu Le's shoes, he couldn't do such a selfless good deed either. Are all the gods in the shopping mall so kind and saintly?
Xu Le always considered the worst-case scenario; even if he was wrong, at least he wouldn't be harmed.
"Hahahaha, you actually found out. I am indeed Jing Hongzi, but I am a mixture of his evil thoughts and the blood of an evil god, a deity with noble blood." The humanoid flame began to transform amidst the maniacal laughter, slowly turning into a giant eyeball, about tens of feet tall, with purple light constantly emanating from its body, and its eyes filled with a tyrannical color.
His eyes kept rolling, purple light slowly accumulating, and a disdainful voice echoed throughout the starry sky: "Ignorant mortal, so what if you've discovered it? I originally wanted to safely take your body, but since you don't know what's good for you, then I'll have to put in the effort to take it."