King of Tomb Raiders

Chapter 257

"What kind of monster are you? What do you want to do by residing in Tang Qing's body?" Those waving arms reminded me of giant spiders in the Mexican jungle, with venomous fangs and extremely aggressive nature.

She gave a sinister laugh: "What are you doing? This is our world. Any energy source should belong to us. You're just an insignificant Earthling. Get out of here—"

I leaped over her head, landing lightly at the cave entrance, blocking her path. That colorful, mysterious crystal pit was my gateway to this world, and I'd rather Alpha control it than this freak who could lose her mind at any moment.

"Are all Earthlings so ignorant?" She took a step forward, the murderous intent gathering between her brows about to burst forth, and the tips of her ten fingers instantly turned crimson.

At this moment, I recalled the scene inside the Pyramid of Tulku, where I fought the shadow of the illusionary demon. The evil force, transformed into a scalpel, approached with the same arrogance, believing victory was assured. Human thought is truly strange; even when a formidable enemy is at hand and a fierce battle is imminent, one can still wander far away in their mind, recalling many unrelated past events.

The sudden, intense red light violently illuminated everything before my eyes, as if even the gray rooftops that had been silent in the thin mist had become bright.

"Die..." Her laughter relentlessly assaulted my ears, her ten fingers flashing red light, forming a sword net that could cleave everything in its path, as she pounced upon me.

In an instant, I saw her weaknesses—nineteen in total—and there was no hidden, mysterious power protecting her; they were clearly exposed to my sight. Wherever my gaze fell, the blade followed like a shadow, tearing open a fountain of blood beneath her left rib with a "hiss," spraying blood like mist.

When the sword and the man become one, the sword is me, and I am the sword, my gaze also becomes an invincible blade.

"Yang Tian...you are Yang Tian!" She called out her elder brother's name again. The "Overcoming Distance Blade" must have left a deep imprint on her mind, so every time she saw such amazing swordsmanship, she would remember her elder brother.

"I am not Yang Tian, but I can kill you easily." There are nineteen flaws, at least half of which are fatal. I just don't want to kill you too soon.

"No, you are Yang Tian. Who else but you can wield the 'Blade of Transcendence'? You must leave! Get out of here! The God is about to rise from the flames. Once he opens that door, the whole world will be destroyed... I don't want your pity. Go, go..."

Her eyes flashed alternately between kind anxiety and evil smirk, her dual personalities locked in a fierce battle.

Without a doubt, behind that door lies a super monster known as "God," possessing the power to destroy the Earth. Perhaps that is the ultimate enemy who controls Tang Qing with his mind. At some point in the future, he will break free and become a demon that wreaks havoc on the world.

"Is there any way to stop him from coming back to life? Tell me, is there a girl named 'Suren' here too? Is she next to the 'Asian Gear'? And where is that gear hidden?" I shouted louder to drown out her hysteria. If we really needed to escape, I wouldn't leave alone without finding Suren.

The red light flashed again, forcing me to take a big step back. At this moment, her mind was once again controlled by the evil side. This time, her purpose was to stop my pursuit. She quickly flew backward and landed below the stone wall.

"Don't go, I'll take you away from here, away from here, okay?" I hope to treat all the women who fall in love with my brother kindly, even if I know they are not meant to be. But what good would it do to take Tang Qing, who has already mutated, back to the ordinary world outside?

Alpha and Tang Xin had already returned and passed by Tang Qing, who was leaving at high speed, but they did not try to stop her.

"Fortunately, the enemy was distracted and didn't have time to fully control Tang Qing, otherwise you would have been in great danger. Remember, she is an extremely dangerous person, a spiked iron ball."

Alpha's entire expression was hidden behind the mask, so nothing could be seen. However, I deduced from his melancholy tone that he must have encountered a new and significant setback.

"Mr. Feng, it's about to snow," Tang Xin whispered a reminder.

The snow curtain spread out from afar, and I had already heard the sound of snow falling while she was fighting Tang Qing. Snowflakes, like goose feathers, fluttered down, and within ten minutes, all the rooftops were covered in a white blanket. I stretched out my hands at the cave entrance and caught a dozen snowflakes, which instantly melted into water droplets in my palms, the coolness penetrating to my very core.

This is real snow, not a faint illusion, but how can one receive snowflakes from the outside sky in this strange world beneath the mountain?

"Tang Xin, you should go and treat your poison and injuries," Alpha said indifferently.

Tang Xin obediently agreed, nodded to me, and walked into the cave. Their relationship was like that of a master and apprentice. Every word Alpha said, Tang Xin would listen attentively and act immediately, just like how the tiger had treated her before.

"A new force has joined?" I asked casually after Tang Xin's figure disappeared.

"Can you feel it?" he asked back, then sat down at the cave entrance, his boots sticking out to catch the feather-light snowflakes.

He didn't tell me what happened after we chased them deep into the complex, but I already sensed a familiar drumbeat—not through hearing, but through telepathy. The dull, monotonous drumbeat struck with an unchanging, slow rhythm, like a way of life passed down through generations in the desert world of Africa for thousands of years, rising and falling with the Nile River.

"There's no inherent conflict of interest between us, so perhaps we could become friends?" I tentatively probed. In this unprecedented predicament, prioritizing harmony and treating others with kindness are the most fundamental rules for survival.

"Friends? Can you accept a strange-looking alien? For thousands of years, I have never believed that I could be friends with someone, nor have I ever had such a wish." He raised his hand to flick the snowflakes off the tips of his boots.

"Why not? Haven't you always touted yourself as a true Earthling?" I wasn't particularly eager to see his eyes, but talking through a mask always felt like having a thorn stuck in my heart, making it impossible to feel at ease. In fact, even when I first saw him in the Li family's ancient books, I wasn't overly shocked.

He shook his head firmly: "No need. We're not friends, and I won't have any. On this planet, there are only eternal interests, not eternal friends."

The snow was getting thicker and thicker, and all the gray tiled roofs disappeared from view. Only the original color of the ancient-style eaves, which were raised high, was still visible, like a few ink dots on a huge white sheet of paper.

"Seven Stars, Sirius, Entering the Break, Triple Stack?" I suddenly understood the distribution pattern of the pavilions. It actually contained more than a dozen complex Yin-Yang formations, with large and small nested within each other, interlocking in one another. Only a direct descendant of the Guiguzi school could form such a sophisticated formation using pavilions, flower paths, ponds, and gates. And in the one before me, the focus of all the Yin and Yang elements was at the very back center of the complex.

"Is this really a miniature version of the Epang Palace? Or is it some other counterfeit?" I strained my eyes, hoping to discover more oddities. When people mention the Epang Palace, they first think of Qin Shi Huang's arrogant demeanor as he unified the world and the desolate ruins left by the Chu people after burning it. Very few people would think that it carried some special mission.

"Using the Seven Stars for defense, Sirius for hunting, Breakthrough for deception, and Triple Strike for bewilderment, these four formation techniques, along with the ultimate application of the Yin-Yang and Five Elements arts of the Guiguzi school, are like a taut seven-stringed zither, each stroke producing the highest peak of the range. However, a towering building can only stand for a time, not forever." What I'm referring to is the fatal flaw of that chain formation.

"Did you really understand? The key to setting up and breaking formations is not just a simple spatial arrangement, but a complex combination of time, momentum, location, and energy." He laughed smugly, as if owning such a palace was a supreme honor, and that he would always be the supreme ruler.

The snow kept falling, and when most of the initial hundreds of eaves were covered, leaving only the top dozen or so, the flaws in the overall structure became increasingly apparent.

I pointed to the right front: "Look, that position is the fatal flaw that affects the entire formation. If the enemy breaks through even a little, the formation will collapse instantly."

Through the snow curtain, the soaring, abrupt gray eaves resembled the menacing fangs of a crouching monster, capable of blasting the small building it stood on to its foundations. The sealed one would surely break free and turn the tables.

Alpha's breathing suddenly quickened: "You're right, but besides Tang Qing, no one would intentionally want to damage this ancient building. Even with her intelligence, she couldn't find the breach—"

I sensed his embarrassment and naturally changed the subject: "So what exactly is sealed behind it?"

Alpha ignored my goodwill, extended its index finger, and quickly drew several lines on the ground. Amidst the flying stone chips, a trapezoidal building plan immediately appeared.

"Look, this is the blueprint for the Epang Palace. Only when viewed from hundreds of meters above can you see the incompleteness of its layout. This time, if it weren't for the sudden heavy snow, how would you have had the chance to discern it clearly?"

He's right. The entire complex has nearly a thousand eaves with the same curvature and color. If other messy and meaningless parts aren't covered up, it's not easy for the human eye to quickly separate the dross from the essence.

I nodded, indicating that I agreed with his point of view.

"Did you hear the drumbeat?" He lifted his left foot and easily wiped away the deep scratches on the ground. The hard bluestone ground became as fragile as sand under his fingers and the soles of his feet.

Of course I heard it. The drumbeats came from underground, maintaining a monotonous, slow rhythm without the slightest disturbance. They were African hunting drums, but this is Asia—isn't this the most contradictory place? I've heard the same drumbeats more than once in front of the Turkic pyramids.

"Right below the very center of the Epang Palace, I know that location is a gap in the energy defenses. If any force wants to infiltrate, it must go through that passage."

He became restless, like a wild beast whose territory had been invaded.

"How did all this happen? Was the Epang Palace originally built simply to seal something away? The key to this incident lies at the point where the murderous auras converge ahead. If I'm not mistaken, opening that door that countless people have mentioned will trigger an even more earth-shattering event."

I gazed at the heart of the Epang Palace, a sunken courtyard, about a hundred meters square, utterly empty, without even a simple pavilion, just a vast expanse of land enclosed by a blue brick wall. The thick snow had turned the courtyard into a giant sheet of white paper.

A faint smell of blood permeated the air. With a "drip," a drop of blood fell from Alpha's neck, splashing onto the bluestone ground and turning into a brilliant red flower.

"Are you bleeding?" I asked calmly. If I had a high-powered microscope and an electron analyzer, I could certainly obtain his true information from the elemental composition of a drop of blood.

"Where there is battle, there will be bloodshed. This was not a life-or-death struggle between the disciples of the Tang Clan in Shu, but a war between me and a captive enemy that has been entangled for thousands of years." More blood seeped from his Adam's apple, and the bloodstains on the ground turned into a mottled patch of flowers.

"Let me help you—" I raised my hand, hesitated for a moment, unsure whether martial arts techniques that seal acupoints could stop his bleeding. Ancient medical masters spent hundreds of years researching and discovered the existence of meridians in the human body; the so-called "acupoint striking" is only effective for humans.

"I am an Earthling, and my blood and bones are the same as all the Earthlings you know." He saw my confusion.

"Alright, I'll stop your bleeding by pausing your blood flow." In his relieved smile, I suddenly understood. He had lived underground for so long, witnessing the martial arts of so many masters; of course he would understand my treatment method. Besides, his martial arts skills were also extremely high; what did I have to worry about?

I pressed more than a dozen acupoints on his shoulders, chest, shoulder blades, and below his ears, and the bleeding stopped immediately.

As I expected, the bloodstains were absorbed by the rocks in the blink of an eye, leaving not a trace.

Volume Five: The Millennium Labyrinth

Part 1: Deep Underground

— Chapter 9 — Has the Great God Tu Liehan Reappeared? —

"Thank you. Actually, if I hadn't been so hasty, I wouldn't have gotten injured. Our enemy is trapped behind that 500-ton metal door, and unless he gets cosmic energy from another planet, he'll never escape. But the energy traps he laid outside the door still tore several wounds in my body. Now, my biggest worry isn't the threat from him anymore, but a brand new energy ball approaching—"

He sighed helplessly, seemingly unwilling to elaborate on the bad news.

The drumbeats echoed, making the location even clearer: right there in that open courtyard.

"If you could explain the situation in more detail, perhaps I could help. At least I know who is making that drumming sound, and I even have some connections with them."

"Really?" His lips twitched, as if he was trying his best to suppress the laughter that was about to burst out.

In his eyes, all the battles that determine fate will take place between great figures, not between a young man like me who has stumbled in.

"The indigenous people of the Nile River basin skinned crocodiles to make drums, and carved drumsticks from the crocodile's upper jawbone. The sound they produced was extremely hoarse and harsh, something that no other national musical instrument in the world could imitate. These entirely handmade instruments were produced in very small quantities and had extremely poor standardization, so to this day, it is impossible to find two crocodile drums in the world with exactly the same tone. I have heard the same sound, and I know who the owner of that sound is—"

I tried to explain to him, almost mentioning the names of the Great God Tu Liehan, Elder Sahan, and Youlian, but he uncontrollably interrupted me: "Your way of thinking is absurd. I'm certain that what's about to emerge from the ground won't be Earthlings, but rather highly advanced aliens—aliens, do you understand? Their space travel technology is tens of thousands of times more advanced than Earth's, and their use of energy is beyond the limits of human comprehension..."

He paced back and forth, waving one hand in the air, his emotions running high.

Suddenly, the density of falling snowflakes increased tenfold, almost completely obscuring my vision. I stretched out my hand again, and within a second, snowflakes covered my palm; the warmth of my body couldn't melt them in time.

“This is impossible… This doesn’t look like snow, it’s an avalanche—” I couldn’t help but whisper.

The density of natural snowfall could never reach this level. When I withdrew my hands, my palms were full of white feathers, radiating a bone-chilling cold.

Alpha stopped against the stone wall, gazing at the thick snow curtain. His Adam's apple bobbed, and crimson blood trickled from the thin, thread-like wound. A few minutes later, his vision was completely blocked by snow, and all he could see was a silvery white expanse, as if he were facing a brand-new white curtain.

In my entire travel career, only one unexpected avalanche in the Alps can compare to this. The only difference is that the avalanche was accompanied by a terrifying howling wind, while at this moment the world was completely silent, nothing could be seen or heard, only a despairing pure white.

“The end of the world has come… I feel it’s about to break free of its constraints and tear apart all the barriers of its seals… The power of Earthlings can never withstand the impact of extraterrestrial beings. I’ve done my best… I’ve done my best…” Alpha murmured in a low voice.

Outside the cave entrance, a faint thud could be heard, like a heavy hammer slamming into an iron gate. In an instant, the sound of a crocodile-skin drum also boomed, becoming the accompaniment to the swinging hammer.

I'll set aside for now why the drumbeats belonging to the great god Tu Liehan are appearing here; I just want to resolve the current predicament first.

"Do not try to resist the power of those drumbeats; they are not the enemy. Under no circumstances should the sealed ones be allowed to break free." This conclusion was reached entirely from a flash of insight deep within my mind—my lifelong trusted sixth sense. In countless previous predicaments, it was precisely with its help that I was able to turn danger into safety step by step.

A large cloud of blood spurted from Alpha's wound, which invigorated him, and the snow outside thinned considerably.

“Not enemies? All forces that target the ‘Asian Gear’ are enemies… enemies of Earthlings…” After the blood mist dissipated, his spirits waned again, and the snow curtain raged even more fiercely.

I turned abruptly and grabbed his hands. He was currently using a technique similar to the "Heavenly Demon Disintegration Technique" to unleash his body's full potential in order to fight against the invisible force behind the snow curtain.

"What are you trying to do?" His eyes suddenly blazed with fury, and he flipped his wrists, instantly unleashing more than a dozen different grappling techniques to dismantle my grab, but it was all in vain. Once I grasped the mystery of the "Transcending Distance Blade," spatial distance ceased to exist; as long as I "thought" and "saw," I could accomplish the target action.

"Don't move." I placed my fingers on his hands and tightened them immediately, stopping him from struggling further.

His fingers were cold, like popsicles stored in a freezer. I gathered my inner strength and poured it into his palm like a stampede of horses.

"Don't move. We're in the same boat. At least we can fight together." I whispered in my mind, staring into the eyes behind the mask. A normal person's eyeball forms a standard convex lens image, but his eyes were purely flat, reflecting only a small part of my face, like two ordinary little mirrors.

He grunted in his throat, stopped struggling, and voluntarily gave up his body's defenses, allowing the heat from my palm to penetrate him.

“You have seen my world—” That was his “heart’s voice.”

“That’s not just your world, it’s the world of all people on Earth, there are no secrets.” I replied immediately.

When two people's thoughts connect, their energies merge, and their consciousness becomes similar, their inner worlds are almost in a state of "sharing." I could sense the environment he had lived in before—the mountains and rivers, the wind and rain, the city, the sounds of people—it was no different from what I had experienced.

His fingers gradually warmed, and in the silent energy conversion, I felt a powerful offensive from a third party—surging, fierce, chilling, and wild—completely controlling everything outside the cave entrance.

"Who is that? A six-armed god? The common enemy of the human world?" I already had vague answers to these three questions, but I just wanted to get further confirmation from Alpha. After quickly assessing the balance of power, I came to a somewhat disheartening conclusion: "The opponent is too powerful. Even if Alpha and I join forces, we have no chance of winning."

Alpha broke free of his hand: "All the data indicates that he came from Mars, and his spacecraft was a 'multi-stage linkage type.' It just happened to collide with the Earth's atmosphere and instantly disintegrated, crashing to the ground. If he hadn't suffered such a severe injury, I wouldn't have been able to seal him here in the past—" He pointed to the cave entrance, "Look, as soon as the snow stopped, his power temporarily subsided."

In my mind, the sudden, heavy snowfall must represent the result of a clash between two forces. When Alpha and I joined forces, the energy balance immediately changed dramatically, forcing the other side to back down and temporarily retreat.

“The energy within your body is astonishing, but unfortunately, you don’t seem to know how to use it effectively. In this respect, you are worlds apart from Yang Tian.” He seemed slightly disappointed.

"He helped you before, didn't he?" I explored Alpha's inner world, wondering if he had also learned my secrets.

"Yes, fifteen years ago, when I felt my energy was about to run out and I could no longer continue, he appeared, repelled the Martian attack, and transferred a considerable amount of energy to me. I originally thought that with his help, I could finally wipe out the enemy and completely eliminate the threat from alien creatures, but I failed to seize the opportunity and let him go." As he began to recall history, his eyes became dim, and his chest heaved, clearly regretting the missed opportunity.

"Is that really the case?" I sensed something he was deliberately avoiding, but in my eagerness, I couldn't grasp the truth.