pozo profundo

Capítulo 51

Volume Two: The Devil's Left Eye, Chapter Twenty-Five: Reunion

Volume Two: The Devil's Left Eye, Chapter Twenty-Five: Reunion

The purple light flickered erratically, enveloping the surrounding scenery in layers of faint purple hues. Under the light, the mummified corpse appeared as vibrant as an oil painting. Was this death? I blinked, my mind capturing this fantastical scene like a camera shutter.

"Something's not right," Fang Lei said, looking around worriedly. "Don't you guys find it strange? This secret passage has been going straight ahead, and we should have already walked quite a distance. Why haven't we reached the end yet?"

"Don't worry, there's always an exit." I held Fang Lei's small hand to comfort her, but I couldn't help but feel uneasy. Was this secret passage really a dead end?

With a sigh, we continued forward, when suddenly the purple light emanating from the lotus hairpin intensified, shooting out purple lotus blossoms like fireworks bursting into bloom.

"Ah!" Fang Lei exclaimed in surprise. The hairpin in her hand began to shake violently, almost as if it was about to slip out of her grasp. Fang Lei quickly used both hands to hold it so that it wouldn't fall from her hands.

"What's going on?" I asked Fang Lei loudly. The purple lotus flowers that had shot out were now forming a circle, surrounding the three of us.

“It’s the Nine Heavens Lotus Formation, but how can it activate automatically?” Fang Lei answered, struggling to hold onto the constantly bouncing hairpin.

"Look!" came Abao's terrified voice, and I looked around.

Good heavens! I subconsciously touched the jade pendant on my chest. The corpse remains that were scattered all over the ground were now writhing rapidly. The already dried cut surface was now as if something was gushing out from inside, and the dark brown skin was pulsating.

With a snap, the skin suddenly burst open, and countless red and yellow blood vessels gushed out—if they could even be called blood vessels. These vessels writhed laboriously like earthworms, and in this writhing motion, the remains of the corpse gradually pieced together. Numerous blood vessels emerged from the cuts of each piece, then intertwined and tangled together, like knots, binding them together. Then, a foul-smelling yellow pus gushed from the cuts, and in moments, it glued the dried corpse remains together like glue, even the original wounds disappearing.

"Ugh!" Perhaps because Abao wasn't used to handling corpses, he couldn't handle the scene and his face immediately turned pale. He covered his mouth with his hand.

I turned and looked around. There were at least a dozen mummified corpses that had been reassembled, but in a practical sense, they could no longer be considered human bodies. Their reassembly was completely haphazard; it wasn't a matter of a torso having hands and legs, but rather a matter of proximity. The result was either a torso glued together to form three hands and one leg, or entirely composed of hands, crawling towards us on all fours like a wild beast. And the heads? They were glued to where the arms or legs had originally been. It was like a group of broken dolls that had been switched by a mischievous child. When the assembly of human bodies no longer followed God's will, it was truly an indescribable eeriness and horror.

"Lin Xiao!" A Bao grabbed my arm in terror. She didn't know that I was also feeling fear and disgust, but because I had dealt with the corpse for some time, I appeared calm on the surface.

The mummified corpses were gradually approaching us, and there seemed to be more and more of them. The pungent stench made us feel dizzy. The purple light on the hairpin was also getting weaker and weaker, swaying in the wind like a candle about to go out.

Turning to look at Fang Lei, her forehead was covered in sweat, and she looked as if she had been pulled from the water. The violent heaving of her chest indicated that she was rapidly depleting her magical power. The hairpin, still trembling, made her hands shake violently as well. The purple lotuses that had been spinning rapidly around us gradually began to slow down, and some even began to shed petals.

What to do? I looked at the mummies that had firmly surrounded the three of us, and my hand was already inside my clothes. Although last-minute preparations were futile, it was better than doing nothing and watching Fang Lei struggle alone.

I pulled out the book and, using the purple light from the hairpin, turned to the first page. Damn it! It was all traditional Chinese calligraphy, and not even regular script! Heavens, are you trying to mess with me?! I helplessly put the book back; studying an ancient character in this environment was definitely not a wise choice.

So, can I use that soul extraction technique now? I'm as anxious as an ant on a hot pan, but can these things still be considered beings with souls? Or should I say they're just toys of the devil?

"Ahhhhh!" Fang Lei suddenly let out a sharp scream from her throat. The purple light instantly brightened again, but she staggered and almost fell to the ground.

Damn it! I touched the jade pendant on my chest, then the ring on my left hand! Damn it, why aren't these things responding now that I need to save my life?

"Watch out!" A man's voice came from behind the secret passage, followed by a flash of white light like lightning.

That was Li Hai's voice! I was immediately jolted.

The white light and the purple lotus flowers mixed together, emitting an incredibly dazzling light like two violently intertwined electric currents. I couldn't help but squint my eyes. In a flash, the group of desiccated corpses on the ground scattered like building blocks, falling all over the ground.

"Fang Lei!" I quickly caught the swaying Fang Lei and looked up to see Li Yang supporting Li Hai, who was pale and panting heavily. Looking behind them, my heart tightened immediately; the bloodstains on the ground were rapidly dissolving.

"Li Yang, Li Hai!" A Bao ran towards them excitedly, but his face darkened as soon as he saw their condition.

"Are you alright?" I asked Fang Lei.

Fang Lei shook her head and said, "I'm just a little exhausted, but Li Hai isn't doing so well!"

"Abao, come quickly and see my brother!" Li Yang called out anxiously to Abao.

"Let me see!" Abao hurriedly went behind Li Hai to examine the wound, and said disappointedly, "I'm afraid I can't help with this!"

"How could I not be able to help? Didn't you just save me?" Li Yang shouted worriedly.

“There’s no way,” A Bao shook his head and said, “This is not just a simple physical injury. Our people’s blood cannot heal wounds caused by magic.”

"Then...what should we do?" Li Yang looked like a headless fly, turning to Fang Lei for help.

"Let me take a look!" Fang Lei walked over with difficulty, and I quickly helped Li Yang help Li Hai, who was too weak to speak, to sit on the ground.

Fang Lei's brows furrowed tightly as she looked at the wound on Li Hai's back with worry in her eyes. The injury shouldn't have been long ago, but the wound, clearly inflicted by some kind of claw, was already showing signs of rotting, and the bleeding was starting to ooze pus. The wound was much deeper than they had imagined, almost a laceration, with the pinkish muscle tissue still twitching slightly.

"Bear with it!" Fang Lei called out to Li Hai, then quickly took a yellow talisman from her pocket and stuck it to the wound. A puff of black smoke immediately rose from the talisman, and Li Hai's entire body twitched, probably due to the pain. In the blink of an eye, the entire talisman had turned completely black and curled up into a ball, like burnt tinfoil.

Aluminum foil! I immediately shook my head, trying to stop thinking about such unlucky things!

"How is it?" Li Yang asked Fang Lei hurriedly.

Fang Lei didn't speak, but opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something, but then swallowed the words back.

"Don't...don't ask!" Li Hai grabbed Li Yang's hand and said with difficulty, "I know about my injury."

"I know, I know! You always know everything!" Li Yang angrily shook off Li Hai's hand, his voice choked with emotion, "Do you know how worried I was? No matter how annoying you are, you're still my brother!"

"Hehe~~!" At this moment, Li Hai suddenly laughed happily and said, "You finally admit that I'm your brother!"

"Ha!" Li Yang stubbornly turned his head to the side, took a deep breath, and said, "I have always admitted it."

Looking at the twin brothers before me, I understood their feelings. No matter their disagreements or arguments, their relationship could not be severed. It was a bond destined from birth, a life arranged by fate, interconnected yet similar. Just like my older sister Lin Yao and me, always bickering, yet always making up.

"Is your blood really not good enough?" Li Yang asked A Bao again, unwilling to give up. A Bao shook his head apologetically.

Blood? I suddenly remembered that my blood had saved Fang Lei when she was poisoned by corpse poison. Maybe it would be useful now? Okay, I'll treat this as a last resort! With that thought, I quickly walked to the Antarctic Star Sword stuck in the ground and pulled it out.

"What do you want to do?" Fang Lei looked at me suspiciously as I walked over with the sword in my hand.

"Do you remember how my blood cured your corpse poison?" I looked at Fang Lei, then at Li Hai, and with a determined heart, I made a cut on my wrist. A sharp pain shot through my skin, and blood gushed out.

"Give it a try!" I gestured to Li Yang to straighten Li Hai, and then placed my bleeding wrist above Li Hai's wound, so that the dripping blood fell directly onto the festering wound.

"It itches so much!" Li Hai said through gritted teeth.

Although I don't believe in miracles, God made me believe at this moment that the word is not just a human fantasy. The pus on the wound slowly evaporated into a foul odor, and then began to heal! It was incredibly fast!

"Haha!" I laughed triumphantly, "My blood is a real treasure!" It seems we've gained another human portable first-aid kit.

Unfortunately, my smugness didn't last long before Abao's words plunged me into another abyss.

"You're going to turn into Tang Sanzang!" Abao pointed to the ground with a strange expression.

Looking down, I saw that the things that had been scattered back into the wreckage had started to wriggle again, and their target was... me!

No...no way! My face twitched, and I felt like I was about to burst into flames. This was truly an "honor"!

"Let me do it!" Li Hai, who had just finished, stood in front of me and shielded me behind him.

"You're just in time!" Li Yang grabbed Li Hai and dragged him back forcefully, while he himself stood at the very front.

"Stop arguing, we need to think of a solution!" Fang Lei said, blocking Li Hai from stepping forward.

"Your suggestion is good, but can you hurry up?" Abao said tremblingly, looking at the mummies who had already surrounded him.

"There it is!" I shouted, grabbing my still-bleeding wrist, but the mummies didn't seem to want to give us any more time to think; several of them had already climbed onto Li Yang's feet.

Just as we were all preparing to work our hardest, the place where we were standing suddenly shook violently, and large cracks appeared in the ground, causing us to sway unsteadily.

Thud! The sound of a rock falling from above hit us hard right in front of us.

"Watch out, everyone!" I yelled, but the ground had already begun to collapse, and we were sliding down rapidly like on a roller coaster, with objects falling due to gravity.

Suddenly everything went black, and I couldn't see anything anymore. In desperation, I just grabbed Fang Lei's hand.

***********

In the cold darkness, I felt a pair of hands stroking my cheeks, but they were so cold that I trembled uncontrollably. The touch of those fingertips made me uncomfortable. I opened my eyes and saw Baiyun. Her pale face was filled with worry. The intense white light around me made my eyes sting, and the muscles around my eyes cramped up.

"Where's Fang Lei?" My first thought was of her, but I overlooked the strange look that flashed across Bai Yun's eyes.

"Everyone's fine there!" Baiyun pointed to the side.

Thankfully, it seems no one is injured, which puts my mind at ease. Then I wondered, how did Baiyun end up here? And where is this place?

Looking around, the first thing I saw was an enormous statue—the statue of the Goddess of the Underworld, exactly the same as the one in the Underworld Palace. It stood alone in the exceptionally empty hall, the white light emanating from the oil lamps shaped like the masks of the dead on the walls was indeed more intense than daylight. Looking up at the ceiling, I realized we had just fallen from there, yet there was a completely blank ceiling above us. So how had we gotten into this hall? Although it resembled the Underworld Palace, it was much larger and more spacious.

I glanced at Fang Lei and the others again; they were probably still not fully awake. I got up from the ground and asked Bai Yun, "How did you get here? And how did you find us?"

"I don't know how I got here either. Anyway, after I got separated from you in the secret room, I woke up to find myself lying in this main hall! As for you, you all appeared after a flash of white light!" Baiyun replied.

Really? I looked at Baiyun with some skepticism, but she looked at me calmly. For some reason, I suddenly heard Yueji's strange words: "Always make sure you know who you can trust."

No, no! I immediately dismissed that thought. The person I knew first was actually Baiyun. Our four years of friendship in college made me understand her very well. She had no reason to lie to me or even hurt me.

Forget it, stop overthinking. Anyway, the fact that we're all back together is the most reassuring thing! Looking around, I suddenly realized that someone was still missing. Oh right, how could I have forgotten about Old Gen? I haven't seen him since that trap. I wonder if he's alright?

Looking up at the goddess of the underworld, her beautiful smile was still so familiar, but now it carried an eerie quality, as if she were watching us from above as we faced death with despair.

Volume Two: The Devil's Left Eye, Chapter Twenty-Six: Four Dents

Volume Two: The Devil's Left Eye, Chapter Twenty-Six: Four Dents

People often only learn to cherish things after they've lost them, or rather, they only realize the value of things they don't care about or even dislike when they're gone. Like right now, I'm incredibly nostalgic for the food in the police station cafeteria that I used to think was inedible! Holding Fang Lei's hand in one, and pressing the other tightly against my stomach, I'm being tormented by pain. I already have a mild stomach problem, and hunger is the worst thing for me. Whenever I'm hungry, my stomach feels like it's being cut with a knife; my entire abdomen is cramping, I'm sweating profusely, and my whole body is trembling. My vision is filled with stars, and I'm trying hard to imagine them as fragrant roasted chickens.

"Does your stomach hurt a lot?" Fang Lei asked with concern, gently rubbing my stomach with her small hands.

I nodded weakly and leaned my head back against the wall. I had no idea how long I and Fang Lei had been locked in this hall; time seemed to have been frozen by a can of super glue. The blinding white light made it impossible to distinguish between night and day. Looking at Li Yang and the others, they were all sitting listlessly on the ground, completely devoid of the energy they had when they first regained consciousness.

Yes, we may have been trapped for a day, or even longer. We had hoped that this hall might have some hidden mechanisms or secret passages, so we searched for a long time with that hope in mind, but this time, the goddess of hope did not smile upon us.

The scenery before us was already swaying a bit, and in my daze, the goddess of the underworld was curving a cruel smile on her lips, looking down at us lowly humans.

"Gurgle, gurgle~~!" A sound came from Fang Lei's stomach. Although it was unseemly, there was nothing we could do. We hadn't eaten anything all day, not even a drop of water. My lips were cracked and bleeding. I licked the slightly sweet and metallic blood off my lips, and my entire mouth felt like it was on fire.

"Let's look again!" Li Yang struggled to his feet and said to us, "I don't want to die here without anyone to collect my body."

"Can't we even use magic?" Abao looked up at Li Hai and Fang Lei and asked.

“It’s no use,” Li Hai shook his head helplessly and said, “It seems that magic can’t be used at all in this hall.”

"Perhaps it's because of the barrier!" Fang Lei's voice was a little hoarse.

"What incredibly unlucky!" I turned to look at Bai Yun, who sat silently on my other side. She seemed completely unconcerned, coldly staring ahead with an indifference I'd never seen before. My heart tightened. Something felt off. Even Li Hai and Fang Lei, who knew magic, looked exhausted, yet she was the only one who looked exactly the same as when we first entered the secret passage. Perhaps it was because she'd gone straight into the main hall, I explained to myself.

"No, we can't just wait to die!" Once Li Yang's stubborn temper flared up, no one could stop him. Shaking his head, Li Yang resumed searching for the mechanism.

"Fang Lei," I called softly to my lover beside me.

"Hmm?" Fang Lei tightened her grip on my hand, turning her head to face me. Her face was so close to mine, her fair skin devoid of color from hunger, yet her eyes shone like stars in the snow. Was that a longing for love and life? I gently stroked her palm with my thumb. I didn't want to die either; no one wants to die.

"What kind of house do you think we should buy in the future?" I wanted to change the subject so that my hungry body could temporarily forget the pain of the cut.

"Huh?" A faint pink blush spread across Fang Lei's face, a beautiful color that no rouge could match. Her shy cheeks were as delicate as peach blossoms in spring.