pozo profundo

Capítulo 57

"Master, please let me go!" The boy shook the old man who was sitting still, pleading, "You know perfectly well that Senior Brother is facing a fatal calamity and you still won't let me go to help him. Are you even a master anymore?"

"Yihong, it's not that I don't want to help your senior brother." The old man looked regretfully at his last disciple and said, "It's just that this is all his fate, and he can't escape it."

"I don't care! He can't escape, but I can at least help him!" Yihong stomped her foot in a huff and said.

"No." The old man only uttered these three firm words before closing his eyes again, ignoring Yi Hong's shaking and pleas.

"Hmph!" Yi Hong snorted angrily. "You won't let me go, but I'll go anyway! If you don't agree, I'll sneak down the mountain tonight." With that thought, Yi Hong stopped bothering the old man and turned to leave.

"Trying to leave?" The old man suddenly stood up and grabbed the boy by the collar, saying, "You're going to the Qiankun Cave behind the mountain to cultivate right now!"

"What? Qiankun Cave? This trip will take a year and a half? I'm not going! I'm not going!" Yi Hong kicked his legs in the air, trying to escape from the old man's clutches, but he was too small and could only watch helplessly as the old man dragged him behind the mountain.

The old man, carrying the pitiful Yi Hong, arrived at a weed-covered cliff on the back mountain. With a wave of his hand, the cliff instantly transformed into the entrance to a cave, with the three large characters "Qiankun Cave" written above it.

"You stay inside and cultivate. I'll come and get you whenever you want to come out." After saying that, the old man threw Yi Hong into the cave. As soon as Yi Hong was thrown into the cave, the entrance immediately returned to its previous state of being overgrown with weeds, as if nothing had happened.

"Sigh!" The old man let out a heavy sigh, feeling as if something was pressing down on his chest. He looked up at the west and muttered to himself, "Li Hai, Li Hai, I've done all I can. Whether you can escape is up to you!"

Volume Two: The Devil's Left Eye, Chapter Thirty-Three: Return to the Human Realm

Volume Two: The Devil's Left Eye, Chapter Thirty-Three: Return to the Human Realm

Not far away, wisps of black smoke were gradually gathering on the plain, twisting and transforming into human shapes. Wasn't that Mu Wanrong from before? I helped Li Hai take a step back.

"Give me back my children!" The mournful voice rang out again, and the humanoid figure made of black smoke twisted and contorted.

What should I do? What should I do now? I stared helplessly at the wispy black smoke in front of me. The resentment here sent a chill down my spine. My left eye started to feel very uncomfortable, and my whole body felt uneasy, as if something was moving around inside me.

Mu Wanrong was getting closer and closer, and the child skulls beneath her feet began to crackle and slowly wriggle. She sank slowly as if sinking into quicksand, and in a moment, the tiny skulls had completely submerged her feet.

"Hurry up, if we get buried by these things, we're really doomed!" Li Hai tried hard to lift his feet, but the skulls seemed to have already opened their mouths and bitten us, fixing us firmly in place, and no matter how much we struggled, we couldn't take a step.

My left wrist was already red and swollen. I gritted my teeth and tried to grab the skull that was already up to our knees, but the skull was being submerged even faster. The red ghost characters in my palm began to glow slightly, and I felt as if someone was piercing my skin with countless steel needles.

"Li Hai!" I turned to him, wanting him to think of a solution quickly, but I didn't expect his face to be even paler than before, his lips had turned white, and the blood gushing from his right shoulder had stained his entire right side of his body a shocking red.

My body was sinking faster and faster, the skulls pressing against my chest and back making it hard to breathe. Looking at Li Hai, I saw his shoulder wound was bleeding profusely from the pressure. The skulls swelled up the moment they touched the blood, as if it were their food. At this rate, Li Hai would either suffocate or bleed to death! I struggled to reach out and try to pry the skulls away, but one of the skulls, now completely red, suddenly snapped at me. Before I could even pull my hand back, I felt a piercing pain in my fingers.

Ouch! I screamed as the remaining teeth of the skull were clamping down on my fingers, and I felt the pain of my bones being squeezed.

"Quick...quickly use the character for 'ghost' to...use it!" Li Hai said to me with difficulty.

The word "ghost"? I was stunned for a moment, then quickly opened my left hand. A beam of red light immediately shot out from my palm, shining directly at the skull that was biting my finger. At that moment, I actually saw a trace of terror on the bone that had long since lost all facial muscles.

The instant the skull slightly loosened its grip, I immediately pulled my hand back. My middle and ring fingers, where I had been bitten, were already bleeding profusely, and the bones were clearly visible. There was no time to think, because Li Hai and I were completely submerged in the skull, with only our heads sticking out. If a third person were to see this, the scene would surely be bizarre and terrifying—two heads sandwiched between a vast expanse of skulls, appearing utterly out of place.

The black smoke around Mu Wanrong began to swirl rapidly around Li Hai and me. The black whirlwind that lashed my face felt like a knife, and the pain almost brought tears to my eyes.

I felt suffocated, my chest was tight, and my vision was blurry and unreal. I couldn't move my entire body except for my left hand. I felt that the word "ghost" was still having some effect, at least the skull in my left hand was slightly loosening.

When I looked at Li Hai, I immediately felt a chill run down my spine. The black whirlwind was like a peeling machine; Li Hai's entire head had become a skull without skin, revealing the blood-red muscle tissue inside, just like a skull specimen displayed in a university anatomy lab. The bulging eyeballs and the mouth without lips made me feel like everything was going black.

********

He stood blankly on the ruins of the An family. The wind blew, stirring up fallen leaves. Everything seemed normal. There was no gate to the other side, nor was there the ghost of Mu Wanrong.

Mu Wanrong? The thought of this woman filled him with immense frustration and turmoil. How could he possibly vent his anger? His frustration contained boundless rage, and his agitation contained utter despair.

He stomped hard on a tree branch, seemingly venting his frustration on it. His face, hidden by the dead man's mask, revealed nothing.

"What are you doing here?" A woman suddenly appeared behind him.

He shuddered and said coldly, "I didn't do anything."

"Didn't you do anything?" the woman said sternly. "I clearly sensed an unusually strong resentment here. Someone must have opened the gate to the underworld."

"No!" He replied in a cold tone, but there was a hint of fear in his voice.

“You can’t kill him until he fully understands the art of soul refining; he’s still useful to us,” the woman said.

"If he can't come back alive, do you think he'll still have the ability to perform the Soul Refining Technique?" He looked at the woman before him, knowing that everything he had done could send him to hell a hundred times over, but it was all for her! Why do you never acknowledge my love? Is that person really that good?

"He'll come back." With that, the woman turned and disappeared from his sight once more...

"Is that so?" He laughed coldly. "No one can come back from the underworld, can they?"

*********

All around me was pitch black. I felt myself floating in this claustrophobic dark space. Li Hai was nowhere to be found. Loneliness and fear were tightly enveloping me, making it hard for me to breathe.

Is this what it feels like to be near death? So lonely and desolate, so cold, I long for a warm embrace. I slowly curled up, like a fetus in its mother's womb. Is this how we come into this world and how we leave?

My whole body trembled slightly, and something inside me was gathering at my brow. I felt a strange fluctuation in the space, pulsating in unison with what was inside me. I closed my eyes and listened intently to the sound that seemed both distant and near.

Thump, thump...

It sounded like a heartbeat, yet it didn't. My body gradually began to feel a familiar yet strange sense of embrace, as if the fluctuations in space were calling to every cell in my body. Something was surging in my pineal gland between my eyebrows, and the slight pain actually made my whole body relax. The jade pendant on my chest was still warm against my chest, feeling as if it were about to be imprinted into my skin.

Strange runes flashed before my eyes and were imprinted deep in my mind. I suddenly felt that the strange fluctuations in the space must be the souls floating in this space, lost in this space between the underworld and the world of the living, unable to find a way out.

Opening my eyes, countless skulls suddenly appeared in the dark space. Strangely, each skull had a small, pale golden light that shimmered gently between its eyebrows, illuminating the dark space like stars. My own brow began to heat up, and I felt it emitting the same light.

I blinked, and gradually, red muscles and white tendons, eyeballs, and skin emerged from those skulls… like the order in which God created man, all sorts of faces appeared, old and young, male and female. I really don't know how to describe the feeling right now; everything was changing like a slow-motion scene in a movie, as if God was showing me his wonder. Among those formed faces were some familiar ones, some vaguely familiar ones, and some completely unfamiliar ones. Perhaps these are all the faces I've ever seen in my life, but people always filter out memories that are irrelevant to themselves.

The light between my brows grew increasingly intense, the pale golden glow causing every pore on my body to open. I felt waves of energy coursing through me, and memories of people I knew and didn't recall flashed through my mind. Countless emotions—sadness, joy, anger, resentment, warmth—overwhelmed me, a raw and natural experience of human joys and sorrows never before felt. I could even feel the boiling of every drop of blood within me.

The originally dark space was getting brighter and brighter. I felt the air becoming heavy, and the faces in front of me began to look unreal, disappearing before me like wisps of smoke evaporating into the air.

When my feet touched the ground again, my body swayed from the shock, and I gasped for breath. I finally knelt down. There seemed to be a figure lying on the ground in front of me; upon closer inspection, I realized it was Li Hai!

Looking up, I realized I was back on the ruins of Anjia. Stumbling to my feet, I bit my tongue hard. Ouch! It seemed I really was back, not a hallucination! That's great! I almost cheered on the spot, but when I thought of the horrific injuries I'd seen at Tonggui River and Li Hai, my heart immediately turned cold.

I looked nervously at Li Hai, who seemed to have moved slightly! I quickly stepped forward and helped Li Hai up. The wound on his right shoulder seemed to have clotted, but the large pool of blood still made me frantically wipe it away.

"Oh~~~" A soft groan came from Li Hai's throat, and he frowned slightly in his unconscious state.

"Li Hai, Li Hai!" I gently shook Li Hai.

Slowly, Li Hai finally managed to open his eyes with difficulty. At that moment, I really wanted to set off firecrackers to celebrate.

"Great, you're awake!" I helped Li Hai up from the ground. He seemed to still have the strength to walk.

"How...how did I get back?" Li Hai seemed unable to believe that he was so lucky to be able to return to the mortal world from the Tonggui River. He had truly escaped with his life.

“I don’t know either!” I shook my head and said, “Just now I saw many skulls turn into countless faces, and then they emitted a pale golden light.”

“Skull? Face?” Li Hai looked at me with a strange expression and said, “I just felt darkness all around me, and then there was a pale golden light.”

"Really?" I raised an eyebrow. Was I the only one who could see those things? Oh well, at least I'm back alive, and that's more important than anything else.

"What do we do now?" Li Hai asked, touching his wound.

"Go to the hospital? Your wound..."

"No need!" Li Hai interrupted my suggestion, saying, "I feel like it's nothing anymore. It seems like that pale golden light has a healing effect. We can't leave here yet."

"Well..." I looked at Li Hai with concern before saying, "Then let's do as you say. Let's go back to the temple now!"

The air around me was humid, perhaps because it was evening. I suddenly felt that familiar fluctuation in the air, but when I looked around, there was nothing there.

"What's wrong?" Li Hai asked.

"It's nothing." I smiled and helped Li Hai walk toward the temple that seemed to float before our eyes.

Li Hai and I remained silent the entire way, feeling the fluctuations in the air surging around us, omnipresent, subtle yet ever-present, sometimes strong, sometimes weak. Surrounded by this vast forest, I was fully immersed in this sensation, a feeling akin to being in my mother's womb—a feeling we must have forgotten after birth. Humans are born with the ability to sense these fluctuations, but worldly concerns have blinded our perception, making us children forgotten by God. The mountains, the water, the trees, silently sensed these fluctuations; it was a gift from God, but humanity's excessive indulgence has caused us to lose this most fundamental ability.

The stars in the sky began to shine brightly. There should be no absolute darkness in this world; even in the night, God has given us stars and the moon. Then what about the human heart? Is there no absolute darkness there either? I sighed, realizing I had become so sentimental. I smiled self-deprecatingly and looked up at the temple gate. A slender figure stood there quietly, like a white cloud.

"Lin Xiao?" Bai Yun seemed to have seen me and immediately flew towards us like a little bird.

"Baiyun!?" I stopped in my tracks, stunned, as Baiyun, her face streaked with tears and filled with anxiety, rushed towards me. She was crying?! For whom was she crying? For me?

"You...you're finally back?" Baiyun suddenly laughed again, but tears still clung to her face.

"Ah...yes!" I didn't know how to answer for a moment. Was she worried about me?

"It's good to be back. You've been gone all day. I thought something had happened to you!" Baiyun considerately helped me support Li Hai.

"Something happened, but it's all over now." I smiled and let it go, not intending to tell Baiyun about Guihe, perhaps because I didn't want her to worry again.

Back in the room, Baiyun busied herself preparing hot water and dinner. Watching her busy figure, I felt a little embarrassed.

"This... Baiyun." I stopped Baiyun, who was about to pour water for us, and said, "I can do it myself."

"It's nothing, I'll do it." Baiyun still insisted on pouring hot water for us, feeling more like an older sister taking care of two naughty younger brothers.

After Baiyun cleaned and bandaged Li Hai's wounds, it was already very late. After seeing off the exhausted Baiyun, I was wide awake.

"She's very good to you!" Li Hai said slowly as he drank his water.

"Bro, wasn't she serving you just now?" I rolled my eyes at him and said.

“But her eyes are always on you!” Li Hai joked with me.

"Alright!" I gently patted Li Hai's shoulder, successfully making him wince in pain, and said, "Let's discuss the matter of Tong Gui River."

"What, do you have a question?" Li Hai asked.

“Nonsense! The fact that we came out so unscathed is the biggest question! But we can put that aside for now!” I said, taking out paper and pen from my bag. “We can start by roughly drawing up a family tree for the An family.”

I spread out the paper, hurriedly wrote down what was on my mind, and then handed it to Li Hai.

Marital relationship: An Zhengdong and Mu Wanrong

Son: An Ran

An Zhengnan

romantic relationship: An Zhengxi and Xu Li

An Zhengbei and Mu Wanrong

Son: Anyi

“Look,” I pointed to the paper and explained, “An Zhengdong, An Zhengnan, An Zhengxi, and An Zhengbei are siblings. According to what we know now, it seems that only An Zhengdong was married thirty years ago, and his wife was Mu Wanrong, who had a relationship with his uncle An Zhengbei. An Zhengnan wasn’t married at the time, and although An Zhengxi had a lover named Xu Li, he didn’t marry because of his brothers’ objections. If An Zhengdong and Mu Wanrong’s son is An Ran, then let’s assume for now that An Yi is Mu Wanrong and An Zhengbei’s illegitimate son. So, the question is, why did Mu Wanrong, summoned by the Gate of the Other Shore, ask for my children back?”

"What's wrong with that? Doesn't she have two sons?" Li Hai looked at me with a puzzled expression and asked.

"No!" I shook my head firmly and said, "Give me back my children. When would a mother say that?"

"Of course, it's when the child was taken away!" Li Hai replied, touching his wound.

“That’s right! Don’t forget, An Ran is the legitimate eldest son of the An family, there’s no need to take him away from Mu Wanrong. What she must have taken away is An Yi, the illegitimate child she had with Xu Li because of their affair! Since An Yi is a child, why would she use the plural form of ‘children’?” I emphasized the word “plural”.