pozo profundo

Capítulo 68

Upon closer inspection, I gasped in horror. These zombies were the same corpses in warlord uniforms I'd seen in the cave! Now free from the constraints of the Moonshadow Grass roots, they seemed to have come back to life, lunging at us with their blood-red left eyes wide open, while their right eyes were like bottomless abysses. Looking at the Moonshadow Clan members, it seemed that the mere touch of these zombies caused their skin to rot and fester. Their heart-wrenching screams of pain echoed across the entire grassland, transforming it into a living hell in an instant.

"What's going on? What's going on?" Yuewa cried out in panic, seemingly unable to understand how these zombies had suddenly come back to life.

"Lin Xiao," Li Hai suddenly whispered in my ear, "Look ahead!"

Following his words, I looked into the distance, and there, where the grassland met the horizon, a gigantic black gate was gradually emerging. Wasn't this the passage we came in through? We could get out! My heart immediately filled with excitement!

"Don't be too happy yet!" Li Hai's next words immediately poured cold water on my enthusiasm: "Don't forget Yuewa and the others, and these zombies!"

"Let's run over there while things are in disarray!" I quickly replied.

"My body hasn't fully recovered yet, I can't fight them," Li Hai said in a low voice.

"Don't be discouraged, there's always a way." I replied softly. As long as there's a way back, there's always a way to get there. But there's still no news from Baiyun. Could it be that she really is as I suspect...? No! I can't let my mind wander. I quickly shook my head, but my hand unconsciously reached for the little thing in my pocket.

"Damn it, keep an eye on them!" Yuewa seemed unable to bear watching her people being killed one by one by the zombies. After throwing a sentence to An Zhengdong, she immediately rushed into the killing field. In the flash of white light, many zombies were instantly torn to pieces. Unfortunately, those broken limbs were still alive, writhing on the ground, and soon reassembled into zombies. Faced with these seemingly indestructible zombies, the Yueying clan quickly fell into a disadvantageous position. As their clansmen dwindled, the number of zombies attacking Yuewa increased.

I looked at An Zhengdong. Although I didn't know what expression was on the face under the mask of the dead man, I knew from his slightly trembling body that he was also starting to feel afraid. A bold idea immediately flashed into my mind: rather than waiting to die, I might as well take a gamble.

"How about we make a deal?" I asked An Zhengdong.

"What?" An Zhengdong seemed surprised that I was still in the mood to make a deal.

"If you let us go, I have a way to get the three of us out of this barrier." I don't know if I'm sure I can get away with that method.

"Leave here?" An Zhengdong's tone was full of doubt. He glanced uneasily at Yuewa, then at us, and stood there silently. I knew he was weighing his options, but time was running out; the zombies were closing in.

"Do you want to die inside this barrier?" My tone became urgent.

“Alright! I agree, as long as you have a way to leave.” An Zhengdong, as expected of the head of the An family, made a decision quickly.

"Deal!" I immediately breathed a sigh of relief, then said to Li Hai, "Give me the crystal eye."

"What do you want?" Li Hai asked me as he handed me the crystal eyeball.

“Yuewa underestimated them too much. These zombies are obviously invincible. But I bet they’re afraid of something!” I gripped the crystal eye and said, “When we first got into that cave, these zombies were completely entangled by the roots of the Moonshadow Grass, but they started moving when I took it away. It seems that this crystal eye is the magic weapon that suppressed them.”

After saying that, I held the crystal eyeball in my hands and said, "These zombies don't have a right eye, which means they don't have a soul. This crystal eyeball is made up of the spiritual power condensed from the souls of countless lives. As long as we can activate the souls in the crystal eyeball, we will be able to suppress them."

"How do we expedite the process?" Li Hai asked hastily.

"I don't know." I rubbed my crystal eyes, feeling their warmth, and said, "So I can only try using that soul refining technique."

"What? You're not even sure?" Li Hai rolled his eyes, almost fainting.

"Let him try!" An Zhengdong, who trusted me greatly, said coldly from the side.

"How do I know it won't work if I don't try?" I took a deep breath and began to try to recall what was written in the book. I knew this was just last-minute cramming, so I was inevitably uneasy and unable to concentrate. I couldn't remember anything about the meridian pathways in the book. All I could do was feel a few streams of energy surging around in my dantian, and then I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my abdomen.

"Are you sure you can handle this?" Li Hai looked at me worriedly, his face seemingly blurred and distorted. I began to pray incessantly to all the gods of the East and West: Please, gods, don't summon me so hastily, since I haven't done anything wrong before!

Suppressing the pain caused by the chaotic surge of energy in my dantian, I tried to keep my mind clear. The description in the book gradually became clearer: the soul is a wave-like existence form of humanity, and waves are a form of energy. Everything is governed by the law of conservation of energy. Therefore, the so-called soul refining technique does not create an energy wave out of thin air, but rather refines the soul—the most mysterious wave in the world—into a form of energy that one can control, thereby connecting with space and time. When the mind reaches a state of clarity, you can feel this wave. And this wave is omnipresent; every object in the world possesses a soul.

Gradually, I felt something similar to sound waves filling the air around me, like the gentle lapping of water against my skin. The air was slowly transforming into an invisible pool of water. The crystal eye in my palm seemed to become a spring about to gush forth, and I could feel the ripples within it.

The physical pain was forgotten, and the fluctuations in my palm gradually expanded, enveloping the three of us like a growing sphere. More precisely, a small spherical barrier had formed with the crystal eye in my palm as its center. Glancing around, I noticed that the zombies seemed terrified of this spherical barrier, and they all cautiously retreated to the side.

The spherical barrier began to move. I desperately thought about that black door, and the barrier was drifting in that direction. Yuewa, who was nearby, rushed over when she saw this, but she was mercilessly bounced away a meter away from the barrier and fell heavily to the ground.

As the spherical barrier drew closer to the black gate, I gradually felt increasingly tired, my body feeling as if it had just run a 10,000-meter race, yet my spirit remained exceptionally high.

The crystal eyeball seemed to be constantly absorbing energy from the outside world. In a short while, the once lush forest withered and turned yellow. Soon, the entire forest was abandoned, leaving only bare peaks. Next, the grassland was also affected. The moonshadow grass was withering and dying off in large areas, revealing black soil. Then, the moisture in the soil seemed to evaporate completely, gradually forming cracks. It was practically the best demonstration of desertification.

All living beings were devoured of their vitality in the blink of an eye. It was impossible to stop it. The barrier within the Moonshadow Clan seemed to be collapsing, and even the red light of the moon in the sky was growing dimmer. I sensed the incredible power of this crystal eyeball, which seemed capable of devouring everything.

When the spherical barrier led us to the black gate, the only living thing in the entire Moonshadow Clan barrier was the grassland beneath our feet. The zombies and Moonshadow Clan members in the distance seemed to have stopped fighting and were all rushing towards us in panic.

Silently, the black gate opened to us, and the sphere slowly led us into the other side, which was also pitch black. Slowly, I felt my feet touch the ground again, and the surrounding air was extremely cold. Gradually, the light began to brighten. Looking up, I saw a statue of the Goddess of the Underworld. On her outstretched right hand sat a woman in white, her long, black hair moving without wind, obscuring most of her face.

"Who are you?" Li Hai asked, looking at the woman.

"The goddess is bound by the ropes of sin."

A torment that occurs once every hundred years.

She sheds the most lustrous tears.

When it all ends, light shines upon the earth.

Everything was bathed in this light and perished.

Did you see that?

The goddess's last tear.

This is the cleansing water that washes away all sins.

"Offer it to the Mother Goddess, please forgive our heavy sins." The woman's melodious singing voice echoed in the empty hall, the sound reverberating as if it were the chorus of countless voices.

"This is a folk song that has been passed down through the Moonshadow Clan. I've always wondered when it would all end. I never thought it would finally come today." The woman finished speaking softly, and her body floated down like a willow catkin. Hidden beneath her long, black hair was a face that I knew all too well.

********

Author's note: After seeing everyone's votes, it turns out so many people want a happy ending! It seems I need to reconsider. As for Li Hai, I'm afraid that can't be changed. The framework for the rest has already been laid out. I'm very sorry!

This volume is coming to an end. The next volume will focus more on criminal psychology, and Tian Niang and Lin Yao will appear more often. I hope everyone will continue to support it!

Volume Two: The Demon's Left Eye, Chapter Fifty: The Moonshadow Clan's Treasure

Volume Two: The Demon's Left Eye, Chapter Fifty: The Moonshadow Clan's Treasure

"Baiyun!?" Li Hai exclaimed in surprise. I quietly looked at Baiyun in front of me. Her originally wheat-colored skin had become pale and translucent without any color. Her eyes, which should have been playful, were now filled with resentment and a cold indifference as if she had seen through the world.

"Baiyun? I don't know if I am or not." Baiyun looked at me, and I found myself speechless. I simply took the little thing out of my pocket and handed it to her.

"Have you been to that cave too?" Baiyun asked, taking the small glass test tube.

"This is the thing you used to store perfume in college, right? Luckily, I still remember it," I said slowly.

“Yes, I think I remember it too!” Baiyun smiled and said, “But those memories are getting more and more blurry, and sometimes they feel so unreal. I’m wondering if, when two souls become one, they will share each other’s memories and thoughts from then on.”

"Two become one!? Who exactly are you?" Li Hai asked hurriedly.

"Me?" Bai Yun seemed to be asking himself, "Who am I? I don't know. Maybe I'm Bai Yun, or maybe I'm Yue Qi, the patriarch of the Moon Shadow Clan!"

"You're the clan leader? Then what about Yue Ji?" Li Hai asked curiously.

"She is a princess, but that doesn't mean she's the clan leader," Baiyun said slowly. "Yueji and Yuewa are the daughters of the previous clan leader, but they don't have the right to inherit the position. That's because the Moonshadow Clan's clan leader must be a woman born on the night of a full moon. The position of clan leader isn't what I want, but unfortunately, in this world, some people easily obtain what they don't truly desire, while others desire it but cannot obtain it. This leads to constant plundering and killing, isn't it ridiculous?"

I remained silent after hearing Bai Yun's words, while Li Hai and An Zhengdong beside me also seemed to be preoccupied with their own thoughts. Looking at Bai Yun's face, I suddenly realized how unfamiliar she was. Was it because Yue Qi's soul still resided within her, or because I had never truly understood Bai Yun?

"Were those zombies that appeared on the grassland controlled by you?" Li Hai broke the silence and asked.

"Those things?" Bai Yun smiled faintly and asked, "What kind of people do you think the Moonshadow Clan is?"

What kind of people? Aren't they one of the four ancient spirit races? We are a little puzzled by Baiyun's strange question.

"The Moonshadow Clan possesses the most powerful magic among the four ancient spirit races, but the price is that their bodies are extremely fragile. They must live within the Moonshadow Clan's protective barrier for extended periods, unable to roam freely in this world like the other three races. When someone possesses immense magical power yet cannot wield it freely, the resulting desire is astonishing. And desire is often a force that pushes people to hell. Finally, one day, the clansmen, consumed by desire, somehow obtained a method to modify the Moonshadow Grass, allowing its roots to absorb human souls every hundred years. As long as a clansman drinks the juice of this Moonshadow Grass, a small Moonshadow Clan barrier will form on their body, allowing them to move freely." Bai Yun slowly recounted the Moonshadow Clan's past: "However, the Moonshadow Grass requires an enormous amount of souls. Therefore, to ensure a sufficient supply of souls every hundred years, the clansmen fabricated a legend—a legend about the Moonshadow Clan's treasure!"

"What?! Does this mean the Moonshadow Clan doesn't have any treasure at all?" An Zhengdong, who had been silent all along, suddenly shouted in surprise.

"Heh heh~~!" Bai Yun glanced at An Zhengdong mockingly and said, "Of course not. The treasure is just a pretext to lure greedy people into the Moonshadow Grassland. Only those fictitious treasures can attract countless people and make their disappearances go unnoticed. Because others will assume that those people died while searching for the treasure, or they will simply think that those people have found the treasure and are now living in seclusion! But it is precisely this illusory thing that allows the Moonshadow Clan to obtain countless souls without lifting a finger!"

"No...it's impossible! It's impossible, you must be lying to me!" An Zhengdong shouted almost frantically. Perhaps, for him, the treasure of the Moon Shadow Clan was the motivation for him to survive.

"A lie? Yes, it's a lie! The Moonshadow Clan is a race that deceives everyone in the world. The allure of money is truly great; it can actually trick so many people into dying. Hahaha~~!" Bai Yun laughed loudly. Surprisingly, no one had ever doubted the authenticity of the treasure. Was this human stupidity or was the allure of the treasure simply too great?

“Those zombies must be the same army that was lured here by the treasure, right?” I asked.

"Yes, they came looking for treasure, but they didn't expect to lose their lives instead," Baiyun said.

"Since the Moonshadow Grass juice allows your people to move freely, why are they now bound?" I asked again.

"In the Moonshadow Clan, when the clan leader dies and there's no successor, the position is always filled by the descendant of the previous leader. So, when I wasn't looking, Moon Princess pushed me off the cliff. Unfortunately, she was too eager for the position; she couldn't wait to extract all the secrets known only to the clan leader from me. As a result, although she knew the location of the Crystal Eye, she lacked the ability to control it. Without the Crystal Eye's activation, the Moonshadow Grass could only channel its soul into it but couldn't truly absorb it. Without the Moonshadow Grass juice that had absorbed souls, the clan naturally lost its way." "They've lost the ability to freely enter and exit the barrier." After saying this, Baiyun slowly raised his head to look at the statue of the Goddess Senluo, and said, "The freedom of our people was bought with the souls of countless people! Such sins caused the Mother Goddess to abandon us, and even the most fervent prayers cannot wash away our sins. A star-seeker in the tribe once prophesied the extinction of the entire tribe: the crystal eye that could bring freedom could also bring death. I just didn't expect the day of extinction to come so soon!" After saying this, Baiyun gave us a strange smile, and the entire hall began to tremble violently, shaking as if in an earthquake.

"What happened?" the three of us asked in unison.

"It's all over. The sinful people will be buried," Baiyun said softly.

"Get out of here!" Li Hai shouted at me, but when I tried to move, I found that I couldn't move at all. Looking at Li Hai and An Zhengdong, they seemed to be frozen in place as if they had been frozen in place.

Damn it! I tried to struggle a few times, but to no avail. Just as I was about to borrow the magic of the crystal eye again, I felt the crystal eye fly out of my hand on its own and fly to Baiyun's side.

Baiyun grasped the crystal eyeball floating in the air, then looked at me and said, "Lin Xiao, don't be afraid. I won't let you die. I'll take you away, as long as you behave. You know what? Although Yueqi's soul dominates my body, and Baiyun's memories are just a blurry shadow, her love for you is exceptionally clear in my soul. I can feel it. This is the first time I've felt love so strongly. It's all thanks to Baiyun. I will love you well in her place."

"You're not the real Baiyun, you have no right to love me in her place!" I almost shouted at her in response. No one can love another person in place of another, not even if they possess a part of the soul.

"You still won't accept me?" Baiyun looked at me with mournful eyes, her body seemingly unaffected by the violently shaking hall, drifting straight toward me.

I closed my eyes, not wanting to see her face. Although my body couldn't move, the energy within me began to stir, and my meridians seemed to begin to wriggle strangely.

"You don't even want to look at me?" Baiyun cupped my face in her hands, her long fingernails touching the wound on my left eye, causing a sharp, needle-like pain.

"But it doesn't matter. As long as I replace your left eye with this crystal eyeball, you will behave obediently!" Bai Yun's joyful voice sounded more terrifying than a demon to me. I opened my eyes in panic, only to see Bai Yun's smug smile.

"I won't be your puppet, release us now!" I shouted angrily at Baiyun.

"Don't worry, nothing will happen. As long as you have this crystal eye, you can become very powerful." Bai Yunxiang was coaxing a child.

"I don't want to become stronger, don't you understand?" I said, a little annoyed. But Baiyun seemed to ignore my shouting, her fingernails already reaching the corners of her eyes.

Ouch! I felt a stinging pain on the surface of my eyeball. The instant Baiyun's fingernail pierced deep into my eye, the excruciating pain was like a sharp knife slicing through the meridians that were already brimming with energy throughout my body. The feeling of my whole body expanding as if it were about to explode made me scream, and at the same time, my body miraculously regained its freedom, falling heavily backward. Baiyun pounced on me again, her fingernails still stained with my blood. The burning pain told me: this left eye might be ruined!

I grabbed Baiyun's outstretched hand and pulled hard, pinning her down beneath me and gripping her neck tightly.

"Quickly help me remove the restraints on Li Hai, or do you believe I'll strangle you?" I tried my best to look fierce.

"Hahaha~~~~ Hahaha~~!" Bai Yun laughed instead of getting angry, saying, "Would someone who has already died once be afraid of dying again?"

"You!" I exclaimed in alarm. The main hall was shaking more and more violently, and the creaking sounds seemed to announce its impending collapse.

"If we can't be born on the same day as each other, then dying on the same day is not bad either!" Baiyun didn't seem to struggle at all, letting me press down on her, and the smile on her face was surprisingly calm.

"Damn it!" I let go in frustration. Even though I knew she wasn't the real Baiyun anymore, I still couldn't bring myself to kill her. Disgusted with myself, I got up and ran towards Li Hai.

"Li Hai, can you move?" I touched Li Hai's stiff body; his face was flushed red. Seeing Li Hai unable to move, I became as anxious as an ant on a hot pan. Looking up at the violently shaking ceiling, I gritted my teeth and decided to carry Li Hai on my back and leave this hellish place.

"Do you hate me that much?" Baiyun's voice suddenly appeared in my ear like a ghost. Before I could react, Baiyun had already hugged me tightly from behind. Instantly, I felt my body go numb and unable to move again.

"Shall we go together? To a place where no one will bother us!" The crystal eyeball in Baiyun's hand shone brightly again, like a layer of luminous powder falling on Baiyun and me. Gradually, I felt my eyelids getting heavy. I was so sleepy, so eager to sleep, but the constant surge of energy within my body reminded me clearly that my body was in a state of heightened arousal. The agony of wanting to sleep but being unable to make me groan.

Boom! The main hall had begun to collapse, and the falling dust made it hard for me to breathe. The air inside my body was rushing wildly towards the ring on my finger. Thump, thump, I felt my heartbeat through the ring on my finger, and the ripples in the air flowed through my body like waves.

My fingers gradually regained movement, and those strange gestures reappeared before my eyes. I subconsciously followed along with the movements. Suddenly, the white cloud behind me began to tremble violently, yet it still held me tightly. I knew that as long as she let go, my soul refining technique would be useless against her.