Histoires de fantômes

Chapitre 260

The speaker was not Alpha, Tang Xin, Tiger, or Gu Qingcheng, but an old and dejected man's voice.

"Who is it? Who is speaking?" Even with my hearing, I couldn't tell where the voice was coming from. Then, the old man's words turned into a crackling radio signal; I knew it was him speaking, but I couldn't understand a single word.

I turned my body around and scanned every corner of the yard, but found nothing.

"Energy..." a girl's voice chimed in, but only those two words were comprehensible; the rest was just rapid, distorted electronic serial noise.

"Energy..." another man's voice rang out, and the word "energy" appeared more and more frequently in their conversation, pronounced entirely in Mandarin. It was easy to imagine that their discussion revolved around "energy," and their voices were filled with barely suppressed joy.

Alpha was a hundred paces away at the gap in the courtyard wall, and with the swirling snow making it impossible for him to hear my shouts, I simply gave up on trying to communicate with him.

"Did the sound come from the earth's veins?" I suppressed the strong urge to go into the deep well to find out for myself, strode out of the yard, and the sound disappeared, and my ears returned to silence.

The pavilions here are of three shapes: triangular, square, and pentagonal, all mixed together. They are only about fifteen meters high, which is exactly the size of a three-story building. Of course, the building materials are still blue bricks and gray tiles, and they are divided into two parts, left and right, by the main road underfoot.

The strange formation set up by Alpha is very obscure. In my opinion, what he wanted to do was not a simple "seal", but deliberately left a lot of straight channels while sealing, forming countless secret passages that could be used to communicate between the sealer and the sealed.

The sealed person must be an enemy. What need is there for him to communicate with his enemy? This kind of "unspoken but ultimately harmful" arrangement is something that almost all feng shui masters would reject, yet it appears in his hands. What does this signify?

What puzzles me most is that crystals possess mysterious powers to ward off evil, suppress malevolent spirits, exorcise demons, and eliminate monsters. He has tens of thousands of crystals, enough to build a well, yet he refuses to allocate a portion of them as auxiliary power for the Qimen formation. This is simply unacceptable.

"Mr. Feng, where are you going? I'll accompany you." Tang Xin gracefully descended from the rooftop on the left, holding a crystal bottle filled with crystals in her hands.

Her face wore a bright and gentle smile, the kind of expression the tiger had longed for but could never see. From a noble, aloof, solitary, and lonely ice fairy to a charming, gentle, and demure young lady, she seemed to have completed the role change effortlessly, completely discarding the former Tang Xin without leaving a trace.

"I want to go to the end of this road." I smiled and nodded my thanks, clearing my mind of distractions and turning my attention back to my current predicament. It was pitiful for the tiger not to get Tang Xin, but if I got stuck here and missed the opportunity to rescue Su Lun, my fate would be a thousand times more tragic than the tiger's.

The only advantage of a world without time is that you don't have to worry about darkness or the endless cycle of "tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow." I quickened my pace, passing through rows of triangular, square, and pentagonal buildings, single-mindedly focused on moving forward.

"Mr. Feng, there's something I need to tell you—if Miss Suren really does enter the 'Asian Gear,' no one can save her. We can't get in there; the original path has been completely blocked." After a long silence, Tang Xin finally spoke up.

"Oh?" I replied casually, slowing my pace slightly.

The road ahead turned into a clear downhill slope, with the foundations of the buildings on both sides rising as the terrain decreased, maintaining the same height as the rooftops of the other buildings. The gray buildings, the pure white snow, and the dim yellow sky made my mood heavy.

Tang Xin sighed deeply: "This road leads to the 'Asian Gear,' a straight-line distance of nine kilometers. If you push your lightness skill to the limit, you can get there in just twenty minutes. He said it's the core of the Earth, where the power generated by the gear's rotation is transmitted to the ground, sustaining the fundamental elements for human existence. Mr. Feng, what is the most essential element for human survival?"

I gazed at the end of the road, thought for a moment, and immediately replied, "Are you talking about gravity or 'earth's pull'?"

According to the theory in the book "Geocentric Theory" by the famous American astronautic scientist Carantido, the argument that "oxygen is the most important thing for humans" is seriously exaggerated, and that gravity is the key to the existence of humans and even the Earth itself. As an absolute technical authority within NASA, every word he says deserves serious consideration from scientists around the world.

Tang Xin smiled, her charming dimples appearing on her cheeks: "Yes, Mr. Feng is well-read and knowledgeable; otherwise, the tiger wouldn't speak so highly of you."

From the Pyramid of Tsar in the Egyptian desert to the underwater tomb of the Fukuji Temple in Hokkaido, I have matured a lot. When I have any doubts, I am not in a hurry to find answers, nor do I blindly ask others for help at the first opportunity.

What exactly is the Asian Gear? Is it really, as Su Lun's teacher, Goro Kanan, and others say, an element that maintains peace in the Asian region? Obviously, this answer is too idealistic and may only be of interest to astrology researchers for discussion and theoretical support.

Is it at the end of the road? I subconsciously turned around and looked at the empty courtyard that had become blurry in my sight.

Alpha did not reappear, but I hope that he will explain the "Asian Gear" matter himself, rather than just Tang Xin's retelling.

"Mr. Feng, what are you looking for? He said that we would have a chance to sit down and talk, but now time is very tight, and we have to postpone some unimportant and tedious details. Let's move forward and see the sealed door first, shall we?" Tang Xin held the crystal bottle cautiously, her smile gradually fading.

Her expression was peaceful and calm, even revealing a hint of sorrow after a sudden realization of everything.

"Miss Tang, what did Alpha say to you?" I was worried that she had been brainwashed by the Square-Eyed Warrior and might do something outrageous. Those who are not of our kind are bound to have different hearts; the secrets he carefully concealed might not all be good things for the benefit of Earthlings.

"Say it? Why 'say it'? It's like he's communicating with you through his 'heart's voice. All the communication only takes a second or half a second. I know what he's thinking, and he understands everything in my heart." Tang Xin answered irrelevantly, a sweet and satisfied smile returning to her face.

There were no more poisonous insects in her hair or on her clothes. She had completely changed into a different person, a transformation that no one in the martial arts world dared to imagine.

I smiled silently, indicating my understanding. No one can explain matters of the heart. People who are truly destined for each other are often destined for each other in a single glance.

After advancing about a kilometer, the terrain had dropped nearly twenty meters, and the gray pavilions rising abruptly on both sides created a tremendous sense of oppression, as if we were walking through a primeval forest where the sun never rises. Looking down at the Epang Palace from above is a completely different experience from actually entering the building. Reaching this point, I had already realized the brilliance of Alpha's deployment of this formation.

Replacing the "wood" element in "Eastern Jia Yi Wood" with high-rise buildings, brick and tile structures lack vitality and cannot last forever. Moreover, the three different styles of small buildings are arranged in a chaotic and irregular manner, which can easily confuse people and make them lose their way.

Suddenly, a large expanse of blue rock wall appeared in the distance, abruptly blocking the way.

"Mr. Feng, that's the only entrance to 'Asian Gear'." Tang Xin pointed to an inconspicuous square entrance at the foot of the rock wall. From a distance, it looked like a small hole, about two meters long and wide. The road narrowed abruptly at the rock wall, leading straight into the hole.

I took a deep breath, leaped up, and strode swiftly through the snow.

"Mr. Feng, wait for me! The sealed gate is inside the cave entrance. Be careful, it's dangerous!" Tang Xin called out anxiously, following closely behind.

Two minutes later, I was standing in front of the dark cave entrance. The rock wall was very smooth, and the hole carved into it was also exceptionally precise, as if it had been carefully sculpted by a master craftsman, with a smoothness no less than that of a finished concrete model.

"Did Alpha use this strange hole to seal the enemy? The enemy was very interested in the 'Asian Gear' and that's why they fell for it? Then, how did Suren get to the other side? Could it be the 'wall-penetrating technique' of the Maoshan Taoists?" I stroked the cold stone wall, and more and more random and wonderful ideas popped into my mind, but I didn't say a word, keeping them to myself.

"Take a hundred steps forward, and you'll reach the sealed gate." Tang Xin smiled bitterly, feeling helpless.

I asked only one question that seemed completely unrelated to our current predicament: "Ms. Tang, compared to before, how much energy does Alpha have left?"

In Yin-Yang metaphysics, when the sealer's energy is greater than the enemy's, they can do whatever they want, sealing and imprisoning their defeated opponents in any form and for any period of time. Moreover, they can release those seals at any time, such as when they feel that the enemy has collapsed and there is no need to continue imprisoning them.

If, after a sealing, the caster's energy is suddenly damaged and drops to a considerable degree, then he will no longer have the ability to break the seal and can only wait for the sealed person's own energy to increase and break through the restriction.

I suspect that after Alpha sealed the opponent, its energy was damaged, and it lost control of the sealing gate, let alone the ability to eliminate the opponent at any time. From what he said, I can tell that he has most likely lost control of the Epang Palace and has been forced to retreat to the cave entrance on the rock wall.

"One in a thousand, that's the most optimistic estimate. You guessed right, the situation in the seal is indeed out of control. The reason for this strange change is that someone has altered the Earth's laws of motion, accelerating them five to twenty times. In the process of resisting this acceleration, his own energy system was severely depleted, until it inexplicably collapsed. Those crystals were the source of his efforts to collect energy, but with very little success."

Tang Xin's expression was full of confusion. She couldn't understand what "the Earth's rotation speeding up" meant, but I had already vaguely figured it out.

While in the Egyptian desert, the god Turkham mentioned that after his flying machine landed, in order to quickly advance time to the era of the "Big Seven" in 2007, he deliberately expended his own energy to accelerate the rotation of the Earth.

Now, his past work overlaps with Alpha's assertions, which explains the latter's strange phenomenon of energy disappearance.

"I'll go in, you stay here for now." I lowered my head and walked into the cave.

If there are unknown dangers ahead, I hope to face them alone. Regardless of whether Tang Xin will fall in love with Tiger, they were, after all, friends who had gone through thick and thin together.

"No, I have to be with you, he said that." Tang Xin followed without hesitation, raising the crystal bottle. The light from the crystal shone through, clear and sparkling, completely replacing the powerful flashlight she usually used.

Although the opening is carved into the rock face, the framework of the cave wall looks like it was made by a concrete expert, with a smooth and clean surface, without any rough edges or wrinkles.

I have some doubts: if Alpha's self-isolation period was during the Qin Dynasty, did he personally complete every single brick and tile of the subsequent buildings? Otherwise, once the craftsmen who did the work left the valley, he would have no more secrets to keep, because there are many incredibly bored people in the world who would love to uncover a few valuable secrets and then spread them all over the world.

Part Two: Asian Gears, Chapter One: The Sealed Gate

The cave walls do not emit light, and several times when I placed my palms against them, I only felt waves of bone-chilling cold. Its dimensions remained unchanged, much like the air-raid shelters built underground on Hong Kong Island.

The hundred steps were covered quickly, and when the gleaming silver metal door appeared in front of her, Tang Xin suddenly stopped.

"Mr. Feng, there's something... very strange. I always feel that door has a mind of its own, as if it could move at any moment. I can even feel it breathing, forming a massive whole with the surrounding stone walls, and the entrance we're in is like the gaping maw of a prehistoric behemoth..."

She held the crystal bottle high, and the halo reflected off the metal door shimmered and danced, drawing one sparkling circle after another.

I took a few more steps forward, getting close to the door. The strongest feeling I had was the biting cold pressing down on me from all sides; the joints in my elbows, knees, and ankles felt stiff and inflexible. I roughly estimated that the temperature inside the cave was around -15 degrees Celsius, equivalent to the environment of a medium-sized cold storage facility operating at full capacity.

"Is Alpha already certain that it can't open this door?" I didn't want to put any more pressure on Tang Xin, because I could also sense the unusual nature of the metal door.

"Yes, the method he used to construct the Sealed Gate was exactly the same as the 'Dragon-Slaying Stone' in the ancient tomb—there was only an entrance, no return. Therefore, unless someone's own energy could lift the Dragon-Slaying Stone, other methods like blasting or drilling would be useless. It's fifteen meters thick, with a flat area of nine square meters, and its composition consists of four elements: iron, copper, gold, and silver, each making up one-quarter. As you can imagine, its total weight is an incredibly terrifying astronomical figure—"

Tang Xin's tone was very firm. After all, from the perspective of Earthlings, it is already very difficult to move a huge metal block with a total volume of 135 cubic meters on flat ground, let alone in a narrow and long cave.

"So, this path is completely blocked, unless—" She moved closer to me, her crystal bottle pressed against the door, carefully examining the contact point between the metal door and the cave wall.

"Unless what? Do you mean the sealed one day will break free on its own?" That's my intuition, always accurate, never wrong.

Tang Xin gave a wry smile: "Mr. Feng, experts always arrive at the same conclusion through different approaches. Isn't that what you think too?"

The metal door is perfectly embedded in the stone wall, fitting so tightly that it would amaze even the best architects, as if these two different structures had grown together from their most primitive state.

"My thinking is slightly different from yours—when Alpha lost control of the sealed gate, the righteous and the evil rose and fell, but what is certain is that under certain conditions and within a certain time, the total amount of energy remains constant. He lost energy, so who gained it? If this free energy falls on the sealed one, perhaps next time, he will voluntarily open the gate and invite us in."

I stretched out my palms and placed them flat against the metal door, imagining it as a piece of ice that I could hold in my palm. I channeled all my inner strength into a surging warm current, sending it into the doorway.

Tang Xin raised an eyebrow, a hint of surprise in her eyes: "Mr. Feng, are you joking?"

This time, her expression was as pure as a young girl in her prime, perhaps this is the true essence that young girls should possess, rather than gang feuds and the scheming and backstabbing of the martial world. Then again, Tang Xin like that wouldn't be the promising new generation leader of the Tang Clan who showed such promise upon leaving the sect.

"I was just kidding. Don't you think our conversation is a bit too pessimistic? Actually, the latest American research in demolition can be described as 'indestructible.' Even completely blowing this stone wall up and moving it wouldn't be too difficult. You see, given time, no task is impossible."

Unbeknownst to her, Gu Qingcheng was a powerful ally right at the top of the cliff.

From beginning to end, I have always held Gu Qingcheng's abilities in high regard. She can easily mobilize a large group of people to go on an expedition into the mountains, and she also has senior experts like Uncle Wei under her command. This is beyond the capabilities of an antique dealer, scholar, or musician.

Uncle Wei's death did not trouble her at all; on the contrary, it made her look even more determined and resolute.

I think—the core forces she controls haven't fully revealed themselves yet. Besides Uncle Wei and the almost entirely wiped-out group, there must be someone else. I can't imagine her identity, so for now, we can only wait and see. Of course, I hope we won't become adversaries in this struggle for interests, and never will.

"When a person is about to die, their words are kind; when a bird is about to perish, its song is mournful." Tang Xin frowned, revealing a sadness that was far beyond her years.

The deep chill emanating from the metal door only intensified. I slowly withdrew my palms, and as I shifted my feet, I suddenly felt several grooves of varying depths on the smooth ground.

"Miss Tang, I don't understand what you mean. What do you mean by these words?" I didn't immediately squat down to observe further. Instead, I subtly dragged my toes along a groove and quickly identified it as a "天" (tian, meaning sky) character with bold and powerful handwriting.

"I am about to die, isn't that the most fitting description?" She turned halfway, the crystal bottle hanging down to her waist, its dim light scattering across the ground.

"What? I still don't understand. Could you explain in more detail?" I deliberately delayed the topic to divert her attention, while glancing down out of the corner of my eye. Sure enough, there was a "天" (tian, meaning sky) character in Yan style regular script, about the size of a fashion magazine, with strokes as thick as the index finger of a burly man.

I took half a step back, revealing another "到" character under my foot.

"The King of Tomb Raiders, Yang Tian, has arrived!" These eight words, once etched in the underwater tunnel, sprang to mind. My throat tightened, and I forcefully suppressed the shout that was about to burst forth. The next word was trampled under Tang Xin's foot, though she remained unaware.

"Mr. Feng, I was born with memories, and those memories are about a person's death, accompanied by the destruction of a planet. You're the first person to hear this story. I wonder if you'd be interested in hearing it?"

Her attention was focused on her memories, her eyes gazing blankly ahead, utterly empty.

"Of course, but before we go into details, please step back a bit. I want to strike the door with the force of a Vajra and see if it changes. As you said, if this is a door with a spirit, it will definitely react unusually when forcibly broken."

I took a step to the side, naturally blocking her view. As she obediently stepped back, the character "此" (this) was indeed revealed on the ground.

"Mr. Feng, your martial arts skills are no better than Alpha's. Don't hurt yourself with pointless attempts." Tang Xin was already twenty steps away, her shadowy figure, like a phantom, illuminated by the light of the crystal. Her origin of "being born with memories" was indeed very attractive, but compared to the words left by her elder brother Yang Tian, it became insignificant.

The handwriting was arranged in two vertical lines. On the left were the three characters "天到此" (Heaven has come here), and on the right were the corresponding three characters "墓之王" (King of the Tomb). Together, they were the two sentences he left in the underwater tunnel last time. However, the first two characters, "杨" (Yang) and "盗" (Dao), had disappeared.

Judging from the narrow distance between the characters "天" (heaven) and "墓" (tomb) and the metal door, those two characters were pressed under the door.

The handwriting is undoubtedly from the eldest brother, so why is it trapped under the metal door? According to Alpha, the sealed door was created during the Qin Dynasty, and the monster behind it was trapped at that time.

I lightly tapped my forehead, and a sudden realization dawned on me: after my elder brother left the message, the door had moved outwards, which was why the top two characters were covered. In that case, the monster already possessed the power to move the metal door. Although each push was short, over time, it would eventually push the door open completely and burst into the outside world.

Nothing is absolutely impossible in this world. Although Tang Xin repeatedly emphasized the size and weight of the metal door, the crisis did indeed occur.

I lowered my body, planted my feet firmly on the ground, and assumed a solid horse stance. After meditating with my eyes closed for half a minute, I suddenly struck the door with both palms with a soft "plop".

Metal is the best conductor. The moment I felt the chill in my palm, I channeled my inner energy, channeling it through my chest, shoulders, and elbows, and with the gentle yet powerful "Three Waves at the Dragon Gate" technique, I slammed my full force against the gate. In my mind, the unrestrained internal energy transformed into a rapidly trembling, serpentine arrow that shot in and instantly broke through the fifteen-meter distance.

"There's... a person, no, a monster! He's standing behind the door..."

I was slightly surprised, but quickly calmed down. I ran my tongue across my front teeth, making a small cut, and the smell of blood filled the air. The "Disintegration Technique" always provided me with the help I needed most at crucial moments. The force that broke through the inner wall of the metal door suddenly increased tenfold, attacking the monster like a storm.

The metal door emitted a deafening "hum," like a millstone-sized stone falling into a hundred-meter-deep well, the echo reverberating endlessly.

The monster was thrown into the air by the shockwave, but its body immediately began to spin, like the ribs of an umbrella suddenly unfurled after losing its oilcloth. My sixth sense told me: it had six arms and a massive, imposing physique.

Could it be the 'Illusion Demon' from Tina's Notebook? Six arms, exactly like the mutated Tang Qing, is he the mastermind behind the puppets? Too many surprises made me unable to focus on anything else. A force like the Qiantang River tide crashed down, the monster's resolute counterattack after catching its breath.