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Old Gentou tried his best to stand up, but after several attempts to get up from the ground, he still swayed and fell to the ground.

"Oh dear, you're injured." Abao stepped forward to help Old Gentou up, and said in surprise.

"What happened?" I followed him. I couldn't see the face behind the mask of the dead man, but judging from the way he was trembling all over, he must have been seriously injured.

"I think I've broken my foot," Old Gentou replied in his hoarse voice.

"A fracture? How could that be?" Abao looked at Lao Gentou's foot, which did seem a bit swollen.

"It was a trap in the secret passage; I couldn't avoid it!" Old Gentou replied.

"Then how did you get in?" I touched the wall that I had just moved, but now there was no trace of it being moved, not even a crack. What a strange mechanism!

"I don't know," Old Gentou replied. "I stumbled and fell all the way here, and accidentally leaned against a wall, and that's how I got in!"

"Really?" I looked at Old Gentou with some doubt. I felt something was off, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Looking at his expressionless mask, I felt a chill.

"Never mind that, let's see if these four longans are useful!" Li Yang said, placing one of the longans on the depression; it was the perfect size.

The moment the last longan was placed into the pit, I heard a soft sigh emanating from within the statue. The left eye of the goddess of the underworld gleamed red in the dim, flickering light, and a tear of blood slowly flowed from it…

A rattling, clanging sound, like giant gears turning. I don't know if this is hell or heaven, or what's being propelled?

The statue slowly moved to one side, and an enormous door appeared directly behind it. It seemed to be carved from rosewood, with exquisite bas-relief patterns. Although the light was very dim, the carvings were still faintly visible, appearing to be several consecutive scenes depicting a story.

A beautiful young girl stands quietly on a cliff, waiting for someone. Then a man appears, followed by gold and silver jewelry, angry people, and vicious villains. The scene shows the woman leading her people in rebellion. Finally, the scene shows the woman gouging out her own left eye.

Isn't this the story of Senra? I remembered the legend of Senra that Yuewa told me; it seems she wasn't making it up. This Senra was truly a woman of fierce character!

Upon reaching the door, we realized it wasn't just any ordinary door; it was over three people tall. The craftsmanship was exquisite, and even after so many years, we could still feel Senra's sorrow, helplessness, resentment, and guilt from the lifelike carvings. To be used and abandoned by the man you love—that's probably the most tragic thing for any woman in the world!

"Open it!" Baiyun, who hadn't spoken until now, suddenly stepped forward and placed her hand on the door.

"Wait!" I called out to Baiyun, pulling her behind me. Her hands were so cold, almost icy. Baiyun, in my memory, was always so warm and cheerful, as if no difficulty or sorrow could defeat her. She was one of my few friends during my four years of university. But now, she felt so unfamiliar to me.

"Let me do it!" I said, looking at Bai Yun's calm and expressionless face.

"I know magic, so I should do it." Li Hai walked up to me, smiling, and said, "I owe you my life, after all!"

"Don't worry, I won't make you pay it back," I replied, laughing and playfully punching him.

With his hands already on the door, Li Hai pulled hard, and creaking, the door slowly opened...

Volume Two: The Devil's Left Eye, Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Other Side of the Door

Volume Two: The Devil's Left Eye, Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Other Side of the Door

What lies on the other side of the door? When the door was fully opened, I think I found the answer: countless stars emerging from the darkness.

The blood-red eyes peering in our direction were staring straight at us, and I seemed to hear laughter from hell.

Before we could even recover from our shock, countless blood-red eyeballs rushed towards us, as if something was glued to the back of them. Like countless whips with eyes, they swept over us, leaving us no chance to resist; we were completely engulfed.

"Fang Lei!" I watched in horror as my eyes pulled me towards the doorway, unable to do anything. The thing binding me tightened more and more, making me feel awful and unable to breathe. Turning my head, I saw that others were also being bound in the same way.

It was so dark inside the door; I couldn't see anything clearly. I just felt like I was being pulled rapidly by something, flying into the depths of darkness...

*********

I opened my eyes groggily, and all I saw was darkness, not a single light. I felt damp water molecules clinging tightly to my skin, making me feel cool.

I stood up unsteadily, my eyes gradually adjusting to the darkness. In a daze, it seemed as if an enormous eye was staring at me.

With a snap, a flash of light suddenly appeared behind me. Turning around, I saw a cold, lifeless mask of the dead looming before my eyes. The white eye sockets held no pupils, and the smile that extended to the ears made my heart skip a beat.

Wow! In a panic, I instinctively took a step back. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be Old Man Gen! A white candle had appeared in his hand, and the rising white smoke transformed into a demonic illusion in the dark air.

"Old man, don't scare us, okay?" I complained, then looked behind him and saw Fang Lei and the others struggling to get up from the ground.

"Is everyone alright?" I walked over and grabbed Fang Lei's small hand.

"It's nothing!" Li Yang and the others shook their heads at me and replied.

"Oh my god! Look!" Abao suddenly shouted, pointing ahead. Following her gaze, I turned around and looked. It turned out that the giant eye I had just seen wasn't a hallucination, but a real thing.

Before them lay an enormous pit, or rather, a pool as deep as a person, shaped like an eye. In the very center was another circular pool, resembling the pupil within an eye. But the entire pool was devoid of water; instead, it contained… a coffin! The stone coffin, illuminated by the dim candlelight, revealed intricately carved eye-shaped patterns. These were likely the unique totems of the Moonshadow Clan, this ancient minority group, so alluringly beautiful, blooming alone in the dark, sunless cave.

"It's amazing, so spectacular!" Li Hai exclaimed, speechless.

Indeed, the entire pool was about half the size of a football field, and the stone coffins inside were densely packed in rows, numbering probably in the hundreds. However, the pool shaped like an eyeball contained only one stone coffin, which was larger than the others and had more elaborate patterns on its surface.

"Hey, hey~~!" Li Yang suddenly jumped up excitedly and said to us, "Could this be the treasure of the Moonshadow Clan's dead?"

"No way, there's no gold or silver jewelry here!" I rolled my eyes at Li Yang. How come this kid is so energetic now?

"Hey, you idiot!" Li Yang slapped me and said, "They're all in these coffins!"

"Hehe, you're very clever!" I chuckled and praised him. He really had read too many martial arts novels and actually believed in some kind of treasure.

"Of course!" Li Yang puffed out his chest, clearly not realizing that I wasn't actually praising him.

"Hehe~~~Hehe~~~!" Old Gentou, who had been silent all along, suddenly let out a filthy, sinister laugh, leaving us all stunned on the spot.

"You...who are you?" Abao hid behind Fang Lei in fear. Old Gentou's voice was no longer hoarse, but much sharper, as if he was making a sound stuck in his throat.

I took a step back warily. Only after I stood behind him did I notice something: this man was taller than Old Gen. The lighting in the main hall had been too dim, and everyone was in a rush to activate the mechanisms. Plus, he had said he had a broken leg and was walking with a hunched posture, so I hadn't noticed. But now, this man was standing straight in front of us, showing no sign of a broken leg. He was definitely not Old Gen! But it was indeed Old Gen who had entered the secret passage with us from the Netherworld Hall! If this man wasn't him, where was the real Old Gen? Where did he come from? Did he follow us into the secret passage, or was he already lurking inside?

"Who are you?" Fang Lei asked again, and I saw her take the lotus hairpin off her hair again.

"Haha! Now that the treasure has been found, there's no need to hide anything!" the man said, slowly removing the mask of the dead from his face.

Hidden beneath this demonic mask of the dead was the face of a weathered middle-aged man, his dark yellow skin covered in wrinkles, his eyes cloudy yet gleaming with a fierce light.

"You...it's you!" I stammered. This man, isn't he the man from the abstract art exhibition?

"Long time no see, Lin Xiao, is that right?" The man smiled smugly at me.

Perhaps it was my imagination, or perhaps it was the flickering candlelight, but I gradually started to feel a tightness in my chest and shortness of breath, and my head began to feel dizzy.

"Is it him?" Li Yang suddenly jumped up to my side and asked me.

Of course I knew who he was asking about. This man was the prime suspect in those three murders, and one of our purposes in coming here was to find clues about him. I just didn't expect to find him so easily.

"You, come with me to the police station!" Li Yang staggered as he tried to rush forward, but Li Hai grabbed him from behind. I glanced back at the others; they seemed to be staggering as well, their eyes unfocused.

"Back to the police station? Haha~~~!" The man laughed loudly, saying, "You should worry about yourselves first, and then we'll talk about whether you can go back!"

"Break!" Li Hai suddenly shouted, and a yellow light flew straight towards the candle in the man's hand. Unfortunately, the force Li Hai threw was too weak, and the man simply dodged it with a slight movement.

"You only noticed the candle now? It's too late!" The man held the candle out to us. A faint fragrance wafted from the rising white smoke, making us feel sleepy, our eyelids grew heavy, and a tingling, weak feeling spread through our bodies.

"A...scent of a sleeping potion?" Fang Lei immediately covered her nose, but it was too late; her body was already beyond her control.

"How despicable!" Li Yang leaned weakly against me.

"Despicable? Why care about the means if you can get it?" The man glanced at Li Yang with disdain and said, "But I should thank you. If it weren't for you, I would never have been able to get into this place! I never expected that the mechanism in that hall would be like this. It made me search for a long time without finding it."

"Who...who are you? What did you do to Old Gentou?" Even though he was barely able to protect himself, A Bao was still worried about Old Gentou's safety.

“Old Gentou? I think he’s probably already buried in those traps in the secret passage!” The man ignored us and turned to jump into the pool full of coffins.

"An Yi?" Bai Yun, who had been silent, suddenly called out softly, and I saw the man's body stiffen visibly.

"Heh, it was that bitch An Zhengxi who told you, wasn't it?" An Yi turned around and stared straight at us. In the candlelight, his face was even more terrifying and disgusting than Lao Gentou's scarred face. It was a face whose soul was completely controlled by greed. There was no warmth of humanity in his eyes, only naked greed. But perhaps from a certain perspective, he could be considered honest, at least better than some people whose hearts are full of greed but who try to cover it up with worldly morality.

"Did you kill An Zhengxi?" Li Yang suddenly asked.

"Yes!" An Yi answered without hesitation, even with a hint of pride in his tone, "This woman actually wanted me to split the treasure with her, and even said she would report me if I refused! Humph! Women are always the most greedy creatures!"

"Why did you gouge out her eyes?" Li Yang pressed.

"To punish her, to punish her for her infidelity in eloping with someone back then! This is the Moonshadow Clan's clan rule!" An Yi said nonchalantly, as if he were talking about something as simple as gouging out the eyeball of a kitten or puppy. Little did he know that even the lowest of creatures, humans, do not have the right to wantonly humiliate them.

"Moonshadow Clan?" I asked, puzzled. Why did he have to follow this rule? Weren't all the Moonshadow Clan members dead?

"Haha~~~!" An Yi's laughter suddenly turned miserable and helpless. After a long while, he slowly said, "Countless abandoned second twins hate the Moonshadow Clan, yet they unconsciously make their offspring follow the clan's rules! Don't you think that's ridiculous?"

Was it the offspring of the second pair of twins? I struggled to stand up. The effects of the drug made it difficult for me to even stand. The white smoke had completely drained the strength I needed to lift a little finger, but my mind was still clear. I suddenly remembered that my teacher had mentioned the issue of Chinese surnames in history class. It seemed that many compound surnames of ethnic minorities had later evolved into surnames similar to those of the Han Chinese. One of them was the surname "An".

“You should really feel honored to be able to rest here with these treasures! Oh, sorry, I forgot, I’m going to take these treasures with me! So…” An Yi smirked smugly and said, “All that will accompany you are these stone coffins!”

"Bastard!" Li Yang cursed, struggling slightly.

An Yi didn't say anything more, but simply reached out and pushed the lid of the nearest stone coffin. There was no response; the lid remained motionless. He placed the candle laced with sleeping potion on the ground, then pressed his hands against the stone lid, leaning forward as if he were pushing it with great effort.

Unfortunately, there was still no movement. It was as if it was firmly embedded in the coffin by something, and no matter how hard An Yi tried, it wouldn't budge.

"Huh?" An Yi stopped, puzzled, and looked around. All the stone coffins were exactly the same, except for the one in the very center of the eye.

Hurriedly, they walked to the stone coffin. In the very center of the stone lid was a relief carving of an eye, with protruding red pupils, staring as if it were alive at the human who had touched it again after hundreds of years.

Pressing the eyeball, An Yi watched the stone lid slowly open, his whole body trembling with excitement. Yes, he was about to touch the most exciting treasure. As long as he could get people to take these things away, wouldn't the position of An family head be within his grasp? Without that person's obstruction, and having found the treasure, all power would be his! Thinking of this, An Yi felt his blood boiling. The years of hardship were finally about to end. Unconsciously, An Yi swallowed hard.

I was kneeling on the ground, my hands touching the cold floor. A chill crept into my body, and my back ached slightly. Because the pool was slightly lower than the ground I was in, by the flickering candlelight, I could see the gradually clearing human figure under the slowly opening stone lid, and that glowing red left eye! Like an arrow, it pierced straight into my chest.

"Thump!" I had never heard my own heartbeat so clearly before, as if it were exploding right next to my ears. I felt dizzy and restless, as if a force was pulling at my soul.

"Ah!" A gasp came from An Yi. No one could see what happened. When they came to their senses, An Yi had already jumped to the side, covering his left eye tightly with both hands, and bright red blood flowed from between his tightly closed fingers.

"Ah! It hurts so much~~~!" An Yi's heart-wrenching screams suddenly sharpened all our senses. Our previously dulled hearing now clearly picked up a sound: squeak~~~~

This is the sound of fingernails scratching against a stone lid, simultaneously emanating from hundreds of stone coffins. There also seems to be a thumping sound, like hands and feet striking the stone lids. Is this the cry for help from the dead in hell, or the thud of corpses trying to climb out of their stone coffins?

Suddenly, a withered arm emerged from the largest stone coffin. The five fingers on the hand were stiff and bent, and the black fingernails seemed to have broken and twisted from digging too hard at something. I could see the sharpened finger bones.

The other stone coffins gradually opened, and countless arms emerged one after another, some thick, some thin, some long, some short, but all equally withered and twisted. These countless arms reaching towards the sky would never again have the chance to touch it.

Because of the high ground, the scene before me truly felt like looking down on hell. Those outstretched hands, were they yearning for life?

Struggling to move my body, I realized that these withered arms seemed to be reaching only towards An Yi, who was in the pool, while ignoring us outside the pool.

"No...don't come any closer!" An Yi stretched out a hand and waved it futilely in the air, trying to get rid of the outstretched arms. But the blood flowing from his hand and left eye seemed to have an irresistible attraction, causing the things in the coffins to struggle out and reveal their mummified corpses. Strangely, their bodies looked wet, with black liquid clinging to their surfaces, which shouldn't be the case for mummies!

Could these all be...wet corpses? While specially treated liquids can preserve human bodies, mummified corpses in a wet state are still rare. Generally, a body in a very humid environment will definitely decompose. However, with specially processed liquids that can rapidly drain the body's moisture while isolating it from the air, it's not entirely impossible. Some Chinese archaeologists have discovered wet corpses that have been well-preserved for over a century.

Although I had heard of wet corpses before, seeing them with my own eyes was a completely different story, especially since they were still moving. The black liquid floating on the surface of their skin seemed viscous, like pus and blood drained from the corpses, clumps of it slowly wriggling like slugs, burrowing in and out of some of the open wounds. I immediately felt an itch all over my body, even the hairs on my back stood on end. The wet corpses all wore white masks of the dead, making it impossible for us to see their terrifying faces, but the blood-red light that even the masks couldn't block was coldly shining from their left eyes, like countless searchlights in the night, all aimed at An Yi, who had already fallen to the ground.

"Ahhhhh!" When the first pair of withered hands grasped An Yi's ankle, he let out a piercing, miserable scream that echoed in the unusually empty, confined room. We just stared at him dumbfounded, almost forgetting even the most instinctive action of breathing...

The second volume, the Demon's Left Eye, chapter twenty-nine is not yet finished.

The second volume, the Demon's Left Eye, chapter twenty-nine is not yet finished.