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“I’ve read that book, but it’s too general, and I can’t grasp its secrets at all. Besides, I’ve heard that only people with the Lin family bloodline can use this spell; even if others have the book, they can’t use it. As for why we need to rely on other people’s power…” At this point, Yue Ji said sadly, “Because all the clansmen here are now considered living dead, so we can no longer possess the extraordinary magical power that our ancestors had.”

A living dead? Isn't that Xiaoyaozi from Jin Yong's novels? I stared blankly at Yueji and asked, "What's a living dead?"

"Did you know that humans have souls?" Yueji didn't answer my question directly, but said, "The soul is composed of spiritual thoughts and the ethereal spirit. Spiritual thoughts are all the memories and thoughts a person has before death, while the ethereal spirit is unconscious. Simply put, after a person dies, the spiritual thoughts and the ethereal spirit in the body will stay in the right and left eyes respectively for about the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, and then they will gather again at the center of the forehead and leave the body. If a person dies and their left eye is gouged out within the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, then the ethereal spirit that is temporarily staying there will be separated from the person's body, leaving only the spiritual thoughts."

"Leave only the spiritual essence? You mean..."

"That's right, then they can't reassemble into souls, and therefore can't re-enter the next cycle of reincarnation."

"Wouldn't that mean you'd never be able to be reborn?" I asked in surprise, never expecting there really was a way to ensure someone's eternal damnation.

"Yes, so in our Moonshadow Clan, unless one has committed an unforgivable crime, the punishment of gouging out the left eye will not be carried out! It's too cruel for a person. They will never be able to leave this dead body. Even if this body is rotting, infested with maggots, and festering, you will suffer the torment of being imprisoned by your own body for all eternity, enduring excruciating pain that is worse than death every moment." When Moon Princess spoke, a fierce light seemed to flash in her eyes, but when I looked again, her expression was one of sorrow. Could I have seen wrong?

"However, this method also has an advantage: if you gouge out a person's left eye when they are about to die, that person will actually continue to live. The price is that the body is already dead. Although it will still decompose, it will take a long time, and the pain will be less," Tsukihime said helplessly.

"Did you use this method on your people?" I immediately thought of their strange attire and the tomb-like underground palace.

"I have no other way! Do you know that?" Yue Ji suddenly covered her face and wept, her frail shoulders shaking uncontrollably, as if she were enduring immense grief. The air was suddenly filled only with Yue Ji's intermittent sobs, a sound that tugged at the heartstrings. After a long while, she slowly said, "I know... I know this method won't work, but I... I can't... I can't... I can't bear to watch them die one by one before my eyes. They are all my people! I am their princess, their goddess, how can I let them die without saving them?"

"Didn't you think about the consequences?" I pressed. Although on the surface all the tribesmen survived by doing this, how many people could bear such a way of "surviving"?

"Consequences?" Yueji looked up at me with teary eyes, staring intently, and asked, word by word, "If your loved ones were dying, would you choose to let them die or let them continue living in this way?"

My loved ones? I closed my eyes, and Yin Xue's beautiful face seemed to reappear before me. If it were you, Yin Xue, would you want me to watch you die, or would you want me to prolong your life in this way? If I could, I really wish you could live. Everyone is selfish, isn't everyone?

Volume Two: The Devil's Left Eye, Chapter Forty-One: The Black Coffin

Volume Two: The Devil's Left Eye, Chapter Forty-One: The Black Coffin

"So, you'll help me, right?" Tsukihime grabbed my hand again. I could feel how cold her hand was, and how it was trembling.

“Okay, if you really think I can help you, then I’ll help you this once,” I said, shrugging.

"Thank you, thank you so much." Tsukihime finally showed a relieved smile and said, "If you are willing to help, then my people will be saved."

"What about my friend Baiyun? Do you have a way to find her?" I asked, worried about Baiyun's safety.

“This…” Yueji hesitated for a moment before slowly saying, “Your friend was very likely taken away by Yuewa.”

“Moon Child? Impossible, that masked person must be a man!” I said.

“Then he might be one of Yuewa’s subordinates,” Yueji said to me with a guilty look. “I’m so sorry, my sister Yuewa…”

“You don’t need to apologize. The most important thing now is to find Baiyun. Since this is the Moonshadow Clan’s barrier, you must be very familiar with this place. Can you guess where Yuewa might have hidden Baiyun? Also, why did she kidnap Baiyun and lead us here?” I asked in one breath.

"Sigh~~~!" Yueji sighed helplessly and said, "Perhaps she also wants to use your power, which is why she kidnapped Baiyun as a hostage."

"Borrowing my power? Does she also want to repair the barrier?" I asked.

"Of course not. She wants to use your power to control the barrier so that all of our clansmen will submit to her!" Yue Ji seemed a little sad and turned her head away, slowly saying, "She was abandoned because of the clan rules when she was young, so she resents that very much. She once said, 'Since you abandoned me, then I will use my own power to make you all submit to me, and let you know how wrong it was to abandon me back then.' Perhaps, none of this can be blamed on her. Sometimes I even wonder, why does Heaven give two people the same appearance at the same time, yet bestow different fates upon them?"

"Perhaps Heaven enjoys watching two identical people struggle to survive in this mortal world." I looked up at the towering statue of the Goddess of the Underworld. Are there really too many people in this world with the same appearance, but how many share the same fate? Everyone's life is similar, yet different.

"If possible, I wish I were the one born later back then!" Tsukihime turned her back to me, her slightly trembling shoulders evoking pity.

"This is not something you can control!" I comforted her.

“Yes!” Yueji said, feigning ease, “Let’s not discuss this anymore. How about this, I will have my clansmen come together to search for Baiyun, and you can quietly recuperate in this main hall for the next three days.”

"Huh? Here?" I was a little surprised. Did she want to keep me under house arrest?

Perhaps she sensed my suspicion, because she quickly explained, "The sacrificial ceremony requires participants to maintain absolute purity and tranquility of mind and body. Therefore, it is generally necessary to cultivate one's mind and character three days before the ceremony and not to have contact with outsiders. Only in this way can one achieve the state of harmony between heaven and man."

"Oh, I see!" I nodded, seemingly understanding but not quite.

"Don't worry, your friend who came with you should be safe, and I'll send someone to look for Baiyun, whom you mentioned." Yueji smiled and nodded at me, saying, "I'll send people to deliver food to you for the next three days, and I'll arrange everything for you."

"Alright then!" I felt a bit helpless, like someone being forced into a corner. I really didn't know if I had done the right thing or the wrong thing this time. Watching Yueji's somewhat frail figure disappear into the hall, and then with a loud bang as the door slammed shut, a strange sense of loneliness and sadness washed over me, as if I were the only person left in the world.

I slowly walked to a corner of the main hall and found that it was fully furnished with beds, tables, chairs, water, and other necessities. It was as if Yue Ji had anticipated that Li Hai and I would end up here, and that I would agree to help, hence her preparations? In that case, it seemed more likely that she was the one who had orchestrated this. It seems I really do soften my heart at the sight of a beautiful woman, completely failing to consider that she might be the mastermind behind using the masked man to lure us here? But if it's to save her people, why go to such lengths? Or… does she have another purpose?

Something's not right! I'm starting to regret agreeing to Yueji's request so quickly, without even asking to see Li Hai. I looked around nervously and realized that there was no door in sight; it seemed I was locked in a huge, secret room.

I reluctantly lay down on the bed. The tossing and turning all night left me feeling utterly exhausted. It felt like every bone in my body had been pulled out, whipped, and then put back in. My eyelids grew heavy without me even realizing it, but in no time, the urge to get up and find a way out was completely defeated by the desire to meet Morpheus...

**********

When I woke up again, I found myself surrounded by silence and a suffocatingly dark gray. Perhaps because I wasn't fully awake, I felt weak and powerless all over, without even the strength to get out of bed. My throat was parched, and I reached out to grab the air in front of me, as if I had forgotten something in my dream.

I tried desperately to sit up, but my body wouldn't move. Being in this underground labyrinth with no windows, I didn't even know if it was day or night. All I could see was the colossal statue of the Goddess of the Underworld, swaying before my eyes. The same breathtaking face, the same mournful eyes, the same right hand raised forward… Then… a sudden thought struck me. Since the Moonshadow Clan always designed traps in their statues, could this goddess statue have the same mechanism? Perhaps the gateway to the surface was somewhere hidden there!

The thought of getting out made me immediately scramble to my feet. Although the statue was very tall, my tree-climbing skills honed since childhood in my hometown made it relatively easy. In no time, I had reached the goddess's head, and her outstretched right hand was right in front of me. Unfortunately, this time I didn't have an eyeball to place on it.

I looked at the goddess's lifelike left eye; there seemed to be a faint glimmer of tears within it. After hesitating for a moment, I finally reached out and pressed it, but... nothing happened. What happened? Had I misjudged? I sighed in disappointment; it seemed I wouldn't be as lucky as before this time.

"Fine, I'll go down!" I lifted my foot, ready to climb down, but unexpectedly my foot slipped, and I was about to fall.

"Damn it!" I cursed, clinging tightly to the goddess's face. Looking up, I realized I was clinging to her right eye socket! Even more astonishing, the part of her right eyeball that my fingers touched was movable! How could the mechanism be in her right eye? This is too strange! Don't the Moonshadow Clan usually design mechanisms in their left eyes?

After readjusting my position, I pressed my right eye hard, and something strange happened: another eye slowly appeared on Senluo's forehead, between his eyebrows!

Three...three eyes? Good heavens, isn't this a relative of Erlang Shen? But there's something different. This eye doesn't seem to have a pupil; it's just a protrusion that looks like an eye, with strange red totem-like markings on it.

What is this? How could Senluo have such a strange thing? But the Senluo I saw in the Netherworld Palace was clearly not like this. Could there be two versions of Senluo? Then, which one is the real one? Completely confused, I still couldn't help but touch the red protrusion.

Clang, clang! A strange sound rang out in the center of the hall. In a gray mist, a black coffin slowly rose, just like those hanging coffins that had been hanging on the cliff for thousands of years.

I suddenly felt as if I were still in a daze, as if in a dream, but my body had already nimbly leaped down from the statue and arrived beside the coffin. On the coffin lid, there was a blood-red eye-shaped totem, like a night demon, exactly the same totem on the coffin that An Yi had tried to open last time.

An Yi!? The thought of his gruesome death made my hand, which had been about to move the coffin, involuntarily recoil. I couldn't guarantee that a wet, gruesome corpse wouldn't jump out of that coffin and tear a person apart alive. My heart pounded, and I touched my slightly tight chest. I unconsciously took a step back. The vast hall was empty except for me and the coffin, which gave me a chilling feeling.

I know the thought of opening the coffin lid is crazy, but my curiosity and a strange longing made my hands involuntarily reach for it. The coffin was ice-cold, sending a shiver down my spine. The large, blood-red eyes staring right at me from the very center made me feel like all my strength was being drained away.

The coffin lid was slowly sliding open. The moment it was opened, I felt a deafening boom in my head, and then, I knew nothing more...

*********

"Lin Xiao, Lin Xiao!" Li Hai glanced anxiously at the maze-like corridor around him. In the blink of an eye, Lin Xiao had disappeared right under his nose. This was too strange!

"Where did that kid go?" Li Hai complained, but he was actually very anxious. What if something happened to the kid? How could he explain it to Fang Lei? Thinking of this, Li Hai had no choice but to pull himself together, which was already exhausted, and prepare to search for him in the maze again.

Time slipped away unnoticed. Li Hai, who had barely slept all night, was exhausted, but his worry for his friend prevented him from stopping.

"Hey, why are you up so early?" Suddenly, Kasang's voice rang out behind Li Hai without warning, startling him. Coming to his senses, he realized he had unknowingly wandered back into the room he and Lin Xiao had slept in the previous night. Kasang was standing at their doorway, peering inside, the furnishings clearly visible. Yiqinge was slowly walking out.

"Ah! Yes...yes!" Feeling caught off guard, Li Hai was embarrassed and didn't know how to answer.

"By the way, where are your friends?" Yiqinge walked over with a smile and asked.

"Ah, you mean...you mean Lin Xiao?" Li Hai was unsure whether he should reveal Lin Xiao's disappearance, especially since Lin Xiao had specifically told him not to wander around at night. This vast maze seemed to be only known to the Moonshadow Clan; without their help, he feared he would never find Lin Xiao in his lifetime.

What should he do? Should he tell the truth? Just as Li Hai was in a dilemma, footsteps came from behind him.

"High Priest, what brings you here?" Kassan and Yiqinge looked at the person behind Li Hai and their attitude suddenly became very respectful, even a little afraid.

High Priest? Li Hai turned around and saw a handsome young man with long, flowing hair. He seemed quite young, and his smooth, delicate skin contrasted sharply with Kasang's rough skin. In particular, his slender, long fingers were almost as delicate as a woman's.

"Hello." The man nodded politely to Li Hai and his companions, then asked Li Hai, "Are you Li Hai?"

“Yes!” Li Hai nodded.

"That's right, your friend Lin Xiao is now a distinguished guest of our princess, so please rest assured," the man replied.

"What? A guest of honor of the princess? Who is your princess?" Li Hai asked in confusion. How come he didn't know that Lin Xiao had such good fortune?

“Our princess is Princess Tsukihime,” the man explained.

"Yue Ji?" Li Hai's heart skipped a beat. Wasn't this the female ghost Lin Xiao had mentioned before? Although she didn't seem to have any ill intentions now, from the Maoshan Sect's perspective, all ghosts that lingered in the mortal world and refused to leave were dangerous, regardless of whether their initial intentions were good or bad. This was because only souls with strong obsessions could survive, and whether human or ghost, too strong an obsession would eventually become a double-edged sword that harmed both oneself and others.

Li Hai seemed to pay little attention to what the High Priest said next. It was mostly just instructions for Kasang's family to take good care of him. Li Hai didn't even know when the High Priest left until Kasang's son, the timid boy from yesterday, touched the sword at his waist. Looking up, he saw Kasang and Yiqinge taking a few steps to respectfully see the High Priest off, with only Aru gently holding the hem of the sword beside him.

"You want to touch it, right?" Li Hai always seemed to be very patient with children.

"Yes!" Aru nodded timidly, his eyes gleaming with longing. Li Hai couldn't bear to refuse his request and took the sword down.

“I can show you, but you’re still young, and this sword is very sharp, so how about I show you?” Li Hai said, preparing to draw the sword. With a whoosh, the sword was drawn from its sheath, but amidst the cold glint, only Yiqinge’s almost heart-wrenching, desperate scream rang out. Before Li Hai could understand what was happening, Kasang had already rushed to his side and forcefully pressed down Li Hai’s hand, which was trying to pull the sword completely out. With a clang, the sword, barely drawn, was sheathed again.

"What's wrong?" Li Hai looked at the Kasang couple, who were pale and barely breathing, with a puzzled expression. Yiqinge had already held Aru tightly in her arms and buried Aru's head deep in her chest, as if to block Aru's view.

Did they think he wanted to draw his sword and hurt Aru? Li Hai looked at the couple in front of him with a wry smile and quickly explained, "I didn't want to hurt him. Aru himself said he wanted to see the sword!"

“We know!” Kassan answered very quickly, but then a strange expression appeared on his face, as if he were afraid or trying to hide something. He said, “We’re just worried that the children don’t know any better and might hurt themselves when they play with the swords later!”

"Oh, don't worry, I won't let him touch the sword!" Li Hai reassured him.

"That won't do either!" Yiqinge suddenly snapped angrily at Li Hai, her expression unusually fierce, a stark contrast to her usual loving demeanor. Before Li Hai could even offer an explanation, Yiqinge had already scooped Aru up and rushed into their room, with Kasang hurriedly following behind, leaving a bewildered Li Hai standing there dumbfounded.

How could this family turn on each other so suddenly? Li Hai touched the sword, puzzled. The sword had been perfectly still since entering the barrier, indicating that none of the Moonshadow Clan members harbored any resentment. In other words, they weren't evil spirits, so the sword wouldn't harm them. But judging from Kasang and Yiqinge's reactions, they were clearly very wary of the sword; they were obviously afraid. But what exactly were they afraid of? A sword that couldn't possibly harm them?

Volume 2, The Devil's Left Eye, Chapter 42: What is it that we are truly afraid of?

Volume 2, The Devil's Left Eye, Chapter 42: What is it that we are truly afraid of?

I pressed my throbbing head, my whole body feeling as if it had been ripped apart. I felt drenched, as if I were in a sticky swamp, trying to move but trapped by the water. What was happening? I remembered not being in bed just now; I clearly saw something. What? I shook my head vigorously. That's it! It was a black coffin!

A coffin! I shuddered. Was this a dream? If not, where was the coffin? The coffin that should have been in the center of the hall had vanished without a trace, as if it were all just a dream. But could a dream be this real? In reality, I could still feel the chill emanating from that coffin.

Gasping for breath, feeling suffocated, every corner of the dark hall began to ripple, as if countless worms were slowly devouring the space from the walls. Rubbing her eyes, Yueji realized she had entered the hall at some point.

“A coffin!” I stared blankly at Tsukihime.

"A coffin?" Yueji looked surprised and asked me, "What's wrong? You don't look well. Did you have a nightmare?"

"Nightmare?" I asked myself. "Impossible, it's not a dream!" I jumped out of bed. Although I still felt a little lightheaded, I didn't care anymore and climbed up the statue of the Goddess of the Underworld.

"Lin Xiao, what are you trying to do? You can't climb on the statue of a god, that's blasphemy against the goddess of the underworld!" Yue Ji shouted at me, seemingly angrily.

"There's a mechanism here!" I said, reaching out to touch Senra's right eye without turning around. I wanted to prove that none of this was a dream! Not a dream, it was…! My hand suddenly stopped, staring in astonishment at the enormous goddess face before me. This…this is impossible! How could…how could it be gone? I rubbed the statue's right eye hard, and it…it couldn't move! That means the right eye wasn't a mechanism at all!?

"Lin Xiao, come down here right now!" Yue Ji said, somewhat exasperated.

"No...it can't be! It was moving just now!" I stubbornly poked at the statue's right eye, but it still wouldn't move! There was no mechanism at all. So, was it all just a dream? What about the movable right eye mechanism and the black coffin in the center of the hall?!

I climbed down from the statue, feeling dizzy. I couldn't hear a word of Tsukihime's angry rebuke. No! I really did find the mechanism, and there really was a coffin. I even... I even opened that coffin! But I just can't remember what was in that coffin!

"Lin Xiao!" Yue Ji called out to me almost right next to my ear.

"Huh! What?" I stared at her blankly, not yet fully recovered from my shock.

"You don't look well, you must be exhausted! Also, there's no coffin or mechanism here at all, you must be dreaming!" Yueji comforted me with a smile, saying, "Well then, you should get some rest!"