Chapter Seventy-Four: Spirit Wandering Beyond the Heavens

Guan Wen felt as though a fiery dragon was writhing inside him, rolling from the Baihui point at the crown of his head down to the Yongquan point beneath his feet. His entire body was enveloped by this dragon, burning his cheeks and drying his lips and tongue. This heat originated from Bao Ling; in the initial stage of her sleep, her body temperature rose sharply, and the heat transferred to Guan Wen through their points of contact, creating that wild, raging dragon.

If only he could retreat into a cold storage room, gulp down ice water, clutch a block of ice to cool himself... While Guan Wen was imagining this, a sudden chill swept over him. Bao Ling’s body became cold as ice, and the chill continuously flowed into him, entangling and wrestling with the fiery dragon within.

Clenching his teeth, Guan Wen endured this brutal ordeal alongside Bao Ling, the hiss of countless snakes flickering their tongues echoing in his ears. The glass walls of the cavern were not sturdy; he believed that if Kalle pressed the mechanism, the walls would shatter or rise, burying them in a world of venomous snakes, their bodies annihilated in the most dreadful way.

Perhaps this is what the fabled Avici Hell is like, he sighed through clenched teeth.

In some great events, a single misstep leads to many others. They wrongly trusted Kalle, wandered into the perilous Palace of Summer, and became meat upon someone else's chopping block, which ultimately led to their immersion in this sea of snakes. Every step was a trap laid by others, waiting for them to fall in. Now, at this moment, they had lost the initiative and were powerless.

The alternating waves of heat and cold repeated seven or eight times. Then, Bao Ling trembled all over, raised her left hand, and slowly groped for the white bronze pillar. In a hollow, low voice, she recited: "Heaven breaks and earth splits, neither lost nor forgotten; the abyss of darkness and light, neither decaying nor destroyed; at life's end, never departing nor forsaking; in the cycle of the underworld, neither startled nor fearful—only the light of the Five Directions' decree shines through the abyss of darkness, redeems the undying soul, seals the secret never to be passed on. Be gone, be gone, open!"

She pinched the key with her thumb and middle finger, her index and little fingers spread wide like the wings of a goose, leaving only the ring finger extended forward, tracing a pentagram in the air.

Bao Ling then turned the key counterclockwise once. Immediately, five distinct clicks echoed from inside the white bronze pillar.

What happened? What happened? Kalle called anxiously from the top of the cavern.

Guan Wen looked upward, pressing his index finger to his lips with a gentle hush.

He had already realized that the incantations were the key to breaking the seal. Bao Ling had achieved enlightenment in the meditation chamber, but the post-enlightenment understanding, digestion, and absorption were a complex process, entirely dependent on her own mind, beyond anyone else's intervention.

Bao Ling groaned heavily, rolled onto her back, her face turned upward.

Guan Wen immediately noticed her complexion had reached a terrifying extreme; the skin on her cheeks had turned a bluish-gray. Worse still, the center of her forehead was dark, and both sides of her brow were completely ashen.

It’s over! Guan Wen’s heart sank. That state was a sign of total exhaustion of mental power; without effective treatment, it could easily lead to sudden death.

Human thinking is limited, which is why there are idioms such as "rack one's brains" and "search one's guts and belly" passed down from antiquity. When the brain's juices are exhausted, a person's thoughts collapse, the peak of wisdom plunges into a dark abyss, and one becomes a mindless vegetable. Just as genius borders madness, excessive thinking is perilous—a tightrope walk over a precipice or a dance upon a blade; a single misstep can inflict irreparable harm.

Guan Wen looked upward and called in a low voice, "Qingcheng, Qingcheng, help us!"

Gu Qingcheng’s face appeared at the opening, her eyes full of anxiety.

"Bao Ling is fading fast. We must get up there, find a way to restore her energy. We can’t delay anymore; otherwise, the lock won’t be opened and she’ll die first!" Guan Wen bit his lip, striving to control his emotions. In this most critical moment, the only person he could trust was Gu Qingcheng.

Separated by ten meters, they gazed at each other, seeing in each other's eyes a trust that could not be replaced.

Bao Ling had fallen asleep in his arms, entrusting her life to him, a different kind of life-and-death trust. If he failed her, his heart would never rest easy.

"Is the lock open? Why isn’t the white bronze pillar moving? Forget everything else, unlock it first, then I’ll let you go," Kalle interjected, pushing Gu Qingcheng aside.

Guan Wen grew frantic. "She’s on the brink of death—how can she unlock it?"

Kalle’s face was twisted with greed beyond words, appearing to Guan Wen no different from the venomous snakes nearby.

"Heh heh, Guan Wen, this is your last chance—"

Suddenly, a short knife appeared at Kalle’s throat.

"You bastard, let them out now!" It turned out that Xiao Huo had quietly unfastened his handcuffs in the chaos, seized a short knife, and was now holding Kalle hostage.

This turn of events only provoked Kalle’s ferocity; he snarled through gritted teeth, "Unlock first, then release, or we all die together!"

Xiao Huo tightened his grip, the blade nicking Kalle’s skin. A string of blood beads slid silently into the pile of snakes.

"Are you truly unafraid of death?" Xiao Huo asked in a deep voice.

"Even in death, I’ll take two down with me. Within thirty kilometers of the manor, it’s all Azure Dragon Society territory. If I die, you won’t survive either. Don’t believe me? Kill me and see!" Kalle was confident, paying the knife no mind.

While they argued, the snakes, agitated by the scent of blood, became wild, crashing into the glass walls from all sides. Suddenly, the glass emitted a loud crack, and a half-meter-long fissure appeared.

Gu Qingcheng cried out in alarm, "It’s bad!"

Instantly, everyone at the top of the cavern held their breath, not daring to make a sound.

Green mountains do not change their makeup, rivers flow eastward, moving gently. The talented woman should ascend the Hall of Smoke and Mist; to overcome a strong enemy is to be a hero... I know that this journey west will end in destruction, but I have no choice. Ultimately, one cannot decide when to be born, but can choose how to die. Death is easy; once decided, there’s no turning back. This time, I bid farewell to Chang’an forever—I’m gone—Bao Ling, asleep, suddenly coughed violently, her body curling up like a stranded fish.

Guan Wen patted her back gently, finally calming her once more.

She reached out her right hand, all ten fingers gathering around the lock, the sides of her thumbs clamping the key, the other eight fingers splayed outward, resembling a fully blossomed lotus.

When she twisted the key in the opposite direction, she hummed a simple, ancient melody.

Guan Wen listened intently. She sang: "The evening sun shines on the empty rocky shore, gathering lotus blossoms in the twilight. When the wind rises, the lake is hard to cross, there are many lotuses, few are picked. The oar stirs and the lotus falls, the boat moves and the egret flies. Lotus threads twine around the wrist, water chestnuts tug at the hem..."

It was the "Lotus Picking Song," an old theme from the Music Bureau poetry of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, one of the seven tunes of "Jiangnan Suite," composed by Emperor Xiao Gang of the Southern Liang. The whole poem flowed with emotion, depicting the beautiful scenery of Jiangnan.

"By decree, open the mysterious door with the seal of the yin-yang treasure vessel. Yin and yang nourish each other, slow and unceasing; yin and yang counter each other, mountains collapse, seas part... Be gone, open!" Bao Ling shouted. The white bronze pillar split in two from the center, and a palm-sized piece of dark green material appeared, affixed to the right half.

"The lock’s open, the lock’s open! Give it to me, give it to me..." Kalle shouted.

Guan Wen picked up the object, examined it briefly, and realized it was a turtle shell inscribed with ancient oracle bone script.

Oracle bone script is the earliest and most complete written system discovered in China, mainly referring to the script found at the Ruins of Yin, also known as Yin script or Yin contracts. Its provenance is Xiaotun in Anyang, Henan, where during the late Shang dynasty (14th–11th century BCE) the royal family engraved divination records on turtle shells and animal bones.

The turtle shell was remarkably well preserved, inscribed with indecipherable characters on both sides.

"Bring them up, quickly!" Gu Qingcheng’s handcuffs were unlocked as well, but she dared not touch the buttons on the bookshelf, lest she accidentally trigger one and shatter the walls, costing Guan Wen and Bao Ling their lives.

"I said, hand it over first," Kalle insisted stubbornly, heedless of threats.

The glass wall sounded a second loud crack. Dozens of triangular-headed, red-and-green patterned snakes slithered along the wall, repeatedly striking it, the barrier growing ever more fragile.

Suddenly, just a foot above Guan Wen’s head, the wall was smashed open, forming a fist-sized hole. A gray snake was the first to slip through the glass, its body hanging two feet down, head raised, its crimson tongue flickering at Guan Wen’s nose. As it opened its mouth, its sharp, venomous fangs glinted coldly.

In that instant, Guan Wen felt the threat of death: It’s over; there’s no escaping this time!

According to psychologists, before death, the mind often conjures the strangest images. Guan Wen realized he’d faced the threat of death before—once, death’s scythe had already been pressed to his neck, surrounded by wrist-sharpened knives.

Yes, that time—it was that time... Like a drowning man clutching at a straw, he focused all his attention on recalling that event.

On the mountain... the eagle... I was bound to a pillar, the enemy’s blades cold like winter icicles, slicing easily into my flesh. The knives were so sharp they slid effortlessly through the connections between bone and muscle; I felt no pain, but... but chunks of flesh were stripped away, my body grew lighter, more exhausted... I saw the executioners swing their arms, tossing pieces of flesh skyward, and the eagles screamed, swooping down to snatch them before soaring away... That was my flesh, cut from my body...

Suddenly, Guan Wen roared in fury, "Give me back my flesh! Give me back my life!"

In his subconscious, the threat of the snakes had faded; the pain, fear, and humiliation of being sliced piece by piece completely occupied his mind, making what was once only a hallucination feel disturbingly real and impossible to escape. For a man with blood in his veins, pain and death are merely physical wounds, but the humiliation inflicted by others is a spiritual injury too great to bear.

His roar did not scare off the snakes. The gray snake swung back and forth, then lunged at Guan Wen’s forehead, its jaws agape in a terrifying, savage attack.

Bang! Gu Qingcheng fired from the top of the cavern, blowing the snake’s head apart. Bloody, wet snake fluid sprayed across Guan Wen’s face. The bullet’s impact did not stop there—it pierced the glass floor, leaving a finger-sized hole surrounded by fractures.

Once a venomous snake finds its prey, it will relentlessly attack until it has devoured it completely.

More snakes desperately squeezed into the opening, seven or eight at once, half their bodies stuck, unable to untangle themselves quickly.

"Don’t be afraid. With me here, I won’t let you end up in a snake’s belly." Gu Qingcheng fired four more shots, each killing a snake.

Kalle burst out laughing: "Hahaha, well done, well done—each bullet hole in the floor further damages the air pressure device. Without air pressure, how can the floor rise again? Shoot, shoot—whether you kill the snakes or not, you’ll die all the same!"

Gu Qingcheng immediately understood, pulled a machete from the nearest enemy’s waist, and leaped down beside Guan Wen.

Xiao Huo cried out, "Sister Gu, do you want to die?"

Gu Qingcheng swung the blade backward, severing a falling venomous snake, replying resolutely, "If it’s for friends, so be it!"

Her choice, made in desperation, could move others but was unwise. The snakes would endlessly pour in through the breach, like the relentless wheels of war, eventually exhausting her strength.

Xiao Huo cursed, dragged Kalle, and disappeared from the top of the cavern.