The tunnel ran deep, ending about three kilometers below ground. It was perfectly safe, since Lu Yun’s bean soldiers had dug it themselves, and they’d even unearthed an underground river along the way. The group made their way to the bottom as quickly as they could.
A clearing of about twenty-five meters in radius greeted them. On the other side of it was an underground structure, its entrance flanked by two lit green lanterns. The faint light brought to mind a pair of eerie eyes, illuminating the tight space with a dim radiance. There was even a trace of blood on the door that was slightly ajar.
“There it is, the entrance to the tomb!” Lu Shenhou’s eyes shone bright with enthusiasm. “On my first visit, I thought it was an expert’s abode. Only after I entered did I realize it was a tomb.”
Lu Yun stared at him in disbelief. “You just… opened the door and entered?”
“How else were we supposed to go inside?” Lu Shenhou was befuddled by the questioning, to which Lu Yun just shook his head, his expression growing graver.
“Those are Soulstealer Lanterns.” The governor inhaled portentously. “The lanterns, the doorway, and the interior of the tomb combine to form a layout called the Door of Demise. There is no path for the living past the Door of Demise!
“It’s a pure killing feng shui layout!” Lu Yun said under his breath. “There’s no trace of any formation… the dao of feng shui must’ve existed back when this tomb was set up!”
The art of feng shui was lost in the current world of immortals. There was no trace of its existence, even back in the ancient times. The tomb, however, contained a pure feng shui killing layout.
That’d caught Lu Yun’s attention.
This tomb was from a time when feng shui was known and the cultivation path was complete. The Door of Demise was the main layout of the tomb.
“Step back.” Lu Yun took a deep breath as he looked at the lanterns and manifested his luopan again. The others did as he said.
“To find a tomb in mountains coiled, those deathly cliffs with mysteries roiled.
“If danger lurks in layers told, then hereby they do come unfold."
Rumble.
The Dragonsearch Invocation came into effect, rotating the three indicators of the luopan at great speed. Heaven and earth, male and female, and yin and yang continuously recombined and changed, analyzing the countless possibilities of the layout.
Coiled mountains referred to not only real mountains, but also the obstacles in a feng shui layout. Overcoming the coiled mountains would be breaking the layout.
“The two lanterns are the first layer of coiled mountains in the Door of Demise!” Luopan in hand, Lu Yun strode to the lantern on the left. The compass rotated furiously, tempering his inner energy so that it could suppress the lanterns.
“Wah!” The lantern before Lu Yun came to life and wailed like a baby, a terrible ghost face emerging from within the green flames.
“Wah wah wah!” screamed the ghost face as it shot a long tongue at its quarry. However, Lu Yun fully restrained the face with his own inner energy.
“I’ve seen this face before!” exclaimed Lu Shenhou. “It ate Lu Cai!”
Lu Cai was the bodyservant he’d grown up with. Over the thirty years Lu Shenhou was away from the clan, Lu Cai had constantly been by his side. Although the servant wasn’t as talented as Lu Shenhou, he was far from mediocre. He’d reached peak transformed spirit realm and was only a step away from becoming an immortal, but a ghost face in this tomb had eaten him in one gulp.
“Watch out!” Qing Han shouted.
Lu Yun had suppressed the left lantern with his luopan, making room for the right one to take flight and turn into another ghost face, biting at Lu Yun. “The two lanterns are the first line of defense. As soon as they move, the coiled mountains break, which increases our chances of survival within the Door of Demise.”
With a whistle, Lu Yun held up his luopan and shot a beam of golden light with his other hand, stilling the other lantern.
“Do you think a mere lantern spirit can get to me?” he huffed. “Open the door!”
Qing Han walked up to the door and kicked it open without missing a beat.
Rumble.
The very air seemed to shake as the door opened.
“It… it looked different the last time we came!” Lu Shenhou was stunned by what he was seeing.
“You must’ve been haunted by the two lantern spirits as soon as you entered,” chuckled Mo Qitian. “Tsk, how did you even survive?”
Lu Shenhou raked his fingers through his beard, his expression dimming with dejection. The twenty-some companions he’d come with were people he’d befriended over the past thirty years, but only he was left now.
“Go in,” Lu Yun said with a commanding edge to his voice.
Qing Han walked in without any hesitation. Other than his two brothers, he trusted Lu Yun the most. After some hesitation, Wu Tulong and the others followed him into the pitch-black darkness. Lu Yun entered with the two lanterns in hand, illuminating the immediate premises.
“It really is a burial chamber!” Wu Tulong gasped in surprise. Seven cabin-sized coffins lay in the center of the room, oozing traces of fresh blood from the cracks between coffins and lids.
“When we reached this point, a mysterious power killed the three immortals in our group. Look there!” Lu Shenhou pointed up, where two crimson characters hovered in the air. They weren’t written in the language of the current world of immortals, nor were they the language of the ancient world, but the group could comprehend what the phrase meant.
Immortals Forbidden!
Immortals were prohibited from entering the tomb.
“Bronze outer-coffins,” Qing Han muttered, turning to Lu Yun.
Lu Yun felt his scalp prickle with numbness. He’d encountered a bronze outer-coffin before; within it was a netherwood coffin with an even more terrifying blood dragon. There were seven of them here, and they were arranged in a formation!
“This is the second layer of coiled mountains!” he said slowly. “Don’t go near the coffins.”
“He’s right, stay far away from them!” Lu Shenhou’s voice trembled at remembrance of the terrible occurrence. “There are powerful zombies inside that none of us can defeat. We have to take a detour.”
Lu Shenhou wasn’t at Lu Yun or Wu Tulong’s level, but he could rival the other youth sovereigns. Yet even he felt they wouldn’t be able to deal with the zombies.
“The zombie-nurturing formation has been here for a long time, spanning the entirety of the ancient world’s time. The zombies within the coffins are probably even capable of eating dao immortals.” Lu Yun sucked in a breath. “However, this is the second layer of coiled mountains, so it must be dealt with!”
He’d resolved the first layer of coiled mountains, but the Door of Demise was still dangerous. If they left the second layer intact, the later obstacles would be undetectable, let alone overcome. The power of several coiled mountains descending at once would be enough to kill without them realizing what had happened.
“We really can make our way around the formation and enter the chamber behind it,” Lu Shenhou ventured cautiously.
“That’s why your companions all died,” Qing Han said coldly in Lu Yun’s stead.
“But I’m more familiar with that route...” mumbled Lu Shenhou.
Lu Yun took out a thin golden rope and tied one end to his waist, handing the other end to Qing Han. “Hold on to this and pull me back if anything happens.”
Huangqing had refined the Skydragon Tendon into an unbreakable treasure after Aoxue had first absorbed its internal power.
“I will.” Qing Han tied the other end of the rope to himself. Lu Yun entered the formation with the two lanterns.
“Protect Qing Han,” commanded Wu Tulong. The five of them circulated their energies and created a barrier to protect the young man.
Lu Yun disappeared as soon as he entered the formation. The six of them stared at where he’d vanished.
“Roar!”
Rumble.
Inhuman roars abounded from the coffin formation. Balls of cyan fire ignited, setting the formation ablaze.
“Pull me out!” shouted Lu Yun, prompting an immediate yank from Qing Han. The tendon stretched to its limit, but it felt as if the other end was tied to a titanic mountain. Even the six of them together couldn’t reel it in.
Crack!
The coffins crumbled as the cyan fire ate away at them.
A zombie measuring roughly fifty meters in height slowly rose from the flames. Shriveled skin and withered flesh clung to its bones, making it seem more like a skeleton. It threw its head back and snarled, releasing a strange pungent smell. The six of them were top cultivators in the world, but even they could barely resist the urge to throw up.
“Lu Yun!!” Qing Han’s shriek resembled an undead hag’s. The figure in the zombie’s grip was Lu Yun, and it’d just thrown the human into its maw!
Crazed with grief, the disguised girl broke free of the other five and rushed at the giant zombie.
