Chapter 107: The Divination

Li Yue’s face showed a sudden shock. She immediately pressed her body close to mine, glanced quickly at the door behind us, then swiftly looked toward the passage ahead. She raised her hand, already holding the talisman of vibration.

Silence—so profound that even the pounding of our hearts could be heard.

I immediately reached out to pull the door, but it wouldn’t budge. Previously, the door had been movable, but now it was sealed tight. The cold touch of the stone sent a chill through me.

Up until now, I hadn’t sensed anything. I had no training in the mystic arts, but long experience with danger had honed my instincts. Especially because of my ghost-swallowing ability—if a spirit drew near, I would be able to perceive it. Even if it wasn’t a ghost, I should have sensed any dangerous accompanying spirits.

Yet at this moment, the spirit that usually accompanied me was silent.

“We can’t get out through here,” I said hoarsely.

Li Yue let out a breath, her face pale.

“There’s no ghost here. The Spirit-Seeking Mirror detects nothing.”

I frowned. No ghost, no person—there was no way the stone door could have shut on its own. Unless there was some mechanism, like the one in the Wang family ancestral hall guarded by Old Master Wang.

I crouched down to examine the ground, reaching out to feel it.

The floor was perfectly flat.

Compared to the rugged mountain path outside, this place was not only flat but almost polished smooth.

I carefully searched for any hidden mechanism.

This place was full of unknowns. Now that the door was closed, we couldn’t keep moving forward without a way to retreat.

But after searching for a long time, I found nothing.

The floor was a single solid slab of stone, without the slightest seam.

Just then, Li Yue suddenly said, “Xie Yuan, we really can’t get out from here.”

My face changed, and I frowned. Why? As long as we found the mechanism, we could open the door. Otherwise, going in without a way out was walking into a trap beyond our control.

I felt a rising urgency and searched the surrounding area again.

Since we had only taken a few steps inside, the area we had covered was small. Soon, I confirmed there was no mechanism to trigger.

Li Yue took a deep breath and gritted her teeth. “There’s no mechanism. You didn’t feel anything just now, and neither did I, not even the spirit that follows you reacted. The only possibility is that the door wasn’t closed by a ghost—it was a person. To a spirit, a human poses no threat.”

My eyelids twitched uncontrollably. That meant someone was outside, following us—and deliberately trapping us inside?

Li Yue’s explanation made sense. It was the only possibility given the circumstances.

“Did they close the door so quickly because they feared we might suddenly turn back? So they didn’t care about exposing themselves?”

Li Yue said softly, her brows furrowed, voice tinged with unease.

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“If that’s the case, there’s no way we can open this door. Even if we somehow get out, there will definitely be trouble. That person wants us dead in here.”

“We have no other choice but to go down. It must be dangerous below as well, but didn’t you say the mountain’s interior connects to that cave beneath? We can reach Changyuan Village and find Zhang Chang there, right?”

Li Yue bit her lip and spoke quickly.

I nodded, my mind steady despite the sudden change.

I turned toward the corpse nearby and stepped closer.

The skin on the body was completely desiccated and shriveled; the muscles had wasted away. The eyes were closed, but the mouth was slightly agape from the skin’s tightening—a grotesque sight.

“Young, no older than thirty, but something’s off... this isn’t death from natural lifespan exhaustion,” Li Yue said suddenly.

I frowned, looking at the grains of rice in the bowl beside the corpse.

“That’s not right.”

Li Yue’s voice shifted abruptly.

My heart skipped a beat. I asked her what was wrong.

But she said nothing, grinding her teeth as she headed deeper into the passage.

I followed closely. After about ten meters, we found another corpse.

It was posed exactly like the first one.

Skin shriveled, muscles wasted, age similar.

Li Yue crouched beside it, running her hand over the ground with a trembling voice: “If there’s more of these, we’re truly in serious trouble.”

Sweat dotted my forehead.

Li Yue pressed on.

The deeper we went into the passage, the dimmer the light became.

Only then did I realize the light itself was unnatural. Outside, it had been pitch black—impossible to see anything. But inside, the light was clearer.

What was it that Li Yue had felt? What had she found?

I had previously guessed that this so-called ancestor survived by draining the life force of one person each month.

But these corpses still retained their life force. That disproved my earlier theory.

The light shifted to a gray-green hue, barely enough to see anything; even the walls beside us were indistinct.

The third corpse lay over thirty meters from the second.

Li Yue crouched down, and I joined her.

Her heartbeat was fast and ragged—I could hear it plainly.

And this time, I noticed something wrong.

This corpse also looked about thirty years old, but the bone structure was very small, like a teenager’s.

The rice in the bowl in front of him was clearly less than before.

“From Yazhou Mountain? Though not very tall, the mountain laborers are usually well-built. The earlier corpses, though shriveled, weren’t as slight as this one.”

As she spoke, Li Yue’s hand touched the corpse’s body, pinching the bones repeatedly. Her face turned pale.

“Master once taught me a technique—to assess bone age by feeling bones. Life force theft only steals the yang energy; it can alter appearance but won’t change the bones so quickly.”

“The first corpse’s bone age is about twenty-five.”

“The second, about twenty.”

“This one... only twelve years old. He’s still a child.”

Li Yue trembled as she spoke.

There were no ghosts now—only corpses.

Yet I couldn’t explain why goosebumps kept rising on my skin, and I felt the tiny hairs on my face stand on end.

“That old ancestor is still borrowing life, but the quantity is small.”

“This is a formation. Master once told me it’s a cruel and terrifying formation. I thought she was exaggerating, but then I saw it in ancient texts.”

“The Hundred Corpse Life-Lock Formation.”

“It’s not limited to a hundred corpses; there can be fewer or more. The bodies are arranged according to the sixty-four hexagrams of Fuxi. Each formation point holds one or more corpses. They appear dead, but their souls slumber within, their life force locked by the formation. Even the underworld’s wardens can’t detect it; the Book of Life and Death records no anomaly.”

“When the formation’s core is disturbed, the souls inside the corpses are roused, and each corpse becomes a ghoul.”

“Many sinister sects use such formations to protect their mountain gates. If I’m right, we are indeed moving downward, but the passage spirals. The sixty-four hexagrams require a circular arrangement. When I felt their bones, I also saw markings on the ground.”

“That old ancestor must be very weak; otherwise, he wouldn’t resort to such a method to protect himself.”

I didn’t understand formations at all, but Li Yue’s words brought my discarded theory back into consideration.

Taking a deep breath, I asked, “What’s the situation? We see it as soon as we go down. Can this formation be broken?”

“Like destroying the corpses?”

Li Yue shook her head and smiled bitterly.

“It can’t be broken, and we dare not break it. The sixty-four hexagrams of Fuxi incorporate the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches. We’ve entered the hexagram formation. If we disturb any formation point now, the environment will change immediately. I don’t know exactly how, but it definitely won’t be good.”

I frowned and suddenly thought of a possibility, though uncertain.

I reached out to grab the rice bowl, intending to pick it up.

Then, abruptly, the situation changed!