Chapter One Hundred and Eight: The Softshell Turtle’s Shell

The moment I touched the rice bowl, I felt a tremor and a chill.

There was even an emotion attached to it.

It was an emotion of agony and torment, laced with desperate pleading.

Li Yue’s voice shifted instantly.

"Don't touch it!"

The moment she spoke, my hand grasped at empty air.

The rice bowl?

It had vanished.

The corpse had disappeared as well.

"They are still alive..." My voice sounded incredibly hoarse.

Li Yue’s complexion turned deathly pale. Her voice trembled as she asked, "What do you mean? Even if there’s something wrong, you can't just touch it! The hexagram... it’s changed..."

I looked up. The passage no longer looked as it had before.

The grayish-green light had faded, replaced by a dim white glow, similar to the light emitted by minerals embedded in rock.

It was very much like the passage we had been in at the Wang Family Ancestral Hall.

Li Yue bit her lip, her voice wavering. "If that thing is awakened, we will be in a very passive position, and the danger is now unpredictable."

"I know what he's doing," I said, my voice raspy. "Even if the formation shifts, the corpses must still be at every node, right?"

Li Yue nodded.

"If he could wake up, he would have come to grab us by now. Even if we are cautious, don't you think the person who shut that door would have done something? This is no longer just Long-Suppressing Mountain; we are deep within the mountain's belly, right under his nose."

"If he hasn't acted yet, it means he cannot."

"Besides, I already know what this formation is for."

Li Yue looked at me with confusion, her fear still lingering.

"What did you discover?"

"Once a hex-eye is triggered and their souls are awakened, they are compelled to consume the rice before them. He hasn't taken their entire lifespan immediately; he’s preparing. Perhaps he intends to harvest all these lifespans at once. We must destroy it."

Li Yue’s face went pale. "How? If we touch what shouldn't be touched or show hostility, the hexagram changes."

I narrowed my eyes. She was right.

When she touched the corpses earlier, there were no issues.

But when I touched the rice bowl, it caused the hexagram to shift. This confirmed my theory.

Although I didn't know why this "Old Ancestor" was stockpiling so much "provisions" for himself, my intuition told me I couldn't let him continue his preparations so easily.

"We'll know after another attempt."

With that, I walked forward, and Li Yue followed beside me.

After only a few steps, I stopped.

Li Yue’s voice sounded slightly uneasy.

"The direction is reversed. We are going upward now. The incline is slight, but it's noticeable."

We changed direction and continued downward.

We walked for a full hundred meters before we saw another corpse.

This time, there were six corpses kneeling on the ground.

They all appeared to be in their thirties, yet their heights varied significantly.

"There are even teenagers here. I don't know what his purpose is in maintaining this specific age range." Li Yue’s voice was filled with caution.

I stared at the rice bowls in front of them and took a deep breath. "The rice in these bowls represents the lifespan they are to trade. Once consumed, their lifespan can be taken. If they finish it all, their lives are no longer their own. They aren't 'alive' in the normal sense; they still possess their own consciousness. That agony, the terror and despair of waiting to be harvested like food—it follows them constantly."

"The corpse from earlier was begging me... begging me to release him..."

As I spoke, my consciousness sank, and I began to mobilize my own soul.

After what happened in Qianshui Town, I no longer needed external stimulation to consume spirits.

Having nearly been torn apart while drawing the Quake God Talisman, I had since gained the ability to control this power at will.

In an instant, I was prepared. I lunged forward and pressed my hands onto the heads of two corpses.

The moment I made contact, a wave of intense negative emotions surged into me.

"Fear..."

"Torment..."

"Pleading..."

My arms were instantly wrapped in a layer of black mist!

It was my soul!

Accompanying those negative emotions were the souls of these corpses, locked within their bodies.

I pulled hard!

Just then, the ground began to shake, and the corpses vanished.

The rice bowls disappeared as well...

This time, everything in front of me turned pitch black.

It took a full dozen breaths before my vision returned to normal.

I caught my breath.

"The shift in the hexagram was halted... Did you consume those two souls?" Li Yue was utterly astonished.

I nodded. "Without the souls, the lifespan becomes meaningless. This is the solution. This formation requires time to react; if I can extract the souls, I can consume them before it responds."

Feeling a slight sense of fullness, I prepared to take out my talisman brush to draw a few Quake Talismans to expend some of the energy.

However, Li Yue gritted her teeth and said, "I'm afraid it won't be that easy..."

"It seems we have stepped out of the hex formation."

Drip-drop sounds, along with the gentle murmur of flowing water, reached my ears.

I even felt a hint of chill.

It was clear we were standing on a slope.

Behind us was the passage; in front of us was a subterranean river.

I looked back at the passage. I could vaguely see a few corpses flickering in my vision before they vanished.

"The Fuxi Sixty-Four Hexagrams have a spirit of their own. That side is constantly shifting, resisting our entry."

"That Old Ancestor must have awakened."

My expression turned icy, and my voice grew cold. "The fact that he hasn't come to cause us trouble confirms that he currently lacks the ability. Perhaps... have you considered that the person who shut the stone door was the Great Elder?"

Li Yue fell silent for a moment. Her pupils constricted, then widened.

"Could it be... that the Great Elder is guiding us?"

I shook my head, then nodded. "None of this can be fully confirmed. It is a possibility. He keeps doing things to make you and me feel sympathy. But he couldn't possibly be unaware that I would never hand over the item, yet he persists. It’s clear he wants me to overthink this."

"Perhaps he is doing the exact opposite—not wanting to take the item at all, but wanting us to pay attention to this place."

Li Yue suddenly covered her mouth. "Does he... want to..."

I shook my head slightly and made a shushing gesture.

Beyond the sound of dripping and flowing water, there was another noise from the river.

It sounded like something was heading toward us.

Li Yue looked extremely alert, clutching her Quake Talismans and the Capture-Green Mirror, staring at the river.

The pitch-black surface, once as calm as a mirror, began to ripple as if stirred by a breeze.

A boat drifted over from the other side of the subterranean river...

There was someone on the boat...

Li Yue’s expression became even more guarded.

My pupils shrank as well.

As the boat neared the shore, I saw clearly that the person on the boat was none other than Liu Changxi, the man who had been pushed in that morning!

His face was filled with terror, and when he saw Li Yue and me, his expression trembled.

Li Yue took two small steps back, sweat beading on her forehead.

"You... you're not dead?" My voice was sharp with caution, and I gripped my talisman brush tightly.

Liu Changxi’s face was white. He trembled and whispered, "Get on the boat... Someone is waiting for you..."

Li Yue grabbed the corner of my jacket; her unease was evident.

I took a deep breath and stepped toward the boat.

Li Yue hesitated for a moment, her voice wavering. "Don't get on..."

I shook my head. "It's fine."

As I spoke, I pointed to Liu Changxi's neck.

Hanging around his neck was a piece of black turtle shell.

Liu Changxi’s eyes were wide. The unease in them was no less than Li Yue’s; it had reached the level of pure fear.

His fear of us was not unreasonable.

I had previously stopped the corpse of the Reincarnated Guest.

Now that Li Yue and I were here, and he had come to pick us up, he was clearly under someone else's orders.

The fact that he wasn't dead... meant someone had saved him.

"The Great Elder lied to us. This turtle shell was not given by the 'Old Ancestor' he spoke of."

I said this to Liu Changxi, but it was meant for Li Yue to hear.