Free Web NovelOn the other side, deep within the Nangling Commander's Manor.
This was a building primarily of wooden structure, with very distinct Tang Dynasty architectural features.
Perhaps due to prolonged corruption and erosion, coupled with the absence of any biological activity within the building, one could not experience the grand scale and elegant form typical of Tang Dynasty architecture; instead, there was only decay, desolation, and chilling bleakness.
Damaged pillars, flaking paint on the exterior walls, all covered in a gloomy hue; exquisite reliefs, like gradually decaying corpses, were mottled with color, and the white paper pasted on the window frames, having shattered, danced in the gentle breeze with unseen cobwebs, resembling struggling, waving hands desperately trying to grasp something.
Gu Qianqian, who had rushed all the way from the center of the City Pass, scaled the outer wall of this small palace and infiltrated the manor. After wandering around for a long time, she finally found the entrance to the Divine Kingdom's operational core in a side hall named Cunxin Hall.
To her and the system's surprise, it seemed someone had already been there before her.
At the entrance, the bronze gate, seamlessly integrated with the stone wall, was open, revealing a gap from which sparks continuously flew out from the forcibly damaged solidified Spell circuits, emitting thick smoke.
Illuminated by the light of the Spell on her fingertips, a narrow path could be seen beyond the gap.
Looking at the entrance to the passage before them, the system whispered, “I didn’t expect someone to have arrived here before us. No wonder the journey was so smooth, without even a urban legend ambushing us or any traps.”
In the system’s original plan, this journey should have been fraught with difficulties and dangers.
After all, the operational core of the Divine Kingdom Jade Gate had been there for a thousand years; if nothing guarded it, it would have probably been destroyed long ago.
If someone had cleared the obstacles for them, it would be much more reasonable.
“I thought it was good luck!” Gu Qianqian mumbled softly, then asked, “System, what do we do now? Should we still go in?”
“Go! Why not go!” the system said, “Even if someone arrived before us, they are ahead, the enemy is in the open and we are in the dark. It’s good enough if we don’t ambush them, why should we be afraid of them?”
Disaster and Void were still in that small building! Besides them, what else was there to be afraid of? the system thought.
Seeing Gu Qianqian still hesitating, the system added, “Let’s go, let’s go in! We’re already here!”
“Oh oh!”
Moved by “We’re already here,” Gu Qianqian nodded twice and then, holding her metal club, walked into the narrow passage.
As they proceeded along the passage, it wasn't long before they witnessed how severe the Shaman King’s power had corrupted the Divine Kingdom Jade Gate.
This was the passage leading to the innermost part of the Divine Kingdom Jade Gate, yet traces of corrosion were visible everywhere.
On the ceiling, on the walls, on the ground, in every corner as far as the eye could see, there were countless specks of crimson.
These spots, like mold, had the texture of internal organs. As the Shaman King awakened and his power spread throughout the Divine Kingdom Jade Gate, they seemed to be activated, constantly wriggling and spreading.
Walking through it felt like moving along a diseased esophagus, leading directly into the belly of some terrifying monster.
They walked in silence, cautiously wary of any potential attacks. After about fifteen minutes, Gu Qianqian suddenly stopped, gripping her metal club tightly, and looked around as if searching for something.
“Why did you stop?” the system asked, puzzled.
“Hmm...” Gu Qianqian pouted slightly and replied in a very small voice, “System, do you feel like someone has been watching us all this time?”
Upon hearing Gu Qianqian's words, the system fell into a brief silence.
To be honest, it felt it.
Although the passage leading to the operational core of the Divine Kingdom Jade Gate was very narrow, less than three meters high and just over a meter wide, with no Fork in the road, being inside it, one could vaguely sense that behind the solid walls of the passage, there seemed to be a vaster space, as if it didn't exist in the real world.
In that space, countless deep black shadows swirled, and within that shadow, something enormous was moving.
The feeling brought by that enormous entity made the system feel somewhat familiar. It vaguely remembered that when it was still with Disaster, there were a few times when Disaster made terrible decisions that made it uncomfortable, and similar auras would appear, lingering in unseen places around them.
“......”
Had Disaster done something terrible again?
As we approached here... the system thought uneasily.
When it and Gu Qianqian stepped into this passage, it clearly felt its five senses influenced by that aura, becoming exceptionally keen, and then, as if by an invisible pair of large hands, forcibly blended together, forming a perception more peculiar than spiritual sense, something ordinary people could not comprehend.
That feeling was as if the unseen colossal entity intentionally wanted to gradually approach the people or urban legend near the operational core of the Divine Kingdom Jade Gate, to discover its presence.
However, that unsettling colossal entity didn't seem to notice their presence, until Gu Qianqian spoke those words, and everything changed...
That strange perception suddenly intensified, as if something was approaching, penetrating through the solid stone walls around them, gradually surrounding them.
“Gu Qianqian, why have you suddenly become timid after a few days? There’s no one watching, it’s just your imagination.” The system said, feigning ease.
It knew that some terrifying things in this world, although not urban legend, and unlike Calamity urban legend, did not possess self-awareness, would still react like them when their names were called or when someone tried to pry into their actions.
The consequences of such reactions were not as swift and intense as those from Calamity urban legend; they were usually slow, unknown, and often, the negative effects would only gradually manifest many years later.
The system's previous host had researched these things that were difficult to define precisely. Her conclusion was that they were a form of free-floating Spiritual Energy that would react to self-suggestion and similar behaviors.
It was as if some people constantly thought they would get sick or became anxious about their appearance, and their bodies would indeed subtly change.
And it was very likely a significant reason why many people not affected by the black night disease inexplicably contracted the black night disease.
However, that host, after reaching this conclusion and planning to use this seemingly weak but terrifying power to deal with the seven world-ending factors, died without warning on a sunny morning, serene in expression, without any trace of resistance, as if she had simply fallen asleep... frёeωebɳovel.com
The system still didn’t know the cause of that host’s death, but it knew that the same thing could not happen to Gu Qianqian.
Clearly, Gu Qianqian’s words just now had attracted something. At this time, the best method was to ignore its existence; that way, it would dissipate on its own before long. ƒгeewёbnovel.com
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If one kept thinking about it, it would very likely evolve into “what you dwell on will echo.”
“Is that so?”
After hearing the system's words, Gu Qianqian looked left and right again, then continued to walk forward.
She unconditionally trusted what the system said. Although she indeed felt something watching her in the dark, if the system said there was nothing, then she would simply assume she was mistaken.
However, just as she continued forward for a distance, enduring intense discomfort and treading on the slippery, viscous substance covering the ground, the bronze gate behind her, which had vanished from sight, suddenly began to rotate as if pushed by someone, emitting a grating sound.
“Boom—!”
Before Gu Qianqian could react, the bronze gate suddenly slammed shut.
The air current, carrying Spiritual Energy, stirred by the closing gate, rushed into the narrow passage, extinguishing the illuminating flames condensed by the Spell.
Darkness swept in like a surging tide, instantly engulfing their vision.
After a brief silence, Gu Qianqian weakly said, “Sy-system, what do we do now? Someone really is following us...”
“...” The system pondered for a moment, then said with a grave tone, “Keep moving forward. Turning back now will only make us collide with that stalker. Only by going forward do we have a chance to shake him off.”
Gu Qianqian anxiously glanced back, then nodded and continued forward, passing through the long and narrow passage. After walking for about twenty minutes, she finally arrived before the operational core of the Divine Kingdom Jade Gate.
It was a massive underground cavern, and its four walls were covered with dense, intricate passage openings, clustered together like a beehive or an ant's nest.
Numerous pitch-black chains, forged from an unknown metal, extended from these passages. Like blood vessels, they intertwined and crisscrossed, forming a unique totem. Sparse but exceptionally pure Spiritual Energy flowed slowly along these black chains.
In the center of a massive underground cavern, an object the size of a building floated in mid-air, shaped like a giant heart, but it had stopped beating. Only wisps of yellow sand, like flowing water, fell from it, but disappeared before touching the ground.
Its surface was covered in some charred material, and through the cracks in this material, faint glimpses of molten-like light could be seen.
From a distance, it looked like a dying sun.
Countless tiny, intricate solidified Spell components, forged from gold, floated around the red crystal. Driven by some power, they drifted slowly around the giant “heart,” exuding an air of fatigue and decay.
It was as if they were stars orbiting a sun.
The golden components were covered in speckles of crimson, appearing to have been corrupted by the Shaman King's power, similar to the previous passage.
“I’ve long heard that many materials from Calamity urban legend were used in the construction of the Divine Kingdom Jade Gate. I didn’t expect even the operational core to be modeled after a urban legend’s core.” The system exclaimed.
“Eh? Is that the operational core of the Divine Kingdom Jade Gate?” Gu Qianqian asked in surprise, “I thought the process of finding the operational core would be more complex and difficult.”
“Of course not. I guess the real operational core should be inside that heart-like monstrosity,” the system explained. “However, it’s a thousand-year-old artifact, so a simpler structure is understandable.”
“Besides, under normal circumstances, the Divine Kingdom Jade Gate relies on the Yumen Pass and doesn’t need such a complex operational structure.”
“However, to have been maintained for a thousand years without being destroyed, there must have been someone guarding it, right? And that guardian has most likely gone to deal with those who arrived before us. Now is a good opportunity, Gu Qianqian!”
“But...” Gu Qianqian mumbled, “The Bamboo Scroll Illusion is also many, many years old, and you still haven't found its operational core, have you?”
“That... is that the same?” the system retorted, “I, I was worried about damaging the structural integrity of the Bamboo Scroll Illusion, wasn’t I?”
Moreover, I can already feel an aura similar to that colossal entity from earlier, lingering around this “heart.” Besides the operational core of the Divine Kingdom Jade Gate, where else would such an aura be? the system thought.
“Oh oh!” Gu Qianqian nodded thoughtfully.
The system's deductions were always accurate, and she was too lazy to think, so she simply accepted the system’s explanation.
Just as Gu Qianqian and the system were bickering, a figure emerged from a narrow, deep passage behind them, slowly approaching them, their footsteps making faint sounds on the fine gravel on the ground.
“Rustle... rustle...”
The figure was clad in Long Xiang Army standard armor, wielding a rusty Phoenix Wing Tang, and draped in a faded banner.
The dirty banner hung down like a cloak, concealing his face, but from the vague outline of his features visible beneath the banner, he was very different from the urban legend-transformed Longxiang Army Armored Soldiers wandering in the Yumen City Pass... he seemed to be alive!
In his cloudy eyes, there still flickered the faint light unique to living beings. The hand gripping the Phoenix Wing Tang, though emaciated, still had flesh and blood, and his pale, thick beard trembled slightly with his steady breathing.
Just as the system had guessed, the operational core of the Divine Kingdom Jade Gate had been preserved for a thousand years because someone was guarding it, and this unnamed Longxiang Army Armored Soldier seemed to be the guardian.
“Wait! System, someone’s here!”
“Huh?”
By the time Gu Qianqian instinctively sensed someone approaching, the figure was already less than five meters behind her.
As she let out a soft cry, the figure seemed to be stimulated, no longer approaching slowly, but instead letting out a low growl and abruptly increasing its speed to the extreme.
The five-meter distance vanished in an instant.
When Gu Qianqian turned around, she saw a figure clad in black armor, wielding a Phoenix Wing Tang, rapidly closing in on her.
That figure was very similar to the Longxiang Army Armored Soldiers seen in the Yumen City Pass, but wrapped in a tattered banner, on which the character “Long Xiang” could vaguely be discerned.
The next moment, a whistling sound rang in her ears, and a sharp pain shot through her forehead. Gu Qianqian swayed a few times, then fell to the ground, her vision turning black.
In the darkness, she heard a chaotic, grating sound of chains colliding and felt a constricting sensation on her body. It seemed that the intertwined black chains in the cavern had bound her.
Immediately after, she felt her Spiritual Energy rapidly leaving her body. Within a mere second, she fell into a state of Spiritual Energy depletion, and then lost consciousness...
