Chapter 169: The Culprit

The passage was damp and pungent, prompting everyone to hold their breath and activate their internal spiritual energy circulation.

Lin Zhan muttered inwardly, wondering what kind of passageway this was. It was clearly not a proper entrance; God knows if they had just crawled into some random beast's hole, which would at least make things interesting.

After advancing like this for a short while, Lin Zhan found that the path ahead had ended, blocked by a stone wall.

Placing both hands against the stone wall, Lin Zhan tried pushing with force. The stone wall slowly shifted and was pushed open, emitting the grating sound of stone grinding against stone.

An airmass that felt as though it had been sealed away for a million ages suddenly surged outward, rushing to escape as if it had been compressed and was finally being released.

It was impossible to tell how many years had passed since this stone wall was last opened.

Stepping out, Lin Zhan hurriedly pulled back his feet and planted his lower stance firmly where he stood. "Don't push! There's nothing in front!"

Shui Xinxin had intended to follow him out, but unable to check her momentum in time, she bumped right into Lin Zhan. Rubbing her head without a care, she ducked out from under Lin Zhan's arm and cried out, "Oh, what a strange place!"

Why hadn't the people behind squeezed forward? Because right behind her, Fang Dagong had spread his arms and turned his back, desperately bearing the pressure of the people pressing in from behind. From the darkness of the passageway came his voice, which sounded on the verge of tears: "I told you not to push, and yet you still do! I can't hold on much longer..."

Indeed, he was reaching his limit. In such a dim and narrow passageway, everyone's nerves were taut, and spiritual power was ready to be deployed at a moment's notice. Thus, at the slightest movement—good or bad—spiritual energy would instantly flare outward, and poor Fang Dagong bore the brunt of it.

He was heavily jolted by Lian Ming, who pressed hard against his back.

That was only the first impact. Behind Lian Ming was the female cultivator Zhihui, followed closely by Qin Qingxuan.

Women tended to have thicker nerves; encountering such a situation, they naturally rushed blindly forward, subjecting Fang Dagong to yet another wave of impact.

His strength was nowhere near that of the others, placing him firmly at the bottom of the group. Being battered and jolted like this made him feel as though he might vomit blood.

Qin Qingxuan also lunged without warning, crashing into Zhihui. However, she instantly recovered her stern expression, straightened her robes, and then conjured a defensive wall of spiritual energy. Consequently, the people behind slammed with dull thuds against the spiritual energy barrier and stopped rushing forward.

Only then did everyone begin to pay attention to what Lin Zhan had just said. Why weren't they allowed to walk further? Wasn't this a passageway?

Things were not as simple as they had imagined. Once everyone took turns leaning out from the spot where Lin Zhan stood to inspect the situation, they suddenly understood. The front opened into an empty void—this was truly not a passageway at all. If they had all rushed out just now, given this height, they would likely have plummeted to a disastrous end.

After observing the scene, the group retreated a short distance, leaving only Lin Zhan and Qin Qingxuan to stare at the vista before them, lost in thought.

What was going on here? Looking down from the high vantage point, this was a boundless space. If it were called a cavern, then this cavern had no visible ceiling, and the surrounding rock walls were densely peppered with rows of openings at varying positions. The spot where Lin Zhan and his companions stood was merely one of these insignificant openings.

If one could take in all the openings on the stone walls from every direction at a single glance, they would realize a startling fact: these openings collectively formed a gigantic pattern.

The entire pattern was shaped like the Taotie, one of the four legendary fierce beasts of antiquity!

Right in the center of the rock cavern stood a massive stone statue, occupying the greater part of the space.

This colossal stone statue was entirely pitch-black, its gender indeterminate, and its entire body was covered in long black fur. Wasn't this shape simply a magnified version of those long-haired monsters they had encountered outside?

Furthermore, this long-haired monster had its arms flung wide apart, its enormous head tilted back in a posture of roaring toward the heavens, and several jagged tusks jutting out from its mouth, looking deeply terrifying.

In the direction where the giant long-haired monster's head was tilted, Lin Zhan probed with his divine sense and discovered that high up on the distant cavern ceiling, there were certain totem-like inscriptions. Recognizing these, Lin Zhan identified the creature as the Taotie.

It was deeply shocking that the long-haired monster actually used the Taotie as its totem.

Perhaps by finding a way down from here and getting closer, they could gather more information. Lin Zhan leaned forward to observe the condition of the rock wall.

This cave opening was located near the upper section of the cavern wall. Looking down, wisps of black mist swirled about, obscuring the true depth, which prevented Lin Zhan from rashly flying out on his sword. Besides, if he were to go down alone, what would become of the people behind him? He could not bring himself to abandon them here.

Just as he was pondering a method, a startling change occurred: the black fur covering the giant long-haired monster began to stir without any wind. At first, it was just one or two strands, then a small patch, interspersed with wisps of black aura emanating from within. Following that, large swathes of fur began to churn and sway, the long black strands fluttering erratically and intensifying until they formed successive vortexes of energy.

These were vortexes of black wind, which gradually whipped up into a violent tempest that resonated like rumbling drums, booming bells, and crashing thunder! As it turned out, this was the source of the black wind, the very culprit behind its creation!

There was no time to ponder how bizarre this was, because the black wind was already raging throughout the entire cavern, and swirling gusts were gradually encroaching upon the various apertures and openings.

Lin Zhan was seized with horror. If any random gust of black wind were to pour into the opening where they stood, the consequences would be utterly unimaginable. At the same time, Lin Zhan noticed that the previously tightly sealed openings on the rock walls in all directions were now opening without apparent cause, and the black wind had already burrowed into some of them.

Even their own opening was beginning to be invaded by the black wind.

In this emergency, Lin Zhan turned back and attempted to restore the original stone wall to its sealed state. After a few failed attempts, he realized he needed another plan. The only way to plug the opening was to use the white bone pagoda as a stopper.

The black wind was already whipping their robes into violent motion, sending their hair flying wildly. Their companions were struck silent with fear; this sudden turn of events had caught them entirely off guard.

Lin Zhan summoned the white bone pagoda, pointing its spire outward and its base inward, and enlarged it to solidly block the aperture without leaving a single gap.

Fortunately, the shape of the white bone pagoda when enlarged was not entirely rigid; it could be altered slightly to become a bit more square, just barely enough to serve their needs.

Just as he finished the task of blocking the opening with the bone pagoda, he heard a tremendous upheaval from the cavern outside, as if heaven and earth were being torn apart, followed by a terrifying, world-shattering commotion. The howling wind sounded like the charging and shouting of a myriad of troops, echoing relentlessly in their ears, interspersed with the roars of wild beasts...

Lin Zhan could not help thinking that this commotion truly sounded as though that giant long-haired beast had come back to life!

If the long-haired monster was alive, shouldn't they hurry up and flee?