sbdcsierra Chapter 779: Suspicion of the Closed Loop Breaking (Part 1)
Chapter 779: Suspicion of the Closed Loop Breaking (Part 1)
Cao Yuan was awakened by a stone.
He lay on the ground, half of his face pressed against the broken bricks, his nostrils filled with the smell of burnt earth.
The sky above my head was like a crumpled gray cloth, and in the distance I heard a "crackling" sound - the sound of the frozen earth cracking.
The ground was slowly sinking along the crack.
"This is..." He sat up on his knees, the wound on his lower back was burning with pain.
Memories are like water-soaked paper. I can vaguely recall the Black King's roar, the black knife piercing my chest, and then...
He paused and suddenly shuddered.
He had a similar dream three years ago in Zhongnan Mountain.
In the dream, there was also a broken earth, and I was standing in the middle of the ruins, covered in blood.
At his feet lay a half-broken jade plaque engraved with the seal to suppress evil.
"Cough——" He covered his mouth and coughed. The blood that seeped out from between his fingers fell into the cracks in the bricks, and there was a "sizzling" sound and green smoke came out.
"Brother Cao!"
The sound of horse hooves came from far away.
Cao Yuan looked up and saw a charred carriage lying crooked twenty meters away.
The green horse on the shaft was snorting, its mane covered in black ash.
An old man in a moon-white shirt emerged from the carriage, clutching half a celadon cup in his hand.
Following behind him was a girl with a ponytail, the ends of her hair still burnt, running towards him on broken bricks.
It’s Master Chen and Shen Qingzhu.
"Are you awake?" Shen Qingzhu squatted down, stretched out his hand to touch his shoulder, then retracted it.
"Are you seriously injured? Just now you were emitting black energy, and it was difficult for us to get close to you."
Cao Yuan touched his chest—only a light red scar remained.
"How long have I been unconscious? Where is the Black King? That carriage..." He suddenly got stuck.
"Why are you here? Weren't you in the fishing village before?"
Fishing village?
Shen Qingzhu and Master Chen looked at each other.
Master Chen bent down to pick up a broken tile and ran his fingertips over the scorch marks on it. "That's what we were going to ask."
"I was on the mountain path outside the fishing village three quarters of an hour ago. When the black flames receded and I opened my eyes again, I was here."
He tapped the ground with his celadon cup. "This soil is the red soil outside Cangnan City, at least eighty miles away from the fishing village."
"Eighty miles?" Cao Yuan was stunned.
"Just a moment?"
"The weirder thing is coming." Shen Qingzhu squatted beside him.
He took out a silver team badge from his pocket - it belonged to the Night Squad, with the edges still melted.
"Bai Li Pang Pang woke up. He said he heard the chains rattling while he was unconscious, saying, 'Another lock on the black coffin has broken.'"
She lowered her voice, "That black coffin... is something that has been sealed away by the Demon Suppression Division for three hundred years."
Cao Yuan touched his waist - half of the jade token was still there, and the pattern was exactly the same as the evil-suppressing seal that Master Chen had mentioned.
He opened his mouth, wanting to ask, "Where did this jade token come from?", but swallowed it back.
In my memory, it seems like there is a layer of fog. I can see the old man in Taoist robes stuffing the jade card into his hand.
I could hear the reminder "Don't trust it easily", but I had no idea who said it or when.
"Where is An Qingyu?" Master Chen suddenly asked.
"That girl said she was going to the underground cave to investigate the Black King's roots. What happened when you separated?"
Cao Yuan shook his head: "I passed out when I chased the Black King into the woods. When I opened my eyes again, I was here."
He twitched his lips and said, "Now it's great. The ground is sinking, I'm floating, and I can hardly remember who I am."
Shen Qingzhu didn't respond.
She stared at the jade pendant on Cao Yuan's waist, her Adam's apple moved, but she didn't ask in the end.
Master Chen was quite straightforward. He reached out and touched the jade token. “The pattern of the evil-suppressing seal on the first one is complete.”
"Your half..." He paused.
"Three years ago, the Black King first made his move, and the First Lord sealed him with the Evil-Suppressing Seal."
"So?" Cao Yuan looked up, a golden light flashing in his eyes - he didn't notice it himself, but Shen Qingzhu gasped.
Mr. Chen's pupils shrank and he didn't respond.
He turned and walked towards the carriage. The blue horse suddenly snorted, raised its front hooves, and took two steps back in Cao Yuan's direction.
"Master?" Shen Qingzhu stood up. "Where are you going?"
"Go to the car and get the medicine for your wounds." Master Chen said without turning his head.
"This kid's blood can melt cold iron. Ordinary wound medicine is probably useless."
Shen Qingzhu didn't move.
She stared at Cao Yuan and suddenly said, "Your eyes... were golden."
Cao Yuan touched his face and said, "I've seen it in my dreams too." He ripped his sleeves.
"I dreamed that I was standing on the Black King's head, holding a knife in my hand, and the knife was covered in blood."
He laughed. "It's pretty ridiculous, isn't it?"
Shen Qingzhu didn't laugh.
She looked at the crack in the ground in the distance, where black mist was pouring out, as if something was pulling it down.
"What's even more ridiculous is..." she whispered.
"When I touched your wound just now, I felt the scar moving, like something alive was crawling under your skin."
Cao Yuan got goose bumps on the back of his neck.
"Here." Master Chen came back holding a celadon bottle.
"This is the Nine-Turn Resurrection Cream given by the First Master. Applying it can suppress evil."
He unscrewed the bottle cap, and the bitter aroma of the ointment mixed with the smell of burnt earth entered his nose.
"Let me make it clear first, there's no shame in crying out in pain."
Cao Yuan took the bottle and was about to apply it when Shen Qingzhu's phone suddenly rang.
She took it out and took a look, her expression suddenly changing: "It's the location sent by An Qingyu - the underground cave in Cangnan City!"
"She said before that she was going to investigate the Black King's roots, why did she send the message now?"
"Where is she?" Cao Yuan asked.
"The location is 'arrived', but there is no text."
Shen Qingzhu quickly swiped the screen with his fingers.
"The signal is intermittent, perhaps because the magnetic field in the underground cavity is disrupted."
She looked up at Master Chen, "We have to go get her."
Master Chen said nothing.
He looked at the increasingly thick black fog in the distance, then glanced at the sinking ground: "Let's take care of Brother Cao's injuries first."
"There's something wrong with this place. If we delay any longer, we won't be able to leave even if we want to."
Cao Yuan didn't respond.
He stared at the location on the phone screen, and suddenly remembered the look in the Black King's eyes before he fainted - when the bull head turned to the northwest,
The fear in his pupils was exactly the same as the feeling he had now when he saw the black fog.
"Apply it." He handed the ointment to Shen Qingzhu.
"I have thick skin, so it doesn't matter if it hurts or not."
Shen Qingzhu took the ointment and just as her fingertips touched his shoulder, a "bang" sound suddenly came from the distance.
The three of them turned their heads at the same time - a blue light emerged from the black fog, as if someone was shining a flashlight into the sky, and then went out in an instant.
"It's the fluctuation of An Qingyu's spiritual power!" Shen Qingzhu's eyes lit up.
"Her mental power has a blue light. I've seen it in the lab!"
Mr. Chen's celadon cup suddenly became hot.
He looked down and saw golden sand seeping out from the cracks at the bottom of the cup - that was a sign of his fluctuating mood.
"Let's go." He stuffed the ointment back into Shen Qingzhu's hand.
"Let's go to the underground cave first, and we'll deal with other things later."
Shen Qingzhu responded and turned to lead the horse.
Just as Cao Yuan was about to stand up, the ground suddenly shook violently. He staggered two steps and bumped into the broken wall.
The wall plaster fell down, revealing a piece of iron buried in the bricks - it was half a gear.
It is exactly the same as the Demon Suppression Division artifact in An Qingyu's laboratory.
"Brother Cao?" Shen Qingzhu shouted beside the carriage.
Cao Yuan squatted down and took out the gear.
The edge of the iron sheet cut his finger, and blood dripped onto the gear. With a "ding" sound, the gear slowly turned.
"Here it comes." He put the gear in his pocket and patted his trouser leg.
Mr. Chen has already gotten on the car.
Shen Qingzhu grabbed his hand and pulled him into the car: "Hurry up, the ground is sinking faster!"
As the carriage started with a creak, Cao Yuan looked back at the ruins.
There seemed to be a shadow moving in the black fog, like a bull's head, and also like a human.
He touched the jade token on his waist and suddenly remembered the sound of chains he heard before he fainted.
It was not the lock of the black coffin, but a heavier and duller one, like an iron chain locking up some living thing.
"Hold on tight!" Shen Qingzhu shouted.
The carriage rolled over the gravel, shaking people so much that their bones seemed to break.
Cao Yuan gripped the side of the cart, gazing at the ruins receding into the distance. He suddenly said, "Miss Shen, you just said one of the locks on the black coffin was broken?"
"Yeah." Shen Qingzhu turned around,
"That's what Fatty Baili said when he woke up. He's still lying in the car."
"What if..." Cao Yuan licked his cracked lips.
"What if it's not just one broken wire, but three?"
Shen Qingzhu didn't say anything.
Master Chen's celadon cup cracked with a "click", and golden sand flowed out through the cracks, forming the shape of the Chinese character "three" in the carriage.
An Qingyu was awakened by the pain.
She fell flat on the wet ground, the back of her head hitting the rocks, tears streaming down her face from the pain.
It was pitch black all around, with only a few rays of light leaking from the ventilation duct above, illuminating the puddles on the ground.
There was black water, which was sticky on my hands and smelled of rust.
"Is this... an underground cave?" She stood up with the help of the wall, and frowned when she felt her hands covered in mucus.
Memories slowly returned: she followed the Black King's scent into the cave behind the fishing village.
They walked deeper and deeper, and finally saw a bronze mirror half a person's height in a stone chamber engraved with evil-suppressing seals.
and then?
She patted her swollen temples.
That’s right, black lines appeared on the mirror and wrapped around her wrist like a living thing. Then her vision went black, and when she opened her eyes again, she was here.
"Spiritual power..." She closed her eyes and tried to sense.
A familiar blue light lit up in the sea of consciousness. Although it was a little weaker, it did not dissipate.
Thank God, the realm of distraction was preserved.
If her mental strength collapsed, she would probably be a fool now.
She took out her cell phone and the screen lit up - there were three unread messages, all from Shen Qingzhu.
The last one was half an hour ago: "We are outside Cangnan City, where are you?"
"Cangnan City?" An Qingyu was stunned.
The cave in the back mountain of the fishing village leads directly to the underground cavity. How can it lead to Cangnan?
She looked up at the ventilation duct, and saw the words "Cangnan Municipal Government 07" engraved on the duct mouth.
Sure enough, this is the underground drainage system of Cangnan City, at least 20 kilometers away from the fishing village.
"The power of the Black King..." she muttered to herself.
The black lines in the mirror might be the Black King's regret.
It can teleport people from a fishing village to Cangnan instantly. Its power is more than twice as strong as when it was first sealed three hundred years ago.
The phone suddenly vibrated.
It was Shen Qingzhu's voice: "Sister An! We are on our way to the underground cave. If you wake up, send us your location. The ground is sinking, hold on tight!"