On the Bronze Door, hundreds of ghosts clashed in silence.
The raised relief carvings on the door gradually disappeared one by one until only a dozen or so remained.
Then the entire passageway connected to the massive door began to tremble and shake.
Fragments of stone and dust sporadically fell down.
Zhang Xianyu remained hidden within the recessed stone wall, quietly observing the ghostly battle unfolding on the door.
At that moment, a noise came from the other end of the corridor.
The five people who had just left to rest hurried back in a panic.
When they saw the activity on the Bronze Door, their faces turned pale with fear.
Only the middle-aged bald man reacted quickly, cursing loudly, “I told you Luo Lao San wasn’t telling the truth! Damn it, I’m done with this!” With that, he hurriedly headed out.
The other four hesitated, torn between wanting to see if there really was treasure behind the door and fearing the terrifying scene before them.
They had spent years operating within tombs and had seen countless corpses.
Each possessed skills to protect their lives, but what they were witnessing now was unlike anything they had ever heard of or seen.
“Forget it, better to survive than be greedy.”
One clenched his teeth and discarded his entrenching shovel.
“Even if there really is treasure behind that door, you need a life to enjoy it. Luo Lao San is treating our lives like rafts!”
The five split up, leaving only two behind.
The two exchanged a glance and cautiously stepped back, waiting for the bizarre spectacle on the door to end.
At this point, only two ghostly figures of equal size remained on the door.
Both were hulking and grotesque, devouring each other limb by limb in the most primitive way.
The tremors in the passage continued for over half an hour before concluding with the victory of a one-armed ghost.
The faintly trembling Bronze Door gradually fell silent.
The door, which had been completely sealed without a single crack, now showed a narrow gap in the middle, as if a gentle push could open it.
Behind the door lay a treasure within easy reach.
At the same time, the last remaining ghost, as if it had completed its mission, lay down motionless and transformed back into a harmless relief carving.
The two who remained exchanged another look, neither daring to be the first to act.
After a moment’s hesitation, they decided to push the door open together.
They tested it cautiously, and seeing the ghost showed no reaction, they relaxed slightly.
Carefully, they pushed the door open, creating a gap about a foot wide.
The carvings above still remained motionless.
Relieved, they pushed harder, ready to enter.
Unexpectedly, the lurking ghost suddenly emerged from the door, biting the head of the man in the back with a fierce snap, while its other sharp claw pierced the back of the man in front.
Blood splattered on the Bronze Door.
Zhang Xianyu’s gaze never wavered.
At the moment the ghost fed on their blood, a bolt of lightning surged from his palm straight toward the round protrusion in the upper right corner of the Bronze Door.
Previously hidden by the relief, this round protrusion only slowly became visible after the last ghost settled down.
If not for Zhang Xianyu’s unwavering stare, it would have been missed entirely.
The round protrusion exploded with the thunder strike, releasing a flow of dazzling golden liquid that ran along the door’s carvings, burning the ghosts trapped there and producing sizzling sounds.
The golden liquid eventually formed a Five Elements Eight Trigrams Array.
The remaining ghost gradually evaporated and disappeared within the formation.
Of the two men on the ground, one had lost his head, the other had a stab wound in his back, but he still struggled weakly.
Zhang Xianyu searched briefly and found a Thunder Talisman.
After burning it, he carefully sprinkled the ashes over the wounded man’s injury.
Whether this man would live or die was now left to fate.
Stepping over the two men, Zhang Xianyu fully pushed open the door and strode inside.
Not long after, Luo Lao San arrived with his group.
Seeing the bodies and the wide-open Bronze Door, his expression darkened. Without hesitation, he followed inside.
He hadn’t lied—the Luo Family’s ancestor did leave behind a tomb.
But it contained no treasure, only the body of an Immortal.
An Immortal caresses my head, binds my hair, granting me immortality.
The Luo Family ancestor, Luo Ping, had formed a bond with an Immortal and mastered extraordinary techniques, capable of using paintings as seals to command ghosts.
Luo Ping was born with a pair of heterochromatic eyes and, guided by the Immortal, quickly rose to greatness, glimpsing the Dao itself.
The world only knew he died at sixty-six, unaware that this was merely a ruse.
In truth, Luo Ping lived for two hundred and thirteen years.
With Luo Ping at the helm, the Luo Family once flourished like the midday sun.
It was only during the chaos at the end of the Qing dynasty that the Luo Family laid low to survive the turbulent times.
Because of their ancestor’s legacy, the Luo Family descendants learned painting from a young age and practiced the cultivation methods he taught.
While not everyone inherited heterochromatic eyes, they could all command ghosts to serve them.
Until the second year after the founding of the country, when Luo Ping passed away, the prosperous Luo Family suddenly fragmented.
Descendants fought fiercely over the ancestral relics and eventually scattered to make their own way.
Luo Danqing’s branch was the main line, while Luo Lao San belonged to a branch line.
However, none in the main line inherited heterochromatic eyes.
As time passed, the cultivation techniques taught by the ancestor were abandoned, and they gradually became ordinary people.
In hard times, the main line even sold seven of the eight Divine Immortal Paintings, the treasured heirlooms left by Luo Ping to protect the main line descendants.
These Divine Immortal Paintings corresponded to the Ghostly Intrigue Scrolls and depicted Immortals in their poses.
Luo Lao San secretly collected these seven paintings.
Unlike the main line, Luo Lao San’s branch had always been practicing cultivation and once produced extraordinary talents.
But as time went on, cultivation became more difficult.
Not to mention becoming Immortals, just entering the threshold was near impossible.
Before his death, Luo Lao San’s grandfather reluctantly revealed a secret.
The eight Divine Immortal Paintings left by Luo Ping to the main line concealed the Immortal’s Tomb, where the Immortal’s body rested.
Within was the path to Immortality.
For years, Luo Lao San tried to uncover the secret of the paintings.
The main line refused to sell the last painting, so Luo Lao San had no choice but to take matters into his own hands.
Now that he had gathered all eight paintings and found the Immortal’s Tomb, someone had already broken in before him.
Killing intent burned fiercely in Luo Lao San’s eyes.
Whoever stood in the way of his path to Immortality would die.
Zhang Xianyu delved deeper into the tomb and found the layout extremely simple.
The tomb passage twisted and turned, seemingly containing an array.
After considerable effort, he finally escaped the array and arrived at another stone door.
Worried about Lin Wushui’s safety, Zhang Xianyu instinctively reached to push the door.
The moment his fingers touched the stone, a sudden unease gripped him, as if something awaited behind the door.
Suppressing the strange feeling, he pushed the door open.
Inside was a stone chamber, stripped down to the extreme.
To the left stood a stone table and stone stool. On the right was a resting stone bed.
Sitting on the stone bed was a Green-Clad Man.
In front of him was a small table, upon which lay a chess game left unfinished.
The Green-Clad Man faced away from Zhang Xianyu, his posture upright and aura extraordinary.
His exposed wrist gleamed like polished jade.
As Zhang Xianyu looked at him, the strange feeling in his heart intensified.
Besides this, there was a deep sense of familiarity.
He stepped forward, intending to see the man’s face, but just as he was about to glimpse the truth, the Green-Clad Man sitting there suddenly turned to dust, scattering over the stone bed and soon forming a layer of white ash.
Zhang Xianyu’s heart felt a poignant loss.
It was an indescribable sensation—as if an unseen bond was severed just as he reached the end.
There were no other clues in the stone chamber.
Zhang Xianyu turned to leave, but his gaze swept across the stone bed opposite the Green-Clad Man and noticed it was spotless, as if someone had just been sitting there moments ago.
His eyes sharpened, and just as he was about to turn and exit, a flash of red blurred past the doorway.
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