Chapter 291 Transition between life and death
Seeing the "Boundary of Life and Death", Meng Qi quickly took out the black fur. The strange symbols and patterns on it had been connected into an incomplete map under the annotations of the Lord of Six Paths of Reincarnation. Many places and routes were incomplete, with only two The roads are relatively complete and all lead to the core of the mausoleum.
At the very beginning of the map, the content written in ancient characters is:
"The realm of life and death."
Neither Jiang Zhiwei nor Ruan Yushu recognized the strange symbols and patterns before, but the ancient characters that had been transformed into annotations by the Lord of Six Paths of Reincarnation were barely recognized by the two of them. As for Meng Qi and Qi Zhengyan, their eyes were completely blank. It felt like being illiterate - Meng Qi had no place to learn ancient texts before, but after joining Six Sects, he had no time to learn.
Next to the four seal characters of "The Boundary of Life and Death", there is a sentence written in small characters: "Those who pass will die, and those who emerge will live."
"Will you die if you cross the bridge?" After listening to Jiang Zhiwei's explanation, Meng Qi was slightly confused. How could he enter the mausoleum if he couldn't cross the bridge? How to find the secret of the Zhenwu Suspect Tomb and start the next step of the mission?
Moreover, the routes indicated on the map are all behind the realm of life and death.
"It means something else." Ruan Yushu hugged Qifengqin and said calmly.
Jiang Zhi smiled: "Since we are all here, we can't stop in front of the door. Anyway, you are always ready to use the 'Blue Lantern in front of the Buddha'. If something goes wrong, we will directly interrupt and return. Let's see what is meant by 'past'" die'."
This is really a typical Jiang Zhiwei character... Meng Qi sneered, feeling that this was the only way to go.
Qi Zhengyan remained silent and looked at the front and back of the iron lock. It was hazy and dim there. Even if everyone had their eyes open, they couldn't see clearly. It seemed like it was blocked by fog, or there was a permanent separation between yin and yang.
Half of Meng Qi's energy was focused on the green lantern on his chest, and he was the first to walk past the boundary marker and step onto the chain bridge with the "Heaven's Injury" in his hand.
The long sword's lightning danced around him, making Meng Qizhen look a bit like the God of Thunder.
Jiang Zhiwei walked side by side with him, Ruan Yushu was half a step behind, and Qi Zhengyan was responsible for breaking up. Although the four people in the group did not speak, they had a tacit understanding and a clear division of labor.
The cable bridge creaked and swayed, but other than that, it was nothing special. No ghosts appeared, nor did it collapse directly.
Meng Qi found it strange. Could it be that the saying "Those who pass will die, those who emerge will live" are false?
Suddenly, he found that his body temperature was slowly but surely dropping, his heartbeat was involuntarily slowing down, his blood flow seemed to be sticky, and his Yang energy was shrinking inward, as if it was about to condense into "seeds."
Even with this wonderful change, Meng Qi's true energy flow, physical strength and flexibility have not declined at all. His mind is still clear, his soul is clear, his spiritual sense has not sensed any danger, and the green lamp in front of the Buddha is burning slowly, without any abnormality. .
He spread his energy and suddenly found that Jiang Zhiwei, Ruan Yushu and Qi Zhengyan all had their heartbeats slowing down, and there was a gloomy look on their bodies, as if the dead were better than the living!
"Do you feel it?" Meng Qi asked. As soon as the words came out of his mouth, he was startled. His voice was full of sinister energy, as if it was floating from the Nine Netherworld.
Jiang Zhiwei nodded habitually, looked at Ruan Yushu and Qi Zhengyan and said, "Same, but I didn't feel any damage to my body. Could it be that the 'death' of the past person's death refers to the suspended animation of the physical body?"
"Many important people seek a way to live forever after death." Ruan Yushu suddenly spoke, her voice, which was already cold, became even more sinister.
"Through this kind of life-and-death transition, are you hiding the secret?" Jiang Zhiwei has also seen similar information.
Meng Qi said thoughtfully: "It seems that Emperor Zhenwu once prepared it for himself..."
The chain bridge was not long, and the four of them walked across it quickly. As soon as they stepped onto the dirt on the opposite side, Meng Qi felt that his last weak heartbeat had completely stopped, his blood stopped flowing, and his body temperature disappeared. He was no different from a dead person, but the movement of his true energy was no different. In some strange way that Meng Qi couldn't understand, it was connected to the external Qi mechanism, supporting the body in place of blood.
After carefully sensing it, Meng Qi discovered that his yang energy and vitality had not really disappeared, but had completely shrunk to the center of his eyebrows, condensing into a "seed" as small as a mustard seed, which expanded and contracted rhythmically to keep his body from decaying.
Meng Qi's heart moved, and he tried to understand the mystery of this change. It must have endless magical effects.
"If we are seen by others, I'm afraid they will think that we are the products of corpse transformation." He relied on the Eight-nine Mysterious Techniques to note down the changes in the details of his body, and then moved his limbs without feeling any loss of strength.
As he spoke, he turned to look at Jiang Zhiwei, Ruan Yushu and Qi Zhengyan, and smiled inexplicably.
"Why are you laughing?" Jiang Zhiwei asked doubtfully.
After looking at her gloomy and pale face, and then at Ruan Yushu, who had long hair hanging down and was wearing cold white clothes, Meng Qi couldn't help but laugh: "It's nothing, nothing."
This is like playing a Chinese Ghost Story!
To prevent them from questioning, Meng Qi took out the black fur again and considered which way to choose. One was the far left, the other was the far right, both winding and twisting, passing through various tombs.
"Choose the left side. There are more places marked with 'dangerous areas and need to be detoured' on the right side." Meng Qi decided on the route based on simple principles.
Jiang Zhiwei and others had no objections. Anyway, if something went wrong, they would interrupt and return.
Stepping into a land filled with mist, a sinister wind blew up, as if it penetrated into the body and wiped out any vitality. Meng Qi's true energy circulated, blocking them and heading to the far left.
After walking for a while, he saw a door with various tomb-suppressing beasts painted on it, but it was not closed, but ajar!
"Did someone come in before?" Meng Qi frowned in confusion.
Qi Zhengyan pointed to the secret place by the door: "There are footprints."
Looking closely, there were pairs of shallow footprints on the edge covered by the gloomy fog, and it seemed that more than one person came!
Meng Qi tightened his right hand holding "Heaven's Wound": "Perhaps the variables inside are greater than we imagined, so we must be careful."
When Jiang Zhiwei and Ruan Yushu nodded, he pushed open the door first. In front of him was a long corridor with blue bricks on the ground and lifelike murals on the walls, all describing a strong man suppressing various evil demons.
This strong man sometimes wore a black robe, a flat emperor crown, and a tortoise and snake long sword. Sometimes he wore a water-sealed suit, tied a silk ribbon, and stepped on hemp shoes. His face was gaunt, he looked middle-aged, and his majesty was outstanding.
"Zhenwu Emperor." Ruan Yushu said concisely.
In today's world, the image of Zhenwu Emperor is attached to various myths and legends, which is quite different from this.
Meng Qi looked at the mural and sighed, "As expected of the Nine Heavens Demon Slayer."
The four slowed down their pace and tried to find clues in the mural. They found that most of the contents were related to suppressing the evil spirits and ghosts in the Nine Netherworld, and the rest were about exorcising demons and eliminating evil.
"In ancient times, the Nine Netherworld was really a scourge to the human world." Jiang Zhi sighed.
At the end of the corridor was a tomb, which was very spacious, as big as a yard, but it was empty, with only a black coffin placed in the middle.
The lid of the coffin was overturned on the side, as if the dead inside had crawled out!
Meng Qi's scalp was slightly numb, and the silver-white electric snake of "Heaven's Wound" jumped more violently.
"There is Ganoderma lucidum there." Qi Zhengyan was the first to discover that between the coffin and the ground, a fist-sized Ganoderma lucidum had grown tenaciously. It was different from the others. It had a layer of grayish-white color on the surface, and a trace of yin energy rose up, surrounded by clouds and mist.
Jiang Zhiwei pondered for a moment and said, "It looks like the Ganoderma Lucidum, but it's a little different. It may be highly poisonous. It's at least a hundred years old."
"No matter if it's highly poisonous or not, it's all for good deeds, so what's there to be afraid of?" Meng Qi thought very open-mindedly, carefully approached the coffin, unsheathed the Ziwu, and gently picked it up, and the Ganoderma Lucidum fell into Ruan Yushu's hands.
At this time, he saw six ancient seal characters engraved on the bottom of the coffin.
Jiang Zhiwei walked side by side with him, and immediately read out:
"Got this fate, and returned here!"
An inexplicable chill rose in everyone's heart. Was this a curse or a prophecy?
Suddenly, a gray hand stretched out from the mud beside the coffin and grabbed Meng Qi's ankle fiercely.
The five fingers of the palm formed a mysterious seal, and there were endless changes between movement and stillness.
With this grab, the entire tomb suddenly burned with dark green fire, which spread silently and condensed near the gray palm, locking Meng Qi's evasive route.
Meng Qi had just experienced the incident with the Immortal Life and Death Sect, and was very wary of something that suddenly emerged from the ground, so he was not caught off guard. He kicked hard, flew into the air, turned over and slashed with a long knife.
Ruan Yushu played the piano with his right hand, and the clear sound echoed in the tomb, like the evening drum and morning bell, like the sound of Buddhist scriptures, and the yin energy was dispersed, and a shrill groan came from the ground.
A figure drilled out, with his palm upward, trying to fight against Tian Zhishang.
At this time, Qi Zhengyan swung out the ice-melted dragon-patterned red gold sword, and a cold light flashed, freezing the figure's feet to the ground. The ice layer was crystal clear, reflecting the flowing colors, and quickly melted under the burning of the Yin Green Fire.
Taking this opportunity, Jiang Zhiwei's Baihong Piercing the Sun Sword pierced out just right, pointing directly to the center of the eyebrows, sweeping away the residual souls, the sword light was condensed, and the death was sinister.
The attacker's feet were frozen for a moment, and his figure slowed down. Meng Qi finally saw his appearance clearly. He was white-haired, wrinkled, and weak. He looked like he was dead and alive, which made him feel strangely familiar.
The attacker roared, swung his left fist, and the dark flames were generated from his shoulder, burning all the way to the fist. The flames jumped and burned silently, blocking Jiang Zhiwei's sword.
Jiang Zhiwei's Yama Tie originally won with speed and momentum, but the opponent was close to the dead, not affected by the spirit, and the moves seemed to be random without thinking, and actually blocked it!
At the same time, Meng Qi's Tianzhishang slashed, and the knife was like a tide, rolling forward, and it was endless.
The tide was all transformed by lightning, silver and white, and the attacker changed his right hand into a fist and hit the blade directly, without fear of thunder!
Pah! Almost at the same time, two clear sounds were heard, and Jiang Zhiwei's long sword and Meng Qi's Tianzhishang were blocked.
The electric snake suddenly surged, covering the attacker, causing a trace of black air in his body to evaporate, and he let out a shrill howl.
Bang!
The condensed flames exploded and spread to the surroundings. Jiang Zhiwei didn't want the Yin Fire to touch her, so she had to step back, adjust her body's Qi, and swing her sword to defend herself.
Meng Qi used the force of the sword and fist to fly into the air again and avoid the Yin Fire. Ruan Yushu and Qi Zhengyan stood farther away and were not affected.
The Yin Fire was extinguished, the attacker disappeared, and only a pit remained on the ground.
Although he was restrained by the thunder, he attacked without fear... Meng Qi fell and stood firm, frowning.
Suddenly, he had a thought in his heart, and remembered where the inexplicable familiarity just now came from.
The attacker gave him a similar feeling to the "Ningzhou Hero", both of them were living dead, and seemed to be born from the same source!