The Ghost Seal had clearly been left in the secret room of the Wushan Residence for safekeeping, so why was it here?!
Or was this the second Ghost Seal?
Zhang Qiling’s mind raced, but his expression remained placid as he took another step forward.
With that single step, a soft "click" sounded, and his movement instantly halted.
The ordinary-looking stone brick beneath his foot suddenly sank into the ground. Could it be a trigger for some unknown mechanism?
Zhang Qiling’s expression didn't change as he looked down.
This was a mechanism designed to be triggered by weight. Although he had stepped on it, he had managed to control his force, so it hadn't sunk deeply. As long as he lifted his foot before it reacted, he would be fine.
...The plan was excellent, but plans never kept pace with reality.
He saw the temporary tenant on his leg, the water monkey, clapping with joy as the brick moved up and down.
In just five or six minutes, it had completely forgotten its past fear of giant cats by the Daming Lake. Now, it was arrogant and overbearing, like a fox borrowing the tiger's might.
Before Zhang Qiling could stop it, it leaped onto the stone brick that was about to be lifted!
The brick, very cooperatively, descended with the monkey. For a moment, it seemed the water monkey and the mechanism's designer had achieved a millennia-spanning camaraderie.
Zhang Qiling: ...
Although it wasn't ideal to spoil the water monkey's fun, he still grabbed the monkey and threw it away.
In the next second, the statue before him actually exploded from within!!
The Ghost Seal held in its hand fell to the ground, bouncing and rolling into a corner. Countless intricately shaped, dark-colored poisoned darts shot out wildly from the statue as the center!
Waving to the approaching cat to stay away, Zhang Qiling confirmed the Ghost Seal's location with his peripheral vision and executed a rolling dodge, evading the barrage of darts. His Black Gold Ancient Blade flashed, creating an invisible "blade wall" around him. With crisp clangs, the incoming blades were all deflected, and the surrounding corpses were instantly impaled like hedgehogs in the fierce battle.
After several maneuvers, he was beside the Ghost Seal.
Upon closer inspection, it looked identical to the Ghost Seal he possessed. He knew its color and patterns by heart.
Without time to hesitate, as the darts continued to fly, Zhang Qiling scooped up the Ghost Seal with one hand, intending to use the other to fend off the projectiles.
But the moment he grasped it, a chill ran through him—!!!
The weight of this Ghost Seal was wrong?!
Sensing the anomaly within the Ghost Seal with sharp intuition, he flung it far away in a flash of lightning!
As the Ghost Seal flew through the air, it inexplicably disintegrated into powder!
Amidst the white mist and black dust, Zhang Qiling saw countless slender objects flying towards him like bullets, as if they could self-target and had locked onto his position!
His Qilin tattoo instantly flared, emitting waves of heat that, combined with his cold, damp clothes, made him extremely uncomfortable.
But its effect was remarkably significant. As those objects approached him, they suddenly sensed the Qilin's might. The intense pressure, coupled with the strong scent of his Qilin blood, swept out, forcibly halting their attack!
Deprived of their initial projectile momentum, these objects fell to the ground. As soon as they landed, they scurried away in fear in all directions. They were, in fact, one-eyed worms that lived within the decoy Ghost Seal?
By now, the statue had stopped firing darts. After his intense exertion, Zhang Qiling's wounds reopened.
He now knew the Ghost Seal was fake, and he fell into a state of confusion and silence, lowering his head to re-bandage his injuries.
The cat, now carrying the monkey, had circled around the scattered darts and returned. Seeing the crawling worms, it swatted several to death and even opened its mouth to swallow one on the spot.
Zhang Qiling felt a weight on his leg as the monkey, familiar with the routine, climbed back up. It probably knew it had caused trouble, pressing its face tightly against his pants, not daring to look up.
His bandages were already soaked with blood, and their effectiveness was limited. After re-bandaging, Zhang Qiling hesitated before stopping the cat from eating more worms.
...It wasn't that they were dangerous, but if it ate a few more, its already limited cuteness might be completely lost.
Gently nudging a one-eyed worm that had narrowly escaped the cat's maw with the tip of his knife, Zhang Qiling examined it closely. Indeed, it looked exactly like those found in the bronze tree.
Although everything that had just happened occurred in the blink of an eye, he had clearly identified the direction of these worms' attack as his head.
This made him think of the statue on the stone platform, its mouth agape as if about to devour the corpses' heads. It seemed the purpose of these people cultivating one-eyed worms was undeniably related to the brain.
With that thought, he casually swung his blade, tossing a one-eyed worm into the air. Before it could land, it was sliced into several pieces by the blade's energy.
He instinctively reached to sheathe his sword, but halfway through the motion, he realized his scabbard was gone, a casualty of fate. With no other option, he had to continue holding the sword.
The dust from the statue's explosion had now dispersed. The empty pedestal was surrounded by rubble and darts, and upon it, a rolled-up scroll lay quietly!
Carefully confirming there were no more traps, Zhang Qiling slowly approached.
It could only be said that this civilization was indeed consistent. Both inside and out, they liked to write and draw on human skin. This on the ground was another exquisitely crafted human skin scroll!
He slowly unrolled it, and his gaze instantly froze!
It depicted a primitive, ancient giant door!!
The door was wide open, its interior obscured by smears of unknown pigment, with only a prominent bronze tree standing in the blank space in the center!
Opposite the door and the tree, a human-shaped ink block, as small as an ant, was raising a cuboid object, as if cheering or roaring.
The cuboid object was indistinct under the unique, rugged artistic style, but Zhang Qiling inexplicably felt it was the Ghost Seal.
...Does this painting mean they used the Ghost Seal to open the bronze door and summon the bronze tree?
Or, is it implying that the Ghost Seal is the key to locking the bronze tree back into the bronze door?
If they had obtained the Ghost Seal here, then why did the Ghost Seal end up in the golden pagoda of Qionglong Silver City?
By now, he understood that the bronze doors in this world were not like those in Xiao Ge's memory, always staying in a fixed location waiting to be opened. Instead, they moved randomly, appearing like demons in every mysterious civilization and legend.
Does this mean that, perhaps, the Ghost Seal is subconsciously drawn to the bronze door, and by fate's arrangement, eventually reaches the door's new location?
Zhang Qiling couldn't figure it out for the moment and could only put away the human skin scroll.
...If that were indeed the case, then he would have to carry the Ghost Seal with him at all times from now on.
But just as he was about to fully fold the human skin scroll, his Fāqiū finger brushed against it and suddenly sensed something was wrong!
...Is there a hidden layer inside?!
With a slight application of force, the human skin scroll naturally split into two layers. Inside, a gauze-like material, as thin as cicada wings, lay quietly.
Upon it was inscribed a line of Western Zhou Jinwen—
—Is the soul truly incapable of being materialized?