Seeking Truth with a Sword

Li Ang said urgently, "First rotate the stone rings around us, then light the Shizhi Pond. We can turn the flames into a fire tornado that will burn the amber dome."

"How did you..."

Jiao Cheng cut himself off mid-sentence. He glanced at his subordinates still slowly chiseling away at the Dragon-breaking Stone in the distance, and at the mountain wall that showed signs of wind surging again. After a brief moment of contemplation, he nodded at Di Wu, then took several steps back, leaning on his crutch.

Upon receiving the signal, Di Wu and several other companions grabbed the patterns on the surface of the ground rings. Crouching on the ground, they gritted their teeth and pushed the stone rings.

CREAK CREAK—

The stone rings slowly began to rotate, driving the shizhi in the pond to spin faster and faster.

Di Wu and the others took several steps back, pulled out Fire Sticks from their clothes, blew on them, lit the thin paper, and threw it into the Shizhi Pond.

BOOM!

After a brief delay, the entire pond burst into fierce flames, immediately sending up a massive column of fire. This column, under the initial rotating force of the base, kept spinning on its own. Influenced by atmospheric vortices, it became a flaming pillar, much taller than the flames would be if burning normally at ground level.

The flickering tongues of flame licked the bottom of the amber dome, sending up thick smoke. Soon, the entire dome started emanating a strong odor and ignited on its own; even the fierce Gang Wind could not extinguish it.

"Spin it faster!"

Di Wu saw holes in the distant mountain walls begin to spew Gang Wind again. Covered in sweat, he and the others frantically sped up the rotation of the ground rings, finally setting the entire amber dome ablaze.

CRACK!

The burning amber dome shattered, revealing a dark, lightless space above. A thick iron chain, covered in amber debris, fell from the opening, hanging about two meters above the ground.

HISSING—

More and more holes in the mountain walls began to spew Gang Wind anew. Di Wu, taking the lead, kicked the open bronze door on the ground, shutting the Shizhi Pond again. With Jiao Cheng on his back, he leaped towards the iron chain to climb up.

Two Sword Cultivators also stepped on the indentations of the iron chain and climbed up. Li Ang picked up a shield from the ground, slung it on his back, and followed suit.

The tattooed Han men still chiseling at the Dragon-breaking Stone in the distance realized what was happening. They quickly dropped their chisels and hammers and ran toward the iron chain. Only one man ran to a corner, trying to dig a pit in the ground with a shovel to lie down in.

His fate was simple. The rapidly rising Gang Wind whipped up countless stone fragments. Before he could finish digging the pit, he was riddled like a sieve.

"Quick, climb up faster!" Di Wu shouted, Jiao Cheng still on his back as he scaled the iron chain.

The vortex of Gang Wind beneath the iron chain accelerated, forming more rapidly. The bronze door, too, was gradually unable to suppress the fiercely burning shizhi. Flames leaped from the gaps in the door, engulfing the last Han man to climb.

Li Ang, the shield from the ground on his back, hunched his body as much as possible and climbed. The Gang Wind relentlessly struck the shield, making a tooth-grinding, squeaking sound.

Ten meters, five meters... Finally, before the shield completely shattered, Li Ang made it up the iron chain. He sat on the ground and let out a long, turbid breath.

Di Wu lowered Jiao Cheng from his back, took a hemp rope from his waist, and rushed to the edge of the opening in the shattered dome. He threw the rope down, pulling up two companions. Then, with their help, he pulled up four more.

As for the others... even the iron chain was being shredded by the steadily accelerating Gang Wind. The remaining men had no chance of survival; they all turned into a blood mist within the Gang Qi vortex.

When Jiao Cheng and his group had arrived, they numbered more than thirty. Now, only Jiao Cheng, Di Wu, Fan Guangyu, Zhu Yuyin, and six other tattooed Han men remained.

Most of their talismans and supplies were lost. All the Zhang Island Ghost Rong masks, which allowed breathing in low-oxygen environments, were gone. There was no way to retreat.

But Jiao Cheng's face showed no panic or despair. On the contrary, he quickly stood up with his bamboo crutch and surveyed his surroundings.

The area above the underground palace was not pitch black. The walls and the new dome here were shrouded in a faint blue glow, as if from some sort of bioluminescent bacteria.

By the light of their torches, they could see that this space was vast. Pale yellow flowers, as tall as a person, covered the ground—these flowers must have absorbed light from the bacteria to grow.

And beneath the mountain wall at the far end of the sea of flowers stood a towering palace with hundreds of steps.

"This is the Netherworld Hall!" Jiao Cheng murmured. "The tomb chamber is inside that palace!"

"Jiao Da, your leg," Di Wu reminded him grimly.

Only then did Jiao Cheng notice his pant leg was soaked in fresh blood. Many of the silver thread sutures beneath his bandage had come loose from the wound.

"Doctor Li." Jiao Cheng, with Di Wu's help, sat back down. Weakened from blood loss, he retched for a moment, then looked towards Li Ang with a forced smile. "Please help me stitch these wounds up again.

"After this is over, I'll send 20,000 strings of coins to your residence."

"Okay."

Li Ang, seemingly oblivious to the subtle emphasis on 'send someone' and 'your residence,' opened his medical kit. He took out silver thread for sutures and new bandage rolls.

Using a small knife to cut the bandage rolls into sections, he quickly sutured and bandaged the wounds for everyone, including Jiao Cheng. Finally, he used pure wine to clean the blood from his hands.

"Alright, let's go. As long as we can get there..." Jiao Cheng stood up again with Di Wu's assistance. He scanned everyone present and was about to say a few words to boost morale when he saw one of his subordinates gaping at him, a blank expression on his face.