Ch 379: The Candle Cave
In the vortex, Liu Ke, his eyes fixed on Kong Yunzi, a cold smile playing on his lips, said: “Kong Yunzi, you underestimate my Eight Nuo Seal!”
Kong Yunzi, upon hearing this, showed a look of astonishment, involuntarily exclaiming: “What?”
Seeing this, Liu Ke continued: “I’ve only managed to activate this Eight Nuo Seal once, I absolutely will not lose!”
Before his words fell, a pair of enormous wings suddenly unfolded behind Liu Ke, shimmering with mysterious light. At the same time, a pair of sharp horns grew from his forehead, and a long tail extended from behind him.
Not only that, but a pair of red claws also grew on Liu Ke’s arms, incredibly sharp, as if able to tear everything apart. These parts were not ordinary body structures, but rather pieced together from different marks, emitting a powerful atmosphere.
Liu Ke’s wings flapped violently, a powerful air current sweeping like a gale, instantly destroying the vortex. Liu Ke took the opportunity to rise into the air, like a soaring eagle, directly charging towards the sky.
As he ascended, the marks on various parts of his body began to merge, gradually combining into a strange creature. This creature was huge in figure, with a ferocious face, and exuded a terrifying atmosphere.
Liu Ke clenched his hands, and the monster formed from the marks, like an arrow leaving the bowstring, charged directly at Kong Yunzi. In an instant, Kong Yunzi’s two bodies, like phantoms, instantly disappeared without a trace.
However, the monster did not stop its attack; it continued to pursue Kong Yunzi with astonishing speed. At this time, Kong Yunzi seemed to have lost all his power, and in the face of the monster’s fierce attack, he had no ability to fight back.
Soon, Kong Yunzi discovered in terror that his body was gradually disappearing. His skin began to peel off, turning into dust that scattered in the air. Following this, his muscles and bones also disintegrated one after another, and finally, his entire body disintegrated into flesh powder, spreading in the air.
Liu Ke’s Eight Nuo Seal disappeared. Xu Liang rushed over and said: “Liu Ke, are you alright?”
Liu Ke picked up the prayer beads and put them on, saying: “I’m fine.”
Kong Yunzi was dead. Liu Ke stood in place, somewhat bewildered. He didn’t know if his mission was truly completed, as Kong Yunzi’s death had come so suddenly.
Liu Ke thought for a moment and decided to go and see the cave with Xu Liang. The two slowly walked towards the cave, remaining silent along the way, only their footsteps echoing in the mountains.
When they reached the cave, they found that the people inside seemed to already know of Kong Yunzi’s death, and they were all fleeing in panic. Liu Ke stood at the cave entrance, watching those people scatter like birds and beasts, a cold smile involuntarily appearing on his lips.
At that moment, his gaze was drawn to three characters at the cave entrance—Yueqing Temple. These three characters were written crookedly and somewhat carelessly.
“So Yueqing Temple is just a cave,” Liu Ke chuckled lightly, seeming somewhat disdainful of this so-called Taoist Temple.
Liu Ke stepped into the cave. Most of the people had already fled, leaving only a few still frantically looting valuables. Liu Ke walked around the cave casually, and suddenly, he discovered a strange cavern.
This cavern was filled with candles, densely packed, making one’s eyes a little dizzy. Liu Ke stared at these candles, a sense of curiosity welling up in his heart.
After thinking for a while, Liu Ke said to Xu Liang: “Wait for me outside; I’ll go in and have a look.”
Xu Liang nodded and replied: “Okay!”
Liu Ke took a deep breath and cautiously entered the cavern. A faint scent of candle wax filled the cavern, making one feel somewhat oppressed. Liu Ke looked around, and saw two rows of candles neatly arranged, one row red, and one row white, distinctly separated.
These candles seemed to have been burning for a long time, but showed no sign of burning out, as if they would never extinguish. Liu Ke couldn’t help but feel somewhat surprised. He rolled up his sleeves, and that red eye with two pupils slowly appeared.
After shifting his perspective to his arm, Liu Ke concentrated his mind, using this special eye to carefully observe these candles, trying to find some clues.
Liu Ke’s pupils contracted slightly on his arm, and red light seeped out through his pupils, falling on those candles. He suddenly discovered that there was a face embedded in the flame of each candle—in the red candles, there were twisted smiling faces, and in the white candles, there were frozen crying faces; those facial features seemed to be molded from living human flesh and skin, and as the flames flickered, the muscles on the faces were still twitching slightly.
He reached out to touch a red candle. Just as his fingertip was about to touch the wick, the smiling face in the flame suddenly opened its mouth and let out a thin, high-pitched laugh.
Liu Ke quickly retracted his hand, and saw that the wax of that candle began to drip down, not a transparent red, but a muddy dark red. When it dropped to the ground, there was a “sizzle” sound, and wisps of black smoke appeared, scorching tiny black holes in the ground.
A “click, click, click” sound came from the depths of the cavern, as if someone were scraping the stone wall with their fingernails. Liu Ke turned to look, and saw a humanoid thing standing in the shadows at the very back.
It was wrapped entirely in white cloth, like an aged corpse, the cloth stained with dark brown stains, and viscous liquid was still dripping from the edges, making a sticky sound as it fell to the ground.
That thing had no face. The head, wrapped in white cloth, was slightly tilted. Suddenly, it “looked” towards Liu Ke.
Liu Ke’s double pupils instantly captured countless tiny points of light wriggling under the white cloth, like eyeballs that had been dug out, staring at him densely.
“You shouldn’t have come, future variable.”
A hoarse voice came from under the white cloth, not from a mouth, but from all the seams of the cloth simultaneously, as if countless mouths were speaking.
Liu Ke gripped the hilt of his knife, the red light of his arm’s pupil shining brighter. He noticed that the flames of the candles were beginning to tilt towards that thing. The red candle tears and the white candle tears formed two thin streams on the ground, winding their way to the feet of that thing, and being absorbed by the cloth.
Suddenly, all the candle flames extinguished simultaneously, plunging the cavern into darkness. Liu Ke’s red pupils shone in the darkness. He saw countless thin threads extending from under the white cloth, one end connected to it, and the other end actually pierced into the backs of those fleeing people—those people had already run out of the cave, but now they were walking backward stiffly like marionettes, with the same twisted smiles as those in the red candles, their eye sockets empty, and dark red liquid like candle wax flowing out.
“Yueqing Temple was never a Taoist Temple.” That thing walked closer step by step, the stains on the white cloth becoming darker.
“This place is a ledger.”
Liu Ke heard Xu Liang’s voice behind him, with a strange kind of flattery: “Liu Ke, come here quickly, let’s add an entry…”
He turned his head sharply, his red pupils reflecting Xu Liang’s face—a white thread was also stuck in Xu Liang’s eye sockets, his mouth stretched to his ears, and wax-like substance was slowly seeping from his face.
