Chapter 172
Chapter 172
The Knife-Wielding Little White Monkey raised by Chen Zhao was no ordinary creature. Its name was Quanyu.
It was the offspring of a Youyan and an ordinary ape. It was skilled at reading people’s hearts and loved to smile.
It was also extremely sensitive to danger, which was why Chen Zhao kept it in his command tent as a guard.
Since it had already scouted ahead, there should, in theory, be no danger at the bottom of the pit.
Qin Ying and the other two descended along the crude walkway.
One end of the walkway was embedded deep in the moss-covered rock wall.
Although it was made of stone, it was riddled with wide gaps and had no railing. A careless fall might not smash someone into pieces, but it would certainly be enough to break their neck.
All three of them were injured, so they proceeded with great care.
Qin Ying in particular had something cumbersome hanging from her right hand. She braced herself against the rock wall and made sure each step was secure before taking the next.
It took them roughly the time needed to burn a stick of incense before they finally reached the bottom.
The moment Qin Ying relaxed, her legs nearly gave out beneath her.
Her veil remained firmly in place, but only she knew that the flesh beneath her clothes had already shriveled.
If they delayed much longer, or if she suffered another injury, the strip of flesh placed inside the puppet’s abdomen during the Soul-Container Consecration would likely be exhausted.
Leaning on her Bone Staff, she nudged a round ball that went rolling away beneath her toes.
Countless such rust-covered balls lay scattered among the patterns carved into the altar at the bottom of the cavern.
For a moment, Qin Ying imagined herself looking at a game of Zuma, clearing rows of marbles.
Chen Zhao warned her, “Don’t step on those balls.”
“They probably contain imprisoned Di Shang.”
Di Shang was capable of transformation, but once encased in rust, it lost its vitality and became trapped.
Qin Ying swept her gaze around the cavern, stunned by the sheer number of them.
If the rust shells around these things broke open, they would have a serious problem on their hands.
Carefully skirting the balls, Qin Ying followed Chen Zhao and Liang Pu to the center of the altar.
The Bald Little Monkey was squatting at the very center atop an iron statue twice the height of a man.
There was not a speck of rust on the statue. It looked as though it had only just emerged from a blacksmith’s forge.
Its shape was somewhat abstract, resembling a lump of misshapen steamed bun dough.
An equally abstract script had been carved across its surface.
Chen Zhao ran his hand over it. “This is a very ancient script.”
Liang Pu immediately asked, “Can you read it, General?”
Chen Zhao answered him with an eye roll. The answer was self-evident.
While the two men found themselves at a loss, Qin Ying was equally dumbfounded.
She realized she could read it.
It came from the same family of script used by Fuzhu and others of the Monstrous Beast kind when they bestowed their imprints.
Keeping her expression unchanged, she walked around the iron statue.
The writing was obscure and difficult to decipher.
She studied it for a long time before finally understanding its meaning.
Just as they had speculated, this place was indeed a prison, and the entity sealed here was Di Shang.
The prison was even older than the present Great Xia Dynasty.
The cavern had originally been an iron vein worked by the Sand People, though the inscription did not say which Tribe had owned it.
However, since this place stood on the lands of the Kuxi Tribe, it had most likely belonged to their ancestors.
The people here had followed the cracks downward to mine the iron ore, keeping their furnaces burning day and night.
Merchants came from all directions to purchase the ore, and the settlement enjoyed a period of great prosperity.
But it did not last long. On the day of a solar eclipse, someone found a rust ball the size of a chicken egg in a crevice at the foot of the mountain.
Human beings seemed innately compelled to tamper with things they should leave alone.
With nothing better to do, the man who found it tossed the ball into a furnace.
The rust cracked apart in the flames, revealing something that resembled a glob of mercury.
It flowed out of the furnace like water.
It devoured iron on contact, but loved gold above all else.
In a short span of time, the once-prosperous Tribe had all its wealth and mineral reserves consumed.
In their place stood an enormous Di Shang.
After seizing the mine, Di Shang spent every day gorging itself on the endless buffet, utterly carefree.
Just as the situation became impossible to contain…
The Shadow of the Giant God appeared.
The Shaman-Priest who cast this bronze statue had composed extravagantly reverent verses praising the Giant God who descended from the heavens.
The Giant God, a symbol of wealth, subdued Di Shang with an enormous quantity of gold.
From that day forward, Di Shang became the Giant God’s goblet, whip, and armor.
According to the inscription on the iron statue, the Giant God brought the conflicts of the mortal world to an end, then decided to seal away Di Shang, the symbol of war and chaos.
Thus, this dungeon was created, along with the Bone Staff used for herding and the guards that were herded: the rust.
Beyond that, the inscription contained very little useful information. The rest consisted entirely of the Sand People’s hymns of praise to their god.
They had lavished every beautiful word they knew upon the Giant God.
Qin Ying, however, had another theory.
That Giant God might have come from the other side of the door, just as she had.
The realization made her heart pound like a drum.
She was not the first Gate Opener.
Her inner turmoil did not escape Chen Zhao and Liang Pu.
Since she bore the title of Sand People Shaman, there was theoretically nothing strange about her being able to read this ancient script.
Neither man interrupted her. They merely stared at Qin Ying with expectant eyes.
They had pinned all their hopes on her.
Qin Ying continued reading for so long that her clothes were nearly dry by the time she finished.
At last, she raised her head and pointed toward one side of the altar.
“There’s a safe passage out over there.”
It was a route meant exclusively for the shepherd who tended the guards. Qin Ying raised the Bone Staff in her hand.
She planned to leave first, then return later to retrieve Di Shang.
If her predecessor could use gold to bargain with Di Shang, why couldn’t she do the same?
She, too, wanted a Cup, armor, and a weapon.
And the key imprint needed to grasp Di Shang lay at the center of the iron statue.
The thought had only just crossed Qin Ying’s mind when the Bone Staff in her hand accidentally knocked against the statue.