Knife splashing

Chapter 700: Nine Gates Yinxu Evil Tree Appears

It's like falling into a pool of water, with your hearing and vision all distorted.

Before Li Yan could react, his body suddenly felt lighter, and then the light and shadow became stable.

He was completely sure that this was the mezzanine space.

Whether it is the "Charnel Ground" or the "Dragon Palace", the feeling here is exactly the same.

Calming his mind, Li Yan looked around.

He found himself in a land temple.

The wall is half collapsed, and the wooden pillars, brackets, and rammed earth walls vaguely show the style of the Tang Dynasty.

The walls were covered with moss and cracks, and in the cracks, yellow and black rotten grease seeped out.

This place makes people uncomfortable at first sight.

Li Yan's heart was moved, and he turned his head to look behind him.

I saw a rectangular stone tablet lying on the ground, with the words "Liu, the local landowner...During the Yonghui period of the Tang Dynasty..." engraved on it.

On the rotten altar, the clay statue had shattered, and a dark hole appeared against the wall.

Li Yan understood that this land temple must be one of the exits.

The oil-stealing rat demon ran out from here and stole the incense from the surrounding land.

He took note of this place and walked out of the temple carefully.

When you exit the temple, you'll see a completely different scene.

The sky and the earth were gloomy and gray, as if covered by a thick fog, and snowflakes were falling from the air.

Li Yan raised his hand to take some, and his eyes suddenly became serious.

This is not "snow flakes" at all, it's clearly the ash left over from burning incense!

He couldn't help but think of what he had seen and heard in the "Charnel Ground" and the "Dragon Palace and Water Palace".

These places are the gaps between the Daluo Dharma Realm and the human world. They do not really exist but are a kind of spiritual space.

The images formed are also usually related to mental projection.

For example, the "charnel ground" is composed of countless tombs and pagodas.

When you arrive at the "Dragon Palace Water Palace", it is actually an underwater cave.

This "Jiumen Yinxu" is located in the capital city. It has been populated since ancient times and there are still remnants of the land temple from the Tang Dynasty.

Perhaps, it has something to do with human sacrifices...

Thinking of this, Li Yan became alert and continued to move forward.

Sure enough, the terrain here is somewhat similar to that of the capital.

Although it was covered with thick fog and filled with incense ash, he could still vaguely make out the terrain, which was very similar to the area outside the Nine Gates, but the streets were very strange, with bluestone roads and rammed earth roads blending together, as if mixed together.

The architectural styles of the surrounding houses also show different styles.

The earthen walls, thatched roofs, blue-gray lime tiles, it seems that buildings from different dynasties are mixed together, and the roads are twisted and crisscrossed.

But no matter which one it is, it is dilapidated and looks like a ruin.

There were no plants, no birds or animals, and no human figures. It was as if we had arrived at the end of the world.

Looking at this scene, Li Yan was thoughtful.

This strange layout further confirmed his guess.

He also saw the Daluo Dharma Realm through the bronze Nuo mask with the help of Erlang Zhenjun.

It is a magical place, existing in both material and spiritual ways.

To use the words from previous lives, perhaps it is some higher dimension.

Each time it can only be observed through dreams.

And this so-called secret cave is a crack in space.

Things in the human world are projected into it in a spiritual way, but they are not so stable...

Of course, this is all just speculation.

Li Yan stopped letting his mind wander and started to explore around.

This place was very empty and there was no visible boundary. He wanted to find the oil-stealing rat demon, but since the other party entered this "Nine Gates Yinxu", he had no idea where he had hidden. He could only move forward based on his feeling.

Fortunately, although it is messy here, the outline of the capital can still be barely seen.

Not long after walking forward, Li Yan stopped immediately, his eyes showing shock.

But above the ruins in front, there was a tall city gate suspended in the air, with the words "Zhengyang Gate" written on it.

The city gate was tightly closed, looking weathered and ancient, with rusty iron arrows stuck on it and stained with blood.

The city gate floating in the air seemed to be pushed by some force and moved slowly.

Such a strange scene really left Li Yan confused.

He had a vague guess in his mind that the area they had entered was just the periphery.

The so-called "Nine Gates Yin Ruins" probably requires passing through nine city gates to enter.

But the city gate can be seen in front and behind, and there is nothing there. So where is the entrance?
Rumble~
Just as he was thinking, the city gate suddenly made a loud roar and began to open slowly.

good chance!
Li Yan's mind moved, and he floated up like a kite and rushed directly into the city gate.

The moment he passed through the city gate, his eyes blurred and a different scene appeared.

All I saw in front of me was a scorched earth, thick smoke rising from the ruins, a river of blood on the ground, and mutilated corpses everywhere.

Rumble!
There was another roar and the ground shook.

I saw black fog rolling up from the distant hills.

One could vaguely see countless horse hooves flying and shouts of killing roaring like the tide.

Suddenly, the sound of a huqin was heard from the ruins, accompanied by the low hum of the desolate grassland.

Above the black fog, a huge faded animal skin flag appeared, with a gray wolf worshiping the moon painted on it, and black blood continuously oozing out of it.

"Arah!"

A low and cold voice sounded from the black fog.

Then with a buzzing sound, a black cloud rose up, and countless arrows, dense as rain, were pouring towards this side in a parabola.

Li Yan felt his scalp tingling as he looked at it, so he turned around and retreated.

Even the ten great masters of Shenzhou are mortal beings and it is difficult for them to survive this horrific attack.

Although this is the "Nine Gates Yin Ruins" and all the scenes are spiritual projections, we should not be careless.

Rumble~
After the Zhengyang Gate behind him opened to its maximum, it began to slowly close again.

At the last moment when the city gate closed, Li Yan retreated smoothly.

Bang bang bang!
Arrows flew all over the sky and fell on the city gate like raindrops, making the entire city gate look like a hedgehog.

But strangely, all the arrows quickly turned into black smoke and dissipated, returning to their original state.

"Arah!"

The sound in the black fog rang out again, surging and rushing towards another area.

Li Yan naturally didn't know all this.

Looking at the closed city gate, he was still frightened.

Those things just now should have been the cavalry charge of the Golden Horde Wolf Kingdom back then.

How come this thing still exists in the "Jiumen Yinxu"?
His mind was full of questions.

After walking for a long time following the moving city gate, all I saw were ruins, without a single ghost in sight.

Li Yan knew that if he wanted to go deeper, he would probably have to go through the city gate.

I wonder if I can use the escape technique to trick the cavalry blocking the door...

Just as he was thinking, his eyes suddenly lit up.

In the distance, another city gate appeared, also suspended in the air and moving slowly.

The three words "Chongwenmen" are written above the city gate.

The nine gates of the capital city all have different functions.

For example, Xuanwu Gate, also known as the "Death Gate", was the passage for prisoner vans, connecting to the Caishikou execution ground. The three characters "It's too late to regret" were engraved on the gate.

Chaoyang Gate is the "Grain Gate", the entrance for grain. The grain carts from Tongzhou passed through here to enter the warehouse. The gate is carved with reliefs of ears of grain.

Fuchengmen is the "coal gate", Xizhimen is the "water gate", and Chongwenmen in front of us is the "tax gate", where wine carts and merchants had to pay taxes when passing into the city.

The different functions of the nine gates may be related to this secret cave.

Although Li Yan had some guesses, it was difficult to confirm.

Just like the Zhengyang Gate we passed through before, it is the emperor’s exclusive “Dragon Chariot Gate”. Every year during the Winter Solstice, people would offer sacrifices to the heavens and during the Waking of Insects when plowing the fields, but inside are the remnant souls of the cavalry from the Golden Horde Wolf Kingdom. Could it be a symbol of the loss of imperial power?

The moment the two city gates intersected, they opened at the same time with a roar.

Li Yan hesitated for a moment and rushed directly into Chongwen Gate.

Lights and shadows flickered before my eyes, and another scene appeared:
The dense caravans of merchants and camels stretched as far as the eye could see. All of them had pale faces and black eyes, like lonely souls on the road to the underworld. They moved slowly along the street without a word, and even the rotten mules and horses did not neigh.

It looks lively, but it is actually dead silent, which is very weird.

Li Yan was in the caravan, pushed forward by the crowd.

Even he felt his scalp tingling at this scene.

Rumble~
The Chongwen Gate behind him slowly closed again.

At this point, Li Yan could only move forward with the caravan without making any noise.

Fortunately, these things don't attack.

Following this strange team, Li Yan shuttled through the streets and was soon surrounded by gray fog.

The streets here are also distorted with buildings from different eras.

I don’t know how long I walked, but the chaotic streets in front of me seemed to become familiar.

However, Li Yan's expression did change suddenly.

Chongwenmen appears again in front of us!
After walking for a long time, I realized I was just walking in circles.

Li Yan gritted his teeth, left the caravan, and rushed into the surrounding ruins.

However, no matter where he went, he would eventually return to Chongwenmen.

Ghost hitting the wall?
Or a secret realm formation?

Li Yan looked around, feeling helpless.

He was not good at breaking formations, and this place was strange, as if it was stuck in some kind of cycle.

The only thing to do now is to leave quickly to avoid being trapped in this cycle.

Rumble~
Chongwen Gate slowly opened again.

Li Yan was about to raise his foot, but his expression changed slightly.

"Ding...ling...ding...ling..."

The clear and strange sound of bells broke the silence of the area.

The sound was like that made by some fine porcelain colliding with each other.

Following the sound, I saw a strange team slowly emerging outside Chongwenmen.

It was a vermilion brocade sedan chair carried by eight people. It was shabby but had a strange luster.

The "bearers" who carried the sedan were not human beings, but had hairy bodies, thin limbs, strange bald heads, and big red mouths and eyes.

While walking, the joints all over the body made crackling sounds, and upon closer inspection, it was found that they were made up of cicada shells and limbs.

This is "Hairy Monkey"!
Li Yan finally remembered this thing.

"Maohou" is a handicraft in Beijing.

It is very delicate, with cicada shells as the head and limbs, magnolia as the body, white hyacinth as glue, and Akebia as props.

A skilled craftsman can use hairy monkeys to create various scenes.

“Havoc in Heaven”, “Officials’ Parade”, “Life in the Marketplace”… the monkeys each perform their duties vividly.

To put it simply, it is the action figures that the ancients played with.

Li Yan knew about this thing when he was collecting intelligence. He heard that there was a skilled Taoist craftsman in the capital who could use hairy monkeys as carriers, raise evil spirits to drive them, and perform "Hairy Monkey Show" in the middle of the night. This was a unique skill of the Taoist in the capital.

Right now, these "hairy monkeys" have all been magnified.

Except for the eight hairy monkeys carrying the sedan chair, the others looked like living people, wearing official hats and official uniforms, or holding flags, or dressing up as military generals.

They moved stiffly, their joints making "clicking" sounds, like puppets, in unison.

Through the vermilion pearl curtain of the sedan chair, a fat figure sitting inside could be vaguely seen.

He was wearing a military officer's robe and a tiger-skin hat, and had a plump white body and two huge rabbit ears on his head.

It’s the legendary Rabbit God!
It’s God Rabbit on patrol!

After this team of "hairy monkeys" carrying the Rabbit God sedan entered Chongwen Gate, with the sound of jingling bells on the sedan, the remnants of the crowded caravans along the way dispersed like flowing water, making way for the central street.

As the Rabbit God moved forward, black fog rolled in front of him, and a new road appeared.

A gleam of light flashed in Li Yan's eyes, and he immediately remembered what happened before.

The old fox fairy worshipped by Hu Yuanyuan said that God Rabbit wanted to save the child, and thus learned about the "Jiumen Yinxu".

The "Old Ghost of Beijing" had warned before that it is best to follow the "Rabbit God" after entering.

This is the only good god in the "Nine Gates Yinxu".

Without any hesitation, Li Yan immediately jumped out of the crowd and followed behind the team.

The rabbit god in the sedan chair seemed to sense something and turned his head slightly, but ignored it.

Entering the newly appeared street, the gray fog behind me rolled up again and the street disappeared.

Li Yan did not dare to be negligent and always followed closely.

These Nine Gates Yinxu are really weird.

The guiding incense wrapped around his body had become somewhat fainter, indicating that it was almost three quarters past midnight.

If he is not discovered by then, Wang Daoxuan will cast a spell to pull him back.

I don’t know how long I walked before my vision suddenly became clear.

This is a huge abandoned city wall, made of rammed earth and very old.

A huge tree stood on top of the broken wall.

This was the first time Li Yan saw plants since entering the "Jiumen Yinxu", but he did not feel the slightest bit happy.

It was a strange peach tree.

The trunk is as thick as a hill, and the roots are twisted and entwined around the dilapidated city wall.

Looking closely, the twisted bark was actually made up of countless children's faces that were stuck together and twitching in pain!

The leaves on the peach tree are so green and tender, and its dense roots are indeed blood-red, taking root in the piles of bones below the city wall.

Among the green leaves, several huge peaches have grown, pink and tender like fairy products.

But when Li Yan saw this, he only felt an uncontrollable nausea in his heart.

The second supernatural power he awakened was the ability to hear the sounds of ghosts and gods.

At this moment, the endless wailing of countless children kept echoing in my mind...

But what frightened Li Yan even more were the white bones under the peach tree.

The piles of bones vaguely formed an altar.

The altar was not of ordinary style. At its core, a crude rock statue was enshrined:
He has a human body, a leopard tail, tiger teeth and a good roarer, and disheveled hair wearing a crested crested bird crown.

It is the evil statue of the Queen Mother who is in charge of disasters, punishments and killings as recorded in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas"!

Li Yan found a statue of the Queen Mother in the "Dragon Palace Water Palace" in Shu, which was exactly the same as this one.

After years of evolution, the Queen Mother of the West has changed from an evil spirit to a god of fortune and virtue.

However, the ancient and brutal statues of gods actually began to attract worshippers.

It turns out the root cause is here!
There is nothing in front of the altar.

There were also a dozen officials in tattered ancient official robes performing sacrifices.

These people's faces are blurred and distorted, and their movements are as stiff as puppets, but they have an extremely solemn and strange rhythm.

They turned out to be paper figures!

Behind them, there are birth dates and names written on yellow paper.

Zhou Mingyuan, the assistant minister of the Ministry of Revenue, Lin, the wife of the salt transport envoy, Xiao Jinghuan, the Marquis of Anping...

They are all people from the "Peach Banquet"!

(End of this chapter)