Nine Desolate Records

The passageway was narrower and more suffocating than expected.

Lu Li had to bend over the entire way, and in some places even had to crawl. The stone walls above and to the sides were rough, damp, and cold, covered with slippery moss; when he touched them, he could feel the subtle wriggling of something alive. Thick dust piled up under his feet, each step kicking up a choking cloud of ash. In the absolute darkness, he could only rely on the faint glow of true energy emanating from Yun Jin's body ahead. That light wasn't illumination, but rather the energy naturally overflowing from his Eye of Truth when it was operating at full power, barely allowing him to discern direction.

The air was so polluted it was suffocating. Besides the smell of dust, there was another indescribable odor, like the smell of dried, aged blood that had been repeatedly dampened. Deeper still, one could faintly hear the extremely faint dragging sound of chains, as if coming from a very distant place. It wasn't a physical sound, but rather an echo that acted directly on consciousness, each sound causing the chain mark on Lu Li's chest to throb.

"Watch your step." Yun Jin's voice came from the darkness ahead, low and heavy with suppressed breathing. "There's a collapse ahead, and a crack in the stone wall on the left. Don't go near it."

Lu Li looked down and could barely make out a broken stone beam lying across his feet, its edges sharp as knives. He carefully stepped over it.

This is not an ordinary engineering access road.

The stone walls on both sides were covered with indistinct runes. Although they were covered with a thick layer of dust and moss, the direction and structure of those runes were identical to the restrictive runes at the Cangwu Mountain altar and beside the Dragon Locking Well. Even more strangely, every three to five steps, there was a palm-sized black crystal embedded in the wall. The surface of the crystal was covered with fine cracks, and deep within the cracks, a faint dark red light pulsed slowly, like a sleeping heart.

"These are..." Lu Li asked in a low voice.

"Sealed nodes." Yun Jin didn't turn around and continued moving forward. Her piercing eyes shone with silver light in the darkness, sweeping over the crystals. "Thirty years ago, when the dungeon was built, Shu Mountain and the Demon-Slaying Guard joined forces to set up a suppression array on the earth vein nodes. These crystals are the array eyes, used to absorb and transform the negative emotions seeping from the ground, preventing the prisoners' concept of 'fear' from spreading outward."

She paused, then lowered her voice even further:

"But now they're almost broken."

Lu Li looked at the nearest crystal. In the Prisoner's Fragment's vision, he could see that the crystal's interior was filled with a dense, grayish-black mist—a condensed form of fear. The mist surged wildly within the crystal, each impact widening the cracks, while a dark red light flickered violently.

The entire secret passage was like a tunnel riddled with fuses for bombs about to explode.

"How much further?" Lu Li asked.

"There's a fork in the road ahead." Yun Jin's voice was a little tense. "To the left is the main road leading to the maintenance entrance of the Soul-Suppressing Chamber, about thirty feet away. To the right... it's marked as an 'abandoned storage room' on the map, but there's something there."

She stopped, and Lu Li could almost hear her suppressed breathing, as well as the unique, subtle hum of energy that came with the Eye of Truth.

"My penetrating vision can sense a strong emotional residue deep within the right passage." Yun Jin's voice carried a rare hesitation. "It's not fear, it's... anger, and despair. The anger from thirty years ago."

Thirty years ago, at this very time.

Lu Li recalled the old blind man's words, the fact that Jiang Yin and Yun Jin's fathers were active in that era, and that Xun Wenruo's "Demon-Feeding Plan" was also launched at that time.

"Shall we go take a look?" he asked.

Yun Jin remained silent for three breaths. In the darkness, the silver light surrounding her slightly expanded and contracted, as if weighing its options.

"There's not enough time," she finally said, but there was a hint of undisguised hesitation in her voice. "The window of opportunity during the hour of Chou (1-3 AM) is only the time it takes to brew a cup of tea. We must get to the Soul-Suppressing Room first. But..."

She turned her head, the silver light of her piercing eyes looking at Lu Li in the darkness:

"The old blind man didn't tell you everything. Thirty years ago, there was a large-scale prison break in the dungeon of Lin Yuan City. Those who escaped were not ordinary prisoners, but seventeen 'experiments' who were secretly imprisoned. They were the earliest victims of Xun Wenruo's 'Demon-Feeding Plan'. My father was ordered to investigate at the time, and the final clues ended in this dungeon."

Her breathing became noticeably rapid:

"The last secret report my father left behind before he disappeared contained only one sentence: 'Deep in the dungeon, blood relatives are sacrificed; the anchor point is about to collapse.'"

Blood relatives were sacrificed.

Lu Li felt a sharp pain from the lock mark on his chest, as if those four words had pierced something.

"Do you think the answer might be in the passage on the right?" he asked.

"I don't know." Yun Jin's voice returned to its cold tone, but the suppressed tremor remained. "But my Eye of Truth tells me that the residual emotions there are so intense... enough to distort reality. If we go in, we might see things we shouldn't see, and might even trigger some dormant restrictions."

She took a deep breath:

"Finish the task first. If there's still time... come back."

Lu Li nodded. The two continued moving to the left.

The path ahead became even more difficult. The dark passage began to slope downwards, the incline growing steeper and the ground slippery, requiring the use of both hands and feet to maintain balance. The strange odor in the air grew stronger, almost to the point of being nauseating. To make matters worse, the black crystal cracks on the walls on both sides were multiplying, some of them completely shattered, the fragments scattered on the ground, making a crisp "crack" sound when stepped on.

With each shattering, Lu Li could feel a cold, malicious emotional surge emanating from his feet, spreading upwards along his ankles. It wasn't an attack, but more like a probe, trying to penetrate his skin, merge into his blood, and awaken the prisoner's essence within him.

He gritted his teeth, channeling the balancing power of the Dragon-Suppressing Dagger and the Phoenix-Suppressing Dagger to suppress the probing attack. But with each suppression, the burning sensation of the seal on his chest intensified, and the balance between humanity and the prisoner's power began to waver slightly.

"Can you hold on?" Yun Jin's voice came through, filled with worry.

"Temporarily," Lu Li squeezed out the two words through gritted teeth.

The situation finally changed. At the end of the dark passage, a rough stone wall blocked their way. There was a square opening in the wall, barely large enough for a head to pass through. The edges were crookedly carved, clearly not a proper construction, but rather something that had been secretly dug out later. The opening was hastily sealed with a few pieces of rubble, but the seal was not tight, and extremely faint light shone through the gaps.

The light was neither the orange-yellow of a torch nor the cold white of a luminous pearl, but a dark red, viscous halo, as if it were congealed blood.

At the same time, the sound of chains being dragged became much clearer, along with a low, hoarse, and intermittent humming voice.

It was like a lullaby, or perhaps a prayer in some kind of ritual.

Each syllable carries an eerie rhythm, drilling into the ears and reaching the depths of the mind, stirring up the most primal fears in people's hearts—fear of the dark, fear of the unknown, fear of losing everything.

Lu Li felt the lock on his chest throbbing violently, and the dark gold in his left eye lit up uncontrollably. The Prisoner's Essence within him was responding to the humming, like a sleeping beast hearing the call of its kind.

"Calm down." Yun Jin suddenly placed her hand on his shoulder, a cool sensation emanating from her palm, temporarily suppressing the agitation of the lock. "He's using his voice to guide fear, and also to guide what's inside you. Don't let yourself be drawn in."

Lu Li took a deep breath, forcibly calming his mind. But the sense of resonance remained, like an invisible thread connecting him to the being on the other side of the cave entrance.

Yun Jin gestured for Lu Li to be quiet, then moved closer to the edge of the cave entrance, her eyes gleaming with the silver light of her Eye of Truth, peering through the crack to the other side.

Three breaths.

Five breaths.

Ten breaths.

Yun Jin retreated, her face even paler than before, beads of cold sweat forming on her forehead and sliding down her cheeks. The silver light of the Eye of Truth flickered violently in her eyes, as if it might extinguish at any moment; the price of overuse was becoming apparent, and her vision was beginning to blur.

"The high priest is inside." Her voice was barely audible, filled with suppressed pain. "But something's wrong... the fear projection isn't receding as usual. It's active, and... like it's waiting for something."

Yun Jin turned her head, her silver eyes looking at Lu Li in the darkness, her expression complex:

"The high priest sat cross-legged in the center of the room, all the chains binding him taut, the other end disappearing into the darkness beneath the floor. He was humming, and with each verse, the chains responded from beneath the floor. It wasn't the sound of struggle, it was... a call."

"He's using himself as a medium to call upon his true self at the bottom of the well, and also to call upon... the prisoner's essence carrier who can resonate with the fear projection within him. Lu Li, he knew from the beginning that you would come. This entire dungeon, this time, this location, is a trap prepared just for you."

Lu Li felt a chill run down his spine: "Then what should we do..."

"The plan remains unchanged." Yun Jin's voice suddenly became unusually calm, although her face was still pale and the light in her Eyes of Truth began to flicker erratically. "A trap is a trap because the one who sets it believes that the prey will follow the route he designed. But we know it's a trap, and that's our biggest advantage."

She took out an ice-blue jade talisman from her bosom and placed it in Lu Li's hand. The jade talisman was cool to the touch, and its surface was covered with fine silver runes that were faintly glowing.

"A Concentration Talisman," Yun Jin said quickly. "Once inside, stick it above the lock. It will completely shield you from the prisoner's fluctuations for ten breaths. During these ten breaths, the fear projection cannot accurately locate you, and the high priest cannot influence your mind through resonance."

She paused, her silver eyes fixed intently on Lu Li:

"But these ten breaths are your only chance. I will use the Eye of Truth to disrupt the connection between the High Priest and the projection, creating a 'Real Realm'—within my realm, he cannot lie, cannot pretend, and can only tell the truth. You must ask for the most crucial information: how to safely cross the 'Scales of Cost' and take the Zhenlin Dagger. Once the ten breaths are up, whether you have finished asking or not, immediately withdraw. Understand?"

Lu Li gripped the jade talisman tightly, feeling the icy chill seep into his palm, temporarily suppressing the restlessness of the lock.

"clear."

Yun Jin nodded, giving him one last look. At that moment, Lu Li saw many complex things in her eyes: resolute determination, exhaustion, suppressed hatred, and a trace of... indescribable sadness.

"Remember," she said, her voice as soft as a sigh, her back to Lu Li, "that thing inside you is the prisoner's origin, but also the prisoner's 'memory.' Sometimes, to get the truth, you don't necessarily need the other person to speak."

After saying that, she placed her hands on the stones blocking the cave entrance, took a deep breath, and the silver light of her Eye of Truth suddenly intensified!

"Three, two, one, go!"

She pushed hard.

The stones tilted inward, making a dull thud.

At the other end of the cave entrance, the eerie humming abruptly stopped.

Without the slightest hesitation, Lu Li bent down and crawled through the hole.

Suddenly, everything became clear.

This was a stone chamber larger than I had imagined, circular in shape, about ten zhang in diameter. The floor, walls, and ceiling were all covered with densely packed dark red runes, which were now pulsating slowly in a certain rhythm, as if the entire stone chamber was breathing.

In the center of the stone chamber, a person sat cross-legged.

He wore a tattered gray robe, his long hair was disheveled and obscured most of his face. His hands and feet were bound by thick bronze chains, the other ends of which disappeared into the darkness beneath the floor, taut and trembling slightly. Most bizarrely, he was in a dignified posture—though chained, he sat upright, even with an eerie composure, as if the chains were decorations rather than constraints.

Hearing the noise, he slowly raised his head.

His long hair slid down, revealing an unusually calm face. He was around forty years old, with ordinary features, but his eyes—those eyes surging with a fanatical, inhuman light—were fixed on Lu Li, who had just crawled in.

"Ah..." The high priest let out a satisfied sigh, his voice drilling directly into Lu Li's mind, "You've finally arrived. A little faster than expected."

Without wasting words, Lu Li immediately placed the Concentration Talisman above the seal on his chest.

An icy aura erupted instantly, enveloping his entire body. All the prisoners' fluctuations were completely suppressed. At this moment, in the perception of the fear projection, he was like a lifeless stone.

Almost simultaneously, Yun Jin's low shout came from the cave entrance:

"Breaking Through Illusion—The Realm of Truth!"

Silver light surged in from the cave entrance like a tide, instantly filling the entire stone chamber. Wherever the light passed, the dark red runes on the ground and walls dimmed, and the chains binding the high priest trembled violently, emitting a grating screeching sound.

The high priest's expression changed for the first time.

The fanatical light in his eyes began to flicker and become chaotic, as if its rhythm had been forcibly disrupted. He opened his mouth, as if to say something, but only chaotic syllables came out—within the Realm of Delusion, all pretense and performance were forcibly stripped away, and he had to reveal his most authentic self.

Lu Li stepped directly in front of the high priest, getting straight to the point:

"How can I safely navigate the scales of justice and retrieve the Zhenlin Dagger?"

The high priest's lips trembled, struggling, but the power of the Realm of Truth forced him to answer. His voice became dry and mechanical, each word seeming to be squeezed from the depths of his soul:

"The scales... require a 'concept'... not a physical object... You must... offer up the deepest bond... connected to your bloodline..."

"What exactly is it?" Lu Li pressed.

The high priest struggled more violently; his eyes bulged, bloodshot, but his mouth remained uncontrollably open.

"To you... he is 'father'... he is 'inheritance'... he is the source of the Yan Emperor's bloodline..."

He paused, a twisted, ambiguous smile appearing on his face:

"But you don't have a father... don't you? Xun Wenruo erased him... so... what you have to offer is all your memories of the concept of 'father'... all your emotions... all your... sense of belonging."

Lu Li's heart sank.

To give up all memories and emotions about his father? What does that mean? It means he will completely forget one of the reasons he became "Lu Li".

"Is there... no other way?" His voice was a little dry.

"Yes..." The high priest's face began to twitch, the power of the Realm of Deception fiercely battling against the projection of fear within him. "If you can find... the 'Destiny Talisman' left behind by the ancient sealer who sealed 'Fear'... the power of the talisman... can temporarily obscure the scales... but the talisman can only be used once... and is destroyed after use..."

"Where is my personal talisman?"

"In..." A gurgling sound came from the high priest's throat, his eyes began to roll back, and his body trembled violently. The chains beneath the floor twitched wildly, and dark red mist poured out from the cracks in the floor—the projection of fear was forcibly breaking through the suppression of the Realm of Delusion!

"In Shushan... Sword Tomb... Guardian of the Tomb... Xuanji..." The high priest finally squeezed out the last few words, then his whole body stiffened abruptly, and the light in his eyes went out completely.

It is not death.

It was something far more terrifying—the projection of fear within him had forcibly taken over the body.

"Time's up!" Yun Jin's sharp shout came from the cave entrance. Her voice was hoarse, and the silver light of the True Domain of Illusion began to flicker violently. "Lu Li, come out!"

Lu Li turned and ran.

But it was too late.

The floor suddenly exploded!

Countless thick, rusted, and bloodstained chains shot up from the ground like wildly dancing pythons, instantly sealing off all escape routes. At the center of the chains, dark red mist gathered frantically, coalescing into a blurry, shapeless, and enormous outline.

Three eyes opened within the outline.

Pure blackness, without pupils, only an endless abyss.

The projection of fear, a part of the original body, has fully awakened.

A voice echoed in the stone chamber, not through the air, but directly crushing the soul:

"A tyrannical... fragment... the Flame Emperor's... bloodline... a perfect... vessel..."

"To remain...as...part...of...fear..."

Chains rained down like a storm.

Lu Li drew the Dragon-Suppressing Dagger.

The bluish-black blade gleamed eerily in the dark red mist, subtly resonating with the crimson of the Phoenix-Suppressing Dagger in his arms. The two forces collided within him, and the effect of the Concentration Talisman completely collapsed at that moment—the icy suppression vanished, and the scorching heat of the seal erupted like a volcano!

He had no choice.

Crossing the two daggers in front of his chest, Lu Li closed his eyes, his consciousness sinking into the dark blue-green Prisoner's Essence within his body.

It's not about waking up, it's not about releasing.

It is... communication.

"If you want this body," he whispered to the source within his heart, "then help me get through this."

The source trembled violently.

The next moment, dark golden patterns, as if alive, spread from around the lock mark on Lu Li's chest, instantly covering his entire body. His aura surged, and the two daggers in his hands shone brightly. Facing the incoming chains, he unleashed the strongest attack of his life.

The blade light, a blend of dark blue and crimson, tore through the dark red mist and severed the three thickest chains.

The projection of fear roared in anger.

But Lu Li also paid a price.

The proportion of humanity has plummeted—70%...60%...50%...

The branding mark on his chest burned his skin like a hot iron, spreading ten times faster than before. He could feel his consciousness being squeezed and devoured by some cold, violent presence.

"Lu Li!" Yun Jin rushed in from the cave entrance. The silver light of her Eye of Truth had dimmed to almost extinguished, but she still drew her sword and slashed at the chains chasing Lu Li. "Go! I'll hold them off!"

"Let's go together!" Lu Li roared.

"No time left!" Blood trickled from Yun Jin's lips. The backlash from overusing her Insightful Eyes began to erupt. Her vision was blurred, and she could only wield her sword by instinct. "Remember... Shu Mountain... your natal talisman... and..."

She didn't finish her sentence.

A chain came from the side and pierced through her right shoulder.

Yun Jin let out a muffled groan, the knife slipping from her hand and falling to the ground. But she didn't fall; instead, she grabbed the chain with her left hand, and the last glimmer of light from her Eye of Truth exploded in her eyes—

"Get back to the bottom of the well!"

A burst of silver light erupted like the blazing sun.

The projection of fear emitted a piercing shriek, all the chains retracted simultaneously, and the dark red mist churned violently. Taking advantage of the moment, Yun Jin kicked Lu Li in the back: "Go!"

Lu Li bit his tongue, using the excruciating pain to maintain his last shred of consciousness. He grabbed Yun Jin's arm and dragged her toward the cave entrance.

Behind them, the roar of the fear projection was deafening, and the entire stone chamber began to collapse.

The two stumbled back into the secret passage and ran back the way they came without looking back.

Behind them, the Soul-Suppressing Chamber was completely engulfed in a dark red raging tide.

Deep within the well, an even larger entity slowly opened its eyes.

It smelled blood.

I can also smell... the "container" getting closer and closer.

Fifteen minutes later, at a hidden drain somewhere on the third floor of the dungeon.

Lu Li and Yun Jin collapsed to the ground, covered in blood and panting heavily.

Yun Jin's right shoulder wound was still bleeding profusely, and her Vision-Breaking Eyes were completely dim, with fine blood vessels around her eyes—a sign of severely impaired vision. Leaning against the wall, her face was ashen, and she didn't even have the strength to lift her hand.

Lu Li's condition is even worse.

The lock-mark pattern on the chest has spread to the entire chest, and the bluish-black lines under the skin spread out like a spider web.

He struggled to sit up, took out the medicine Lin Qingyuan had given him from his pocket, hastily sprinkled it on Yun Jin's wounds, and then tore off a piece of his own clothing to bandage her wounds.

"My natal talisman..." Yun Jin spoke weakly, her voice almost inaudible, "The Sword Tomb of Shu Mountain... Xuanji... I must obtain it..."

"I know," Lu Li's voice was hoarse, "but you now..."

"I won't die." Yun Jin closed her eyes, her breathing weak but steady. "The backlash from the Eye of Delusion... I'll be fine after a few days of rest. But you must... leave Lin Yuan City as soon as possible. The projection of fear has already memorized your scent..."

Lu Li clenched his fist.

Go to Mount Shu, find the tomb guardian Xuanji, obtain the natal talisman, and take the Zhenlin Dagger through the cost balance.

is it possible?

he does not know.

But he had to do it.

Helping Yun Jin up, the two staggered toward the dungeon exit.

In the distance, a commotion of voices and alarms came from the direction of the city lord's mansion—the commotion had alerted the guards inside.

The sky is bright.

The darkness before dawn is the deepest.

And in that dark depths, dark red liquid began to seep from the mouth of the Dragon Locking Well.

a drop.

Another drop.

It's like a countdown.