Nine Desolate Records

As the sun set, the two horses stepped out of the Bailu Academy grounds.

The boundary marker is a two-person-high blue stone with only two characters engraved on it: "止戈" (Zhi Ge). It is said to have been erected by a general during the founding of the country, meaning "the end of war here". Later, when the academy was expanded, the marker was used as a boundary marker.

Lu Li reined in his horse and glanced back.

The academy was already shrouded in twilight, with only the outline of the old bamboo grove visible, undulating like ink-black waves in the evening breeze. The bell rang again, the bell for evening classes, deeper than the morning bell, its tolls echoing before finally dissipating into the rising night mist.

The dark mark on his shoulder gradually calmed down as the sound of the bell faded into the distance.

"Junior Brother Lu, are you reluctant to part with it?" Lin Qingyuan's voice came from behind him. He had already dismounted and was taking out dry rations and a water bag from the bag beside his saddle. "If you are reluctant, it's not too late to turn back now. That mission to Cangwu Mountain was not something a disciple of the Yellow Academy should be involved in."

His words were kind, but his tone was sharp.

Lu Li dismounted and tied the old horse to a withered tree next to the boundary marker before turning to Lin Qingyuan: "Senior Brother Lin is joking. How can we abandon a task personally assigned by Mr. Xun halfway?"

Lin Qingyuan smiled but didn't reply. He simply handed over a flatbread. The flatbread was a special kind of marching ration made by the academy's kitchen. It was mixed with salt and minced meat, and it was so hard it could be used as a brick, but it was very filling.

The two sat down on the ground beside the boundary marker, three feet apart. The last rays of the setting sun were swallowed by the night, and darkness gradually descended, with stars appearing one by one. Silence reigned, broken only by the sound of the wind and the faint barking of dogs in the distance.

Lu Li took a bite of the bread and chewed slowly. The bread was dry, and it scratched his throat when he swallowed it. He unscrewed his water pouch and took a sip. The water was cold and had a faint herbal taste. This was the "marching drink" issued by the academy, which could refresh the mind and suppress miasma.

"Junior Brother Lu," Lin Qingyuan suddenly spoke, "do you know what kind of place Mount Cangwu is?"

Lu Li paused, then said, "I'd like to hear the details."

"That's a cursed place." Lin Qingyuan broke off a small piece of bread and crumbly it between his fingers. "Fifty years ago, the last rebel army of the previous dynasty was wiped out there. More than 30,000 men, not a single one survived. They didn't die in battle, they died mysteriously. When their bodies were found, they were all soaking in the hot spring at the foot of the mountain. Their flesh was intact, but their internal organs were empty, as if something had eaten them clean from the inside out. Since then, Cangwu Mountain has been abandoned. The hot spring is still there, but no one dares to go there. The nearby villages also moved away one after another, until only one manor remained, which is the Jiang Family Manor we are going to." Lin Qingyuan looked up at Lu Li. "The manor lord, Jiang Yin, is said to be the only survivor of that rebel army. But he went mad, telling everyone he meets that there is a 'dragon' in the mountain, and that the hot spring is the dragon's tears."

Lu Li listened quietly, but his mind was racing.

The coordinates from the fragment were precisely at Cangwu Mountain. Xun Wenruo had also sent him to Cangwu Mountain. Now Lin Qingyuan was saying that a large-scale, bizarre death incident had occurred there fifty years ago.

There are too many coincidences.

"Senior Brother Lin seems to know a lot about Cangwu Mountain," Lu Li said.

"My father was a county magistrate in that area when he was young," Lin Qingyuan said casually. "I've seen the files. The way the 30,000 rebels died is almost exactly the same as the way the missing servants of Jiangjiazhuang died: they were all soaking in hot springs, and their internal organs were all gone."

He paused, then added, "The only difference is that the corpses from fifty years ago had scaly patterns on their skin. But the victims from Jiangjiazhuang this time didn't."

Lu Li suddenly remembered the totem on page thirty-seven of the incomplete manuscript. The main body of that totem was a coiled dragon, its body covered with scale-like runes.

"Does Mr. Xun know about these things?" he asked.

"Of course I know." Lin Qingyuan stuffed the last bit of bread into his mouth. "That's why he sent you. Or rather, he sent us."

"us?"

"That's right." Lin Qingyuan stood up, patted the crumbs off his hands, and said, "Junior Brother Lu, let's be frank. Mr. Xun asked me to travel with you, ostensibly to look after you, but actually to keep an eye on you. He suspects you are involved in Li Muzhi's death and feels that you have some... special qualities that might help you solve the mystery of Cangwu Mountain."

As dusk completely enveloped the area, Lin Qingyuan's face was hidden in shadow, with only his eyes shining eerily brightly.

"But I'm different from you. I have no interest in how Li Muzhi died, nor in the mystery of Cangwu Mountain." He lowered his voice. "I only want one thing: in Jiangjia Village, there is a half-scroll of the 'Yu Gong Tu' (Tribute of Yu) incompleteness. It is a treasure lost by my Lin family ancestors, and I must take it back."

Lu Li's mind jolted.

The "Yu Gong Tu"—isn't that the legendary map of the earth's veins drawn by Yu the Great during his flood control efforts? It's said to record the course of all the waterways and the nodes of the earth's energy in the nine provinces, making it a supreme treasure of geomancy. But this thing should have been lost long ago, so how did it end up in the hands of a mad manor lord on Cangwu Mountain?

Why did Senior Brother Lin tell me all this?

"Because we need to cooperate." Lin Qingyuan squatted down to look Lu Li in the eye. "Mr. Xun is testing you, and he's testing me too. The wooden plaque he gave you and the secret order he gave me are both half true and half false. The journey to Cangwu Mountain won't be peaceful. My Lin family isn't the only one secretly eyeing the 'Yu Gong Tu' (Tribute of Yu) map. And Mr. Xun isn't the only one eyeing the secrets you possess."

He took out a copper coin from his pocket and placed it in his palm. The coin was old, with smooth edges. The front was inscribed with the four characters "天下太平" (Peace Under Heaven), while the back was a miniature carving—mountains rising and falling, with a fissure in the middle, and the outline of a palace faintly visible deep within the fissure.

"This was found on the corpses of rebels in Cangwu Mountain fifty years ago. There was a copper coin like this on each of the thirty thousand corpses." Lin Qingyuan handed the coin to Lu Li. "Take a look at the back."

Lu Li took the copper coin; it was icy cold to the touch. He examined it intently. The micro-carving on the back was almost invisible in the twilight, but when he focused a wisp of his inner energy into his eyes, the lines suddenly lit up. They weren't mountains. They were twisted, coiled… intestines. And the palace deep within the fissure wasn't a palace either, but a gigantic, gaping mouth. Inside were teeth, densely packed, layer upon layer, extending all the way to the depths of the throat.

"This is..." Lu Li's hand trembled, and the copper coin almost slipped from his grasp.

"It's a sacrifice." Lin Qingyuan took back the copper coin. "Those 30,000 rebels from fifty years ago didn't die in an accident; they were sacrificed. Sacrificed to something in the mountains. And this copper coin is a mark, a mark of who was chosen as the sacrifice."

He stood up and looked southwest. Night had fallen, and that direction was pitch black; not even starlight could penetrate.

"The incident at Jiangjiazhuang likely means that the sacrifices are about to begin again," Lin Qingyuan said softly. "And Mr. Xun sending us there at this time, do you think it's a coincidence?"

Lu Li also stood up.

The wind suddenly picked up, making the withered trees creak. The old horse pawed restlessly, emitting a low whinny. The barking of dogs in the distance had stopped sometime ago, and an eerie silence fell over the surrounding fields.

"Something's not right." Lu Li pressed his hand on the dagger at his waist—the only decent weapon in Xun Wenruo's luggage.

Lin Qingyuan had already drawn his sword. The blade was long and narrow, gleaming faintly with a bluish light in the night. A blue gem the size of a pigeon's egg was embedded in the hilt, and it was now glowing slightly.

"It's miasma," he said in a low voice, "but not natural miasma. Someone has set up an array to seal off this area."

As soon as the words were spoken, the land around the boundary marker began to undulate.

It wasn't the shaking of an earthquake; it was the undulation of the topsoil, as if countless earthworms were burrowing beneath. The topsoil cracked, and a viscous, dark green liquid seeped out. Wherever the liquid passed, vegetation quickly withered, turned black, and turned to ash.

The liquids converged into thin streams, which intertwined to draw a huge pattern on the ground.

Lu Li recognized the pattern.

It's a variant of the totem on page thirty-seven of the fragment, missing a third of the strokes, but the core structure is exactly the same. The lines outlined by the dark green liquid emitted a faint glow in the night, the glow growing brighter and brighter until the entire earth was shrouded in a pale green halo.

"Back off!" Lin Qingyuan grabbed Lu Li's arm and quickly retreated.

But it was too late.

Within a radius of three zhang around the boundary marker, the ground suddenly collapsed. Not downwards, but upwards. The soil was turned upside down, revealing a dense network of intertwined roots. These weren't tree roots, but some kind of fleshy substance, like giant blood vessels, still pulsating rhythmically. Wrapped among the roots were countless white bones—human bones, animal bones—all shattered beyond recognition.

A bulge emerges from the center of the root.

The bulge split open, and a hand emerged from inside.

Pale, long, with nails painted bright red, like a woman's hand. But below the wrist, it connected to thick, scaly forearms. The hand clawed in the air a few times, then braced itself against the ground, pulling out what lay beneath it completely—a person.

At least the upper body.

She wore a ruqun (a type of traditional Chinese dress) in the style of a previous dynasty's court, the hem of which was tattered, revealing her waist, which was fused with fleshy roots. Her long hair was loose, obscuring her face, but through the gaps in her hair, one eye could be seen; it had no pupil, only a murky, pale green.

She opened her mouth, but what came out was not a human voice, but the rustling sound of countless roots rubbing together, mixed with the crisp sound of bones breaking.

"Offerings..."

The sound came from all directions, and it was impossible to tell whether it was her voice or the entire earth resonating with it.

"It's the 'Earth Mother Puppet'." Lin Qingyuan's voice was tense. "This thing shouldn't be near the academy's territory... Someone is deliberately intercepting us."

Lu Li had already drawn his dagger. The dagger was short, with a jet-black blade and only a thin line of silver at the edge. He gripped the hilt tightly, feeling the wound on his palm begin to throb again.

After the "Earth Mother Puppet" fully emerged from the ground, its fleshy roots began to grow wildly, spreading outwards. Wherever the roots passed, the soil churned, and more bones were unearthed, forming incomplete skeletons in the air. The skeletons stood up unsteadily, their eye sockets blazing with a ghastly green flame.

In the blink of an eye, more than a dozen skeletons had appeared around the boundary marker.

"I'll deal with the Puppet Mother, you clear out the minions." Lin Qingyuan spoke very quickly. "The Earth Mother Puppet's weakness is her heart, but her heart isn't in this body, it's in the main root underground. We must find the main root and sever it."

"How do I find it?"

"Use your blood." Lin Qingyuan glanced at Lu Li. "Your blood can sever the tracking threads of the Heavenly Eye, and it should also be able to sense the energy nodes of the Earth Mother Puppet. Drop a drop of blood on the ground, and it will tell you the direction."

Lu Li felt a chill run down his spine. Lin Qingyuan indeed knew that his blood was special.

But there was no time to hesitate.

The first skeleton lunged at him. Lu Li dodged to the side, thrusting his dagger in a backhand motion, striking the skeleton squarely in the cervical vertebrae. The instant the dagger pierced through, he felt a chill run down his spine, almost freezing his fingers. But the next instant, the silvery-white line on the dagger's blade suddenly gleamed, the chill receded like a tide, and the skeleton shattered with a crash.

"There's an exorcising talisman on the blade!" Lin Qingyuan had already engaged the Earth Mother Puppet, his sword flashing like a bolt of lightning, severing each of the attacking fleshy roots. Dark green pus spurted from the severed roots, splashing onto the ground and carving deep pits. "Don't get the pus on you!"

Lu Li responded and retreated swiftly, simultaneously slashing his finger with his dagger and dripping a drop of blood onto the ground.

The blood droplet landed but didn't seep into the soil. Instead, it hovered three inches above the ground and began to spin. The spin accelerated, and fine golden patterns appeared on the surface of the blood droplet—the very patterns of the fragmented totem.

The lines extend, transforming into countless fine threads that penetrate the ground.

Lu Li closed his eyes.

Through the sensation transmitted via the blood vessels, he "saw" the scene underground—a complex network of roots, like a giant spider web, covering an area hundreds of feet in diameter. At the very center of the network, there was a violently throbbing tumor, its surface covered with blood vessels from which flowed a dark green liquid. That was the main root.

And the location of the taproot...

It is located three zhang (approximately 10 meters) directly below the boundary marker.

"Found it!" Lu Li opened his eyes. "Under the monument!"

"Alright!" Lin Qingyuan forced back the Earth Mother Puppet with a sword strike, then swiftly retreated to Lu Li's side. "I'll hold her off, you dig down. Remember, the core of the main root is a 'Ground Core Stone,' about the size of a fist, dark green. Break it, and the Puppet Mother will collapse."

"How do we dig?" Lu Li looked at the solid ground beneath his feet.

"Use this." Lin Qingyuan took out three talismans from his pocket and handed them to Lu Li. "Earth Escape Talisman. Stick it on your leg and chant the 'Kun' incantation. But it will only last for ten breaths. You must come out within ten breaths, or you will be buried alive underground."

Lu Li took the talisman; it was warm to the touch. The talisman paper was specially made hemp paper, and the runes on it were drawn with silver powder. Without hesitation, he patted the talisman on the outside of his legs and whispered:

"Kun".

The talisman suddenly became hot.

The next instant, Lu Li's body sank—not falling, but the earth turning into water, and he sank into it like a stone. His vision was obscured by the soil and rocks, but the senses transmitted through his blood vessels remained, clearly pointing in the direction of the main root.

Dive down.

One zhang (approximately 3.3 meters).

Two zhang (approximately 6.6 meters).

The pressure from the earth and rocks intensified, and the heat from the talisman rapidly subsided. Lu Li knew time was running out, so he swam downwards with all his might.

Three zhang (approximately 10 meters).

Suddenly, everything became clear.

There was a hollow underground cavity, about the size of a room. In the center of the cavity hung a huge tumor, its surface bulging with blood vessels that contracted and expanded with each pulse. Deep within the tumor, a faint, dark green light could be seen.

That's the Earth's core.

Lu Li pulled out a dagger and swam towards the tumor.

But just as he was about to touch the tumor, countless slits suddenly appeared on its surface, and from each slit emerged a pale hand, reaching for him. There were so many hands, so densely packed, that they almost blocked out all angles.

The popularity of talismans has waned to the point of being almost imperceptible.

Only three breaths left.

Lu Li gritted his teeth and, instead of retreating, accelerated forward. He dodged several hands that grabbed at him from the front, and plunged his dagger fiercely into the green light deep within the tumor.

The dagger pierced the tumor, feeling like it was stabbing into rotten mud. A sudden burst of green light blinded Lu Li. All the hands froze in mid-air, then began to tremble violently.

The tumor began to shrink, quickly drying up and withering. Dark green pus gushed from the wound, soaking Lu Li completely.

The moment the pus touched his skin, the black mark on his shoulder suddenly erupted with a searing heat. The heat swept through his entire body, instantly dispelling the chill that had invaded his body. And when the pus came into contact with the golden blood vessels on his skin, it sizzled and quickly evaporated into black smoke.

Two breaths.

Lu Li drew his dagger and saw that the tip of the blade had picked out a dark green stone, about the size of a fist.

Earth's core.

He swung his knife and split the stone in two.

The instant the stone shattered, the cavity began to collapse, and the tumor completely dissolved into a pool of pus. Those pale hands also went limp, quickly rotting and disappearing.

The last breath.

Lu Li gripped the dagger and half a piece of the Earth Core Stone tightly, and the talismans on his legs completely lost their warmth.

He began to rise.

He didn't swim up; he was pushed up by a force. The collapsed cavity created an upward airflow, carrying him out of the soil. As he broke through the earth, he saw Lin Qingyuan sever the Earth Mother Puppet's head with a single sword stroke.

The head hit the ground, rolled a few times, and long hair spread out, revealing a pale, beautiful face. There was no pain on her face, only an eerie calm. Her lips parted slightly, uttering the last two words:

"...Soon..."

Then the entire body began to disintegrate, starting from the head, turning into ashes inch by inch. The skeletal puppets also fell apart, turning back into a pile of dry bones.

The area around the boundary marker has returned to calm.

Only the turned-up soil, the scattered bones, and the lingering stench in the air proved that what had just happened was not an illusion.

Lu Li collapsed to the ground, panting heavily. The talismans on his legs had turned to ashes, and he looked down at the half of the Earth Core Stone in his hand—the stone had turned deathly gray.

Lin Qingyuan sheathed his sword, walked up to him, and squatted down.

Lu Li held up the half-stone: "Will this... be useful?"

Lin Qingyuan took the stone, examined it carefully, and frowned slightly: "Earth core stone is an excellent material for refining earth-attribute magic artifacts, but this one... is contaminated. The resentment inside is too strong, so it can't be used."

He casually tossed the stone on the ground, then took out a small porcelain bottle from his pocket, poured out a pill, and handed it to Lu Li: "The Heart-Clearing Pill can dispel the residual poison of miasma. You were just splashed with pus. Although you seem fine, it's hard to guarantee that some cold and dampness didn't seep into your body."

Lu Li took the pill and swallowed it. The pill entered his stomach and transformed into a warm current, which indeed dispelled the lingering chill in his body.

"Senior Brother Xie Lin."

Lin Qingyuan stood up, looked southwest, and said with a solemn expression: "The Earth Mother Puppet was not naturally formed; it was raised by someone and then placed here. Someone doesn't want us to go to Cangwu Mountain."

"Could they be from Jiangjiazhuang?"

"Not necessarily." Lin Qingyuan shook his head. "But what is certain is that the secrets of Cangwu Mountain are more complex than we imagine."

He paused, then looked at Lu Li: "Did your blood work again just now?"

Lu Li remained silent.

"I know even if you don't tell me." Lin Qingyuan smiled, but there was little warmth in his smile. "I saw it, the black smoke from the evaporating pus. Ordinary people's blood doesn't have that effect."

He turned and walked to his horse, took out a set of clean clothes from his bag, and handed them to Lu Li: "Change into these. You can't keep these clothes."

Lu Li took the clothes, stood up, and began to take off his outer garment, which was soaked with pus. As he took off his inner garment, he suddenly felt the dark mark on his shoulder begin to throb again, a more subtle sensation, as if... calling for something.

He subconsciously looked at the half of the Earth's core stone that had been thrown on the ground.

The stone had turned completely gray, but from a certain angle, he could see a faint trace of gold remaining on the stone's cross-section.

Those were his bloodstains, seeping in as he split the stone.

And the distribution and shape of those golden traces...

Together with the totem on page thirty-seven of the fragment, they can be pieced together to form a complete pattern.

Lu Li's heart skipped a beat.

But he didn't show it. He just silently changed into new clothes, rolled up his old clothes into a ball, and threw them into the still-smoking pit.

Lin Qingyuan remounted his horse: "We can't spend the night here. Although the Earth Mother Puppet is dead, the person who set it up may still be nearby. We'll travel through the night and rest at the post station thirty miles away."

Lu Li nodded and got on the old horse.

The two set off again, heading southwest under the cover of night.

The boundary marker was left behind, gradually disappearing into the darkness. The wind rose again, dispersing the stench in the air and stirring the half-bubble of the earth's core on the ground.

The stone rolled slightly and finally came to rest next to a piece of white bone.

The skeletal hand suddenly moved, gathering the stone into its palm.

Then, the entire skeleton silently sank into the ground and disappeared.