Swordholder

As Chen Yuan and the others' vision gradually cleared, they found themselves in a dimly lit underground cave filled with a dark red light.

This place is vast and open, with an astonishingly large area.

Chen Yuan, Chen Zhaoning, and the others were all stunned and quickly looked around.

"Holy crap, where am I?"

Li Wei asked curiously.

"Everyone, stay together and don't get separated!"

Chen Yuan immediately said in a deep voice, already sensing that something was wrong.

Everyone drew their weapons in unison, moved closer together, and warily watched their surroundings.

"Oh no, we've probably been teleported to an underground cave."

"Judging from the intense malevolent energy here, it's probably a dangerous and evil place."

Chen Jianming said with a solemn expression.

After two months of recuperation, his hands have recovered, and he was able to attend the conference with everyone else.

"Damn it, we've definitely been set up!"

Chen Jianchu angrily cursed, "Ten years ago, Jianming and I participated in the Family Gathering. Although we were on the verge of death that time, we were teleported here, and this is definitely not a gloomy underground cave like this. If there are really evil spirits here, we will probably have a hard time dealing with them."

Zhang Shan, Tang Hu, and others nodded in agreement with Chen Jianchu's statement.

Walking in the territory of evil spirits is tantamount to courting death.

"Everyone be careful and stay behind me."

Chen Yuan's gaze was gloomy; he hadn't expected things to turn out this way so suddenly.

If they were outside, Zhang Shan could take out the spaceship, and everyone could hide on the spaceship and fly into the air, thus surviving until the end of the conference.

As for the identity tokens on each person, they can only be activated to teleport them back after thirty days.

But now... it's clear that life and death are left to fate!

More than two hundred people gathered together and slowly made their way forward.

The place was dimly lit and visibility was poor, making it very difficult to walk. Chen Yuan was the only one who could lead the way and explore.

Although most of the Chen family members knew how to control fire, for safety's sake, everyone decided to observe first to avoid encountering any terrifying beings.

The air inside the cave was damp and stuffy, filled with a pungent musty smell.

As they walked forward, apart from the sound of each other's breathing, there was only deathly silence all around, with an eerie and unsettling atmosphere permeating the crowd.

Chen Yuan had spent a year training in the wild with Lu Chengfeng, and had already experienced the dangers of various demons and monsters.

The peaceful life in Tianqing County made him almost forget the dangers of the wilderness.

At this moment, memories of past experiences flooded his mind, making him even more solemn and vigilant.

Soon, he walked to the cave wall, looked up and found that there was a much wider and taller cave above, but he could not see the top at all.

However, there are winding stone staircases extending upwards on the walls of the cave!

The stone steps are winding and meandering, passing many cave entrances and countless interconnected tunnels, resembling an enlarged anthill.

The originally dark tunnels and caves were only able to obtain a faint light thanks to the luminous pearls hanging from the pitted walls.

Although it was much brighter than where they had been before, it was filled with a pungent, rotten smell.

"If you follow these stone steps up, you should be able to leave this cave."

As Chen Yuan began to speak, preparing to step onto the stone steps, a melodious yet eerie nursery rhyme suddenly drifted through the previously silent cave:

"Eeya ya, eeyo yo, drums from the east, gongs from the west, a little person wrapped in a white cloth hides. The shadows of the trees sway, bones crack, a lost child can't find its mother. Searching and searching, searching and searching, until the moon is dark in the dead of night, until it comes to a lonely grave where crows cry in the cold, eeya ya, eeyo yo..."

……

The nursery rhyme echoed through the underground cave, sending a shiver down Chen Yuan's spine and sending chills down his spine.

Gradually, the sound of the nursery rhyme grew closer, as if a group of children were singing joyfully as they approached.

But the next second, the sound suddenly faded away, echoing at the top of the cave.

This feeling of being sometimes near and sometimes far is even more frightening.

Finally, to the astonishment of Chen Yuan and the others, a group of wooden infant puppets, each about two feet tall, appeared in a dark hole at the end of the stone steps above.

The puppets were decaying and constantly dripped with scarlet blood.

Their faces were pinkish-white, yet they were drawn with blood-stained ink, depicting simple yet eerie smiling faces.

The opening and closing of a smiling face is the origin of nursery rhymes.

These baby puppets emerged from the dark cave entrance in neat rows, their limbs swaying stiffly from side to side, babbling like a row of ducks walking.

But the faint, melodious nursery rhyme grew louder and louder, and in the widened pupils of Chen Yuan and the others, it seemed to slowly descend the stone steps.

Everyone took a deep breath, their souls trembling instinctively, a chill running down their spines.

"What...what is this?"

Li Wei swallowed hard and asked in a trembling voice.

The others' pupils constricted, and their bodies trembled involuntarily.

Even though there were as many as two hundred of them, they still felt a strong sense of survival crisis when faced with these baby puppets that walked down like ducks.

"This is... an evil spirit!"

Chen Jianming's pupils constricted as he looked at Chen Yuan. "Young Master, be careful! This should be the legendary puppet ghost baby."

"I've heard that these are children from villages whose souls were devoured by evil spirits and then sealed inside puppets..."

Before Chen Jianming could finish speaking, paper money suddenly began to float up from the dim cave.

The paper money fluttered down, like white butterflies, landing around Chen Yuan and the others.

Some even drifted down onto people's heads and shoulders.

"Oh no, I mustn't let this paper money fall on me!"

Chen Yuan warned sternly, his pupils contracting so that he could clearly see the face of a child with a blackened face on the surface of each piece of paper money.

"Eeya ya, eeyo yo, drums on the east, gongs on the west, a little person wrapped in a white cloth hides, tree shadows sway, bones crack, a lost child can't find its mother..."

The child's face on the paper money continues to sing that eerie nursery rhyme.

This time, the nursery rhyme seemed to be ringing in everyone's ears, sending chills down their spines!

"what!"

As soon as Chen Yuan finished speaking, some people immediately swatted away the paper money that had fallen on their shoulders, but others were too slow to react and had their flesh bitten by the faces on the paper money.

The paper money seemed to come alive, burrowing straight into his body. With the rise and fall of his skin, it quickly moved under his skin to his face... As his face twisted and deformed, in the blink of an eye, the face of the Chen family member who was originally a young man turned into the appearance of the child on the paper money!

"Eeya ya, eeyo yo, drums on the east, gongs on the west, a little person wrapped in a white cloth hides, tree shadows sway, bones crack, a lost child can't find its mother..."

What's truly chilling is that the Chen family member also started singing a chilling nursery rhyme.

This sudden turn of events caused an immediate commotion among the crowd, with everyone casting spells to avoid the paper money.

Although the Chen family is a family of alchemists, not everyone in the family has received the spiritual seed of the Yuanyang Pearl.

However, several core disciples, including Chen Jianming and Chen Jianchu, possessed spiritual seeds. They immediately unleashed fire magic, burning all the paper money above their heads.

Boom boom boom—

In an instant, the paper money fluttering above everyone's heads burst into flames, and the nursery rhyme instantly turned into a shrill scream.

Chen Zhaoning also swung the long sword in her hand. With a bang, the blade burst into flames. She suppressed her fear and shattered countless pieces of paper money.

Chen Yuan did the same. The moment countless paper money approached, he suddenly raised his palm, and with a bang, brilliant flames erupted behind him.

These flames are feather-shaped, with golden patterns floating on their surface, intertwining and overlapping, as if a pair of burning wings had unfolded behind him!

Upon witnessing this scene, Chen Zhaoning exclaimed in shock, "Spirit Rank - Golden Pattern Flame!"

"What? Didn't Grandpa say that the young master only mastered the Mortal-Rank Crimson Flame? How did it turn into Golden-Patterned Flame?"

Chen Jianming was taken aback for a moment, but quickly assumed that Chen Yuan had been hiding his true abilities.

boom!

At this moment, the fiery wings on Chen Yuan's back had already spread out to five or six meters long, sweeping forward and instantly burning even more paper money.

His Spirit-Rank Golden Flame is far more powerful than the flames of Chen Jianming and others, and is the nemesis of evil spirits.

In the blink of an eye, more and more paper money was burning, and the shrill screams became increasingly piercing!

At the same time, the baby puppets had already walked up to the crowd.

The smiles on their faces grew increasingly eerie, and the nursery rhyme they had been singing now turned into a chilling question:

"Have you... found your mother?"

The sound was incredibly eerie, but as Chen Yuan unleashed the golden flames towards them, the puppets immediately screamed, their cries becoming shrill and piercing:

"Oh, Mother, have we found Mother?"

"Waaaaah, Mother, my Mother..."

……

Hundreds of infant puppets screamed wildly amidst the flames, their dense, echoing sounds reverberating through the cave like sharp thorns piercing everyone's eardrums.

"what……"

Everyone panicked and started screaming.

Even his companions, who had previously had paper money enter their bodies, began clutching their heads and screaming wildly.

Then he suddenly scratched his face with his fingernails and tore his skin off!

Beneath that face was a huge hole... His brains and flesh had long been devoured by that piece of paper money!

Inside that hollow skull, countless tentacles wriggled, their tips covered with sharp spikes!

"roar……"

These Chen family members, whose brains and flesh had been devoured, roared and pounced on their companions!

The face, stripped of its human skin, had transformed into a gaping, blood-red maw.

"what……"

Screams filled the air, and the scene descended into complete chaos!

The scene was so bizarre and terrifying that the remaining people completely lost their minds, their bodies trembling like leaves.

"Don't panic! Be careful of the paper money, and the people of your tribe who have been corrupted by it!"

Chen Yuan shouted to stop them, and at the same time signaled Chen Zhaoning to kill those of the alienated clansmen.

Although Chen Zhaoning felt reluctant, he knew that the mutated people had long lost their minds, so he could only grit his teeth and swing his sword to cleave off the heads of the mutated ones one by one.

At the same time, some of the infant puppets that hadn't been covered by Chen Yuan's flames began to pounce towards the group, landing on the Chen family members while asking in a low voice,

"Have you seen my mother?"

It frantically bit at their necks.

"Mother...are you my mother?"

"Hehehe, Mom, I want to eat milk..."

A childlike puppet leaped onto Li Wei, screaming and calling him "Mother."

Then the mouth that was originally drawn turned into a real mouth, covered with sharp serrations, and bit towards Li Wei's chest.

With a crisp snap, several of the puppet's teeth broke off.

It tilted its head, looking puzzled.

"Damn it, I'm your grandpa, not your mom! Want to suckle? I'll throw you to your death!"

Li Wei's eyes widened, he let out a strange cry, and threw the puppet in his hand, smashing several baby puppets away!

The scene resembled Li Wei bowling.

"Holy crap, my cheat code is awesome!"

Li Wei looked at the torn clothes on his chest, revealing golden skin underneath, and felt a sense of pride.