Chapter 103: The Palace Hidden in the Vault of Heaven

"Good heavens, what is that!"

"My God!"

"Green... rotting?"

"What is it? Let me see!"

The jungles, the sands, the tribes, the palaces—everything seemed to be stirring with life.

Beneath the sands, Sui Yi felt as though she had been sucked into a black hole. Suspended in a bizarre state—drifting through water, air, and silt—she was being carried to a place far, far away.

***

Gurgle, gurgle. When Sui Yi regained consciousness, her first breath of air sent water rushing into her throat. Upon opening her eyes, she was met with an underwater world of murky, emerald green tinged with a sickly, dim yellow. She blinked, dazed. Where was she?

Above her was more water—it seemed deep, yet there was a faint glimmer of light filtering down from the surface.

Moving her limbs, Sui Yi tucked her Xie-tooth dagger into her waistband and swam upward. However, she thought she heard the sound of other movements in the water.

She turned her head, only to be met by a world of pitch-black darkness.

Sui Yi’s heart skipped a beat, and she quickly turned back to swim toward the light.

Splash! A pale hand emerged from the water beneath the edge of a brick ledge, gripping the masonry. With a spray of water, a figure broke the surface.

Pfft! Sui Yi hauled herself onto the edge of the bricks, coughing up water and gasping for breath. She wiped the moisture from her face, then froze.

Before her lay large, brownish-yellow stone bricks. There wasn't even a trace of moss in the seams, only a fine layer of dust.

These bricks were massive. At first glance, they looked like a single, seamless wall, but as her vision widened, she realized they were multiple blocks joined together. To her left was a blocked stone wall; to her right, a corridor leading outward.

There appeared to be light on the walls, allowing her to see that this corridor was actually an underground waterway. A river, about five meters wide, flowed through the center, with stone paths roughly a meter wide on either side.

"What kind of place is this? A structure this large and precise must be a temple or a grand monument..." Sui Yi mused to herself, preparing to climb up, when something suddenly yanked at her leg.

Splash!

Her body slid back, but she frantically grabbed the edge of the brickwork, spun her legs, and delivered a powerful underwater kick!

With a surge of force, she kicked away whatever had grabbed her and vaulted out of the water!

Swish!

Turning, she drew her Xie-tooth dagger and stared warily at the water’s surface.

The water was still rippling, the waves lapping against the stone before gradually fading into soft, languid undulations.

Sui Yi narrowed her eyes. She was soaked, strands of hair clinging to her face. Droplets slid from the tips of her hair, gathering at the point of her chin—one drop, two drops, three...

As the third drop landed on the ground with a faint tick, splash!

A dark shape erupted from beneath the water. In the split second before her pupils contracted, she caught sight of a gaping mouth, teeth dripping with greenish slime, and hands clawing viciously toward her with terrifying speed.

It was a person!

And it was someone she recognized!

Sui Yi kicked the figure hard in the abdomen, sending them crashing back into the water with a chaotic splash.

As the water churned and foamed, she struggled to understand why someone who had already died deep within the ancient tomb was here, and why...

"If Gong Jiu saw this, perhaps..."

Sui Yi recalled the files she had seen from Gong Jiu, which included reports of people infected by the green liquid becoming abnormally violent and attacking others.

At that moment, more heads suddenly broke the surface, rising from the depths...

Their eerie, hollow eyes stared fixedly at Sui Yi.

One, two, three...

Twenty or thirty heads.

Some looked as if they had been dead for a long time, already beginning to rot.

They were preparing to climb up.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Sui Yi bolted, sprinting madly along the stone path!

But after only a few steps, she realized there was no sound of pursuit. She looked back, and the water was empty—as if her terror had been nothing more than a hallucination.

However, as her gaze swept across the surface, she saw lines of ripples cutting through the water...

Line after line, dense and unrelenting.

Undoubtedly, these creatures could swim with the speed of fish even underwater. In the blink of an eye, they were parallel to her.

In an instant, Sui Yi pivoted on her toes, her Xie-tooth dagger slashing backhanded!

She sliced a bloody gash into the neck of a figure that had lunged from the water.

A thick, foul stench filled the air. As the creature fell back into the water, others surged forward, one after another, in a relentless wave.

In the blink of an eye, they flooded the narrow passage!

And they engulfed Sui Yi along with it...

***

Meanwhile, among the tribe’s procession, Gong Jiu and her companions were being hoisted high, their eyes rolling back in their heads.

"Big brother, can you stop swaying so much? I’m about to throw up..."

"Seriously, man, let’s not do this. Even if we’re going to die, can’t we just get it over with here? Why drag us so far?"

"I’m terrified of heights! Can you stop hanging me so high!"

As the others wailed, Gong Jiu was too exhausted to even retort. She felt that even if her group had the intention to turn the tables, they were all so physically drained and limb-weary that they couldn't possibly put up a fight!

"Gong Jiu, how are you holding up?" Hua Yaofei asked from beside her, swaying in the air. This woman, at least, remained calm.

"How do you think?"

"I’m asking about your period..."

"....It’s flowing backward, damn it!" Gong Jiu was truly beyond tears. Her greatest fear now was that after being hung upside down like this, everything would...

Hua Yaofei laughed with delight upon hearing this. "Ha! Serves you right! Coming to a place like this while on your period, and dragging that poor girl here to die with us..."

"Bullshit, that woman Sui Yi will definitely not die," Gong Jiu insisted.

"You act like you’re so close to her!" Hua Yaofei scoffed. Before Gong Jiu could change her expression, Hua Yaofei abruptly changed the subject and asked Aguna, "Hey, pretty boy, are we there yet?"

Aguna looked back at her, his gaze cold. "Almost."

Those three words caused the expressions of Gong Jiu and the others to shift instantly. Despite their bravado, knowing they had reached the end of their "road of death" left a chilling sensation in their hearts.

A quarter of an hour later, after being dizzily lowered to the ground, they finally regained their bearings and saw their destination.

A palace. It was an immensely vast palace.

Nestled beneath a colossal wall of sand, it was ancient and magnificent.

They stood before a massive plaza covering over a hundred acres. Ahead lay a white stone road leading straight to the palace. The stone looked strange—as white as snow, yet it wasn't jade; it lacked the warmth of jade and the translucence of ice, yet it possessed the cool, glassy clarity of ice and the flawless purity of jade. The road seemed veiled, buried beneath the ancient, weathered face of time.

On either side of the white stone path stood a row of stone figures holding lanterns, each as tall as a man, spaced a meter apart as they stretched into the distance.

The road was about a hundred meters long.

Directly ahead was a white wall built over a large garden pond, about two meters high and topped with black tiles. The top of the wall was fashioned into undulating, wave-like shapes. The wall itself was flat and smooth, yet completely bare of any inscriptions.

Beyond that was another path that branched out, leading up to a flight of stairs. Above those stairs stood the palace itself.

A giant bronze incense burner sat before the hall. The palace gate was a central, moon-shaped door painted in red, tightly shut, with a large black plaque hanging above it.

It was pitch black, yet nameless.

Just like the palace itself, it wore a vast veil, showing only its magnificent outline while refusing to let one touch its exquisite jade bones or glimpse its enchanting face.

It was deathly silent.

The palace was a giant beast sleeping in the dust of history.

Gong Jiu and Hua Yaofei should have been too weak to stand, but with their hands still bound, they couldn't help but take a few steps, staring dumbfounded at the palace before them...

"Compared to this, I suddenly feel the Forbidden City in Beijing looks pathetic!"

"Even the Palace of Versailles looks like a restroom next to this..."

"I suddenly really want to know what the restrooms inside look like~~~"

If they could find out, even dying would be worth it.

Hua Yaofei couldn't help but mutter to herself.

As for Gong Jiu...

"Five steps for a building, ten for a pavilion; corridors snake and wind, eaves peck high; each follows the terrain, locking hearts and clashing horns. Spiraling here, coiling there, like beehives and whirlpools, standing in thousands of layers. A long bridge lies across the waves, is it a dragon without clouds? A double-decked path walks the sky, is it a rainbow without rain? High and low, dim and confused, losing east from west..."

Gong Jiu recited, as if reciting from a textbook. Hua Yaofei rolled her eyes. "Alright, stop showing off your education. Everyone knows the only thing you ever memorized in your textbooks was Du Mu’s 'Ode to the Epang Palace'."

"Why 'Ode to the Epang Palace'?" Shen Di frowned. "Is that some kind of weird talent? Picking and choosing books to memorize~~"

"Because her lifelong dream since childhood has been to dig up the Epang Palace and steal every treasure inside!"

After Hua Yaofei finished, she fell silent. She figured this woman probably still didn't know that the historical Epang Palace had long since been destroyed... and she certainly wasn't going to tell her!

The others seemed to realize something as well and fell silent.

Well, you can't help people who are determined to rob famous tombs but are terrible at history...

***

Aguna and his people were unaware that Gong Jiu and her group were filled with dreams of treasure hunting. The tribesmen were already bowing and paying their respects to the palace with extreme piety.

The solemnity and the heavy atmosphere made even Gong Jiu and her companions fall silent.

What exactly was this place?

In history, there had been such a magnificent and terrifying palace.

No, rather than a palace, it was more like an ancient temple.

It was filled with a mysterious and desolate aura.

But soon, Aguna stood up and said, "Build the sacrificial altar. Throw all these people into the pond to wash; we cannot allow their filthy presence to defile this sacred ground..."

Son of a bitch!

The group cursed, but with their hands and feet bound, they were dragged toward the pond on the east side of the plaza...

At that moment, Gong Jiu suddenly remembered something very important...

Damn it, I’m on my period!