Chapter 271: Eye Embryo

Lu Yuan suddenly raised his blade, slammed the blunt side hard against the door bolt, and shouted:

"Lin Zhaoxuan, brace the door!"

Lin Zhaoxuan needed no further instruction. He lunged forward and, with Lu Yuan to one side and him to the other, pinned the door board with all their weight.

The force from outside was immense, pushing so hard their shoulders and backs strained, but the door still would not be forced open.

Xu Erxiao had no time for anything else now. He grabbed a handful of salt from the floor and jammed it straight into the crack beneath the door. A white vapor immediately rose like a sheet.

The hand probing under the door recoiled as if burned, flinching back sharply.

Lu Yuan narrowed his eyes, then reversed his grip and pulled from beneath the iron abacus the short bone nail he'd pressed earlier.

He bit his fingertip, smeared a drop of blood on the nailhead, then drove it deep into a wood seam beside the bolt.

"Door!"

Immediately after, the hand that had been probing the crack jerked hard and left a small sliver of blackened fingernail on the inner side of the door.

Lu Yuan stared at that piece of nail with no change in expression, plucked it up, and tossed it straight into the iron abacus tray.

"It can't get in."

he said in a low voice.

But at that moment the voice outside the door abruptly changed.

No longer soft, no longer human.

It became an almost inaudible sigh.

That sigh pressed against the door and seeped in, sounding as if it drifted from some distant place, and yet also as if it came from beneath the corpse of the iron abacus itself.

"If it can't come through the door..."

"Then it will come up through beneath your feet."

As soon as the words fell, the ground gave a sudden tremor.

Not a violent quake, but a faint quiver, like something turning over below the earth.

Lu Yuan's face immediately darkened. He bent his head and looked at the thin white glimmer he had earlier pressed down beneath the base of the black wooden tablet.

Without his noticing, the white light had brightened a touch, and this time it was not the size of a grain of rice but like the tip of a very fine needle, slowly poking up.

"Bad."

Lin Zhaoxuan said softly,

"The True Eye Bed is trying to roll over through the earth."

Lu Yuan knew this was serious and barked to everyone:

"All of you, fall back to the wall! Quickly!"

They scrambled back toward the walls.

At that instant, the thin needle-like white light suddenly trembled, pushing up through the soil as if an invisible eye were forcing an eyelid from underground.

The air in the entire cellar turned heavy as sludge.

Song Qinghe's lamp flame dimmed slightly under the pressure.

Lu Yuan felt his gut drop.

This was no longer borrowing a road, or a name, or a door.

It was borrowing the earth.

The True Eye Bed had begun to roll.

He knew that if they delayed, whatever was down there would truly heave itself up and the whole living vault would collapse with it.

Just then Wang Cheng'an let out a short exclamation:

"Brother Lu! Over there!"

Lu Yuan whipped his head in the indicated direction. Beside the corpse of the iron abacus, at the edge of the guiding hand he had burned off earlier, a fresh thread of red had seeped out slowly.

This red line did not burrow into the ground this time; it climbed up along the abacus body, searching for a new living entrance.

Lu Yuan understood in an instant.

Before it died, the iron abacus had tied itself to the whole formation like a rope.

Its body had not yet completely cooled; residual aura remained, and the True Eye Bed was trying to borrow that last warm breath to roll.

"We can't let its corpse touch the earth again."

Lu Yuan said quietly,

"Cheng'an, the fire!"

"Erxiao, the salt!"

"Qinghe, put the lamp on the abacus corpse!"

"Zhou Heng, help me lift the corpse off the ground!"

They obeyed at once.

Wang Cheng'an struck his Fire Starter and the flame appeared. Xu Erxiao dumped the salt around the abacus body in a rush; white vapor rose at once.

Song Qinghe held the lamp over the corpse; when the light shone on that dead-white face, several blue-black veins surfaced like something moving under the skin.

Zhou Heng gritted his teeth and, alongside Lu Yuan, forced the iron abacus corpse up half a foot from the ground.

The instant the corpse left the earth, the white needle of light below flailed and snapped back into the soil, emitting a very low "guh-guh" sound.

Lu Yuan's gaze sharpened.

"It couldn't latch onto a warm body," he said in a low voice, "so it has to retreat."

Before he finished speaking, the black water line on the other side of the room — the line Wang Cheng'an and Xu Erxiao had been holding down — suddenly swelled as if countless tiny things were burrowing outward.

Lin Zhaoxuan's expression hardened. "There are other paths."

Lu Yuan glanced around and immediately understood: the iron abacus, the guiding hand, the black water line, the probing hand outside the door — they were all one interconnected borrowing network.

If the True Eye Bed tried to roll over, it wouldn't only test one point; it would probe all sides to see which loosened first.

"It's testing where the living entrances are distributed," Lu Yuan said in a low voice. "Whoever panics first becomes the door."

Wang Cheng'an's teeth chattered but he kept his voice down:

"So how do we guard against that now?"

Lu Yuan looked at the needle-like white light under the black wooden tablet. Coldness darkened his eyes.

"If we can't hold it, we sever it," he said. "If it's going to borrow the earth to roll, we cut off its earth energy first."

"How do we cut it off?"

Lu Yuan didn't answer immediately. Instead he suddenly shifted his gaze toward the black water line along the east wall.

That line should have been suppressed by salt and cinnabar, but it had quietly extended another inch, licking at a joint between bricks in the shadows.

He understood in a flash: the true earth-energy outlet of this place wasn't at the altar nor under the tablet; it was at the base of the wall.

"Zhou Heng," Lu Yuan said, "pry up that loose brick at the foot of the east wall."

"Huh?" Zhou Heng blinked.

"Quick," Lu Yuan's tone grew sharper, "there's the air-eye it's borrowing to roll."

Zhou Heng did not dare ask more. He rushed over and began prying at the wall base.

When the stone came loose, a small black, damp hollow beneath was exposed. Embedded in the mud nest lay half a rotten copper coin and a bleached bone fragment.

"This is... a ground-suppressing coin?" Zhou Heng blurted.

Lu Yuan's eyes grew icier at the sight. "Exactly."

"The iron abacus didn't just make a guiding route. They buried a suppressing coin in the wall base, using it to stabilize this entire side's yin outlet."

"Now that the bone fragment is exposed, the earth energy is turning back on us."

He thrust the bone nail he held into the soil, then reached into his bosom and pulled out the last handful of incense ash, flinging it into the loosened mud nest.

The ash fell and sizzled as if into hot oil. From the depths of the nest tiny black bubbles rose, as if something below was being burned.

"More!" Lu Yuan ordered.

Wang Cheng'an and Xu Erxiao immediately heaped cinnabar and salt onto the spot.

The black water line did retreat, and the faint trembling of the ground diminished.

Just as they thought they had it under control, soft footsteps sounded outside the door.

Not one set of steps.

Two or three.

They were like bare feet stepping on wet ground, circling slowly to the door.

Song Qinghe's face went pale.

"Are there more people out there?"

Lu Yuan's expression was grave as he slowly shook his head.

"Not necessarily people."

No sooner had he spoken than someone — or something — began lightly tapping the inside of the door.

But there were no windows in this cellar.

The tapping wasn't on the outer surface; it was on the inner face of the door, as if something had pressed its nails to the wood and kept rapping.

"Thud... thud... thud..."

Each sound was faint and eerie, causing a chill to creep up every spine.

Then, on the inside of the doorboard, a faint wet imprint slowly formed.

First a forehead, then a nose bridge, then a mouth.

As if someone had pressed their face to the wood and was slowly revealing it.

Wang Cheng'an's eyes narrowed. "That's—"

Lu Yuan cut him off and stepped forward. With a fierce motion he stabbed his short blade into the door.

The instant the blade tip sank into the wood, the wet face outside twisted and emitted a sharp, high-pitched cry.

At the same time, the white needle of light under the floor flared as if startled and contracted.

Lu Yuan realized the truth at last.

The thing outside the door was not acting alone.

It was leveraging the True Eye Bed below. One above, one below, helping each other.

If they aligned, everyone in the living vault would be swallowed in one gulp.

"Cheng'an!" Lu Yuan barked, "bring out that packet of ash!"

"Erxiao, make the salt into a cross!"

"Qinghe, shine the lamp on the door, not the ground!"

"Zhou Heng, hold the abacus corpse down, don't let it re-accumulate breath!"

"Lin Zhaoxuan, with me—nail the doorboard shut!"

They all moved almost at once.

Wang Cheng'an dumped a packet of paper ash inside the threshold, while Xu Erxiao quickly spread a salt cross on the floor, cutting the doorway off from the center of the cellar.

Song Qinghe trained the lamp on the door. The wet face became clearer under the light, eerily resembling the iron abacus's familiar features, even with the corner of the mouth still stiff in a grimace.

Zhou Heng pressed his hands hard on the abacus corpse, palms sweating cold, forcing himself not to look.

Lin Zhaoxuan grabbed a broken plank and, standing left of Lu Yuan, forced the bolt and door joint inward with brutal pressure.

Lu Yuan pressed and spoke harshly at the door:

"You borrow the abacus's face, the abacus's name, the abacus's route."

"But the abacus is dead."

"If you truly want to enter, you must first gnaw the abacus's remaining breath away."

The wet face outside warped as if being pulled, trying to retreat but unable.

Then a low sound of gnawing echoed from outside the board.

Not gnawing wood.

Gnawing bone.

They all heard it and their scalps crawled.

Lu Yuan stared at the hand emerging from the crack beneath the door as it turned pale and said softly:

"Of course."

"It's feasting on the shell it left behind."

He spoke so quietly, but everyone understood.

It wasn't coming from nothing.

It was treating the abacus as its final shell, trying to reseal itself into a form that could leave the vault by feeding on the corpse's remaining aura, name, and path.

What Lu Yuan was doing now was forcing it to chew on its own shell until it unraveled itself.

"Add another layer," Lu Yuan suddenly said.

Wang Cheng'an blinked. "What?"

"Anything you have that can seal a door, take it out," Lu Yuan said. "Don't worry about rank or value. Just press it down."

Wang Cheng'an quickly pulled from his bosom the few remaining old talismans, a half-length of red thread, and a small packet of herbal ash. He forced them against the door edge.

Xu Erxiao untied the last bit of hemp rope from his waist and wound it around the bolt twice.

After a brief hesitation, Song Qinghe took a small copper hairpin from her hair and offered it over.

"Will this work?"

Lu Yuan glanced at her, took it, and slipped the hairpin into the crack above the door.

"It will," he said softly. "Metal has a yang aura, it can suppress the yin outlet."

Layer upon layer of objects set against the door, and slowly the wet face on the door began to fade. The gnawing bone sounds outside weakened.

But Lu Yuan was not at ease.

He knew this was only temporary.

The True Eye Bed below and the probing hand outside were still present, only suppressed for the moment.

Tonight's challenge was not merely defending; the hard part was how to finish it.

He raised his head and looked again at the needle of white light beneath the black wooden tablet.

The light was thinner now, almost retracting into the soil.

That made Lu Yuan more alert, not less.

It was not gone — it was hiding.

And it hid too quickly, too smoothly.

"It wants to wait until dawn," Lu Yuan said suddenly.

Zhou Heng froze. "Huh?"

"Yin things that borrow routes underground don't fear the night. They fear the shift around dawn," Lu Yuan explained. "It is shrinking now to let the outer yang change, then when the earth energy drops it will try again."

Lin Zhaoxuan's brow tightened even further.

"So the night isn't over yet."

"Correct," Lu Yuan nodded. "Not yet."

He stopped watching the door and the altar and walked over to the iron abacus corpse. He crouched and stared at that face that had not the slightest sign of life.

The iron abacus had died terribly. Its eyes were still wide, its mouth smeared with black blood; the body looked hollowed out from within.

Lu Yuan kept looking, then reached out and felt behind its left ear.

He pulled out a thin scrap of paper.

Zhou Heng was startled. "There was something on the abacus?"

Lu Yuan unfolded the paper. Under the lamp it revealed only half a line of faint, hurried writing, as if scrawled just before death:

The true eye is at the pit's bottom, after three knocks the door opens.

Wang Cheng'an read it and a chill seeped down his spine.

"Three knocks? What three knocks?"

Lu Yuan's gaze was heavy as he looked at the door, the altar, and the earth. He spoke slowly:

"The door outside was knocked three times."

"The earth trembled three times."

"The altar mouth rang three times."

"The iron abacus wasn't leaving a note."

"He was counting the time for us."

Lin Zhaoxuan's expression shifted slightly.

"So in other words, after three knocks there will be a major change?"

Lu Yuan nodded and folded the paper back into his palm.

"Yes."

"It's not waiting for dawn."

"It's waiting for those three knocks to finish and then to switch its breath completely."

"If we can't suppress it, the True Eye Bed will roll up through that breath."

"If we can... "

He paused, and his eyes finally turned utterly cold.

"Then we have to go down into the pit."

The room fell silent at the words.

Go down.

Into the deeper True Eye Bed.

Xu Erxiao's throat tightened. After a long moment he asked, "Brother Lu, do we really have to go down?"

"We must," Lu Yuan said. "If we don't go down, it will never be sealed for good."

"The layer above is ruined, the iron abacus is dead, the name-vein is cut."

"But if the true eye below isn't nailed shut, this mountain will produce a second abacus, a third black altar, a fourth living vault."

His voice grew light but heavy as iron.

"This isn't just one altar, one tablet."

"Somebody is feeding the earth veins to the evil fetus across the whole vein system."

"To sever it you have to sever to the core."

Wang Cheng'an's hands tingled even as he gritted his teeth and said, "Then go there."

"I'll go down too."

Xu Erxiao blurted, "I'll go with you, Brother Lu."

Lu Yuan looked at them and a faint easing flitted across his eyes and vanished.

"You two hold the upper positions first."

"It's not that I won't take you. The place below is more dangerous."

"At the True Eye Bed, a living person going down can't lose even a single breath."

Wang Cheng'an and Xu Erxiao began to speak, but Lu Yuan raised a hand to stop them.

"Don't argue."

"Someone must remain above."

"If anything changes while I'm below, you two must hold it."

They were not foolish; hearing that, they could only nod.

Lu Yuan then turned to Song Qinghe. "You stay upstairs."

Song Qinghe blinked. "I can't go down?"

"No," Lu Yuan said. "Your eyes are steady, your lamp steadier. You're best kept above."

"When I'm below, you watch the door and the altar mouth."

"If I can't get back up, you must keep it suppressed."

Song Qinghe pressed her lips together, then finally nodded.

"All right."

Lu Yuan looked at Lin Zhaoxuan last.

Lin Zhaoxuan met his gaze and without asking whether he would descend replied calmly, "I'll go with you."

Lu Yuan did not refuse. "Good."

"You're quick and strong; you'll be needed below."

As they finished speaking, another sound came from outside.

"Thud."

The third knock.

At once the needle-like white light below gave a violent shudder and actually pushed upward an inch.

The corners of the underground chamber simultaneously emitted a faint "crack."

Lime dust fell.

Lu Yuan's eyes hardened and he shouted:

"It's coming!"

He lunged to the black wooden tablet, gripped it with both hands, and with a low shout yanked the half-buried tablet free.

The moment the tablet came out, the white light beneath it flared brilliantly.

Like an eye that had slept for a long time finally opening a slit in the soil.

For a heartbeat, everyone's shadows flickered wildly against the walls.

In that shifting outline, Lu Yuan clearly saw, under the black tablet and inside the ring of red thread, a smaller, thinner face slowly emerge — almost infantile.

Its eyes were closed, but the corners of its mouth twitched as if smiling.

Lu Yuan realized instantly: this was not the eye itself.

It was the eye fetus.

He gripped the tablet tighter, voice cold enough to chill.

"So that's where you were hiding."

The eye fetus's eyelids trembled.

As if it had heard him.

It was about to awaken.