Chapter 280: It is a mountain

Lu Yuan immediately threw a handful of salt toward the ninth stone stele.

Salt grains fell, the red light suddenly shrank.

But the character "Life" on the stele did not extinguish; instead it rose from the stone surface, forming a thin red line that shot toward Xu Erxiao's feet.

Xu Erxiao had no time to dodge, the red line wrapped around his ankle.

Lu Yuan swung his blade to cut.

When the blade edge touched the red line, the young voice from the well suddenly shouted:

"Lu Yuan!"

Lu Yuan froze.

That voice carried a trace of a familiar exhaustion.

The red line took the chance to coil around Xu Erxiao's body.

"Brother Lu!"

Xu Erxiao was dragged forward, pitching ahead.

Lu Yuan forced his spirit back and severed the red line with one slash.

The red line snapped, Xu Erxiao rolled to the edge of the stone chamber, leaving a pale red ring around his ankle.

The mark did not bleed, but like a brand it slowly climbed upward.

"It's a Life tablet," Lu Yuan said, "it's choosing someone to be the new gatekeeper."

Xu Erxiao hurried to wipe it.

"Don't use your hand," Lu Yuan said, "the more you rub, the more it recognizes."

"Erxiao, listen to me."

"It's not giving you life, it's giving you a path of guarding."

"Once you agree, whatever it makes you guard, you must guard."

"Whoever it makes you take a name from, you must take that name."

Xu Erxiao's face went pale:

"What do I do then?"

"Send it back yourself."

"How do I send it back?"

"Shout to the well," Lu Yuan said, "say you refuse this life road."

Xu Erxiao swallowed and turned to shout at the inverted well:

"I don't accept it!"

The red line did not retreat.

The voice from the well laughed softly:

"You will die."

Xu Erxiao trembled.

"Everyone will die."

"You will live and no one will remember you."

"I have Brother Lu and the others to remember me."

"They will die too."

Xu Erxiao fell silent.

Lu Yuan did not answer for him.

The red line in the chamber kept climbing, already up to Xu Erxiao's calf.

Wang Cheng'an, anxious, surged forward, but Lu Yuan pressed him down.

"Don't cut it for him."

"This is his name gate."

"If someone else severs it for him, the Life tablet will shift to someone else."

Xu Erxiao looked down at the red mark on his leg, then suddenly took from his bosom a small wooden tablet worn glossy by handling.

Three crooked characters were carved on the tablet.

"Xu Erxiao."

He had carved it himself.

Not carved neatly; the last character leaned to one side, but every cut was real.

He pressed the wooden tablet to the red mark, voice trembling but growing clearer:

"My name is Xu Erxiao."

"This name isn't pretty, but it's mine."

"If you want it, take it yourself from my body."

"I won't give it, I won't offer it."

"I won't guard the gate for you."

At the end he suddenly pressed the tablet onto the red line.

The red line recoiled as if scalded, abruptly loosening.

The character "Life" fell from the stele and rolled to the well's edge.

Lu Yuan seized the chance and flung out a strip of red cloth.

The cloth looped around the "Life" character, tied and hauled it down from the inverted well's rim.

The character thrashed wildly inside the cloth, emitting cries like a newborn wailing.

Lu Yuan tossed it in front of the soul-reflecting mirror.

The mirror flashed red.

The "Life" character immediately showed its true form.

It was not a character at all.

It was a heart-shaped thing wrapped in countless black threads, hiding a small child's face inside.

The face's eyes were closed, but the mouth moved.

"Mother."

Song Qinghe glanced and her face instantly changed.

"It takes living people's wishes as tablets."

Lu Yuan said:

"Not wishes, fear."

"Fear of death, fear of being alone, fear of being forgotten."

"It kneads those fears into a Life character and uses that Life character to fool people."

He raised his blade and prodded that heart-shaped thing into the salt fire.

The flames did not burn it; instead they forced the outer black threads out one by one.

When the black threads broke, the little face inside slowly opened its eyes, looked at everyone, then turned into a faint wisp of white smoke that drifted out through the stone seams.

The water noises in the inverted well suddenly stopped.

Silence fell all around.

The eight characters on the steles dimmed at once.

Only the "Life" stele still stood.

But the original "Life" character on the stele had vanished, leaving only a blank indentation.

The well's voice was no longer young.

It became deep and thick, like the belly of a mountain speaking:

"You destroyed my exit."

"You severed my fetal root."

"You burned my identity."

"You even dare to steal my Life tablet."

Lu Yuan stared at the inverted well.

"So come down and face me."

"You will regret it."

All the black hair along the well rim suddenly shrank back into the well.

In the next moment, the upside-down well mouth abruptly flipped downward.

The originally upward-facing well bottom instantly pressed toward the chamber.

A powerful black wind burst from the well, nearly blowing out the oil lamp flames. The stone chamber's ceiling roared and large chunks of stone fell.

"Fall back!"

Lu Yuan shouted.

Everyone hurriedly retreated.

The inverted well hovered in midair, its mouth aimed at them.

The giant gray-white eye in the well reappeared.

This time the eye was half-open.

And behind that eye, a person stood faintly visible.

The person wore no black robe, no wooden tablet covering their face, only a wet, tattered cloth garment.

They held their head down, hands at their sides, standing on strands of black thread.

When they lifted their face, everyone saw it.

It was a face composed of countless faces pieced together.

Old men, women, children, outsiders, woodcutters, accountants—all layered across its features.

Each face lacked whole eyes, showing only a narrow gray slit.

The central face bore a few resemblances to Lu Yuan.

Lu Yuan stared at that face and did not step back.

"Are you the original body?"

Those faces opened their mouths together.

"Who I am is not important."

"What's important is that you have come to me."

"Then I'll call you Malevolent Deity."

"Call me whatever, and you will supply me accordingly."

"Malevolent Deity is a name," Lu Yuan said, "but you didn't earn that name from me."

"It is what your actions summoned."

The face similar to Lu Yuan suddenly showed a shallow smile.

"You think that will hurt me?"

"Whether it can, you'll only know if you try."

Lu Yuan sheathed his short blade and lifted the soul-reflecting mirror.

The mirror's surface had several cracks.

He glanced at his reflection.

The face in the mirror was pale and tired, still his in brows and eyes.

But in the mirror's deepest shadow, there was a thin black root.

That root climbed from the sole of the foot up to the knee.

At some point, the Malevolent Deity had left a small piece of fetal root in his shadow.

"You think cutting the outside thread severs it completely?"

The well's original voice rang out:

"When you pulled out the true-eye peg from the ground, you already took a root with you."

Lu Yuan was not surprised.

"So you purposely let me carry it all the way."

"You had to come find me. If you were coming, bringing one root makes you qualified to enter."

"You planted the root in my shadow to have me walk your mountain for you?"

"You could say that."

Lu Yuan nodded lightly.

"Then you miscalculated."

"You think only things can be possessed."

"But you forgot that people can also carry things and put them into the fire."

He raised the mirror toward his shadow.

The black root immediately became visible in the mirror.

Lu Yuan pressed the black wooden tablet against the back of the mirror, wrapped the red cloth around the mirror's handle, then smeared a ring of salt and cinnabar along the mirror's cracks.

"Brother Lu!" Wang Cheng'an exclaimed anxiously, "what are you doing?"

"Pull the root out."

"Won't pulling it hurt you?"

"It will."

Lu Yuan spoke very calmly.

"But if we don't pull it, it will hide in the shadow forever."

He handed the mirror to Lin Zhaoxuan.

"When the root comes out, reflect it."

"Cheng'an, Erxiao, Zhou Heng, hold the red cloth."

"Qinghe, shine the lamp at my feet."

"What about you?" Song Qinghe asked.

"I'll pull it."

He stepped forward into the oil lamp's light.

The firelight fell on his feet and the shadow immediately revealed that thin black root.

The black root writhed like a living thing; its tendril tips were already sunk into the depths of his shadow.

Lu Yuan did not use the blade.

He reached down and pressed his hand on his shadow, his fingers passing through the black layer on the ground as if grabbing a rope hidden in water.

The Malevolent Deity in the well suddenly let out a low roar.

"Let go."

"Are you afraid?"

"That is not your thing."

"If it is not yours, take it back."

Lu Yuan gave a hard yank outward.

Half the black root was pulled from the shadow.

An icy force surged along his arm into his chest; Lu Yuan staggered, blood oozing at the corner of his mouth.

Wang Cheng'an hurriedly held the red cloth tight.

"Brother Lu, hold on!"

Xu Erxiao strained with all his strength to pull the cloth tight.

Zhou Heng pressed the cracked abacus against the cloth, gritting his teeth:

"This thing won't crawl back in today!"

Lin Zhaoxuan lifted the soul-reflecting mirror.

Mirror light shone on the black root, and tiny faces immediately surfaced inside the root's fibers.

Those faces all cried out:

"Let go."

"This is our road."

"You can't take it."

Lu Yuan said nothing.

He could see.

The black root was not only connected to the Malevolent Deity.

It also linked to those names that had not yet broken free from the offering ground.

If he tore it out roughly, the root would drag all those names back in.

He had to separate the root from the names first.

Lu Yuan looked down at the red cloth strip.

"Erxiao."

"Here!"

"Give me your unfinished tablet."

Xu Erxiao froze, quickly took it out and handed it over.

Lu Yuan pressed the wooden tablet with "Xu Erxiao" carved on it into the middle of the black root.

"Wang Cheng'an, sprinkle the abacus's old gray ash on the root."

Wang Cheng'an did so at once.

"Zhou Heng, don't loosen the abacus."

"Got it!"

"Song Qinghe, aim the lamp to the left."

The oil lamp turned, and a gray-white seam of shadow under the black root was revealed.

Lu Yuan aimed, bringing his two fingers together and pressing directly into the seam.

The black root violently struggled.

The Malevolent Deity emitted a low, enraged roar from the well:

"You dare unbind my names!"

"Those names are not yours."

"They bound me."

"Now return them."

He began to peel the tiny faces out of the root fibers one by one.

Each face peeled off released a wisp of white smoke that rose from the mirror's surface and drifted along the stone path toward the mountain.

Some of the wisps carried cries.

Some carried laughter.

Some carried no sound at all, like a person finally falling quietly asleep.

The Malevolent Deity's voice grew louder.

"Stop!"

"Lu Yuan!"

"Your own name is in it too!"

"If you strip them away, you'll become an empty shell!"

Lu Yuan's fingers were already going numb.

He looked at his reflection in the mirror and suddenly said:

"My own name I will keep."

"I don't need you to remember me."

With that he tore the last tiny human face from the black root.

The black root contracted abruptly.

A length of pitch-black tendril finally came free from Lu Yuan's shadow.

The tendril twisted frantically in midair; its end split open, revealing a tiny eye.

Lu Yuan grabbed it and pressed it into the broken face of the black wooden tablet.

The black wooden tablet gave a deep dull sound.

As if something was being nailed shut inside.

The inverted well in the chamber trembled sharply.

The gray-white giant eye in the well closed halfway.

On the original body's face, all overlapping features let out a piercing shriek at once.

"You will take it out."

"That's fine."

"You will carry my root beyond the mountain."

"I carry your evidence of guilt."

Lu Yuan held the black unfinished tablet up to his eyes.

The black spot on the tablet had become a thin crack.

A gray-white light shone through that fissure.

"When I get out of the mountain, I'll seal it in stone."

"And return all the offered names."

"Without offered names, you can only be trapped in this well."

"You think there is no offering beyond the mountain?"

The Malevolent Deity suddenly laughed.

"The human heart is the offering."

"As long as people cling to life, fear death, want their names preserved, I can grow back."

"Then first I'll cut off this face of yours," Lu Yuan said.

He tore the salt line from his waist in one motion.

The salt line, stained gray by previous use, was wound around the short knife; the blade tip was dipped in cinnabar, then Lu Yuan used the mirror to reflect light onto the blade's spine.

"Black wooden tablet to hold souls."

"Soul-reflecting mirror to reveal roots."

"Abacus old ash to sever accounts."

"Salt line to bind the mouth."

"Cinnabar to seal names."

All four items activated together.

The giant eye in the inverted well suddenly opened wide.

The original body, composed of countless faces, pushed out toward the chamber.

The stone wall cracks widened under its pressure.

It tried to come out of the well.

Lu Yuan did not wait for it to fully emerge.

He hurled the short knife at the gray-white eye slit at the well mouth.

The blade flew through the black wind and struck dead center on the well rim.

"Close your eyes!"

Red light detonated from the blade.

A deafening echo came from the inverted well.

The giant eye was forced shut by the red light.

The half-emerged original body was pushed back into the well.

But it did not disappear.

From the well bottom, countless voices still chanted lowly:

"Lu Yuan."

"Guide life."

"Return to the true mouth."

Those voices formed a tide and swept toward Lu Yuan.

His shadow trembled again.

The fetal root segment in the black wooden tablet warmed accordingly.

"It's recognizing names one last time," Lin Zhaoxuan shouted, "as long as you respond, it will write you into the true mouth!"

Lu Yuan could not pull the short knife free; he could only stand before the well.

The voices drew nearer.

"Lu Yuan."

"Where did you come from?"

The Malevolent Deity was flipping through his past.

Not to frighten him, but to make him admit that it once participated in his origin.

Lu Yuan's fingers slowly tightened.

Wang Cheng'an looked at him, about to speak, but Song Qinghe pressed him down.

Now was not the time to answer for Lu Yuan.

The Malevolent Deity waited for others to confirm for it.

When the last line fell, all the light in the stone chamber flickered at once.

Fear nearly overwhelmed Xu Erxiao's eyes.

Wang Cheng'an stared at Lu Yuan.

Lu Yuan suddenly looked up.

"Finished talking?"

"You think the old road recognizing me means I owe you."

"You think me holding the black wooden tablet means it belongs to you."

He glanced at the tablet embedded with the black root.

"But you forgot."

"Things can recognize the wrong owner too."

The Malevolent Deity said nothing.

Lu Yuan looked at the people behind him.

"Where I come from is none of your business."

"Who taught me to use a blade is none of your business."

"Why the abacus left the road to me was its choice."

"Why the black wooden tablet ended up in my hands was its own choice."

"I can see your eyes because I have been watching what you've done."

Having said that, he pressed the black wooden tablet onto the stele.

"I don't accept the life guide you give."

"I only accept my own name."

The blank indentation on the stele suddenly cracked open.

The fissure extended from the former position of the "Life" character down to the stele's base, splitting the entire stone in two.

When the words "Lu Yuan" echoed from the well, Lu Yuan slammed the sword hilt hard against the blade back.

The short knife sank deeper into the well rim.

Salt, cinnabar, and the mirror's light all shot into the inverted well together.

"Close!"

"Eye!"

As the two words fell, the black water in the inverted well roiled violently.

The giant eye was forced down to the well bottom.

The original face composed of countless faces broke apart in a violent contortion.

Those faces did not rush at the people again; instead they fluttered like wind-blown paper and fell into the well.

Stones above the chamber began to collapse.

"Retreat to the stone path!"

Lu Yuan drew his short knife,

"This place is collapsing!"

Everyone scrambled back.

Lin Zhaoxuan grabbed the black jar weighed down by the soul-reflecting mirror, Song Qinghe shielded the oil lamp, Wang Cheng'an supported Xu Erxiao, and Zhou Heng snatched up the cracked abacus.

They had barely reached the stone path when a heavy thud sounded from the chamber behind them.

The inverted well collapsed.

Black water, broken stones, and severed offering lines were buried below.

The blue lights in the stone corridor went out one by one.

But just as the last blue light died, Lu Yuan saw that deep within the fallen chamber there still glowed a spot of red.

That red was neither flame nor an eye.

It was a thin thread stretching up from underground.

The thin line pierced through the rubble and extended deeper into the mountain's belly.

At the red line's end there seemed to be another well.

Beside that well stood a stele with no characters carved on it.

"There's another place," Lu Yuan said quietly.

Wang Cheng'an gasped, "Wasn't the main cave already collapsed?"

"The face collapsed," Lu Yuan stared at the red point, "the original retreated to a second well."

"It always left itself an escape route."

"Do we chase it?" Zhou Heng asked.

Lu Yuan looked at everyone.

The red mark on Xu Erxiao's ankle had already faded, leaving only a faint gray circle.

The "Eldest Son" mark on Wang Cheng'an's hand was gone too, leaving only a shallow white scar.

Song Qinghe's oil lamp, though dim, still burned.

Lin Zhaoxuan's soul-reflecting mirror was more cracked than before, but it could still show that red line.

They were all exhausted.

But the names the mountain had been taking apart were flowing back along the returning offering lines.

If they did not sever the final segment of the fetal root, those names could still be dragged back inside.

"Chase," Lu Yuan said.

"This time we are not entering its gate."

"We are going to sever its second life."

They followed the red line onward.

After the collapse the stone path narrowed, many places passable only sideways.

The metallic-sweet stench had faded, replaced by the damp smell of earth.

After about the length of an incense stick's burn, a stone wall suddenly appeared ahead.

There was no door, no eye-pattern on the wall.

Only a downward hole.

The hole was round; its rim polished bright by water, as if someone had repeatedly rammed their body against it from inside.

Lu Yuan held the lamp and peered in.

There was water at the bottom.

A red cloth floated on the surface.

No characters were on the cloth, only a straight black line leading down into the water.

"This is the final exit of the fetal root," Lin Zhaoxuan said.

"Not an exit," Lu Yuan corrected, "it's its navel."

"Navel?"

"The Malevolent Deity's true body didn't grow from the mountain itself."

"It grew bit by bit from offered names and fear."

"For it to hide, it needs a navel line connecting back to the original offering place."

"If this line is cut, it will truly lose its place to regrow."

Ripples suddenly spread across the water's surface.

The red cloth sank an inch.

Lu Yuan handed the oil lamp to Song Qinghe, removed his outer coat, wrapped the black wooden tablet and the soul-reflecting mirror, and handed them to Lin Zhaoxuan.

"You stay at the hole's mouth."

Wang Cheng'an immediately said, "I go down with you."

"No." This is not a road. "With more people, the offered names will get messy."

"Then I can..."

"Cheng'an." Lu Yuan interrupted, "guard Erxiao."

"If the fetal root snaps, the mountain will collapse."

"You must keep the return line held."

Wang Cheng'an wanted to argue, but Zhou Heng held him down.

"Brother Lu is right."

"We will guard the road outside."

Xu Erxiao gripped Lu Yuan's sleeve:

"Brother Lu, I don't feel at ease if you go down alone."

Lu Yuan looked at him, "If I shout to you from the water, no matter what you hear, don't go down."

"If I really want you down, I'll say the code."

"What's the code?"

"The abacus is broken."

Xu Erxiao nodded.

"If no code is given?"

"Then it's not me."

Lu Yuan wound the salt line around his waist, hung the short knife at his side, and slipped a small pouch of cinnabar into his sleeve.

"Qinghe, shine the lamp on the water's surface. Don't shine into the depths." Water below has eyes.

Song Qinghe nodded.

Lu Yuan turned and descended into the hole.

The wall was slippery; the water deepened quickly, past his knees, then waist, finally to his chest.

The water was cold as a winter well.

The red cloth floated ahead, drifting downward with the current.

Lu Yuan did not reach for it; he felt forward along the black line.

The bottom was very still.

So still he couldn't hear his own breathing.

But he could feel countless tiny things moving in the water.

They stopped when they touched his clothes, like invisible hands testing the names on his body.

Lu Yuan smeared cinnabar on his throat.

A light laugh came from the water immediately.

"Lu Yuan."

He did not answer.

"You don't need to pretend."

"I know you're here."

Lu Yuan paused.

This voice was not like the earlier original voice.

It was more like a memory.

Strange, yet somewhat familiar.

His fingers slowly found his waist.

The black wooden tablet's root was warming slightly.

Lu Yuan suddenly dove under.

The black line was right beneath his feet; the red cloth sank deeper.

The bottom had no mud, only white stone slabs layered one over another.

Names were carved into the slabs.

One slab bore "Lu."

The next bore a blurred "Yuan."

Below that was a slab with an unfinished carving.

Beside the slabs, a thin black fetal root plunged into the bottom.

This fetal root was much finer than the one above, but it beat and pulsed.

Its tendril ends linked those three slabs.

Lu Yuan understood.

"Guiding life"

did not mean he was born from the Malevolent Deity.

It meant the Malevolent Deity once tried to treat him as a new avenue of life.

The underwater fetal root suddenly lashed toward him.

Lu Yuan drew his blade; its edge cut a pale arc through the water.

He severed a section of the fetal root, but the remaining part wrapped around his wrist.

The root struggled fiercely.

The three stone slabs beneath split at the same time.

Lu Yuan wound the severed black root around his wrist, letting it pierce his flesh, then broke off the unfinished slab.

At the moment the slab broke, all the names on the bottom went dark.

The fetal root gave a silent shriek.

Lu Yuan carried the broken slab in his hand, the short knife in the other, and stabbed at the fetal root's final connection point.

The blade tip pierced the root.

A gray-white burst of light exploded from the connection.

On the surface, Song Qinghe suddenly heard a voice.

"The abacus is broken."

She looked up at once:

"Brother Lu is giving the code!"

Wang Cheng'an and Xu Erxiao heard it too.

"He's in the water!"

In the next moment the water surface bulged.

Lu Yuan burst out, flipping from the water, carrying a half-section of black fetal root and the broken stone slab.

The entire cave behind him thundered and shook.

The red cloth was swept up by the current, revealing another stele below.

Only one character was on that stele.

"Return."

"Fetal root cut?" Zhou Heng asked.

Lu Yuan took a breath and threw the black root into the cinnabar and salt.

"This one is severed."

"The true root has already appeared."

"Still there?"

"On the other side of the mountain." Lu Yuan looked at the stele reading "Return," "this inverted well was only its initial Life Gate."

"The Malevolent Deity's real original has already transferred from here."

"It now lurks at the deepest place of its offering ground, surviving by the mountain's old names."

Wang Cheng'an's face fell:

"So we still have to go deeper?"

Lu Yuan slipped the broken slab into his bosom.

The slab showed only an unfinished character, like a "Life" that someone had erased midway.

"Go."

"This time we'll find its true offering ground."

"From which side?"

Lu Yuan turned and looked to the other side of the stone path.

After the inverted well collapsed, a new fissure had opened in the rear mountain wall.

Moonlight streamed through the crack.

But they were still inside the mountain; there could be no moon overhead.

Lu Yuan stepped to the fissure and raised the oil lamp.

In the moonlight lay an old road that led deeper into the mountains.

On both sides of the road there were no trees, no grass, only black wooden tablets half-buried in the soil.

Each tablet bore a blank eye.

At the road's end, a bell sounded faintly.

Not a stone bell.

Somewhere beyond the mountains someone was striking a true copper bell.

One strike.

Two strikes.

Three strikes.

Listening to the bell, Lu Yuan suddenly said:

"It's calling back the offered names."

"Those names sent out haven't gone far," Lin Zhaoxuan said.

"Then before they are called back, sever the road completely."

They stepped out through the fissure.

Outside it was still deep night.

Mountain wind hit them, blowing off water and black dust.

Distant peaks overlapped; the moon hid behind clouds, showing only half of its cold white face.

The stone path behind them continued to collapse bit by bit.

No abacus shadow.

No abacus voice.

Only the cracked abacus remained, left beside the sealed false eye and the fetal nucleus, keeping the last account of a dead man that should never be continued.

Lu Yuan stood at the old road's start and felt the broken slab in his pocket.

Wang Cheng'an tightened his spear slung on his back and asked:

"The bell sound ahead—is that its final lair?"

"How many evil puppets remain?"

Lu Yuan looked at the blank wooden tablets on both sides of the road.

"More than before."

"But they no longer have old accounts to borrow from."

Song Qinghe cupped the oil lamp in her hands.

"Brother Lu, could the true body already be waiting ahead?"

Lu Yuan nodded once and stepped onto the old road.

"But this time, what waits for it is not offered names."

"It's people who cut off offerings."

The wind shifted the wooden tablets.

The blank eyes on each tablet turned toward them.

Far ahead, a copper bell struck again.

"Dong."

The bell's sound echoed through the deep mountain.

At the old road's end, a light slowly came on in the dark.

Under that light stood a person.

He wore soaked tattered cloth, his face featureless, but his hands held a string of freshly collected wooden tablets.

He saw Lu Yuan and raised his hand.

The blank eyes on the tablets opened one by one.

Behind him, the mountain's trees parted to reveal a giant stone altar buried among the peaks.

At the altar's center stood a vertical black well.

The well mouth held no water.

Only a slow-rotating black mist swirled within.

Countless torn-apart names hung in the black mist.

Lu Yuan stopped.

He knew they had reached the true offering ground.

He also knew the man under the light was not the final gatekeeper.

He was only a messenger for the original body.

"Guide life," it said.

Lu Yuan raised his blade, tip toward the black well.

The man under the light suddenly tossed all his wooden tablets into the air.

The tablets did not fall to the ground.

They assembled into a gigantic face in midair.

The face had no eyes, only a mouth split open outward.

From that mouth came the Malevolent Deity's voice:

"Come in."

"Bring your name before me."

Lu Yuan looked at that face and abruptly took the broken slab from his bosom, flinging it into the salt line at his feet.

The broken slab split into two.

A gray-white light spread along the old road, sealing the way behind them completely.

Wang Cheng'an panicked:

"Brother Lu, our retreat is gone!"

"We never planned on retreating."

Lu Yuan stepped onto the first step of the stone altar.

"Before we go in, state the rules."

He looked up at the black well.

"Besides us, the rest of this mountain is evil."

"See a person—do not recognize them. See a name—do not respond."

"If you meet an offering—cut it. If you meet an eye—close it first."

"Whoever dares borrow our names, pull their root out."

Xu Erxiao, Wang Cheng'an, Zhou Heng, Song Qinghe and Lin Zhaoxuan followed one by one.

The black mist around the altar began to boil outward.

Countless names whimpered low within the mist.

The suspended face widened its split mouth.

"Lu Yuan."

"You will know, the true Malevolent Deity is not a face."

"It is a mountain."

Lu Yuan stood before the black well, the short blade held across his chest.

"A mountain has roots too."

"When the roots are severed, only stone remains."

Having said that, he stepped into the shadow cast by the black well.

The black mist snapped shut.

The copper bell on the altar struck violently.

Far deeper in the mountain, a pair of gray-white eyes many times larger than before slowly opened.