# 361
**Chapter 361: The Eerie Paper Men**
One, two, three, four…
Lin Qiye’s gaze swept across the sea of pale paper figures ahead, and his heart sank.
Too many—there were far too many of them!
He had no idea where these paper men had come from. He’d just scouted the area moments ago and hadn’t sensed a single trace of them. It was as if, in one fleeting instant, they had materialized out of thin air like ghosts.
Sweat had already soaked Lin Qiye’s back, yet he remained calm. One hand clutched his flickering flame; the other slowly reached for the Straight Blade at his back.
He couldn’t detect the slightest ripple of mental energy from these paper figures, nor any sign of cultivation rank. It seemed a single blaze could incinerate them all—yet instinct warned him they were anything but simple.
Just as he prepared to force a breakthrough, a hair-raising scene unfolded.
Every paper face froze. Then the painted features twisted violently, shifting like masks—now weeping, now sneering, now raging, now smiling…
A sinister aura unfurled from them, countless invisible threads that mingled with the living breath clinging to Lin Qiye’s body.
He couldn’t see or sense those threads, yet in that instant the flame in his palm snuffed out. His temperature plummeted, as though he’d been hurled into an ice cellar. His body became strangely weightless, and a deathly pallor crept across his face…
At the same time, the paper men surrounding him stopped shifting. Each feature began to change subtly: hollow eyes gained focus, crimson lips faded, noses grew straighter, strands of black hair sprouted from their crowns… Only their eerie smiles remained unchanged.
They were turning into Lin Qiye.
And Lin Qiye… was turning into them.
Icy death energy raged inside him; all strength seemed drawn away. He barely stayed upright, staring fixedly at the paper copies of “Lin Qiye” as his consciousness blurred.
Clenching his teeth, he sucked in a breath—and golden light erupted from his eyes!
A “miracle” exploded within him!
The miracle instantly severed the transformation. Power flooded back; his face, folding like paper, snapped into its true shape; awareness returned in a flash!
The paper men’s change halted mid-process—some bore only his nose, others his eyes, others his hair… They touched their faces in bewilderment, then jerked their heads toward him, expressions twisting into pure fury.
Soundlessly roaring, they surged like a white torrent, rushing Lin Qiye!
Undeterred, the severed sinister threads re-gathered, striving once more to hook his living breath.
Having barely danced past death’s gate, Lin Qiye’s face darkened. The miracle he’d forged with the Mortal Divine Realm had nearly drained his mental energy outright—proof these paper things outclassed him by leagues.
If those threads latched on again, escape would be impossible.
He scanned quickly, settling on the ant-queen’s hole at his feet. Hesitating only an instant, he leapt.
Whatever lay beyond—whatever danger—had to be better than being drained dry.
One by one the paper figures drifted after him, vanishing into the dark…
…
Minutes later.
A golden sword flash burst from an ant-hole in the bluish-grey wall, circling the vast subterranean hollow.
“Huh? Where are we?” Baili Pangpang exclaimed, finding the space suddenly cavernous.
Cao Yuan swept a flashlight across the walls, puzzled. “Man-made? Let’s check it out.”
The four jumped from the golden sword. With a wave Baili Pangpang recalled Yaoguang to his chest as a necklace. An Qingyu stepped to the wall, grey flickering in his eyes.
After a moment he said, “Human-built, but ancient. From the weathering inside the bricks—over two thousand years old.”
“Two millennia?” Cao Yuan calculated. “That’s the Han dynasty.”
An Qingyu nodded. “Correct.”
“Someone in the Han thought it fun to erect an underground wall in the middle of nowhere?” Baili Pangpang frowned. “That bored?”
An Qingyu offered no reply, studying other walls in silence.
“Never mind—find Qiye first.” Cao Yuan pointed to the ant-queen’s blood trail. “He followed this. Let’s move!”
They traced the blood to the same black wall and ancient bronze colossus.
“Holy…” Baili Pangpang gaped. “Another one? Ancient folk had time to spare!”
An Qingyu eyed the dark bricks, brow knitting. “This is different.”
“How so?”
“I can’t parse this wall’s material, nor the bronze gate. Their molecular structure matches nothing in modern science…”
“So?” Baili Pangpang tilted his head.
“They’re not human-made.”
The statement dropped the group into grim silence.
Not human—then only “mysteries”… or gods.
“There’s a hole.” Li Deyang spotted the burrow Lin Qiye had taken.
They examined it, exchanging startled glances.
“He chased an ant-queen through there?” Baili Pangpang blurted. “That desperate?”
“No other sign of him—he must’ve gone in,” An Qingyu confirmed.
“Then we follow.”
“Right.”
Hum——!!!
As they moved to enter, a thunderous drone rolled through the hollow. They looked up—astonished.
Between the black walls, the towering bronze gate was slowly swinging outward…