Chapter 878: The Black Hand Appears
Having experienced the calamity of the Feather Transformation Immortal Valley, they became even more cautious. Black Emperor had already carefully scouted the area from afar, confirming that there were no terrifying forbidden formations.
The tiger’s den remained, dry and spacious. It had once been inhabited by a fierce beast, and a lingering aura of killing intent still hung in the air.
Pang Bo’s expression froze. He actually saw divine crocodiles, their black scales dense and gleaming with cold light. There were over a dozen of them, lying motionless on the ground.
“These truly persistent little runts. I run into you everywhere. Back then, you killed so many of my classmates.” Pang Bo stretched out his big foot and kicked wildly.
“No, they’re all dead. They’ve lost their lives for who knows how many years already,” Li Tian said.
Ye Fan and Pang Bo felt an intense disgust toward the divine crocodiles. When they had crossed the starry sky back then, these creatures had left an indelible, brutal impression on them, claiming the lives of many old friends. Seeing them now stirred deep hatred.
“They’ve been dead for over twenty years, all dying of old age.” Black Emperor stepped forward, stretched out a large claw to poke at them, and after carefully examining them, said this.
Ye Fan crouched down and also inspected them seriously. They had likely had their lifespans stripped away when they escaped from the Ancient Forbidden Land back then, and thus died.
“Back then, so many divine crocodiles didn’t die. They must have hidden inside the corpses of those old friends to evade our notice, then followed us out,” Pang Bo said through gritted teeth.
The flesh and blood of the divine crocodiles had long rotted away, but their black scales still gleamed with a faint light, making them look lifelike, eerie and cold.
Everything from back then had exceeded their imagination. Some unknown entities had followed them across the starry sky, only beginning to reveal themselves when Lin Jia’s phone was discovered.
“They… actually really died!” Ye Fan’s pupils contracted. The situation had turned out differently than he had expected.
At the deepest part of the tiger’s den, the three people seemed to have died from extreme terror. They had squeezed into the farthest corner, huddled together, with cloth strips and leather belts still binding their arms.
Over twenty years had passed. They had long since turned into dry bones. Only some keychains, hairpins, and the like remained, along with some decaying hair—a horrifying sight.
“Were we wrong?” Pang Bo muttered to himself.
Liu Yunzhi, Li Changqing, and Wang Yan were all dead. They weren’t the malicious people lurking in the darkness against them. Had they gone too far back then, abandoning them here?
Not far from the divine crocodiles lay the bones of two saber-toothed tiger cubs, no more than a foot long. Additionally, there was a massive tiger skeleton, also lying prostrate, with a small hole in its forehead—it had been pierced through and killed.
Back then, when they left, they had heard a tiger’s roar. They had assumed it was the saber-toothed tiger returning to its den, enraged at finding Liu Yunzhi and the others invading its nest. They never expected it to be like this.
They stepped forward and carefully examined the three skeletons. Each person had their chin drooping, having died in extreme terror, their foreheads pierced through, killed by the divine crocodiles’ mouths.
“Based on my many years of experience, these people died over twenty years ago. Judging from their bone structure, each of them lived to be about twenty-five or twenty-six. Of course, if we invited a grave robber to inspect the scene, it would be more professional,” Black Emperor said.
“That’s right, it’s them without a doubt,” Pang Bo said in a deep voice.
Although the three people’s hair was withered, it was still there, and their hairstyles were completely different from those of this world. Based on their bone structure and height, it matched the three from back then.
The woman still had a necklace on her chest, with a blood diamond hanging from it, stained with foul blood. It was Wang Yan’s favorite, and it still glimmered with a blood-red light.
“Back then, Liu Yunzhi often showed off that piece of mutton-fat jade. It was his most prized possession. They undoubtedly died here.”
Such a result left both Ye Fan and Pang Bo feeling a sense of loss. They had thought they were about to uncover the truth, only to find this scene.
Ye Fan had always believed that Liu Yunzhi was not dead, that the hidden enemy was him. But now that the truth was truly revealed, it left him confused.
“Were we too ruthless back then?” Pang Bo muttered to himself.
A gust of wind blew, and leaves drifted in the distance, leaving them in silence for a long time without speaking.
The monkey and the others stood outside the cave, unable to help with any of this. They could only offer words of comfort, saying that those who wanted to kill them deserved such a fate, and there was no need to feel guilty.
“Exactly. They had the heart to put you to death. Leaving them alive would have been a great disaster. Dying like this is what they deserved,” Li Heishui said.
Ye Fan crouched down and examined them carefully once more. In the end, he could only let out a long sigh, stood up, and said, “I almost wish they hadn’t died.”
Who was the black hand? The situation was murky and confusing. He had thought he had figured it out, but it turned out to be nothing. Seeing this result made Ye Fan feel very unsettled.
“Don’t dwell on it. Let this emperor perform a small technique to restore their true appearance and see the final result,” Black Emperor said.
A faint light shot out from between his brows. On the heads of the three skeletons, a substance resembling flesh and blood regenerated, reshaping their facial features and restoring their original forms.
“Not bad. It’s actually quite simple. This small technique can reveal the truth,” the monkey nodded. It wasn’t real flesh and blood, just divine power, reconstructing their original appearance based on their bones, allowing the true likeness of the deceased to be seen.
Ye Fan and Pang Bo watched intently. After a few moments, the three people’s faces gradually filled out, revealing their original forms. This left them feeling a sense of melancholy. It really was Liu Yunzhi, Wang Yan, and the other one.
“Stop. No need to reconstruct further. It’s them.”
They left the tiger’s den and walked out of the forbidden area. Ye Fan pondered, where had he gone wrong? Why did it contradict his intuition and his deductions?
“No suspicious points. It’s like a blow to the head,” Pang Bo said.
Ji Ziyue said, “Having no suspicious points is the most suspicious thing. It’s obvious they anticipated you would come to verify, and they calculated every detail to mislead you, making you believe they were really dead.”
“That’s right!” Ye Fan nodded.
“Summon Duan De!” Pang Bo said.
“Exactly. Call that grave robber. He has special methods to distinguish truth from falsehood,” Black Emperor said. Even it had to acknowledge Fatty Duan’s expertise in this field and trusted his methods.
Summoning Duan De was simple. They just needed to spread a rumor that a Great Sage’s tomb had appeared somewhere, and that damn fatty would surely come running with a big grin.
Of course, this time it wouldn’t be necessary, because the Battle Victory Buddha’s great battle here had shaken the entire Southern Domain. It was certain that major powers and people like Duan De would come to investigate.
Sure enough, that very day, many cultivators arrived in this wild mountain range, all from various major powers.
Black Emperor had no patience. He shouted loudly, “Summon Duan De.”
He spread a rumor among the crowd: the outer part of the Ancient Forbidden Land had cracked open, revealing many great chasms, and an ancient tomb had appeared, suspected to be a Saint’s tomb.
The effect was excellent. Duan De appeared, bouncing and lively, his speed astonishing. When Ye Fan, Black Emperor, and the others showed themselves, Duan De immediately jumped up, cursing and swearing, saying they were too damaging. This wasn’t the first time, and he had rushed all the way back from the Central Province.
“Brother Duan, your business is really busy. This time, we had no choice but to trouble you.”
“Boundless Heavenly Venerable. This poor Daoist is almost like a summoned beast. Damn it, next time, don’t call me unless there’s a weapon above the King level as payment.” Duan De’s face darkened.
When they returned to the tiger’s den, Duan De’s hairs stood on end. He stumbled backward several steps, his expression turning grave. “What kind of existence have you provoked?”
“Fatty, are you trying to scare us so you can demand a sky-high reward?” Black Emperor bared its teeth.
“I’m serious. An extremely terrifying vengeful spirit has lingered here. In my life, I’ve only encountered such a thing once, in an ancient Great Sage’s tomb, and I almost died inside,” Fatty Duan said, his heart pounding.
“No way. Just a stone cave, three dead people, three dead tigers, and over a dozen dead crocodiles. How could a ghost king have been born here?”
Duan De took out an ancient mirror. It was made from the only Dao bone left behind by a human Great Sage after his Dao dissolution—the forehead bone, which endured through the ages. The forehead bone is a person’s Immortal Platform Dao bone. Polished into a mirror, it had natural Dao patterns, profound and infinite, with many wonderful uses.
A flash of mirror light illuminated the ancient cave. A dim image appeared, showing the terrified expressions of Liu Yunzhi, Li Changqing, and Wang Yan. The female tiger returned to its den, and the divine crocodiles crawled over. Everything was as previously deduced.
Until the critical moment, another flash of mirror light revealed a blurry figure entering the cave. It killed the divine crocodiles and the tiger, then grabbed the unconscious Liu Yunzhi, Li Changqing, and Wang Yan.
“So it changed again! Someone covered up the truth here!” Pang Bo shouted, clenching his fists.
At that moment, cold sweat broke out on Duan De. He couldn’t help but tremble. “We’ve run into a big one this time. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life!”
Suddenly, the mirror light flashed one last time. As the blurry black figure grabbed the three people and walked out of the cave, it suddenly turned back. In the mirror, it revealed a cold, sinister smile at them, showing its true face for the first time—a terrifying vengeful spirit!
Everything before had been blurry, its form unseen. At this moment, they truly saw it for the first time: hideous and terrifying, with snow-white teeth, dead-fish-like eyes, pitch-black flesh, devoid of any life force, exuding an aura of death!
Everyone involuntarily stepped back. This vengeful spirit was too frightening. It appeared abruptly in the mirror, causing the little phoenix bird in Ji Ziyue’s arms to have its golden feathers all fluffed up.
The light in the bone mirror dimmed. Everything vanished, unable to be shown again. The stone cave fell into utter silence, a chilling, cold aura spreading through the air.
“It’s the vengeful spirit we saw in the ancient bronze coffin!” Pang Bo said.
“That’s right, it’s the same one. It really did follow us out.” Ye Fan’s heart sank.
Those three people hadn’t been killed by the divine crocodiles at all. The vengeful spirit had saved them and covered up the truth here. This sent a chill down their spines.
Ye Fan and Pang Bo simultaneously thought of the past. Back then, in the bronze coffin, a classmate had died inexplicably, with a patch of bruising on his neck, covered in blood marks, looking exactly like finger marks left by a vengeful spirit, as if he had been strangled to death.
This had even led to a confrontation, with Ye Fan getting caught up in it. Although he had tried to prove that the man was killed by a divine crocodile, the purple finger marks on his neck were very obvious, hard to explain away. The deduction back then had been somewhat forced.
“So that means that classmate back then was first strangled by the vengeful spirit, and then a divine crocodile burrowed into his body,” Pang Bo said with a shiver.
Back then, that person had been right next to Ye Fan, almost touching him, and had died so mysteriously. Now that he understood the truth, Ye Fan couldn’t help but shiver. The vengeful spirit had been so close to him!
Duan De broke out in a cold sweat. “Damn it, you always find trouble for me. This kind of vengeful spirit is completely different from the nether spirits we talk about. Its Dao cultivation is terrifyingly deep. It might be a six- or seven-thousand-year-old ghost. Once it latches onto you, it’ll haunt you for life, until it achieves its goal!”
“Liu Yunzhi, Li Changqing, and Wang Yan aren’t dead. Now there’s a vengeful spirit, and divine crocodiles. Are there other things that crossed over with us?” Pang Bo muttered to himself. The process of crossing the starry sky was far more complicated than they had imagined.
“Wait a minute. Are you saying you landed on the ancient Yinghuo Star, a place suppressed by a bald man named Shakyamuni?” Duan De’s eyes gleamed with sharp light, as if he had remembered something. “I remember now. When I was on an archaeological expedition to a sea demon’s great tomb overseas, I met an old bald man. He seemed to be one of the top ten disciples of that Shakyamuni bald man. We talked for half the night, and he told me some things…”
Regarding the vengeful spirit, there had been foreshadowing long ago. Readers can look back at Chapter 23, “Inside the Coffin.” Requesting *** support. Double rewards are almost over. Please cast your precious guaranteed ***.