The stone statues moved, and everybody was trapped inside.
“These statues look exactly the same. If intruders are trapped in here for too long, they’ll be disorientated. On top of that, these statues change their positions when the intruders take the wrong path, which makes it very difficult for people to get out,” said Yuwen Tong after observing the surroundings.
Ji Yanlai nodded. “That’s right, so stay close to me. Do not wander off or else you’ll be trapped in here forever. But if any of you do straggle behind the others and get trapped, do not panic. Just protect yourself and make sure you’re not bitten by some monster that shows up out of nowhere. The rest of us will get you out of here after we kill the one controlling this Formation in the city.”
Everybody else was astonished by the cadences employed by Ji Yanlai.
“Ahem … All of you have heard the Clan Leader’s words, I suppose? Do not straggle. Try your best to keep up,” said Ling Zhang.
“Yes, Your Highness,” chorused the soldiers.
Ji Yanlai, leading the way, said, “It’s been many years since this Formation of stone statues was deployed, and now trapping intruders is the only thing it could do. The combination of these statues and well-trained assassins would turn this Formation into a killing machine, which is the very purpose it’s meant to serve.”
He sounded rather regretful, but all his listeners were astounded.
“Clan Leader, if what you say is true, it’ll be very difficult for us to extricate ourselves from this Formation,” Yuwen Jin blurted.
Ji Yanlai said, “Don’t be afraid. I promise I’ll get you guys out of this place, no matter how difficult it is to do that.”
Yuwen Jin, “…”
He quietly turned his head to look at Ling Zhang and Yuwen Tong, an Are-you-sure-this-guy’s-reliable? expression in his eyes.
Ling Zhang and Yuwen Tong both remained silent. Ji Xiaocong, walking side by side with Ling Maomao, snickered.
Ling Maomao looked apprehensively at him, fearing that Ji Yanlai might hear Ji Xiaocong if the latter snickered too loud.
Ji Xiaocong, smirking, mouthed, “It’s okay.”
Ji Yanlai, who was indeed quite capable, safely led all the others through the Formation consisting of stone statues. For fear of being trapped in the Formation, everybody stayed close together. None of them dared risk wandering off.
“This is weird. I thought we’d met more of those creepy snakes in there, but not a single one showed up,” said Ji Yanlai confusedly after walking out.
Yuwen Jin looked speechlessly at him for a moment before he asked, “Are you saying that you’ve actually been looking forward to seeing more of them?”
Ji Yanlai inexplicably shifted his gaze to him. “I just find this surprising, but I’m not inclined to be bitten.”
“The exit is right ahead. Judging from what we saw on the escarpment, we should be arriving at the entrance to the stone city after getting out of this Formation,” said Ji Yin, pointing forward.
They quickened their pace, heading for the exit.
“Wait a moment,” Yuwen Feng said.
Ling Zhang’s, Ji Yin’s and the others’ countenance also changed slightly at this moment.
“Everybody stay sharp. There’s an ambush out there,” cautioned Yuwen Tong.
Some people were lying in ambush at the exit, and there were a lot of them.
They gingerly progressed to the exit where they were greeted by a hail of arrows. This kind of greeting was so familiar to them that all of them were rendered speechless.
“Yet more cannibals?” huffed Yuwen Jin disgustedly, feeling nauseous as he recalled those corpses they had seen in the grove of phoenix trees. “These fucking cannibals are so good with their noses. Are they trying to hunt us like their prey, by any chance?”
All the others, ” … ”
The very thought that Yuwen Jin might be right made their flesh creep.
Even Yuwen Tong had a complicated expression on his face, his eyes turning cold.
Those cannibals were hiding right behind the statues at the exit, clearly having been planning a sneak attack. They seemed to have very little knowledge of strategy, given that all they did was keep shooting arrows, but they were not utterly unorganized, for they did know how to mount a surprise attack.
Ling Zhang and all the others found these cannibals loathsome and showed them no mercy, killing them on sight ruthlessly.
“Fuck. This is my first time being regarded as food. You people really should have assessed your chances before deciding to mess with me.” Yuwen Jin was the angriest of them all. Leading some men, he detoured around some statues, outflanked those cannibals lying in ambush and eventually encircled them ring upon ring. The soldiers, who felt their skin crawl at the thought of what they were in these cannibals’ eyes, were particularly ferocious when slaughtering the enemies, looking even more horrifying than those cannibals.
Before long, this batch of cannibals who tried to blindside them were wiped out.
It was after these people-eating freaks were all dead that they felt slightly relieved.
“Dispose of the bodies,” instructed Yuwen Tong.
The very sight of those cannibals’ corpses made him feel disgusted.
When they had been on the coast, the guards of the Millennium Pavilion had dug a hole to bury those cannibals’ bodies, but on this occasion none of them were in the mood for burying these enemies properly. They directly dumped the bodies in a corner, intending to let those peculiar snakes feeding on rotten meat take care of them.
After dealing with this disturbance, they walked out of the Formation consisting of statues.
In front of them were the lofty outer walls of the stone city.
“What are those things inlaid in the city gates? Are they what I think they are, by any chance?” murmured Yuwen Jin, looking up at the towering city gates.
“They’re gemstones,” replied Ling Zhang.
The gates of the mighty stone city ahead were inset with big gemstones. There were red ones, blue ones and white ones, which formed a pattern of a giant phoenix.
“No wonder that pirate said that there’re gold everywhere in this stone city. These gemstones in the city gates alone are enough to convince me,” said Yuwen Jin.
The others were awed as well. None of them had bargained on the founder of this stone city being so extravagant as to have mounted gemstones in the city gates.
“But why a phoenix?” Someone was bewildered.
Ling Zhang looked at Ji Yanlai. That grove of phoenix trees had already aroused his suspicions, and now they were seeing such a giant pattern of a phoenix.
Ji Yanlai appeared to be baffled as well, a slight frown on his face.
Ji Yin standing on the other side walked up to the gates, scrutinized them and then said, “All these gemstones are real. This is so surprising. I mean, didn’t that pirate say many people found this place and scrambled for the treasure? Why haven’t these gemstones been gouged out?”
Indeed!
Immediately, everybody’s attention was distracted by Ji Yin’s words. These gemstones were real and so big, and they were inlaid right in the gates. Why hadn’t any of those people gouged them out?
“I think it’s probably because they couldn’t be gouged out,” said Yuwen Jin tentatively.
“According to that pirate, those people tried to kill their own men to get a bigger share of the treasure, which means they love money as much as their lives. There’s no way they gave up just because it’s difficult to gouge these gemstones out. If they’re indeed unable to extract these gemstones, they would sure as hell have taken the gates apart, but as we can see, the gates are still intact,” said Ling Zhang.
This was indeed quite fishy.
“There’re people in there,” Ji Yanlai suddenly said.
Some sounds of heavy, uneven breathing could be heard, which indicated that those people were agitated.
Ji Yanlai gave the couple of elders of the Millennium Pavilion a significant look, who inclined their heads and led the way towards the gates with the guards.
Yuwen Tong looked at Yuwen Jin who then gave the signal by raising his hand, and with that the soldiers promptly split into two groups and hid themselves behind the two gates respectively. In the blink of an eye, Ling Zhang and some others were the only ones left in front of the gates. Ling Zhang and Yuwen Tong made towards the gates together, the breathing of those inside growing more uneven with every step they took.
When Ling Zhang and the others approached the gates as well, the two gates burst open without warning and two groups of men charged out. All of them were holding weapons, dressed like ruffians and had heavy, brutal-looking faces, their sabers stained with congealed, brown blood, the murderous air about them almost palpable, madness written all over their faces, hurtling towards Ling Zhang and the others.
The couple of elders and the fifty guards of the Millennium Pavilion were the vanguard, who immediately intercepted those men.
“Pirates,” said Ling Zhang. “These people’s clothes are very like that pirate’s.”
On top of that, all of them appeared fierce-looking, their eyes ferocious, forcibly reminding people of bandits.
“They don’t seem to be in their right minds. I mean, why do they keep charging at us when they’re clearly no match for us? Can’t they feel pain?” said Ling Maomao.
Ling Zhang and the others also noticed. These pirates were in a weird mental state and appeared crazy. Even those wounded ones, as though unaware of their injuries, were still coming at their opponents, seeming determined to stop at nothing to kill their adversaries. They were deliriously shouting something while fighting, but Ling Zhang and the others couldn’t understand them. It was probably a language spoken in some microstate near the South Ocean.
“Kill them,” said Ji Yanlai.
The guards of the Millennium Pavilion stopped being merciful and directly killed those pirates charging at them.
Yuwen Jin, having noticed that there were no other enemies apart from those pirates, came out of hiding and went to help the guards.
“Look, that guy got stabbed and should be in great pain, but there’s no sign of suffering pain on his face whatsoever, only craziness,” said Ji Xiaocong, pointing at one of the pirates.
Mr. Mu, after watching for a long moment, yelled, “Don’t kill them all. Take a prisoner or two so that I can have a look.”
The couple of elders of the Millennium Pavilion quickly captured two pirates and brought them to Mr. Mu. The two pirates were acting quite dementedly, but their Mobility Acupoints had been hit, so they couldn’t move and just kept fiercely shouting at Ling Zhang and the others.
Mr. Mu examined the two men before saying, “They’re not ill or under the influence of any poison or Gu worms, and they have no unusual injuries, which is very strange.”
On hearing this, Ji Yanlai walked over. “I’ll handle it.”
Mr. Mu stepped aside. Ji Yanlai walked up to one of the pirates and with that his eyes staring at the pirate suddenly became eerie and brooding, looking as though they were two bottomless ponds, as though they had the power of enchanting people’s souls.
At first the pirate was still struggling, but gradually he calmed down, his eyes turning glazed, the dementedness on his face abating. After another few moments, a hint of life finally appeared in his eyes, his face registering a different emotion – fear.
“Aargh! AAAAARGH!” The pirate abruptly started yelling in horror, as though seeing something blood-curdling.
At the same time Ji Yanlai suddenly averted his gaze and closed his eyes, frowning.
“Clan Leader.” Ji Yin took a step forward to support him.
“I’m fine.” Ji Yanlai opened his eyes again and said, “I saw some odd scenes through his eyes.”
Ling Zhang and Yuwen Tong exchanged a glance and with that both of them stepped closer to Ji Yanlai. “Scenes?”
Ji Yanlai inclined his head. “Tons of gold, countless bones and insubstantial, black figures.”
Both Ling Zhang and Yuwen Tong didn’t have a clue how Ji Yanlai had seen those things. It struck them as understandable that Ji Yanlai had seen gold and bones, but what were those insubstantial, black figures?
“These pirates should be under some kind of enchantment,” said Ji Yanlai.
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