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With the help of several of the female ghosts, Wu Jian, Huang Xiaolong and I directly strode onto the grounds of the palace that had been under martial law. There was a large hole on the ground, and in the light seeping through the hole, the group could see a bronze door that had been opened.

"Let's go down." Wu Jian climbed down the ladder at the entrance of the cave first, followed by me and then Huang Xiaolong. As for Lulu and the others, they simply floated down.

When I saw the bronze door through the hole, I felt it looked a bit quaint, but when I stood in front of it, I realized it was massive. That was the first word that came to mind. The bronze gate was at least six meters tall. The width was difficult to measure because one door was opened and the other was buried by dirt.

Upon closer inspection, I realized it wasn't dirt. I touched the material that covered the door. It was hard. Rock. Who would make a gate just to bury half of it in a rock? And if it wasn't intentionally buried, where did the rock come from?

Although I was not very familiar with rock formations in nature, from my limited knowledge, I figured something like this couldn't be formed in even two thousand years.

Wu Jian had also begun observing the gate. He traced the pattern on the bronze gate, and I realized that the decoration was more like a painting than a carving.

I stepped back and looked carefully at the painting on the bronze gate. It was painted with simple lines representing both people and objects, but it was easy to see at a glance what was being depicted. Even with only half of the scene visible, the image made my blood run cold.

At the center of the picture was a circle with something like a flame extending outward. Countless people at the bottom formed a semi-circle, kneeling. At the top right of the circle, there was a man with a ribbon, standing in the air, with a very large python under his feet. Even its eyes were larger than the people who were kneeling. Its body formed a circle in the middle of the air and then trailed into the door. I assumed the rest of its body was on the other door.

From the head of the person with the ribbon, a lot of small concave points radiated outward, growing from small to large and increasing in number. I didn't know why, but it felt like I knew the meaning of this image by heart. It felt like a spell, counting one by one from the number one to 99. 1, 2, 3…

"Huang Xiaolong, look at the little dots next to the man," I said as he came closer.

Huang Xiaolong first looked at me, and then looked at the place I said. Surprised, he asked, "That's counting?" He sounded uncertain.

I nodded, and Wu Jian, overhearing our conversation, looked over. "Well, it really is counting. That's quite strange."

"Are they counting how many people are going to die? Heehee. I'm lucky I'm dead," Xiao Lingdang joked.

I stared at Xiao Lingdang without speaking as Lulu pinched Xiao Lingdang's ear, making her shout.

"Let's go." Wu Jian suddenly stepped into the gate with one step. The strong light from the hole drew a line between light and dark at the entrance. The moment Wu Jian walked into the gate, I felt as though he was stepping into boundless darkness. My heart could not help beating violently and I almost blurted out, "Wu Jian, come back!"

Huang Xiaolong patted me on the shoulder and urged me to keep up with him. I glanced at Lulu, who was walking by my side, and found that she was also looking at me. We both smiled slightly. I very naturally took her hand and walked in. I took no notice of the exclamations from Xiao Lingdang and others.

The passageway of the underground palace was very wide, at least able to accommodate two cars passing in opposite directions. The miner lamp hanging overhead was on. Under the special lamp, we could very clearly see the stone walls that lined both sides of the passageway.

"Be careful," Lulu said suddenly, and we stopped.

"What's the matter?" I asked Lulu.

Lulu frowned and pointed to the dust rising from the ground as we walked.

"Ah, it's ashes." Xiao Lingdang looked very surprised.

"Ashes?" Wu Jian looked at the dust on the ground nervously.

Sister Hua covered her mouth to hide her smile. "Oh, this place is really interesting. Yan'er, look, this bone ash is so fine."

Yan'er gave Sister Hua an angry look. "Lulu is right. Everyone must be careful. There is something unusual about this place."

After Yan'er spoke, she seemed to move to protect her long shirt person, and then she motioned for everyone to continue forward.

As I moved on, I stepped more carefully, trying to avoid the ashes. I felt I should have some respect for either the people or animals who had died.

Not long after we began, we reached the first fork in the road. Just like the map we received from Wu Jian's mobile phone had indicated, the three roads were almost identical.

"Let's go in the middle?" Wu Jian wanted our opinions.

"It doesn't matter." Huang Xiaolong spoke first and I nodded in agreement. There was only one dot in the front on the map that indicated where we should head, and there were no side paths to get lost on when we turned around to leave. We didn't know where to go, so there was really no difference for us regardless of which path we chose.

After everyone agreed, Wu Jian was the first one to go forward again. Compared with the front hallway, this path was slightly narrower.

When we arrived at the next fork, Wu Jian did not make a decision immediately, because at the top of each channel, there was an unfamiliar symbol painted.

"Does anyone recognize that word?" When Wu Jian saw that everyone had entered the hall of the fork, he asked the group.

"Is it a word?" Huang Xiaolong didn't seem to agree with Wu Jian, but he couldn't say why.

I was familiar with the people of the Ghost House, so I asked them one by one, but no one knew what the symbol above meant either.

"Let's go down the middle path again," I proposed. Since we didn't know anything about any of the paths, there was no need to deliberate.

Wu Jian nodded, reminded everyone to be careful, and then turned around to head down the path.

Soon after entering the passage, we were off the map, which meant that the researchers who had been here before had not been able to figure out the way ahead of them. I had many guesses for why the map was unfinished, but no matter what the reason was, the road ahead would not be a smooth one.

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