Chapter 17 Life and Death
“Did you see what it was?” asked Pang Bo, trying to uncover the source of danger. Even though he was usually carefree, he was always earnest at critical times.
“I didn’t see anything. I only felt a trace of dreadful air surround my entire body, then this bronze bell started vibrating.” At this moment, despite being enveloped by a golden radiance, Wang Ziwen still had lingering fears
After this exchange of words, everyone tightly held onto the Buddhist items that they had found in the Great Thunderchant Temple. These relics were now confirmed as not common; they must have been the god’s possessions.
The dilapidated bronze bell stopped vibrating, and the tolling of the bell slowly faded. The golden divine flame which surrounded Wang Ziwen’s body faded away, just like the spirit of the golden armor had returned back to the bell.
“Go! Let’s leave these ruins!” Ye Fan was holding the ancient lamp which sprinkled specks of a divine glow as he charged towards the five-colored altar.
Everyone immediately followed him. There had to be some hideous thing in these temple ruins, so every second of staying presented more danger.
“AHH!” Another shriek rang out, and a man at the edge of the nearby ruins fell onto the ground face-up. A bloody hole the thickness of a finger was in the center of his forehead. Blood was flowing out, he had died in the same manner as the previous classmate. He died with his eyes wide open, and the fear he felt before his death could still be seen in his expression.
Many people were extremely scared at this point. Another classmate abruptly died, and the people around him witnessed his death, but none of them had any method to prevent it. In fact, they still didn’t even know what took his life.
Although it sounded simple to be separated by life and death, every single one of them had relationships to each other. Each death caused everyone to feel bitter and pained. Their classmates who were right beside them didn’t even have the chance to say any last words before mysteriously dying. Quite a few female classmates almost broke down as they quietly cried. When had any of them seen such a scene before?
“Move it!”
No one stopped; in fact, no one could stop. Quickly rushing towards the five-colored altar, they finally exited the ruins. However, two lives would forever be left there, never to be seen again.
Only after running far away did they turn back to look. This time, the broken walls and ruins appeared to be like evil demons. In the night, their long shadows stretched out, causing people’s hearts to palpitate.
But before anyone could even let out a sigh of relief, three screams filled the air. Two men and a woman consecutively fell on the ground. The wounds in their forehead were the same as ever. Three identical bloody holes had appeared, another ghastly sight.
Their blood dyed the ground red. Three of their former classmates, three of their friends, were now dead. They died with their eyes filled with fear, terrified expressions upon their faces.
In just a short period of time, five people had already lost their lives. People felt sad, but they also felt ice-cold from head to toe and their scalp felt numb. It was possible that the next one would be them; none of them were safe!
“Ahh…,” a female classmate who was close to collapsing cried out, “The people who died were all ones who didn’t find any relics in the temple. That unknown demon is still close by; the ones who don’t have the sacred relics left behind by the god will definitely die sooner or later.”
This was fact. The five people who had died were all people who hadn’t obtained anything from the temple. When Wang Ziwen was attacked, he had only managed to come out unscathed due to the relic he had found.
“Help us...” The ones who hadn’t found anything in the temple all became alarmed. They approached the people who had found things and begged them to save them. But in this kind of life and death situation, who would give up their life-saving Buddhist item?
Some hadn’t stopped at all, to the point where they hadn’t even turned their heads back as they took large strides, rushing towards the five-colored altar. Their friendships with their classmaters were admittedly to be treasured. But in the face of life or death, most people would choose to be cold to the others in order to save themselves.
This was the first time they were faced with the contradiction between the relations people had with each other and man’s innate nature.
“I’m begging you, save me…” A woman who was close to collapsing was weeping. Her tear-stained face was extremely panicky, appearing extremely pitiful. Her shoes had already fallen off as she ran, but she didn’t even notice as her mind was completely overwhelmed with fear.
Ye Fan loudly shouted, “To the people who found relics within the temple, share them with the others!”
Pang Bo followed up closely with Ye Fan, also loudly yelling, “That’s right, we can share the relics amongst two or three persons each.”
Most people accepted this idea, but they still hesitated. One person opened his mouth and said, “What if these broken relics aren’t strong enough? Maybe they can only provide protection for one person? After all, it was used by the original owner to protect himself in such a situation…”
As soon as this was said, it swayed people. Two people even started to speed up, not even looking back as they charged forward.
“Thank you, Ye Fan….” The woman whose shoes had fallen, whose lovely, pitiful face was covered in tears, had staggered over beside him with an extremely grateful expression on her face. With her tear-stained face, she apparently extremely pitiful.
Her left hand shook as it reached out, but just as it was an inch away from the ancient lamp, her expression froze, and her two eyes became lifeless as she heavily fell onto the ground.
This unexpected event occurred so abruptly that Ye Fan could only blankly stare as her eyes lost their luster. That pitiful beautiful face with tear stains had just had a grateful smile appear on it before it became completely frozen, causing people to feel sick when they looked at it.
Ye Fan very much wanted to help her, but in the end, he merely reached out his hand slightly before once again taking it back. The back of this woman’s head had a bloody hole in it. This time it wasn’t the forehead, and blood slowly seeped out from between her long black hair. That one step’s distance meant that she had died right in front of Ye Fan.
That sight of that frozen smile pierced into Ye Fan’s eyes. He quickly retreated, leaving the gradually freezing corpse behind.
“Just what is that thing?” This was the question on everyone’s mind.
Death was so close, terrifying everyone. Ye Fan and Pang Bo were quickly surrounded by three or four people impatient to grab onto the ancient lamp and copper plaque. They closely fought over it, seemingly with the attitude that they wanted to take it for their own.
“What the hell are you doing?” Pang Bo glared at them as he yelled, “We are saving you by letting you share our relics. But we aren’t giving you this copper plaque and ancient lamp so that we can lose our own lives!”
His stature was tall and sturdy, his body size very large. When he angrily glared at them they naturally became intimidated by his might. Those people immediately stopped, embarrassingly placing their hands on the copper plaque and ancient lamp.
There was no time to delay. Everyone quickly ran, but an uneasy mood appeared. Some people had fiery gazes as if they wanted to take the Buddhist items. And as for the people who owned the Buddhist items, they were all prepared for anything and also regretted sharing.
“We come from the same place and furthermore we were all classmates for four years. Don’t make a decision here that will cause you to be ashamed and regret for the rest of your life!” shouted Ye Fan. His voice had an even larger impact than Pang Bo’s, and immediately many people stopped fighting.
BOOM!
Just at this moment, hundreds and thousands of lightning sparks erupted out of Liu Yunzhi’s body, giving him the appearance of a thunder god descending!
The lightning densely covered his body completely. The flickering lightning lit up his surroundings, and the jeweled vajra scepter in his hand was particularly brilliant.
Liu Yunzhi seemed to be wearing armor made from interwoven lightning, and an imposing and powerful loftiness emanated from him. Lightning curled around his body, making him seem like a battle god of storms.
“Just now, I was attacked by some ineffable thing.” He only said these few words to describe what happened. His lofty eyes inconspicuously landed on Ye Fan. When his gaze landed on the ancient bronze lamp, the loftiness in his eyes quickly faded.
After just half a second, the lightning on Liu Yunzhi’s body retreated. The treasured vajra scepter in his hand once more became dark and dim.
This was a relic left behind by a god!
This jeweled vajra scepter’s might was something everyone could see, causing a wave of apprehension.
Along the rest of the journey, everyone remained completely silent. When they finally arrived at the five-colored altar, everyone finally relaxed slightly. No more deaths had occurred along the way.
The ancient bronze coffin and nine titanic dragon corpses were still lying on the five-colored altar, as shocking as ever.
“That’s...”
Everyone was badly startled when they arrived in front of the altar. The five-colored altar was covered by a hazy light, and small, weak points of light were being drawn into its stone base.
The light covering the sky was gradually melting and disappearing. This was unexpectedly due to the five-colored altar; apparently, it was amassing some kind of mysterious energy.
Everyone was first shocked, but then cheerful expressions appeared. The five-colored altar was now shining just as it had on Mt. Tai, a very good omen that it was about to open the ancient path of the starry sky. But this time, what was supplying the energy for it wasn’t the jade and stone books, but the vast and hazy light shield.
Rumble…
The light in the sky was melting, and the sound of the storm roared like thunder, shaking the entire land.
As the light cover gradually became dimmer, everyone managed to enter the five-colored altar, nervously looking around.
The fear of the unknown seemed to be like a shadow that lingered in everyone’s heart. Although nothing temporarily occurred, as long as they couldn’t leave here they would still be as threatened as ever. Everyone urgently wanted to escape Mars.
This continued for almost half an hour. The dim light cover was constantly being pressed and shrunken down. Due to the five-colored altar, the originally thousand-meter-plus wide field of light had shrunk down to less than two hundred meters and was now almost pressing down on the ground. All this mysterious energy was absorbed by the five-colored altar.
Pang Bo whispered in quietly Ye Fan’s ear, “Liu Yunzhi has surreptitiously gazed over at us quite a few times now. This guy’s schemes are very deep. You have to be careful.” Although he might be a coarse fellow, there was a keen sharpness to him that detected this situation.
“Don’t worry, I know.” Ye Fan turned his head towards Liu Yunzhi, giving him a mild smile.
Liu Yunzhi very naturally nodded his head back; nothing strange could be seen from his mannerisms. There were two people beside him, one of which had just before relied on Ye Fan’s ancient bronze lamp to safely arrive here.
This caused Pang Bo to be a bit dissatisfied. He quietly whispered, “That ungrateful brat. During school, he would always gather around Liu Yunzhi. We just helped protect his life, but now he’s still cozying up to him.”
Just a couple minutes later, the hazy light covering had shrunk even more. It was practically pressing down on the five-colored altar, and they could clearly feel the storm’s frightening strength.
The sound of the wind was like ghosts crying and gods howling. Sand was constantly striking the light cover, emitting a thunderous sound. In the end, some sand even managed to enter. They could feel how weak the light shield had become; it could disappear any minute.
Everyone was scared, retreating to the back. In the event that they fell from the five-colored altar, they would probably instantly be blown into the sky by the storm.
Just at this moment, the male classmate who Pang Bo had called an ungrateful brat slowly walked over towards Ye Fan. He suddenly reached out with one hand to grab the ancient bronze lamp in Ye Fan’s hand, and with the other hand, he pushed as hard as he could against Ye Fan, attempting to seize the ancient bronze lamp while also knocking Ye Fan out of the five-colored altar.