Chapter 27

After Wu Mian returned to the range of the passage, the skinless man behind him seemed to lose his target and began to wander aimlessly in the same spot. However, he could not enter the passage, as if there was an invisible wall dividing the altar and the passage into two parts.

"I thought you were hoping for his death, but I didn't expect you to save this little bastard," Gui Bu Gui chuckled, walking up to the side of the chief steward. Wu Mian looked at him coldly and said, "Dying now, how could it be that easy? Who will explore the way ahead?"

Gui Bu Gui made a face at Wu Mian and muttered, "You're just being stubborn..." As he spoke, he began to bend down to examine the chief steward's injuries. At this moment, Gui Bu Gui suddenly said, "Hmm?" and accidentally found a fragment of the terracotta figurine that had stuck to the chief steward's body. Upon seeing the fragment, the old man immediately abandoned the chief steward and focused his attention on the fragment.

Wu Mian noticed the change in Gui Bu Gui and walked over to the old man. He saw a layer of bloody human skin stuck inside the terracotta figurine. On the parts not covered by the human skin, there were strange and bizarre runes.

Gui Bu Gui carefully peeled off the human skin, revealing the densely packed runes inside. He almost pressed his eyes against it, and after a long while, he sneered and muttered to himself, "What a grand gesture. I didn't expect that in just over a hundred years, you would have completed the entire process of casting the figurines, inscribing the runes, and burying the souls. No wonder the old man was willing to suffer divine retribution to pull you into the ranks of immortals." The old man he referred to was Xu Fu, and the other person should be Guang Ren.

After the old man finished muttering, he handed the terracotta fragment to Wu Mian and said, "Take a look. This is the work of Xu Fu's top disciple. The inner walls of the terracotta figurines are all inscribed with these soul-gathering runes. If I'm not mistaken, they first place a living person inside the figurine, then light a fire outside to burn the person alive. The terracotta figurines seal the resentment of the burned people, and the longer the time passes, the more powerful this resentment becomes. If this continues for a thousand or eight hundred years, it will be unimaginable."

Wu Mian was not very interested in the terracotta fragment. He glanced at it casually and then threw it back onto the chief steward's body. He looked at Gui Bu Gui and said, "Where is the core of the array you mentioned? How do we break it?"

"I knew you were pretending not to hear," Gui Bu Gui chuckled. He did not rush to answer Wu Mian's question but first tore a piece of cloth from the chief steward's body, wrapped the terracotta fragment, and put it in his pocket. Then he stood up and gestured towards the entrance of the altar, saying, "I roughly counted, and there are no fewer than a thousand terracotta figurines inside. One of them is the core of the array. If we can release the souls sealed inside the living corpses, the array will be broken."

Hearing Gui Bu Gui's words, Wu Mian walked a few steps to the entrance of the altar and looked at the densely packed terracotta figurines inside. He then turned back to the old man and said, "Which one is the core?"

"I don't know..."

Wu Mian, who had already lifted his foot to step into the passage, retracted it. He looked at Gui Bu Gui with a cold gaze that could freeze ice, and said, "Are you toying with me?" As he spoke, a hundred or so electric arcs appeared around his body, instantly illuminating the passage like daylight.

"I really don't know!" Seeing the electric arcs around Wu Mian, Gui Bu Gui was a bit scared, and his voice was already off-key. He swallowed and, before Wu Mian could act, said in a rapid tone, "This array has only been around for a hundred or so years. Back then, I was still wandering around the mountain every day. I don't even know the name of the array, so it's already quite an achievement to recognize this much. You are also a fangshi, and you should know that only the person who set up the array knows where the core is. These terracotta figurines all look the same; how could I possibly know which one it is? I only became immortal at the age of 150, and immortality doesn't mean invincibility. My 150-year-old body is already decaying, and I can't withstand your attack."

As Gui Bu Gui spoke, Wu Mian continued to stare at him coldly. After the old man finished speaking, Wu Mian let out a nasal sound, "Hmph..." Then he retracted the electric arcs and said in his usual tone, "We'll settle this later."

After saying that, Wu Mian turned back to the altar and looked at the few living corpses and the densely packed terracotta figurines inside, saying, "The core of the array is among them. If we release all their souls, the array will be broken, right?"

By the time Wu Mian finished speaking, Gui Bu Gui understood what he was going to do. The old man's face changed, and he looked at Wu Mian's back and said, "You're a bit too hasty. At your current cultivation speed, it will be no problem in a few years. But now it's a bit early. Listen to my advice, let's go out first. We already know the location. We can come back in a few years."

"Can I wait, but can Guang Ren wait?" As he said this, Wu Mian had already stepped into the altar. Soon after, a series of explosions of terracotta figurines echoed from the altar, followed by a blinding flash of electric arcs.

Gui Bu Gui could only stand at the entrance of the passage, watching Wu Mian's actions inside the altar. He understood the meaning of Wu Mian's words. When the national altar was set up, Guang Ren was involved. With his knowledge, he could see some of Xu Fu's manipulations. While Xu Fu was around, he dared not come to check due to the respect for the Grand Fangshi. After Xu Fu left, he, as a Qin person, feared that擅自闯入 would disrupt the fate of the Qin dynasty. Now that Xu Fu was gone and the Qin dynasty was about to fall, there was no longer any excuse to hold him back. If he wanted to obtain what Xu Fu left for Wu Mian, he had to act now.

At this moment, Wu Mian was cutting and slashing inside the altar without any order. At first, he was still carefully timing his strikes, using his dagger to sever the heads of the nearest living corpses. However, as more and more living corpses emerged from the exploding terracotta figurines, he gradually felt the strain.

The number of terracotta figurines was simply too large, and soon most of them had exploded. Hundreds of living corpses surged towards him like a tide. If it weren't for the electric arcs on his body that forced the living corpses back several times, he might have already been overwhelmed. As Gui Bu Gui had said, immortality did not mean invincibility.

Although Wu Mian kept cutting off the heads of the living corpses, the electric arcs on his body were gradually dimming. It wouldn't be long before they were exhausted. Meanwhile, more terracotta figurines continued to explode, and more living corpses emerged, heading straight for Wu Mian.

Gui Bu Gui was panting heavily at the entrance of the passage, and when he saw Wu Mian in danger, he instinctively reached for the silk sash tied to his clothes. But when Wu Mian turned the tide, he realized and retied the sash. There was one moment when Wu Mian was cornered by hundreds of living corpses, and Gui Bu Gui completely untied the sash, lifted his clothes, revealing loose, wrinkled skin, and reached for a pigeon-egg-sized lump under his armpit. However, before he could make his next move, Wu Mian used the electric arcs to force the living corpses back, opened a bloody path, and charged out. At this moment, Gui Bu Gui quickly put his clothes back on, seemingly quite wary of the lump under his armpit.

Finally, the electric arcs on Wu Mian's body completely lost their light. Fortunately, with the last electric arc, Wu Mian managed to force the living corpses back. As he was about to retreat towards the passage, he suddenly saw a single terracotta figurine standing alone on the outskirts of the altar. Now, all the living corpses had emerged except for this one. In a flash, Wu Mian seemed to have found his guiding light.