Ghost City North Slope Chapter 3: The Eight Gates Dunjia

The mysterious voice stopped, but the sound of pacing footsteps continued.

At this moment, an eerie gust of wind blew in from who knows where, instantly sending a bone-chilling cold through the air. The fire starter in my hand began to flicker uncertainly, and the path ahead grew increasingly blurred. With no other choice, I switched on my waterproof flashlight and carefully tried to get my bearings.

Then came another gust of chilling wind, completely extinguishing the already flickering fire starter. From this point on, I had to rely solely on the waterproof flashlight to grope my way forward.

The deeper I went, the closer the sound "followed" me. When I reached the halfway point of the tunnel, those bizarre footsteps abruptly ceased.

Only the sound of heavy panting still lingered around my ears. Suddenly, a hand covered in thick mud and smeared with traces of blood rested upon my right shoulder.

My right hand, out of long-established habit, was already tightly gripping the pistol tucked into my equipment pouch. The heavy, ragged panting grew even clearer.

I concluded once again that it was directly behind me. Summoning my courage, I spun around, and my eyes were immediately greeted by a strange, grotesque face.

Its eyes were utterly devoid of life and color, the deep eye sockets resembling the very embodiment of darkness. The bridge of its nose was sunken inward, and its ears were oddly elongated, jutting out like fan-shaped ears.

Its ears were pitted and uneven in some places, twisted and convoluted in others, with black impurities—whether mud or dried blood, it was impossible to tell—clinging all over them. Its tongue was bizarrely long, thin, and remarkably narrow.

The width of its tongue was merely two to three centimeters, and aside from the large portion concealed inside its mouth, it actually protruded outward by another three to five centimeters. Inside its mouth grew four exceptionally long fangs, accompanied by two rows of tiny, jagged sharp teeth.

Its face was ghastly pale, caked in dirt and bloodstains, presenting a truly terrifying sight.

I leveled my pistol and aimed straight at its head. It did not advance; it merely kept its mouth slightly open.

Suddenly, it actually spoke.

"Fengzi!"

It called out the name clearly and crisply, causing cold sweat to instantly break out all over me. It rapidly shuffled toward the spot where I stood.

I had no choice but to fire a warning shot in its direction. However, despite my precise aim, I was unable to harm it in the slightest. Seeing it about to reach right in front of me, I hardened my resolve, raised the gun, and fired once more.

It stopped. Instead of approaching me again, it vanished into the deep, ancient tunnel. In a blur of motion, I seemed to notice that it was not walking on feet, but rather moving with the help of a tail.

Just like the mysterious doctor we encountered in the Qinling Mountains, it was one of those half-human, half-serpent monsters.

The most peculiar thing was that it actually recognized me and could speak. After it departed, I looked ahead once more.

The path ahead was pitch black, and apart from myself, there was nothing at all.

I switched on the waterproof flashlight and continued onward. In the distance, an ancient stone tomb gate carved with intricate patterns stood proudly ahead.

As I walked up to the carved tomb gate, the first thing that came into view was a flight of stone steps. Flanking the steps were carved soul-suppressing beasts, and right at the center stood the bronze-carved ancient tomb gate. The patterns engraved upon the doors varied widely—there were majestic coiling dragons and phoenixes with nine tails soaring to the heavens.

One of the cloud-dragons was coiled right at the center of the tomb gate, its dragon head carved with startling realism. Regaining my composure, I lit the fire starter and, working in tandem with the waterproof flashlight, ignited the fixed-point flame sources.

The contours of the burial chamber were instantly illuminated with crystal clarity. Looking around, I saw that the entire space was constructed of exquisitely refined white jade on a massive scale. I was completely stunned by this sudden spectacle.

The soul-suppressing beasts on either side revealed their true appearances under the flickering firelight. I stepped forward to examine the two beasts, finding nothing unusual, and then reached out toward the front of the carved soul-suppressing beast—at that moment, I heard a shout.

I whipped my head around. The newcomer was Old Zhang. He said, "I thought this was merely a living tomb set up with a double-dragon formation array. I never expected the mechanisms within the tomb to be so complex. Because we just triggered a mechanism, the original living tomb has now turned into a dead tomb. The mechanisms inside are completely erratic now; the slightest movement will trigger a chain reaction affecting all the other mechanisms on a massive scale.

At that point, the Gate of Life will turn into the Gate of Death, and vice versa. All the hidden doors and mechanisms will shift continuously in accordance with the changes among the Eight Gates—Open, Rest, Life, Harm, Du, View, Fear, and Death.

If you take even a single step wrong or inadvertently trigger some mechanism and walk into the Gate of Death, you're finished!"

I asked, "How are Han Xin and the others?"

Old Zhang replied, "They likely headed toward the Gate of Death after the Gate of Life shifted. This is bad; let's go check on them right away!"

Old Zhang's words sent a sudden chill straight through my heart.

Following that, Old Zhang and I arrived at the Gate of Death. The door stood wide open, brightly lit. Several corpses were scattered across the burial chamber floor, their manners of death utterly horrific and almost completely unrecognizable.

Now Han Xin's fate was unknown, Kaizi was missing, and our small team was nearly wiped out.

Old Zhang said, "It seems they've already been here, and they've suffered casualties."

Yet just as we prepared to step inside, a man in black, his face covered in mud stains, came running out from within.

He gasped weakly, "Quick... go save the boss. She's trapped in the mechanism, in the southwest corner..."

With those words, his head slumped, and he collapsed onto the ground. Fearing he might be in some danger, Old Zhang and I pulled him up and brought him into the burial chamber together.

Han Xin was sitting slumped on the ground, her left leg stretched out flat while her right leg was curled up. Her back rested tightly against the side of a hollow stone coffin as she panted for breath. Her left hand held a fire starter to probe the newcomers while her right hand tightly gripped a pistol. Seeing that it was the three of us, she slowly lowered her weapon.

"Watch out behind you! Get in here quickly!"

Old Zhang and I hurriedly supported the wounded black-clad team member and pulled him into the side chamber. A long shadow slowly crept toward the side chamber.

The shadow gradually moved forward, and then, a youth dressed in black appeared before everyone. He possessed handsome features and pale skin, with an ancient black-gold saber slung across his back. His index and middle fingers were remarkably long. He stood rigidly at the entrance of the side chamber, casting a cold gaze around.

He said, "Quiet!"

With that, he stepped inside and began groping along the wall with his extraordinarily long fingers. With a faint "creak," the door of the side chamber slowly closed. He then produced a fire starter and ignited the fixed-point flame sources.

The cold-looking young man in black asked, "Who is Feng Chenye?"

I timidly replied, "I... I am."

He tossed over an ancient coin-style token. Catching the token and inspecting it, I immediately felt a wave of unease. This item belonged to my junior uncle; as a member of the Nine Clans, every single one of them possessed a unique token.

Now that the young man in black had handed his token over to me, it meant my junior uncle must have run into some serious danger.

I hurriedly asked the young man in black if something had happened to my junior uncle. He shook his head and said, "He is completely safe right now, you don't need to worry. This place is not somewhere to linger—let's go!"

Just as I was about to ask him where my junior uncle currently was, he made a gesture telling me to remain silent.

Right after that, a hair-raising sound of footsteps echoed through the air. The young man in black calmly listened for any movement outside the burial chamber.

Abruptly, the young man in black said, "It's here. Nobody move!"

Everyone raised their guns in unison, aiming straight at the tomb door. The young man in black also unslung the ancient black-gold saber from his back, gripping it tightly in his hands.

Then, he triggered a mechanism and said, "You go. Leave this to me!"

A tunnel just wide enough for two people to pass through opened up in the center of the left tomb wall. Everyone looked toward it collectively.

We entered inside, and shortly after, the young man pressed a button.

The door slowly sealed shut. Passing through the tunnel, we arrived at the Gate of Life that Old Zhang and I had previously discovered. Old Zhang turned the mechanism, and as the tomb doors opened, we stepped into the Gate of Life. By the time everyone had walked halfway through the burial vault, the tomb doors slammed shut rapidly.

Aside from the few fixed-point flame sources, there was no other light in the burial chamber. A cold wind blew in from an unknown source, igniting the fixed-point fire troughs and brightening the chamber slightly.

We saw a figure lying in the center of the burial chamber. Looking closer, it was Kaizi. We woke him up.

He had some dirt on him, mixed with traces of blood. Old Zhang retrieved a bottle of medical alcohol from his military rucksack to disinfect Kaizi's wounds. Since the subterranean passage wasn't very deep, Kaizi had only sustained minor scrapes.

I asked, "Kaizi, how did you end up here?"

Kaizi shifted his position and said, "I accidentally stepped on a mechanism, and I dropped straight down into a hidden compartment. After that, I tumbled all the way down until I crashed into a pillar. When I raised my head and looked, a pair of blood-red eyes on a rugged face were staring fixedly at me. Out of sheer instinct, I pulled the pistol from my waist and aimed it at it.

I scrambled up quickly, instinctively retreated a few steps, and fired a few shots at the thing, whereupon it ran off. Afterward, I spotted a secret passage.

I jumped down in there, but unfortunately twisted my ankle. Fortunately, I brought along some specialized topical medicine for traumatic injuries when I came, and now I'm much better. Because I was too exhausted, I fell asleep, and then I ran into you guys."

I continued to ask, "Since you came in from another tunnel, which exact spot did you enter from?"

After taking a gulp of water, Kaizi replied, "Right at the very end of the burial vault, there was a secret passage. After I fell through, it closed again."

Kaizi pointed toward the hidden compartment overhead. "Right there!"

Everyone looked up in unison toward the hidden compartment above, but all they saw was pitch darkness.

Old Zhang seemed to have perceived something and said gravely, "The door to this burial chamber is indeed the original one, but this chamber itself is likely no longer the same chamber it was before we arrived. Don't you find it strange that Kaizi had already lit the fire troughs?"

"That's right, Brother Zhang, the fire troughs were already lit when I first came in, but when you guys arrived, it was pitch dark again. What's going on?"

Old Zhang pondered for a moment and said, "I believe some mechanism must have been triggered, or this entire tomb is itself a highly sensitive, movable, large-scale mechanism. There are only two possible reasons why the burial chamber would change. One is that it operates like an elevator, rising and lowering. The other is that it merely shifts the burial chambers around."

After that, we took a short rest in this spot. Han Xin walked over to my side and said, "Your junior uncle has been here." Having said that, she turned her face away, rested her head against her backpack, and closed her eyes to rest.

This sudden remark made everything click instantly. I began to suspect that all of this had been arranged by my junior uncle.

Ever since Fourth Uncle came to find me, things had become extremely suspicious. Since I lived away for long periods, it might have been relatively normal for Fourth Uncle not to recognize me, but right after Fourth Uncle left, Kaizi and Han Xin came looking for me—how did they even know my name?

When entering the tomb, only Kaizi fell down, while Old Zhang and I took several arrows. If I remembered correctly, Han Xin had injured her leg at the time, so it was completely impossible for her to walk with such agility.

As for the young man in black, I had crossed paths with him once in the Qinling Mountains. Since I could recognize him at a glance, he undoubtedly could recognize me as well.