Chapter 243: The Ancient Well and Vines

The courtyard was overgrown with wild grass, and most of the pavilions and corridors had collapsed, leaving the once-glorious scenery a distant memory.

Qin Sang suppressed the excitement in his heart, scanning his surroundings cautiously. With a deliberate restraint on his spiritual power, he moved stealthily, following the Fire Jade Centipede into the courtyard.

𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

Eventually, Qin Sang entered a desolate yard and stopped before a moon gate, carefully observing the scene ahead.

Even in its ruinous state, the courtyard exuded a level of luxury unimaginable to ordinary people. The ground was paved with one-chi-square jade tiles, each of which could be considered a priceless treasure in the mortal world.

Some of the jade tiles had cracked or broken, and wild grass sprouted from the gaps between them. Combined with the remains of walls and buildings in the background, the entire yard emanated an air of desolation.

The courtyard was small and fully visible at a glance.

With his eyes alone, Qin Sang could not detect anything unusual about it.

He swept the courtyard with his spiritual consciousness repeatedly, scouring every corner. Yet, he found neither a spiritual artifact nor any concealed barriers.

What was strange, however, was that the Fire Jade Centipede had a very clear target—this very courtyard.

In Qin Sang’s palm, the Fire Jade Centipede struggled violently, gnawing anxiously at the spiritual energy binding its body. Its keen perception was clearly not a fabrication; there was undoubtedly something hidden within this courtyard.

Frowning slightly, Qin Sang raised his foot and cautiously stepped inside. He traced the edges of the walls, then meticulously walked over every cun of the courtyard. Everything appeared normal. He even tested the waters by damaging one of the jade tiles but met no retaliation.

This was unsurprising. If the spiritual artifact could be so easily found, it would have long been taken by someone else.

Returning to the moon gate, Qin Sang glanced at the Fire Jade Centipede in his hand and then released it.

To his astonishment, the slender body of the Fire Jade Centipede immediately coiled and sprang forward like a fiery streak, landing on the edge of one of the jade tiles. Then, something extraordinary occurred.

The Fire Jade Centipede began scuttling across the ground in a peculiar pattern. Its body twisted and swayed, its movements neither linear nor predictable, but intricately complex and mysterious.

As its speed increased, Qin Sang suddenly sensed a faint ripple of energy emerging within the courtyard.

Before this, he had noticed no anomalies whatsoever.

Is this an illusion array?

As time passed, Qin Sang could even see faint ripples appearing in the void, visible to the naked eye. Fortunately, the disturbances were subtle enough not to attract others.

Even at this point, Qin Sang could not discern the nature of the array embedded within the courtyard, let alone think of a way to break it.

While Qin Sang was pondering, the front half of the Fire Jade Centipede’s body suddenly disappeared into thin air. His eyes narrowed sharply as he hastily activated the barrier on the centipede, freezing it in place.

Half of the Fire Jade Centipede’s body had entered an unknown space, while the other half remained outside, as though its form had been severed by the void. The sight was profoundly unsettling.

Rushing to the Fire Jade Centipede’s side, Qin Sang found that no matter how he moved, he could not penetrate the space where the centipede’s body had vanished. His puzzlement deepened.

After a moment of contemplation, Qin Sang commanded the Fire Jade Centipede to retreat back to the moon gate. Attaching his spiritual consciousness to the centipede, he cautiously followed it into the courtyard.

Initially, everything seemed normal. However, after a while, a thin mist began to rise around him. The mist thickened gradually until the surroundings turned dreamlike and indistinct, as if he had stepped into a celestial realm.

Suddenly, a peculiar sensation gripped Qin Sang, prompting him to stop. In front of him appeared a strange mirror, its surface rippling faintly as if formed from flowing water.

This was the array’s core. Qin Sang grasped the truth instantly. Moments earlier, the Fire Jade Centipede had likely entered this watery mirror, which was why half of its body had vanished.

The Fire Jade Centipede remained unharmed, suggesting that whatever lay inside posed no immediate danger. Even so, Qin Sang decided to proceed with caution.

Qin Sang summoned the ebony sword to shield himself and took a cautious step into the watery mirror.

In an instant, the mist dissipated like clouds scattering in the wind.

The courtyard remained the same courtyard.

The distant mountains remained the same distant mountains.

Yet, the sky was now ablaze with fiery red runes, resembling a sea of flames that obscured the heavens.

Everything that had transpired before felt like a dream.

The only change was the sudden appearance of an ancient well in the center of the courtyard. Qin Sang now stood at the well’s edge, leaning slightly forward to peer inside.

The well was deep and enigmatic. His spiritual consciousness swept over the bottom, finding nothing amiss—it was nothing more than an ordinary well. With his eyes, he could barely make out the bottom, where the water had long since dried up. The base of the well was a profound black, and a narrow stone staircase, just wide enough for a single person, spiraled downward into the earth.

The owner of this courtyard had laid such a powerful and intricate illusion array solely to conceal this well!

Anticipation surged within Qin Sang. He reached into his Corpse Puppet Pouch, summoning a zombie, which jumped into the well and began descending the stone steps. The zombie eventually disappeared from sight.

Even as it neared the edge of Qin Sang's perception, the zombie encountered no attacks or dangers.

Without hesitation, Qin Sang leaped into the well himself, trailing far behind the zombie.

The stone steps extended endlessly downward, leading deep into the earth. As Qin Sang descended further, the air grew increasingly hot and dry. A thought crossed his mind.

Is this staircase connected directly to an underground lava river?

Qin Sang sensed that the zombie had reached the end of the stairs. He quickly instructed it to return, then silently darted downward.

...

Gasp!

Standing on the last step, Qin Sang held his breath. The anticipation and excitement on his face vanished entirely, replaced by a grave and cautious expression.

He had been right—the staircase did indeed lead to a lava river. However, it didn’t directly connect. Instead, it opened into a vast underground cavern.

The cavern was nearly ten zhang high, vast enough that its edges were shrouded in darkness.

At the bottom of the cavern lay what could no longer be called a river; it was more like a massive lake of molten magma.

Much like the trial grounds, a circular barrier hovered above the lava lake.

But unlike the trial grounds, this cavern had no obscuring mist. Everything was visible to the naked eye, including countless Fire Monkeys playing and frolicking above the lava lake.

The most striking sight, however, was at the center of the magma lake. Surrounded by the monkey swarm, massive fiery-red vines emerged from the lake.

The vines were entwined, forming a trunk as thick as several people’s arms encircling it together. They resembled an ancient tree, their sparse branches and leaves stretching straight toward the cavern’s ceiling. Root-like tendrils clung firmly to the stone walls before drooping downward once more.

At the very tip of the thickest vine hung a small, palm-sized round fruit.

The fruit was entirely golden, standing out starkly against its fiery surroundings.

Even the monkeys seemed to recognize the fruit’s value. Though they played and skirmished, they kept their distance from it, almost as if they were guarding the vine and its precious fruit.

The monkeys here were fewer in number compared to those in the trial grounds, but Qin Sang remained frozen in place, not daring to charge in and seize the fruit.

The reason was clear—the flames on these monkeys were not bright red but a deep, dark crimson!

Even in their playful clashes, every move they made carried a terrifying power that left Qin Sang deeply shocked.