Chapter 562: Chapter 247: Skeleton

"Unless... this calamity is meant to happen again."

"So, this relief mural was left behind as a reminder."

Fang Shuwen shook his head.

"Forget it. Let’s keep moving.

"This was left here ages ago. It’s impossible to know if it’s true or not. No sense in dwelling on it."

"Mm."

Luo Shuqing nodded and continued following Fang Shuwen.

However, Fang Shuwen wasn’t nearly as calm as he let on.

He had suddenly thought of the Rooster Guard, one of the Twelve Hour Guards of Dragon Abyss. Seeing the "great calamity" on the mural reminded him of what Luo Wenzhou had called "that day."

’Could these two things... somehow be related?’

The thought seemed absurd even to him.

’A mural in a secret passage here in Tingtiao Pavilion—one of the Eight Forbidden Areas of the East Sea—is somehow connected to "that day," the obsession of Dragon Abyss, that mysterious organization from the Central Province?’

If that wasn’t absurd, what was?

And there wasn’t a shred of evidence to support it.

And yet... the thought had taken root in his mind.

He couldn’t shake it.

He remembered Luo Wenzhou saying that when that day arrived, demons would overrun the world in a tide of blood.

’The East Sea... that’s part of the world, isn’t it?’

He pushed the thoughts aside, refusing to let his imagination run wild. He could always find Suhe Zhen and ask him about it after they got out.

He led Luo Shuqing forward.

This corridor was a bit longer than expected.

They walked for about the time it takes an incense stick to burn before finally reaching the end.

But at the end, there was a door.

It wasn’t as ostentatious as the one at the Lingyun Sect, but it was still forged from metal and looked incredibly thick.

Fang Shuwen and Luo Shuqing searched all around but couldn’t find a way to open the door.

Luo Shuqing said, a little disappointed,

"It looks... it looks like we can’t get in..."

But Fang Shuwen smiled.

"How will we know if we don’t try?"

"Hm?"

Luo Shuqing looked at Fang Shuwen, her gaze suspicious through the eye holes of her mask.

Fang Shuwen told her to step back. Luo Shuqing retreated two steps in astonishment. She had guessed what he was about to do, but she found it hard to believe.

She didn’t know that back at the Lingyun Sect, Fang Shuwen had been itching to see if he could shatter that door with a single palm strike.

But he’d had the Seven Stars with him then, so there had been no need to resort to such a crude method.

Now, he could finally get his wish.

Remembering the mechanisms on the door at the Lingyun Sect, Fang Shuwen had Luo Shuqing move back a little further. Only then did he channel his Palm Power and slowly thrust his palm forward.

This palm strike seemed light and effortless.

But it was none other than Knocking the Mountain and Shaking the Demon, a technique from his Great Black Heaven God Palm!

The moment his palm landed on the door, a low rumble sounded.

The sound grew higher and higher, as if breaking through a critical point. Luo Shuqing found the noise utterly agonizing and quickly covered her ears.

Then there was a deafening BOOM.

The door blocking the end of the passage was blown to pieces!

The view before them suddenly opened up into an enormous space.

Rows of cold stone statues stood in every corner of the room.

Thin lines were drawn on the floor, connecting these statues.

Fang Shuwen and Luo Shuqing looked at each other, both confused.

Luo Shuqing subconsciously hugged her arms, feeling an oppressive weight from her surroundings.

Especially the eyes of those statues, which all seemed to be staring at her.

A seed of fear began to sprout in her heart.

Fang Shuwen glanced at her, somewhat amused.

"Scared? That’s a rare sight..."

"They... are a bit creepy."

Luo Shuqing said in a low voice, looking at the surrounding statues.

Fang Shuwen, however, was fearless. His supreme skill gave him courage; in all his travels through the Jianghu, he had never truly been afraid of anything.

He walked up to a statue and casually struck it with his palm.

There was a BANG.

The statue was instantly shattered by his Palm Power.

Fragments of stone went flying in all directions.

He then turned to Luo Shuqing and said:

"There’s nothing to be afraid of. They’re all just..."

As he spoke, a piece that had ricocheted off the wall suddenly rolled to Luo Shuqing’s feet with a CLATTER.

She looked down by the light of her flint and couldn’t help but let out a cry of alarm:

"Ah!"

Fang Shuwen reflexively shielded her behind him. He glanced at the ground, and his pupils constricted.

"Is this... a human head?"

To be precise, it was a human skull.

He reached out and took the skull in his hand.

Luo Shuqing, meanwhile, peered into the half-shattered statue Fang Shuwen had broken, then tugged hard on his clothes.

"Look... inside! There’s more inside!"

Fang Shuwen glanced over and saw a section of a human spine revealed within the broken statue.

He abruptly looked at all the statues around them.

’Don’t tell me... there’s a corpse hidden inside every single statue?’

’Tingtiao Pavilion, Suhe Zhen... What in the world were they doing here?’

His thoughts raced, and he struck out with another palm.

The previous palm strike was to reassure Luo Shuqing, aimed simply at destroying the statues.

But this time, the force he used was different. The stone was pulverized into dust by his Palm Power, but the half-corpse inside was left completely intact.

He picked up a leg bone and looked at it, his expression turning ghastly.

"This length... it belongs to a child!"

"What?"

Luo Shuqing’s voice was laced with disbelief.

Fang Shuwen then moved to another statue, shattering it to reveal another skeleton inside.

"How could this be?"

Fang Shuwen’s voice was also strained.

"Tingtiao Pavilion is one of the Eight Forbidden Lands of the East Sea. People say the Eight Forbidden Lands are sanctimonious, but... I’ve never heard of them committing acts of wanton slaughter.

"But what is this?"

He struck out again and again, shattering statue after statue. Just as he’d suspected, every single one contained a corpse.

"How did they... get these bodies inside the stone?"

Luo Shuqing couldn’t help but ask.

Fang Shuwen slowly exhaled.

"The stone statues aren’t single pieces. I didn’t notice when I broke the first one, but with these later ones... I can tell they must have been pieced together afterward.

"They killed people, carved the statues, split them down the middle, hollowed them out to fit a body, and then sealed the corpses inside."

His words made Luo Shuqing’s skin crawl, but she was more confused than anything.

Just as she was about to say something more, her gaze suddenly fixed on something. She pulled Fang Shuwen to the center of the formation of statues and picked up a hairpin from the ground.

Fang Shuwen glanced at it.

"This hairpin... does it belong to Suhe Lan?"

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