794: Chapter 794 The Man in the Grave!

Upon hearing this, Tianyang Zi fell silent for a few seconds, as if struggling to recall something.

After a long while, he gradually calmed down and said,

"I remember that night very clearly; it was a full moon night half a year ago."

"I was meditating in front of the cliff behind the mountain as usual."

"But that day, the patterns on the cliff suddenly lit up."

Ye Chen raised an eyebrow. "Lit up?"

"That's right."

Tianyang Zi nodded, a flash of fear passing through his eyes.

"The lines carved into the stone suddenly shone with a dark red light, as if something was flowing inside the rock."

"I was startled at the time and leaned in to look."

"Then, I felt something enter my brain through my eyes."

"By the time I came to my senses, the light had already faded, and everything had returned to normal."

"I thought it was just my eyes playing tricks on me, so I didn't pay much attention to it."

"But ever since then..."

His voice lowered, "Every night, I would begin to lose control."

The most bizarre part was...

These memories seemed to have just been restored.

It was as if something had deliberately suppressed his memories, preventing the two from being linked.

The Fat Taoist and Thin Taoist felt their scalps tingle, and Yan Qingwu's delicate eyebrows knit together.

This sounded quite sinister.

It felt like listening to a ghost story...

But Yan Qingwu was well aware that the matter was likely far more complicated than imagined.

At this moment, Ye Chen's expression remained unchanged, and he said calmly, "Take us to the back mountain to have a look."

"Mr. Ye, are you sure you want to go now?"

Upon hearing this, Tianyang Zi's expression immediately fluctuated, "That place is extremely sinister, I'm afraid..."

"With me here, what is there to be afraid of?"

Ye Chen interrupted him.

Tianyang Zi was stunned for a moment.

That's right!

With Ye Chen here, what did they have to fear?

That was the Deputy Team Leader Ye Chen, who had recently become popular worldwide!

After realizing this,

He took a deep breath and let the Fat Taoist and Thin Taoist help him up.

Then,

They walked towards the back door of the Taoist temple.

Passing through the main hall and walking along a path paved with bluestone slabs, the cliff at the back of the mountain appeared before their eyes.

The cliff was not very high, about ten zhang, covered with moss and vines.

But pushing aside the vines, one could see the stone wall covered in dense patterns.

Those patterns looked like some kind of ancient script, or perhaps lines on a map.

Ye Chen only took one look before his eyes narrowed.

That's right.

These patterns were exactly the same as the edge patterns on the three map fragments in his possession.

It seemed...

They had found the right place again, only this place was rather sinister.

"Mr. Ye, this is the place."

Tianyang Zi pointed to one of the patterns, his eyes full of fear, "When those patterns lit up, it started right here."

Ye Chen nodded, but his gaze did not linger on the cliff; instead, he looked to the side of the cliff.

There.

There was a grave.

It was small, very crude, and didn't even have a tombstone.

If one didn't look carefully, one wouldn't even notice it was a grave.

Ye Chen's brows furrowed slightly.

"Whose grave is that?"

Tianyang Zi shook his head.

"I don't know either, because when I came to Qingniu Mountain to become a monk forty years ago, that grave was already there."

"The old seniors in the temple didn't leave any explanation, only saying it was 'already claimed' and telling us not to disturb it."

"Later, several abbots felt that an ownerless grave in the back mountain was inauspicious and wanted to move it."

"But every time the thought of breaking ground arose, strange things would happen."

Ye Chen raised an eyebrow: "What kind of strange things?"

Tianyang Zi swallowed hard.

"The first time, it was the previous abbot."

"He ordered someone to dig up the grave, but as soon as the hoe touched the soil, a bolt of lightning suddenly struck from the sky right next to his feet, scaring him so badly that he fainted on the spot. After he woke up, he never dared to mention it again."

"The second time, it was my junior brother."

"He didn't believe in evil, so he secretly went to dig it up at night. But as soon as he dug two shovelfuls, several stones rolled down from the back mountain, almost crushing him to death."

After listening, Ye Chen was silent for a moment.

Then.

He stepped towards the grave.

That grave had something strange about it.

"Mr. Ye!"

Tianyang Zi's expression changed, and he hurriedly stopped Ye Chen, "That grave is problematic; you cannot go near it..."

"If I don't go near it, how will I know if there's anything strange?"

Ye Chen ignored his obstruction and continued forward.

Tianyang Zi's expression stiffened.

That's right.

The fact that he had been possessed earlier was likely not so simple either.

At the same time.

He also really wanted to see...

What on earth had happened here???

Ye Chen soon arrived in front of the grave, looked it up and down, and said calmly, "Why control him?"

Everyone: "???"

Huh?

As soon as Ye Chen spoke, it was such a bizarre sentence. Could he be speaking to the grave?

That's not right...

Isn't it a corpse lying inside the grave?

Why would he talk to the grave?

For a moment.

The Fat Taoist and Thin Taoist looked at each other.

They saw the fear in each other's eyes...

Damn it! How could they not be afraid? They were scared to death!

However.

Before everyone could react, a terrifying thing happened...

"Hehehe—"

A weird, eerie laugh came from the grave without any warning.

That's right!

It came from inside the grave!

The Fat Taoist and Thin Taoist's expressions changed drastically. Scared out of their wits, they hugged each other and shivered.

They could say with absolute responsibility...

The sound they heard definitely came from inside the grave!

It was fucking terrifying!

They had lived here for over ten years and had never imagined...

That a... hmm?

Some kind of creature whose nature they didn't know was hiding inside the grave!

Let alone them being shocked.

Yan Qingwu and Tianyang Zi's bodies also tensed up.

When they looked at the grave, their eyes were full of vigilance.

Only Ye Chen remained calm and said calmly again, "If you don't come out yourself, I'll make sure you can't even laugh in a moment."

Everyone: "???"

Huh? Did they hear that right?

There really was something inside!

And Ye Chen wanted the other party to come out...

Everyone felt a chill down their spines.

But the bizarre thing continued to happen...

"Boom!!!"

A dull, loud noise echoed from the grave.

Immediately after.

A crack opened in the middle of the grave mound.

The crack grew larger over time, and the soil churned to both sides, as if something was climbing up from underground.

The next second.

A hand that looked like skin stretched over bone reached out from inside.

"Holy... holy crap!"

The Fat Taoist shuddered in fear, wetting his pants.

The Thin Taoist was even worse; he rolled his eyes and fainted on the spot.

They never imagined...

That not only was there something in the grave, but it actually fucking crawled out!

If they hadn't seen it with their own eyes, they would have really thought someone was bullshitting!

Yan Qingwu and Tianyang Zi's expressions changed drastically.

They entered combat readiness in the next second.

If they sensed anything wrong, they would strike immediately.

At this moment, a head poked out from the crack.

It was an old man's head, with pitifully sparse hair, and the skin on his face was wrinkled like dried orange peel.

He braced himself against the ground and climbed out of the grave in one go.

Once he crawled out completely, everyone could see his full appearance.

Thin.

Absurdly thin.

He looked just like a skeleton draped in human skin.

He stood up from the ground, his pair of greenish eyes staring straight at Ye Chen.

"Little fellow, how did you discover me?"

Ye Chen said nonchalantly, "Is it hard for me to discover you?"

The old man's brows furrowed sharply.

"Arrogant!"

"In three hundred years, you are the first person who dares to speak to this old man like that."

Three hundred years?

The Fat Taoist had just caught his breath from wetting his pants.

But the moment he heard this, he rolled his eyes and fainted as well.

Tianyang Zi's face turned pale instantly.

A three-hundred-year-old monster?

How could anyone in this world live for three hundred years?

After all.

In the Age of Dharma Decline, even a powerhouse at the Nascent Soul Stage only had a lifespan of two hundred and fifty years!

It wasn't that the Nascent Soul Stage was limited to two hundred and fifty years, but rather that the power of the Heavenly Dao constrained the original lifespan!

Therefore.

When an old man crawled out of a grave and told them he had lived for over three hundred years, he was incredibly shocked.

Ye Chen remained calm: "Three hundred years? Then you haven't lived very long."

The old man's expression sank completely.

"You're courting death!"

Before the words had even faded, his figure suddenly vanished from where he stood, and his presence couldn't even be sensed.

The next second.

The old man appeared behind Ye Chen.

His withered right hand, fingers splayed, clawed fiercely towards the back of Ye Chen's neck.

"Ignorant brat!"

"Today, this old man will crush your bones!!!"

However.

Ye Chen didn't even turn his head; he just tilted his body slightly, letting the old man's claw graze past his collar.

A flash of surprise passed through the old man's eyes, and then his left claw followed with a sweep, aiming directly for Ye Chen's head.

Ye Chen leaned back, dodging it once again.

Clearly...

This wasn't luck!

The old man's expression grew even uglier.

He had lived for over three hundred years, his cultivation base was unfathomable, and no one had ever been able to dodge two consecutive moves during his surprise attack without fighting back.

It wasn't that he couldn't dodge.

It was that he simply disdained to fight back.

This realization made the old man furious.

"Brat, you are too arrogant. Today, this old man wants your body!"