143: A strange sense of familiarity

Xu Le watched quietly as Wu Shouyi "probed" the stone tablet.

It would be more accurate to call it caressing rather than probing.

Wu Shouyi placed his hand gently on the stone tablet, stroking it left and right, without using an ounce of force.

From one end to the other, from front to back, from top to bottom—he didn't miss a single spot he could reach.

After finishing, he reviewed it again, then consolidated it, "gained new insights," "ruminated" on it, and savored the memory...

Half an hour passed.

Wu Shouyi kept stroking the tablet surface, clearly just stalling for time.

He was waiting for Xu Le and the others to get annoyed and take over his job.

But Xu Le wasn't in any hurry; stalling for time, who was afraid of whom?

Among everyone, he was the youngest, and he had the most abundant supply of food and water.

It had to be said that the Tang Family had a lot of food; just for him to eat alone, it would last at least three years.

Plus, the variety was rich, with plenty of staples and snacks; it would be hard to get tired of eating them.

The Great Teacher of Supreme Goodness and the others weren't worried either, as they had already transformed into Void Creatures and could last three to five months without eating anything, not to mention they had other preparations.

Wu Shouyi was like a clown, trying his best to show off, thinking he could torment others, never realizing he was only tormenting himself.

Gradually, Wu Shouyi calmed down and began to regret his actions.

He realized his threats were useless and might even result in no one saving him when he encountered danger in the future.

"Haha, I have finally figured it out,"

Wu Shouyi suddenly laughed loudly, pulled out a dagger, pointed at the front of the tombstone, and said,

"This is the tombstone of the Void Emperor. As long as we carve his name, the tomb will open naturally."

Even though he wanted to make amends, it turned into a threat when he spoke.

He threatened the four of them to swap places, otherwise, he would resort to the most extreme method—carving the characters.

Once the characters were carved, they could never be restored.

As soon as the words left his mouth, he regretted it.

Years of living high and mighty had made him habitually order and threaten others.

Xu Le shook his head inwardly; when they first met, he thought the guy was an angry youth among the royalty who couldn't stand the dirty dealings of the royalty and the Aristocratic Families, and was tricked into the Void Realm.

Now it seemed he was clearly just a spoiled brat who, after being brought here, ranted wildly against the royalty and Aristocratic Families, but would freak out and try to play dirty the moment he encountered real danger...

Wait, a 972-month-old brat...

The other three also looked like they were watching a good show, observing Wu Shouyi's performance.

Seeing that his threat was ineffective, Wu Shouyi gritted his teeth and wrote "Tomb of the Void Emperor" on the tombstone.

After carving the last character, his whole body went limp.

Just as Xu Le was about to step forward to check for the cause of death, he discovered the tombstone shifted with a boom, revealing a pitch-black crypt.

Wu Shouyi scrambled up: "Hahaha, I knew I didn't bet... guess wrong, hahaha, it's your turn, Xu Le!"

Xu Le's face darkened, and after waiting for the air to circulate for a while, he stepped into the crypt.

A flight of stairs slanted downwards, paved entirely with white jade; a quick count revealed there were exactly 108 steps, twice as many as the steps leading up from outside.

The walls on both sides of the white jade stairs were also made of white jade, engraved with exquisite pictures.

It was like a super-long comic strip, stretching from the entrance all the way to the bottom of the stairs.

"Master, it's so dangerous here, let me help you scout the path ahead."

Seeing this, Little Silly Crow volunteered for the task.

The other contracted beasts chimed in, but Xu Le did not agree.

He possessed the mythic-grade equipment "a little more" and the passive Skill "Heavens Mandate Regeneration," so why would he need a contracted beast to scout the path?

He walked down the stairs, and the plot of the murals began to connect.

[An infant is born, grabs a string of Buddhist prayer beads during the first birthday ritual.]

[A five or six-year-old child begins practicing Buddhist scriptures, with a high stack placed beside him.]

[A youth of eleven or twelve shaves his head to become a monk, burns incense, and takes the vows.]

[A great drought, locusts run rampant; two seventeen or eighteen-year-old monks go down the mountain to provide relief to disaster victims.]

[Someone among the disaster victims harbors evil intentions and follows the monks; one monk is killed, and the other luckily escapes.]

[The young monk kneels before the Buddha, crying and questioning the Buddha, his expression collapsing.]

[An old monk strokes the young monk's head, saying his cultivation is insufficient.]

[The monk devoutly recites scriptures, but black smoke swirls behind him, as if he were a demon.]

[The old monk goes down the mountain and catches a glimpse of an imperial envoy in red robes leading an army; he looks similar to the disaster victim who committed the murder years ago.]

[The old monk recites scriptures, and the black smoke behind him solidifies into faces of anger, confusion, resentment, despair, and terror.]

[Countless men in black rush into the temple, killing and burning; countless monks fall in pools of blood. The old monk calmly recites the Buddha's name; the black smoke behind him is polluted by the blood aura into a blood-red color, and those faces become increasingly hideous and terrifying.]

[Endless blood color, nothing else besides that.]

Xu Le reached the last step at the same time, killing intent surging in his heart; the old monk's life seemed to reappear before his eyes.

Only the last picture left a bit of suspense.

Either the old monk died, or more likely, those men in black were killed by the old monk.

Otherwise, if the old monk who was suspected to be the protagonist died, who would collect his body?

"Wait! Everything in the pictures is like a normal world without superpowers, so how did the old monk suspected to be the protagonist grow into the Void Emperor?"

"It couldn't be that 'Void' just refers to the 'Four Elements are Void,' right? That's too ridiculous!"

"This tomb can create a second space within the Void Realm; it even has air, land, and mechanisms—it's simply comparable to the means of immortals and gods."

But the only thing in the pictures that might be related to the supernatural was the black smoke that appeared behind the old monk when he recited scriptures; he had once thought it was just the old monk's evil thoughts, displayed through the pictures.

Murals generally display the achievements of the tomb owner; the old monk's life could not be called brilliant, only unremarkable.

The most critical thing was that the last picture was only red; he could only make wild guesses based on what came before, and there was no way to check the answer.

Xu Le continued walking forward, but there was a white jade wall in front; there was simply no way forward.

He felt around everywhere; everything seemed natural and seamless.

"No, there must be a living thing ahead!"

He used Mind Link to sense it again and confirmed that not far from the white jade wall, there was a Mind Link point.

Looking at the last mural that was completely blood-red, Xu Le had a sudden inspiration.

The previous wordless stele opened when "Tomb of the Void Emperor" was written on it, so could he just fill in what the painting was supposed to contain?

Divine Eye!

His golden gaze looked at the blood-red mural; it was still completely blood-red, with no information popping up.

Xu Le frowned, thought about the style of the previous pictures, and took out a small knife to start carving on the wall.

The small knife was an epic-grade piece of equipment and very sharp; it easily cut through the wall.

Swish, swish, swish...

The last mural took shape.

[Under a blood-colored sky, flames soar to the sky, the old monk's head is severed by a man in black, blood splatters, and everything around is dyed red with blood.]

He sheathed the knife.

The blood aura on the mural churned, and a beam of blood-red light shot over.

Xu Le, who had been on guard, tapped his feet rapidly and retreated frantically towards the white jade stairs, his eyes fixed on the blood-red light.

At the same time, the "Void Evasion" he had prepared for a long time was immediately activated; his whole body became transparent and he burrowed into the Void Realm.

His hands didn't stop, and just as he was preparing to throw a "Hurricane Howl," the blood-red light had already hit him.

It didn't hurt, and he didn't lose any health.

Everything was just like an illusion.

Xu Le, who was retreating frantically, felt the ground beneath his feet disappear; the stairs that were originally leading upward vanished, he stumbled, and everything went black before his eyes.

When he opened his eyes again, there were no more white jade walls or white jade stairs around; it was clearly a giant Buddha.

A giant Buddha that was very strange, yet familiar.