224: Blood Shadow Soul-Chasing Bow, Heavenly Stars

Meng Ziyi was still somewhat worried: "Mr. Ye, I still feel this is too risky. What if we unfortunately encounter danger?"

"Rest assured, don't I still have you?" Ye Bai said solemnly, "I wouldn't have the heart to leave you in a place like this to feed the insects and ants."

Meng Ziyi's face turned slightly red: "This..."

Yang Mi snickered from the side: "Sister Meng, don't worry. With Mr. Ye by our side, everything will surely be fine."

Her persuasion seemed to work; Meng Ziyi stopped insisting and nodded.

The two of them returned the way they came, soon circling back to the cave they had used to enter the Tomb Chamber. They searched the cave but found nothing suspicious.

Yang Mi sat on a stone slab, somewhat dejected, and complained: "It's all the fault of that annoying skeleton. If it hadn't been in the way, we would have left long ago."

"Say no more." Ye Bai stopped her, his expression grave: "The most urgent thing now is to find a way to crack this mechanism."

Meng Ziyi also nodded in agreement.

"This mechanism should be designed according to the Eight Trigrams; only by moving in the direction of these eight characters can the mechanism be activated." She held the flashlight and searched the cave carefully: "But where are these eight character positions?"

Ye Bai was also carefully examining the surroundings when a flash of inspiration suddenly crossed his mind. He pointed to a stone slab to the front right and said, "Perhaps we should try moving this stone from over there."

"Alright, I'll move it." Meng Ziyi immediately stood up and walked toward Ye Bai. When she reached the stone slab and was about to start, she suddenly stopped.

"Wait!" she cried out in a low voice, turning to rush toward Ye Bai: "Quick, go! Run!"

"What's wrong?" Ye Bai was startled and instinctively took a step back. Then he heard a sharp, piercing whistle, as if countless sharp blades were slicing through the air, stinging their eardrums.

Several Arrows grazed Ye Bai's shoulder and shot out, pinning themselves to the wall behind him, sinking deep into the wooden structure.

Meng Ziyi pulled Ye Bai back, watching the surroundings warily as they retreated.

"This is bad!" she murmured. "I forgot to warn you..."

"Warn me about what?"

"Those are the Arrows of the 'Blood Shadow Soul-Chasing Bow'."

Her voice began to tremble, carrying a hint of a sob: "This is a lethal weapon. As long as the fired Arrow is stained with blood, it will track the target until it kills them!"

"What?!"

"It is an evil weapon, specifically used to hunt living things!"

Yang Mi followed up, her voice trembling incessantly: "It's said that these Arrows only need to be stained with a tiny bit of blood to lock onto a prey until it is hunted down and killed."

Ye Bai opened his eyes wide in horror.

He had never expected that he would fall into such a perilous situation.

"What do we do? We can't run away at all now..."

Meng Ziyi's face was deathly pale, clearly terrified to the extreme.

"Shut your mouth!" Ye Bai barked, then raised his flashlight to look around. This narrow passage was wide enough for five or six people to walk abreast; besides the three of them, there was no one else, let alone a living person.

"We can't just wait for death like this; we must find a way to break this mechanism!" Ye Bai clenched his fist and smashed it hard against the ground, but the floor only gave a slight vibration and a muffled thud, with no reaction.

Seeing that he was no longer joking around as usual, Yang Mi and Meng Ziyi obediently shut their mouths and watched Ye Bai silently, hoping he could find a way.

Ye Bai crouched down and stared at the floor. After a moment, he suddenly reached out his left hand and grabbed a protruding stone brick. He exerted sudden force and flipped the stone brick up, revealing a section of iron pipe inside.

The iron pipe was about the thickness of an adult male's arm, its surface exquisitely carved with an ancient style. Beneath this section of iron pipe, a neatly folded cowhide scroll was pressed.

Ye Bai opened the scroll to see it covered with dense writing.

"Is this 'Tiangang Constellations'?" Ye Bai said in surprise, "This is a book on divination and astrology."

He flipped through the pages, his brow furrowing deeper as he read: "The content recorded here is indeed related to the stars, but for some reason, it deviates from the direction every time."

"Not only that," Meng Ziyi said, "there is a sentence at the end of this book—"

"Tiangang Constellations: one changes to two, two to four, four to nine, and nine to eighty-one."

"Indeed, this is certainly one of the stars of the Tiangang Big Dipper."

"But why would this book specifically have such a strange prophecy?" Yang Mi asked, puzzled.

"I'm not sure." Ye Bai shook his head. "In any case, I think we must leave here as soon as possible, or we will meet with misfortune."

Hearing this, Meng Ziyi did not hesitate to pull the two of them along and run outside quickly.

Just then, the ground shook violently once more. Accompanied by a rumbling sound, the water of the Underground River became rapid and surged turbulently.

Ye Bai looked up at the ceiling; that massive Stone Door was actually slowly closing.

The moment the Stone Door shut, he seemed to see countless hideous ghost faces twisting frantically and lunging at him, wanting to tear his flesh apart!

"Watch out!" He forcefully broke free from Meng Ziyi's hand, threw the two women out, and then leaped onto the stone wall. Using the strong rebound, he jumped high and landed on the ground.

However, at that moment, a violent shaking came from beneath his feet again.

"Thud!"

The ground collapsed, and countless pieces of rubble fell, blocking the Underground Palace tightly.

"Brother Ye!" Meng Ziyi was extremely anxious, wishing she could climb up immediately to save him.

But she quickly calmed down: "No, we must leave here first! Otherwise, we'll be buried alive!"

Yang Mi also reacted and hurriedly said, "Yes, let's go quickly!"

She supported herself against the ground and stood up with difficulty. Meng Ziyi quickly gave her a hand, and they climbed out together.

"Let's leave the Underground Palace first," she said, panting.

The three of them rushed toward the exit of the Underground Palace. Just as they stepped out of the cave entrance, Ye Bai suddenly halted his steps.

Meng Ziyi was stunned. She looked up and saw a group of pitch-black, disheveled-haired Malevolent Ghosts lunging toward them.

Meng Ziyi was so scared she almost screamed. She covered her mouth tightly and looked at Yang Mi in a panic: "Yang Mi, what do we do?"

Yang Mi's face was as pale as paper. She desperately hid behind Meng Ziyi and said tremulously, "What... what are these... why do I... feel a sinister chill..."

Meng Ziyi swallowed and stammered, "They're... they're ghosts..."

"What... ghosts?" Yang Mi was confused. "Where did ghosts come from..."

Ye Bai looked at the group of Malevolent Ghosts in front of him, his pupils shrinking. These ghosts weren't real Malevolent Ghosts, but Vengeful Spirits formed from the convergence of resentment. They were imprisoned in the Underground Palace, constantly absorbing the residual Evil Qi within, gradually growing stronger and forming this group of terrifying Malevolent Ghosts.