319: A beautiful necklace is often the most dangerous.

"Could it be that necklace?" Ye Bai suddenly remembered. He had picked up a ruby necklace at a street stall back then, and the girl he met that night had said the ruby necklace hanging around her neck was this one.

At that time, the girl was wearing an emerald ring, and it looked exactly the same as this ruby necklace.

Ye Bai immediately took off the ruby necklace.

He held the necklace and examined it carefully. The Materials of this ruby necklace were a type of extremely hard Ore, which was very rare.

Furthermore, this type of Ore had a characteristic: once damaged, it would become scrap, no matter how well it was preserved.

Therefore, although this ruby necklace was exquisitely and luxuriously crafted, its price was certainly not cheap.

However, this ruby necklace looked very similar to the red symbol on the Sculpture. Could they be a pair?

Just as Ye Bai was about to put the ruby necklace back on the girl's neck, he suddenly noticed something amiss.

Although the Materials of this ruby necklace were precious, the craftsmanship was rough, lacking artistry and creativity. This was a ruby, and a rare red gem at that; how could it be so rough?

Ye Bai frowned and stared at the ruby necklace for a long time. Finally, realizing the severity of the problem, he hurriedly took the ruby necklace off.

He put the ruby necklace into his pocket and then led the way up the steps.

On the steps lay corpse after corpse. These corpses had died tragically; there were no wounds on their bodies, as they had all been killed by sharp blades.

Ye Bai approached a corpse and discovered a large hole in the person's chest, dripping with blood, with intestines and other organs spilled all over the ground.

He used his hand to push aside the filthy blood staining the corpse and discovered that the corpse's blood was dark red.

His head suddenly jolted.

"These people were actually drained of their blood!" Ye Bai was shocked.

Yang Mi and Meng Ziyi also came over to look at the injuries on the corpses.

"This person died from being drained of blood while still alive. Judging by the shape of the wound, they must have died not long ago."

"Who is so cruel as to consume the blood of living people?"

They looked around and discovered a pool of undried blood in front of the gate. It seemed the murderer had been tracking them based on the bloodstains.

Ye Bai squatted on the ground to sniff the bloodstains, then stood up.

"Look, there is writing on the ground," Ye Bai suddenly said.

On the floor below the steps, there was a line of blood-red writing. Ye Bai translated it:

"Are you our believer? If so, please kneel and worship me. As long as you worship me sincerely and offer me infinite wealth and power, I will grant you eternal life, allowing you to possess power a thousand or a hundred times greater than that of an ordinary person!"

This line of blood-red writing was very eerie.

Ye Bai showed the translation to Yang Mi and Meng Ziyi.

"What... what does this mean?" The two looked at each other.

Yang Mi looked at the eerie words and said cautiously, "We... we haven't broken into some forbidden place, have we?"

"Don't let your imagination run wild. There must be a way out of here. Let's look for clues first."

Ye Bai patted Yang Mi on the shoulder.

This complex of buildings covered a vast area. They searched within it for a day and a night but still could not find a way out.

Ye Bai even suspected that they had fallen into a maze or an Illusionary Realm; otherwise, how could so many days have passed without them getting out?

"Ye Bai, is this an illusion?" Yang Mi asked in a low voice.

Ye Bai shook his head and said, "These things are all very real; they are not illusions. Moreover, we simply cannot find any exit, as if we are destined to stay here for a lifetime."

Yang Mi hurriedly grabbed his arm and said, "I don't want to stay here for a lifetime."

Ye Bai comforted her, "Don't worry, I won't leave you alone. If we die, we will die together."

Supporting each other, the two continued to wander through this mysterious ancient castle, hoping to try their luck.

They didn't know how long they had been walking when they suddenly heard the sound of rushing water.

Yang Mi was overjoyed and exclaimed excitedly, "There's the sound of water; there must be a river."

Ye Bai's expression darkened slightly. The space deep within this ancient castle was terrifyingly vast. If a river truly existed, it must be a massive underground river. If those monsters were hiding in this underground river, the consequences would be unimaginable!

Ye Bai quickened his pace and ran toward where the sound was coming from.

Before long, they arrived beside a wide underground river.

The underground river was turbulent, with surging waves that seemed to contain a great crisis.

At this moment, Ye Bai suddenly noticed a strange symbol carved into the ground beside the underground river. This symbol was composed of crisscrossing blood-red lines and was filled with an eerie, evil aura.

Ye Bai saw it clearly; the blood-red symbol beside the underground river matched the mark on his wrist perfectly.

A grave expression appeared on his face.

The area around this underground river was covered with dense red blood symbols, forming a complex and mysterious Formation. These runes faintly emitted an enchanting and eerie red light, which was heart-stopping.

"Ye Bai, look!"

Yang Mi picked up a copper coin from the ground.

Ye Bai walked over and looked down to see that the copper coin was covered with dense, tiny seal script. He identified it for a long while before barely recognizing a few characters.

These characters were clearly: "I am a devil."

"Ah—" Yang Mi exclaimed, her face turning pale.

Ye Bai also felt his hair stand on end.

He looked up, his gaze falling on the blood-red symbols on the wall on the opposite bank. These symbols were dense, forming a net that covered the entire wall, and every line was so clear.

Ye Bai carefully observed the arrangement pattern of these blood-red symbols again, and the more he looked, the more surprised he became.

It turned out that the blood-red symbols on this wall corresponded exactly to the three corners of this building complex, and the direction would change with every movement.

This is... a type of Formation?

"Ye Bai, look at these symbols..." Yang Mi's eyes flashed with excitement, and she stared fixedly at the wall composed of these blood-red symbols.

"What is it?"

"I finally understand why this building complex has so many corpses. These corpses should be used to fill the gaps in this Formation; they turn themselves into a part of the Formation to help it run." Yang Mi explained.

"So that's how it is. No wonder we searched for a day and a night without any results." Ye Bai sighed. He had also discovered the Formation on the wall, but he did not know how to break it.

"No matter what this Formation is, it's an ominous sign anyway." Yang Mi frowned and said.

"That's true." Ye Bai nodded, agreeing with Yang Mi's view. Immediately, he pointed to a groove on the wall and said, "Since this is the formation eye of the Formation, let's pry this stone off."

Yang Mi immediately followed suit and used a Dagger to pry off a stone.