114: Chapter 114 The Ancient Grotto-Heaven Frozen in Time

The Jiantian Bureau had set up extremely tight security around the fifth Ancient Grotto-Heaven.

The research data the bureau had on the Ancient Grotto-Heaven, if stacked up, would reach the ceiling of the archives room, yet even so, their understanding of these hidden grotto realms was still just a drop in the ocean.

Everyone thought that the Ancient Grotto-Heaven had only one entrance, and in fact, that was true.

But few people knew that a second portal could also be opened to the Ancient Grotto-Heaven.

However, to open this second door, one needed the secret technique passed down by the Lord River God.

And the Guiliu Society, which had followed the Dragon Lord for generations, happened to possess this secret method.

The Blue-haired Non-mainstream Youth quickly formed a hand seal, his ten fingers fluttering like butterflies, and then he tore fiercely with his bare hands in front of him. A deep green crack opened in response, growing larger and larger until it finally became a deep, dark entrance.

He was the first to step inside, and the group behind him followed closely.

In the blink of an eye, only the Old Woman remained, and the deep green crack quickly closed, as if it had never existed.

This Old Woman was a fox demon.

Back when the Lord River God was gathering the aquatic tribes of the Yangtze River, he had also conquered the demon tribes on land, among which was a fox tribe.

This fox tribe was weak, lacking even the qualifications to serve as cannon fodder for the Dragon Lord.

At the time, no one could guess the intention of the Lord River God, only the fox demons themselves knew it well.

The Dragon Lord had only one condition for conquering this tribe: when a certain day arrived many years later, they had to use the Life and Death Great Sacrifice Array for him.

He was not worried that these fox demons would go back on their word, because the Dragon Lord had long since invited the Great Demon Priest to shroud the entire fox tribe in a curse.

If the day came and the fox tribe failed to fulfill the agreement, it would trigger the death of their bloodline, and the entire tribe would be annihilated in an instant.

As for what kind of changes might occur in the process, the Dragon Lord did not care at all.

Perhaps it was a connection of karma; after the spiritual energy dried up and all living things could no longer contend with heaven and earth, this fox tribe had miraculously survived.

Until the revival of spiritual energy, this group of fox demons stepped back onto the path of cultivation, comprehending the Innate Supernatural Power, the "Life and Death Great Sacrifice Array," and at the same time, they once again felt the haze shrouding their tribe.

"As long as that entrance collapses, the bloodline curse can be lifted."

The Old Woman stared at the entrance to the Ancient Grotto-Heaven on the river surface, her withered fingers trembling slightly; she was already impatient.

Passing through that ball of light, the scene before them made Li Xiuyuan and the two smokers on his back startle simultaneously.

At this moment, Li Xiuyuan landed on a hard surface.

Beneath him was a road paved with bluestone slabs; this seemed to be a plaza, no more than a hundred zhang in circumference, with low buildings scattered around it.

Judging by the architectural style, it belonged roughly to the Li Tang dynasty.

"These are all buildings from the Li Tang period, and there are very obvious traces of life."

Gu Xiao and Lu Xingyun had already jumped off the dragon's back and were looking around.

Lu Xingyun came to a courtyard nearby and pushed open the door, revealing a courtyard inside.

He stared at the courtyard gate for a moment; there was no dust accumulated on the surface, and the two copper rings were polished smooth and bright, clearly showing that people often came and went.

Moreover, it was very likely that until quite recently, people or Rising Beingss had lived here.

"There are several spiritual acupoint springs nearby."

Li Xiuyuan spread out his Spiritual Sense.

His Spiritual Sense was no longer suppressed by the Ancient Grotto-Heaven, and he easily probed the entire plaza and the surrounding buildings.

Lu Xingyun and Gu Xiao checked the nearby courtyards one by one; each one had very obvious traces of life, and in two of the courtyards, there were even unfinished snacks left on the stone tables.

In the kitchen of one courtyard, the fire under the stove had not yet gone out.

"Why does it feel like there were people here, but after we came in, those people disappeared?"

Lu Xingyun looked puzzled.

Li Xiuyuan did not speak.

He had not sensed the presence of any living beings in this Ancient Grotto-Heaven; even if those beings had suddenly all disappeared, they would surely have left traces.

Rather than saying those people had disappeared, it was more like the time of this Ancient Grotto-Heaven had been frozen at this very moment.

"It must be that time is frozen at this moment."

Li Xiuyuan said.

The two heard this and turned their heads in unison: "Time is frozen at this moment?"

"That makes sense," Lu Xingyun said.

Gu Xiao frowned: "If time is frozen, then something must have happened before that."

"That's hard to say; after all, we cannot guess the thoughts of the Lord River God," Li Xiuyuan said.

Next, Li Xiuyuan went to search for the spiritual acupoint springs, and incidentally, to see if the Lord River God's natal object was hidden in this Ancient Grotto-Heaven.

Meanwhile, Gu Xiao and Lu Xingyun continued to explore other courtyards and mansions.

Everything looked as new, which also verified Li Xiuyuan's conjecture that time had indeed been frozen.

A few trees had dropped some leaves, but those leaves had not fallen to the ground; instead, they were suspended in mid-air, motionless.

Besides this, Lu Xingyun also discovered that in every courtyard and mansion here, every household had a shrine.

The figure worshipped in the shrine was not some deity, but a man with a dignified face.

According to the clues gathered, that man was precisely the human form incarnation of the Lord River God.

Just as the two finished investigating these things, they suddenly discovered that in the distant sky, a deep green crack slowly opened, as if someone had slashed a hideous gash in a curtain.

The edges of the crack were jagged, emitting a cold, bone-chilling light.

Several figures stepped out from the crack and landed on an open space on the outskirts of the ruins.

The leader was the Blue-haired Non-mainstream Youth, and he would occasionally blow at the diagonal bangs hanging down to his chin, his posture flamboyant.

Once he landed, he raised his head, his gaze passing through the low buildings to meet the eyes of the two people on the plaza from afar.

This Ancient Grotto-Heaven was not particularly spacious, and the two sides were not too far apart.

The Blue-haired Non-mainstream Youth smiled provocatively, then rolled up the sleeve of his left arm, revealing a tattoo on his forearm.

Seeing that tattoo, Gu Xiao's eyes instantly turned red; that was the symbol of the Guiliu Society.

His pupils shrank sharply, the muscles on his face twitched, and then his whole body, like an arrow released from a bowstring, turned into a blur and charged violently toward that open space.

Lu Xingyun took a stack of talismans from his pocket, pinched his fingers, and the talismans spread out, each one glowing.

"How did these people get in?" Lu Xingyun asked, puzzled.

The security outside the Ancient Grotto-Heaven was already very tight, with layers upon layers of guards, and many people had been deployed just to prevent a recurrence of the last situation, yet these people had still gotten in.

Could it be that the people outside had all been eliminated?

As soon as this thought appeared, Lu Xingyun immediately shook his head; how could that be possible? How much ability could these few people have to kill so many people?

In other words, was there a second entrance?