Only darkness can describe the scene here.
As soon as you enter, the torii gate behind you disappears, as if there shouldn't be a door here. They were a little panicked, but felt a little comforted by the thought that they would be able to escape as long as they found Wuchang. But pinning all your hopes on that is not a good thing, they know.
There is an unpleasant miasma in the Deadman's Swamp. Dai Luan said it was produced when a certain plant rotted in the mud. Don't inhale too much of this gas, as it can cause paralysis over time. She made a simple veil out of existing herbs and rags to temporarily filter the substance. Although the air smelled bitter, it smelled much better than miasma.
The terrain is dangerous. It's not boundless as far as the eye can see. You can see the outlines of hills all around, but you don't know how far away they are. There are no weeds like there are in swamps. Instead, there is a dark green algae that is very sticky. When the shoe soles are stuck to it and you wear it, there will be a strange stench, like a fermented corpse. The deep mire is not ordinary brown, but closer to a reddish brown. They bubble from time to time and make a gurgling sound, like a thick soup about to boil, but the smell never makes anyone want to take a bite.
Slightly dry linear paths cut the quagmire into blocks of varying sizes. This layout is similar to the cracked earth, but the swamp is larger and more dangerous. There is no trace of life here, or life becomes less like life here, but a squirming dead thing. They couldn't see any people, any birds or animals, only the sound of plants slowly rotting deep in the mud.
Shan Hai walks in the front, and Dai Luan is in the middle. After walking for a while, they still could only see the miasma and the silent swamp, without a single soul. Shan Hai looked back and found that Mu Wan was very behind them.
"What's wrong?" he whispered, "What did you find?"
Here, no one dares to shout too loudly. It's as if when you break the silence, something will emerge to break your body. Through the hazy ginger mist, Mu Wan slightly took the handkerchief away from his mouth and said:
"I seem...I can't summon the shikigami."
"What?" Dai Luan felt incredible, "Can't the Tengu also do it?"
"No. I originally wanted to summon it to take us to the sky for a look. It's better than walking on foot. But it didn't work. I guess the blood contract was blocked in this barrier. I tried calling Xun or other methods God came out, but to no avail.”
The short distance cannot dispel the vague disappointment in the words, approaching despair. Shanhai took out a talisman. He originally wanted to light an open fire, but he was worried about igniting the marsh gas here. So he tried to light a cold fire, but found that it was useless. He became a little nervous and quickly took out the Bahuang Mirror. It looked like an ordinary mirror, and there was no use in trying it now. As for the compass, if you point randomly, you can clearly see that it is broken.
"I know..." he lamented, "There is a character on the barrier that I feel is familiar, but I can't figure it out. Now that I think about it, it probably means that all spells and sorcery will be ineffective here."
"It's not surprising. Otherwise, why would Miss Qi be locked out? The spiritual power is blocked here...but why?"
Shan Hai led them forward slowly, thinking: "Hundreds of years ago, General Huang Skull was sent here to lead millions of Yin soldiers to punish evil people who had evil thoughts about the world of life and death... And there he was. Decades later, they were suppressed instead. Something must have happened at that time, and it was handled by the Lord of Naraku or by him."
"Maybe it's Shen Wujun." Mu Wan guessed.
"Probably. Something must have happened at that time, but no one said it. The barrier was set up at that time, and it was sealed here. Even so, they still left a strong mark in human legend... But ,in the end……"
He thought for a while longer. The current situation is very unfavorable. Although it was still quiet at the moment, it gave them the illusion that there was something dormant in the darkness, ready to move. They can't make mistakes. If there is a slight mistake, the thing will wake up. Although they don't feel that they are being monitored yet, no one knows what the standard of "wrong" is.
What's more important is that, except for Mu Wan's umbrella and Shanhai's fly whisk, there are no weapons that can be used in fighting. Without the protection of spiritual power, spells cannot take effect, and shikigami cannot be summoned... This is undoubtedly a case of beating a dog behind closed doors and catching a turtle in an urn. Although no one did this deliberately, it always gave people the feeling of being calculated.
"I want to go to a higher place." Shanhai suddenly said, "The terrain is too low and I can't see the whole picture clearly."
Mu Wan asked him if he had discovered anything. His expression was uncertain, but he did have some ideas.
"I was thinking at first that since this formation is very old, the layout might be the same as before. If I guessed correctly, the entire Swamp of the Dead is a large formation, following the layout of the Nine Palaces and Bagua formation. These swamps are similar to those of the past. The patterns on the land are all very particular. But I'm not sure which house we are in and how to decipher it. This formation... makes me feel very familiar. I wonder if I see it often in the temple."
"We can go back after cracking it?"
"It's hard to say. Maybe it can open a door back, maybe it can use psychic powers, but it could also lead to riots. It depends on what we crack."
"Riot, riot? What kind of riot..."
"……I am not sure."
Dai Luan was a little panicked. This statement is as if Rin Shanhai is sure that something dangerous is sleeping. Although they all know that there is indeed "something" here, otherwise there would be no need for the Dead Man's Swamp to exist. But now the dog can't fly, the compass can't be used, and he can't judge what to do except walking on his feet.
The three of them didn't know if they were the first batch of living people to step into the Swamp of the Dead...but they were definitely not the last.
At this moment, the two people standing in front of the torii looked at each other.
"Aren't you afraid that the child will run away?" Lord Xueyue sneered.
"I don't think she has the consciousness to rather starve to death." Tang He turned to look back at the seal, "Why are you chasing after her all of a sudden?"
The Hei Yu's finger ring appeared in the hands of Lord Xueyue. No matter which finger he held, the ring seemed too loose and was spinning loosely in his hand. He said easily:
"Yun Waijing said that all ghosts aim at the place where life and death meet."
"That's too much." Tang He was a little disdainful, "How are you sure they are here to find Wan Guizhi?"
"I'm not sure."
"You..." Tang He took a deep breath. For the sake of telling him where the child was, he couldn't have an attack. "Then how do you know what Yun Waijing said?"
Lord Kutsutsuki showed his cunning face, like a real old fox.
"I saw it from Dai Luan's dream."
"...How can a dream be used as evidence?"
"There are no unfounded dreams in the world. All causes and effects are traceable."
All of Kutsutsuki-kun's words exuded a sense of unwarranted confidence. However, given that the people in front of him are aware of his strength, this temperament cannot be said to be conceited, but it can easily make others feel the same boredom when faced with conceited people. Anyway, Tang He didn't have a good impression of him from beginning to end. He took a deep breath and sounded serious.
"No monster can pass through this barrier."
"so?"
"Aren't you going?"
"Who said I won't go?"
Tang He patiently took a deep breath again.
"Then you want to find another door?"
"Who told you?"
Every time it took no more than three sentences, Lord Xueyue could always successfully arouse the nameless fire in Tang He's heart. What's even more hateful is that he can always press the breath back into his chest before it comes out.
"If you break it by force, it will be over."
"..."
Tang He stopped talking. He didn't think it was a rational idea. But given that he also implemented the concept of "effectiveness" over "rationality", Tang He made no objection to this decision.
"This is a very old seal... Old does not necessarily mean powerful, but it proves that it should be replaced."
With a half-joking tone, Kuchtsuki-kun stretched out his other hand, lifted the cigarette rod, and lightly touched the torii formation. For a moment, a dazzling light burst out from the place where it bordered the seal, and that point was so bright that it turned white. Sparks burst out, and the powerful demonic power crashed onto it with the force of bursting the embankment, making an extremely harsh sound, as if playing a piano with an inconsistent tune.
Something seemed to be melting, dripping golden liquid and flowing on the ground. It penetrated into the dry soil and corroded out a large layer of soil that was horribly shaped, full of vacuoles, but glowing with fluorescence. Lord Kutsutsuki pushed his hand forward, his voice became sharper, and the front end of the cigarette rod almost burned through the barrier. Tang He could feel the demonic power that hit the torii being reflected back, and the momentum began to weaken, which meant that the demonic power was gradually absorbed by the seal and became fragile.
At this moment, Lord Xueyue suddenly raised his other hand, and a few streaks of red light rushed from the skin inside the sleeve to his wrist, and he pushed it out. With a bang, the seal fell apart and slowly sunk inwards. The densely packed octagonal runes slowly faded away, and at the same time, they rotated in the opposite direction towards the center, and the speed gradually increased.
A pure black vortex appeared, and red current splashed restlessly. When it hit Tang He's leg, he instinctively took a step back. Kuchuzuki-kun motioned to the whirlpool of the torii gate.
"Can't we go in now?"
"..."
He should have gone in first.
The seal was forcibly broken from the outside by "brute force". The people inside had no idea what was going on, they just knew something was happening. The ground shook for a while, making it almost impossible to stand still. Mu Wan was a little close to the edge and almost fell down. Dai Luan suddenly reached out and pulled her up. The earthquake was accompanied by a distant sound and buzzing, but it did not last long.
"What, what's going on?" Mu Wan was still frightened, "Something... seems to have woken up."
"Maybe something happened outside." Shan Hai tightened his sweaty hands, "There isn't much time. There are already two Yang Yao in the place we passed. We should be in the Qian Palace or the Xun Palace, open the door or Dumen, They belong to metal and wood respectively. Neither of them are evil, but I don’t think about the sudden change just now..."
"ah!!"
Dai Luan's scream interrupted him. A hand stretched out from the edge of the swamp and suddenly grabbed her ankle. When the mud receded some, they discovered that it was no ordinary hand, but a white bone hand.
The tremors had disappeared, but ripples still appeared in the quagmire. It's called ripples, but it's just black and red turbulent mud. There were more weird bubbles, and one after another something was arching out of them, like pillars of mud. The terrifyingly sticky liquid quickly slid down, revealing humanoid corpses one after another. Some of them were completely rotten, leaving only white bones, and some still had festering flesh and flesh, emitting bursts of stench. This scent confirmed why the scent in the air was unsettling in the first place.
A sour feeling rose up in his throat, but before Dai Luan could spit it out, Shan Hai shouted: "Run!"
A pair of zombies slowly crawled out of the swamp, as if they were dissatisfied with the intrusion of the living, and unified their actions under some kind of order. Their speed was not fast, but they all held weapons in their hands. Many weapons were also rusty, and no one was seen letting go of them, as if these swords, guns, swords and halberds had grown up with them. Shanhai and the others don't have any weapons that can fight head-on. Even if they do, they are at a numerical disadvantage. There was no other option but to run for his life.
So, where to run? The middle palace must be where General Mu is. If he goes there, he will die. If you don't know where they are, you don't even know which direction to escape for your life.
