After chanting for another two-hour, the monks finally calmed down following the stop of the old monk.
The old monk slowly got up, walked out of the tower at a leisurely pace.
When the group of monks gradually left, Han Yu flipped and jumped in, finally seeing clearly the statues of various sizes at the ground level.
"Strange! Why do the statues in a monk's temple look nothing like Buddha?"
Han Yu muttered to himself.
The statues had grotesque appearances, some with two arms and four eyes, some even had ferocious faces, lacking any sense of great mercy or compassion.
Suddenly, footsteps were heard from outside, Han Yu carefully hid himself, a gray-robed monk entered, seeing this monk gently press on a double-headed, four-armed statue, a stone door slowly opened from the ground, revealing a staircase inside.
Then, he watched as the monk slowly descended the stairs, curiosity piqued Han Yu to follow.
Below the stairs, there was nothing special, just a long corridor. Han Yu tiptoed down, turned left at the end, and found himself before four dungeon cells.
Not knowing what the monk was fiddling with in one of the cells, he soon saw him emerge, bent over, dragging out a skeletal figure. It was wrong to call it just a skeleton.
Because the bones were still covered with skin, more like a mummy, with a face frozen in terror, a mouth that remained agape until death.
It seemed it hadn't been dead for long.
"Even looking like this in death, why is it still so heavy?"
The monk, drenched in sweat, cursed.
"Need a hand?"
A voice rang from behind him, the monk turned with a startled expression, only to see a massive fist coming straight at him.
Bang!
With just one punch, he was knocked back into the cell, his fate unknown.
"Are you a layman?"
A hurried voice came from one of the adjacent cells.
Han Yu stepped forward, in the fourth cell was a square-faced, big-eyed, thick-browed man, Han Yu's arrival clearly puzzled him.
Scrutinizing Han Yu up and down, the man asked in surprise, "Who are you?"
Hearing "layman" from the man's mouth, Han Yu deduced it must be Yi Xian's group again; it seemed wherever they went, calamities followed — always captured or trapped.
Amused, Han Yu waved the token in his hand, saying, "I'm your rescuer."
The man looked at the token, understanding dawned, he smiled wryly, "The signal I sent was originally to ask for help from another comrade, didn't expect the newcomer Yi Xian recruited."
Han Yu smashed open the cell door with a punch, noticing the man remained motionless.
"Can you help me? I've been cursed, my True Essence and movement are completely restrained, can't move for now."
Embarrassed, the man said.
With a swing, Han Yu hoisted the man onto his back and boldly strode out.
"I'm the cousin from the Self-Improvement Sect!"
The man, in his predicament, was rather bashful as he introduced himself.
Han Yu pondered for a moment and offered his own nickname, "I'm the Pharmacist."
After leaving the cell, a sinister laugh echoed, the cousin's face changed drastically, "Can you rush out?"
"It won't be easy!"
Pausing, Han Yu sighed.
An elderly monk stood calmly in the corridor, gazing quietly at them.
The cousin, breathing rapidly, urged repeatedly, "Don't engage, this bald old monk's odd, neither like a Buddha nor not, his means are treacherous, take the rear passage instead."
"Oh! What a heavy deathly aura on this person!" a long-silent voice in Han Yu's mind, Glass, suddenly spoke.
"Be careful! The monk's cultivation isn't high, but he seems unusual," cautioned Glass.
Han Yu steeled himself, glancing up, the old monk's serene face twisted into an eerie grin.
A chilling sensation rose from within.
"According to him, you've been sneaking around, saving someone? Why not stay here together?"
After saying this, the old monk clasped his hands, and suddenly started chanting Brahma Sound.
"Do not listen! That's how my True Essence got suppressed, flee!"
The cousin anxiously shouted.
Han Yu's face looked strange, Suppressing True Essence?
Luckily, without cultivation to suppress, feeling slightly relieved, he bolted forward like an arrow.
The old monk, seeing the Brahma Sound fail, showed a hint of surprise, but quickly, hands clasped anew, resumed chanting.
A strange sound emanated from the void, when Han Yu glanced back, he was shocked.
A hellish scene was sketched in the void, countless bones struggled to rise in the image, as if to crawl out.
"The old monk practices the Hungry Ghost Path, that's a Divine Technique; do not look, do not turn back."
The cousin's face changed, though he hadn't turned to look, seemed to have guessed what transpired behind, quickly warning.
Quick to shut his eyes, Han Yu sprinted relentlessly along the corridor.
"Jump up!"
The cousin urged in his ear, Han Yu ran all the way to the end, reaching a dead end, but looking up, glimpses of light could be seen.
This dead end turned out to be below a well.
"Quickly!"
The cousin urged.
Bending his knees, Han Yu jumped up, relying solely on physical strength to spring up forcefully.
The environment above opened up, stepping onto the ground, Han Yu was about to relax but paused slightly.
Thinking the well would lead outside, he found himself in a place surrounded by smooth stone walls, save for a stone bed, and a black brick ceiling.
"This is a tomb chamber, keep moving,"
The cousin abruptly urged.
Full of questions about how he ended up from a temple to a tomb, Han Yu felt.
"I'll explain when we're safe,"
The cousin continued urging.
Just then, the sound of insects approached, and soon cold sweat broke out on Han Yu.
A swarm of red, unknown insects surged swiftly into the room.
"These things are highly venomous, don't get bitten, turn right upon exiting there's a high platform where they can't reach," the cousin shouted with a pale face.
The leading insects already swarming at his feet, Han Yu didn't dare risk testing if his body could resist the poison, quickly leaped, landing on a ground of green goo, not daring to pause for a moment, running out swiftly.
The platform, in reality, was a trapezoidal stone platform seven feet wide, surrounded by a foot-wide artificial stream. After leaping across, the pursuing red insects could only hiss at the edge.
After setting the cousin down, Han Yu flopped down exhausted, panting, "What's going on here?"
The cousin smiled wryly, "It's a long story."
"I stole a layout of a tomb mechanism designed by elders in my family years ago, hoping to learn from it..."
The cousin's initial words made Han Yu's face bizarre; always heard of tomb robbers, never of this enthusiastic learning approach.
According to the cousin's account, a senior from the Cultivator Realm from a Buddhist Sect sought his family's help in designing a tomb years ago; later, the cousin snuck in with the blueprint.
But lacking skill, he ended up trapped in the tomb; eventually discovered a dry well in a chamber, didn't anticipate its emptiness underneath.
So, holding a sense of curiosity, he descended the well, only to get captured soon after.
The cousin looked grim, "The well was dug from the outside after the elder passed and was interred; those capable of pinpointing its location, besides my family, are the elder's disciples."
"Why did the old monk capture you?"
Curiously, Han Yu asked.
"I stumbled upon his practice; that day, descending the well to the dungeon, I caught him practicing the Hungry Ghost Path Divine Technique, draining five civilians into mummies."
"Guessing from his age, the old monk should be that master's disciple; built a temple beside the tomb, likely to unearth the pathway and steal the Hungry Ghost Path method,"
Han Yu stared towards the passage from the well for quite a while with worry, "That old monk won't suddenly appear, right!"
The cousin shook his head, "Hungry Ghost Path should nourish Divine Techniques with one's own essence blood, that bald donkey treaded the wrong path, fallen into the Demonic Path, he's aware of the high monk's Relic here, certainly wouldn't dare return after practicing the Hungry Ghost Path."
Han Yu sighed, "Yet we also dare not go back down."
Unless…
Both gazes flickered, in unison they said, "Let's take the Relic down with us!"