As Lin Feng spoke, three of his men simultaneously pulled out spirit compasses. They spread out along the staircase, each picking a position to observe the readings.
"It's not a Phantom-Shadow Spell," one of them muttered, eyes fixed on the rapidly shifting needle. "The Fire position shows flowing metal—looks like a Soul-Slaying Formation… The Yihai sector is the path of life! Lao Xiu, ditch any weapons forged from fire or metal, and take the Yihai route—"
Before he could finish, another middle-aged man with a compass cut him off: "Don't take the Yihai route! It's a death path all the way. The Six Ding formations below have all been sealed off. Whatever you do, don't go along the six-direction grid. Lao Xiu, borrow the body of that blind man and open a Path of the Nether Waters—you'll be fine taking that route."
"Bullshit!" a third one snapped. "Jia Buzhen, which eye of yours saw the six-directional path blocked? The Dinghai and Dingchou sectors are currently surging with vitality! Lao Xiu, you're closest to Dingchou—go up three steps via Dingchou, then shift to Dinghai. Three steps and you're safe!"
Three men, three theories—completely unrelated, even mutually contradictory. Each insisted on their own interpretation, and once they compared compass readings, all three wore baffled expressions.
Jia Buzhen's eyes went wide as he looked at Lin Feng and Hao Zhengyi. "The feng shui under this staircase… it's completely scrambled."
At that moment, Hao Zhengyi silently circled around the staircase, inspecting the compasses. He took one from another practitioner, repositioned himself, and stared at the needle. After a long pause, he finally looked up, sweeping his gaze across everyone present—before settling on me.
"It's not the feng shui that's wrong," he said coolly. "The space below is layered with nested arrays—one formation inside another. Each of you is standing in a spot intersecting with at least four or five different arrays. No wonder everything looks like chaos."
Though he addressed me, his words were clearly meant for Lin Feng and his people.
Just as Hao Zhengyi finished speaking, Lao Xiu—the last man still standing on the steps below—called out hoarsely, "I don't know formations! I just need a straight answer—can you undo it or not? Even if you can't, at least find me a damn way to get out of here!"
His voice sounded thick and sticky, as if his mouth were stuffed with something.
Lin Feng stood at the edge of the stairwell, turning to respond, "So long as you don't move, the formation won't—"
He never finished the sentence.
His face changed dramatically mid-speech, and the second half of his words were swallowed in shock.
Everyone's attention had been focused on the compasses above—but in that instant, Lao Xiu began to transform.
His body looked as though it had turned into melting wax. Every strand of hair on his head had fallen off, and his scalp, along with the skin on his face, had begun to liquefy. A yellow, viscous fluid oozed down his frame, yet no blood could be seen anywhere.
Strangely, Lao Xiu seemed unaware of his grotesque metamorphosis. He kept his melting face tilted upward, still trying to shout—though by now, no one could make out what he was saying.
We all watched in silence as Lao Xiu dissolved into a pool of yellow slime.
No one spoke.
Everyone's gaze was fixed on the staircase littered with corpses and remnants. Not only had none of us witnessed anything like this—we hadn't even heard stories of such a thing. Climb the stairs, die. Descend the stairs, die. Even standing still on them only bought you a few minutes.
After a long, heavy silence, it was Hao Zhengyi who finally spoke. He turned to Lin Feng and said, "Unless someone is specifically attuned, no one can descend those steps and survive."
He paused briefly, then turned to me. "Looks like I'll have to go down with you."
No sooner had he spoken than Lin Feng gave a cryptic smile, looking between the two of us. "Let's wait just a little longer…"
Hao Zhengyi wasn't surprised. He shifted his gaze from me to Lin Feng and asked calmly, "How long?"
"Just a few more minutes," Lin Feng replied with a faint smile. "Aside from this kid Shen here, no one knows what exactly lies below. Just in case, I've prepared someone else to go down with you two."
Before Hao Zhengyi could reply, I cut in with a cold laugh. "Go down if you want—but you really think this is some street market you can stroll into?"
Lin Feng turned his head slowly toward me and said, "I told you two years ago—your kind of constitution is rare, but not unique."
He gave Hao Zhengyi a slight smile, then turned back to me. "Far as I know, Zhengyi here has the same constitution as you. And over the years, I've met one more person who shares your traits…"
As Lin Feng was speaking, we heard footsteps approaching from the distance.
Two figures emerged.
The first was the man Lin Feng had earlier sent away. Behind him followed a large, heavyset man. Judging from his demeanor, he didn't seem to belong to our world at all.
As they reached the staircase and saw the carnage below, the fat man's face went pale. Before Lin Feng could even say a word, he shouted, "Hey, bro—this ain't what we agreed on! You told me I'd be grabbing a thing or two for five grand. That's a petty theft charge. But this? This is some real horror show—murder and body mutilation! You think five grand covers that?"
"Five million," Lin Feng replied calmly. "And for every extra item you bring up—besides the one I asked for—I'll pay you another million. No cap. The more, the better."
The fat man's fear vanished in an instant. A greedy glow lit up his face. "One million per piece—whatever I bring up, right?"
Lin Feng nodded. "No matter how strange or bizarre, bring it all. You've seen what I can afford—if something catches my eye, ten million isn't out of the question."
With that, Lin Feng turned away from the man, glanced at me, then looked toward Hao Zhengyi.
"Zhengyi," he said, "I'll leave this to you. Don't worry—your brother Hao Wenming will be in good hands. I'll make sure nothing happens to him."
"No need for such formalities," Hao Zhengyi replied. He finally set his brother down, and one of Lin Feng's people stepped forward to take Hao Wenming away.
Lin Feng turned to me again.
"Once you're down there, no tricks. I'm giving you twenty minutes. If I don't see all three of you back by then, I'll throw Gao Liang and Xiao Heshang down after you. And if only two of you return, don't bother coming back up—I'll toss them down anyway, so you'll have company."
I shook my head at him. "Twenty minutes isn't enough. Just getting there and back will take forty—and even entering Wu Rendi's vault takes at least half an hour to navigate."
"Twenty minutes," Lin Feng said coldly. "Go over by even one, and I'll start the countdown to their deaths. Now go—the clock's ticking."
There was no choice now—we had to go down.
But the fat man seemed even more eager than Lin Feng. He rushed past me, trying to be the first one down the stairs.
Just as he was about to take the first step, Hao Zhengyi reached out and stopped him.
He pointed at me.
"He goes first," Hao said. "We follow behind. Step exactly where he steps. Miss even once, and you'll end up like those guys."
So Hao Zhengyi actually did know about this place—but this wasn't the time to dwell on that. Following the usual method, I led Hao Zhengyi and the fat man down into the fifth underground level—the section reserved exclusively for Wu Rendi.
On the stairs, I took the opportunity to whisper to the fat man, "You see all these skeletons? And you're still willing to wade into this mess?"
Unexpectedly, the fat man chuckled and replied, "What's so scary about the dead? I've been seeing ghosts since the day I was born. I'm not afraid of dying—just afraid of being broke."
I didn't believe for a second that Lin Feng would be willing to give up the Heavenly Principle Diagram, let alone really toss Gao Liang and Xiao Heshang down here if we missed the deadline. But I couldn't afford to gamble on that. The only thing I could do now was retrieve the Diagram as quickly as possible, then figure out the rest once we were back up top.
Luckily, Wu Rendi's vault wasn't far. Just as I was about to unlock the door, the fat man suddenly pointed ahead and blurted, "Hey, why is there an old man with white hair locked up over there?"
Of course—the very thing I was trying to avoid.
Ever since we came down here, I'd been subtly guiding Hao Zhengyi and the fat man's attention elsewhere, hoping they wouldn't notice Guangren. But the moment I got distracted while opening the vault, this damn fat man spotted him anyway.
"Old man with white hair? What are you talking about…" I followed his finger, glanced that way, then lied through my teeth. "Oh, that? Buddy, your eyes are playing tricks on you. That's just a mannequin or something. Look, let's not waste time, okay? We've only got twenty minutes—thanks to you, we've already burned five."
Before I even finished, the fat man's expression had already changed. He jabbed his finger at Guangren and shouted, "No way—he moved! You saw that, right? He looked up at us!"
Sure enough, Guangren had noticed us too. He stretched out his neck, peering in our direction.
Not getting any answers from me, the fat man turned to Hao Zhengyi and asked, "He can't see it, but you can, right? You saw that guy look over here. Okay, maybe he's not that old, but with that white hair? That's gotta count as strange. What do you think—should we check it out? Your boss did say to bring back anything strange or unusual."
Hao Zhengyi's face was full of surprise as he stared at Guangren in the distance. But when the fat man tried to push him further, Hao turned to him, gave me a subtle glance, and then said blandly, "You need to learn to prioritize. You're down here to find an object, not a person. If you want to check it out, go ahead. But don't waste our time. Shen La, stop dawdling. Open the lock."
The fat man clearly wasn't happy about that. His eyes flicked between me, Hao Zhengyi, and Guangren, and he grumbled, "You guys are telling me a chained-up white-haired man in a place like this isn't strange enough for you? Whatever. If you two don't have the guts, then wait here. I'll go see who this guy is—maybe he's worth a cool hundred million."
Muttering to himself, the fat man hesitated for a second. Then he looked at Hao Zhengyi again and said, "Once you find that diagram, you wait for me to come back. We split the five million fifty-fifty. If that white-haired guy turns out to be worth anything, I'll cut you in on half of that too."
With that, he turned and marched toward Guangren, ignoring all my efforts to stop him. He was dead set on finding out whether that white-haired man was worth a fortune or not.
There wasn't much time left, and in this situation, the most important thing was keeping Gao Liang and Xiao Heshang alive. Guangren… would have to fend for himself.
Just as I was about to unlock the warehouse door, Hao Zhengyi suddenly spoke behind me, his tone calm but firm. "I'm not interested in who that white-haired man is. But if he's locked in here, doesn't that mean Wu Rendi is the one who put him there?"
I didn't look back as I replied, "Couldn't say for sure. Maybe if you get the chance, you can ask Wu Rendi yourself."
As I spoke, I pushed open the warehouse door.
A wave of air hit us—thick with blood and iron. Mixed into that wave was the faint, beastlike growling of some unknown creature. The stench seemed directed right at me at first, but as it reached my body, it suddenly veered, skimming past me and curling around behind my back.
Hao Zhengyi had just stepped forward with his left foot, preparing to enter the warehouse. But as soon as he sensed something was off, he pulled his foot back. It was like something had startled him.
His expression twisted into something strange.
But that wasn't all.
The sides of his face suddenly flushed red and began to swell—like someone had punched him several times in the cheeks. And from his nose, blood began to drip, splashing to the ground with an eerie, rhythmic beat.