With the detection of Yuan Qi, we found that the cave at the top was empty and General Chi Qing was nowhere to be seen. He disappeared into thin air. My first thought was that this might be a trap set by him intentionally to lure us in, while he escaped at the critical moment.
"This is not right. We need to go up quickly. I have a bad feeling about this!" With these thoughts in mind, I quickly put down my backpack and started searching for grappling hooks.
However, what surprised me was that just then, a gust of wind suddenly blew over our heads. When we turned around, we saw General Chi Qing falling from mid-air and landing heavily on a large mushroom with a dull thud.
"Ah! Master Chi, you finally came down! What happened just now? We called out to you several times but got no response. Do you know how worried we were?" Upon seeing General Chi Qing, Xie Yilin couldn't help but scold him.
General Chi Qing smiled slightly as he stood up from the mushroom and looked at us: "I was observing the situation inside this cave just now. Because I was too focused on it, I didn't have time to answer your calls."
"Oh?" Hearing his words, I frowned and subconsciously released my Yuan Qi to scan his body for any abnormalities. After finding nothing unusual about him, I breathed a sigh of relief and said: "It's strange though; when I used my Yuan Qi to scan upwards earlier on , it seemed like there wasn't anyone there."
"I knew it," upon hearing me say that General Chi Qing pointed towards a glowing column nearby before explaining: "This place is arranged according to an Eight Gates Golden Lock Formation with those stone columns acting as nodes or eyes of formation . If my guess is correct ,there should be another seven similar stone columns within this cave . This Eight Gates Golden Lock Formation has the ability to block any Qi detection outside of its range, so once we enter here, it's difficult to detect anything beyond this formation. Therefore, you not being able to detect me earlier is not that surprising."
"Eight Gates Golden Lock Formation?" Upon hearing this, Jietou couldn't help but furrow his brows and looked towards the center of the cave with curiosity: "Why did King Wu Hua Lue set up such a formation? Also, where exactly is that old ghost hiding now? This cave is so big; where do we even start looking for him?"
"You guys should take a closer look," upon hearing Jietou's question General Chi Qing pointed towards a dark space in the center of the cave and said: "As I mentioned earlier , there should be eight glowing stone columns in total. However, while standing here right now ,we can only see four . So where are the other four?"
Hearing this made me subconsciously look up at the center of the cave and suddenly realized what was going on.
"King Helu of Wu should be hiding in the central cave. If I'm not mistaken, that's where his tomb is located and also the entrance to Jiuyin Huangquan. The reason why it's covered in darkness is because there's a very thick Yin energy barrier surrounding it. So, most likely King Helu and his men are hiding inside that barrier. As Master Chi said, there should be eight glowing pillars, but we can only see four now because the other four are blocked by the Yin energy barrier," I explained to Jietou and Xie Yilin.
"YiHeng is right," smiled Captain Chi Qing as he looked around. He then picked a piece of tender mushroom meat, chewed on it while saying: "King Helu and his men must have hidden themselves within the Yin energy barrier. As for this space outside of the barrier, it's not entirely useless either. If I'm not mistaken, this part of space should be what they call 'Meat Forest'."
"Meat Forest? Where's the meat here? Are you talking about these mushrooms?" Xie Yilin couldn't help but ask curiously.
"Well...you'll find out soon enough," chuckled Captain Chi Qing before asking us: "Do you know how Meat Forest came about?"
"I know a little bit about it - legend has it that King Zhou was bewitched by Daji and hung cooked meat in a forest so he could eat anytime he wanted to; hence 'Meat Forest'. It was said that he even filled up an entire pool with wine and lay inside drinking from it which gave rise to 'Wine Pool'. Later on, Wine Pool Meat Forest became an idiom meaning living extravagantly with debauchery." I told Captain Chi Qing.
"Heheh...you only know half of its story," laughed Captain Chi Qing before continuing: "In reality, the hanging meat in Meat Forest wasn't cooked meat, or even meat at all. They were living people."
"Living people? How is that possible?" I couldn't help but be shocked.
"Why not? Daji was a thousand-year-old fox demon who bewitched King Zhou for the purpose of eating human flesh and drinking blood to gain the essence needed for her cultivation. She herself was an animal and believed that eating humans and drinking their blood was natural law. So, under her influence, most of the hanging 'meat' in King Zhou's Meat Forest were actually live people - mostly virgin girls who ended up in Daji's stomach. The remaining small portion of cooked meat was what King Zhou ate," Captain Chi Qing explained with a smile.
"Didn't King Zhou notice any of this?" Jietou frowned and asked.
"King Zhou is nothing but a mortal, while Daji is a thousand-year-old fox demon. Therefore, in front of Daji, he can't even compare to an infant. Whatever world Daji wants him to see, he will see it. How could he distinguish what's real and what's fake?" As Chiqing Shuai spoke, he lifted the wine jug and took a sip before continuing: "After talking about the Meat Forest, I believe you can imagine what the Wine Pool was like. Yes, it wasn't wine at all; it was human blood for Daji to drink. King Zhou was just being used by her."
"This story wasn't good to begin with, and now that you've said that, it's even more chilling," Xie Yilin frowned tightly and rubbed her hands together as she said: "I have goosebumps all over my body. So let's not talk about these legends anymore; let's talk about the situation here instead. How did this place become a Meat Forest? Are there still living people here? But why haven't I seen any?"
"Heheh... This place doesn't only have a Meat Forest but also Blood Pools. You'll find out soon enough," Chiqing Shuai smiled slightly and scared Xie Yilin so much that she instinctively ran over to hold onto my arm.
"YiHeng, is what he said true or false?" Xie Yilin whispered to me.
I was about to answer her when suddenly something stirred from the side which caught my attention instantly. Without hesitation I muttered some words under my breath and activated the Heaven Covering Bell before pulling Xie Yilin towards its base.