Chapter 203

Chapter 198

Run-sheng saw the mountain grandpa, whose face was calm and composed.

Since he could remember things, this was the first time Run-sheng had seen such an expression on his grandpa's face. After all, his grandpa always had a violent temper, showing his joy and anger openly.

Tan Wen-bin saw his own father, Tan Yun-long. If that face from the high tower was taken out separately, it would be perfect to stick on a tombstone. When the camera pulled further back, there was his crying mother under the rain curtain, his helpless self, and a crowd of his father's colleagues in police uniforms, plus the bureau leader who was offering the last comfort to the family.

Lin Shu-you saw his own grandpa, painted with official general makeup, yet no longer with a surging killing intent. Instead, it permeated a desolate and silent atmosphere.

Zhao Yi saw Elder Tian, his spirit sinking like someone who had been sent home after being severely disabled and just lay in bed staring at the ceiling, unable to move.

Later, he repeatedly urged him to help himself continue pounding grass to make medicine. This was the only thing that reignited hope and vitality in him.

"Heh…"

Zhao Yi's mouth curved into a smile.

Young Master, I didn't expect to see you here.

After going back, tell Elder Tian about this matter. The old man will surely be so happy he'll do a somersault in bed.

A Yuan saw a white old ape, its head cracked open, and inside its head, something was boiling, white and surging with hot steam.

The old ape's eyes had no light, as if it had already accepted this fate.

Yu Miao-miao saw a majestic old woman who wasn't angry. Her status in the Yu family was equivalent to Liu Yu-mei's in the Liu family; she was the matriarch figure at home.

But as she looked, the grandmother's face was growing fluff, her pupils were round, and she had a long beard beside her lips.

Yu Miao-miao's eyes also revealed a trace of confusion.

She couldn't distinguish who she was seeing because she couldn't distinguish who she was.

Li Zhuo-yuan saw a face, but just a face.

This face seemed to be trying very hard to change into a certain appearance, but it never succeeded.

The last time, in A Li's dream, Li Zhuo-yuan just couldn't see the face of that black-robed person.

Originally, he thought that person deliberately concealed their true appearance. It seemed he had misunderstood. It wasn't someone else pretending to be profound, but that others couldn't see the human side of themselves from him.

Yin Meng saw her own grandpa, and then her grandpa quickly disappeared.

Panic followed in her heart.

She most respected her grandpa, but this childish adoration emotion, over ten years of meticulous care, had already been ground away by time.

After her grandpa's face disappeared, it turned into a special face.

This face had no human spirit, like a mud statue sculpture.

In Feng-du, everywhere were his statues and painting scrolls.

From the time she understood things, Yin Meng was repeatedly told by her grandpa that her ancestor was Yin Chang-sheng, and his bloodline flowed in her body.

And when the face of Yin Chang-sheng's deity statue was reflected, the bell in the high tower rang again.

"Buzz!"

That face retracted and was no longer visible.

Except for Li Zhuo-yuan, everyone's gaze paused for a moment, then quickly recovered.

Everyone's heart was filled with dread, the atmosphere extremely oppressive.

It was hard to imagine how terrible it would be to move against such an existence.

No spells, no arrays, not even language…

People just simply stood there, and your consciousness and emotions were automatically pulled by it.

Suddenly, although no sunlight could clearly shine here, the flying eaves of the pavilion at this moment shone, light sprinkling on the seat surface of the dining table, beginning to circulate.

Although there was no sound, it was clear: Please gentlemen, take a seat.

They had discovered very early on that this wave had a very strong sense of rules. This also made some fixed processes that had to be followed.

Everyone knew this clearly in their hearts and understood it.

Only Li Zhuo-yuan gave Yin Meng a special look.

The young man suspected that this time it might really not be a fixed process, but the special role of the Yin family members walking the river had been triggered again.

The remaining shade of their ancestors could allow later descendants to have a better opportunity to eat. The Yin family members deeply interpreted this point. They truly treated it as a meal.

Yu Miao-miao and A Yuan were the first to enter the pavilion. Although there was no main seat, she still very naturally chose to sit facing the white path they had come from.

Run-sheng and Tan Wen-bin sat down on their respective sides, their physical condition was the best, counting as a kind of isolation and protection.

After everyone sat down, one chair remained empty.

Zhao Yi sat next to Li Zhuo-yuan, pointed to the wine cup in front, and said with a smile: "Shall we brothers have a drink?"

Directly above the wine cup, against the exposed mouth, there was water dripping at intervals, allowing it to be continuously supplemented while evaporating in the heat wave under the table, very exquisite.

Li Zhuo-yuan shook his head: "Brain development stage, cannot drink alcohol."

Zhao Yi murmured, thinking: Does your brain still need to grow?

However, he just said it; he didn't really dare to drink the wine here.

As for the dishes on the table, they looked good in color, aroma, and taste, but these had been placed here for who knows how many years, counting as genuine zombie meat.

No one picked up chopsticks or lifted cups. Everyone sat peacefully, waiting for this process to finish.

Run-sheng continuously swallowed saliva.

Li Zhuo-yuan opened his mouth and said: "Brother Run-sheng, if you want to eat, just eat."

The hosts shouldn't poison the dishes, of course, these dishes themselves… also didn't need poison.

Run-sheng was very surprised and joyful, and began to pick up dishes with a smile.

In the wide-eyed gaze of Yu Miao-miao and A Yuan, he sent these delicacies into his mouth and chewed with enjoyment.

When eating these dishes, he didn't need to just burn incense.

In the past, when Run-sheng followed Li San-jiang to sit in a vegetarian meal, after the seating was arranged in a corner, Li San-jiang would instruct the host family to match him with some dishes and a small bucket of rice.

This was not only because Run-sheng's eating habits were quite special, but more because his food intake was too large. If he really ate on the table, the people at the same table would definitely not be full.

But this meal today, no one competed with him, it was all his.

When the dishes in front of him were finished, Run-sheng stood up and went to pick up dishes from further away.

Tan Wen-bin wanted to bring the dishes in front of him to Run-sheng and tried to lift one with his hand, but discovered that the bowls and dishes on the seat surface were all fixed to the stone table.

This wasn't built this way at the beginning, but had been placed for too long without moving, causing them to stick together.

Tan Wen-bin could only pick up his chopsticks and help Run-sheng pick dishes.

A Yuan also stood up and helped Run-sheng with this busy task.

Although their positions were opposite and later they would divide life and death, this didn't affect his appreciation of Run-sheng.

Yu Miao-miao opened her mouth and asked: "Can you eat me?"

A Yuan shook his head.

Yu Miao-miao: "What about him?"

A Yuan shook his head again.

Yin Meng said in a low voice: "It's rare to see Run-sheng eat so happily, only this one meal."

Tan Wen-bin: "This is not difficult."

Yin Meng asked curiously: "Do you have a way to do it?"

Tan Wen-bin nodded: "First, find a chicken that can be an ancestral grandma, then find a duck that can be an ancestral grandpa, and then make them into dishes."

At first, no one knew how long this seating process would take, but gradually, everyone saw the countdown.

Because Run-sheng was quickly finishing the dishes on the table. If there were no dishes, that seating surface would definitely end.

Seeing that Run-sheng was already doing the final cleanup, the others at the edge of the dining table occasionally cast their gaze towards that high tower.

That face did not appear again.

Finally, Run-sheng finished eating.

He gently patted his belly with his hand. The feeling of being full purely on dishes without relying on the staple food was really good.

Just at this moment, the middle of the stone table first sagged in one piece, then slowly rose again, with three identical tokens placed on it. The tokens had the same marks as the palms of the three people earlier.

Yu Miao-miao's eyes lit up, as if she had been waiting for a long time.

A Yuan stood up to help her take one, but his hand just touched one token, and the token immediately burst into flames. He quickly moved his hand away, and the flame extinguished.

Yu Miao-miao could only reach out and take it herself. This time, the token did not light up.

It seemed that only those who had obtained the invitation earlier had the qualification to take this token at this time.

Li Zhuo-yuan and Zhao Yi also took one each.

As soon as the token was in hand, it seemed to immediately produce an echo with that high tower in their hearts.

Holding it, they could enter the tower.

Yu Miao-miao was already impatient. She stood up from her seat and went straight towards that high tower, with A Yuan following closely behind.

Zhao Yi and Li Zhuo-yuan, on the contrary, were not in a hurry and remained seated on their chairs.

Li Zhuo-yuan held the token, his eyes thoughtful.

Zhao Yi played with the token on his fingertips, continuously bouncing it up and catching it.

Their gazes unintentionally met, and they could all read each other's thoughts.

Even at this step, the sense of rules was still full.

This made it very difficult not to think deeply about the true purpose of this wave.

Zhao Yi: "I'm starting to suspect what role we've come here to play."

On the two characters "role," Zhao Yi added a bit of emphasis. He deliberately did not use the words "purpose" and "meaning."

"Role" was more like a tool, an item, placed where it was needed.

Li Zhuo-yuan: "Those who died while snatching the first piece of broken jade, what was their role…"

Zhao Yi: "Their death exchanged the opportunity to open the door and take a seat."

Li Zhuo-yuan: "…What is our role?"

"Ha!" Zhao Yi continuously nodded several times with large amplitude. "Indeed, that's the reason."

In past river walks, the sense of rules was not strong. Everyone still needed to actively seek and distinguish clues.

This time, the rules were like a built-up water channel. You were just among the flow of water and could only flow according to the direction it had planned.

The degree of freedom was greatly reduced, and this also seemed to foretell that the final outcome was irreversible.

Those who died in the first round because they snatched the broken jade became consumables, but who could guarantee that the winners who obtained the invitation in the first round were not another kind of consumable?

Li Zhuo-yuan: "So, it's three shares of invitations, three choosing one."

This was the aesthetic of the heavenly way. It didn't set a fixed death situation. No matter when, it would still give you an opportunity to struggle, even if only on the surface.

If it was three choosing one, these two had some degree of confidence that they would definitely push out that silly girl.

Zhao Yi: "What if it's three choosing two?"

Li Zhuo-yuan: "If it's three choosing two, that depends on whether there are external conditions interfering."

When saying this sentence, Li Zhuo-yuan looked towards that high tower.

If not unexpectedly, inside the high tower, there should be interfering conditions.

Zhao Yi: "What if there are no external conditions interfering?"

Li Zhuo-yuan said very honestly: "I will first solve her, then solve you."

Zhao Yi: "What if there are external conditions interfering?"

Li Zhuo-yuan said very honestly: "I will think of a way to join hands with her and first solve you together, because you have a brain."

Zhao Yi said with a smile: "Under this premise, shouldn't she cooperate with me to first solve you?"

Li Zhuo-yuan: "She might not have this brain."

Zhao Yi nodded, deeply agreeing.

"Hey, what are you two still waiting for?"

Yu Miao-miao stood in front of the high tower and shouted towards them.

Li Zhuo-yuan and Zhao Yi walked out of the pavilion and went towards the high tower. The remaining people also followed.

On the big door of the high tower, there were three ancient bronze mirrors. The bronze mirrors reflected three paths of faint light downwards, falling on the ground.

Yu Miao-miao held her token in her hand and placed it in one path of faint light. With her other hand, she waved impatiently.

Li Zhuo-yuan and Zhao Yi also took out their tokens and let them bathe in the faint light.

"Creak…"

The tower door opened.

Only those holding tokens could enter. Otherwise, a terrible ban would be triggered.

Yu Miao-miao walked in first.

Her urgency indicated that she had a grasp of the information and clues inside here.

The Yu family people obviously had a deeper understanding of this place. This was not strange, after all, they had ancestors who served as teachers here.

However, Yu Miao-miao had said earlier that she could share the clues here.

From the black water of the vortex, then through this long white path, Li Zhuo-yuan had not mentioned this matter to her.

She later pretended to sleep, and that was also partly for this reason.

She didn't want to say, if she could rely on it, she would.

Li Zhuo-yuan also didn't want to ask, because the result of asking was not necessarily true, and even if she was really willing to tell the truth, it wasn't guaranteed to be "true."

If the true master of the Yu family knew the secrets here correctly, Yu Cang-sheng wouldn't have ended up like this.

Information that wasn't guaranteed to be true could be listened to in leisure time to see if anything useful could be filtered out, but here, and at such a crucial moment, there was no need to be misled.

It was just that since he didn't ask, why didn't Zhao Yi ask either?

He had seen Yu Cang-sheng, but Zhao Yi hadn't.

Li Zhuo-yuan glanced at Zhao Yi by his side with his peripheral vision.

The young man understood that precisely because he hadn't asked, Zhao Yi also felt there was no need to ask.

He was setting himself up as a ladder.

If there was a mountain peak in front, then climb high and look far.

He now truly had the style of Zhao Wu-zang's legacy.

After Li Zhuo-yuan and Zhao Yi walked into the tower door, the tower door closed. The remaining people all stayed outside.

The first floor was a bit dim, lit by long-burning lamps.

Zhao Yi: "What kind of style is this? Outside, it's like emerald and white jade, so bright it hurts people's eyes. On the contrary, inside this innermost core position, they unexpectedly light lamps."

The first floor was very empty, but on the surrounding walls, there were murals.

Unlike the separate stone plates carved on the white path earlier, the murals here had obvious continuity.

Yu Miao-miao did not stop here and went directly to the second floor.

Truly a self-centered girl.

She should have known the information in these murals long ago, but this wasn't a climbing competition where whoever ran fastest won.

Even if your parents told you information, you still had to verify it when it was time to verify.

As soon as Yu Miao-miao went up to the second floor, a string of bells rang out from the staircase entrance on the second floor.

Li Zhuo-yuan and Zhao Yi did not move. Anyway, they would also go up later. For now, they stayed along the wall and quickly went through the murals here.

The initial chapter of the murals depicted a painting of a goddess flying upwards.

However, this painting was not beautiful; on the contrary, it was very bloody and cruel.

Her fresh blood flowed downwards, dripping from her foot tip, and continued to flow away along the ground.

This blood flow trace, especially the V shape, reminded Li Zhuo-yuan of the map of Lijiang he had seen, which should be the first bend of the Yangtze River.

So, the meaning implied by this painting had similarities with the elephant transformation after Kuafu chased the sun and died.

The blood of the goddess turned into a river, so what about her shed skin and flesh and other parts?

Looking at the cracked skin and flesh detached from the body of the goddess in the painting, which was a special crystalline green, wasn't it just the emerald here?

Li Zhuo-yuan didn't believe in the goddess flying upwards.

But he could understand that this first painting should be used to explain the reason for the formation of this secret realm.

The next few paintings had little meaning. They respectively recorded certain characters whose concrete identities were unknown, coming here, and artificial construction traces gradually appeared here.

Li Zhuo-yuan and Zhao Yi both quickly skimmed through them because the buildings appearing in the paintings were different from what they saw when they came.

Obviously, the current buildings and arrangements here should have been thoroughly finalized later. Those before were simply unnecessary to look at.

This skim just directly skipped a third.

Finally, in one painting, the prototypes of a staircase and three stone doors appeared, with a large number of laborers working in their midst.

From here, the style of the paintings changed, becoming more detailed and realistic.

Obviously, the person who made the paintings also knew clearly that the earlier depictions were all myths and legends.

An academy was opened up here, attracting more and more people to learn and exchange here, including receiving worship from feudal lords and nobles.

Next was the history of the academy's development and the thorough finalization of the buildings here.

Another third passed, and the style of the paintings changed again.

All the people here knelt on the ground in worship. Green river water poured in from the sky, thoroughly filling and submerging this place.

No one struggled, no one resisted. Although the images in the paintings were not detailed enough to see expressions, a kind of excitement and longing could still be seen from the performance of the crowd.

Following the murals, an archway appeared, a white path appeared, and this high tower appeared.

Then, inside the high tower, the doors and windows of the high tower in the painting were wide open. From the second floor upwards, people could be seen drinking, feasting, and talking unrestrainedly on every floor.

When they saw this, Zhao Yi and Li Zhuo-yuan subconsciously raised their eyelids and glanced upwards.

It seemed that inside this high tower, not only was there the one who had appeared earlier, but there should still be many people.

They obviously couldn't be so lively now… but they should still be here.

In the next painting, a crowd of people appeared in front of the high tower.

Counting the number was not detailed. It used a first-person perspective, standing in the crowd and looking towards the high tower in front.

Zhao Yi: "I originally thought it would be painted with eight or nine people. This is interesting."

Li Zhuo-yuan shook his head: "Do you just want to be a person of heaven's fate?"

Zhao Yi: "Tsk, I like this title."

In the last third of the scroll, standing from the perspective of the person who made the painting, he actually painted the future.

In simple terms, a crowd of people would come here, enter the high tower, and begin to climb the floors.

As they walked, one person would appear next to each of them.

Because the characters here were painted in two ways, the difference between the "people of heaven's fate" and the original residents who were drinking and feasting inside the tower could be clearly distinguished.

After the people of heaven's fate entered the tower, they walked upwards layer by layer. As they walked, a person who was originally talking unrestrainedly inside the tower floors would follow by their side.

Zhao Yi: "The meaning here is, we have to find a companion?"

Li Zhuo-yuan: "Mm, external interfering conditions have come."

The meaning in the painting was very implicit, yet very clear.

A smile appeared on Zhao Yi's face. If it was like this, then his current disadvantage was no longer a disadvantage.

In the second to last painting, two overlapping figures appeared, a wisp of special ethereal light shone on their bodies, and they struck that bell.

In the last painting, on the upper part of the scroll, a pure white crystal hand appeared, as if guiding. A true heavenly gate immortal palace appeared above.

In the lower part of the scroll, inside the high tower, in the kneeling corpse pit, all the black shadows inside the emeralds, even including the singers and dancers on the white path, all flew up from the ground, collectively going towards the immortal palace.

This dense collective ascension scene had a strange sense of terror.

Li Zhuo-yuan stretched out a finger and pointed to the scene of striking the bell on the top floor of the high tower in the second to last painting. The bell was struck by two overlapping shadows, but it could be seen that one was a person of heaven's fate and one was an original resident of the high tower.

Zhao Yi: "Only one side survives, three choosing two."

Li Zhuo-yuan: "Mm."

Zhao Yi again pointed to "that crowd of people" in the painting in front: "Since it deliberately used an unspecific number to indicate, it proves that a batch of people will come in here every once in a while. Everyone wants to ring that bell. Look at this painting again, after successfully ringing the bell, the ethereal light covers, this is a big opportunity, immortal fate."

Li Zhuo-yuan: "Immortal fate."

Zhao Yi: "The meaning is that the final victor, even if they cannot cause the result of daytime ascension, will still obtain huge benefits."

Li Zhuo-yuan: "Perhaps."

Zhao Yi: "How do you feel so unenthusiastic? Is it because you feel like you're going to lose to me?"

Li Zhuo-yuan didn't speak, pointed to the staircase, indicating that it was time to go to the second floor.

As the two walked up the staircase, Zhao Yi opened his mouth and said: "Who was that face that appeared on the top floor earlier?" Immediately, Zhao Yi answered his own question, "Is it the person who formally established this place?"

Li Zhuo-yuan: "Should be."

It was just that the black-robed person in A Li's dream clearly said that he had a grudge with a certain dragon king of the Qin and Liu families. Calculating with this, and combining the year of establishment here, it seemed somewhat inconsistent.

The history of the Qin and Liu families was long, but to have a contradiction with the person who established this place… that time, it was a bit too far-fetched. Perhaps only the true initial generation of dragon kings of the Qin and Liu families could barely fit.

Li Zhuo-yuan's mind was also very disordered with thoughts.

The main reason was that this place was not set in stone. After the pattern here was set, people still continuously came in. Yu Cang-sheng was a very typical example.

Including the people now, they were more strongly pushed here by the river water.

Too many people coming in would definitely continuously cause influence on this place.

Zhao Yi: "Hey, you're keeping secrets from me."

Li Zhuo-yuan: "Mm, we are competitors now, aren't we?"

Zhao Yi pinched his fragile little heart with his hand and said tragically: "Alright, alright, alright!"

Li Zhuo-yuan: "When you were narrating just now, weren't you also deliberately misleading."

Zhao Yi: "It doesn't matter if I do this. Anyway, you won't be misled by me."

The two came to the second floor. There were desks here with fine wine and delicacies placed on them, but there was no noise of drinking and talking. All the people sat quietly in their positions.

They were dressed in various ways, their ages varied, and they were all dead.

They died very peacefully, with smiles on the corners of their mouths.

In front of each person, a bell was hung. When Li Zhuo-yuan and Zhao Yi stepped onto the second floor, all the bells made a sound.

"Shhh~" Zhao Yi whistled and said with a smile, "Look, the big guys are all very satisfied with us and are willing to follow us."

The ringing of the bells meant that they were willing to be chosen, and also a kind of approval.

Li Zhuo-yuan and Zhao Yi carefully observed the bells.

The design of the bells was unique. There was a circle of upward grooves on the outside.

This was actually a special ban aimed at this high tower.

The high tower suppressed everyone here.

This was easy to understand. The environment here was special, and corpses could be perfectly preserved, completely unaffected by the erosion of time.

And everyone who could enter this high tower was a mystic door person. If these helpful people's corpses were stored for so long without adding suppression, problems would inevitably arise.

The use of this bell was also very simple. Almost anyone with a bit of array foundation could see it.

They just needed to drip their fresh blood into the groove of this bell and fill it up. Then the suppression of the high tower on the corpse corresponding to this bell would be temporarily lifted.

Like a small blood sacrifice ceremony.

It was like the folk custom of dripping blood into wine and drinking together to become sworn brothers.

If they did not drip blood into the bell and touch the corpses here, they would suffer the same suppression from the high tower.

Rules, even inside the high tower, the rules were strict.

Li Zhuo-yuan and Zhao Yi only walked and looked among the crowd here, observing, but did not make a choice.

Even if they had to choose, they wouldn't choose on this second floor.

Subsequently, the two went up to the third floor.

The third floor was arranged the same as the second floor, but there were half as many people.

When the two went up, all the bells still rang collectively. It seemed that they were still welcome here.

On the fourth floor, there were half as many people again, and the bells still rang.

The fifth floor, the sixth floor, the seventh floor… all the way to the eighth floor, it was like this.

As the floors rose, the number of corpses also decreased, but the formidable pressure emanating from the corpses became more and more dense.

Logically, they were already dead and suppressed by the high tower. It was impossible for any breath to flow out.

So, this kind of formidable pressure was something they carried themselves. Either they had done many extraordinary things in their lifetime, or they were truly extraordinary characters, able to exude the aura of a tiger's prestige remaining even after death.

Li Zhuo-yuan: "Did you see any relatives of your family?"

Zhao Yi seemed to hear an extremely absurd matter, pointed to his nose, and asked in return:

"You unexpectedly have the nerve to ask me this question? Whose family has as many relatives as yours!"

In the Jiang-hu mystic door, the most influential families were naturally the dragon king families.

At the same time as a family frequently produced dragon kings, it also meant that there were more excellent people in the same generation of the family.

These people definitely went to many places in their lives. Of course, they went to more dangerous and mysterious places. The probability of their corpses appearing here was naturally greater.

Jiu Jiang Zhao only had Zhao Wu-zang as the one dragon king in history. Although it was said that the Zhao family did not decline, the fact that later generations did not produce another dragon king also explained that this was the height of Zhao Wu-zang alone, not the height of the entire Jiu Jiang Zhao. The sense of gap was very obvious.

While the Qin family and the Liu family were orthodox dragon king families. Although contemporary people were dwindling, in terms of ancestral foundation, they really weren't afraid of anyone.

What's more, for Li Zhuo-yuan's generation, who inherited two dragon king door courts, it was equivalent to being able to use the relatives of two families as one.

Although Li Zhuo-yuan's surname was Li and Liu Yu-mei also didn't let Li Zhuo-yuan change his surname, since both entered the door court, the first people of the two families were equal to Li Zhuo-yuan's ancestors. This was because the inheritance relationship was inherently more profound and important than blood relations, and was more valued.

Li Zhuo-yuan: "I'm not lying to you, I didn't see any relatives of my family here. My family's first people weren't too interested in becoming immortal."

Zhao Yi: "I'm also not lying to you, I didn't see any relatives of my family here either. My family's first people should be quite interested in becoming immortal, but they didn't have the ability to break into here."

When they reached the ninth floor, Zhao Yi indicated to Li Zhuo-yuan to stop first: "You wait first, I'll go up alone first."

"Okay." Li Zhuo-yuan stopped his footsteps.

The higher the floor, the higher the corresponding requirements. Zhao Yi also felt more apprehensive in his heart. This counted as a kind of self-assessment.

He was worried that after going up to the ninth floor with the young man, the bells would continue to ring. Then who would they be ringing for?

Don't let them ring for himself, and he still followed along foolishly, feeling good about himself.

Zhao Yi went up to the ninth floor, and all the bells rang.

After hearing the sound, Li Zhuo-yuan also walked into the ninth floor, and all the bells rang again.

A smile hung on Zhao Yi's face.

Li Zhuo-yuan: "You can actually be a bit more confident."

Zhao Yi: "Before meeting you, I was always very confident."

Next, they went up to the tenth floor.

It was still the same as before. Zhao Yi went up first, and Li Zhuo-yuan waited on the staircase.

On the tenth floor, only nine people were left, each with a single armchair. As soon as Zhao Yi went up, he felt a majestic pressure and began to seep sweat beads on his forehead.

The bells rang, and this time, among the nine bells, only two rang.

Li Zhuo-yuan walked onto the floor, and the nine bells all rang.

Zhao Yi: "Look, the gap has appeared."

Li Zhuo-yuan didn't speak.

Zhao Yi walked over: "However, this doesn't prevent me from going up with you to see."

The twelfth floor was the big bell, so only the eleventh floor was left with people.

Li Zhuo-yuan and Zhao Yi walked up together.

Yu Miao-miao was also here. She held a talisman paper in her left hand and incense in her right.

On this layer, there were only three people, each sitting on a bed, occupying the three sides except the staircase entrance.

One old man with white hair wearing a purple Daoist robe, with a whisk hanging on his knee, possessing an immortal demeanor and Daoist bones.

One middle-aged woman in a black long skirt, holding a treasured sword, with a sharp aura accompanying her body.

The third person had crane hair and a child's face, making it impossible to judge his concrete age. He was lying on the bed, supporting his head with his left hand and holding an open book in his right.

His eyes were closed, and the pages of the book were all blank.

The people on the lower floors still had formidable pressure even after death, while these three people here gave a stronger and more special feeling, which was… though dead, still alive.

When Li Zhuo-yuan and Zhao Yi went up, the three bells did not ring at all.

However, there was no need to feel disappointed because of this. Yu Miao-miao was also the same. If they had rung, she wouldn't have needed to perform the worship ritual here.

The talisman paper burned and turned into ash. The fragrant incense quickly burned and instantly dissipated.

Yu Miao-miao bowed to the three people with the Yu family's door ritual:

"This junior, Yu Miao-miao, a river walker from the Luo Yang Yu family, requests the seniors to lend a hand and help me seize this immortal fate!"

As soon as the words fell, a bell rang. It was the woman in the black skirt holding the sword.

The treasured sword seemed to have sense. It slightly came out of its sheath and emitted a light cry.

Yu Miao-miao's face showed joy. She bowed again to the woman: "Thank you senior. This junior will absolutely not forget your great kindness!"

After saying that, Yu Miao-miao used her fingernail to cut her fingertip and dripped her fresh blood into that bell. As the groove around the bell was gradually filled with fresh blood, the suppression of the high tower on the woman's body also gradually dissipated.

Finally, the bell detached and fell into Yu Miao-miao's hand. She saw her gently wave, and the woman in the black skirt stood up from her bed.

Yu Miao-miao walked in front, and the woman in the black skirt followed behind.

When she approached, Li Zhuo-yuan and Zhao Yi felt the skin exposed outside their clothes being pricked with pain.

One should know that this was still in the state of not opening their eyes and being in the environment inside the high tower.

A gentle wave of air emanated from inside the high tower, blowing only on Yu Miao-miao's body and stirring her hair, as if guiding her, indicating that she could now go down.

Yu Miao-miao stopped in front of Li Zhuo-yuan and Zhao Yi. She first spoke to Zhao Yi:

"You try to see if your family's Jiu Jiang Zhao name can be called to move anyone?"

Subsequently, she looked at Li Zhuo-yuan with contempt and said: "This may not be a place you can come to."

Li Zhuo-yuan nodded.

Yu Cang-sheng once angrily scolded her for being a stupid goods. Even her opponent's identity to this day was not clear.

She wasn't pretending. Just like she initially forgot to take a piece of broken jade in her hand as insurance, she truly didn't strongly suspect the young man's identity.

Li Zhuo-yuan also indeed didn't like to self-report his family's door in front of living people, but under normal circumstances, after a slight contact, he could see the details from their mutual means.

Just for example, Zhao Yi by his side, he saw it at first.

Yu Miao-miao held the bell and brought the woman in the black skirt down to the lower floor.

The last sentence she left was: "You two hurry up. Don't make me wait long on the bottom floor."

Zhao Yi couldn't help but laugh: "How does she always manage to be so confident?"

Li Zhuo-yuan: "Quite good. This way, she can always be very happy."

This time, because one bell had already been removed, the long-burning lamps on this floor seemed to become a bit dimmer, and this momentum was still slowly continuing.

This should be a reminder from the high tower, meaning that they should grasp the time.

Li Zhuo-yuan asked Zhao Yi: "Do you want to worship?"

Zhao Yi shook his head: "Forget it, no need to waste this effort. I'll go back down to the next floor and happily choose one out of two."

Zhao Yi waved his hand and walked down the floor.

Li Zhuo-yuan's gaze then wandered over the scholar and the old man in that position.

He was making a choice, and this choice was difficult.

His peripheral vision swept over the long-burning lamp. What a pity, there wasn't much time left.

Zhao Yi stood on the tenth floor. In front of him on two chairs sat a man and a woman.

Earlier, it was their two positions that rang the bell for him.

Zhao Yi rubbed his chin with his finger.

"Three choosing two, three leaving one, then I'm definitely going to die?"

The Yu family woman was very strong, no matter before or after her injury. Furthermore, she also brought down a helper from the eleventh floor. But Zhao Yi felt that he still had a chance to fight with her.

But the problem was, there was still a young man above him.

He truly had no confidence to compete with that young man for that chance of survival.

"A chance of survival… a chance of survival…"

The seam of the door of life and death on Zhao Yi's forehead began to wriggle quickly.

He didn't want to die. He wanted to live. He rushed to participate in this wave just to extend his life.

The content of the murals on the first floor quickly flipped through his mind, especially the last third.

His face showed a look of entanglement: "Is there no other, stranger truth? The ringing of the bells here, what kind of quality does it inspect?"

Zhao Yi spread his hands and gripped them into fists.

Then he erected one finger. When he waited to erect the second finger, he couldn't erect it no matter what.

Because this idea, in his mind, was only one percent possible.

Even this one percent was still less, it was just because he couldn't chop his little finger into several segments to express it more accurately.

"If it's like this, then it's too crazy, no different from gambling."

Zhao Yi shook his head, changed angles, and re-calculated the probability of him winning over the Yu family woman and also winning over that young man after he invited these two from below.

He held his breath, his heart pounded, and the seam of the door of life and death also began to twist, but in the end, not even a little finger could be extended.

"Aren't I definitely going to die?"

Zhao Yi was tired and sat on the ground.

"Crack!"

He opened a can of Jian-li-bao. This was still snatched from his good friend Lin Shu-you's backpack. That guy at first didn't want to give it, saying that these were all prepared for little brother Yuan.

When he said, if you don't give it to me, I'll go find Brother Tan to ask, Lin Shu-you just straightforwardly stuffed a can to him.

"Gulp, gulp…"

"Cough, cough… cough, cough…"

He drank too quickly and too eagerly, and Zhao Yi was choked.

He wiped his nose and mouth with his sleeve, then threw his body backwards with effort:

"Forget it, I'll gamble!"

…

Eleventh floor.

Li Zhuo-yuan walked to the person reading the book in front of him, cut his finger, and let his fresh blood drip into the bell in front of the person reading the book.

But he only dripped a little over half before retracting his finger and putting his fingertip into his mouth, gently sucking.

He truly didn't have this habit before, but now, he specially cherished every drop of his blood, fearing that just because he was missing this drop of blood color, he would be forced to eat one less egg from Brother Run-sheng.

Of course, the reason for not filling the bell was not this.

After a lot of blood had accumulated in the bell, the high tower's suppression on the person reading the book was reduced a lot.

Li Zhuo-yuan tried to reach out and grab the wordless book in the hand of the person reading the book.

However, as soon as his fingertip touched that book, a force that was still extremely strong to him just fell on his body.

The young man's body swayed at first, then staggered and sat on the ground.

"The array here is really formidable."

Li Zhuo-yuan stood up, patted his hands, then spread out his right palm, and blood mist slowly overflowed.

The young man's eyes scanned around, and the young man's fingertips continuously moved. He was arranging an array.

Trying to break this high tower, for him now, was fundamentally impossible. Even if the person who designed this high tower personally made a move at first, it would be impossible to succeed.

However, Li Zhuo-yuan felt that there was still a little chance to dig a little corner of the wall. He only needed to reduce the suppression effect in the area in front of him a little more.

…

Time slowly passed.

The brightness of the long-burning lamps had already become very weak. What followed was a gradually rising repulsive force inside the high tower.

On the first floor, Yu Miao-miao, who stood side by side with the woman in the black skirt holding the sword, stood in front of the tower door and muttered resentfully to herself:

"Really a lazy donkey going uphill, lots of pee and shit!"

…

Eleventh floor.

"Huff… huff… huff…"

Around Li Zhuo-yuan's body, fine ceramic pieces appeared. They quickly spun and crossed. Finally, at the moment the young man's hand tightened, they all solidified, and the array was formed!

Li Zhuo-yuan did not dare to delay, not only because the high tower's repulsion towards him was more obvious, but his temporary array, designed by himself, was only meant to maintain for a very short time.

The young man's hand grabbed the wordless book in the hand of the person reading the book.

"Ah…"

Pain, still pain. There was a feeling that the skin and flesh were about to be squeezed and broken, and the bones were about to crack.

The young man bit his teeth tightly, and his finger joints turned white from the force.

Finally,

"Crack!"

That wordless book was taken down by the young man from the hand of the person reading the book!

The array disappeared.

Li Zhuo-yuan propped his knees with both hands, lowered his head, and panted heavily.

It was really not easy, very difficult, but fortunately, he had taken it down.

Li Zhuo-yuan held the book and walked down the floor.

Just as he reached the tenth floor, he saw Zhao Yi, who was panting heavily while holding the staircase railing. His state at the moment was like a withered flower or a wilting willow.

Li Zhuo-yuan: "Why are you still here? I thought you had already gone down."

Earlier, when arranging the array on the floor above, Li Zhuo-yuan had isolated himself from external perception because he fundamentally had no mind to spare to attend to the movements on other floors.

"I was waiting for you."

Li Zhuo-yuan looked behind Zhao Yi but didn't see anyone following.

He then looked around the entire tenth floor. There were nine people, all sitting on chairs, not one less.

Li Zhuo-yuan: "Where are your people?"

Zhao Yi: "I didn't shout. I'm not gambling anymore. I'll directly admit defeat. I hope you'll be gentle when you kill me, given how cooperative I am."

Soon, Zhao Yi also tried to stick his head out and glance behind Li Zhuo-yuan. First, he was greatly surprised, then greatly joyful, then again greatly doubtful:

"No, where are your people? You stayed up there for so long, didn't you manage to shout?"

"I didn't shout."

Zhao Yi opened his mouth, and this time his face was thoroughly filled with ecstasy: "Hahaha, look, I gambled correctly. I finally gambled correctly this time!"

Li Zhuo-yuan: "That may not be certain."

Zhao Yi said regardless: "It doesn't matter. If we have to die, we'll die together. With you to accompany me to the grave, I don't feel any loss."

Li Zhuo-yuan: "Let's go down. If we delay going down any longer, I'm afraid you'll be pressured here until your heart stops."

"Mm." Zhao Yi grabbed the staircase railing and walked downwards with the young man. As he walked, he also asked again: "You didn't shout. How did you stay up there for so long?"

Li Zhuo-yuan, walking in front, lifted the wordless book in his hand:

"After all, since I came all this way, I just conveniently pried away one of their treasures."

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