allonlinenovel Chapter 529
Chapter 529
As Lin Yan's fingertips touched the slightly concave, diamond-shaped stone brick, Dongfang Wan'er suddenly caught a faint, unusual fragrance. The scent was a mixture of pine resin and rust, yet also carried a hint of cool, herbal aroma, strikingly similar to the spiritual fragrance she had smelled in the White Fox Shrine. She abruptly grabbed Lin Yan's wrist: "Wait! This scent... it's like a mechanism sealed with 'Soul-Guiding Incense.'"
Before the words were finished, a deafening roar of collapsing rocks suddenly echoed from the depths of the cave. Before Lin Yan could withdraw his hand, the stone bricks had already caved in under the pressure. Then, the entire stone wall creaked and groaned as if gears were turning, and a half-person-high crack slowly appeared on the left side. A chilling aura, mingled with water vapor, rushed out, extinguishing half the torches. Dongfang Wan'er staggered back half a step, only to see that the eerie light seeping from the crack was not the phosphorescent green of phosphorescence, but a warm, silvery-white, like mercury soaked in moonlight.
“It’s a cold pool…” Lin Yan pressed his sword finger to his lips, signaling her to be quiet. The two moved closer to the crevice, close to the stone wall. Behind the door was a domed cave, with an underground river meandering through the bottom. The water crashed against the strange rocks on both banks, making a tinkling sound. In the center of the underground river, on a platform naturally formed by stalactites, stood a three-foot-tall stone statue—the statue had a fox-like face, but wore an ancient-style ruqun (a type of traditional Chinese dress), and held an egg-shaped object that had split in two, with specks of silver light leaking from the crack.
"It's the statue of the Holy Maiden of the White Fox Shrine..." Dongfang Wan'er's pupils shrank suddenly as she recalled the legend passed down by the elders of her clan. Legend has it that a thousand years ago, the Netherworld Cave sealed away an ancient fox demon, and the White Fox Holy Maiden used herself as a vessel to split the demon core in two, one half of which was placed in the shrine, and the other half... She suddenly looked at the cracked egg in the statue's arms, and her heart began to race.
Just then, ripples suddenly appeared on the surface of the underground river. Lin Yan abruptly pulled her back into the shadows, where they saw patches of blue light rising from the water's surface—countless strange fish with human faces. Their bulging eyes stared at the stone statue, emitting sounds like the cries of infants. Dongfang Wan'er gripped her silver needles tightly, but the strange fish did not attack. Instead, they swam in a line towards the stone statue, their heads lightly tapping the edge of the platform, as if in worship.
“They are guarding the fragments of the demon core,” Lin Yan said in a low voice, the rope binding the sword hilt already soaked with cold sweat. He suddenly noticed that the base of the stone statue was carved with a circular groove, which matched the shape of the jade pendant hanging at his waist—a token left to him by the Regent, with the words “Suppress Evil” engraved on the front and half an egg-shaped pattern on the back.
The moment the jade pendant embedded itself in the groove, the entire cave suddenly became as bright as day. The cracked egg in the statue's arms burst forth with dazzling silver light, its fragments floating into the air and piecing together to form a complete demon core. Countless images flashed before Dongfang Wan'er's eyes: the duel between the White Fox Saintess and the wolf demon leader on the ancient battlefield, the scene of the priest shattering the demon core when the underground palace collapsed, and... her own childhood memories of touching the statue in the White Fox Shrine.
"So that's how it is..." she murmured to herself. Suddenly, her fox fur fluttered without wind, and the white fox phantom reappeared, this time no longer a flowing light, but a solidified form. The phantom spoke, its voice seemingly both near and far: "After a thousand years of reincarnation, we finally meet again. The remaining half of the demon core lies within you."
Lin Yan was startled to discover that Dongfang Wan'er's pupils had turned into vertical slits, and the silver needles in her sleeves were hovering and circling around her, each tip dripping silvery-white liquid, drawing complex sealing arrays on the ground. Suddenly, the howls of a wolf pack gathered again outside the cave, but this time with a hint of awe. The strange fish in the underground river all dived to the bottom, leaving only the demon core suspended in mid-air, echoing the red dot between Dongfang Wan'er's brows.