What was that sound? Can cultural relics talk? Zhang Yuanqing dashed over with a whoosh, his teammates following close behind.
Arriving in front of the display case, they discovered that the speaker was a clay mask with a beard and wrinkles, depicting a rather kindly old man.
Only the hollow eye sockets looked somewhat eerie.
"You can speak? Were you the one talking just now?" Zhang Yuanqing scrutinized the clay mask.
"If I can't speak, were you hearing things?" The clay mask's mouth opened and closed as it chuckled and replied.
*It understands sarcasm. Tsk, pretty high IQ...* Zhang Yuanqing's thoughts stirred. Just a moment ago, he had been wondering why there were no clues in Exhibition Hall 2.
The very purpose of instances was to temper Spirit Realm walkers. Although the mortality rate was high, they would never be left entirely without hints or clues.
Based on his experience with instances, here came the clue!
Zhang Yuanqing smiled amiably as well. "I'm really curious where your vocal cords are. So, what kind of relic are you?"
"I can only answer one question at a time. Do you want to hear about my vocal cords, or my identity?" the clay mask replied.
"Your identity."
"I am the mask of a great existence. I was born in ancient times, when humanity had just mastered the craft of firing pottery. However, it was many years later before I awakened spiritual intelligence." The clay mask sighed with emotion. "My first master was the Rain Master of the Youxiong clan, who oversaw sacrifices and prayers for rain."
*The Youxiong clan? Never heard of them...* As a top student at Songhai University, Zhang Yuanqing carefully racked his brain, but could not recall who this Youxiong clan was.
Huang Taiji narrowed his eyes and said in a grave voice, "The Youxiong clan was the Yellow Emperor!"
*Huh? Wasn't the Yellow Emperor from the Gongsun clan or the Xuanyuan clan? Even if you said the Ji clan, I'd understand! What the heck is the Youxiong clan?* While complaining internally, Zhang Yuanqing felt a surge of reverence.
The origin of this relic was extraordinary.
The clay mask lay quietly in the display case. When no one asked a question, it remained silent.
Xiao Yuan asked tentatively, "What about your second master?"
Only then did the clay mask speak:
"After the Battle of Zhuolu, my master fell in battle. I drifted among the major tribes, worshipped upon altars and used to commune with heaven and earth, until that great upheaval in ancient times when Mount Buzhou collapsed. My power was sealed, and I became a mundane object."
Zhang Yuanqing's eyes lit up. "Tell me more about that ancient upheaval!"
The clay mask chuckled. "A rogue cultivator without even a divine rank like you shouldn't pry into Emperor-level secrets."
Alicia asked, half-comprehending, "Emperor-level? What kind of classification is that? I've never heard of it."
Answering every question, the clay mask said slowly:
"The Three Sovereigns opened the world: namely, the Heavenly Sovereign, Earthly Sovereign, and Empress Wa. After the Three Sovereigns ascended, the Five Emperors held sway over heaven and earth, commanding the Nine Provinces. Beneath the Five Emperors were the deities of the four quarters.
"The mountains, rivers, lakes, and marshes all had their deities, appointed by the Five Emperors to govern the Nine Provinces on their behalf. Beneath the deities were monsters, demons, ghosts, and fiends, as well as rogue cultivators among the common folk. Everyone present here is a rogue cultivator."
*What a lofty sense of superiority! This guy looks like a kindly old man, but his tone and style of speech really make you want to beat him up!* Zhang Yuanqing gravely mulled over these words, sensing a massive amount of information within.
What the clay mask spoke of was very likely the history of ancient cultivators.
He remembered the Palace Mistress mentioning that Empress Wa was the only mythic figure verified to have actually existed in history, serving as an administrator of the Spirit Realm.
If what the clay mask said was true, then the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors were also ancient cultivators.
The Five Emperors likely represented Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth—corresponding in myths to the Flame Emperor, White Emperor, Red Emperor, Yellow Emperor, and Black Emperor. But what about the Three Sovereigns? Zhang Yuanqing asked:
"What kind of figures were the Heavenly Sovereign and Earthly Sovereign... um, what authority did they hold?"
"No idea!" the clay mask replied tersely.
"Are the Heavenly Sovereign and Earthly Sovereign legends, or did they truly exist?" Zhang Yuanqing asked again.
"No idea," the clay mask gave the exact same answer.
*The Heavenly Sovereign and Earthly Sovereign are so mysterious; it's not even certain whether they existed!* Zhang Yuanqing's thoughts branched out as he analyzed the likelihood of their existence and what character classes they might have belonged to.
All of this could be deduced in reverse from the existing classes in the Spirit Realm.
Seeing Yuanshi Tianzun fall silent, Xiao Yuan took the initiative to ask a question related to the instance: "Where is the key to the bronze door?"
"Inside the four relics in the east, south, west, and north," the clay mask answered.
Zhang Yuanqing and the others immediately looked up and scanned around, taking in the four relics located in the east, south, west, and north one by one.
"How can we retrieve the key?" Zhang Yuanqing asked, eager to milk every drop of useful information.
The clay mask smiled. "Subdue the relics."
"How do we subdue them?" Huang Taiji's gaze was heavy.
The clay mask's beard twitched as it laughed. "See that Guanyin statue? Take down the Pure Vase. The key to opening the bronze door is inside."
Zhang Yuanqing exchanged glances with his teammates and said, "Let me handle it. I'll have a yin corpse give it a try."
Retrieving the key was bound to involve danger.
No one objected.
Zhang Yuanqing retrieved Little Red Riding Hood, shook out a level-4 yin corpse, and manipulated it to head toward the Bodhisattva Guanyin statue.
The yin corpse halted before the giant four-meter-tall sculpture, bent its knees slightly, and leaped upward. Grasping the hand supporting the Pure Jade Vase, it pushed off again and landed steadily in the palm.
The Pure Jade Vase was as large as a bucket. Although its mouth narrowed, it could still fit an adult's arm.
Zhang Yuanqing commanded the yin corpse to look down inside. The interior of the mouth was pitch-black; not even a Night Roamer's vision that could pierce darkness could see through it.
He simply had it bend down and reach its arm deep into the mouth of the vase to feel around.
The next second, the yin corpse was sucked straight into the Pure Jade Vase.
Zhang Yuanqing's consciousness was snapped back into his body. His head jerked back sharply, as if he had been struck with a club.
Xiao Yuan rushed to steady him. Before she could ask, a loud rumbling resounded. The Bodhisattva Guanyin statue shook violently, its base and torso crashing against the floor and walls with a deafening racket.
Immediately after, black spring water gushed out from the mouth of the Pure Jade Vase with a roaring surge.
The black water spread along the tiled floor.
*Black spring water...* Zhang Yuanqing's pupils shrank, a deep chill gripping his heart. This was the black water he had seen in his astrological divination that killed Qingzhu!
Yet what truly made his expression change was that he recognized the black water!
Ruoshui!
Elder Dog's zoo had this very same Ruoshui—water capable of sinking all things.
The divination imagery had been blurry, so he hadn't recognized it before. Only now, seeing the actual black spring water, did he realize it was Ruoshui.
Remembering Yuanshi Tianzun's earlier warning, Qingzhu's face grew taut. Looking down, he asked, "What kind of water is this? What's the danger?"
The clay mask answered, "There is no danger!"
No danger? Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
"No, that's wrong!" Zhang Yuanqing glared down at the clay mask in the display case, his tone chillingly cold. "This is Ruoshui, water that sinks all things! You're lying to us. How much of what you just said was true, and how much was false?"
The instant the clay mask said "There is no danger," Zhang Yuanqing realized they had been duped. This thing could not be trusted.
Perhaps the key wasn't in the Pure Jade Vase at all; perhaps the clay mask had tricked him into touching it just to trigger a trap and get them killed.
Huang Taiji, Qingzhu, and Alicia all paled.
Xiao Yuan was in her Queen Bee form, so her expression was impossible to read.
*Whoosh!*
Like a water pump, the Pure Jade Vase spewed forth massive torrents of black spring water. White foam surged along with the Ruoshui, rapidly spreading across half the exhibition hall.
It soon reached the feet of Zhang Yuanqing and the others.
The five hastily retreated. Alicia cast a wind blade to slice off a corner of her hem, tossing it onto the thin layer of Ruoshui covering the tiles.
The scrap of fabric sank instantly and vanished, swallowed without a trace.
Whether it was drawn into the Pure Jade Vase or dissolved no longer mattered. This confirmed that Yuanshi Tianzun was right: they had been misled by the clay mask, thereby triggering a death trap.
The clay mask in the display case chuckled.
"In my answers, one sentence is true, the next is false. After speaking the truth, I speak a lie."
*A lie after speaking the truth? Is that its special trait?* Zhang Yuanqing pondered this as he backed away, racing against the Ruoshui.
"What do we do? What do we do?" Qingzhu panicked the most.
Alicia remained calm. "Don't panic. I'll use air currents to lift us up."
"It won't work," Zhang Yuanqing explained to the foreign girl. "Ruoshui sinks all things, including flying creatures. Once the Ruoshui covers the entire exhibition hall, we're as good as dead."
Unless they had Lin wood. Only Lin wood could float on Ruoshui, but that was an exceptionally rare material, hard to find anywhere in the Spirit Realm, let alone inside a killing trial.
The black Ruoshui continued to spread, driving Zhang Yuanqing and the others back step by step. They soon reached the end of the hall, with the massive blank hanging painting right behind them.
Watching the surging Ruoshui approach, Huang Taiji raised his foot and stomped down hard.
The floor tiles in front of the group shattered, and a thin concrete barrier rose up in an attempt to block the spread of the Ruoshui.
Yet the moment the concrete rose, it melted away like ice and sank into the Ruoshui.
The glimmer of hope in everyone's eyes shattered. Even the power of the yellow earth could not stop Ruoshui.
"Damn it!" Qingzhu ground his teeth. "I'm going to smash that wretched mask!"
Xiao Yuan suddenly said, "Yuanshi, store it away."
Zhang Yuanqing understood his lover's intention in an instant. He decisively took out Little Red Riding Hood and activated its storage ability.
The Ruoshui surged steadily forward, entirely unaffected.
"No good. The Ruoshui's level is too high; it isn't something a Saint-grade item can store," Zhang Yuanqing shook his head in regret.
"Then what do we do?" Alicia grew anxious. Having never encountered such a thing, she could not think of a countermeasure.
"It's at our feet! It's at our feet!!" Qingzhu screamed.
Zhang Yuanqing glanced left and right, his mind racing. Suddenly, an idea struck him, and he yelled:
"Climb onto the display cases! Quick!"
Without needing another word, everyone scrambled onto the display cases, each taking one.
In the next second, the black Ruoshui submerged the spot where they had been standing and flooded the entire exhibition hall.
Perched atop different display cases, the five breathed a sigh of relief.
Ruoshui sank all things, yet the display cases remained intact, proving that climbing onto them had been the right call.
However, their relief did not last long. The mouth of the vase continued to pour out Ruoshui without pause, and the water level in the exhibition hall climbed higher and higher, soon reaching the knees of an ordinary person.
At this rate, the Ruoshui would sooner or later spill over the tops of the display cases, and they would still be doomed.
Chapter 789