The lava below surged and erupted frequently, geysering several zhang into the air like fountains and showering fiery blossoms and golden sparks in a magnificent spectacle.
Fluid as water, the magma churned without pause. Its cresting waves shifted positions ceaselessly, as though some great beast beneath were thrashing wildly, reveling in a bath of molten rock.
Seeing this, He Lingchuan understood why Dong Rui had said that seeing it once was better than hearing about it a hundred times.
Popular rumor claimed that the celestial gods kept a monster of boundless might on Mount Xu. Judging by the sheer ferocity of this volcanic crater, the rumors were very likely true.
After finally enduring the crossing over the volcano, the end of the stone beam led to the grand hall.
Zhaixing Tower ought really to have been called Zhaixing Pagoda, as it had three levels from top to bottom.
Anyone walking across the grand hall produced crisp, ringing footfalls. The floor was pieced together from tri-colored jade, smooth enough to skate across.
Solemnity and sanctity were the governing tones here.
Yet the hall was remarkably empty.
Just as the eyeball spider was about to scuttle inside behind the crowd, several guards suddenly surged out from within, brandishing staves and shouting:
"Zhaixing Tower is closing immediately! All idle persons disperse!"
A chorus of groans and wails erupted along the stone bridge.
The sightseers had struggled through great toil to make it this far, and some had come with pious hearts, hoping to pay their respects properly. Yet a single sentence from the guards turned them all away.
Some went forward to plead, while others tried to pry for information.
In response, the golden-armored guards stared straight ahead without flinching. They merely slammed the ends of their long staves against the ground, causing clusters of sharp spikes to sprout from the tips, radiating a murderous aura.
The crowd fell silent at once and turned away in dejection.
They happened to brush past Ke Yanming as he walked inside.
With its last backward glance, the eyeball spider caught sight of Ke Yanming and his companions standing on the stone beam, solemn-faced, clenching their fists with bowed heads—whether waiting or offering worship was hard to tell.
Then the great doors of Zhaixing Tower shut, cutting off the little spider's view of anything inside.
Before long, this group of visitors descended the white jade steps.
Everyone understood that this meant Zhaixing Tower was closed indefinitely, with no telling when it might reopen.
Evidently, something was happening in the hall.
Waiting below the white jade steps, He Lingchuan first recalled the eyeball spider. He heard several visitors unwilling to give up, wanting to linger for another half-day.
Old Ge picked at his ear. "Fine by me. You folks wait, then; the rest of us are leaving."
"Hey, we paid for this!"
"You think you're the only ones who paid, and nobody else did?" Old Ge said impatiently. "Everyone else wants to go. If you want to stay, stay by yourselves."
Turning to He Lingchuan and the others, he asked, "Doesn't look like there's any hope today—Zhaixing Tower won't be opening. Are you lot going to keep waiting?"
He Lingchuan shook his head decisively.
Gao Jilin and several other visitors shook their heads as well. Jiang Tao hesitated for a moment, keeping quiet.
"Then let's go."
Old Ge led the group back.
Jiang Tao was exasperated. Having the final stop of the tour go so badly soured his mood. "What in the world is going on?"
"Maybe the lamp wardens have business to attend to, or maybe a god sent down a decree. Who knows?" Old Ge shrugged. "Things like this happen from time to time. Just count yourself unlucky."
With Zhaixing Tower closed without warning, people turned back to descend the mountain in droves. The surging crowd was particularly thick, and Old Ge and his group had no choice but to drift with the tide.
Noticing He Lingchuan looking back several times, Gao Jilin could not help asking, "Brother He, what are you looking at?"
"I saw a high official emerge from over there—" He Lingchuan pointed toward the turret beside the white jade steps, "—and head into Zhaixing Tower escorted by golden-armored guards. He doesn't seem to have come out yet."
"The teleportation array is located in that turret," Old Ge said, knowing its purpose. "Anyone permitted to use an array to travel up and down the mountain is no ordinary person. Mm, when we were heading out just now, we did see an official leading the way up to the third floor, looking deadly serious."
Ke Yanming had gone against the tide—entering while everyone else was driven out.
He Lingchuan's thoughts stirred. Had everyone else been expelled simply because Ke Yanming arrived?
What was he doing in there?
Did it have to do with the divine relic?
Fu Shanyue seemed to have mentioned that the Ke clan had found a supreme treasure for the celestial gods, which was why they had enjoyed nearly two centuries of honor and favor.
Could the treasure his clan found back then be the very relic enshrined in the altar today?
Jiang Tao craned his neck to stare at the turret, eyes brimming with envy. "Brother He, do you know that high official?"
He Lingchuan shook his head and said to Old Ge, "Since we can't go up, why don't you tell us what it looks like inside Zhaixing Tower?"
The other guests chimed in with agreement. The descent was crowded anyway, and no one could walk fast.
Old Ge grunted twice. "Everything in there is massive. It's breathtaking when you see it with your own eyes, but what good is talking about it?"
Even so, he began to explain. "The third floor of Zhaixing Tower is also very spacious, but right in the center rests a Celestial Book carved from Qilang jade. It has no writing; under normal circumstances, its pages are completely blank."
A Celestial Book? He Lingchuan's eyes flickered.
Did such a thing truly exist?
"The Celestial Book is carved from jade. No one can turn its pages—no one!" Old Ge emphasized twice. "Only when a celestial god descends a decree will words appear upon it, and only then will the pages turn on their own!"
The crowd let out a long, collective "Ohhh."
Gao Jilin smiled and asked, "Has Mr. Ge seen it with his own eyes?"
"Of course..." Old Ge glared, "...not!"
"Who do you think I am? As if I'd be allowed to be present when a celestial god descends a decree!" he grumbled. "Still, this is common knowledge—common knowledge! Any longtime official or resident of Lingxu City knows it!"
"What else?"
"There's also a towering divine shrine set into the stone wall at the back. Measured from the floor of the third level, it sits at a height of three zhang, three chi, and three cun." Old Ge gave an exclamation. "It signifies being 'three zhang and three away from Heaven'!"
Jiang Tao asked, "What is enshrined inside the shrine?"
"Supposedly a divine relic bestowed by the celestial gods." Old Ge shook his head. "Tourists can only walk as far as where the lamp wardens stand. No one can get near the Celestial Book, let alone the shrine. I've only heard that a divine relic is enshrined there."
He Lingchuan let out a quiet breath.
Which one was the divine bone necklace coveting—the Celestial Book, or the divine relic?
Or was there some hidden treasure inside?
And hidden danger as well.
Just then, a visitor asked Old Ge, "Is the lava pool inside the doors of Zhaixing Tower natural?"
"If it isn't natural, what, do you think someone installed it later?" Old Ge glared at him. "Why don't you try installing one yourself?"
Gao Jilin phrased the question differently: "Mr. Ge is deeply knowledgeable—did this lava pool already exist in the era of the Dahuan Sect, or did it only appear after Beijia established the Heavenly Palace?"
Old Ge pondered. His brow ridge was prominent to begin with, and now it bunched into a tight knot.
"I've got no impression of that. Hey, what's the point of asking this? Whether the lava pool was here first or later, what the hell does it have to do with you lot?"
Gao Jilin quickly cupped his hands with a smile. "Just curious, that's all. Please excuse me, Mr. Ge."
Following the crowd of visitors, the party shuffled down the mountain at an uneven pace.
By the time they finally reached the foot of the mountain, night had fallen.
Fortunately, deer carts soon arrived to pick up all the passengers, trotting briskly back toward their starting point.
The moon rose over the western towers; the excursion had come to an end.
The tour group members settled their remaining balances with Old Ge and scattered like drifting clouds.
The old ape leaned against the deer's back, diligently counting coins.
Watching him, He Lingchuan seemed to see a shadow of Skinny.
With parting at hand, Gao Jilin invited He Lingchuan to go for drinks.
He Lingchuan politely declined. "I still have some business to attend to with Mr. Ge."
Time was precious, and he had much to do.
Old Ge continued counting money off to the side. "Ah, right, we still have business."
Gao Jilin did not press. "In that case, where is Brother He staying? Old Jiang and I both hope we'll meet again."
Traveling through Lingxu City, they too hoped to make useful acquaintances.
He Lingchuan pointed at Old Ge with a smile. "If you find Mr. Ge, you can find me."
He was not deliberately putting on airs; naming his lodging would have given him away immediately. Panshan Residence was not a place where ordinary people could stay.
Gao Jilin nodded. "Good, good! Let us get together often in the days ahead!"
"Naturally."
The two sides bid each other farewell and went their separate ways.
Once Jiang Tao and Gao Jilin had walked several dozen zhang away and could no longer see the gibbon, Jiang Tao snapped his sleeves and grumbled, "That man is far too arrogant, refusing to give even an address!"
"Perhaps he has reasons he cannot share?" Gao Jilin mused. "Whenever I look at him, I can't shake the feeling he's extraordinary. Lingxu City draws far too many talents from every corner of the world."
"Your judgment has always been sharp," Jiang Tao sighed. "For all we know, even his name might be fake!"
Gao Jilin chuckled. "Didn't he leave a way to get in touch?"
Jiang Tao spat on the ground. "That old monkey isn't a good sort either, thinking that kicking around Lingxu City for a few decades gives him the right to look down his nose at people!"
"Old Ge has his capabilities, otherwise why would others have recommended him to us? But the way he treats He Yun shows there's more to that man than meets the eye." Gao Jilin patted his shoulder. "Come on, don't be angry anymore. Let's go drink—my treat."
Meanwhile, He Lingchuan rode together with Old Ge on the deer cart heading toward the main city district. Along the way, the squirrel rejoined them.
With He Lingchuan as the sole passenger on the cart, he took the opportunity to ask, "I heard there is also a prison on Tianshu Peak?"
"Aye, aye. It's behind Zhaixing Tower, called Yang Palace, but off-limits to idle folk." Old Ge bundled every hundred coins into a string and wrapped it in oiled paper. "Anyone who goes in never comes out again."
"Hm?" He Lingchuan sensed an underlying meaning in his words. "What do you mean by that, exactly? Do you know someone who went in?"
"Not a person I knew, but an ape." Old Ge sighed. "I had a nephew who was terribly ambitious. His lifelong goal was to serve in the Heavenly Palace, and eventually he really did make it in. Do you know what a monumental honor it is for someone in Lingxu City to become a divine attendant?"
"At first he only guarded Yang Palace, but later on he wouldn't tell me what duties he took up, no matter how much I asked. Then one day, out of the blue, he never came home—he'd been lodging at my place all those years."
Surprised, He Lingchuan asked, "Never came home? So he went missing?"
"I waited two days and asked someone to inquire at the Heavenly Palace. The answer they gave me was that he died in the line of duty!" Old Ge sighed. "The pension came through quickly enough, but the circumstances of his death..."
Old Ge shrugged. "My friend in the Heavenly Palace told me not to look into it any further."
He Lingchuan realized something was amiss. "Alive, there should be a person; dead, there should be a corpse. Did they let you claim his body?"
"I managed to get it back through my own ways." Old Ge shook his head. "The entire left half of his body was gone—looked like it had been bitten off by something."
"A demon beast?" He Lingchuan's interest was piqued. "Large or small?"
He was an experienced hunter himself, capable of gleaning many clues from a wound.
The more secrets he uncovered about Mount Xu and Zhaixing Tower, the better.
"Must have been a massive creature." Old Ge pointed behind himself. "And when I say massive, I don't mean little fellows like the two behind me."
Chapter 581