Chapter 13 Despair

Ye Yang stared intently at the wall and said, "Get ready. Take me back in a moment."

I signaled to Ye Yang that I was ready. He grabbed the man and slammed him horizontally against the wall.

The sound of the body colliding with the stone wall had barely subsided when countless steel wires shot out from the wall seams, piercing through the man's body and suspending him on the wall.

As blood streamed down the wall, Ye Yang suddenly lunged towards the corpse. I quickly followed him.

While charging forward, Ye Yang struck the corpse on the wall several times with his palms.

After a few muffled thuds, the sound of mechanisms whirring came from behind the stone wall.

Ye Yang's figure faltered.

Although Ye Yang's palm strikes weren't enough to completely exhaust his strength, they were enough to make him pause for a few seconds in front of the wall.

In a fight between experts, even a second could be fatal, especially since Ye Yang had no time to change his move.

As Ye Yang's hand movements stopped, I grabbed him around the waist, flung him behind me, and threw myself to the ground, rolling back the way we came.

I hadn't rolled far before I heard a series of whooshing sounds coming from an angle. I quickly increased the speed of my roll, as arrow-like steel wires relentlessly pursued my body, slamming into the ground.

I didn't have time to look behind me, but I could feel the cold steel wires continuously piercing the ground next to my ribs.

I didn't dare to stop for a moment as I rolled back to the original spot. The sound of the steel wires whistling through the air ceased.

When I stood up, half of the corridor was covered in steel wires, like overgrown weeds. If I had been any slower, I would have turned into a hedgehog-like corpse.

Just as I was about to breathe a sigh of relief, I suddenly heard a strange "hee hee" laugh beside me.

I was so startled that I shivered.

When I turned to look, all the prisoners were pale with fright. Someone stammered, "Could... could this be gui wan ren (ghost playing with humans)?"

In the world of術 (shù – esoteric arts), gui wan ren referred to ghosts who, having no grudge against people, simply enjoyed playing tricks on them. They would hide and giggle as they watched strangers suffer.

If someone was walking down the road and suddenly felt inexplicably scared, or felt something behind them, and then heard laughter, they had encountered gui wan ren.

Sometimes, gui wan ren was just mischief, but sometimes, it could be deadly!

Half-Section Pagoda turned and scolded, "Shut your mouth! We're all practitioners of the esoteric arts. What ghost dares to mess with us? Don't talk nonsense if you don't know. Listen to Mr. Ye's judgment."

When I looked at Half-Section Pagoda, my gaze couldn't help but turn somber.

What was Half-Section Pagoda trying to do?

What he said seemed to be suppressing the unrest, but it was actually adding fuel to the fire.

Only low-level ghosts would play such pranks. Those ghosts really wouldn't dare to mess with practitioners of the esoteric arts.

However, what kind of being would dare to mock so many practitioners at the same time?

This was something you couldn't think about. The more you thought, the more afraid you became!

If we lost our courage before even encountering a real opponent, how many of us could ever leave the Iron Prison?

As I looked at Half-Section Pagoda, the wall on the other side suddenly began to split apart, brutally tearing the person pinned to it in two.

We could see the secret chamber behind the wall!

Old Bones said, "This is the passage to the next level. We..."

Ye Yang raised his hand to stop him. "Is there someone in the secret chamber?"

"Someone?" All I saw in the secret chamber was a table with a square wooden box on it. Where was anyone?

Just as I was about to take a closer look, the table began to walk towards us on four legs, like a horse.

When I glanced at the table legs, I realized that simple axles had been installed on them.

If this was supposed to be a mechanism, it was too simple, even crude!

Would Yi Xian Xian (First-Line Immortal), who could create such bizarre mechanisms, humiliate himself with something that looked like a child's handicraft?

When the table stopped in the middle of the corridor, the wooden box on it also turned, revealing the head of a person sealed inside.

I didn't know how long the person had been kept inside, but their face was covered in dust. However, I could still make out their appearance.

Old Bones exclaimed in shock, "Yi Xian Xian. Dong Tian Wang (Eastern Heavenly King)! You, you..."

I gasped. Yi Xian Xian, who always used people to make mechanisms, had been made into a mechanism himself?

Yi Xian Xian said in a hoarse voice, "How did you all get out? Go back! There's no way out of here. If you go any further, your end will be even worse than mine."

Old Bones said, "Someone opened the main mechanism. The upper cells collapsed. We can't go back."

"Dong Tian Wang, if you still remember our old friendship, show me a way out!"

"Hahaha..." Yi Xian Xian suddenly burst into uncontrolled laughter. "There's no way out! There's no way out here!"

"What's guarding this place is a demon. Can humans defeat a demon?"

"If you want to die comfortably, kill yourselves. Otherwise, you'll end up like me!"

Old Bones was pale with fright. I stepped forward and said, "You said there's a demon here? What's its background? How can we find it?"