The ancient and dull bronze sound accompanied by the mechanical "click" sound, like a barbaric land's melody suddenly rang out, as if it had brought people into that lost world.

  After thousands of years, someone finally came here again. After thousands of years, this place was finally reopened. With the last "thud" sound, the two bronze giant doors were finally opened with a "creak, creak, creak..."

  Zha Wenbin immediately pulled out his stick again, stuffed it into the bag and called to the three-legged toad: "Buddy, this time there's a way, let's go!"

  As soon as one toad was in front of the door, another "click click click" sound came from behind, and the door actually closed by itself. Looking at the gap getting smaller and smaller, Zha Wenbin was very entangled in his heart, wondering if he should continue walking or not. People are often more tempted by the unknown world than their correct judgment in front of them, and Zha Wenbin is no exception. For him, since entering this village, everything has been too extraordinary, he has already entered a game, and must continue according to the rules of the game, quitting halfway means knowing nothing at all.

  He hesitated for a moment, then decided to continue forward. Since someone had repaired this place, it must have its own secrets. With a "clang", the two bronze doors merged again, separating the two worlds once more. What awaited him next was another arrangement. Zha Wenbin looked at the three-legged toad and said: "Buddy, this time we're really tied together. If you find anything, just let me know, so I can prepare myself. Let's hurry along."

  Still he walked in front, the three-legged toad walking behind. Since entering this door, the three-legged toad hadn't made a sound, only keeping its distance from Zha Wenbin closer, occasionally stopping as if sensing something, but all that greeted them was the stone beneath their feet.

  It's very quiet here, as quiet as a sealed underground room, with nothing but myself, fortunately, there is still the accompaniment of the toad brother, otherwise, Zha Wenbin would really suspect that this inexplicable quietness would drive himself crazy.

  He tried to convince himself in his heart not to be infected by this hollow atmosphere, until something outside the stone appeared in his eyes for the first time, now only a hundred meters away from him, the spotlight had already shone on some dark shadows, although it was not very clear, but this was absolutely the first discovery.

  The three-legged toad's eyes had a hint of spirituality, and it too stopped in its tracks, crouching on the ground as if deep in thought. It was very likely that what it saw here exceeded its understanding of this underground world, after all, it was far more familiar with this place than Cha Wenbin.

  "What, you've also found something off?" Although the three-legged toad had no expression from the moment he saw it, Cha Wenbin could indeed sense a cautious feeling from it this time, and couldn't help but raise his own vigilance. Looking at the dark shadows in front of him, he didn't dare to be careless, and the Seven Star Sword was slowly drawn out. As for those invisible things, there were special methods, but what he feared even more were snakes, rats, insects, and ants - after all, he was just a Daoist, and ultimately just a mortal.

  And then continued to walk forward, those black shadows under the light, stretched even longer, as the distance drew closer, small red dots appeared around those black shadows, like someone holding a lantern waiting there.

  "What's a ghost lantern?" Zhang Wenbin blurted out, but those red glowing spots did look somewhat eerie. He turned around to take another look at the three-legged toad, which still had that same expression, staring straight ahead. It seemed there was no hope of getting any hints from it, but never mind, after all, even if it were intelligent, it's just a beast, and being able to follow him was already a stroke of luck.

  Cha Wenbin couldn't help but smile wryly, wondering when he had become so timid. He had been to the underworld before, what was there to be afraid of ghosts in front? Thinking that another group of people were still uncertain about their lives and deaths, while he was hesitating here.

  Just as he was thinking, a little boy with a bare bottom suddenly appeared in front of him, holding a small red lantern in his hand and making a funny face at Cha Wenbin from a short distance away.

  That naughty child looked like he was only four or five years old, with a fair and tender complexion that was very cute. The child was as beautiful as if he were carved from jade. Even Cha Wenbin was attracted by the cuteness of the child at first glance, feeling that the pressure on his heart for days had disappeared, and he just watched the child playing and laughing mischievously.

  That naughty kid carried a lantern, made several ghost faces at Cha Wenbin, then beckoned him with his finger and skipped forward with a swing of his buttocks. Cha Wenbin thought the little boy was really cute, so he followed him step by step. Every few steps, the little boy stopped, turned around, smiled and greeted him, and then beckoned again.

  Where's Zha Wenbin? He was delighted to play with him, when the child stopped, he also stopped; when the child took a few steps, he followed suit, his face always wearing a smiling expression. They walked like this for about 70 or 80 meters, and then the child jumped onto a large rock, waving his bare feet and beckoning Zha Wenbin to come over.

  Zha Wenbin raised his left hand as if to tell the little kid to wait for him, still smiling. The little kid kept waving his lotus-like small hands as if saying "come on, come on".

  One step, two steps, and Cha Wenbin was about to pick up the child. Suddenly, his face changed, and his left hand, which had been waving in the air, shook violently. With a "whoosh" sound, a yellow talisman paper with sparks flew towards the child, and with a loud "boom", it ignited right in front of him. The child's face changed, and he let out a blood-curdling scream, instinctively raising his hands to cover his face.

  Taking advantage of the interval, Cha Wenbin immediately put his right hand into the Qiankun bag and pulled out a net woven from hemp rope, with an eight-trigram diagram drawn on it with white cord. With a flick of his wrist, the net opened up in mid-air and spun towards the child, covering him perfectly without any deviation. The child let out a cry of pain and curled up into a ball, crying out "ah" as if begging Cha Wenbin for mercy.

  Zha Wenbin looked at the little doll in the net and said coldly, "This place has been uninhabited for thousands of years, how could you suddenly appear here? You think this little trick can harm people? Don't think I don't recognize you, bag!" As soon as he finished speaking, his right hand's Seven-Star Sword was already raised, ready to strike down.

  He had known he was dealing with a ghost the moment he saw the doll, and there was no way a child could have appeared in such a place. The only reason he hadn't made a move yet was that he didn't know if the ghost intended to harm him or not, so he decided to play along and follow it.

  But to call it a ghost is not quite accurate, more accurately it's called a "nang", this thing had also been encountered by his grandmother's family before, it's some animals that have cultivated into spirits, often seen in deep mountains and old forests. In the past, older people would say that someone got lost while walking in the mountain and fell off a cliff to their death, saying they were lured away by little ghosts. Actually, most of the time it was this kind of "nang" spirit doing it. Whoever encounters this thing shouldn't be afraid, nor should they believe their own eyes, just let out a loud shout and it will naturally reveal its true form!

  Zha Wenbin closed his eyes, muttered a Clear Mind Mantra, and when he opened them again, "Waaah... waaah..." A baby's cry came from in front of him. When he looked closely, a waterway had appeared before him, and under the net was an ugly reptile with its mouth opening and closing, making a sound similar to a baby's cry.

  "It turned out to be a large salamander causing trouble." The salamander, also known as the "baby fish", has a cry that sounds like a baby's wail and likes to live in underground caves without light.

  However, just as Cha Wenbin was about to approach the giant turtle, a branch of the bronze tree was about to pierce his eyeball. The branches of this bronze tree were extremely sharp, like a dagger protruding outward, and there were also some white bones hanging on it. It's likely that the giant turtle had just tried to lure him into colliding with the branch and being pierced to death. "You wicked thing!" Cha Wenbin was about to raise his sword to strike when he heard a loud "gulp". A huge tongue suddenly darted out, and by the time Cha Wenbin reacted, only an empty net remained on the ground. Turning back, he saw that the three-legged toad's tongue was licking its big mouth, and it seemed that the giant turtle had already become its snack.

  "Hey, buddy, that's a bit unfair! You just stood there watching me walk by without doing anything, and now that I can handle it, you're stepping in?" He said, pretending to be angry, and patted the toad's nose. The three-legged frog was as calm as a dead pig not afraid of boiling water, so he didn't take action. What could he do? It made him both annoyed and amused, so he went to look at the trees on the side instead.

  His feet had already begun to show signs of seepage, and the water temperature was lower than that of the dark river outside, icy and piercing. This bronze tree rose from here, with nine branches in total, divided into three layers and opening in three directions. Each branch seemed to have been deliberately polished to be extremely sharp, while the white bones were what caught his attention.

  The corpse didn't seem to have crashed into the tree itself, but was hung upside down by someone else. The skull and ribcage were already scattered on the ground, while the pelvis was stuck in a fork of the tree. Judging from the position of the pelvis, when this person died, his body was head-down and feet-up. Although the giant salamander has the power to confuse people and make them crash into it, it's absolutely incapable of hanging a corpse upside down. The first word that popped into Cha Wenbin's mind was: Sacrifice!

  When a person is chosen, the sharp blades on the tree are inserted under the skin of their back and hung on these bronze trees for punishment or to complete some kind of sacrifice. It just so happens that there are giant salamanders coming and going in this place, which are used as tools for harming people.

  Zha Wenbin looked up and saw that there were indeed some red things on top of his head, which were particularly noticeable under the spotlight. He tried poking at them with his sword and they seemed to be a kind of red fluorescent stone, which had absorbed the light and was now glowing red.

  Just out of the waterway, now have to walk on the waterway again. Fortunately, after trying, the water is not deep. Putting away the eight trigrams net, continue walking inside, in a few meters, saw another bronze tree, almost the same as the one just now...

  read3;