The only thing still relatively intact was a crooked wooden sign, painted with the two words "Camel Bone" in some dark red pigment. The strokes were crude, as if someone had dipped their fingers in blood and smeared them on.
Bing Yekong rested at the relay station for the night.
Following the route Yang Wudi had given him, he traveled three li west early the next morning and found the dried-up well amid a pile of rocks half-buried by windblown sand.
A massive stone slab covered the well mouth, engraved with a crooked pattern. At first glance, it resembled a skull; upon closer inspection, it looked more like a door.
He exerted his strength and lifted the slab. A cold, damp current of air surged up from the bottom of the well, carrying an indescribable scent.
It was neither pure rot nor the moldy smell of earth. It was more like... a mixture of blood, rust, and some sort of spice.
Bing Yekong tucked the Fragrant Qiluo Pearl beneath his tongue, then took out the porcelain bottle Dugu Bo had given him, poured out an antidote pill, and swallowed it before leaping into the well.
The walls were rough. Bracing one hand against the stone, he slowly slid downward. After descending some thirty or forty zhang, his feet finally touched solid ground.
The space at the bottom of the well was far larger than he had imagined. A tunnel half the height of a man stretched ahead, with glowing ores embedded in the stone walls on either side. Their eerie green light filled the tunnel with shifting ghostly shadows.
He bent over and entered the tunnel. After walking for roughly half an hour, a light gradually appeared ahead, and the mingled scent in the air grew ever stronger.
At the