"": 200,
"": "",
"": "After climbing the last stretch of steps, they reached the mountaintop.
These Taoist grounds had no gate.
Or rather, the Heavenly Gate was the gate. Or perhaps the steps and the rock wall were the gate.
A large, raised altar stood in the open clearing. It was octagonal, unmistakably forming an eight-trigram diagram.
Paths ran along both sides of the altar. Following the one on the right brought a great hall into view.
There was no one inside the hall, but it was filled with statues.
The statues were hideously deformed, no different from those in the Heart-Peering Grounds below.
Anyone who had visited Buddhist temples or Taoist abbeys and seen statues of arhats or Taoist deities would have recognized the resemblance.
The layout of this great hall was exactly the same as those temples and abbeys.
"The Heavenly Mechanism Taoist Grounds... how strange. Where is everyone?" Luo Bin looked bewildered.
Zhang Yunxi panted softly and scanned their surroundings, then shook his head, equally puzzled and lost.
Luo Bin had imagined many possibilities.
With so many dangers outside the Heavenly Mechanism Taoist Grounds, he had expected to find many people inside, trapped in some predicament they needed to break free of.
He might not be able to help them, but he could tell them about Qin Jiumo's whereabouts and everything concerning Cabinet Mountain, then beg the people of the Heavenly Mechanism Taoist Grounds to leave the mountain and help.
Perhaps Qin Jiumo had gone to Cabinet Mountain to resolve a problem facing the Heavenly Mechanism Taoist Grounds? Just as Yuan Yinxin had sought to seize the Blackblood Vine on Floating Tortoise Mountain to prepare for what lay ahead at Cabinet Mountain.
That would give him even more reason to ask the Heavenly Mechanism Taoist Grounds