The instant the bronze knife's tip pointed at Luo Yang, a wave of icy energy swept over him. Like mesh caught in the wind, he was pierced through in an instant, his entire body frozen stiff and unable to move.
Only then did Su Changming notice the bronze knife. He was so frightened that he could barely speak coherently. "Th-this... it... how can it fly? Luo! Luo!"
He shouted at the top of his lungs, but Luo Yang gave no response, as though a spell had immobilized him.
Something even stranger happened. The bronze knife slowly flew toward them, and as it drew closer, the rainwater on the corrugated steel shelter and the ground began to freeze!
"Luo! Luo, look, look... i-it's coming!" Su Changming's legs trembled.
Luo Yang still gave no response.
The bronze knife reached them and hovered in front of them.
Su Changming's right hand rose and reached for the hilt. He tried to lower it, only to discover that he had no control over his hand at all.
"No! No, get away from me!" Su Changming shouted.
But it was useless. His hand still closed around the hilt, then slowly thrust the blade toward Luo Yang.
"No! No! No!" Su Changming was terrified. He tried to pull the bronze knife back, but he simply couldn't. He could only watch as his hand drove it toward Luo Yang's heart.
The distance shrank little by little.
"What's happening to me? Luo, snap out of it! Get out of the way!" Su Changming burst into tears.
But just as the bronze knife was about to pierce Luo Yang's chest, an invisible barrier seemed to appear a mere two inches away. The tip quivered, unable to advance any farther.
It was the Witch Ruins, concealed against Luo Yang's chest.
The Witch Ruins was a sacred heirloom of the Ancestral Shaman lineage. It, too, was a shamanic artifact-and a far more powerful one!
Luo Yang was the master of the Witch Ruins. How could it stand idly by while another shamanic artifact tried to kill him?
Ring!
The Witch Ruins let out a clear chime. Wherever the sound waves passed, the icy energy imprisoning Luo Yang shattered. His body regained its freedom, and his mind cleared. In that instant, he grabbed Su Changming's knife-wielding wrist and twisted it against the joint!
"Ow, ow, ow..." Su Changming cried out in pain. His fingers opened, and the bronze knife fell to the ground.
Luo Yang kicked the flat of the blade. The bronze knife slid across the ground, then fell back into the pit.
"Luo, what are you doing? That's a cultural relic!" Su Changming's professional instincts kicked in.
Luo Yang released Su Changming's hand and corrected him. "A cultural relic that kills people."
"What just happened?" Su Changming was still shaken. "You were standing there without moving, and somehow I reached for that knife. Then, then..."
"It's all right. You don't need to explain. I know what happened," Luo Yang said.
But Su Changming grew agitated. "What do you mean, I don't need to explain? I have to make this clear! I wasn't trying to stab you. It was the knife! The knife wanted to stab you. It had nothing to do with me."
"All right, I understand. Let's go in." Luo Yang headed farther inside.
"We're still going in?" Su Changming hesitated, unwilling to move.
Luo Yang glanced back at him and smiled. "Professor Su, weren't you just laughing at me and saying I wasn't as brave as you?"
Su Changming looked thoroughly displeased, but he followed him in nonetheless.
Luo Yang reached the edge of the pit. A ladder stood there, but he didn't hurry down. Instead, he stayed at the edge and surveyed the surroundings.
Several cameras had been installed inside the corrugated steel shelter, providing surveillance from every angle without a single blind spot.
"Professor Su, did these cameras record what happened to the archaeological team last time?" Luo Yang asked.
Su Changming shook his head. "These cameras don't work properly. All the terminal shows is static, and there's no sound either."
"Are they broken?"
"Director Ma sent someone to inspect them. Every camera was fine, but they still wouldn't work properly. Phones don't work properly either. Take yours out and try it if you don't believe me," Su Changming said.
Luo Yang took out his phone and pressed the wake button, but the screen didn't light up. He pressed it twice more, yet it still wouldn't wake.
"No wonder Director Ma didn't show me any surveillance footage. Don't you find it strange that neither the cameras nor the phones work properly?" Luo Yang asked.
"Of course we find it strange. But are we supposed to stop working just because it's strange? Our predecessors conducted experiments in the Gobi Desert without fearing lethal radiation. How can we back down? And what about the soldiers guarding our borders? They aren't afraid of such brutal weather, so should we be afraid of having no phone signal? Luo, that attitude won't do. Young people need the courage to fight and push themselves." Su Changming's expression was stern.
Their eyes met.
Luo Yang gave a dry cough. "Professor Su, are you treating me like one of your students?"
Su Changming paused, then looked embarrassed. "Uh, sorry. What should we do next?"
"Wait up here. I'll go down and take a look," Luo Yang said.
"No. I'm going down with you."
"Do you want to stab me again?" Luo Yang asked him.
Su Changming backed down instantly. "All right. I'll stay up here and wait for you."
Rather than use the ladder, Luo Yang jumped straight down.
Su Changming grew nervous again. "Be careful! There are cultural relics beneath the soil!"
"Don't worry. There aren't any relics beneath where I'm standing." Luo Yang walked toward the bronze knife. In the ancestral witch spirit body's super-sense state, he knew exactly what lay within two meters beneath his feet.
The closer he came to the bronze knife, the stronger its sinister aura grew.
The Witch Ruins trembled gently. With every step Luo Yang took, the sinister aura emanating from the bronze knife retreated a step and weakened a little. It was utterly suppressed!
If the bronze knife was a wolf, then the Witch Ruins was undoubtedly a fierce tiger!
Fortunately, he had the Witch Ruins on him. Without it, this encounter would have been truly perilous. This strengthened Luo Yang's resolve to explore the Witch Ruins and learn more shamanic sorcery.
Luo Yang stopped in front of the bronze knife.
The eye on the bronze knife remained open, but the green light in its eerie pupil was much dimmer than before. A moment ago, it had seemed utterly sinister and overbearing. Now, it looked listless.
Luo Yang knew perfectly well that the Witch Ruins had suppressed the bronze knife, but he was in no hurry to pick it up and examine it. He asked, "Professor Su, how old are the relics in this pit?"
"The different sacrificial pits date to different periods, sometimes more than a thousand years apart," Su Changming said. "We haven't done isotope testing on this pit yet, so we don't know for certain. But based on what I know, it's at least five thousand years old."
"Didn't you say you hadn't tested it? How can you be so sure?" Luo Yang wanted to learn more.
"You've asked the right person. I've spent half my life studying the Sanxingdui civilization. No one understands it better than I do. It should have originated six thousand years ago and lasted a little over a thousand years, so this sacrificial pit is at least five thousand years old. It could even date back six thousand years." Su Changming was very confident.
"Then how did it fall?" Luo Yang was very curious about that.
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