Beneath the Statue

The elderly Transparent Race man leaned against a stone pillar, his face full of desolation.

"I never thought that freak would be the one to save us." A soldier looked at the Ram-Headed Man below and spoke helplessly.

From everyone's perspective, the Ram-Headed Man had simply worn Prophet Bai Xiang to death.

The Ram-Headed Man was still fiddling with its frame, bleating constantly. No one knew what it was doing.

"You will suffer the Goddess's Punishment!" the leader tied to the frame wailed in agony.

The Ram-Headed Man ignored him, lifted the frame, and began wandering aimlessly through the temple.

It carried the frame in circles around the Cube in the sky, driving the frame into the ground every short distance.

It looked as though it was performing some kind of ritual.

Having escaped Prophet Bai Xiang's grafting, the Ram-Headed Man seemed livelier than ever.

The radius of the Ram-Headed Man's circles grew larger and larger until it reached the back of the statue.

When the enormous Rice Character Frame pierced the floor tiles, a hollow sound echoed throughout the temple.

What was that sound?

Mo Ling hurriedly controlled the Cube and flew forward, his vision passing through the floor tiles.

Since Prophet Bai Xiang had emerged from underground earlier, the earth below had long been filled with all kinds of chaotic tunnels.

Yet beneath the tiles behind the statue was an Underground Passage carved by human hands.

The Ram-Headed Man kicked the floor tiles apart, revealing a staircase leading downward.

Seeing this, the leader hurriedly shouted, "You cannot go down there! This is desecration of the Goddess, and you will suffer retribution!"

Judging by his reaction, something important had to be hidden below.

"What's down there?" Captain Su asked the old man.

The old man looked equally surprised, as though he had no idea there was such a passage in the temple.

Captain Su then led the team cautiously to the staircase, keeping some distance from the Ram-Headed Man.

The Ram-Headed Man paid no attention to the team and instead bleated something at the Cube.

Li Luo was quite bold. She walked up to the Ram-Headed Man and asked the leader on the frame, "Is something hidden down there?"

The leader did not answer directly. Instead, like some cryptic riddler, he kept muttering things like, "Those who desecrate the Goddess will be punished."

His consciousness was also gradually fading. He did not look like he could hold on much longer.

The Ram-Headed Man took the lead, carrying the frame down the stairs.

The soldiers exchanged glances, unsure what to do.

"Let's go down and take a look," Captain Su told the soldiers.

Sure enough, no one could resist their curiosity about a hidden passage.

Mo Ling followed the Ram-Headed Man downward, while the others trailed behind.

The passage was not long. Before they had walked far, the space suddenly opened up.

An Underground Temple, even more magnificent and expansive than the one aboveground, appeared before them.

Tall cylindrical stone pillars supported this Underground Space.

Finely carved stone torches illuminated the entire temple brightly. There was little dust on the ground, making it seem as if the place was cleaned regularly.

The temple was also filled with the cone-shaped pebble piles they had seen before, but these Stone Piles were enormous, like small mountains.

Mo Ling flew before one pebble mountain and looked inside.

Many objects made from Undying Things were buried beneath the mountain, all of them looking incredibly ancient.

"Those who disrespect their ancestors shall suffer the Falling Rock Punishment," the dying leader suddenly said.

Ancestors?

Was he saying these Stone Piles were ancestral graves?

Just then, Mo Ling noticed what seemed to be writing carved into the floor tiles beneath the Stone Pile, concealed by heaps of pebbles.

"Hundred Aspects Army..."

This was the grave of the Hundred Aspects Army!

No wonder the leader had said it was related to their ancestors.

Why had the Hundred Aspects Army been buried at the entrance to this temple?

Just as Mo Ling wondered about it, he felt the ground tremble. The stones atop the pile collapsed as though controlled by something.

The stones crashed down toward the Cube and the Ram-Headed Man ahead.

Mo Ling quickly dodged, but the Ram-Headed Man was buried in the middle by stones rolling down from both sides.

The frame binding the leader flew out and landed on the ground ahead.

At that moment, the curse markings on the leader's body began to glow once more.

"Those who disrespect their ancestors shall suffer the Falling Rock Punishment!"

It seemed he was behind this again.

A chainsaw sliced through the stones, and the Ram-Headed Man crawled out as if nothing had happened. It picked up the frame and continued onward.

The Stone Pile had completely collapsed, and everyone behind carefully followed over the fallen rocks.

What followed were all kinds of traps, and the Ram-Headed Man triggered every one of them.

Yet none of those traps could harm the Ram-Headed Man.

With the Ram-Headed Man scouting the way, the team arrived safely at the center of the temple.

The sight before them stunned everyone.

Inside the temple was a dense patch of vegetation.

These plants occupied a circular area of the temple, clearly separated from the rest of it.

Like a unique domain, the plants could survive only within that boundary.

The plants also grew incredibly quickly. The moment they sprouted from gaps between the floor tiles, they rapidly expanded outward.

Their color swiftly changed from tender green to dark green, then immediately turned withered yellow. They fell to the ground and began decaying.

New plants then grew from the withering vegetation, beginning another cycle.

Some small Flying Insects also seemed trapped within this area, completely unable to fly past its edge.

They died as quickly as the plants, and new small Flying Insects crawled out from among the vegetation.

The Ram-Headed Man walked straight into the area.

The leader on the frame seemed to experience a final burst of life as he shouted, "You can't go in! The Goddess's Punishment will descend!"

The Ram-Headed Man ignored him completely and stepped into the area without looking back.

Its hoof landed on the grass within the boundary.

Mo Ling stopped behind it, wanting to see what would happen.

Was it another trap?

Yet the Ram-Headed Man was not affected at all.

Instead, the leader on the frame suddenly opened his mouth wide.

He seemed to be shouting something, but no sound came out.

He began to change.

Wrinkles appeared on his face, his skin slowly lost its elasticity, and faint spots emerged across his body.

His silver-white hair rapidly grew longer before falling to the ground. On the arm cut open by the Ram-Headed Man, his fingernails grew at an alarming speed, becoming curled and withered.

His muscles began to atrophy, and his once-strong body instantly became gaunt.

He slowly changed from a middle-aged man into an emaciated old man.

But it was not over yet. His eyes slowly widened, and he exhaled his final breath through his open mouth. Every trace of color vanished from his face.

His body rapidly dried up and rotted, even faster than the Transparent Liquid had appeared.

Skin, muscle, and organs rapidly decayed and vanished.

In the end, only a dried skeleton remained.

Perhaps sensing that its frame had become much lighter, the Ram-Headed Man stopped where it was and raised its head in confusion.

The skull on the frame stared hollowly into the depths of the domain. The bones gave off mournful cracking sounds as they continued turning transparent.

A strange wind blew past. The transparent skeleton could no longer hold together, and fragments scattered in every direction.

Before long, the dust settled.

The frame was empty...