âWhatâs the origin of that baby?â Zhou Wen asked with a complicated expression.
âI donât know about that. Anyway, your father wasnât carrying a baby with him when he entered Chess Mountain,â Jing Daoxian said with a chuckle.
âIn that case, Junior Brother, you might not be human?â Liu Yun widened his eyes as he sized up Zhou Wen.
âYou are the one who is inhuman,â Zhou Wen said gloomily.
Zhou Wen knew very well that Jing Daoxian was saying this to firm his determination to enter Chess Mountain. It was hard to tell if it was true.
Even if it was true, the baby that Zhou Lingfeng had carried out was very likely An Jing and not Zhou Wen.
Of course, this also had a premiseâZhou Lingfeng wasnât lying. He and An Jing had indeed been swapped.
However, on second thought, he felt that something was amiss.
In the past, the former principal, Ouyang Ting, often praised him as a genius. He even said that there were two kinds of geniuses in the world. One type of genius was Zhou Wen, and the other type were the other geniuses.
âŚ
Although Zhou Wen was indeed very talented back then, he wasnât that good.
Having learned that Ouyang Ting and Zhou Lingfeng had entered Chess Mountain together, and Ouyang Ting knew that Zhou Lingfeng had carried a baby out of Chess Mountain, the former principalâs praise of Zhou Wen was somewhat intriguing.
Whatâs the truth? Zhou Wen felt puzzled, unsure which was the truth.
âYou donât have to say that. Since I agreed to enter Chess Mountain with you, I wonât go back on my word,â Zhou Wen said as though he didnât care.
âYou are free to believe whatever I say.â Jing Daoxian didnât say anything else as he led the way.
The path Jing Daoxian led was completely different from the path Zhou Wen usually took. He circled around the mountain wall with the flower growing on it and arrived in front of a ditch.
The three of them crawled into the ditch like rats and entered a narrow, squarish tunnel. They had to crawl on all fours.
Zhou Wen had already gone through the Chess Mountain dungeon countless times in-game, but he didnât know that there was such a secret passage leading into Chess Mountain. He was somewhat surprised.
From the looks of it, Chess Mountain in real life is indeed very different from the game dungeon. Zhou Wen thought to himself. This has never happened in the other dungeons. At most, there were some minute differences. Chess Mountain is indeed different from other dimensional zones.
As he hadnât gone to the mountain wall, Zhou Wen didnât know if the flower had left as Jing Daoxian had said.
Jing Daoxian had already exhorted them not to use any abilities along the way. They had to restrain all their Essence Energy fluctuations, so the three of them crawled very slowly.
After about an hour, the three of them finally crawled out of the tunnel. The exit that led to the sea was a pool consisting of stone and jade.
From the looks of it, the tunnel they had crawled into was likely the poolâs drain.
Zhou Wen sized up his surroundings. He had never seen this place in the game dungeon. He couldnât help but suspect that Chess Mountain had another dungeon.
âWhy is this pool so strange?â Liu Yun sized up the pool and discovered some problems. He pointed at the edge of the jade pool and said, âWhy are there so many small containers there? These small containers shouldnât be used for showers, right?â
âSigh, my silly grandson. Iâve always tried getting you to read more, but you insist on reading all that nonsense. Have you never heard of pool of alcohol and meat forest-a symbol of extravagance?â Jing Daoxian sighed.
âThis is the legendary alcohol pool?â Liu Yun said in disbelief, âWhy donât I smell alcohol? Instead, it reeked of blood along the way.â
âHehe, do you really think the pool of alcohol and meat forest are just filled with ordinary alcohol and meat?â Jing Daoxian sneered.
âWhat else could it be other than ordinary alcohol and meat?â Liu Yun asked in puzzlement.
âThink it through yourself,â Jing Daoxian said as he crawled out of the alcohol pool. He looked around as though he was searching for something
Soon, Jing Daoxian walked towards a stone wall and pushed it open, revealing a half-man-made tunnel.
Under Jing Daoxianâs lead, the three of them entered the tunnel. As they walked, Liu Yun suddenly vomited.
Zhou Wenâs expression turned nasty as well. Dried corpses hung on both sides of the tunnel. They were like moldy cured meat, densely packed like a forest.
âCould this be the legendary meat forest⌠That alcohol poolâŚâ Liu Yun muttered to himself before vomiting.
âItâs not without reason that Shang Tang perished,â Liu Yun said after a while as he wiped the stain from his mouth.
Jing Daoxian ignored Liu Yun and slowly walked forward.
After passing through the tunnel, there was a huge stone chamber. In the middle of the stone chamber stood a metal artifact that was several meters tall. It looked like a furnace or cauldron, covered in black mud.
âThis should be the torture device used in branding, right?â Zhou Wen said as he sized up the metal container.
âYou can also call it an alchemy furnace.â Jing Daoxian narrowed his eyes and said, âThe ancients were obsessed with alchemy. They believed that if one wanted to live forever, they had to increase their lifespan. And the best way to increase oneâs lifespan was naturally to make up for it with form.â
âIn other words, the so-called branding punishment was just an excuse. They were using humans to refine pills?â Zhou Wen really couldnât imagine how ridiculous and foolish that era was.
These places didnât exist in game dungeons, and they coincided with history. They were completely different from pure mythical or legendary game dungeons.
He couldnât help but ask with a frown when he saw Jing Daoxian circle around the metal vessel and head towards a stone door, âWhere are we going?â
They hadnât seen a single creature despite all this time in Chess Mountain. It didnât seem right.
âWeâre almost there.â Jing Daoxian pushed open the stone door and walked in without explaining further.
Zhou Wen glanced at Liu Yun and saw that he was also looking indifferent. Clearly, he didnât know much more than Zhou Wen.
Since he had already come this far, there was naturally no reason for him to retreat now. All he could do was follow him alongside Liu Yun.
âEldest Senior Brother, are you really Jing Daoxianâs grandson?â Zhou Wen said to Liu Yun.
âProbably.â Liu Yun smiled bitterly
âI heard that that old fellow became enemies with the entire Federation for a woman, I never heard of him getting married. How did he have a son and grandson?â Although Zhou Wen lowered his voice, how could Jing Daoxian not hear him? In fact, he was saying this to Jing Daoxian.
Jing Daoxian had actually brought Liu Yun along to Chess Mountain, a dangerous place. This made him suspect that Liu Yun had also been tricked by Jing Daoxian.
If he was really his only grandson, who would be willing to bring him to such a godforsaken place?
âWeâre here.â Jing Daoxian ignored Zhou Wen and stopped ahead.
Zhou Wen and Liu Yun looked over and saw a building that resembled a temple. It was completely made of stone. The stone door was open and they could see a jade statue carved from white jade.