Chapter 28: Showdown

“Zuo Qingcang! What are you doing?” Seeing the dagger appear under his neck, the Old Man was startled and tried to turn his body backward, but found a hand pressing on his shoulder. A tremendous force immobilized him.

Zuo Qingcang’s expression was as cold as ice. He just held the dagger against the Old Man’s neck, even leaving thin streaks of blood.

“I just have some questions for you.”

The Old Man struggled and said, “What are you talking about? Let me go!”

Zuo Qingcang’s hands remained as steady as machinery. He said slowly, “I’ve seen people who lived alone for many years. They aren’t like you.”

“There isn’t any text on the murals, yet you deduced Shen Zong and the existence of the Shifting Stars and Changing Constellations Grand Array.”

“The secret manuals of the South Saint Sect were written in the Cloud People’s script, and you just happen to know that language.”

“You stole Dwarf Spirit corpses for decades, but were caught right when my training hit a bottleneck, forcing us to take a desperate risk and go deep underground.”

“In the Eternal Lamp labyrinth, it was you who finally pointed out the peculiarity of the Eternal Lamps, which allowed me to break that illusion array.”

“Individually, each could be a coincidence. But when you string them all together, do you still think it’s just coincidence?”

“You are familiar with this Ancient Tomb and know its mechanisms, but from start to finish, you’ve been pushing me, making sure I came here. You must want me to do something.”

With each sentence Zuo Qingcang spoke, the Old Man’s face changed. By the time Zuo Qingcang finished, sweat was pouring down his forehead, but he stubbornly shook his head and repeated, “No, you’re wrong. These are all coincidences! I don’t know this place at all. I’ve never been to the deepest part of the Ancient Tomb. I didn’t try to use you.” He looked as if he were truly wronged, constantly defending himself.

Originally, based on Zuo Qingcang’s judgment, the Old Man had been deceptive toward him. From their first meeting, the Old Man deliberately concealed things like his identity, age, and past, and continuously guided him toward the deepest part of the Ancient Tomb.

So he chose to strike first, before they reached the coffin, to force out the Tomb’s true secrets.

“I’m sorry. Even though you saved me, if you don’t clear up my doubts, I won’t let you go.” Zuo Qingcang’s hand slowly moved down from the Old Man’s shoulder.

“There’s one thing I never told you.”

“After I connected the four tips and torso with the Innate Primordial Breath, I already left the Ancient Tomb through the tree hole while you were asleep every night.”

“How is that possible?!”

Before the Old Man finished speaking, Zuo Qingcang tightly gripped the Old Man’s pulse point and pressed him toward the ground. He straddled the Old Man’s lower back with his legs.

The entire process was fluid. With Zuo Qingcang’s current strength and skill, the Old Man couldn’t resist at all and was pressed to the ground. As for the Dwarf Spirit corpses he had been carrying on his back, they had all been thrown to the ground by Zuo Qingcang at some point.

The dagger in his hand slid over the Old Man’s spine like a snake flicking its tongue. Then Zuo Qingcang thrust the dagger into the ground right by the Old Man’s nose. Pressing the other’s head down, he said slowly, “How could I trust just the one-sided words of a stranger? I went out to confirm whether the whole Island was really enclosed by the so-called Shifting Stars and Changing Constellations Grand Array.”

“Unfortunately, there is no such Shifting Stars and Changing Constellations Grand Array. I built a raft and went out to sea. I didn’t feel any force affecting me or preventing me from leaving.”

Although pinned to the ground, the Old Man kept struggling. “Impossible! The outside is full of monsters—Giant Elephants, Yin Women. How did you escape?”

Zuo Qingcang naturally didn’t tell him how he used Dwarf Spirit corpses to lure monsters away, how he spent nearly several weeks during the Old Man’s sleep times confirming the Yin Women’s habits, memorizing the tree hole terrain bit by bit, how he covered his body with root mud, and then relied on the explosive power gained from practicing Authentic Transmission Martial Arts to hold his breath and sneak out.

Because each time he went out, to avoid the Old Man noticing, he had to return to the Ancient Tomb within two hours. The risks he took were no less than those later in the Eternal Lamp Labyrinth. Even now, he couldn’t say each trip was completely safe.

He just exaggerated, “Don’t worry about how I got out. The point is, I can now enter and leave the Ancient Tomb freely. The so-called Shifting Stars and Changing Constellations Grand Array doesn’t exist or has long been deactivated. I can leave anytime I want. If you tell me the secrets you’re hiding, I can take you with me.”

“The Shifting Stars and Changing Constellations Grand Array is really gone?” The Old Man became agitated. “Then we can leave right away! Why are you still holding me down? I haven’t hidden any secrets from you. What you said really are coincidences. I saved you—don’t you trust me?”

Feeling the pulse under his fingers, Zuo Qingcang stared intently into the Old Man’s eyes. He was using his experience and previously learned interrogation and psychological knowledge to judge if the other was lying.

‘It seems he isn’t lying…’

‘Could it really be coincidence?’

‘The Shifting Stars and Changing Constellations Grand Array hasn’t disappeared, but judging by his reaction, he doesn’t seem to realize I’m lying.’

The Old Man beneath him shook and shouted, “Let me go! Zuo Qingcang, I’m telling you, you’ve wronged me! I haven’t spoken a single lie from the beginning. If I ever deceived you, may I die a horrible death!”

“If I really knew everything, why would I take so many risks? I would have come down myself, turned off all the arrays and Dao Arts, and left directly!”

Zuo Qingcang frowned. He began to hesitate. Not about whether his suspicion was wrong, but about whether to immediately knock out the Old Man, remove this unstable factor, and then solve the Tomb’s final mystery alone, or to tie him up and go check Shen Zong’s coffin by himself.

This hesitation lasted less than a second. Just as Zuo Qingcang decided to tie up the Old Man with rope, something unexpected happened.

It was the moment the Old Man looked at Zuo Qingcang. Their eyes met. Then, in the instant the Old Man blinked, Zuo Qingcang also reacted immediately, tilting his head back and closing his eyes.

But compared to blinking, his action was still too slow.

‘Blink and Spark Fire? He shouldn’t have had time to absorb Spiritual Power during this period. He shouldn’t have any Spiritual Power left to perform Dao Arts.’

A burning sensation came from outside his eyelids. It was the Dao Art called Blink and Spark Fire. Scorching heat ignited directly on his eyelids. Zuo Qingcang grunted, and the dagger in his hand stabbed fiercely toward the Old Man’s back.

The dagger cut into the Old Man’s back. As Zuo Qingcang twisted it, it made squelching sounds. He forced his eyes open; tears kept streaming out. He could vaguely see that the Old Man beneath him seemed drenched in red from blood.

However, because of the Old Man’s struggles, his stab didn’t hit the heart.

Amid this tear-blurred vision, Zuo Qingcang heard the Old Man’s voice. Though the voice was the same, it carried a unique coldness and isolation:

“I told you, fire is the force closest to Spiritual Power in the world. It could even be said to be a form of Spiritual Power itself. It is also the easiest force to absorb and use.

That’s why Taoist Priests who practice fire Dao Arts progress the fastest and absorb Spiritual Power the quickest.”

If Zuo Qingcang could see the Old Man’s face clearly now, he would notice a dramatic change in his expression and aura—as if he’d become a different person. A great malice emanated from him.

‘Is it because light and heat themselves are a form of radiation, so they absorb particularly quickly?

Then, by being near the magma terrain for just a short while, he absorbed the heat here?’ While these thoughts crossed his mind, Zuo Qingcang attacked again without hesitation.

He thrust the dagger in his hand toward the source of the voice, aiming for the head, while his other hand reached for the Old Man’s shoulder, intending to dislocate the joint.