The Unruly Immortals

"Gao Zhijian, what are you talking about? Could it be that you read it wrong?" Chun Xiaoman looked at the brown leather book in the other person's hands with a puzzled expression.

The content spoken by the other person was a mess; she couldn't understand what it was all about, something about life and death being nonexistent, something about something growing out of the Dantian?

How could it be that her own son crawled out from her dead body? Is that even human?

A strange thought popped into Xiaoman's mind. "Could the person who wrote this book be a lunatic, just like Brother Li?"

Feeling doubted by his companion, Gao Zhijian stuffed his hands into his pockets and continued walking silently along the wall. "Hmph..."

Chun Xiaoman was about to grab Bai Lingmiao to follow when she touched Bai Lingmiao's hand and felt it was extremely cold.

"What's wrong, Miaomiao?" Upon hearing Chun Xiaoman's question, Bai Lingmiao, pale-faced, shook her head and followed the silhouette of Gao Zhijian in the distance.

As they walked, in a short while, there was another book. This place seemed to be for storing books—only that the content of this book was even more obscure and difficult to understand than the last, it was better not to read at all.

"Miaomiao, why does your Bai Family Ancestral Temple have these strange books?" Chun Xiaoman asked the only living Bai Family Member.

This place didn't look very dangerous, but whether it was those White Lotus Banners or the content of the previous book, everything seemed very peculiar.

What kind of person would build such a massive space under their own ancestral temple and fill it with all this disorderly stuff? Weren't they afraid of disturbing the ancestors in the temple above, causing the forebears to visit them in dreams and scold them?

Bai Lingmiao paused for a while before answering, seemingly trying hard to recall something. "I... I don't know, I'm a woman, and in the past when it came to worshiping ancestors, I was never allowed in."

Just then, Gao Zhijian stopped ahead again, standing stiffly with his tall body in a way that the two behind him couldn't see what was in front.

"Horse." Gao Zhijian spoke without stuttering, a rarity.

Bai Lingmiao suddenly let go of Chun Xiaoman's hand and walked up to Gao Zhijian, looking up at the ceramic horse head which was larger than her own body.

The horse head was lifelike, as if it were real. Its two eye beads stared straight ahead, exerting a tremendous pressure on any presence before it.

Standing beneath the horse, Bai Lingmiao touched its sleek and firm body, her eyes revealing a trace of confusion; this feeling was so familiar.

"This ceramic horse is huge; it must be fired in an enormous kiln," Dogwa remarked with amazement.

"What?!" Chun Xiaoman turned her head in surprise towards the suddenly appearing Dogwa, "When did you come?"

"Why can't I come? Seeing you all running this way, one after another, I thought you were dividing spoils without me," Dogwa said as he circled the large ceramic horse.

"Sister Bai, did your Bai Family used to deal in ceramics? Such a big horse could probably sell for at least twenty or thirty taels of Silver, right?"

As he spoke and turned around, he collided with a human shadow in the darkness, startling him so much that he shivered all over.

Once he saw that the shadow was just a ceramic figure without a head or arms, he cursed under his breath and gave it a kick.

"I've been here before..." Bai Lingmiao's voice drew everyone's attention to her.

Bai Lingmiao gazed at the towering horse, striving to remember those very vague memories. "My grandfather brought me here, when I was very, very small."

"That day I was crying because I wanted to ride a horse, but Grandpa said riding a real horse was too dangerous, so he brought me here to ride this ceramic horse... I had so much fun that day."

As Bai Lingmiao spoke, her brow furrowed, "I seem to remember... the horse took flight, carrying me to play inside the painting. It was bustling with lots of adults and children who played with me! Right! There was a painting here!"

Recalling something, Bai Lingmiao swiftly turned and dashed towards the darkness on one side, the others saw and immediately followed in alarm.

They had not gone far when they saw Bai Lingmiao stop in front of a wall. On the wall was a painting, but it depicted nothing but pure white lotuses blooming on an ink-black surface, and not the crowd of people she had mentioned before.

"What... what exactly is this place?" At that moment, Bai Lingmiao remembered something Brother Li seemed to have mentioned, something about the Bai Family Members having done something unsavory.

But previously, she had been completely overwhelmed by the enormous despair of her entire family's passing, and her emotions had nearly collapsed, leaving her oblivious to these details.

"It can't be, how could it... My grandpa... my dad, and my mom..." Bai Lingmiao thought of the perfect image of her family in her heart, hesitance flashing across her face.

"Look, everyone, that small lotus on the wall is actually an oil lamp," Gouwa announced as he took out a fire striker and lit it up.

As the lotuses lit up one by one, everything around them began to brighten, revealing the full expanse of the vast underground hall.

What first caught their attention was a huge mural at the front of the hall, accompanied by an incense cauldron, which attested to the mural's importance to the original owner.

The mural depicted six lifelike black horses galloping, each horse carrying a blooming white lotus upon which, surprisingly, there was nothing.

The mural's background was a bright yellow, but above the lotus, there was a distorted area with a very strange absence of any background color, exposing the uneven mud-plastered wall and seeming quite abrupt.

After examining the inscrutable mural, they began looking around the entire hall.

The hall was rectangular, soaring up to two zhang high and leading in all directions with numerous passages to unknown destinations.

It seemed that beneath Niuxin Village lay another subterranean village.

At the top of the walls were painted various exquisite patterns, mostly featuring white lotuses, set against a background of inky darkness.

Along with the three enormous ceramic black horses at the center of the hall and the hundreds of unfinished ceramic figures around, the scene made Gouwa's jaw drop. "Tsk, tsk, tsk, even the Emperor's palace is probably only this impressive, huh?"

Seeing no danger around, Gao Zhijian set down the Wolf Fang Club he was holding, scratching his head in confusion while glancing at Bai Lingmiao.

"Miaomiao? What's wrong? You look so pale. Do you feel unwell? Should we go up first?" Chun Xiaoman asked gently, supporting Bai Lingmiao.

Bai Lingmiao shook her head and gently pushed Xiaoman away, her expression complicated as she looked around, searching for that faint memory in her mind.

As Bai Lingmiao thought, she saw a blurry figure of a child amongst the ceramic figures.

Wearing a tiger-head hat and tiger-head shoes, wrapped in a cotton-padded jacket, the child had large, pink eyes that were incredibly adorable.

"Ah Da... Big Ah Da~!"

The child stumbled forward; just as she seemed about to fall, she lunged forward and threw herself into the arms of an old man with a beaming smile.

"Ah~ my sweet Nannan~ do you like Grandpa?"