The noise came from all directions.

Around him, from head to toe, from head to toe, it was like a sea of ​​whispers, rustling and giggling. There were men and women, old and young, big and small. Wei Wuxian could even hear some scattered words, but they were so fleeting that he couldn't catch the exact words.

It's really too noisy.

Wei WuXian continued to press his temple with one hand, and with the other hand he took out a Feng Xie disk that barely fit in his palm from his Qian Kun bag. The needle of the Feng Xie disk trembled and circled twice, faster and faster, and soon, it began to spin crazily!

Last time on Mount Dafan, the Fengxie disk could not point out the direction, which was already strange. But this time it actually started to rotate automatically without stopping for a moment, which was even more incredible than the pointer not moving at all.

The ominous shadow in Wei WuXian's heart grew thicker and thicker, and he shouted, "Jin Ling!"

The two had been walking in the stone fort for a while, but had not seen any living people. Wei Wuxian called out a few times, but received no response. The first few stone chambers were empty, but as they walked deeper, they suddenly saw a dark coffin in the middle of a stone chamber.

This coffin looked very out of place here. But the coffin was dark in color and beautifully shaped. Wei Wuxian liked it very much and couldn't help but pat it. The wood was solid and it made a thumping sound. He praised it, "What a nice coffin."

Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian stood on either side of it, looked at each other, and reached out at the same time to open the coffin lid .

The moment the coffin lid was opened, the noise around suddenly multiplied, drowning Wei Wuxian's hearing like a tide. It was as if they had been watched by countless eyes before, and the owners of these eyes were secretly monitoring and discussing their every word and action, and suddenly became excited when they saw that they were about to open the coffin. Wei Wuxian thought of dozens of possibilities and was ready to deal with the stench, the claws of the devil, the venomous water, the poisonous smoke, the evil spirits, etc. Of course, what he hoped most was to see Jin Ling. However, nothing happened, nothing.

It turned out to be an empty coffin.

Wei Wuxian was slightly surprised, and somewhat disappointed that Jin Ling was not trapped here. Lan Wangji moved closer, and the Dust-Removing Sword automatically unsheathed a few inches, illuminating the bottom of the coffin with a cold glow. He then realized that the coffin was not empty. It was just that the contents were much smaller than he expected, such as a corpse, and were hidden at the deepest part of the bottom of the coffin.

There was a long knife lying in the coffin.

This sword has no sheath, and the handle seems to be made of gold. It looks heavy and substantial. The blade is slender and the edge is sharp. It is resting on a layer of red cloth at the bottom of the coffin, reflecting a bloody color and a murderous aura.

There was no body in the coffin, but there was a knife. This stone fortress on Xinglu Ridge was really strange in every way, and every step revealed weirdness.

The two closed the coffin lid and continued to walk in. They found similar coffins in several other stone chambers. Judging from the texture of the coffins, they were of different ages, and each coffin contained a long knife. Until the last chamber, there was still no trace of Jin Ling. Wei Wuxian closed the coffin lid, feeling a little uneasy.

Seeing that he was frowning and silent, Lan Wangji pondered for a moment, placed the guqin horizontally on the coffin, raised his hand, and a string of string sounds flowed out from between his fingers.

He played only a short passage before his right hand left the guitar and stared intently at the still vibrating strings.

Suddenly, the strings vibrated and a note was produced spontaneously.

Wei WuXian asked, “‘Asking the Spirit’?”

???? Enjing's study room www |E njing | co m|

"Asking the Spirit" is a famous piece composed by the ancestors of the Gusu Lan family. It is different from "Summoning the Soul" and is mostly used when the identity of the deceased is unknown and there is no medium. The player uses the sound of the zither to ask questions to the deceased, and the deceased's echo will be transformed into music by "Asking the Spirit" and reflected on the strings.

The strings of the zither moved spontaneously, indicating that one of the dead souls in the stone fortress had been invited by Lan Wangji. Next, the two sides would ask and answer questions in the language of the zither.

The Qin language is the unique secret skill of the Gusu Lan Clan. Although Wei Wuxian has dabbled in a wide range of knowledge, he still cannot understand the Qin language. He whispered, "Hanguang-jun, please help me ask it where this place is, what it is used for, and who built it."

Lan Wangji was proficient in the language of the zither, and without thinking, he played two or three clear and melodious notes. After a moment, the strings plucked twice more automatically. Wei Wuxian hurriedly asked, "What did it say?"

Lan Wangji: “I don’t know.”

Wei Wuxian : "Ah?"

Lan Wangji said slowly, “It said, ‘I don’t know.’”

“…” Wei WuXian looked at him and suddenly remembered a conversation about “casual” many years ago. He rubbed his nose and thought, “Lan Zhan is so outstanding that he has even learned to choke me.”

After failing to answer his first question, Lan Wangji played another verse. The strings responded with the same two clanging notes. Wei Wuxian heard that the answer was "I don't know" again, so he asked, "What did you ask it again?"

Lan Wangji asked, "Why did he die?"

Wei WuXian said: “If it was accidentally killed by someone, it is indeed possible that it would not know why it died. You might as well ask it if it knows who killed it.”

Lan Wangji raised his hand and plucked the string. However, the echo was still two clanging sounds - "I don't know".

A soul imprisoned here, who didn't know where this place was, why he died, or who killed him. This was the first time Wei Wuxian had encountered a soul that didn't know anything. He thought for a moment and said, "Then let's switch to another one. Ask it if it's a man or a woman. It won't know that either."

Lan Wangji played as he was told. After he withdrew his hand, another string was plucked vigorously, and Lan Wangji translated: "Male."

Wei WuXian said, “Finally I know something. Another question, has there been a boy of fifteen or sixteen years old who entered this place?”

The answer is: "Yes."

Wei WuXian asked again: “Where is he now?”

The strings paused for a moment before responding. Wei WuXian asked hurriedly, “What did he say?”

Lan Wangji said solemnly, "He said, 'It's right here.'"

Wei WuXian was speechless.

"Here" should refer to this stone fortress, but they searched it and didn't see Jin Ling. Wei Wuxian asked, "He can't lie, right?"

Lan Wangji said, “I’m here, you can’t.”

That's right, the one asking the question was Han Guangjun, and Lai Ling was suppressed by him, so naturally he couldn't lie and could only answer truthfully. Wei Wuxian searched everywhere in this stone room to see if there was any secret passage he had missed. Lan Wangji thought for a moment and asked two more questions. After getting the answer, his expression changed slightly. Seeing this, Wei Wuxian hurriedly asked, "What did you ask again?"

Lan Wangji asked, “How old are you and where are you from?”

Both of these questions were meant to test Lai Ling’s identity. Wei Wuxian knew that he must have gotten an unusual answer: “How?”

Lan Wangji said, “Fifteen years old, from Lanling.”

Wei Wuxian's expression suddenly changed.

The soul invited by "Ask the Spirit" turned out to be Jin Ling? !

He listened carefully, and amid the overwhelming noise, he seemed to be able to hear Jin Ling's faint cries, but they were not clear.

Lan Wangji continued to play and ask questions. Wei Wuxian knew that he must be asking about the specific location, so he stared at the strings, waiting for Jin Ling's answer.

This time the response was longer. After listening to it, Lan Wangji said to Wei Wuxian, "'Stand still, face southwest, and listen to the sound of the strings. When the sound stops, take a step forward. When the sound stops, it will be in front of you.'"

Wei Wuxian said nothing and turned to the southwest. Seven strings rang out from behind him, and he took seven steps forward. However, there was nothing in front of him.

The piano music continued, but the intervals between sounds became longer and longer, and he walked slower and slower. One step, two steps, three steps...

After walking six steps, the sound of the piano finally fell silent and no longer sounded.

And in front of him, there was only a wall.

This wall was made of gray-white stone bricks, each brick was seamless. Wei WuXian turned around and said, "...He's in the wall?!"

Bichen was unsheathed, four blue lights flashed by, and a neat tic-tac-toe shape was cut on the wall. The two men stepped forward to remove the bricks. After taking down several bricks, a large area of ​​black soil was exposed.

It turned out that the walls of this stone fortress were made of two layers, and the space between the two layers of solid bricks was filled with soil. Wei Wuxian dug out a large piece of soil with his bare hands, and in the middle of the black soil, he dug out a human face with closed eyes.

It was the missing Jin Ling!

Jin Ling's face was not in the soil. When it was exposed, air suddenly rushed into his mouth and nose, and he immediately coughed and inhaled violently. Wei Wuxian was relieved to see that he was still alive. Jin Ling's life was really hanging by a thread, otherwise his soul that was about to leave his body would not have been captured by "Asking the Spirit". Fortunately, he was not buried in the wall for a long time, otherwise he would have suffocated to death if he had delayed for a moment.

The two were busy digging him out of the wall, but unexpectedly, when they pulled out the radish, mud came out too. The moment Jin Ling's upper body was unearthed, the long sword on his back hooked out another object.

A bony arm!

Lan Wangji laid Jin Ling flat on the ground, felt his pulse and treated him. Wei Wuxian picked up Bichen's scabbard and skillfully poked and dug in the soil along the skeletal arm. Soon, a complete skeleton appeared before his eyes.

This skeleton was buried in the wall in a standing position, just like Jin Ling's. The pale bones and the dark soil were a stark contrast. Wei Wuxian dug around in the soil, removed a few bricks, and stirred it. Sure enough, he found a second skeleton nearby.

This one, however, had not completely decayed, with flesh still attached to the bones, long black and messy hair on the skull, and the tattered clothes were aqua red, and it was obvious that it was a woman. She was not standing, but her skeleton was bent over. The reason for the bending over was that there was a third corpse next to her legs, which was squatting.

Wei WuXian stopped digging.

He took a few steps back, the noise in his ears was as turbulent and unbridled as the tide.

He was almost certain that the thick walls of the stone fortress were filled with human bones.

The top of the head, the soles of the feet, southeast, northwest; standing, sitting, lying, squatting...

What on earth is this place?!