"Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, Catch a tiger by the toe, If he hollers let him go, Eeny, meeny, miny and moe, This one I guess.." Hao Xuan pointed at the third path.
"Right?" he looked at Black for confirmation but found him staring at the statues once again. He smiled and gently scratched his head.
"Relax, they might be ugly but they're not dangerous."
Still holding onto his trusty glaive Hao Xuan took in a deep breath and entered the third path from the left.
The sound of his footsteps rang loudly in the empty pathway that seemed to have been carved out rock and stone. The curtain of darkness followed closely behind, maintaining a distance of 40 meters that slowly kept shrinking.
The pathway twisted and turned over 30 times, going further down into the ground. Hao Xuan kept thinking why they couldn't just make it go straight down but could find no explanation himself. Putting in lifts wasn't such a big deal here.
The deeper the path went, the staler the air become. A smell akin to rotting flesh starting filling up the pathway.
After a brisk walk of approximately 15 more minutes, the path's end drew near. He slowed down and held his breath to minimize all sound.
The pathway opened up into a large room. Its ceiling wasn't visible which meant it was more than 40 meters tall, neither were the walls.
Next to the entrance stood two more statues, these ones slightly different than the others he had passed on the way over.
These two weren't blindfolded and were staring right at the entrance, where Hao Xuan was standing.
Their right hands held a chain and a whip, while the left held something resembling a brain and a heart.
Hao Xuan shook away the uncomfortable feeling he got from the statues and made his way further in.
10 feet in, a cage came into view. It looked like an old iron cage but there were traces of a dark blue metal lining its edges.
Hao Xuan moved closer and as he stretched his hand to touch the cage, he felt his Qi thrum in response.
'This feeling…'
He remembered this feeling from somewhere. This feeling of…suppression coming from the cage, or rather the blue metal on the edge.
"Zenkai. Don't touch it, its made of Zenkai," Baracus warned as Hao Xuan's hand drew closer to the cage. He stopped and looked down at the watch.
"What's is it?"
"A rather rare metal. It disturbs, restricts, and suppresses spiritual energy in every shape and form. The natural enemy of cultivators. I can sense some traces of inscriptions around the cage. It seems like they were used to imprison cultivators, illegally."
"Illegally?" Hao Xuan's brow scrunched up.
"How could it be illegal?"
"Supply of Zenkai is controlled by larger powers. They are not allowed to be used under normal circumstances. Not to mention they are extremely pricey and hard to get a hold off unless you know someone that deals under the table, so to speak."
"Judging from the corrosion marks on the bars, this cell is about 2-3 years old at least. And I have no record of such a huge shipment of Zenkai ever coming into the kingdom."
Hao Xuan examined the shimmering blue metal and got even more confused. It surely wasn't a small amount but it wasn't that big either.
"It's really not that much. There's a single outline of it around the edge of the cell. About a few kilograms at most."
"Yes, but that's only for this cell. Count the rest as well."
"The rest….?"
Hao Xuan squinted hard as he looked around and his mouth fell open.
He was standing in front of a single cell, behind which was an entire row. To the left and right, there were several dozen rows of cells as well, all identical in design to the one in front.
"1, 2, 3, 4….hundreds.." Hao Xuan mumbled.
"Thousands. There are thousands of these cells here," Baracus corrected him quickly.
"What the hell was going on down here?!" Hao Xuan couldn't help but become flustered. This was not a simple 'secret' military compound as the others were led to believe.
"What's the range on your radar or whatever thing you used to detect these cells?"
"It's several kilometers normally but there seems to be some interference in here. I can only detect inorganic material up to 500 meters right now."
"Alright, keep it turned on. Tell me as soon as you find anything strange," Hao Xuan murmured and started walking deeper into the 'prison' with large steps.
He passed by an endless number of cells, every single one containing some traces of being occupied in recent history. There was blood, hair, patches of skin, and even some fecal matter left in many of them.
In a few, he found dried out skeletons belonging to humans and beasts alike. It seemed like they had been starved to death. Their skin stuck to their bones as maggots and worms crawled in and out, still digesting and breaking it down.
3 minutes later.
*Beep*
"Something's up ahead," Baracus warned.
At this point, Hao Xuan was more angry than scared. Who the hell was behind all this?
The room seemed like it was finally coming at an end as the rows of cells became scarce. A large round platform came into view.
The middle of the platform held an altar about 2 meters wide and 3 meters long. Around it stood nine statues, looking straight at the altar. There was dried up blood all along the floor, filling up the engravings in the platform.
*Cough*Cough*
Hao Xuan covered his nose and mouth with his left hand as the stench of rotting flesh impacted him head-on.
It was way too strong, or maybe his senses were too sharp. But either way, he could barely keep his eyes open as they started watering.
"What is it? I don't detect anything," Baracus asked when he felt the change in Hao Xuan's condition.
"The smell. The horrible stench!" Hao Xuan muttered with gritted teeth.
The closer he got to the altar, the stronger it became.
But he still did not halt his advance.
As he stepped upon the platform the scenes from the other side of the altar came into view. It was a sea of corpses. Of rotting corpses.
Bodies of everyone from infants and toddlers to still pregnant women and old men were scattered across the room which seemed to go on without end.
*Belch*
Hao Xuan keeled over and vomited. But since he hadn't eaten anything the only thing that came out was stomach acid.
"What the F*CK! WHAT THE HELL IS THIS PLA-"
He started shouting but came to a sudden halt when a face he recognized passed by his eyes.
*Clang*
His grip loosened and the glaive fell down to the ground with a bang.
"N-No…it can't be…" he mumbled while fumbling towards the bruised naked body at the top of the sea of corpses.
Her cold lifeless eyes stared directly at him. Those kind eyes that always seemed to be accompanying a bright smile now looked worn out.
Her body that was the very embodiment of "youthful vigor" was ruined beyond recognition. He didn't want to believe it, didn't want to see it, but it was right there. The words finally escaped his mouth.
"F-Fith sister…."
