fictionpage Chapter 13 The Illusory Stone Bridge: Ye Zhi Qiu's Abyss
Chapter 13 The Illusory Stone Bridge: Ye Zhi Qiu's Abyss
The curse on the stone tablet was like an invisible shadow, gripping everyone's throat.
"The soul is forever condemned to the abyss, and the living find no peace..."
Ye Zhi Qiu repeated the sentence Lin Mu had just uttered in a low voice, his voice trembling, his teeth chattering.
She gripped Su Nianwei's arm tightly, looking at the stone bridge spanning the bottomless ghost cave in front of her, feeling her legs go weak, as if she were walking on cotton.
The stone bridge was only about two meters wide and had no railings.
The bridge surface is made of huge, rough black stones, with extremely large gaps between them, allowing a direct view of the abyss below that seems to swallow all light.
From that endless darkness, a chilling, biting wind swirled and surged up, carrying an extremely strange aura of death that seemed to have been accumulating for thousands of years.
"Do we... really have to cross this bridge?"
A young graduate student swallowed hard, his voice filled with fear of the unknown.
Professor Zhou was also pale, his forehead covered in a fine layer of cold sweat, but as an archaeologist, his passion for the Jingjue Palace ultimately overcame his fear.
"We must cross. The other side may be the Queen's main tomb. We've come this far, we can't give up halfway."
Professor Zhou took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down, and turned to look at Lin Mu: "Lin Mu, do you have any suggestions?"
Lin Mu stood at the bridgehead, his deep gaze piercing through the dim light, staring intently at the stone bridge, his brows slightly furrowed.
He could sense that the bridge, or rather the opposite bank of the bridge, was filled with an extremely dangerous atmosphere.
It wasn't a physical trap or mechanism, but something that could directly affect the mental level.
"When crossing the bridge, everyone must do three things."
Lin Mu turned around, his gaze sweeping over everyone like a knife, his tone extremely stern and devoid of any emotion.
"First, don't look down from the bridge. No matter what you hear or see, keep your eyes glued to the back of the person in front of you."
"Second, do not stop. Once you step onto the stone bridge, you must walk to the other side in one go, and you must not stop in the middle."
"Third, stay close to me. Keep a distance of about two meters, and no one is allowed to fall behind."
Lin Mu's voice wasn't loud, but it carried an absolute authority that made it impossible for anyone to resist.
Everyone nodded frantically, like chickens pecking at rice.
"I'll go ahead and scout ahead. You all wait here for my signal."
After Lin Mu finished speaking, without any hesitation, he took long strides and stepped onto that terrifying bridge of death.
His steps were extremely steady, each step precise, easily avoiding the stones with large gaps.
His gaze remained fixed on the darkness on the opposite bank, never glancing down even once.
The nearly ten million viewers in the live stream held their breath, staring intently at the screen, and even the number of comments decreased.
[Watch out, Lin Shen!]
This bridge is terrifying! Even looking at it on screen makes my acrophobia kick in; my legs are cramping!
[Lin Shen's steps are so steady, it doesn't look like he's walking on a narrow bridge at all. His mental fortitude is amazing!]
Lin Mu quickly reached the center of the bridge.
Just then, the tip of his nose twitched slightly.
His exceptional senses allowed him to detect an extremely faint anomaly.
From the bottomless darkness on the opposite bank, carried by the eerie wind, a faint, strange fragrance drifted in.
The fragrance was extremely delicate, with a hint of sweetness. The moment you smelled it, it gave you a slightly dazed feeling.
Lin Mu's eyes instantly became extremely sharp.
"This fragrance..."
Lin Mu pondered to himself.
He immediately held his breath and quickened his pace.
Soon, Lin Mu safely reached the other side.
He turned around and nodded back to the bridgehead he had come from: "Safe. You can cross now. Remember the three things I told you!"
Professor Zhou took a deep breath, gritted his teeth, and was the first to step onto the stone bridge.
Chen Wentao, the security team members, and the graduate students also lined up and followed one after another.
Su Nianwei held Ye Zhi Qiu's cold hand: "Zhi Qiu, let's go. Don't be afraid, I'll hold your hand, just look at my back."
Ye Zhi Qiu bit her lip, her eyes red-rimmed, and nodded.
The two held hands and stepped onto the stone bridge.
At first, it was fine. Ye Zhi Qiu forced himself to stare intently at the back of Su Nian Wei's windbreaker and refused to look to the sides.
But as she walked to the middle of the bridge, a faint, strange fragrance wafting from the opposite bank entered her nostrils.
Immediately afterwards, an extremely eerie sound suddenly came from the darkness under the bridge.
It wasn't the sound of the wind, but a chilling murmur, like countless people whispering at the same time.
"return……"
"Leave……"
"Join us..."
Those sounds seemed to have a magical power, penetrating directly through the eardrums and drilling into the depths of one's mind.
Ye Zhi Qiu's body stiffened abruptly, and his pupils dilated instantly.
She heard a voice that was so familiar, so familiar, that it sent shivers down her spine.
"Knowing Autumn..."
That was her mother's voice!
"Zhiqiu, come down and keep Mom company... Mom is downstairs all alone, it's so cold and lonely..."
The voice, filled with an extremely sorrowful sob, came from the endless abyss beneath the bridge, each word dripping with grief.
Ye Zhi Qiu's rationality completely collapsed at this moment.
She forgot Lin Mu's warning, and forgot that Su Nianwei was still holding her hand tightly.
She instinctively turned her head and looked down from the bridge.
The moment her gaze fell upon that darkness, the deepest wounds hidden in her heart were amplified infinitely by that strange fragrance, and the hallucinations erupted completely.
She saw that in the abyss beneath the bridge, there was no bottomless black hole, but rather a woman in a long white dress standing there.
That's her mother!
Her mother was looking up at her, extending her hands, her face bearing the gentlest smile she could remember.
"Zhiqiu, come down... Mom has been waiting for you for a long time..."
"Mother……"
Ye Zhi Qiu's tears instantly burst forth.
Her mother died of illness when she was ten years old, a wound in her heart that will never heal.
At that moment, seeing her mother's figure, all her reason, fear, and will to live were consumed by her frantic longing.
She suddenly pulled hard, forcefully breaking free from Su Nianwei's hand, and strode towards the bridge where there were no railings.
"Zhi Qiu! What are you doing?"
Su Nianwei screamed in terror and tried to reach out to grab her, but the space on the stone bridge was narrow and Ye Zhiqiu's movements were too sudden, so she couldn't grab her at all!
"Mom is waiting for me downstairs... I need to go find Mom..."
Ye Zhi Qiu muttered to himself, his eyes completely unfocused, a hint of relief even playing on his lips.
She walked to the edge of the bridge, one foot already off the surface, hanging above the unfathomable darkness.
If her center of gravity shifts forward even an inch, she will fall straight into the bottomless abyss and be smashed to pieces!
"Autumn's Arrival!!!"
Su Nianwei screamed in anguish, her voice filled with despair.
Just as Ye Zhi Qiu was about to take that fatal second step.
A black afterimage shot out from the opposite bank like lightning!
It's Lin Mu!
He moved the moment he saw Ye Zhi Qiu deviate from the route.
With a sudden burst of force, the sturdy tactical boots thudded across the stone bridge.
He sped across the narrow stone bridge like a cheetah, so fast that he almost left a trail of afterimages!
Three seconds!
In less than three seconds, he covered a distance of more than ten meters and rushed behind Ye Zhi Qiu!
Just before Ye Zhi Qiu's body was about to fall, Lin Mu's right hand, like an iron clamp, accurately and brutally grabbed the back of her collar!
"return!"
With a low shout, Lin Mu's arm muscles tensed instantly, forcefully pulling the hundred-pound Ye Zhi Qiu back from the brink of death!
Ye Zhi Qiu lost her balance and fell backward. Lin Mu took the opportunity to press her down onto the cold bridge surface.
"Mom...don't pull me...I need to find my mom..."
Ye Zhi Qiu was still struggling frantically, flailing his arms and legs, his eyes still unfocused, completely immersed in an extremely realistic hallucination from which he could not extricate himself.
Lin Mu did not hesitate at all.
He raised his left hand, put his index finger in his mouth without hesitation, and bit it hard.
Bright red blood seeped from his fingertips, gleaming with an eerie dark red sheen in the dim light.
Lin Mu pressed his bleeding index finger heavily against Ye Zhi Qiu's brow.
A drop of Qilin blood instantly seeped into her skin.
The miracle occurred the instant that drop of blood seeped in.
Ye Zhi Qiu's unfocused pupils suddenly contracted sharply, instantly regaining focus.
The illusion before her eyes vanished instantly, like a flame extinguished by a bucket of ice water.
The mother's figure disappeared.
The abyss beneath the bridge remained a bottomless, death-laden darkness.
She was lying on the cold stone bridge, Lin Mu's hand still pressed against her forehead.
"I...I just..."
Ye Zhi Qiu's mind went blank, and then, extreme fear overwhelmed her like icy seawater.
She remembered.
She almost jumped off just now!
If it weren't for Lin Mu...
"ah!!!"
Ye Zhi Qiu let out a terrified scream, clinging to Lin Mu's leg like a drowning person grabbing onto a piece of driftwood, and bursting into tears.
"Lin Shen... I almost... I almost died... Waaaaah..."
She cried her heart out, her whole body trembling violently, tears and snot smearing Lin Mu's trouser leg.
Lin Mu withdrew his hand, stood up, and looked at Ye Zhi Qiu, who was slumped on the ground, without any emotion in his eyes.
He turned his head and looked back at the bridgehead they had come from, preparing to urge the others to speed up.
However, when his gaze swept across the bridgehead, his pupils suddenly contracted.
His brows furrowed instantly into a tight knot.
He discovered that the entire army had stopped at the bridgehead they had come from.
Chen Wentao, Professor Zhou, the security team members... most of them stood frozen in place, their expressions extremely strange.
The exotic fragrance wafting from the other side of the river had become more concentrated.