229: Chapter 224 A Narrow Escape

The body was withered and dead, yet the head lived like a normal person's. The body displayed a duality of life and death—neither alive nor dead, half-human and half-corpse—completely defying the theorems of biology. Yet, the example was right there in front of him. Cao Xiao felt that the biological knowledge he had studied for years was for naught; he clearly felt it was irrational but could find no evidence to deny it. This feeling of having one's worldview forcibly shattered was like ten thousand mythical beasts galloping and trampling through his heart.

Those eyes seemed to possess a soul-hooking magic. Just by looking at the images manifested through the Detection Function, Cao Xiao felt his mind being drawn in. Beautiful illusions even appeared in his mind, and he couldn't help but stare, unwilling to look away. However, his physical reaction was the exact opposite; the hair all over his body stood on end, as if he were standing before the maw of a man-eating demon.

He forced his eyes shut, and the projected images no longer manifested the other's face. Composing himself, he immediately issued a command to pull the figure into his space. To his surprise, the figure remained where it was. The feedback Cao Xiao received was that there was an invisible energy barrier around the other's body, preventing the spatial power from taking hold.

At that same moment, the opponent also sensed Cao Xiao's attack. With a flick of a finger, an object soared into the sky from beside the figure, breaking the sound barrier at an unparalleled speed and striking directly at Cao Xiao.

Cao Xiao couldn't see the traces of the attack, but during his trip to South Africa, he had set a command for the intellectual brain: any object detected moving toward him above a certain speed would be directly collected. But this time, another accident occurred; the spatial power still couldn't collect it. In a flash, Cao Xiao only had time to bring the Yin-Devouring Array Plate in his hand across his chest.

"Buzz!"

Instantly, he felt the array plate in his hand vibrate, as if a burst of noble aura had erupted, accompanied by a crisp sound.

"Bang!"

Next, he felt as if his chest had been hit by a car. A massive force sent him flying backward, landing heavily on the ground after traveling more than five meters.

"Wah!"

A sharp pain shot through his chest, and his insides felt as if they were burning. He couldn't help but spit out a mouthful of blood. His face was filled with terror, and deep despair began to rise in his heart. He realized he had encountered a terrifying existence he couldn't possibly defeat. The opponent could easily kill him, and he immediately prepared to flee into his space.

Before he could react, the surrounding air seemed to be violently squeezed. The positive energy shield he had deployed around his body began to melt away rapidly, depleting in an instant. Following that, he felt a strong dizziness, as if something were desperately trying to drill into his mind. Just as he was about to lose consciousness, the array plate suddenly left his palm, hovering in the air of its own accord. Then, the strange inscriptions on its surface began to light up, with a mysterious luster flowing over it. The array plate buzzed and vibrated, and the inscriptions began to flicker like breathing.

As the array plate changed, Cao Xiao felt the pressure on his body constantly lightening, and the dizzy, uncomfortable sensation vanished. At the same time, the array plate hovering in the air disappeared from before Cao Xiao in an instant. When it reappeared, it was above the altar. After a brief pause, it smashed down fiercely from above. Meanwhile, a visible light shield appeared on the altar, enveloping the entire structure.

"Boom!"

Like a sudden clap of thunder, the light shield failed to stop the array plate; instead, a brilliant light erupted the moment they made contact, and then the shield annihilated and dissipated. The array plate continued to smash downward without losing speed, its target being the figure sitting cross-legged on the ground.

The distance was only about ten meters, which should have been covered in an instant. However, when the array plate reached the halfway point, it seemed to fall into a quagmire, slowing down more and more until it stopped three meters away from the figure, unable to advance another inch.

Just as Cao Xiao thought it was over, the array plate changed again. The inscriptions on it shone brilliantly, and for a moment, a fierce light like a small sun lit up, making even the light on Cao Xiao's side much brighter. In Cao Xiao's perception, the figure was shrouded in a layer of negative energy so dense it was extreme. The array plate was now swallowing the negative energy like a whale sucking in water. Although the figure was still continuously releasing it, it couldn't keep up with the speed at which the array plate was devouring it. In moments, the energy was swallowed clean, and the originally stone-like surface of the array plate became smooth, almost like jade.

The evil smile on the head's face vanished, replaced by an expression of terror. Its pupils constricted sharply, and its mouth opened as wide as a beast's, letting out a sharp hiss at the array plate.

When Cao Xiao looked at the array plate again, it flickered and appeared directly on the head's forehead. The monster's hiss stopped abruptly. Simultaneously, the Hu Zhen sisters, who had been standing before it, closed their eyes and collapsed to the ground.

Seeing that the situation was settled and the monster would soon be eliminated if this continued, Cao Xiao didn't stay idle. He ordered the intellectual brain to start probing the energy fluctuations inside the monster's body to analyze, simulate, and generate that unique negative energy.

Meanwhile, the array plate emitted a massive suction force. The monster's head was still generating and releasing negative energy in a desperate attempt to resist, but it was futile. Moments later, visible changes occurred in the monster's head; the originally fleshy cheeks slowly became gaunt, the skin lost its luster, and the yellowed hair dissipated into ash. In a short time, the head also became a dried corpse, just like its body.

The changes didn't stop. The array plate continued to suck. The shriveled skin fell from the body like dust, revealing ink-black bones within. Then, the blackness on the bones rapidly faded, slowly returning to the grayish-white of human bone, before turning withered and yellow. Finally, the array plate ceased its suction and fell to the ground, motionless. The entire skeleton collapsed with a "bang," instantly turning into a pile of yellow sand.

From the start of the attack, the entire process had taken less than two minutes. An evil existence that had left Cao Xiao with no power to fight back was unexpectedly killed and reduced to ashes with absolute dominance by the autonomous eruption of the uncontrolled array plate.

Still shaken, he was secretly rejoicing while feeling a lingering fear. Even things from myths and legends like a Grotto-heaven had appeared, yet he had been careless enough to treat the opponent as an ordinary enemy. His reaction after the spatial power failed was pathetic; his willpower wasn't firm enough, and he had panicked when attacked, failing to make the right move immediately. If the array plate hadn't made its powerful debut, he wouldn't know how many times he would have died!

He rubbed his chest. Although he had vomited blood from the heavy blow, fortunately, his ribs weren't broken, only his internal organs were injured, and his chest burned with pain. He didn't care about his injuries, though, and immediately issued a probe command to the industrial mother machine. Although the monster had been eliminated, he couldn't afford any slack until he was sure no other such monsters were hidden in the ruins. He didn't want to experience that kind of narrow escape again.

To be thorough, he simply collected the entire ruins into his space and put them into the decomposition furnace to be melted at ultra-high temperatures. He didn't believe anything could withstand millions of degrees; even an immortal descending to earth would be burned into ions! Whether it was construction rubble, metal vessels, or decayed skeletons, he didn't miss even a single grain of dust in the ruins.

Fortunately, this collection encountered no accidents, though he didn't touch the altar. Firstly, the Hu Zhen sisters and the remains of the missing persons were still on it; secondly, the altar couldn't be moved. He detected spatial fluctuations radiating beneath it, connecting to the entire Grotto-heaven. It was the core of the Grotto-heaven, and he feared that destroying the altar would cause the Grotto-heaven's space to collapse.

After finishing, Cao Xiao finally felt at ease and began to treat his injuries. There were no external wounds on his chest, but the intense vibration had caused internal bleeding. This kind of injury was considered severe; if treated in a hospital, it would require months of hospitalization and possibly surgery to clear the internal bruising. But for Cao Xiao, he could treat it himself now. He used spatial power to directly extract the clotted blood from his body, and Yuan Energy had the effect of repairing body cells. With its miraculous effects, he would be healed in a short while.

Ten minutes later, Cao Xiao stood up and stretched his body. He no longer felt pain; instead, he felt full of life after the Yuan Energy treatment and replenishment.

With the crisis averted, he finally had the leisure to take some water from his space, take a quick shower, and put on clean clothes and shoes. He walked to where he had been standing earlier, leaned over, and picked up an object to examine it. This was the item the monster had used for the ranged attack; it had struck the array plate, causing it to awaken and vibrate, knocking the object to the ground.

It was a handleless, diamond-shaped, streamlined metal spike, only thirteen centimeters long. The surface was bright silver, covered in complex inscriptions just like the Yin-Devouring Array Plate. Its edges glinted with a cold light, looking incomparably sharp.

After a casual glance, Cao Xiao threw it into his space. Now was not the time to study these things. The Hu Zhen sisters were not in a good state; their physical potential had been overdrawn by the monster for a significant amount of time. If he delayed any longer, he feared their organs might fail. If large areas of their tissues died, he couldn't guarantee that Yuan Energy could fully restore them, and it might leave permanent, irreparable damage.

The sisters' ordeal was entirely because of him. He had to ensure they returned whole. Otherwise, when they woke up, he wouldn't be able to face them or Boss Hu without feeling guilty and restless.

He had thought before acting against the monster that if things went south, he would move the sisters into his space first to ensure their safety. But the subsequent accidents had caught him off guard, making him lose his composure. How could he have looked after them? He blamed his own arrogance; he should have secured their safety before making a move.

With a thought, the area where the ruins had been was instantly covered with a layer of stone slabs. He took out his motorcycle again and sped toward the altar.

Stepping onto the stone steps of the altar, he couldn't help but feel shocked. The entire altar was over fifty meters high, built entirely of massive stone blocks, each weighing dozens of tons. It was hard to imagine how the builders had achieved this thousands of years ago without mechanical processing or heavy lifting equipment.

However, he then gave a self-deprecating smile. Having come here and witnessed so many incredible things, he was still looking at problems through the eyes of an ordinary person. This was a Grotto-heaven; those who once lived here were legendary immortal beings. How could their vast supernatural powers be measured by ordinary logic?

He had already stepped through the door of this magical world, and his perspective on things should have changed long ago. Otherwise, a crisis like today's would happen again.

The hundreds of square meters of ground on the altar were covered in piles of white bones, all human. At a glance, there were no fewer than a thousand. Many had begun to weather. From the styles of clothing and hair that hadn't completely rotted, it was clear these remains spanned from ancient times to the present. Some closer to the center still had unrotted skin, though they looked like mummies. Their clothes were modern, likely tourists who had gone missing in recent years.

The stench was unbearable. Cao Xiao had to deal with these remains first. He collected the ancient ones first, intending to find a place with good feng shui to bury them once he got out. The victims from the last thirty years were more troublesome. He could have ignored them and handled them with the ancient remains, but thinking that their families might still be searching, he felt they were unfortunate enough already. Their families would suffer for a lifetime. Now that he had found their remains, he should send them back to provide some closure. He could let them be identified and have the police or himself provide compensation. The police couldn't be blamed for this; even he had almost died. If the police had found this place, they would have been helpless besides throwing their lives away. Furthermore, he wanted to claim this Grotto-heaven world for himself, and he wouldn't feel right if he didn't do something for those who had suffered here.

He cremated the recent remains into ashes and placed them in urns. Their clothing and personal belongings were stored separately with the urns to be handed over to the police later so their relatives could claim them.

Looking at the sleeping sisters and checking their physical condition, Cao Xiao felt relieved. After overdrawing their potential, weakness was inevitable, and both had even become thinner. Fortunately, no organs showed signs of failure, and their nerves and brains weren't damaged. As long as he infused them with Yuan Energy to repair their damaged bodily functions, they would be as good as new.

However, he didn't want them to know about the tragedy that had happened to them, nor did he want them to know about the existence of this Grotto-heaven, to avoid bringing them trouble. Therefore, before they woke up, he had to make some arrangements. Ideally, he would see if he could take control of this Chuliang Grotto-heaven and take them out before they regained consciousness.

He took out a set of bedding and spread it on the ground, carrying them onto it one by one and beginning to infuse them with Yuan Energy. Meanwhile, he mentally reviewed today's events from start to finish. Many things he couldn't figure out before now became clear, and he slowly pieced together the beginning and end of this mysterious disappearance case that spanned a thousand years.