Enchantment?

Ling Zhang was astonished. "Isn't that kind of stuff fraudulent?"

Ji Yanlai shook his head. "Witchcraft does exist, but it's not with magic powers that an enchantment is performed. For an enchantment to work, a certain kind of medication is required, which mainly affects the target's mind. It bears some similarity to mind control."

Except for members of the Millennium Pavilion, nobody present had ever heard of this before.

"No wonder I couldn't find the cause," said Mr. Mu.

"This stone city strikes me as very ominous. We need to be extra careful," Ji Yanlai continued.

Frowning slightly, Ling Zhang looked through the city gates and saw a deserted street flanked by stone houses, each of which was lower than the one next door closer to the middlemost building which was the highest of all. He felt that this stone city was more like a labyrinth than a place to accommodate people. On top of that, the whole city was dusty and gloomy-looking. Even the gemstones inlaid in the city gates were not very shiny but appeared faintly lackluster, which was why it had been after they approached the gateway that they had noticed the gates were inset with gemstones.

He had found this stone city rather repellent when he had got close to it after walking out of the Formation consisting of stone statues, but due to the sneak attacks from the cannibals and the pirates, he had not dwelled on the reason for it, but now, having heard Ji Yanlai's words, he came to realize that that feeling of his had been disquiet. This stone city struck him as dangerous, making him feel subdued.

"You ... " Ling Zhang subconsciously turned to look at Yuwen Tong. "Maybe you should just ... "

Yuwen Tong knew what he wanted to say. "I'm going with you."

Ling Zhang hesitated. Ji Yanlai, as he noticed this, said, "It's getting dark, and there's no telling what other dangers those staying outside the city might be faced with. It's best if we stick together."

Ling Zhang inclined his head. "Okay."

Then he added, "Maomao, come over here."

Ling Maomao walked over, and Ji Xiaocong, who had been in his company all along, naturally followed in his wake.

Ling Zhang said, "I want you two staying close to us all the time, and do not get separated."

Ling Maomao and Ji Xiaocong both promised they would do as he said.

Then Ling Zhang shifted his gaze to Ling Zhaowu.

Ji Yin standing beside him said, "Don't worry. I'll take good care of your father."

Feeling treated like a child, Ling Zhaowu gave a little cough and expressed his gratitude. "Thank you, Father-in-law."

Everybody having prepared themselves, they entered the stone city.

At first all of them were vigilantly looking around, but after a while someone gave a sudden exclamation of amazement as his eyes fell on the ground. "Wh–What are these paving slabs made of? Gold?"

Gold? Everybody looked down and were flabbergasted.

The streets in this city were actually paved with gold slabs!

But for some unknown reason, all the paving slabs were carpeted in black dirt which kept people from seeing the gold. It was at the sparse spots where the hardened dirt had peeled off that people could see small patches of gold slabs.

Someone among the crowd gasped, awed by the extravagance of this stone city.

"The city gates are inset with gemstones, and the roads are paved with gold slabs. How rich did this stone city used to be exactly?" Yuwen Jin couldn't help but wonder aloud.

Many people involuntarily lowered their heads. Some even crouched down and removed patches of dirt beside their feet, revealing the shiny gold beneath immediately.

"Eek? They are not really gold slabs. It seems they're just stone slabs with a thin layer of gold on top." Yuwen Jin also squatted down and, studying those slabs, let out an apparently relieved sigh. "This makes me feel better. I'd be overwhelmed if all these were gold slabs the thickness of a fist."

Ling Zhang, " ... "

Although the gold layer was not as thick as a fist, the total amount of the gold would still be huge if all the paving slabs in this city had been gilded.

"Nobody has taken any of this gold or those gemstones in the city gates. This is so strange," said Ji Yin.

On hearing his words, all the others, awestruck by the roads paved with gold, instantly came to their senses.

That was true. Leaving the others aside, those pirates who valued wealth as much as their lives would on no account walk away from these gilded slabs. Why hadn't any of them been taken away?

"Either they were forced to give up these gilded slabs because of some danger, or there's some treasure that struck them as more alluring," said Yuwen Tong in a quiet voice. Ling Zhang and all the others standing beside him heard these words.

They had been on the alert all along and hitherto had not found anything dangerous. It did not seem likely that those pirates had given up because of danger.

So the second possibility should be the truth.

"Keep moving. Do not touch the gold on the ground," ordered Yuwen Tong.

Most people sensibly followed the orders, but there were also a few soldiers mesmerized by the gold on the ground. Though they managed to restrain themselves, their eyes were still fixed on the gold in spite of themselves.

Ling Zhang's forehead corrugated in a slight frown as he noticed this. It was not that he found these soldiers' desire for money unacceptable, but he had a hunch that if things went on like this, these soldiers might be blinded by the treasure on this island and do unexpected things.

Apart from Ling Zhang, Yuwen Tong and some others also observed this.

"We should give them a word of warning, and after that, how long they could resist the temptation will solely depend on their own willpower," said Ji Yin.

They consulted with each other for a while before Ling Zhang cautioned aloud, "All these gilded paving slabs are cursed. Those pirates we killed just now were living proof of it. Anyone who succumbs to temptation and loses his sanity will end up just like those pirates!"

The soldiers had always held Ling Zhang and Yuwen Tong in awe and veneration; in addition, Ling Zhang specially mobilized his internal energy when speaking, so his warning made all the soldiers' hearts lurch. Those temporarily entranced by the gold, in particular, felt as though something had just hit them hard and immediately jerked out of their reverie, their faces ghastly white, not daring glance at the gold on the ground again.

Having noticed that it worked, Ling Zhang was secretly relieved. It seemed that he would have to remind them from time to time during the remainder of the trip.

...

"The streets are deserted."

Yuwen Jin, leading some men, searched the areas on the two sides but not a single living thing was to be seen. It was as though the cannibals and the pirates they had encountered not long ago had all been their hallucinations. This city was unduly quiet.

"Check the houses."

The houses flanking the main street appeared to be stores and all the doors were wide open, allowing people to see what was inside.

There had probably been a lot of furnishings in these houses a long time ago, but now all of them were in wild disorder, their floor strewn with sundry items which had grotesque shells attached to them. Not only these sundry items but also the walls and beams of every house along this street bore traces of these mollusks.

The soldiers entered these stores and began to search the inner rooms and the dwellings in the alleys.

"AARGH!" someone suddenly screamed.

This was the first scream, which was closely followed by the second and the third. The soldiers either were veterans of a hundred battles or had been training on a frequent basis, so they scared much less easily than ordinary people did, but they still screeched in horror one after another. It seemed that they had seen terrible things.

Ling Zhang's, Yuwen Tong's and the others' faces all changed and with that they hurried into the nearest store and went to the inner room.

On entering it, they spotted what had made the soldiers shriek in fright – bones and dead bodies strewn across the floor.

They were all human bones and could be seen everywhere in the inner room. Some skeletons were still complete, but most had fallen apart. The shin bones or arm bones of every skeleton, complete ones and incomplete ones, were chained to some large iron chests, and the chains were quite rusty and covered with shellfish.

These iron chests were tightly closed, but the locks were broken. Judging from the traces, it hadn't been long since they'd been broken and someone had opened the chests.

As regards the corpses ... These dead men were wearing different clothes. Some of them had rotten, but some were quite fresh. Those fresh ones had terrified expressions on their faces, their mouths wide open, their eyes staring fixedly in the direction of the doorway.

It had been these weird-looking dead bodies that had frightened the soldiers.

All those dead bodies were in the innermost corner of the room. They seemed to have been cowering and trying to hide before death, but they had still died eventually, and they had seen something horrifying before breathing their last.

What with the strong foul smell filling the room, they all walked out, an ugly look on each of their faces.

Mr. Mu, having roughly examined those corpses, exited the room and said, "All of them were scared to death."

Scared to death?

They had seen something terribly frightening and literally been scared to death, but none of them had any visible wounds.

"What on earth did they see?" Ling Zhang frowned.

Yuwen Tong appeared rather grave. "The problem is not that the cause of their deaths was horror, but that as things stand, this house is not the only place that witnessed this kind of occurrence."

The others' countenance changed once again at these words.

Soon a soldier rushed over and reported, "Sire, we found bones and dead bodies in a house over there, along with chests of gold, gemstones and jade ware."

"Sire, there are dead bodies, bones and treasure in that house as well!"

"Sire, we discovered ... "

The reports of all soldiers that had returned were of the same contents.

In other words, every house in this area had bones, corpses, gold, gemstones and jade ware in it.

This had not been a chance event. It had happened in a lot of locations.

Moreover, currently this was the only area they had searched. The stone city was vast, and more than half of it apart from the palace in the center had not been checked yet.

They had all come to realize what this meant.

"It would seem the reason why none of those that came to this island in the past two years returned home was because they died here," said Ji Yin slowly.

Everybody kept silent.

Yuwen Tong broke the silence. "It's getting dark. No matter what, we need to find somewhere to spend the night. Brother Zhang, you may take some men and search nearby areas with your father, grandfather and the Clan Leader, but don't go too far. Make sure you come back in time. I'll go and make arrangements for the soldiers to find someplace to rest."

Ling Zhang inclined his head.

When Yuwen Tong had left, Ling Zhang said to the others, "Maomao, Cong, I want you two and Mr. Mu to stay with the Clan Leader. I'll go this way with my father and my grandfather." Then he turned to the couple of elders and continued, "You may go that way. The others are to split into groups of six and fan out to search the city, but don't go too far. There might be unknown dangers in this place. If any of you find anything, come back immediately."

The others nodded and split up.

Ling Zhang, Ji Yin and Ling Zhaowu entered an alley beside the street which had just been searched by the soldiers as well, and which led to another street.

The sun would go down soon, and the alley was rather dim, for the houses blocked the sunlight.

"I'm sure there're people still alive in this city, but they've been laying low all this time. I wonder what they are up to," said Ling Zhaowu.

"Alas. I can't understand why the former Clan Leader hasn't left this place – if he's really here," sighed Ji Yin.

Ling Zhang did not speak. He looked up in the direction of the midmost palace in the distance, which was quite high and stood there like a giant beast, overlooking the whole city, making him feel subdued. It wasn't really a pleasant sight, for it struck him that their each and every move in this city was being watched.

"Zhang'er?" called Ling Zhaowu as he noticed that Ling Zhang's mind was wandering.

Ling Zhang came out of his reverie and said, "I'm fine. It's just that that towering palace gives me a very foreboding feeling."

On hearing this, Ling Zhaowu and Ji Yin looked up at it and with that both of them frowned slightly.

"This place is indeed quite queer. It's strewn with gold and jewelries exactly as rumor says it is, but none of the rumors mention anything about the cannibals on this island. The one who started those rumors has lured one batch of people after another here to be killed in the past two years. I wonder what he's up to," Ling Zhaowu said.

Ling Zhang's heart suddenly gave a lurch at these words of Ling Zhaowu's. He looked up at the lofty, distant palace. "If there's indeed an answer, it should be in that palace."

Ji Yin and Ling Zhaowu exchanged a look. Both of them were inclined to go there, but it was getting dark, and neither of them knew anything about what was in there. They could easily fall prey to possible traps if they went there precipitously, so they dropped the idea.

"There is, in addition, another thing that strikes me as very weird. Those dead bodies we saw outside the city had had their flesh eaten by either the cannibals or the spooky snakes, but the corpses inside this city are all intact. Even their clothes are undamaged. We haven't seen any creepy snakes or cannibals since our entry into this city. The only living things we encountered were a group of demented, presumably enchanted pirates," said Ling Zhang.

"Are you saying that both the cannibals and the snakes are avoiding this city?" asked Ling Zhaowu.

Ling Zhang nodded. "But it's possible that they're hiding elsewhere, seeing as we've searched only a small part of the city."

"We should've taken a prisoner or two," remarked Ji Yin.

Neither Ling Zhang nor Ling Zhaowu said anything. Those cannibals had been so repulsive. Who could possibly have thought of taking prisoners? Besides, even if they had taken some cannibals prisoner, they wouldn't be able to drag anything out of the prisoners, for they couldn't understand the language spoken by the cannibals.

Next they searched the other houses, and what they discovered was no different from what they had found previously. There were corpses and treasure chests in every house. The more isolated the house was, the more dead bodies there were inside it. It seemed the victims had believed that such houses were safer, that by hiding in this kind of secluded corners they stood a better chance of eluding whatever it was that they were scared of, but eventually they had still died in those houses.

"Mr. Mu said all of them had been scared to death. Either there was indeed something in here, or they had some frightening hallucinations," said Ji Yin.

Ling Zhang said with a thoughtful look on his face. "You've got a point, Grandfather. The two pirates we took prisoner, the Clan Leader said he saw through their eyes gold, bones and insubstantial, black figures, that they were under some kind of enchantment. Judging from the terror on the pirates' faces, I think maybe the victims in here were indeed all under some kind of spell and had some hallucinations which caused their deaths."

They would feel slightly relieved if those things really proved to be hallucinations, for at least it would mean that those terrible, seemingly paranormal monsters didn't exist.

Wait ... monsters?

Ling Zhang once again recalled the words of that pirate who had managed to flee this island. He had said that there were treasure, cannibals and people-eating monsters on this island. Could it be possible that by monsters he had been referring to the hallucinations they had had rather than those creepy snakes?

Ling Zhang told Ji Yin and Ling Zhaowu about this speculation of his.

Ji Yin and Ling Zhaowu felt that his conjecture was plausible, for those pirates' words didn't make sense. Surely there weren't really any people-eating monsters in this world?

"We should go back. It's already dark," said Ling Zhaowu.

The three of them returned to the spot where they had parted from the others not long ago. Yuwen Tong and the others had found a fit place for them to camp out. It was an open field near the city gates.

What with the bones and dead bodies, those houses struck the soldiers as quite spooky, despite the fact that there was also gold inside them. Yuwen Tong was not inclined to have the soldiers sleep in those houses either, for he did not want his soldiers to end up like those dead men found in the houses. Therefore, he would rather have them encamp elsewhere, though the conditions were poorer.

When Ling Zhang and the other two returned, the soldiers came back as well.

None of them found any useful information. All they had discovered was deserted houses. No living people had been spotted.

"Were those pirates who ambushed us earlier this day the only ones alive in this city, by any chance? All the others are dead?" said Yuwen Jin speculatively, a frustrated look on his face.

The others frowned. Ling Zhang glanced at Ji Yanlai's countenance and said to Yuwen Jin, "Stop taking wild guesses. There's no way we're the only ones alive here. This stone city is huge. They should be hiding somewhere. Even those pirates managed to escape. It doesn't make sense if the couple of them were the only ones who made it out of this place. Maybe those from the Fangcun Kingdom are in this city as well."

Yuwen Jin, catching on, hurriedly said, "It was just a casual remark. How is it possible there're no other living people?"

Ji Yanlai, however, didn't seem to be bothered by this. "I've been sensing my father being here again since our entry into this city, but although I know he's in here, I have no idea where he's hiding exactly. Just now I looked for him but didn't find any clues. It seems we'll have to resume the search tomorrow."

Ling Zhang felt relieved, glad to know that Ji Yanlai's father was still alive.

"Everybody stay alert tonight. Those laying low during the day might show up at night," cautioned Yuwen Tong, having heard Yuwen Jin's remarks.

Yuwen Jin gave a great shudder, the look on his face indicating that the prospect of that gave him the willies.

Ling Maomao standing beside him was taken aback by his sudden shudder. Ji Xiaocong burst into laughter, which was so silvery it seemed to dissolve the gloom in the others' minds.

Because of this distraction created by the three of them, the grave atmosphere lightened appreciably, and everybody was much more relaxed.

...