“Then it is settled,” Jinglian announced, standing up from her chair. “We will follow this plan. Fan gong-zi had requested help from the Qianyang Sect while I will send messengers to the other sects. Meanwhile, I will deploy some people to patrol the area of Lishui until Leader Fan has arrived.”

The other maidens of the Huangxue Sect all stood up from their arranged seatings and quietly left the table, leaving Yuelong and his company alone with Jinglian. Each of the Huangxue disciples graciously exited the room, making almost no sound at all as they “floated” away.

Jinglian quietly walked up to Murong Zi and comforted, “Murong gu-niang, I am truly sorry about what happened to your father. If only we knew about it earlier, we would definitely have sent people to assist. May he rest in peace.”

“Thank you, shijie.” Murong Zi cutsied. “Especially letting us stay at Huangxue Cave, one of the mysterious wonders of the cultivation world.”

“Yes!” Sifei agreed. “Is it alright if we have a look around? I’ve heard stories about the murals and statues and how they look so life-like that people mistaken them for real heavenly fairies!”

“I see, so you wish to take a look around?” Jinglian looked at Sifei then Yuelong. “Follow me then.”

The four followed Jinglian out through the stone door of the meeting room. They descended down the stairs that lead them back into the giant main cave. Jinglian then signaled a tunnel to their left. 

“This is one of the tunnels where we sculpted statues of the heavenly fairies. Please take a look around.”

Sifei took a couple steps into the tunnel and turned back to face the group. He signaled Xiao-Kai to come with him and the two entered into the tunnel.

“Are you not coming with us, shi-jie?” Yuelong asked Jinglian.

“Sorry no, it is meditation time for us. Just keep in mind that there are sections of the tunnel that are not safe and we have sealed them off. Do not go into those sections.” Jinglian warned. “If that is all, I will be on my way then.” She curtsied and drifted off in the opposite direction, joining a group of Huangxue maidens.

After seeing Jinglian off, Murong Zi and Yuelong entered the tunnel. At first, the light from the main cavern dimmed away and completely disappeared, leaving the two in darkness. Yuelong felt Murong Zi leaning closer to him in the dark. 

“Fan gong-zi, where are you?” Murong whispered into the dark.

Yuelong felt a pair of hands brush at his shoulder. “I’m right here. Hold on to my shoulder, I’ll lead us forward.”

Putting his left hand against the wall of the tunnel, Yuelong slowly navigated through the darkness. He could feel Murong Zi’s fingers digging into him as they proceeded further into the dark. Yuelong ignored Murong Zi’s tight grip and continued on. After a sharp left turn, light was seen at the end of the cave. 

“There’s light in the front, that should be where Sifei and Xiao-Kai are.”

Murong Zi answered with a small “hm”.

As their sight was restored by glowing crystals on the walls, Yuelong took a quick peek at Murong Zi, only to find her face pale and sweating.

“Murong gu-niang! Are you feeling alright?” Yuelong quickly asked.

“It’s nothing, don’t worry.” Murong Zi down at the floor, her fingers tightened around Yuelong’s shoulder.

Yuelong winced. “Murong gu-niang, your hand…”

Realizing that she was hurting him, Murong Zi immediately took her hand off of Yuelong’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, Fan gong-zi. I didn’t mean to do that.”

“Shi-jie!” a voice called.

They turned around to see Sifei and Xiao-Kai sprinting towards them. 

“There’s a lot of beautiful statues here!” Sifei continued.

“One of them even moved!” Xiao-Kai exclaimed.

“Moved?” Yuelong and Murong Zi questioned in unison.

“Yeah, it was dancing too!” Sifei added. “Come! I’ll show you!”

Xiao-Kai grabbed Yuelong’s hand and led him deeper into the cave. Sifei tried to grab Murong Zi’s hand but she quickly flinched away.

“I can walk by myself.” She said coldly.

Sifei’s face went from puzzlement to sudden realization. “Oh, shi-jie! I’m so sorry! I just… I forgot about that.”

“Where’s the statue?” Murong Zi asked, ignoring Sifei’s apology.

“Follow me,” Sifei said, his enthusiastic tone no longer present.

Following another turn in the tunnel, it led them to a grand room that had an enormously high ceiling that could easily fit a four story building. Statues of buddhas, bodhisattvas, vajras, and apsaras were all over the place. Some were completed along with a coat of paint, making them seem like real deities. Others were not complete and had missing limbs or heads and looked strange at first sight.

“Over here!” Xiao-Kai pointed to a statue of a dancing apsara.

The statue was in a flying pose, one leg was bent while the other was straight. Its right hand was in front of its chest, palms up. While the other hand was stretched upwards with its head looking in the same direction. Stone garments covered the body of the statue and the flow of the fabric gave the statue the feel of dancing in the air.

“Wow, this is my first time seeing this kind of accuracy and detail in a statue!” Yuelong exclaimed. “It's as if she was a real person!”

Yuelong’s mind immediately remembered the gold statue of Jiutian Xuannu and how she was trapped in it. 

“Perhaps this statue is also alive?” Yuelong thought to himself.

Crack! Crack!

“Look! It’s moving!” Sifei and Xiao-Kai exclaimed.

The four’s jaws dropped wide open. The statue’s right arm that was once in front of its chest was now opened up, pointing to the side.

“How is this possible?” Murong Zi questioned no one in particular.

Following another crack from the movement of the stone, the statue’s head turned towards them. Its left arm moved down from its palm facing upwards to next to the cheek. Then, it stepped down from its pedestal. 

Yuelong and Murong Zi leapt backwards out of reflexes, waiting for the statue to attack them. But the attack never came. Like the maidens of Huangxue, the statue “drifted” in a circle and started to dance. The cracking sound of the statue’s limbs turned into rhythmic beats, and the movements of the statue flowed like water.

“I can’t believe she’s made of stone…” Sifei was in awe.

“It’s like she’s a real person,” Murong Zi murmured.

Although it was uncanny to see a stone statue suddenly moving, no one in the cave felt strange or uncomfortable. Quite the opposite, they all felt a sense of serenity within themselves. Like a lotus coming out of murky waters, the sense of peace rose from their hearts of worry and stress.

“Mengjun would have loved this, if only he was here,” Yuelong thought to himself. “Lanyue too…”

He felt something trickle down from his cheek. A feeling of emptiness washed over him, dousing out the tranquility. 

“What is my purpose here if the people I love are no longer present?” He questioned himself. “What should I look forward to if I have nothing left?”

He looked up, feeling depressed, and found everyone in the cave looking at him, including the statue. Not only that, but the statue was now standing still and pointing one finger at him.

“Ge, why is it pointing at you?” Xiao-Kai asked nervously.

Caught off guard, Yuelong didn’t know what to say.

Then, they all heard the scratching noise behind Yuelong. Slowly, the four shifted their attention to the statue behind them. The scratching noise echoed through the silent cave.

Yuelong felt chills along the back of his spine and goosebumps on his arms. It sounded like humans nails scraping at stone, it was unpleasant and almost blood-curdling.

“Perhaps the statue wasn’t pointing at you, but at the sound?” Sifei said in a hushed tone.

They approached the source of the scratching noise and discovered it had come from an uncompleted statue that was still being carved out from the wall. 

“It’s coming from this statue,” Murong Zi said, feeling the stone statue.

“No, I think it’s coming from inside that wall,” Yuelong corrected. He put his palm on the wall and closed his eyes. He sent out a soft wave of energy through the stone, probing for anything strange.

“It’s hollow,” Yuelong declared. “There’s a big room behind this statue. Perhaps it’s the room Jinglian told us about, the one they sealed off because of safety reasons.”

“And the sound?” Murong Zi questioned.

“Probably just mice or unstable stones.” Yuelong replied.

Crack!

The four jumped at the sound and immediately turned their heads to face the dancing statue. It had moved closer to them and its finger was still pointing towards the sealed off room.

“Fan gong-zi, I think the statue is trying to tell us something.” Murong Zi suggested. “Can you break open this wall?”

“But that’s disrespecting the Huangxue Sect! We are merely guests here and they were gracious enough to let us wander around without supervision!” Yuelong disapproved. “I won’t do that. And besides, there’s probably nothing behind that wall.” 

Although he was curious about the sealed off room, his sense of order and propriety took over and he quickly shook off the sense of curiosity.

“Fine, then I’ll do it.” 

Before Yuelong could stop her, Murong Zi had released a shockwave from her hand and into the incomplete statue. Following her attack, cracks appeared all over the statue. Bits and pieces of stone fell away and revealed a dark room.

Immediately, they sensed something wrong. A wave of unpleasant scent came from the room. It smelled of iron and rotten flesh. They covered their nose upon getting the tiniest whiff of the smell.

“Xiao-Kai, get behind Sifei!” Yuelong ordered.

Sifei protectively stood in front of Xiao-Kai, his sword already in a defensive position.

Yuelong looked at the bandage on his hands and summoned a ball of luminous fire. He winced from the burning sensation from his palm. Although he was healing, the flesh on his palm had become extremely sensitive and he could feel the hot flames of the tiny ball that he summoned.

With a gentle push, Yuelong sent the glowing ball into the dark room. They were absolutely horrified by what they saw. At first, the glow from the ball of fire revealed nothing but a bare room. But as it got nearer to the corners of the room, it revealed a pile of clothing. Not just ordinary clothing, but they looked like the maidens of Huangxue Cave. It was as if someone had taken the entire skin of the girls, including the hair, nails, clothing, and dumped them all into a pile.

“It’s like empty bags with nothing inside,” Murong Zi murmured.

He sent the glowing ball further into the room. Tied to stone poles that connected the roof to the ground, were dried corpses. Their entire bodies were disfigured to the point where they almost no longer looked human. They looked like demons with the figure of humans.

“I think they,” Yuelong pointed to the corpses. “Are the insides of those skins…”