pjbooks Chapter 199 The Somewhat Mad Icon
Chapter 199 The Somewhat Mad Icon
Underground passage.
Five cardinals walked in front, while Lin Fan followed behind at a leisurely pace.
They didn't take the same route Lin Fan had taken before.
Domingo opened another, more hidden passage beneath the altar; this passage was narrower and deeper.
Every few meters along the stone wall, a holy lamp is embedded, emitting a faint white light.
But to Lin Fan, these lights always seemed a bit unreal.
"The icon room is at the very bottom of this passage."
"You've been inside?"
"No," Domingo shook his head. "Only the Pope is qualified to enter the icon room."
"Aren't you curious?"
"Not curious."
"You're kidding me."
Lin Fan chuckled.
"If you weren't really curious, you wouldn't have mentioned things like 'as long as the icon remains, the Vatican will not perish' up there."
Domingo's back froze for a moment.
He turned around abruptly and stared at Lin Fan.
How do you know I said that?
Lin Fan grinned, but didn't say anything explicitly.
"You all think you're hiding well, but I've heard every single word you say."
The faces of the five cardinals turned pale instantly.
Including Domingo, who remained calm throughout.
"So you guys are talking about Saint Crystal crafting knights, Saint Statue acquisition guides...?"
He chuckled as he looked at the group, "And what about 'the outcome would be different if a smarter person sat in it'... those were all quite interesting."
However, to the others, that smile was no less sinister than a demonic smile.
"Especially you, Mr. Domingo, those words had a very commanding leadership quality. What, you want to be the Pope?"
Domingo's Adam's apple bobbed.
He opened his mouth, but ultimately said nothing.
The group continued walking down.
The stone steps grew deeper, the air grew colder, and the light from the holy lamps grew dimmer.
After walking for about ten minutes, the passage came to an end.
A stone gate.
It was different from the one Lin Fan had seen before.
There was no decoration, no pattern, and no inscription on the door.
There was only one side of an abnormally smooth gray stone slab.
But Lin Fan, standing here, could clearly sense that there was something behind the door.
That familiar sense of oppression returned.
It's not as intense as before, but it definitely exists.
It was like a giant beast breathing behind the door, each breath causing the air to tremble slightly.
The giant crow issued a warning in its mind.
It's not language, but an instinctive feeling of resistance.
It's like a cat seeing water, or a mouse seeing a cat.
"Is this the icon room?" Lin Fan asked.
"Yes, this is one of several entrances," Domingo nodded.
"Then why aren't you opening the door yet?"
Lin Fan stared at Domingo, who hesitated slightly before stepping forward, raising his hands to press on the stone door, and gently applying force...
then……
The stone gate moved.
And as the stone door opened, a breath surged out from the crack.
In that instant, what exploded in Lin Fan's mind was not pain, but an extremely strange... resonance.
A resonance from the body of calamity.
The power of calamity within him surged wildly at this moment, as if it had sensed a kindred spirit.
No, not of the same kind, but of another kind, with an aura similar to his.
At the same time, the giant crow let out a sharp screech in the mental space, and all its tentacles instantly shrank into a ball.
At that moment, all five cardinals knelt down.
It was not voluntary.
My legs just went weak.
The cracks in the stone gate grew wider and wider, and the darkness inside was so thick and impenetrable.
In the deepest darkness, something... turned around.
Darkness poured out from the doorway, a depth deeper than the chill of the ground.
The surrounding holy lights were powerless against the darkness; their light was compressed to the size of a wick and could go out at any moment.
Lin Fan stood at the door without moving.
His calamity-inducing body was still resonating wildly, as if a time bomb was pounding rapidly in his chest.
But he didn't rush in.
Because the image of Dawu was constantly repeating in his mind.
"Don't go in."
Lin Fan took a deep breath and looked into the room.
Through the darkness, at a distance of about ten meters, a vague outline could be seen.
A statue.
It was huge, at least ten meters tall, and its entire body was milky white, but its facial features were indistinct. His intuition told him that it looked like a man.
A white statue placed in a pitch-black environment seems somewhat illogical.
However, when he looked at the head of the statue, he saw something even more illogical.
The statue's eye area consisted of only two sunken holes.
There was nothing there.
However, just as Lin Fan was staring at the two empty eye sockets, an extremely faint voice came from the depths of the darkness.
It's not language.
It can't even be considered a sound.
It's more like a direct transmission of information, similar to mental fluctuations.
That voice conveyed only one meaning...
"come over."
As a result, Lin Fan's right foot involuntarily took half a step forward.
However, he quickly took it back.
Cold sweat instantly broke out on my back.
"Hold."
He cursed under his breath and took two steps back.
This thing can actually interfere with his body?
This is no longer within the scope of spiritual pollution; it is a form of control at a higher level.
"Oh……"
Seeing his reaction, the same vibration came from the darkness again.
This time, Lin Fan sensed the emotion in the voice.
fling in teeth.
That thing was mocking him.
Lin Fan's face darkened.
He wasn't afraid of being beaten, he wasn't afraid of pain, and he wasn't even afraid of death, since he could come back to life even if he died.
But what bothers him most is this kind of inexplicable and unexpected thing.
"Big Crow," he spoke in his mind.
"Run." Da Wu's reply was just one word.
"Damn it, can't you be a little more assertive? You're someone I raised, even if you're a softie, you should at least be tough when you need to be, right?"
Besides, I'm not going to fight it.
Lin Fan rolled his eyes speechlessly and continued asking in his mind.
"I just want to know what its connection is to me."
The big crow fell silent.
Well, we can't count on this simpleton at all.
This thing has strong mental power; it probably just occupies a lot of its claws.
Since Da Wu couldn't help, Lin Fan could only stand at the door, staring at the statue in the darkness, his mind racing.
Pope Paul VI said that every pope had to kneel here for seven days and seven nights in order to "hear the voice of the Lord".
But even as Lin Fan stood at the door, this thing was already trying to pull him inside.
The reaction levels are completely different.
This shows that his interest in this thing far exceeds that of ordinary people.
Why?
Because of the body of calamity?
Or is it because of endless reorganization?
Or perhaps... both?
He recalled what the golden-eyed figure had said earlier.
"You are cursed...and...immortality..."
After uttering these words, the golden-eyed figure was so terrified upon sensing this spiritual power that it shattered into pieces and fled.
Someone who had been imprisoned in that holy light crystal for who knows how many years was so terrified.
What level of thing is this underground?
"I'm not going in."
Lin Fan stared at the two empty eye sockets and spoke.
His voice echoed through the corridor.
There was no response in the darkness.
"But I have a question."
He raised his hand and pointed to himself.
"Every time I die, I enter a dark space. There's nothing in that space, but I can feel something watching me."
"Is that you?"
silence.
A long silence.
Lin Fan almost thought he wouldn't get a reply.
Just as he was about to give up, the darkness stirred.
It wasn't a physical movement, but rather the entire darkness seemed to take a breath.
Then, a sliver of light slowly seeped from the statue's empty eye sockets.
Golden light.
It was the same gold color as the figure in the crystal before.
But it was much dimmer than that one, like the last embers before a lamp runs out of oil.
The two points of golden light coalesced into two faint spots of light, embedded in the hollow eye sockets.
It was as if it had opened its eyes.
Then, the voice came again.
This time it wasn't a tremor.
It's a real sound.
Aged, hoarse, broken, like a throat that hadn't spoken for thousands of years opening its mouth again.
"You...should not exist."
Lin Fan frowned.
"Calamity and immortality... cannot coexist in one container." The voice trailed off, "Unless—"
It stopped.
The two points of golden light flickered violently, as if they were enduring some kind of immense pain.
"Unless what?" Lin Fan pressed.
"unless……"
The sound grew fainter and fainter.
"...It has already begun."
The golden light suddenly went out.
The statue's eye sockets returned to their dark, empty state.
The darkness returned to calm.
Lin Fan stood there, staring at the statue that had returned to its deathly stillness, completely dumbfounded.
No, damn it, why do they always say only half of what they mean?
Start?
What started?
Why don't you finish speaking?
However, just as he was about to ask further questions, the Great Crow in his mind suddenly issued a sharp warning.
In the darkness, another terrifying presence was approaching.
It was the same spiritual force it had sensed before!
"Run! That guy... is coming..."