Having understood the problem, the next step was to find a way to break the illusion.
Yan Shouyi first explained the situation to Lin Zitong and Taohua Ying, then asked Lin Zitong if she had noticed anything unusual.
Lin Zitong, with her innate purple eyes, which were like Yin Yang eyes, could see things that ordinary people couldn't. This was one of the reasons she was chosen by Lu Jingsheng and brought to Lu Mountain.
She could easily see through a trickster's illusion, and perhaps she could do so this time as well.
"Let me try," Lin Zitong said. She closed her eyes to concentrate, and when she opened them again, a strange light flowed within her purple pupils.
This was also the first time Yan Shouyi had seen Lin Zitong use her purple eyes. Against her perfect countenance, her eyes possessed an even greater charm.
Even Taohua Ying, who possessed the naturally seductive peach blossom eyes, envied Lin Zitong for having such captivating eyes.
Lin Zitong's purple eyes were not under her control in the past. It was only recently that she had gradually gained control over them.
However, after a short while, the strange light in Lin Zitong's eyes receded, and she looked somewhat disappointed. "I didn't see anything."
She thought her eyes could see through everything, but unexpectedly, she encountered a bottleneck so quickly.
Yan Shouyi patted her back and comforted her. "Huo Ban's illusion is very sophisticated. It merely changes the feng shui of the residence by setting up a formation, thereby achieving the purpose of deception. Your purple eyes should not be able to see through feng shui."
Lin Zitong nodded. It was indeed as Yan Shouyi said.
With his beautiful and wealthy wife unable to help, Yan Shouyi had to step in himself, using his understanding of "Yi Ye Zhang Mu" from the Lu Ban Shu to find a way to break the formation.
"Yi Ye Zhang Mu primarily alters feng shui, causing meteorological chaos, which in turn leads to disorientation of our senses. What we see, hear, and smell are merely signals transmitted to our brains, not necessarily the truth," Yan Shouyi said as he closed his eyes.
He needed to shut down all his senses to feel the true Zhangtai Palace and find an opportunity to break the formation.
After closing his eyes, he held his breath, trying his best not to hear the sounds around him, as if placing his soul outside the three realms to observe the environment from an outsider's perspective.
Entering this state was not easy. Yan Shouyi mentally recited the calming incantation from Longhu Mountain for a long time before finally calming down.
Quiet.
So quiet.
Yan Shouyi forgot that he was still in the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, and forgot that Lin Zitong and Taohua Ying were beside him.
He took a deep breath…
A putrid smell.
It was a putrid smell.
Yan Shouyi's heart sank. When they had first entered Zhangtai Palace, there was no such stench, but now he could smell it.
This indicated that his sense of smell had broken through Huo Ban's illusion.
It also suggested that the real Zhangtai Palace was likely not as clean as they had initially seen.
With his sense of smell unblocked, it was time for his hearing.
Suddenly, a faint, ethereal sound could be heard in the silent Zhangtai Palace.
Was it… singing?
Yan Shouyi swallowed. He clearly heard a very androgynous yet magnetic voice singing lyrics he couldn't quite understand, but he could sense a trace of mournful beauty in the song.
Could it be the nameless actor?
Had he awakened and was he nearby Zhangtai Palace?
What about the mercury female corpse?
Yan Shouyi felt he couldn't wait any longer. He had to quickly find a way to break the illusion and see the true appearance of Zhangtai Palace!
He suddenly opened his eyes. The anomalies in his sense of smell and hearing instantly disappeared, and Zhangtai Palace appeared as it had before. Lin Zitong and Taohua Ying were still by his side.
"How was it?" Lin Zitong asked with concern.
"I found it."
Yan Shouyi said nothing more and walked directly out of Zhangtai Palace. He then looked up at the plaque above the palace gate.
The key to Yi Ye Zhang Mu was precisely this plaque with the words "Zhangtai Palace" written on it!
Yan Shouyi drew his Zanpakuto and slashed diagonally, silently.
With a click, the plaque split in the middle and fell down in two pieces.
Yan Shouyi quickly reached out to catch them.
The plaque was a good five to six meters wide and made of golden nanmu, making it extremely heavy.
If it had been allowed to fall, it would have surely crushed several people to death on the spot.
The fall of such a large plaque would also have been noisy enough to wake the nameless actor.
Yan Shouyi held it up with both hands to avoid making any noise.
When he carefully put down the plaque, he noticed that a pile of white bones had appeared at his feet at some point.
A gust of wind blew, and the putrid smell entered his nostrils.
Looking up, Lin Zitong and Taohua Ying were standing at the foot of a mountain of corpses.
"Yi Ye Zhang Mu has been broken," Yan Shouyi said in a low voice.
Lin Zitong nodded. She also saw the mountain of corpses beside them, but after a slight surprise, she returned to normal.
Yan Shouyi put down the plaque and walked back into Zhangtai Palace, re-examining the interior.
The Zhangtai Palace was now in disarray. The neatly arranged low tables had been smashed to pieces, the luxurious red-lacquered, gold-inlaid pillars were covered in knife and sword marks, and even the place where Qin Shi Huang sat was riddled with holes, with an iron sword even stuck in it.
Not to mention the scattered skeletons throughout Zhangtai Palace, all of them in tragic states of death. Many skeletons were decapitated, and some were even cut in half at the waist.
Looking at these skeletons, Taohua Ying couldn't help but say, "It seems someone entered the Imperial City long ago."
Yan Shouyi nodded. This was beyond doubt. As far as he knew, there were three groups of people—the Imperial Advisor, certain individuals known to his father, and the Ma siblings.
After all, the Ma siblings were only able to enter the Imperial City later because their father, Yan Chou, guided them, and they used a previously dug tomb-raiding tunnel.
Lin Zitong squatted down and carefully studied several of the skeletons, analyzing, "There are also fragments of terracotta warriors mixed among these skeletons, so what we see before us might be the aftermath of the Imperial Advisor leading his men to break into the imperial tomb and battle the original terracotta guard."
Yan Shouyi nodded. He had also found some small items among the遗物 (relics) of these skeletons, which were sufficient to prove that these skeletons originated from the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, over a thousand years ago.
What was initially thought to be a hellish dungeon turned out to have been cleared by the Imperial Advisor a thousand years ago.
However, this did not mean that the current Imperial City was without danger. After all, the whereabouts of the nameless actor and the mercury female corpse were still unknown.
"What was the Imperial Advisor's purpose in coming here?" Taohua Ying asked curiously. "Was it for this imperial tomb, or for some treasure of Qin Shi Huang, or perhaps for Huo Ban?"
"That… is really hard to say," Yan Shouyi shook his head.
The clues left by the Imperial Advisor were too few. If he could have known the Imperial Advisor's objective, he wouldn't have been so passive on this journey.