In the Kunlun Mountains, there is a valley the locals call Death Valley.
Countless people and animals have died there. Their bones litter the valley, and an aura of death hangs over it all year round, earning it another name: the Gates of Hell.
Legend has it that when King Mu of Zhou marched west to Kunlun, he passed through this place and found the valley shrouded in dark purple clouds. After divining the matter, the court sorcerers declared that this was where the Yellow Emperor had sealed away the demon weapons after slaying Chiyou. Any mortal who trespassed would incur Heaven's wrath!
When King Mu left Kunlun, he appointed a family to guard the valley and granted them the surname Gu. From then on, the Gu family guarded Death Valley from generation to generation.
More than 2,900 years later, only Gu Ling remained to guard Death Valley. Around the same time, Ye Lingshu and Su Yuzhi came to the valley in search of a cure for an elder's illness. Liu Yiyi, who had been fascinated by all sorts of mysterious legends since childhood, and Ji Suian, heir to a mission passed down through his family for thousands of years, also arrived in Death Valley one after another.
Bonus Scene:
Gu Ling watched Ye Lingshu and Su Yuzhi with an indescribable look as they packed up every gift box they had brought and took them back after failing to reach an agreement.
She had never seen anyone take back a gift the moment their business fell through. As the old saying went, if you lived long enough, you'd see everything!
Once they had left, the polite smile Gu Ling had forced onto her face vanished. Good thing she was a person of good character, or she'd have beaten those two eight hundred times for what they had done.
Still... Those two didn't seem like the sort of shameless people who would do something like that! How could they?
"Sigh..."
"Ever since I got here, I keep getting beaten up. I'm either being beaten up or on my way to get beaten up. Is this place cursed for me?" Su Yuzhi looked up at the ceiling, lost in thought.
Liu Yiyi walked a few steps ahead, then turned to look at the two standing still. "What are you waiting for? Show us the way!"
"Coming, coming." Her voice interrupted Su Yuzhi's thoughts. He answered and hurried after her.
Behind him, Ye Lingshu watched his retreating back with a complicated expression and murmured, "Why did he seem like such a suck-up for a moment there?"
Su Yuzhi stared at the edges of the two roads. Suddenly, he thought he saw a bronze stele faintly visible on the road to the left. He hurried out of the car to check, but when he reached the spot, it was gone.
Remembering the bronze stele they had seen when entering the valley, he rushed back to the car and said to Gu Ling, "Gu Ling, take the road on the left, quick!"
Gu Ling didn't hesitate. She started the car and drove onto the left-hand road, with Liu Yiyi hurrying after them.
Not long after the four of them entered, the entrance to the road on the left began to flicker repeatedly, appearing first as a road entrance, then as a huge boulder. After flickering several times, the road entrance vanished, and all that remained was the boulder.
This story is adapted from myths and legends. The plot is entirely fictional!
Theme: None
