Chapter 252: Going with the Flow

I tossed the blood-stained bullet onto the ground and wrapped the bleeding wound tightly with gauze. A numbing wave of pain followed immediately. Leaning against the cave wall, my vision swam in dizzying pulses. I sat on the ground for a while to recover; the pain was so intense I felt the urge to vomit. Having eaten nothing, I had nothing to bring up, so I simply dry-heaved a few times before using the wall to pull myself to my feet.

He Yu came over to support me, but I told him not to worry about me. I told him to take Tian Xiao’s body instead. We couldn’t let the old man die in a place like this for nothing; we had to bring him out with us.

My pace was slow. We traveled another hundred meters or so into the cave until the entrance was completely out of sight. At that point, Old Qian, whose stomach was practically sticking to his spine from hunger, made a suggestion. “Masters, let me take a breather. There’s food in the bag, and we haven’t eaten in ages.”

I took the opportunity to collapse against the stone wall. He Yu set Tian Xiao down from his back and moved closer to me. My eyelids were fighting to stay open; the moment I stopped moving, sleep threatened to claim me. I had covered the last stretch of the journey on pure willpower alone.

He Yu pulled the Mountain-Cleaving Machete from the bag Tian Yuqing had given us and stabbed the blade into the ground. He took a sip of water from a canteen and said to me, “Get some sleep. You look terrible. I’ll keep watch.”

I certainly wanted to sleep. I hadn’t had a decent rest this entire trip. I had finally hoped to get some sleep outside the Crying Forest, but that night had left me psychologically scarred. It left me with the lingering fear that if I closed my eyes and opened them again, I would be alone once more. Consequently, the more exhausted I became, the more I feared sleep.

But a person cannot go without sleep forever.

He Yu seemed to sense my apprehension. He reached out his left hand for me to hold. “Don’t be afraid. We’re all right here. In three hours, I’ll have Old Qian take over the watch. With Tian Yuqing gone, you’re the backbone of this group, Xiao Yao. You have to hold it together. We’re counting on you for the road ahead.”

Hearing his words, a rare sense of calm washed over me. I gripped He Yu’s wrist and fell asleep almost the instant my eyes closed.

I woke up naturally. The cave was pitch black. I glanced at the watch on He Yu’s wrist; the three of us had been huddled here sleeping for six or seven hours. Old Qian was sitting opposite us, yawning repeatedly. Seeing me move, he quickly handed over the watch. The second the flashlight was in my hand, I heard the rhythmic sound of his snoring.

As soon as I moved, He Yu woke up as well. He opened the supply bag from Tian Yuqing, pulled out a small bottle of strong liquor, and opened a pack of cigarettes. I didn’t scold him for having the heart to drink in a place like this, mostly because I was waiting for him to finish so I could have some too.

He Yu took a swig and handed the bottle to me, warning, “It’s strong stuff. Don’t go gulping it down just because you think you can hold your liquor. Just a sip to take the edge off.”

I listened to him and took a quiet sip.

The liquor was indeed fierce, burning a path from my throat all the way down to my stomach. He Yu loved this stuff, but the two of us never had the time to drink until we were senseless. When we went out to eat, there was usually important business to discuss, so we couldn’t get drunk and stuck to beer.

After my sip, I capped the bottle and handed it back. He Yu handed me a cigarette, then took another small sip for himself. I used a match from my pocket to light two cigarettes, giving one to He Yu and keeping one for myself. We leaned against the wall, smoking in silence.

We were both waiting for the other to speak first.

After a long while, He Yu broke the silence. “I heard you talking in your sleep just now.”

I remained silent.

“Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. For a rookie leader, you’ve done great. Han Zhuo’s death wasn’t something we wanted,” He Yu said, taking a drag of his cigarette.

He turned to look at me and continued, “I know you’re still feeling conflicted. It’s just the two of us, so don’t put on an act. Don’t let that business with Old Lu weigh on your heart either. Think about how many times we’ve faced death together; he surely had his own reasons for leaving. Just like you, you have your own reasons for entering this tomb. Everyone has their own difficulties. Next time we meet, we’ll eat and drink like always. Just don’t take it to heart.”

“I’m not,” I said, stubbing out the cigarette butt. “I just feel… maybe I was a bit too confident. I thought I was getting closer to the truth, that things would soon become clear. But just now, I realized that it doesn’t seem any different from when we started.”

“How so?”

I took a deep breath. “I put the items into my bag immediately after opening the jade casket. Only Old Qian and I were there at the time. Yet, when Tian Yuqing saw me, he told me to go out and give the Burial Bone Testament from the casket to Fourth Brother. That proves he knew exactly what was inside the Nine-Ring Jade Casket all along. This might just be another part of their plan.”

He Yu understood. He looked over. “So you’re saying the Nine-Ring Jade Casket might just be a decoy? But if that’s the case, Tian Yuqing should have known how to open it himself. Why wouldn’t he just give the items to your Fourth Brother directly instead of making things so complicated?”

I raised another question. “There’s something else. Master Jiyun’s body wasn’t in the undersea Overlapping Tomb, nor was it in the Tomb of King Ne. So where exactly is his body? And then there’s the legendary half-piece of Houtu Blood. Does that half-piece of Houtu Blood even exist?”

Just as I finished speaking, a flash of insight struck me. I recalled something Fourth Brother had told me before, something that seemed to connect to this legend.

Back in the car, Fourth Brother had told me the story of the outsider. The ending of that story was that Master Jiyun used an Elixir of Immortality to save the outsider. Could that “Elixir of Immortality” be the legendary half-piece of Houtu Blood?

If the legend was true and the Houtu Blood was actually consumed by the outsider, then where did that outsider go? What was his final fate?

The two of us couldn’t figure out anything concrete despite our speculation. Once Old Qian woke up, the three of us packed our gear again. He Yu carried Tian Xiao’s body while Old Qian supported me as I limped ahead to scout the way and lead the group.

We moved in fits and starts, stopping and going for four full days before we reached the sacrificial pits Tian Yuqing had mentioned. Seven sacrificial pits were arranged in the pattern of the Big Dipper. The ceiling above the pits was crowded with birdcages, each containing a withered, rotting corpse. Some were human, while others were unrecognizable. They were hung so high that even our flashlights couldn’t reach the top. Supposedly, this cage burial was a unique funerary custom of the ancient Gune Kingdom.

Following Tian Yuqing’s directions, we jumped into the third burial pit. Nearly half of the pit’s floor had been washed away by river water years ago, and an underground river now surged and roared below. With the funerary offerings in the pit serving as a unique source of nutrients and the river providing moisture, several vines and small trees had taken root along the edges of the pit, clinging to the muddy walls.

“We can’t just jump straight in! There’s no telling where the current will sweep us. If there are undercurrents and we get smashed against the rocks down there, we’re done for!” He Yu shouted at the top of his lungs over the thundering waves.

Old Qian, being hard of hearing, cupped his ear. “Huh?! Young Master He, what did you say?”

He Yu repeated himself: “I said! We can’t just jump in like this! We need a plan!”

Old Qian cupped his ear again. “Eh?”

He Yu rolled his eyes at him. “I said you’re a complete moron!”

Old Qian heard that clearly enough. He clicked his tongue and shot back, “Now look here, I haven’t done anything to provoke you, so why the name-calling?”

Ignoring the two of them bickering atop the pile of bones beneath our feet, I walked over to the vines to investigate. A small tree grew beside them, its core already hollowed out by insects. The trunk should have been buried in the soil, but the current had stripped the earth away, leaving the trunk dangling precariously over the rushing water. I estimated it would snap completely within a few days.

I shouted to the other two, “Cut the tree down! Let it make a contribution to the people^[1] before it dies!”

The three of us drew our Mountain-Cleaving Machetes and began hacking at the tree. I warned them to stop once it was nearly severed but still hanging on; we needed a moment to observe the water before jumping in. If the tree fell and swept away, we’d never catch up to it.

I had barely finished speaking when a loud crack echoed from He Yu’s side. He was incredibly strong, and after a few heavy blows to the protruding roots, the trunk snapped with a thunderous boom and crashed into the water. I cursed aloud, having no time to even sheath my blade. I quickly signaled Old Qian and the others to grab their packs and jump.

Without a second thought, the three of us leaped into the water. The spray was so thick we lost sight of one another instantly. I was the first to find the trunk and clung to it, then reached out just in time to snag the waistband of Old Qian’s trousers. He Yu still had Tian Xiao tied to his waist; I saw him dog-paddling for all he was worth, lifting his head to scan for us.

I roared at him, “Over here!”

He locked onto my position immediately, dove under, and surfaced on the opposite side to grab hold of the trunk.

With great effort, the three of us pulled and hauled at each other until we were all perched on the tree trunk. Carried by the current, the tree drifted downstream. Every now and then, we shared compressed biscuits and scooped up fresh water to regain our strength.

Eventually, a glimmer of white appeared at the end of the cavern, distinct from the surrounding gloom. We froze for a moment before realizing it wasn’t some white creature, but the end of the river. For the first time in days, I could finally relax.

As we drifted out of the cave on the trunk, the current slowed. Tents lined both banks of the river, forming two separate camps. The people there likely hadn’t expected such an entrance, or perhaps the three of us simply didn’t look human anymore after crawling through the tunnels, unkempt and covered in filth.

The men had been eating, but the moment they saw us, they froze mid-bite.

The camps belonged to my Fourth Brother and Tian Xiaoqi. We were hauled ashore and watched as they carried Tian Xiao’s body into a tent. He Yu and I cleaned ourselves up slightly, then found a spot outside with good sunlight. We dug a hole and buried the two pieces of child-corpse skin we had carried in our packs.

Under the sun, I muttered prayers while shoveling dirt into the hole, wishing the two little ones a swift journey to the afterlife and a speedy reincarnation. Once the hole was filled, I held my shovel and looked out at the flat wilderness behind me. Hearing the heart-wrenching wailing from the camp on the opposite bank, I couldn’t help but feel a wave of melancholy.

I pulled out the wrapped Burial Bone Testament from my inner pocket and felt its texture against the sunlight.

This half, retrieved from the Nine-Ring Jade Casket, was not deerskin. I brought it under my nose and took a sniff.

Wait… why does it actually look so much like human skin?

Volume 5: The Corpse Cage City of Tianjing – End

Up next is the final volume.

# Glass Blood of the Withered Bones