Chapter 271: The Lu Family Ancestral Hall

When I walked into the front hall carrying my bag on my back, Lu Ling was sitting in a chair, having just finished a cup of tea. She glanced at me, set down her teacup, and stood up. She walked silently until she was standing right in front of me. I watched her with a complicated expression as she leaned close to my ear. She whispered, “Don’t you want to know the truth? Follow me. I’ll tell you everything.”

My expression shifted. Having said her piece, Lu Ling turned and walked out on her own. I hesitated for a moment, my footsteps faltering, but her departure was so resolute that it didn’t seem like she was trying to trick me. I immediately moved to follow her.

Lu Ling drove us onto the highway. I asked where we were going, but she didn’t answer. I could only sit in the back seat clutching my bag, keeping a close eye on the passing scenery. After an hour of driving, once we were surrounded by rolling hills, she slowed down and turned onto a small path. After parking the car, she led me on foot for a while until we reached the foot of an unnamed, desolate mountain.

We spent the next ten minutes trekking through the wilderness. It wasn’t an easy hike for me; the path Lu Ling took was entirely off-trail, through terrain no normal person would walk. As I struggled to push through the obstacles, she had to stop occasionally to wait for me.

The two of us climbed over two massive boulders. Hidden in the gap behind the stones was a green flagstone covered in weeds. She gestured for me to help her move it aside.

Once the stone was moved, it revealed a large hole overgrown with grass beneath.

Before I could react, Lu Ling gave me a shove. I went tumbling down the dirt slope inside the hole with a series of yelps, rolling a dozen times before hitting the bottom. I lay on the ground clutching my leg, groaning for quite a while, unable to get up.

After Lu Ling climbed down, she resealed the entrance we had just used. Then, she struck a fire-starter. She leaned over to pick up two wooden brands from the slope and brought the fire-starter close to them. The wood instantly caught, turning into two torches. She walked over to me and handed me one.

Rubbing my elbow, I took the torch and stood up. “Where have you brought me?” I asked. “What is this place?”

Lu Ling glanced at me, then looked straight ahead. “If you can make it across, I’ll tell you everything you want to know.”

I followed her gaze and saw a pitch-black mountain chasm ahead. Not far from where we stood was a sheer drop into a bottomless abyss. There was no path; only a thin iron chain stretched across the center to connect to the far side. The answer was obvious, but I still found this so-called “path” hard to believe. I opened my mouth to ask another question.

However, before I could speak, Lu Ling took off, soaring past me with her torch in hand. Panicked, I called out her name, only to see her cross the chain as lightly as a dragonfly skimming water. She moved so fast that the iron links rattled in a continuous clatter. Only when she safely reached the other side did I finally breathe a sigh of relief for her.

Lu Ling looked back at me and said coldly, “I’m only waiting three minutes.”

“How… how am I supposed to get across that?” I shouted.

Lu Ling replied, “Figure it out yourself!”

Her words snapped me into focus. I quickly started stretching my limbs, my mind racing. I certainly didn’t have Lu Ling’s skill for light-footwork or wall-running; if I wanted to get across, I had to find another way.

I rolled my wrists and gestured with my torch to Lu Ling on the opposite side. “Light the way for me!”

I tossed my torch across. Lu Ling caught it with one hand and used both torches to illuminate the area for me. I took a deep breath as I looked at the abyss just half a meter away, buckled my backpack tight, and finally sat down on my backside in front of the iron chain.

Lu Ling tilted her head, watching my posture.

I shimmied forward inch by inch on my backside until I reached the edge of the cliff. My hands trembled as I grabbed the iron chain. Once I had a firm grip, I closed my eyes, steeled my heart, and lunged onto the chain. I quickly flipped my legs over, hanging beneath the links. Lu Ling was clearly startled by the move; she hurried closer to the edge, seemingly afraid I might actually fall.

Locking my hands around the chain, I gave a dry laugh. “I guess you don’t really want me to die here after all.”

Seeing that I still had the energy to be cheeky, Lu Ling stepped back and said crossly, “Just hurry up and climb. You have two minutes left.”

Hanging upside down beneath the chain, I shimmied forward slowly in an extremely ungraceful manner. When I finally reached the other side, I grabbed the chain and sluggishly hauled myself up. Lu Ling didn’t give me a second glance. She handed my torch back to me and turned to walk away.

Holding the torch, I rubbed my perpetually shaking legs and followed her with a limp. As we walked, I asked, “Do all you people in the Lu Clan like acting so stiff? Do you never have any fun? Sometimes a little entertainment is good for the mood.”

Lu Ling shot me a sharp glare, and I immediately acted as if I hadn’t said anything.

Then I heard her say, “I really don’t know how someone like you has survived until now.”

She led me through many turns in an underground stone passage before finally stopping in front of a wall. She stepped forward and tapped the third stone brick from the bottom and the second from the top. The wall opened in response.

I was stunned by the elaborate mechanism. What greeted my eyes next was a long stone bridge. Nine lamps were lit along both sides of the bridge, their flames flickering. I could clearly see thousands of memorial tablets arranged on the stone walls at the end of the long bridge. A lamp burned in front of every single tablet, illuminating the entire cavern as bright as day.

While I was still lost in the shock of seeing all those lights, Lu Ling had already stepped onto the stone bridge ahead of me. I snapped out of it and hurried to catch up, peering around curiously. After a quick survey, I realized that the stone walls of the cavern were almost entirely covered with memorial tablets, which was why the candlelight was so bright.

“This is the Lu Family Ancestral Hall. It houses the tablets of every generation of the Lu Clan’s heads, over a thousand in total,” Lu Ling told me. “And you are the first outsider to set foot here in a hundred years.”

We reached the end of the stone bridge. She stopped and turned to look back at me. I couldn’t help feeling nervous.

“So,” I said, “is this the part where you silence me? Do I get a chance to defend myself?”

Lu Ling smiled bitterly and shook her head. She casually slotted the torch into an iron bracket beside the ancestral tablets and crouched down. I couldn’t see which stone she pressed, but a deep rumble suddenly erupted, shaking the ground so hard I had to grab the offering table to steady myself.

Then a stone platform rose from the ground, carrying a coffin made of golden silk nanmu wood^[1] that stood more than half a man’s height. As the casket emerged, a faint, delicate fragrance wafted over, seemingly emanating from the wood itself. The coffin was impeccably preserved, looking ten thousand times better than I had imagined. Lifelike cranes were carved into its surface, appearing as though they might take flight at any moment.

Without a word, I circled the golden silk nanmu coffin three times, scrutinizing every angle. My mind was in complete disarray. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out which coffin this was. Was this the real casket from the Overlapping Tomb beneath the sea? If so, why on earth was it resting here in the Lu Clan’s ancestral hall?

Just as I looked up to ask, Lu Ling raised a hand to stop me. Her voice was calm and steady as she asked, “Have you heard the story of the Outsider?”

I hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

She lowered her eyes, gazing silently at the coffin before us. “Then do you know the identity of that Outsider? The one Master Jiyun saved, who was mistaken for a demon and killed three times?”