Chapter 175: Spirit Channeling

It was impossible for any mechanism to silently move a massive, solid stone door to another location. This was a matter of physics, not metaphysics; moving something that heavy would inevitably make noise.

With that realization, our previous “mechanism theory” fell apart.

But if it wasn’t a large-scale mechanism, what else in a tomb could move a door without a sound?

He Yu sucked in a breath of cold air. “Um, Xiao Yao, let me brainstorm for a second. Have you ever heard of the folk legend called Ghost Blinding?”

I had. I spent most of my childhood in the county seat, and every season when the corn and wheat began to ripen, I’d hear rumors of people being “ghost-blinded” in the fields. The common folk version of Ghost Blinding was slightly different from a Ghost Wall. Ghost Blinding was more akin to the illusion I’d been trapped in earlier; you could see and touch things, and you didn’t just walk in circles in the same spot. You could walk for a long time, taking different paths, but you still couldn’t find your way out.

Most people who were ghost-blinded simply assumed they had gotten lost after the fact, never realizing they had been hexed.

“Do you think that’s what’s happening to us?” He Yu sat there like an old man, leaning back. “Maybe there are three little ghosts perched on our backs right now, covering our eyes while we sit here like happy idiots.” He finished by holding his flashlight under his chin, making several exaggerated grimaces at me.

I glanced at him, and we both checked each other’s backs. Everything seemed fine, but He Yu’s joke made me seriously consider the possibility. It was a last resort, but since I’d already ruled out mechanisms, I had to start thinking along supernatural lines.

“Old He, you’ve seen more than me,” I asked. “Generally speaking, if people in our line of work encounter Ghost Blinding but can’t see the spirits, how do they determine if they’re actually hexed?”

He Yu rubbed his chin. “I heard from the elders that if you squeeze the juice from willow leaves and rub it on your eyes, you can see ghosts when you open them. But back in the day, very few tomb raiders would carry willow leaves. The things are inherently eerie, and a tomb is already an ‘yin’ residence. Think about it—bringing willow leaves inside would just make the place even more cursed. So, nobody carries them.”

Speaking of eerie things, I was reminded of the Jade Disc hanging around my neck. I hadn’t believed it could ward off evil before, but after going to Yunnan and entering that ancient pagoda, I was ready to kowtow and offer incense to this treasure.

“Blood Jade wards off evil,” I said. “If there really is something foul here, it shouldn’t be able to trap us forever. We must be overlooking something else.”

Tian Xiaoqi suddenly grabbed my arm. “The ancient text ‘Garden of Marvels’ says: ‘Shengxi Material must not be burned lightly; when lit, it emits a strange fragrance. If it touches one’s clothes, one can commune with ghosts.’ If the legend is true and we light the Shengxi Material, we might be able to communicate with these eight predecessors.”

He Yu burst out laughing. “That’s a great suggestion. Goddamn Shengxi Material. What, are the two of us Doraemon? You want us to pull a rhinoceros out of our pockets?”

I felt my trouser pocket. It was hard. This old object had been through a lot with me. I hesitated for a long time before finally pulling out the Black Hoof Iron. When He Yu saw the pitch-black material in my palm, his jaw nearly hit the floor. He looked like he was about to jump up and start swearing.

“Holy crap! Why didn’t you say so earlier? You had something this good and you’re only taking it out now?! Quick, quick, light it up! Let’s break this monster’s illusion!”

I clenched the Black Hoof Iron tight and shouted, “My family treasures this like their own lifeblood! If I actually burn it, I’ll definitely be put in solitary confinement when I get back. This thing has been in my family for six or seven generations. If it’s destroyed in my hands, how many years of my life will I have to sacrifice to pay back that debt of karma?”

He Yu didn’t care about my protests; he had no concept of family heirlooms. He lunged forward and snatched the Black Hoof Iron from me. “You’re still thinking about that? Look at those eight brothers over there! If you don’t burn this, it won’t be long before you’re just like them. An object is just an object. You have to make it out alive before you can worry about how many years of your life you’re losing!”

Hearing his words, my train of thought broke, and I didn’t even try to snatch it back. By the time I reacted, he had already struck a light. This piece of Shengxi Material was quite old, and after so much time, it was difficult to ignite. He Yu held the fire starter to it for a long while before it showed the slightest sign of burning.

As the Black Hoof Iron caught fire, it crackled with a green light. Instantly, an incredibly strange fragrance wafted out. For some reason, as I inhaled the scent, my vision became more than twice as sharp.

However, just as a third of the Black Hoof Iron had burned away, something appeared in my field of vision. I had just reached for the flashlight beside me when, in the next second, I saw layers upon layers of legs appearing right in front of He Yu!

I looked at He Yu. He was staring fixedly at the space behind me, not daring to breathe. The hand holding the Black Hoof Iron was shaking as if he had Parkinson’s. Steeling myself, I looked up. We were surrounded by Ancient Corpses. These corpses were facing us, encircling us completely. The inner circle of Ancient Corpses was even leaning in, as if they were eavesdropping on our conversation.

The three of us didn’t dare breathe. There were far too many Ancient Corpses near He Yu and Tian Xiaoqi. I sensed that the area behind me was relatively sparse, so I planned to quietly scoot backward.

But the moment I moved even an inch, the Ancient Corpses across from me seemed to sense it. They all turned their heads to look at me, their wrinkled faces full of ferocity. I immediately froze, not daring to move another muscle.

“What do we do?” He Yu looked like he was about to cry, mouthing the words to me.

A flash of inspiration hit me. I cautiously looked up at the ceiling of the tomb passage. What I saw startled me. Through the green light of the burning Shengxi Material, the ceiling that had been covered in massive stones was now empty. This Yin-Yang Thirteen Palaces didn’t have a roof. This meant we could climb over the walls.

I signaled to Tian Xiaoqi, who was closest to me. She quickly realized it too.

“You two need to climb the wall,” I mouthed to He Yu while removing the Blood Jade from my neck.

The moment I gripped the Blood Jade in my hand, the surrounding Ancient Corpses abruptly retreated two or three meters. Seeing his chance, He Yu rolled across the ground, tossed the Black Hoof Iron to me, and scrambled up the wall in two quick steps.

Tian Xiaoqi didn’t waste any time either. She grabbed He Yu’s outstretched hand and climbed up as well. I was about to follow when I heard a strange gurgling sound in the distance. I looked back and found myself staring right into the eyes of a White Corpse Turtle Immortal that had blended into the crowd of corpses. It had seen me too, its eyes glowing with an eerie green light.

I wasn’t going to make it up the wall. I threw the Black Hoof Iron back up to He Yu and yelled, “Run! Don’t come down! Whatever you do, don’t come down!”

I didn’t even know my reflexes could be that fast. Before He Yu could call out to me, I bolted down the tomb passage. At the same time, I heard the terrifying sound of floor tiles being swept aside behind me.

The damn thing was chasing me! It hadn’t even considered the two on the wall; it had come straight for me!

What rotten luck! The thing really had escaped. Was the one I blew up earlier its relative or something?!

In an instant, the passage was filled with the sounds of running and shattering tiles. The flashlight beam bounced so wildly I could hardly keep my eyes open. I was running at my absolute limit. He Yu was right—the Thirteen Palaces were full of turns. Every time I rounded a corner, I could hear the monster behind me slamming into the wall and gnashing its teeth. Several times, I felt like if it just stretched its neck, it would take a chunk out of my backside.

My focus slipped for a split second, and the ground suddenly vanished beneath my feet. I felt a floor tile shatter under my weight before I went down with a sharp cry, tumbling and crashing down several steps. My flashlight went flying, skidding nearly thirty meters away. I had been running too fast; my calves cramped up so violently that I lay there on the ground, unable to stand.

When I looked up, I saw a slender corpse wedged into a crack in the stone wall directly in front of my head. The sight froze me to the bone, and for a moment, I completely forgot to scramble up and keep running for my life.

Just then, I heard something leaping from the steps above, lunging straight for my neck. I looked back and saw a bloody, gaping maw closing in on me.

At the critical moment, a gust of wind whipped out of the darkness. I had no idea what was happening until a cold flash caught my eye. A machete came spinning like a whirlwind out of the pitch-black tomb passage, slicing the White Corpse Turtle Immortal in two and pinning it firmly to the wall.

I scrambled forward a few paces to grab my flashlight. When I saw Lu Ayao walking out from another passage, I finally slumped to the ground and let out a massive sigh of relief. The tension had been so intense that I was starting to feel lightheaded.

Please leave a comment!