Chapter 67: Memory Distortion?

After changing the bandages and doing a simple rewrap, we sat in silence. When Hou Jinshan woke up, he immediately started fawning over Lu Ayao, babbling about this and that. Lu Ayao didn’t reply to a single word, but Hou Jinshan kept talking up a storm all by himself.

I kept quiet simply because I couldn’t be bothered to deal with him, and I didn’t want him overhearing too much of our conversation. As for Lu Ayao, I figured he had something on his mind, as I’d never seen him ignore people like this even back in Gansu.

At this point, I didn’t trust Hou Jinshan at all. Seeing that Lu Ayao didn’t seem ready to leave yet, I prepared to lean against the stone wall and catch another nap. But this guy Hou eagerly ambled over again, grinning at me unabashedly:

“Heh heh heh, Young Master Gan, everything between us was just a misunderstanding! I’m old and muddle-headed, so I offended you and your companion earlier. But as the saying goes, the past is like smoke. You’re a noble man, so please don’t hold a grudge against a nobody like me. I promise that for the rest of the journey, I will devote everything I’ve learned in my life to help you two young masters find the great treasure!”

He spent ages apologizing, but I acted like I heard nothing. Hou Jinshan was about to keep babbling when, for some reason, Lu Ayao suddenly kicked out the burning fire in front of him, snuffing it out completely. My reflexes had improved, and I instantly snatched up the cold steel blade beside me, holding it up to defend myself.

Darkness swallowed our surroundings in an instant. Hou Jinshan was terrified to the point of jelly-legged weakness, huddling against me and practically curling into a heap of mud. I heard him muttering softly under his breath, “It’s back, it’s back, it’s back…”

What was back? I was about to ask when Lu Ayao, who wasn’t far off, pressed a hand against my arm. I felt him quickly rise and move to a spot in front of me, closer to the outside of the cave.

I quickly quieted down to listen for any sounds outside the relief sculpture’s ear. Without the crackling of burning wood, the entire cave returned to its most primitive, pitch-black state.

After waiting two minutes, I began hearing a strange sound coming from above. It was hard to describe. If I had to put it into words, it sounded like the tip of a blade scraping against stone. The source of the sound was very close, likely right on the rock above our heads, making my skin crawl and my gut twist.

Could it be Yujingzi? Had Yujingzi’s people returned?

I wanted to prompt Lu Ayao to go take a look outside, but for some reason, he firmly held me down. I didn’t quite understand, but thinking that he had more experience in places like this, I stayed crouched in place with him for nearly twenty minutes. My legs were almost completely numb by the time the sound above us finally vanished.

Hou Jinshan slumped onto the ground. “They’re gone, they’re gone, finally gone.”

I asked in confusion, “What are you two so afraid of? What was that noise outside?”

Lu Ayao shook his head at me. “I don’t know. Ever since we got onto the copper pillar, this sound has been there. They seem very sensitive to light. I don’t know if they’re living creatures, but they likely crawled down from the top of the pillar. Judging by the sound, it doesn’t seem like something a human could make.”

That brought back my previous ordeal, so ignoring Hou Jinshan, I said, “Wait, I forgot to mention something. After the bridge collapsed, I was rescued by Yujingzi’s team. I followed them all the way here, but then we got trapped by a ghost wall on the stone staircase. We decided to throw down ropes and climb down along the copper pillar.”

“Hold on, little ancestor, what did you just say?” Hou Jinshan squinted at me, baring his yellow teeth. “Stone staircase? What stone staircase?”

His question caught me off guard. A bit impatiently, I explained, “The one next to the waterfall, built into the cliff wall. It spirals around for at least ten loops, leading straight to the bottom. We couldn’t see the path, so we fired three flares. Didn’t you see them?”

Hou Jinshan blinked at me as if I were telling a joke. That strange look in his eyes made me irrationally annoyed. What was that supposed to mean? Was he doubting me?

I stared back at him coldly. “What’s with that look? You don’t believe me?”

Hou Jinshan immediately backed down and explained in a rush, “No, no, I wouldn’t dare doubt you! It’s just that we haven’t seen any stone staircase since we entered this cave. We came down through the river channel upstairs, but the river channel ends at the waterfall.”

I stared at him, full of suspicion, deeply convinced he was up to no good again.

Hou Jinshan quickly tried to prove himself, slapping his thigh. “If you don’t believe me, ask Yin Pozi! He was with me the whole time!”

I turned to look at Lu Ayao. He raised his eyes to meet mine and nodded. “He’s not lying. The river channel ends at the waterfall, and there’s no stone staircase connected on either side. Besides, since we arrived here, it’s been pitch black. We didn’t see any flares.”

His words left me thoroughly confused, but I was really just telling them the truth. Feeling wronged and frustrated, I spread my hands helplessly. “Then what are you saying? You think I’m lying too?”

“No,” Lu Ayao said, “but are you absolutely sure you came down on a stone staircase?”

I took a deep breath, stood up, and pulled him toward the cave exit. It was something that genuinely existed; why would I make up a lie to fool anyone? Besides, those winding stone steps were right opposite the carved ear; if we shone three flashlights over, we could still see parts of them.

“Give me your flashlight. I’ll show you.” I grabbed Lu Ayao’s flashlight, pulled out my own, and widened the beams as far as they would go. Together, the two light beams struck the stone wall opposite us.

In the very next second, my gaze filled with shock. For a moment, I couldn’t even believe my own eyes. Seeing me freeze, Hou Jinshan came up and patted my shoulder:

“My dear little master, did you sleep too long and get confused? Think carefully now. How did you really get here?”

I yanked my hand away from him, my mind overwhelmed and unable to process the flood of chaotic information. Everywhere I looked, there was nothing but a vast, smooth stone wall. Embedded in the wall weren’t neatly arranged stone steps, but countless hanging coffins^[1], piled together and stretching endlessly downward.

Some of the coffins had already had their lids pried open. Many were so old and decayed that it was impossible to tell what they once looked like. Now, they were just heaps of rotting wood. The stone steps I remembered simply did not exist.

I turned on both flashlights and jumped onto the convex surface of the bronze pillar, circling it twice on my own. What I saw confirmed it: the stone wall was completely filled with those broken coffins. There were no stone steps at all.

How could this be?! Then how did I make it here? Did I walk over coffins the whole way? Were the things I saw earlier all illusions? But how much of it was real? I remember climbing over on a rope, but when I tried to go back, the rope was gone. Was the rope also fake?

And if the rope was fake, then what about the people? What about the Liu family members I saw and spoke to? What about Yujingzi? Was she fake as well?

“Stop thinking about it,” Lu Ayao said, jogging up beside me and taking the flashlight from my right hand. His action snapped me back to reality.

He turned slightly, casting a sidelong glance at Hou Jinshan, who was still lagging behind, moving at a snail’s pace. Then he said quietly to me, “You don’t need to be afraid. In the illusions you saw, at least part of it must have been real. Where exactly did you and Liu Wan get separated?”

His words brought me back to my senses. The tangled mess of thoughts in my head slowly began to clear. Liu Wan was probably Yujingzi’s real name. It was the first time I had heard it, and I immediately felt like a key thread in these events had just been touched.

I glanced at Hou Jinshan, who was huffing and puffing his way toward the bronze pillar, and signaled with my eyes toward the massive bronze relief sculpture we’d seen earlier. Then I said in a low voice, “She said she’d come over using the rope, but after I got here and circled around, the rope was gone. And those people from the Liu family vanished as well.”

Lu Ayao thought for a moment, then said, “With Liu Wan’s abilities, there’s no way she’d get trapped by a ghost wall. She must’ve sensed something was wrong early on. The fact that you made it here safely through the illusion means she was helping you behind the scenes. Besides, if you were wearing that piece of Blood Jade, there’s no way a ghost wall could affect you.”

Just as he finished speaking, Hou Jinshan finally caught up.

“You two ancestors, could you slow down a bit? These old bones of mine can’t keep up!”

Seeing him arrive, both Lu Ayao and I fell silent in unspoken agreement.

Hou Jinshan braced himself on his knees, panting heavily for a while before asking, “Yin Pozi, where do we go from here? It’s coffins on all sides. Damn it, this place is practically a corpse pit. We’re not like you. If we just walk through that mess, something’s bound to go wrong.”

I raised my flashlight and swept it across the bottom of the cavern. The deeper it went, the more coffins there were, so many that they were soaking right in the water. Judging by the size of the fish swimming in that water, I’d say those coffins were at least half the reason they’d grown so big.

“There are too many coffins down below. We can’t go any further down. For now, we’ll just have to keep climbing up,” Lu Ayao said.