Chapter 69: Reinforcements

When I shone my flashlight down, I saw those birds landing one after another on the rotting hanging coffins around us. That was when I finally understood how those coffins had gotten so many holes. The birds were piercing the coffin boards with their talons, then thrusting their sharp beaks inside to peck at the corpses.

Seeing me lying at the edge of the ledge and peering down, Lu Ayao suddenly crouched down and started unbuckling his backpack. Watching him, I asked, “What are you doing?”

Lu Ayao didn’t answer me. He just pulled the Nine-Ring Jade Casket from his pack, wrapped it tightly in a large cloth, twisted the top of the fabric a few times, and tied a firm knot. Then he reached back and tossed it upward.

I scrambled to catch it, but the casket slammed right into my arms. The sudden weight knocked me off balance, sending me sprawling on my butt, and a strange wave of panic immediately welled up inside me.

“What are you doing?” Clutching the casket to my chest, I crawled forward a couple of steps and gripped the edge of the bronze pillar, looking down at him.

Lu Ayao took off his jacket and used it to wipe the blood from his body bit by bit. Only then did I realize how severely injured he was. The blood-soaked fabric was so drenched that wringing it would squeeze out a stream of bloody water.

He crouched on the ground to rest, then reached out and pointed in a direction. “We noticed that spot when we came in. It’s a new cave, and it might lead outside.”

Hearing those words, why did something feel off?

“These birds aren’t normal. They’re afraid of this kind of shrine, but this shrine might be even more dangerous than the birds. We can’t stay here long.” Straightening out the bloodstained whip in his hand, he continued, “In a moment, I’ll draw them away. You two climb the chains on the bronze pillar and get into that cave.”

I asked, “What about you? You can’t take on that many birds alone. Wait until I get Master Hou up there, then I’ll come back down to help you!”

Hou Jinshan, struggling with the bloody holes in his head and back, crawled over with great difficulty. In so much pain he didn’t know whether to cry or laugh, he tugged at the hem of my shirt. “My dear ancestor, don’t come back down and mess around! Does Yin Pozi need your help? As long as you can look after yourself, that’s already a blessing!”

He couldn’t wait to climb up and run away. As if I didn’t know what he was driving at?

So, ignoring the wounds on his back, I gave him a kick that sent him over toward the shrine. Then I turned back to look down at Lu Ayao on the lower level. He had already stood up, a cold steel blade in one hand and the soft whip in the other, scanning the restless owl-faced birds across from him.

“I-“

Before I could get the words out, Lu Ayao ran along the raised edge of the lower level straight to the front of the bronze pillar. He ran so fast I couldn’t even call out to stop him. At the same moment, the Owl-faced Birds watching him suddenly flapped their wings and dove straight toward his position.

“If you want to die, don’t drag me down with you! I’m going up!” Grimacing in pain, Hou Jinshan scrambled up the pillar with all his might.

I had to cover at least one side, and at Lu Ayao’s current speed, there was no way I could keep up with him. Hou Jinshan’s back was torn to shreds with holes from the bird claws. If I didn’t get him up there soon, the risk of infection would be enormous. So I turned around and started climbing the pillar after him.

The old man was far slower at climbing than I was. I wanted to get him up quickly so I could head back down to help Lu Ayao, so I climbed at top speed.

In just a few steps, I passed him, pulling him up as I climbed. The spot Lu Ayao had pointed out wasn’t too far, only ten or twenty meters from the shrine we had just been at, but it felt like I was climbing for a century.

The iron chains spanning overhead across the cavern were an imposing sight. Three chains, each as thick as two arms put together, bound the body of the pillar, wrapping around it five full times. I reached the top and grabbed one of the chains, giving it a couple of tugs to find it sturdy. Shoving aside my fear of heights, I quickly hauled Hou Jinshan onto the chain with one hand, then reached down and yanked the Mountain-Cleaving Machete from his waist.

I rummaged through his large pockets, but couldn’t find what I was looking for. I shouted, “Give me the gun too!”

He frantically guarded his rear waist pouch. “You-you-you little brat, are you trying to get yourself killed? Let’s just get over there and be done with it! Weren’t you just being polite? You’re not seriously going through with it?!”

I had no time for his nonsense. I grabbed his shoulder, forced him to turn around, ripped open his waist pouch, and pulled out the small pistol packed with gunpowder. Tucking it into my waistband, I said, “I’m not like you, only thinking about saving my own skin.”

Squatting at the junction of the iron chain and the bronze pillar, I shoved the jade casket straight into Hou Jinshan’s hands, then leaned out to sweep my flashlight over Lu Ayao’s position. He was trapped among the carcasses of the Owl-faced Birds, with more and more of them swarming toward him.

“Grave robbing is just like what you Five Masters do; once you go down, there’s bound to be losses. Since he gave you the casket, it proves he’s already…”

I completely ignored Hou Jinshan’s rambling. Spotting a loosely bound iron chain on the bronze pillar, I began yanking it hard. The chain wasn’t secured well, or perhaps the connection point had rusted through. After eight hard pulls, it snapped completely with a loud clang.

I hadn’t expected the iron chain to be so heavy. I lost my balance when it tore loose, and as it came completely free, it swung me downward like a pendulum.

I held on for dear life without letting go. The chain knocked several Owl-faced Birds right out of midair. Gauging the distance, I pulled myself up a few links and kicked frantically at the flock diving toward Lu Ayao. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of a bird about to dive straight down, and I yelled into the air:

“Gun!”

Lu Ayao heard me. I tossed the gun tucked into my waistband straight down to him. In an instant, he kicked off a protrusion on the bronze pillar and lashed out with his whip, coiling it around the chain above me.

He grabbed the whip and flipped a full hundred and eighty degrees in midair. It happened so fast I didn’t even have time to see it clearly before he caught the pistol cleanly and unloaded a clip into the diving bird. The Owl-faced Bird’s neck snapped instantly, and it fell into the water, splashing spray several dozen feet into the air.

Water plastered across my face. Lu Ayao tightened his whip and climbed above me. His strength was terrifying. It took everything I had just to cling to the chain without falling, yet he was pulling himself along with one hand, using his weight to adjust our direction. I couldn’t pull off acrobatics like that, and with just him, it wasn’t going to make much difference anyway.

Just as the chain was about to stop and hang still in midair, Lu Ayao said, “You should have stayed up there with Hou Jinshan.”

For a split second, I really wanted to curse him to death. No ivory ever came out of that dog mouth of his^[1]. I thought, if I had bolted with Hou Jinshan just now, you’d already be damn bird food!

But seeing him covered in blood, I held back. Then my brain started working at top speed.

I asked him, “What do we do? There are fish in the water and birds in the sky! If the chain stops, the birds eat us; if we jump, we become damn fish food!”

I thought to myself, we’re completely screwed this time.

Just as the chain was about to stop swinging, my eyes were caught by a cold flare falling from above. Then three signal flares shot into the sky together, instantly illuminating the pitch-black cave as bright as day.

Seeing the even more dazzling flares, the birds immediately turned around and flew up after them. Right after, I heard an extremely dense barrage of gunfire. Feathers showered down all over my head, and bird after bird plummeted from the sky into the water.

What was going on?

I raised the back of my blade to shield my eyes from the glare. Looking up, I saw a crowd of people standing at the cave opening where the top of the chain was connected. I recognized the man leading them at a single glance, and overjoyed, I saw that he had spotted me too. I quickly waved to him.

“Fourth Brother! Fourth Brother, save me! It’s me! I’m over here!”