Chapter 43

WARNING: This chapter contains violence, viewer discretion is advised.

Chapter 43: The Tomb of Emperor Hui of Jin [11]

Translator: Xah

Editor: Ayish

Zhang Qiu was struck forward by the force behind him. He had not yet responded when he heard the sound of the knife stabbing into the his flesh. When the knife was pulled out, only then he felt pain that was especially painful. He subconsciously turned over and was tied up by the person behind him.

“Miss Su, what about this man?”

It was Pingquan’s voice. Zhang Qiu was in pain and did not want to think about how Pingquan broke free from the rope.

“Bring that slut over.” Su WanTing was very happy to see Zhang Qiu’s head was cold sweating in pain. She held Zhang Qiu’s chin with the pointed tip of a dagger, and a trace of blood came out. Her eyes shone with excitement. She said with a grin, “Are you still thinking of Li Shu to save you? He himself is still trapped in the Master’s illusion. After I deal with you, heh, he’s going to be mine.”

Pei Qing was struggling to free from his bounded wrist while Su WanTing was talking to Zhang Qiu, and her eyes shrank instantly. She turned back with a fierce stare and face was full of rage. The dagger in her hand went directly into Pei Qing’s clavicle. “It seems that you can’t wait to be refined as a corpse for the Master.” Turning back to Zhang Qiu, she said, “Although you are a waste, but today I am happy to let you experience the Master’s strength.”

Zhang Qiu could not hear Su WanTing at all, because he lost too much blood; his face was pale, his forehead was covered with cold sweat, and his vision was blurred.

“Bring it over.” Su WanTing saw Pei Qing still moving around, the dagger in her hand was inserted a few points deeper. Smiling, she said, “I said that those who do not listen to me will die.”

Pingquan shivered when he heard Su WanTing’s last words, and his face showed deference. He pulled Zhang Qiu and followed behind Su WanTing with great effort. Zhang Qiu, who was originally a little dizzy, took a sharp breath and sobered up by the pain.

At the front, Su WanTing pushed Pei Qing. As soon as Pei Qing rebelled, the dagger in her hand instantly pulled out and re-inserted elsewhere. After a few moments, Pei Qing was bloody, and the transparent shadow of the entity followed with a tremble, stiff walked and expressing fear, as if he had wanted to escape, but Su WanTing was controlling him.

The main tomb was very large. Zhang Qiu was pulled from behind by Pingquan, staggered at the back. After a short walk, he arrived at a place of worship, which pottery jars with black lacquer surrounded all around in azimuth. The pottery jar’s rim was small with a big belly, and the body had red painted talisman. The marks were facing the huge bronze cauldron in the middle.

Su WanTing scanned the trembling shadow entity with her tiny pupils. The shadow entity’s face turned whiter, soon turned to crying expression. It was obvious that he was extremely unwilling and afraid, but his legs did not listen to him; he leapt into the cauldron. Almost at the same time, Su WanTing lifted her hand lightly, and Pei Qing was thrown into the cauldron like a piece of paper.

The cauldron was so tall that Pingquan could not throw Zhang Qiu in with all his strength. Su WanTing’s face sank. “Useless thing, go break the jar’s rim.” She took Zhang Qiu herself and threw Zhang Qiu in with disgust.

Bang!

By that smash, Zhang Qiu was seeing stars, and his heart almost stopped in a split second. The pain had reached its pinnacle that he no longer felt it. Now he was numbed and his limbs were cold and powerless that he could not move at all.

This cauldron was huge. Pei Qing was not looking much better in the corner opposite him; leant against the cauldron wall like a bloody man. Zhang Qiu did not know whether he was alive or dead.

“Your—Your Excellency.”

There was a weak call from beneath his body. Zhang Qiu was slow in thinking. Only after a while did he reacted to the call. He wanted to respond, but when his mouth opened, he could not make a sound at all.

The other person climbed out from under him. Zhang Qiu could see the other person clearly; a very young boy, about sixteen or seventeen years old, with a small round fleshy face, a crisp voice, there were two dimples when he spoke, and his face was as white as a pasty paper man.

“That—that woman is going to kill us.”

Zhang Qiu wanted to say as a matter of fact that it was clearly an arranged matter, but the other person hugged his knees and cried in muttered sobs. When he sobbed, he was like a rabbit; pitiful, not like his ghostly appearance and not even a bit scary at all.

“But I—I seem to be already dead.”

Zhang Qiu opened his mouth but the weak voice was not the same as before. The other person heard him, sniffed his nose and stopped crying. He shook his head and confusedly said, “This maidservant is Ling Dang, a little eunuch buried together with His Majesty. When this maidservant had consciousness, this maidservant wandered around here, unable to go out. Then one day, heard someone saying on the surface, which was actually that woman. This maidservant was found, and badly injured. When maidservant woke up again, maidservant was inside Your Excellency’s bead. Your Excellency, you saved this maidservant.”

Sure enough, the boy was Ling Dang of the day when the ghosts pounding the wall happened. Ling Dang was hurt by Su WanTing and attached to his spirit bead. When the ghosts pounding the wall happened, his feeling was not wrong; the sweet smell was from Su WanTing, who was unable to tolerate and want to kill him. Ling Dang was clearly not Su WanTing’s opponent but still came out to block for him, including the one he did in the tomb just now.

Zhang Qiu’s mind was unexpectedly calm and sober at this moment. His mind and body seemed to be separated; his senses could not feel the pain.

He should be dying soon.

He was just an ordinary man. Su WanTing just wanted to kill him. The purpose of this corpse-refining was for Pei Qing and Ling Dang. Ling Dang was a ghost with a long history, but Pei Qing was like him. Why Su WanTing must need Pei Qing? After thinking for a long time, Zhang Qiu still did not know what Su WanTing was going to do.

He did not want to waste his energy thinking about all this mess anymore. His mind had gone crazy thinking about Li Shu and Xiao Jiang. He did not know how Li Shu was now and Xiao Jiang was so small, would they, being in that whatever damn illusion was in danger?

Pa, pa, pa!

The crisp sound outside was Su WanTing’s instruction for the pottery jars’ rim to be broken. Zhang Qiu noticed that Ling Dang’s body trembled every time a jar’s rim was broken. For a moment, he would be like just pulled out of the water, and his whole ghost entity could hardly maintain.

There was something in the jar that made Ling Dang afraid and even threatened Ling Dang’s life.

“I— I’m scared, Your Excellency, I—I seem to be dying. I feel terrible.” Ling Dang’s mind was full of confusion, and he began to talk nonsense. He talked about something in a low voice. Zhang Qiu’s brain had turned blank, his ears were buzzing, and he could not hear the words at all.

Each and every pottery jar’s rim that surrounded all over in two circles was wide opened; the inside was dark, nothing could be seen, but the stench filled the air of the whole tomb. Pingquan’s face turned ugly, he stood in the corner as if he wanted to huddle up and vomit. Su WangTing shoot him a glance and scolded him ‘useless’.

In a split second, Su Wan Ting’s pupils shrank, and a strong fragrance emitted from her body, mixed with the smell of the whole tomb. Ten hundreds of pottery jars placed on the ground suddenly broke the silence with ‘dong dong’ and swayed back and forth on the ground. The whole tomb ground seemed to be trembling, and the things in the pottery jars scrambled to come out.

When Pingquan thought about what was inside, his legs turned soft as mud. He sat on the ground, stared at Su WanTing’s back in front of him and began to regret. Who did he follow?

A thin and sharp black dried shriveled claw emerged from the rim of one jar, and soon another followed by a bare, almost skull-like head, with two black holes in the eye sockets which was prominent on a small skull.

Hundreds of pottery jars began to pour out the shriveled bodies of these monsters and jumped out of the pottery jars. Su WanTing smiled excitedly, with a stronger fragrance on her body, she pointed to the bronze cauldron. “Good children, there’s something you want to eat, go quickly!”

They formed a dense mass of small bodies. Some of them could walk and jump toward the bronze cauldron, while others could crawl fast on the ground. Their only goal was the one in the middle which have something delicious in it.

“Zhang Qiu, Zhang Qiu don’t sleep.”

Zhang Qiu was woken up and opened his eyes to see that it was Pei Qing. He could not help feeling disappointed. He wanted to see Li Shu again before he died.

In his ears, there was the sound of the rustle, very loud, like a lot of things crawling on the ground creating the friction sound. Zhang Qiu swallowed his saliva, his throat sore. It was clearly dark, but he could see very clearly.

Pei Qing held the dagger in his hand and pulled it out of him. The crying Ling Dang was now behind Pei Qing. His face was apparently frightened to death, but his eyes shone the desire of risking to survive.

Ling Dang was like this. How could he give up easily?

Zhang Qiu pulled himself together, licked his lower lip, but his weak body did not listen to his brain at all. Pei Qing knew that Zhang Qiu wanted to help. He shook his head and said, “We are too weak now. We have to fight hard. You and Ling Dang take good care of yourselves.”

“It’s – it’s coming!” Ling Dang stared at the top of the wall and shouted.

Zhang Qiu looked up and saw that a baby’s head was hanging on it. The skull was wrapped in black and purple skin, two black holes stared at them, revealing sharp teeth and almost drooling.

They were the food of these monsters.

Zhang Qiu had hardly finished thinking about it when it dropped in with its head pulling its tiny body.

Pei Qing grabbed the dagger and pierced it fiercely, but because of excessive blood loss, Pei Qing lost his agility. For the first time, Pei Qing could not pierce it. The little monster showed its fine teeth and tore off a piece of flesh on Pei Qing’s leg.

Ling Dang rushed over and hit the little monster’s head with his hand. Pei Qing plunged in for the second time. The dagger stuck into the little monster’s head. The little monster made a sharp cry, then convulsed and fell down.

They looked at each other in silence. Just breathed a sigh of relief, and there was another head on the wall of the cauldron, followed by another one…

Zhang Qiu’s heart was half cold and he swept a glance around carelessly. He could not survive anyway. He wanted to move his body to a dead corner to not give Pei Qing and Ling Dang more trouble, but he did not have enough strength.

There was a black shadow over his head, and the little monster fell on his head with a stench.

The pain of flesh lacerated from corporal punishment did not come at all, but he little monster made a shrill cry. His arm was grasped tightly and his whole body crashed into a cold chest. The unique temperature made Zhang Qiu feel at ease. “Li Shu!”

Li Shu kissed Zhang Qiu’s lips and swept his eyes to the bloodstains on Zhang Qiu’s clothes; his whole person was filled with murderous aura. He quickly peeled Zhang Qiu’s clothes off and saw the bloody wound on his back. His eyes turned crimson. He dripped his blood onto Zhang Qiu’s wound and the wound was healing at the speed visible to the naked eyes.

“Daddy!”

It was Xiao Jiang’s voice. Zhang Qiu looked up and saw a soft-looking boy of three or four years old jumping in. He was stunned.

The little boy was not happy, he choked up, “Daddy doesn’t remember Xiao Jiang?”

He did not see him in less than half a day but Xiao Jiang had already grown up? Zhang Qiu felt that he must have lost too much blood that it created hallucination.

Li Shu patted Xiao Jiang’s head. Xiao Jiang obediently sat down, showed his two unique tiger teeth and smacked his lips to Zhang Qiu’s face. “Daddy, I will protect you. Xiao Jiang has grown up.”

I could see you had grown up. Nevertheless, Zhang Qiu’s expression was one that said the world was a mysterious fantasy.

Meanwhile, Li Shu swept a glance at the fainted Pei Qing, casually dropped his blood on Pei Qing’s lips, and looked coldly at Ling Dang, who shivered furiously at the side.

“He’s a good ghost. He helped us.” Zhang Qiu said quickly, afraid that Li Shu might accidentally kill Ling Dang.

Ling Dang nodded piteously, not daring to say more.

Li Shu looked away and kissed Zhang Qiu. “You have a good rest first and wait for me to solve the problem outside.” After that, he jumped out.

Those scattered little monsters would crawl in, and Xiao Jiang would put his hands on his waist blocking in front of Zhang Qiu with his short legs. When he saw the little monsters dare to show its head, his tiger’s teeth would glint, scaring the little monsters to shrill cries and they all crawled out.

Xiao Jiang kept a straight face and grunted angrily, “Coward monsters!”

Zhang Qiu was leaning against the wall of the cauldron; he had not relaxed yet. This was his bag-packed son.

Shortly after, the fighting outside sounded a thud and Su WanTing gave a shrill cry. There was no sound after a moment. It was quiet outside. When Li Shu came into the cauldron without any scars, Zhang Qiu breathed a sigh of relief.

After they went out, Pixian Hui Wang was also there. Su WanTing’s body was on the ground. Pingquan had a dagger in his abdomen. He leaned against the stone wall with eyes wide opened, seeming to die with a remaining grievance. Bald Head took out the dagger and wiped the blood. “Brother, we don’t owe each other. Don’t meet me in the next life.”

Pei Qing woke up and had a strange look on his face. When he saw Ling Dang, he waved him over, “Help me up.”

Ling Dang’s ghost body was badly injured. He was already very weak. When he heard Pei Qing calling him, he still walked over. He lifted Pei Qing on his thin shoulder and it shook twice. Pei Qing frowned, “Haven’t eaten yet?”

“Haven’t—haven’t.” Ling Dang said piteously that he had not eaten for a long time.

Pei Qing smiled, “When we go back, I’ll buy you a sweet-scented osmanthus cake.”

Ling Dang heard this and opened his eyes wide, “How do you know I like sweet-scented osmanthus cake?”

Pei Qing did not reply, but looked at Zhang Qiu. “Can you lend me your spirit bead? Ling Dang’s form is weak. If he could not stabilize his soul, his soul will fly away and scatters.”

As a matter of fact, after Xiao Jiang was born, the bead was no longer useful. Zhang Qiu himself did not know, just kept it close to him and forgot to return it to Er-Sao. He was now an ordinary person, it was not good for him to use the bead, which was vulnerable to Yin and incur dirty things.

After listening to Pei Qing, Zhang Qiu took out the spirit bead from his bag. “This is Er-Sao’s. You should ask him to borrow it.”

Pixian Hui Wang took the bead in Zhang Qiu’s hand and looked at it carefully. A little yearning came out of his eyes. He lowered his eyelids and handed it to Pei Qing. “The original owner of this thing is not me. I’ll lend it to you.” Then he glanced at Ling Dang and his tone turned direction, “Pei Qing, should you be called Pei Qing, or Emperor Hui of Jin?”

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Translator’s note: So Xiao Jiang has grown up, therefore he didn’t call ‘baba’ which is an onomatopoeia but ‘Baba’ as in Daddy.

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