Chapter 65

Chapter 65: Zhongshan Country [12]

Translator: Xah

Those people’s skins that hung on the walls had black holes in their noses and eyes, and heavy makeup on their faces. They looked very strange.

Although knowing that those skins were pure human skins now, and that the malicious spirits’ resentments had been expelled, it was still freaking one’s heart to stand here with flashlights shone everywhere on the hundreds of human skins hung up on the walls.

Zhang Qiu retched for half a day with tears and snort came out together. Li Shu wiped Zhang Qiu’s face with a tissue in one hand. Zhang Qiu stood in place expressionlessly, a little embarrassed, but of course he retched badly, otherwise he wiped his face in vain.

“Don’t be scared.” Li Shu said lightly.

“No scared, just nauseous.” For his manly honor, Zhang Qiu resolutely braced himself.

Li Shu nodded and did not expose him. He took Zhang Qiu’s hand and went on. They were going to walk through the two rows of human skins.

“The corridor is too wide.” Zhang Qiu followed Li Shu closely, dared not to look around, and said this to distract his attention from the human skins on the walls, “Can it be four or five meters here? It seems like a moat tunnel too. The monarchs in the feudal period were really powerful. It took at least thirty or forty years to build a tomb, waste of manpower and resources, such huge cost and labor……”

Because the corridor was wide, four or five people walked side by side. Next to Zhang Qiu was Li Shu, while on his other side was Xiao Jiang, ErGe and ErSao.

“It doesn’t seem quite like a tomb corridor.” Pixian Hui Wang suddenly made a noise.

Zhang Qiu was a little awkward. “ErSao, I’m not saying you’re wasting manpower and resources.” He forgot that his ErGe used to be emperor while ErSao used to be king, and that ErSao’s tomb was extravagant.

Pixian Hui Wang laughed and did not care. Zhang Qiu thought of ErSao’s words of ‘doesn’t seem quite like a tomb corridor’ and he thought of the tomb chamber with the stone door just now; there was not even a small thing in sight. According to reason, in a large tomb, there were basically many small tomb chambers, in which some of the burial companions were of low rank with only a meager coffin, or some were of burial accompanying pottery and such. But the tomb chamber just now did not even have a coffin, which defeat the purpose of an accompanying chamber.

“Could it be that place is the tomb corridor and here is the accompanying chamber?” said Zhang Qiu.

Zhang YuShui nodded. “It looks like that. We had heard that kid said that Zhongshan Country was declining at that time. The most fundamental use of building this place should be for offering sacrifices to the gods/ancestors or even as formation for human sacrifice. So, it is unlikely to be very luxurious.”

Speaking of formation for human sacrifice, Zhang Qiu thought about the tragic situation before the death of those malicious spirits. Zhang YuShui seemed to know what Zhang Qiu was thinking, and he smiled, “That’s right. The next few tomb chambers might possibly be the original scenes. Little brother, if you are scared, hugs Li Shu.”

Zhang Qiu felt that this must be intentional!

“I’m not scared.” Zhang Qiu said calmly.

This tomb chamber was five to six meters wide and six to seven meters long. They had come to an end unconsciously when talking. As a matter of fact, it was not so scary when talking. The second tomb chamber’s door was more decorative with the carving simple and stylish. The door was opened by Li Shu.

Despite Zhang Qiu’s preparation, it was still disgusting after he saw it. The first chamber was women’s hung up skins; the second was all kinds of bloody limb remains. The most important thing was that these bodies were still fresh, like they had been frozen for thousands of years.

Zhang Qiu saw the body of that female ghost who had just been cut open lying on the ground, her intestines flowing all over the floor, and a meat ball of an infant beside her feet.

Broken legs; cut off hands; disemboweled, there were men and women, and also many children with black holes as their eyes had been dug out —all kinds of mutilated corpses.

Zhang Qiu had resisted it, but he could not bear to hear someone vomited behind him. He covered his mouth to spit. A person handed a tissue to him.

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

Holding a tissue and listening to the voice, Zhang Qiu felt a little strange. He looked up and saw nobody.

“Xiao Jiang, did you just see someone next to me?”

“It’s an uncle bodyguard; his body had a smell of cold.” Xiao Jiang sniffed. “Maybe it’s cool in here. I smelled wrong.”

Zhang Qiu looked back. Six bodyguards at the back surrounded Qi ZhiRong. Anyone who was nauseous already stopped vomiting and was promptly urged to move on by Ah Gui, “Go on! The Yin here is dense. Let’s hurry to finish this so we could return early.”

“If I had known it will be like this——”

Ah Gui interrupted and said, “Don’t press. Protect Mr. Qi well. We did not come down here in vain.” Everyone who came down this time was given a million yuan, even if they died, the money would be sent to their families.

The gap between the tomb chambers was somewhat brief; they passed through the third door. There was nothing in it. Zhang Qiu relieved his breath first, or else he would vomit out all the other things. After two steps, he realized that it was not a tomb chamber at all. It was probably a corridor, because it was longer and narrower.

It was about ten meters walkaway. They accelerated their speed. Li Shu stopped suddenly in front of them. Zhang Qiu just wanted to ask what was wrong, suddenly, he heard a buzzing sound. The sound was on the top of the corridor, from far to near, faster and faster.

The buzzing sound was like the sound of swarms of flying insects waving their wings.

Zhang Qiu raised his eyes and shone the flashlight upwards. Under the glare of light, there was densely packed black spots stuck on the inner layer of the stone wall. The stone wall on the top of the head was quite thin. It was not difficult to imagine that these small creatures would probably break through the stone wall and leap out.

“Turn off the flashlight.”

A voice of indifference came from behind. Zhang Qiu unconsciously turned off the flashlight and turned back only to bump onto the cold eyes of Qi ZhiRong.

“Turn it off!” Qi ZhiRong’s voice was cold and impatient.

The bodyguards, who had just been stunned, switched off the lights. They had never seen the Boss speak in such a tone.

“Slow down your breath and walk slowly.” Qi ZhiRong’s voice returned to indifference.

Zhang Qiu listened; the buzzing sound just now had disappeared. He could not help looking at Li Shu next to his eyes. Li Shu nodded, meaning to listen to Qi ZhiRong first.

They walked slowly through the narrow corridor, and before they knew it, Qi ZhiRong had come in front and pushed open the fourth door.

The last to enter Pei Qing closed the door, and everyone switched on the flashlights again. There were many black jars in the tomb chamber. The jars were not sealed. The contents inside were swollen and blistered by liquid, forming purple and black spheres.

“What is it?”

“It’s human eyes.” The bodyguard next to him said.

Zhang Qiu looked at it again. “It’s not like human eyes.” Although it was swollen and blistered, he could still distinguish it; it did not seem like eyes.

“You’re looking at balls; he’s looking at people’s eyes.” Zhang YuShui said lightly.

“Balls? What balls——”Zhang Qiu instantly understood the meaning of his ErGe, and felt that his eyes were going be blinded. Damned people who had built this were too perverted, making jars of men’s eggs. Suddenly, he felt cold in his lower body.

Zhang YuShui stared at Qi ZhiRong and said slowly, “Devil’s gate formation; Yin in the front, Yang at the back. Then what comes after this?”

Women’s skins and fragmented corpses were Yin Qi, testicles and eyeballs had Jing Qi and Yang Qi.

[T/N: Jing Qi also known as essence, is the basic substance that constitutes the human body, as well as the material basis of human growth and development and various functional activities]

“Don’t know.” Qi ZhiRong’s expression was indifferent.

Zhang YuShui smiled. “There are two doors on both sides. Since it was Mr. Qi, who request to come, may I ask which door should Mr. Qi take now?”

“If I choose it, will you guys go?” Qi ZhiRong’s tone was mocking, and the expression on his face remained the same. “I know you doubt me, but I just want to find out who controlled me.”

There were small stone doors on both sides of the tomb chamber.

Li Shu did not look at Zhang YuShui and Qi ZhiRong, who were talking, and asked Zhang Qiu, “Which way is it?”

It came again!

Zhang Qiu didn’t forget that Li Shu was injured by his last mistake. He said, “I’m unlucky, Xiao Jiang, you choose.”

Xiao Jiang licked his tiger’s teeth and pointed to the left and said, “This side smells quite fragrance.”

“On the left.” Li Shu decided.

Qi ZhiRong and Zhang YuShui had no objection. When Zhang Qiu pulled Xiao Jiang to the left, he realized that the fragrance in his son’s mouth was probably not the same as the good luck they were thinking.

Suddenly, his scalp felt numbed, but it was not good to retreat after he had walked halfway. He had to comfort himself that Xiao Jiang might have chosen the right one this time.

This corridor was particularly long. Zhang Qiu felt that the more they walked the more it was getting colder. However Xiao Jiang was very happily skipping and the jingling of the bell on his wrist echoed. From time to time, there came the sound of teeth chattering at the back. It’s quite cold, but it didn’t reach to this point.

After a while, someone at the back said with teeth chattering, “Mi-Mister Qi, I-I feel too cold. In-inside seems dangerous.”

“Who is so weak ah? Stick to it, or leave you alone——”

“Fcuk, Xiao Ling!”

Zhang Qiu jumped at Xiao Ling’s name and looked back. There was a messy chaos behind him. All the bodyguards got out of the way and pressed up against the wall. On the opposite side was Xiao Ling, who fell down on the ground miserably, white as paper, with cold sweat on his forehead and a weak-looking face. He looked again at the six robust men who were more than 1.8 meter tall feeling so nervous that they wish they could stick themselves on the wall and pretend to be invisible people.

The more he looked the more he thought it was kind of funny, but only in the premise that Xiao Ling was a person.

“Ah Gui, why are you hiding from me so far? I’m so cold and uncomfortable. Give me a hand.” Xiao Ling said weakly.

Ah Gui swallowed his saliva and very cautiously said, “Xiao Ling, do you know what condition you are in now?”

“He doesn’t know.” Zhang YuShui went to Xiao Ling, squatted down and groped for a talisman paper from his bosom. Xiao Ling hid in fear. He didn’t know why he was afraid of Taoist Master Zhang. Obviously he used to worship Taoist Master Zhang very much.

“Taoist Master Zhang, wh-what’s wrong with me?”

Zhang YuShui quickly folded the talisman paper in his hand, stuffed it into Xiao Ling’s arms and said, “You are dead.”

“Dead?” Xiao Ling turned more stable with the talisman paper, and with a blank face he shook his head in disbelief. “No way, how could I die? I bought the protection talisman and followed the guys closely. Later, without knowing what was going on I was left behind. I searched for you guys after a long time. Finally, I saw Ah Hao and Lao Li. I greeted them happily. Who knew that they would scream when they saw me.”

Ah Hao and Lao Li were the two bodyguards who went down to dig the tunnel.

“Why is Ah Hao’s face bleeding?” Ah Gui couldn’t help asking.

Xiao Ling also wondered, “Who knows, once they saw me they turned around. Afterwards I, what happened to me afterwards? Why can’t I remember? When I started to recall, I happened to see you guys. Zhang Qiu was vomiting all the time, I even handed him a tissue.”

Zhang Qiu:…

He had said it was weird!

Xiao Ling was a ghost was a matter of fact, but he did not seem like a simple ghost. Zhang Qiu had seen many things by now, and did not feel scared. He also felt a little sympathy towards Xiao Ling, who looked to be in his early twenties. He heard that Xiao Ling had only retired from the army and followed them out. He was the first to encounter mishap and even the death was so tragic.

“ErGe, what to do now?”

Xiao Ling’s death was so thorough that everyone could see that he couldn’t be a living person now.

Zhang YuShui stood up and said, “He died too miserably and too fast. The Yin Qi was enough here, it was easy for him to become a ghost. Before he died, he had grasped onto an obsession; it was normal for him thinking he was still alive. As for the split second unconsciousness, there should be something here that absorbed Xiao Ling’s Yin Qi. Wait for me and Li Shu to go down, Xiao Ling will be fine.”

Zhang Qiu recalled the female ghosts saying that they seduced men to come here for their souls through unconscious obedience and gathered Yin Qi to supply for somewhere to absorb, seemed quite true.

“Now there are two ways; first, I dispel Xiao Ling’s grievances and send him off to enter reincarnation. Second, he ceased his own obsession, and then enters reincarnation.” Zhang YuShui turned to Xiao Ling. “The longer the delay, the easier it is to miss the good time for reincarnation.”

Xiao Ling looked up with a choking voice. “I’m really dead?”

Xiao Ling was the smallest in the team. He was usually simple and honest. He could bear hardships and was not afraid to do anything. Never did he expect he would end up like this now.

Faced with Xiao Ling’s expectant eyes, people really couldn’t speak out. It’s hard to tell a lie, but the truth hurts.

Xiao Ling looked desolate as he lowered his head. In the end, he felt unwilling. He looked at Zhang YuShui. “Taoist Master Zhang, I-I choose the second.”

“Seeming as we are colleagues, I’ll help you free of charge.” Zhang YuShui was not surprised by the result. “You have the condense soul talisman on your body. Now let’s go!”

Everyone continued to move on. However towards Xiao Ling, the bodyguards, though sympathetic, were still scared. Xiao Ling himself knew that, so he walked at the rear with a lonely look. At the side, Pei Qing touched his pocket, comforted the rolling little bead on his hand, and helplessly spoiled the little bead. He raised his hand to pat Xiao Ling on the shoulder.

“Don’t be sad, ghosts can also be good ghosts. Once you settled your wish, promptly go to reincarnate will be good.” Pei Qing touched the little bead in his pocket, indicated that the task had been completed. His little Ling Dang was kindhearted.

Xiao Ling listened and thought, he still could be a good ghost when he already died.

“Thank you Big Brother. Why are you not afraid of me at all? I am a ghost.”

Pei Qing thought: LaoZi would like stay at home with Ling Dang to papapa in bed all day, how could I be afraid of a ghost!

Without thinking things through, he said: “Sometimes people are more terrible than ghosts, you’re nothing at all.”

Xiao Ling suddenly felt that Pei Qing’s image was very lofty, such that of supreme realm.

Soon after, they reached an opening. It was a black big door, where it was wholly carved with complex and exquisite patterns. Zhang Qiu held up his flashlight and studied the pattern on it carefully. “It looks like a pair of wings.”

In the middle of the wings was a round shape. Zhang Qiu thought of the Jade Bi that Qi ZhiRong had retrieved.

Zhang YuShui took out the Jade Bi and put it on it then heard the slight noise behind the stone wall. With Zhang Qiu’s amazing hearing, he heard the rotation behind it so subtlety. One could perceive the thickness of the stone wall was too thick that it was impossible to open it by brute force. Of course, Li Shu or Qi Xi could open it, but who knew if there were any mechanisms behind it.

Mechanism?!

Just as Zhang Qiu wanted to remind, he saw a tall figure behind him; Qi ZhiRong was walking towards the stone door, which rose slowly. Qi ZhiRong could not wait and bent to go in first.

They hurried to catch up, but by the time the back feet met the front feet, Qi ZhiRong was no longer in sight.

When the ‘pa’ of the stone door fell sounded at the back, the bodyguards were in a panic and shouted, “Who closes the door?” “Why did the door suddenly close?” “How to get out?”

“Shut up.” Li Shu’s voice was not very loud, but the room was quiet in an instant.

Qi Xi stood at forefront, his face was a little anxious, “What about Xiao Rongrong? How come he disappeared?”

Seeing Qi Xi like this, Zhang Qiu was ashamed to say that there was something wrong with Qi ZhiRong, that he might have been intentionally disappeared. Now the one that was being pitted against might have been them. Without a choice he still said, “He should be there. Let’s look for him.”

The tomb chamber was particularly huge, surrounded by colorful murals, and a huge hole in the middle of the room with layer upon layer dark steps that were steep straight down. It was unknown where it led to.

“Don’t rush down first.” Zhang Qiu pulled Qi Xi, who was hurrying to go down. “Look at the murals first.”

The murals were colorful. It told about the origin of Zhongshan Country. First, it was composed of a nomadic ethnic group. They were heroic and strong, galloping on the grasslands. Later, their ranks expanded into a small city. One could tell that their surroundings were becoming more richly provided.

But soon, Zhongshan Country encountered mishap and was wiped out.

The fire of war continued, and Zhongshan Country was driven to a more remote and barren place. Later in the mural, a sickly young man sat on the couch, and a tall back figure of a man carrying something to offer to him.

Next, Zhongshan Country became stronger again, even stronger than before, and the people of the country had a flourishing outlook.

This was the end of the murals. Zhang Qiu thought that the sickly man in the murals should be the king in that child servant’s story. Who on earth was the offering man? And what was offered? In the Pu Lei Country of Xinjiang, it was the Queen’s sacrifice and there was also a treasure in the murals to make the country prosperous again. Was there any connection between the two?

Zhang Qiu hadn’t got anything after long time of thinking. Qi Xi couldn’t wait any longer.

“Let’s go.”

The steps were steep and narrow, which could only accommodate two people. They couldn’t see the end of it, it was all dark. They lined up one by one. If anyone stepped on empty, the front person might roll down directly.

Zhang Qiu walked behind Xiao Jiang and saw his son walked the steps one at a time with his short legs, his heart jumped.

“Son, are you tired?”

Xiao Jiang’s head did not turn as he seriously said: “If Daddy is tired, you can take my hand.” After that, he handed the little hand over.

“Daddy’s not tired. You slow down a bit.” Zhang Qiu touched his son’s little meat paw, which was very soft and nice to toy with.

Xiao Jiang nodded his head, and very adorably answered “En”. Zhang Qiu followed behind. The head of the people in front descending the steps bit by bit, as if there was no end, and he did not know how long they had been walking. Zhang Qiu felt somewhat blurry in front of him. Suddenly, he heard the sound of rushing water which jolted his spirit.

Was there water in this place?

Then he heard Qi Xi’s voice at the front, “Arrived, there’s actually a river in here."

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