Chapter 9

 Chapter 9: The Tomb of Hui Wang of  Pixian [7]

Translator: Xah

He put his hand on the strange skin and did not move. The other person did not seem to move. Was it a dead man?

In this case, he would rather it be dead.

Zhang Qiu just breathed a little, and the skin under his hand moved. The cold and hard bone he distinctly touched, was the hand.

Suddenly Zhang Qiu’s hairs on his back stood up, he dared not move any more, and the other side also did not move any more but stilled for a moment. The moment was so slow that Zhang Qiu thought it would take at least a few minutes, but in two or three seconds, his brain ran at top speed then his eyes were slightly adapted to the dark. The metal texture of the flashlight was not far from the ground. Zhang Qiu held his violent breath, almost at the same time completed the action.

He removed the other side’s hand, touched the dagger on his waist, rolled the flashlight near, opened the light and shined violently on the other side.

The black hole eyes stared at him motionlessly –the muscles of the face had been weathered and dried up. Zhang Qiu didn’t even think about it, he raised the dagger in his hand then pouncing on the other side and plunging it into the middle of the other’s eyebrows. All of the actions, he learnt from looking at Li Shu.

“Hiss –”

He never imagined that the wind would blow so strong that the dagger went off, and poked into the Jiangshi’s left eye frame –it hissed angrily. Zhang Qiu quickly pulled out the dagger and backed away, but the Jiangshi had already jumped on him—

In a split second, he really felt what it meant to be between life and death. The Jiangshi was so fast that when it came, it carried with a gale, and a sharp claw of dried nails targeted his face.

It’s over.

Zhang Qiu leaned back against the wall and waited in despair for his death. The sharp nails on the claw stood still just a centimeter from his eye. Zhang Qiu dared not blink. Suddenly, the opposite Jiangshi seemed to be frightened and jerked its shrinking paw then immediately turned around to run away.

The view of it’s back looked pitiful, liked he had bullied the Jiangshi just now.

It was so weird that Zhang Qiu could still think of it at the moment.

There was a cold sweat on Zhang Qiu’s forehead, and he wiped two at random with one hand held on the ground. Suddenly, his stomach ached and he fell back on his butt. His stomach ached more and more intensely. Soon a layer of cold sweat appeared on his head. His body was curled up in a ball. Zhang Qiu put his hand on his stomach. His thoughts were complicated.

It should have been because he was frightened just now.

Zhang Qiu bit his lip and let himself think away as much as possible from the pain in his stomach. He leaned back against the wall, raised his flashlight and looked around him. In front of him were rows of colorful terracotta figures, dressed in Han clothes, with red rouge on their very white faces, each with different musical instruments in hands, looking at him in unison.

It was the burial of the pottery figurines, though smaller than real people, about one meter, but the five features were vivid, and the number was large in this dark tomb. All looked at him, strange and frightening.

Because his stomach ached, he couldn’t stand up. The more he looked at the terracotta figurines, the more he felt they were going to be alive. He even heard the wonderful music in his ear.

There’s something wrong with it.

Zhang Qiu quickly deflected the flashlight, shifted his eyes, and the sound of playing slowly faded to a disordered footsteps.

Why do there’s still footsteps?

The more he heard it, the more real it seemed; as if something was running here. When Zhang Qiu thought of the mad LaoSi, he couldn’t stop his stomach ache. He even moved to the corner of the wall, turned off the flashlight and lost his sight in the darkness.

The door was pushed open.

Zhang Qiu held his breath, did not dare to even take a big breath. The disordered footsteps came in.

“Lost the flashlight, is yours still there?”

“There’s still spare in the bag. I’ll look for it.”

Why is the voice so familiar?

Flick, the beam of light came around. Zhang Qiu saw the visitors and suddenly happy, “Big MaoGe!”

They were stunned at the door, but Zhang YuShui was quick to react. The flashlight swept in the direction of the sound and saw Zhang Qiu nestled in the corner. The two of them walked over quickly.

“Xiao Qiu, why are you here? Did you get hurt?” Zhang DaMao, who was also called Zhang ZuoJiu supported Zhang Qiu.

At this moment, meeting with the two brothers, Zhang Qiu never felt so grateful.

“It’s okay, it’s a stomachache.” Zhang Qiu was afraid that both of them would look at the terracotta figurines, and hastily said, “there’s something wrong with these terracotta figurines. It give hallucinations for a long time.”

Zhang YuShui nodded. “It should be whatever medicaments was painted on the pottery figurines can make people hallucinated.” He looked at Zhang Qiu’s stomach and his face was looked heavy. “Go out first.”

Zhang Qiu didn’t see Zhang Yu Shui looking at his stomach. He was glad to see his  family. Finally, he didn’t have to struggle alone.

Out of the tomb, Zhang YuShui held Zhang Qiu, Zhang ZuoJiu was in front with a bronze coin sword[1] in his hand, which Zhang Qiu had seen on TV, and which he later checked was made up of copper coins from Shunzhi, Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong and Jiaqing periods. Also known as Qian Jian of the Five Emperors, which was very useful in fighting against a Jiangshi.

The two sides exchanged information, Zhang Qiu knew that LaoSan had beaten his Dad with a stick and he was still in a coma in the hospital. He was so angry that his teeth snapped and he wanted to beat LaoSan again.

“… Don’t worry too much. There’s my dad, Little Uncle will be fine.” Zhang ZuoJiu did not return with a comforting sentence.

The two men were coming here after asking the people who sold Jin LaoDa’s map. Zhang ZuoJiu’s magic talisman was very powerful. Zhang YuShui’s skill of surveying Feng Shui position was first-class and they arrived here in a safe way.

They walked for half an hour while Zhang YuShui showed them the way. Along the way, they met two wing rooms; one was grain barn and another was terracotta eunuchs.

At the end of the trail was a stone door, beautifully carved, with two monsters squatting on both sides. The monsters were as tall as the door, the human-faced and tiger-bodied monsters grabbed an eagle each, glared at the three of them. Zhang Qiu saw Zhang ZuoJiu coming up and thought of LaoSan’s arm and said, “Big Brother, first see if there is any inter layer on this door that is coated with flammable fuel.”

Zhang ZuoJiu was surprised. He looked back at Zhang YuShui. Zhang YuShui drew out a copper coin from his pocket and hit it. He only heard a ring. The coin was stuck in the stone door. Zhang Qiu looked stunned, didn’t expect that Zhang YuShui’s temperament to be so quick.

“Nothing.”

Zhang ZuoJiu pushed the door open and Zhang YuShui shook his head with a disappointment as he stood beside the door. “Not the main burial chamber.”

There was no instrument for burial in the main tomb.

Zhang Qiu saw that this tomb was much larger than the wing room that they just passed by, but a yellow jade coffin was placed in the middle. This yellow jade could also be counted as a yellow intestine, with gold and silver jade stacked around it. Really like the main tomb, if this was not it, he really could not imagine what the master tomb would be like.

“The tomb is up and down on two floors, with a labyrinth of mechanisms, and a fake tomb chamber. But when the cover is opened, no one wanted to take it away.” Zhang ZuoJiu closed the stone door.

“Big MaoGe, is there zongzi?”

Zhang ZuoJiu nodded. “Now there’s no more, sucking a living yang is a very powerful blood zongzi.”

Zhang Qiu suddenly understood that the greedy tomb raider like Jin LaoDa would definitely open the tomb to find the main burial chamber. The more valuable the funerary objects of the ancients were, the more they carried them with them. When the tomb was opened, a blood zongzi would jumped out from inside.

This tomb owner really thought of anti-theft.

They were now on the lower level, not knowing if the real main tomb was on top. Zhang Qiu hadn’t said anything yet, the slate on the top of the head suddenly hung down. Zhang ZuoJiu pushed Zhang Qiu and jumped directly above it. Zhang Qiu just stood firm and saw Zhang ZuoJiu and the fallen person.

“Wait, big MaoGe. It’s my people.” Zhang Qiu was pleased to see the person at first sight: “Li Shu.”

Li Shu saw that Zhang Qiu was safe and sound, he let off the murderous intent. Zhang Qiu introduced three people to each other, and asked Li Shu, “what about Jin LaoDa and them?”

“Gone.” Li Shu looked at the Zhang brothers and pulled Zhang Qiu to himself. “I know where the main chamber is.”

Zhang ZuoJiu heard and his face was glowing too. Zhang YuShui just looked at Li Shu and said nothing, just nodded.

They first appeared from the top of the moving roof to the first floor and appeared directly in the middle of a cross. Li Shu took Zhang Qiu’s hand and said, “don’t go away.”

Zhang Qiu’s face was indescribably red, he quickly lowered his head and hummed.

Zhang YuShui saw the path Li Shu was leading on, he said : “Maze.”

Li Shu did not answered, he led Zhang Qiu and walked very cleverly on his feet. Zhang YuShui knew this was to avoid some mechanisms. He and Big Brother went to the tomb and arrived at many mazes at this intersection. The terrain was very complicated. Now the path Li Shu took was somewhat like the one he had just walked, but it was not the same.

After walking for about an hour, Zhang Qiu got confused when he looked at the back, he didn’t remember the directions around him. He grasped Li Shu’s hand and followed him closely.

“Here we are.”

Zhang Qiu then discovered that the four of them were standing around a round brick, which seemed to be in the middle of the tomb, but there was no burial around. It was full of pavements and all kinds of entrances.

“Underneath?” Zhang YuShui also thought of it.

Li Shu nodded and his voice was cold. “The sharp edge is below.”

“Can’t we go down here first?” Zhang Qiu asked, at the look of Li Shu’s, he knew it was impossible. “So what now?”

“Rope.” Li Shu looked at Zhang ZuoJiu with his backpack on his back.

Zhang ZuoJiu pulled out a rope from his bag and handed it to Li Shu. Zhang Qiu saw Li Shu jumped off the middle board with the rope quickly. The circle board was moving, and the figure of Li Shu disappeared. Zhang Qiu was shocked and shouted, “Li Shu, Li Shu are you still there?”

The voice echoed back and forth from all directions, except that there was no answer from Li Shu.

Zhang ZuoJiu was afraid that Zhang Qiu would do something silly and fall down. He stopped Zhang Qiu with one hand. Zhang Qiu had to press down the circular plate with one hand. He could only see a piece of black paint from the crack. There was nothing. He suddenly felt cold. Li Shu was gone. How was that possible?

Suddenly, a pair of crimson eyes fell on him.

Those eyes —


Footnote:

[1]The coin sword consists of one or two iron rods as a foundation with real Chinese “cash” coins ingeniously fastened with string, cord or wire which should be red in color. A typical coin sword is about 2 feet (0.6 meter) long and consists of around 100 ancient bronze coins.

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