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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