Author: 哔哔 (Bi Bi) / Jin Gang Quan

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 87

Bai Huan stood up from beside the stone bed and said to Huo Fenghua, “You’ve heard the story. Can we go now?”

Huo Fenghua’s fingertips still held the cold sensation left by the carved writing on the wall. He had a strange feeling about Bai Huan and asked, “Go where?”

Bai Huan looked at him. “Doesn’t Second Prince want to find the Flying Phoenix Scroll? I’ll take you to it.” With that, he headed out of the cavern.

Huo Fenghua followed and asked, “So you’re planning to throw in your lot with me?”

Bai Huan glanced back at him.

Huo Fenghua smiled. “I don’t know why you’re helping the Wang family. If you help them kill Feng Tianzong, what can they give you? Don’t forget you’re Xichou. You might as well help me. After all, we have the same goal—killing Feng Tianzong. As long as I can restore the kingdom someday, I can agree to any conditions you want.”

Carrying the candle stand, Bai Huan moved through the dim maze. “Xichou’s already been destroyed by Donglin. What conditions can Second Highness offer me now?”

Huo Fenghua thought for a moment. “Then can you tell me what your real goal is? Feng Tianzong’s already lost his power, sure, but when Xichou was first taken, the one who led the troops and swept through everything was Feng Tianzong. Why did you choose to side with the Wang family from the start? Or to put it another way, what can the Wang family give you?”

Bai Huan stayed silent.

Huo Fenghua’s thoughts were faintly linking into a thread, but it was still blurry. He wanted to draw even a scrap of information from Bai Huan so he could sort out the chaos in his head. “Why do you know about Huo Tinggao and Feng Yiting? I’m the Second Prince of Xichou and I’ve never even heard of it. And why are you so familiar with Luofeng Ridge’s terrain? Who told you the Flying Phoenix Scroll is inside Luofeng Ridge? Didn’t the Flying Phoenix Scroll disappear along with Feng Yiting?”

Bai Huan gave a soft laugh. “Second Highness, you’ve got too many questions. Which one do you want answered most?”

Huo Fenghua considered briefly. “Where is the Flying Phoenix Scroll?”

Bai Huan said, “If you want to know where the Flying Phoenix Scroll is, then be quiet and follow me. I’ll take you to it.”

Huo Fenghua knew Bai Huan wasn’t going to say anything more. He also found it strange that Bai Huan would voluntarily lead him to the Flying Phoenix Scroll. Watching Bai Huan’s back, Huo Fenghua grew more and more wary.

Still, as Bai Huan led him through the maze, they didn’t encounter danger. Or rather, every trap was avoided by Bai Huan. Huo Fenghua had no idea how long they walked before Bai Huan stopped in front of a stone door.

There was a mechanism on one side of the door. Bai Huan reached out and pushed it, and the stone door slid aside with startling speed, revealing a path ahead. The entire process was soundless.

Bai Huan went in first. Huo Fenghua followed. Bai Huan didn’t go far before he stopped. Candlelight only reached so far. Huo Fenghua started to say, “Th…” and immediately cut himself off. Even though he couldn’t see clearly, he could feel he was in an extremely open space. His voice overlapped with waves of echoes, making it sound unusually loud.

Bai Huan turned around and took a torch from the rock wall behind Huo Fenghua. He used the candle to light it first. As the fire brightened, Huo Fenghua realized they seemed to be standing on a small terrace. It was only about five steps from front to back, and beyond that was nothing.

Then Bai Huan took the rope off his back, tied one end to the torch, and gripped the rope. He gave it a few swings, then hurled it hard out beyond the terrace. The rope spun, the torch tied to it making more than half a circle through the air, and it lit five or six torches in the distance. The entire space flared bright in an instant.

As Bai Huan reeled the rope back in, Huo Fenghua stepped forward. He watched Bai Huan’s movements while looking down toward the edge under his feet. Only then did he realize they were inside a vast hollow cavern in the belly of a ring-shaped mountain. The cavern itself was circular. Every so often, a torch was set into the rock wall. Beneath each torch was a narrow platform like the one they stood on. Behind each platform was a stone door. It looked like you could enter this huge cavern from different tunnels.

Directly opposite them, the farthest platform was at least dozens of zhang away. When he looked up, he saw the rock walls narrowing into a cone, the top swallowed in darkness with no visible exit. When he looked down, he saw they were still dozens of zhang above the cavern floor. The torchlight couldn’t reach that far, but down below floated a dim blue glow. It didn’t illuminate much, yet he could faintly make out the scene beneath it.

Bai Huan hung the torch back on the wall, coiled the rope up, and walked to Huo Fenghua’s side. Together they looked down.

In the middle of the blue glow, Huo Fenghua could make out many wooden boards laid out in neat rows. He asked, “What are those?”

Bai Huan said, “Do you remember what I told you Luofeng Ridge originally was?”

Huo Fenghua thought about it. “You said it was the Feng clan’s burial ground.” As he said that, his heart gave a sudden jolt.

Bai Huan nodded. “Those neatly arranged boards are all coffin lids. The blue light you see is from the medicinal solution soaking the coffins. That solution can keep bodies from decaying for a very long time. So those coffins aren’t sealed shut. The solution soaks through and seeps into the coffins as well, preserving the Feng clan’s remains.”

After Bai Huan said that, Huo Fenghua immediately felt as if the whole cavern had turned cold and clammy. The air seemed to carry a strange scent. He couldn’t tell whether it was the smell of the solution or the smell of corpses.

Bai Huan pointed to the largest wooden board at the very center of the cavern floor. By now Huo Fenghua understood it was the largest coffin lid. Bai Huan said, “The Flying Phoenix Scroll is inside that coffin.”

Huo Fenghua looked at him. “How do you know?”

Bai Huan didn’t answer. He only said, “Tie the rope around yourself. I’ll lower you down. Be careful. That solution is corrosive. Once you’re down there, step on the coffin lids. Jump to the center, open the lid, take out the Flying Phoenix Scroll, and then I’ll pull you back up.”

It was as if Huo Fenghua hadn’t heard him. He asked again, “How do you know?”

Bai Huan turned to look at him. After a moment of silence, he said, “The largest clan of the Yuqing people bears the surname Feng. The second-largest clan originally bore the surname Bai.”

Huo Fenghua suddenly understood. “You’re Yuqing too?”

Bai Huan’s voice lowered. “The Bai and Feng clans have been enemies for generations. They fought for years without end. The Bai clan gradually declined and was enslaved by the Feng clan. Do you see what’s beside the coffins in those corners?”

Huo Fenghua hadn’t looked closely before. When Bai Huan pointed toward the corners, he looked and saw many stone mannequins standing there. They formed a ring around the cavern, encircling the coffins in the middle.

Bai Huan withdrew his hand. “Inside every stone figure stands a member of the Bai clan. They weren’t just enslaved generation after generation. Even in death, they must guard the Feng clan’s coffins forever. They’re never allowed to be reborn.”

Huo Fenghua finally understood. “You’re from the Bai clan of Yuqing. So you weren’t following Wang Anzhi’s orders to go after Feng Tianzong. From beginning to end, you sided with the Wang family to target the Feng brothers.”

Bai Huan nodded. “Second Prince is right. We have a common enemy, Feng Tianzong. So I won’t harm you. I’m willing to help you find the Flying Phoenix Scroll and destroy Feng Tianzong. As for whether Donglin or Xichou wins, that doesn’t matter to me.”

Something felt off to Huo Fenghua. He slowly stood and took a small step back. “Then when Huo Tinggao exterminated the Feng clan, where did the Bai clan go?”

Bai Huan said, “They took the chance to escape.”

“No.” Huo Fenghua kept backing away. “The Bai clan was captured by the Feng clan and enslaved for generations. That day in Luofeng Ridge, the ones slaughtered weren’t only the Feng clan. Your Bai clan would’ve been slaughtered too. You’re not standing with me out of shared hatred. You want to wipe out both me and the Feng brothers. That’s why the formation at Luofeng Ridge used my birth data as the core.”

Bai Huan rose to face him. “No. They really did escape. I have no grievance with you. I should thank you Huos for killing off the Feng clan. Even if your line is ruined now, I’m still willing to help you get the Flying Phoenix Scroll, then kill Feng Tianzong and repay our shared great hatred.”

Huo Fenghua wanted to retreat through the door behind him.

But Bai Huan suddenly said, “Don’t step back. If you do, you’ll fall.”

Huo Fenghua stopped short and turned to look. There was no stone door behind him at all, only empty space. One more step and he would’ve plunged into the abyss. Their stone platform had suddenly become an island in the cavern, identical from every angle.

Bai Huan smiled. “Has no one ever told you? What I’m best at is setting formations. Yin and yang, the Eight Trigrams, endless celestial patterns. The human heart is easiest to confuse with what the eyes can see, and once you lose your bearings, you’re done.”

Huo Fenghua didn’t speak. He only stared at Bai Huan.

Bai Huan said, “I’m not killing you. I truly mean to help you obtain the Flying Phoenix Scroll.”

Huo Fenghua kept his palm close to his thigh, gathering inner energy. He slowly raised his hand. Just as he was about to strike, he abruptly pulled back and looked past Bai Huan’s shoulder.

Bai Huan’s brows tightened. He heard the sharp whistling of a feathered arrow leaving the string. He twisted aside, barely avoiding the shot. When he turned, he saw someone appear on the opposite platform, a longbow in hand, gaze sharp as he aimed across.

It was Shao Feijie.

Huo Fenghua gathered qi again and slammed a palm strike into Bai Huan’s shoulder while shouting, “Many thanks, General Shao!”

Shao Feijie didn’t respond. A second arrow was already nocked on the string, aimed straight at them, but he didn’t release it immediately.

Bai Huan’s martial skill was clearly inferior to Huo Fenghua’s, and he hadn’t expected Huo Fenghua’s inner strength to be so deep. He struggled to take four or five exchanges, retreating again and again until his feet were at the edge of the platform.

Then Huo Fenghua drove a palm into Bai Huan’s chest. Bai Huan toppled backward, his body falling off the platform. Huo Fenghua leaned out to look, but Bai Huan’s figure vanished in midair. He didn’t see him drop into the sea of coffins at the cavern floor either.

Huo Fenghua looked up at Shao Feijie across from him. “Where did he go?”

Shao Feijie’s arrow was still trained in this direction, but he slowly lowered the bow. “He flung his rope onto the cavern wall, caught something, and escaped.”

Huo Fenghua asked, “Why didn’t you shoot him?”

Shao Feijie said instead, “Who was he? So you’re really not dead, Second Prince. Why are you here?”

Huo Fenghua froze, then suddenly remembered their purpose. “We came to find you!”

“Find me?” Shao Feijie’s brows drew tight. “You? Who else is with you?”

Huo Fenghua’s mind turned quickly, and the words came out. “And Martial Uncle Wen. What happened to my Martial Uncle? Do you know?”

Shao Feijie stepped forward. “You saw Heyi?”

Talking like this was far too inconvenient. Huo Fenghua asked, “How did you find this place? Do you know the way inside?”

Shao Feijie answered, “I found an old map of Luofeng Ridge.”

Huo Fenghua said, “Then can we talk somewhere else? I’m afraid we’re being too loud and we’ll wake the ones sleeping down below. If they get unhappy, we’re finished.”

Shao Feijie said, “Wait over there. I’ll come to you.”

Huo Fenghua nodded. “Hurry.”

Then he saw Shao Feijie retreat back out through the cavern entrance he’d come from.

After Bai Huan fell, the surroundings around Huo Fenghua returned to normal. Being alone in this burial place made his skin crawl. He took the candle stand Bai Huan had brought and backed out too, intending to find somewhere outside to sit and wait for Shao Feijie.

But he had barely stepped out when he saw someone standing at the end of a corridor to one side, holding up a candle stand.

Huo Fenghua realized that it was Wen Heyi.

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