Author: 梦溪石 / Meng Xi Shi

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

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Chapter 63

For those who went through this the first time, narrowly escaping death from their training exam, it was usually like this. Song Zhicun saw this and didn’t comfort them, because there were more dangers waiting for them in the future. If they needed to be comforted every time, such a weak person was not fit for the Special Administration Bureau.

They needed to adjust their mentality, make themselves more adapted to this environment, and be able to complete their tasks in extreme danger at any time. This is the quality of being a member of the Special Administration Bureau.

Dong Zhi suddenly opened his eyes and said in a daze, “There is another person… who doesn’t seem to be dead.”

“Who?” Song Zhicun asked.

Dong Zhi gasped, “He fought with me and wanted to blow up the groove…”

Long Shen stroked his back and Dong Zhi spoke more coherently. “He originally fell not far from me, but when we left the main hall, I didn’t see his body.”

The young man’s appearance was so outstanding and weird that it was hard not to be impressed by his image.

Song Zhicun frowned. “There is only one way out, where can he go?”

No one can answer this question. They’d all come out the same way and had narrowly avoided death. The cave had collapsed, and they couldn’t go back for the time being. Even the bodies of their companions couldn’t be recovered yet.

Upon receiving the notice, Ye Cheng arrived quickly, and he was accompanied by the leaders of the Yinchuan office.

Song Zhicun briefly told them about the situation. When he heard that two people had died below, the leader of the office changed his expression and hurriedly said, “Leaders, please get everyone in the car and go back to rest. We have already contacted the hospital. We’ll send someone to guard here, and we’ll go down and search for their bodies. If there’s any situation, we’ll report it to you at once!”

Long Shen frowned and said, “Don’t search for the time being.”

The following situation was unknown. The python most likely will hide in the river, so it won’t cause trouble, but an accident could happen if they have people go down there to search with no direction.

While the sacrifices of their companions are important, the lives of the living are also equally important.

When he said this, the people in the office naturally did not dare disobey, so they hurriedly asked the branch office for reinforcements and sent someone to guard the area.

The grievances of the world do not disappear, thus providing an environment for demons to breed. This time, however, the Archfiend was completely wiped out, and it won’t be able to regain its vitality for at least hundreds of years. The Special Administration had solved a serious problem, but at a high cost. Long Shen and Song Zhicun were heavily injured fighting the Archfiend and couldn’t guard the area, so they had to hand over the duties to the branch office.

Everyone got into the car one by one and went back. When they looked at the royal tombs outside the window, the hearts of many were mixed. There were traces of relaxation and relief, but the mood was indescribably heavy.

Many of them were injured, and the corners of their mouths were still bleeding. They could only take temporary medicine to relieve their internal injuries from Ye Cheng, then go back for a full examination and treatment.

Dong Zhi also suffered a serious injury, but it was a “blessing in disguise” as he had been sleeping since he resurfaced from the underground, so he didn’t feel the pain of motion sickness or vomiting on the ride back.

Long Shen looked sideways, seeing him leaning against the window with his head tilted while frowning lightly. He wasn’t sleeping well.

He surmised the reason behind how Dong Zhi was able to prevent the explosion was because he had invited god again. He also knew that he had repeatedly ordered Dong Zhi to not use the skill so easily, because the previous two times had consumed a lot of energy and spirit, but the situation was urgent at that time. He was fighting against the Archfiend and could not break away for a moment, and everyone else was blocked off by the ghouls, so he could only telepathically tell Dong Zhi to find a way.

Facts have proven that this apprentice did not disappoint him, and his potential was beyond imagination. Without incense or a seal, he was able to invite a Yin God by just chanting the mantra alone, and it seems the person he invited was no ordinary person either.

However, the price he paid for this was also huge. Dong Zhi’s face was completely drained, no longer having even a hint of blood on it. It was pale, almost transparent, making the sight all the more shocking. Long Shen didn’t know how long it would take for him to recover.

What’s even more troublesome was his body. Just now, Long Shen had taken his pulse and found that he was exhausted internally and externally, and his qi and blood were heavily deficient. To put it bluntly, let alone being able to use talismans, if he doesn’t take good care of himself well, it’s estimated that he’ll be chronically ill in the future.

Long Shen secretly sighed, and when he saw the other party’s face wrinkled into a ball, his heart softened a little unconsciously. He stretched out his hand to smooth the frown between the other party’s eyebrows.

After a while, with a squeak, the bus braked, slamming Dong Zhi’s head into the window and causing his body to lean forward. Fortunately, he was wearing a seatbelt and was stopped by Long Shen in time; otherwise, his forehead would’ve suffered. Still, he didn’t wake up.

Long Shen untied his seatbelt, moved his shoulders to the side and let Dong Zhi rest his upper body on his lap to avoid the tragedy of slamming his head again.

The sun shone from the window on half of Dong Zhi’s head, and that warmed him up. It was too hot, and not only did it not have the slightest sense of romance, but it also made his hair quickly burn up.

Long Shen tried to pull the curtain up to the middle so that the other party could sleep more comfortably, but the curtain was broken. Frowning slightly for a moment, he placed his palm on the top of Dong Zhi’s head, casting a thin shadow on the latter’s cheek to separate the light from the dark.

The wheels on the bus continued to roll forward, taking them away from the place where they had experienced life and death. The mausoleum of the Western Xia Dynasty stood behind them solemnly, unchanged for thousands of years.

—

“Leaders, the conditions here are not good, so please make do.”

Ye Cheng pressed the switch on the wall, causing the lightbulb above his head to turn on dimly. As he walked down the steps, Long Shen and Song Zhicun followed behind.

Zhong Yuyi was also there and had godless eyes and looked to be in poor spirits. He was temporarily called over in the middle of last night to assist in the interrogation. 

After placing the wounded, Song Zhicun and Long Shen left the hospital as they had other business to attend to and couldn’t stay there to recover from their injuries. They rushed to the office, guided by Ye Cheng, to meet with Zhong Yuyi.

The office of the Special Administration Bureau located in Yinchuan was in an old independent villa in the old urban area. The community was built many years ago. At that time, the neighbors who could afford such a property like this were all rich. With the aging of the community, many people gradually moved away, and the Northwest Branch took advantage of the cheap price and bought it. Like the Yinchuan office, the attached basement could occasionally be turned into an interrogation room, such as now.

Song Zhicun looked at the dimly lit basement, which was comparable to a haunted house, and couldn’t help but complain, “I say, won’t your office change into a few brighter lightbulbs? If you told people this is the Special Administration Bureau, people would think you’re lying because, looking around, this looks more like a haunted house!”

Everything was fine, but since Song Zhicun had opened the floodgates, this triggered Ye Cheng’s chatterbox, and he started complaining, “Boss Song, it’s not like we’re cheap. The funds allocated to us by the branch are too small. We don’t even have enough toilet paper, so our employees have to bring their own. Tell me, is there any other office that is poorer than us?”

Song Zhicun immediately changed his tone and began to comfort him, “Xiao Ye, it’s wrong for you to think this way. In fact, the General Administration Bureau allocates funds to branch offices in accordance with regulations every year, but after all, our Special Administration Bureau has a unique type of work and often destroys some buildings and facilities involuntarily. The maintenance cost is not a small amount, so financial constraints are also a common situation. We must learn to adapt and solve it rather than complain about it.”

The corners of Ye Cheng’s mouth twitched. However, for fear that Deputy Director Song would make another long-winded speech, he quickly shut up.

There wasn’t much space in the basement, but it was enough to fit a table and a few chairs. A man in handcuffs and a gauze wrap under his clothes sat across the table. It was Fujikawa Aoi, who they had captured in the tomb.

He lowered his head; his expression was sluggish and motionless. They didn’t bother with him directly. Long Shen nodded slightly to Zhong Yuyi, who then walked up to Fujikawa Aoi, pulled out an incense burner from out of nowhere, lit an incense stick, and inserted it into it.

The smell of incense was a bit weird. It was similar to sandalwood, but it had a sweet and greasy taste.

Ye Cheng was a little curious. He knew that Zhong Yuyi was good at inviting gods, but he had never seen it with his own eyes. Now that they were about to interrogate Fujikawa Aoi, was he going to use the power of a god to force him to answer? Would it be a Japanese god to make the opponent succumb?

As he was thinking about it, Zhong Yuyi took out a pen from a cloth bag, dipped it in cinnabar, and drew a symbol on Fujikawa’s forehead.

“Fujikawa, raise your head,” Zhong Yuyi said.

The sound reverberated faintly in the basement, and with the dim lighting, it felt more like a prelude to a ghost story.

Fujikawa shook slightly, and he raised his head obediently.

“What’s your name?”

“Fujikawa Aoi.”

“Where are you from?”

“Chikuma City, Nagano Prefecture.”

Zhong Yuyi asked a few more irrelevant questions, and Fujikawa answered them all one by one, but did not hesitate.

Ye Cheng was secretly surprised.

Judging from his expression, Fujikawa seemed to be controlled by a certain technique, which was somewhat similar to hypnosis, but Zhong Yuyi’s skill was much stronger than hypnosis.

Zhong Yuyi finally got to the point.

“What are you and your apprentices doing all the way in China?”

Fujikawa was silent for a moment and said sternly, “…For the bronze mirror.”

Zhong Yuyi: “Your ultimate goal.”

Fujikawa: “…”

Fine sweat began to appear on his forehead, and his brows frowned tighter and tighter, as if resisting Zhong Yuyi’s pressure.

Zhong Yuyi lit another incense stick, which was a little thicker than the previous one. The rich aroma quickly filled the basement. Ye Cheng couldn’t stand it. He quietly took two steps back and looked at Long Shen and Song Zhicun. They looked like usual, and their eyes were focused on Fujikawa.

“What is your ultimate goal?”

“…In order to destroy, destroy, the stone tablet.” Fujikawa finally spit out a few words with difficulty.

Zhong Yuyi: “Why destroy the stone tablet?”

With the key secret poured out, the rest will be much smoother.

“I don’t know, Otowa Hatsuhiko asked me to come.”

Zhong Yuyi: “You are not only the Onmyoji but also the priest of the Ise Shrine. How can Otowa Hatsuhiko command you?”

Fujikawa Aoi: “His… identity is a bit special. He has close contacts with the imperial family, and he said he could save Eiko.”

The Eiko was, of course, referring to his most beloved disciple, Kitaichi Eiko.

Last time on Changbai Mountain, the master-apprentice duo wanted to make the bone dragon their shikigami, but they failed. Kitaichi Eiko was beaten senseless by Long Shen that she was permanently disabled and it ruined her cultivation. Fujikawa Aoi had raised her since childhood and thus poured an insurmountable amount of sweat and effort into her. Naturally, he was unwilling to have such a result, so he tried his best to heal her.

The basement was silent. Except for Fujikawa’s words and gasps, everyone else deliberately suppressed their breathing.

Song Zhicun wrote some questions and handed them to Zhong Yuyi to have him ask him.

Zhong Yuyi took the note and continued to ask, “What’s the origin of Otowa Hatsuhiko?”

Fujikawa Aoi opened his mouth and didn’t say anything.

Zhong Yuyi asked again.

Fujikawa Aoi’s face became paler, and his gasps became heavier, so that in the end, the corners of his mouth overflowed with blood, but he still refused to say a word. Seeing that his condition was deteriorating and for fear that he would die, Zhong Yuyi hurriedly changed the subject.

“Then did Otowa Hatsuhiko heal your apprentice in the end?”

“…Healed.” Fujikawa made a murmur from his throat, and his expression looked brisker than just now.

Zhong Yuyi: “The young man who came with you, whose weapon is made of silk, what is his origin?”

“I… don’t know. He was sent by Otowa.”

As soon as Zhong Yuyi saw that Long Shen and the others had nothing to ask, he patted Fujikawa on the forehead. “You will forget everything tonight. Go to sleep.”

Fujikawa fell to the ground softly and was unconscious.

Song Zhicun frowned, not optimistic. “It seems that another big fish has been brought out!”

Ye Cheng couldn’t help but ask, “Boss Song, has the Archfiend really been wiped out?”

Song Zhicun nodded. “The Archfiend has been completely destroyed by us, so it cannot easily be reborn, at least within a hundred years. However, according to Fujikawa, this Otowa Hatsuhiko is not someone so simple. Even Fujikawa could be used as a weapon by him. Wherever you point it, counting the time on Changbai Mountain, his purpose is obvious. The stone tablet. Boss Long, what do you think?”

Long Shen asked Ye Cheng to take Zhong Yuyi to rest first. Ye Cheng knew that the two leaders had something to discuss with each other, so he said to Zhong Yuyi, “The lounge is ready for you. Let me take you there.”

Zhong Yu yawned, as if he was too sleepy to open his eyes.

After the two left, Long Shen said, “I have been sending someone to investigate Otowa, but I can’t find anything yet. The Otowa Conglomerate made its fortune after World War II and had strong financial ties. On the surface, they are no different from other traditional Japanese chaebols, but they are also well-connected in both political and economic circles.”

Song Zhicun nodded in pain. He thought he had caught a big fish, but who knew he would find that there was something bigger behind said big fish.

“But on the plus side, at least we know who is coveting the stone tablet. Perhaps we can dig out the secrets of the stone tablet from him.”

It was embarrassing to admit that if it weren’t for the Japanese, they wouldn’t have known about these stone tablets that were buried all over China. Judging from the inscriptions on these stone tablets, their history was likely beyond their imagination. With the advent of two tablets appearing one after another, the cloudiness around them seemed to be lifting bit by bit.

However, after removing it, more mysteries came surging forward, covering the mysteries with an even heavier fog.

Song Zhicun said, “Could Otowa Hatsuhiko have any connections to demons? Or is he a demon himself?”

Long Shen: “It’s possible.”

Song Zhicun frowned. “This is troublesome.”

China has vast territory and abundant resources. People with ulterior motives can hide their identity and enter the country easily. If normal people are hard to find, don’t bother mentioning powerful demons and monsters.

The Otowa Conglomerate is powerful and has deep ties. While the Special Administration Bureau must operate in the light, they can hide in the dark. As long as their opponent moves his finger, he could cause them endless trouble. What’s trickier is that the opponent is likely to have more information about the stone tablet than they do. Failing to crack the secret and location of the stone tablet would put them on the passive receiving end.

However, as of now, there was no better option.

“What about Fujikawa?” Song Zhicun asked.

Neither of them were fledglings. To be able to sit in this seat, in addition to strength, they must also have a comprehensive means of dealing with problems that didn’t only resolve to killing and burying people.

Long Shen glanced at the unconscious Fujikawa. “I want to exchange him for Dong* Jilan.”

*Different character than the Dong in Dong Zhi.

Song Zhicun opened his mouth and wanted to say something, but in the end sighed. “Well, after so many years, whether Lao Dong is still alive or dead, it’d be best if we could get him back.”

Long Shen nodded.

When the important matter came to an end, Song Zhicun couldn’t help coughing while clutching his chest. “I still have to go back to the hospital to lie down for a few days. I’m really too old now and can’t compare to before. A few years ago, I was seriously injured but could bounce back immediately!”

Long Shen said, “Let’s go and get some rest.”

Song Zhicun said, “I know you also have been injured. Don’t act so tough. Leave it to Ye Cheng. Though the kid has an unreliable mouth, he’s still capable.”

Long Shen let out a sigh and turned to look at Fujikawa, who was still unconscious. The latter face was like gold paper, where it still holds some slight exaltation of the past.

Over the years, many people have left the Special Administration Bureau, going overseas incognito, to help the country deal with things that couldn’t be done so openly.

Like ordinary overseas peacekeepers, there were those from the spiritual world as well. Not only could their activities not be publicized in the news, but there were also many unsung heroes who had sacrificed their lives and had failed to return to their roots. Sometimes, even their relatives didn’t know what contributions they had made, but Long Shen and Song Zhicun, as well as every member of the Special Administration Bureau, have never forgotten them.

While their life and death remained unknown, and even tombstones could not be erected for them, in the hearts of Long Shen and the others, they could recite almost all their names. It was forever engraved in their hearts, never forgotten.

Even if they were unknown, they would never lose their greatness.

—

The moment Dong Zhi regained consciousness, he almost thought he was still underground, being chased by a giant python that was right behind him. When he saw a big face in front of him, he almost screamed.

The doctor straightened up and asked in a warm voice, “How is your body feeling now?”

Still confused and befuddled, Dong Zhi could only describe truthfully, “I have no strength. I feel soft and unable to move, and I feel dizzy when I lie down.”

His voice was also hoarse.

The doctor nodded and didn’t say much. He told him to take a good rest and then left.

Dong Zhi looked around. He was in a single ward. It’s estimated that he got preferential treatment this time, but the doctor didn’t say anything, so it made him feel a little uneasy.

What about his friends? Where is his Master? Where is Boss Song?

His thoughts didn’t last long as his mind remained muddled, and he quickly fell asleep again within the blink of an eye. He didn’t know how much time had passed before he woke up and saw Gu Meiren sitting by the bed, looking at him with a sad expression.

Earlier, Dong Zhi felt that something wasn’t quite right, and combined with the doctor’s treatment just now and Gu Meiren’s face, his heart pounded, thinking that he might not only be seriously injured but it was terminal.

“Are you awake? Are you feeling uncomfortable? Do you want me to call a doctor?” When Gu Meiren saw him open his eyes, her expression changed to joy.

Dong Zhi propped himself up on his elbow that didn’t have the infusion needle, wanting to sit up. Gu Meiren hurriedly stretched out her hand to help him and put a pillow behind his back.

“Are you okay? What about Ba Sang and the others?”

Gu Meiren touched the side of her face. There was a wound there that hadn’t scabbed over yet.

“I’m fine. I just suffered some minor scratches. Others suffered varying degrees of injuries. Liu Qingbo broke a rib, and he’s now lying in the ward next to you. Zhang Song had broken a hand, and two people had suffered concussions.”

Dong Zhi asked cautiously, “What about me?”

Gu Meiren stopped talking.

After letting his imagination run wild, Dong Zhi thought he was too seriously injured to be healed, so he forced a smile and said, “I can bear it. Just say it.”

Before Gu Meiren could say anything, Long Shen came in. He walked as usual, steadily, and wasn’t dressed in a hospital gown, but from a glance, Dong Zhi could tell that he looked worse than before.

“Boss Long!” Gu Meiren got up to greet him.

“Master,” Dong Zhi said.

Gu Meiren looked back at him in amazement. As soon as Dong Zhi came out of the underground, he passed out. Long Shen couldn’t talk about accepting apprentices at that time, because except for Song Zhicun, no one else knew that Dong Zhi was already accepted.

Long Shen nodded to Gu Meiren. “Go next door and have a look.”

Gu Meiren knew that they had something to talk about, so she hurriedly left.

As soon as she left, Dong Zhi couldn’t help but ask, “Master, is there something wrong with my body?”

Long Shen didn’t scold him for thinking about it, but frowned, as if there was something unspeakable. When he saw his reaction, Dong Zhi’s heart froze.

“Are you trying to hide it from me?”

Long Shen: “I didn’t want to hide it from you, but you have been lethargic, so I haven’t found the chance to tell you.”

Dong Zhi couldn’t help but feel sad when he heard this. He felt that his life was really too sad. He had a terminal illness before he officially joined the Special Administration Bureau. He hadn’t even touched his Master’s hand!

Thinking about this, without any ramp up, he burst into tears. Long Shen was taken aback and didn’t even resist being held by Dong Zhi.

“Master, I was ready to sacrifice myself before I went down. I’m not surprised that something has happened this time. It’s just that it’s hard to be reconciled!” Dong Zhi sniffed.

Long Shen took out his hand and patted the back of Dong Zhi’s hand. “Some things must be given up. You don’t need to be too persistent.”

Dong Zhi became even more sad in my heart. “Actually, if nothing else, I still have one wish. I must tell you, otherwise, I’m afraid it’ll be too late in the future!”

Long Shen frowned. “You just can’t invite gods anymore. It’s not like you’re dying. Why are you acting like this?”

Dong Zhi replied sluggishly, “Huh?”

Long Shen: “I didn’t expect you to be so obsessed with inviting gods. Even if you can’t invite gods, as long as you practice with your Changshou Sword and the thunder technique taught by Fang Lao, in the future there will be no loss.”

Dong Zhi stammered, “I-Don’t I have a terminal illness?”

Long Shen: “Who told you that?”

Dong Zhi: …I imagined it myself.

He was grateful but felt a little lost in his heart. Fortunately, he didn’t reveal the matter that was hidden at the bottom of his heart. Otherwise, their master-disciple relationship would probably be over.

---

The author has something to say:

You deserve your apprenticeship.

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Kinky Thoughts:

Aww, he was just seconds away from confessing!

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<<< || Table of Contents || Lore Glossary || >>>

Author: 梦溪石 / Meng Xi Shi

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

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Chapter 62

Dong Zhi remembered that Zhong Yuyi once said that when you invite a Yin God, you often encounter a situation where the Yin god you named to invite wouldn’t come, just like when they had that class at the farmhouse. Zhong Yuyi failed to invite Guan Yu and Yue Wumu one try after another. They both failed, not because Zhong Yuyi’s abilities weren’t good enough, but because the two he wanted to invite were largely famous, high in status, and had great tempers. They weren’t Gods that could just simply be invited on a whim. Secondly, they may not “hear” your request when you try to invite them. Finally, even if they did hear the request, they may not come if they’re in a bad mood or they simply didn’t like you.

Therefore, some magicians who can invite gods will not mention it, besides those who are liars and pretenders. If one has the capability to, in order to succeed every time, they will not try to invite any specific Yin God, but aim to invite whoever they can. This has also become a trick used by some so-called “masters” to deceive people. For example, they talked nonsense to their customers, patting their chests, ensuring them that they could invite any immortal, when in fact, at most they could only invite a fox spirit or a weasel spirit and the likes. For those more immoral, they would invite a lonely ghost and pretend to be someone else’s relative.

At that time, Zhong Yuyi talked about a case of a folk family who wanted to invite a god, but they encountered a charlatan. They all thought the story was very funny and enjoyed themselves but didn’t think too much of it.

But now, Dong Zhi recalled these thoughts, not because he wanted to reminisce about the fun times.

There wasn’t any incense burner or incense at the moment, and his limbs were tied, so he couldn’t form the prayers. The only thing that moved was his mouth.

Would it still be useful to just recite the mantra? Still useful.

His previous Master, Fang Yang, once told him that spells and talismans were channels for human beings to communicate with all creatures under heaven and earth, and they were also the most effective form of communication. As long as one was sincere, it could be possible to invite a righteous god. The rest of the other steps, such as burning incense and doing the seals, were just auxiliary.

Now that it had come to this point, he could only make a last desperate attempt. Dong Zhi closed his eyes and began reciting a prayer in his heart.

I am Dong Zhi, a disciple of the Hezao Sect. I am here with my companions to stop the Japanese conspiracy, punish evil and destroy demons, clean up the three realms, subdue fiends, and overcome all dangers and disasters. I earnestly implore all passing gods to help me. In return, this disciple is willing to offer his utmost sincerity to serve at thy beckoning!

Thousands have died in this underground cave. For what it was worth, they definitely were the most wronged souls, but Dong Zhi didn’t want to invite them. They most likely were ordinary people in their previous life, and now they have gathered their grievances here because they have died in vain. That resentment was refined and turned them into ghouls and thousand corpse figurines. Not only will they not be able to help, but it’s also very likely that they’ll do bad things.

However, deep in the underground here, were there any reliable Yin Gods passing by who would hear his prayers?

He hoped not to invite any of the kings of the Western Xia Dynasty. If he invites someone like Li Yuanhao or something, what use would it be? He has to be able to fight!

Dong Zhi tried his best to empty his mind, not thinking about any more nonsense. He tried his best to discard all disturbing factors from his five senses. The noise of fighting gradually faded away and the threat of the ghouls and thousand corpse figurines seemed to no longer exist. Even the life and death confrontation between the Archfiend and Long Shen was forgotten by him. Everything was forgotten, as his mind was filled with incantations that he chanted silently while not thinking about anything else.

His body no longer seemed to feel the sensation of the silk thread that was tightly wrapped around him. His body gradually became lighter, as if he was suddenly floating, but he didn’t leave his body completely. Dong Zhi slowly opened his eyes. His consciousness still exists, but it seems that he was no longer the only one in his body.

It was a very subtle feeling. Even though he had invited Yin Gods several times, he still couldn’t adapt to it. Another consciousness became dominant in his body and his own consciousness was squeezed aside involuntarily, creating a hazy feeling that left him seeing and hearing everything as if they were separated into a different world.

At that moment, he heard a voice. To be more precise, the voice sounded in his mind a bit like Long Shen’s telepathy, but it was different. The voice sounded majestic and thick, with layers of echoes, seemingly like an ancient voice, as if music was blaring from the sky.

“What you ask for is to punish evil and destroy demons, yes?”

At the moment when the word “yes” fell, his body became light, and all the threads were disconnected.

As countless ghouls poured out from under the groove, the groove gradually emptied. Seeing that no more ghouls appeared, the handsome young man finally stepped forward and walked towards it. The groove was a square three feet in length. It was possible for a person to go through, but he did not rush down, but first squatted on the side, lowered his head to look in for a moment, then he took out something from the bag he was carrying.

Explosives. Moreover, it was a large amount. This kind of explosion was estimated to blow up the groove, the entire underground area, and even the Imperial Mausoleum would be affected.

But the young man’s face remained unchanged, as if what he was holding was only a piece of food or a bouquet of flowers. He acted completely normal as he picked up the pieces of dynamite to toss them into the groove.

At a critical moment, a person flew up next to him and kicked the explosives away. The dynamite the young man was holding, as well as the bag holding them, flew to the corner of the cave.

The young man didn’t rush to pick it up, but turned his head and raised his eyebrows in surprise. “How did you break free from those silk threads?”

As soon as he finished asking this, he immediately became keenly aware of the changes in Dong Zhi. The Dong Zhi in front of him was not the fledgling newcomer of the Special Administration Bureau that he had just fought.

“Who are you?” The young man frowned slightly and asked in a deep voice.

Dong Zhi’s face was like a stone-cold iceberg, emotionless, but in his eyes, there were slight hints of compassion.

“A silk string who was fortunate enough to cultivate as a human being. Why not continue on the right path but instead get involved in human disasters and help demons?”

The young man’s face changed, and he shouted, “Who the hell are you?!”

Dong Zhi looked at him blankly without speaking.

The young man reacted quickly and then smiled. “I see. It turns out this kid can invite Yin Gods. I didn’t really expect he had such capabilities. I wonder which Yin God your excellency is. Is it the head of this tomb, King Liang? Or a king of Western Xia?”

Dong Zhi: “My name is taboo. You cannot ask. Retreat quickly and don’t disturb the peace here, and your life will be spared.

The young man smiled slightly and said, “I respect that you have lived here for thousands of years, so I asked politely. Even if you don’t say it, I am entrusted by others. I am a loyal person, so I must complete this matter today.”

Before he finished speaking, silk thread had swept towards Dong Zhi. His ten fingers spread in his hands, and the transparent silk shot out in unison. Before he was halfway through his sentence, the silk thread had already reached his opponent.

This skill was extremely powerful.

The ten silk threads in his hand were sharp enough to break gold and cut iron. They attack in three ways: upper, middle, and below. They cast a net that encompassed everything, as if they were something with three heads and six arms approaching Dong Zhi. It was impossible to avoid them. The silk thread carried a fierce wind, which was different than when he was using it to bind Dong Zhi previously. If any part of his enemy’s body was touched by them, their limbs would be immediately cut off.

But when the silk thread arrived in front of the enemy, the opponent disappeared out of thin air. The young man was taken aback and couldn’t help following his movements, reacting extremely quickly by suddenly turning his head. As expected, Dong Zhi appeared behind him, holding the Changshou Sword that had been thrown aside some time ago. He pierced the young man’s body with an unpredictable speed.

The young man let out a cry of pain, and his body swept forward, not daring to stop at all. The Changshou Sword that Long Shen gave Dong Zhi, naturally, wasn’t an ordinary sword. Its power, combined with the divine might the Yin God imposed on it, easily penetrated the young man’s body, splattering blood everywhere.

The young man fell to the ground and looked at Dong Zhi standing in front of him with the sword in horror. His face remained cold and emotionless. The young man felt blood gushing up from his throat so that he didn’t dare breathe hard, let alone move.

However, Dong Zhi remained still. He “realized” that his body wasn’t moving to chase or kill the enemy completely. He wasn’t pretending or goading his enemy, but rather it was because his body wasn’t able to support this God. In other words, this Yin God is too powerful; so powerful that even the young man wasn’t a match for him, but the “container”, Dong Zhi, was too weak, so the Yin God could not fully integrate with him. Either the body becomes damaged, or the Yin God will leave.

He also sensed that the Yin God did not want to kill this young man.

“Heaven cares for all living things*. It’s not easy for this one to cultivate into this. I do not want to kill him.”

*(上天有好生之德) It means to have the virtue to cherish all living beings and not kill them.

“Who are you?” Dong Zhi couldn’t help asking in his mind.

The Yin God did not answer him but said, “I am only a wisp of divine thought, not a true God. I have traversed for thousands of years and had been consumed here for around 8 years before you summoned me. After this, I will disappear. I hope you will cherish yourself.”

Dong Zhi was taken aback. Before he could ask, he felt that his body suddenly sank. He fell to the ground involuntarily as blood surged from his chest. He was so uncomfortable that he couldn’t help but cough up a mouthful of blood.

At this moment, the duel between Long Shen and the Archfiend had also reached a critical moment.

In the world, love and hatred could never dissipate. The power of resentment breeds overtime and eventually condenses into magical energy, giving rise to the Archfiend. Thus, they would never die out and would always make a comeback every once in a while. This time, the Archfiend seemed to be particularly cunning and made countless incarnations of itself. Even if it was destroyed several times over, there would still remain remnants of its demonic energy that would condense again after several days. In this underground cave, with ghouls and thousand corpse figurines, it was a natural environment that could provide nourishment for the Archfiend. Its magical energy would be continuously replenished here, which meant that they were fighting on the Archfiend’s homecourt.

Long Shen was surrounded by demonic energy from all directions. He felt it more profoundly than Song Zhicun and the others because the more powerful his resistance was, the more powerful the suppression of demonic energy was. It seemed the stronger he was, the more the black mist would surge around him, as if the Archfiend was arrogantly laughing at his desperate attempt, wanting to make him give up his resistance and completely submit to the demonic energy.

He remained motionless, as his body condensed all the qi into the light of his sword that was in his hand. The glimmer of light tumbled endlessly as demonic energy filled half of the cave, but it never disappeared. Although the size of the light shrank, it kept getting brighter.

“What good can the old men of the Special Administration Bureau give you? They let you run around all day long when they had things for you to do, but they haven’t even given you the director position!”

“Long Shen, you have a dignified half-immortal body, but you beg for scraps under the hands of others. Don’t you feel ashamed?”

“My demonic energy can give you eternal power. As long as the world exists, demonic energy will always remain. You don’t need to be a lackey for the Special Administration Bureau. Let alone listening to others, you’ll be free to do as you please. You are you and can achieve ultimate power in the world! Join me, Long Shen. The power is all around you. Why not merge with them!”

These voices weren’t spoken by the Archfiend. They were the evil sounds made by the demonic energy that reached straight to the bottom of one’s heart. They were tricks used by demons to deceive people.

Even those with a profound cultivation base might not be able to resist the drive of their own desires. With a single thought of becoming a demon or god, they would fall into the devil’s way in the blink of an eye and would never recover. There were many legends and allusions about fallen gods in ancient and modern China and abroad, not to mention all the people in the world. Those who were fragile were easily swayed by the intoxication of glory and wealth. They wanted to enjoy themselves but were too lazy and unwilling to work hard for it, hoping instead to take shortcuts so they’d achieve success without the effort. These had become weaknesses, allowing demons to invade people’s hearts.

As such, the Archfiend didn’t believe that Long Shen had no weaknesses.

The violent wind bulged the cloak high, and under the cloak, the face of the Archfiend loomed. If Dong Zhi or He Yu had witnessed this, they might have been shocked as there was no human face under the hood. There were no facial features, and all that was there was a mass of swirling demonic energy. The black qi kept flowing out, absorbing all the demonic energy from the ghouls and blending with them as if they were becoming one with each other.

Long Shen moved suddenly. He slowly pushed the sword forward, inch by inch, into the tumbling black mist. The light remained unabated. From the eyes of outsiders, his speed looked very fast as his body melted with the sword of light, turning into an arc that shot at the Archfiend.

Song Zhicun and Li Ying were struggling as they slowly gained the upper hand. The ghouls fell one by one as everyone gathered together, their backs against each other, carrying all sorts of weapons to kill the ghouls as they rushed them from all directions.

Liu Si continuously whipped his whip until his arm became completely numb, decapitating ghouls’ heads with each strike. Ba Sang and Gu Meiren worked together to attack and defend each other, cooperating seamlessly.

Li Ying cooperated with Zhang Song and Liu Qingbo to deal with several Onmyoji, such as Fujikawa Aoi. Although they were just fledgling, their courage was not weak. Under the siege of several shikigamis, they did not waver. Though Liu Qingbo only had a short dagger in his hand, although it wasn’t as refreshing as the Feijing Sword, he still masterfully used it as it scarred and drove those skikigamis to exhaustion.

In the past, Fujikawa Aoi would never even put these green boys on his radar, but he had been severely injured by Long Shen and He Yu on Changbai Mountain, and his injuries have not yet healed.

It was not his proudest disciple, Kitachi Eiko, who assisted him this time around, but a different male disciple, Tani Rui. Although he was also his right-hand man, he wasn’t as talented as Kitachi Eiko. This time, Tani Rui went with him to assist Fujikawa Aoi and also to avenge Kitachi Eiko, his younger martial sister. He was fierce and wanted to cut down his enemies.

Unexpectedly, he not only failed to kill his enemies, but now he was in danger. Tani Rui’s shikigami was cut down by Zhang Song’s sword, causing it to stagger away, hitting against the cave’s stone wall. With a loud crash, the shikigami dissipated in the air and shattered, causing Tani Rui to scream as he fell down, spurting blood everywhere.

Seeing that Li Ying and the others were temporarily able to control the situation, Song Zhicun took a breath and ran to Long Shen and the Archfiend.

“Long Shen, let me help you!” he shouted. Holding the seal of Acala with both hands, he jumped up and slammed the demon on the head.

“Lin!”

Although he had learned Taoist dharma from the leaders of Mount Longhu, this demon slaying seal was learned from a monk that he met when he was traveling in Yunan and Guizhou. Through Song Zhicun’s own research and improvement, there should be no doubt how powerful it was.

His roar was like a drum in the early morning, condensing almost all of his entire strength. It suddenly broke through the heavy demonic aura, as if the sky had rained lightning down, cutting through the shackles of the Archfiend’s enchantment, creating a burst of life!

With the light from the sword in front and the demon slaying seal in the rear, both sides clashed with the black qi as they entangled each other and fought fiercely. Energy swirled and surged around. The black qi roared as it tried its best to expand outwards but was suppressed by the two rays of light. Black and white stirred, forming a vortex.

The black mist slowly shrank and retreated sharply, surrounding the Archfiend, Long Shen, and Song Zhicun. In order to destroy the white light, it tried its best to concentrate its powers for its final struggle. However, the white light refused to back down from the black mist. With the powers of Long Shen and Song Zhicun combined, a noise erupted, pushing everyone away as a shockwave sonic boom emitted outward.

The area filled with white light, like the long-awaited daybreak, that completely expelled the darkness, returning the light back into the world.

The cave shook violently, causing gravel to topple and the ground to tremble. Everyone felt unsteady on their feet and fell again as soon as they stood up.

After a long time, everything became calm. When the smoke dissipated, the faces of the Japanese changed. Long Shen and Song Zhicun fell to the ground, but the Archfiend had disappeared, leaving not a single trace behind.

The ghouls and thousand corpse figurines were scattered all over the ground and everything remained quiet.

Tani Rui’s chest was aching. He was affected by the shockwave just now and suffered internal injuries. He could no longer summon his shikigami. When he looked around, he saw that the enemy’s side didn’t fare any better. His gaze fell on the explosive bag in the corner of the cave. Gritting his teeth, he struggled to get up and walked over. He picked up the bag and threw it into the groove, then went to get the detonator that had been dropped on the ground.

As soon as his legs tightened, he fell to the ground, caught off guard. When he looked back, he saw Dong Zhi had hugged his calves and tripped him. Without hesitation, Tani Rui punched him in the face. Dong Zhi endured the pain and fought back, returning his face punch with a gut punch. The two sides scuffled with each other. They were seriously injured and exhausted. Without their magic and abilities, they had no choice but to resort to the most primitive form of combat: brawling.

Tani Rui’s figure was much stronger than Dong Zhi’s, giving him a natural advantage. Dong Zhi had punched him several times in the stomach, causing him to curl up in pain. As he was about to reach the detonator, Dong Zhi jumped up from behind, hugged him and twisted him to the side as he raised his knee to jab at his opponent’s most sensitive area.

“Ahhhhhh!” Tani Rui shouted in pain.

Dong Zhi was just about to reach the detonator when he felt a sharp pain in the back of his head. Suddenly, his eyes darkened as he staggered a few steps and leaned against the stone wall.

The Japanese who attacked him from behind were trying to finish him off when Liu Qingbo came from behind and stabbed him in the back with his dagger, causing him to fall to the ground with a thump. He was no longer breathing.

“I-This can be considered returning your favor, right?” Liu Qingbo grasped his knee as he panted.

Dong Zhi held back the dizziness and said intermittently, “Explosive, bag, under the groove. You can’t let the Japanese blow it up. Go get it!”

Liu Qingbo heard this as he saw Tani Rui climbing forward towards the detonator. He ran to him and kicked him away, then jumped into the groove and retrieved the bag of explosives. Seeing Song Zhicun and Long Shen relieved, he got up and walked towards them, saying proudly, “Boss Long, Boss Song, I got it…”

The ground suddenly shook, and the amplitude got bigger. Cracks in the ground quickly spread under the stone statue.

Song Zhicun’s expression changed as he said to Liu Qingbo, “Run!”

Dong Zhi staggered, picking up the detonator not far away and holding it tightly in his hand, being extra cautious for fear of accidently detonating it.

Behind him, the huge stone statue shook as cracks started to appear on its upper body, spreading out densely, before it broke off and smashed down on top of Dong Zhi.

“Get out of the way!” Liu Qingbo saw the scene coming as he crawled out from under the groove, but it was too late for him to run over and save him. He could only shout with exhaustion.

At a critical moment, a figure wrapped its arms around Dong Zhi’s waist and flashed into the corner with him. The next moment, the head of the stone statue hit the ground heavily, exploding countless pieces of dust everywhere.

“…Master?” The moment just now had made him dizzy. His eyes were shaky and overlapping, and he couldn’t see the figure clearly.

“Give me the detonator!” Long Shen said.

Dong Zhi did not hesitate to hand over the detonator. Long Shen pushed him out of the way and said loudly, “This place is about to collapse. Hurry and get out!”

The shaking became more and more severe, causing most of the stone statues to collapse. Rocks began falling from the surrounding stone walls. Everyone retreated, evacuating one after another.

Long Shen turned his head and ran towards the groove. Dong Zhi didn’t know what he took out of his pocket, but he laid down on the edge of the groove and fiddled with one hand underneath it.

Dong Zhi looked back and saw Long Shen’s figure in a daze. He didn’t want to abandon him. Long Shen got up after arranging it properly, and when he saw him running back, he yelled, “What are you doing back?”

Dong Zhi: “Let’s go together!”

Long Shen didn’t care about reproaching him anymore. He simply picked him up by the waist and ran out.

With a bang, the stone statue completely collapsed, crushing Tani Rui, who didn’t have time to escape. Smoke, dust, and stones completely submerged him.

Liu Qingbo ran out with the explosive bag in his arms with a distressed face.

“Boss Song, what should I do with this thing!”

Song Zhicun grabbed it as everyone ran in the direction of where the original pool was. Without saying a word, he opened a waterproof bag and stuffed the explosives in it.

“Get into the water. This place is likely to collapse too!”

As soon as his voice fell, the cave behind everyone was already shaking and debris had already collapsed, blocking the entrance to the main hall just now.

Everyone went into the water one after another, as Dong Zhi was dragged in by Long Shen. He didn’t have the strength to swim, but before he sank to the depths below, Long Shen grabbed him and directly supported him, allowing him to surface for air.  

This was the place where they first fought the giant python.

“Wake up!” Long Shen patted him on the cheek. His face was as white as a sheet of paper, and he was drenched as he remained motionless.

He had exhausted the last bit of his strength after inviting a god just now and fighting with Tani Rui. Let alone his arms, he couldn’t even lift a finger.

Long Shen couldn’t help it and had to directly carry him.

“Is this a fantasy or reality right now?” Some people weren’t sure as they looked around.

The feeling of the ground shaking continued. The most obvious change was that the water level had begun to rise, and the river had started surging. Song Zhicun frowned and glanced around. Suddenly, he saw five huge red lightbulbs floating in the distance in the dark and immediately said, “It’s real. Hurry up and follow me. The python is coming!”

The giant python was heavily injured and had lost one of its eyes to them. It deemed them its mortal enemies and refused to relent until it killed every single one of them. When it saw Song Zhicun and the others, its five “lightbulbs” speeded up and instantly narrowed the distance between the two sides.

Everyone rushed with all their strength and swam alongside the river before reaching the shore and running wildly towards the exit.

Dong Zhi was carried on Long Shen’s back and wasn’t aware of all the events that were currently taking place, which was both a blessing and a misfortune.

As the “lightbulbs” got closer, a huge snake head bent down and opened its big mouth to bite at Gu Meiren, who was lagging at the end. Ba Sang turned back in time and stretched out his hand to pull Gu Meiren forward. The head narrowly missed and snapped at the air as it saw the two figures disappearing into the small corridor ahead. The python hissed and roared as it slammed its head into the wall without hesitation.

Boom!

This wasn’t the noise made by the giant python, but the underground cave that had just completely collapsed. After crossing the threshold from the passage and returning to the main tomb, they could finally regard this place as safe.

Everyone looked back, and in the darkness, they couldn’t see anything. They could only vaguely hear the movement of the rocks collapsing. Everyone was tired and fell to the ground, looking at each other in shock.

Song Zhicun said worriedly, “Under the groove…”

Long Shen said, “I have used the seals given by Daoist Master Li and Elder Zong to seal it. The collapse should not spread there. We can dig it up afterwards.”

Song Zhicun sighed. “I suppose that’s the only way. It’s a good thing it wasn’t blown up by the Japanese.”

Liu Qingbo glanced at the aftermath and saw a figure quietly moving towards the exit of the tomb. Without hesitation, he threw his dagger at the opponent’s shoulder blade, causing him to scream as he fell to the ground.

“Still trying to run away, you fucker!” Liu Qingbo sneered.

Xiang Yongnian rolled up his sleeves and walked towards the collapsed Fujikawa Aoi. “Motherfucker. These Japanese have caused us so much trouble. They were almost the death of us. If I don’t kill him today, I won’t be surnamed Xiang!”

“Stop it!” Song Zhicun ordered. “Fujikawa is still useful to us, so you can’t kill him. Bandage him up briefly first. We’ll take him to the hospital when we go back.”

Xiang Yongnian remained unconvinced. “Boss Song, they tried to kill us several times just now, and they almost blew the entire cave up. We have so many scruples with them!”

Song Zhicun said angrily, “You are a member of the Special Administration Bureau, not a street gangster! Only hooligans and ruffians can be happy seeking revenge. He’s a well-known figure in the Japanese cultivation world. All his companions have died below. This time, he’s the only one alive. If he’s also dead, what do we use as a bargaining chip when we ask for benefits later?”

Xiang Yongnian didn’t expect this, so he was taken aback for a moment before he felt ashamed.

When everyone got out of the tomb and returned to the thief’s hole, Song Zhicun surveyed the area, and before the subbranch came to pick them up, he took the opportunity to lecture them, “Of course it’ll feel great to kill him now, but you’ll only know the sorrow when you realize how much interest you lost later down the line! In the future, when you go out and do things, it’ll be under the name of the General Administration and the country. Therefore, everyone must think in the long term. Don’t just look at immediate gains and care only about personal happiness. That kind of thing will never benefit you!”

Truthfully, he didn’t need to say all these things. After all, very few of them were impulsive and irrational, especially now that they have matured after this life and death experience. Not counting the veterans, they could at least now be qualified as a member of the Special Administration Bureau.

The air was full of Gobi yellow sand, and at the end of the rolling mountains, there was a clear and deep blue sky. They felt the value of light after they had escaped from the darkness underground.

Those thrilling life-and-death moments that they had just experienced became a thing of the past that they never wanted to recall, because they had left behind two companions who had not even started their apprenticeship yet but were now buried sleeping below.

The sun’s rays felt surreal. They would all rather bask in this sun for an hour than go back down for another minute.

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Kinky Thoughts:

In the end, only two people died… Wasn’t expecting such a small number.

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<<< || Table of Contents || Lore Glossary || >>>

Author: 梦溪石 / Meng Xi Shi

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

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Chapter 61

Long Shen took the sword out of its sheath and jumped directly in front of the thousand corpse figurine, blocking it from pouncing on Xie Qingling. When the long sword in his hand swung out, the speed was extremely fast that it looked like white light. Before everyone had time to see clearly, the heads on the shoulders of the thousand corpse figurine had been cut off. Around six heads flew disorderly as they opened their mouths in mid-air trying to bite.

He didn’t stop there and turned to Zhang Song and stabbed his sword into the chest of another thousand corpse figurine. A thick black gas spewed out as it was kicked by Long Shen, causing it to stagger a few steps back before falling to the ground. Zhang Song took the opportunity and cut off all its heads.

From Dong Zhi’s glimpse, he could see that two men were moving suspiciously behind Long Shen, quietly, as if they had bad intentions.

He stopped them with his Changshou Sword and was about to ask them their identities. Unexpectedly, they looked as if they were guilty of being a thief, and thinking that Dong Zhi was about to attack them, they took a few steps back, giving him a look of vigilance. One of them started chanting an unknown mantra and pinching his hand, then took out a mass of something from his pocket and threw it in front of Dong Zhi. The thing quickly swelled into a three-dimensional shape as it bowed its neck, adopting an offensive posture.

Although Dong Zhi had just entered the spiritual world not long ago and had not seen much of it, he knew the origin of the other party as soon as he saw this young man’s technique. On Changbai Mountain, Master Fujikawa summoned shikigamis to fight, which was exactly what this thing in front of him was.

These people must be working for the Japanese!

It seems that they have also been separated from the main force, so this makes dealing with them much easier.

The white tiger rushed over with a roar. Dong Zhi quickly bent down, picked up his Changshou Sword, and cut a hole in the white tiger’s abdomen. The eyes of the master of the white tiger glared at him coldly.

Ordinary weapons cannot hurt shikigamis, unless the sword Dong Zhi was wielding was a magical weapon. He hadn’t taken Dong Zhi seriously at first, based on the way his opponent was holding his sword and his reaction speed. He was at best a novice swordsman, but since he wields a magical weapon in hand, his opponent can temporarily compete with his white tiger.

With Long Shen’s and Dong Zhi’s arrivals, it added much needed help to Li Ying and the others. Long Shen was able to hold back the thousand corpse figurines by himself, but these figurines were invulnerable. They had thousands of heads and hands and were quite strong in combat. No matter how powerful Long Shen was it was impossible to wipe out thousands of troops in an instant to eliminate these evil things.

As soon as Xie Qingling was able to catch her breath, she noticed the sound of skimming from the back of her head. She didn’t have time to look back and chose to avoid it sideways.

Behind her, an extremely fast figure turned around in the air and attacked her. Zhang Song had just swung his sword, pushing away a thousand corpse figurine when he felt a tingle. When he saw it, he flew towards it and pierced the phantom.

While his speed was very fast, his opponent had disappeared out of thin air before the sword arrived, and once again appeared beside Xie Qingling, directly grabbing her head!

Upon seeing this, Li Ying threw a talisman out subconsciously, and the talisman stuck to the opponent, causing the latter to snort and stagger back, hitting himself against the wall.

“Ninjutsu*!”

*Strategy and tactics of unconventional warfare, guerrilla warfare, and espionage purportedly practiced by the ninja.

Li Ying narrowed his eyes and threw another talisman over, without giving the opponent time to breathe. However, the man smiled strangely at him and disappeared from sight out of thin air.

Li Ying knew that this was just a distraction. His opponent is a human being, not a monster. It was impossible for him to break through space obstacles, but a clever ninja could maximize the use of people’s blind spots and attack from there.

With a chill in his heart, he turned around quickly, but he was punched in the chest immediately, causing a dull pain to spread immediately, interrupting his attack.

Xie Qingling raised her hand, and several puppets pounced on the white tiger. The white tiger turned around and clawed at them, but the puppets dodged flexibly and assisted Dong Zhi in his attack.

Zhang Song originally wanted to help Long Shen deal with the thousand corpse figurines, but seeing that Li Ying was struggling, he raised his sword and swept it towards the ninja.

“Fucking hell. I don’t believe that you can jump faster than my sword!”

In the blink of an eye, Long Shen had already killed three of the thousand corpse figurines, and seeing that he was gradually gaining the upper hand, when he was about to kill the remaining one that was under his sword, four more people broke in.

“Master, be careful! The cloaked person is here!”

Seeing the new arrivals, Dong Zhi didn’t care about being grabbed by the white tiger, who wounded his arm as he shouted loudly to Long Shen.

Not only did the cloaked person come, but there was also an old acquaintance on Changbai Mountain, Onmyouji Fujikawa Aoi.

Regarding Fujikawa Aoi, after the Changbai Mountain Incident, he once heard He Yu mention that the word Aoi is commonly used as a female name in Japan. However, Fujikawa Aoi’s mother died when he was born, so to honor his wife, his father used his wife’s name to name his son after her. The Japanese Shinto Priest and Onmyouji were originally two different identities. After being able to hold both identities at the same time and becoming a well-known warlock* in Japan, Fujikawa Aoi’s name had also changed from one of ridicule to praise. It was said that the disciples under him, in order to please him, also changed their names to female names.

*[Shushi] (术士) Specifically refers to Confucian scholars, Taoists scholars, alchemists, Jianghu warlocks, magicians ect.

In any case, Fujikawa Aoi was a powerful Onmyoji as far as he could tell from what he had learned from He Yu’s mouth.

The only reason the master and apprentice returned last time was not because they weren’t strong enough, but because of Long Shen’s presence in addition to dealing with the bone dragon, which was a divine beast that had lived for thousands of years, they were too ambitious and underestimated their opponents, resulting in the fiasco they suffered.

Now, the proud Japanese will not allow themselves to fail again, especially when it’s against the same opponent. This time, they were well prepared, and they will definitely be more difficult to deal with.

The man fighting with the Dong Zhi also shouted excitedly when he saw Fujikawa Aoi. He was more excited than Liu Qingbo, who had also arrived. In such a noisy and intense environment, he just heard the words “Master”. First showing a look of disbelief before he yelled, “The one surname Dong, what the fuck did you just say?!”

Dong Zhi was trying to catch his breath and had no time to pay attention to him. Liu Qingbo gritted his teeth and vented all his energy on the enemy in front of him.

I will cut, cut, cut you to death!

Fujikawa Aoi swept his gaze at Long Shen with gloomy eyes, sneered, raised his hand, and then released two shikigamis, which rushed towards Long Shen.

The cloaked figure was covered with a black robe and even its face was so tightly concealed that Dong Zhi couldn’t see the person’s appearance at all. The cloaked figure ignored everyone else and walked towards the stone statue after entering.

Zhang Song noticed the figure’s strangeness and tried to intercept it without a second thought.

“Stop!”

The cloaked figure raised its wide sleeves and, in an instant, several black mists flew out from under the cloak, pouncing on Zhang Song from several directions.

Zhang Song was taken aback but found that the black mist started to expand when it fell to the ground and covered his head.

Dong Zhi was stunned and hurriedly shouted, “Those are demons! You can’t let them touch your body!”

In order to warn Zhang Song, he forgot to pay attention to himself, allowing the white tiger to rush up and bite his shoulder just right after he finished speaking.

Xie Qingling pressed her hands together hard, and several puppets started to grow bigger. They rushed on the tiger. One started stabbing the tiger in the heart with its dagger, while the other grabbed its head and twisted it vigorously. The tiger roared and struggled before finally letting go of Dong Zhi.

The arrival of the cloaked person and their party immediately reversed the situation where they had the upper hand.

Long Shen raised his hand, and a longsword was released from it and turned into a white light that flew towards the back of the cloaked figure. The figure responded by letting out several black mists, but it couldn’t stop Long Shen’s sword, so it had to stop and turn around, facing Long Shen head-on.

When the sword was flying through mid-air, Long Shen jumped after it, caught it, and slashed at the cloaked figure’s head. The cloaked figure’s black robe suddenly bulged, and black mist quickly overflowed from under it, entangling Long Shen’s sword.

One person was in the air while the other was on the ground. It was a scene like a white awn dueling with the black mist. They were evenly matched!

Their clashes spread infinitely, with the two of them at the center of the circle, wrapped in a huge sound wave that suddenly exploded! With a bang, the ground cracked inch by inch and the whole cave trembled violently, stunning everyone present.

However, Long Shen and the cloaked figure, who were in the eye of the vortex of great waves, did not stop fighting. The white light glowed brighter, and the black mist became thicker, expanding to become larger. The sea of clouds rolled around the cloaked figure, covering the white light, shrinking it down. While the light became smaller, the brightness continued to grow brighter.

Archfiend! That cloaked figure must be Xu Wan. The Archfiend was truly not dead!

Dong Zhi was shocked.

In the tumbling black mist, the laughter of the cloaked figure sounded, and it seemed that Xu Wan’s voice was still a little different. It sounded weird, cold, and treacherous.

“Long Shen, your old injuries have not completely healed yet, have they? Don’t make unnecessary struggles. It’s none of your business whether there’s peace in the world or not. Power is eternal! It’s better to be completely possessed and enjoy it together with me!”

Amidst the loud noise, the white light and black mist burst out again, causing loud soundwaves to erupt. The cracks on the ground instantly became larger. All things soaked in the black mist were not spared. The white tiger roared, and its color gradually turned to gray in the black mist, but suddenly its power became greater. With a wave of its sharp claws, Xie Qingling’s puppets were shattered instantly.

Xie Qingling spurted out a mouthful of blood and fell directly to the ground.

From the corner of his eyes, Dong Zhi saw that Fujikawa Aoi had bypassed the stone statue and directly stepped onto the stone platform behind it. A handsome young man took out the bronze mirror and squatted down, pressing the bronze mirror into the ground.

Since the stone platform was several steps higher than the ground, it was impossible to see whether there was any sort of mechanism on it from Dong Zhi’s perspective. The ground shook violently after the bronze mirror was pressed in. In the rumbling, the stone platform split from the middle, slowly dividing into two, revealing a concave stone trough.

Fujikawa Aoi showed joy on his face, but Dong Zhi could see from this joy that something foreboding was about to happen. No matter what they wanted to do, it would not be good, and they had to be stopped.

With that thought in mind, Dong Zhi took advantage of the fact that the white tiger was still distracted and ran towards the stone platform. He raised his sword to slash at the young man, but his opponent simply smiled at him. With a flick of his hand, the sword in Dong Zhi’s hand seems to have hit some kind of obstacle, as if it was blocked by the air and couldn’t slash down.

“You’re not worthy to be my opponent. Begone.” The other party whispered softly and closed his five fingers. Suddenly, a strong wind came, blowing Dong Zhi towards the stone wall of the cave.

He felt severe pain in his back, but he didn’t care about anything else. He pulled out a Sunlight Talisman, chanted a mantra, and threw it. The talisman swept towards the young man in mid-air, but he didn’t turn his head. Instead, he stretched out his hand and grabbed it directly, causing the talisman to explode in his hand.

Dong Zhi took this opportunity to raise his sword and rush up to stab his opponent. The young man turned his head aside, smiled slightly, and his expression became a little more serious. His five fingers stretched out and made a sweep in the air.

Through the light from the bronze lamp on the stone wall, Dong Zhi discovered that several transparent silk threads were entangled between his fingers. It was no wonder he was bounced away just now. It should be these silk threads.

As fast as lightning, the silk thread was already in front of him. Dong Zhi raised his sword to parry, trying to cut the silk thread, but it instantly slinked back, as if it was alive. It dodged his attack and wrapped itself directly around his wrist.

As the silk touched his flesh, his skin immediately started bleeding, as his wrists were being strangled.

“I don’t like killing people, so you better not force me.”

Regardless of how earth-shattering the battlefield was, the young man still had an elegant and polite tone. Dong Zhi, on the other hand, tossed out a talisman, hoping that the talisman fire would burn the silk threads. However, the thread immediately wrapped itself around his other wrist and stopped his actions.

As soon as the young man raised his hands, the silk thread immediately wrapped around Dong Zhi’s body, binding him tightly. The other end of the silk thread was tied around a stone wall, affixing Dong Zhi to the wall.

After doing this, he stopped paying attention to Dong Zhi and returned to the side of the stone platform groove. He stretched out his hand and leaned down.

Suddenly, he let out a gasp, shrank back his hand and retreated under the stone platform, showing a look of surprise. Dong Zhi thought his reaction was strange, but in the next moment he immediately widened his eyes.

The stone platform began to shake and tremble, then it shattered. Countless hands stretched out from under the stone platform and heads that were still rotten, half hung with flesh and blood, peered through.

“There is actually a ten thousand corpse array down here!” Dong Zhi heard the young man say, in shock.

The stone platform seemed to be a seal. With the seal broken, ghouls began to climb up from below one by one, moving slightly slower than the living. Their black nails scratched on the ground, leaving deep scorches on it.

The black mist seemed to have a natural attraction to the ghouls. Without paying any attention to the young man and Dong Zhi, they crawled towards the black mist one after another. The ghouls inhaled the black mist and roared, seemingly realizing their combat effectiveness had increased instantly. They pounced on Xie Qingling and the others.

Under the groove, a steady stream of ghouls kept climbing up!

Dong Zhi couldn’t help but feel anxious, but the silk thread had tightly bound him to the stone wall. Any little movement would cause the silk thread to cut into his flesh, causing pain. He didn’t need to lower his head to know that his entire lower body was covered in wounds from them.

“We’re here!”

With a loud shout, the figures of Song Zhicun and others appeared at the entrance. Seeing this situation, they threw themselves into the battle one after another.

Li Ying was weak. He had used too many talismans, more so than he had ever done in the past and had exhausted his mental and physical strength. He was so tired that he almost vomited blood. Unable to fight, he helplessly watched as the thousand corpse figurine rushed towards him. Song Zhicun leaped forward, forming the seal of Acala* with both hands before shooting them at the thousand corpse figurine.

*[Budong Mingwang] (不動明王) A wrathful deity and protector of Dharma prominent in Vajrayana Buddhism and East Asian Buddhism. In Chinese modern times, he is revered as one of the eight Buddhist guardians of the Chinese zodiac and specifically considered to be the protector of those born in the year of the Rooster. He is also frequently invoked during Chinese Buddhist repentance ceremonies, such as the Liberation Rite of Water and Land, along with the other Wisdom Kings, where they are given offerings and intreated to expel evil from the ritual platform.

“Lin!” His voice wasn’t high, but it was like the roar of a lion that reached everyone’s ears deeply, stimulating them.

With the seal of Acala combined with Taoist mantra, Song Zhicun effectively doubled his power. Qi surged all around him as the thousand corpse figurine crashed down, breaking into several pieces.

Liu Qingbo didn’t have his Feijing Sword, so he danced around with a short dagger in his hand and immediately slashed all the ghouls that were close to Xie Qingling.

Ba Sang and Xiang Yongnian were martial artists, so they could not easily fight the thousand corpse figurines, but they could easily deal with the ghouls. In order not to be contaminated by them, they had to bind up their hands and feet.

Gu Meiren’s flute sounded, slowing the ghoul’s movements and buying much needed time for the others. While Chi Banxia’s witchcraft had no effect on the dead, it was more than enough to deal with the living. With her there, the few Japanese who were still around dared not approach her and became more anxious.

With the addition of Song Zhicun and the others, the tide of the battle had suddenly changed again. While all this was happening, the battle between Long Shen and the Archfiend was still ongoing.

Dong Zhi originally heard the Archfiend mention that Long Shen was still injured, so he was worried for him. However, the Archfiend’s condition shouldn’t be any better. They had fought it on Tianyuan Building before and had severely injured it. Although they failed to completely eliminate it, it should still have had lasting damage from that battle, and it was likely that it couldn’t find a suitable body. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have wrapped itself up in a cloak like this.

His attention, though, was still focused on the young man not far from him. Based on his intuition, this person should be a powerful figure, and he may not necessarily be any better to deal with than the Archfiend.

His opponent was looking at the direction of the stone platform intently. Countless ghouls kept climbing up from the inside and rushing to the black qi that nourished their resurrection.

Dong Zhi felt that the other party wasn’t just observing the ghouls, but it seemed more like he was… waiting. After waiting for all the ghouls to come out, there should be something below.

What was he waiting for?

His heart jumped as Dong Zhi felt a bad premonition.

“Don’t let him approach the platform.”

A voice that Dong Zhi was very familiar with sounded in his mind. It was Long Shen’s. He turned his head and looked. Long Shen’s figure was barely visible in the overwhelming black mist. The white light seemed to be overwhelmed by the black mist.

But Long Shen was still talking to him using telepathy. This meant that Long Shen was still trying to hold off the Archfiend and would not be able to get away for the time being. It also shows that this matter was extremely important, so much so that he didn’t hesitate to consume extra energy to tell him telepathically.

Looking around the field, besides Long Shen, only Song Zhicun was the strongest among them.

The demonic energy released by the Archfiend was quarantined by Long Shen within a certain range, so it didn’t spread for the time being. However, Song Zhicun was now dealing with several thousand corpse figurines that were infected by demonic energy alone, as well as the unscrupulous Japanese. Among them, only Fujikawa Aoi could match his strength. Not only that, ghouls kept pouring out and rushing towards everyone.

The others weren’t faring any better as they were thinly stretched and struggling to cope. Although Liu Qingbo and the others had not yet lost ground, the situation wasn’t looking optimistic. No one had time to spare. There was only him as the glimmer of hope.

Is there a way to stop his opponent?

---

Kinky Thoughts:

Budong Mingwang / Acala (不動明王)

A wrathful deity and protector of Dharma prominent in Vajrayana Buddhism and East Asian Buddhism. In Chinese modern times, he is revered as one of the eight Buddhist guardians of the Chinese zodiac and specifically considered to be the protector of those born in the year of the Rooster. He is also frequently invoked during Chinese Buddhist repentance ceremonies, such as the Liberation Rite of Water and Land, along with the other Wisdom Kings where they are given offerings and intreated to expel evil from the ritual platform.

---

<<< || Table of Contents || Lore Glossary || >>>

Author: 梦溪石 / Meng Xi Shi

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

---

Chapter 60

While Long Shen didn’t have any impatience, Dong Zhi still felt embarrassed. After crying for a while, he gradually stopped. Taking a deep breath in, Dong Zhi said, “Master, how many apprentices are you going to accept? Before me, are there any other senior brother and senior sister*?”

*[Shijie] (师姐) Elder martial sisters. Basically equivalent to shixiong but refers to older girls.

Long Shen: “I didn’t accept disciples before you and I’m not accepting any more after you.”

Dong Zhi was taken aback. “I’m good enough for you than over a thousand sails*?”

*(过尽千帆) Comes from <Wang Jiagnan> by poet Wen Tingjun. It depicts a woman’s longing, looking forward to her husband’s return, yet thousands of ships had passed over, but none had her husband on it. || In this context, Long Shen is like the woman but instead of waiting for over a thousand sails, he had settled for Dong Zhi.

Long Shen shook his head. “Too many. I don’t have the energy to teach them all. One is enough.”

So Liu Qingbo has no chance? Dong Zhi couldn’t help feeling happy and sorry at the same time. After all, he still didn’t know Liu Qingbo’s fate.

“Master, do we save people now?”

“Wait.”

What are we waiting for? Waiting for someone? Or waiting for the right time?

From their commanding position, they had a panoramic view of the secluded lights in the caves. Several faint areas with lights glowed from the “dandelions”. They looked weird at first, but after looking at them for a while, they started to grow on you.

Dong Zhi: “You said that those plants that look like dandelions are called ceylon forget-me-nots?”

Long Shen: “They are everywhere, and so are the hallucinations. The terrain here is very complicated, which causes chaos in time and space.”

Dong Zhi: “After we attacked the python, what happened? How could so many of us be separated?”

Long Shen: “The giant python was struggling with its injuries, causing the river to surge and many people got washed away. I went to Boss Song to find them when I encountered a thousand corpse figurine.”

Dong Zhi: “What is a thousand corpse figurine?”

Long Shen: “It’s made up of corpses that died in vain and are piled together. Due to fate, they will encounter a land of absolute darkness. Their resentment remains rampant, and gradually they’ll become a demon corpse. Hundreds of thousands of these corpses gather together to tangle endlessly, until they become refined into the thousand corpse figurine. This thing is the most sinister and poisonous thing in the world, and it’s extremely difficult to deal with.”

Since he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, it was natural that Dong Zhi couldn’t imagine it. “Even harder to deal with than an Archfiend?”

“An Archfiend can only act through a human body. No matter how powerful their magic is, in general, they will be confined to that body.”

Dong Zhi said suddenly, “And the thousand corpse figurine is equivalent to an expanded container, which can carry more magical energy. Is this why it’s more difficult to deal with than a single ghoul?”

Long Shen nodded. “In this area lies truth and falsities. The only thing that remains unchanged is the giant python. I have been observing here for a long time, and the illusion has never had any effect on it. It is the only real symbol of this place. As long as we wait for it to pass by next time and keep up with it, we should be able to get out of here.”

Dong Zhi remembered that Liu Qingbo’s Feijing Sword was still inserted in the chrysanthemum of the giant python. In any case, that was his issue. Such a waste of a famous sword from the ages was now lost, buried in the depths of a giant python’s chrysanthemum. Even if Liu Qingbo had other swords to use, he still felt some regret.

Long Shen heard Dong Zhi tell him the events that transpired and how he wanted to get the sword back and shook his head. “That sword should have been thrown to the bottom of the river by the python. It’ll be difficult to find, so we don’t need to worry about it for now.”

At this point, Dong Zhi secretly apologized to Liu Qingbo and moved on to tell Long Shen about his encounter with Fujikawa Aoi and the cloaked figure. “I heard them mentioning an altar. Is this a huge underground altar and those who died here were sacrifices?”

Long Shen agreed with him. “The bronze mirror may be related to the altar, and the altar may be related to the stone tablet.”

Dong Zhi said, “Only when we find the Japanese or the altar will we know their intentions.”

He remembered something and said with concern, “You just fought against a thousand corpse figurine. Did you get hurt?”

“I’m okay.”

Dong Zhi took out the chocolate from his pocket and handed it over.

“You should eat something first. I still have water here.”

Long Shen didn’t answer.

“You can have it.”

Dong Zhi was a little anxious. “But when you came down, you only brought your sword with you. You didn’t bring any water, right?”

Long Shen said, “It doesn’t matter whether I eat and drink or don’t.” This sentence was plain and faint and seems to have a deeper meaning.

When Dong Zhi looked at the man’s face that was shrouded in darkness, he couldn’t see his expression clearly, but he seemed to be able to see that in that man’s eyes held countless secrets. Many words came to his lips, but he couldn’t speak to them easily because he felt those words were too shallow.

After a long silence, he whispered softly, “I’ll worship you as my teacher today and for life. No matter what happens now, tomorrow, or in the future, I’ll always be your disciple.”

Long Shen said nothing, only patted the back of his hand. It seemed like a sign of a kind of silent encouragement and approval, which made the corners of Dong Zhi’s mouth slightly curl up.

Neither he nor Long Shen knew when the giant python would appear again, so all they could do now was wait.

Dong Zhi yawned. Besides Long Shen, he unknowingly relaxed a lot of his vigilance.

Long Shen seemed to notice his tiredness and said, “Rest first.”

Dong Zhi wanted to be polite, but when he opened his mouth, his consciousness was immediately pulled into darkness. It seems that his body was exhausted to the extreme, as he didn’t even dream during his slumber. He hadn’t changed his clothes since he came out of the pool, and with the mountain wind blowing on him, feeling wet and cold, he couldn’t help leaning towards a heat source after falling asleep.

Long Shen noticed his behavior and took him in his arms.

It wasn’t on a whim that he decided to accept Dong Zhi as his disciple. From the time he lent him the Qingzhu Sword, he had actually faintly expressed his willingness, but he wanted to observe for a while, because he felt that Dong Zhi had too soft a temperament and could easily be moved by strange things, which meant his will wasn’t firm enough. However, after transpiring several events, though he may not be as good as Liu Qingbo in terms of comprehensive abilities, he has shown more plasticity.

Liu Qingbo was like a rock with sharp edges and corners, while Dong Zhi was like water. It could be quiet. It could be rushed. It could turn into a thousand-foot waterfall and be a deep pond that reflects the moon.

At this stage, Dong Zhi had made great strides in his decision-making progress in situations of difficulty, but when dealing with many things, it’s still not thoughtful and proper enough. There’s also his lack of ability, which needs to be strictly honed and practiced in order to become a great weapon.

Long Shen leaned against the stone and closed his eyes to rest, but his mind never stopped working.

Dong Zhi remained asleep, peacefully and quietly, unaware of the thoughts that his male god was thinking about him and the reasons why he accepted him as a disciple. This was only the beginning, and the master had already prepared a devilish training plan for him.

Suddenly, he was patted on the shoulder. With a slight movement, Dong Zhi’s throat subconsciously made a sound, but his mouth was immediately covered.

Heat sprayed on his ear as Long Shen whispered almost inaudibly, “It’s here.”

Dong Zhi felt a chill as he instantly woke up. Only then did he find that most of his body was buried deep in the arms of Long Shen, who propped his back up to let him sit firmly, then turned his body sideways against the mountain wall, as if he was observing the situation below.

Dong Zhi quickly rubbed his face and looked out like him. A huge behemoth that looked like a hill was haunting in the faint light that he could occasionally see its vague outline. While the three-headed python slithered silently, its five red lightbulb eyes were extremely recognizable.

“Grab the vine and fall on it, just like how you did it before. We need to follow it!”

Long Shen’s speed of speech was very fast that didn’t leave Dong Zhi any time to think, so he took action subconsciously. He took a deep breath, grabbed the vines hanging from the top of his head, kicked his body and swung towards the python, landing on it. He almost slipped but didn’t fall. Dong Zhi hurriedly bent over and fell on his body, lying on top of the python.

The fishy smell once again hit his nose, and that made him almost vomit. He quickly pinched it and looked back.

He didn’t know when, but Long Shen had already fallen lightly behind him, though his posture was much more graceful and elegant.

The two landed on the python without speaking to each other.

In the dark, the giant python continued moving forward at a very fast speed, so Dong Zhi had to stick his entire body to it to reduce as much resistance as possible.

The python led them through the cave and along the big river they first encountered. Dong Zhi found that this underground river was extremely long. From upstream to downstream, the surface of the river gradually changed from wide to narrow, and the flow of water slowly eased out as it divided up into several smaller rivers, which had its own vitality.

If it weren’t for the dangers below, the three-headed giant python, the illusions, and the ghouls, this would be a good spot for scientific research.

But how did the ancients discover this place thousands of years ago? As the Japanese said, there’s an alter below, so how did the builders avoid the three-headed python? Was there another entrance?

Dong Zhi lay on the python and thought wildly, and several thoughts flashed through his mind.

“Come down!” Long Shen whispered suddenly.

Dong Zhi slid off the python and his feet were almost squashed by the python. Fortunately, Long Shen had a sharp eye and quickly gave him a hand. Long Shen led him to a nearby path which gradually opened. There were many ghouls in the cave that were either sitting or lying down, which made him shudder. Dong Zhi followed Long Shen carefully, trying not to touch the ghouls.

“Help… Help me, Boss Long… Dong Zhi…”

It’s Zhou Yue’s voice!

“Go forward, don’t look back,” Long Shen said in front.

Dong Zhi did not look back, but his footsteps inevitably paused a little. That was the chance it needed, as two hands immediately wrapped around Dong Zhi. The cold and weird touch and the long fingernails were not the feelings of a living person!

Dong Zhi was taken aback before he turned around and slashed at the figure with his sword. Zhou Yue’s body was cut with a deep mark by a sharp sword, but no blood came out. He showed a hideous smile towards Dong Zhi and rushed up again towards him. His nails on both hands were long and curved, and his face was covered with purple meridians, just like Xing Qiaosheng before.

Dong Zhi didn’t show any mercy now. He took a few steps back and quickly pulled out a Sunlight Talisman from his bag.

“The heavens give birth to water, the earth gives birth to fire, the heavens give birth to wood, the earth gives birth to gold. The five central palaces, subdue malignity, overcome disasters, and eliminate all traces of evil! Imperial edict!”

He could now recite the mantra at a very fast speed and could complete it within four seconds but compared to the speed He Yu’s and Li Ying’s, which was less than two, there was still a lot of room for improvement.

The talisman burst into flames and attached itself to the blade of his sword, which he slid towards Zhou Yue. With a puff, Zhou Yue’s head ignited into flames, and his entire body was instantly covered by fire that quickly overwhelmed him.

Zhou Yue screamed and struggled in the flames. Dong Zhi couldn’t help but want to step forward but was held back by Long Shen.

“You did the right thing. He’s not Zhou Yue.”

After a pause, Long Shen said, “Zhou Yue is dead.”

Dong Zhi was taken aback. “When did it happen?”

Long Shen: “When we were fighting with the python in the river before, he fell into the river and was swallowed by one of the python’s heads.”

It was difficult to kill a huge creature like the three-headed python that has lived for at least thousands of years. Its life has been integrated with this cave. At that time, the purpose of Long Shen and Song Zhicun fighting it wasn’t to kill it, but to buy times for others to escape. It was unfortunate that Zhou Yue was just unlucky. He washed away in the river and failed to return to shore in time like Li Ying and the others. As a result, one of the python’s heads plunged into the water and directly ate him like a fish. Although Long Shen and Song Zhicun finally hit the python hard, it was too late for Zhou Yue who had died instantly when his heart was pierce by the giant python’s fangs.

However, the giant python didn’t fare much better. The reason why it has become more docile now, and it had no response when Dong Zhi was lying on its body was because Long Shen had seriously injured two of its heads, greatly reducing its attack power. Except for its large size, it poses no other threats.

The news of the death of another companion reminded Dong Zhi of Ba Sang and Gu Meiren. Ba Sang should be fine. He was quite strong and should have substantial vitality, so Dong Zhi didn’t need to worry about him, but it was unknown whether Gu Meiren’s flute would work on the ghouls.

While thinking about it, they had reached the end of the cave, and Dong Zhi screamed, “This is the pool where we’ve been before!”

The water pool led into four directions. The caves they walked in were located to the west, north, south, and east. Liu Qingbo, and he had already walked through them before. The east was impassable, and he finally encountered Long Shen in the north. After a big circle, he was brought back here by the python again, which meant that the caves in the west and north were connected.

He no longer needed to worry about it. In the end, there was only one choice left, the south. With a new master, no matter how dangerous the new environment was, it didn’t seem to be so terrifying.

Dong Zhi also discovered something new. After entering this cave, the forget-me-nots that seemed to be beautiful but were actually hiding traps suddenly disappeared. As he walked inside the cave, it became darker and darker in front of him.

Where there were those forget-me-nots, there were illusions. If those forget-me-nots were not there, did it mean that those half-truths, half-false illusions would end as well?

Dong Zhi turned on his phone flashlight to illuminate his surroundings. There was only 1% of power left. Seeing that it was about to run out, the light may have turned off at any time.

“Master, where’s your phone? Can you lend it to me?” he said.

“I didn’t bring it. I left it above surface before entering.”

“Do you have night vision?”

“No, but bringing a phone down here will get it damaged. I’ll have to buy another one when I go back.”

Dong Zhi felt that he had taken an arrow to the knee*, because although he was wearing a waterproof bag, his phone still got soaked in water and the battery had now dropped, barely usable at this point, so it was on the verge of being a piece of scrap metal.

*This spawn from the game Skyrim, where it’s now become a meme. The whole quote is “I use to be an adventurer like you, then I took an arrow in the knee.” The meaning behind this is debated, as taking an arrow to the knee in the Nordic sense means getting married, while the developer put the quote there as an Easter egg as a reference that an armor type wasn’t in the game that protects the knee. According to Baidu, Chinese people use it as a way to express unforeseen accidents in life.

“Does the Deputy Director’s equipment not get reimbursed due to business-related activities?”

Long Shen: “No.”

He paused, and then said, “If you can pass the training exam in the end, I’ll buy you a new one.”

Dong Zhi was at a loss as to whether to laugh or cry. Usually, people busy themselves with giving gifts to their master, but why does it seem like he’s taking advantage of his master instead?

The phrase eating the old* came to his mind as he hurriedly said, “It’s okay, I have…”

*(啃老) Describe young people who have reached adulthood and can earn a living but still haven’t been “weaned” off of relying on their parents for support (AKA being a moocher off your parents when you’re old enough to support yourself).

Before he could say the word money, he heard a faint movement in front of him. Long Shen accelerated his steps, and Dong Zhi hurriedly followed. The farther he went, the louder the movement.

There were not only curses and quarreling but also the sound of fighting. The terrain here was strange. While it sounded like the noises weren’t far away, they still had to make more than eight turns. After several turns, Dong Zhi estimated that they’d been walking for about twenty or so minutes, because his phone was completely dead before they saw the situation at the end of the road ahead.

In the center of the high and wide main cave stood a stone statue. In terms of appearance, it looked like an ancient woman. Behind the stone statue, there was a round stone platform with nothing above it.

However, instead of being called a cave, it was more appropriate to be called the main hall. As soon as Dong Zhi saw this hall, he realized that this was probably the final destination of their trip. The area of the main hall was at least the size of the Taihe Hall in the Forbidden City. Bronze lamps hung around the stone walls, which revealed some light from inside, but it wasn’t candlelight.

These were just the rough impressions he had at first glance, as he didn’t have time to observe more, because just in front of the stone statue, Li Ying, Zhang Song, and Xie Qingling, as well as several unknown men, were forced to retreat step by step by several thousand corpse figurines.

Seeing it with his very own eyes, Dong Zhi couldn’t help but take a deep breath.

They were at least two meters high, and their bodies were densely packed with skulls. There were at least a dozen of them that were stacked together, from the front and rear. All had varied expressions that looked completely wrong. Some still had rotten flesh and blood that was still attached to them. The eyes were purplish blue, and the fangs were ferocious, as if they could eat anyone at any time. Numerous arms hung from its body, stretching out from its chest and back in all directions.

Before Long Shen and him arrived, the three people leaned against each other and formed a triangular battle array to deal with the four thousand corpse figurines, but it looks like they were pretty stretched out.

In the blink of an eye, Li Ying threw out a talisman that was swallowed whole by one of the heads. Xie Qingling manipulated several puppets that were holding daggers that jumped around the thousand corpse figurines flexibly, looking for weaknesses, and stabbing them when she saw an opportunity, causing a certain restraint from the thousand corpse figurines. Zhang Song, on the other hand, had to deal with the other three thousand corpse figurines, which proved to be quite difficult. He was born on Mount Longhu, and while a good swordsman, he naturally also knew how to draw talismans. Seeing that the thousand corpse figurines could not touch oil and salt, he gritted his teeth and pointed his sword and sliced off a piece of his arm, allowing blood to gush out and slide down the sword’s body. He chanted a mantra while holding the sword in one hand and pinching his palm with the other, and asked Li Ying to cover him. He flew forward as the sword flashed with red light as he drove it into the heart of the thousand corpse figurine.

Zhang Song yelled and turned the hilt of the sword slightly. The thousand corpse figurine stretched out a few arms to grab his sword, but they were immediately cut off by his sword and fell to the ground. Zhang Song wanted to withdraw his sword but found that it was stuck in the body of the thousand corpse figurine. His face changed slightly as Li Ying handed him a talisman in the nick of time.

“Use this!”

Zhang Song didn’t even look. He grabbed it with one hand, abandoned the sword, retreated, and took a deep breath before jumping up. With the sword inserted into the body of the thousand corpse figurine, he slapped the head of the figurine with one palm. The moment the talisman came into contact with the thousand corpse figurine, it immediately burst into flames and the fire quickly spread to its other heads. Zhang Song turned over in the air and landed on the ground, pulled out the sword smoothly, and kicked the thousand corpse figurine fiercely, causing it to stagger back a few steps before finally falling to the ground.

But before Zhang Song could catch his breath, another thousand corpse figurine rushed over.

“Fuck, it’s not over yet. I’m almost out of strength!” He couldn’t help yelling.

The other side didn’t fare much better, but they didn’t know what tricks they were using. There seemed to always be a strange aroma emitting from the other party’s body that the thousand corpse figurines seemed to be afraid of, so they didn’t dare approach. Naturally, they went for Li Ying and the others instead, focusing on them as their key targets.

Not only did Li Ying and the others have to deal with the thousand corpse figurine, but they also had to guard against the two unknown people, so as not to be backstabbed by them in such a chaotic state.

When Long Shen and Dong Zhi arrived, Li Ying and the others were already at the end of their limits. Seeing Long Shen, their eyes lit up as if they saw hope.

“Boss Long!”

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Kinky Thoughts:

Death count so far 2: Xing Qiaosheng, Zhou Yue.

I guessed that the “dandelions” had something to do with the illusion, and when Long Shen told Dong Zhi they were forget-me-nots, that pretty much confirmed my theory. What a fitting flower for this cave.

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<<< || Table of Contents || Lore Glossary || >>>

Author: 梦溪石 / Meng Xi Shi

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

---

Chapter 59

Hordes of corpses rushed towards him, grasping at him. Dong Zhi yelled and ran away! The ghouls seemed to have never seen such fresh life. After waiting thousands of years, they finally got to taste sweet, fresh flesh and blood. The ghouls rushed up to Dong Zhi, forming what looked like an overwhelming sea of dead corpses flooding towards him. He was embattled and had nowhere to escape.

Suddenly, Dong Zhi saw a black vine hanging in front of him. He didn’t have time to think before leaping towards it. He grabbed the vine and swung on it. The vine was surprisingly strong and had become a veritable lifeline.

In the next second, in the spot where he originally stood, ghouls had completely swarmed it. If he was half a step too late, he would likely meet the same fate as Takashima Kawa. Dong Zhi looked back and was terrified to witness the scene.

The cliff in front of him was getting closer. He gripped the vine tightly as he tried to step onto the cliff, but because it was too narrow and his body was unsteady, his center of gravity was titled back, and he was about to fall back. Suddenly, a hand stretched out and grabbed his collar.

“Let go.”

Dong Zhi subconsciously let go of his hand holding the vine, and Long Shen pulled him in the direction of the mountain wall.

The shock from narrowly escaping death and his surprise at seeing Long Shen again staggered his heart. Dong Zhi heavily panted, unable to say a word. Long Shen didn’t speak either. He was still standing not far from Dong Zhi with his back against the mountain wall, stable as a rock.

“Boss Long?” Dong Zhi was cautious, but his heart told him that it couldn’t be fake.

“How did you get here?” Long Shen asked.

Dong Zhi took a deep breath and then relayed the events of how he and Liu Qingbo dived underwater to attack the giant python.

“I rescued Liu Qingbo and washed ashore but found that it wasn’t the river where we were but a pool of water. The pool led to four directions. We chose the cave to the north. After entering, we met Xing Qiaosheng…”

Long Shen said, “Xing Qiaosheng is dead.”

Dong Zhi’s heart jumped. “Really dead? Then what we saw…?”

“What you may have seen is a Xing Qiaosheng who existed in the past, including yourself.”

Dong Zhi was confused. “What do you mean?”

Long Shen said, “Have you ever thought that your own existence isn’t true?”

Dong Zhi looked at him blankly, as if he was listening to the Book from the Sky*.

*Title of a book produced by Chinese artist Xu Bing in the Song and Ming dynasties but filled with entirely meaningless glyphs designed to resemble traditional Chinese characters.

“Boss Long, what are you talking about?”

“The Special Administration Bureau brought you all here at my behest, but my purpose isn’t to refine you all into warriors.”

Dong Zhi suddenly felt that Long Shen was behaving strangely. The two of them were close right now, but he felt as if they were thousands of miles apart.

The “dandelions” flickered faintly, swaying uncertainly, like nether flowers on the banks of the Yellow Spring*, drawing a vague line between life and death.

*(黄泉) Refers to the place people go after death, the underworld.

Long Shen finished speaking, Dong Zhi asked indifferently, “Then what is your purpose?”

“To let you all die here,” Long Shen said.

The gloomy wind blew from all directions, chilling the back of his neck and penetrating into his collar, making Dong Zhi involuntarily shudder.

“Why?” He heard his voice asking.

“Because you are the future elites of the Special Administration Bureau and the future pillars of the cultivation world. Thus, I came up with this plan to eliminate everyone without arousing suspicion. In the name of allowing you to gain experience, you’ll all perish here and never leave.”

Dong Zhi shook his head. “I don’t believe you. You are not Long Shen. What I’m seeing must be an illusion again.”

Long Shen’s face was hidden in the shadows, and in the faint light, Dong Zhi saw only the slight outline of his right hand holding a sword. It was indistinguishable whether he was joyful or angry, and unpredictable if he was good or evil.

“Not only will you die, but He Yu and Kan Chaosheng will also die. They will be destroyed in Yunnan together with group three. None will be spared in the end.”

Long Shen’s cold voice echoed in the cave as silence was all around. The ghouls opened their teeth and waved their claws below, waiting for someone to fall down to them. They made no sounds because their voices had died out thousands of years ago.

Dong Zhi leaned against the cold stone wall and felt an uneven feeling, making his back tingle slightly. In the past, he would straighten his back to avoid the jagged stones behind him, but now he needed the pain to stay awake.

Liu Qingbo, Xing Qiaosheng, Takashima Kawa, Song Zhicun, situations that had existed before, truth or lies, passed before his eyes. Dong Zhi forced himself to calm down and face this man who was more special to him than any other.

“You mean you want to wipe us all out, but what good is that for you? Why are you doing this?”

For a moment, Long Shen remained silent before saying, “You should understand. In this matter, I’m on the side of whoever could get the most benefits.”

Dong Zhi shook his head. “You’re not Long Shen. Long Shen is not such a person. Who are you?”

“In your heart, do you really know what kind of person Long Shen is?”

Dong Zhi panted slightly, staring at Long Shen’s figure fiercely, as if Long Shen would transform into a monster or become a different person in the next moment.

“He’s very serious, stern, and unsmiling. Because he always pursues perfection, he doesn’t like others to make excuses for messing up, nor does he like others to intercede for his mistakes. However, he has a very soft heart. He will feed a pitiful stray cat and carefully observe the efforts of others. Although he said I was not qualified to enter the Special Administration Bureau, he would have praised me for my efforts, lent me his sword, and told me what I needed to do to get further ahead.”

Dong Zhi wiped his face, feeling that he was really worthless, and he choked up when he spoke. He raised his sword and pointed at the figure. “Who the hell are you?!”

The other party said, “I am Long Shen.”

Dong Zhi wasn’t even aware of how he lost his sword. He only felt a numbness in his wrist and involuntarily dropped the sword, which flew into the opponent’s hand in the blink of an eye. The opponent’s sword was pointed straight at him with its tip reaching his shoulder.

Only then did Dong Zhi realize how strong this person was. The words “Long Shen” not only meant that there was no need for his teammates to worry about him, but it also meant how much courage it took to fight against him.

“Do you want to kill me?” Dong Zhi asked.

“I’m going to kill you.” Long Shen replied.

Dong Zhi felt heartbroken. He reached out his hand to grab the sword’s blade, instantly feeling a sharp pain in his palm.

Long Shen frowned slightly. “Let go.”

Dong Zhi didn’t let go but held on to it even tighter. Long Shen directly withdrew his sword and retreated.

Dong Zhi felt overcome with joy. “You’re really Long Shen! If you were an enemy, you wouldn’t care if my hand was injured, let alone withdraw! Boss Long, I’m Dong Zhi. Do you still recognize me? Wake up!”

“…I recognize you. I don’t have amnesia,” Long Shen sighed softly. “How are your hands?”

“It hurts and it’s bleeding.”

“Let me see.”

Dong Zhi still had doubts. “Why did you say those things just now?”

Long Shen said, “You wanted to test me, and I was the same. I’m not sure if your existence is real, so I had to test it. Before you, I had met Liu Qingbo, Li Ying, and Lin Xuan in succession, but they were all fake.”

Dong Zhi frowned. “Fake? What do you mean?”

“As I said just now, the space and time here are chaotic, and the glowing grass everywhere has turned the entire underground cave into a huge illusion. It is impossible to distinguish between true and false, fact from fiction. I had to make this decision to test whether things were real or not. I’m sorry.”

Dong Zhi knew what he meant, because he had almost been deceived by the fake Song Zhicun before.

Long Shen had been in the dark for a long time, and his resilience was faster than most people, so he saw the tears on Dong Zhi’s face.

“My apprentice is not so weak that he’ll shed tears so easily.”

Dong Zhi subconsciously wiped his face with the back of his hand, but his hand suddenly stopped. He thought he had heard it wrong.

“Give me your hand,” Long Shen said.

Dong Zhi obediently stretched out his hand.

Long Shen knew how sharp his swords were. Even if he withdrew them quickly, the grip he just now most likely left a wound. Sure enough, when he looked, he saw there were two deep gashes in Dong Zhi’s hand. When he touched them, he felt the hands were sticky.

“Did you bring emergency medicine?” he asked.

“I brought it, it’s in my pocket.”

Long Shen opened his waist bag, took out a hemostatic spray and gauze from it, stopped the bleeding first, and then wrapped the gauze around the upper layer of his palm.

“Follow me.”

After walking through the steep cliff, there was a recessed place in the middle of the mountain wall that was big enough for them to sit down. After staying in this environment for so long, Dong Zhi had adapted to ignoring the external harshness and threw away his fastidious cleanliness. If not, he would’ve been sick to death lying on the python just now.

He leaned against the stone wall to rest, while leaving enough space for Long Shen.

“Why did you reach out and grab my sword just now?”

“Do you mean to accept me as your apprentice?”

The two spoke almost simultaneously.

Long Shen was silent, so Dong Zhi answered his first questions. “Because if it’s another illusion, I’ll just wake from it if it gets out of control. If it’s you, of course you’ll not sit back and watch me get hurt.”

The line of thought was correct, as it wasn’t easy for him to survive in this cave alone for so long and be safe.

Dong Zhi tentatively said, “So you just said—”

“You’re willing to worship me as your teacher and learn my teachings?”

Although Dong Zhi and Liu Qingbo competed with each other for the position of Long Shen’s disciple, there was a rule in this field. It wasn’t the apprentice who looked for the master, but the master who chose the apprentice.

In other words, Long Shen had the right to decide for himself whom he liked and disliked. It wasn’t up to the apprentice to deliver themselves to their master’s door. As such, Dong Zhi and Liu Qingbo could only try to brush up their presence more and establish a good impression in front of Long Shen. Even if Long Shen wanted to accept a third apprentice in the future, they were powerless to stop him.

Dong Zhi knew he had no chance of winning. In terms of talent, Liu Qingbo far outshines him. He had had a good foundation since he was a child, so his starting point was much higher and further than Dong Zhi’s. In terms of family background, Liu Qingbo has deep family roots, and his father is well-known and well-connected. Accepting such a disciple would be equivalent to indirectly getting a lot of benefits. While the master takes the apprentice, the apprentice brings him prosperity. It was like killing two birds with one stone.

What’s more, Long Shen had saved Liu Qingbo’s life before. With his arrogance, only Long Shen can subdue him. Presumably, his parents would be happy to see this relationship come to fruition.

To be fair and realistic, Dong Zhi had doubts about Long Shen’s choice, but the news came so fast and surprised him that it made him confused.

Long Shen couldn’t wait for his response, as he frowned and said, “You don’t want to?”

Then why did you keep saying you wanted to worship me as a teacher multiple times before?

“Of course I do!” Dong Zhi seemed to have pressed on a certain switch and finally had a reaction.

Long Shen snorted. “At such an extraordinary moment, in an extraordinary place, let’s start with simplicity. Just kowtow three times here, and we can make up the rest when we return.”

Dong Zhi stood up and straightened out his clothes. He knelt down and arched his hands, just like how Master Fang had asked him to when he swore in front of the memorial tablet of the ancestors of the Hezao Sect.

“Disciple Dong Zhi greets Master.”

His voice wasn’t loud, but it echoed between the caves, overlapping heavily. He slightly trembled, trying to hold back his excitement. He didn’t know if Long Shen could see it, but he kowtowed respectfully and seriously.

One knock for the form, two knocks for the heart, and three knocks for a thousand years.

From then on, the relationship between teacher and disciple has been bound eternally.

Tears filled his eyes unknowingly. Dong Zhi imagined that this scene should have been in an incense-filled hall among countless onlookers, just like all the rituals in those cultivating sects. He didn’t expect to pay homage to his master in a place like this. The only onlookers here, were those ghouls under the cliff.

Thinking about it like this, he felt both agitated and amused.

He heard Long Shen say, “There are no rules and regulations under my tutelage. The only thing to abide by is always have a trace of gratitude for all things under heaven and earth, and to guard the peace of the world with the sword in your hand.”

Dong Zhi solemnly said, “I’ll remember.”

Long Shen said, “If you become my disciple, it has nothing to do with whether you can pass the training exam. There’ll not be the slightest trace of favoritism. If you fail to pass at that time, you won’t be able to enter the Special Administration Bureau.”

Dong Zhi gave a soft hum with a thick nasal sound.

Long Shen frowned. “Why are you crying again?”

“This came so fast that it was too surprising. I felt it was a bit unreal and was afraid that I was trapped in another fantasy.”

He was afraid that this illusion was too beautiful to wake up from.

Long Shen stretched out his hand to pinch his wound. The pain was so agonizing that it made Dong Zhi scream and almost jump to his feet. Real pain had been transmitted to his brain, causing him to grab Long Shen and hug him while whimpering softly and crying.

Long Shen: …

Even if he was separated by a layer of clothing, Dong Zhi could feel the warm touch and finally believed that this feeling was real, and he wasn’t dreaming.

All his fears, doubts, and uneasiness in this moment were dispersed.

Long Shen wanted to push him away, but as soon as he made an effort, the other party’s crying became louder, causing him to let out a sigh.

Did he find himself an apprentice or a son?

However, compared with his own age, this one in front of him was still just a child. Long Shen thought about the scene where he did not hesitate to hold onto his sword empty handed just now. Long Shen decided to pat Dong Zhi’s back a few times, albeit clumsily.

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The author has something to say:

A memorable chapter. Congratulations to Dong Zhi (^_-)☆

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<<< || Table of Contents || Lore Glossary || >>>

Author: 梦溪石 / Meng Xi Shi

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

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Chapter 58

On the other end, Liu Qingbo was also going crazy! He clearly remembered that he walked into the cave, heading north with Dong Zhi, and ran into Xing Qiaosheng, who was already dead. Dong Zhi wanted to check on his breath, but he grabbed his collar and pulled him back and said angrily, “Be careful. What if he suddenly open his eyes and bites you?!”

After Liu Qingbo finished speaking, he took out a short dagger from his waist, cut off a piece of hair and threw it towards Xing Qiaosheng’s nose. If he was still alive, traces of his breath would blow the hair away.

The result was as expected. Xing Qiaosheng was indeed dead.

This fact made Liu Qingbo feel a little bit lost. He retracted his dagger, straightened himself up, sighed with a rare melancholy, and turned his head to say something when he found that Dong Zhi, who was standing right behind him, had suddenly disappeared!

Even if his opponent had wings, it was impossible for him to fly so fast. Liu Qingbo stood upright and shouted, “Surname Dong!”

It was not Dong Zhi that answered him, but Xing Qiaosheng, who suddenly opened his eyes and grabbed his calf. Liu Qingbo was dragged to the ground, but he reacted extremely quickly. Using the dagger in hand, he immediately slashed at his opponent.

The weapons he carried on his body were, naturally, all famous weapons. While the dagger was short, its sharpness was not inferior to that of his Feijing Sword. Xing Qiaosheng’s wrist was cut off immediately. With another quick slash that was fast and ruthless, Liu Qingbo’s opponent’s head landed on the ground. Taking advantage of the situation, he kicked his opponent away as he sat on the ground, still panting.

“Surname Dong? Dong Zhi?!”

In response to him, there were layers of oscillating echoes.

“Dong Zhi, you bastard!”

On the other side, just after killing the ghoul, Dong Zhi, who hadn’t calmed down, couldn’t hear Liu Qingbo’s scolding. He suddenly thought of something.

When they all came in, Ou-Yang Yin broke his ankle because he was grasped by a ghoul and was suffering from corpse poisoning. Song Zhicun said he would die if he didn’t treat it in time. Since everyone was in a hurry to find the Japanese and the bronze mirror, there was no time to delay and they couldn’t retreat, so he asked Ye Cheng to take him out to treat his injuries first. Now, he himself was strangled by the ghoul for a while. Could he have been poisoned too?

He involuntarily touched his neck and found that his skin wasn’t scratched. The pain was still there, but there was nothing strange about the touch, and he couldn’t see any traces that were left behind. Even if he was truly poisoned, in such a place, it would be impossible to turn around and seek help like Ou-Yang Yin did.

To make matters worse, he might not even be able to see Long Shen before he dies. What was even more tragic was he hadn’t paid homage to his master, and he hadn’t even let Long Shen know about his feelings.

Dong Zhi’s brain started going off on a tangent, imagining himself silently dying in a corner where no one could see. Thousands of years later, others would set foot here again and see “the tomb of the single dog Dong Zhi” that was carved into the stone wall by his sword and would sigh, “This person was still a single dog when he was dying!”

How miserable. Too miserable.

If he could at least maintain the corpse poison until he sees his male god again, he would act as he turn around poignantly and fall into Long Shen’s arms, looking at him affectionately, and say that he had one last wish before his death and that would be if Long Shen could satisfy him.

Since Long Shen loves the weak so much, he couldn’t possibly refuse. At this time, he would take the opportunity to confess his feelings and ask the male god to give him a French kiss.

No, no, no. What if Long Shen also gets infected with the corpse poison after this passionate kiss?

Forget it. Never mind the kiss. Rather, he would just confess passionately, and then close his eyes reluctantly after he had breathed his last breath. Long Shen’s tears would fall on his face as the camera did a close-up in slow motion.

Very good, perfect.

Dong Zhi squatted in place and fantasized for a long time. After a while, he assessed the situation and found that there were no side-effects from the corpse poison. Except being a little tired, when he touched his heart, he felt his heartbeat was normal and he seemed to be in good health. He patted the dust off his ass and stood up, continuing to walk forward.

About thirty meters away was the end of the cave. There was a bend, so he couldn’t see what was up ahead after the turn. He slowed down and clenched the hilt of his sword. The surroundings were extremely quiet. Even the sound of footsteps and breathing seemed to form layers of echoes, which inexplicably increased the pressure on his heart.

At this moment, he began to miss Liu Qingbo. Although that guy was a tsundere and awkward, at any rate, if there was someone he could bicker with, it’d provide a distraction, so he wouldn’t be too nervous. Now that there was no one talking, and his energy was fully concentrated, it seemed that even the wind in the air felt dangerous.

Nothing happened. Passing through the end of the passage, when he turned the corner, everything was quiet, as if the whole world seemed to be separated from where he came from.

Dong Zhi suddenly stopped. A weird feeling gradually permeated. With a thump, his little heart almost jumped out of his throat.

Something’s wrong. Isn’t this the place where they just left the tomb and came in?!

Just ahead was where Ou-Yang Yin was injured by a sneak attack from a ghoul’s hand and had to withdraw with Ye Cheng. Further ahead, they would see a hapless Japanese man.

Could it be that after walking around, he had gone in a circle and returned to the same place?!

Dong Zhi turned around and ran back, thinking that something was off. He found as he ran back to the cave that the ghoul whose head he had chopped off had disappeared. Let alone the corpse, there wasn’t the slightest trace of it left!

What the hell is going on? Could it be an illusion? But if so, when did it start? Has it been since he rescued Liu Qingbo in the water, or since he and Liu Qingbo entered the cave?

Or perhaps he never saved Liu Qingbo at all and the two were already buried at the bottom of the river, let alone what happened after.

He stood still as his mind became a mess. Time and space seemed to intertwine, and the scene was reversed, giving him a confusing vision, but he was even more afraid that this was all a hallucination that he had imagined.

What was even more terrifying was that he had no idea what was true and what was false. Where did the truth start and where did the falsity start?

Dong Zhi settled down and began to organize his thoughts. It should be fact that they encountered the giant python. Everyone who participated in the fight narrowly escaped death.

He and Liu Qingbo dived into the water to find the giant python’s weakness and finally came to the edge of that strange pool together. It should also be noted that what Liu Qingbo said was not something he could imagine out of thin air.

However, he was unsure of the events that happened after they walked into this cave. If it’s fake, while not beneficial, it would mean that Xing Qiaosheng is probably not dead. If it were true, then when did he get separated from Liu Qingbo? The two of them had stuck together and never separated.

Scratching his head, Dong Zhi decided not to worry about this difficult problem that even Archimedes* could not solve.

*Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer, inventor, and philosopher.

He didn’t plan to go back to the pool, so he kept moving forward. When he reached the corner again, it was still the same place where they had just come in. The only difference along the way was that the faintly glowing “dandelions” could be seen everywhere.

Dong Zhi thought these things were weird at first, but now that he had watched them for a long time, he felt a bit soft towards them.

He still remembered that when they first came in, everyone made marks on the stones next to them. Recalling this, he turned on the flashlight on his phone and looked around to see if the marks were there. He didn’t know whether he was too careless or if this path was different than the previous one, as he couldn’t find any markings.

Passing by the place where Ou-Yang Yin was injured, Dong Zhi stopped deliberately, but did not find a crack in the ground nor the ghoul’s hand. Going forward, the Japanese guy was not there either.

As soon as this thought occurred, he saw a man leaning against the wall not far in front of him. Dong Zhi slowed down as he got closer. The other party seemed to hear his movements and moved, which startled Dong Zhi and made him want to jump a few steps away.

“…Dong Zhi?” A familiar voice came.

“Song-Boss Song?!” He could hardly believe his eyes as he hurriedly stepped forward to help Song Zhicun up.

Song Zhicun coughed as blood meandered down the corners of his mouth. His face was like gold paper and his voice was weak. He looked seriously injured.

Dong Zhi wanted to pat his back, but he felt it was sticky.

“What happened? What about the others?! Hold on, I also brought some emergency medicine in my bag!”

Song Zhicun pressed his hand and shook his head. “It’s useless, don’t waste it. I was injured by the giant python…”

Dong Zhi hurriedly said, “What about the others? I can help!”

Song Zhicun: “I’m separated from them. It’s very dangerous here. You immediately… Turn around and go back. You can still escape. Hurry up, go back. Once you do, don’t come back…”

In Dong Zhi’s impression, Deputy Director Song didn’t like to talk like Director Jiang, didn’t smile all day long like Director Wu, and wasn’t indifferent like Long Shen. He was down to earth and approachable. Compared with the other Deputy Directors, he was more like everyone’s political commissar and life coach, sentimental and meticulous.

But the Deputy Director Song in front of him was so weak that he was about to die, and he no longer had the same voice as before.

Dong Zhi felt a little sad, and his eyes couldn’t help but moisten.

Song Zhicun held his hand and tried his best to talk, with great difficulty. “Remember. Don’t go forward. Leave quickly!”

“I remember!” Dong Zhi can only respond. He still recalled what Song Zhicun had said, hoping everyone would be courageous but not make unnecessary sacrifices.

He also remembered what he said at the mobilization meeting before this mission. The other party said that most likely there would be deaths on this mission, but it was normal because this had been the tradition of the Special Administration Bureau over the years. The Special Administration Bureau never cultivates flowers in a greenhouse for the sake of good data, because the enemies they will face in the future will be fierce and cunning. Only a grueling and cruel exam can make everyone alert and grow.

But even if he turns back, where can he go? He couldn’t find a way out back there, so his only option was to move forward, but Song Zhicun didn’t know this.

Could it be that his temperament had changed drastically because he had lost his sanity before he died?

Thinking of Xing Qiaosheng before, Dong Zhi broke free from Song Zhicun’s hand and slowly retreated.

Song Zhicun seemed a little puzzled. “What are you doing…”

Dong Zhi: “Boss Song, do you remember what you said to Ye Cheng and Ou-Yang Yin when you asked Ye Cheng to accompany Ou-Yang Yin to leave first?”

Song Zhicun nodded with difficulty. “I said, let’s not make unnecessary sacrifices.”

Dong Zhi: “What about the first day? What did you say to us the first day we entered the Special Administration Bureau?”

He stared at Song Zhicun closely, not letting go of any changes in the opponent’s face. Under his relenting gaze, the other party’s face changed a little.

Dong Zhi slowly took a few steps back as Song Zhicun’s face gradually became more angular. His eyebrow structure was raised, his chin was more bearded, and his hairstyle unknowingly became a crew cut.

Dong Zhi pointed his sword. “Who are you?!”

Although he turned into another person, the other party was still panting and looked weak. He said a word in Japanese and stretched out his hand to grab onto Dong Zhi’s sword, but Dong Zhi avoided him and kicked his hand away.

In pain, the opponent titled aside and finally spoke stiff Chinese.

“D-Don’t kill me!”

Dong Zhi: “Who are you?”

The other party coughed a few times. “I-My name is Takashima Kawa, a bodyguard for Mr. Otowa!”

Sure enough, it was the Japanese!

Dong Zhi immediately asked, “Where are they now? Where’s the bronze mirror!”

Takashima Kawa panted weakly. “I don’t know… I got separated from them. The bronze mirror is with Mr. Yu!”

Why did a Mr. Yu emerge?

Dong Zhi frowned and continued to ask, “Then why are you plotting against me here!”

Takashima Kawa: “It’s not me. It’s not me… Help me! I don’t want to die!” He burst into tears, and blood spat out of his mouth constantly.

The stone wall behind him suddenly stretched out a few ghost hands and pressed him tightly against the wall. Takashima Kawa’s eyes widened as he struggled desperately.

“Help me! Help me!”

Dong Zhi couldn’t bear the sight, so he raised his sword to cut off a few of those ghost hands, but in the blink of an eye, more ghost hands emerged from the ground, some even trying to grab Dong Zhi. He drew out a Sunlight Talisman, recited a mantra, and then threw it to the ground.

Fire ignited, forming a ring of fire on the ground, burning several of the ghoulish hands. The hands bullied the soft but feared the hard. They retreated one after another, as if consciously turning to the “soft persimmon” Takashima Kawa.

Takashima Kawa was pressed tightly against the wall and was slowly being consumed by it. Dong Zhi was wide-eyed as he didn’t know what to do. If he threw a talisman over, it would not spare Takashima Kawa’s life.

After hesitating for a few seconds, Takashima Kawa’s body had mostly disappeared into the wall. His expression gradually became dull and desperate as blood continued to flow from the corners of his mouth.

Soon, his entire body was dragged in and disappeared without a trace, as if it had been swallowed by the mud. The ghoulish hands also shrank back, and everything returned to calmness, as if the existence of Takashima Kawa was just an illusion.

Dong Zhi shuddered. He didn’t believe that this was a hallucination, but he had no better explanation. After waiting for a while, the surroundings became quiet, and the appearance and disappearance of Takashima Kawa felt like a dream.

He didn’t want to stay in the same spot for too long, so he continued to walk forward. In front of him was the river where they encountered the giant python before. If he wanted to pass the river, he had to walk along the cliff.

Last time, they encountered a giant python as they moved along the cliff, but this time, Dong Zhi safely moved along the cliff sideways. The river was turbulent and spacious, just like the countless rivers he had seen before, but its calmness made him feel inexplicably weird.

What will happen when he re-walks the path that everyone has just walked through again?

A strange thought suddenly appeared. Since they came here through the tomb, have they entered an infinite loop, passing through the same place over and over again, never ending? Everyone was scattered and walked in different time and space, where they would occasionally meet or would never meet.

Suddenly, he felt lonely and terrified like never before.

If he was Long Shen, what would he do now? He would of course continue to move forward without hesitation, killing gods when he encounters gods, killing demons when he encounters demons.

Although he wasn’t as strong as Long Shen, he still possessed the same courage. Otherwise, how can he realize his desire to worship him as his master and continue pursuing him?

Dong Zhi clenched his fists and slowly let go. He was about to reach the end of the cliff, and there was another corner in front of him.

To go or not?

After hesitating for a while, Dong Zhi took a step forward. Suddenly, there was a sound of conversation in front of him. Although the movement was very small, he could hear that it was human language.

Dong Zhi was overcome with joy at first, but he suddenly stopped moving and jumped behind a rock around the corner. The sounds of footsteps and conversations were getting closer. The other party was speaking Chinese, but the tone of his voice was stiff, which was not the manner of Li Ying and the others.

He was grateful for his caution. Holding his breath, he waited for the person to approach.

“Why haven’t we seen the altar yet?” the person with the strange and stiff tone said.

“The terrain here is too complicated, and illusions and reality are constantly intertwined. Even for me, it’s inevitable that I will be led astray.” This tone was so weird that Dong Zhi couldn’t tell the difference if it was a man or a woman, and it sounded a bit hoarse.

“The news of the bronze mirror leaked out, and the people of the Special Administration Bureau will definitely catch up soon. I hope to kill Long Shen personally.” Another person spoke.

Hearing this man’s voice, Dong Zhi was slightly shocked. He recognized it as belonging to Fujikawa Aoi.

At that time, on Changbai Mountain, he didn’t know the immensity of heaven and earth, so he wasn’t aware of anything. He dared to help He Yu confront this master and his apprentice. Later, from He Yu’s own mouth, he learned that the Japanese clergy is separated from the Onmyouji, but the master and apprentice not only served as the priest and witch of the shrines but also as an Onmyouji. It can be seen that they were indeed capable, with extraordinary abilities in Japan. However, due to the events on Changbai Mountain, they returned to Japan and weren’t reconciled.

The Special Administration Bureau also knew this, but it was more important to let the tigers return home so they could find the real mastermind behind them. Now the truth seems to be surfacing little by little.

A younger voice responded to Fujikawa Aoi and said, “Yes, I want to avenge Eiko! “

Fujikawa Aoi scolded, “You don’t have the right to speak here!”

The other party that was reprimanded did not speak again.

The group of people continue to walk away from Dong Zhi’s sight, with their backs facing him. Dong Zhi suddenly opened his eyes wide.

The cloaked person!

It was the same figure he saw through his clairvoyance that sat face-to-face with Otowa Hatsuhiko! With that cloak on, there’s no mistake about his identity!

The other party’s Chinese was very fluent, without an accent.

Mr. Yu… Does it have anything to do with Xu Wan? Or is this cloaked person the Archfiend Xu Wan?

Dong Zhi’s breathing stagnated.

The other party’s footsteps seemed to notice as the figure immediately turned around. It was pitch black under the cloak, and the faint light from the “dandelions” in the corner was not enough for Dong Zhi to see his opponent’s face.

Suddenly, his opponent stretched out his hand and grabbed it towards Dong Zhi! There was no skin or flesh on his hands, just white bones!

Dong Zhi retreated subconsciously as he hugged his body against the stone wall. Taking advantage of the situation, he drew out his Changshou Sword and slashed at the hand.

Nothing!

It suddenly got dark before his eyes, and his feet were empty, and he felt dizzily. Whether it was the cloak figure or Fujikawa Aoi, they all disappeared.

Where is this? True or false? Real or fake? What is fact and what is fiction?

Holding his forehead, Dong Zhi felt tired and exasperated*.

*Tired and unloved (累觉不爱) Internet buzzword referring to feeling tired and having no strength to love anymore.

The faintly glowing “dandelions” were also gone, and he couldn’t even see his fingers anymore. He groped at the stone wall and stood up. The Changshou Sword was still in his hand all this time, giving him great comfort. He could still rely on this sword no matter what environment he was in, and it gave him a sense that he wasn’t alone.

Dong Zhi was about to calm down as he started to take out his phone to turn on the flashlight so he could survey his surroundings. Suddenly, at that moment, he saw a red light.

One, two, three… five in total.

The lightbulbs from afar were glowing red and flickering in the dark.

Dong Zhi was taken aback, thinking to himself. ‘Aren’t these the eyes of the giant python?!’

One eye was blinded by Lin Xuan before, so with three heads, there should only be five remaining.

The “lightbulbs” kept getting bigger, which showed that the python was approaching him at a fast speed. In the dark, all movements became clearer. Dong Zhi didn’t dare turn on his phone. He held his breath against the wall and waited for the opponent to approach.

He suddenly had an idea. Since he didn’t know where to go, instead of walking aimlessly, he might as well follow this giant python and see where it was going. Perhaps he can find a companion along the way.

The fishy smell wafted into his nose as the huge body slowly slid past him. When the tail passed by, Dong Zhi’s heart tightened as he touched the slimy scales and grabbed onto them. He used his strength to pull himself up and laid on the tail of the giant python as it carried him forward.

Perhaps due to the small space that it wasn’t used to, or maybe because of its injuries that paralyzed its senses, the python didn’t notice that a small human was lying on its tail as it kept slithering forward.

Dong Zhi found that its movement was pretty fast, but because of its huge size, it looked a little clumsy.

Although the scales of the giant python exuded a fishy smell that can make people vomit, and the mucus on its body also made his clothes slimy and uncomfortable, the feeling of lying on it without exerting any effort still felt pretty good. Compared to walking on his own two legs, he felt like he was riding shotgun on a land rover.

This “hitchhiking” was very comfortable. Ignoring the smell, Dong Zhi hardly wanted to move. Not far away, a faint light reappeared in sight. He lazily raised his neck but found his body suddenly becoming stiff.

The cave in front of it suddenly became taller and wider, and there were many ghouls on both sides. Some stretched out their hands from the stone wall, while others had half their bodies embedded in it. Others sat or leaned against the wall, while others raised their heads. Some of them opened their mouths to scream in horror, with different gestures, as if they were all reliving the moment right before they died.

Why are there so many corpses in this place?

Seeing the numbers, how could it be that so many people have died here yet there are no records in history for such a big event?

Could it be that this matter is related to Liang Weiqi that Zhou Yue talked about? Otherwise, how could one explain that such a place is connected to the back of his tomb? But what about the three-headed giant python? Could it be possible that Liang Weiqi brought the giant python here himself?

Thoughts flashed through his mind. There were too many mysteries. Dong Zhi shifted his sitting posture to firmly hold onto the tail of the giant python so as not to fall off accidentally.

The body of the giant python slid through the mass of corpses, which remained motionless, but Dong Zhi had seen their power. He didn’t know what would trigger them to attack, so he stiffened his body and didn’t dare move.

He looked up inadvertently and was taken aback. On the cliff ahead, a figure was walking slowly. In the looming reflection of the faint light, Dong Zhi saw that it was an extremely familiar figure.

Through innumerable twists and turns, his heart was moved.

The familiar name churned in his throat several times, but he still couldn’t help but blurt it out.

“Boss Long! Long Shen!”

His voice wasn’t loud, but it echoed clearly in the silent environment. At that moment, the ghouls that had been motionless slowly turned their heads and looked towards him.

The giant python seemed to be aware too. It suddenly became restless and accelerated forward. Dong Zhi was unprepared for this and lost his hold, falling off the python. The giant python had moved so fast that even if he wanted to, he couldn’t catch up.

Dong Zhi: …

---

The author has something to say:

Through all the twists and turns, you’re the most moving in his heart.

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<<< || Table of Contents || Lore Glossary || >>>

Author: 梦溪石 / Meng Xi Shi

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

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Chapter 57

The two took a deep breath, dived back in, and moved forward with great difficulty in the muddy water. The python’s body loomed in the water. The size of it was almost the height of a train. It wouldn’t be easy to find the hole of such a behemoth.

Water constantly surged all over their bodies. The river was deep that their feet didn’t reach the bottom. Dong Zhi could barely control his body while he was on constant vigilance from being swept by the python’s body.

As soon as he saw a dark shadow looming above, he immediately dove into the water as the tail of the python swept across the top of his head. Dong Zhi kicked out and grabbed the body of the python with his hand. At this moment, he was suddenly grateful for his kung fu tona that he had learned. At least now he could hold his breath underwater for much longer, instead of constantly floating to the top to get air.

The python’s body was scaly and slippery to the touch. He bit on the flashlight and held it in his mouth as he groped upward according to his feelings. The impact of the water made his body float like seaweed. He faintly saw Liu Qingbo’s figure as the other party was doing the same thing as him.

While touching the scales all over with his hands, Liu Qingbo cursed Dong Zhi from the bottom of his heart for his stupidity. Why did he believe the other party’s words in a moment of confusion! It would have been better for him to follow Li Ying and the others to escape than to look for a chrysanthemum!

Still, he held his grievances in his heart, as he didn’t want to be a deserter. He hoped to be accepted as Long Shen’s apprentice and proved that he was the best candidate for him. The name Liu Qingbo would sooner or later be famous in the history of the Special Administration Bureau!

Although he kept his mouth closed, it was inevitable that a little water would enter. The rancid smell made him nauseous. Seeing as how Dong Zhi was next to him, he held his postulation, as he didn’t want to be seen as a joke in front of him. He continued groping around the python’s tail, trying to find his goal.

Perhaps it was because their actions were too insignificant, or perhaps it was because Long Shen and Song Zhicun were distracting it, but the three-headed giant python did not respond fiercely to their small movements, as its tail maintained a regular swinging motion. Gradually, Dong Zhi and Liu Qingbo had figured out some of its patterns and become accustomed to them, so they weren’t thrown off at every turn.

Suddenly, Liu Qingbo almost screamed aloud! He had almost forgotten that he was still underwater and was holding his breath! His reaction was due to touching a scale that was clearly different from the one next to it. He opened it slightly, and there seemed to be a small hole under it. In fact, it can’t really be called a small hole, because he could insert his entire arm into it, but compared to the body of the giant python, it would be considered small.

As soon as he put his finger in, Liu Qingbo realized that this place was used by the giant python to excrete. He suddenly felt sick as he quickly pulled his hand back, took out his Feijing Sword, peeled the scales with one hand, and inserted the sword into it without hesitation!

In an instant, thick liquid gushed out of the hole, spreading rapidly in the water and spilling it all over his face. Almost at the same time, the three-headed python became enraged and churned violently. This pain was much more severe than when it had lost an eye to Long Shen just now. Its movements shook the entire cave so violently that even Li Ying and the others could feel the ground shaking!

The tail of the giant python tossed desperately in the water, provoking waves after waves. With a bang, its tail slammed against the stone wall, creating another violent shake. Large and small stones fell from the top, causing everyone to hurriedly avoid them.

It had lived here for hundreds of years and was the ruler here, yet now these small and weak creatures dared to challenge its authority!

Liu Qingbo had always had the mentality of either doing nothing or doing it perfectly. After the Feijing Sword was inserted into the chrysanthemum of the python, he clenched the hilt and stirred it with his body, using the sharp blade to wreak havoc on the inside of the python’s body. Although the python had scaly armor on the outside, making it invulnerable, on the inside it was soft and held fragile organs. The entire abdominal cavity was almost devastated by Liu Qingbo’s stirring. The pain immediately mapped to the python’s brain, causing the three heads to hiss and roar as they crazily twisted frantically. For a while, it felt like the sky was falling, and the mountains and rivers shook, almost turning the entire cave into a shura field*!

*(修罗场) Is used to describe a tragic battlefield. Later, the meaning was extended to a person’s desperate struggle in a difficult situation.

“What’s going on?!” Song Zhicun exclaimed. He and Long Shen didn’t hesitate much and flew forward to attack the python.

The giant python became even crazier. One head slammed into the stone wall, while another head bit at Long Shen and Song Zhicun, while the last head bent down and plunged into the water, trying to find the culprit who injured it.

The three heads spewed black mist at the same time, which was far stronger than previous, and it quickly spread.

Since he was in the water, there was no need to worry about being sprayed by the black mist, but the taste didn’t make him feel any better. As soon as Liu Qingbo was inattentive, his whole body was washed away by a huge undercurrent. Just now, when the python was struggling, a huge boulder fell into the water and hit his arm. He felt severe pain and could only paddle with one arm while the entire river was turned upside down by the python. It was impossible to swim with just one arm, especially in this situation. He wanted to surface in order to catch a breath, but found that the undercurrent was raging everywhere, wrapping him in all directions. The pressure was so powerful that it overwhelmed him.

With the loss of his strength and his body unable to exert anymore, Liu Qingbo tragically found that his breath was almost exhausted, and he would drown in a few more seconds. He didn’t know where the flashlight he had was thrown to, so there was only darkness all around him, and his ears only heard the sounds of gurgling water. He couldn’t even hear the movements of the water, let alone the voices of Long Shen and the others.

Could it be that he would die here before he could succeed in his studies? If he died here, would he be posthumously recognized as a martyr and granted special approval to enter the Special Administration Bureau?

He thought about how his own portrait would be hung in the Special Administration Bureau, and every year as new students would come in, they would be pulled over to visit it and listen to the narrator explain: “This person died heroically stabbing a giant python’s chrysanthemum with a sword during a practice exam…”

Fuck that! It was so embarrassing that he would rather not be recognized at all! He wanted to blame that fucker* Dong Zhi who came up with such an idea!

*Killing a thousand knives (杀千刀的) = In ancient times, this refers to death by a thousand cuts (from knives). Nowadays, it’s a cursed word referring to a bad person.

As he was lost in his thoughts, his neck was suddenly encircled, and his body started floating upwards involuntarily. He was taken aback and, slowly, his consciousness returned to him. He thought it was an enemy’s attack and subconsciously slammed his elbow against it.

Despite being in a state of half-consciousness, Liu Qingbo’s strength was not light. His attack almost made Dong Zhi let out the air he was holding in as a bunch of bubbles escaped from his mouth. Still, Dong Zhi kept holding onto Liu Qingbo, no matter how hard his opponent struggled, as he was dragged up to the upper reaches of the river.

Eventually, Liu Qingbo’s strength was exhausted, and his struggling became less intense, until it finally stopped completely, allowing Dong Zhi to drag him out.

Dong Zhi’s condition wasn’t much better than his opponent’s. His entire arm was almost out of strength, and the Changshou Sword that he was lugging behind him had become extremely heavy at this time. It seems as if it was dragging him down. All the while, Dong Zhi kept silent, thinking that he couldn’t die here. How could he be with his male god if he were to die here! Never mind that, if thousands of years later, others came here and saw two withered bones entangled together, wouldn’t they make some kind of wrong assumption?!

The projection was so terrible that it was enough to stimulate Dong Zhi. In the end, though his mind was muddled, he didn’t know how, but he was able to rescue Liu Qingbo and dragged him ashore.

After lifting the upper body of the person to the shore and ensuring that he would not slide back down, he completely lost his strength. He collapsed on the side and only had the strength to exhale and inhale.

Time passed, and Liu Qingbo was the first to wake up. He was surprised when he opened his eyes because the first thing he saw was a big, pale face with its eyes closed right in front of him.

“Hey!”

Liu Qingbo wanted to reach out and nudge the other but found that his arms was resting on his head, which had long gone numb. The other was still trembling slightly due to excessive exertion that he couldn’t move at all.

“Wake up!”

Dong Zhi’s eyelashes trembled a few times, and when Dong Zhi opened his eyes laboriously, he saw Liu Qingbo’s flustered expression looking around.

“Where’s my Feijing Sword?!”

Dong Zhi took a deep breath, turned over, and lay on his back on the shore. If it weren’t for his lower body still soaked in water, it would be as if he was sunbathing on the silver sand by the ocean.

“Did you forget to pull it out of the chrysanthemum?” he asked.

Liu Qingbo’s face turned instantly turned blue. He couldn’t imagine that his famous sword through the ages was now buried inside the chrysanthemum of a giant python!

“It’s all your fault. If it weren’t for your bad idea, my Feijing Sword wouldn’t be lost!” he said angrily.

“Yes, it’s all my fault.” Dong Zhi perfunctorily coaxed him like a child, but his tone was soft, as his breathing shortened.

Only then did Liu Qingbo see that Dong Zhi’s face was whiter than a sheet of paper. Dong Zhi closed his eyes and didn’t speak anymore, looking as if he was a dead man. This involuntarily made Liu Qingbo’s heart stir.

“Hey!”

Dong Zhi’s eyelids trembled, but he didn’t bother to open them.

“…Just now, thanks.” Liu Qingbo reluctantly said.

Dong Zhi opened his eyes and looked at him in surprise.

Liu Qingbo was not used to being soft with others since he was a child, especially when the other is the object of his contempt. Speaking this sentence was more uncomfortable than being cut with a knife. Still, he felt he needed to say it, because if it weren’t for Dong Zhi just now, his fate would most likely be buried at the bottom of the river. Dong Zhi could’ve abandoned him and then relayed his death to the others, or not even told them at all, and eventually the others would find out about his disappearance.

“I admit that you are now qualified to become my rival. However, I’ll never give up becoming an apprentice to Boss Long,” Liu Qingbo said awkwardly.

Dong Zhi said weakly, “Save your efforts from talking, big brother. Don’t you think it’s weird?”

“What?” Liu Qingbo didn’t have the strength to move, so he could only roll his eyes as he thought in his heart, he had just given him color, and now he was opening a dye workshop*.

Reminder: Metaphor for insatiable greed (AKA give an inch take a mile).

Dong Zhi: “This place doesn’t seem to be where we fell into the water just now.”

Liu Qingbo was taken aback, as he barely supported his body to look around. It was dark, but there was still some light. The light didn’t seem to be from a flashlight. They had lost their flashlights when they were struggling underwater.

The light was faint, and they didn’t know whether it was coming from plants or beasts. There was a cluster of them, like dandelions, and they swayed gently under the mountain’s breeze.

Like in <Avatar>*, the male protagonist, under the leadership of the female protagonist, walked through these plants that glowed at night, and appreciated the amazing beauty between their different worlds.

*I believe this is the scene he’s referring to. I would recommend watching it to get an idea of what the scene he’s describing looks like.

However, being underground, where did this mountain breeze come from? Liu Qingbo was shocked slightly, as his consciousness became clearer.

“Where are Boss Long and Boss Song?!”

Dong Zhi: “I don’t know. I think we might be separated.”

They were at the edge of the pool of water, and around it were gentle slopes. They need to climb up them to see the road ahead clearly. The glowing plants were close at hand. Liu Qingbo stretched out his palm to pick one up and examine it, but he was slapped on the hand by Dong Zhi.

“Curiosity killed the cat,” Dong Zhi said righteously.

Liu Qingbo glared at him, presumably from the pain of the slap, but he didn’t persist. The two of them sat for a while, using their kung fu tona to recuperate. They felt that their strength had recovered a bit and slowly got up from the ground.

Liu Qingbo’s gaze swept past the Changshou Sword that was behind Dong Zhi, and he said sourly, “You should have used your sword while we were underwater!”

Dong Zhi sighed. “This is just life!”

Liu Qingbo’s hands felt itchy. Their strength was exhausted, so they could only channel what energy they had left into bickering.

The gentle slope in front of them was not much higher than a person, so usually they could climb over it in two to three steps, but now it would take the strength of nine bulls and two tigers* to barely reach the top.

*(九牛二虎之力) Idiom referring to an immense amount of effort (AKA a Herculean effort).

When they finally managed to climb up, they were both stunned. They saw four entrances in front of them, leading in four different directions. There were faintly glowing “dandelions” in the corners along the way, which vaguely illuminated the distance, but the light was not enough to see what was beyond these caves. The distance remained dark and infinite as all four caves looked exactly the same.

“Which way to go?” Liu Qingbo was dumbfounded.

“Rock, paper, scissors to decide?”

Liu Qingbo said angrily, “How can you be so unorthodox?!”

Dong Zhi looked innocently. “Then what better suggestion do you have?”

“Where’s your compass? Take it out and measure it.”

“I don’t have one.”

“Don’t you use talismans? How do you determine the position without a compass?!”

“I use the compass app on my phone.”

Liu Qingbo: …

He really wanted to slap this person flat, but he couldn’t. Besides him, there was only this gasping person next to him, so he had to endure!

Dong Zhi lowered his head to check his equipment. When he came out this time, he specifically used waterproof bags to hold his items that contained talismans, talisman paper, cinnabar, brushes, and the likes. There was also a little dry food and water, which didn’t take up a lot of space, so he kept it for a rainy day*.

*Emergency use.

He took out his phone but saw that there was no signal, but it could still be used without the internet. The compass app still works just fine.

Looking back and forth, there seemed to be no abnormality between the caves.

“These four caves lead south, east, north, and west. Which way should we go?” He asked Liu Qingbo.

Liu Qingbo answered angrily, “Whatever you want! Just pick whichever you like!”

Dong Zhi said casually, “Purple clouds* come from the east, which makes the east particularly auspicious, so let’s go east!”

*(紫气) In ancient times, it was thought to be auspicious since it had the affiliation as the harbinger of the appearance of emperors, sages, etc..

Liu Qingbo was a little anxious. “We have to hurry up and rendezvous with the Boss Long!”

Dong Zhi comforted, “It’s useless to be anxious. I also want to see them soon, but we need to take it step by step.”

In terms of field survival experience, he wasn’t as experienced as Liu Qingbo, but Liu Qingbo found that the other party was far more at ease than himself, even calm maybe. Perhaps he had resigned to the status quo and accepted it helplessly.

Seeing that Liu Qingbo was still unhappy, Dong Zhi said, “Just think, if I wasn’t here, wouldn’t it be worse for you to be alone and not have someone to quarrel with? God has graced us so well.”

Liu Qingbo suddenly asked, “Did you bring incense and a lighter? I heard that you could invite Gods. Can you ask them which way we should go now to meet with Boss Long and the others?”

Dong Zhi smiled bitterly and said, “Brother, how can I have the strength to invite God now? And you’ve seen all the corpses and spirits around. So many have died here, the ancients, the Japanese. Who knows what I’ll invite if I try!”

Liu Qingbo also knew that what he was saying was true, so he had to give up. The two sat on the ground and rested for a while, and when they regained a little strength, they stood up and walked to the cave to the east.

In the dark environment, the faint light of one or two points became a comfort to their souls. People were destined to live in the light, especially at this time. A little light could also double their sense of security. If your eyes could see things, you wouldn’t be at a loss.

Dong Zhi said to Liu Qingbo, “You have lost your sword, so stay behind me.”

“When we encounter danger later, we’ll see who will save who!” Liu Qingbo curled his lips. He may not be able to understand the other party’s good intentions, but his mouth continued to involuntarily spew attacks.

“In front. There’s a black figure. Is it a stone or…?”

“It seems to be a person.”

The two of them stopped at the same time, glanced at each other, and slowed down. Dong Zhi took out his phone, turned it on airplane mode to save as much power as possible, then turned on the flashlight. Since they had lost their flashlight, this was their only remaining source of light, so they had to use it sparingly.

The bright light shone on the contours of most of the cave in front of him, faintly illuminating the situation ahead. There was a person leaning on the ground, motionless.

“It seems to be… Xing Qiaosheng?” Liu Qingbo said uncertainly. This was one of the 20 candidates that had passed through to the final training course. Dong Zhi wasn’t familiar with him because he usually followed after Zhang Song and wasn’t very talkative. He would only greet Dong Zhi superficially, not bothering to mention his interaction with Liu Qingbo. The two seemed to have never interacted at all!

“Qiaosheng?” Dong Zhi said, tentatively.

The two approached slowly. The light source on Dong Zhi’s phone illuminated the dropping face on the figure. Sure enough, it was Xing Qiaosheng!

Liu Qingbo and Dong Zhi took a step back.

Huh?!

They saw Xing Qiaosheng’s eyes tightly closed. His face was covered in dense purple meridians. His lips had completely turned purplish black, and the skin below his neck that was not covered in clothing had turned completely black!

“Qiaosheng! Qiaosheng!” Dong Zhi shouted, but the figure remained motionless.

Dong Zhi bent over and stretched out his hand, but Liu Qingbo held it down. Still, they must determine whether the other party was still alive or dead. Dong Zhi continued to move his hand and stopped right under Xing Qiaosheng’s nose.

“It seems… he’s dead.”

Liu Qingbo suddenly pulled out the Changshou Sword from behind Dong Zhi and gently cut Xing Qiaosheng’s shirt open. Wherever the sword went, the clothes would crack inch by inch. Xing Qiaosheng’s neck was also dyed purplish black.

The two were silent for a moment, mourning for their lost companion.

Before they set off, Song Zhicun mentioned that death was extremely possible and told them to take this trip seriously. However, relying on their own skills, they were still ignorant of the greatness of heaven and earth and felt that it wouldn’t be so easy for them to become “lucky” ones.

That was until Liu Qingbo almost died in the water and now witnessed firsthand the death of one of their companions.

Dong Zhi felt sad. Although he didn’t have much contact with Xing Qiaosheng, he was, after all, their companion. If he hadn’t died here, he might have been able to leave this area safely and become a member of the Special Administration Bureau.

After mourning for a bit, Dong Zhi investigated. “What’s the cause? Poisoning? Did he touch those glowing flowers?”

Liu Qingbo said, “He may have come from the direction we are going—that is to say, there may be fatal danger ahead.”

“What do you mean?”

“Change course! Take a different path!” Liu Qingbo spoke without hesitation.

“Which way?”

Liu Qingbo thought for a while. “The north faces south and is the position of the emperor. Let’s go north!”

The two of them had just entered the cave not long ago, so it wasn’t too late to withdraw. Before leaving, they bowed to Xing Qiaosheng’s body again, and Dong Zhi said softly, “We still have to find our way out and can’t take you with us. If we have a chance in the future, we’ll find your body and take it back for burial. Please rest in peace!”

They exited the cave and found the one to the north. This time it went much smoother. After walking for nearly half an hour, they encountered no danger.

Liu Qingbo couldn’t help but say triumphantly, “Look, just listen to me…”

Before he finished speaking the words, Dong Zhi suddenly stretched out his hand and dragged him behind him, and he took out his Changshou Sword and slashed in front of him. A pale wrist fell to the ground while the other was still buried in the earthen wall of the cave.

Liu Qingbo: …

Dong Zhi said deeply, “When you least want something to happen, bad things tend to happen. This is called Murphy’s Law*.”

*An adage that typically states “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.” In some formulations, it is extended to “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong, and at the worst possible time.”

Liu Qingbo said angrily, “Murphy’s Law my ass! Let’s hurry back!”

Dong Zhi: “I’m afraid it’s too late. Look behind you.”

Liu Qingbo suddenly turned his head and saw that on the road they had just come from, hands started to appear one after another, scratching their fingers in the void, as if waiting for their prey to fall into their net.

Recalling the five-finger mark on Ou-Yang Yin’s ankle, the two of them took a deep breath and galloped forward at the same time, walking faster, eventually simply sprinting with all their might.

More hands started breaking out from the ground, and occasionally they would burst from the top of the cave above their heads. The sides were even more difficult to avoid. It seemed as if this entire cave was like a demon’s bloody mouth that was swallowing them.

Along the way, they encountered more “dandelions”, allowing their vision to become clearer. Dong Zhi didn’t pay much attention as he still gripped Liu Qingbo as they both continued running forward. He didn’t know how long they had been running, but eventually they didn’t encounter any more hands, so they slowly slowed down. He let go of Liu Qingbo, bent down, and panted.

“We ran pretty far. Where are we going to find Boss Long and the others? Should we continue forward?” Dong Zhi said this while gasping for air, breaking up his sentence into fragments.

However, he didn’t hear a response from Liu Qingbo, who would normally yell and shout at him. The surrounding was completely quiet that he couldn’t even hear Liu Qingbo’s breathing.

Dong Zhi’s heart sank. He was tense all over and slowly turned his head back. While mentally prepared, his scalp couldn’t help but tingle!

Liu Qingbo, who had fled with him, had disappeared and was now replaced by Xing Qiaosheng, who should have been dead. His opponent’s face was covered with purple meridians, becoming weirder in the faint light, and his eyeballs were half convex as they looked at him faintly.

“Qiao-Qiaosheng?” Dong Zhi tentatively said, as he prepared his body to run for his life at any moment.

Xing Qiaosheng’s movements were faster than he thought. Almost before he finished speaking, his opponent had rushed up and overwhelmed him as he tried to strangle Dong Zhi’s neck tightly.

Dong Zhi grabbed his arm in response and broke it forcefully, then kicked him in his lower body, but Xing Qiaosheng remained motionless and extremely sturdy. The hand gripping his neck became tighter while Dong Zhi dug his nails into his opponent’s skin, but it felt as if he was holding onto an old tree that was shriveled and inelastic.

In desperation, he bit the tip of his tongue hard and soon smelled a fishy smell. He sprayed out a mouthful of blood foam mixed with his saliva.

In normal times, he wouldn’t be able to do this, as he was afraid of pain. At most, he would cut himself with the sword to draw blood, but facts had proven that in critical times, the glands secreted hormones that drew out human’s infinite potential. Anything that was usually unimaginable could happen.

The mouthful of blood foam splashed onto Xing Qiaosheng’s face, causing him to shake slightly and loosen his strength. Dong Zhi took the opportunity to kick him while he rolled away. He stood up, took out his Changshou Sword that had fallen nearby, and swung it.

Only then did he clearly see Xing Qiaosheng standing in front of him, clearly transformed into a ghoul. His facial features were so rotten that he could hardly recognize his original appearance.

The sword slashed open the ghoul’s chest, but no blood flowed out. Instead, his opponent continued to rush towards him. Dong Zhi gritted his teeth, using his arms to exert his strength while he held the sword with both hands, preparing to cut off someone’s head with it!

With a swing, he slashed again, but his strength was weak. Instead of cleanly cutting off the head, it made a deep gash that made the ghoul’s head tilt to the side. However, its mobility remained unabated.

Dong Zhi: …

If it weren’t for the battle with the python and having to swim for so long just now, he wouldn’t have believed that he couldn’t behead this ghoul! Still, if one swing wouldn’t do it, then just do it in two.

Fwap!

Two-thirds of the ghoul’s head fell off, while a third still clung to its shoulders.

Dong Zhi was going mad!

The ghoul seemed to become completely enraged as he whizzed its hands, which had long black nails, towards Dong Zhi like the wind.

Another swing!

Finally, the head flew completely off and hit the wall, bouncing on it before rolling down. Dong Zhi stepped back a few steps to breathe and waited until he was sure the ghoul would not be resurrected again.

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Kinky Thoughts:

Third time’s the charm.

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<<< || Table of Contents || Lore Glossary || >>>

Author: 梦溪石 / Meng Xi Shi

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

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Chapter 56

At that moment, another hand came out of the ground and grabbed Xie Qingling’s calf. Liu Qingbo was quick-sighted and slashed it with a sword. The arm landed on the ground and instantly turned into bones.

“Demons!” He yelled as the blade of his sword struck the ground, directly drawing a deep mark. After a few seconds, black liquid gurgled out from under the deep marks.

Song Zhicun rolled up his sleeves and said to everyone, “Get out of the way.”

Ou-Yang Yin’s calf had already sunk in. It wasn’t because everyone’s strength wasn’t strong enough, but the strength that was dragging was far too great. Everyone didn’t dare exert too much strength for fear that they would hurt their legs.

Song Zhicun walked up to Ou-Yang Yin and looked at his painful and tearful expression. He knelt down, pressed one hand on the ground, and slowly extended his hand into the soil. Although the soil under his feet was a bit wet, the foundation was still solid. After Ou-Yang Yin’s body was pulled into it just now, it wasn’t like they didn’t think about digging around the area next to him, but it was impossible for them to do something that Song Zhicun had seemingly easily done. His hands had reached into the ground, going deeper until it was buried up to his elbows.

Suddenly, his hand sank down, as if he was being held by something! Everyone’s hearts pounded seeing Song Zhicun frown while moving his arms slightly, as if competing with something under the soil.

“Don’t get distracted. Pay attention to your feet.” Long Shen’s voice sounded.

Looking back, Dong Zhi didn’t know when he had returned.

“What’s the situation ahead?” He asked in a low voice.

“A Japanese is dead,” Long Shen’s answer lightly.

Reminded by Long Shen’s words, everyone became extra vigilant as they looked around from time to time.

“Above!” Chi Banxia exclaimed.

When everyone looked up, they saw a pale hand stretching out about halfway the length from the top of their heads.

Chi Banxia: “I been looking around, but there was nothing there at that time!”

Liu Qingbo’s reaction was the most direct. He raised his sword and cut off the hand. As soon as the white hand fell to the ground, the corruption in that area intensified at a speed visible to the naked eye. It quickly became white bones while the rest of its body was still submerged in the earthen soil, remaining motionless.

Song Zhicun’s face was sweating slightly, and his shoulders were very tight, presumably exerting his strength underground.

“Get up!” He yelled, holding onto the soles of Ou-Yang Yin’s feet and directly lifting him off the ground. The soil around him was dug out as Ou-Yang Yin was able to escape the grasp. Only then did everyone see that there was a hand in the soil that had been broken up by Song Zhicun. It quickly turned into bones just like the others.

Ou-Yang Yin rolled up his trousers legs and a set of five fingerprints around his ankles were clearly visible, showing a dark purple-blackish color.

Upon seeing this, Li Ying said solemnly, “This is corpse poison*! You must extract it quickly!”

*(尸毒) Poison from zombies/the undead. Those who are infected will have their skin fester and lose their senses. In severe cases, their muscles will become stiff, and they eventually become a living corpse.

He turned his head to look at Song Zhicun again. “Boss Song, you…?”

Song Zhicun waved his hand. “I’m fine. I have trained my hands deliberately to resist corpse poison.”

He opened his palm and showed that it was fine.

Li Ying took out the cloth bag containing glutinous rice and a talisman paper from the bag. He ignited the talisman, then put it into the cloth bag, stirring it in, and then pressed the entire cloth bag onto Ou-Yang Yin’s leg.

Ou-Yang Yin groaned in pain as he gritted his teeth.

Song Zhicun said, “Ou-Yang, we’re not too far from the exit. You don’t need to participate in this training. Go back to recuperate first.”

Ou-Yang Yin looked up. “Boss Song. I can still go on. I insist.”

After applying the hot compress for a while, Li Ying took off the cloth bag and saw that the black marks on it had not faded but were gradually spreading.

Song Zhicun made a decisive decision. “Xiao Ye, you should immediately take Ou-Yang back to find help. There’s a Taoist priest named Chen at the branch. Ask him to heal Ou-Yang’s injuries.”

Ye Cheng repeatedly nodded. “Okay, I know Taoist Master Chen!”

Ou-Yang Yin was unwilling, but he also knew that not only would he not be able to continue forward like this, but he would only drag his teammates down. He couldn’t even move without the help of Ye Cheng.

“Sorry, I delayed everyone’s time.”

Song Zhicun patted him on the shoulder. “While we ask that everyone not be afraid of death, we don’t want you to make fearless sacrifices. Let’s talk about recuperating your injuries first.”

Li Ying tied the glutinous rice bag to his calf and said, “This can temporarily relieve the corpse poison, but you must treat it as soon as possible. Otherwise, it’ll spread quickly.”

“Thank you!” Ou-Yang Yin’s gaze swept across his companions. He arched his hands, both as a farewell and an encouragement to them. Everyone also responded with the same gesture.

After the two left, everyone moved on. It didn’t take long for them to see a man leaning against the wall. He was bleeding from all his limbs and his eyes were wide open while his lower body was buried in the soil.

“When I saw him just now, he was still breathing, but he couldn’t speak anymore,” Long Shen said.

There was no doubt that this Japanese guy had been attacked by those corpses and suffered from corpse poison just like Ou-Yang Yin, however, he wasn’t as lucky, nor was there a Song Zhicun to help him, so he could only accept his miserable fate.

“So, those Japanese didn’t come much earlier than us. We can still catch up to them!” Liu Qingbo said.

Zhang Song curled his lips. “Isn’t it just fine? There’s danger up ahead, and they’re the first to encounter them, just as they deserve. These people didn’t have any good intentions to begin with!”

Long Shen didn’t speak. He still maintained a steady pace forward, but occasionally reminded everyone to be careful above their heads and under their feet.

After what happened to Ou-Yang Yin, everyone didn’t dare take things lightly anymore. They all held weapons in their hands vigilantly and were ready to take action at any time.

The sound of water flowing got louder as they progressed closer. Just a few dozen paces ahead, the passage suddenly took a sharp turn, opening to a large river.

Long Shen touched the earthen wall on the side of the passage and knocked on it.

“This should have been a passage originally, but it was sealed.”

Everyone took a closer look and found that there was a gap on the top of their heads, which looked like the original position of the stone gate.

“Then do we want to forcibly open the sealed door?” Liu Qingbo asked.

Long Shen shook his head. “Just follow the Japanese.”

He stepped forward first, and his figure quickly disappeared around the corner, and everyone hurriedly followed. The river was turbulent and wide. When they swept the flashlight over, they could only vaguely see the other side.

At the same time, the position of where they were standing suddenly narrowed. After turning the corner of the passage, they realized that they were walking along a cliff, as waves of water splashed up against it from time to time, wetting their feet.

There was wind blowing from seemingly nowhere that blew the water vapors towards their faces. It was so cold that many of them shuddered involuntarily.

The passage under their feet could only hold one person walking sideways. In some places, it could only accommodate half their feet, which was extremely perilous. Although everyone knew how to swim, no one wanted to tumble into the river. They didn’t know what was in there, so everyone walked cautiously at a slow and steady pace.

The position order changed after they entered the cliff. Dong Zhi still followed behind Long Shen, but Ba Sang was now behind him.

Despite his tough look, Ba Sang was actually afraid of heights. Although he hugged his body tightly against the wall, he seemed to have illusions that he would fall into the river within the next second but refused to show any sign of weakness, so he still followed closely behind Dong Zhi, though his footsteps were inevitably much slower.

Gu Meiren, who was behind him, did not rush him, but Dong Zhi noticed Ba Sang’s strangeness. He stretched out his hand and grabbed Ba Sang’s wrist. “I walk steadily, so just follow me.”

Ba Sang was moved and humbly accepted his offer, but suddenly at that moment, something happened! A huge black shadow jumped up from the river, flying towards everyone, exhuming a fishy smell that was blasted at them from the wind.

There was only half an inch of ground below their feet, and with companions left and right, no matter how capable they were, they couldn’t escape. Several people were swept into the water immediately.

However, Long Shen reacted faster. When someone was about to fall into the water, they were pushed back with a sudden force. A white light appeared in Long Shen’s hand before it suddenly pounced towards the dark shadow. Long Shen had drawn a sword out of nowhere.

Dong Zhi and Ba Sang were wide-eyed as they watched Gu Meiren fall off the cliff. They both subconsciously stretched out their hands to pull her, but as a result of the black shadow being hit by Long Shen’s attack, it landed in the river, causing a huge wave that rose several meters high and splashed everyone in the water at once.

“It’s a python. A giant python!” Someone exclaimed.

Someone shined their flashlight around the water, and occasionally they would see the reflection of something scaly on the monster’s body, confirming its identity. Dong Zhi had heard of the largest python in the world was the amazon anaconda, which could reach lengths up to 6 meters and could as thick as an adult man. They were able to swallow an entire alligator whole.

But the Amazon anaconda was nothing compared to this python in front of him. It wasn’t even significant enough in size to even slip through the crevices of its teeth.

Long Shen was fluttering in the water, holding onto Gu Meiren tightly while swimming towards the shore. Her head was knocked on by the tail of the giant python as she fell, rendering her unconscious and she was about to be washed away by the river.

On the other side, Long Shen was fighting fiercely with the giant python. His opponent was huge in size that its upper body hadn’t even been shown yet to reveal its face. It only just surfaced its tail, like a cat chasing a mouse, teasing the prey in front of it.

However, it quickly discovered that these prey were not as easy to bully as it thought, which reminded it of the unpleasant memories not so long ago. Several of its “prey” had also slipped away right under its nose.

When Long Shen slashed at the python’s tail with his sword, he left blood marks from a single cut. The pain and blood enraged the python, causing it to slowly stretch out its head from the river, trying to see clearly what its prey looked like.

“It has three heads! Be careful everyone!” Chen Xun shouted.

In the dark, six red “lightbulbs” wandered up and down. The brightness was faint yet luminous, but everyone felt terrified by its gaze.

Not to be outdone, Liu Qingbo tried to find the python’s tumbling torso in the water. Once he found it, he slashed it with his sword. Unfortunately, his sword was different from Long Shen’s as it simply bounced off the hard scale, leaving no cuts or blood behind.

Liu Qingbo was stunned. He had thought to himself that he was masterful in his swordsmanship and possessed enough strength. Even if the sword qi wasn’t as good as Long Shen’s, with the power of his Fejing Sword, shouldn’t he have been able to cut the scales? Could it be that Long Shen’s sword was even more powerful?

While he was puzzled over his predicament, everyone else had started to use their own weapons and magic. Even Chi Banxia started chanting a spell, though with such a huge body, it would take time before it could come into effect. Li Ying’s talismans were packed in a waterproof bag, so they wouldn’t get wet, but they didn’t have much effect on the python.

This three-headed python was too big. To a certain extent, when an object was this large, even if it had many injuries, it was equivalent to just a drop in the bucket for it. What was more, it was a behemoth that had survived in this kind of environment for many years!

The giant python seemed to be irritated by everyone’s “small movements”. One of its heads bent down and spouted out a mouthful of black mist at Chen Xun. Song Zhicun quickly grabbed his collar and dragged him back, but he couldn’t fully avoid inhaling some, and he started coughing.

In the confusion, Song Zhicun didn’t have time to pay any more attention to him. After putting Chen Xun aside, he jumped onto the python and lowered his body. The scales were too slimy, making them slippery, so it was difficult for him to stand still. After a few tries, he was thrown into the water by the python’s tail. 

He could see that the python itself was a bit injured. It might have been left there by the Japanese, or perhaps something even earlier. Normally it would sleep underwater, but due to this injury, it was enraged, so they had caught it in its worst moment.

Everyone looked pale and weak in front of this massive behemoth. It was as if it was invulnerable. Liu Qingbo’s sword couldn’t cut through it, and the attacks of Li Ying, and the others had no effect. Ba Sang wanted to summon an eagle, but they were now deep underground, where no birds would live.

For this mythical monster-like three-headed python, the only threat was Long Shen. It was extremely irate at the sword in Long Shen’s hand. Knives and spears had never left any cuts on it, yet this sword had pierced through its scale like nothing. Its three heads hissed and twisted, opening their mouths to spray black mist towards Long Shen. Long Shen avoided the attack and slid down the python. Taking advantage of the situation, he used his sword to cut a long, bloody grove on the python’s neck. Suffering from the pain, its body twisted more violently, stirring up the river and causing monstrous waves.

Under such circumstances, many people could barely maintain their stability, let alone attack with their hands.

At that moment, another figure jumped onto the python with lightning speed. It stood still and climbed up dexterously and quickly, attracting many people’s attention.

Lin Xuan!

Dong Zhi instantly recognized him. He saw Lin Xuan holding a hammer in his hand as he climbed on the python’s body, step by step. Every few steps, he would nail a nail onto the python’s body. The nail was as slender as a needle, which would feel like a mosquito bite to the python. Since it wasn’t painful, Lin Xuan took advantage of it and eventually reached the middle section of the python’s head. He then raised his hammer and slammed it into one of its eyes!

Originally, Lin Xuan had followed them, and no one took him seriously. They thought of him as an outsider and would secretly guard against him, but Lin Xuan didn’t take it to heart and just smiled all day long. Coupled with the fact of his identity as part of the Lin Family of Lingnan, it wasn’t easy for them to give him face, or even get close to him, as they didn’t have much to talk about.

However, Lin Xuan didn’t care either. Except for teasing Dong Zhi from time to time, he communicated more with Song Zhicun. As for Long Shen, he treated him equally like everyone else, and would speak very few words.

Bang!

A towering wave could be heard from the python’s movements. This showed just how much strength Lin Xuan used. The eye that was like a red lightbulb was smashed as blood splashed out from its eyeballs. It hissed and shook fiercely, throwing Lin Xuan off more than ten meters away. He fell into the river, and his fate was unknown.

Blinded in one eye caused the snake head in the middle to become confused, then retaliated more violently. Long Shen, who was in its sight, became the object of its revenge. The three heads bore their fangs at the same time and rushed towards him.

The black mist spewed out of the python’s mouth and was divided into three strands, almost covering Long Shen’s entire body.

“Be careful!” Someone shouted, but their voice was quickly drowned by the surging river.

Long Shen’s figure rose steeply, hoping on a cliff nearby, avoiding the black mist. He kicked his foot and used his strength to pounce on the python, hugging its neck as he pierced it with his sword.

“I’ll hold it off. Everyone, go first!” Long Shen shouted. His voice was slightly hoarse from the excessive exertion, but his strength was still there and indomitable.

Dong Zhi was floating in the water. He drew his sword and slashed at the python’s body. With a clank, the sword rebounded, proving to him that the python had cultivated an indestructible body. Even the Changshou Sword, which could cut iron like mud, couldn’t even scratch it.

He wasn’t sure who would win or lose if Kan Chaosheng fought against this three-headed giant python. Of course, it’s impossible for an ordinary python to match a Jiao, but the three-headed giant python in front of them was like a fierce mythological monster. Perhaps it’s even more powerful than Kan Chaosheng.

The giant python became impatient with all the tickling. Its huge body swayed and churned in the water, as if it was turning the river upside down. A huge wave rolled towards Dong Zhi, who had just narrowly avoided the python’s tail. However, the current slammed into his head, making him dizzy enough that he blacked out for a few seconds. In addition, he had drunk a few mouthfuls of the fishy river water and had even swallowed some of it.

Looking at the place where he fell just now, he saw a person leaning against the wall, waving her hands, as if she was doing some ritual. Taking a closer look, it turned out to be Xie Qingling. She seemed to be waving aimlessly with empty hands, but in fact there were two extremely thin silk threads tied to her hands.

Suddenly, two children fell on the python, walking steadily step-by-step. Their expressions were lifeless, but their movements were dexterous with an indescribable weirdness.

“What is that?!” Ba Sang was dumbfounded.

“Puppet master! She’s a puppet master!” Chi Banxia exclaimed, to relieve his confusion.

Ba Sang suddenly realized why Xie Qingling had been so secretive about her abilities. Most likely, she was worried her companions would look at her strangely if they had known.

At this time, two puppets in the form of children were holding daggers as they walked slowly on the python, as if looking for a weakness. Xie Qingling continued waving her hands with her eyes closed, as her brows twisted into several folds.

The python had lived here for many years, so while its scales were hard as iron, some had worn out over the years.

Suddenly, the child puppets stood still. The little boy raised his dagger and plunged into one of the scales! The dagger was halfway in, but it was popped out again in a blink of an eye. The python’s left head turned around and hissed at it, biting off the head of the boy puppet in a single bite, then swept towards the girl puppet.

With a cough, Xie Qingling spurted out a mouthful of blood.

Others were in no better condition than she was as they all struggled in the water. They had all kinds of abilities, but they usually dealt with zombies, evil spirits, and demons. In front of this fierce monster that exalted absolute power, they were completely helpless.

Hearing Long Shen’s words, Song Zhicun also shouted, “Hurry up and try to leave. Don’t try to fight recklessly. Bring up the rear!”

Reality has hit the spirit of the group of young people hard, almost completely wiping out their morale. Their single solution could only be this. Li Ying took Gu Meiren, and the others started to run in the opposite direction of the python, but it seemed to notice the intention of its “prey”. Having already lost an eye, it became more ferocious. It rolled up its tail and slapped the water fiercely, causing the river to suddenly rush to the narrow riverbank. As it continued slamming its tail into the water, it caused the river to continually rise so rapidly that eventually it swept Li Ying and the others into the river again, all while it was still fighting against Long Shen and Song Zhicun, sparing almost no effort to attack the others.

Liu Qingbo was frustrated by his failure, and his heart became angry. He looked at the figure of Long Shen still fighting fiercely with the giant python and gritted his teeth. He held onto his flashlight and plunged into the water with his sword.

Its common knowledge to hit the snake seven inches and three inches*. Everyone knew this, but the problem was that when facing such a behemoth, let alone finding its seven and three inches, they couldn’t even leave a dent on it.

*(打蛇打七寸，打蛇打三寸) Metaphor for one must grasp the main link when speaking or doing things (AKA hit them where it hurts). This, though, also has a literal meaning as they are fighting an actual snake. In terms of whether it’s 7 inches or 3 inches, it’s referring to the location, with 7 being the snake’s heart and 3 being the snake’s spine.

The python was churning in the water, muddying up the river, while the range of everyone’s flashlight was limited. Liu Qingbo could only rely on his intuition to judge the location of the python as he swam forward through the dark and muddy waves.

Suddenly, a huge undercurrent surged, and he subconsciously waved his sword to resist, but forgot that against the waves, his sword power and speed were halved. The undercurrent came towards him and pushed him back involuntarily. A hand suddenly stretched out from the side, grabbed his arm and dragged it to the side.

Liu Qingbo was taken aback, as he was about to stab the figure subconsciously, but the flashlight shone a vague face. He was furious and shook the other party off and made another gesture to keep the other party away from him.

The other party reluctantly refused to relent, and kept holding on to him, gesticulating, as if to tell him what he wanted to do.

While practitioners could hold their breath much longer underwater than ordinary people, they didn’t possess gills that would allow them to breath endlessly underwater. After being delayed by his opponent, Liu Qingbo’s breath was almost exhausted that he had to float to the surface. He shouted viciously, “Can you fuck off!”

Dong Zhi ignored his bad mouth. In front of this three-headed giant python, everyone had the same goal.

“Do you want to sneak attack underwater? Let me help you!”

Liu Qingbo sneered, “It would be nice if you didn’t drag down your own legs. What can you do for me?!”

Just now, Dong Zhi saw Long Shen and Song Zhicun dealing with the python to buy them some time to escape, but the python was quick, and though they wanted to run, it didn’t let them. He not only wanted to help Long Shen, but also wanted to help himself and his companions get to safety.

Dong Zhi wiped the water from his face and said quickly, “I heard that three inches and seven inches are the python’s weaknesses, but you’ve already seen it. It’s so huge that it’s impossible to find, but it should still have a weakness underwater. I have a Changshou Sword and you the Feijng. We can work together!”

Liu Qingbo: “What weakness?”

Dong Zhi: “The anus!”

“What?!” Liu Qingbo suspected that he had heard it wrong.

Dong Zhi thought he didn’t understand and said anxiously, “The chrysanthemum*!”

*Another way to refer to the anus.

Liu Qingbo: …

Dong Zhi: “Do you want to do it or not?”

Any kind of creature that was stabbed with a sharp weapon would not feel good, and this place was almost the same key points as the others*.

*Referring to the 7 inches/3inchs (heart/spine).

The corners of Liu Qingbo’s mouth twitched: “Do you know where its chrysanthemum is?”

Dong Zhi said, “I have seen a specimen of this type of snake. It should be near the tail. Its upper part is not easy to get close to, but its lower body is relatively easy. The structure of this python should be similar to that of an anaconda’s!”

The situation was urgent, and Liu Qingbo couldn’t bear to think about it further. He nodded casually and agreed to the plan.

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The author has something to say:

Liu Qingbo: One stumble and you’ll become eternally hated.

Dong Zhi: There is no smarter person than me.

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Kinky Thoughts:

WTF LMAO. An intense battle has now led to this.

BTW, just want to make a note that there are about 20+ people in this group, so the actions that the author is describing is all happening simultaneously. So when Long Shen shouts that he’ll hold it off while everyone runs away, it’s not that they’re not doing it, but the POV jumps to someone else that’s currently in mid-action before he said it. It’s a bit confusing, but this is the result when there are too many characters in a scene.

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<<< || Table of Contents || Lore Glossary || >>>

Author: 梦溪石 / Meng Xi Shi

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

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Chapter 55

The cave was narrow and was dug up by tomb robbers, so there was no need to mention how spacious or comfortable it was. The Changshou Sword on Dong Zhi’s back would hit the area of the cave from time to time. Eventually, he had to untie the sword and hold it in his arms.

In order to avoid colliding with each other, everyone was separated by at least half a meter or so. When Dong Zhi heard the sound of bodies sliding downhill from the front, he knew that he had reached the gentle slope area mentioned by Ye Cheng. Sure enough, Ba Sang slid down quickly, and there was no one ahead of him any longer. He quickly followed and, while sliding down, hurriedly adjusted his angle to avoid landing on his head.

The space on the gentle slope was very spacious, unlike the hole that was dug up by tomb robbers. He surmised that they had entered the architectural structure of the tomb itself.

With a snap, he landed steadily. He patted the dust on his hands and found that other people who landed first had turned on their flashlights and began exploring the environment. Behind him, his companions slid down one by one.

The tomb wasn’t spacious. There was a stone tablet standing in the center, but no one could understand the text that was written on it.

“What’s this?” Zhang Song couldn’t help asking.

“Tangut script*,” It was Long Shen who answered him.

*Logographic writing system used for the writing of the extinct Tangut Language of Western Xia dynasty.

Tangut script was once considered to be one of the lost texts, and it is difficult for anyone to decipher it, but under the persistent research of the archaeological community, more and more Tangut scripts have been interpreted. There’s even been a publication of a dictionary of Tangu Scripts, so this kind of language was no longer mysterious.

Unfortunately, they were not archaeologists, so facing such a text, everyone was naturally befuddled.

The stone tablet was densely covered with Western Xia characters. Perhaps when this stone tablet was erected in the past, the font was coated with gold powder, but over time, the gold power had gradually faded and disappeared, leaving the text to become dull.

“According to previous traditions, this kind of stone tablet generally records the life of the tomb owner and warns outsiders to be cautious,” Song Zhicun, who finally came down, patted the dust off his body and said. “Judging from the confessions of those tomb robbers, the real danger lies in the passage behind the tomb. They did not encounter any danger here. Some coffins had been cracked by them, and the things inside had been emptied. However, everyone still has to be careful. The Japanese came one step ahead of us so they could have possibly set some traps to prevent us from following them.”

Everyone hadn’t thought about that yet. When they were reminded by him, they were suddenly taken aback. Only then did they feel that older ginger is spicier*, as they wouldn’t have thought of such details.

*(姜还是老的辣) Metaphor for people who are qualified and experienced in certain area. Use as a praise for them.

Headed by Long Shen, everyone stepped towards the main tomb and continued to walk inward. The main tomb was composed of three side-by-side tombs, one large and two small, which was equivalent to a “living room” in the middle and two “rooms” on both sides.

There was a coffin placed in the middle of the “living room”, while the left and right rooms were piled high with stones, terracotta warriors, wood products, silk, and the like.

The terracotta warriors were originally painted, but now that they have been exposed to the outside air, the colors have faded into a mess. The silk had long been decayed and the original pattern and color were no longer recognizable.

Judging from the current situation, the lid of the coffin in the main tomb in the middle had been pried up, and the coffin in the corner should belong to the owner of the tomb.

Song Zhicun said, “The tomb robbers took away all the valuable gold, silver, and jade artifacts in the ear chambers on both sides. They were still planning to pry open the coffin because, according to their years of experience in robbing tombs, many valuables would be buried in the coffin of the tomb owner, but the lid was extremely heavy. Ten of them worked hard together and failed to lift the lid of the coffin. In the end, they had to endure the pain and give up.”

But in front of them lay a clearly moved coffin lid. Was it by the hands of the Japanese who came before them, or…?

Looking inside from the lid of the coffin that had been removed. It was dark, and the viewing angle was too small to see what was there.

Zhang Song heard Song Zhicun say that ten people couldn’t lift the lid of the coffin, but he didn’t believe this nonsense, so he tried to push the lid out. The lid of the coffin looked wooden, but it remained motionless. He couldn’t help showing a look of horror.

How much effort did it take to be able to lift the lid of the coffin and push it away to a corner?

Liu Qingbo, Li Ying, and others also came over one after another to try. Together with Ba Sang, who was the strongest, everyone almost exerted all their strength, and the lid of the coffin was finally moved a little.

“Get out of the way!”

Long Shen yelled suddenly as white light shot out of his hand, accompanied by a muffled sound, as if something was thrown to the ground fiercely.

Everyone followed and saw a black figure trembling in the corner, standing up and waving its teeth and clawing at them. It seemed it had some scruples and dared not rush forward.

Li Ying threw a talisman of fire at it, and the shadow screamed before turning to ash together with the talisman fire.

Someone exclaimed, “What is that? Monster?!”

Song Zhicun walked over and picked up a piece of ash to inspect.

“No, this is a puppet technique that’s also a kind of yin-yang technique. Cut a figure out of paper, inject it with talisman power, and then you can manipulate it like a puppet at will.”

He leaned closer to the ashes and sniffed. “This kind of paper puppet should have been powdered with golden-winged moths. As long as it’s stained with just a little, the other party can detect your whereabouts and it’s tantamount to chronic poisoning.”

Chi Banxia: “What is the golden-winged moth?”

Song Zhicun: “It is a kind of moth found only on a small island in the Pacific Ocean. It is said that it was discovered by the Japanese in World War II. After being introduced into the country, the Japanese Onmyojis refined and improved it, and used it as a chronic poison to control the enemy’s mind. It’s probably a bit like drugs, but it has a more severe impact than drugs.”

Originally, everyone didn’t talk about it, but they inevitably developed a tendency in their hearts. They felt that Boss Wu had a strong foundation, and after entering his group, they would not have to worry about funding or finding various talismans or medicines. Although Boss Long was harsher and didn’t seem to be very popular, he had strong abilities and deep qualifications in the Special Administration Bureau. It is said that there are many people who support him inside the bureau. Boss Song, who’s a half-way monk, had no reputation. His group had a bad image and were jokingly nicknamed the miscellaneous group. People want to go to higher places while water flows low*. Everyone had their eyes on Group One and Group Two, and their interest in Group Three was lacking. However, after hearing what Song Zhicun said, many people suddenly felt that their previous view of Group Three was biased and shallow.

*(人往高处走，水往低处流) Refers to people’s aspirations and pursuits. It is in their nature to move upwards. “Water flows low/down” is saying this is the natural object law. So put it another way, it’s only natural that people want to pursue higher aspirations.

If you can become a Deputy Director of the General Administration, it’s obvious that you’re not an ordinary person. Even if you want to join, others may not want you.

“The paper puppets should have been left by the Japanese. Be careful, everyone. There could be more ahead…”

Before Song Zhicun’s voice fell, several more dark shadows jumped out of the coffin, but everyone was prepared. With their weapon at ready, the paper puppets were shredded into pieces and completely wiped out.

When talisman fire came into contact with the paper puppets, they burned up instantly. However, Liu Qingbo and Zhang Song drew their swords and slashed at the paper, but the golden-winged moth powder on them would not disappear. Instead, it was blown around by the wind caused by their sword.

Zhang Song reacted quickly. He soon realized his error, but it was too late to take back his move. As soon as the blade cut up the puppets, golden-winged moth powder flew everywhere, floating towards everyone.

Liu Qingbo had wanted to draw his sword but realized the problem of the moth powder as soon as he prepared to take it out of its sheath, so he didn’t take action.

A wind suddenly blew from behind the crowd, blowing the moth powder towards the wall of the tomb, averting the crisis in time. Everyone looked back. They didn’t know if it was either Long Shen or Song Zhicun who made the wind.

Swept by Long Shen’s cold expression, Zhang Song lowered his head.

Song Zhicun’s face didn’t look good either. “What did I say before? Be bold but careful! You have a lot of courage, but you’re not wary enough. If that moth powder got on your body just now, there’s no other destination we can go to besides home, and you’ll also be the only one eliminated from this training exam!”

Zhang Song acknowledged his mistake honestly and confessed. “I’m very sorry. I didn’t think it through before drawing my sword, and I almost hurt everyone. I will be more careful next time!”

Despite the fact that Liu Qingbo was usually at odds with him, when he heard him bow his head and admit his mistakes, he didn’t dare put on his schadenfreude face, let alone gloat in it.

The coffin lid had been pushed open by more than half, revealing a mummified corpse. The corpse was well preserved, with its facial features and basic contours still there, but it wasn’t wearing an ordinary robe, but a purple robe. The sun, moon, and stars were embroidered on it with gold and silver thread, and there was a multi-colored coat that was wrapped around its shoulders. It was wearing a golden lotus crown on its head and holding a white jade. Even the gap next to the top of its head and shoulders was stuffed with agate pearls.

Fortunately, the group of tomb robbers failed to open the lid of the coffin, otherwise the tomb owner would not be able to escape the fate of being looted. The Japanese on the other hand, didn’t have any ulterior motives*, so when they opened the lid of the coffin and found it only had jewels, they instead placed paper puppets inside to plot against the latecomers, as they had no interest in the valuables.

*The drunkard’s intention is not the wine (醉翁之意不在酒) Idiom referring to having an ulterior motive.

From this, it can be seen that what they were planning was much bigger than these external things.

However, the most peculiar thing is the identity of the tomb owner. Including the Special Administration Bureau and the group of tomb robbers, everyone thought that this would be the tomb of a Western Xia nobleman. Who would have guessed that the owner of the tomb was a Taoist, and not just any Taoist?

Many people didn’t know the significance, so Li Ying explained to them, “Purple robes are usually only worn by high-powered Taoists during formal ceremonies. This person is dressed so grandly, so his identity must be big. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to interpret the words on the stone tablet for the time being, so we don’t have a clue to who he is.”

“I know who he is!” Someone said suddenly. It was Zhou Yue who spoke. He was lying on the side of the coffin, trying his best to look at the small characters on the rope inside. The face of the tomb owner and his corpse were so close to him, but he didn’t even realize it.

“Look here. There are Chinese characters. It’s the master of the Xia Dynasty, Immortal of the Subtle Arts, Liang Chen! He’s Liang Weiqi, I’m sure of it!” Zhou Yue said excitedly.

Zhou Yue was not conspicuous in the team as he usually doesn’t talk much. He’s relatively close to Xie Qingling and Ou-Yang Yin. The only thing Dong Zhi knew about him was that he’s from a Feng Shui family.

Zhou Yue pointed to the coffin and the mark on the head of the tomb owner as he said, “This is the sun, moon, and stars.”

He pointed to the coffin wall on the inside of the tomb owner’s left hand and said, “This is a golden lotus*.”

*(金荷) This is a type of orchid that is shaped like a lotus with yellow petals. The gold signifies the color and the price.

“On his right, it’s a gourd. Both of these pieces imply Taoist treasures. Before Liang Wei’s death, he liked to call himself a true immortal, so he would always hold a lotus flower in one hand and a jade gourd would always hang at his waist. This should indeed be his tomb!” There was a rare excitement on his face, no longer calm from his usual demeanor.

“Who is Liang Weiqi?” Song Zhicun said suspiciously.

“Look at my head!” Zhou Yue patted his forehead lightly and explained, “Liang Chen, with the same Liang, was once rumored to have worshiped under Chen Tuan’s gate. Chen Tuan later expelled him from his school when he saw that his mind was not right, so he turned to learning the art of geomancy from others. At that time, my Zhou ancestors happened to be in the same class as him, so I once heard my ancestors talk about this person. He later became Liang Weiqi and left the Song Kingdom to go to Western Xia, claiming to be in the same clan as Empress Dowager Liang, and was quickly recruited and later bestowed the title of Imperial Preceptor* and regarded as a true immortal. After the fall of Empress Dowager Liang, his whereabouts became unknown, but I didn’t expect him to be buried here!”

*It’s a title awarded by the emperor. They play a crucial role in the education, guidance, and advice given to the emperor and the crown prince, as well as the education and moral development of the royal family. They also serve under the emperor’s authority to protect the religion and guide the state through divinations. You can think of him as like head of the state religion.

In history, Empress Dowager Liang was not as thunderous as Wu Zetian or Empress Dowager Cixi, but she was in charge of Western Xia for more than ten years and waged wars against the Song Dynasty several times. In just the battle of Yongle City alone, it was said that more than 200,000 Song people were killed! However, because of her militarism that led to country-wide poverty, she was not looked upon well in history.

Song Zhicun raised his head to observe the surrounding environment, frowned, and said, “Is that so? You said that your ancestors knew of him, but looking at this tomb… It’s unremarkable. It’s not a peerless place, and it’s not regarded as a place of fengshui either. Never mind fengshui, except for the coffin, this place barely matches his esteemed history.”

Zhou Yue smiled bitterly. “I don’t know this. There is indeed such a person in my family’s notes, but how he suddenly got the appreciation of Empress Dowager Liang, and why did he appear from seemingly nowhere, then disappear after Empress Dowager Liang died, there are no records of this. It could be because he was snubbed by Empress Dowager Liang, or because he fell out of favor with the new emperor as soon as she died!”

Western Xia has been wiped out, and there are not many records in history books. When looking at the history of Western Xia, Empress Dowager Liang was a very contradictory figure. She was of Han origin, but in order to win over the old party, she wantonly abandoned her Han customs and restored the old party’s customs. She even waged war against the Song Dynasty many times. It’s strange that such a person who would do anything for power would use a Taoist priest and bestow upon him a title and not be afraid of falling out of favor with the tongues of her populace.

Moreover, the tombs of the Western Xia Imperial tombs had been devastated by excavation and looting in the Yuan Dynasty, and a large area of the royal tombs had been destroyed. Since the Ming Dynasty, countless tomb robbers had visited, but this small tomb had survived, which could be said to be nothing short of a miracle.

“After we leave, we can find someone to decipher the stone tablet. We shouldn’t linger here too long,” Long Shen reminded.

The purpose of everyone here wasn’t excavation. They did not move any of the items in the coffin that would make tomb robbers’ mouths water. The passage where the tomb robbers revealed themselves was located in a chamber north of the main tomb.

When they got there, they didn’t see any coffins in the tomb, only human-shaped terracotta figures of both men and women. Although these terracotta figures were encountered by the tomb robbers in a panic, traces could still be seen that they were neatly arranged in rows, all facing the stone gate on the wall, as if they were bowing to it. It would make anyone suspicious that there’s something big behind the door.

The stone gate was concealed but could be pushed open with a little force. It was dark inside, and when a light was shined through from a flashlight, it couldn’t be seen how deep it was.

Long Shen suddenly squatted down and looked at the ground between the door and the tomb. Song Zhicun looked around and gave a chuckle. He also discovered that the stone slabs used to make the tomb were rammed between the earth and the door. There was a thin line between the two, but if you didn’t look carefully, you would miss it. The line was so thin that only a mosquito or a fly could fly through it, and it contained countless runes.

Neither Long Shen nor Song Zhicun were good at reading runes, so they asked Li Ying and Zhang Song to come take a look.

Li Ying lay on the ground for a while before he recognized the writings and said, “These should be runes for exorcism.”

Zhang Song also held the same opinion. In other words, this line was actually designed to prevent things from coming out. With Liang Weiqi buried over their side, they could only assume this was perhaps designed to suppress some kind of evil.

There were still too many mysteries unanswered. Song Zhicun said, “I’ll go in first. Then you’ll follow me with Boss Long bringing up the rear. Everyone should be more careful and remember to mark along the way to avoid getting lost.”

Long Shen said, “Let me go ahead.” He didn’t wait for Song Zhicun to speak, and just walked in first. This man didn’t talk much, but he always took action.

Dong Zhi’s heart tightened, and he followed in without hesitation. After him was Liu Qingbo, Li Ying, and eventually the others entered, one by one.

The ground under his feet was a bit damp. After going in, Long Shen didn’t move fast, so everyone was able to pay attention to their environment while walking.

“This passage seems to have been artificially made,” someone said.

Everyone found that the passageway was very spacious, unlike the cave that the tomb robbers had dug. Liu Qingbo scraped a little soil from the soil layer of the wall with his sword and took it under his nose to smell it.

“It smells fishy.”

Li Ying, who was walking behind him, smelled it and said, “It smells a bit rancid, and the soil is wet and soft. It should be like the tomb robbers said. There should be a river nearby that gives off water vapors.”

Everything around them was full of unknowns. At first, everyone was enthusiastic and had small conversations, but after walking for a long time, they all fell naturally silent. Except for the slight sound of footsteps and everyone’s breathing, there were almost no other noises.

The pathway eventually became wider. At first, it was a corridor that could only fit one person at a time. After they had walked for nearly an hour, the passage was now able to accommodate three adults side-by-side.

The doubts in everyone’s hearts grew bigger. The passage was both deep and long. Such a project would not be possible without mechanical help.

Was the builder Queen Dowager Liang, or Liang Weiqi, or possibly someone else?

No matter how well-liked Liang Weiqi was at the time, how could a central plains Taoist preside over such a labor-intensive and extravagant project*? If it wasn’t for Liang Weiqi, then what was the original intention of the builder?

*Labor & wealth (劳民伤财) Idiom referring to making people work hard and waste money. Now it refers to the abuse of human and material resources.

According to the calculated time, the group of tomb robbers walked more than an hour before they encountered danger. Everyone’s journey was faster than that of the tomb robber, and they should have almost reached the dangerous area.

Everyone’s hearts were beating nervously, but their mental quality as practitioners was different from ordinary people, so no one slowed down because of fear and doubt in their hearts.

At this moment, Long Shen suddenly stopped. Dong Zhi, who was walking behind him, was taken aback and abruptly halted as well.

Liu Qingbo quickly braked and said angrily, “What are you doing?!”

He was about to ask Dong Zhi why he stopped, but it was Long Shen who answered him.

“Be careful. From the front and left.”

Not far in front of Longshen, there was a body leaning against the earthen walls on both sides. It was naturally dead, though they didn’t know how many years old the corpse was, as it hadn’t completely rotted away. Some of the arms revealed white bone, but the shoulders above the arms still had residual flesh that was blue and white. The most terrifying thing was that the facial features were still there, but the eyeballs had protruded because of dehydration, so they couldn’t fall off. It was extremely eerie.

The corpses have different poses. Some were leaning against the wall with their chins raised as if they were still looking up before they died, while others were squatting down with their hands on their heads. Some were half-buried in the earthen wall, and others were almost completely engulfed by it, with only a hand or arm stretching out.

While they weren’t fledglings, seeing the sight still gave them goosebumps all over.

With a click, Gu Meiren lit a piece of dark wood, slightly holding her nose a bit, before a fragrance of grass and trees quickly penetrated everyone’s nose.

“This is a kind of wood from our place that can get rid of miasma and strengthen the body. I’m afraid that there are many bacteria in places with many corpses.”

After all, these corpses have been dead for so many years that their hair and clothes have long since decayed. They couldn’t even identify what era or dynasty they belonged to.

Everyone followed Long Shen as they passed through the middle, with mixed feelings lingering in their hearts, as if they had been surrounded by these corpses.

Liu Qingbo felt sick for a while as he suddenly understood why the dirt on his sword smelled fishy. It was exhuming the smell of rotten corpses whose flesh and blood had mixed with the soil. Seeing as how long these corpses had been here, even the earthen soil wasn’t spared from their stench.

Chi Banxia walked through. She suddenly felt that the corpse she was passing seemed to be moving its fingers. She suddenly looked back and thought she might have just been seeing things.

“What’s the matter?” Xiang Yongnian, who was walking behind her, noticed her strangeness.

“It’s nothing, maybe I was just a bit dazed.”

Nevertheless, she secretly increased her vigilance.

Suddenly, someone in front of her screamed. The sound is extremely tragic and shrill. It spread rapidly in their limited space, amplifying the effect.

“You guys, wait here,” Long Shen said before he walked forward.

Dong Zhi wanted to follow him but stayed back and obediently listened to his words.

Suddenly, something happened to their team!

“What!!!” Someone behind Dong Zhi suddenly yelled.

He turned his head quickly.

Liu Qingbo and Li Ying reacted faster as they had already run back.

Ou-Yang Yin, the person who was good at divination, felt his body sink a little. The ground that he was originally walking on seemed to have turned into tofu. Everyone saw this scene with their own eyes and quickly reached out to grab him.

“Just now, a hand grabbed my foot and tried to drag me down. It’s still dragging me!” Ou-Yang Yin’s face turned pale. His two arms were tightly grasped by everyone, but the force holding him was too great. His body became motionless, and his face was getting paler, but it was not because of fear, but due to increasing pain. “M-My legs…”

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<<< || Table of Contents || Lore Glossary || >>>

Author: 梦溪石 / Meng Xi Shi

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

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Chapter 53

Long Shen flattened Dong Zhi’s wrist, put three fingers on the other hand, tightened his pulse for a moment, and released it.

“Inviting Gods is a very strenuous task. The greater the energy of the spirit body invited, the greater the consequences. Zhong Yuyi is suitable for this job because he’s born with a yin spirit body, but even with that, the side effects of inviting Gods are still great. Therefore, I don’t allow him to go out to the field.”

Suddenly, Dong Zhi understood why Kan Chaosheng and He Yu were sent on their mission, but Zhong Yuyi never followed.

Long Shen: “Are you afraid?”

Dong Zhi nodded obediently. “How did I invite Qianliyan and Second Master Guan? It can’t be that my body is more suitable for this than Lao Zhong?”

Long Shen thought deeply. “Let’s put it this way. Asking the Gods is to ask for their attention. It is the Yin God who is looking for you, not you looking for the Yin God. Zhong Yuyi should have told you that burning incense and praying is to let the Yin spirit hear your prayers. This means you’re allowing them to possess you to give you advice. Still, it all comes down to chance. Since you can invite righteous gods like Qianliyan and Second Master Guan, you have caught their eyes, but in terms of what you need to give up, if you ask for too much, it’ll be very detrimental to your body.”

He continued, “The Special Administration Bureau taught you this course not so you can play around when you have nothing to do, but to teach you more and make you aware of it. In the future, only as a last resort should you use it.”

The first time Dong Zhi attempted it, he invited Qianliyan. The second time, he was directly possessed by Second Master Guan. It seems that he was particularly popular with the gods. Hearing Long Shen’s words, he started to feel the aftermath again. His head became dizzy and light, and he started to gasp for breath after saying a few words. This was a sign of loss of energy and spirit. If this continued to develop, he could become like Zhong Yuyi, with his extremely delayed reflexes and reactions.

Long Shen said, “You can’t fall behind on your kung fu tona, but the matter of practicing every day on the rooftop can be put on hold for the time being. It’s also very energy-consuming to use the Five Thunder Talisman.”

Dong Zhi nodded.

In fact, he was never neglectful in his practice. He even incorporated a few sword moves that Long Shen had taught him into his daily routine. Although he wouldn’t reach Liu Qingbo’s level of perfection in the short term, this gap between them is only due to time, not diligence.

The improvement of physical strength also has an impact on the invitation to Gods. If the body is not good enough and he invited another righteous God, it wouldn’t just be dizziness that he would experience but rather a trip straight to the hospital.

Thinking of Lin Xuan’s words, Dong Zhi hesitated for a moment and said, “Lin Xuan told me that one of those Japanese people was killed by me. It won’t have any bad impact on you, will it?

Long Shen frowned. “Why are you mixed up with Lin Xuan?”

Dong Zhi told him how he ran into him.

Long Shen didn’t comment on Lin Xuan’s motives but said, “It’s fine. Don’t think about it. We were able to get the information on the pattern of the mirror because of you.”

So, did this mean he made another contribution?

Dong Zhi belonged to the type who “could open a dye workshop if he got three points of color*”. When he heard this, he said happily, “Is there any reward?”

*(得了三分颜色，就要开染坊) Refers to getting carried away when you receive face/favors from others.

Long Shen glanced at him. “What reward do you want?”

Dong Zhi said, embarrassedly, “I don’t want bonuses or anything. Can you give me a place as your apprentice?”

Long Shen felt a bit amused. “Do you know what Liu Qingbo came in to do just now?”

Seeing Dong Zhi’s look of uncertainty, he said, “Their group met zombies in the tomb and were separated. Liu Qingbo took one out by himself. In the end, he found his way out and asked me for some credit. He hoped that I would take him as an apprentice.”

Dong Zhi: …

Compared that to his performance, isn’t his own performance lacking?

Long Shen: “Do you think I can agree?”

Dong Zhi felt righteous. “Of course not. Competition should be conducted under the same conditions. The results of unequal competition cannot be counted!”

Long Shen smiled and said, “I think so too. Go and rest first, and there will be the next round of training waiting for you in a few days.”

Coming with complacency and returning with disappointment, Dong Zhi suddenly understood why Liu Qingbo’s had such an expression when he ran into him just now.

“Wait.” Long Shen stopped him.

Dong Zhi turned his head quickly, with a look of “hurry up and keep me”.

Long Shen took out a talisman folded into a triangle and strung with red money from the drawer.

“This is a soothing talisman from Mount Longhu. It doesn’t have much effect, but it’s good for your current state. Wear it and don’t let it leave your body.”

Seeing as how Dong Zhi was holding a box with both hands and didn’t have one free, Long Shen personally put the talisman on him. The Soothing Talisman seemed to have an instant effect as his mood calmed.

At the end of the day, Liu Qingbo didn’t get such treatment, and the male god had personally put the talisman on him.

He went downstairs with the box in his arms, intending to ask the gatekeeper if he wanted a cat. He happened to run into two people standing around the door talking. One was Ba Sang, and the other was Li Ying.

Li Ying smiled when he saw Dong Zhi. “I heard you killed some Japanese?”

Dong Zhi smiled bitterly. “Why don’t good things come, yet bad things spread thousands of miles*?”

*(好事不出门，坏事传千里) Refers to good things aren’t easy to find, yet bad things spread quickly and widely.

Li Ying laughed. “How can this be a bad thing? That higher-ups said yours was a special session held, and the evaluation is good, and we need to keep up our efforts. I regret that I didn’t follow you to the god invitation class!”

Dong Zhi said, “I still envy you. How were you over there? I heard from the Boss Long that you really ran into zombies?”

Ba Sang shook his head. “Don’t talk about it. Some people like to play by themselves and hog all the prestige. They obviously agreed to meet at an appointed time, but never showed up. We thought he was missing, so we went to look for him, but almost got caught in a trap.”

Dong Zhi said curiously, “Who? Liu Qingbo?”

From the expressions of Ba Sang and Li Ying, he knew that his guess was correct.

Li Ying sighed. “I thought since he’s from a famous family, he would be level-headed overall. I didn’t expect he would be so willful, but then again, his performance is indeed good. Though he might have killed a zombie alone, he’s probably a headache.”

Ba Sang didn’t understand. “Why a headache?”

Dong Zhi explained, “He has the capability to fight alone, so it’s a pity not to recruit him, but if he enters the Special Administration Bureau, he may not be able to cooperate with others.”

Li Ying agreed.

“Meow~”

Unwilling to be ignored, the kitten poked its head out of the box. Ba Sang stretched out his hand to pet it on its head, causing the cat to shrink back quickly.

Li Ying said, “You have to be mentally prepared first. I heard that there will be a test next.”

With his father as a consultant in the bureau, and he would know more gossip than the others. Ba Sang and Dong Zhi looked at each other.

“What kind of test? Is it a zombie simulation again?”

Li Ying sneered, “The zombies have been simulated once, and everyone’s prepared for it. It’s unlikely they’ll do it again. I heard that we may be going northwest this time, but I don’t know the details. There should be news in the next two days.”

After a few more words of gossip, the three of them dispersed.

Dong Zhi held the box to the doorman and asked if he wanted to keep the cat to catch mice. The uncle slowly raised his head and glanced at him. “There are no mice in this building. I’ve eaten them all.”

Dong Zhi: …

He looked at the uncle, and the uncle looked at him. Dong Zhi gave him a stiff smile and slowly backed away.

“Then-Then I’ll raise it myself!”

The uncle looked at the other party’s back, walking away while holding the box, and shook his head, thinking to himself that young people nowadays are always so rushed. He then narrowed his eyes and continued to bask in the sun with his head down.

When Dong Zhi took the cat back to the dorms, the kitten timidly stuck its head out, curious to observe the surrounding environment.

“I haven’t found you an owner for the time being, so it seems like I’ll have to raise you first.” Dong Zhi said as he looked at its hairy head.

The kitten hadn’t realized that its life had changed drastically in a single day. It has now upgraded from a stray cat to a domestic one.

At this moment, there was a knock on the door. Dong Zhi got up and opened it.

“You left something behind.” Long Shen brought the bag of fried chicken and handed it to him.

Dong Zhi hurriedly said, “Uncle Qian gave me this. I have already eaten before, so you can have it.”

“I won’t eat it.” Long Shen shook his head and handed him the bag.

Behind Dong Zhi, the cat jumped out of the box and ran to his feet to meow.

“Why did you bring it back?” Long Shen said, with hints of disagreement in his voice.

“I can’t find anyone to raise it, so I can only raise it for now.”

Long Shen: “You will go on a mission in two days. You can’t raise it when you’re going to be gone for ten days to half a month.”

Dong Zhi was taken aback. “What mission? Is it urgent?”

“It’s part of the training exam.”

Li Ying’s gossip was accurate.

Dong Zhi picked the cat up. On the way back, he had dropped by a pet store and given the cat a bath. Though the cat was really thin, it looked much cleaner now as its fur was snowy-white. It’ll look even better once it gets a bit fatter in the future.

“Then when I leave for my mission, can I leave the cat with you?”

Long Shen shook his head. “I’m going with you too.”

Dong Zhi tentatively said, “Is this exam difficult?”

“I don’t know. You have to practice your kung fu tona well in the next few days. Don’t slack off.”

This was the second time he had told Dong Zhi. Long Shen never drabbled nonsense, so for him to repeat it twice meant it must be extremely important.

“I won’t,” Dong Zhi said as the fluff ball in his arms kept twisting restlessly, causing his heart to be moved. “I can’t think of a name for it. Why don’t you give it a name?”

Long Shen: …

“Name it yourself.”

Dong Zhi pretended not to understand the other party’s refusal and said with a smile. “I heard Uncle Qian say that you have fed it several times, otherwise it might have died a long time ago. This can only be regarded as a fate.”

He had long known that Long Shen ate soft not hard*. He wouldn’t refuse such innocuous, non-principled small requests, just like when he gifted Long Shen the succulent last time.

*(吃软不吃硬) Metaphor for someone who accepts gentle persuasion without coercion.

However, for Deputy Director Long, such a task was monumentally difficult for him. He stared at the cat for a long time before saying, “Just call it… Kitten*?”

*Clarity: [Xiao Mao] (小猫) literally translates to kitten/little cat.

Dong Zhi: …Then why not just name it Meowmeow or Maomao*!

*Clarity: [Maomao] [毛毛] literally translates to baby.

Suddenly a flash of inspiration struck. “Why not call it Longlong?”

Long Shen: …

Dong Zhi took advantage before Long Shen could speak and raised the kitten towards him and smiled. “You’ll have a name from now on, Longlong!”

Long Shen wanted to speak out against it, but after thinking about it, he decided to let it go. After all, it was just a name.

However, naming was only the first step in this long, thousand-mile march for Dong Zhi. He found that raising a cat wasn’t an easy task. Even if it was only temporary, cat food, cat litter, hair combs, flea repellent, and nutritional ointment were all indispensable. He bought some at the pet store and had to order more online after a while.

Longlong had a very good temper. It may be because of its previous experience as a stray, but it wasn’t as playful or mischievous as ordinary domesticated cats. It just slept and ate to its fullest every day. Dong Zhi was worried that at this rate, it would balloon up like Kan Chaosheng.

While he raised a cat, he didn’t neglect his training and did everything according to what Long Shen told him. In the past two days, before he got up and went to bed, he would do two sets of kung fu tona, and sometimes he would do it again after lunch. Eventually, after two days, the fatigue that had accumulated in his body seemed to have eased a lot, and the heavy and minor side-effects of inviting god had almost disappeared.

As the group of people who went to the tomb returned one after another, their next stage of training was once again back on the table.

For Dong Zhi and his group, they had followed Zhong Yuyi and learned how to invite gods, but because of an accident in the middle of the course, it had to be cancelled halfway. Everyone stayed in the farmhouse for a whole week and looked like they had grown long hair and beards by the time they were free. It was hard for them to wait for the other group to come back, as the ceaseless idleness was driving them impatient.

With everyone’s return, they have all arrived in the classroom on time on this morning’s day in accordance with the notice.

“What do you think we are going to learn today?” Gu Meiren asked Dong Zhi and them.

Everyone shook their heads, feeling a little uneasy. Generally speaking, the content of the course was usually notified in advance, unless it was to purposefully catch them off-guard, like the simulation training.

Dong Zhi jabbed Ba Sang’s arm with his elbow and said, “Was it fun going to the tombs?”

Ba Sang scratched his head. “It’s okay. I just followed a big army and worked with a few people to eliminate a lich. It wasn’t dangerous, but the period inside the tomb was more torturous.”

Gu Meiren also joined the chat. “What do you mean?”

Ba Sang: “In a dark environment, I have no idea what’s ahead or what’s behind. Unknown danger could be lurking everywhere, so it made me uneasy.”

Gu Meiren sighed. “That’s better than ending before you even start. I thought it would be fun to invite God.”

Dong Zhi faintly guessed that the suspension of this course should be related to the scene he saw with his clairvoyance, but since the higher-ups were involved, he remained silent about the matter before he got permission.

The buzzing voices suddenly stopped as people came in from the outside. Everyone had a surprised expression on their face.

It wasn’t just one or two, but all three Deputy Directors were here!

This was a rare lineup.

Even after the simulation training was over that day, only Wu Bingtian and Long Shen gave them lessons to summarize their experience. Today, the last Deputy Director, Song Zhicun, was also present.

The three of them were followed by a young man. While others didn’t know him, Dong Zhi was quite familiar with him. It was Lin Xuan.

Lin Xuan quickly spotted Dong Zhi sitting in his seat and winked at him. Dong Zhi pretended he didn’t see it.

As usual, Wu Bingtian spoke first. With a smile on his face, he looked around at everyone. “How are you resting these few days?”

“I’m getting moldy from all this leisure.”

He didn’t know who said it, but it made everyone laugh. They didn’t need to ask to know that it was from the group that stayed back.

While Li Ying, Liu Qingbo, and a few others returned early and had taken a few days off, they were much more reserved.

“Not bad.”

“Let’s continue class.”

“I’m doing good.”

Wu Bingtian’s smile narrowed and became serious. The atmosphere instantly condensed, and everyone’s mood was raised.

“You have to listen carefully to what I say next.”

Everyone unconsciously adjusted their sitting posture and pricked up their ears.

Wu Bingtian said, “There is a group of tomb robbers who stole a batch of artifacts from the northwest, including a bronze mirror, which fell into the hands of the Japanese. The police have caught the head of the tomb robber gang. According to their account, they were only on the periphery of the tomb at the time. They have not yet entered the real core area, and now those Japanese have already taken the bronze mirror to the northwest, wanting to enter the core of the tomb. All we have to do is stop the Japanese and get the bronze mirror back. This should have been the work of the police and the archaeological department, but because it is likely to involve demons, it was handed over to us, so it’s our job to carry out the preliminary cleanup. Do you understand?”

“Understood!” Everyone responded.

Wu Bingtian nodded. “Now you can ask any questions.”

Li Ying said, “Boss Wu, is that bronze mirror valuable? In case we encounter a situation where we need to choose between people and the mirror, what should we do?”

Wu Bingtian said, “We tentatively speculate that that mirror is likely to be the key to the core area. At present, we don’t know for the time being what the Japanese’s purpose is, so we need to find out, but if we encounter the kind of situation you mentioned, the safety of your companions is the top priority.”

His gaze swept across the crowd and stayed on Liu Qingbo for a moment.

“This mission is both an assessment and a practice. The purpose is to see what progress you have made during this period of time, and I must remind you that some may die during this trip.”

There was no sound in the classroom, and there was silence.

Wu Bingtian’s words were like boulders, pressing heavily on everyone’s hearts.

“Those Japanese forged their documents and pretended to be foreigners and pretended to be Chinese in order to go to the northwest. Due to the diversity of transportation means and complexity of data, it’s difficult to identify them, but according to the confession of the leader of the tomb robber gang and the information we collected before, there are probably powerful Onmyojis among them. You must not underestimate the enemy! The opponent is not a zombie in the simulation training. At a critical moment, while fighting for life and death, they will not give you a second chance to survive! In addition, there are many dangers in an ancient tomb. Even if you are cultivators, you can’t be careless. Life, once it’s gone, will never come back, so if any of you want to quit now, you can leave right away!”

Withdrawing from this mission means withdrawing from the Special Administration Bureau.

No matter what everyone was thinking, no one stood up and walked out.

Wu Bingtian’s tone became a bit more solemn. “Don’t think that I’m joking with you. You can ask about it. In the past few training sessions, there have been many people who have sacrificed their lives. They didn’t even have time to become members of the Special Administration Bureau before they already fell down. Don’t regret it later when it’s too late!”

He waited for a while, but still no one got up.

Wu Bingtian nodded. “Very good. There are no cowards in the Special Administration Bureau! Since everyone has decided to stay and participate, let me tell you the specific details. Although the bronze mirror was looted by the Japanese, we got the engraving on the back of the mirror and found that there were two inscriptions on it with the words Helan and Phoenix. Based on the situation, we speculate that Helan refers to Helan Mountain while Phoenix refers to the ancient name of Yinchuan. It’s preliminarily estimated that the tomb is located near the mausoleum of the Western Xia Dynasty. When we get there, we’ll go down from the cave that was dug by the tomb robbers. The Japanese should be one step ahead of us. They can block the cave from the inside, but they can’t cover up the traces outside, so we can still find it…”

Everyone listened intently for fear of missing every detail, because it was not only related to everyone’s assessment but also to their own safety. No one would joke about their own lives.

After Wu Bingtian finished speaking, he took a breath, which also gave them time to digest the information.

“This mission will be led by Boss Long and Boss Song personally, with Boss Long as the team leader and Boss Song as the deputy team leader. I will sit in the General Administration Bureau and also serve as logistics to deal with unforeseen needs. Next, I’ll ask Boss Long to talk more about it.”

Hearing these words, everyone had their own thoughts in their hearts. With two Deputy Directors personally leading the team, it gave them a new understanding of the importance and the difficulty and severity of the mission.

Long Shen nodded to Wu Bingtian and took a step back.

“This mission is equivalent to a practical exam. The final result will determine whether you can stay and become a member of the Special Administration Bureau. Outside, my request is very simple. Everyone must follow instructions. I don’t want to have a situation where you do your own thing and it backfires. If you try, even if you can return alive, I won’t let you enter the Special Administration Bureau. That’s all.”

His speeches were always concise and powerful, shocking people’s hearts. Even for someone like Liu Qingbo, who didn’t listen to commands, when he heard such a thing, it held more weight to him.

Song Zhicun coughed lightly. “Let me introduce everyone. This is Lin Xuan. He has had contact with the Japanese before and is more familiar with the situation. He will join us this time.”

It seems that the reason why Lin Xuan was not dealt with was because he was very smart, surrendered to them in time, and turned into a “tainted witness*”.

*(污点证人) Refers to witnesses who are also participants in criminal activities (usually the crime itself) but testify for the prosecution in exchange for immunity from criminal prosecution or reduced or lenient charges.

Although the Lin Family is quite prestigious in Lignan, since Lin Xuan had only recently inherited the family business, everyone had no reaction to his name.

Seeing that everyone was not in high spirits, Song Zhicun smiled and said, “Today is a holiday. Tomorrow morning at nine, gather here and we’ll set off on time. Everyone should rest early today and stop playing around. If you can’t get up tomorrow morning, we won’t wait for you. Just go to Yinchuan by yourself.”

He deliberately reconciled the atmosphere, but everyone was still so immersed in what they had just learned that no one could laugh. Seeing this, Wu Bingtian didn’t say much, so he let everyone disperse, and he left with the other two.

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The author has something to say:

Dong Zhi: Longlong, come here. Do you want to play with a cat teaser?

Long Shen, who was in a meeting, sneezed.

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Kinky Thoughts:

Dong Zhi skipping steps here. Usually, you become a couple first before adopting a pet.

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