Yin Xiaoxiao turned his head and mentally consoled himself. Not bad, not bad. At least the oil lamps ignited after he came in. It was much better compared to the last time heâd entered when it was still dark. Only it would have been better if heâd already returned outside from squeezing through that hole (added for clarity). It would have been nice to be with Heitan again. As it was, he didnât know if Heitan was heart-broken after seeing him abruptly disappear. Yin Xiaoxiaoâs thoughts wandered against his will. But that wasnât odd, really! This paper child <sup>1</sup> was under great pressure right now, okay.
After he returned to his senses, Yin Xiaoxiao looked around the room that heâd just entered, sizing up the place. Tsk tsk. Despite everything, he was still in the Mudao and he still couldnât see where it ended. Just how long could this Mudao be?!
Yin Xiaoxiao looked at the Mudao walls, which were still engraved, and was flabbergasted. The reliefs were no longer like the ones that he had passed through just a moment ago, but instead only featured the delicate and pretty youngster. Yin Xiaoxiao began to slither forward. The reliefs on either side didnât vary. Only the delicate and pretty youngster appeared. In some he was smiling, in some crying. Sometimes happy, sometimes sad. Appearing serene, appearing asleep in bed. With a face full of helplessness, with eyes full of love. Yin Xiaoxiao almost felt as though he had gate-crashed an engraving exhibition, one where the theme was the delicate and pretty youngster. At the very least, from this it appeared that the grave was not built by the delicate and pretty youngster for his own use. He wouldâve had to have had an unbelievable level of narcissism to engrave his own appearance on the walls of the Mudao!
It was then, in the middle of Yin Xiaoxiaoâs muddled mind[efn_not] ææææ: refers to the state of being unconscious, confused or unclear about something [/efn_note], that the unexpected happened. Yin Xiaoxiaoâs body reacted faster than his mind, his upper body dropping to the floor, as the sound of sharp arrows pierced the air of the Mudao. Yin Xiaoxiao didnât dare move. He opened his eyes and saw numerous densely packed arrows shooting overhead. He mentally rejoiced at his good fortune of turning into a snake. If he had still been human, even if he had dropped to the ground, his body would have been pierced with holes until he looked like a honeycomb!
Yin Xiaoxiao lay on the ground waiting until these arrows had stopped being shot before he got up. God only knew whether there were any arrows that had jammed and were slow in being shot. What would he have done if he had gotten up a moment too soon and gotten shot?!
Without conscious thought, Yin Xiaoxiao turned his head and looked. How dearly he had hoped that heâd see that small hole appear. Unfortunately for him, a miracle didnât occur. Trembling with fear, Yin Xiaoxiao continued to slither onward, only this time he tread even more carefully.
How dearly he hoped to see that small hole appear. Unfortunately a miracle didnât happen. Yin Xiaoxiao, trembling with fear, continued to slither onward, this time adding even more care to treading carefully. But who would have guessed that there was a second trap in this Mudao?!
And so, when he once again heard the sound of sharp arrows piercing the air, Yin Xiaoxiao reacted even more quickly than he had last time and dropped to the ground. But Yin Xiaoxiao was depressed because, in the air above him, arrows that were shot fell down. Fortunately, the number wasnât a lot. Yin Xiaoxiao had no other recourse but to quickly flip himself over so that he had a clear view of the air above him and then zigzagged to evade the arrows that fell. Left twist twist, right twist twistâŠYin Xiaoxiao thought that he would definitely have a job if a circus arrived!
By the time the second wave of arrows were no longer being shot, Yin Xiaoxiao felt like he could no longer move. For half the day <sup>2</sup> , Yin Xiaoxiao remained where he was, belly-up and panting. This was what life as a snake was going to be like, huh! He was so damned tired! Yin Xiaoxiao absolutely would not admit that this was because normally he exercised very little!
Yin Xiaoxiao was not calm as he gazed ahead at the rest of the path. There was at least a third more to go and, Yin Xiaoxiao speculated, there was certainly a third trap ahead! Next time would there be arrows shooting up from the ground?! Aaaah! Unfortunately, even if he knew that there was a trap ahead, Yin Xiaoxiao had to continue. It wasnât like there was a path behind him, you know!
Very carefully, Yin Xiaoxiao avoided the arrows on the floor. As he continued, he wasnât extra cautious about triggering the trap. In Yin Xiaoxiaoâs mental deliberations, these traps didnât seem like ones that would be triggered after the unwary stepped on them, rather it seemed as though just passing through a certain area was enough to set off the traps. Therefore, him slithering through to the other side of the Mudao would surely trigger all the traps in the Mudao.
Yin Xiaoxiaoâs guess was correct. The people who built this tomb were unlikely to let someone easily steal anything from this tomb. Anyone who entered would certainly dieâwhat a pity they forgot to factor in nonhumans entering the tomb (added for clarity).
Just as Yin Xiaoxiao speculated, this Mudao had a third trap. When Yin Xiaoxiao reached the end of the Mudao the third trap was immediately triggered.
Even during the course of Yin Xiaoxiaoâs free fall, he was able to find joy in sorrows <sup>3</sup> , thinking âNow all the oil lamps in this tomb are litâ. Thatâs right, even when falling, Yin Xiaoxiao noticed that the hither-to-unknown place he was going to land in was lit up.
âPlopââ Yin Xiaoxiao landed safely. Not bad, fortunately he hadnât fallen to his death.
Unfortunately, when Yin Xiaoxiao raised his head to start to look around, Yin Xiaoxiao found that he would have been happy to have fallen to his death. Once again Yin Xiaoxiao managed to cry as he shrieked and hid in a corner. He tried his best to shrink into himself until he looked like a large apple â of course, this was naturally impossible.
Well. Now letâs first talk about what Yin Xiaoxiao finally saw.
Yin Xiaoxiao fell into this very, very large chamber in the tomb which also had very, very high ceilings. Right in the middle of this chamber was a pyramid. A pyramid which was made of human heads. Even more frightening, these human heads werenât skulls but were instead real human heads with skin and flesh!
The heads of these people still had the expressions theyâd made in their final moments facing death: desperation, pain, resentment, fright. Some peopleâs eyes and mouths were still open, as though they had been shouting abuse at the moment when someone had decapitated them. Some even had a trace of a strange smile at the corners of their mouths, their eyes open and gazing in Yin Xiaoxiaoâs direction.
If Yin Xiaoxiao dared turn his head and carefully examine them, in all likelihood he would have then discovered that, at the top of the pyramid of heads, there were several familiar-looking people, people who were among those heâd seen in the reliefs of the first Mudao, people whose heads were cut off by the treacherous youngster. Unfortunately, Yin Xiaoxiaoâs examination wasnât that careful.
And in this room there was nothing else aside from this pyramid of human heads.
Over in the corner, Yin Xiaoxiao cried and screamed a lot. Then he seamlessly, dazedly, fell asleep and took a napâHey hey! Isnât your heart a little too big <sup>4</sup> ?! â then Yin Xiaoxiao finally decided to go and try to find a way out.
Yin Xiaoxiao deliberately ignored that pyramid of human heads in the middle of the chamber, only looking at the walls of the chamber in the hopes of finding an exit. God did not disappoint this snake, and Yin Xiaoxiao was very excited to find a stone door. That stone door had been partly concealed by the pyramid of human heads, only a side of it exposed, and if it werenât for Yin Xiaoxiaoâs good eyesight, he wouldnât have been able to see it. The only cause for Yin Xiaoxiaoâs current gloom was that the stone door was almost directly opposite Yin Xiaoxiaoâs current position. In other words, Yin Xiaoxiao was going to have to cross the chamber in order to reach it. Even though crossing the chamber was the shortest path, Yin Xiaoxiao was not going to do that! Instead he would slowly skirt along the walls until he finally faced the stone door.
Yin Xiaoxiao waited in front of the stone door for half a day, but the small hole that had already appeared twice didnât appear. Did he have to open this stone door himself? Yin Xiaoxiao spent a hundred years looking for a way to open the stone door while saying a million prayers that the mechanism to open the stone doors wasnât on top of the doors.
Fortunately, God blessed Yin Xiaoxiaofor the first time. Yin Xiaoxiao discovered that there was a piece of stone that could be pushed that was located at the bottom of the stone door. Unfortunately, Yin Xiaoxiao wasnât strong enough. Twice he tried to push it and twice it did not go in. Yin Xiaoxiao remained in place and tried to calm himself. He sucked in a deep breath and then shouted. He pressed his head against the stone and pushed with all his might. This time, he succeeded. Slowly, the stone door opened. Yin Xiaoxiao sighed in relief.
âGrumble grumbleâŠâ (always feel that these two syllables donât go togetherâŠ)
Yin Xiaoxiao stiffened. He desperately tried to look behind himself without daring to move. This sound, this sound, didnât this sound like something had rolled down something? Was there something in this grave chamber? There was that pyramid of human heads! What could it mean that it sounded as though something had rolled down? It meant that something had rolled down off the pyramid of human heads
His eyes desperately tried to look behind himself but he dared not move. This sound, this sound, didnât it sound like something had rolled down? Was there something in this grave room? There was a pyramid of human heads! What did it mean that there was a sound of something rolling down? Ah, hello! It means that something had rolled down from the pyramid of human heads!
Yin Xiaoxiao screamed again. Without pausing to consider what was behind the stone door, he dashed inside. The stone door quickly shut after he entered. As he hurriedly fled through the stone door, Yin Xiaoxiao accidentally turned around and saw that, not far from where he had been standing, was a human head, eyes wide and ferociously, angrily glaring at him. Yin Xiaoxiao didnât know if it was his imagination, but he felt that this human head was still continuing to move. And so when Yin Xiaoxiao finally clearly saw the place heâd entered, he didnât feel very scared.
The skeletons of the dead were piled up like a mountain <sup>5</sup> . Yin Xiaoxiao sighed. This grave chamber must be larger than the one heâd been in just a moment ago. In the middle of this chamber was a mound, as said before, of skeletons that were piled up in a mountain <sup>6</sup> . In other words, this mountain was composed of piled up skeletons. Unlike that pyramid of human fleshy human heads, this pile of skeletons was like a small mountain made of human bones. Now that Yin Xiaoxiao was already numb/desensitized, he dared to carefully look at this small mountain. After watching for half a day, he finally realizedâin this pile there were thigh bones, calve bones, arm bones and breast bones, but no skulls!
What did this mean? Yin Xiaoxiao figured it out almost immediately. The heads of these skeletonsâ were in that grave chamber heâd just been in! The heads were in that chamber and the leftover human remains were in front of Yin Xiaoxiao!
At this realization, Yin Xiaoxiao felt a chill envelop his whole body. Yin Xiaoxiao suddenly felt as though he were a homeothermic <sup>7</sup> snake who had become a poikilothermic <sup>8</sup> snake.
Otherwise it be said that misfortune doesnât come singly <sup>9</sup> . When Yin Xiaoxiao froze, he witnessed with his own eyes a scene that made him tremble in fear. From within this small pyramid of human bones, the bones seemed to come to life and begin to assemble themselves, forming a skeleton lacking only a skull! After assembling itself, the skeleton lurched towards Yin Xiaoxiao!
There was one, and then there were two. After the first pair of skeletons succeeded in assembling themselves, more and more bones began to assemble themselves and more and more skeletons stood up and began to move towards Yin Xiaoxiao.
When the first pair of skeletons walked in front of Yin Xiaoxiao and bent at the waist and tried to grab Yin Xiaoxiao with their hand bones, Yin Xiaoxiao finally regained control of his stiff body and easily dodged the skeletonsâ attack. However, more and more skeletons approached Yin Xiaoxiao. Yin Xiaoxiao was forced to quickly slither and hide while thinking of a way out. Fortunately Yin Xiaoxiao was a snake. Fast in movement and short in stature, the quickly assembling army of skeletons was unable to catch Yin Xiaoxiao.
After a while and in spite of everything else, Yin Xiaoxiao heard ââŠboomâŠboomâŠboomâŠâ like that of the stone door through which heâd entered being strucj. Yin Xiaoxiaoâs first thought was âCould it be that someoneâs over there?â But then he immediately answered, âHow could someone be there?! Thereâs only human heads over there!â At this thought, Yin Xiaoxiao immediately knew what was happening. The human heads on the other side of the door were hammering at the stone door, wanting to enter.
What? You ask how could a human head hammer at a stone door? Didnât you see all those bones assembling themselves?! Human heads hitting stone doors isnât impossible! Whatâs more, these bones and human heads were from the same body! Was it so terrible that they wanted to be reunited??!!
Only, it was not very obvious that the situation wasnât very good for Yin Xiaoxiao who was running around for half the day, having to dodge these bones, and with the sound of hammering against the stone door becoming louder and louder. Yin Xiaoxiao already felt that he couldnât physically and mentally persevere any longer. Was he going to die here? Yin Xiaoxiao absolutely wouldnât accept that! He still hadnât said goodbye to Pop, Dad, Da-ge, Er-ge, San-ge, Si-ge, Wu-ge, A-Lu, Uncle Hei, Uncle Hong, Uncle Lan, Lan Yiyi, Hong Erer, Lan Sansan, Lan Sisi, and even Heitan! So how could he just die like this?!
Whether Heaven heard Yin Xiaoxiaoâs pleas or if there was something in this chamber that didnât want Yin Xiaoxiao to die yet was unknown. But when Yin Xiaoxiao could no longer continue moving, a small hole appeared for the third time.
Yin Xiaoxiao didnât even think. Immediately he moved to squeeze through the small hole. As soon as Yin Xiaoxiao passed through it, the small hole disappeared again, and Yin Xiaoxiao again found himself in darkness.
T/N: Sorry everyone. Work is going back to on-site, so I donât have as much time to translate anymore. Updates are going to be once a week, barring widespread closures again.