Chapter 90

CW: body horror; CW content is sectioned off between two ***** CW *****, or scroll to T/N for a summary of the entire chapter

Outside, the sun shone bright and hot, but inside the stone door of the Mudao, it was dark, gloomy and cold. The sun could only shine on the outermost part of the Mudao, but it was as though someone had slashed a boundary at the stone door, such was the sudden, abrupt transition from light to dark. Su Lao and Liu Zhixin, as they went from outside to inside, looked but still couldn’t find anything.

Worried, Liu Zhixin swallowed. To tell the truth, he didn’t have even the slightest desire to enter. But, things having reached this point, how could he say this?

Su Lao, originally standing in front, suddenly turned around to say to Liu Zhixin, “You go first.” At the same time, he took a single step to the side. Seeing that Liu Zhixin was slow to enter, he impatiently said, “Get a move on.”

Liu Zhixin had no choice but to summon up his courage and enter. Only when Su Lao saw that Liu Zhixin entered, without the slightest change to his body, did he follow Liu Zhixin. After the two men had fully entered the Mudao, a loud sound came from behind them. Alarmed, Liu Zhixin and Su Lao hurriedly turned around to look, but the stone door behind them was shut.

“How, how could that be?” Liu Zhixin lowered his voice but he couldn’t hide the terror in his voice.

Su Lao didn’t pay this much attention and only said, “Perhaps this stone door has a mechanism so that, after people enter, the stone door will automatically close.”

Liu Zhixin didn’t speak again but, in his heart, he didn’t agree with Su Lao. If this stone door closed after someone entered, then it obviously would have closed after he’d entered, well before his Master had entered. Was it possible that this door knew that there was one other person outside who hadn’t entered? At this point, Liu Zhixin dared not to continue this thought. He obediently stayed where he was and asked, “Master, now what?”

Su Lao felt the walls on either side, thought of a plan, and said, “This must be the Mudao. The walls on both sides are sure to have things to provide light. We…”

The entire Mudao suddenly lit up brightly before Su Lao even finished speaking.

Irritated by the sudden illumination, Su Lao and Liu Zhixin reflexively used their hands to shield their eyes. After a moment, they recovered.

“Ma-master, we’d better leave.” Liu Zhixin naturally didn’t believe that these lights had been turned on by Su Lao, but he also didn’t know what had happened. Lights that lit themselves, Liu Zhixin had never encountered something like that before. Even initially, he hadn’t wanted to enter the tomb and, at this moment, he couldn’t help but beat the drum for retreat.

Su Lao’s face fell and he loudly shouted, “Shut up! Now, walk! It’s impossible to leave now!” After he finished shouting, he no longer paid attention to Liu Zhixin and instead examined the Mudao.

Before arriving, Su Lao had read a lot about the history of the Zhou Dynasty. Although we said it was a lot, in actuality there wasn’t much. Although the history of the Zhou Dynasty, including the Western and the Eastern Zhou, was long, there wasn’t a lot of useful information left from that period of time.  One reason was that Qin Shihuang ¹ burned the books and buried Confucian scholars alive ² . The second reason was that a lot of time had passed since the Zhou Dynasty, and the third was that, at that time, books weren’t as common. These were the reasons why, now, there wasn’t a lot of reading material on the Zhou Dynasty.

But finally, here there was a comparatively broader general history of the Zhou Dynasty, the reliefs in front of Su Lao informing him that this was the tomb of a Zhou Wang. Unfortunately, even between the information in the reliefs and Su Lao’s own knowledge, even after racking his brains multiple times, he still couldn’t figure out who the master of the tomb was.

But Su Lao also didn’t dwell much on this matter, after all he wasn’t an archeologist and it wouldn’t be very useful to fully understand these reliefs ³ . He was only a tomb robber. His sole purpose for coming here was so that he could obtain that legendary object that could grant eternal life.

Su Lao began to move forwards, Liu Zhixin ultimately moving ahead at Su Lao’s gesture. The Mudao wasn’t very long so it didn’t take long to walk to the end. Looking at the stone door at the end of the Mudao, Liu Zhixin turned his head to look at Su Lao. Liu Zhixin backed up to the side, and Su Lao walked to face the stone door. The mechanism was just like the one at the entrance and, similarly, was just as easy to find.

The stone door opened and, as before, inside it was as though it had been painted black. Liu Zhixin and Su Lao entered, one after the other. As before, the stone door, like at the entrance, closed behind automatically and, at this moment, the recently black grave was also illuminated. This time, the two men weren’t scared.

As far as the eyes of the two men could see, this was still the Mudao. Su Lao glanced down to discover arrows on the ground. Su Lao’s complexion changed. Clearly this meant that someone had touched a mechanism! Could it be that he’d actually arrived too late? Su Lao’s complexion darkened with uncertainty. His heart secretly said that, even if someone had also come, it didn’t matter. It didn’t necessarily mean that they had taken what he wanted. Even if they had taken what he wanted ⁴ , he still had to go and see for himself.

Liu Zhixin also saw the arrows on the ground. Very carefully, he walked to face Su Lao. “Master,  has someone already entered this tomb?”

Su Lao let out a short “yes”, stopped speaking and then looked at the reliefs on either side of the Mudao. This time, the reliefs looked more lifelike. Although he felt that this train of thought was really strange, Su Lao also didn’t think too much about it and so didn’t continue to look closely. But this tomb unexpectedly had two Mudao, and he really didn’t know what was up with that.

Remaining standing in the same place was simply a waste of time. Su Lao stopped this train of thought and gestured for Liu Zhixin to continue walking ahead. Liu Zhixin obediently walked ahead.

Even though it seemed as though someone had already entered, and the mechanisms in the Mudao had even been damaged, Su Lao and Liu Zhixin still didn’t dare to be careless and still took care to walk the short length of the Mudao.

The mechanisms inside the Mudao weren’t damaged by any man, of course. The first time Yin Xiaoxiao entered the old tomb, Yin Xiaoxiao damaged the mechanisms. Su Lao and Liu Zhixin should count themselves lucky that they didn’t experience a rain of arrows in this Mudao. Of course, the rain of arrows was to kill people but dying here would be fortunate. Or perhaps seeing the things inside and then dying would be fortunate. Which one was right is a little unclear.

At this moment, inside the main grave room was Ji Kang, Yin Xiaoxiao and Mo Laoda. With Ji Kang’s assistance, Mo Laoda and Yin Xiaoxiao were also able to see outside into the Mudao to Su Lao and Liu Zhixin, looking on as the two men walked to the place where, last time, Yin Xiaoxiao had fallen into that place. Yin Xiaoxiao’s eyes turned up. He neared Ji Kang and whispered a few words. Ji Kang laughed in response.They watched as Su Lao and Liu Zhixin walked to that place and did not fall down, instead safely walking across.

In the second Mudao, Su Lao and Liu Zhixin, from beginning to end, didn’t encounter anything unusual. The two men were very happy to reach the end but their hearts were somewhat unsettled.

Looking at the three stone doors at the end, the unease in Su Lao’s heart was buried beneath excitement.

In fact, Su Lao felt that the interior structure of this tomb was unusually simple. Although the reliefs were delicate and outstanding, vivid and lifelike, the entire time Su Lao felt that this still didn’t match with the status of the occupant of the tomb. But whether something was appropriate or not, now that Su Lao had finally come here, he only felt excited.

“Master, which stone door should we open first?”

Su Lao gazed straight ahead at the stone door in the middle, but finally he selected the stone door on the left. “Open this one first.”

Su Lao thought that the funerary objects of the tomb’s occupant must be here but he didn’t expect at all that the funerary objects inside this door would actually be so wonderful! Enraptured, Su Lao and Liu Zhixin looked at the room, densely packed with bronze vehicles and horses, bronze soldiers, and bronze generals. Just bringing one item out from here would probably fetch a lot of money! However, the things in here wouldn’t be very easy to bring out, and Su Lao and Liu Zhixin were only two people. The two men could only unwillingly withdraw from the left grave room.

Once more returning to the Mudao, Su Lao and Liu Zhixin impatiently gazed at the stone door on the right.  If the left stone door had so many good things, then what was inside the right? It could only be assumed that, whatever it was, it would be different from the contents ⁵ on the left!

The two men impatiently opened the right grave room.

The illumination given off by the oil lamp inside the grave room was very soft, but the piles of gold, silver and precious stones inside the grave room gave off dazzling brilliance under this illumination, almost blinding Su Lao and Liu Zhixin.

“This, this is…” Su Lao, somewhat incoherent, was a man who could be considered to have seen innumerable treasures, and the amount of money and number of treasures that had passed through his hands couldn’t be counted. But compared to what he saw in front of him, Su Lao felt that everything previous wasn’t even worth being mentioned.

“Master-I-we’re rich!”

At Liu Zhixin’s age, while perhaps eternal life wasn’t tempting enough for him, money was extremely motivating. This was particularly the case for those objects in front of him, which already couldn’t be valued merely in the millions or billions. At this moment, Liu Zhixin suddenly thought that there wasn’t anything bad about this journey to the snake tomb. If, if these things could be taken away….

Liu Zhixin couldn’t help but step forward and pick up a fist-sized piece of gold. Although the surface of this lump of gold had become extremely ugly after several millennia, Liu Zhixin knew that even just this one piece of gold would fetch hundreds of thousands. It was the first time that Liu Zhixin felt that money was easy to come by.

“Let’s go see the main grave room,” Su Lao said, voice serious. “The things here, wait until I get what I want, then you can take as much as you want.”

Liu Zhixin reluctantly stood, but stealthily put that lump of gold in his pocket. The pocket suddenly became heavy, but Liu Zhixin felt at ease. Even if he couldn’t get anything else, taking away this lump of gold would make it so that it wasn’t in vain. Liu Zhixin, head lowered, followed Su Lao out of the grave room. So much gold, silver and precious stones couldn’t be spent in even a dozen lifetimes, but if he could obtain eternal life, with eternal life…Liu Zhixin raised his head to glance at Su Lao ahead then immediately lowered his head again.

Su Lao, excited, stood in front of the middle stone door. His slightly trembling hand easily found the mechanism, and the stone door opened slightly. Su Lao’s hand unconsciously clenched into a fist. Unable to wait until the door opened completely, Su Lao squeezed in through the still-opening stone door. As before, Liu Zhixin, not saying a word, followed behind Su Lao.

While Su Lao operated the mechanism, Ji Kang, Yin Xiaoxiao and Mo Laoda hid.

Just like Yin Xiaoxiao upon entering the grave room for the first time, everyone who entered this grave room would unconsciously fall into shock. So too did Su Lao and Liu Zhixin.

Blue-green jade paved the floor. White jade formed a promenade of tables and chairs. Innumerable jades of different colors were polished into pebbles and scattered at the bottom of the lake. At the peak of the room, a “sun” cast yellow rays of light, and the white clouds, dispersed in all directions, also emitted a gentle white light. The blue-green cotton which usually shrouded the grave room’s walls was now gathered together, exposing carved jade, appearing even more beautiful that the entire palatial grave room, behind the blue-green veil ⁶ .

In the middle of the first half of the main grave room was a bed, the entirety of which was formed from one piece of first-rate white jade. It was shrouded in a white veil which, at this moment, swayed as though caressed by a mighty wind. Through the white veil, was a lone figure, faintly visible on the bed, reclining.

Only after a long time did Su Lao and Liu Zhixin react.

Liu Zhixin’s eyes shone with greed, incessantly darting everywhere in the grave room. Jade, so much jade! As the common saying went, gold was expensive, jade was priceless. So much top-notch jade! Forget a dozen lifetimes, not even after a few dozen lifetimes could everything be spent!

Su Lao also gasped in admiration at the luxuries in the grave room. However, from start to finish, Su Lao’s purpose was always only eternal life.

Su Lao’s gaze finally fixed on the figure lying on the bed.

Su Lao and Liu Zhixin slowly walked towards the bed.

The white veil, as before, continued to sway as though blown by a wind. By the time Su Lao and Liu Zhixin had approached the bed, that white veil, as though intelligent, slowly pulled back, allowing Su Lao and Liu Zhixin to clearly see the appearance of that person lying on the bed.

The man lying on the bed was dressed in white funerary clothes. Although it had been several millennia, the white clothes were untainted by even a speck of dust, spotlessly white as though new. Looking at the man’s face, Su Lao and Liu Zhixin were stunned. Eyebrows like a distant mountain ⁷ and red lips. Not quite a beauty capable of causing the downfall of kingdom and city ⁸ , but like a spring breeze ⁹ ,  making the hearts of those who looked at him feel peaceful. If this man opened his eyes, he would surely have eyes limpid like autumn waters ¹⁰ , and every frown and every smile would make one’s heart flutter.

“Has looking made you stupid?” Suddenly, a teasing voice echoed through this spacious and empty main grave room.

Liu Zhixin, who still had yet to return to his senses, automatically responded in agreement, “Beautiful, really beautiful. I’ve never seen someone like this before.” Just as these words were uttered, Liu Zhixin abruptly came back to himself. Who had spoken just now?

Su Lao also returned to his senses, exchanged glances with Liu Zhixin, and then slowly turned his head.

Behind them, who else was it but the laughing, very happy Yin Xiaoxiao? Next to Yin Xiaoxiao stood Mo Laoda.

Su Lao and Liu Zhixin were gobsmacked. Unconsciously preparing to defend himself, Su Lao asked, “Why are you here?”

Yin Xiaoxiao tilted his head and asked, puzzled, “So surprised? Why can’t we be here? Oh, that’s right, I still have a debt to settle with you ¹¹ . Didn’t you sleep in our cave yesterday night? You know, what about my compensation? Also….” Yin Xiaoxiao looked at Liu Zhixin. “This man injured me, you know. My poor silver scales, they’re my pride and joy!” Although Yin Xiaoxiao was smiling, his eyes were very gloomy and cold.

Liu Zhixin trembled all over. As it turned out, this silver snake really was that one he saw back then!

“Originally you ¹² promised to let us go. Could it be that you’re backing out now?” Su Lao glanced at Liu Zhixin, voice serious.

Mo Laoda didn’t speak. Yin Xiaoxiao, still smiling, said, “We promised to let you go that time, but we didn’t say anything about letting you go in the future! Besides, now that you ¹³ have entered the old tomb, you ¹⁴ still hope to leave alive?”

Su Lao was silent for a moment then suddenly spoke, “You ¹⁵ exist to protect this corpse behind me, right? Now, this corpse is next to me. Even though you’re very fast, surely you’re not fast enough to stop me from destroying this corpse!”

Who would have thought that, after Su Lao’s words, Yin Xiaoxiao would smile and not reply. Even Mo Laoda, next to Yin Xiaoxiao, had a trace of a sneer in his eyes. Inwardly, Su Lao and Liu Zhixin were puzzled, not knowing what the two snakes were thinking. However, at this moment,  a voice came from behind, “You ¹⁶ are referring to my corpse?”

The man’s tone was indifferent, and his voice was especially soft and pleasant to the ear. However, right now Su Lao and Liu Zhixin weren’t able to care about pleasant or not pleasant. They felt a chill on their bodies and immediately turned around simultaneously moving away from the side of the bed.

When they saw the man half-sitting on the bed, Su Lao and Liu Zhixin were gobsmacked. The man on the bed was sitting and speaking. Then they looked again, and the two mens’ courage cracked. The man on the bed was still properly lying down, and the man sitting on the bed and speaking to them looked identical to the man lying on the bed with his eyes closed!

Coming across such things, Su Lao wasn’t unperturbed. Alarmed, he asked, “Who are you?”

Sitting on the edge of the bed, Ji Kang smiled slightly. The smile was devastatingly beautiful, but to Su Lao and Liu Zhixin’s eyes it was nevertheless extremely terrifying. Ji Kang stood up. He didn’t answer their question but instead asked condescendingly, “Are you here to look for the object that grants eternal life?”

Su Lao swallowed but didn’t answer.

Yin Xiaoxiao slithered onto Ji Kang’s shoulder and, with a smile, said, “Isn’t he looking for more than eternal life? Those funerary objects in your grave room, someone was staring at them quite hard.” Yin Xiaoxiao’s gaze fell on Liu Zhixin’s pocket containing the piece of gold.

Ji Kang also smiled and said, “That’s pretty interesting. So many millennia and no one has ever dared break into my grave room.” After a pause, he asked, “Who told you that I have something that can grant long life here?”Ji Kang’s gaze fell on Su Lao.

Su Lao’s whole body trembled, but he didn’t dare not respond. He said, “This, I’m not sure about the specifics, just that everyone said that. I came to try my luck.”

Liu Zhixin quietly went to hide behind Su Lao. The person lying on the bed and the person standing in front of them must be a man, right? Since the one lying on the bed was a corpse, then this one standing in front of them was what?

Yin Xiaoxiao seemed to know what Liu Zhixin was thinking. Suddenly he said to Liu Zhixin, “A ghost, naturally.”

The faces of the two men went white, and they unconsciously recoiled a few steps. Although at the bottom of their hearts they’d already more or less come to this conclusion, having it confirmed, they still find it quite difficult to accept.

Ji Kang hardly cared about the two men’s reactions. He only turned around and stared blankly at his own corpse. After quite a while, he sighed and said, “Eternal life, people really believe this still?” Then he turned to face Su Lao and Liu Zhixin. “If eternal life really existed would I even be like this now?”

Su Lao’s heart trembled and he said, “But, but indeed your corpse didn’t rot and also, you-you now….”

Ji Kang rudely interrupted Su Lao. There was pity in his voice. “To tell you the truth, the ghost shark egg in my mouth can only prevent the deceased’s corpse from decaying. This absolutely isn’t what you call eternal life. As for why my soul is still here…” Ji Kang’s gaze looked a little distant. “I’ve been here for how many millennia. Do you think that I want to stay here for millennia? Would you want the same?”

Listening to Ji Kang speak, Su Lao was dumbstruck. He hadn’t thought something like this wasn’t real. But humans do not always admit that these things are false without witnessing it for themselves. Now that it had come to this point, Su Lao already despaired.

Liu Zhixin, trembling all over, stood behind Su Lao. Screw eternal life, screw treasure, now he only wanted to leave! Liu Zhixin now regretted listening to Su Lao so much along the journey. It would have been so much better if, in the beginning after running into that silver snake, he’d continued to insist on wanting to leave! How nice it would have been if he’d fled when it was only him and Su Lao! How nice it would have been if he’d chosen not to enter with Su Lao! However, all of these were only ifs and there was no medicine for regret in this world.

Yin Xiaoxiao and Ji Kang looked at each other’s faces, then Yin Xiaoxiao said, “Consider letting you ¹⁷ live up until now charity. However, you can only live until now.”

“No!” Liu Zhixin suddenly shouted. “I won’t die here! Absolutely won’t!” Finished speaking, he ran towards the stone door through which he’d recently entered. However, Su Lao stood there, dumbfounded.

It was too late. Ji Kang gently waved a sleeve, a hole appeared under Su Lao and Liu Zhixin’s feet and the two men fell.

It didn’t take long for the two men to fall to the ground. As before, Su Lao was still dumbfounded as though he had suffered a psychological shock. Or else, possibly, he already knew that he was sure to die and so his struggles to escape had already ceased. But Liu Zhixin, having reached the ground, didn’t lose the desire to survive. He was still so young, he wasn’t supposed to die here!

After falling to the ground, Liu Zhixin rolled to a stand. Although his body hurt a little, this in no way hindered his movements. Liu Zhixin inwardly rejoiced that the height fortunately wasn’t too high. However, when Liu Zhixin saw what was in front of him, his entire body went cold.

In front was a mountain of bones. That’s right, a mountain of bones. Countless human bones piled up to form a mountain! Liu Zhixin’s eyes widened and he swallowed hard. In this extremely quiet grave room, the swallowing of Liu Zhixin’s saliva was especially loud.

Suddenly, sounds that didn’t come from Liu Zhixin and Su Lao echoed through this grave room.

“Kacha ¹⁸ …kacha…”

A cold sweat broke out on Liu Zhixin’s face. Slowly looking towards where the sound originated,  what was seen caused all the hairs on both men’;s bodies to stand up. Surprisingly, it was as though those bones could smell the scent of the living. At present, as though they were alive, they were putting themselves together. Within the blink of an eye, it had become a skeleton without a skull. Slowly but determinedly, it walked towards Liu Zhixin and Su Lao. In the wake of the first, a second finished assembling itself. More and more finished assembling themselves into skeletons and walked towards Liu Zhixin and Su Lao.

Liu Zhixin shrieked. At this time he didn’t care whether Su Lao lived or died, too busy sprinting towards the stone door he saw opposite. Some of the skeletons, as before, continued to advance on Su Lao. Another portion walked towards Liu Zhixin.

Already having run to the stone door, Liu Zhixin, flustered, searched for the stone door’s mechanism. Thankfully, Liu Zhixin very easily found the stone door’s mechanism. He pulled the mechanism and Liu Zhixin rushed through the stone door. The second before the stone door closed, Liu Zhixin unconsciously looked back at Su Lao. Only a glance. Liu Zhixin went deathly white and hurriedly turned his head. He dared not look back again.

****** CW *****

Those skeletons had already reached Su Lao, but Su Lao still didn’t react. The skeletons reached down and grabbed at Su Lao’s body, tearing off strips of flesh and then plastering the flesh onto their own skeletons as if, by sticking the meat onto their bodies they’d be able to once more find their own flesh. Su Lao had long ago passed out from pain, and from this faint he would never again awaken.

Retracting his gaze, Liu Zhixin was slightly relieved. Fortunately, he’d escaped from that dreadful room. Forcing himself to look ahead, Liu Zhixin felt his soul fly out of his body in fright! He actually hadn’t escaped from that dreadful place at all! Liu Zhixin saw a pyramid of human skulls in front of him. How he wished that he’d already lost consciousness. Unfortunately, although Liu Zhixin wished that he’d lost consciousness, he continued to remain conscious and had no choice but to stare helplessly at the pyramid of human heads in front of him.

It was as though the human heads also perceived the scent of the living. Originally the heads were facing all directions but slowly they all turned to face Liu Zhixin, eyes glaring unwaveringly at Liu Zhixin.

Then one head slowly rolled down from the pyramid of skulls. It rolled, rolled, rolled, rolled and rolled until it finally reached Liu Zhixin’s feet. At this time, Liu Zhixin had completely forgotten to look for a way out. However, aside from the door he’d recently come through, there was no exit.

In despair, Liu Zhixin flopped down and sat on the ground.

The heads that rolled to Liu Zhixin’s feet weren’t polite. Each and every one opened their mouths and bit Liu Zhixin. More and more heads surrounded Liu Zhixin biting Liu Zhixin’s flesh, chewing it and swallowing it. The chewed meat fell out the bottom of the skulls. They picked it up, chewed it, and it fell, chewed it, fell….

***** CW ******

As the sad and shrill cries gradually faded away, not even Liu Zhixin’s bones remained on the ground. All that was left was a pool of blood.

T/N: Su Lao and Liu Zhixin enter the old tomb. Both realize that there’s something strange happening in the tomb, although Su Lao ignores this in favor of his own greed and excitement. When they get to the main grave room, all the jade there makes their greed run rampant. They find Ji Kang’s body and think, “My God, what a pretty boy! Just looking at his face, my skin is clear, my crops are watered and everything is going great!” until YXX bursts their bubble. SL tries to threaten YXX into leaving him and LZX alone by threatening to destroy JK’s corpse. Ghost!JK reveals himself, causing SL and LZX to almost die of fright. JK tells SL that there’s no such thing as eternal life and implies that his existence as a ghost is basically torture. YXX then tells the two humans that they’re going to die, lol. SL loses the will to fight but LZX tries to flee. JK waves a sleeve and the two men fall into that skeleton-human head pit where SL has his flesh picked apart by headless skeletons and LZX has his entire body chewed up by body-less heads.

Footnotes

<ol>秦始皇: first Qin emperor; birth name was Ying Zheng; hilarious and informative youtube vid on his life here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n1OU9p3fhM one of the famous crimes of Qin Shihuang added for clarity added for clarity added for clarity sentence restructured for clarity 眉如远山: flowery poetic language usually used to describe incredibly beautiful women https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E8%BF%9C%E5%B1%B1%E7%9C%89/734441 倾国倾城: basically another idiom used to describe incredibly beautiful women like Daji and Baosi 春风拂面: idiom used to describe something or someone that makes others feel happy and comfortable https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E6%98%A5%E9%A3%8E%E6%8B%82%E9%9D%A2/4863781 秋水: another idiom used to describe someone’s, usually a woman’s, eyes as clear and bright https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E7%A7%8B%E6%B0%B4/526 plural plural plura plura plural plural plural 咔嚓an onomatopoeia of something breaking or snapping</ol>