Chapter 21

From afar, and with the help of the flashlight, Qin Cheng saw that the old Taoist priest had fallen to the ground. Qin Cheng felt a little bit nervous as he rushed forward to check on him, thankfully, he felt relieved to find that the Taoist priest had only fainted.

When he looked up with the help of the flashlight, Qin Cheng could see the man, who’s wearing a black top garment and a red lower garment with dragon patterns, talking to someone. However, Qin Cheng couldn’t see who he was talking to.

After thinking about it, Qin Cheng still walked forward and asked: “Are…. are you alright?”

“Yes?”

He didn’t know why, but Qin Cheng always felt that even though this person answered him with a cheerful tone of voice, he felt that he was actually really angry……

Since it was extremely dark inside the tomb, and the flashlight cast a circle of light on the ground, Qin Cheng couldn’t see the face of the man in front of him, so he could only ask again: “Did you get hurt anywhere?”

This short sentence was filled with worry from the bottom of his heart. The fact that Qin Cheng couldn’t see Su Jingmo clearly in the dark didn’t mean that Su Jingmo couldn’t see him, which made Qin Cheng unaware that because his face was showing a concerned expression, it made Su Jingmo’s eyes change. He didn’t reply to Qin Cheng’s words, and only asked him: “Is he your fellow disciple ¹ ?”

“Ah!….. Watch out!!!!”

Qin Cheng, who was about to ask Su Jingmo what fellow disciple was he referring to, caught from the corner of his eye a glimpse of the old Taoist priest, who should still be laying on the ground, suddenly grabbing the Peachwood Sword and leap up. Qin Cheng barely had the time to think before his body rushed forwards and tackled the Taoist priest.

However, Qin Cheng was just a mortal, so even though he jumped over the Taoist priest, he was heavily kicked away by him right the next instant.

The intense pain he felt from the stomach made Qin Cheng curl up on the ground reflexively.

When this scene fell in Su Jingmo’s eyes, he lost the smile on his face. He pulled out his sword from his waist as he lightly turned his wrist. The tip of the sword pierced directly through the Taoist priest, however, this move made the Rat Immortal behind him let out an  extremely painful roar, instantly fleeing away from the tomb.

Unexpectedly, after hundreds of years, the Ran Immortal had made some progress. When Su Jingmo took the Rat Immortal from the Taoist priest’s body, he hadn’t noticed that the Rat Immortal had left his Neidan ² inside the Taoist priest, waiting for the opportunity to make another move.

“Hmph, he really is a petty beast.”

However, after he thought that he had just pierced the beast’s Neidan, the Rat Immortal would have to cultivate for another few hundred years before he’s able to transform into a human form.

The searchlight was dim, surrounded by the intense darkness of the tomb, but this light was enough for Jiang Ping to see what was going inside. He saw how Qin Cheng tried to tackle down the Taoist priest, who was trying to kill something, only to get hurt by the Taoist priest. Then the Taoist priest, who wielded his sword at the void, suddenly stopped moving and fell to the ground.

Jiang Ping thought that here must be something strange inside this tomb, and Qin Cheng was able to see it, something that the Taoist priest couldn’t see, not even after being possessed by a spirit…..

Qin Cheng and the Taoist priest fell down to the ground almost at the same time, and Jiang Ping couldn’t possibly abandon them, so he carefully walked towards them, only to see the old Taoist priest was lowly groaning in pain. But since he was groaning, Jiang Ping didn’t think his old life could be in danger.

However, Qin Cheng had just received a heavy blow on his stomach, so he struggled a lot to get up. “We’d better get out of here as soon as possible…..” Qin Cheng looked around but couldn’t see Su Jingmo so he thought that he must’ve gone back to the Underground Palace. “I’m afraid this old Taoist priest is seriously injured.”

Jiang Ping looked at Qin Cheng, and nodded his head in agreement.

When the three of them arrived at the hospital, it was almost five in the afternoon. Jiang Ping went to the police station, and when he returned to the hospital, the old Taoist priest was sent to the operation room.

“How are you?” Jiang Ping, who sat on the chair next to Qin Cheng, lit a cigarette.

Qin Cheng leaned back in his chair and looked at the hospital’s white ceiling.

“I’m fine. I just have to rub some medicinal oil on my stomach for two days. The Taoist priest broke two ribs, since he’s old, there may be some sequelae after he gets better.”

“………..”

Jiang Ping didn’t say anything else and handed a cigarette to Qin Cheng. As soon as Qin Cheng took the cigarette and took a puff, a nurse, who was leaving after an arduous day of work, scolded him.

“Aahh! This is a hospital! You can’t smoke here, you should be smoking outside! Don’t you know that there’s many patients that can’t stand it?!”

“Ah, yes, of course. I’m sorry.”

Jiang Ping and Qin Cheng put out their cigarettes and threw them in a trash can. When the nurse left, they could hear her angrily say: “There’s no respect.”

“You should take off those glasses. Are they still useful when they’re broken like that?”

Jiang Ping’s words made Qin Cheng smile. After he took off his glasses, Qin Cheng squinted to see that the frame of his glasses were twisted a little after he fell to the ground the day before and today. At the corner of one of the lenses was also missing a piece.

“I wore them for two of three years, so it’s time to replace them.”

“How much myopia do you have?”

“Over 500 degrees… I guess the degrees must have increased now.”

“So, you can’t see very well with your glasses off, can you? But even though you have bad eyes, you can see what ordinary people can’t.” After a pause, Jiang Ping said knowingly: “I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing, am I right?”

“Yes, it’s not a good thing, and I don’t have the special ability to see what ordinary people can’t. You overestimate me, Detective Jiang, when I’m not wearing my glasses, I can’t see anything at all.”

“You’re an expert, but you’re also a suspect, so your words aren’t credible.”

“I’m not an expert, I’m just a third year research student, I can’t compare to your punishment force.”

Knowing that the other was hard to deal with, the two of them no longer fought to see who would win a verbal conversation, and simply waited in silence for the old Taoist priest to come out of the surgery.

Eventually, the Taoist priest came out fine, and after lying in the hospital for a few days, Jiang Ping asked him about what happened in the tomb, however, the priest couldn’t remember anything.

“The last thing I remember is performing the exorcism. After I inserted the willows and burned the yellow talismans, I fell unconscious.”

Jiang Ping kind of had the suspicion that the Taoist priest got possessed by an evil spirit, so he asked him next: “Then, have you ever encountered something like this before? When exorcising evil spirits?”

“How could I’ve encountered something like this?! That was my first time experiencing it too… Ah! I know what it is!”

“What is it?”

“That talisman! Those three amulets! I knew that man would never be so kind to just give me such a precious amulet! I dare to say that he must’ve set me up!”

“What does that even mean?”

The old Taoist priest looked at Jiang Ping angrily; “That talisman wasn’t actually mine, it was given to me by a strange person last month.”

When Jiang PIng heard that, he frowned deeply: “He gave it to you? So, the Fushui water that my colleague drank last time was also made out of the talismans that strange man gave to you?”

“Yeah, how else would an old man like me, who doesn’t have great abilities, be able to do that?” The old Taoist said, while lowering his head, feeling a bit ashamed and guilty: “But, even though that wasn’t originally my talisman, in the end, it did save that girl’s life, didn’t it? Ah but you can’t take the 50000 extra yuan from me, you promised! Besides, I did get injured because of what happened there, you see.”

Jiang Ping ignored the priest’s mutterings, and kept asking him: “Then, do you remember how the man who gave you the talismans looked like?”

The old Taoist priest, however, wasn’t happy to hear Jiang Ping saying that: “What do you mean by ‘remember’? I may be old, but I’m afraid that you, youngsters, can’t match my good memory! Now, even though I’ve met him once, I still remember how he looks!”

However, when the old Taoist priest recalled that time, he found out that he couldn’t remember the face of that man, and the more he thought about it, the more vague everything was, to the point in which he couldn’t tell whether he was tall or short, fat or thin. He couldn’t even remember the tone of his voice.

“What happened? I… I can’t even remember that man’s appearance at all!” Although the old Taoist priest wasn’t a skilled master of Taoism, but at least in the line of work, he could be called a “great Immortal” by certain people, so he still knew a lot of things.

After thinking more about it, it seemed that the Taoist priest had met a man with higher Taoist skills than him, and that he must have set him up and made him unable to recall his appearance.

After living for fifty or sixty years, this was the first time that the old Taoist priest had ever encountered a higher skilled Taoist. When he thought about how fast the compass had turned when he went inside that ancient tomb, the old Taoist priest began to sweat cold.

When Jiang Ping finished questioning him, the old Taoist priest thought of something, and said: “No one should go back to that ancient tomb anymore. This isn’t me being an alarmist, but I did sense that the ancient tomb is really odd. Not to mention how many evil spirits are hidden there, but I’m afraid that there’s something else there….”

Whether anyone else will go to the ancient tomb again, Qin Cheng didn’t know, nor would he want to find out.

But the next morning, when he returned to his bedroom, Qin Cheng discovered that the Jade pendant he had been carrying around was missing.

After searching all his pockets and backpacks, he still couldn’t find the Jade pendant. Where did he lose it? Or was it taken by someone? Qin Cheng hollowed out his brain trying to recall over and over again the places he had walked today.

If, according to his own theory, the Jade pendant was the reason he was able to see ghosts, then it should still be with him when he was inside the tomb, because he could see Su Jingmo.

Qin Cheng then remembered that after he tried to tackle down the old Taoist priest, and when Jiang Ping came in, he couldn’t see Su Jingmo when he looked around…..

‘ Could it be that I lost it by accident when I fell, and that’s the reason why I couldn’t see that man, who should still be present at that time? ’

Qin Cheng thought so, but he wasn’t entirely sure. Because, what if the Jade pendant had actually fallen somewhere else? Maybe in the taxi? No way, when he got out the car he specially looked back to see if he had left anything behind.

When he recalled all the places where the Jade pendant might have fallen, he eliminated one by one. In the end, Qin Cheng estimated that there were only two possible scenarios: One was that the Jade pendant fell inside the ancient tomb, and the other one was that he might have left it behind in the hospital while the doctor was examining him.

At that last thought, Qin Cheng got up and went to the hospital.

The light smell of disinfectant was overflowing in the air, and by eight in the morning the registration desk of the hospital was already full of people. When Qin Cheng reached the main desk, he asked a girl: “Have you perhaps found a Jade pendant here? I lost it at the emergency room yesterday.”

Since she has been working overtime from last night until now, it was hard for her to have a bit of free time, so this time she was ready to play with her phone, however a person just came to her asking about something. The girl didn’t look up and just replied: “I don’t know! I’m not here to find lost objects, if you want to find something, go to the security department. Seriously, don’t come here asking for whatever, alright?!”

The girl’s unwarranted indignation didn’t annoy Qin Cheng, who politely thanked her and prepared to leave, but right that instant, the girl actually called him.

The girl looked at Qin Cheng for a while before she said: “Do you even know where the security department is?”

Even though Qin Cheng wasn’t as handsome as an idol, his elegant and gentle appearance also attracts women; and it wasn’t that he hasn’t been chased before, so he understood what girl’s sudden playfulness means.

However, Qin Cheng didn’t like this kind of girl very much, so he pointed to the road ahead and said: “There’s no need, I can find it myself.”

After he said that, and without looking at the girl’s blushing face, he left.

The hospital’s security department can only be reached through the pediatric emergency department. There were three pediatric emergency rooms, and the corridor was full of parents and eldery people with crying children. Their little faces were full of distress, and even a small baby was crying with sweat. It didn’t matter how much their family members coaxed them, they would still cry until their faces blushed red, imposing a loud noise in the hospital.

This scenery was so gloomy that Qin Cheng quickened his pace through the pediatric emergency corridor and turned a corner before reaching the security department.

“A Jade pendant? No one sent a Jade pendant, and no one said they found one.” The security officer looked through the lost and found records from people that were on duty the day before: “Hmmm, this kind of valuable object should be kept well, young man. The doctors and nurses are proper citizens, but there’s some who also can’t avoid the temptation to take possession of something that doesn’t belong to them, isn’t it? Besides, there are so many people coming and going in the hospital, and it’s also such a noisy place, there’s certain that there will be a few petty thieves as well.”

After a pause, the security officer looked at Qin Cheng and said: “Why don’t you go to the place you were yesterday, maybe you’ll be lucky and you’ll find the doctor or nurse that took your Jade pendant, maybe they haven’t sent it over here yet.”

Qin Cheng thought for a moment and then said: “Alright then, thank you.”

“There’s no need to thank, go ahead.”

When he left the security department, Qin Cheng went to the surgery department and ran into the doctor who saw him yesterday, and told him why he was there today. However, he got the same result as the security department.

If it hadn’t been taken away, then Qin Cheng thought that it must have been left behind inside the tomb.

After looking at his watch, it was already 10 in the morning, so Qin Cheng left the hospital and went to eat a bowl of noodles before taking a taxi to Ninghua Village.

Today, there weren’t any archeologists, nor the clamor of the Taoist priest’s practice from yesterday, and since there weren’t more than just a few residents in Ninghua Village, it was so quiet all around that Qin Cheng could only hear the rustling sound of the wind blowing through the leaves and the sweet chirping of the birds.

At the entrance of the village, old Jiang’s family still used the old stove from several decades ago, burning the wood picked up from the mountains by the old couple. The warm sunshine was warming up Qin Cheng’s body, and it made the green mountain glow. Qin Cheng couldn’t help but wonder whether the village would still maintain its tranquility without the arrival of their archeological team and excavation, and if that man would still be asleep inside that mausoleum, for eternity.

However, it was impossible to go back in time, and Qin Cheng couldn’t just give up now….

Without the Jade pendant, Qin Cheng knew that it would be dangerous for him to enter the ancient tomb alone, and even though he didn’t understand the power of the Jade pendant, it had really saved his life several times.

But no matter what, he had to find that Jade pendant, since it also had the Emperor’s name engraved on it, and it was a proof of the identity of the owner of the tomb. Its scientific research value and its own value was immeasurable. If it was lost and destroyed due to his own negligence, Qin Cheng might regret it for the rest of his life.

He took advantage of the sunlight, because if it was late, the murderous ghosts would probably appear.

With his tools in hand, Qin Cheng stepped into the tomb alone.

But he didn’t know that ever since he walked into the tunnel, a “man” with deep sunken eyes, a face filled with blue and purple bruises, and twisted hands moved to his back; was right beside him.

That man….. was Jiang Bo…. who has been dead for several months…..

From a distance, Su Jingmo looked at Qin Cheng, who stood next to a fierce ghost, however, he didn’t seem to notice it at all. ‘ Could it be that because you don’t have the Jade pendant with you anymore, you can’t see ghosts?’

The white Jade he played with was obviously the Jade pendant that Qin Cheng has been looking for: “Archeologist? It’s a nice name. But, in the end, isn’t it just a pretty way of calling a thief?!”

Whoever dares to steal his personal belongings couldn’t stay.

(*´˘`*) ♡

Footnotes

<ol><b>同门</b> <b>tóng mén</b> ; Its literary meaning is: people who study under the same teacher. <b>内丹</b> <b>nèi dān</b> ; Neidan, or Taoist Internal Alchemy, is an important Taoist cultivation method, which is now generally regarded as a kind of Taoist Qi Refining. The art of Neidan refers to the cultivation of life based on the theories of: “The human body is a small world”; “Heaven and humanity are one”; and “Interactions between heaven and humanity”. In order to achieve health and fitness, improve human life functions, prolong life span, and even become immortal, they practice life cultivation using the human body as a furnace, cultivating “essence, vitality and spirit”.</ol>