Chapter 63

“No…. no….” The murmuring of the sleeping Li Guoxian woke up his wife on the side.

Zhang Yongqin hastily turned on the bedside lamp and fished over the cabinet for her glasses.

“Old man ¹ ! Old man, wake up!”

Li Guoxian was sweating and frowning, but no matter how much Zhang Yongqin called for him or pushed him, he couldn’t wake up. He was deeply caught in the nightmare.

In the nightmare, he seemed to be floating in the air, looking down at everything under his eyes. On the ground, ten meters below, there was a group of people, one of whom was himself as a young man. His young self seemed to be walking in a tomb with some friends walking in front of him. Li Guoxian thought that he should recognize them, but he couldn’t see their faces clearly.

“…. Qi…. Are you really sure there’s something like ‘that’ in this tomb?” The young Li Guoxian asked the man beside him.

“Of course.” The man nodded. “It’s written in the book, so I’m sure this ‘thing’ is in this place.”

The old Li Guoxian, who was suspended in the air, looked at the current picture under his eyes and his mind felt dizzy, but with a trace of fear lingering in his heart. As he looked at his younger self and the man whose name couldn’t be heard and face couldn’t be seen coming closer, Li Guoxian opened his mouth and yelled, trying to tell himself to stay away from that man. However, he soon found that he couldn’t speak as he kept floating in the sky.

As he felt anxious, the picture in front of him suddenly changed. Now, the group of people had reached the front door of the tomb, and they were trying to open the door of the Underground Palace. Suddenly, the people who were in the front started to form foam from their mouths, and they died instantly.

Li Guoxian screamed frightened, but soon the picture in front of him changed little by little. As it changed from a few graves to different scenes really quickly, he saw himself getting older and older, and his companions changed one by one. However, the man whose face he couldn’t see clearly didn’t change.

Until it stopped on one rainy day, when he was nearly 50 years old. Li Guoxian received a phone call from a geologist friend, saying that he had found an ancient tomb in Ninghua Village, pointing northwest.

Then, the 21st century arrived. At that time, when the public was cheering for the new century, Li Guoxian rummaged through the rotten smell of a burial pit of a thousand people. Until finally….. He found…..

What happened later, the Li Guoxian floating in air could only guess. But he also remembered that the man whose face he couldn’t see, should be Qi Shengkang….

Ten years ago, he was the head of the Faqiu Sect….

And he…. was dead….

Ten years ago, he died in the Crouching Tiger Mountain, in Pingyao, Shanxi Province….

Li Guoxian couldn’t recall the circumstances of that year, but, in a blink of an eye, he found himself lying in a coffin. When he opened his eyes, he found himself sleeping on a pile of white bones, panicked, and trying to get up. However, he soon found himself unable to move!

And, in front of him, there was a long rotten ghost staggering towards him.

“No!!! Don’t, don’t come over!! Don’t come over!!”

As he struggled in horror, he found that the white bones beneath him were holding him, imprisoning his hands and feet: “Ah–!”

The ghost, who was so rotten that his face was unrecognizable and covered with blood, stood in front of Li Guoxian, staring at him with his black eyes as blood fell down from his sockets. He opened his mouth but couldn’t speak, because he didn’t have a tongue, and his mouth was filled with blood. Only the skeleton teeths were left, rubbing against each other, producing a terrible noise.

But, even if that was the case, Li Guoxian seemed to be able to hear what the ghost was saying: ‘Pay with you life! I want you to repay me with your life!’

“No, I didn’t kill you!”

Zhang Yongqin didn’t know what Li Guoxian was dreaming about. They have been married for decades, and after so many years, Li Guoxian rarely had any nightmares. So, what happened tonight? What was the dream about? And why isn’t he waking up?

As she pulled Li Guoxian, she said anxiously: “Hey, old man, what’s wrong with you?!” But, no matter how much she moved him, Li Guoxian didn’t wake up. The light at the head of the bed was dim, and the autumn night was cold; however, Li Guoxian was covered in sweat.

She has heard that many older people would get stuck in their dreams, haunted by nightmares. But, Li Guoxian has always been in good health, so how could this happen so suddenly?!

After an unknown period of time, she saw that Li Guoxian seemed to be out of breath. Zhang Yongqin was so worried that tears fell down from her eyes: “Old man! Old man!” As she shouted, Zhang Yongqin took the phone with shivering hands to call an ambulance. But, before she could unlock the phone, Li Guoxian suddenly shouted and sat up on the bed abruptly.

Li Guoxian, who suddenly woke up, looked around with fright. His right hand was pressing his heart tightly, which seemed to be beating so violently that it could burst open, as he gasped for breath.

“Oh my God! What happened? Why the sudden nightmare?! You scared me to death!” Seeing that Li Guoxian had finally woken up, Zhang Yongqin threw down her cellphone and cried as tears fell from her eyes: “You must have been too drunk to wake up! I told you to not drink too much. If you get so drunk that you’ll die in your sleep, aahh… What will I do?!”

As Zhang Yongqin cried bitterly, when Li Guoxian, who hadn’t recovered from the dream yet, heard the noisy crying, stopped her impatiently: “All right! Don’t be noisy, why are you crying now? I’m not dead!”

“You, you think that I’m being noisy?! If it weren’t for me, you would’ve died in your sleep! You ungrateful son of a bitch!” After several decades, she felt that she was too old to quarrel. So, Zhang Yongqin, who was already kind in nature, sighed and wiped away her tears: “Old man, what kind of dream did you have? I’ll listen to you, so what’s wrong?”

Knowing that Zhang Yongqin was just concerned about him, Li Guoxian didn’t lose his temper. However, there were some things that even as a married couple, he could never tell Zhang Yongqin….

“Nothing, it was just a nightmare. I don’t remember.” Speaking of this, Li Guoxian got out of bed, took a thick pajama coat and put it on. “I can’t sleep at the moment, you should sleep first. I’ll go drink some water and then go to the study to read for a while.”

“Then why don’t I go and heat up some milk for you?”

After waving his hand, Li Guoxian frowned, deepening the wrinkles on his forehead: “No, it’s alright, just go to sleep. I’ll call you if I need anything.”

After saying that, he left the room and went straight to the study.

The study was filled with books left and right. Behind the three shelves of books, was Li Guoxian’s safe that he had installed himself.

After locking the door of the study, Li Guoxian slowly opened the safe. There was no money inside, only a few books and a wooden box, as well as several yellowed letters. When he thought about the dream, Li Guoxian lit a fire and burned the letters.

Then he opened the wooden box, and a white thing about the size of a soybean was revealed. The white object was emitting a unique light. As he looked at this thing, Li Guoxian’s wrinkled face revealed a strange smile, turning his original kind face into a scary expression.

It was the legendary Taowu bone, and to obtain this little thing, he almost lost his life….

The night was heavy and dark, as if a boundless and thick ink was smeared in the sky, covering even the shimmering light of the stars.

..

The night was as cold as frozen water, and the autumn wind was blowing heavily. Tang Jiaming, from time to time, would wrap himself tightly with his coat and move back and forth to maintain himself warm. Suddenly, Tang Jiaming heard a noise coming from below, and hurriedly went to the entrance of the robbing tunnel. Then, he asked Tang Jie, who was standing there: “What happened?”

“I don’t know what happened….” He glanced at the tunnel but wasn’t able to see anything. Tang Jie thought about it, and then said: “I’ll go in to take a look.”

With that, Tang Jie took the tools, put on special shoes, and went down the tunnel.

At that moment, after Tang Yihong heard the noise, he walked over. After a while, Tang Jie was hurriedly getting out of the tunnel as he cursed.

“Fuck! I don’t know what’s happening inside, but the moment I walked half-way down,  I felt hot air. As I continued to go down, I found that there was fire! And the smell of sulfur! The inside of the tomb seems to be on fire!”

“Fire?!” Tang Yihong was stunned: “Is there fire inside?!”

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“It must be on fire! Holy fuck, there’s an orange light shining on the tomb path.” Tang Jie shook his head: “Let me tell you, I was scared just by being at the other end of the tunnel. If those two are still there, they must have either burned to death or suffocated. Either way, there’s absolutely no way to survive down there!”

“This….” Tang Yihong had no idea what to do. It was Tang Jiaming’s idea to let Qin Cheng and Wu Hai go inside, if the two are dead, he really doesn’t know what to do next. Besides, they also caused a fire….

“This fire didn’t burn everything in the tomb, did it?”

Tang Jiaming thought about this for a moment, and then said: “I don’t think that’s possible. The fire should’ve been caused by white phosphorus placed inside. The person who designed the tomb wouldn’t let the fire burn down his own tomb. At best, it’s something insignificant.”

“As for whether the two of them died or not, I don’t know.”

Tang Yihong stared at Tang Jiaming as he spoke, narrowed his eyes, and said: “I remember that your father came to this Crouching Tiger Mountain ten years ago. We dug this robbing tunnel, but ten years ago, your father must have dug his own. Don’t you think? I was just thinking ah, why didn’t you let us dig a tunnel at the other side of the mountain? Instead, you chose here…. Wouldn’t it be safer if we opened a tunnel directly into one chamber instead of this path filled with traps? No one would’ve died.”

As he thought of what happened ten years ago, Tang Jiaming clenched his teeth: “You should have heard that the only person who escaped alive at that time said what would happen if you took that road, right?”

Tang Yihong had heard about it, but the man who survived is someone who can’t be trusted.

“Haha, and you believe in his words?” Tang Yihong laughed, but after laughing, Tang Yihong fell silent. He knew what happened at that time. Originally, he was supposed to go with everyone else, but for some other reason, which ended up saving his life, he didn’t go. At that time, 30 people came to Crouching Tiger Mountain, and nearly two months later, only 3 people came out alive. However, 2 of the 3 people died of illness seven days later. Their deaths weren’t ordinary, and on the seventh day, they suddenly turned into white bones….. it was a curse.

The only one who survived, was the one who initiated this tomb’s robbery…. Li Guoxian….

There are things which he doesn’t understand, but Tang Jiaming, who knows the art of Qi Huang, must know what’s up.

“You can only enter this tomb through the right road. There’s a dead end inside, but there’s also a way to survive in this big tomb. The only people who can really pass through the tomb at ease, are the Royal family of that Dynasty, who understands the structure of the tomb’s mechanisms…. Of course, you also have to be lucky.”

…

In the tomb of Ninghua Village, Qu Zhiwen let the people outside the tomb into a chamber in the tomb. Thanks to the formation of this tomb, as well as Su Jingmo’s help, he would be able to escape.

Su Jingmo locked those people in the tomb’s chamber, and as Qu Zhiwen walked to the entrance of the tunnel, he said: “Zhen hopes that you will be able to do what you promised.

Qu Zhiwen nodded, not knowing whether to laugh or cry: “I followed Jiang Ping to Xi’an to get some benefits, but ended up tangled in a mess instead….” As he looked at Su Jingmo’s curved eyebrows, Qu Zhiwen swallowed the rest of what he was about to say into his stomach. Instead, he said: “All right, thank you.”

Then, when he was about to leave, he suddenly remembered something. As he turned his head to look at Su Jingmo, he said: “You have Taowu bones in this tomb…. but how come that when I entered the tomb today, I found that part of the divine power of this great tomb’s beast is missing?” Although, it was only a small part of it…..

Su Jingmo smiled as he looked at Qu Zhiwen: “What does it have to do with you?”

Since Su Jingmo didn’t want to say it, Qu Zhiwen didn’t have any other choice than to bid his farewell. After he called the guiding swallow, he disappeared in front of Su Jingmo.

If a mythological beast had less divine power, naturally, that meant it had less best bones. Su Jingmo smiled as he smoothed the hair falling from his forehead. Ever since he was buried here, for more than a thousand years, there has only been one item missing from this tomb…..

The jade pendant Qin Cheng has with him…..

Wowow Li Guoxian has a Taowu bone?! Is that bone the one that was in the tomb in Shanxi??

And the jade pendant has a small part of the divine power of the bones?? That would explain why it allows Qin Cheng to see ghosts and repel them!

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❀(*´▽`*) ❀

Footnotes

<ol><b>老头儿</b> <b>lǎo tóu r</b> ; An affectionate way of calling one’s husband when they’re of old age.</ol>