Chapter 7: The General's Treasure (VII) (Bug Fix)
Qi An was startled awake by urgent knocking at his door in the morning. Someone outside was calling his name loudly. He pressed his pale, fair fingers against his temples and got up with a strange feeling to open the door.
He rarely slept this deeply.
—And he seemed to have dreamed of a man whose face he couldn't see.
Strange. The door that no one outside could open, Qi An pushed it open effortlessly.
As soon as he opened it, he saw Jin Huijuan and Wang Xiangqun with their clothes torn and tattered. Their conditions were not good at all. Though it had only been one night, their faces were even paler than yesterday, and there were obvious shocking bloodstains on the edges of their clothes. What was even more horrifying was that Wang Xiangqun's left arm had been severed clean off.
The severed end of his arm was remarkably smooth, as if it had been chopped off directly by something sharp.
Wang Xiangqun glanced at the intact Qi An, his gaze deep, and without even a greeting, he simply lowered his eyes.
It was Zhang Zhaoqi standing beside them who looked as usual, showing no visible injuries. When he saw Qi An, he nodded as he always did.
"Lin Jiajia is dead. When we saw that your door wouldn't open no matter what, we thought something bad had happened to you too, but—"
When Jin Huijuan saw him, she felt slightly relieved. Her eyes carried a glimmer of moisture, the corners slightly reddened, with the dazed drowsiness of someone just woken up. Jin Huijuan's expression instantly became微妙 (complicated).
Qi An clearly hadn't encountered the ghost that attacked them in the middle of the night like they had. She had survived by sheer luck thanks to years of experience crossing over, while Wang Xiangqun had directly sacrificed his left arm to escape his room and come to her for help. Lin Jiajia had simply died.
Everything they had experienced seemed to have nothing to do with this calm少年. Jin Huijuan suddenly thought of the butler's special attention toward him.
"Since you're alright, let's continue looking for clues." Jin Huijuan fell silent for a moment before speaking matter-of-factly. "Now we need to split into two groups. One group will find the villagers to ask about the tomb master's message, while the other searches for the key to the treasure chest that Qi An found yesterday."
"How do you want to divide the teams?" Jin Huijuan asked.
Qi An blinked his ink-black eyes and quietly looked at her. For a long time, Qi An had always obediently followed others' arrangements, never complaining nor refusing.
Zhang Zhaoqi was always cold and rarely spoke a word. Jin Huijuan had no choice but to look at Wang Xiangqun again. After last night's petrification incident, Wang Xiangqun had changed rapidly. He still retained his fear of the unknown, but he no longer panicked and lost all reason whenever he encountered ghosts like before. He remained silent throughout their discussion without contributing a single word.
Jin Huijuan suddenly felt a bit helpless. In this team of four, it seemed like she was always the only one talking.
She really wanted to maintain her cool, aloof image instead of facing three guys who were so quiet they could make dust fall from the walls.
"Zhang Zhaoqi and Qi An go find the villagers. Wang Xiangqun and I will look for the key." Jin Huijuan deliberated, tidying her somewhat disheveled hair.
She had actually thought this through carefully before making this choice. Not to mention the hidden tensions between Qi An and Wang Xiangqun yesterday, simply because she and Zhang Zhaoqi were both veterans, they should each take one person to increase their chances of survival.
The sound of "tap-tap-tap" echoed.
Qi An and Zhang Zhaoqi walked through corridor after corridor, winding and interconnected. The path to the exit was especially complex and secluded. Without the butler's active guidance, Qi An and the others would most likely never have found it. Their nostrils were filled with the scent of damp earth, and apart from their hurried footsteps, everything around them was silent.
Qi An and Zhang Zhaoqi were silent the entire way.
The handsome youth with a cold demeanor walked ahead, while the delicate, fragile-looking youth followed not far behind. If not for the unexpectedly chilling environment they were in, the scene between the two would have been oddly harmonious.
Qi An and the others pushed open door after door, walked through house after house, but never encountered another ghost.
No one or nothing came to block their path. The road to the exit was exceptionally smooth. Soon, a crude, rickety wooden door that was completely at odds with the luxurious style of the entire underground palace was right before their eyes.
This door wasn't closed. Besides being corroded into ruins, it seemed that due to long-term opening and closing or some other reason, the door's edge had turned whitish, and the door frame was no longer tightly sealed. If even a light breeze passed through, it would emit a piercing sound like a scream.
The large door was gently pushed from outside.
A waft of cooking aroma came with it.
Ge Da approached this door with trembling hands, carrying a tray of meals. Every day, the village held a fixed activity—drawing a name from a box containing all the villagers' names to have that person be responsible for delivering meals the next day.
This was a command passed down from their ancestors, ordering their descendants to do so. Even during famine, they had to use the finest grain to make meals and deliver them, and they had to ensure the food was still hot. Therefore, the villagers in their village would rather endure poverty than leave the mountains.
Even though they knew everything inside were evil ghosts, simply delivering food wouldn't have terrified the villagers this much. It was just that... there was a ghost inside who was always wandering by the door, looking cultured and refined, chatting with them about what he thought was life. But if the conversation made the other party feel unhappy or bored, the person delivering the meal wouldn't end up well.
Don't run into him, don't run into him...
Ge Da recited to himself, summoning his courage to push open the large door—then froze. At the door were two extremely good-looking creatures of some kind. He dropped the meals as fast as he could, turned around, and ran toward the outside at his maximum speed.
Damn, being so good-looking, they must be vengeful spirits that have cultivated for god knows how many years.
"Come back."
Ge Da couldn't control himself and turned his head back to walk through the door. He desperately wanted to turn around, yet he saw his body mechanically walking back.
Zhang Zhaoqi blew away the residual ash from the burned talisman. "Tell us about this tomb chamber."
Ge Da suddenly felt an urge to look into Zhang Zhaoqi's eyes. He alertly tried to close his eyes, but his eyelids refused to drop. The light in his gaze instantly dimmed the moment it met the former's eyes. He spoke in an eerily monotone, mechanical voice:
"The story handed down by our ancestors says that several hundred years ago, the Lihuo Kingdom suffered great catastrophe. Drought and earthquakes came one after another. The emperor sought help from the national teacher to stabilize his throne. The national teacher said it was because demons were causing trouble, and that yang energy was needed to suppress them. So he devised a scheme—at a celebration banquet, he poisoned and killed the undefeated general and his personal guard unit. He performed a ritual to let evil spirits possess their bodies, and built an underground palace within the tomb.
"He buried the person the general loved as a burial companion within the tomb."
This ability to bewitch people's hearts...
Qi An glanced at Zhang Zhaoqi with some surprise. The latter's eyes at this moment were as dark as if an abyss lay within, oppressive, profound, and indifferent.