Chapter 119: Two Goofballs!
Wu Xie picked up on Lin Yan’s words and continued, asking Lao Yang: “Is what your cousin said reliable? He’s gone mentally ill, so how does he know there really are those things inside the tomb? What if it’s just a fantasy after he had a hallucination?”
Lao Yang shook his head, also full of confusion: “Sigh, I—I don’t know either. Him being able to write me a letter, does that—does that mean he’s not crazy anymore? If he—he’s already recovered, then maybe… it’s not fake?”
Seeing Lao Yang still leading Wu Xie’s line of thinking towards the supernatural, Lin Yan became even more certain that the situation was likely the first possibility, but he still needed to confirm it personally.
Wu Xie probed further: “That branch—” He pointed at the bronze tree branch placed beside the fire pit: “Can I borrow it to take a look? I want to see if there’s any clue on it.”
Lao Yang saw Wu Xie staring at him intently, hesitating in his heart. He knew Wu Xie’s stubborn streak; if he didn’t let Wu Xie confirm this thing tonight, this kid might really drag Lin Yan away at dawn, leaving him alone here: “…Fine.”
He took off his gloves and gave them to Wu Xie, glancing at Lin Yan and warning: “No gloves, absolutely—absolutely do not touch it!”
Wu Xie put on the gloves and carefully took the branch.
As soon as he held the thing, his hands sank. This branch didn’t seem to be made of pure bronze; maybe it had some other metal added? He weighed it, and it was indeed not light.
Over there, Lin Yan had quietly taken the bronze bell he swiped from the underwater tomb into his hand, using his clothes to conceal it, ready to shake it at any moment if there was a problem.
Wu Xie held the branch up to his face and, after carefully observing it, expressed deep admiration from his heart for the craftsman who cast this bronze tree. If it hadn’t been violently sawed off the trunk by Lao Yang and the others, and if the integrity were a bit higher, this one branch would be enough for Wu Shan Ju to live on for a year!
Lin Yan also leaned in to observe the branch. For some reason, he felt the ancient craftsmanship was really not up to par; they had to carve a naturally complex branch into this sorry state—someone who studied sketching for two years could do this level!
Could it be that this bronze tree emphasized volume over quality? Thinking about it carefully made sense; ancient kings and nobles went all out to make their tombs resplendent, and if not held back by ancestral rites and laws, they’d each try to outdo the previous ones! Such a large bronze tree—if it were all bronze, how much copper would it waste!
A little flaw in such massive resource waste was reasonable. He had reason to suspect this place might belong to Cixi or some high-ranking noble with both ambition and guts, daring to make something like a bronze tree!
The closer he got to the branch, the more Lin Yan felt a strange sensation, as if it were an instinct engraved in his bloodline and soul.
What was this? Why did he feel like the bronze tree was calling to him?
Wu Xie was still turning the branch over and over; it was obvious at a glance he hadn’t figured anything out. Across the fire pit, Lao Yang showed no movement, looking like the alcohol’s aftereffects had hit—he was lying down now.
Lin Yan quietly inched closer and closer; he felt that soul-deep craving was almost impossible to suppress! But when he tried to pull back, he found his body had betrayed him?
It was a literal betrayal. Lin Yan just wanted to step back a little, but his hands and feet wouldn’t obey, and he was about to touch the branch!
Wu Xie finally noticed something wrong with Lin Yan—his head was practically sticking to it!
He panicked.
Logically, this shouldn’t be! Ever since he learned Lin Yan’s blood could resist being confused by those evil things like the Forbidden Woman, he knew Lin Yan naturally countered things that harmed via the environment, like that green-eyed fox corpse before.
Seeing Lin Yan’s eyes were the same as before, Wu Xie probed with a glance: “You okay? Isn’t getting this close unsafe?”
Lin Yan turned a deaf ear. He still gripped the bell in his hand but had no chance to use it.
Next, under Wu Xie’s worried gaze and Lao Yang’s stunned look, Lin Yan sniffed the branch from end to end like a dog, then bit down on the bronze tree branch!
“Holy shit, what the hell are you doing?” Wu Xie hurriedly pried at Lin Yan’s mouth, trying to make him let go: “This is a bronze artifact! You eat bronze? Aren’t you afraid of poisoning?”
Lin Yan’s mind was no longer on Wu Xie; he was now in a daze, acting purely on instinct. He intuitively felt the bronze tree branch would help him, so he bit down heartily!
Seeing Lin Yan unresponsive like he was possessed, Wu Xie snatched the bell from his hand. Before shaking it, he recalled what Zhang Qiling said—this bell could only be used by Lin Yan.
But Lin Yan was still out of it… He glanced at Lin Yan trying to gnaw a tooth mark into the branch, grabbed his hand, and shook it hard—
“Ding-a-ling, ding-a-ling.” The bell rang, and Lin Yan’s gaze gradually cleared.
The first thing Lin Yan did after recovering was ask Wu Xie: “How many minutes? Wu Xie, do you know the origin of this bronze tree? What Lao Yang said is all true; he didn’t make up a story! This thing really has strange powers! Do you know what I just felt?”
Seeing his serious expression, Wu Xie understood it must be something important: “What happened? I think… about two minutes. Was it a hallucination? What did you experience?”
Lin Yan pondered for a moment, then said slowly: “Something feels off. This branch’s effect isn’t just causing hallucinations. Or rather, hallucination is only a small part of its true function!”
Lin Yan sat down, let out a long breath, and grabbed the beer bottle Lao Yang had placed nearby, saying with a bitter smile: “Do you know what ‘My World’ is?”
Wu Xie, who was about to stop his hand, paused at the question: “You mean your consciousness just entered another space?”
Lin Yan threw back a gulp: “Probably not, but I saw an old—”
Damn, the worst-case scenario of not stopping him happened—Lin Yan must have seen something stimulating, or he wouldn’t have forgotten his own drinking blackout trigger for a moment.
Sigh, looks like he could only ask in the morning.
Wu Xie first moved Lin Yan to a spot a bit farther from the fire pit—warm but ensuring the bonfire wouldn’t singe his clothes. After finishing, he turned to Lao Yang, hoping to pry more out of him. But when he looked over, he discovered
Lao Yang had freaking passed out too, still in the same sitting posture as before!
Fine, now he had to handle at least two shifts of night watch alone. He couldn’t just leave these two idiots unattended, right? Neither considered the situation—one dared to hand it over, one dared to drink!
On the verge of learning the result but having to wait another night, plus night watch duty—Wu Xie was numb.
