Chapter 12: A Ning? This Plot Doesn’t Match, Right?
Wang Pangzi finished eating and wiped his mouth, grinning at Wu Xie before asking him: “Young comrade, after saying all that, who are you guys? How come you’re eyeing this tomb just like me? I see you and that young comrade—” He pointed at Lin Yan: “You two seem like it’s your first time down here?”
Wu Xie awkwardly touched his nose: “I really am coming down for the first time. This trip is just to follow the elders and gain some experience. The one you carried all the way is Panzi, my Third Uncle’s shop assistant. My Third Uncle and I are both from the Wu Family. This time we came down because we accidentally got a map of this tomb and found out there’s a Warring States Tomb here. The one beside me is Lin Xiaoge, we encountered him halfway and came together.”
He gave Lin Yan a look, meaning one must be cautious and not spill everything. Right now, the situation was against them; they were 3:1, but among the three, one was seriously injured and half-dead, one had excessive blood loss and was also half-dead, and there was one with no fighting ability who could only run for his life—they barely counted as one and a half in combat power. If they faced this Wang Pangzi who dared to tomb raid alone, who knows what would happen. Though after the earlier mutual support in escaping, this Wang Pangzi might not attack them, but caution was never wrong. At least Lin Yan had come down with him and Third Uncle, so he was definitely on their side.
Lin Yan weakly curved the corner of his mouth at him: “My name is Lin Yan, you guys don’t have to keep calling me Lin Xiaoge, just call me by name. Anyway, I got involved halfway and owed his Third Uncle a favor, so I came down together. Once we’re out, it’ll probably be settled. But you’re right about one thing, I really am tomb raiding for the first time, just like Wu Xie, a rookie among rookies.”
Wang Pangzi frowned instead upon hearing this: “You’re not here for the Ghost Seal?”
“Ghost Seal?” The three said in unison, though Panzi’s tone was somewhat grave, Wu Xie looked full of curiosity, and Lin Yan seemed to recall something. Wasn’t the Ghost Seal one of Zhang Qiling’s goals this time? How come Wang Pangzi’s target was also the Ghost Seal? He didn’t remember the Ghost Seal appearing in the end, or maybe Zhang Qiling secretly took it? After all, later at the Bronze Gate, it was still used as a key.
“You don’t know?” Wang Pangzi looked astonished. They really weren’t here for the Ghost Seal? “No, if you’re not here for the Ghost Seal, then why did you come down here?”
Wu Xie looked baffled: “I’m here to gain experience. I’ve never heard of this Ghost Seal. What is it?”
Panzi looked innocent: “I’m following Third Master down here. I don’t know either.”
Lin Yan rolled his eyes. He could tell Panzi wasn’t telling the truth; probably only Wu Xie and Fatty would believe him: “I didn’t want to come at all. I owed his Third Uncle. How would I know why he wanted to come here?” He thought about it—wait, no. He owed Wu Xie, how did it become owing his Third Uncle? Hmm? But it kind of made sense; his Third Uncle was his guardian after all, so it wasn’t wrong.
Seeing everyone’s clueless expressions, Wang Pangzi rolled his eyes. Fine, the probing was for nothing.
“Sigh, forget it. For the sake of us going through hardship together, I’ll tell you about this Ghost Seal. Do you know whose tomb this is?”
Wu Xie’s eyes lit up: “I know! I understand some ancient characters. Earlier in the tomb chamber with the Seven Star Suspicious Coffin, Third Uncle and I deciphered some inscriptions on the stone coffin. It said the tomb owner here is Lu Shang Wang. We don’t know much about this Lu Shang Wang, only that he seems able to command Ghost Soldiers in battle.”
Wang Pangzi shook his head: “You really know nothing. With no preparations at all, how did you even get down here? Do you know what this Lu Shang Wang does that you dared to come down?”
Wu Xie looked disbelieving: “So you’re saying you know? If you know, how come you’re here escaping with us?”
Here it comes! They’re at it! Lin Yan quickly straightened up and pulled out melon seeds, peanuts, and happy water—no? Compressed rations would do! Nothing could stop him from watching Third Master Xiao interrogate Wang Pangzi up close! The moment Wu Xie raised his eyebrow, he had a premonition—this expression was probably fake! Recalling how he spotted Panzi lying earlier—huh? After time travel, was he a human lie detector? This wasn’t scientific!
But he thought about it—even his blood speeding up Zhang Qiling’s recovery was outrageous, so adding a human lie detector trait seemed acceptable? At least this thing seemed beneficial to him! In the future, he might not know what others were scheming against him, but at least he’d know they were scheming! Nice!
Wang Pangzi indeed couldn’t stand the provocation: “Of course I know! Before coming down, your Fatty checked a ton of info, okay? Just the preparations took over a month!” Hearing this, Wu Xie felt a twinge of shame inside. From getting the silk manuscript to them coming down, it was barely five days? What could you do in five days? No wonder Fatty said they knew nothing and still dared to come. Now it seemed, if not for Zhang Qiling, they’d have been wiped out by the Blood Corpse right after entering!
Fatty continued boasting: “Let me tell you, this Lu Shang Wang was the biggest tomb raider of the Warring States!”
“Tomb raider?” The three looked shocked. Lin Yan asked: “Wasn’t he a feudal lord? How is he a tomb raider?”
“Don’t disbelieve me when I say it.” Fatty raised an eyebrow: “Know where the legend of his Ghost Soldiers in battle comes from? They often rested during the day, marched at night, and frequently vanished from one place only to appear in another. The places they passed through had ‘many ruined graves; asked about it, they said the Ghost Soldiers had all come out.’ From a modern view, isn’t that just tomb raiding and exiting another way, incidentally ruining the grave? That’s a tomb raider, right? And that’s not all—the main evidence is those Seven Star Suspicious Coffins!”
“Seven Star Suspicious Coffin?” Wu Xie, who had been scared by the corpse sitting up in the coffin earlier, got interested. “Isn’t the Seven Star Suspicious Coffin a measure against tomb raiders? How is it related to Lu Shang Wang?”
Wang Pangzi chuckled: “History records that the Seven Star Suspicious Coffin was something tomb raiders themselves made up. Because they tomb raided countless times in life, fearing retribution after death, they set up the suspicious coffin trap: one main coffin, the others filled with deadly poison and mechanisms. But—” He leaned forward and beckoned them.
What was this? The group puzzledly leaned in, and Wang Pangzi sneakily looked around before whispering: “But I think this Seven Star Suspicious Coffin is fake. No, the entire Warring States Tomb is fake! I wasn’t sure at first, but after falling into this labyrinth, I was certain. Beneath this Warring States Tomb, there’s a Western Zhou Tomb!”
Wu Xie was stunned: “Who builds their tomb on top of someone else’s? Isn’t that cutting off your lineage?”
Lin Yan interjected from the side: “I know! The Qing Dynasty eunuch Li Lianying! They say he was buried face down, carried on seven stars!”
Wang Pangzi rolled his eyes at him: “Go away, what does the Qing Dynasty have to do here! Building your tomb on another’s is a Feng Shui thing called Dragon Concealing Acupoint! Though as a firm socialist youth, Fatty doesn’t believe in that stuff, it doesn’t stop me from knowing it! If I’m not wrong, Lu Shang Wang’s coffin is probably in that Western Zhou Tomb!”
Lin Yan looked pensive. In that case, the bronze coffin in his memory was Lu Shang Wang’s? He remembered Zhang Qiling crushing the person inside the bronze coffin to death. Wasn’t Lu Shang Wang the Blood Corpse outside? Who did he kill then? It was also a three-thousand-year zombie, right? Damn, worthy of Xiaoge—no matter if it was a feudal lord or not, he killed on sight, awesome!
Wu Xie asked curiously: “Then do you know exactly where this coffin is?”
Fatty sighed: “If I knew where it was, would I have run into you guys?”
At this point Panzi chimed in: “You know Feng Shui too? Then do you know how to get out of this labyrinth?”
Fatty looked proud: “What do you mean ‘know or not’? Of course Fatty knows! But this labyrinth—we got lost running for our lives earlier. Even if you ask me to find the way now, I can’t. It’s definitely not because I don’t know!”
Got it, he definitely didn’t know! The three felt dejected. Without any markers or signs, escaping this millennia-old labyrinth was next to impossible! Who knew how long their food and water reserves would last.
Suddenly Wu Xie remembered something and turned to ask Panzi: “Panzi, why did you guys leave me behind earlier? If not for Lin Yan staying with me, I’d probably have been scared to death there! Also, how did you get separated from my Third Uncle?”
Panzi sighed: “I was thinking of helping Zhang Xiaoge, so I chased after him. Truth is, I wasn’t at ease about him. After all, he’s the one Third Master Jia Lama brought. I always felt his purpose for coming down wasn’t pure, afraid something would happen. Halfway chasing, something whooshed by. I shone my lamp and it was gone. You know me, strong curiosity, so I followed. Then, at a stone wall, between the stones, I found a human hand as long as five fingers!”
Hearing this, Fatty’s face changed, wanting to say something but swallowing it back.
Panzi continued: “I wanted to get closer to see what it was, but suddenly the hand lunged up and grabbed my neck with great strength. I couldn’t break free, so I stabbed it with my military knife, and it retracted into the stone wall. I figured there was something behind the wall, so I probed a few times. Then I don’t know what I touched, and the whole person fell down. I dropped into a stone chamber, found a stone path inside, luckily turned left and right and ran into you guys Third Master Xiao, or this life would be done for.”
Wu Xie sighed. Looks like Panzi didn’t know where his Third Uncle went either. He asked Fatty: “Fatty, how did you get down here? Did you wake that Blood Corpse?”
Fatty’s eyes widened as he yelled: “You’re wronging your Fatty there! When I got to that place, I saw an old man release that monster. I turned around—hey! That kid yelled ‘oh no’ and ran, faster than Fatty! Fatty thought no way, the revolutionary spark depends on me, I can’t die here, so I ran desperately after. Halfway, the kid stopped, glanced at me, kicked somewhere, and Fatty fell down. I thought he was saving me, but right away I nearly got eaten by insects! Damn, he screwed Fatty over.”
Panzi pondered and said to Wu Xie: “Third Master Xiao, looks like that Xiaoge really has issues. How did he know where the mechanisms in the tomb are? And earlier he acted too familiar with this tomb. There’s definitely something off.”
Lin Yan frowned seeing them guard against Zhang Qiling like a thief and trying to rope Wu Xie in too: “You two, enough. Regardless, didn’t he drive away the Blood Corpse and the Corpse Beetles? He’s still out there luring the Blood Corpse away for us, life or death unknown. Is it really okay to talk about him like this?”
Fatty and Panzi looked at each other, both a bit ashamed.
Fatty licked his lips: “Damn, Fatty really does owe him one.” Panzi nodded. Though he still thought Zhang Qiling’s purpose for tomb raiding with them wasn’t pure, he did save their lives, and badmouthing him behind his back was over the line.
The group discussed and decided to rest up before setting off, following the stone path and trying their luck.
While Wu Xie was dozing off, he suddenly saw Fatty winking at him and mouthing: “Behind! Behind!”
He sat up groggily: “What’s behind?”
He saw Panzi and Lin Yan beside Fatty too; all three gasped at his words. He instantly sobered up and carefully looked behind—sure enough, a hand was on his shoulder.
A hand? He recalled what Panzi said, took a deep breath, slowly drew his dagger with his right hand, quietly moved it above the hand, then slashed down hard.
The hand was slashed and instantly retracted. Wu Xie was pulled by its force and slammed back into the stone wall, knocking a brick loose. Half his body got stuck inside, unable to move up or down.
“Good grief, there’s a path here?” Lin Yan went up and curiously knocked; another brick came loose easily. Now Wu Xie could move a bit. Panzi, with inconvenient legs, didn’t come over. Lin Yan and Fatty pulled Wu Xie out together, then the three knocked down surrounding bricks one by one, revealing a large cave hole plenty big for Fatty to pass.
“What the hell is this place? Those insects didn’t come from here, did they?” Fatty touched the cave entrance and shivered.
Panzi grinned honestly and raised his hand: “Don’t worry, that Xiaoge’s blood is on me. When he treated my wound, I took some from him.”
Wu Xie choked: “Panzi, you really don’t waste anything—well done! Now we’re not afraid.”
With Zhang Qiling’s blood, what was there to fear from Corpse Beetles? Having seen how they fled in panic when he approached, the group had full confidence in his blood. So they planned: Fatty leads, Lin Yan and Wu Xie the two rookies in the middle, Panzi brings up the rear.
Though the passage was large, they could only crawl through. Fatty and Panzi, even injured, had fighting power; the two rookies Lin Yan and Wu Xie shouldn’t even think about it—better stay safely in the middle.
Soon, Fatty’s excited voice came: “There’s light!”
The group couldn’t help speeding up. Whether finding Lu Shang Wang’s coffin or getting outside, escaping this labyrinth was good!
Fatty crawled out first and was shocked: “What is this place!”
Lin Yan was second out, yanked aside by Fatty: “My god!”
Then Wu Xie crawled out, nearly tumbling down, pulled back by Lin Yan and leaned against the stone wall, making space for Panzi.
They were in a huge natural cave, with a massive crack overhead letting in moonlight. Below was a cliff over ten meters deep. This side’s stone wall had countless cave openings like the passage behind them—who knew if they were all passages—dense and terrifying.
In the cave’s center was a huge tree-like organism, densely hung below with unknown things. Countless vines entwined it, nearly filling the whole cave, countless ends stretching into the caves, leading who-knows-where.
“Help”
Lin Yan seemed to hear a woman’s voice crying for help; listening closely, maybe not. He asked Wu Xie: “Did you hear someone shouting for help? I think I heard a woman’s voice.”
Wu Xie listened intently: “I don’t think I heard? Only you? Don’t let it be a hallucination, be careful.”
Lin Yan frowned, held his breath and listened carefully. After nearly half a minute, no sound repeated. He wondered inwardly: Could it really be a hallucination?
Then, the voice came closer: “Help!”
Now everyone heard it. Fatty looked surprised: “I think I heard someone shouting for help too!”
One person hearing was hallucination; several together probably wasn’t. Shining flashlights and mine lamps around, they finally spotted a bloodied woman figure on a vine to the right front.
Lin Yan was thoroughly shocked. How didn’t he remember a woman appearing here? Did he not read the book carefully? But the notebook had few women anyway—what woman would appear here? Thinking of the later plot, a name surfaced in his mind.
“A Ning!” He squeezed the name through his teeth, making Wu Xie glance at him in surprise and whisper in his ear: “Lin Yan, what did you see again? Should we save her?”
Lin Yan then recalled the later plot. If it really was this A Ning, she’d nearly kill Wu Xie multiple times later, dying in the Snake Marsh Ghost City. But he remembered A Ning didn’t appear at this time. Was it because of him that the plot was changing? So, should they save this A Ning?
