Chapter 146

“If we want to resolve the cursed power here, the first thing we need is to gain control over it, even if only in a nominal sense.

“So Xie Shun'an has to be dealt with first. He has a command flag in his hand that can guide the flow of the cursed power.

“Also, his status here is somewhat special.

“He’s a lot like Yin Meng. On the surface, both of them are honored guests of the general.

“But judging from his interactions with the ancestors of the four old Tianmen families, along with the fact that he can freely enter and leave the banquet hall while the nearby maids and eunuchs all act as though they don’t see what he’s doing...

“I suspect Xie Shun'an has partial control over this place.”

Li Zhuiyuan remembered the corpse-driving Daoist from the Xie family he had seen in Ah Li’s dream. Normally, only evil entities personally suppressed by Liu, the Dragon King, could trace the karmic source back to Ah Li.

So the boy inferred that using blood relatives as sacrifices to form the seal was only the first step. On top of that, there was likely something akin to a Natal life-mark, forcibly binding the general and the Xie ancestor together in life and death.

Since that ancestor still retained consciousness, then to a certain extent, this environment could also be said to partially belong to the Xie family.

And since Xie Shun'an was a member of the Xie family, it was not strange for him to possess some degree of control.

Li Zhuiyuan continued:

“The general may once have been powerful, but now he has already weakened. Even if Xie Shun'an has some tricks, he shouldn’t be too outrageous.

“We actually do have a chance against them.

“The most important issue is those beings that cannot be looked at directly.

“Unless we gouge out our own eyes like Xie Shun'an did, we currently have no way to face them, and we also can’t expose them.

“Binbin, you all carried that group of unseeables before. You said they’re usually all kept together in one place, right?”

Tan Wenbin replied, “Yes, in a large hall that’s still relatively well preserved. When we mixed into the corpse-driving team to go pick them up, we stopped at the entrance to that hall. The corpse drivers lined up one by one outside the doors, crouched down, lowered their carrying poles, and then they came out of the palace one by one and climbed onto the poles.

“It was the same when we returned them. We carried them back to the entrance, crouched down, lowered the poles, and they slid down by themselves and went back inside.”

Li Zhuiyuan changed to a stern tone. “Tan Wenbin.”

Tan Wenbin’s expression immediately tightened. “Present.”

Li Zhuiyuan said, “Xiong Shan.”

Xiong Shan’s lips twitched. He was also the leader of a team, and in the past he was always the one giving orders. This was the first time he had ever been assigned a task by someone else.

But ever since they met, the boy had repeatedly shown a mysterious side. Before, it had only been ability. But that analysis the boy had just made about his situation in the jianghu had genuinely made him feel as if he had encountered a senior.

And at a time like this, he had no other choice. If the matter here was not handled properly, his whole family would suffer karmic reckoning.

Xiong Shan said, “Present!”

Li Zhuiyuan said, “You and Tan Wenbin are one group, and you’re the team leader. Your group has two tasks. First, find Yin Meng. Once you find her, she joins your group automatically.

“That task is not the priority. As an honored guest of the general, Yin Meng should not be in any mortal danger.

“But your group’s second task must be completed. Over the coming period, you must stop the unseeables inside that palace hall from coming out, so we can have the space we need to deal with Xie Shun'an.”

Xiong Shan nodded. “All right. Understood.”

Li Zhuiyuan continued, “Two suggestions for you: try not to fight them head-on. Use indirect tactics.

“Xiong Shan, the Chenzhou talismans you’re skilled with work extremely well as camouflage here. Make good use of that.

“Also, since we’ve already confirmed that the maids and eunuchs here can be bribed, make sure to cultivate that relationship.”

Tan Wenbin immediately turned to Runsheng. “Runsheng, give me all the incense.”

Runsheng at once took two metal tins out of his bag. One held thin incense, the ordinary stuff he usually chewed on. The other, smaller and more refined, held thick incense shaped like cigars. Whenever they were out on the road, Runsheng rationed himself whenever he smoked those each day.

After keeping one thick stick for himself, Runsheng handed both tins to Tan Wenbin.

Tan Wenbin weighed them in his hand. More than half the thin incense was already gone. The thick incense sticks were thick enough, but there weren’t many of them. And when bribing someone, it would be awkward to say, “Excuse me, honored eunuch, and you too, maidservant, could the two of you please share one stick between you?”

Tan Wenbin asked, “Runsheng, any more?”

Runsheng shook his head. “That’s all that’s left.”

“All right, then.”

Tan Wenbin nodded. He understood too. Everyone’s hiking bag was large, but they had to carry corpse retriever tools, food, water, and all kinds of supplies, so there was only limited room left for personal items.

Runsheng said, “Mengmeng has another set of thick and thin incense in her bag. She was worried I wouldn’t have enough, so she brought it for me.”

Li Zhuiyuan said, “Raise the priority of picking up Mengmeng.”

Tan Wenbin grinned. “Absolutely.”

“The rest of you, come with me to find Xie Shun'an.” Li Zhuiyuan looked again at Tan Wenbin and Xiong Shan. “Remember, until we send the signal that we’ve succeeded here, not a single one of the unseeables in that palace can be let out.”

Tan Wenbin said, “Understood.”

Xiong Shan patted his chest and said in a low voice, “Don’t worry.”

They split up and began moving. The straw carrying poles could still be used. After making some slight repairs, Xiong Shan led each side away carrying their straw effigies.

Li Zhuiyuan did not know where Xie Shun'an currently was, but that did not matter. He could first go to the true core of this place, the location where the general’s real body lay.

If Xie Shun'an happened to be there, even better. And if he wasn’t, Li Zhuiyuan could speak with that Xie family ancestor.

After all, the reason he had come here at all was because that very ancestor had taken the initiative to seek him out.

Though the palace had been heavily damaged, quite a few restrictions and traps still remained.

Lihua, who had been assigned to Li Zhuiyuan’s side, could not help but remind them, “My husband has been in here before. There are a lot of mechanisms inside. Be careful.”

“Mm.”

Li Zhuiyuan gave a simple response, then picked up a rock and threw it onto the damaged stone path ahead.

Smack!

Crash...

The ground in front collapsed, and foul-smelling filthy water rapidly surged up to fill it, even spraying outward like a fountain.

This filthy water should originally have been highly corrosive, but after so much time had passed, the corrosiveness had faded. Yet because it was in such a resentment-soaked environment, it had been tainted with another kind of toxicity.

Li Zhuiyuan tugged down on Runsheng’s clothes.

Runsheng understood. Carrying the straw pole, he crouched down. Lin Shuyou and Lihua behind him also crouched.

They stayed like that for a very long time.

Lihua worried that her husband’s side had already begun stopping those unseeables, so she could not help gently reaching out to nudge Lin Shuyou in front of her.

“Why aren’t we moving?”

Lin Shuyou turned back and made a shushing gesture.

Lihua asked again, “Is he doing something?”

Lin Shuyou frowned. So this was how annoying he used to be when he talked too much?

At last, Li Zhuiyuan stood up and walked to the front of the line, tugging on Runsheng’s clothes to indicate that he would lead. At the same time, he reminded them:

“The ones behind, watch where the person in front of you steps. Try not to put your foot in the wrong place.”

“Understood,” Lihua said.

“Got it!” Lin Shuyou answered.

Then the group officially entered the palace. Sometimes even when moving in a straight line they still had to circle around, but overall they maintained a fairly fast pace, and the whole way remained safe.

This shocked Lihua. Her husband had said the palace was extremely dangerous and that he had nearly failed to make it out. So where was the danger? Had that boy avoided every last one of them?

Li Zhuiyuan had once read the Chronicle of the Qi Clan. The Qi family’s ancestors had been true grandmasters of tomb mechanisms.

This general’s burial used a standard layout, a textbook problem.

There were two main difficulties. First, ordinary tomb mechanisms were designed mainly against grave robbers coming from outside, but the ones here were aimed mostly at those within.

Second, after suffering severe damage, all sorts of secondary changes would arise. Mechanisms could warp, or even fundamentally change in nature. In an eerie environment like this, even something originally harmless could end up contaminated with poison.

Once he had settled on the right approach, Li Zhuiyuan solved the problems as he guided the group forward. The only reason this worked so smoothly was because the boy’s mind worked incredibly fast. An ordinary person, even someone who had studied such things, would have needed to walk a stretch, stop, think, verify, and only then dare take the next step.

As they continued onward, they eventually reached the deepest and most central part of the palace.

Lihua let out a long breath. She truly felt it was a pity that her husband had not been here to experience this. The place he had called so dangerous was being crossed as easily as walking on level ground. What would that feel like?

But she also felt that her husband had probably foreseen this already. That was why he had proactively asked to pay a visit to the Li family in Nantong.

Li the Corpse Retriever was probably truly a hidden family that never emerged into the world.

Lihua lowered her head to look at the child in her arms.

Son, perhaps this is your opportunity!

This boy is still young. Grow up quickly. Maybe by the time he lights the lamp and begins walking the jianghu, you’ll be able to follow him!

Every mother views her own child through a filter. At the shallowest level, that means thinking the child is beautiful beyond compare even when the child looks perfectly ordinary. At a deeper level, it becomes imagining that one’s child was born in response to fate itself and is destined for great accomplishments in the future.

Naturally, Li Zhuiyuan had no time to spare attention to what the woman behind him was thinking, because when he saw the enormous pit ahead, he also saw Xie Shun'an setting up an altar beside it.

Good. He was here.

At that moment, Xie Shun'an was in the middle of a ritual. Two already very tall white candles were burning. Their flames leaped high into the air, burning fiercely, yet the candles themselves were not melting down and shortening. On the contrary, they were still growing taller.

When ordinary people set out offerings to their ancestors during festivals, that was worship. They exchanged real offerings for the peaceful rest of their forebears and... whatever blessings the ancestors might choose to grant.

But Li Zhuiyuan could tell at a glance that Xie Shun'an was not conducting a traditional sacrificial rite. He was forcibly borrowing life from his ancestor.

“Truly filial,” Li Zhuiyuan said.

This was a half-evil art. The reason it had the word half in it was because it was widespread in many places and commonly performed with the ancestor’s consent.

For instance, if a child in the family was born weak and always sickly, the family might seek out the child’s parents or grandparents and perform such a ritual, borrowing fortune and lifespan to help the child get through the crisis.

If the family could not bear to do that, or if they were wealthy enough, they would use another method instead... marrying to counter misfortune.

A fortune-teller would be asked to find an unmarried man or woman with a good fate pattern from a poor family. If the sick person at home was too ill even to complete the ritual, then the woman would carry a rooster, or the man would lead a paper effigy covered with a red bridal veil, and the wedding rite would be completed anyway.

What Xie Shun'an was doing now was that same kind of thing, forcefully drawing out his great-grandfather’s remaining lifespan for himself. His goal might not even be to increase his own fortune or years of life. More likely, he simply hoped his great-grandfather would hurry up and die for good.

From this, Li Zhuiyuan could tell that the Xie ancestor was doing everything he could to maintain the general’s existence, because he clearly knew what kind of catastrophe would occur once the general was completely destroyed.

He was truly pitiful. Back then, he had sacrificed himself for righteousness in order to suppress the general, enduring centuries of suffering within the seal, all so that he could perish together with the general as soon as possible and rid the world of this great evil.

But just as his mission was nearly complete and he was finally about to be released, the machinations of his own descendants had forced him to keep holding on and help preserve the general’s existence.

Xie Shun'an put away his Peachwood Sword and turned to face Li Zhuiyuan. Though he could not see, he seemed to have developed a new kind of perception.

“Who comes?”

Li Zhuiyuan looked at the command flag tucked into Xie Shun'an’s waist and said:

“Give me the command flag.

“I promise you,

“once I’ve dealt with the problem here, I can help you take revenge.”

“Heh heh heh...” Xie Shun'an laughed. He reached out and touched the command flag at his waist, then asked in return, “You can solve this?”

Li Zhuiyuan said, “I’m somewhat confident.”

“What a pity. If only I had met you twenty years ago, before I went under Grandma’s orders to attend that old beast from the Wang family’s birthday banquet.”

“Sorry. I wasn’t born yet.”

“Hahaha... too late. Back then, I thought I was amazing, thought I had managed to shake off the people tailing me and escape back from the Wang family banquet. Only that very night, they followed my trail all the way back home.

“My grandma, who had always urged me that enemies should be reconciled rather than made and that the past should just be left in the past, burned herself alive in the old house to stop them and protect me.

“That night, the fire burned fiercely. Our old home was built with excellent timber.”

Li Zhuiyuan said, “That’s why I didn’t tell you to let go of your hatred. I said I could help you take revenge, and I can even design plenty of ways for you to make that revenge more satisfying.

“I mean it.”

Xie Shun'an said, “So what you mean is this: those three families deserve my revenge, and they’d deserve to die, but the ordinary people in this region are innocent and shouldn’t be dragged into it?

“Listening to your voice, you’re very young, aren’t you?

“I never expected someone so young to have such a bodhisattva’s heart, so full of mercy for the world.”

“Thank you for the compliment,” Li Zhuiyuan said.

“Hah, you really think I was praising you?”

“Mm.”

“Your accent isn’t local. Get out. The farther the better. This matter has nothing to do with you. If you want to play the compassionate savior and preach benevolence, do it somewhere else!”

“I’m not doing something benevolent. I’m only doing what’s right.”

Li Zhuiyuan gave himself an inward check. The people he truly cared about right now were very few. One hand could barely count them; two hands were more than enough.

If they were talking about being cold-blooded, this Xie Shun'an really could not compare to him. At least Xie Shun'an still had boundless hatred inside him, and hatred was also a kind of emotion.

And yet all at once, he had pinned so many labels on him.

From the perspective of a sick man, these sarcastic words sounded about the same as saying, “Wishing you a speedy recovery.”

Xie Shun'an pointed at his own eyes and asked, “Do you see them?”

“I do. You’re blind.”

“I can no longer see this world.”

“Mm.”

“Since I can’t see it anymore, then this world has no meaning to exist.”

“Oh.”

“I want my ancestors to see this clearly. I want them to see just how utterly foolish their sacrifice to seal that evil thing really was!

Why couldn’t they think more carefully for themselves, for us descendants!

“I want them to regret it. I want to turn their sacrifice and the greatness they were so smug about into one enormous joke! I want to destroy everything they believed had value and meaning!

The Yan family, the Xie family, the Wang family, the Bu family.

“How could just those three families

possibly be enough?

“I want more people, the more the better. I want as many people as possible to be buried with me, buried with my Xie family!”

“All right. I understand.”

Li Zhuiyuan raised his right hand and waved it forward.

Runsheng gripped his Yellow River Spade and charged.

His qi gates opened, his momentum like a rainbow through the sky. Every step he took sent tremors echoing around the giant pit.

Xie Shun'an swallowed. He instantly realized he was no match for this man, at least not in close combat. Against the one charging at him now, he had no chance whatsoever.

So he made a snap decision. He threw down the Peachwood Sword and flung both arms outward. Two sections of bamboo poles dropped from his sleeves. Then, with a flick, the poles rapidly extended.

Just like the Yellow River Spade used by corpse retrievers, this pair of bamboo carrying poles was standard equipment for corpse drivers.

Xie Shun'an swung his arms. The two long bamboo poles rose into the air, then lowered toward the giant pit.

Just as Runsheng closed in on him, Xie Shun'an twisted his body sideways, using himself as the axis, and swept the poles up while pulling his hands back. The bamboo poles retracted with the motion.

The corpse-driving Daoist lying inside the coffin in the giant pit was clamped by the two bamboo poles, lifted out of the pit, and dropped in front of Runsheng.

Xie Shun'an controlled the bamboo poles, and the corpse-driving Daoist immediately began to move.

He raised a hand and threw a punch at Runsheng.

This was an ancestor of the Xie family, but also the general. Even in death, a tiger’s might remained, let alone two tigers together.

At the height of his power, the general had been overwhelmingly fierce, able to contend head-on with Liu, the Dragon King. Even now, though his techniques could no longer be used, his controlled body still carried terrifying force.

The fist brought crushing pressure with it, setting off a roaring wave of air.

Runsheng dared not take it lightly. The Yellow River Spade he had originally been ready to attack with was turned sideways at once to block.

Bang!

After that single punch, the corpse-driving Daoist did not move an inch, but Runsheng was sent rapidly sliding backward. His boots scraped against the ground for dozens of meters. The thick-soled hiking boots not only began to smoke white, but half the soles melted away.

If this had not been the new Yellow River Spade tailor-made for him, then the old one he used in the past would likely have snapped the instant it met that fist.

Runsheng was utterly shocked by the terrifying strength of that body. It gave him the same feeling he had once had during special training, when his master, Uncle Qin, had sparred with him.

Back then, he had felt as if he were facing an immovable mountain.

And he knew perfectly well that Uncle Qin had never used his full strength on him then. But the corpse-driving Daoist before him was also being controlled by Xie Shun'an, so its full strength likewise was not truly being brought out.

Runsheng rolled his neck, forcibly suppressing the surging blood and qi in his body. The qi gates all over him rapidly opened and closed, and he launched another charge.

Li Zhuiyuan noticed Xie Shun'an throw out a talisman. The paper hit the ground and instantly burned to ashes.

He was probably summoning the unseeables over. If even one of them came and stood beside Xie Shun'an, this fight would become extremely hard to handle.

Runsheng’s second assault clearly veered around the corpse-driving Daoist in front of him. Halfway through his charge, he began circling, planning to attack Xie Shun'an directly.

But Xie Shun'an merely flicked his arm, and the corpse-driving Daoist instantly moved after Runsheng, keeping pace with him like an eagle chasing chicks.

Just then, Xie Shun'an suddenly showed a puzzled expression. “What’s that sound?”

“Ah You,” Li Zhuiyuan said.

Lin Shuyou opened his left hand, clenched his right into a fist, and began invoking a spirit.

He did not open the face, because he knew Little Yuanhou disliked the insufferable version of him that came out after that.

Secondly, in an environment like this, any disobedience at all could lead to terrible consequences.

But because of that, his chance of success in spirit invocation was lower.

Still, it didn’t matter. He could just keep trying, like using a lighter at high altitude. Try enough times and eventually it had to spark.

As a result, once, twice, three times, four times...

Lin Shuyou kept repeating the motions, stomping again and again, but failed every time.

As Ah You continued his movements and kept trying to invoke a spirit, he also snuck glances at Little Yuanhou beside him.

He now felt ashamed and awkward.

Before meeting Little Yuanhou, he had worshipped the Yin gods completely, believing they were lofty, all-powerful beings beyond compare.

Ever since meeting Little Yuanhou, the fixed impression of the Yin gods that had formed in his mind since childhood had been cracking bit by bit.

Perhaps the dense cursed aura in this realm made White Crane Child unwilling to muddy himself in these waters. Or perhaps, weak as the general now was, his former rank still carried too much weight. In any case, the child spirit was unwilling to descend.

Li Zhuiyuan said nothing. He merely raised his left hand and waved forward.

“You go.”

Lihua prepared to hand her son to Li Zhuiyuan, but Li Zhuiyuan did not take him.

Then she tried to pass the baby to Lin Shuyou. She remembered that when they had slid down into the groove earlier, Lin Shuyou had been cheerfully carrying her son the whole way. But Lin Shuyou was still busy punching the air and stomping his feet, clearly too occupied.

Having no choice, Lihua set her son down on the ground and pulled two short axes out of the swaddling cloth.

Li Zhuiyuan reminded her, “Feign an attack on Xie Shun'an.”

“Understood!”

Lihua charged forward.

She was faster than Runsheng. The moment she entered the battlefield, she was like an axe being thrown, except she curved even more smoothly as she swept toward Xie Shun'an.

Runsheng seized the chance to press forward at the same time, with no intention of letting the corpse-driving Daoist fall back to defend.

An anxious look appeared on Xie Shun'an’s face.

Li Zhuiyuan immediately shouted, “He’s acting!”

Runsheng instantly switched from offense to defense.

Lihua’s coordination was a bit worse, but since she had only been feinting anyway, she also stopped her forward charge.

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