<strong>Chapter 21</strong>


    The whole corridor was blocked up and down by the jangshi, who were still at the moment, but full of breath.


    The atmosphere was frozen at the moment.


    Zhang Qiu, holding a dagger in his hand, looked at the Jiangshi before his eyes. He was sure it did not move. As soon as he touched Zhang YuShui, his hand was pulled away by Li Shu. Even so, the burning sensation from his fingertips made him palpitate.


    The temperature was too high to boil eggs.


    Pixian HuiWang, huddled on the ground in pain, blood could be seen flowing beneath his pale skin, as if he would be disintegrate at any moment.


    “What should we do?”


    Li Shu nced between those zongzi, Pixian Hui Wang and Zhang YuShui. He didn’t know what was going on, but he saw the clue.


    “There’s a connection between the three. Look at Zhang YuShui. As long as Zhang YuShui’s face is rxed, Pixian HuiWang’s face is pain. The faster the blood flows, the more rxed these zongzis are.”


    ording to Li Shu’s words, Zhang Qiu saw that as it was, but there was no solution now, so he had to say: “Otherwise we can go ahead carefully avoid it and talk again.”


    Just as Li Shu was about to open his mouth, Jin LaoDa’s voice came from the tomb passage. “HA-HA-HA-HA. It’s useless; you guys broke the Eye’s Array." Suddenly the conversation turned, “Zhang YuShui, do you choose to die or do you want to kill Pixian HuiWang just like you did before?”


    Zhang YuShui, who was on the ground, was deeply struck; his memory was so numerous that he couldn’t tell whether he was Zhang YuShui or Emperor Zhang of Han. Sobered and calmed in a split second, his eyes focused on the painful face of Pixian HuiWang on the ground, coincided with the memories of the person in his bosom.


    “You die, or Pixian HuiWang dies. Zhang YuShui, it’s your choice.”


    The voice of Jin LaoDa in the tomb came from all sides, with the chewing sound of Ka Cha ka Cha.


    “You shut the fuck up!” Zhang Qiu shouted furiously all around the tomb.


    The atmosphere was quiet again, but their dilemma was still there. Zhang Qiu saw Zhang YuShui’s yellow pupils getting stronger and stronger, gradually bing golden. He was as hot as a burning man. With Zhang YuShui’s actions, the Jiangshi’s whole body became more and more angry and the expression was grim, but they could not make any noise. The whole atmosphere was silent like purgatory.


    “Second brother!” Zhang Qiu didn’t know what Zhang YuShui was going to do, but guessed he was about to sacrifice himself. At the side, Pixian HuiWang, had a little bit of blood on his body, and his expression rxed, without the pain he had just felt. Zhang Qiu affirmed his guess and said, "Don’t listen to Jin LaoDa, that old bullshit nonsense. He himself gnawed on the zongzi monster. He most probably deceives us to go die ourselves."


    Zhang YuShui didn’t listen to Zhang Qiu. His face was distorted, but his eyes were staring down at Pixian Hui Wang, as if trying to draw a person into his eyes, such scorching hot gaze.


    “Ah Yan...” Zhang Yushi had a hard time pronouncing these two words. His skin was already shining golden and it getting stronger, the whole tomb passage was shining like daylight, his clothes were burning, and the seven apertures of the Jangshi in the corridor were filled with thick fog, ’wu-wu’ wailing like ghosts and howling like wolves sort of like cutting a person.


    Zhang YuShui’s lips moved down, and the whole body was caught in a golden me, but the me could not reach Pixian HuiWang.


    Such resolute of self-immtion, but inside the eyes were deep attachment.


    “You, you -” Pixian Hui Wang gritted his teeth and stared at the ame Zhang YuShui, but could not say a word.


    Zhang Qiu knew that this moment was beyond salvation and wondered why such a difficult choice had to be made.


    “Bang—”


    Golden light rushed to the top, a huge strong wave of light, Li Shu blocked Zhang Qiu in his arms, one hand pressed Zhang Qiu’s head, not letting it face the light source.


    In the dark, and being in Li Shu’s cold embrace, Zhang Qiu’s eyes stung, obviously and properly ce, how could this be possible!


    As if to extinguish all the burned-out light sources in an instant, the whole passage was plunged back into darkness, but full of a strong odor, which was the Jiangshi’s.


    Zhang Qiu’s head was numbed, Li Shu had let go of him, was about to make a sound, suddenly heard “bang, ng -” sound, came from the top of the head, Zhang Qiu followed the sound to see, Jin LaoDa with shiny eyes, hand holding something, emitting a golden light, and Li Shu climbed up at the top to the hole and Jin LaoDa was removed. It was like throwing down a loach; quick and ruthless, throwing people on the ground.


    Pixian HuiWang smashed Jin LaoDa’s head with a p. A red and white juice spread all over the ground. He broke Jin LaoDa’s hand, took the golden bead, and very cautiously put it in his bosom; acting with due care and respect seemingly very affectionate.


    The quick action done in a split second, Li Shu picked up Jin LaoDa and quickly reached him (ZQ). He saw his (ZQ) eyes and his eyebrows frowned slightly, “you can see?”


    “What can I see?” Zhang Qiu did not react. Only Li Shu pointed to his (ZQ) eyes. What happened to his eyes? Suddenly, Zhang Qiu was shocked. The tomb was dark, but his eyes could see everything. “Real—really can see.”


    The thousands of Jiangshi in the tomb passage had be white bones,yers uponyers on the whole corridor’s pavement, theyer of dried skin and meat like msses disappeared in the corridor, Zhang Qiu at the thought of the stinking smell of rotten fishes in the air be even were more nauseated, hated to have to breathe.


    “Where is second brother!?”


    His heart sank when he finished asking Li Shu and Pixian Hui Wang, originally he was thinking that Jin LaoDa had lied to them, the golden light would have disappeared, and the people would still be there.


    “Since you say that second brother is a Phoenix, isn’t there a saying that Phoenix is Nirvana (1)?” Zhang Qiu looked up and asked Li Shu. “There must be some way,” he said.


    Pixian HuiWang touched the bead in his pocket through his clothes, the touch were warm on his fingers. He could not help thinking of the three words he said to the other person. His eyes were red, but his eyes were full of evil tendencies.


    “He once drenched my whole coffin with his blood every three years. Ten yearster, in order to bring me back to life, his blood was running out. I heard a voice telling him that great events havee into being.” Pixian HuiWang, thinking about what he had vaguely heard lying in his coffin, said with a hint of murder in his eyes, “This speaker was put to death.”


    Zhang Qiu thought of Pixian HuiWang’s coffin was a redcquer carved five-wed dragon. At that time he thought it was redcquer. Now listening to Pixian HuiWang saying that it was the blood of Emperor Zhang of Han Dynasty, he didn’t know what to say at the moment. Could it be that second elder brother was really gone?


    “Zhang YuShui’s Phoenix bloodline are not to kill, unless consume its essence, wait for the weakest time to self-immte, it transform to noumenon (2) bead. Look at this color, should be a firebird chick.” Li Shu looked around at the tomb passage, “It must have been a good idea to wait a thousand years andy down such a mechanism."


    Firebird chick, it was a kind of Phoenix bloodline with golden yellow wings.


    Pixian HuiWang knew, looking at the Jin LaoDa corpse on the ground, shouldn’t have killed him so early.


    “What about Nirvana?” Zhang Qiu didn’t understand what he was saying. He only knew that as long as it was a Phoenix, it would die and resurrect.


    Li Shu saw Zhang Qiu looking worried, but did not want to deceive the other, honestly said: “It is self-immtion, not Nirvana.”


    Pixian HuiWang’s eyes darkened as he hung down his eyelids and touched the bead in his pocket. He looked pale, did not know what he was thinking. The atmosphere was heavy for a moment, and nobody spoke along the way.


    Behind them, in a long dark road, the corpse of Jin LaoDa, which had just been shattered, suddenly moved around.


    Zhang Qiu several people went out of the tomb, it was already the next morning, unconsciously had spent the night in the tomb passage tossing about, they arrived the foot of the mountain.


    “It’s Na Wu.” Far away was the clothing that Na Wu wore. Zhang Qiu was surprised to say, “Wasn’t he ran out already?”


    As he got closer, Zhang Qiu found something wrong. Na Wu knelt down in the direction of robber’s hole. There were two green bones behind him, kneeling on the ground like Na Wu. It was amazing that such bones could kneel on the ground.


    “Dead.”


    Na Wu seemed to have been drained of water, but the two behind him wereplete bones; they were the two of Lao Fei’s men.


    Pixian HuiWang had no interest in these things; he had not left his one hand from the pocket since he came out of the tomb, and his face looked cold and indifferent.


    “Otherwise, look for a ce and cover with leaves first, then wait until calling the vigers to be buried.” Zhang Qiu said, somehow it was to show them the way, and now people were dead, did not know how to go back to exin.


    Zhang Qiu was dying with headache; more than a dozen of them and finally came out alive were only three of them.


    Li Shu didn’t let Zhang Qiu did anything about it. He dragged Na Wu’s bones under the tree and walked back through the stone-walled coffin seemingly not thrilling and without any danger. It was more than two o’clock in the afternoon. Among the three, Li Shu and Pixian Hui Wang were fine and clean. Only Zhang Qiu was dirty and took a hot bath. He was hungry. When he saw Pixian HuiWang, he would think of Zhang YuShui, and his appetite gone.


    Putting down the bowl and chopsticks, Zhang Qiu asked Little Grandson, who served the meal, “Do you know there’s a man named Na Wu in this vige?”


    “Bang!”


    Little grandson’s bowl fell on the table; his big eyes full of tears, choked and asked, “Why do you ask for my A-ba?”


    Boom—


    Zhang Qiu’s head was muddled.


    When he first arrived, he heard that the old grandpa’s son had note out of the mountain since three years ago, the vige pronounced him dead. He did not unexpectedly inquire into the heartbreak of the family, but at the moment he never thought that Na Wu, who had led them along, was the son who had been dead for three years as they’d talk.


    By the way, it was Jin LaoDa who hade to meet directly at the foot of the mountain. Na Wu had never been to the yard.


    Everything seemed to be right, but there’s no way to tell whether Na Wu died three years ago or just now. If he died three years ago, then the one who’s leading them the way was dead person.


    Zhang Qiu shivered at the thought. Li Shu saw Zhang Qiu’s ugly face and coaxed him to go up for a rest.


    “I don’t dare to sleep now. I’m afraid when I close my eyes, the people in this vige are not alive. I can’t tell from who’s dead, who’s alive anymore –” he said, half way remembering that Pixian HuiWang was also a big zongzi. His mood wasplicated.


    Contrariwise he was not particrly scared, it’s just that there was a species except for himself and Li Shu that were ordinary people, but nowadays seeing anyone was not human—literally meaning.


    (1) Nirvana (in Buddhism) a transcendent state in which there is neither suffering, desire, nor sense of self, and the subject is released from the effects of karma and the cycle of death and rebirth


    (2) Noumenon = object of purely intellectual perception (ording to Kant)


    (3) A-ba = dad


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