He Sui’an’s pupils contracted as she hurriedly pulled back her neck. Her reaction was so exaggerated that she rolled backward out of the coffin like a ball.
Shen Jianhe, sitting opposite the redwood coffin, was dumbfounded. He was startled but found the person rolling on the ground somewhat familiar. Upon closer inspection, he realized he had indeed seen her before—she lived next door.
Shen Jianhe stood up and blurted out, “Are you the girl from the inn?”
He Sui’an said nothing.
Then, he also saw Qi Buyan.
Tonight, Qi Buyan’s hair was not braided. His long hair was half-tied with a blue silk ribbon—one given to him by He Sui’an. Under the candlelight, he appeared exceptionally gentle and serene, like a pleasing painting.
From the first time Shen Jianhe saw Qi Buyan at the inn, he felt that Qi was not a simple person.
Shen Jianhe, in his twenties, had been wandering the martial world since childhood, learning tomb-robbing techniques from his master along with how to judge people. Yet, he found Qi Buyan indescribably mysterious.
This man, seemingly delicate and pretty, treated people with gentle manners, but he always seemed shrouded in a layer of white mist, as if hiding something deep within. Often, the unknown side is the most dangerous source.
Wait a minute.
Why were they also in King Yan’s tomb?
Shen Jianhe scrutinized He Sui’an and Qi Buyan. Were they also here to rob the tomb upon hearing that it contained countless treasures?
This could be problematic. Shen Jianhe couldn’t bear to see the treasures fall into others’ hands. Simply put, he was a greedy person blinded by wealth, and he admitted it himself; otherwise, he wouldn’t have risked robbing tombs.
He Sui’an did not miss Shen Jianhe’s changing expressions and silently took a step back.
Shen Jianhe grabbed his hair in frustration.
He muttered to himself, “No, no, Master said not to kill for wealth. Tomb robbers already have short lives, and we should accumulate virtue. King Yan’s tomb has plenty of treasures; I can’t take them all. What’s wrong with sharing some?”
He Sui’an: “…”
It wasn’t that He Sui’an doubted Shen Jianhe’s abilities, but he might not be a match for Qi Buyan. Qi Buyan could use Gu, killing invisibly, and he skillfully manipulated the Heavenly Silkworm thread.
Qi Buyan ignored Shen Jianhe, left the redwood coffin, and walked towards the stone wall, where the fourteen wall lamps had ornate patterns.
Hiss, hiss, hiss.
Snakes flicked their tongues.
At first, He Sui’an thought it was a few snakes Qi Buyan raised. Gradually, she sensed something was wrong. How could a few snakes make such loud noises? This sound seemed more like it came from a snake swarm.
She was about to look back when Shen Jianhe behind her suddenly screamed in shock, as if trying to collapse the tomb with his ghostly wailing.
He pointed at the redwood coffin, which had a crack opening.
“So many snakes!”
The snakes moved like flowing clouds, their scales gleaming with a cold, eerie light as they crawled out of the redwood coffin lid. There were golden-ringed snakes, silver-ringed snakes, and all manner of venomous serpents.
These were all highly poisonous snakes; one bite was lethal. Shen Jianhe cursed under his breath, wondering if the ritual he performed before entering the tomb was inadequate, causing the tomb’s owner to be displeased.
Before opening a tomb, tomb robbers would conduct a ritual to pray for smooth proceedings.
Shen Jianhe might sometimes be careless in his actions, but he would not be negligent in such matters. The sacrificial items he bought were top quality, meant to ensure peace of mind.
So, who exactly did he provoke?
In the past, when he followed his master to rob tombs, everything went smoothly. Facing the current predicament, Shen Jianhe felt like dying.
He Sui’an wanted to rush over and close the coffin.
There were already many snakes near the coffin.
She suppressed her fear and tried to close the coffin, but the coffin was too heavy to move. Shen Jianhe came over to help. Men generally have more strength, and they were just about to close the coffin.
Qi Buyan, ignoring the redwood coffin, raised his hand to remove a wall lamp, the bell on his wrist jingling, “It’s useless. The coffin is going to crack.”
What?
Shen Jianhe broke out in cold sweat.
He looked down and saw that the previously sturdy redwood coffin indeed had visible cracks—more than one. The increasing pressure from inside was about to make it burst open.
He Sui’an saw it too. She stopped trying to close the coffin and turned to run. She had only taken a few steps when the redwood coffin, under immense internal pressure, split open completely, and snakes swarmed out.
Several snakes landed on Shen Jianhe.
He frantically shook them off.
He Sui’an immediately ran towards Qi Buyan, like a frightened animal finally finding its way home after a harrowing journey.
She reached out to him as she ran.
At first, Qi Buyan didn’t lift his hand, but after a few moments, he extended it. He Sui’an, seemingly placing her complete trust in him, grasped his hand without hesitation.
Their fingers intertwined.
Qi Buyan pulled He Sui’an onto the stone platform.
Seeing them on the elevated stone platform, Shen Jianhe quickly followed, chased by the relentless swarm of snakes. He was so scared he didn’t dare stop, fearing he’d be bitten to death in the ancient tomb.
A silver-ringed snake climbed onto the redwood coffin and leapt towards the still-running Shen Jianhe, giving the illusion that it could fly.
The silver-ringed snake had its mouth open.
This meant that once it landed on Shen Jianhe, it would immediately bite him.
He Sui’an quickly pulled out a hairpin, aimed at the direction the silver-ringed snake was leaping, and threw it with all her strength, hitting the snake’s head. It fell to the ground mid-air, temporarily saving his life.
The near-death experience made Shen Jianhe incredibly grateful to He Sui’an. He ran even faster, scrambling up the stone platform with soft limbs, driven solely by the will to survive.
It was an unfortunate start.
Extremely unlucky.
This was Shen Jianhe’s first time sneaking out to rob a tomb on his own, without his master’s knowledge. He was determined to accomplish something big to prove his worth, but now it seemed he was about to lose his life.
He Sui’an’s hairpin, which she had worn for less than a day, fell into the pile of snakes with the silver-ringed snake. She glanced at it reluctantly.
She had just bought it in Fengling Town.
She hadn’t even had the chance to wear it properly.
Realizing that she wouldn’t be able to wear it again, He Sui’an felt a bit regretful, but thinking about the importance of human life, she felt a bit more balanced.
Suddenly, a Heavenly Silkworm thread flashed by, the end falling into the writhing mass of snakes. This thread, capable of both breaking swords and being as soft as silk, hooked onto the hairpin.
One snake bit the hairpin and wouldn’t let go, so the Heavenly Silkworm thread lifted the snake as well.
Qi Buyan retrieved the Heavenly Silkworm thread.
He Sui’an saw the snake moving along the thread hooked to the hairpin and wanted to tell him she could do without it.
But Qi Buyan was faster. He swiftly snatched the hairpin from the snake’s mouth, then reversed his grip and stabbed the sharp end into the snake’s head, pinning it to the ground. The snake died just as it was about to bite his hand.
He discarded the snake’s body and kept the hairpin.
The hairpin was still stained with the snake’s blood.
Qi Buyan wiped the hairpin with a fragrant cloth, slowly removing the snake’s odor, then inserted the hairpin back into He Sui’an’s hair.
He seemed to joke, “How could other people’s lives compare to something you like? I find you to be quite a strange person.” He paused, “…Besides, you asked me to buy this hairpin for you, and now you just threw it away. I don’t like that.”
She glanced at Shen Jianhe and said, “Oh.”
Shen Jianhe: “Huh?”
Could my life be worth less than a hairpin? And you call the girl strange—I think you’re the strange one. Looks can be deceiving; this young man may look good, but he has a dark heart.
The more he thought about it, the angrier Shen Jianhe became, until he was nearly fuming.
However, these two were younger than him by quite a few years, so he couldn’t argue with them.
Shen Jianhe learned to calm himself, then lay down and played dead, like a withdrawn old man, unwilling to speak or face the fact that he might be weaker than a boy who barely looked eighteen.
Too humiliating.
He Sui’an looked at Shen Jianhe, who was lying on the stone platform in a half-dead state, wanting to say something but stopping herself. In the end, she just asked, “Are you okay?”
Shen Jianhe replied, “I’m fine.”
Just barely escaped with my life.
He didn’t forget to express his gratitude. Seeing that Shen Jianhe was fine, He Sui’an didn’t say more and turned to Qi Buyan, who was holding the wall lamp, “Is there something wrong with the lamp?”
Qi Buyan calmly removed the lampshade, revealing the candle inside. “This is the lamp placed in the direction of the living gate. Blowing it out might help us leave this chamber.”
Although the chamber had fourteen wall lamps, this number was meant to confuse people.
Only eight of these lamps were truly for worshipping the dead, and they burned with green candles. The other lamps were meant to mislead.
These eight lamps corresponded to the eight trigrams of Yin and Yang: Qian, Kun, Zhen, Xun, Kan, Li, Gen, and Dui. Each trigram represented a door, with the living gate in the northeast, associated with the Gen trigram.
However, there was no diagram of the trigrams here, and the place was sealed, making it impossible to determine the exact directions.
But Qi Buyan had determined the direction using the coffin.
Coffins are usually oriented south to north when buried.
Knowing the north-south direction, the other directions could be deduced. So Qi Buyan walked to the northeast Gen position, representing the living gate, and took down that lamp.
There were no traps on the lamp, and nothing changed when he removed it. It seemed to be related to the candle inside—life in death, death in light.
So that’s it.
He Sui’an understood.
Qi Buyan was holding the lamp from the living gate position. By eliminating the six lamps burning with misleading candles, they could focus on the remaining eight lamps with green candles.
Shen Jianhe stopped playing dead.
He scrambled up from the stone platform.
The matter of extinguishing the lamp was crucial for their safe exit from the tomb now crawling with venomous snakes. He had heard about the Yin-Yang trigrams from his master and understood a bit, so he comprehended what Qi Buyan was saying.
Tomb mechanisms often had destructive triggers, and the choice typically had only one chance. If they chose wrong, something more terrifying might appear, and they would die.
They had to be cautious.
Shen Jianhe pondered, “Are we sure this is the right lamp? What if we chose wrong?”
He Sui’an looked at Qi Buyan.
Qi Buyan smiled with his eyes.
“If we choose wrong,” he said, his hand holding the lamp as translucent as jade. Amid his melodious and pleasant laughter, there was a faint hint of madness. He leisurely blew out the green candle, “then we’ll die.”
After this green candle was extinguished, the other thirteen lamps in the tomb chamber simultaneously went out.
