The puppet, seemingly tireless, was now repeating its slashing movements, unleashing all its battlefield might on this spot. The silk forming the barrier emitted unbearable snapping sounds under the strain.
It seemed all the silk was about to break into pieces.
Qi Buyan inserted a silver needle into He Sui’an’s temple, causing a slight pain to spread from her temple. After he withdrew the needle, she still wanted to bite but could somewhat control herself.
He Sui’an swiftly rolled off Qi Buyan like a ball. Her gaze held both gratitude and confusion, as if asking why he didn’t use the needle on her from the start.
He stood up and said, “This method can only be used on a person once.”
“Only once?”
Qi Buyan’s lip was finally bitten by He Sui’an, red blood resembling rouge: “That’s right. If the silver needle stimulates your temple a second time, you will lose consciousness forever.”
She instinctively touched her temple.
No wonder he used the needle only at this critical moment.
Initially, Shen Jianhe hesitated about coming out to check, suspecting that such a commotion might mean his companions were in danger.
But Shen Jianhe wasn’t sure.
So he waited patiently for a while because once the coffin lid was opened, those inhuman puppets would reach in to grab him or slash him with swords.
Until Shen Jianhe heard the faint conversation between He Sui’an and Qi Buyan.
They were definitely not inside the coffin.
Listening to the sounds, were they really in danger?
One should uphold the chivalrous spirit of the martial world, especially since He Sui’an had saved him before. Shen Jianhe quickly lifted the coffin lid and indeed saw them tightly surrounded by a dozen puppets.
Qi Buyan’s clothes were darkened with blood, his fair neck stained, his wounds unclear, his profile delicate, black hair and silver accessories entangled, hanging behind him.
He Sui’an wasn’t in much better shape.
Her face was also smeared with blood.
Shen Jianhe thought, they must have been hurt by these puppets. Outrageous.
He quickly stood on the coffin and shouted, “Come at me, bullying two kids isn’t much of a feat!”
As soon as he finished speaking, most of the puppets charged at him.
“…”
Seriously, so many? Shen Jianhe gritted his teeth and drew the soft sword from his waist. His martial arts weren’t weak; he had trained with his master before but had never faced more than ten opponents at once.
Su Yang also burst out of the coffin, holding her personal long whip. She lashed it out, wrapping it around a puppet not far away. With a strong pull, she yanked the puppet and smashed it against the hard stone wall.
“Zhong Kong, Zhong Huan!” she called.
Zhong Kong and Zhong Huan immediately understood Su Yang’s intentions. They abandoned their hiding spots, kicked open the coffin lids, and wielded their swords against the puppets.
The puppets were like indestructible cockroaches. Just as Shen Jianhe drove them back, they surged forward again. They didn’t feel pain or fatigue. Fighting them was a test of endurance.
Time passed slowly.
Shen Jianhe was on the verge of collapse.
At the critical moment, Su Yang discovered how to kill them: “Knock off their bronze helmets and then pierce their foreheads to kill the worms inside.”
“Understood.”
Her two guards sprang into action.
Following her instructions, Shen Jianhe seized an opportunity to kick off a puppet’s bronze helmet and stab its forehead with his soft sword. Whether he killed the parasitic worm or not, the puppet stopped moving.
Just as joy surged in his heart, it plummeted into despair.
Even though they had found a way to eliminate the puppets, their numbers were overwhelming. How could a few people deal with so many? If they couldn’t kill all the puppets, they’d either be killed or exhausted to death.
Meanwhile, Qi Buyan’s silk barrier was breached by the puppets.
Two puppets grabbed He Sui’an, hesitated for a moment, and confirmed she was one of them, as she also had the parasitic worm. They let her go.
Thus, they all passed by He Sui’an, their target now being the living Qi Buyan.
He didn’t move.
He Sui’an ran back to Qi Buyan’s side, hugged him, hoping to cover him with her scent, making the puppets think Qi Buyan was one of them and thus not attack him.
The puppets were indeed confused as they passed by, neither leaving nor attacking.
Seeing this, she dared not even breathe deeply.
She only hoped they would quickly go elsewhere.
But then, flute music echoed in the tomb chamber, making the puppets more alert and they resumed their attack on Qi Buyan, despite He Sui’an holding him.
Qi Buyan loosened his wrist guard, dropping a translucent, icy bone flute. He Sui’an, glancing down at the bone flute, wanted to ask something but suddenly felt her eyelids grow heavy and began to close.
Before losing consciousness, she grabbed Qi Buyan’s wrist and asked, “Why?”
“The silver needle will make you sleep for a while,” he explained.
It turned out that stimulating her temple with the silver needle to regain her senses was followed by a brief period of unconsciousness. He Sui’an slowly closed her eyes, released his hand, and quietly lay down on the ground.
In the puppets’ eyes, He Sui’an was now confirmed as one of them, so they no longer approached her.
Their target was Qi Buyan.
The armor on the puppets clanked heavily as they moved.
The young man stood still, his slender fingers gripping the bone flute, which he brought to his slightly upturned lips and gently played.
The two flute sounds clashed and reverberated through the tomb chamber. Shen Jianhe felt his head was about to split open, he stumbled and had to support himself against the wall.
Su Yang felt the same way.
While the flute music that seemed to emanate from nowhere in the tomb didn’t affect her much, the moment she heard Qi Buyan’s flute, her head felt like it was about to burst. Every muscle and bone felt like they were being twisted apart, her chest became heavy, she couldn’t breathe, and her vision blurred.
Zhong Huan quickly supported Su Yang, a hint of worry on his usually icy face. “Princess.”
Zhong Kong spat out a mouthful of blood.
He collapsed to his knees.
Su Yang clutched her throbbing head. “Zhong Kong!” She turned to Zhong Huan, “Go help him, I… I’ll be fine.”
Zhong Huan, the most skilled among the three of them, endured the excruciating pain and lifted the now limp Zhong Kong. “Focus your mind, don’t let the flute sound control you.”
Zhong Kong opened his mouth to speak, but as soon as he did, he spat out more blood.
Zhong Huan quickly sealed several of his critical meridian points, alleviating his condition slightly. “Brother, go protect the princess. Don’t worry about me.”
“Shut up.”
After saying this, Zhong Huan looked up at Qi Buyan, who stood tall amidst hundreds of puppets. “Stop! If you keep playing, we’ll perish with them!”
Qi Buyan ignored him, the melody from the human bone flute drifted beautifully yet hauntingly, as if it were stealing souls like a demon.
Shen Jianhe smacked his head.
The pain was unbearable.
It hurt so much that he wanted to use a different kind of pain to cover it. Shen Jianhe realized he had a nosebleed. Not just him, everyone around had varying degrees of bleeding; Su Yang’s eyes were bleeding.
The flute sound, blown by an unknown person in the tomb, was only capable of controlling those with parasitic worms inside them. It had no effect on normal humans.
However, Qi Buyan’s flute sound was different.
His melody could make normal people wish for death.
The former flute sound was mournful and lingering, as thin as a silken thread, filled with the player’s resentment and dissatisfaction with the world’s injustices.
The latter flute sound was light and melodious, echoing gently, akin to the music of the heavens, exuding an extreme gentleness, yet hidden within this gentleness was a poison-like intent to kill.
When these two flute sounds collided, they were evenly matched.
Over time, changes occurred.
The puppets no longer obeyed commands but instead raised their swords towards their own foreheads.
At the moment when they were about to pierce their own foreheads and die completely, the controlling flute sound became increasingly urgent, trying to prevent the puppets from committing mass suicide.
The puppets hesitated.
Qi Buyan chuckled, his fingers deftly moving on the bone flute, and his melody resumed.
Shen Jianhe collapsed in pain, his face covered in dust. He would rather kill hundreds of puppets and die from exhaustion than die like this. He struggled to speak, “Stop playing.”
“Damn it, am I, Shen Jianhe, going to die here today?”
Su Yang couldn’t endure it any longer and vomited blood.
“Princess.” Zhong Huan, supporting Zhong Kong, walked over to her and sealed her meridians to reduce the impact of the flute sound on her body.
Qi Buyan played the bone flute with his eyes closed, blood dripping from the corners of his eyes, sliding down his face.
He rarely used the bone flute.
Someone once used this method to kill an entire village. Since then, the technique of controlling people with the bone flute was forbidden. Though some secretly practiced, none succeeded and ended up disabled instead.
Disability wasn’t the worst outcome.
The worst outcome was death.
Qi Buyan had accidentally mastered it as a child. However, since someone had planted a parasitic worm in him, he couldn’t kill recklessly—or rather, he couldn’t kill too many at once, or he’d suffer from being devoured.
But so what? He would still kill those who needed to be killed. Qi Buyan wouldn’t care whether the parasitic worm in his body would bite him or not.
Seeing Qi Buyan unmoved, Shen Jianhe suddenly thought of He Sui’an.
Right.
Where was He Sui’an?
Shen Jianhe’s eyes searched around for He Sui’an. She was lying on the ground, seemingly unconscious, but not unaffected by the flute sound. She was also bleeding from her orifices.
“Young Master Qi, if you keep playing, Miss He will die. She’s not a martial artist; her body can’t withstand this!” Shen Jianhe checked He Sui’an’s breath and urgently called out.
Qi Buyan opened his eyes.
His gaze passed over the layers of puppets and landed on He Sui’an, who was bleeding from her ears.
The flute sound paused.
Then the melody resumed its rise and fall, not stopping.
The puppets ultimately stabbed their own foreheads with their swords, killing the parasitic worms inside them. As they died, their bodies decayed into skeletons at a terrifying speed, leaving hundreds of white skeletons on the ground.
Both flute sounds ceased, and the person deep in the ancient tomb seemed unwilling to continue battling Qi Buyan.
Shen Jianhe breathed a heavy sigh of relief.
It finally stopped.
Zhong Kong, regaining his strength, questioned angrily, “You didn’t care if we lived or died!”
Qi Buyan tilted his head at them, casually wiped the blood from the corners of his eyes with the back of his hand, and smiled innocently. “Aren’t you all still alive? And the puppets are gone.”
Zhong Kong was speechless. “You!”
Su Yang coughed up blood foam a few times. “Alright, as long as everyone is okay. Young Master Qi just wanted to eliminate the puppets. A little injury is nothing to worry about.”
“Princess,” Zhong Kong disagreed, “this is just a little injury?”
She replied, “Yes.”
Zhong Kong was so angry he nearly refused to speak.
He looked at Zhong Huan and urgently said, “Brother, say something. We are the princess’s personal guards. We can’t let someone who nearly killed her travel with us. Otherwise, we…”
Zhong Huan interrupted calmly, “Yes, we are the princess’s personal guards. And I’ve said many times, the princess’s words are our orders. You repeatedly defy the princess; what punishment should you face?”
Zhong Kong fell silent.
He just couldn’t accept it.
Thinking it over, Zhong Huan was right. If the princess didn’t mind, what was he, a mere guard, to pursue it further? Zhong Kong remained silent.
Su Yang closed her eyes to meditate.
Qi Buyan walked to He Sui’an’s side, bent down, and gently lifted her head, carefully wiping the blood from her face with his sleeve, as if cleaning a pet he had cared for for a while.
Shen Jianhe, half-sitting on the ground, sighed, “If you had kept playing, I worried she might have died.”
He glanced at Shen Jianhe.
“Worried?”
Qi Buyan first wiped the blood from He Sui’an’s face, then her ears. “Why are you worried about He Sui’an?”
Shen Jianhe was taken aback by the question. Was that something a normal person would ask? He racked his brain for an answer. “She’s about the same age as my sister. I can’t stand to see her die…”
“But she’s not your sister.”
Qi Buyan smiled at him.
The smile was as attractive as he was, but it made Shen Jianhe feel uneasy. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw He Sui’an’s fingers move. “She’s awake. Do you feel any discomfort?”
He Sui’an felt uncomfortable all over, not knowing what had just happened. She only saw that the puppets had disappeared, leaving behind a field of white skeletons.
She pointed at the skeletons. “Are these the puppets?”
The skeletons were still clad in deep red armor.
It was too unbelievable—hundreds of puppets turned into a pile of skeletons in such a short time. If she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes, it would be hard to imagine.
Shen Jianhe raised an eyebrow.
Forgetting the earlier danger, he said, “Yes, the puppets are all gone. You can relax now.” With the puppets dealt with, their next task was to find the exit of this tomb chamber.
He Sui’an got up from the ground and looked at Qi Buyan, wanting to tear a piece of her dress to bandage his neck but couldn’t rip it.
“Sorry.”
She felt that no matter how many times she said sorry, it wouldn’t express her current guilt.
Shen Jianhe blinked in confusion.
“Miss He, why are you apologizing to him?” You almost died from his flute sound not long ago. He didn’t say the latter part, thinking Qi Buyan didn’t do it intentionally.
He Sui’an looked remorseful. “I bit him.”
Shen Jianhe was shocked. “What?”
Young people were this intense?
Su Yang had already started searching for the exit and found a mechanism on a wall. She turned and called them over. “Come and take a look.”
Upon hearing that Su Yang had found a mechanism, He Sui’an, unable to explain much to Shen Jianhe, walked with Qi Buyan towards it. As they approached, the floor suddenly gave way beneath them, and they fell.
During the fall, He Sui’an saw the floor close above them again.
She also heard their shouts.
He Sui’an felt somewhat fortunate that when she fell, she was holding Qi Buyan’s hand, so she wasn’t alone.
Who knew how large the ancient tomb was or how deep it went, layer upon layer.
Drip, drip.
Water droplets fell and hit He Sui’an’s forehead.
The impact woke her from unconsciousness.
A bone-chilling cold permeated her clothing, making her shiver. Early spring was usually cold, but this chill was twice as cold as winter. It was surprising that the King Yan’s tomb had such a place.
Shivering, He Sui’an reached out beside her and touched a tall figure.
Qi Buyan’s eyelashes were lightly closed, the light falling on his sleeping face, making him appear especially serene. His hands hung by his sides, as delicate as rare white jade. Despite the cold surroundings, his body was still warm, but he remained unconscious.
He couldn’t stay in this cold place.
Unless the temperature rose, Qi Buyan wouldn’t wake up.
The cold made He Sui’an’s teeth chatter.
She gently pushed Qi Buyan, expecting the inevitable result—he didn’t respond.
This time when entering the King Yan’s tomb, Qi Buyan hadn’t brought his worms, as they reacted strongly to the tomb. If he continued to sleep like this, encountering danger could be disastrous.
Suppressing her fear, He Sui’an searched nearby for an exit.
But there wasn’t one.
She couldn’t find any way out.
This place seemed like a natural ice cellar, with thick ice walls on all sides, cold mist floating in the air. The ice couldn’t be broken, sound couldn’t travel through it, and she couldn’t hear any other sounds.
After a period of futile effort, He Sui’an returned without success.
She needed to find a way to wake Qi Buyan before figuring out how to leave this place.
Returning to Qi Buyan’s side, she hesitated for a moment before lying down and hugging him, trying to use her body heat to warm him, hoping it would make him sense the temperature rise and wake up.
But it didn’t seem to be enough warmth, and Qi Buyan showed no signs of waking up.
Through several layers of clothing, it wasn’t working.
When her fingers accidentally brushed Qi Buyan’s wrist, she realized that bare skin contact would make both of them warmer.
To do it or not to do it.
Since it concerned whether Qi Buyan could wake up, He Sui’an finally convinced herself. She raised her hand and untied the ribbon at her waist, letting her dress slowly loosen and slip off her fair, slender shoulders.
After taking off her dress, He Sui’an reached for Qi Buyan’s waist sash, her fingertips trembling badly. It took a long time to undo the clasp.
This time, she had to leave his body and put on her dress before he woke up.
She pinched her ear to deepen the memory.
Her heart seemed to leap out of her chest.
Closing her eyes, He Sui’an pulled out the sash supporting Qi Buyan’s lower back, opening his dark blue clothing to reveal his waist and abdomen. She had no other thoughts and directly embraced him.
