CH 40.2

translator: baumkuchen  editor: baumkuchen

Even though it sounded like he was joking, Bai Yuehu was clearly serious. He raised his leg and stomped it onto the ground, causing a tremor. After the thunderous bang, a giant hole appeared in front of them, but the most striking thing was the black stone door behind it. 

Seeing this, Lu Qingjiu’s eyes widened, but what truly shocked him came afterwards. He saw Bai Yuehu stride forward, stopping before the stone door, raise his hand, and knock on it.

The air stilled. Holding his breath, Lu Qingjiu watched Bai Yuehu’s movements.

After a few seconds, the tightly-shut stone door made a heavy sound. As if someone had pushed it open, a gap wide enough for a person to pass through appeared.

Old air rushed out of the tomb from the opening of the door, making Lu Qingjiu cough.

Bai Yuehu let out a “let’s go” and walked straight through the stone doors. Lu Qingjiu followed closely after, walking in as well.

Behind the stone door was a long tunnel. The ground was paved with hard green stone tiles. Time had not destroyed this tomb, rather, other than a little bit of dust, everything inside was very well preserved. In the dim light, Lu Qingjiu could even see colourful murals painted on the walls. These murals were all incredibly lifelike, seeming to describe a sacrifice of eternal rest (death) to the gods from ancient times. Bai Yuehu could see in the dark, but Lu Qingjiu couldn’t. Thankfully, Yin Xun’s reminder earlier had actually served some purpose. Lu Qingjiu dug a tiny flashlight out of his backpack. After turning it on, he was finally able to see the path beneath his feet clearly.

This should be Bai Yuehu’s first time here, but he seemed to be very familiar with this tomb, walking forward the entire way, bypassing numerous forks in the path.

Even though Lu Qingjiu hadn’t had pork before, he had seen a pig run. (not literal, means that even though he doesn’t have any practical experience, he still has some idea about what he’s doing/getting into) He followed closely behind Bai Yuehu, not daring to walk around. In a soft voice, he asked what the rooms to the side were for. 

“Some are holding funerary objects, some are traps,” Bai Yuehu said, “Follow me, or else it’ll be easy for you to get lost.”

Lu Qingjiu “oh”-ed, and followed even closer.

It seemed that all the doors in the tomb had been opened. Bai Yuehu didn’t even need to expend any energy before reaching the central area of the tomb. Lu Qingjiu, following behind him, looked around, feeling as if he had reached a place a little different from the other rooms.

This room was especially big, and incredibly spacious and empty. In the middle of the room was a rectangular pool. On the corners of the pool were erected a few strange, human-shaped statues. But the thing that was the most different was the messy footprints all over the floor of this room — It was clear that someone had been here, trampling the uniform layer of dust that had accumulated on the floor into an utter mess. 

Lu Qingjiu immediately thought of what Pang Ziqi had said, that they had previously gone down into the tomb and saw the coffin, but after they touched the corpse, the corpse had sunk into the water, and they hadn’t been able to pull the corpse out.

And the room before him and those strange footprints on the floor perfectly matched up with what Pang Ziqi had told him. Clearly, this was where the Rain Master’s Concubine’s body was.

Bai Yuehu had also stopped, his gaze falling on the pool in the absolute centre of the room. He walked over to the pool and leaned over slightly, as if looking at something inside the water.

Lu Qingjiu also followed him over and saw what was in the pool. Logically speaking, this tomb had been buried underground for so many years, even if there had been water, it should have dried, but the pool before him was filled with crystal clear water. Lu Qingjiu shone his flashlight over, and noticed that the water was so deep that he couldn’t see the bottom. The reflected light rippled slightly, as if there was something living within the waters. 

“Is this place linked to a source of groundwater?” Lu Qingjiu asked.

Bai Yuehu shook his head. “The water in the pool is contained.”

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Lu Qingjiu then dug out a rope with an iron hook attached at the end from his bag — For this, he had to praise Yin Xun once again, if not for him constantly pestering Lu Qingjiu, Lu Qingjiu wouldn’t have brought these things. Unexpectedly, they really did come into use.

Lu Qingjiu pulled out the rope and tossed the iron hook into the pool. Sure enough, as Bai Yuehu said, this pool was contained. It was approximately two meters deep. The rope soon touched the bottom, and Lu Qingjiu began to swing the rope hard in order to get it to hook onto the corpse at the bottom. 

As the rope swung around in the water, soon, Lu Qingjiu felt the rope tense, as if it had hooked onto something heavy. He began to try to exert force to pull it out, but when he pulled, he found the thing would not move.

“I seem to have hooked on to something,” Lu Qingjiu said, frowning, “It’s too heavy, I can’t pull it up— Could I have hooked onto the wall?”

Bai Yuehu reached out and grabbed the rope. He began to pull together with Lu Qingjiu. At this moment, the difference between the two was made obvious. The rope which, no matter how hard Lu Qingjiu had pulled, hadn’t moved, became very easy to pull in Bai Yuehu’s hands, to the point that Bai Yuehu didn’t even look like he was pulling hard as he easily pulled up the thing the rope had hooked onto.

Seeing that he wouldn’t be of any help, Lu Qingjiu simply let go and watched from the side. With Bai Yuehu’s movements, a black object was pulled up with the rope. When Lu Qingjiu aimed his flashlight towards the water to take a look, he confirmed that the object he had seen was the corpse that had sunken into the depths of the pool. 

That corpse wore a green dress. Even though her eyes were closed, Lu Qingjiu could still recognise her as the female ghost that was following Pang Ziqi.

Even after so many years, the corpse was still perfectly preserved, with white, soft skin, looking not at all like a dead person, but rather like she was just sleeping.

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As Lu Qingjiu stared at the corpse, he fell into a daze. This woman wasn’t particularly beautiful, but she had an indescribable power, making it such that people couldn’t help but take a look at her, then a second… Just as Lu Qingjiu started to lose control of his gaze, Bai Yuehu suddenly called out his name, “Lu Qingjiu.”

Lu Qingjiu snapped back to himself. “Ah?” 

Bai Yuehu said, “She’s that good looking?”

Only then did Lu Qingjiu realise that he had been acting a little off. He retracted his gaze, looking towards Bai Yuehu. “What?”

Bai Yuehu very patiently repeated himself. “I said, is she that good looking? Even better looking than— me?”

Lu Qingjiu was unable to hold back his laugh. He said, “Of course she isn’t better looking than you. Worried that Bai Yuehu wouldn’t believe him if he said it like that, he added, “You’re the best looking fox spirit in the world.” 

Only then did Bai Yuehu nod, satisfied.

The corpse was roughly yanked out of the pool by Bai Yuehu. He didn’t show any tenderness towards the beautiful woman, throwing her to the side of the pool like a piece of trash. The corpse looked soft, but was actually hard. It landed on the ground with a clang, like gold meeting stone.

According to Bai Yuehu, as long as he destroyed this corpse, Pang Ziqi could live on, and he himself wouldn’t have to worry about being followed by her. It was just the question of how exactly to destroy her that made Lu Qingjiu’s head hurt. He glanced at Bai Yuehu. Bai Yuehu, understanding the meaning in his eyes, fell silent for a moment, then said, “Try using a knife?”

Lu Qingjiu, “…” Don’t you sound a little too unsure? But there was no harm in trying. Lu Qingjiu took a deep breath, then dug out a knife from his backpack. 

“Just chop down like this?” Lu Qingjiu asked.

Bai Yuehu nodded.

Even though the woman before him was a corpse, she looked far too much like a living person. As Lu Qingjiu was about to bring down the knife, he really had a bit of a mental block. But in the end, the living were more important than the dead. Thinking of the half-dead Pang Ziqi lying in the hospital, Lu Qingjiu tightened his grip on the knife.

“I’ve offended.” After apologising to the corpse, Lu Qingjiu steeled his heart and swung down at the corpse. But what he’d never expected was that when the knife contacted the corpse, Lu Qingjiu felt as if he’d hit something incredibly hard. His arm received a shock, making the knife fly out of his hand. 

“Ah!” Lu Qingjiu’s arm was made numb by the recoil. He let out an involuntary shout.

“You can’t cut it?” Bai Yuehu asked.

“En.” Lu Qingjiu’s expression sank. “It’s too hard, I can’t cut it…”

“Troublesome.” Bai Yuehu spat out the word. 

Upon hearing Bai Yuehu actually call this matter troublesome, Lu Qingjiu instantly became nervous. He asked, “How is it troublesome? Yuehu, are we in trouble?”

Bai Yuehu had a slightly gloomy look in his eyes were slightly gloomy. “It’s not as bad as that.”

“Then what about the corpse?” Lu Qingjiu rubbed at his numb arm, frowning as he said, “Can Pang Ziqi do nothing but wait for death now?”

Bai Yuehu let out a long sigh. “I guess it’s up to me now.” 

His sigh was far too sad, making the worry in Lu Qingjiu’s heart become even more intense. Just as he was about to ask what exactly was going on, he then saw a black fog emerge from under Bai Yuehu. This black fog soon engulfed the entire room, covering the already-dim light. Even though Lu Qingjiu didn’t know what was happening, he knew that Bai Yuehu wouldn’t hurt him, so he simply backed away to the side of the room.

Shortly after the black fog rose, Lu Qingjiu heard a woman’s sharp cry from nearby the pool. This cry was utterly filled with hatred and loathing, making one’s hair stand on end. Just as the cry was getting louder and louder, a low roar from a wild beast sounded in the room. This roar froze Lu Qingjiu in place, not daring to move.

“Crunch crunch crunch.” The sound of meat being chewed slowly replaced the woman’s cries. The cries gradually became weaker and weaker, eventually stopping completely, leaving the sound of the wild beast’s chewing to fill the room.

It wasn’t hard for Lu Qingjiu to guess what had happened… Bai Yuehu had changed back into his original form, and had eaten that body which had been so hard to deal with. 

Through the thick black fog, Lu Qingjiu vaguely caught sight of a pair of giant red eyes. Noticing his gaze, that pair of eyes looked back at him.

The two’s eyes met. Lu Qingjiu forced out a stiff smile. “Does… does it taste good?”

The chewing stopped, and Bai Yuehu’s voice drifted over. “It’s incredibly disgusting.”

Lu Qingjiu said, “You eating it like this won’t leave behind any side effects, will it?” That thing was so hard, and had been left for who knows how long, it was definitely past its expiration date. 

Bai Yuehu didn’t say a word in reply, starting to chew once more. When he finished chewing, the black fog gradually dissipated, letting Lu Qingjiu see him sitting by the side of the pool, an unhappy look on his face.

Lu QIngjiu walked over, and called out in a small voice, “Yuehu?”

Bai Yuehu replied, “En?”

Lu Qingjiu said, “Finished eating?” 

Bai Yuehu, “En.”

Lu Qingjiu asked, “What does it… taste like?”

Bai Yuehu thought for a moment, then said, “Have you eaten mud before?”

Lu Qingjiu, “…No.” 

Bai Yuehu said, “Then imagine for a moment, what a piece of mud that has been set aside for more than a thousand years would taste like.”

Lu QIngjiu, “…” He felt he would be better off not imagining it after all, the taste of that Rain Master’s concubine clearly exceeded the limits of his imagination, or else Bai Yuehu wouldn’t have a face full of grievance after eating her, as if he really had been force-fed a mouthful of mud.