Editor: Sahloknir
Meanwhile, at the ninth level of the Underground Palace of the Ding Xian Mausoleum…
A loud tremor sounded on the outside, and the thousand-tonne stone door finally closed, stopping the dense mass of corpses in the passage behind the door. There was a loud ‘clang!’ as Yuchi Rui plunged his sword into the bronze floor, barely able to steady his body. Amidst the violent tremors he exhaled a bloodied breath from sheer exhaustion.
“What did you just say?” He finally had the chance to ask, “There are four coffins on this level?”
AD
Ying Kai slid down the large stone door and sat on the ground, his robes soaked in blood from the fight, ripped and torn by the corpses. He was in a terrible state. He could not speak, and only after a while did he cough up a few mouthfuls of blood, then fumbled to light up a torch.
“It’s alright.” Yuchi Rui was about to stop him, but Ying Kai waved his hand wearily, indicating that it was fine. “Such a small flame will not alarm them. They’ll disperse if they can’t sense a living soul, and then we’ll find our way out.”
The tremors subsided and the small space in the passage was illuminated by the flame. Behind them was a black iron gate blocking the path of the corpses, and in front of them was a more magnificent and solid-looking golden gate, quietly standing in the darkness.
Ying Kai stared at the huge door for a long time, holding the dazzling and cold Ding Shan Hai sword in one hand, he laughed bitterly, “Do you know why I initiated and led all the sects to build the Ding Xian Mausoleum together, Changsheng?”
Yuchi Rui didn’t even think about it, “To raise the prestige of the Xuanmen, to allow the world to pay their respects.”
But Ying Kai shook his head, “No, the reason lies behind that.”
Yuchi Rui followed his gaze and his eyes reflected the massive golden door and the dim light behind it.
“There are countless immortal cultivators in this world. Those who can build their foundation are already very few, those who can cultivate their core are more fortunate, and those who can cross the Dhyana realm and join the ranks of Sovereigns are few and far between. Even if they do become one, almost no one has ever been able to receive their heavenly tribulation and ascend.”
“So no matter how many years they live, those who do not ascend will eventually die like mortals.”
“—The problem is that some of these seniors aren’t really dead.” Ying Kai paused and said, “They are somewhere between the living and the dead.”
Yuchi Rui already got his answer and looked towards the huge stone door where the screams of the group of corpses was faintly coming from, “Corpses can come back to life?”
“The exact description should be ‘corpses can be startled back to life’.” Ying Kai said, “When Shuangtze and I were teenagers, we often travelled together and found that some great families had such encounters—when the descendants went down to the tombs to pay respects, the breath of the living immediately caused the corpses to break out of their coffins, rise up, and tear their blood relatives to death. But because only Sovereign-level cultivators would be awakened, this secret was able to be kept within the very top echelons of a very few lineages…until sixteen years ago.”
“The year of the…Ascension Platform?” Yuchi Rui asked with a frown.
Ying Kai said, “That’s right. After the first snowfall in the late winter of that year, a giant, abandoned mirror coffin was found deep in Dai Mountain.”
Yuchi Rui’s expression changed slightly.
“That mirror coffin was about ten feet tall and weighed more than a thousand pounds, and all six sides of its frame were embedded with broken mirror fragments, making it completely impossible to peer inside. No one knows where it came from, it just appeared deep within the woods, where people rarely go. On the lid, there were the carvings of the coffin’s owner’s name and an ancient sealing talisman inscribed in blood. The inscription had worn away, so much that only half the character ‘Qu’ could be vaguely discerned.”
Yuchi Rui queried, “Qu?”
Ying Kai said, “Yes, but there is no one with the surname Qu among the great families of the Xuanmen. While I was secretly tracing the origins of the mirror coffin, the situation took a turn.”
“What?”
The light of the flame from the torch was cast on Ying Kai’s handsome face, his expression was somewhat dull.
“On the seventh day after the mirror coffin appeared in the world, a Spiritual Master from the Immortal Alliance’s Correctional Palace passed away, and when he was about to be buried, he was awakened and left more than ten people bitten, killed or injured in his trail. Another half month later, a young disciple from the Changsun family died and the corpse was awakened late at night within the first seven days of his death, and was taken down by Changsun Chengfeng himself.”
“Since then, whenever someone from any of the hundreds of Xuanmen families dies, the corpse will inevitably awaken, regardless of age, and without exception, there will be heavy casualties.”
The tomb passage was quiet for a long time.
Yuchi Rui’s eyes were empty, as if he was seriously contemplating something, and after a moment he said firmly, “Not in my family.”
“…” Ying Kai said feebly, “Changsheng, that’s because no one in your family died back then, alright.”
Yuchi Rui nodded, then proudly repeated, “None from my family.”
Ying Kai held his forehead with one hand, taking a long breath and wisely deciding not to argue with him.
“Pc rtbga, atf qijuef bo jkjxfclcu mbgqrfr lc fjmt ojwlis tjr gfjmtfv j qblca ktfgf P jibcf mjc tjgvis mbnfg la eq. Po remt j rmjcvji kfgf ab ufa bea, cba bcis kbeiv atfgf yf qjclm jcv mtjbr klatlc atf Wejcwfc, yea qfbqif kbeiv jirb lcfnlajyis nlfk meialnjabgr jr vlrjrafgr jcv yfjrar jcv atf qegrela bo lwwbgajilas jr j vfwbclm jcv fnli qjat.”
“Therefore, after a secret discussion with Changsun Chengfeng of the Artefacts Sect, I proposed that all the families and sects move all the remains of their ancestors to Dai Mountain, construct the Ding Xian Mausoleum and then impose severe laws to strictly prohibit living people from entering the tomb. If someone must enter, only one person, or at most two, could do so to avoid the risk of awakening masses of corpses.”
“On the ninth level, in the deepest part of the tomb, I crafted this heavy door of pure gold and delivered four coffins myself.”
“The mirror coffin is inside?” Yuchi Rui asked immediately.
“Yes, the first one is the mirror coffin which is evil to the core.” Ying Kai slowly said, “Poured with melted bronze and sealed with gold, I personally paid respects and sent it inside the chamber, never to see the light of day again, and the plague of awakening corpses in each family came to an abrupt end.”
Yuchi Rui nodded thoughtfully and asked, “What about the other three?”
Ying Kai asked rhetorically, “Have you ever heard the story of the ‘Ghost Prince Welcoming His Bride‘ when you were a child?”
Of course he had. The story of the ‘Ghost Prince Welcoming His Bride’ was one of the enlightenment stories for children in the Daoist scriptures. Its popularity was probably similar to that of the ‘Three Character Classic’ and the ‘Hundred Family Names’ which children read.
According to legend, in ancient times, the Ghost Wall held great power. The Ghost King was disrespectful to the gods and went so rampant performing evil deeds, that one of the gods of the Eastern Heaven was angered and sent down a heavenly calamity that destroyed the Ghost King’s soul. In order to avenge his death, the Ghost Prince wreaked havoc on earth with his powers, causing bloodshed, scorching the land for miles, and alarming the gods.
The same god from the Eastern Heavens was a merciful one and pitied the sufferings of the mortals. So he extended his helping hand once more. The war between gods, humans and ghosts was tilted and the Ghost Prince sought a compromise with the Gods. At this time, a sovereign was killed on the battlefield and ascended into immortality, a woman whose beauty was said to be a perfect match for the Ghost Prince. So the Prince sent a huge bride price, and a bridal entourage of a hundred beasts and monsters from the Underworld to the Blue Heavens, banging gongs and drums to welcome this bride.
Legend has it that the two were in love and lived in harmony ever after. From then on, the Ghost Prince lived forever in the depths of the Underworld, and no one ever saw him again.
Of course, this is just an absurd story, the so-called ‘Ghost Prince’ might have referred to a certain ghost judge, and the Xuanmen never had any records of any ‘God from the Eastern Heavens’, let alone heard of the Ghost Wall’s ceremony of banging gongs and drums to welcome the Ghost Princess.
Yuchi Rui asked suspiciously, “So what?”
“There is a bronze coffin in the secret room of the Correctional Palace, which has been secretly hidden from generation to generation by the sect masters. No one knows what is inside, but there is a legend that it is the bones left behind by the Ghost Princess when she left her physical body and ascended into immortality.” Ying Kai slowly said, “To be cautious, I did the same by sealing it with molten gold and buried it here.”
“…”
The feeling of absurdity of a childhood bedtime story intersecting with reality came over Yuchi Rui, who halfway said with a shocked face, “It can’t be right ?”
Ying Kai laughed silently.
“What about the third one?” Yuchi Rui couldn’t help but ask again.
At this point, even if Ying Kai said that the third one was the mythical Ghost Prince, he would not be surprised. Who knew that as soon as the question was asked, he only saw the remaining trace of Ying Kai’s smile fade away, and only after a long time did he raise his bloodshot eyes and say calmly, “It belongs to Gong Zhiyu.”
In an instant, all of Yuchi Rui’s words were stuck in his throat.
“How could you put Gong Wei there!” He suddenly stood up with a swish and almost lost his voice, “There’s no way Gong Wei would—”
“He would.” Ying Kai’s tone was tired but smooth, “Being a Sovereign, dying with a grudge, and not decaying after death, he has already met all the conditions for an awakening corpse. The world recognises Gong Zhiyu as the number one in mirror art, and that evil mirror coffin happened to appear in the same year after his death, even I dare not guarantee that this matter has absolutely nothing to do with him, do you understand?”
“I concealed the existence of the Mirror Coffin because I was afraid that the hundred schools of the Xuanmen would think that Gong Zhiyu was haunted by evil spirits and that his reputation would be affected. After the Ding Xian Mausoleum was completed, I buried his bones in a golden coffin instead, when his corpse was still undecayed, his wounds still oozed blood, and his face was as vivid as ever.”
Ying Kai looked towards the huge door deep in the ground and said softly, “Changsheng, if there is one person in this world who would definitely awaken, then nine times out of ten that person would be Gong Zhiyu. I only wonder why he did not awaken for so many years.”
Yuchi Rui fell silent and said abruptly after a long time, “He was very lively in his lifetime.”
Ying Kai said, “I know.”
Not only did Gong Wei like to watch the hustle and bustle when he was alive, he also liked to create it. What would he think of such a lively and active person eventually buried alone, in the deepest, darkest part of the earth, suppressed and sealed away, without ever seeing the light of day?
Would he be disappointed?
Or resentful?
“Only a very few people in the entire Immortal Alliance, including myself, Xu Shuangtze and Changsun Chengfeng, knew about Gong Zhiyu being buried in the deepest part of the Ding Xian Mausoleum. After sending these three most dangerous coffins in, I had planned to seal the huge door shut and never let any living person set foot behind this door again…” Ying Kai took a deep breath before saying, “Who knew that a fourth coffin would be added at this time. “
Yuchi Rui frowned and asked, “Whose?”
“…” Ying Kai moved his eyes away, the leaping fire reflected in them, and said in a low voice.
“Xu Shuangtze.”
Yuchi Rui was dumbfounded for a while and thought that he had heard wrong, “Who?!”
“Sixteen years ago on the Ascension Platform, before Gong Wei died, he apologised to Xu Shuangtze. He said, “You will never be able to ascend, your cultivation in this life will end here.” Ying Kai looked steadily at the endless darkness behind the candle flame and said softly, “In the years that followed, I was immersed in self-blame, guilt, remorse and pain. And I did not have the heart to think carefully about the meaning behind those words…until late one night, in the great hall of the Correctional Palace, Xu Shuangtze suddenly brought an empty coffin.”
***
“…I have been cultivating alone lately, but I have made no progress and feel weary. Sometimes, when I dream in the night, I remember the words left by Gong Zhiyu on the Ascension Platform that year, as if everything was fated to happen…”
A crescent moon shone in front of the main hall, illuminating the courtyard as clear as stagnant water. The hands of Ying Kai were trembling slightly, but Xu Shuangtze’s expression and voice held an uncaring indifference, as if he was recounting the unrelated matters of others.
“I will not be able to ascend in this lifetime, and one day I will die and enter the Underworld. At that time, my heart will not be willing and my obsession will not be dispersed. So once my corpse awakens, I will surely cause suffering for a hundred years. Therefore, you should send this empty coffin to the ninth level of the Ding Xian Mausoleum first. When the time comes I will enter and seal the mausoleum doors on my own accord and lay myself to rest. Perhaps that day is not too far away…”
Ying Kai’s throat seemed to be clogged with something sour, and it took a long time before he said in a trembling voice, “I’m sorry, it’s actually all my fault. If I had realized earlier that the friction between you two was irreconcilable, if I had noticed earlier the unhappiness and killing intent in Zhiyu’s heart, if I had been able to understand him and stop him earlier…”
Surprisingly, Xu Shuangtze smiled, albeit very briefly, “No.”
“Your greatest obstacle is to self-impose too much responsibility.” He suddenly asked, “Do you still remember that year when I said that I regretted having entered that peach forest with you, and that it would have been better if I had never met Gong Zhiyu in my lifetime?”
Ying Kai looked at him, unable to utter a single word.
Of course he remembered, he still remembered the mouthful of warm blood that spurted out of Xu Shuangtze’s lungs.
“I don’t regret it now.” Xu Shuangtze said softly, “I believe that this is my fate.”
To be born as arch-enemies and buried together in death.
Ying Kai let out a long breath.
“When the tomb door finally closed, there were four coffins buried inside. In the decade or so since then, despite the occasional living person entering the mausoleum to pay their respects, the thousands of coffins in the Ding Xian Mausoleum have never undergone any strange changes, and there have never been any more scandals of awakening corpses from among the Xuanmen.”
The shrill howls of the corpses outside the huge iron gate were already far away, trailing behind their heavy footsteps as they faded into the depths of the ancient and silent tomb. Inside the narrow tomb passage, only a single flame, the size of a bean, burned and flickered with Ying Kai’s sigh, casting a faint and trembling projection on the surrounding walls.
“It wasn’t until last night that I discovered that the havoc caused by the Thousand Dimension Mirror Realm fragment is a replica, and I really couldn’t explain it all…except to open the door to the tomb to see for myself.”
Yuchi Rui was silent for a long time before asking, “You want to see if this has anything to do with Gong Wei?”
“The person most proficient in illusion in the whole world is Gong Zhiyu, and the person most familiar with the Thousand Dimension Mirror Realm is also Gong Zhiyu. I must come and see for myself if his soul is still resting in peace.” Ying Kai’s voice was harsh and he took a deep breath to suppress it, “If it is really related to him, at least I can personally deal with it…when the next fragment appears.”
No one expected that Gong Wei was still lying nicely in the Ding Xian Masoleum, but it was the thousands of coffins that hadn’t moved for so many years that had awakened in unison.
—
“They’re gone.” Yuchi Rui looked towards the stone door and his ears twitched keenly, “Let’s go.”
Both of them were great masters of cultivation, who were ranked at the top of the world, and despite the heavy damage from the all-night battle, they had recovered a bit of energy after this rest. Ying Kai used his Ding Shan Hai sword to support himself and was about to turn around and walk out when he hesitated, “Are you injured?”
Yuchi Rui, “I’m alright.”
“Then why are you panting so hard?”
Yuchi Rui, “I am not.”
Both of them suddenly froze at the same time.
The sound came from the pitch darkness, one was clearer than the other, one heavier than the other, as if they were right beside their ears. Ying Kai looked over at Yuchi Rui, both of them seeing their own pale faces reflected in each other’s eyes, and then slowly turned to the huge golden tomb door behind them at the same time.
Tremors rose from the soles of their feet, but it wasn’t from fear, it was because—the ground was actually shaking.
The tremors grew louder and more violent, the dust and debris rained down the tomb passages on the left and right, and then the solid stone wall beside the huge door suddenly burst with a clear, crisp, ‘ka cha!’
As if hearing a silent alarm in the void, Ying Kai’s face suddenly changed and he only had time to fly and push Yuchi Rui away, “Changsheng, get out of the way—”
Before the words left his mouth, the golden tomb door burst open, and a thousand-pound door slammed into Ying Kai, sending him flying in the air.
The next thing he knew, his whole body flew out and smashed into the tomb passage, with golden pieces of rubble falling down on him like hail!
Yuchi Rui, “Ying Kai!”
But a huge tremor drowned out his roar.
Ying Kai was crushed under a thousand-tonne door and instantly spurted out a mouthful of blood, a hot stream of blood quickly filling his ears. It took several seconds before he felt something loosen within his spiritual sense amidst the violent tremors.
It was the Mahayana Seal.
The protective spell formation that had enveloped a thousand miles of Dai Mountain dissipated at this moment.
–
The curtain of light shattered into millions of pieces, converging into a torrent that rushed up to the clouds, and then even the last trace of light vanished without a trace. All those gathered at the bottom of the mountain raised their heads in unison, Yuchi Xiao froze in his tracks, Changsun Chengyang’s mouth was half open, unable to speak, shock spreading through the crowd like a million poisonous snakes.
The corpse’s aura over Dai Mountain was so thick that the sky became dark and gloomy, reflecting in the shocked eyes of Gong Wei.
In the next moment, the corpse aura, so thick that it was like a substance, spread out in an explosive manner, sweeping in with the swiftness of lightning!
The cultivators at the bottom of the hill could not even dodge before they were enveloped in darkness one after another, followed by shouts and shrieks that were swallowed up by the thick ink-like fog. Changsun Chengfeng tugged at Bai Xian, who was at his side, while turning his head and shouting to the others, “Don’t move! Don’t run around!”
Yuchi Xiao’s first reaction was to reach for Gong Wei, but then he felt the slender, cold hand slip the moment he touched it and disappeared without a trace.
“Xiang Xiaoyuan?” Yuchi Xiao cried in dismay, frantically reaching out and around but only felt the slippery, fishy, wet corpse air. “Where did you go? Come back!”
In the darkness ahead, Gong Wei stood quietly at the top of the cliff, looking up at the direction of the Ding Xian Mausoleum in the distance, his face pale and grave.
With a wave of his sleeve, he flew towards the mountain stream.
–
“Cough cough cough…” Deep inside the tomb, Yuchi Rui stabbed his sword into the ground as hard as he could to steady his body and said hoarsely in the violently shaking tomb passage, “Ying Kai? How are you, Ying—”
His voice suddenly stopped.
The sound of metal scraping came from the depths of darkness, as if something dangerous was slowly sliding away, and then ended abruptly with a sharp screech.
Yuchi Rui’s pupils shook as he had realised what it was—
The lid of a coffin.
“…go back.” He muttered incredulously, “Go back to that world, you are obviously…”
But alas, it was too late.
The tomb passage was in ruins, and the yin candles on the remnants of the wall on either side suddenly lit themselves up one after the other, reflecting the huge chamber of the ninth floor of the underground palace. On the bronze floor in front of them was a circular spell formation, several feet in diameter and intricately carved, with four large, heavy gold coffins placed in a ring, one of which had its lid wide open.
A cold and green glow lit up, and a stiff back sat up and slowly turned his face.
Yuchi Rui’s ears were filled with his own uncontrollable sharp gasps, and he subconsciously stepped backwards, finally calling out that name with difficulty,”…Gong Wei.”
Editor: Sahloknir
Meanwhile, at the ninth level of the Underground Palace of the Ding Xian Mausoleum…
A loud tremor sounded on the outside, and the thousand-tonne stone door finally closed, stopping the dense mass of corpses in the passage behind the door. There was a loud ‘clang!’ as Yuchi Rui plunged his sword into the bronze floor, barely able to steady his body. Amidst the violent tremors he exhaled a bloodied breath from sheer exhaustion.
“What did you just say?” He finally had the chance to ask, “There are four coffins on this level?”
AD
Ying Kai slid down the large stone door and sat on the ground, his robes soaked in blood from the fight, ripped and torn by the corpses. He was in a terrible state. He could not speak, and only after a while did he cough up a few mouthfuls of blood, then fumbled to light up a torch.
“It’s alright.” Yuchi Rui was about to stop him, but Ying Kai waved his hand wearily, indicating that it was fine. “Such a small flame will not alarm them. They’ll disperse if they can’t sense a living soul, and then we’ll find our way out.”
The tremors subsided and the small space in the passage was illuminated by the flame. Behind them was a black iron gate blocking the path of the corpses, and in front of them was a more magnificent and solid-looking golden gate, quietly standing in the darkness.
Ying Kai stared at the huge door for a long time, holding the dazzling and cold Ding Shan Hai sword in one hand, he laughed bitterly, “Do you know why I initiated and led all the sects to build the Ding Xian Mausoleum together, Changsheng?”
Yuchi Rui didn’t even think about it, “To raise the prestige of the Xuanmen, to allow the world to pay their respects.”
But Ying Kai shook his head, “No, the reason lies behind that.”
Yuchi Rui followed his gaze and his eyes reflected the massive golden door and the dim light behind it.
“There are countless immortal cultivators in this world. Those who can build their foundation are already very few, those who can cultivate their core are more fortunate, and those who can cross the Dhyana realm and join the ranks of Sovereigns are few and far between. Even if they do become one, almost no one has ever been able to receive their heavenly tribulation and ascend.”
“So no matter how many years they live, those who do not ascend will eventually die like mortals.”
“—The problem is that some of these seniors aren’t really dead.” Ying Kai paused and said, “They are somewhere between the living and the dead.”
Yuchi Rui already got his answer and looked towards the huge stone door where the screams of the group of corpses was faintly coming from, “Corpses can come back to life?”
“The exact description should be ‘corpses can be startled back to life’.” Ying Kai said, “When Shuangtze and I were teenagers, we often travelled together and found that some great families had such encounters—when the descendants went down to the tombs to pay respects, the breath of the living immediately caused the corpses to break out of their coffins, rise up, and tear their blood relatives to death. But because only Sovereign-level cultivators would be awakened, this secret was able to be kept within the very top echelons of a very few lineages…until sixteen years ago.”
“The year of the…Ascension Platform?” Yuchi Rui asked with a frown.
Ying Kai said, “That’s right. After the first snowfall in the late winter of that year, a giant, abandoned mirror coffin was found deep in Dai Mountain.”
Yuchi Rui’s expression changed slightly.
“That mirror coffin was about ten feet tall and weighed more than a thousand pounds, and all six sides of its frame were embedded with broken mirror fragments, making it completely impossible to peer inside. No one knows where it came from, it just appeared deep within the woods, where people rarely go. On the lid, there were the carvings of the coffin’s owner’s name and an ancient sealing talisman inscribed in blood. The inscription had worn away, so much that only half the character ‘Qu’ could be vaguely discerned.”
Yuchi Rui queried, “Qu?”
Ying Kai said, “Yes, but there is no one with the surname Qu among the great families of the Xuanmen. While I was secretly tracing the origins of the mirror coffin, the situation took a turn.”
“What?”
The light of the flame from the torch was cast on Ying Kai’s handsome face, his expression was somewhat dull.
“On the seventh day after the mirror coffin appeared in the world, a Spiritual Master from the Immortal Alliance’s Correctional Palace passed away, and when he was about to be buried, he was awakened and left more than ten people bitten, killed or injured in his trail. Another half month later, a young disciple from the Changsun family died and the corpse was awakened late at night within the first seven days of his death, and was taken down by Changsun Chengfeng himself.”
“Since then, whenever someone from any of the hundreds of Xuanmen families dies, the corpse will inevitably awaken, regardless of age, and without exception, there will be heavy casualties.”
The tomb passage was quiet for a long time.
Yuchi Rui’s eyes were empty, as if he was seriously contemplating something, and after a moment he said firmly, “Not in my family.”
“…” Ying Kai said feebly, “Changsheng, that’s because no one in your family died back then, alright.”
Yuchi Rui nodded, then proudly repeated, “None from my family.”
Ying Kai held his forehead with one hand, taking a long breath and wisely deciding not to argue with him.
“Pc rtbga, atf qijuef bo jkjxfclcu mbgqrfr lc fjmt ojwlis tjr gfjmtfv j qblca ktfgf P jibcf mjc tjgvis mbnfg la eq. Po remt j rmjcvji kfgf ab ufa bea, cba bcis kbeiv atfgf yf qjclm jcv mtjbr klatlc atf Wejcwfc, yea qfbqif kbeiv jirb lcfnlajyis nlfk meialnjabgr jr vlrjrafgr jcv yfjrar jcv atf qegrela bo lwwbgajilas jr j vfwbclm jcv fnli qjat.”
“Therefore, after a secret discussion with Changsun Chengfeng of the Artefacts Sect, I proposed that all the families and sects move all the remains of their ancestors to Dai Mountain, construct the Ding Xian Mausoleum and then impose severe laws to strictly prohibit living people from entering the tomb. If someone must enter, only one person, or at most two, could do so to avoid the risk of awakening masses of corpses.”
“On the ninth level, in the deepest part of the tomb, I crafted this heavy door of pure gold and delivered four coffins myself.”
“The mirror coffin is inside?” Yuchi Rui asked immediately.
“Yes, the first one is the mirror coffin which is evil to the core.” Ying Kai slowly said, “Poured with melted bronze and sealed with gold, I personally paid respects and sent it inside the chamber, never to see the light of day again, and the plague of awakening corpses in each family came to an abrupt end.”
Yuchi Rui nodded thoughtfully and asked, “What about the other three?”
Ying Kai asked rhetorically, “Have you ever heard the story of the ‘Ghost Prince Welcoming His Bride‘ when you were a child?”
Of course he had. The story of the ‘Ghost Prince Welcoming His Bride’ was one of the enlightenment stories for children in the Daoist scriptures. Its popularity was probably similar to that of the ‘Three Character Classic’ and the ‘Hundred Family Names’ which children read.
According to legend, in ancient times, the Ghost Wall held great power. The Ghost King was disrespectful to the gods and went so rampant performing evil deeds, that one of the gods of the Eastern Heaven was angered and sent down a heavenly calamity that destroyed the Ghost King’s soul. In order to avenge his death, the Ghost Prince wreaked havoc on earth with his powers, causing bloodshed, scorching the land for miles, and alarming the gods.
The same god from the Eastern Heavens was a merciful one and pitied the sufferings of the mortals. So he extended his helping hand once more. The war between gods, humans and ghosts was tilted and the Ghost Prince sought a compromise with the Gods. At this time, a sovereign was killed on the battlefield and ascended into immortality, a woman whose beauty was said to be a perfect match for the Ghost Prince. So the Prince sent a huge bride price, and a bridal entourage of a hundred beasts and monsters from the Underworld to the Blue Heavens, banging gongs and drums to welcome this bride.
Legend has it that the two were in love and lived in harmony ever after. From then on, the Ghost Prince lived forever in the depths of the Underworld, and no one ever saw him again.
Of course, this is just an absurd story, the so-called ‘Ghost Prince’ might have referred to a certain ghost judge, and the Xuanmen never had any records of any ‘God from the Eastern Heavens’, let alone heard of the Ghost Wall’s ceremony of banging gongs and drums to welcome the Ghost Princess.
Yuchi Rui asked suspiciously, “So what?”
“There is a bronze coffin in the secret room of the Correctional Palace, which has been secretly hidden from generation to generation by the sect masters. No one knows what is inside, but there is a legend that it is the bones left behind by the Ghost Princess when she left her physical body and ascended into immortality.” Ying Kai slowly said, “To be cautious, I did the same by sealing it with molten gold and buried it here.”
“…”
The feeling of absurdity of a childhood bedtime story intersecting with reality came over Yuchi Rui, who halfway said with a shocked face, “It can’t be right ?”
Ying Kai laughed silently.
“What about the third one?” Yuchi Rui couldn’t help but ask again.
At this point, even if Ying Kai said that the third one was the mythical Ghost Prince, he would not be surprised. Who knew that as soon as the question was asked, he only saw the remaining trace of Ying Kai’s smile fade away, and only after a long time did he raise his bloodshot eyes and say calmly, “It belongs to Gong Zhiyu.”
In an instant, all of Yuchi Rui’s words were stuck in his throat.
“How could you put Gong Wei there!” He suddenly stood up with a swish and almost lost his voice, “There’s no way Gong Wei would—”
“He would.” Ying Kai’s tone was tired but smooth, “Being a Sovereign, dying with a grudge, and not decaying after death, he has already met all the conditions for an awakening corpse. The world recognises Gong Zhiyu as the number one in mirror art, and that evil mirror coffin happened to appear in the same year after his death, even I dare not guarantee that this matter has absolutely nothing to do with him, do you understand?”
“I concealed the existence of the Mirror Coffin because I was afraid that the hundred schools of the Xuanmen would think that Gong Zhiyu was haunted by evil spirits and that his reputation would be affected. After the Ding Xian Mausoleum was completed, I buried his bones in a golden coffin instead, when his corpse was still undecayed, his wounds still oozed blood, and his face was as vivid as ever.”
Ying Kai looked towards the huge door deep in the ground and said softly, “Changsheng, if there is one person in this world who would definitely awaken, then nine times out of ten that person would be Gong Zhiyu. I only wonder why he did not awaken for so many years.”
Yuchi Rui fell silent and said abruptly after a long time, “He was very lively in his lifetime.”
Ying Kai said, “I know.”
Not only did Gong Wei like to watch the hustle and bustle when he was alive, he also liked to create it. What would he think of such a lively and active person eventually buried alone, in the deepest, darkest part of the earth, suppressed and sealed away, without ever seeing the light of day?
Would he be disappointed?
Or resentful?
“Only a very few people in the entire Immortal Alliance, including myself, Xu Shuangtze and Changsun Chengfeng, knew about Gong Zhiyu being buried in the deepest part of the Ding Xian Mausoleum. After sending these three most dangerous coffins in, I had planned to seal the huge door shut and never let any living person set foot behind this door again…” Ying Kai took a deep breath before saying, “Who knew that a fourth coffin would be added at this time. “
Yuchi Rui frowned and asked, “Whose?”
“…” Ying Kai moved his eyes away, the leaping fire reflected in them, and said in a low voice.
“Xu Shuangtze.”
Yuchi Rui was dumbfounded for a while and thought that he had heard wrong, “Who?!”
“Sixteen years ago on the Ascension Platform, before Gong Wei died, he apologised to Xu Shuangtze. He said, “You will never be able to ascend, your cultivation in this life will end here.” Ying Kai looked steadily at the endless darkness behind the candle flame and said softly, “In the years that followed, I was immersed in self-blame, guilt, remorse and pain. And I did not have the heart to think carefully about the meaning behind those words…until late one night, in the great hall of the Correctional Palace, Xu Shuangtze suddenly brought an empty coffin.”
***
“…I have been cultivating alone lately, but I have made no progress and feel weary. Sometimes, when I dream in the night, I remember the words left by Gong Zhiyu on the Ascension Platform that year, as if everything was fated to happen…”
A crescent moon shone in front of the main hall, illuminating the courtyard as clear as stagnant water. The hands of Ying Kai were trembling slightly, but Xu Shuangtze’s expression and voice held an uncaring indifference, as if he was recounting the unrelated matters of others.
“I will not be able to ascend in this lifetime, and one day I will die and enter the Underworld. At that time, my heart will not be willing and my obsession will not be dispersed. So once my corpse awakens, I will surely cause suffering for a hundred years. Therefore, you should send this empty coffin to the ninth level of the Ding Xian Mausoleum first. When the time comes I will enter and seal the mausoleum doors on my own accord and lay myself to rest. Perhaps that day is not too far away…”
Ying Kai’s throat seemed to be clogged with something sour, and it took a long time before he said in a trembling voice, “I’m sorry, it’s actually all my fault. If I had realized earlier that the friction between you two was irreconcilable, if I had noticed earlier the unhappiness and killing intent in Zhiyu’s heart, if I had been able to understand him and stop him earlier…”
Surprisingly, Xu Shuangtze smiled, albeit very briefly, “No.”
“Your greatest obstacle is to self-impose too much responsibility.” He suddenly asked, “Do you still remember that year when I said that I regretted having entered that peach forest with you, and that it would have been better if I had never met Gong Zhiyu in my lifetime?”
Ying Kai looked at him, unable to utter a single word.
Of course he remembered, he still remembered the mouthful of warm blood that spurted out of Xu Shuangtze’s lungs.
“I don’t regret it now.” Xu Shuangtze said softly, “I believe that this is my fate.”
To be born as arch-enemies and buried together in death.
Ying Kai let out a long breath.
“When the tomb door finally closed, there were four coffins buried inside. In the decade or so since then, despite the occasional living person entering the mausoleum to pay their respects, the thousands of coffins in the Ding Xian Mausoleum have never undergone any strange changes, and there have never been any more scandals of awakening corpses from among the Xuanmen.”
The shrill howls of the corpses outside the huge iron gate were already far away, trailing behind their heavy footsteps as they faded into the depths of the ancient and silent tomb. Inside the narrow tomb passage, only a single flame, the size of a bean, burned and flickered with Ying Kai’s sigh, casting a faint and trembling projection on the surrounding walls.
“It wasn’t until last night that I discovered that the havoc caused by the Thousand Dimension Mirror Realm fragment is a replica, and I really couldn’t explain it all…except to open the door to the tomb to see for myself.”
Yuchi Rui was silent for a long time before asking, “You want to see if this has anything to do with Gong Wei?”
“The person most proficient in illusion in the whole world is Gong Zhiyu, and the person most familiar with the Thousand Dimension Mirror Realm is also Gong Zhiyu. I must come and see for myself if his soul is still resting in peace.” Ying Kai’s voice was harsh and he took a deep breath to suppress it, “If it is really related to him, at least I can personally deal with it…when the next fragment appears.”
No one expected that Gong Wei was still lying nicely in the Ding Xian Masoleum, but it was the thousands of coffins that hadn’t moved for so many years that had awakened in unison.
—
“They’re gone.” Yuchi Rui looked towards the stone door and his ears twitched keenly, “Let’s go.”
Both of them were great masters of cultivation, who were ranked at the top of the world, and despite the heavy damage from the all-night battle, they had recovered a bit of energy after this rest. Ying Kai used his Ding Shan Hai sword to support himself and was about to turn around and walk out when he hesitated, “Are you injured?”
Yuchi Rui, “I’m alright.”
“Then why are you panting so hard?”
Yuchi Rui, “I am not.”
Both of them suddenly froze at the same time.
The sound came from the pitch darkness, one was clearer than the other, one heavier than the other, as if they were right beside their ears. Ying Kai looked over at Yuchi Rui, both of them seeing their own pale faces reflected in each other’s eyes, and then slowly turned to the huge golden tomb door behind them at the same time.
Tremors rose from the soles of their feet, but it wasn’t from fear, it was because—the ground was actually shaking.
The tremors grew louder and more violent, the dust and debris rained down the tomb passages on the left and right, and then the solid stone wall beside the huge door suddenly burst with a clear, crisp, ‘ka cha!’
As if hearing a silent alarm in the void, Ying Kai’s face suddenly changed and he only had time to fly and push Yuchi Rui away, “Changsheng, get out of the way—”
Before the words left his mouth, the golden tomb door burst open, and a thousand-pound door slammed into Ying Kai, sending him flying in the air.
The next thing he knew, his whole body flew out and smashed into the tomb passage, with golden pieces of rubble falling down on him like hail!
Yuchi Rui, “Ying Kai!”
But a huge tremor drowned out his roar.
Ying Kai was crushed under a thousand-tonne door and instantly spurted out a mouthful of blood, a hot stream of blood quickly filling his ears. It took several seconds before he felt something loosen within his spiritual sense amidst the violent tremors.
It was the Mahayana Seal.
The protective spell formation that had enveloped a thousand miles of Dai Mountain dissipated at this moment.
–
The curtain of light shattered into millions of pieces, converging into a torrent that rushed up to the clouds, and then even the last trace of light vanished without a trace. All those gathered at the bottom of the mountain raised their heads in unison, Yuchi Xiao froze in his tracks, Changsun Chengyang’s mouth was half open, unable to speak, shock spreading through the crowd like a million poisonous snakes.
The corpse’s aura over Dai Mountain was so thick that the sky became dark and gloomy, reflecting in the shocked eyes of Gong Wei.
In the next moment, the corpse aura, so thick that it was like a substance, spread out in an explosive manner, sweeping in with the swiftness of lightning!
The cultivators at the bottom of the hill could not even dodge before they were enveloped in darkness one after another, followed by shouts and shrieks that were swallowed up by the thick ink-like fog. Changsun Chengfeng tugged at Bai Xian, who was at his side, while turning his head and shouting to the others, “Don’t move! Don’t run around!”
Yuchi Xiao’s first reaction was to reach for Gong Wei, but then he felt the slender, cold hand slip the moment he touched it and disappeared without a trace.
“Xiang Xiaoyuan?” Yuchi Xiao cried in dismay, frantically reaching out and around but only felt the slippery, fishy, wet corpse air. “Where did you go? Come back!”
In the darkness ahead, Gong Wei stood quietly at the top of the cliff, looking up at the direction of the Ding Xian Mausoleum in the distance, his face pale and grave.
With a wave of his sleeve, he flew towards the mountain stream.
–
“Cough cough cough…” Deep inside the tomb, Yuchi Rui stabbed his sword into the ground as hard as he could to steady his body and said hoarsely in the violently shaking tomb passage, “Ying Kai? How are you, Ying—”
His voice suddenly stopped.
The sound of metal scraping came from the depths of darkness, as if something dangerous was slowly sliding away, and then ended abruptly with a sharp screech.
Yuchi Rui’s pupils shook as he had realised what it was—
The lid of a coffin.
“…go back.” He muttered incredulously, “Go back to that world, you are obviously…”
But alas, it was too late.
The tomb passage was in ruins, and the yin candles on the remnants of the wall on either side suddenly lit themselves up one after the other, reflecting the huge chamber of the ninth floor of the underground palace. On the bronze floor in front of them was a circular spell formation, several feet in diameter and intricately carved, with four large, heavy gold coffins placed in a ring, one of which had its lid wide open.
A cold and green glow lit up, and a stiff back sat up and slowly turned his face.
Yuchi Rui’s ears were filled with his own uncontrollable sharp gasps, and he subconsciously stepped backwards, finally calling out that name with difficulty,”…Gong Wei.”
