Qin Yunuan remembered clearly that the fire-scroll she picked was only half, and its end had been wetted out completely. It was hard to ignite it. But this one was entirely unbroken and looked very new.
Leng Changxi was astonished too, but then he felt he kicked something when he moved. He picked it up to check and found that a torch emerged on the empty stone platform. The head of the torch smelled of fresh kerosene, and the torch seemed to be made very recently.
Qin Yunuan saw the scene and could not help but take a deep breath. The torch indicated that there was someone inside except Chen Jingrui. The person had been hiding in the weapon factory, which was like an ancient tomb.
Leng Changxi held the hand of Qin Yunuan. The two people stared tightly at the infinite darkness in the front. They knew that the person who gave them fire-scroll and torch was hiding in the darkness. The person wanted to attract them to walk inside the darkness.
Suddenly, an insubstantial voice came from the empty darkness.
“Since you were already in, just walk in.”
The voice was exactly from the infinite darkness. It seemed to come from a woman but sounded very dreamlike.
Leng Changxi and Qin Yunuan looked at each other. Their eyes indicated that they had ensured that they did hear the voice just now. Compared with the outside, it was safer inside. After all, if the person wanted to kill them, she would not give them the tools for moving in.
Leng Changxi ignited the torch quickly. The fire lighted up the darkness. By the flame, Qin Yunuan could clearly see that Leng Changxi was still weak. It might be at dusk outside, so no light came in. There was only a small flame in the whole space.
“Don’t be scared,” Leng Changxi held the hand of Qin Yunuan and comforted her, “I am here.”
Qin Yunuan withdrew her neck slightly and said OK in a very low voice.
The two people walked forwards along with the dark and deep corridor. Due to the moist environment caused by the mountain and rainwater, there were many holes full of water in the corridor. Shoes must be wet out when treading in. The two people got their trousers wet along the way. Qin Yunuan had been observing the very old wall paintings. She had seen them in the ancestral hall in Qin Family, which was not so different from these. They were all wall paintings used for blessing. But the point was that in this weapon factory for whom the wall paintings were used.
At the end of the corridor, a stone door generally appeared, but when there were only a few steps away from the stone door, Qin Yunuan almost tumbled. Leng Changxi reached his hands to support her, and the torch in his hand lighted up the wet trousers of Qin Yunuan. The water stains spreading up to her knee astonished the two people suddenly.
The water… was red?
Leng Changxi stunned. He took a torch on the wall and walked out of the corridor. There was drier outside the corridor. The ignited torch could emit small flame, and then he ignited three to four torches and threw them into the corridor. The corridor was suddenly lighted up. By the flame, there was all red. Qin Yunuan saw that the road she passed just now was full of bloody water. She felt frightened and tense.
At this moment, the tightly closed stone door suddenly opened a small crack with the sound of grating, and a clear female voice came from inside.
“Don’t feel confused about that. That is red mud washed out from the mountain. Though it is a comb cave, there are no dead people except the person lying on the crystal coffin.”
The voice was exactly from the woman who guided Qin Yunuan and Leng Changxi. But here is a weapon factory, so what did the comb cave she said just now mean? And who was the person lying on the crystal coffin? What kind of influential person on earth could build the tomb in such a mysterious weapon factory?
A gust of warm wind blew off from the crack of the stone door with a light warm aroma. At such a dark space, this warm aroma was definitely a bewildering poison. Qin Yunuan stepped forward and reached her hands. She was about to open the stone door, but the door opened widely suddenly when Qin Yunuan’s fingertips just touch the crack, which seemed to welcome Leng Changxi and Qin Yunuan.
“Come in.” The woman’s voice sounded more sincere.
When they came in, different from what Qin Yunuan thought, the space was not as gloomy as a tomb of the living dead but a place with warm air and soft saffron yellow light glowing in the distance.
Leng Changxi walked in front of Qin Yunuan, and their hands were always held together. There was no one in the space, but the woman’s voice did come from here just now.
Leng Changxi raised his head slightly and shouted at the inside, “Are you here? My sister. You just guided us.”
No one responded.
Leng Changxi and Qin Yunuan looked at each other. Leng Changxi bowed his fists and said to the air, “I am Leng Changxi from Qi. I came here with my wife Qin Yunuan for…”
“Don’t speak nonsense.” The woman said determinedly, like heroin at this time.
Qin Yunuan stared at the place with warm glowing light. Intuitively, she believed that somebody was there.
As expected, a long shadow approached here slowly. The shadow was turning shorter generally, and then Qin Yunuan saw a black skirt. That was a tall but weak girl standing at the entrance to the cave closely. She looked so pretty, but she seemed to have never seen sunshine because her face looked so pale and unhealthy. She was like a corpse when she did not move, which made people feel that such a kind of beauty appeared at the end of her life.
This woman was…
“Hu Shiniang?” The first person Leng Changxi thought about was Hu Shiniang. Qin Yunuan and Leng Changxi met with Hu Shiniang when they settled at the Ghost City. At that time, Hu Shiniang, as the landlady, introduced Leng Changxi to attend the competition of martial art. Though Qin Yunuan had weak eyesight at that time, she still remembered the face of Hu Shiniang roughly. And then when they were at the capital of North Di, they met with a woman identical to Hu Shiniang in the party held by Wanyan Su. Those women were just the same person, or…
“Come in.” The girl in black glimpsed at Leng Changxi and Qin Yunuan coldly with calm eyes, but she seemed to be talking with her old friends.
Qin Yunuan and Leng Changxi walked forward quickly. The two people felt astonished because they knew many incredible things suddenly.
The light was brighter when they walked inside more. The girl in black walked in front of them without a word. The two people did not know where they would go.
“Well, what did you call me just now?” The girl in black asked Leng Changxi suddenly, but she did not turn back.
“Hu Shiniang,” Leng Changxi responded tentatively, “She was my old friend who helped me before. She looks a bit like you.”
“I know,” The girl in black suddenly turned back, “Not a bit, but identical.”
“So, are you the sister of Hu Shiniang?” Qin Yunuan asked in a low voice. The girl in black talked in a soft voice with a cold face, but she could be an easy-going girl.
“I do not have sisters like them.” The girl in black was angry but still with a poker face.
“Them?” Qin Yunuan asked.
The girl in black stopped and turned back. She pointed at the front, “We will arrive soon.”
Qin Yunuan now found that the three people had been at the edge of a bluff unknowingly. More precisely-speaking, it was not a bluff but a raised platform. It was a bottomless chasm under the platform. And at the center of the chasm, there was a beautiful transparent oblong crystal coffin. There seemed to be someone lying in it, but Qin Yunuan could not see it clearly due to the long distance.
The girl in black suddenly knelt toward the crystal coffin several meters away. She said piously, “Master, I take the people you want here. You will not worry that nobody knows your great conception anymore. They overcame various passes in Yeren Valley and steered by the attack of military formations. They also opened the Duanlong Gate. They can inherit your wisdom and kindness. Master, you can rest in peace.”
Qin Yunuan was stunned and did not figure out what happened. It was so abrupt for Qin Yunuan and Leng Changxi to be the inheritors of the person in the crystal coffin inexplicable.
“Sister.” Qin Yunuan asked sideways but stopped by the woman called A Mo. A Mo said to Qin Yunuan so arrogantly, “You are lucky. Now you just attempt to reach the crystal coffin in the center and then kowtow three times to my master. The key in her hand will fall automatically. The key will open an incomparable world for you. And then you will stay here like me to strive for our master’s wisdom and undertakings. You are so lucky. There were so many people trying their best to come in, but they failed.”
Qin Yunuan suddenly understood. The person lying on the crystal coffin selected the best-qualified inheritor for herself by using Yeren Valley and military formations. If Qin Yunuan was right, the person lying in the coffin must be Chen Wan, the woman who was regarded as an immortal person.
Leng Changxi glimpsed at A Mo and smiled, “Those people strove to be the first one to come in, but I think people staying here may not be happy at all. People outside want to come in, but people inside want to go out.”
“All people who went out were dead.” A Mo said angrily.
“You mean Hu Shiniang? And the woman from Du Family in the tavern?” Leng Changxi smiled.
“They have no right to be human. The two should have stayed here to guard our master and our undertakings, but they were impatient and escaped. They should have died.” A Mo ground her teeth and said.
“But they did not die. They live well.” Leng Changxi seemed to provoke A Mo deliberately, “Now they live in the world outside and enjoy their fantastic lives, but you have been living in this tomb of the living dead for over thirty years.”
