The two squeezed through the small gap behind the wall and pulled the secret door shut after them. A steep staircase led down into a large opening at the base. A dim light was flickering from the room below, giving the staircase an eerie glow. The two walked down in silence, only their steps echoed against the damp stone walls as they came to a halt before the opening.
Few candles were lit and spread along the room, placed in the small hollows in the walls. The room was otherwise bare except for the dark wooden coffin lying on top of a raised stone slab in the middle. Incantations were drawled all over the casket. The immense negative energy enveloped the coffin-like a dense invisible fog, pulsating like a beating heart.
MingYu walked slowly towards the casket with ZhiYi close behind. The casket was high, almost reaching up to MingYu's chest. As they reached the side of it, MingYu trailed his eyes over the drawings. The red, harsh lines were painted with grand gestures, but none of the magical symbols were familiar to him. He shot ZhiYi a curious glance. The demon was also studying the lines, his eyes narrowing as he seemed to recognise them and their purpose.
"What are they?" MingYu asked, as he reached out and brushed over the wooden lid. It was smooth and, to MingYu's surprise, warm to the touch even in the cool, still air of the area.
"Preserving incantations." ZhiYi said as he paced around the coffin and stopped beside MingYu. "We use them when we are waiting to reattach the spirit back to a deceased body, to stop it from decaying."
MingYu turned his eyes over the smooth wood and a pained expression marred his features. A body was being preserved, and it couldn't be anybody else's but Jiang MeiLin's. MingYu cursed silently as he mulled over how much Wu TianLan had messed up and how now he was left to clean up. If he at least could remember what he had done as Wu TianLan, swallowing all of this would have been much easier.
MingYu pressed his hands over the side of the cover and looked at ZhiYi. They nodded in sync and together, pushed the lid off the coffin, sending it crashing to the floor, clouds of dust whirling all over.
The two leaned in to take a look, and inside the coffin was Jiang MeiLin's body. Yellow talismans were strung around the insides of the coffin. At first glance, MeiLin looked like she was sleeping, her skin still retained a healthy flush to it. On closer inspection, the girl was terribly thin, there was only skin hugging the bone, her face hollow and sunken, like a skull with the skin stretched over it. A large gash ran along her throat, deep enough to reveal her trachea. The wound had long since stopped bleeding, leaving only clotted blood along the edges. The robe she was wearing was brand new, not even a speck of crimson could be seen over the fabric.
MingYu turned away and heaved in disgust. He gagged but nothing came up. ZhiYi was studying the body in the dead silence and after a moment, MingYu dared to take another peak inside, but this time, he kept his eyes firmly away from the area of the wound. Then he noticed the long silver picks that littered Jiang MeiLin's body from her abdomen all the way down to her toes. Even between the dark strands of her hair, some of the silver was peeking through. MingYu leaned closer over the coffin railings. The needles were long, with a thick handle that curved into the shape of a scorpion's tail.
"But she is dead..." MingYu whispered as he pulled himself up and away from the body.
"Very." ZhiYi said.
"But her skin, and her body, it doesn't resemble a well-preserved corpse. She even looks like she is still breathing." MingYu's eyes were now fixated at the mountain of a stomach. It had grown large, like a woman in her final stages of pregnancy. Childe Jiang had said the pregnancy had just become barely visible when he saw her last, and right after this, Jiang MeiLin supposedly took her own life. So how could this be possible?
"She is dead in a sense her soul has left her body." ZhiYi said as he turned his eyes around the coffin, studying the talismans. He grimaced and said, "Only the body is kept in a state between the living and dead."
"But why? Who would do this?"
"Her body is forcefully kept alive to house and feed the baby. She is just a shell." ZhiYi said.
"How can the baby still be alive?" MingYu felt like the ground was opening beneath his feet. Everything seemed unreal.
"I don't think the baby is alive. What it actually is, I'm not sure." ZhiYi said, a frown developing over his brows.
"Whatever this is, we have to end it. This is abnormal!" MingYu snapped.
ZhiYi nodded, "The best way is to remove all the acupuncture needles and talismans to no longer keep the body's energy in an endless cycle and force it to stay in a life-like state."
MingYu reached his hand in to touch one of the needles but ZhiYi swiftly pulled his hand back. "Don't! The-" ZhiYi had no time to finish his sentence. At that moment, they heard the wall creak open above them and footsteps echoed down to the room. ZhiYi and MingYu hurried to place the lid back over the casket and crouched down behind the coffin. They hid just in time, as Li PingShi came into view with Jiang Feng right behind him.
The childe was holding the knife before the man's throat, the blade scraping across his skin, leaving a trickle of blood behind. FenFen and FuFu emerged from the opening behind childe Jiang, dragging a crazed madam Li with them. Madam Li looked like she had gone mad, her hair was out of it's neat updo. Long scratch marks ran along her cheeks all the way down to her chest. She had clawed herself to the point of bleeding.
MingYu retracted his head from behind the coffin and mouthed 'what now?' to ZhiYi. The demon shook his head. The two sat close to the ground, listening as the people moved around on the other side of the casket.
"Where is MeiMei? I told you to take me to her!" Jiang Feng raged, and MingYu could hear a low hissing sound as master Li simmered under the sharp edge of the knife. The silence was deafening, only broken by a weak whimper and the hitched breathing of madam Li.
"Where is she? I will cut your throat if you don't answer me!"
"The coffin-" Master Li murmured, his voice heavy with contempt. A shrill, humorless laughter broke out, echoing against the walls. MingYu could hear master Li struggling under Jiang Feng's tightening hold as the childe laughed like a madman.
"You wish to die, old man? You think it's funny, don't you?"
A suppressed whimper escaped master Li's lips. Jiang Feng must have dug the knife deeper into master Li's skin.
"Jiang Feng." FuFu's voice came out pleading as the two girls could be heard shuffling near the coffin. "He β he isn't lying. MeiLin is dead."
"Shut up, all of you!" Jiang Feng snapped, his tone venomous as his heavy steps moved closer to the coffin, dragging master Li with him. "I'm done playing around. Whoever dares to say MeiMei is dead again, I will gut you!"
"Let him go, childe Jiang." FenFen's commanding voice split the air. "If you kill him, how would you know where Jiang MeiLin is kept?"
A hesitating silence was disrupted as someone rushed through the room, crashing into the coffin, sending the lid flying over the two crouching men. ZhiYi pulled MingYu under his arms in time as the heavy lid hit them full force, cracking in two over ZhiYi's back. ZhiYi gritted his teeth but appeared unaffected by the hit. MingYu sighed in relief.
The sound of a knife clanking into the ground and a bone-chilling cry alerted the two and they shuffled up out of hiding. All blood had escaped Jiang Feng as he was ashy grey and trembling over his sister's lifeless body. Madam Li was standing next to the coffin, her life force barely noticeable anymore. She was looking at the body with so much hatred, MingYu was taken back. Her eyes were blazing, her lips drawn thin and tight. The wild strands of hair draped over her face, clinging to her wounds and blood. Her eyes were fixated on the bulging stomach of her deceased daughter.
Master Li was lying near the far wall, his hand pressing over his throat. The blood was gushing down his robes through his clenched fingers, drenching his clothes in pools of blood. He was taking in gurgling breaths, his hands slipping away from his throat from the slippery blood. Jiang Feng had slashed master Li's throat from surprise, as the coffin was opened by madam Li's sudden outburst.
The twins were standing on the other side of the room, both huddled together in shock of what had just happened. FuFu was hiding her face in FenFen's shoulder, shivering.
Before any of them could take in the situation, madam Li had scurried like a rat over to the knife that laid on the ground. Picking it up, she launched forward, her hand raised, ready to strike. MingYu was the one to react first as he screamed and extended his arms, but instead of striking Jiang Feng in the back as MingYu had expected, the knife turned towards Jiang MeiLin's body, aiming for the stomach. The knife plunged into MingYu's extended forearm, scraping the bone. MingYu howled as the pain shot up his hand, radiating through his shoulder and neck in hot waves. Madam Li recoiled as she realised she had hit him instead of Jiang MeiLin. Her scowl darkened as she barked,
"This is all her fault! She ruined our life! First, she seduced my husband, now she tries to take my life too. It's her, she is taking all of my life force-"
Madam Li was interrupted by a harsh slap across her face. The sting came to her as a surprise, her mouth hung open, her eyes wide and blank. FenFen was seething with rage as she pulled madam Li by her collar and shook her like a filthy ragdoll.
"You failed as a parent, blame yourself over your miserable life!" FenFen spat, her fists tightening around madam Li's robes, pulling her closer. "If you touch my family with your dirty hands again, I will rip your head off your shoulders while you are still breathing!"
Madam Li slid off FenFen's hold and crumbled on the floor, quietly hugging her knees, eyes staring at nothing. She was rocking herself in place, lost in her own little world at FenFen's feet.
ZhiYi was pressing over MingYu's wound with his hands, his eyes now darkened to two black pools. "FuFu, take Jiang Feng with you. Get him out of here."
FuFu was trembling but nodded at her father and hurried over to Jiang Feng's side, dragging the childe away from the coffin and up the stairs. Jiang Feng made no moves to brush FuFu off, he was still caught in a trance-like state.
"I'm fine." MingYu hissed through clenched teeth as he tightened the bandage ZhiYi had handed him around his bleeding arm, wincing from the pain.
"Father, what should we do with them?" FenFen said as her eyes swept over master and madam Li.
ZhiYi's voice had an eerie calmness to it as he said,
"We finish this."