○Hey guys! I know that I took up a huge break! I know I know the story is going pretty slow but from this update onwards I will be uploading 1-2 chapters daily to cover my mess up. So, in the previous chapter we left at a cliff hanger that the Guard had an emergency to report to the crowned prince outside the Study Hall but no one knows what exactly it is. Also, we haven't heard about Jingsì for a long time so let's meet her up as well. Without further due let's dive in shall we. ○
An injured guard with bad news arrived at the study hall entrance and was pronounced by the guard standing at the entrance. After listening to the arrival both the princess and the prince were worried about what the bad news could be but unknown to the fact of demons attacking the banquet hall, they allowed the injured man to report inside immediately. The man entered with his wounded arm and crippled leg. This was awful sight for princess Ying which made her nauseous, she puked out blood due to her dizziness. Worried Princess A'rou got down on her knees to take care of Ying. While the prince asked the guard regarding what report he was asked to convey and why he was injured. The guard spoke,
Guard, May lord bless the prince and the princess! (While kneeling on his dominant leg)
Prince Yan, please get up and say what has happened? how were you injured so badly...? These wounds seem like cause 2-3 hours ago! What happened speak up?!
Guard, reply to his highness, I was injured while fighting the hungry ghost army!
This sentence shocked all of them, their expression changed from worried to shocked and dumbstruck. They gave a shocked glance to each other and tried to question him what exactly had happened at the Banquet Hall. The guard then narrated the entire reality which was too harsh for them to handle but gave them a clarity that all of this has happened and how exactly the demons destroyed the entire capital.
Guard, Agh! (Holding on to his wounds he spoke) His highness after you left the banquet hall the Demon general attacked with his hungry ghost army and destroyed the entire capital. They also attacked the banquet hall and have destroyed everything and everyone that came in their way! The killed countless people and several courtiers. The hall has become a ground for dead bodies!
Prince Yan, (Forcefully grabs the guard and widens his eyes to ask him) What about the Emperor and Consort Han where they attacked as well?!
Guard, yes, his highness his majesty and Consort Han were attacked by the Binzok demon they are fighting him right now!? They ughhh! They.... (He collapsed!).
At the sight of this Princess Ying screamed out of shock and disgust as the Guard fell unconscious on the ground puking blood. Prince Yan unable to handle all this impulsively acted and ran out towards the banquet hall to save the emperor and consort Han. Princess A'rou tried to stop him but was unsuccessful while handling Ying. She asked the guard standing out at the study hall to remove the unconscious body immediately and send a maid to look after Ying. After sometime a maid came in and took a hold of the shivering princess while A'rou went straight behind her brother to the banquet hall. At this moment it was a rash decision for them to leave the second princess but out of extreme worry and several thoughts coming to their mind, it was the least they can do as a son and a daughter. In the Study princess Ying is still with the maid breathing heavily mumbling a word that the maid is not able to understand. She listens closely to analyze that she needs "water". The maid immediately rushes her to the table nearby so that she can relax on the chair and calm a little bit. The maid helps princess Ying to get up from the ground and walks her to the chair, gently helping her to sit properly she tries to calm her down by asking her to breathe slowly. She rushes then to pour a glass of water near the water jugs placed at the other side of the room. Even for her countless efforts all the 3 pots were empty, hence she had no choice but to bring water from the infirmary near the Xiyue Garden which was in the opposite direction. The infirmary was far away hence she decided to inform the princess before leaving that she will fetch water from the nearest infirmary.
Maid Mei, Her Highness I assume that we don't have any water in the hall right now, I'll quickly fetch some from the nearest Infirmary. Please try to calm down madam. I apologize for the inconvenience caused due to my incompetence (while bowing in front of the princess)
Princess Ying, (Breathing heavily) Y..yee...yee..yes sure! ughhh-ah! Please come-huh back soon!
Maid Mei, yes madam! I'll be back as soon as possible madam please take care.
As there was no other maid around hence Maid Mei was not sure whether it was a good choice to leave the princess but she needed water in order to calm her highness so without any hesitation she left for the infirmary wile Princess Ying tried her best to calm herself down. While doing so she was hasty and hence stumbled upon the table. Due to her action, there was a drag sound near one of the shelves which startled her as there was no body in the study hall and no one was near the book shelf as all of this was sudden her attention was distracted from her own breathing problem. This diversion of thoughts also led to a huge curiosity in her mind. She started to walk towards the shelf that had a drawer opened like it was a riddle box. When she tried to peek inside, she saw a riddled that was made up of Mahjong pieces, it was more like a number combination. the numbers were 20,16,34 and 12 which were placed in a jumbled case order as fractions of Mahjong pieces. It was quite confusing for her to understand as she was trying to compose herself and manage to find the reason as to what triggered the drawer to open. Which after searching the entire room she discovered a pressed knob near the table she was seated to. After clicking the knob open, she heard a similar drag sound and rushed to the second shelf to check the drawer and saw that the drawer has closed which confirmed her min theory that the knob triggered it to open as when tried manually by her she wasn't able to open it again. She pressed the knob close at the bottom of the table and the drawer opened again. Out of joy and excitement she jumped back to the second shelf and tried to analyze the puzzle. She then used the nodes to match the dates in ascending order but that didn't work as there was no response. Then she tried to eliminate the numbers but that didn't work as well. After 5 failed attempts she got bored and kept thinking what the code could be. Then suddenly a thought struck her mind. She saw the numbers again and the shape of the nodes which resembled something like the horse which she assumed to be the year of the horse and the numbers can be split into sight, hours and days. This surprised her as her estimates were correct, so now she just needed to visualize the time so that she can crack the code of the mahjong numeri. She visualized and compared the birth of all her family members as he knew that it was related to the year of horse, she presumed it was related to the crowned prince or the emperor as they were the ones born in the year of horse. Thus, she tried both the dates as she presumed the chest was a lock placed by her father the emperor with high hopes, but there was no response with both the combinations hence she stubbled to think as there was one more slot beneath that she had missed previously was discovered by her which created the shape of a chrysanthemum flower. This reminded her of the engraved dagger her royal father used to carry and she understood the meaning and managed to get the code of the chest puzzle and placed the pieces in the following sequence of 12,34,6,1,02 which represented the date of the emperor's marriage with the late empress Zifen. Entering this combination in the chest around the cords Princess Yin heard a click sound and the puzzle drawer shut itself closed and the entire shelf started to shake. Princess Ying stepped back immediately and was amazed at what she saw ahead of her. The entire shelf shifted into one corner only to reveal a hidden chamber behind the wall. She was shocked to see this happen in front of her eyes. She stepped carefully at its entrance and saw a rocky staircase that went down into a deep dark chamber below the ground level all covered with a few spiders' net. there was a candle stand near the 5th stair that had an old used candle fixed to it. Out of curiosity princess Ying randomly searched for a lantern in the study to light the candle to clearly see what was inside the chamber as not more than 12 steps were visible to her. luckily, she found a small lantern and tore a paper to burn as a wick. Then she carefully stepped onto the stairs down and tried to watch out for any traps. To her surprise there were no traps set on the entire stair case. She reached the fourth step and burned the paper using the lantern to light the candle. But when she took the flame near the candle wick it didn't light up at all. She sparked it and flashed more light on the candle a few times but was not able to light the wick. It took her a moment to realized it was a fake candle. She thought that it might be a puzzle as well hence she tried to push and pull the stand and accidently turned it sideways while applying force. This triggered the entrance gate which shut close automatically locking the princess inside the chamber. She panicked as the gate shut close and ran to the entrance to jump out but wasn't able to make it. Now stuck inside all alone she was way afraid and tried to push the stone gate open somehow but was unsuccessful. She screamed, yelled and begged to be saved but no one was able to hear her voice as the sound did not escape from the chamber at any vocal pitch. She tried her best to hold the candle stand and turn it back up but no matter how hard she pulled it won't move as if it was stuck forever. She applied all her power while suddenly a mouse jumped on her feet out of nowhere, she jumped and screamed with all her potential and the candle stand broke. Now she was more scared holding the candle stand upright while trying to hold her teary face as well while staring at the stand.
Elsewhere, on the way to San Village Jingsì, Jinbao and Mistress Yi were all stuck inside of an old cave that somewhat resembled the canopy bridge. It was assumed to be a shortcut to reach San Village and cross it in day time but they accidentally lost their way and got stuck inside the old part of the cave. Jingsì and Jinbao halted a little as they had left early in the morning and were too tired to even walk. The place looked like a swamp lake with a rocky island. While they restored their energy by eating snacks that Chief Sù gave them before leaving Mistress Yi was trying to search for the opening of the cave so that they could leave as soon as possible. She tried her best but was not able to find the correct way. Instead, she kept on walking down a circular path always coming back to where she started. Jingsì and Jinbao started to talk while Jingsì felt the presence of an intense negative energy very close to them.
Jingsì, Jinbao I don't feel good (in a worried tone she mumbled) I think something is fishy about this place. I'm scared now...
Jinbao, I don't sense anything like that but if you say so then it's possible that there's danger here.
Jingsì, Lets inform Grand aunt...
Jinbao nods and starts to call out for Mistress Yi but is not able to get any response from the outside. He patiently tried several times but was not able to receive any response at all. Jingsì also starts to scream "Grand aunt!" even she is not able to call her out. It was as if their voice was echoing just near the lake area but was not heard outside. Jingsì then hears a harsh wind blown over her head as if a heated coal pot with a lot of fumes was placed right above her heard. Suddenly a huge shadow is casted over Jingsì and Jinbao which scares both of them as it was enormously big to be of a normal human or an animal. Scared from what's behind both of them, they handled their emotional state and caught all their courage to turn around and look what was above their heads. There stood a huge monster like creature with the head of a snake and body covered from rock hard shell. Jingsì then realized that the monster was the rock island itself situated right at the middle of the swamp lake. The monster like creature looked at them with a hungry stare and screamed at the top of his lungs with somewhat like a roar or a scratch scream voice showing his mouth open wide to reveal a thousand spike molars that can easily crush their limbs and bones into powder. They were dumbstruck to see such a deadly scene in front of their eyes that the only solution to this they thought of was not to move in front of the beast at all in order to save themselves. They managed to stand like rock statues and not make a single move but were suddenly attacked by the beast!
○ So, this is it for today's chapter. In the next chapter we will get to know how the monster is killed by Jinbao and Jingsì or will they need someone to rescue them instead. Also, in the next chapter Princess Yin discovers the secret beneath the study hall in the underground chamber. So, until then stay tuned for the next update. ○