Seeing our hesitation and silence, Princess Kinskaya seemed to guess what we were thinking and quickly said, "I won't harm you, I really do know where there is water!"
"So you're going to save us?"
At this moment, Rosa also stood up, slowly walked over to my side with her shotgun, and looked at Princess Kinskaya with a cold smile, "I'm sorry, but I really can't think of any reason for you to save us. And to be honest, having something that's not alive like you around doesn't make me feel safe. So... I'm sorry, but for safety's sake, I have to get rid of you."
Over this period of time, I had come to understand Rosa's way of doing things. She was not someone who feared the lack of good karma. In her own words, "I'll worry about what happens after I die when I'm dead. Right now, I'm alive." In other words, she was tough as nails and didn't care about the consequences after death. So when she said she was going to "deal with" Princess Kinskaya, she meant to scatter her soul to the winds, and it looked like she was ready to do it right then and there.
I felt some pity for Princess Kinskaya and couldn't just watch her be destroyed. I quickly stopped Rosa and then asked Princess Kinskaya, "My friend may be impulsive, but she makes a good point. There's no such thing as a free lunch in this world. Can you tell us your purpose in helping us?"
"I..."
Princess Kinskaya hesitated for a moment, then sadly lowered her head and said softly, "I just want you to take me out of this place. I don't mean to harm you. I've just been trapped here for far too long, so long that I've even forgotten how long I've existed. Every day I drift in this cold tomb. I want to leave this place, see the outside world, and then ask you to help me move on to reincarnation."
Hearing this, I had a better understanding of what Princess Kinskaya wanted.
In fact, many spirits without malice or evil intentions, but trapped in the living world for some reason, actually yearn for reincarnation. After all, lingering in the human world as a lonely ghost is certainly not better than moving on to the next life!
"Kid, you're not really believing her, are you?"
Zhang Jinya looked at me and scoffed, "You dare to listen to the words of a ghost?"
I hesitated for a moment, then nodded.
I definitely had some reservations about trusting Princess Kinskaya, but we really needed water. Not to mention Fatty's wounds, even my own situation was dangerous. If I didn't wash off the mercury soon, I'd be done for. Mercury poisoning is no joke, and being trapped in this ancient tomb in the wilderness, if I really got poisoned, I could only wait for death. So I had pretty much made my choice—better to take a gamble on Princess Kinskaya than to wait here for death!
I shared my thoughts with Zhang Jinya and the others, making it clear that no matter what they decided, I definitely needed Princess Kinskaya to lead me to the water source.
My life was my own. Zhang Jinya and Rosa had only a small amount of mercury on them, and they could afford to wait, but I was different. I had fought hard against the tomb-guarding soldiers with my broadsword, and I was covered in mercury. If I waited another two hours for the mercury to seep through my skin, I'd be dead for sure.
They probably didn't expect me to be so determined, so after a brief discussion, Fatty and Zhou Jing decided to take a chance with me. Rosa hesitated but agreed, and in the end, Zhang Jinya had no choice but to reluctantly follow us. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to survive alone in the dangerous tomb of Gao Xianzhi.
Seeing that we had made our decision and had also promised to help her move on after, Princess Kinskaya seemed particularly happy. She no longer kept her distance and led us to the center of the ear chamber, where a coffin lay. I guessed that this coffin was where Princess Kinskaya's body was placed.
I was startled when I first saw the coffin. It was faintly green, clearly made of premium yin-sinking wood. A yin-sinking tree takes at least a few thousand years to mature, and such premium wood is hard to come by. In ancient times, it was generally only available to the royal family. A body placed in a yin-sinking wood coffin and buried underground would never decay, more valuable than a crystal coffin and more effective than a refrigerator. It seemed that although Gao Xianzhi's wife had killed Princess Kinskaya, she did not skimp on her burial, providing her with a top-quality coffin!
"Open my coffin."
Princess Kinskaya said, "Beneath my coffin is a cavern, and there is water inside."
A cavern?
At the mention of this, I frowned and couldn't help asking, "Was it an escape route left by the craftsmen when they left after the burial?"
I felt a bit foolish asking this question. It was understandable to mistake the dragon vein and build Gao Xianzhi's tomb on the land of a resentful dragon, as there were few feng shui masters capable of "finding the dragon and pinpointing the acupuncture point." But if they had discovered a cavern beneath the tomb chamber during the burial and still insisted on burying Gao Xianzhi there, that would be unreasonable! Because if there was a cavern underground, it could easily flood the tomb. Moreover, since Gao Xianzhi's tomb was built by carving into a mountain, with the chamber recessed, if water entered, it would soak the coffin continuously without dispersing, which would bring disaster to the descendants. From a feng shui perspective, it would be a major misfortune for the progeny. If the cavern was created by the craftsmen as they left, then when they discovered water beneath the chamber, Gao Xianzhi's family would probably have moved the tomb immediately!
So, the cavern underneath was likely not carved out by the craftsmen as they left.
Sure enough, after hearing my question, Princess Kinskaya shook her head, "No, when I was buried, the entrance to the cavern was not yet exposed. It was about a year after I was buried that suddenly one day, someone broke through the floor of the tomb chamber and crawled out from the cavern below..."
A person?
Zhang Jinya and I exchanged glances, both surprised.
Entering the tomb chamber through a cavern from below didn't seem like the work of ordinary laborers. Could it be... the person who arranged the ten deadly tombs?
As mentioned before, the ten deadly tombs were not naturally formed but were created by someone who arranged ten tombs with overwhelming evil energy in all directions, using these ten tombs to nourish something in the main tomb. So when Princess Kinskaya mentioned that someone had entered the tomb before, our first thought was of the person who arranged the ten deadly tombs!
For a moment, even Zhang Jinya and the others were interested and asked Princess Kinskaya for the specific details of that time. Unfortunately, Princess Kinskaya didn't know much. She didn't even know whether the one who entered the ear chamber was human or not, only that the person had headed straight for the main tomb chamber upon entering, returned after a while, and then left through the cavern.
Spirits have a very strong sense of perception, especially towards yin and yang energies. The fact that Princess Kinskaya couldn't tell whether the intruder was human or ghost was quite chilling...
At this time, we were full of doubts and decided to go to the cavern to fetch water to wash off the mercury and then thoroughly investigate the cavern for any clues.
No sooner said than done, Rosa and Zhang Jinya pushed open Princess Kinskaya's coffin, and sure enough, there was a pitch-black hole underneath. Zhang Jinya shone a flashlight down, and we immediately saw the bottom. The cavern wasn't deep, just over a meter down, and we all climbed down with our equipment. Before leaving, I asked Princess Kinskaya if she wanted us to take care of her body, but after some thought, she refused, believing that once we helped her move on, she would have no more connection to this life and there was no need to erase all traces of her existence. Seeing that she was at peace with it, I agreed and was the last to jump down into the cavern.
The air in the cavern was exceptionally good, not like most caverns where the smell could suffocate you. There were many stalactites, and we could faintly hear the sound of water, which was probably the most delightful discovery for us—it meant that the cavern was connected to the outside world, otherwise, it would have been filled with a rotten smell.
Princess Kinskaya floated ahead, leading us along the uneven cavern floor for a distance of two to three miles, and eventually, we saw an underground river!
Princess Kinskaya said she had only gone as far as here and never dared to go further. But at that moment, seeing the water source, who would bother asking her why? We immediately plunged into the underground river to start cleaning off the mercury.
I must say, the water in the underground river was really clean, all from the underground of the Qinling Mountains, exceptionally clear and refreshing. If it weren't for Rosa being nearby, I would have stripped off completely.
Splashing...
Just as I was washing with delight, a very strange sound suddenly came from the darkness. The sound was very faint, but I heard it clearly and couldn't help but look back at Zhou Jing, who was not far from me, and asked, "Zhou Jing, did you hear anything just now?"
"No!"
Zhou Jing looked at me with some confusion, but then he suddenly frowned and let out a soft "huh."
I knew Zhou Jing well enough to know that he wouldn't show such an expression unless something was wrong, so I immediately asked him what was the matter.
"Your Ji'e Palace..."
Zhou Jing frowned, "There's a red pimple there, it seems you have a blood disaster looming!"
My face changed at that moment. I had come to truly appreciate Zhou Jing's face-reading skills, and his words made my heart sink.
Splashing...
At that moment, I heard that very strange sound again from the distance, like the sound of a bird flapping its wings...
But it was pitch black there, and I couldn't see anything. I turned to Rosa on the bank and said, "Give me the flashlight, something's not right here!"
"What are you freaking out about now..."
Rosa rolled her eyes at me, but still took out a flashlight from her backpack and threw it to me. I caught the flashlight, turned it on, and shone it into the darkness. With that one beam, I saw a "monster" clinging to the cavern wall in the distance.
The "monster" was covered in black fur, with a pig-like face, but its mouth had two long, sharp tusks, and its eyes were red. It was crouching on the wall, with two large wings drooping.
What is this? A bat?
But where did such a huge bat come from, almost as big as an eagle!
My scalp tingled, and I swept the flashlight across other areas, feeling weak all over.
The walls of the distant cavern were covered with these creatures, and there must have been millions of them!
"Oh my god..."
At that moment, Zhang Jinya also saw the situation on the cavern walls in the distance and screamed, "What the hell are these things..."
If he hadn't spoken, it would have been fine, but his words immediately startled the pig-faced giant bats on the opposite cavern wall. Those creatures all turned their heads at once, and countless pairs of blood-red eyes in the darkness looked like little red lanterns, staring straight at us...