Chapter 23
Xiao Ma quickly backed away to dodge the sticky hands that were extremely close to his face . He was terrified to the point that he was unable to concentrate on ringing the spirit bell . It was on and off .
“This is only one of the broken pieces of his soul, so ignore it! Shake the spirit bell!” Old Guo yelled out .
“F*ck, easy for you to say . How can I control my natural reactions?!” Xiao Ma exclaimed . Then, he thought that he might as well shut his eyes and concentrate on ringing the bell . However, the image of the boy remained in front of him, and the darkness around him made him fearful . So, he had no choice but to witness this terrifying scene unfold before him .
Suddenly, he remembered what Ye Shaoyang had mentioned, that blood from the tongue could repel evil . With great determination, Xiao Ma bit down hard on his tongue . Then, the pain and blood immediately helped . The terrifying face of the boy was now slightly more bearable . When the boy saw what his actions, the boy quickly changed his form . He became a normal cute, chubby, and plain five year old kid . A red rope tightly wound around his neck, choking him . The boy looked at Xiao Ma with pitiful eyes and reached over to Xiao Ma, seemingly seeking help .
“It’s an illusion; this is not real, he is fake … ” Xiao Ma kept reminding himself . But his kindness got to him, so he dropped the spirit bell that was in his hands and reached out with both hands in an attempt to help out the poor boy … .
“O\' mighty Heaven and Earth, with the power of Yin Yang, destroy!” A hand appeared behind the boy and struck his back . The boy instantly turned into a wisp of smoke that returned to the tomb . Xiao Ma quickly realized what had happened and looked toward Old Guo . The fellow was holding his right hand and was clearly in agony .
“Mr . Guo, I’m really sorry . Thank you for helping me out,” Xiao Ma seemed very ashamed .
“It’s fine . The boy managing to trick you means that you have a kind heart,” Old Guo was unexpectedly kind toward Xiao Ma . When he opened his right hand, it was very swollen . The character ‘Chi’ was written on his palm, and it slowly faded away .
This sight shocked Xiao Ma, and he said, “Didn’t you say the boy was only one of the pieces of his soul? How is your hand that badly injured?” Old Guo rolled his eyes and said, “It is still a powerful spirit; it is enough to injure a weak Daoist like me . ”
After that little incident, the two of them looked down into the tomb to see how Ye Shaoyang was fairing . He was finally able to get the final piece of soul and transcended the little boy . After he finished this, he sat down and took a breather . In one day, he had already killed one undead lord, helped two female spirits, and one soulbound undead boy . In addition to those three undead from the previous night, Ye Shaoyang had probably become the most hardworking Daoist of the month . When Xiao Ma and Old Guo saw that there was no danger, they too jumped into the tomb . Old Guo walked to the other small coffin that was still rattling and asked, “What do we do with this one?”
Ye Shaoyang asked Xiao Ma for a bottle of water and swiftly drank half of it . As he panted, he told Old Guo, “Burn it . . . destroy its body first . Then, I’ll transcend his soul . ”
After he finished his water and rested for a bit, Ye Shaoyang took out a bottle of oil and spread it on the coffin . Then, he lighted it up and flames instantly engulfed the coffin . Xiao Ma asked with shock, “What oil is that? It’s more powerful than petrol!”
“This oil was extracted from mermaids of the east sea . It can burn very long, and one small plate of it can burn for a few hundred years . People from the past would often put them in tombs for lighting,” said Ye Shaoyang . Then, he realized that there might be some right here in this tomb . He looked through the tomb and saw a door that led to a room . Inside the room was a mermaid-shaped candle stand, which was crafted from bronze . The mermaid held up a plate that had mermaid oil in it, and there was also a weak flame . Ye Shaoyang blew out the flame and poured the oil into his bottle to replace what he had used .
On the floor of the side room, there were funerary objects, and most of them were ancient vases . On one of the walls stood a rack filled with different weapons such as blades, swords, and spears . Combined with the fact that the owner of the tomb wore a metal armor, Ye Shaoyang speculated that he must have been a general . Then, Ye Shaoyang looked down and saw that Xiao Ma had bent over and poked his hand into all the vases . He seemed like he was trying to find things . Ye Shaoyang angrily asked, “What are you doing!?”
“Hehe, checking for treasures,” Xiao Ma replied joyfully .
“Well aren’t you fast when it comes to finding treasures!”
Xiao Ma did not impress him . Ye Shaoyang went back to the main chamber and checked on the coffin . The coffin had already burned up . Then, the Pixiu Seal dropped through the coffin to the body of the undead little boy . Its effects restricted the movement of the undead boy . After a while of intense burning, the fire had almost consumed the undead boy’s body, so Ye Shaoyang pulled out the soul binding needle and began to help it transcend . With the help of the Pixiu Seal, the boy’s broken soul could not roam out of the body to trick people, so nothing unexpected happened and the process ended smoothly .
Xiao Ma exited the side room and walked around the main chamber, as he looked for treasures . He walked passed the big coffin and saw all the gold and jewelry inside . His eyes became big and drooly, “Wow, that’s where all the treasures are!” He reached in and grabbed a bunch . Then, he shoved it into his pocket and mumbled, “Forget about the three thousand, I’ll just take these … . ”
“Take this? We should give this to the country,” Old Guo said .
“What? Why? We deserve this!” Xiao Ma refuted; he reached in and grabbed even more from the coffin .
Ye Shaoyang laughed and asked, “How are we going to bring out all this stuff out when there are police guarding outside?”
Xiao Ma paused for a moment . Then, he happily replied, “It’s fine; they don’t know we found a tomb . ”
In response to this, Ye Shaoyang scolded, “Can you think for a second . We just killed an undead lord, so they will definitely come in and search through the place . If you have a way to hide this whole tomb, then by all means take all the treasure . ”
These words left Xiao Ma stunned and speechless . He could only unwillingly put back all the gold and jewelry that he had taken, “All this treasure … . ”
“Let’s all just pick one small thing and report the rest of the treasures,” Ye Shaoyang went up to the coffin and looked through the pile . Then, a jade bracelet attracted his attention . He felt that it would be an appropriate present for Zhou Jingru, so he took it and put it in his bag .
Old Guo picked up a jade ring .
On the other hand, Xiao Ma was still pondering on which one to pick . He picked up one; then, he picked up another, “Hey guys, give me some ideas, which one do guys think is worth the most?”
“Don’t know, just pick one!” Ye Shaoyang and Old Guo replied simultaneously .
“Then … I’ll take this one then,” Xiao Ma seemed to be very happy with his choice and put a piece of Chinese gold ingot into his pocket .
Ye Shaoyang and Old Guo gave each other a look and thought, What an idiot . Any of the antiques would worth more than that block of gold .
Then, Ye Shaoyang noticed another special item, a phoenix-shaped medallion crafted from jade . He picked it up and saw that the jade was pure and its color was even . Moreover, the workmanship was also very delicate . So, he decided to take it too . When Xiao Ma saw that Ye Shaoyang had taken another item, he became jealous and said, “Hey, why are you taking two items? You said everyone only gets one!”
Ye Shaoyang angrily refuted, “I worked hard on this mission . I basically did all the work . You were just shaking a bell, so you’re lucky to even get one item!”
Xiao Ma knew he was not in the right, so he immediately kept quiet .
Then, Ye Shaoyang proceeded to take out his Yin Yang Compass and walked around the main chamber and the side room to check for more evil beings . Fortunately, there were no more . Coincidentally, Xiao Ma had found a passage in the side room and was tempted to explore it, but Ye Shaoyang warned him, “There are usually many traps in ancient tombs . We got lucky and found this collapsed part that led us here . But now, you want to go try out the traps?” Afterward, the three of them climbed back out from the tomb and took the path they came from . When they got out from the air raid shelter, they took a deep breath of the fresh air . They were all feeling extremely thankful that nothing bad had happened .