The Keeper of Myths - Chapter 3

Pei Xueting felt as if someone had grabbed her by the throat and shoved her underwater, only to yank her out again. The pressure crushing her heart and lungs suddenly vanished, and she gasped for breath, half-dead, sprawled over the stone tablet. It took her a long moment to recover, her hearing gradually clearing.

On her phone, Lu Wu was still shouting hoarsely. The lung capacity of the Kunlun Mountain Divine Beast was astonishing; his voice echoed through the bronze corridor, making Pei Xueting’s eardrums ache.

“Stop yelling,” Pei Xueting covered her ears, weakly. “The door’s open.”

Lu Wu was silent for two seconds, then his pitch rose even higher, as if he might shout himself into oblivion. “The door’s open? You opened the door?!”

“Don’t try to blame me,” Pei Xueting swallowed twice, unable to resist peering into the bronze door. “It opened by itself. What on earth is in here?”

“Don’t worry about what’s inside, just get out!” Lu Wu, getting on in years, was already running out of steam. “Who told you to go in there!”

“The Cultural Relics Bureau called the Special Investigation Bureau for a meeting. Weren’t you the one who told me to come? Said I was experienced.” Pei Xueting thought this old guy was way too fussy. “Is there anything here I can’t see? Worst case, I’ll burn it after I look. What’s the big deal?”

Lu Wu was utterly disheartened, only now remembering that their Action Department Head was famous for being rebellious, with 205 bones of defiance in her body. He wiped his face and muttered, “If I ever find out which bastard dug up this tomb, I’ll never let it go. Truly lacking in virtue…”

Pei Xueting didn’t care what her boss was saying. The terror that had nearly driven her mad from all those chaotic voices had vanished, and her reckless curiosity was stirring again.

She swept her high-powered flashlight inside. The beam couldn’t reach the end; she could vaguely see another door further in. Between the two bronze doors was a spacious chamber, half an Eight Trigrams diagram carved into the floor. Transparent glazed glass sealed the recessed lines of the diagram, and mercury was poured underneath.

Suddenly, a gust of wind swept through the air. Pei Xueting reacted instantly, ducking her head as something brushed past above her. In that split second, she threw out a talisman; a burst of fire exploded in the pitch-black corridor, and the twisted-limbed monster was engulfed in flames, its claws digging deep into the ground, a low growl rumbling from its throat.

Pei Xueting wiped her neck, finding a thin scratch-not deep.

If a tomb raider entered this tomb, their soul would first be captured by the corridor’s patterns, forcing them to leave. If they weren’t affected by the patterns, then when the first bronze door opened, that monster would take their head off.

“I have a feeling,” Pei Xueting licked her lips, “that what’s inside might be related to that Evil Spirit.”

She left it at that, and Lu Wu immediately understood the rest she’d left unsaid, so frightened his soul nearly fled his body. “Pei Xueting!”

Pei Xueting hung up without hesitation.

The monster, on all fours, lunged a second time. Pei Xueting drew her gun and fired. Ordinary brass bullets were useless against Evil Spirits, but since ancient times, humans had learned to drive away evil with fire and light. The intense heat of a White Phosphorus Bullet was deadly to most Evil Spirits.

The pistol’s recoil knocked the monster to the ground. Pei Xueting darted through the bronze door, slammed the lock shut, and the door thundered closed.

The talisman hadn’t worked on the monster, nor had the White Phosphorus Bullet; she just needed a brief moment while the monster was incapacitated.

Long claws scratched at the bronze door, producing a teeth-grinding screech. Pei Xueting shivered, backing away from the door. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed in shock that the mercury beneath her feet was flowing! It was as if half the Eight Trigrams diagram was silently turning.

This room was also made of bronze, with walls and ceiling covered in lengthy ancient script. Pei Xueting didn’t bother to look-she couldn’t read it anyway-and headed straight for the second door.

“You’ve arrived.”

Pei Xueting jumped like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. But when she turned, there was no one behind her, nor in front; the words seemed like a hallucination. Looking closely, she saw a skeleton placed before the bronze door.

The skeleton was seated, half leaning against an extinguished palace lantern, draped in a tattered, colorless cloth. She hadn’t seen the corpse from outside-perhaps because it was so small when seated, blending in with the lantern before the bronze door.

“Human sacrifice?” Pei Xueting frowned.

She’d been in the supernatural business for a long time, but had never seen such a strange tomb. At first, seeing the patterns in the corridor, Pei Xueting thought the tomb’s owner didn’t want to harm anyone. The sudden appearance of the little monster could be understood as a retaliation from someone who’d been provoked.
But a living sacrifice is different; generally, only feudal dynasties had the custom of burying living people with the dead. They would seal the craftsmen who built the tomb chamber inside, leaving them to die, lest they reveal the method of opening the tomb after leaving.

From ancient times to the present, Pei Xueting had heard a surprisingly consistent judgment from people about this practice.

It was extremely damaging to one’s karma.

Thinking about Lu Wu’s attitude of avoiding this place as if it were the plague, could this be the tomb of some great demon? But which demon ever died with their body intact? If this really was a demon, it would be refined enough to be recorded in history.

Pei Xueting hesitated for a few seconds, considering whether to use a Blasting Talisman to blow open the door. She had no reverence for cultural relics; it was just that the recent string of missing children cases had only just passed, and if someone tried to set her up again, Lu Wu would surely swallow her whole.

She was still struggling to choose between satisfying her curiosity and keeping her fieldwork allowance when the bronze door, as if growing impatient, opened on its own.

—

Si Nan used the auspicious aura of the Qilin to cleanse the filth from the Archaeological Team members, and one by one, they woke up. He had only touched them, yet his face was as pale as if he had run a thousand meters in two minutes, weakly leaning on the mat as he waited for Song Xiaoming to hand him glucose.

“Senior, you’re amazing,” Song Xiaoming praised softly, not stingy with his admiration.

Si Nan was so proud that even his Qilin tail wanted to stand upright. Holding the ampoule, he swallowed the glucose, trying to show off in a human-like manner. He hadn’t yet figured out a suitable pose to flaunt when his phone began vibrating wildly, the words “Lu Wu” flashing frantically.

“Hello, boss…”

“You-right now, immediately, go down and drag Pei Xueting out for me! Otherwise, you can pack up and leave with her!” Lu Wu’s fury broke through the radio waves, spitting a mouthful of saliva at Si Nan from thin air.

“Huh? But the boss told me to wait on the surface…” Si Nan stammered. It wasn’t that he wasn’t afraid of Lu Wu, but Pei Xueting, that cunning human, was far scarier. Plus, he had a little tagalong with him; if Song Xiaoming got stuck down there on his first field mission, Pei Xueting would surely stew him alive.

Song Xiaoming was scrolling through his phone when he suddenly called out, “Si Nan, something really seems different down there compared to before.”

Si Nan looked at him.

Song Xiaoming turned his phone screen toward him. “The Department Head’s WeChat step count is changing.”

Si Nan didn’t get it.

“There’s a signal underground.”

In this age of information technology explosion, having a signal should be a good thing, but Si Nan inexplicably broke out in a cold sweat. He hung up on Lu Wu and dialed Pei Xueting’s number.

No answer.

—

Pei Xueting was stunned by the tomb chamber.

Half of a Bagua diagram was carved into the floor, seamlessly matching the half outside, with mercury boiling and flowing. Dense red threads filled the chamber, each strung with tiny bronze Soul-Guiding Bells and yellow talisman papers.

At the very center stood a Bronze Coffin. In the corners were several large vats filled with lamp oil, the flames quietly burning.

Those bells were called Soul-Guiding Bells.

In ancient times, when a loved one died, people would hang Soul-Guiding Bells at home. When the wind blew, the bells would ring, guiding wandering souls back home.

But those talisman papers were used to suppress souls.

Pei Xueting’s eyelid twitched.

Someone’s soul was being held here by the Soul-Guiding Bells, then bound by the talisman papers, unable to reincarnate, with no next life. What monstrous crime had this person committed to be tethered here and degraded into an Earthbound Spirit? What puzzled her even more was that there was none of the heavy Yin Energy found outside.

Even if this person had been a saint in life, trapped here for thousands of years in a state between life and death, surely some resentment would have built up?

But the air was truly empty, carrying only the scent of burning lamp oil.

Pei Xueting was still hesitating about whether to move forward; she sensed the contradiction in this tomb chamber. Yet a small voice in her heart kept urging her.

“Go forward, open it.”

“Open that coffin.”

Suddenly, the threads hanging in the air snapped, and the Soul-Guiding Bells clattered to the ground, clearing a path to the coffin for her. Pei Xueting removed the magazine, confirming there were seven bullets left-if anything in the coffin suddenly attacked, she could empty the whole clip into its heart.

She chambered a round and strode forward.

Soul-Suppressing Runes were carved into the Bronze Coffin, filled in with cinnabar.

This tomb chamber seemed to be caught in a spell where time stood still: the Eternal Lamp that never went out, the gleaming Soul-Guiding Bells, and the vivid cinnabar that looked as if it might drip at any moment-all seemed to have escaped the fading of time.

It was as if they were forever frozen at the moment that person was sealed into the coffin.
There was no movement at all.

Pei Xueting knew she should stop now. Since everything here had returned to normal, she ought to head straight back to the surface and let the Archaeological Team take over. Whether this Coffin ended up displayed in a museum or was washed with Talisman Water by Lu Wu, it had nothing to do with her anymore.

Yet, as if compelled by some unseen force, she reached out and pressed her hand against the Coffin. The lid slid open silently, and the moment its contents were exposed, Pei Xueting stopped breathing.

Inside the Coffin lay a person, a man completely immersed in a golden, transparent liquid. He appeared to be in the prime of youth, with not a trace of decay on his body; even his eyelashes were clearly visible, and the cloud patterns embroidered on his white robe still shimmered with luster.

His sleeping posture was perfectly straight, both hands folded over his abdomen. If not for the coffin-like pose, he would have looked as if he were simply taking a nap, ready to wake at any moment.

Pei Xueting, thoroughly steeped in modern film and television, had Action Department’s Bi Fang-who loved all sorts of absurd dramas starring handsome men and beautiful women-constantly around. She herself had little interest in appearances; to her, the only difference between people was the weight of their ashes after cremation.

But upon seeing this face, Pei Xueting felt a sense of being worlds apart.

She reached out in a daze and grasped the man’s wrist.

The illusion of time stopping shattered. The golden liquid dried up, the Eternal Lamp went out, red threads hung in the air like a chaotic spiderweb, and the rusted Soul-Guiding Bell fell to the ground without a sound. The Soul-Calming Talismans withered and broke apart, like countless dead gray butterflies drifting down from above.

The man in the Coffin opened his eyes.

He gripped Pei Xueting’s hand in return, warmth and a strong pulse radiating from his palm.

As the tomb chamber died, the person buried within came back to life.

Pei Xueting stared blankly into those ink-black eyes. As the man held her hand, his clean, pristine white robe turned to ash, leaving his fair, jade-like body exposed before Pei Xueting, every contour of skin and muscle laid bare.

Pei Xueting completely forgot her earlier plan to empty a whole box of bullets into him before opening the Coffin. Faced with those clear eyes that seemed to reflect the sky and clouds, she was momentarily at a loss.

What exactly was buried in here-a Sleeping Beauty? Then what was Lu Wu making such a fuss about? Was he afraid she’d be seduced? Pei Xueting’s mind was a chaotic jumble, all sorts of bizarre thoughts racing through.

The man’s voice was hoarse: “Your nosebleed dripped onto me.”

Two drops of bright red nosebleed, like cinnabar in a lady’s portrait, landed on his well-defined abs. Pei Xueting jerked her hand back, and her phone rang abruptly. She sat down with her back against the Bronze Coffin, pinching her nose as she answered.

“Hello?”

“Boss, why aren’t you answering? Are you inside? Can’t get out? Don’t worry, we’re about to blast our way in to save you!” Si Nan shouted anxiously, not giving Pei Xueting a chance to speak, his voice overlapping in a flurry.

“Si Nan, wait-”

“No way! This is an ancient tomb, a cultural relic, of immense research value-”

“Boss, stand clear of the door, we’re starting the blast!”

Si Nan rambled on, the Archaeological Team leader’s panicked voice mixed in, successfully drowning out Pei Xueting’s attempt to stop him. The bronze door shook with a boom, then the entire door was blown off. Pei Xueting bowed her head, covering her nose and mouth, blinded by the flashlights in the swirling dust.

“These are all relics! All antiquities!” the Archaeological Team leader lamented, still managing to direct his team to photograph the tomb chamber, lest these people who didn’t respect academic research destroy everything inside.

Suddenly, Pei Xueting remembered what was in the Coffin behind her and shouted sharply, “Don’t come over yet! Stop filming! You-get back in!”

The last part was directed at the man in the Coffin, but it was already too late. The sticky Little Qilin, Si Nan, had already thrown himself at her, nearly covering Pei Xueting in snot and tears. “Waaah, boss, do you know how worried I was? I was so afraid you’d die down here-waaah-what the hell is that?!”

Pei Xueting struggled to shove the heavy Little Qilin off her, but the Archaeological Team’s cameras were already pointed at the naked man in the Coffin, snapping away. Whether he was still groggy from sleep or his sense of propriety had been numbed, he didn’t resist or speak, simply letting them take pictures.

A nameless fury rose in Pei Xueting’s chest. She swept away all the cameras aimed at him, veins bulging at her temples. “Get out!”