The Night Watcher of Great Jing - Chapter 47

Zhao Li had assumed the hidden chamber would not be very deep.

But the moment she followed Shen Yan inside, the cold raised gooseflesh across her body.

Immediately beyond the black opening was an extremely steep staircase descending into the earth. Each step was no wider than a palm.

Shen Yan and Zhao Li had to turn sideways and slowly make their way down.

Any unexpected change in such an environment would be extraordinarily dangerous, so both remained on guard.

Shen Yan insisted on walking first. Looking at his broad back, Zhao Li could only grip her saber hilt and carefully watch their surroundings and the ceiling.

Fortunately, the staircase was not long.

Soon, Zhao Li saw a faint glimmer of light ahead.

After descending a few more steps, they entered a hidden chamber half the size of a basketball court.

A bronze cauldron stood in its center, filled with raging flames.

The fragrance of sandalwood was so intense here that it made Zhao Li’s nose itch.

To the right, an entire wall of spirit tablets rose behind an altar.

Unlike tablets used in ordinary rites, these were dark red, their characters written in vivid crimson.

The altar held neither white candles nor white incense for the dead. Instead, red candles and black incense burned there.

Zhao Li moved closer and tilted her head to read them.

The largest tablet on the top row bore a name:

*Spirit Tablet of Chai Heng.*

The name seemed vaguely familiar.

She was about to ask Shen Yan when she saw his ashen expression.

After a moment’s confusion, Zhao Li suddenly remembered.

Chai was the surname of Great Jing’s imperial house.

And Chai Heng was the personal name of the reigning emperor.

Though Zhao Li held little reverence for imperial authority, she still drew a sharp breath.

These people had erected a spirit tablet here because they wanted to curse the emperor to death.

No—not only the emperor.

Zhao Li looked again.

On the second row beneath the emperor’s tablet, the names Shen Zhixing and Shen Yan appeared prominently.

Now she understood why the Jingning Guard agent had looked so grim.

Blood-red banners hung on either side of the tablets.

They read:

*The White Lotus descends; the common people shall rise.*

*Unborn Venerable Mother; Home of the True Void.*

Zhao Li slowly breathed out.

This case now extended far beyond one noble house. A case of this magnitude would inevitably end in rivers of blood.

Shen Yan was still studying the wall of tablets with a deep frown. Zhao Li knew he was likely identifying the names of court officials.

She did not interrupt him.

Instead, she blew on her tinder until it caught, then searched the chamber.

At that moment, the flames in the bronze cauldron flickered several times, as though the fat inside was nearly exhausted.

The light pulsed between bright and dim.

Zhao Li abruptly noticed something on the floor and crouched to inspect it.

Someone had carved channels into the bluestone, then filled them with powder.

Zhao Li pinched a little between her fingers and examined it closely.

It was ash from mengshi stone.

The powder-filled channels formed strange lines and patterns.

When Zhao Li stood to study them, she discovered that they connected to two large black vats placed on opposite sides of the hidden chamber.

Each vat bore the image of a faceless woman whose abdomen had split open in a gaping wound.

An umbilical cord extended from the woman’s belly. At its far end wailed a red infant.

Zhao Li suddenly understood.

Those White Lotus Sect madmen!

They had abducted pregnant women and cut the babies from their living bodies.

Then they placed the mother’s corpse and the infant’s corpse in separate soul-sealing vats, one on either side of the chamber.

Finally, they used mengshi stone, which severed yin from yang, to lay a formation across the floor.

A mother whose child had been cut from her while she still lived would be forever consumed by concern for the baby in her womb.

A full-term fetus already possessed a soul. It would want to return to its mother’s womb. It would want to be born.

Mother and child were connected. Their souls could sense each other within arm’s reach.

But the mengshi stone divided yin and yang, ensuring that neither could ever find a path to the other.

They were separated by a gulf while standing inches apart.

Day after day of fruitless searching within such a wicked formation would drive mother and child into a resentful bane powerful enough to reach the heavens.

The cult intended to use that baleful energy to curse the people named on the tablets.

Zhao Li’s fists clenched.

If she had guessed correctly, the entire chamber—walls and floor alike—had been specially constructed to gather yin energy and imprison baleful energy.

The fat burning in the bronze cauldron was likely mixed with corpse oil from the mother and child in the vats.

When lit, it pacified their resentful spirits and kept them temporarily calm.

But once the flame went out, the Mother-and-Child Bane’s ferocity would erupt again.

“Lord Shen, go.”

Zhao Li swept her gaze around and saw no oil.

The flame was about to die. With no time to explain, she urgently pushed Shen Yan out of the chamber.

The firelight swayed behind them.

Just as Zhao Li shoved Shen Yan out of the chamber, the flames in the cauldron went out with a hiss.

Darkness swallowed them.

“Go!”

Shen Yan was not the sort of idiot who stopped to ask endless questions at a critical moment.

As soon as Zhao Li pushed him, he seized her hand and took control, dragging her up the stairs.

They could see nothing in the dark, but Shen Yan moved extremely quickly. In a moment, light from the opening became visible ahead.

The exit drew closer.

Shen Yan stepped out first, still holding Zhao Li’s wrist as she followed behind.

When Zhao Li was only one step from safety, something suddenly caught her ankle.

At the edge of her vision, she saw a blood-red umbilical cord emerge from the darkness and coil around her leg. It climbed constantly upward, burrowing toward the space between her thighs.

An infant wailed in the blackness.

The child had discovered a female body and wanted to return to a warm womb.

One of Zhao Li’s hands was held by Shen Yan. With the other, she drew her saber backward and slashed.

The weapon had accompanied a general of the previous dynasty throughout his life and overflowed with baleful energy.

The instant its edge touched the red umbilical cord, a sizzling sound erupted.

The cord split in two.

The infant’s cries in the darkness immediately sharpened into agony.

The back of Zhao Li’s collar tightened.

Shen Yan lifted her out as though picking up a cat, then wrapped one arm around her waist from behind and retreated with her.

The severed half of the red umbilical cord still wrapped around Zhao Li’s leg began smoking the instant sunlight touched it.

It dropped to the floor with a smack and shriveled into a small, desiccated strip.

“Put the altar table back!”

Zhao Li had no time to care that Shen Yan held her around the waist like a doll. She shouted to the Jingning Guard agents inside the room.

They had already been startled when Shen Yan burst out. At Zhao Li’s command, they hurried into motion.

They had barely placed the altar table before the opening when the intestine-like red cord crawled up the stairs again.

Like a small red snake, it rustled across the ground and reared at the mouth of the hole, probing from side to side.

Then it pointed directly at Zhao Li.

Disregarding even the sunlight filling the room, it stretched toward her.

But the moment its tip emerged, the white-jade lotus candleholder on the altar table released a holy white halo.

As if it had touched something terrifying, the umbilical cord shot backward and vanished into the hidden chamber.

The infant’s screams in the darkness turned piercing.

“Fill it back in. Hurry!”

Zhao Li’s feet still hung above the floor as she pointed from Shen Yan’s arms at the pile of bluestone bricks that had been removed.

Only then did she turn to him.

“Lord Shen, you can put me down now.”

Shen Yan’s gaze shifted away.

“Oh,” he answered without expression.