The Night Watcher of Great Jing - Chapter 55

Zhao Li stood before the opening with her eyes closed, holding a human-shaped burlap sack in her right hand.

Her eyeballs burned and throbbed, pulsing gently with every breath.

Even through her eyelids, the dim light of the worship hall had become painfully bright.

She could feel several gazes fixed on her from behind.

Zhao Li held the human-shaped sack before her chest and slowly stepped into the dark passage leading to the hidden chamber.

The instant she entered, the temperature around her dropped several degrees.

Bone-piercing cold stroked her skin through every gap in her clothing.

Only then did Zhao Li open her eyes.

Her pupils, altered by the secret medicine, glowed in the darkness.

The almond-shaped eyes emitted a muted green light, like those of a cat walking through the night.

“Hah…”

Zhao Li breathed out a plume of white mist.

She immediately sensed that the yin energy here was far denser than during her previous visit.

The excavated passage smelled of damp earth.

Last time, Shen Yan had walked in front and cleared the path, so Zhao Li had not needed to worry about what lay ahead.

This time, she carried a heavy burden in one hand.

She moved slowly and carefully.

Turning sideways, she felt along the rocky wall with her free hand and descended the palm-wide steps.

The deeper she went, the more distant the sounds from the worship hall became.

Silence gathered until Zhao Li could hear her own heartbeat gradually accelerating.

Fear was humanity’s most primal instinct.

Every person possessed a different threshold, but no one could entirely cast it aside.

As Zhao Li descended through the black passage, time seemed to stretch unbearably long.

She did not know how much time had passed.

The passage widened as she approached the bottom. Then the burlap sack in her hand abruptly moved.

The person inside released a heavy breath.

Zhao Li’s heart jolted.

As expected, the sound awakened something in the tunnel.

Something rustled toward her along the walls.

Zhao Li instantly focused and quickened her steps, reaching the hidden chamber first.

Faint rustling sounded across the ceiling.

She raised her head, her medicated eyes glowing faint green in the darkness.

A red figure resembling a skinned kitten raced across the ceiling of the chamber.

Zhao Li immediately went on guard.

She held her breath and concentrated on the sounds overhead.

Suddenly, cold brushed her ear.

A blue-white woman’s face had settled upon her shoulder.

The face hid behind disordered hair crusted with blood. Wooden spikes as thick as index fingers plugged both ears.

Red hemp thread had sewn her eyelids and mouth tightly shut.

Zhao Li instantly stopped breathing.

The woman’s nostrils flared as she sniffed again and again.

A muffled whimper came from her throat.

Then the face slowly moved downward, the nose settling against the doll at Zhao Li’s waist.

Zhao Li bit hard on the tip of her tongue and stared fixedly at the woman.

She slowly raised one hand and untied the doll, moving with excruciating care for fear of triggering some harmful rule.

The woman moved like a boneless snake, her head following Zhao Li’s hand.

Wet hair brushed across the back of Zhao Li’s hand, leaving a cold, damp trail.

Gooseflesh raced along her arm at the chill.

The temperature had fallen to a horrifying degree.

Zhao Li felt as if someone had placed a block of ice inside her body. Even her lungs were almost frozen.

Just as she was about to hand over the doll, cold touched her leg.

The sudden sensation made Zhao Li instinctively look down.

A blood-covered infant crouched on all fours beside her leg.

The umbilical cord extending from his navel had wrapped around his own neck.

Zhao Li’s scalp exploded with alarm, and she kicked without thought.

The infant’s piercing wail immediately filled the darkness.

*Not good.*

Zhao Li hurriedly threw the straw doll far away.

The woman whose eyes had been sewn shut slithered toward it with impossible speed, moving like a snake.

At the same time, Zhao Li set down the burlap sack she had carried in her right hand.

Its opening had been left loose. When the sack hit the floor, its mouth fell open and revealed the bulky figure inside.

“For you.”

Zhao Li kicked the figure toward the red infant.

Granny Oil had been given a small dose of sleeping drug and removed from the Imperial Prison.

She had already shown signs of waking while being carried down the stairs.

All she knew was that she seemed to be rocking back and forth inside a cradle.

Half awake and half dreaming, someone abruptly kicked her from behind.

Torture in the Imperial Prison had left no part of her body uninjured. She landed on the freezing floor and could not suppress a groan.

When she opened her eyes, there was nothing but darkness.

The surrounding cold made her entire body shiver.

Had she already died and descended into the underworld?

But she had contributed so much to the sacred sect. Why had she not gone to enjoy blessings in heaven?

Instinctively, she murmured, “Unborn Venerable Mother.”

The invocation sounded exceptionally loud in the darkness.

After one breath of silence, an infant’s wail erupted.

Granny Oil’s legs tightened as something wrapped around them.

She screamed in panic, but could see nothing.

All she felt was a cold, slippery rope winding around her ankle.

Then a freezing thing crawled between her legs, its body the size of a skinned kitten.

“Aaaah!”

Granny Oil threw back her head, her mouth stretched as wide as it would go, and released a scream of utter agony.

Zhao Li watched the red infant crawl beneath Granny Oil’s skirt and felt lingering fear herself.

She looked to the side.

The woman whose eyes were sewn shut held the straw doll.

A massive horizontal wound split her abdomen.

The flesh around it curled outward, revealing pale-yellow fat beneath.

The woman reclined on the ground, cupping the crude straw doll in both hands and stuffing it into the opening in her belly.

Zhao Li looked away.

This was not the time for sorrow.

Having temporarily separated and pacified mother and child, she hurried to the center of the chamber.

Deception could only last so long.

She had to break the formation in the floor as quickly as possible so that mother and child could find each other.

Only by resolving as much of their grievance as possible could they finally rest.

Zhao Li pulled the short dagger from her boot and crouched, striking hard at the bluestone floor.

Granny Oil’s screams accompanied the rhythmic blows.

A small bulge rose in her lower abdomen, stretching her torn clothes.

It slowly moved beneath her skin as if searching for a comfortable place.

The loose fat of Granny Oil’s belly drew taut around it. From time to time, the imprint of a tiny palm appeared.

On the other side of the chamber, the disheveled woman finished placing the straw doll inside her belly.

Peace settled over her face.

A drifting melody hummed in her throat.

It seemed to be a lullaby.

For a time, the sounds echoing through the hidden chamber were both grotesque and strangely harmonious.

The bluestone floor was extremely hard.

Even with Zhao Li’s increased strength, every blow produced only a shallow mark.