The Night Watcher of Great Jing - Chapter 56

The tip of Zhao Li’s dagger snapped off as it struck the floor, and a crack split the bluestone groove.

Delight rose in her heart.

She inserted the dagger into the crack, gripped it with both hands, and pried.

At that moment, Granny Oil’s screams grew even more shrill.

She lay in a pool of blood, her abdomen swollen high as if she were about to give birth.

When it expanded to its limit, her navel protruded and released a small jet of blood.

More blood followed.

Granny Oil’s navel opened like a blooming flower.

A small, furry head pressed against the round hole and struggled, squirming outward.

Granny Oil’s mind had become extraordinarily clear.

She screamed and tried to fight, only to discover that her hands and feet were restrained.

All she could do was stare wide-eyed into the darkness.

Pop—

With a dull sound, the tiny head forced its way out.

After several breaths, it began to cry.

The woman with the straw doll inside her belly stiffened.

As though sensing something, confusion appeared on her face.

Granny Oil’s screams continued.

The infant who had pushed out his head thrust out both hands. Bracing with his little arms, he forced open enough space for his body.

Covered in foul organs and blood, he sat upon the chest of the still-breathing Granny Oil.

His desire to be born again had been satisfied, but he discovered that this was not what he had truly wanted.

Realizing he had been deceived, ferocity appeared on his wrinkled little face.

He tore Granny Oil’s belly apart like a ragged cloth sack.

Then his head abruptly turned toward Zhao Li, who was still prying at the bricks.

The moment she sensed his attention, Zhao Li froze.

*Rotten little brat.*

One hand continued working the brick while the other closed around the long saber at her waist.

The blood-covered infant crawled toward her, dragging a long umbilical cord behind him.

Zhao Li’s heart tightened.

At that moment, the resistance beneath her dagger abruptly gave way.

She had lifted the bluestone filled with mengshi ash.

The formation preventing the mother’s and child’s corpses from sensing one another was broken.

A whirlwind rose from the floor of the hidden chamber.

Not far away, the woman clutching her belly stopped.

She slowly released her hands and rose.

As she moved, the straw doll fell from the opening in her abdomen.

Zhao Li’s arms had gone numb from the force of striking the floor.

She pressed one shoulder and looked up, only to find that the child had paused but was still crawling resolutely toward her.

Her teeth began to ache.

Gripping the hilt, Zhao Li slowly drew her saber.

Small hands and feet wet with fresh blood slapped against the bluestone as the red infant approached.

He opened his mouth, revealing a mouthful of tiny, close-set teeth.

Zhao Li bent low like a wolf, her gleaming saber leaving its sheath.

The red infant crept closer.

At that moment, the woman standing motionless in the distance finally moved.

She hooked her fingers beneath the hemp thread sewing her lips shut and tore violently.

The thread, stiff with dried blood, ripped free.

The woman opened her mangled lips and released a grief-stricken cry.

“My child!”

Her dry, hoarse voice filled the hidden chamber.

The red infant finally stopped before Zhao Li.

He looked back and released a delighted laugh.

Dragging the umbilical cord, he crawled toward the woman with wet slaps.

Two trails of bloody tears ran from the woman’s thread-sewn eyes.

She knelt and opened her arms to the infant on the floor.

“Come to Mother.”

One blood-red little hand settled in her palm.

The woman gathered him into her embrace.

Bean-sized tears squeezed from the infant’s eyes.

Pitifully, he followed the woman’s hand and crawled through the opening in her abdomen.

At last, he curled into a ball within his mother’s body.

With a crashing succession of sounds, the entire wall of spirit tablets collapsed.

The woman stood holding her belly, bloody tears covering her face, and never moved again.

Zhao Li spun the broken-tipped dagger in her hand.

She drew out a red cord soaked in rooster blood and placed a circle around the statue-still mother and child.

Then she weighted the cord with a ring of ordinary copper coins.

Rooster-blood cord possessed abundant yang energy, while coins passed from hand to hand carried the human energy of a hundred households. Nothing was better suited to suppress baleful energy.

Most of the Mother-and-Child Bane’s resentment had dissipated when they reunited.

These two objects were enough to restrain them temporarily.

Once finished, Zhao Li approached the large black vat in the corner.

She struck it hard with the dagger’s hilt.

The vat quickly cracked apart, releasing a foul, bloody stench.

Zhao Li stepped aside and avoided the surge of corpse miasma.

Through the cracks, she saw a black, long-haired mass. Matted hair lay amid great sheets of mold.

Zhao Li walked to the vat at the other end of the chamber and broke it open.

This one was empty except for a small, dried mass stuck to the bottom.

She pulled the leather gloves tucked into the back of her belt and put them on.

Carefully, she lifted the small mass.

She carried it to the first vat and placed it inside beside the other remains.

Then she scattered a thin layer of cinnabar over them, blew her tinder alight, and threw it into the vat.

Flames roared upward.

Although Zhao Li closed her eyes in time, the flash still pierced them.

She waited for the pain to ease before returning to the circle of cord.

Mother and child stood with their eyes closed.

Their skin cracked like broken porcelain, red light shining beneath the fissures.

“Go in peace,” Zhao Li said softly.

She did not know how reincarnation worked in this world.

But surely it was better than lingering forever in the mortal realm and wandering through unending pain.

Mother and child did not answer.

They stood in silence and, after a moment, dissolved into smoke.

The hidden chamber was full of scorched fumes.

Zhao Li covered her nose, mouth, and eyes as she headed for the exit.

When she passed one spot, she suddenly heard coughing.

She looked down.

It was Granny Oil.

Though her body had been torn to pieces, she was astonishingly still alive.

Hearing Zhao Li’s steps, she laboriously lifted her head.

“Save…”

Zhao Li marveled at the old woman’s vitality.

She could smell the distinctive reek of exposed organs, yet Granny Oil had not died.

Zhao Li lowered her gaze.

All Granny Oil saw was a pair of jade-green eyes opening in the darkness.

The fright became the final straw.

Terror froze on her face. With a wet rattle, she breathed her last, her gray hair dropping heavily into the pool of blood beneath her.

“Congratulations. You have returned to the embrace of the Unborn Venerable Mother.”

Zhao Li kicked aside the hand reaching toward her and walked to the hidden chamber’s exit.

She climbed the stairs one step at a time.

[Quest Complete! He finally obtained the warmth he longed for.]

[Quest Reward: 1,000 EXP.]

The light above grew steadily brighter.

Zhao Li felt as if she were climbing back into the human world.

At last, when the light became so painful that tears streamed from her eyes, she emerged from the passage.

A black cloak immediately dropped over her head and face.

Two large hands lifted her completely out and held her in someone’s arms.

At such close range, Zhao Li smelled the fresh fragrance of pine.