Chapter 9: Yum-Yum (1/2)

“Milord, I’m the real one, she’s fake!” The Wanfeng by Lu Yun’s side was on the verge of bursting into panicked tears.

“Sir, you just told this servant to not call you ‘milord’.” The other girl smiled coquettishly. “So of course the one calling you ‘sir’ is the real one.”

Though she was smiling and her mouth was moving, the expression on her freakishly ashen face remained frozen in that uncanny smile. It didn’t change at all, as though it’d been carved into stone. Her voice also wasn’t coming from her mouth, but rather echoing out of her body instead.

Lu Yun grabbed Wanfeng’s hand and slowly backed up. The other Wanfeng stood next to the pill cauldron, seemingly wanting to step forward but prevented from doing so by her unnaturally stiff body.

“Sir, won’t you come help me?” her mournful voice rose.

“Wait!” Lu Yun suddenly recalled a few lines from an ancient record in his master’s library. “Stone sculptures in tombs accumulate yin energy and collect evil spirits. Encountering the vitality of the living transforms them into stone spirits. Great horror lies ahead.”

There was no further explanation as to exactly what stone spirits were, but the last four words were clarification enough.

The stone sculpture next to the pill cauldron had disappeared, and in its place was the immobile Wanfeng. Patently, this was the stone spirit recorded in the ancient record. Since the tomb was located in the midst of the Crouching Black Tortoise, it was a node of supreme yin of its own. Who knew how many living beings had lost their lives on the south side of the mountain? The amassed grievances and resentment must be able to pierce through the sky!

That was why such a monster had been nurtured here. The stone sculpture must have absorbed Wanfeng’s vitality when she touched it, thereby transforming into a stone spirit.

“That’s a stone spirit, stay far away from it! We’re leaving!” Lu Yun took in a deep breath and tugged on his maid’s hand to leave. Wanfeng had only briefly brushed it just now, so the stone spirit hadn’t absorbed quite enough vitality and was still partially petrified.

“Come back, come back here!” the stone spirit shrieked shrilly when it saw the humans were about to depart. “Boy toy, you can leave if you want, but leave the baby girl behind! I want to eat her, I want to eat her!!”

Wanfeng shuddered violently, deep fear suffusing her face.

“Don’t pay any attention to it and don’t look back.” Lu Yun wrapped an arm around Wanfeng’s waist and issued stern instructions, stopping the girl in mid head turn.

“Little thief, you ruined my plans! I’m going to eat you ahhhhhhhhh!” The stone spirit howled like a banshee.

Crack!

A fracture suddenly appeared on its body; it seemed to be on the verge of crumbling.

“Don’t look!” Lu Yun covered Wanfeng’s eyes when he saw curiosity begin filling them. She couldn’t turn back at this moment, no matter what. She couldn’t look at the stone spirit.

The spirit had awakened because it absorbed Wanfeng’s vitality. If the maid looked at it again, it would entrance the girl and control her mind, making her its puppet.

Then, once the spirit sucked the maid dry, it would slough off its stone form and walk about freely. Though Lu Yun didn’t know the full extent of the spirit’s abilities, he had hefty amounts of experience with similar things.

The stone spirit continued howling, but Lu Yun couldn’t be bothered with it anymore. Even if this thing embodied great horror, a great horror that couldn’t move wasn’t much of a threat.

The two humans arrived at a closed stone door that Lu Yun couldn’t budge, no matter how hard he shoved it.

“Sir, please allow me!” Wanfeng forced herself into a better mood and plugged her ears so that she wouldn’t be bothered by the spirit’s shrieks. She placed both hands on the stone door, a pale-green hue flared out from her.

Rumble.

The door that was as heavy as Mount Tai for Lu Yun was easily opened by the slender beauty.

Is this what it means to be a cultivator? Admiration flashed across the governor’s face. More than ever, he really wished he could cultivate. If he was also a cultivator and had his maid’s stunning abilities, then life would be ten times easier in this tomb.

“Hehehehe, I’ve finally found you two.” A sinister voice sounded from the other side of the threshold the moment the door opened.

“Ah!!!” Startled into a high-pitched scream, Wanfeng subconsciously took three steps back, her face frozen by incredulity. Someone who shouldn’t have been there at all was standing right in front of them!

How is this possible?! Eyes wide with shock, Lu Yun felt all of his hairs stand on end. This couldn’t be real!

Ge Long!!

The dead Ge Long, the dead and decapitated Ge Long, stood in front of them!

Dumbfounded, Lu Yun subconsciously moved next to Wanfeng.

“Get out of the way!” The maid screwed up her courage and summoned a small tornado in her hand, then brought it crashing down on the dead steward’s head.

Bam!

Roll roll roll.

Ge Long’s head fell off his neck and rolled down the steps into the stone chamber.

“I think my head’s fallen off again.” The head seemed to sigh while Ge Long’s body knelt down. The body crawled probingly into the chamber, slowly moving toward its head.

As much as she’d seen and weathered in the tomb, Wanfeng was still flabbergasted at this scene. Lu Yun’s head likewise prickled with numbness. He wasn’t afraid of zombies, and though corpse flies and stone spirits were spooky, he could still accept those.

But what the hell was all this?

Someone already dead, someone with their head chopped off, was alive and kicking in front of them!