Chapter 10: Panorama of Clarity (1/2)

“Flying Head Technique!”

Lu Yun made a strangled noise of resignation when the corner of his eye caught Ge Long throwing his own head. Was this guy a human or ghost? Even a zombie would lose its movement ability if it lost its head. But look at Ge Long, using it as a weapon!

However, Lu Yun had no further time to dwell on this. He picked up Wanfeng and sprinted out of the stone chamber.

All was dark outside of the chamber; there wasn’t a single spot of light. His maid in his arms, Lu Yun stumbled forward. He suddenly felt a gust of wind on his face and an abrupt tightening of his scalp. Somehow, his hands loosened and he dumped Wanfeng on the ground. Turning around, he sprinted backwards.

“Sir, that really hurt!” Wanfeng’s mournful tone rose in the darkness.

“You’re not Wanfeng!” shouted Lu Yun. He needed to get back to the stone chamber!

“Who is this servant if not Wanfeng?” The voice sounded very close to Lu Yun, like it was right next to him.

“Wanfeng is alive, but you're dead!” He’d inadvertently touched the girl’s hand just now and though her wrist was warm, there was no pulse. No pulse meant a dead person! Whoever was in his arms was definitely not Wanfeng, so where had the real one gone?

Lu Yun’s head prickled with horror. Though there were endless corpse flies and a thousand-year-old zombie in the stone chamber, there was a chance of survival as long as Ge Long was there. If he stayed to face the unknown bogeyman in the darkness, death was the only possible outcome.

“Cultivators… cultivators! Would I be afraid of these things if I was a cultivator?”

While tombs on Earth might be preternatural, running across just one zombie was like hitting the ultimate jackpot. It wasn’t anything like this world, where all sorts of strange and unearthly things abounded! If Lu Yun had Wanfeng’s skills, he wouldn’t be so, well, useless.

“Can it be a malevolent ghost?” He clenched his teeth and picked up speed. But he realized with shock in the next second that the stone chamber in front of him, illuminating his destination with green light, was agonizingly far away.

No matter how hard he ran, he couldn’t make it back into the stone chamber.

“I’m running around in circles… Ghost Hits Wall!” Lu Yun halted, horrified chills running down his back. [1]

Ghost Hits Wall was a feng shui formation that beguiled the senses and made one run around in circles on the spot. Another way of putting it was to say that a malevolent ghost had covered one’s eyes, creating delusions. Regular Ghost Hits Wall wouldn’t entrap Lu Yun at all. The only possibility was that his senses had been hoodwinked by something in the darkness.

“Sir, don’t you want this servant anymore?” An ominous voice rang by his ear as the fetid odor of decay burrowed into his nostrils.

Lu Yun reflexively backed up, but the thing in the dark stuck closely to him, like a second shadow. A putrid smell of rotten fish suddenly appeared in the odor of decay; it seemed that something had opened its mouth wide.

“Since you don’t want this servant, then how about I eat you? You look very delicious!”

This was what Ge Long had just said. This thing had been by Lu Yun's side all this time!

Swoosh!

Suddenly, teal sword light flared in the darkness.

“Ah!!” shrieked the thing in the dark.

A spark of fire lit up the dimness. Wanfeng hobbled over to Lu Yun’s side, her face pale.

“Milord, it really hurt when you threw me down to the ground.” The maid rubbed her butt and looked mournfully at Lu Yun.

He grabbed her wrist and felt a pulse. “I was tricked!” Realization struck him. He had indeed been holding Wanfeng just now, but whatever it was in the darkness had obscured his senses, making him cast her away.

The maid was a core realm cultivator, after all, with the corresponding strength to match it. Their unknown assailant didn’t have a chance to attack Lu Yun with her by his side. That must be why it’d chosen to deceive his senses—so that he would leave his bodyguard behind!

“That was my bad, I fell for the monster’s trick just now,” Lu Yun hastily comforted.

Wanfeng blinked. This was the first time that Lu Yun had apologized to her, ever. Her cheeks flushed red and bashfulness crept into her expression.

“No, no, it’s all this servant’s fault. I was so scared by Ge Long that I fainted.” Whatever had been lurking in the darkness had vanished after being injured by the girl. “What was that just now? Why does everything in here like to copy my voice?” Wanfeng wanted to cry again.

“That was a malevolent ghost, I think, but it doesn’t seem native to this tomb.” Lu Yun relaxed when he saw that Wanfeng was alright. A decrepit air of decay suffused everything in the tomb, but whatever that had been just now was patently out of place here. It felt like it’d come from outside.

Have other things entered the tomb? Or is it a vengeful spirit born out of all the resentment and hate from the dead souls at the southern side of the mountain?

A foreboding feeling slunk into Lu Yun’s heart.

The massive horde of corpse flies had disappeared after they entered the darkness.

“What is this place?” Lu Yun widened his eyes, trying to see things clearly through the gloom. The fire in Wanfeng’s hand was too small, so he could only clearly identify a corner of the space.

…is this a room?

“Mi—sir, this seems to be a lady’s private chambers.” Thanks to the consciousness of a cultivator, Wanfeng’s vision was much better than Lu Yun’s.

“A bedroom?” The governor’s mind spun rapidly. If there was a room in a tomb, it was most likely where the tomb owner resided in life and thus faithfully copied by the tomb builders.

“Sir, come look! There’s a painting here!” Wanfeng rushed to a corner of the room and stared at a painting hung on a wall. “She’s so beautiful!” she murmured to herself.

Lu Yun followed his maid and peered at the painting with the aid of her fire. It was a stunningly pretty girl of roughly sixteen years of age. Her pristine white robes floated in the air and she stood on the back of a sword, clasping a painting scroll in her hand.

The image of the white-clad girl jolted Lu Yun’s heart painfully when he looked at it. She’s so beautiful!

Even though it was only a painting, her appearance, bearing, and mien were on full display. It felt like an actual unparalleled beauty stood before them, rather than an image mounted on a wall.

To Pill Fairy Yuying. From Wayfarer.

Lu Yun noted the dedication written in the corner of the painting. Small seal script?