Chapter 11: The Tome of Life and Death (1/2)

Lu Yun didn’t so much enter as stumble into the burial chamber. He scrambled to his feet and took a look around.

This was more of a hall than a room. It spanned a few meters in diameter, the interior extravagantly adorned. An enormous pearl glowed in each of the four corners, illuminating the hall. The corners of his eyes twitched. “Of course there’s someone else here!”

A giant sarcophagus hovered silently in the center of the hall. Beneath it, eight eerie-looking figures clad in black stood in a strange formation. Their hands twisted and gestured in front of their chests, forming crimson seals that melded into the coffin.

Noting the new arrival, nefarious gazes turned on Lu Yun, sending his heart pounding.

“Wanfeng!” He turned around reflexively to find no one behind him. His maid hadn’t followed him through. The door he’d come through was nowhere to be seen, there was only an unmarked wall. Lu Yun’s stomach dropped.

“Look, a poor bug has chanced upon us.” A heavy voice boomed at Lu Yun’s ears, grating and lifeless. Quickly after, a tremendous force dragged him upwards and threw him at one of their feet. “A mortal? Not a cultivator?”

“How is it possible that a mortal killed my puppet?” asked another man, his voice equally lifeless but tinged with surprise.

Lu Yun looked up to find a pair of crimson, emotionless eyes assessing him. The gaze landed on him like a physical weight, eliciting goosebumps all over his body.

They’ve been here for at least a few centuries! Forcefully pushing his fears aside, Lu Yun’s mind flipped rapidly through possible plans.

“He isn’t the only trespasser. Didn’t this bug call out a name?”

“Tsk, tsk. It’s good that he’s a mortal. Their flesh and blood are untouched by heaven and earth, making them the perfect sacrifices.”

“Cut the bullshit and hurry up. That cultivator is no weakling if she can bring along a mortal with no cultivation. Sacrifice this man and acquire us the Panorama.”

A hand from the pitch-black shadows lifted Lu Yun upwards.

That can’t be a man’s hand, can it?? Lu Yun shuddered at the sight. The fingers were thick and strong like a beast’s claw, and it appeared to be covered in scales. What the hell do they want? Are they going to use me as a sacrifice?!

His heart sank. This was really it this time, then. He was a puny ant before these eight bizarre men, and there was nothing he could do.

“Soul sacrifice is forbidden in the world of immortals, but no one will be the wiser when we’re in this ancient tomb untouched by sunlight,” cackled one of the men. He brushed his finger lightly across Lu Yun’s wrist.

Splash!

Two gouts of crimson blood splashed into the air. Together, the eight figures chanted a solemn tongue-twisting litany.

Didn’t know my blood could shoot that far. Lu Yun felt a sudden weakness overtake his body and his eyelids grew heavy.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, a red flame ignited on him. His body slowly rose and landed on the hovering sarcophagus. At this moment, the coffin was an altar, and Lu Yun the sacrifice.

His blood dyed the sarcophagus red. Ripple upon bloody ripple of blood undulated over the surface. Overcome with excitement, the eight figures continued melding crimson hand seals into the container.

Lu Yun’s body was already burning. The red flames draped the entire hall in a crimson glow.

Rumble!

A tremendous clatter later, the stubbornly-shut lid suddenly shifted open

“We did it! We did it!” One of the eight hollered excitedly. They’d been in this tomb for centuries, and their diligence had finally paid off! The thought of impending success almost brought them to tears.

“We should’ve brought a few mortals to sacrifice when we came in seven centuries ago. That made the process entirely too easy,” lamented one of them quietly.

“Wait!” called out another man in black. “Where did his body go?”

…...

Here was another place that never saw the light of day. Lu Yun stared at the bronze tome before him, dumbfounded. “Isn’t this the bronze tome from the Han Dynasty tomb? Am I back there?”

He looked around blankly. There was no other source of light but the faint glow coming from the ancient tome.

“The Tome of Life and Death,” he unconsciously voiced the words on the bronze book.

“Servant Yuying greets the master.” A cool voice sounded by Lu Yun’s ears.

He turned and froze. A naked woman was kneeling before him, her hips high in the air.

“What, what did you say?” Lu Yun did a double take. “You’re Yuying?!”

“Servant Yuying greets the master.” The naked woman looked up and repeated herself.

What the...

This was too much to take in. The naked beauty before him was the subject of the painting!

Yuying, who Wanfeng had called the Pill Fairy.