Chapter 185: Sword Barrow (1/2)
A number of figures suddenly arose from the lava sea—humans, monster spirits, dragons, and even divines. However, none of them were alive. All of them were living spirits inhabiting the bodies of zombies.
They were all keepers of this tomb.
Tomb keepers!
On Earth, tomb keepers were said to be such loyal followers of the buried dead that they turned into zombies to guard the tomb, lest their master’s resting place be disturbed by tomb raiders.
Unlike zombie kings, who devoured the essence of others to return to life, tomb keepers were merely living souls inhabiting undead bodies. They maintained their own consciousness while gaining the enormous strength of a zombie, whereas zombie kings overflowed with violence and unresolved grievances.
Regardless, both wandered the nebulous zone between life and death, constantly tormented by their inability to either seek an end or achieve rebirth.
Lu Yun had always thought them to be merely a myth. Human souls zombified along with their bodies, turning them into mindless monsters. How was it possible for zombies to guard tombs?
Yet now he was looking at living proof of that myth.
The tomb keepers in the sea of lava were devoid of vitality and radiated presences unique to zombies, but their gazes were clear like that of a living person. Now freed from the lava, the mermaid brought up molten waves with a light flick of her tail. Hundreds of tomb keepers followed her ashore.
“A divine intruding upon the tomb of the phoenix queen? Show yourself!” The mermaid scoffed and directed a ripple of flames at a corner of the air with a casual wave.
A grunt preceded a man’s fall from the air. Clad in gold robes, disbelief shone in his eyes.
“Tomb keepers, tomb keepers… the legends are real!” snarled the man. He’d made it here only through shadowing Lu Yun and Qing Han—the two being none the wiser—but the mermaid had all too easily spotted him. “There really are living souls who volunteer to become zombies!”
Becoming a tomb keeper granted one the great strength of an undead, but at the cost of forever being trapped in their now-zombified body. They didn’t even have a chance to develop into a zombie king and come back to life.
“This is the Sword Barrow!” Gaping, an even more terrible memory surfaced in the man’s mind before he could recover from the shock of encountering tomb keepers. “That Lu Yun kid just said this is an intersection of the Fire and Gold Stars. This is the Sword Barrow, a tomb of tens of thousands of flying swords! No wonder the swords became zombies!” The man in gold backed away.
“Hahaha! What a mistake you all made by burying Huang Qing here! Phoenixes can be reborn after death, but being buried here took that chance away from her! You tomb keepers are waiting for something that’ll never happen!! Hahaha!!” the man roared with mad laughter.
The mermaid and the other tomb keepers stilled, their eyes shining with regret. It had been they who’d buried Huang Qing here. They’d then volunteered to guard her as tomb keepers, awaiting the day of her rebirth.
However, they waited ten thousand years.
Ten thousand years after her burial, Huang Qing’s body still remained dormant, showing no signs of resurrection. It was then that they realized something was wrong. But what was done was done, and couldn’t be undone. Even the tomb keepers couldn’t enter the Sword Barrow to retrieve their mistress’ body.
The Sword Barrow had become one with Huang Qing’s tomb and morphed into a tomb for nobility, a sum far more dangerous than its parts. The mountains trapping Cloudwater Township were the physical manifestation of the tomb.