1 Prologue (1/2)
Prologue
”Separation Resentment is above all 33 heavenly palaces. Lovesickness brings the greatest agony out of all 44 afflictions.”
”I'm not lovesick.”
”Oh? For whom did you get that engraving then?”
”For those whom I mustn't miss in life.”
”Isn't that lovesickness?”
”No. Our time is short, but yearning is endless. Life on earth passes in an instant, and only God knows whom I will encounter and miss. How can I stay rooted to the spot and let time slip away?”
”If that's the case, what are you going to do?”
”I'm going to the mortal world for her.”
”Chaos is about to set in.”
”If the mortal world is in a mess, I will defend it. If Hell opens, I will enter it. If the ocean rages, I will sail through it. If anything tries to stop me, I will destroy it.”
”But is it worth it?”
”I'm not afraid of the pain and suffering that humans are plagued by. Because of her.”
The Tomb
”Chief, why's this tomb so gloomy? Feels kinda demonic. Did you check the almanac before leaving the house today?” Someone in the group shouted with half his body extending into the main grave while wiping the sweat off his dirt-filled face. Shadows could be seen shuttling about.
”Seen it,” Meng Fuyao answered clearly despite having a mini torchlight in her mouth. She half-kneeled on the ground, brushed the dust off the enormous green sarcophagus and added without raising her head, ”It's going to be a propitious day. We will be entering the coffin, removing the clothes and shifting the bier. What a coincidence! Shifting the bier, as in moving the coffin. It's all related to death.”
”Damn, can't you say something more auspicious?” a fatty, who had shouted earlier, asked as he rolled his eyes. When he lifted his head up, he spotted a minotaur on the ceiling mural. The lighting illuminated each stroke, making the drawings come alive. Fatty felt rather intimidated.
Meng Fuyao, on the other hand, had no time to entertain him. She was focused solely on her own job. As the dust gradually cleared, a three-headed, two-bodied, single-horned beast totem came into view. It had two wings and three pairs of glowering eyes that could scare almost anyone. However, Meng Fuyao was able to appreciate the fierce beauty this sacred, ancient civilization had to offer.
She broke into a smile as she caressed the totem with one hand and extended the other. ”Ruler!”
Her command was quickly fulfilled.
”Come, Fatty, let's get comfortable,” she ordered while pulling him over. ”I will be on this side, and you on the other. Report the number.”
”No, Boss. Why are you always grabbing me like that?” Fatty sounded off in desperation while attempting to struggle free.
”Because you're a rookie.” Meng Fuyao grinned. ”Rookies are meant to be trampled on by the old birds, so stop dilly-dallying. We need to finish this up as quickly as possible, so I'll have something to write about in my thesis this year.”
”Crazy workaholic. 22 years old, soon-to-be associate professor? Your existence is practically an insult to all the archaeology elites...” Amid his murmurings, Fatty did not forget to obey her orders. ”Intact. 2, 18, 0.94, 0.66,” he read the numbers aloud.
”OK!” Meng Fuyao slapped the stone beast, causing a surrounding layer of dust to fly up. She looked at the coffin in satisfaction, busily anticipating a rise in salary upon assuming her new role at work. Thinking about how she could finally support her mother's dialysis, and hospital fees elevated her mood greatly.
All these thoughts had distracted her from noticing that her slap had generated a muffled reverberation that reached the end of the tomb and bounced back. The lingering echo sounded sinister, like footsteps produced by ancient giants who were stomping around, underneath the ground.
They were most definitely in a sealed area, but a gush of cold air came out of nowhere and made them shudder. The dim light within the grave colored their faces ashen, so they looked almost ghost-like.
The archaeology team from Jiangsu's Archaeological Research Institute had come to this southwestern land to excavate a nameless tomb that was said to exist even 100 years before Cao Cao's era. Since the first day of their excavation, strange events had been taking place. At first, someone had eaten a wrong herb and suffered from continuous diarrhea. The precious fertilizer gifted by an affluent city, which had been meant to nourish the barren plateau in Yunnan and Guizhou, had suddenly dried up. Later on, a teammate, Li, got bitten by a poisonous snake that was waiting outside his tent. The worst situation had happened earlier that day when they had opened up the grave. They hadn't planned to go down, but the team medic, Wang, who had rushed over to deliver some tools, had been struck on the head by a falling rock and collapsed.
According to a tomb raider's logic, something was amiss, so they shouldn't probe further. The institute's regulations were more or less agreeable when it came to such occurrences. The only difference was that one was privately run, while the other was state-run. At the end of the day, the job of excavating ancestors' tombs and the taboo involved were the same.
The team members had no qualms about sealing the tomb, turning back and simply letting the nation take control of the matter
Unfortunately, the team leader, Meng Fuyao, was well-known as the ”Red-Haired Demoness” within the institute. Everything about this missy was great. She had everything; good education, morality, intelligence, fitness, beauty...
Her only weakness? She was mental.
Her screws only loosened when she entered an impassioned, obsessive state during excavation and experienced something out of the ordinary. When something like that happened, there was no doubt that her decisions would also be out of the ordinary.
Basically, Missy would never abandon what she loved doing just because of diarrhea, a snake bite or a site injury. For someone like her, who had hugged her first excavated ancient corpse to sleep with pleasure, trivial events that were subject to probability weren't important.
”Pry tool, hammer, pickaxe!” She ordered, swinging her red hair, which momentarily tinted the dark grave, and rubbing her palms together with brightly lit eyes.
When she noticed that her tools weren't being delivered, she turned around with a frown on her face, only to be greeted by weak and fearful faces.
”Sh*t, are you guys scared? Don't tell me that all top representatives of the National Archaeology Institute are superstitious? You, you, and you?” She asked, making sure not to leave anyone out. ”One's a political party member, one's an elite, one's grown up under Marxism-Leninism and Maoism influences... Τhree outstanding students are afraid because someone has the runs? Where have all your scientific minds vanished to?”
She strode over to her backpack and rummaged through it. The product of her search were a few candles, which caused her to roll her eyes. Impatient, she lit and placed one candle on each corner of the grave. The candle lights danced softly by themselves, bringing a tinge of green into the space.