Chapter 68: A Trap Within a Trap

Seeing the expression on my face turn grim, Yao Yumen smiled and tried to comfort me. "You don't need to be afraid. They've already been tamed and won't attack people under normal circumstances."

I awkwardly took a couple of steps back. "What's going on, Sister Yu? You even know this kind of trick?"

"No, you've misunderstood. I said they've been tamed, but I didn't say I was the one who tamed them. I don't have that kind of ability."

"Then who did?" I asked curiously.

The smile vanished from her face. She looked at me and said, "This person isn't here right now, but we should be seeing him soon enough. Chen Hong, you must have heard of Qi Liu in the underworld, right?"

Sister Hong thought for a moment and said, "I haven't met him, but I've heard of him. Qi Liu's monkey-taming act was quite famous in Tianjin back in the day. Jianghu rumors say that his ability to tame animals is extraordinary, supposedly relying on a set of ancestral methods."

"That's right," Yao Yumen nodded. "Actually, creatures like the mountain ghouls are the kings of the mountains. These beasts have extremely high intelligence, and once they fly into a rage, their nature is vicious. In the mountains, even tigers and leopards fear them. To tame them, even the descendants of Qi Liu had to shed blood."

I believed this. Although these creatures looked small, about the same size as monkeys, their vicious nature was a fact, and they had the habit of cannibalizing their own kind. Who knows, they might even eat humans.

Sister Hong frowned at this and asked, "Where is the Boss? Where is the Boss right now?"

From Sister Hong's words, I could sense a hint of gunpowder. I remembered earlier that the Minor Chieftain had said he was keeping us to catch a bigger fish—to catch the people behind us.

I guessed that he must have known someone was backing us, but the foot of Moth Mountain was so vast that he had no idea whether those people had come down or where they were hiding.

Both the Boss and the Minor Chieftain had spent half their lives in the Jianghu. The Minor Chieftain was a man from the Changchun Society, surrounded by masters and eccentric experts. I guessed that the Boss's purpose in hiding like this was to win from the shadows.

In reality, these two men were playing a game of chess; this was a trap within a trap. Although I hated to admit it, Sister Hong, the Sun brothers, and I were all being manipulated as mere chess pieces.

The Minor Chieftain probably still had backup plans. Connecting this to all the events of the past few months, a sense of helplessness involuntarily welled up inside me, because compared to these people, I was still far too naive.

These people had intricate networks of connections in the Jianghu, setting traps and schemes for one another—some out in the open, some hidden in the dark. Until the very end when they finally met face-to-face and laid their cards on the table, no one could tell who would win and who would lose.

The people dragged into this because of the tomb of Marquis Jie ultimately came down to a contest of personal strength and Jianghu connections.

Right, thinking of this, I asked Yao Yumen a question regarding Marquis Jie.

Yao Yumen leaned against a pile of hay, her eyes narrowing as she said, "The one inside the golden coffin and silver outer casket is not the tomb's owner, Marquis Jie. Earlier, I asked a friend to make inquiries at the National Museum's historical archives, and my friend tracked down a lead."

"During the Han dynasty, there was a historical official named Ban Chao. Aside from writing *Book of the Later Han*, he was also extremely passionate about researching Western Zhou history. The *Book of King Zhou* passed down by him mentions the Marquis of Jie, and Ban Chao recorded that the Marquis of Jie had a daughter whom he cherished dearly. However, she passed away young due to an untreatable illness. In his grief, the Marquis stated that after his death, he wished to be buried together with his beloved daughter, and this matter was even reported to the Son of Heaven of Zhou."

"The ancients placed immense importance on rituals and moral codes. For children to be buried with their parents violates basic ethics. If what Ban Chao wrote is true, and the Son of Heaven of Zhou consented to it, then it isn't hard to see from this just how high the Marquis of Jie's status was at the time."

"If the person in the golden coffin and silver casket isn't Marquis Jie, could it be that his young daughter is the one lying inside?" I was deeply shocked upon hearing this news. Then who was the corpse soaking in that large leather frame? Could it be this very person?

I asked Researcher An, "You said you saw the corpse bite someone with your own eyes—couldn't you tell whether that corpse was male or female?"

Researcher An recalled for a moment, then shook her head in terror. "I couldn't tell the gender. I only glanced at it once and didn't dare look again. I only remember that the corpse had very long hair, wasn't very tall, and its whole body was bloated and dripping with water."

At this, Yao Yumen sighed, took a deep breath, and said, "That was Marquis Jie's young daughter. Her golden coffin and silver casket were opened by that gang. The Changchun Society brought in experts trying to suppress it, but I knew sooner or later something would go wrong. You should all know that *this thing* is actually the most terrifying of all."

"Sister Yu, do you mean the corpse has risen from the dead?"

"No, it's not a simple rising from the dead. From the perspective of Feng Shui and geo-veins, this is a thousand-year-rare Yin-nurtured corpse. If his young daughter could turn into this, I shudder to think what kind of state that Marquis of Jie has turned into by now. The items we've prepared might not even work."

My mind flashed back to the dream I had that day—the appearance of the person on the four-dragon bronze bed in the dream. Just thinking about it filled me with fear.

I asked her if the items she prepared were black donkey hooves, because I used to hear people say that dealing with these kinds of things required black donkey hooves.

Yao Yumen let out a sneer. "Black donkey hooves? Think about it—among all the ancient Feng Shui artifacts for warding off evil passed down in major museums, are there any black donkey hooves?"

"Well? There aren't, right? Black donkey hooves only started being manufactured in large quantities after the Republic of China period. As for why they got linked to grave robbing, I have no idea."

"A Yin-nurtured corpse is something from ancient Feng Shui vein lore; using that kind of thing naturally won't work. None of us has ever truly seen this thing, but I heard from my uncle that once you encounter it, using the old corpse-binding ropes and mouth-coins passed down from western Hunan might work. This matter involves the art of *Zhenyan* (Suppressing Specters)."

The old corpse-binding ropes passed down from the western Hunan region naturally had a connection to the corpse-drivers of western Hunan. This is a regional folkloric legend, which, along with northeast China's "jumping to appease gods," the Miao territory's Gu-poison arts, and the southernmost descent-casting arts, is known as the four major folk sorceries.

Tracing it further back to its roots, these are actually all related to the art of Zhenyan.

The term *Zhenyan art* first appeared in the first volume of the *Book of Lu Ban*, while legend has it that the second volume of the *Book of Lu Ban* records the art of *Yansheng* (Cursing and Deflecting).

Looking at it now, ordinary people might not come into contact with the art of Zhenyan, but the art of Yansheng is encountered quite often. For example, the Yansheng charm coins and mountain ghost charm coins frequently seen in antique markets, pasting door gods during the Lunar New Year, and stepping over a brazier during weddings—these are all actually Yansheng arts passed down through the folk.

Putting aside whether western Hunan corpse-driving is real or fake for the moment—since cremations are the norm now and it's no longer needed—in ancient times, hair and skin were received from one's parents, and people all emphasized returning to one's roots with fallen leaves after death. The earliest corpse-driving in western Hunan was meant for soldiers who died on the battlefield.

A shroud covers the face, the living step aside, paper money paves the road, and bells clear the mountain path. Third Brother told me before that among the Seven Yin Gates, there is a trade known as corpse-drivers.

Corpse-binding ropes and mouth-coins were originally things used by western Hunan corpse-drivers to deal with corpses. Yao Yumen saying they needed to be used to deal with a Yin-nurtured corpse actually made sense.

Researcher An was already frightened out of her wits, and my own heart was hammering violently in my chest.

I silently prayed that these items would work. If they failed, the consequences were unimaginable.

Right now, not only did we have to fight the people from the Changchun Society, but we might also have to face the legendary Yin-nurtured corpse.

It seemed the Boss's constant caution was entirely justified.

Caution is the parent of safety.