"Lead the way," Si Jiangchen said. Holding my hand with one hand, he took out a windproof lighter from his pocket with the other. With a "snap," he struck the flint, and a small flame instantly sprang up from his hand.
Chen Jiu shrank his neck and still walked carefully in front, holding the candle.
I stepped onto the bluestone floor behind Si Jiangchen.
"Crunch!"
My foot sank slightly, and then I heard Si Jiangchen's cold laugh.
In an instant, countless metal arrows shot towards us from the arch of the stone gate behind.
Si Jiangchen and I were at the back, so we naturally became the human shields for those in front.
"Ouch!"
Just as I was about to turn my head to look, a figure suddenly darted out like lightning from beside Si Jiangchen and me. With both hands propping up, an umbrella was instantly opened just in front of us.
"Ding ding ding ding..."
A series of faint metallic clinks rang in our ears.
Everyone huddled behind the umbrella, which was more than three feet wide, not daring to even breathe loudly.
In just half a minute, it seemed as if we had walked through the gates of hell.
"All clear!"
After all the sounds disappeared, the umbrella was put away, revealing Lu Dayong's thin face.
"I said that the Ming Dynasty's burial sacrifices were cruel, so there must be ambushes," he said, pursing his lips. Disbelief in Chen Jiu was written all over his young face.
"Bullshit!"
Chen Jiu turned around, holding the candle, and cursed, "You were the first one to come in. Who knows if you set this up yourself? Trying to curry favor with Captain Si?!"
"Brother Jiu, how can you say that?!"
Lu Dayong gritted his teeth and handed the umbrella in his hand to Si Jiangchen. "Since they've paid, we should naturally protect their safety!"
Lu Dayong wasn't a tomb robber. He wasn't that heartless yet.
Si Jiangchen waved his hand. "We're not used to using this. You keep it. Just protect my wife when the time comes."
"Hello, Madam."
Lu Dayong grinned and nodded at me. I immediately felt embarrassed. Fortunately, it was dark, so only I knew I was blushing.
"Chen Jiu."
Si Jiangchen just growled in a deep voice. At the sound, Chen Jiu, who was holding the candle in front, shuddered. Suddenly, he raised his hand and slapped himself in the face.
"Slap!"
The crisp sound of flesh hitting flesh echoed in the dark space.
Chen Jiu began to slap himself uncontrollably, one after another, putting all his strength into each slap. His long fingernails scratched his face, and soon there were streaks of blood on his mouth.
"Captain Si, I was wrong!"
After slapping himself seven or eight times, Chen Jiu's face was swollen and his nose was bleeding. Finally, he knelt on the ground, slapping himself while kowtowing to Si Jiangchen.
"Humph!"
Si Jiangchen didn't say much to him. He just reached out and let the flame of the lighter touch Chen Jiu's forehead. Chen Jiu immediately shuddered and sat down on the ground.
He wiped the blood from his nose and mouth, let out a long sigh, and then knelt in front of Si Jiangchen again. "Thank you, Captain Si, for the lesson. Chen Jiu won't slack off again in the future."
"So it was just slacking off," I said. Si Jiangchen was as silent as a gourd with its mouth sawed off, but I wasn't!
"I thought you deliberately wanted us to be your human shields!"
Now I roughly understood why Si Jiangchen was so confident following them into this dangerous place. He was a Taoist priest. He must have used something to restrain Chen Jiu's soul, making sure he didn't have any second thoughts!
Just like what happened just now. As soon as Chen Jiu had a bad thought, he was controlled by the restraint set by Si Jiangchen and slapped himself hard.
I believed that if he had any malicious intentions, it wouldn't just be a few slaps to get away with it!
Hearing my words, Chen Jiu immediately slapped himself in the face again. This wasn't because of the restraint but because he truly wanted to punish himself.
"Madam, Chen Jiu doesn't dare to have any ill intentions towards Captain Si!"
As he said this, he pointed at his forehead. By the light of the candle in his hand, I could vaguely see a thin red bloodline on his forehead, which extended into his hair. It was like a thin red worm, still wriggling slowly.
"Captain Si promised me fifty gold bars if I can get out of here alive," Chen Jiu said. Greed flashed in his eyes in the candlelight. "That's enough for me to marry another wife and have a son! It'll be much more comfortable than this life of risking my life!"
People like Chen Jiu, who were only after profit, didn't care about their parents, wives, or children. They cherished their own lives very much and only wanted to live a happy life for themselves.
Si Jiangchen took advantage of this weakness of Chen Jiu's. He threatened him with the Taoist soul - controlling restraint and tempted him with fifty gold bars.
Chen Jiu was completely under Si Jiangchen's control...
I couldn't help but glance at Si Jiangchen.
...
The road ahead became even more dangerous. It was easy to imagine that if even the storage room for grain was protected by crossbows, other places with rare treasures would be even more perilous.
In the stone - carved underground palace and the passageways that hadn't seen light for thousands of years, there were countless decayed wooden burial figurines. Every time we stepped on them, there would be a "squeak" sound. The most dangerous thing was that they originally held all kinds of sharp weapons in their hands. The crossbows, arrows, and even the sword blades bent by the fallen figurines were all life - threatening weapons to us.
Chen Jiu, Lu Dayong, and their helpers were all injured. Lu Dayong's shoulder was even pierced through by the tip of a long spear under a figurine. Rusty iron filings gushed out together with the fresh blood.
However, Si Jiangchen and I were unscathed.
Si Jiangchen was like my human shield. He could see the incoming weapons clearly even in the dark.
With a casual wave of his hand, he could knock those small things like arrows and iron bullets, which were as fast as shooting stars, to the ground.
After about half an hour, we finally reached the outside of the tomb owner's coffin chamber.
There were still two stone doors here, which were so realistically built that they even had door nails on them.
There was still a faint trace of vermilion cinnabar on them, and there seemed to be four blurry characters written on them. Si Jiangchen read them out in a low voice with great interest: "Death Awaits at the Door!"
As his voice fell, I felt as if a cold gust of wind had passed by. I couldn't help but lean closer to Si Jiangchen.
Seeing my fear, Chen Jiu grinned and said, "Madam, don't be afraid. The ones lying inside are all tough - talking but delicate - bodied! Even the most powerful ghosts are afraid of fire!"
As he said this, he waved the candle. The flame flickered, bringing a little bit of warmth. "If they piss us off, we'll just set a fire and burn those rotten bones to ashes!"
Before he could finish his words, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a white shadow flash past the two tall stone doors behind him!!
"Ah!! There's someone!"
I couldn't help but point behind Chen Jiu and cry out in a low voice.
Chen Jiu was also startled and quickly turned around to look. In the flickering candlelight, there were two lifelike stone statues of Shen Tu and Yu Lei carved on the stone door. They stared at us, the intruders who had disturbed their master's peace, with their eyes as big as eggs.
"They're just two stone carvings!"
Chen Jiu looked up and saw that the two human - sized stone statues were all painted with colors. Their eyes were so vividly painted with black and white that they actually seemed to move back and forth with our movements!!