Peach Haven Village (20)

At four in the morning, White Cloud Daoist still showed no sign of fatigue, his tone remaining gentle throughout. Ding Shi was the first to give out and asked where the restroom was.

The restroom was to the left outside the main gate. There was a door in the wooden wall; pushing it open led to the edge of a hundred-zhang cliff. One could squat at the cliff's edge, where a man-made handrail had been installed along the cliff face. Beneath the handrail was a hollowed-out hole, covered by an iron plate. Pulling aside the plate revealed a roll of toilet paper.

It had to be said, not everyone got the chance to relieve themselves in such a high-end, grand, and classy location.

Ding Shi had not come to relieve himself. He took out his luggage card and summoned his luggage. Speaking of which, he had to feel ashamed for three seconds—at first, Ding Shi had planned to use supplies to threaten White Cloud Daoist into teaching him some skills.

Ding Shi could not let his conscience hurt—at least, not yet—because he was still planning to loot White Cloud Temple. He sought neither money nor women. What he wanted were the martial arts manuals or immortal Daoist arts White Cloud Daoist had hidden in the temple.

Ding Shi brought the luggage before White Cloud Daoist. For a moment, the Daoist was stunned, unable to understand when such heavy luggage had been hidden in the latrine.

It did not matter if he did not understand. Ding Shi explained the purpose of his trip. "There's been a change in Third Lady's ritual. The village chief sent me to invite you down the mountain."

White Cloud Daoist, who had been refined and unshakably composed for hours, immediately rose to his feet upon hearing this. "What?"

Clutching his stomach, Ding Shi repeated himself.

White Cloud Daoist's expression turned grave. "I will go down the mountain with you at once."

Ding Shi asked, "Is it that urgent?"

White Cloud Daoist nodded, guilt flickering in his heart. "I know I should let you rest for the night, but this matter is of great importance. We need to return to the village as quickly as possible."

Ding Shi agreed. When the two reached the temple gate, Ding Shi said, "Daoist, my stomach hurts. Please wait a moment." Without giving White Cloud Daoist a chance to refuse, he hurried anxiously toward the cliffside.

Twenty minutes later, Ding Shi returned from the latrine. White Cloud Daoist was already showing impatience. "Let's go."

After taking a few steps, Ding Shi slipped. Luckily, he grabbed a small tree by the roadside and avoided tumbling down the mountain. White Cloud Daoist glanced downhill. The night path was difficult enough to walk, much less descend. After hesitating for a moment, he said, "I will go on ahead. You may rest at the temple for the night and return to the village early tomorrow morning."

Ding Shi said gratefully, "Thank you, Daoist."

White Cloud Daoist instructed, "There is an evil creature in Rear Hall Town. You must not go to Rear Hall Town."

Ding Shi replied, "Yes." I wasn't raised to be scared. The more someone tries to scare me, the bolder I get.

White Cloud Daoist said nothing more. He drifted down the slope, his feet lightly touching the path, and soon vanished into the darkness.

Ding Shi returned to White Cloud Temple and lay down on the stone bed. Ten minutes later, he rolled off the bed clutching his stomach and cried himself hoarse, "Help! Help! Daoist, save me!"

After rolling around for three minutes, Ding Shi got up and dusted himself off. It seemed the old Daoist had truly left.

More than a dozen oil lamps were lit in the front hall, making everything visible at a glance. The statues of the Three Pure Ones were stone carvings, utterly worthless. Neither the stone bed nor the stone walls could hide anything.

To the left of the main gate was the latrine. To the right was what counted as the kitchen, where some honeycomb briquettes, tung oil for the lamps, and other supplies were stored. It seemed unlikely that cultivation manuals would be hidden in such places.

After searching around, Ding Shi turned his gaze toward the winding, secluded cave. The cave was round, over two meters high, and quite twisty. Ding Shi thought of a term: snake path.

Ding Shi turned on his flashlight and entered the cave. Every three meters, an oil lamp was set high along the cave wall. These oil lamps were ordinary, yet rather interesting.

The lamps were embedded in the stone wall and connected to one another by small flexible tubes. Since the terrain sloped downward all the way, pouring tung oil in at the cave entrance would let it flow down and fill every lamp.

Ding Shi grew even more puzzled. Tung oil was not valuable, and the mountain had vast groves of tung trees. Refining tung oil solely for burning was not a complicated process. But why set up such a mechanism? There was only one answer: White Cloud Daoist frequently went to the rear hall and lit the lamps along the necessary route. Technology was driven by laziness. Once he poured in more oil, he grew lazy and came up with this little mechanism.

There was plenty of open space in the front hall. He could have moved the rear hall into the front hall entirely, so why did he need to visit the rear hall so often?

He slowly made his way downward. The cave remained the same size, and after walking about a hundred meters, Ding Shi reached the rear hall.

The rear hall covered around two hundred square meters and was an irregular circle. A red coffin stood in the middle, surrounded by nine oil lamps and a prayer cushion. The flames of the lamps were small, leaving the room dimly lit.

Ding Shi stood at the entrance to the rear hall and examined it with his flashlight. He immediately spotted the coffin and guessed that it was the Third Lady coffin Blind Zhao had mentioned.

Only after confirming there was nothing else besides the lamps and coffin did Ding Shi step inside.

Ding Shi circled the outside of the coffin twice, carefully inspecting the inner hall once more before finally approaching it.

It was a red coffin. Four talismans were pasted onto its lid, arranged in pairs into X shapes, one pair at the head and the other at the foot.

Ding Shi thought of a strange question: Why were the talismans not pasted where the coffin lid joined the body?

System: This is a seal, not an official closure.

"Hoh! Hoh!" Ding Shi hopped twice in place and took a deep breath to bolster his courage. Was he really going to open it? According to Blind Zhao, an immortal treasure was on the underside of the coffin lid. He definitely could not obtain it without opening the lid. But then another problem arose. If there really was a treasure in the coffin, then Third Lady would be in there too.

His whole body felt wrong, and Ding Shi irritably raked his fingers through his hair. He had come this far, but Third Lady was inside the coffin. What did her true body even look like? Was it covered in hair? Did it stink? Was the air poisonous?

Ding Shi drew out a claw hammer and swiftly pried out all the coffin nails. Then he sat on the prayer cushion and stared blankly at the coffin. Open it? Don't open it? Open it? Don't open it?

He did not hesitate for long, because Ding Shi knew he would definitely open it.

Ding Shi forcefully lifted the coffin lid, opening it only a crack. He relaxed his breathing and inhaled some of the air from inside. How should he put it? It did not seem to smell like anything.

Ding Shi continued lifting the lid higher, supporting it with one hand while shining his flashlight inside with the other. Within lay a little girl of around ten, dressed in red bridal robes and wearing a phoenix crown. Her eyes were shut, her hands folded over her abdomen. She was presumably Third Lady's true body. There was no hair, no rot, no foul smell. Aside from her somewhat pale complexion, she did not look like a corpse at all.

Ding Shi suddenly shouted, "Ha!"

Third Lady did not move, but the echo scared Ding Shi himself. "Who?"

Ding Shi placed the flashlight beside Third Lady, continued holding up the coffin lid, and prepared to crane his head over to inspect its underside. Suddenly, Third Lady's eyes flew open. Ding Shi was so frightened that his hand loosened, and the lid crashed down with a tremendous bang.

Ding Shi collapsed onto the ground, rubbing his chest with both hands and gasping for breath. He had a bellyful of curses he wanted to unleash.

After waiting a while, there was no movement from inside the coffin. Had he seen wrong? Could Third Lady already be sitting up, just waiting for him to lift the lid?

Since he had already done it, how could he back down at the last moment?

Gritting his teeth, Ding Shi lifted the coffin lid again. Third Lady's eyes were closed.

Ding Shi reached in and took the flashlight from the coffin, clamping it between his teeth. As he raised the lid with one hand, he kept his eyes fixed on Third Lady's.

Then Third Lady's eyes opened. This time, Ding Shi saw clearly. Her eyes had neither pupils nor whites; they were entirely black. It had to be said that aside from being terrifying, they actually looked quite good with her face and attire.

Ding Shi lowered the coffin lid a little in thought, and Third Lady's eyes closed. He lifted the lid, and her eyes opened. He lowered it, and her eyes closed.

Ding Shi caught onto the idea. The talismans on the coffin lid had the effect of suppressing Third Lady. When the lid was lifted and the talismans moved farther away from her, Third Lady began to awaken.

To confirm his guess, Ding Shi repeatedly raised and lowered the coffin lid at the point where her eyes opened and closed. Third Lady's eyes opened and shut, opened and shut. As Ding Shi increased the pace, her eyelids began fluttering up and down, so fast they seemed ready to spark.

Hehe, this is fun.