The chains dragging those iron balls emerged from the gap beneath the enormous Bronze Gate. There were twenty or thirty of them in all, each pulled taut.
Lü Sword Nine paid them no heed and strode straight toward the Bronze Gate.
Only when he passed the coffins did Lü Sword Nine turn his head and glance at them.
None of the coffins had lids, and a corpse lay in each.
Most of the nine corpses were mutilated, their features impossible to make out. Only the corpse nearest the Bronze Gate had a relatively intact head.
Had anyone else been present, the sight of that corpse's face would certainly have given them a fright.
For he looked almost as though he and Ninth Uncle had been cast from the same mold.
At last, Ninth Uncle stopped before that coffin and gazed at the corpse inside, a touch of sorrow in his eyes.
Then a scene unfolded that would have made anyone's hair stand on end.
The corpse slowly opened his eyes, then asked Lü Sword Nine in exactly the same tone and cadence as Lü Sword Nine himself:
"Has Xu Taiping started practicing the sword?"
Lü Sword Nine nodded at this, then broke into a broad grin and said:
"He has. Those plum trees you couldn't stop thinking about-he cut them all down for you a few days ago."
"Good."
The corpse in the coffin grinned.
Then he slowly closed his eyes again and murmured weakly:
"Go keep Senior Brother company for a while. The human presence about him is growing fainter and fainter."
Lü Sword Nine frowned and nodded, then turned and continued briskly toward the enormous Bronze Gate.
"Senior Brother."
Arriving before the enormous Bronze Gate, Lü Sword Nine called out to the other side, then settled down with