The Most Basic Rule for a Lover

The members of the Nine Gates followed the slope down into the underground palace and let out a long breath. At last, they were one step closer.

"This should be the intermediate layer. The Corpse Storage Pavilion is behind it. We'll head southwest in a little while. There are bound to be traps here, so everyone be careful," Huo Ling said, looking at the sheepskin map in her hands.

"Huo Ling, where did Fo Ye get this map? Is it really this accurate? Then why didn't he bring it out before, or gather people himself to get the treasure?"

Xie Lianhuan looked at the yellowed sheepskin map. There were dried dark-brown bloodstains on its edges.

"I heard it suddenly appeared in Fo Ye's study one day. No one saw who put it there. There was also a slip of paper with three big characters written on it: 'Longevity Pill,'" Wu Sansheng answered.

"Who put it there, then? Is it real?" Huo Ling's interest was piqued too. She had been keeping the map all along, but only because she had the best sense of direction among them. It was a natural ability: when it came to terrain and direction, no matter how winding a maze was, she was never off by the slightest bit.

"My guess is that it was one of 'its' people."

Qi Yu answered calmly, his fingers still moving through calculations as they had been all along. He was trying to divine something about that Mr. Yu. He had a feeling that their chance of survival might lie with him, but he still couldn't divine any information.

The five had come together because each had their own strengths. Huo Ling had an absolute sense of direction underground and worked with the meticulous Wu Sansheng, who led the group and made the decisions. Xie Lianhuan was a merchant through and through, exceptionally skilled at gathering information and pooling the resources of various factions. Qi Yu was proficient in fortune-telling and feng shui, making the right decisions at many critical moments to turn the tide. Chen Wenjin specialized in the study of ancient writing and longevity, and could understand the inscriptions in tombs and make sense of the arrangements and locations of traps. That was why the five of them had escaped death time and again since forming their team.

After walking another two hundred meters or so, they spotted a door in the distance at the end of the passage. In front of it, a bronze chariot drawn by four horses had indeed been placed on a gigantic hollowed-out stone platform. The platform was two meters high, and two enormous stone turtles, each over three meters tall, stood on either side of the door. There also seemed to be carvings on the stone walls to either side.

"Good lord, this King Wannu sure liked turtles!" one of the hired hands exclaimed, prompting several people to burst out laughing.

"Shh. Quiet," Qi Yu interrupted coldly.

When they drew closer, they saw numerous bones scattered by the door. There were bullet holes in it, as well as marks left by explosives. A layer of old, accumulated liquid covered the ground beneath their feet, sticking a little to their shoes. They wouldn't have noticed it without paying close attention.

"Clatter, clatter, clatter, clatter. Click-clack, click-clack." It was the sound of a mechanism activating.

"Quick, find the mechanism! Something's wrong here!" Qi Yu rushed toward the chariot by the door, sprang onto the stone platform, and shouted, "Get up here, quickly!"

Seeing Qi Yu run like a madman, Wu Sansheng and the others didn't hesitate for a moment and leaped onto the platform almost at the same time as him.

A few of the hired hands behind them weren't as quick-witted. They had only taken a couple of steps after the others when concentrated acid suddenly poured out from the bases of both walls and submerged their lower legs. Caught off guard, they fell to the ground in agony as the acid ate through their legs, and never got up again.

A few minutes later, all their flesh had dissolved, leaving only bones. Seconds afterward, the concentrated acid rapidly receded. Then foul-smelling water came from somewhere, washing the bones to the side of the door before gradually receding as well, leaving only a greasy yellow layer of fat on the ground. Only then did everyone realize that what they had felt beneath their feet was all corpse oil. Fortunately, they had all weathered great storms. Their faces were solemn, but their expressions did not change.

The air seemed to stand still at that moment. The more timid ones were already kneeling on the ground, their legs trembling. None of them feared dead people or killing, but seeing people dissolve right before their eyes without so much as a scream left them more shaken than anything.

Qi Yu's face had turned livid as well. He wasn't afraid; he was angry at having been toyed with and plotted against. He had realized that the mechanism had activated because he had jumped onto the stone platform. He had been outwitted just like those fools.

The designer's grasp of human nature was terrifyingly precise. They had exploited the caution and vigilance of clever people in a tomb, as well as the substance on the ground and the sound they heard, to suggest that the ground was unsafe and that they should get to higher ground.

But the suggestion wasn't a lie, either. Higher ground really was safe. Even if everyone realized what had happened, people would still scramble to be first onto the stone platform.

None of the tomb raiders who could make it here were good people. They all followed the rule that a fellow Daoist could die as long as this poor Daoist lived. How could they possibly entrust their lives to someone else? Fate was safest in their own hands.

Chen Wenjin had noticed the mechanism as soon as she got up there, but he hadn't said anything. She didn't care whether anyone else lived or died, so long as she achieved her own goal. Paying no mind to what the others were thinking, she began examining the place as a whole. She felt certain that the mechanism for opening the door was on the bronze chariot.

"Everyone, calm down first. Don't move around. A few of us will examine the mechanism," Wu Sansheng said to the six remaining hired hands.

Wu Sansheng truly was a deep and calculating man. He had also worked out what had happened by now, but he didn't expose it. He merely reassured everyone, and then the five of them exchanged glances, said nothing more, and began looking for clues.

To put it bluntly, the people they had brought along were laborers and cannon fodder, there to trip the mines. When they died, the only feeling was regret at the loss, like regretting the loss of bullets in a gun at a critical moment!

Zhang Qiling knew what traps lay ahead and wasn't in a hurry to take Yu Zhi through. A Li had said he wanted to watch them go to their deaths, and Zhang Qiling had to oblige. That was the most basic rule for a lover.

"What's up ahead?"

Yu Zhi looked at Zhang Qiling, who had stopped moving forward, and asked.

"Concentrated acid that can dissolve flesh outright," Zhang Qiling answered flatly.

Hearing that, Yu Zhi understood. "That fierce, huh? What a genius design. Sure enough, the ancients were just ancient, not stupid."

He could have searched through the memories, but honestly, he couldn't be bothered. He was less and less inclined to go through those words written from Wu Xie's first-person perspective now; they spoiled his mood. Such long passages were full of nonsense. Asking Zhang Qiling directly was easier and more efficient.

"Then we'll go over later. There's no rush. We'll go once most of them are dead."

"Mm."

Bored with waiting, Yu Zhi pulled Zhang Qiling back into the space. For one thing, it would keep them from getting caught in the crossfire; for another, he had thought of something.

"Zhang Qiling, about the Bronze Door-you said anyone would do. What if we found someone from the Nine Gates and threw them in?" Yu Zhi proposed.

"No. You can't deliberately harm people. They're mortals. Have you forgotten?"

Zhang Qiling immediately shook his head. He knew that Yu Zhi could be quite crazy at times. Killing, death, and bloody things excited him and made his heart race. Zhang Qiling had noticed it long ago and had kept an eye on it ever since. They were cultivators, and they were going to be together for a long, long time. They couldn't let the lives of a few mortals affect how much time they had together.

"Ah, all right."

Yu Zhi remembered that too. Everyone really did have their own restraints; there was no absolute freedom.