Chapter 197
Chapter 197
The party swaggered through Wushan Cavern and thoroughly looted the place.
The High Shaman had managed to remain conscious, but he was no match for all of them.
Before he could release any Gu, Song Jin struck him squarely on the head with his fan.
The blow was perfectly aimed, and the High Shaman successfully joined everyone else in unconsciousness.
The party spread out to search for jars that could hold wine.
Jiang Yunsui wandered into the High Shaman’s room alone, intending to carry away one of the jars inside.
But the clay jar was too large and heavy for her.
Worse, something inside it was making noise.
Curious, Little Mushroom opened the jar and found herself staring into the wide, dead eyes of a severed head.
Insects crawled out of its skull.
The sight frightened her into stumbling several steps backward. Her foot landed on a hoe, flipping the handle up and striking her squarely in the forehead.
Thud!
Jiang Yunsui’s head rang. A red mark appeared down the center of her fair little face, and two bright streams of blood flowed from her nose.
Dazed, she touched her nose and found her hand covered in blood.
“Ugh…”
The two dogs hurried anxiously to her side.
“I’m fine.”
Jiang Yunsui crouched and covered her nose. Her soft voice came out muffled.
“Wait. Just let me recover for a moment.”
It hurt so much, QAQ.
Before she could settle into the crouch, she fell onto her bottom.
“Ouch!”
Something beneath her dug painfully into her flesh.
Click…
The sound of a mechanism opening echoed through the room.
One hand covered her nose and the other rubbed her bottom as Jiang Yunsui stared blankly at the opposite wall. It had opened like a door.
Huh?
What had she triggered this time?
“Why do I always have to be unlucky first?” she muttered aggrievedly.
She sniffed. After healing herself and chewing a Verdant Jade Mushroom, her nose had stopped bleeding.
But blood now covered half her once-clean face, making her look rather frightening.
Little Mushroom’s curiosity flared. She desperately wanted to explore the newly opened secret room.
Then she remembered everyone’s warnings and ran out to call Song Jin and the others first.
Shen Qingzhu was gathering the High Shaman’s medicinal herbs, Fat Chef was hunting for Monkey Wine jars, and Song Jin was searching for gold and silver. He had even found valuable paintings and calligraphy.
Ji Si and the other hidden guards were collecting concealed weapons.
The Wushan Cavern people excelled at controlling Gu but were poor at close combat, so they had studied concealed weapons instead.
The party found many finely crafted pieces.
“Where is Jiang Yunsui? Where did she run off to this time?”
Jiang Yunsui emerged from the High Shaman’s room with blood all over her face.
“I’m here.”
Everyone turned and paled.
“What happened?”
Little Mushroom told them, sounding terribly wronged, how the severed head had frightened her, how she had stepped on the hoe while backing away, and how its handle had clubbed her in the head.
Everyone fell silent.
Who were they supposed to avenge her against?
“Since something in that room frightened you,” Song Jin suggested, “kick the High Shaman several more times before we leave.”
Jiang Yunsui found this perfectly reasonable.
She put on a solemn face and nodded.
“All right. I’ll listen to you.”
The others had nothing to say.
Oh well. They were not the ones being kicked.
“So you discovered another secret room?”
Everyone looked at Jiang Yunsui strangely.
“Why do you always suffer some disaster before finding a secret or a treasure?”
They truly felt sorry for the unlucky child.
“I don’t want to,” Jiang Yunsui said pitifully. “It just keeps happening.”
She could not predict it in advance.
The farther they walked through the hidden entrance, the stronger the stench of blood became.
This did not feel like a treasury.
Ji Yi and the others exchanged grave looks.
As they descended underground and the chamber came into view, everyone sucked in a horrified breath.
“Human Gu,” Shen Qingzhu said.
Human Gu meant refining Gu with living people.
The cellar resembled hell on earth. Some prisoners had lost their skin, exposing raw red flesh. Others were covered in festering sores while Gu insects crawled over their bodies.
The sight was horrifying.
Ji Si covered Jiang Yunsui’s eyes.
“Don’t look.”
Judging by their clothing, some prisoners belonged to Wushan Cavern. Others had clearly been captured outside.
One man was especially unusual.
He was held alone in a small chamber. Iron chains bound his hands and feet, and hooks pierced his shoulder blades.
Even looking at him hurt.
The man raised his head in a daze.
“You aren’t from Wushan Cavern.”
His voice was hoarse and unpleasant. Then he laughed softly.
“If you don’t want disaster to befall Dali, kill the High Shaman.”
Song Jin and the others grew solemn.
“Who are you?”
The man’s unfocused eyes gazed into the distance.
“Me? I am the Former High Shaman.”
Song Jin’s party freed him.
As for everything else inside the secret chamber, the only answer was fire.
The prisoners could no longer be saved. Ji Si and the others slit the throats of those still lingering at death’s door.
Those who retained their sanity looked at them with gratitude in their final moments.
Others had lost all reason and behaved like wild beasts, devouring human flesh and drinking human blood.
They could no longer be called human.
The party burned the secret chamber. Once outside, they found the unconscious High Shaman and cut off his head.
They killed the other Wushan Cavern adults as well.
No one should call them cruel.
In the end, however, they could not bring themselves to kill the Wushan Cavern children.
“Forget it. None of them saw our faces, so they won’t know whom to seek for revenge. And here in Ailao Mountain, no one knows whether they’ll survive.”
Their fate would depend on their own fortune.
The party had not originally intended to kill anyone, but after seeing the secret chamber, they knew these people could not be allowed to live.
They took the rescued old man, finished collecting the Monkey Wine, and hurried out of Ailao Mountain.
The return journey was much smoother.
Only half a month later, they reached the Miao stockade.
“We’re back!”
Shen Qingzhu’s master, Xu Qingyan, saw that every member of the party had returned. Some were injured, but all appeared in decent spirits.
Most importantly, they had killed the King Serpent and obtained the King Serpent Gallbladder.
“How did you manage this?”
Xu Qingyan had never seen the King Serpent herself, but ancient texts made its terrifying power clear.
“When we arrived, the King Serpent already seemed to be injured,” Shen Qingzhu said.
He did not mention Jiang Yunsui. Her abilities were clearly beyond those of an ordinary mortal.
It was enough for their own people to know.
Shen Qingzhu could not guarantee that his master would not decide to study Jiang Yunsui if she learned the truth. His master greatly enjoyed researching rare and peculiar things.
Jiang Yunsui had already run off to find Ji Yan’an.
“Ji Yan’an, we got one of your antidotes!”
Seeing that everyone had returned safely, Ji Yan’an wore a rare smile.
“Thank you.”
He pinched Jiang Yunsui’s cheek, then frowned slightly.
“You’ve lost weight.”
Of course she had. They had eaten and slept poorly outside while exerting themselves constantly.
Zuozuo and Youyou carried her much of the time, and the others took turns holding her, but she still had to run on occasion.
She also ate the same food as everyone else.
“You lost weight too,” Jiang Yunsui said, looking him up and down with great seriousness.
At that moment, someone came to inform Ji Yan’an that it was time for another medicinal bath.
His expression immediately darkened. He pressed his lips together and said nothing, looking thoroughly stubborn.