Chapter 246
Chapter 246
Neither Qin Ying nor Xie Shao was a professional archaeologist, so they could not determine the skeleton’s former rank from a single helmet.
Han Lie, however, knew what to look for.
Despite the vast differences between the two worlds, the development of ironworking had followed similar patterns in both.
After examining the helmet closely, Han Lie was certain that the owner of the black urn had held a rank no lower than Military Sima.
The skeleton spilled from the shattered ossuary urn had multiple fractures in its neck and ribs.
The person had most likely died on the battlefield, been buried in the mud, and later been dug up and placed here alone.
After Han Lie shared his findings, Qin Ying asked in confusion, “Why arrange everything like this?”
Anyone capable of collecting and excavating ancient corpses to build walls was unlikely to have suddenly developed a sense of humanitarianism.
There had to be a reason the bone charcoal had been arranged here.
Qin Ying looked around. Spotting a wooden rack, she was about to approach it and see if any clues had been left behind.
She had barely raised her foot when an eerie draft suddenly swept through the underground chamber lined with human teeth.
Qin Ying instinctively sensed danger, as though something sinister was drawing near.
“There’s something…” Her warning caught in her throat.
From behind the wooden rack, a gaunt, elongated figure in a tattered gray-blue shirt shuffled toward them in tiny steps.
Black hair covered its face, and its body was all skin and bones.
It was the Wet Nurse who had chased after the Earth Womb earlier.
At some point, the Wet Nurse had appeared behind Xie Shao and now stood there with its hands hanging at its sides.
It was as tall as Xie Shao, its chin hovering directly above his left shoulder.
Its black hair did not move in the slightest, yet the sight inexplicably reminded Qin Ying of an old ghost story.
Legend had it that every person possessed three flames: one on each shoulder and one above the head.
Those three flames protected their owner from evil spirits.
But if someone heard a voice calling from behind while walking at night and turned to look, the flame on their shoulder would be extinguished, weakening their vital energy.
With the Wet Nurse’s face poised above Xie Shao’s shoulder, it looked as though it might reach out at any moment and blow out his protective flame.
Goose bumps rose all over Qin Ying’s body, but she forced herself to remain calm and said evenly to Xie Shao, “Don’t move.”
Cold sweat streamed down Xie Shao’s back. Seeing that Qin Ying’s gaze was fixed on his shoulder, how could he not realize what was happening?
Something was standing behind him.
Xie Shao said nothing, but his eyes were practically beaming out frantic save-me signals.
Han Lie could not see the Wet Nurse either, but he realized something was wrong. Without making a sound, he shifted position and moved beside Xie Shao, the leg bone gripped in his hand.
He compared the spot Qin Ying was staring at with Xie Shao’s height, trying to pinpoint the thing’s location.
Qin Ying stared at the Wet Nurse over Xie Shao’s shoulder for a moment.
She could not determine what kind of existence it was.
All she could do was glance at Han Lie, signaling him to prepare to strike.
The next instant, however, the Wet Nurse took a step backward and vanished completely into the darkness.
Only Xie Shao remained, frozen stiff with his entire back drenched in cold sweat.
At that moment, the wooden rack beside them, where blackened skeletal remains had been arranged, emitted a sharp series of snaps as the wood began to break.
Qin Ying turned and saw the impossibly gaunt Wet Nurse clinging upside down to the rack like a praying mantis.
The position exposed its face.
The shadowy figure had no eyes, ears, mouth, nose, or any other facial features. There was only a fist-sized hollow in the center of its face.
According to human anatomy, facial bones should have lain behind that hollow.
Instead, Qin Ying saw only a stark-white cavity.
The Wet Nurse’s face was covered in yellow teeth of every size.
They were arranged much like the seeds of a sunflower.
The only difference was that a sunflower’s disk held seeds, while the Wet Nurse’s face was packed with row upon row of teeth.
One glance was enough to send a violent shudder through anyone and make every hair on their body stand on end.
Under Qin Ying’s watchful gaze, the monstrous thing slowly flipped itself around.
It grabbed the wooden rack with both hands and began shaking it.
It was determined to knock the black ossuary urns down and spill whatever was inside them.
Qin Ying had no idea what was happening inside the black urn, but she had no intention of letting it get its way.
She pointed at it. “Han Lie.”
Even as she called out to him, she rushed toward it herself, raising the bloodstained short blade in her hand.
The two attacked the wooden rack from opposite sides in perfect unison.
Han Lie couldn’t see a thing, but in just a few strides, he reached the spot Qin Ying had indicated and brought down the leg bone with the charred tip.
It stopped just above the bone urn.
The bone club Han Lie had picked up at random failed to make solid contact and passed straight through the Wet Nurse’s body.
Qin Ying swung her bloodstained blade. Though the slash was completely untrained, the thing hanging upside down over the wooden crate still recoiled.
Was it afraid of Han Lie’s blood?
Qin Ying couldn’t hide her delight as she thrust the short blade forward.
There was no sound or flash of light. The instant the tip of Qin Ying’s blade almost touched the Wet Nurse, it shrieked and fled, darting behind the old wall.
It was far too fast, and Han Lie couldn’t even see it. Qin Ying gave chase for two steps before abandoning the idea.
She hefted the short blade in her hand and said to Han Lie, “It really is afraid of your blood.”
Han Lie brightened as well. As long as his blood worked, that was enough.
After exchanging a glance, they turned toward Xie Shao. “Xie Shao, are you all right?”
The next instant, they both froze.
At some point, Xie Shao had walked over to the nearest black bone urn.
He wrapped both arms around it and crushed it with brute force, then picked up the helmet inside.
This helmet was of a higher grade, with far more intricate patterns etched across its surface.
But no matter how exquisite it was, that didn’t mean Xie Shao should be rolling his eyes back and gleefully trying to jam it onto his head.
“Xie Shao!”
Qin Ying’s warning came too late. With his eyes tinged yellow, Xie Shao happily pressed the helmet down over his head.
Fortunately, his Monstrous Beast Transformation had made his head too large, so he couldn’t put the helmet on properly.
Unfortunately, Qin Ying saw red powder spilling from inside it. Whatever it was, it couldn’t be anything good.
Han Lie moved first to restrain the clearly abnormal Xie Shao.
He was tall enough to get behind Xie Shao and pin both his arms. Instead of slashing him, Qin Ying flicked her wrist and smacked Xie Shao across the face with the bloodstained flat of her blade.
Smack!
The crisp sound echoed through the Corpse-Hiding Cave.
A swollen welt rose on Xie Shao’s cheek after his Monstrous Beast Transformation.
Thanks to Qin Ying and Han Lie’s swift response, Xie Shao snapped awake in a daze.
“Huh? When did I fall asleep?”
As he spoke, an uncontrollable yawn escaped him.
The helmet he had unconsciously cradled in his hands fell onto the broken teeth littering the floor.
It rolled over, exposing the vivid crimson surface on the inside, where it would have rested against his scalp.
Qin Ying immediately sensed that something was wrong. What kind of red cloth or dye could retain such a pure, vivid color in a place like this?
When she took a closer look, her entire body went numb. All she wanted was to smash the thing away, scrape off the tightly packed bumps resembling clusters of apple snail eggs, then set it all on fire.
“Don’t get close.” Han Lie released Xie Shao and, with an impeccably aimed kick, sent the helmet flying behind the wall.
“Those are gu insects.” Only after taking action did he explain, looking at Qin Ying with lingering fear.
Under normal circumstances, Xie Shao should have panicked at the words.
Instead, he stood there like a fool who had been drinking bootleg liquor, yawning again and again.
“All these helmets might contain the same gu insects. We need to go.”
Han Lie discarded the bone club, grabbed Qin Ying with one hand and Xie Shao with the other, then ran in the direction the Thunderbird had indicated earlier.
Despite dragging one person and pulling another, he was remarkably fast. With two long strides, he leaped into a comparatively smaller room.
Directly above this room stood the Hu Family Ancestral Hall.