Chapter 80: Chapter Eighty-One: Wildcat

Chapter Eighty-One: Wildcat

Looking at the female corpse nearby, the "Quail Whistle" saw a fine layer of white down slowly growing on her face; it seemed that as soon as the candle in the southeast corner of the tomb chamber went out, this corpse would become a white fiend, but even if a corpse transformation truly occurred, his "corpse-binding rope" could easily restrain her.

However, according to the rules of the "Gold-Touching Colonel," once the candle goes out, one may no longer take any burial goods from the tomb chamber; the "Quail Whistle" began as a "Mountain-Moving Daoist" at fifteen, and over twelve years has endured countless hardships and encountered unimaginably complex scenes; if he were to stop now, he could certainly retreat unharmed, but giving up when faced with difficulty is not his way.

The "Quail Whistle" intends neither to let the candle go out nor to give this ancient corpse a chance to transform; the corpse's great burial shroud (funeral robes) must also be stripped off and brought back to Elder Wuchen, for otherwise his skill would not be demonstrated.

The "Quail Whistle" glanced at the deep purple bead that had fallen from the female corpse's mouth and knew it was likely a pill made by mixing "cinnabar" and "purple jade"; this is a secret "Corpse-Stabilizing Pill" from the Mount Mao techniques, designed to prevent corpse transformation in the dead; ancient Chinese aristocrats rarely chose cremation, and if signs of corpse transformation appeared after death, they would ask Daoists to use such pills to suppress it, then still bury the body; but aside from the deceased's family, no one would ever speak of this matter outwardly.

The flame of the candle in the southeast corner of the tomb chamber, blown by some unseen yin wind, flickered uncertainly and would likely go out within seconds; the "Quail Whistle" sat upon the female corpse, extended his left hand with the corpse-binding rope— the corpse, long fumed by the soft-corps incense, had its neck pulled, immediately throwing its head back and opening its mouth.

The "Quail Whistle" immediately used his right hand to pick up the "Corpse-Stabilizing Pill" that had fallen into the coffin, shoved it into the female corpse's mouth, braced his foot against her abdomen, then pulled the corpse-binding rope again, lowering her head and closing her mouth, so that the pill remained once more in her mouth.

Afterwards, the "Quail Whistle" freed his right hand to draw the box gun at his waist, fired backward with a "bang," knocking a tile end from the tomb chamber to the ground; this tomb chamber is of brick-and-wood construction, and to protect the wooden rafters, cylindrical tile ends were placed over them during building; the tile end struck by the bullet had a large chunk break off and fall to the ground, landing near the candle; blown by the wind, the candle only gave a brief flash but did not go out— this shot was perfectly angled, the half-hollow cylindrical tile end acting like a windbreak bucket, just shielding the candle's southeast and east sides; the east side faces the tomb passage entrance, thus blocking all incoming airflow; as long as the tile end is not blown over, the candle will not go out.

Because the "Quail Whistle" must hold the corpse-binding rope with his left hand, he dared not move it slightly, and also feared the candle might go out at any moment; thus he resorted to this risky maneuver, relying on his extraordinary skill to fire and knock down the tile end to block the wind.

As long as the candle does not go out, it does not count as breaking the "Gold-Touching Colonel" rules; even if a corpse transformation truly occurs, he must spare no effort to take the burial shroud from this Southern Song female corpse.

By now it is already late, and they must leave before the rooster crows at dawn; the "Gold-Touching Colonel" has many taboos, and "no grave-robbing at cockcrow" is one of them, for regardless of motive— whether acting on heaven's will, taking wealth from the people, or aiding the poor and endangered— tomb robbers are ultimately tomb robbers, and grave-digging is absolutely a profession that cannot see the light of day; if the rules are broken and one remains in the tomb chamber at daylight, not even the ancestral grandfathers can protect them.

Although Elder Wuchen has transmitted to the "Quail Whistle" various rules and techniques and given him a full set of "Gold-Touching Tools," he has not granted him the most important "Gold-Touching Talisman"; if one does not wear the "Gold-Touching Talisman" yet uses the methods of the "Gold-Touching Colonel" to rob graves, it is extremely dangerous; only if one can still retrieve burial goods from an ancient tomb under such conditions is one qualified to obtain the "Gold-Touching Talisman."

Breaking into the tomb chamber through the robber's tunnel had already taken much time; delay brings change, so the faster the burial shroud is retrieved, the better; the "Quail Whistle" estimated that little time remained, so he assumed the posture of the Kui Star kicking the dipper, sat upon the legs of the Southern Song female corpse, used his feet and the corpse-binding rope across his chest to fix the corpse in the coffin, keeping it seated, and moved his hands to undo the outermost layer of the burial shroud covering her.

Suddenly the "Quail Whistle" felt an itch on his neck, as if something furry had perched on his shoulder; though bold, he felt his hairs stand on end, and hastily maintained a motionless posture— body still, shoulders unmoving— and turned his head to see what exactly was on his shoulder.

There he saw a large wildcat with mottled, variegated fur; unknown when, it had silently slipped from the robber's tunnel into the tomb chamber and now crouched upon the "Quail Whistle"'s shoulder, glaring at him with two large, fierce cat eyes.

The "Quail Whistle" silently cursed "ill omen"; in grave-digging, no matter which school, encountering cats, foxes, or yellow weasels in the tomb chamber is most taboo, especially wildcats, for legend says cats possess some mysterious bioelectricity, and if a live cat touches a corpse, it is most likely to trigger corpse transformation.

This uninvited large wildcat showed no fear of strangers; it crouched on the "Quail Whistle"'s shoulder, stared at him for a moment, then lowered its head to peer into the coffin; it seemed extremely interested in the burial goods placed beside the female corpse, those gleaming golden objects appearing in its eyes as irresistible toys, and it might at any moment leap into the coffin.

The "Quail Whistle" felt his heart rise to his throat; he worried that the wildcat would leap from his shoulder into the coffin, and once it touched the female corpse— even if her mouth held the "Corpse-Stabilizing Pill"— it would surely trigger corpse transformation; if it truly became a white fiend, though he himself would not fear it, first, the commotion might accidentally knock over the candle, and second, time is short, and he might not finish taking the female corpse's burial shroud back to Elder Wuchen in time; the rule of "no grave-robbing at cockcrow" is as ironclad as that of "no grave-robbing when the lamp goes out," both being absolute laws the "Gold-Touching Colonel" must follow.

Though, with the "Quail Whistle"'s skill, even breaking these grave-robbing rules would make taking this burial shroud as easy as reaching into a bag, yet people on the road value trust and promises above all, regarding these rules as more precious than life; the "Quail Whistle" such a master especially cherishes them, for the reputation of grave-digging is already hard to speak well of, and if he were to lose the very rules that sustain him, he would sink to the level of a common petty thief stealing in the countryside.

No sooner said than done; these thoughts flashed through the "Quail Whistle"'s mind in a single instant, giving him no time to dwell further; that striped, variegated large wildcat could no longer resist the temptation of the gleaming burial goods, arched its body, and was about to leap down from the "Quail Whistle"'s shoulder.

The "Quail Whistle" wanted to reach out and grab the large wildcat, but feared that any movement of his body would startle it, causing it to instead strike the Southern Song female corpse; seeing the wildcat about to jump into the coffin, he quickly thought of an idea and hastily whistled softly.

The origin of the "Quail Whistle" nickname lies in his ability to perform various vocal imitations, mimicking all kinds of animal and mechanical sounds, learning whatever he hears and reproducing it lifelike; this skill, to attract the wildcat's attention, he pursed his lips and lightly whistled twice, then began imitating a cat's cry, meowing~ meowing~ a few times.

That large wildcat, about to leap into the coffin, was indeed attracted by the call of its own kind; its ears perked up, and on the "Quail Whistle"'s shoulder it searched for the source of the cat's cry; the wildcat probably also felt puzzled, seeing no other cat? Where was it hiding? The sound seemed to come from nearby.

Seeing that the large wildcat had taken the bait, the "Quail Whistle" calculated how to lure it away from the coffin; as long as he gained even a little time, he could strip the burial shroud from the female corpse and consider the task complete; at that point, if the stinking cat wanted to play in the coffin, let it be; but how could he temporarily draw it away?

To distract the wildcat's attention, the "Quail Whistle" again softly imitated two bird calls; the wildcat may have gone several days without food, and hearing the bird cries, its trigger finger twitched with hunger; finally it realized the bird calls were coming from below the eye socket of this fellow beside it, whose face was still covered with a cloth; certainly there was something strange beneath that black cloth— perhaps a tiny sparrow was hidden there.

Upon thinking of a small sparrow, the large wildcat's eyes instantly turned blue with hunger; it raised its paws and began clawing at the black cloth the "Quail Whistle" had over his mouth; the "Quail Whistle" secretly rejoiced, cursing inwardly: "Damn stupid cat, stupid to the core."

Using the opportunity when the large wildcat focused all its attention on the black cloth covering his mouth, the "Quail Whistle" quietly reached out and grabbed one of the burial goods in the coffin—a pure gold gold-wire bracelet; to avoid startling the wildcat, he kept his arm still and only flicked it with his thumb, sending the gold-wire bracelet flying toward the rear of the robber's tunnel.

The gold-wire bracelet traced a parabola in midair, fell near the mouth of the robber's tunnel behind the tomb chamber; the tomb chamber remained utterly silent— even a needle dropping would be heard— and when the bracelet landed, it indeed caught the wildcat's attention; at that moment the "Quail Whistle" was no longer using vocal imitation; the wildcat thought the little sparrow had taken advantage of its inattention and run to the rear, meowed once, and leapt after the sound into the robber's tunnel, intending to hunt.

The "Quail Whistle" had been waiting for just this moment; the instant the wildcat leapt from his shoulder, he immediately drew his twenty-shot German box gun with adjustable speed, intending to turn and fire to kill the large wildcat, lest it jump back up and cause trouble; but when he turned back, he saw that besides the initial mottled large wildcat, seven or eight other wildcats of various sizes had somehow squeezed into the tomb chamber, one of them extremely close to the half-covering tile end over the candle; a slight bump would cause the tile end to topple and extinguish the candle.

Cold sweat beaded on the "Quail Whistle"'s forehead; having weathered countless great winds and waves, he never expected to encounter such an unheard-of, unseen strange situation in this tiny tomb chamber; could it be that his earlier vocal imitations had drawn the attention of nearby wildcats, whose hearing is most acute, having heard the sparrow calls from within the tunnel and all come rushing in to feast? Dawn might break at any moment— what could he do?