Chapter 81: Main Text Chapter Eighty-Two: Rooster's Cry, Lamp Extinguished

Main Text Chapter Eighty-Two: Rooster's Cry, Lamp Extinguished

Based on usual experience, wild cats are naturally suspicious and rarely voluntarily crawl from robber holes into ancient tombs. Zhengling Shao looked at the big and small wild cats behind him and laughed helplessly. What's going on tonight? Just when he thought he had things under control, another trouble arose. He never expected to find a set of burial garments in this ancient tomb; usually such a trivial matter, yet tonight it brought about so many complications.

This is probably what they mean by 'success because of Xiao He, failure because of Xiao He.' Using a voice technique unmatched under heaven, he lured away one wild cat, but instead attracted a larger group of wild cats.

Relying on Zhengling Shao's marksmanship that can hit a willow leaf at a hundred paces, he could completely deal with the wild cats entering the tomb chamber with rapid gunfire, but any slight delay, and a fleeing or wounded wild cat might knock over the candle.

If he couldn't obtain this set of burial garments before the rooster's cry and the lamp's extinction, he would never learn the Gold-Touching Colonel's technique of dividing gold and fixing graves. Thinking of the miserable state of his tribespeople at death's door, Zhengling Shao felt that no difficulty in the world could stop him. He gritted his teeth: this situation could not be played safe; he had to meet speed with speed, and before those damned wild cats caused any trouble, he would strip the burial garments from the female corpse.

Zhengling Shao moved like lightning, fixing the female corpse's body, then he untied the burial garment's fastening and lifted her left arm with his foot, intending to pull the sleeve off her arm. But as soon as he began, he saw two wild cats leap onto the bronze fittings of the Gold Horn Bronze Coffin. Why weren't the wild cats afraid of people? Because those who long engage in grave‑robbing have heavy yin and weak yang, wear light black clothing, and have taken the Red Silk Wonderful Heart Pill that suppresses respiration and blood circulation to neutralize corpse poison; to animals, such tomb robbers are hardly different from corpses, so the wild cats perceive no danger in the dead.

One black, one spotted large wild cat were attracted to the yellow gleam of the Gold Horn Bronze Coffin, leapt up, and began fighting each other—you hissed, I clawed—rolling and tumbling, they both fell into the coffin.

Just as the wild cats were about to touch the ancient corpse, the female corpse held a Corpse‑Fixing Pill in her mouth; the white hair on her body had receded, returning to normal. Yet if the wild cats touched her, a corpse transformation would certainly occur immediately. Zhengling Shao knew well that once the transformation happened, the White Ferocity would be fiercely vicious and could not be subdued in a moment. He estimated that in less than half the time it takes to burn an incense stick, the rooster would crow at dawn. Although the rooster's crow would prevent the White Ferocity from acting, the burial garments on the female corpse could under no circumstances be removed.

This was Zhengling Shao's skill: at the instant before the wild cats could touch the female corpse, he jerked the Corpse‑Binding Rope, straightened his waist, leapt up, jumped left out of the Gold Horn Bronze Coffin, dragging the Southern Song female corpse out with him, and both person and corpse fell to the floor of the tomb chamber.

By now three or four wild cats had entered the coffin, chasing and playing inside the Bronze Horn Gold Coffin. Zhengling Shao thought to himself, 'Really, that was a close call—closer than a shave.' Having left the Bronze Horn Gold Coffin, he dared not delay; he pushed the female corpse up from himself, still lifting her arm with his foot, trying to strip her burial garments. But in the flickering candlelight he saw that the corpse's mouth had somehow opened again—probably because pulling her out of the Bronze Horn Gold Coffin had been too vigorous, jerking her jaw open.

He saw a layer of white fuzz begin to appear on the female corpse's body, like the mold that forms on spoiled food, growing longer and longer. The opened corpse mouth sprayed a black mist toward Zhengling Shao. He gasped, inhaling a cold breath—such strong corpse qi! Had he not previously taken the Red Silk Wonderful Heart Pill, breathing that mist would have killed him instantly from corpse poison.

Facing the corpse's black‑mist‑like qi, Zhengling Shao did not dare be careless; he lowered his head to avoid it. He saw the deep‑purple Corpse‑Fixing Pill that had originally been in the Southern Song female corpse's mouth lying beside the tile half‑covering the candle. Confronted with the corpse about to transform, if he continued to pull at her burial garments without caution, a single touch from a living person would turn her into a White Ferocity within a second. So he released his grip on the corpse's burial garments, and, regardless, taking advantage of the low stage of transformation, he first shoved the pill back into her mouth.

Thus Zhengling Shao rolled on the ground; he and the Southern Song female corpse were linked by the Corpse‑Binding Rope, and the corpse, which was slowly sprouting white fine hairs, was dragged by him toward the southeast corner of the tomb chamber.

The southeast corner of the tomb chamber is a blind spot for illumination; the chamber now has two light sources: one is a horse lantern hung on the lid of the Bronze Horn Gold Coffin, the other is a candle half‑covered by a tile. The shadows cast by the tile and the Bronze Horn Gold Coffin converge in the southeast corner, and the Corpse‑Fixing Pill lies exactly on the line between light and dark, visible at times as the candle flickers, at times swallowed by darkness.

Zhengling Shao rolled forward and reached for the Corpse‑Fixing Pill on the ground, when suddenly a large cat leapt from the shadow of the light‑less corner—the very wild cat that had first entered the tomb and caused trouble. Hungry to the point of desperation, it would eat anything it saw, and it snapped at the pill on the ground.

Zhengling Shao hated that wild cat so much his gums itched, but it was already too late to reach for the pill. In desperation he resorted to his old trick, using his unrivaled voice technique to imitate two mouse squeaks. The spotted large wild cat fell for it again, paused, stared at him with big cat eyes, but couldn't figure out why this giant mouse looked different from ordinary mice, so it did not pounce immediately.

Seizing the moment the wild cat hesitated, Zhengling Shao snatched up the Corpse‑Fixing Pill from the ground, stuffed it into the Southern Song female corpse's mouth, and then lashed out with a kick, sending the large wild cat flying like a ball. His kick was fierce and silent; the cat was taken completely off guard, slammed headfirst into the tomb chamber wall, its bones broken, tendons severed, skull shattered into pieces, and it died without uttering a sound.

Zhengling Shao, having kicked the large wild cat to death, thought to himself: 'I'm not trying to take your life; it's just that you, this slanderous cat, have repeatedly ruined my plans, and I cannot let you live. May you attain Buddhahood.' (In Daoist parlance, 'attaining Buddhahood' means death, i. e., ascending to heaven, not the Buddha of a temple, and carries the sense of liberation.)

Zhengling Shao possessed the skill of 'pinching thought points'—that is, being able to grasp an extremely precise biological clock (pinch = calculate, point = o'clock). By intuition he calculated that the village's big rooster would crow at dawn in less than the time it takes to smoke half a cigarette; he could wait no longer. He then jerked the Corpse‑Binding Rope, pulling the Southern Song female corpse upright. Her outermost burial garments had already been completely undone, leaving only two sleeves; she wore nine layers of burial garments, fitted very tightly, but as long as he followed the lay of the garments and her body and used the proper technique, he could strip them all off without great effort.

Zhengling Shao steadied the Southern Song female corpse's body, preparing to turn it around; this way he wouldn't have to lift the corpse's arm, and a smooth pull from behind would finish the job.

But before Zhengling Shao could turn the female corpse around, he felt waves of fishy wind; the remaining wild cats sneaking into the tomb chamber had heard the mouse squeak just now, and realized it came from his own body. Starving for a long time, they all lunged toward him, wanting to find where the mouse was on him.

More than ten wild cats of various sizes lunged at him simultaneously—even with three heads and six arms he could not possibly deal with them all at once. Zhengling Shao felt a chill run through his heart: 'It seems fate is thus; heaven will not allow me to learn this secret technique of the Gold‑Touching Colonel for dividing gold and fixing graves.'

But this disheartening thought flashed through his mind and vanished instantly; the wild cats came fast, and Zhengling Shao's voice technique was faster. Having already listened to their calls, he could perfectly imitate them, and he mimicked the wild cats' cries: 'Meow~~ roar~~~ meow~~ roar.'

The wild cats never expected Zhengling Shao to have such talent—just moments ago he had been imitating mouse squeaks, now he was producing wild cat calls; they were confused, and being naturally suspicious, they halted in their tracks, staring at him with feline eyes.

In the pitch‑black tomb chamber the wild cats' eyes gleamed like dozens of bright little lamps, radiating a wild yet deceitful light. Zhengling Shao, regardless of what the wild cats intended, immediately turned the female corpse's body around, secured it with the Corpse‑Binding Rope, and pulled at her burial garments.

Almost at the same moment, the hungry wild cats had made up their minds, as if they had consulted beforehand: whether mouse or corpse, both were edible; this time, regardless of any sound, they would first take a bite and then speak. Each wild cat shot forward like an arrow released from a bow, suddenly pouncing.

Zhengling Shao also knew that this strange, lengthy night had reached its final moment; whether he would succeed depended on these last few seconds. In that brief instant he had to accomplish three things: first, prevent the wild cats from touching the Southern Song female corpse and triggering a corpse transformation; second, ensure no wild cat extinguished the tomb chamber's candle; third, strip the corpse's burial garments before the rooster crowed at dawn, absolutely not breaking the rule that at the rooster's cry the lamp must be extinguished before touching gold.

Zhengling Shao stepped back one pace, planted his foot on the tile, and kicked the tile at the wild cat lunging foremost; the tile shot out and struck the black wild cat's nose bridge, eliciting a miserable 'ow' as it rolled aside.

At that moment Zhengling Shao also fell to the ground holding the Southern Song female corpse, dodging the two wild cats that had lunged from mid‑air; he snatched up the candle from the floor, held it aloft with his right hand, used its flame to burn through the Corpse‑Binding Rope across his chest, and with his left hand grasped the rear of the corpse's burial garments. Both Zhengling Shao and the corpse lay on the ground; he then lifted his leg and kicked forward against the corpse's back, pulling off her burial garments. The motion was somewhat larger, so Zhengling Shao held the garments in one hand while the candle he raised in the other hand had already gone out. At the same time, the distant crow of the rooster carried on the wind into the robber's tunnel. It is rare for cats to eat corpses, yet the dozen or so frenzied wild cats in the tomb chamber simultaneously lunged at the female corpse and began biting wildly…