Chapter 25: Seven Stars: Jade Figurine

I was extremely shocked and stepped back several paces, every muscle in my body tensed, afraid that the corpse would suddenly stand up and pounce on me, and whispered, "How can this corpse breathe? Have you ever seen anything like this before?"

Da Kui said tremblingly, "Of course not. If I ran into this kind of thing often, I'd rather clean toilets than rob tombs."

I looked at Panzi, who was holding his wound, sweating all over, and said, "Whatever it is, just give him a burst. Even if he isn't dead, he'll be dead! If he stands up later, it'll be trouble." I thought that made sense—down here, thinking less and acting more is best, and moving fast is never wrong. I quickly raised the gun, but Third Uncle and the fatty both waved their hands at the same time and shouted, "Wait... wait!"

As he spoke, Third Uncle had already moved close to the corpse. While waving at me, he examined the armor on the body, his mouth hanging open in shock. Pointing at the black armor, he said, "This... isn't this a Jade Shroud? My god, so this thing really exists!"

Completely confused, I quickly asked what it was. Third Uncle was so excited that tears almost came to his eyes. Stuttering, he said, "Mira... miracle! I, Wu Laosan, have been robbing tombs for so long, and finally... finally I've found a divine artifact—it's a Jade Shroud." He grabbed my shoulder: "As long as you wear this, you return to your youth. Do you see? It's real! This corpse is the proof!"

In that era, people in their forties or fifties were considered very old. Although the muscles on this corpse had shriveled, its face was really very young. I couldn't help being secretly shocked, thinking to myself: Can rejuvenation really exist in this world? The fatty was also staring wide-eyed, and said, "I never imagined it—even Qin Shi Huang couldn't find this thing, and it was on him all along. You there, Third Master? Do you know how to take it off?"

Third Uncle shook his head. "I've heard it can't be taken off from the outside. That's a problem. Are we going to have to carry the whole corpse out?"

The two of them examined it back and forth. I saw the corpse let itself be pulled by the arms and legs without any resistance, and it didn't seem dangerous, so my mood gradually calmed down. I asked, "If we take off the Jade Shroud, what happens to the person inside?"

The fatty hadn't thought about that, and said, "Well, I really don't know. At worst, he'll turn to ashes and vanish."

I said, "But he's alive and well here. Wouldn't that make us murderers?"

The fatty almost laughed himself silly. "Little comrade," he said, "if tomb raiders had your moral standards, we wouldn't get anything done. Which one of these ancient princes and nobles isn't stained with blood? Even if you dragged them out, they'd deserve to be shot. And you're worried about that? You must be full."

I thought that made sense. Seeing them busy, I didn't want to just stand around, so I went to inspect the coffin for any good items among the grave goods. At the bottom was a thick layer of scale-like things, and inside that layer after layer were all sorts of unnamable burial objects. I grabbed a handful of those scales and asked, "What are these?"

Third Uncle, distracted, sniffed and said, "That's his shed human skin." Feeling nauseous, I immediately threw it away and cursed, "Damn, did King Lu Shang have a skin disease to shed so much skin?"

Third Uncle said, "Don't talk nonsense. Those are his old layers of skin. Each time he shed, he became a bit younger. Judging by the amount of skin, he's shed five or six layers."

I found these things too disgusting, like snake skin, and lost all interest. Just then, the fatty called out, "There's a way!"

We gathered around and saw that in the armpit of the Jade Shroud, a piece of jade had an extra end of gold thread. Puzzled, I said, "Say, you fat bastard, you've got some sharp eyes. Even an extra thread end here, and you spotted it."

The fatty rolled his eyes at me and muttered, "You southern comrades are too bloodthirsty. When you rob a tomb, you take everything, wok and all. Tomb robbing is a fine craft. See? Without your Fatty here today, you'd have to dissolve the corpse to get the Jade Shroud off."

Third Uncle, embarrassed, cursed, "To hell with you. We don't even know for sure yet. Maybe there was always an extra thread there."

The fatty laughed loudly and said, "Don't be so skeptical, damn it." He reached for the thread, but before his hand was even halfway there, a "whoosh" sounded, and something flashed before my eyes like lightning. Third Uncle reacted incredibly fast—he kicked the fatty away just in time, and a black knife thudded into a tree trunk, buried halfway. I was terrified. If not for Third Uncle's kick, the fatty's head would have been pierced. We turned around and saw Poker-face standing at the bottom of the steps, covered in blood, a green Qilin tattoo appearing on his body. His left hand was still in the throwing pose, and his right hand held a strange object. When we saw it clearly, we all gasped.

In his right hand, he was holding the head of the Blood Corpse.

Poker-face looked at us and walked up the steps unsteadily, his breathing very heavy. He seemed in bad shape. Judging by the wounds covering his body, he had been in a fierce battle. He first looked at the coffin, then waved at us and said softly, "Step aside."

The veins on the fatty's forehead bulged. He was in no mood to take that, and jumped up, shouting, "What the hell were you doing just now?!"

Poker-face turned his head and gave him a cold glare. "Kill you," he said.

The fatty was furious, rolled up his sleeves and was about to charge. Da Kui quickly grabbed him and held him back. Third Uncle saw the tense atmosphere—the fatty wasn't someone to be trifled with either—and quickly smoothed things over: "Don't rush. Little Brother must have a reason for what he does. Let's hear him out. He's saved your life more than once on this trip, right? Take it easy."

The fatty thought about it, and it made sense. He didn't have a good excuse to fight either, so he broke free from Da Kui and sat down on the ground in frustration, saying, "You guys have the numbers. One fist can't fight four hands. Fine, whatever you say goes."

Poker-face put the Blood Corpse head down on the jade bed and coughed once. "This Blood Corpse was the previous owner of this Jade Shroud. When King Lu Shang robbed a tomb, he found it and took the Jade Shroud off, turning him into what he is now. To get into this Jade Shroud, you shed your skin every five hundred years. Only during the shedding can the Jade Shroud be removed. Otherwise, you become a Blood Corpse. The living corpse in front of you is over three thousand years old. If you had pulled that thread just now, the body inside would have risen immediately, and we would all have died here."

After saying this, he coughed a few more times, and I saw blood seeping from the corner of his mouth. I thought: Not good—he might be injured internally.

Panzi, who had been leaning painfully to one side and not speaking, suddenly said, "Little Brother, I, Panzi, speak bluntly, so don't take this the wrong way. You know way too much. If it's convenient, please explain clearly—what kind of immortal are you? You saved my life. If I make it out alive, I'd like to visit and thank you."

Panzi's words were very clever. I thought Poker-face would have no way to brush it off, but he still didn't make a sound, as if he had no intention of dealing with us. He walked over to King Lu Shang's corpse, looked at it with disgust, and suddenly a cold glint flashed in his eyes. Before I could see his movement, his hand was already gripping the corpse's neck, lifting it out of the coffin. The corpse's throat let out a shriek, and it began to tremble nonstop. This all happened too fast for me to react. Poker-face said coldly to the corpse, "You've lived long enough. It's time to die." The veins on his hand bulged, and with a crack of bone, the corpse's limbs kept trembling, then kicked out once, and its skin rapidly turned black.

We all watched him, dumbfounded. For a moment, no one knew what to say. He threw the corpse to the ground, as if the Jade Shroud were nothing but trash. I grabbed him and demanded, "Who are you?! What deep grudge do you have against King Lu Shang?"

Poker-face looked at me for a long while, then said, "What do you gain by knowing?"

The fatty said indignantly, "What kind of reasoning is that? We worked hard to get down into this tomb, finally opened this coffin, and you kill the corpse without a word. You owe us at least an explanation!"

Poker-face turned his head, looked at the Blood Corpse head on the jade bed, his expression very sorrowful. He pointed at the painted lacquer coffin, at a purple jade box at the back of the coffin, and said, "Everything you want to know is in that box."