Chapter 303

I stepped forward and roughly pulled Chen Fuying, my heart pounding like a drum; in the blink of an eye I looked again at that skin puppet, which had already returned to its original state.

"You're crazy! What were you just doing!"

"Just now I was really frightened."

Chen Fuying, however, laughed.

She was drenched in sweat, her originally bright white skin now tinged with a dark gray, looking extremely weak.

She was clearly smiling, yet it made me feel utterly desolate: "Xiao Jiu, you're already scared by this? But this is only the tip of the iceberg here!"

She said this and already strode toward the dragon throne.

Her hand pressed on the dragon's head, triggering a mechanism; the entire wall draped with dragon robes rumbled open sideways, revealing a long corridor behind it that seemed endless.

Inside that corridor was a pitch-black expanse, shrouded in heavy yin-sha qi, making it impossible to see what lay at its end.

The next moment, with another rumble, the wall slid back into place, concealing everything behind it.

Chen Fuying stood beside the dragon throne, the corner of her mouth still curled in a smile.

That smile was weak, helpless, carrying endless despair.

She said: "Xiao Jiu, do you see? This is the secret of Wufu Town; today I will tear it open and lay it before you—have you been frightened by it? Do you dare to keep moving forward?"

I heard my own voice tighten as I asked her: "What's in the black mist? Where does this corridor lead? Chen Fuying, just how many secrets do you know? You must tell me everything if I am to help you!"

Chen Fuying shook her head: "You can't help me; my fate was sealed at birth, just like every resident of Wufu Town."

"Actually I envy them, living muddled through a lifetime; even if they die obscurely, they needn't suffer much, unlike me, who has glimpsed the tip of the iceberg and must now dwell in endless fear and despair."

"'Xiao Jiu, I have unveiled this tip of the iceberg for you, dragging you into this endless hell; you won't blame me, right?'"

I stepped forward and reached out, firmly embracing Chen Fuying.

She loved to smile, and her smile was especially sweet.

Only now did I deeply realize what sorrow lay hidden behind that sweet smile.

"'How could I blame you? I am already in this endless hell.' I said sincerely, 'Do you know how much help you've given me by bravely taking this step? Yingying, you're great.'"

Chen Fuying suddenly burst into tears, leaning against my shoulder and sobbing in suppression: "Xiao Jiu, I would rather die than become a puppet, never to be reborn; if that day truly comes, please end me with a single blade, okay."

"'That day will never come.' I kept assuring: 'Yingying, believe me, Chen Ping cannot succeed; you must believe that evil cannot prevail over righteousness, for his deeds are intolerable to heaven.'"

That night I emerged from the teahouse kitchen's secret passage, walking along the road toward the pawnshop, each step slow.

I walked, stopped, walked again, then turned back to a certain point, feeling my way forward.

This short path, which normally wouldn't take long to traverse, I somehow took over half an hour to walk.

When I stood at Xijiekou, less than a hundred meters from the pawnshop, the tension in my heart finally died.

If my measurements are correct, the passage beneath the teahouse, filled with yin-sha qi, leads straight to the pawnshop!

Of course, this is merely a single-line passage.

If the corridor's end were to branch out in different directions… no, I abruptly cut off my own thought and looked toward the pawnshop.

Then my gaze radiated outward from the pawnshop.

No, my earlier line of thought was wrong.

Initially, Jin Wuya told me that he said the pawnshop's overall layout is like a pi xiu that only takes in and never lets out.

Thus the pawnshop is the root, the endpoint, while the teahouse is the source.

There is only one endpoint, but the sources can be countless.

The teahouse is one such source, the Zhu Pan River another; then what about the Wufu Town Assembly Hall? And the Bai Family Medical Hall?

Once these sources all run into trouble, all karmic consequences must be suppressed by the pawnshop, and must be borne by Liu Junyan!

Likewise, if the pawnshop's seal loosens or even shatters completely, these sources will also encounter problems.

"'Xiao Jiu, why did you take so long?' Li Qingying, still awake, came over and asked concernedly, 'Did something happen over at the teahouse?'"

I looked at Li Qingying hesitantly, not knowing where to begin for a moment.

I opened and closed my mouth repeatedly, finally managing to utter: "Sister Qingying, I think I now understand why Mei Lin Shuang willingly let the magistrate and his men manipulate her—she wishes to single-handedly guard the Wufu Town Assembly Hall."

Li Qingying put her arm around my shoulders, led me back to the pawnshop, closed the door, pressed me onto the sofa, poured me a cup of hot tea, then asked: "Xiao Jiu, what happened? Speak slowly, no rush."

I then recounted to Li Qingying everything I had seen and heard in the teahouse tonight, in full detail.

After hearing it, Li Qingying also fell into a silence.

After a while, she said: "So you mean those skin puppets will come back to life, right?"

"'In theory, yes.' I said, 'If I haven't guessed wrong, in that passage we currently cannot enter there are still many skin puppets, and the vast majority of residents now living in Wufu Town are their descendants; Chen Ping intends to use the blood of these descendants' blood relatives to perform a blood sacrifice on the skin puppets, letting each puppet be re-infused with flesh and blood, coming back to life!'"

This was a hint from Chen Fuying.

"'That's too fantastical.' Li Qingying couldn't fathom it, 'But why would Chen Ping do this?'"

I answered firmly: "Because he cannot achieve immortality."

Chen Ping harbors imperial dreams; he is skilled in conquest and battle, his command includes a general like Zhao Zixun, and he even eventually forged a unit of yin soldiers, yet no matter how formidable he is, he cannot escape the life cycle of birth, aging, sickness, and death.

Let's boldly speculate: in the battle at the ancient battlefield of Small Camp Mouth, did Chen Ping suffer a severe wound that could not be healed?

Otherwise, how could he have such a desperate resolve, ruthlessly slaughtering so many of his own troops and refining them all into yin soldiers?

He had already crafted a pure gold throne and prepared the dragon robes, yet before he could truly carve out a domain, proclaim himself king or emperor, his life was already approaching its end.

Could he truly resign himself to that?

How could he possibly resign himself!

If at this moment someone told him there was a way to help him revive after a hundred years,

not only could it let him revive, but also ensure that everything he currently possesses would remain unchanged,

the operas and actors he likes, the troops he desires, even the servants accustomed to in the Marshal's Mansion… would all have to revive alongside his resurrection.

Chen Ping's dynasty would rise again; he would continue to wage war outward, incessantly expanding his territory, fulfilling the undertaking he left unfinished over a hundred years ago!

Of course, Wufu Town also has many burdens, such as the elderly, weak, women, and the disabled, as well as those flayed bodies with nowhere to pile the flesh… how are they dealt with?

This reminded me of the scenes that appeared when, on the first day of the eighth month last year, I got into the big red bridal sedan and was carried step by step into the main hall.

The blood-soaked arms incessantly scratching at the big red bridal sedan, the corpses burned black as charcoal, unrecognizable, the agonized wails, the desperate cries…