Ghost Immortal

Li Feng nodded and turned to leave the duty room.

A cool night breeze swept over him as he stood on the stone steps outside the yamen and let out a long breath.

With the government as his backup plan, he felt much more confident than before.

But when it comes to tomb raiding, ultimately you have to rely on yourself.

No matter how powerful Zhao Tiezhu is, he can't possibly shield him from the underhanded tricks in the tomb.

Li Feng quickened his pace and headed north of the city.

The land temple in the north of the city is located at the northernmost point of Qingyan City, right next to the city wall, and less than a mile away from the mass grave.

The temple has been abandoned for many years. The plaque above the door is crooked, and wild grass grows in the stone incense burner in front of the temple.

The clay sculpture of the Earth God in the temple is already mottled and cracked, with only half of its face remaining intact, which looks like a strange smile.

When Li Feng arrived, the four men, including the one-eyed old man, all looked at him with fierce eyes.

They squatted on the stone steps at the temple entrance, with bundles and tools at their feet.

The one-eyed old man grinned when he saw Li Feng and said, "Kid, you're punctual. You didn't keep us waiting."

Li Feng walked over and saw that the four people's equipment had been upgraded.

Besides their respective magical implements, each person also had a bamboo basket at their feet, filled with a dark, paste-like substance that emitted a pungent, fishy odor.

Li Feng pointed to the bamboo basket: "What's inside?"

The one-eyed old man chuckled, not treating it as a secret: "It's filled with corpse oil, made from the oil of old zombies from the tomb. When you apply it to your body, it can cover up the yang energy of the living. When the things in the tomb smell this, they'll treat you like one of their own."

Li Feng frowned in disgust, but didn't say anything more.

The tomb raiding business has its own rules for survival. These wicked things, though disgusting, are indeed useful.

The woman scooped out a lump of dark, mushy corpse paste from her bamboo basket and smeared it on Li Feng's face.

"Young man, don't be put off by the smell. This stuff can save your life. Apply it to your neck, wrists, and ankles—the places where the yang energy is strongest. Don't miss any spots."

Li Feng took the corpse paste and, suppressing his nausea, smeared it on his body.

The corpse cream felt cold and sticky, like lard just taken out of the refrigerator, and its smell was nauseating.

But he finished wiping it off without changing his expression. After all, it was a matter of life and death, so what if it smelled a little bad?

The one-eyed old man watched this unfold, nodding slightly, seemingly satisfied with Li Feng's performance.

After applying the corpse cream, the one-eyed old man stood up, brushed the dust off his hands, and began to explain the taboos of tomb raiding.

His tone was much more serious than before, and his only remaining right eye gleamed with earnestness and solemnity.

"Kid, even though this is your first time going down into a tomb, since we're teaming up, we're on the same side. I'll explain the rules to you clearly, so listen carefully. Missing a single word could cost you your life."

He solemnly held up three fingers: "First rule, once you're in the tomb, you're not allowed to call anyone by their real name. The things in the tomb have ears. Whoever you call by name will be targeted. Use code names. The old man is called One-Eyed, he's called Shovel, he's called Copper Seal, she's called Bead, and you're called Night Watchman. Got it?"

Li Feng nodded solemnly.

The old man continued, "Secondly, you must not turn around. If someone taps you on the shoulder, calls your name, or speaks to you in the tomb passage, no matter how familiar the voice is, you must not turn around. There are three yang flames on your shoulder. If you turn around, one will be extinguished. If two flames are extinguished, you will become weak. If three flames are extinguished, something in the tomb will possess you."

"The third rule is that you are not allowed to take anything that is close to the tomb owner. You can take gold and silver treasures, and you can pick up magic tools and pills, but if you touch the clothes on the tomb owner's body, the hairpin in his hair, or the ring on his hand, you will not be able to come out alive. These things are tainted with the resentment of the tomb owner before his death, and taking them will bring about your death."

After the one-eyed old man finished reciting the three points, he took out two white candles from his pocket and handed one to Li Feng.

"Take this candle. After entering the tomb, light it in the southeast corner of the tomb entrance. People light candles, ghosts blow them out. If the candle suddenly goes out, no matter what you are doing, immediately lie down, hold your breath and pretend to be dead. Wait for the candle to light up again before moving."

"If the candle hasn't lit up after three extinguishings, run out of the tomb! Don't worry about anything else, just run as fast as you can!"

Li Feng took the candle. It was only as thick as a thumb, but it felt heavy in his hand, like an iron rod.

The wax was engraved with fine runes, and the wick was dark red, as if it were made from the hair of some kind of animal.

"What kind of candle is this?"

The woman continued, "Corpse oil candles are made by mixing the corpse oil of an old zongzi (a type of Chinese rice dumpling) with the ash of a soul-suppressing talisman. The light they produce allows the things in the tomb to see the corpse oil on your body and mistake you for one of their own."

"But corpse oil candles are afraid of yin winds. If the things in the tomb have too much resentment, the yin winds can blow out the candle flame. So if the candle flame goes out, it means that there is something powerful nearby."

Li Feng carefully put away the corpse oil candles, secretly noting down these taboos.

The one-eyed old man then gave some more details, such as burning three sticks of incense at the entrance of the tomb before entering. You can only enter if the incense has burned out; if it hasn't, it means the tomb owner doesn't welcome you and you have to turn back.

When you encounter a fork in the road, you should scatter glutinous rice to test the way. The path on which the glutinous rice changes color the fastest indicates that the path has heavy yin energy, and you should take a detour.

You must not open the coffin directly. You must first knock on the coffin lid three times and wait three breaths. Only if there is no movement inside can you open the coffin.

These rules sounded complicated and superstitious, but since he was cultivating immortality, he had no choice but to follow them and memorize them all.

These rules are lessons learned at the cost of countless lives; they cannot be broken or taken lightly.

After explaining the rules, the one-eyed old man looked up at the sky.

The moon had risen high in the sky, and its silvery light shone on the dilapidated earth temple.

"It's almost time, let's go!"

The five people left the land temple, passed through the mass grave behind it, and headed towards the quarry.

The eerie atmosphere in the mass grave was indeed much stronger than in the city.

The moonlight shone on the desolate graves, the withered grass on the grave mounds trembling in the night wind. Occasionally, the calls of unknown birds could be heard, their cries shrill and piercing, like the wailing of a baby.

Li Feng noticed several new graves deep in the mass grave. The soil was still damp, and white banners planted in front of the graves fluttered in the wind.

He glanced at it again instinctively and noticed that black mist was rising from the soil of one of the graves, exactly the same as the ominous aura he had sensed in the city.

"Stop looking, let's go."

The woman with the beads urged in a low voice.

The five people crossed the mass grave and arrived at the quarry.

The quarry was a hillside that had been dug up and was full of pits and hollows, with scattered gravel and waste stone everywhere.

Under the moonlight, the rock walls of the quarry were covered with countless chisel marks.

"To find the dragon vein and divide the gold, look at the winding mountains; each winding mountain is a barrier. If there are eight perilous passes, surely a king or nobleman resides here!"

The one-eyed old man held up a compass, muttered incantations, and skillfully navigated around several large pits until he reached the deepest part of the quarry, in front of a rock wall.

This rock face looked no different from the others, but Li Feng noticed that half of a broken stone tablet was buried in the pile of rubble below the rock face. The tablet was inscribed with some ancient characters, which had been weathered and blurred.

"This is it."

The one-eyed old man squatted down and used his hands to pry away the rubble, revealing a crack at the bottom of the rock wall.

The crack was only about two feet wide, just enough for an adult to squeeze in sideways.

The rock surface at the edge of the crack was covered with a dark yellow powder, felt dry and rough to the touch, and emitted a faint smell of decaying soil.

"This is the burial ground."

The one-eyed old man picked up a pinch of powder and held it to his nose to sniff it.

"As expected of the work of ancient cultivators, this layer of burial soil has been sealed for at least five hundred years, and no one has ever gone down into it."

The man carrying the shovel walked over, spat into his palm, and swung the shovel at the crack.

The earthen-yellow magic power adhered to the shovel blade. With each shovel stroke, the burial soil at the edge of the crack fell off in a flurry, widening the crack.

He shoveled at the crack more than a dozen times until it finally widened to the point where a person could bend over and pass through.

The one-eyed old man stepped back with the shovel, took out three incense sticks from his pocket, stuck them in the soil in front of the crack, and lit them with a tinderbox.

All three incense sticks were black, but the smoke they produced was white. The white smoke rose gently, condensing in the air and forming three straight columns of smoke.

All five of them stared at the incense.

The incense burned very quickly, and half of it was gone in less than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea.

The three plumes of smoke remained straight, without bending, breaking, or changing color.

"People fear most the worst thing that happens to them, and incense is most averse to two short and one long incense stick. This incense is burning very well; the tomb owner didn't stop it, so it can enter!"

The one-eyed old man breathed a sigh of relief and waited until the incense had completely burned out before squeezing into the crack.

The shovel and the copper seal followed closely behind. The woman with the beads waved to Li Feng and then crawled inside as well.