Immortalis

Hero's Tomb 7

In an instant, Yang Wujian's back was soaked through with cold sweat.

He turned his head and found nothing but emptiness before his eyes, yet the sensation on his wrist felt utterly real—as if the spirits of those who had died in this Hero's Tomb were dragging him down.

Shen Qingshi's voice continued calling from afar: "Spare me today, and I won't spare you or Longevity Palace in the future."

Yang Wujian tried to pull his hand back, but suddenly felt a sharp pain at the back of his neck. His vision went black, and his consciousness faded instantly.

So close.

Shen Qingshi's forehead was covered in cold sweat. Gritting her teeth against the pain, she supported Yang Wujian and retied the rope—the very one he had cut himself—securely around him.

The incident occurred with extreme speed.

They had only been in the cave for the time it takes an incense stick to burn when Shen Qingshi began feeling panicked and short of breath. She stopped to rest, but to her surprise, Yang Wujian beside her seemed unable to see her and walked straight downward.

What's wrong with him?

Shen Qingshi wanted to call out, but found she couldn't make a sound—just like when she had fallen into the Meat Well near White Lead Town. Her chest felt blocked by a stone, and speaking made her vision darken in waves.

Yang Wujian...

Watching him venture deeper, Shen Qingshi forced herself up to chase after him. But before she had taken two steps, she spotted a section of neatly severed rope on the ground.

It was the rope that had been tied around Yang Wujian—cut by his own hand!

A chill ran through Shen Qingshi's heart as Yang Wujian's voice echoed from the distance: "Why are you so desperate to cling to White Rainbow Tower? Could it be... you've taken a fancy to the young master?"

The voice was already far from her—Yang Wujian couldn't be speaking to her.

But in this pitch-black cave, who was he talking to?

Shen Qingshi broke out in cold sweat. Just then, Zhou Huai, sensing something amiss, tugged on her rope from outside the cave. Shen Qingshi knew full well that if Zhou Huai rashly entered, all three of them might be lost here. So, she pulled the rope back twice heavily and once lightly, signaling to Zhou Huai outside:

Trouble in the cave. Be prepared, but don't come down.

Immediately, Shen Qingshi bit the tip of her tongue hard, forcing herself to stay alert as she hurried toward Yang Wujian.

The deeper she went, the stronger her suffocation grew.

Yet now, if she collapsed, Yang Wujian would surely vanish into the darkness forever, like those before him who had been lost in the Hero's Tomb.

Not daring to relax her focus, Shen Qingshi kept her eyes fixed on the faint candlelight in Yang Wujian's hand, step by step advancing into the depths.

Fortunately, he at least still held the fire starter—he hadn't gone too far.

When she finally spotted Yang Wujian in the distance, Shen Qingshi was drenched in cold sweat, her tongue tip bitten raw. But gradually, even the sharp pain from biting her tongue couldn't stop her spirit from nearing collapse...

She couldn't go any deeper.

Shen Qingshi thought numbly.

If she saw what lay below, she would surely die.

"Is that why you came down to the Hero's Tomb? To kill me here as bait? You know I..."

Suddenly, Yang Wujian's voice snapped her back to awareness. Leaning painfully against the rock wall, Shen Qingshi saw Yang Wujian standing not far away, speaking to a stone wall.Before they knew it, the stone walls around them had become smooth, shimmering with ominous black specks under the torchlight, writhing incessantly—almost as if thousands of eyes were watching them.

What was that?

At this moment, the pain Shen Qingshi felt had nearly rendered her unable to take another step. Yet, in the next instant, she watched as Yang Wujian tossed aside the fire starter, drew out the Golden Rings, and gritted out harshly, "It seems I never should have saved you that day—I should have let you die in that cage!"

Hearing such words, Shen Qingshi immediately understood what Yang Wujian had seen within those eye-covered stone walls.

He had been speaking to "himself" all along.

Shen Qingshi's scalp crawled as she watched Yang Wujian "fighting" with empty air in the darkness, about to rush deeper into the cavern. Clenching her teeth, she leaped forward and seized his wrist in a death grip!

"Don't go."

Whatever lurked in that darkness, they could not proceed further.

"It's luring you deeper—there's no light there. If you run any farther, I won't be able to find you."

Shen Qingshi's vision darkened. She knew full well that if Yang Wujian resisted, she would have no way to stop him.

Fortunately, Yang Wujian did not struggle. He turned back dazedly, yet seemed utterly unable to see her, his pale face filled with confusion.

An opportunity!

Shen Qingshi knew that expecting the irrational Yang Wujian to follow her out was futile. Without hesitation, she delivered a swift chop to the back of his neck. Instantly, he collapsed limply against her.

In the dark cavern, both she and Yang Wujian's fire starter flickered precariously, while the wind blowing from the depths felt like the breath of some colossal living creature, threatening to extinguish their last remaining light.

They had to get out quickly.

Shen Qingshi could barely breathe, her mind clinging to this final thought as she desperately tied herself and Yang Wujian firmly together and tugged the rope three times with all her strength.

It was the signal for Zhou Huai to pull them back.

What happened next was hazy even in Shen Qingshi's memory. Her pain had surpassed its limit, leaving her mind in a fog. Only after being hauled back to the surface could she barely see again.

"You two... you've exhausted me! How many Crescent Moon Blades did Miss Yang carry? If I'd known, I should've brought at least two servants along!"

Zhou Huai, having lived a life of luxury and seldom engaged in such physical labor, was drenched in sweat. After dragging them out, he collapsed to the ground as well.

He had thought that, given Yang Wujian and Shen Qingshi's alertness, things wouldn't have come to this.

After all the turmoil, Yang Wujian was unconscious, while Shen Qingshi and Zhou Huai were both pushed to their limits. The three lay before the Hero's Tomb for at least half an hour before Yang Wujian finally regained consciousness.

"What happened?"

His neck ached, and he immediately knew he had been struck. Then, the last of his memories surged back, and Yang Wujian practically leaped to his feet, gripping the Golden Rings as he coldly addressed Shen Qingshi, who still lay on the ground: "Weren't you going to kill me? Why aren't you running now?"

"You..."Shen Qingshi tried to push herself up, but none of her five viscera and six bowels felt comfortable. Combined with the sword wound on her shoulder, she curled into a ball, unable to utter a single word.

"Miss Yang, what are you saying?"

Zhou Huai said weakly, "If Young Master Shen hadn't pulled you up, you wouldn't have made it back... You cut the rope as soon as you surfaced. Do you know how worried I was outside the cave?"

"What?"

Only then did Yang Wujian vaguely sense something was wrong.

Looking at Shen Qingshi's ashen face, in her current state, let alone fighting him, she probably couldn't even stand steadily.

Could it be that what he had seen earlier wasn't actually Shen Qingshi?

"When I went down to the bottom, I saw you talking to a rock," Shen Qingshi said softly after catching her breath. "You mistook that rock for me, claimed I was trying to kill you, fought with me, and tried to run deeper. I had no choice but to knock you out and bring you up."

"But I clearly saw..."

Yang Wujian recalled the Shen Qingshi he had seen earlier. If it was an illusion, it felt far too real.

And the things she had said...

Could it be that something in this cave had invaded his mind, making him see what he feared most?

Cold sweat trickled down Yang Wujian's back. He finally understood how those who had entered the Hero's Tomb before had met their ends inside.

The things they saw were all luring them deeper, but once they went in, they never returned.

"But why are you unaffected, Young Master Shen?"

Yang Wujian was puzzled. Between the two of them, only he had seen those deceptively real illusions, while Shen Qingshi, though unwell, hadn't been deceived.

Shen Qingshi shook her head. Perhaps because they had gone deeper this time, even though she had been out for a while, the suffocating feeling in her chest hadn't completely faded.

The Meat Well didn't drive her insane, but that didn't mean she was unaffected.

Shen Qingshi couldn't figure out the reason either, but for now, they absolutely couldn't go back into the Hero's Tomb. She tried to stand up to leave with the other two, but her limbs had no strength. Seeing this, Zhou Huai said, "Young Master Shen, let me carry you back. You're so thin—I should be able to manage."

With that, the young master promptly squatted down and hoisted her onto his back. As he did, his heart skipped a beat.

Shen Qingshi was thin and light, her arms around his neck even delicate, and her breathing was faint.

How could there be a man like this in the world?

Zhou Huai's face stiffened imperceptibly. He adjusted Shen Qingshi higher on his back, only to hear her whisper by his ear, "Thank you."

"For what? You went down there for my sake. I should be the one thanking you."

The three returned to White Rainbow Tower.

Though only half a day had passed, it felt like they had died and come back to life. The more Yang Wujian thought about it, the more fearful he became. Taking advantage of the young master returning to his room to change out of his sweat-soaked clothes, he quietly asked Shen Qingshi, "Why did you really go down? I went for the Crescent Moon Blade, but you... Earlier, the illusion in the cave tried to make me suspect you..."

"Back in Baiqian Town, I already felt that the Meat Well might be connected to me somehow. Like how you saw illusions but I didn't. The only explanation is the medicine I took at Longevity Palace when I was young."

Even though she knew Yang Wujian was talking nonsense, Shen Qingshi looked at the blue veins in her pale palm and chose to tell the truth.She wanted to find the White-faced Guest and also understand why she had been forced to endure all of that.

"That's right..."

Yang Wujian thought to himself that what the "Shen Qingshi" in the cave had said at first was somewhat reliable, but later on, it was entirely his own Inner Demon acting up.

He had always worried that Shen Qingshi was an ungrateful wolf, but he never expected that the haunted place known as the Hero's Tomb seemed to harbor something sinister, capable of peering into his thoughts and actually "acting out" all of it.

"So, I suppose this counts as repaying you. You doubted me, but I still brought you up."

Suddenly, Shen Qingshi uttered a seemingly random sentence. Yang Wujian was taken aback, unsure how much the real Shen Qingshi had overheard of what he said down below. This matter couldn't be brought into the open.

He smiled wryly, "You really have it all calculated, don't you? So eager to settle the score with me?"

"This one incident isn't enough to settle the score."

Shen Qingshi shook his head, but before Yang Wujian could respond, the sound of a teacup shattering suddenly came from Zhou Huai's room next door, immediately causing both of their expressions to change.

"You've got to be kidding me?"

Realizing what might have happened, Yang Wujian said with a headache, "I don't have the energy to fight the young master right now..."