Immortalis

Hero's Tomb: Chapter Nine

After all the commotion, it was already past the hour of Xu.

Zhou Huai had someone prepare a bed on the floor, but inexplicably, the young master became awkward at this very moment.

Limping as he stepped down from the bed, he said, "How about... we let Young Master Shen sleep on the bed instead? He's badly injured, and the floor is cold..."

Halfway through his words, the young master seemed to think of something, his entire face flushing red.

Yang Wujian was momentarily speechless. Now he finally understood—the young master had a particular fondness for those who were both good-looking and in miserable circumstances. Previously, it had been him; now, it was the severely injured Shen Qingshi's turn.

However, as one might expect, given Shen Qingshi's temperament, he wouldn't stand on ceremony with Zhou Huai. Hearing this, Shen Qingshi immediately gave up the floor bed without another word and went to sleep on the bed.

In the blink of an eye, the night deepened.

Zhou Huai's room had always been lit throughout the night. Now, even with Shen Qingshi and Yang Wujian keeping watch, at their insistence, the candles in the room remained burning brightly to catch the possible villain hiding in the tower.

Even if vengeful spirits were truly at work, at the very least, Miss Yang was sleeping next door.

Thinking this, Zhou Huai tilted his head back and swallowed the new medicine given by Zhou Jinglei. Soon, his consciousness grew hazy.

Just after the hour of Zi, the Heavenly Mystery Tower was utterly silent. Listening to Zhou Huai's soft snores, Yang Wujian thought helplessly that if they were to reveal his and Shen Qingshi's true identities to Zhou Huai in the future, they would have to find a subtle way to do it. Otherwise, with the young master trusting them so completely now, once the truth came out, he would likely want to hang himself with a rope.

His mind teeming with thoughts, suddenly, the brightly lit candles in the room extinguished all at once. Yang Wujian bolted upright, while Shen Qingshi was even quicker—a cold gleam flashed in his hand as his long sword accurately struck the candlestick in the darkness, jamming the mechanism on it.

"Yang Wujian."

"Understood."

As soon as Shen Qingshi spoke, Yang Wujian struck a firestarter. They saw a hidden window had opened in the ceiling at some point. Soaring up, he was met with a wave of decaying stench.

By then, Shen Qingshi had relit the other candles in the room. Strangely, despite all the commotion, Zhou Huai still hadn't woken up. Seeming to realize something, Shen Qingshi went over and patted Zhou Huai's face, only to find him dazed and unable to rouse.

"He might have been drugged."

Shen Qingshi frowned and, without hesitation, pressed his palm firmly onto Zhou Huai's injured leg. Instantly, the young master jolted awake in pain, sitting up abruptly.

"What's going on!"

Zhou Huai was terribly dizzy; even after waking, his complexion was awful. It wasn't until he took a brain-refreshing pill that he felt somewhat better. The three then checked the tea and food, but found nothing amiss with Zhou Huai's provisions. That left only one possibility.

With a grave expression, Zhou Huai produced the new medicine he had taken earlier. For a moment, the room fell into dead silence.

Even unspoken, Shen Qingshi and Yang Wujian had long suspected: three times, severed limbs had appeared in Zhou Huai's room without any of them noticing anyone. This was highly unusual for three individuals with considerable martial arts foundations—unless the severed limbs had never been thrown by a person at all.

The moment the candles went out, a mechanism would light new ones for Zhou Huai. Each time the severed limbs appeared at this exact moment, meaning they were tied to the candle mechanism itself.In other words, unless someone was extremely familiar with Zhou Jinglei's mechanisms and had infiltrated the tower to design it this way, or... the person who did all this was Zhou Jinglei himself.

Noticing the young master's hesitation, Yang Wujian said, "Don't jump to conclusions just yet. Maybe you were just oversleeping."

Although Zhou Huai was naive, he wasn't foolish. After hesitating for a moment, he still took the pills from the bottle, crushed them, sprinkled them on a steamed bun, and fed it to a field mouse they had caught in the bamboo grove.

After the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, the mouse lay completely unconscious on the platform.

Seeing this, Zhou Huai paled and took a step back, staring at the medicine bottle in his hand in disbelief.

And he clearly remembered that when the servant handed it to him, they said it was a new medicine his father had requested from Medicine King Mountain.

"Maybe... my father just wanted me to sleep better."

While Zhou Huai was still trying to comfort himself, Shen Qingshi asked softly, "Can we proceed now?"

She glanced up at the hidden window in the ceiling, her meaning clear. Seeing this, Yang Wujian couldn't help but think that the old Shen Qingshi wouldn't have batted an eye even if she had to pry open someone's coffin lid, but now she actually knew to consider the young master's feelings, waiting for his permission before inspecting the mechanism...

It seemed he had indeed misjudged Shen Qingshi as heartless before.

Zhou Huai clenched his fists, struggled internally for a while longer, then slowly nodded. Immediately, Shen Qingshi climbed onto the cabinet and began removing the wooden planks laid across the ceiling one by one.

She didn't understand these Mechanical Arts mechanisms, but she could roughly guess that this device was some kind of conveyor system, triggered by weight to determine when to replace the candles. In other words, when the candle wax had nearly melted away and the weight on the candlestick decreased significantly, a mechanism would deliver a new candle, and a hidden door would open in the ceiling.

As more planks were removed, the smell of decay grew stronger, and all three began to find it familiar.

It was the smell of the dismembered limbs.

Finally, Shen Qingshi seemed to have spotted something above and turned to nod at Yang Wujian. Instantly, Zhou Huai's face turned completely pale.

Not only had someone tampered with his medicine, but someone had also meddled with the mechanisms in his room.

He distinctly remembered Zhou Jinglei telling him long ago that he had personally designed all the mechanisms in Zhou Huai's room because Zhou Huai would always be the most important presence in White Rainbow Tower, worthy of Zhou Jinglei's utmost attention.

And these small mechanisms that could transport items to their positions without anyone present were Zhou Jinglei's specialty.

"How could this be?"

He murmured, watching as Shen Qingshi retrieved the dismembered limbs hidden high above.

They counted them and discovered that there were ten pieces of limbs concealed in Zhou Huai's ceiling. Aside from one lower leg, the rest were arms or hands. Just from the calluses on the palms, they could tell what kind of martial arts these people had practiced.

"All of them are from the ledger... they match."

Yang Wujian compared them to the records Zhou Jinglei had given him. Every person whose martial arts Zhou Huai had displayed during his Evil Sickness episodes—their remains were here. Combined with the previous ones—Zou Ying, Gui Sanyan, and Yu Chaolin—all were accounted for.

In other words, Zhou Huai's Evil Sickness might have a traceable pattern.

"How did these people end up here? They clearly all died in the Hero's Tomb!"

Zhou Huai naturally didn't dare to look at these things and sat dejectedly on the bed from start to finish.Since he was eight years old, when he woke with a completely blank memory, Zhou Jinglei had told him that his illness might be related to the Hero's Tomb. Afterward, he had taken many medicines and met many Taoist priests, but he never considered that the source of this illness might lie within the White Rainbow Tower.

Yang Wujian detected the young master's despondent tone and helplessly sat beside him. "Young Master Zhou, avoiding it is useless. You can't live with this Evil Sickness forever. At the very least, you need to know where it came from."

Though he said this, Yang Wujian found it strange. Clearly, when the time came, the severed limb would fall off. If that was the case, why would someone tamper with Zhou Huai's medicine?

Shen Qingshi approached at that moment and said calmly, "Have you made up your mind? If so, we can accompany you to see Zhou Jinglei right now."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Huai remained silent for a long while before finally standing up.

"Let's go find my father," he said, taking a deep breath. "Only he can give me the answers about what comes next."

Despite the late hour and the quiet night, the three of them immediately headed to the Purple Star Tower.

Among the fourteen towers, the Purple Star was Zhou Jinglei's residence. Since he was eight, Zhou Huai had rarely visited this place because seeing his own father's face would trigger his Evil Sickness.

Now, thinking back, why did seeing Zhou Jinglei make him more prone to the illness?

Zhou Huai's palms were drenched in cold sweat. Shen Qingshi, skilled at reading people, noticed his rigid posture and asked, "Their bodies are in the tower, but from the beginning, why was it said they committed suicide at the Hero's Tomb?"

Zhou Huai replied softly, "Initially, someone left a suicide note at an inn. Then, people began asking for directions near Green Bamboo Town, saying they were going to the Hero's Tomb. Shortly after, their weapons were found outside the cave... These people had roamed the martial world for years; there was no reason for them to suddenly abandon their prized swords."

"So, you're saying that from the start, these people who supposedly committed suicide at the Hero's Tomb were only said to have done so by others, right?"

Shen Qingshi was gradually sensing the anomalies in the entire affair.

Although entering the Hero's Tomb could cause one to be haunted by their Inner Demon, it didn't mean they would exhibit abnormalities outside the tomb.

She also recalled that when they were investigating the Green Rain Sword, they had used the White Rainbow Tower's connections to spread false rumors about reporting to the authorities. In other words, with the Tower's network, making someone appear to have "committed suicide" didn't seem difficult.

But if these people had died inside the White Rainbow Tower, how could their bodies suddenly come to light now?

And why had Zhou Jinglei suddenly wanted to see them that night? Not only did he entrust Zhou Huai to them, but he also gave Yang Wujian that booklet, as if he already knew everything was about to be revealed.

The more Shen Qingshi thought about it, the deeper her frown became. And what she was considering now, the other two could naturally deduce as well.

Seeing Zhou Huai's increasingly grim expression, Yang Wujian gently tugged at Shen Qingshi's sleeve. "Young Master Shen, change the subject."

He could tell that Shen Qingshi didn't know how to comfort people, or perhaps she had brought this up specifically to distract Zhou Huai, but it had backfired.

Left with no choice, Yang Wujian tried his best to steer the conversation toward trivial matters to ease the young master's tension. The three of them walked into the Purple Star Tower.According to the rules, Zhou Huai had to ring the bell at the entrance so that Zhou Jinglei would deactivate the mechanisms inside the building and allow him to go upstairs.

However, for some unknown reason, no matter how many times Zhou Huai rang the bell today, there was no response from the Zihui Tower.

Instantly, the three of them felt a sense of foreboding. They tentatively threw heavy objects toward some obvious trap locations, but the mechanisms showed no reaction, as if they had long been deactivated.

"Father!"

Zhou Huai could no longer wait. Ignoring his leg injury, he limped hurriedly upstairs.

Soon after, he pushed open Zhou Jinglei's door, only to find the spacious room completely empty. There was only a letter left on the table, written in Zhou Jinglei's handwriting.

"To my son Zhou Huai."

Yang Wujian and Shen Qingshi, who arrived shortly after, sensed that something was wrong and initially tried to stop Zhou Huai from opening the letter. But this time, the young master did not hesitate in the slightest. He immediately opened the envelope, and after reading just the first three lines, his legs gave way, and he collapsed into a nearby chair.