The Tale Never Ends

Chapter 201 The Ancient Crypt
Father cast a long look at the mountain, smirking wryly to himself. But there was something about his that indicated he knew what it was that made the hideous howl just now. But if anyone could remain calm and collected after hearing so ghastly and terrifying a sound, I could think of no one but Father and Mother. No one else!

A shaky voice rose from the crowd of terrified villagers, “W-what… what in the world is that…” But Father did not attempt to explain. With a lazy and dismissive wave of an arm, he declared, “Go back to your homes and have a good night’s rest. But remember! None of you will ever again venture into the woods at the northern face of that mountain. You’d do well to remember these words.” He got up and sauntered casually towards the entrance of the village. No one moved an inch. They watched as Father meandered slowly away, staring at him wordlessly with shock and bewilderment! With hardly any concern about their fate thereafter, I scampered after Father at once.

As he walked, Father never stopped filling his mouth with wine. He reached the mouth of the village before long and began moving towards the foot of the mountain. I caught up to him after exiting the village and was just in time to saw a black wraith-like shadow flitting around in the dark under the pale glow of the moon! For a brief moment, Father almost crashed face-first into him! Whatever it was, it was humanoid in shape, a dark figure hovering before Father scornfully and smugly as if challenging him, but it was not standing up straight. It was stretching its limbs wide with its back bent and from its silhouette, I could feel a faint whiff of familiarity from it. Where have I seen it before? I asked myself and I picked up pace, running after Father.

But before I reached him, I heard Father’s comtemptuous cackle ringing through the dark just before a flash of fire illuminated the blackness of the night for a fleeting second! A heartbeat later, it was gone! Father smirked to himself again and chuckled, shaking his head. But that did little to dissuade him from continuing his journey; he continued marching uphill and I followed close behind.

From the conversation Father and Mother were having before, this must be an unwanted epilogue from one of their pasts. Father reached the barren mountaintop just when I finished brooding. I must really give it to Father and his magic; I would not have been able to keep up to his speed if not for my present spirit-like form.

Father perched at the crest of the peak, looking down at the grim-looking patch of forest squatting just at its feet. A sardonic smile curled at his lips and before I knew it, he threw himself off the edge! Feeling a rush of anxiety, I tossed myself off after him, plunging into the dark. We were halfway down the mountain when a silvery glint flared conspicuously and a sword appeared out of nowhere under Father’s feet and he was riding on it as he flew! I stopped my fall but I noticed something strange on the slopes up the mountain. Dark and foul things were emerging from the woods to the north and were making their way uphill. But the precipitous angles of the rocky mountain hardly helped their climb and they were making slow progress. I activated my Spirit Sight and behold! A group of no more than twenty creatures, all exuding deathly auras, were clambering up with great difficulty!

Suddenly, I heard Father snapping his fingers. Something in the dark swooshed through the air around us, slicing the very air that held us in mid-air before its dangerous whistle traveled far away towards the mountain. One by one, through my Spirit Sight, the blobs of deathly auras in my vision were immediately wiped out!

The decaying aura of death could only come from something dead; a dead corpse or an animal’s carcass. So it was hardly difficult for me to guess what were those infernal beings were. With the monsters on the slopes vanquished, Father landed with his sword halfway on the mountain. I followed after him and found him stopping at the mouth of a cave. But I could see that the cave was not naturally-formed; roughly-hewn marks littered around the opening of the cave indicated that the cave the work of man. There was also a burnt-out hearth near the mouth of the cave; someone had been here.

Father cast a cursory glance at the ashes in the hearth. With a curt nod to himself, he began walking straight into the black abyss of the cave. There must be something about me and caves, I mused. Almost every adventure of mine involved caves or some sort. And this one seemed particularly intriguing than the rest. I walked at Father’s heels for quite some time until we saw stairs leading downwards when we reached the end of the cave passage. Father descended down the steps, calm as he always was, as if he was strolling in his own house.

Frowning, I trailed after him down the steps. For a few silent minutes, we walked down and Father suddenly vanished with a whoosh of the wind! Stunned, I looked around to search for him. Then I saw him already at the bottom of the stairs. Wherever we were, I was quite sure we were very deep inside the bowels of the mountains by now. I skipped forward, taking two steps as one, only to step on nothing but air! I fell, tumbling into a hole-like chasm and I panicked. Then I realized, this must be how Father leaped down earlier!

I slid down the passage that would have looked like a well on the ground above, a tunnel-like hole leading down into pitch-black darkness. The size of it and its position told me that this could only be a thieves’ hole and we must be venturing into an ancient tomb! I see, this ancient tomb was the reason Father had warned the villagers from coming here! He did not want them to come here and plunder this final resting place for some accursed being and the deathly auras I saw earlier must have come from jiangshis!

I was jarred back to present just when the sensation of my hind parts sliding on rock was suddenly gone! I had reached the end of the rocky slide down from above and landed with a painful thud on cold, hard flagstones. I rubbed my back as I got up, peering around curiously. Unlike the passages outside, this place was well alighted! I looked incredulously around. Then I saw it: the still-flaming lampion of this tomb. For all the stories and novels I have read about ancient tombs and catacombs, I had never believed in flames that could burn eternally.

Grave lampions are oil lamps that people leave in graves and tombs as a superstitious means of illumination for the dead. In most cases, they burst to flames when grave robbers and thieves unseal a crypt and these led to many of these thieves believing that the lampions have never stopped burning since the day they were left there, hence the Chinese colloquial term for grave lampions, “the lamps of eternity.” Experts ofttimes claim that white phosphorus is used in grave lampions and it was this substance that erupts into flames when oxygen floods into a tomb once plunderers opened it. But I never once took the words of these so-called experts as gospel; the flashpoint of white phosphorus is around 40 degrees Celsius but we were standing in the cold and eerie stone chamber of at least 15 degrees Fahrenheit!

Something strange is indeed afoot here! And I felt a cold jab like a dagger fluttering down my spine.

The subterranean tomb resembled nothing like what I have seen in archaeological programs on TV; it was like an actual stone chamber that served as a basement. But most archaeological excavations involved removing completely the roof to preserve what is hidden below; that explained the difference in what I perceived. I guessed this stone chamber would have looked the same if the entire roof of this chamber is removed.

The thirty-something square-meter chamber was filled with urns and vats. I would not boast myself as a learned student of archaeology, but I knew enough to know that this must be an antechamber of this entire crypt. Then I realized Father was missing. I walked out of the antechamber and saw a doorway just in front of me that led to a similar hall. The two antechambers were like a pair of ears on a man’s head; they come in pairs with a corridor that passes right between them. I peered left and right to make sure the corridor was empty, and I walked head-first into the hall opposite.

But everything in this hall was furnished exactly the same as its other half and Father was nowhere to be seen. I shrugged and retreated from the room. Both directions of the corridor outside were nothing but a black wall of darkness. Not knowing which way to go, I simply picked one and just stepped into the dark.

But I had barely taken a few steps when I found myself at the end. A set of tightly-shut stone doors laid quietly and motionlessly before me. The two slabs of stones were as tall as the height of two men and a crossbar hung overhead. How did the builders of this crypt managed to set the crossbar from outside? But I was hardly interested for any history of tombs and crypts, so I whirled on my heels and went the other way.

It did not take long for me to finally see the back of Father strolling indolently. Mother had appeared and was with him now as they traipsed unconcernedly as they talked. Father chuckled, “It has been quite some time since I was last here. I was just a young lad then, on a pilgrimage as a fresh student of magecraft and sorcery. How the years have passed. I have to admit, those were good times.” Mother giggled. “Yu Yun was also a lad then… Although one might at times mistake him as an old man! Heh heh heh!” A hint of tenderness flashed in Father’s eyes as his face creased into a smile.

There was nothing that I could make sense of what they were talking about. For all I know, they could be talking about things from centuries or millennia ago. But if there was anything I understand about my parents, it was they have but only a handful of people they considered as friends. And I could have sworn that I knew most of them by now. But I have never once heard of this “Yu Yun.” Who could he be? From what era did he come from?

Just when I was still mulling over this, Father and Mother’s merry banter halted suddenly with a low, deep pronouncement from him, “We’re there!”