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Chapter 62: Tongshou Spider (II)
Anyone would be completely shocked to see their own handwriting in some random place they didn’t recognise. If you were of the cowardly type, you might even feel a frisson of fear. Even if you were brave, though, you still wouldn’t be very happy about it.
Were you to find your own handwriting in a normal place, then perhaps it wouldn't be that bad. But this was a mysterious bamboo building, and clearly not a welcoming or nice location –– after all, you had to have something deeply wrong with you to willingly imprison yourself within a thicket of poisonous fog in the middle of nowhere.
So it would be highly unnerving to find your own handwriting here.
Thankfully, the book itself didn’t seem to have any issues: it was an ordinary booklet filled with notes about some anonymous person's travels. These notes were nothing special: in a straightforward manner, they described how the author had accidentally gone into a funeral stop in Langzhou to shelter from the rain, and had run into corpse-carriers. [a]
And the annotations in the margins were even simpler. They consisted of only three words: Xia Mountain, Langzhou.
This was too small to even be defined as an annotation, really. It was more of a marker.
Frowning, Xuanmin stared intently at the calligraphy, only coming back to his senses when Xue Xian called out at him.
"Bald donkey? Why are you just standing there? What's in the book?" Although most of Xue Xian's attention had been on Stone Zhang and Lu Nianqi, he had noticed Xuanmin take out a book and then stand there unmoving for a long time. It had made Xue Xian curious.
From Xue Xian's angle, he could only see Xuanmin's profile. The lantern in this room wasn't very bright, so Xuanmin's brow cast a dark shadow onto his eyes, outlining the handsome silhouette of his nose. Yet this also made his expression seem highly severe, as though he'd seen a ghost.
It was rare to see Xuanmin so taken aback, so Xue Xian wanted to take advantage and see what his face looked like. That was why he hadn’t been able to resist calling out to Xuanmin.
Xuanmin continued to stare at the book and did not move his head. All he said was, "Nothing."
This was an automatic reaction on his part. Right after he said it, he looked up, and the hand that was reaching out to grab another book from the shelf stopped. He shut the book and began to walk over.
In all honesty, there was a really unique aspect to Xuanmin's aura, which became the clearest when he was doing certain things alone and in silence. It was as though nothing that was happening around him had anything to do with him, so that he appeared utterly alienated and desolate. And the desolation wasn't the melancholy kind, but one that made him seem far away and detached.
A monk like him seemed to be made to stand alone in a deserted, snow-covered temple, with a pagoda made of bronze and ebony behind him, and a heavy set of doors in front of him.
Outside the doors would be the chaotic red dust of the common realm; and inside the door would be the high priest, a lone figure made of clouds and snow.
When Xuanmin had said, Nothing, this was the image that he’d conjured in Xue Xian’s mind. It made Xue Xian feel a lingering sense of discomfort. But then, when Xuanmin had changed his mind and begun to walk over, it was as though he had suddenly pushed open the heavy temple doors and stepped out into the world.
For some reason, this simple action of Xuanmin’s made Xue Xian happy.
But soon, Xue Xian’s good mood was shattered again––
Xuanmin gave him the book and opened it to the page he'd been reading before, pointing down at the lettering.
Naturally, Xue Xian saw the marking in the margin. He read it twice over, but did not see anything particularly interesting. Finally, he said, "There's something wrong with the annotations?"
Xuanmin said, "Mn."
"What is it?" Xue Xian asked, confused.
“It looks like I wrote it."
Xue Xian: “...”
At first, Xue Xian's heart skipped a beat, then a mixture of complicated emotions rushed into him. On the one hand, he was pleased that Xuanmin was telling him this so honestly, with no intention of keeping it a secret. But on the other hand... Why was there an object here connected to Xuanmin?!
The person they were looking for was responsible somehow for the maiming of Xue Xian’s body. In all the places in the world that this stranger could possibly hide, he had chosen this foggy, unknown place. And inside this mysterious room, traces of Xuanmin's past had turned up...
For a brief moment, as Xue Xian stared at the calligraphy on the page, his mind became blank. His heart felt as though it had been suddenly plunged into an icy river and was now convulsing ceaselessly with shocked, hypothermic shivers.
But after some time sitting there, frozen, Xue Xian recalled the figure he’d seen that day by the sea, who had stood beyond the cage of golden threads with the wind whipping their long hair across their face. Xue Xian knew that Xuanmin had shaved his head as a child. So the person who had maimed him was not Xuanmin.
So everything was okay.
Finally, Xue Xian let go of the breath he'd been holding, and the blurred words on the page became legible again.
"So what if you wrote it? Are you trying to get me to praise your handwriting?" Xue Xian sneered as he flipped through more of the pages. He hoped to use the teasing to repress the sudden sense of doubt that had nagged him just then. Although he had immediately nipped that doubt in the bud, it was still hurtful to imply that you did not trust someone. It was best not to discuss such things at the moment –– he did not want to perturb Xuanmin, lest Xuanmin begin to crack.
Xue Xian tossed the book back to Xuanmin and spread his arms wide in measurement. "If you want to catch up to how good my handwriting is, there’s still this much to improve,” he said.
Xuanmin: “...”
Stone Zhang, still searching the wall for clues, overheard this last sentence and thought, I can't believe there are such shameless people in the world. I'm truly honored to be a witness to it.
Even more shameless was that the two powerful ones were just idly standing there, waiting for a middle-aged man and a half-blind boy to figure out what lay within the room. What the fuck was that about?
Since Xuanmin had willingly given the book for Xue Xian to inspect, he had prepared himself well in advance for any kind of reaction from Xue Xian. But he really had not expected Xue Xian to say that, of all things.
No sense of alarm crossed Xuanmin’s eyes, however –– he simply stared silently at Xue Xian for a long time.
Xue Xian glanced at him and added, "It's just a book. How much can you deduce from that? Why don't you try to call out to the room and see if the room answers."
Xuanmin: “...”
Seeing that Xue Xian was becoming more unreasonable by the minute, Xuanmin retracted his gaze and decided not to engage him anymore. Xuanmin turned to take out another book from the shelf. However, although the room did not answer, something else did.
Suddenly, a strange batting noise rose from outside the building and seemed to be rapidly coming toward them.
Startled, everyone in the room jumped, and Xue Xian almost summoned a gust of wind to blow the thing away. But as he calmed down, he saw that the thing was a pitch-black bird.
This room had a high ceiling and was very spacious, so as the bird flapped in, it flew around aimlessly and did not hit anyone.
"Is this the bird from the forest earlier?" Stone Zhang asked, recalling the crow that had almost led them away.
With his sharper-than-human eyes, Xue Xian studied the frenzied bird as it flapped about in the lantern light and said, "You're right, it is. How did it get in here?"
As he spoke, the black bird did something else to startle them.
It flew up to the high ceiling and spun around in circles: it seemed to be searching for a specific person. It soon found its target and flew down in a flash, flapping its wings manically until it landed on Xuanmin's shoulder. Then it lifted a long plumed wing and nuzzled against Xuanmin's cheek, chirping.
Stone Zhang's mouth dropped to the floor.
Lu Nianqi only coolly said, "I don't think that's the noise crows normally make..."
“...” Xue Xian was probably the most taken aback of them all.
Now the heavens really had called his bluff. Just as he'd said, See if the room answers, this damn bird had come in and answered. Not only that, but it had come all the way into the room –– and not only that, but it had to go up to Xuanmin and sit on his shoulder. As the crow had flown by, it had sprayed feathers onto Xue Xian's face. This ...
What was this?!
Even Xuanmin had been shocked by the appearance of the bird. When it had flown into the room, the foot that had stepped out in the direction of the bookcase had frozen.
Xuanmin didn't need to look at more of the books to understand –– beasts and birds were inherently sensitive, and many were particularly intelligent. No ordinary bird would just tumble into a room and settle onto a stranger's shoulder, and then nuzzle that stranger's face.
"W-what is going on?" Stone Zhang finally said, completely lost.
Blankly, Xue Xian glared at the bird and scoffed, "What do you think? Obviously, this bird knows the bald donkey."
"So..." Stone Zhang mumbled.
"So this building likely belongs to the monk," Lu Nianqi said, finishing Stone Zhang’s thought.
Lu Nianqi and Stone Zhang had not seen the calligraphy –– if they had, they would not have added the word ‘likely’.
"This is your building," Xue Xian said, staring into Xuanmin’s eyes.
Xuanmin glanced at the bird on his shoulder. He had to admit that, normally, he hated being too close to other people or things –– but when this crow had come to nuzzle him, he had felt a sense of familiarity rather than the usual automatic disgust. So he, too, concluded that this bamboo building really must be his.
As Xue Xian stared hard at Xuanmin's eyes, Xuanmin looked up and met his gaze. "Yes," he said matter-of-factly, without seeming to be hiding anything. The odd thing was that, after Xuanmin responded, he did not tear his gaze away –– he continued to look calmly back at Xue Xian.
Maybe it was Xue Xian’s mistaken instinct –– maybe the dim light of the lantern in the room had made things seem different from reality –– but Xue Xian got the feeling that Xuanmin was rather worried about his reaction...
Xue Xian automatically looked away and stiffly said, "That bird is stupid."
The crow ruffled its feathers and cried out again, then came flying at Xue Xian to peck at his face.
"It can understand human language. It really is some kind of spiritual bird," Xue Xian said unhappily. "Why are you so nice to the bald donkey but so rude to me? Huh? Looks like you don't want to keep that beautiful smooth plumage of yours!"
This niezhang had been alive for at least hundreds of years, yet here he was, fighting with a bird... What a wonder. As Xue Xian spoke, he even lifted his hand to try and pluck at the crow's tail feathers.
Unable to defeat Xue Xian, the black bird chirped again harshly and flew back to Xuanmin's shoulder. With that, the strange, silent disconnect that had previously settled between Xue Xian and Xuanmin suddenly disappeared.
Xue Xian chuckled, then looked at Xuanmin again. "So this is your home, I guess. But you're not the one who maimed me –– I'm sure of that. At the same time, it does seem that you have some kind of connection to that person. I hope that you were opposed to each other, and not... together."
Xue Xian spoke with no expression on his face, and Xuanmin’s demeanor was detached, too. Stone Zhang, standing by the wall and observing this, felt afraid to even breathe; even Lu Nianqi, who never normally paid attention to what was going on around him, detected something strange about the atmosphere.
Xue Xian was staring into Xuanmin's eyes and did not miss a single hint of even the most subtle emotion in that calm gaze. If Xue Xian saw correctly, when he'd said that last word, together, there had been a minuscule change in Xuanmin's eyes.
The change was tiny, almost imperceptible, and Xue Xian wasn't sure what it meant. But at least... Xuanmin wasn't completely unfazed.
They had been travelling together for quite a while now. If, when faced with the possibility that they may be enemies, Xuanmin had continued to show that absolute sense of stillness and nonchalance, then they might as well part ways right then and there.
Xue Xian felt a strange feeling. There was nothing wrong, but somehow, things didn't seem right either.
But it wasn't the right time to dive deep. Xue Xian rearranged his face back into that carefree expression and jutted out his chin. "Look at you. You go around looking upon everyone with a filthy sense of disdain. You could probably never be in cahoots with anyone even if you wanted to –– you'd annoy the other person to death. Alright, now stop overthinking it and go help look at the walls. Since this room is yours, your instinct will be better than anyone else's. Show us! Show us where the secret mechanism is!”
As Xue Xian spoke, he slapped the table with exaggerated motions, as though interrogating a prisoner.
Xuanmin: “...”
A certain someone flitted between extreme emotions like flipping the pages in a book. No one could keep up with him –– even Xuanmin felt exasperated.
Xuamin continued to stand there. Just as he wanted to speak, that spiritual bird began to nuzzle his face again. The crow chirped harshly at Xue Xian a second time, then flew up to a corner of the high ceiling and began flapping its wings at a piece of bamboo at the end of the wall.
With a weng–– noise, some kind of mechanism in the bamboo ceiling unlatched and the ground beneath their feet began to tremble. Suddenly, the floor vanished.
This building had a secret dungeon?!
Xue Xian’s hearing was more sensitive than humans’. As they sank all the way to the bottom and the mechanism stopped, he suddenly heard, in some distant corner, the weak sound of someone breathing.
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The author has something to say:
Initially, with the one from yesterday tacked on, I was meant to do 3 updates today~ But although I wanted to, I did not have the power to →_→ Here are 2 updates now, and the other chapter I’ll put up tomorrow, kiss~
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[a] Musuli uses 赶尸人 (gan3 shi1 ren2) here, literally “people who shutter/ferry/transport corpses”.
This chapter was beta’d by Rogue!
Noooooooo
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