Daomu Biji: Restart

I glanced up at the leather figurine woman, looked down at the ruler in my hand, and took a deep breath.

"Sister, what do you mean?" I asked cautiously.

The leather figurine woman didn’t respond at all.

No matter how I looked at it, it was impossible for this thing to move. Shit, I suddenly thought, is Liu Sang messing with me?

I looked behind the figurine but all I could see was darkness. I didn’t see anyone hiding in the depths of the tomb passage, waiting to mock me.

That Liu Sang guy had been in the waterway the whole time. Did that mean he was there when we were wading through the water, but didn't show himself and chose to hide? After hearing Fatty make fun of me, did he move this leather figurine up here to laugh at me?

But wasn’t this something only I could see? Could Liu Sang see it, too?

I figured this was the only possibility and felt my anger flare up. First of all, if Liu Sang saw us and chose not to appear, then that meant he had his own purpose for being here. He didn't want me to find out what it was, which was absolutely unacceptable.

Second, he wasted our time. There weren’t many rhinoceros horn candles left in the basin, Fatty was unconscious, and Poker-Face went to go find him, all of which could have been avoided.

This fucking guy is dead meat. How dare he try to play me like that!

I stepped forward, kicked the leather figurine woman over, and picked up the basin with the copper ruler in it. As I walked back, I shouted, "Liu Sang, get your ass out here! I’ll shove this ruler down your throat!"

I took more than a dozen steps, but no one showed up behind me. I didn't dare move too far away from Fatty, so I stopped and shouted two more times. The sound of my voice echoed down the tomb passage.

I looked back and was stunned to see that the leather figurine woman had somehow stood up again. And not only did it stand up, but it had also turned around. Now it was standing by Fatty's side and looking straight at me.

I had clearly kicked it down just now. How did it stand back up?

As I cautiously walked towards it, its face became clearer under the candlelight. This leather figurine woman’s facial features were very exquisite, so I was certain that its expression had changed as I examined it again. It had been indifferent before I kicked it down, but now its face looked furious, as if a kind of evil spirit had appeared.

My heart thumped, what kind of trick is this? Is she unhappy now?

I looked carefully to make sure it wasn’t all in my head.

I glanced into the depths of the tomb passage, but there still wasn’t any sound and Liu Sang didn’t seem to be there.

I immediately broke out in a cold sweat as I told myself I was in trouble. I went up to the leather figurine woman, forced myself to calm down, and said to it, "Please don’t mind it. It was an accident."

The leather figurine woman’s expression was still terrifying and it seemed as if a mere apology wasn’t going to work.

It’s just a piece of human skin with no fingernails and no teeth. What’s it going to do, suffocate me? I felt braver when I thought of this and said to it, "Well, let's not waste time. Do you understand what I'm saying? If you can…" I put the ruler back on its wrist, "just let the ruler fall. If you can't, just keep holding the ruler."

I had just finished speaking when the ruler fell to the ground again. It was accompanied by a loud clanging sound that echoed in the silent tomb passage.

I picked the ruler up. I wasn’t sure if it hadn’t been steady just now, or if the female ghost really had understood me. I was just about to put the ruler back on her wrist and try again when I suddenly heard a metal tapping sound come from the depths of the tomb. It seemed to be responding to the clanging sound just now.

I looked between the dinglan copper ruler in my hand and the leather figurine woman and suddenly understood. I quickly began tapping on the ground with the ruler.

The metallic sound spread far and I soon heard an echo. Although Poker-Face wouldn’t tap a message out, I figured he was still in the waterway and was heading my way.

I breathed a sigh of relief. The rust on the ruler had fallen off as I was tapping on the ground just now, so I immediately noticed the scale markers on it. It appeared that these scale markers were different from the dinglan ruler I was familiar with.

I had never seen this ruler before, but it had some very strange characters engraved on the scale markers. The words were very small, so I had to examine them very carefully. Most of the words were in groups of seven, which was the same as the distance markers we had seen in that hole before. I looked at the leather figurine woman again and wondered, what’s the connection between these scale markers and that strange, deep hole? Is this leather figurine woman really giving me a way out?

While I stood there thinking, I heard the sound of approaching footsteps. Poker-Face came out of the dark tomb passage with Liu Sang on his back. Liu Sang was in the same condition as Fatty. Both of his ears were covered in those "little hands" and he was unconscious.