Daomu Biji: The Mystic Nine

As he spoke, Qi Tiezui took out a small peach wood sword from his sleeves, parted the insect silk in front of him, and plucked away the yellow and black rotted talismans: "See, what's wrong with it?"

Lieutenant shook the water from his hands and hair, and leaned forward with the flare. There were countless pupae on the surface of all the earthen jars that had dried up long ago. The insects inside had hatched and flown away, leaving countless hollow pupae shells. He started to break out in goosebumps once he saw those things under the flare’s light. He could see that the talismans were placed over the pupae, and many of them looked as if they had been covered in cotton wool before. The cotton wool and talismans had both rotted in one spot.

"These bugs were intentionally stuck to the outside of the earthen jars, wrapped in quilts, and then had talismans affixed to them." Lieutenant murmured. "Why?"

Qi Tiezui nodded and said that these bugs were probably the natural enemies of whatever was in the jars. They were stuck to the jars in hopes that they would wrap the jars in silk after hatching from their cocoons. It seems they got their wish.

The jar mouths were sealed with mud and then wrapped in iron sheets, so although they were rotten, they were still well sealed. Lieutenant turned and looked around, and found that something appeared to be engraved on the jars under the pupae, so he asked Qi Tiezui for the little peach wood sword. Qi Tiezui's sword was an antique, so he couldn’t help but secretly think that Lieutenant was trying to take advantage of him. You can’t just use it willy-nilly. It’s not something you use to shovel shit.

He shook his head and quickly said, "This is a family heirloom. Don't you have a knife on your belt?"

Lieutenant reluctantly pulled out his knife and peeled off the insect pupae on the nearest jar bit by bit. The pupae stuck firmly, and the blade made a cracking sound as it slid between the jar and the pupae, just like prying oysters open. He held the flare closer and found that there were several words on the jar. They were no longer very clear, but it was easy to see that it was someone's name.

"This is a jar burial. The name on this one is for a Taoist priest who was buried here." Lieutenant frowned. "That means there should be corpses in all of these jars. You mean to say these bugs are the natural enemies of the corpses inside? Why? Why would the Taoist priests’ corpses need to be sealed with so many talismans and have bugs stuck on the outside of their jars? And—" He looked up and said, “Based on our positioning, the everlasting tower is right above us. Out in the wilderness, this three-fold method to driving away evil spirits seems like overkill. Did all the Taoist priests in this temple turn into demons?"

In fact, Qi Tiezui had already thought the same thing. His head was covered in sweat as he also looked up and saw that the tower’s foundation had been constructed in a very simple manner. The bottom of the tower was supposed to be carved with three clear figures, but now it only seemed to be carved with a few lines, which were also covered by the insect silk. He looked at it carefully, and suddenly saw a bronze mirror hanging in the center of the whole room, just like the one that had been hanging on the train.

Lieutenant saw it at the same time and the two men glanced at each other. Qi Tiezui suddenly became calm. The expert had been here and died on the train, so that at least showed this place wasn’t dangerous. He said, "This is a message from that expert. Don't touch these earthen jars."

"What kind of message is it? Is it on that mirror that's hanging so high up?" Lieutenant asked.

Qi Tiezui said, "What do you see when you look in the mirror?"

The two of them looked in the direction of the mirror, and saw that it was pointing towards a section of the stone room. The room was very big and it was dark in that direction, so they couldn’t see what was over there clearly. Qi Tiezui wanted to go forward, but saw that all those earthen jars were standing between him and the corner. If he wanted to get over there, he had to walk through the middle, which was full of rotten quilts, talismans, and what appeared to be black water.

"Lieutenant, it's your turn." Qi Tiezui said. He had seen Lieutenant vault over eaves and climb up walls before, so this was clearly his territory. Lieutenant's attention turned to the periphery of the stone room. The stone was very rough and crude and hadn’t been polished, and there weren't any relief murals. There were only countless strands of insect silk. He couldn't help shaking his head. "I can't jump that far."

Qi Tiezui also observed the room and thought that if he couldn't jump over, then he would have to wade in bit by bit. But he didn’t know if the black water inside was poisonous or full of those insects. It appeared the risk was too high. The room was rather cold, and his wet clothes made him shiver. As he mulled it over, he couldn’t help but think that they were too ill-prepared this time. He would have to wait for Fo Ye's big troops before they could move forward.

He turned around and suddenly saw Lieutenant stretching. He thought maybe Lieutenant was willing to try and was just about to stop him, when Lieutenant grabbed his collar, hoisted him up with a loud shout, spun him around three times, and threw him towards the corner where the mirror was facing.

Qi Tiezui flew directly over those earthen jars, fell to the ground, rolled, and then came to a stop in the corner, all sprawled out. He got up with a curse, used a flare to light up the corner, and suddenly saw that a stone turtle had been placed in the space in front of him. The stone turtle was very big and tall, and had an intricately carved black stone pillar on its back. Based on how the stone pillar was connected, it appeared to be a load-bearing pillar.

"What’s over there?" Lieutenant shouted from behind him.

Qi Tiezui was puzzled. He saw that a feng shui compass had been placed in the turtle's mouth, and the coating on the compass looked decades old. A red thread had been tied to the compass’s needle. It was straight and taut and led right into the darkness in front of the stone turtle where the flare’s light couldn’t reach. Qi Tiezui took a few steps forward, and saw that some things had been strung up on the red line, hanging one by one like bells. He looked at them very carefully and found that they were all women’s fingernails. They were very long and very old.

"The expert set up an array here." Qi Tiezui said. "This is a yushui hehuan (1)."

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TN Notes:

(1) They’ll explain it more next chapter but it’s more feng shui stuff as far as I could tell so I stuck with the pinyin again. Here’s a breakdown of the characters. Yushui (鱼水)= fish and water (metaphor for an intimate relationship or inseparability). He (合)= to close/to join/to fit/to be equal to/ whole/together. Huan (欢)= joyous/happy/pleased