Hu Tao's expression was still muddled from sleep. It took a long moment before the events came flooding back.
Jiang Bai—right! Jiang Bai came!
Realizing this, she relaxed instantly. Thankfully Jiang Bai arrived in time, or else she might really have ended up buried there.
But suddenly, she remembered something else. Heat surged from the top of her head straight down to her toes.
If she wasn't mistaken, her clothes had been completely burned away… which meant…
Hu Tao's cheeks grew hotter by the second. She was practically about to faint from embarrassment.
She forcefully suppressed these thoughts, redirecting her attention to their current situation.
Where am I?
It seemed she was wrapped up tightly in something, with a pressure against her head and the sound of someone's breathing nearby.
A small spark of flame appeared, casting just enough glow for Hu Tao to make out her surroundings.
Seeing Jiang Bai's face so close, his head pressed gently against hers as he held her in his arms, she froze, holding her breath.
The guilty little spark hurriedly went out, as if it had never been there.
Hu Tao struggled to calm her racing heart, squeezing her eyes shut and pretending she hadn't awakened yet.
Soon enough, exhaustion reclaimed her, and she drifted back into sleep. When she opened her eyes again, it was due to a bright glow. Her eyelids twitched slightly as she adjusted to the light.
"Oh, Director, you're awake?"
Jiang Bai held the lumenstone, his face filling her vision as he leaned in closer.
She propped herself up, looking around.
She was still in the coffin, but Jiang Bai wasn't inside anymore. There wasn't even a trace he'd ever been there. For a moment, Hu Tao wondered if she had just dreamed everything.
But with that slight movement, the coat wrapped around her slipped slightly, exposing a delicate, pale shoulder.
Jiang Bai hurriedly adjusted it back into place. "Director, be careful not to catch a cold."
It was chilly deep underground, and she could easily fall ill.
Only then did Hu Tao realize the clothes she wore.
These clearly weren't hers. If her memory was correct, this was the coat she'd had custom-made for Jiang Bai.
Aware that she wore nothing underneath, Hu Tao flushed deeply again, cheeks burning fiercely as she silently tugged the coat tighter.
"I didn't have enough room in my storage, and I couldn't open your ring, Director, so you'll just have to make do with my clothes for now."
Jiang Bai's expression was perfectly gentlemanly as he spoke without hesitation.
He swore that besides secretly stealing that single kiss, he truly hadn't done anything else!
Cheeks still red, Hu Tao bit her lip and glared at him.
Her body was wrapped tightly in layers of bandages, and he called this "doing nothing"?
Seeing Hu Tao blush like that, Jiang Bai found her incredibly cute—like a plump, rosy apple he badly wanted to bite.
Grinning shamelessly, Jiang Bai intentionally said something that deserved a beating:
"No need to be shy, Director. You've seen everything I've got, and I've seen yours too, so we're even now, right?"
As expected, hearing those words instantly wiped away Hu Tao's embarrassment. She stood up angrily, wanting to smack him, but due to weakness from blood loss, she almost fell flat instead.
Jiang Bai swiftly caught her. "Director, you've lost too much blood. You really shouldn't move so recklessly!"
Hu Tao puffed up her cheeks and turned away huffily. "Hmph! Then stop teasing me!"
Jiang Bai poked her apple-red cheek lightly. "I just didn't want the Director to feel shy."
"No one acts like you do," Hu Tao muttered quietly, though much of her embarrassment had already faded.
Just like he'd said, they'd both seen each other. They were even now.
"Make me a room—I need to change!"
"No problem."
Jiang Bai snapped his fingers, and a changing room appeared instantly.
A short while later, Hu Tao emerged, now properly dressed.
Although the redness had faded, her face remained pale—but still significantly better than her earlier ghostly pallor.
"Where exactly is this?" she asked blankly, looking around the strange environment.
"Director, your flames were too powerful. They shattered that burial chamber completely, causing it to collapse. Right now, we're in some ancient ruins deep beneath the tomb, in a canyon below."
Jiang Bai briefly explained the situation.
"By the way, those zombie-like things in the tomb, what exactly were they? You got scratched—will you be okay?"
Hu Tao shook her head. "Strictly speaking, those weren't jiangshi but should instead be called 'Corpse Puppets.'"
"Corpse Puppets?" Jiang Bai had never heard the term before.
"Corpse Puppets are similar to jiangshi—both involve corpses that don't decay, with souls lingering inside after death. The difference is, a Corpse Puppet's soul has been forcibly imprisoned within the body."
"These souls, trapped by dark magic, lose all sanity, gradually becoming mindless husks that merely drive their own bodies. By setting up certain formations and refining them with dense yin energy, it takes less than a century to transform them into Corpse Puppets, impervious to blades or spears."
"These creatures have no intelligence, driven only by instinct to seek out living beings and assimilate them. It's an extremely wicked practice."
Hu Tao didn't delve further into how exactly Corpse Puppets were created. The tale was too ancient, and even the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor records only contained fragments.
"Based on the inscriptions inside the tomb, I've roughly pieced together what happened," Hu Tao continued.
Jiang Bai handed her a cup of warm water, urging her to take slow sips.
Hu Tao took it, downing it in one gulp.
"Around three thousand years ago, or possibly earlier, the Archon of Wuwang Hill didn't pay much attention to mortal affairs. Humans living there were ruled by a human king. The one buried in the tomb was his only son, who died from illness."
"The king couldn't accept his son's death. A strange figure appeared at court, claiming he could bring the prince back to life."
"Clinging to a shred of hope, the king believed him. Following that man's instructions, he created a formation using human blood within the tomb. The prince's concubines, servants, and thousands of civilians were forcibly entombed alive as burial offerings."
Jiang Bai frowned deeply, listening. "Then?"
"Fearing he was being deceived, the king also sealed that strange man inside the tomb. The sorcerer originally intended to create a Corpse Puppet he could control, but something went wrong. After forty-nine days, the prince indeed became a Corpse Puppet—but completely uncontrollable. The sorcerer was immediately killed and became one of them."
Hu Tao reconstructed this from the diary and inscriptions she'd found. Some details might differ slightly, but the general events were likely accurate.
"Well, he got exactly what he deserved."
"And afterward, we saw the results. All the corpses inside became Corpse Puppets, with that prince now close to developing his own consciousness."
"What happened to that kingdom afterward? Did they never reopen the tomb?"
---
T/N: 4 chaps meeting this weeks quota, i was toooo lazy and slept allllllllll week sorgee
bonus chaps
100 stones -> 1 chapter
200 stones -> 2 chapters
300 stones -> 3 chapters
and so on
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