novelraw Chapter 191 : Yuyin’s Resolve
Chapter 191 : Yuyin’s Resolve
191: Yuyin’s Resolve
Although these mechanical statues weren’t overwhelmingly destructive, they were incredibly solid and difficult to deal with. The other Ghosts, including the Ghost Princess, were locked in fierce combat with them. Only Yuyin was completely ignored. Even when she attacked them, the statues would not retaliate, allowing her to destroy them one by one.
"What is going on?" Yuyin was completely baffled.
However, the Ghost Princess was incredibly sharp. She quickly noticed as well. She saw Yuyin attacking the statues, but no matter how she struck, they would not fight back, nor would they take the initiative to attack Yuyin.
Clang!
The Ghost Princess leaped and flashed to Yuyin’s side, pressing her dagger to her neck.
"Xia Yuyin, what kind of person are you? Why won’t these mechanical statues attack you?"
"I… I don’t know," Yuyin said, her face a mask of confusion. She was decisive in battle, but facing these non-retaliating statues, she couldn’t help but hesitate.
The Ghost Princess’s gaze was sharp as she stared at Yuyin. Seeing her confused and innocent expression, it seemed she truly didn’t understand. Of course, the tomb of Rain Concubine had been sealed for countless years; it was impossible for Yuyin to have been here before.
"Your Highness, look, there are words on that stone wall," Pang Shan said, his voice rough as he looked toward a stone wall on one side of the chamber.
"Words?" The Ghost Princess pulled Yuyin and ran over to take a look.
Carved on the wall were ancient Huaxia characters: "Any junior of whom I approve may pass through the poison arrays, evade the rain of arrows, and be unharmed by the spirit puppets."
"A junior of whom I approve…" The Ghost Princess looked Yuyin up and down.
Yuyin was bewildered. "I really don’t know…"
These mechanical puppets and traps had all been laid by Rain Concubine to prevent the theft from her tomb. They would naturally be driven by her will. For such a lofty being, her power was likely far beyond the reach of modern cultivators. Even after countless years of death, her will still lingered in every corner of the tomb. Those she favored would not be attacked by the puppets.
"I believe you," the Ghost Princess said, nodding somewhat dazedly as she put away her dagger. If Yuyin had known, she would have been a great power, capable of riding the clouds and soaring through the skies. Why would she be with them?
With Yuyin’s assistance, the Ghost Princess and the Green Ghosts repelled the multitude of mechanical puppets and charged toward the square exit on the opposite side of the chamber.
"Wait… don’t destroy all of these mechanical statues," Yuyin called out gently, seeing that they could now rush past this point.
"What? They don’t attack you, and you feel sorry for them?" the Ghost Princess frowned.
"No, isn’t the Li Su’s pursuit force right behind us?" Yuyin’s beautiful, feminine face showed a hint of coldness beneath her seemingly gentle gaze.
"I never took you for a conniving one, thinking you were just another big-chested woman overflowing with maternal love," the Ghost Princess said with a laugh, giving Yuyin’s bottom a light pat.
Yuyin had competed alongside Hua Yuanjing before and knew this was a sign some girls used to show they considered another a true, intimate, and reliable comrade. She wasn’t offended.
"Let’s go," Yuyin said. Behind them, the foreign Primordial Energy signatures were drawing closer.
The remaining mechanical statue guards should be able to cause some trouble for the Li Su pursuit force. After all, they wouldn’t have an attack point like Yuyin, who didn’t have to worry about being harmed. But they probably wouldn’t hold out for long. Yuyin and the others quickened their pace.
After rushing through the chamber, they proceeded down a tomb passage. On either side of the walls were a series of closed stone doors. The Ghost Princess and her party had no time to investigate them. Her focus was on the inheritance at the very heart of the tomb and the real treasures hidden there.
They charged forward for several hundred meters. Yuyin, the Ghost Princess, and the Ghosts burst out of the passage and into a massive cavern. In the middle of the cavern was a deep chasm, its bottom unseen. On either side of the chasm was a stone bridge, each leading to a different doorway on the opposite side. The two doorways were built identically.
"Another fork in the road?" the Ghost Princess stamped her foot, tightening her grip on her sword hilt. She could feel that more and more Primordial Energy signatures were entering the tomb behind them. They had to make a choice quickly. But if they chose the wrong path, by the time they turned back, the treasures and the inheritance would surely have been claimed by the enemy.
"Yuyin, let’s split up here. With the strength of me and the Green Ghosts, as long as we expend some treasures and talismans, we should be able to break through the defenses of one path quickly. You, on the other hand, won’t be attacked, so you can advance down one path with ease. This way, we can guarantee that the treasures and the inheritance will fall into our hands."
It was also possible that the treasures and the inheritance were on separate paths, the Ghost Princess thought. In that case, splitting up was even more necessary.
Yuyin looked at the two paths. She felt that for a being like Rain Concubine, the situation ahead was unlikely to be as simple as a choice between two options. But Yuyin had other ideas.
"I understand, Your Highness the Ghost Princess. Please, choose a path and go ahead," Yuyin said, her gaze serene as she looked out into the vast, dark cavern.
"Then we’ll take the path on the left. Perhaps we can meet up again later," the Ghost Princess said, leading the Ghosts toward the left stone bridge. She suddenly stopped, seeing that Yuyin was still standing there, not moving.
"Why aren’t you going?"
Yuyin looked back toward the passage behind them and said with calm, intellectual poise, "Your Highness the Ghost Princess, we cannot be certain if this tomb has other exits. If there aren’t any… judging by the situation, even if we obtain the inheritance, it won’t be easy to get out. So… I’m thinking, perhaps I can make use of this tomb…"
Hearing this, the Ghost Princess instantly understood. She couldn’t help but feel a shock. For such a gentle-looking woman to have such a mind?
The Ghost Princess nodded gravely. "Whatever treasures and inheritance we find on our path, we will surely give you half. Yuyin, be careful."
Her gaze met Yuyin’s. For a moment, a flicker of reluctance and worry appeared in her eyes. She gritted her teeth, turned, and swiftly ran across the floating bridge, leading the Ghosts toward the doorway on the left.
Yuyin, however, did not immediately head for the doorway on the right. Instead, she turned back.
Yuyin’s senses were sharp. More and more Li Su alien tribesmen were pouring into the tomb. If this continued, even if they obtained the inheritance, it would be extremely difficult to escape.
"Rather than wait for us to get the treasures only to be intercepted by the Li Su army, it’s better to use this tomb to eliminate the Li Su army here, in the tomb of Senior Rain Concubine!" Yuyin’s gaze turned cold. Her form moved with agility as she leaped and charged back into the passage.
She looked at the stone doors on either side of the passage, walked up to one, and pushed it open with force.
Inside was a pitch-black burial chamber. Within, specks of purple flame began to light up.
"As I thought!" Yuyin felt a surge of excitement.
The room was filled with puppet statues. Of course, the chamber also contained various decorations and vessels that would be considered treasures on Earth, but in the context of Rain Concubine’s tomb, they were just common furnishings.
The room full of puppet soldiers would not attack Yuyin on their own, but they were now awake. They began to move slowly, wandering aimlessly within the chamber, with some stepping out into the passage.
"Hmph, very good," Yuyin said with a gentle smile. She ran over, her full, rounded legs spread for support, and pushed open every stone door on either side of the passage, awakening all the guards within.
"Ah… this one is amazing…" Yuyin pushed open another burial chamber. Inside, there was only a single statue, about four or five meters tall. This statue was not bulky, but rather appeared robust and formidable. It seemed to be forged from an incredibly hard and precious metal. Its two long, powerful arms each held a three-meter-long curved blade. Yuyin felt that just one of its arms, if taken back to Earth, could probably buy an entire street in Lingdu.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t carry it away.
"Come on. You’ve been sleeping for a long time, haven’t you? Don’t you want to see the outside world?" Yuyin stood at the doorway, trying to communicate with the formidable statue through her mind.
However, the statue remained motionless. Yuyin pouted, slightly annoyed.
She noticed that many of the burial chambers had other stone doors and passages inside, connecting to other chambers. Yuyin simply walked into one of them and, for the time being, chose to remain silent.
Yuyin waited silently in the darkness. After some time, she heard a commotion and the shouts of alien tribesmen in Spirit Language coming from the exit of the large chamber on one side of the passage. She knew the Li Su had broken through the first chamber.
"We finally finished them off. These puppets are so troublesome!"
"They’re practically indestructible."
"So stubborn, they even damaged my weapon."
One of the voices sounded somewhat familiar to Yuyin.
At the exit of the first chamber, a white-haired old man in green robes, holding a horsetail whisk and a dark green jade staff with several nicks in it, stood with several disciples behind him. Behind them, a large number of powerful beings emerged one after another. There were cultivators in various Daoist robes, as well as tall, muscular barbarians wearing the hides of alien beasts.
"Master, look!"
"What?" The white-haired old man saw the numerous mechanical statues still wandering in the dark passage ahead and grew furious. "How are there still more?"
"What kind of damn tomb of Rain Concubine is this? An ancient she-demon goddess? I’ve heard she was nothing but a lowly, promiscuous woman!" a tall barbarian with a brownish-red beard said.
"Charge, smash these puppets, and loot her tomb!"
"Master, what about the inheritance? It should be deeper in the tomb."
"Nonsense! Something like an inheritance will surely be guarded by a great treasure of Rain Concubine. Do you think it’s our turn to take it? Let’s just grab the treasures in these stone chambers first. Once the royal army and the Jingyuan School arrive, what will be left for us? Loot!" the white-haired old man said, flicking his whisk without hesitation.
The many Li Su powerhouses had different priorities. Some charged straight ahead, fighting the statue guards wandering in the passage. But this kind of fight was a waste of energy with no benefit. The smarter ones rushed in groups into the stone chambers on either side.
Yuyin heard all of this. She suppressed her aura and hid in a corner of one of the stone chambers, where mechanical statues wandered all around.
A moment later, a few alien barbarians rushed into the chamber.
"Chieftain, look, there are treasures here!"
Seeing the precious vessels and silk that had not decayed in thousands of years, the barbarians’ eyes turned red. They swung their axes and spears and charged inside.
The mechanical statues immediately ignited their purple spirit flames and attacked.
The alien barbarians, different from the cultivators, were incredibly strong. A single hammer blow could knock back a mechanical statue, but the statues were extremely durable and very difficult to destroy.
The few barbarians were quickly surrounded by the mechanical statues and hacked to death.
"These damned statues!" Two Mid-Stage of Purple Domain Realm cultivators rushed in. "Behold my Binding Curse!"
"Witness my Incineration Curse!"
"You bind them, and I’ll burn them all in one go!"
"Good!"
The two cultivators each produced a curse talisman, preparing to attack the clustered statues.
Swish, swish.
Two silver flashes of light appeared behind them. The two cultivators’ bodies jolted and collapsed, without a chance to make a sound.
Yuyin flicked the blood from her blade tip and retreated back into the darkness.