Chapter 23#
If You See SnowCh23 - A Strange Skeleton#
The Underworld was drenched in night rain, and lanterns flickered through the curtain of downpour. Hei Guanyin, soaked to the bone, returned to the Great Compassion Temple. Tonight, the hall was unexpectedly quiet; usually, lovers would hide beneath the happy buddha to make love. He paid it no mind, heading straight to his quarters. He resided within the giant puppet’s chest. The Great Compassion Temple had few guards, for the giant puppet itself served as his finest bodyguard.
He opened a hidden door behind the buddha statue and ascended the spiral stone staircase. The walls were lined with motionless gears, and his shadow cast upon them. Through a layer of thick stone slabs, the core star array of the puppet hung suspended above. He was a cautious man. The faint hum of the star array’s operation didn’t disturb his sleep, but rather gave him a sense of security and protection.
He returned to his chambers, lit a candle, and took off his cloak, placing it on the armchair. Silence. The interior of the puppet was deathly quiet. He took two steps forward, looked up at the stone slabs above him, and was surprised to find that he couldn’t hear the sound of the star array.
Someone had broken in. He only reacted belatedly, his heart pounding in his chest, and slowly turned around. In the dim candlelight, a man in a narrow-sleeved black robe sat in the armchair. His hair was damp with rain and his pale profile expressionless, ice-cold and indifferent as always.
Hei Guanyin laughed a bit, asking hoarsely: “How did you find your way here?”
“I’ve been following you all along.” Sang Chiyu lightly said.
Right, Hei Guanyin recalled that this guy’s secret arts was shadow walking. He was following closely behind him, hidden in the shadows, which was why Hei Guanyin couldn’t hear his footsteps. Dantai Jing had trained him well; he was calm and composed, and his killings were clean and efficient. The Great Compassion Temple was so quiet tonight, perhaps the guarding monks had long been killed. After doing all this, he still didn’t rush to take Hei Guanyin’s life, but instead followed him all the way, which allowed him to discover the secret of the giant puppet and destroy the core star array in its head. Hei Guanyin had lost his last trump card.
No words were needed between smart people. From the moment Sang Chiyu sat down, Hei Guanyin understood why he came.
Hei Guanyin said: “Since I brought you into the Underworld, at least let me say a few words to buy myself some time to save my life.”
Sang Chiyu nodded, giving his consent.
Hei Guanyin took a deep breath and said: “Our kind of people are always prone to believing we are infallible. I thought I could control you and claim the strongest weapon of the Kunlun Secret Sect for myself, but I didn’t expect this blade to be so sharp to cut myself instead. It seems that Jiang Quexie is indeed very important to you. Rest assured, Young Master, if there is a next time, I will not threaten his life again. You and I stand as equals, working together for mutual benefit.”
Sang Chiyu watched him silently, showing not even half a sign of being moved.
“Of course, please allow me to show you something. It’s something the monks of the Great Compassion Temple discovered in the Snowlands, and was just delivered to the Great Compassion Temple this evening. I think you, Young Master Sang, will be very interested.” Hei Guanyin took out a communication compass. “A-Nan, bring the thing into the temple. You stay behind. Everyone else, withdraw fifty chi from the Great Compassion Temple.”
Hei Guanyin made a “please” gesture, and Sang Chiyu silently stood up and descended the stone steps.
The people from the Great Compassion Temple moved quickly, and the thing had already been placed in the open space in front of the happy buddha. A monk stood guard there. The thing was shaped like a human figure and covered with a white cloth. Hei Guanyin knelt down beside it and said: “Young Master Sang should know that the Secret Sect’s laws are strict, and every year many people are banished to the Snowlands. Those poor people can only build ice houses or live in caves underground to withstand the harsh cold, living like wild beasts, barely clothed. They are the people abandoned by the Secret Sect, and only the Underworld will provide them with shelter. But even the Underworld has very limited capacity. We can only select some strong and healthy refugees with enough potential to resist the Secret Sect’s soldiers. The Great Compassion Temple and the Paradise Pavilion regularly search the Snowlands and recruit qualified refugees. However, recently, my people reported that several cave dwellers have disappeared. The previously crowded caves are now completely empty.”
The A-Nan standing nearby was unaware that Sang Chiyu had come to kill and thought he was Hei Guanyin’s new confidant and added: “Yeah, it’s weird as hell. Every half month, we go to a specific location to distribute food and blankets to help them withstand the harsh winter. Every time we go, the place is crowded with people, and there’s never enough supplies to go around. But for the past month, fewer and fewer people have been coming. When we ask them, they say that people have been mysteriously disappearing, and no one knows where they’ve gone. There’s a rumor among the refugees that a ghost has descended with the wind and snow and taken those people away.”
“Thirteen days ago, I ordered the monks to search every cave within ten li of our encampment,” said Hei Guanyin. “They found no explanation for the disappearances, but they did discover this strange thing.”
Hei Guanyin lifted the white cloth, revealing a human-like skeleton exposed beneath the firelight.
The skeleton was ninety percent put together, roughly taking on the shape of a human body. What was slightly odd was that, judging by the frame’s size, this person must have been terrifyingly tall, likely over half a body taller than Sang Chiyu. lf Sang Chiyu stood before it, he might look like a child.
“I found this in a cave,” A-Nan said. “The cave was sealed with rubble, and inside there was only this pile of strange bones. You know, we in the Great Compassion Temple eat human flesh, so I’m very familiar with human bones. I knew these were human bones the moment I saw them, and I thought he had been eaten by a person. But I soon realized something was wrong. These bones were too big, and there were too many of them. No matter how I tried, I couldn’t put them together correctly.”
Sang Chiyu studied it closely for a moment, then bent down to adjust the skeleton, fitting each bone into place like pieces of a puzzle. When he finished, he stood up straight. Both Hei Guanyin and A-Nan stared at the enormous skeleton on the ground, utterly tongue tied.
The skeleton on the ground had been fully assembled. Every bone was in place without missing a single one. Astonishingly, Sang Chiyu had pieced together eight arms. These eight arms radiated outward from the central torso, giving an incredible creepiness to the somewhat lanky skeleton.
No wonder A-Nan could never assemble it correctly—he kept trying to fit this skeleton into the structure of a human body. But if the skeleton had eight arms, all the bones could be put together.
Hei Guanyin folded his arms: “The Secret Sect’s mining site lies deep within the Snowlands. I heard the Scout Guard defending it returned to the border capital last month. A force of hundreds now reduced to a mere dozen or so. With the entire Scout Guard withdrawn, it’s clear the mining site has been abandoned by the Secret Sect. This retreat is considered an extraordinary humiliation by the Secret Sect, and many military officers in the Secret Sect’s court have vowed to destroy the Underworld in vengeance.”
A-Nan gave a bitter smile, “Until yesterday, we all thought this was done by the Paradise Pavilion. The Great Compassion Temple hadn’t taken any action against the Secret Sect last month. Strange things are happening in the Snowlands right now, so I went to the people of the Paradise Pavilion to ask if they had experienced anything similar. While talking, I casually mentioned the Scout Guard, and only then did I learn that they thought we were the ones who attacked the Secret Sect. They never attacked the Secret Sect at all.”
Hei Guanyin said: “Neither the Paradise Pavilion nor the Great Compassion Temple are involved in this matter. So who exactly has this much power to cause hundreds of scout guards to die in the Snowlands?”
Sang Chiyu thought of He Sheng, and his heart slowly sank.
Perhaps there was an even more terrifying problem—
Those dozen or so soldiers who came back from the Snowlands, were they really human?
Hei Guanyin declared solemnly: “Young Master Sang, this matter is highly suspicious. It threatens not only the Underworld and the Secret Sect, but all in the world.”
Sang Chiyu lowered his gaze, staring intently at the skeleton. He bent down and peeled a small black, spherical object from the skeleton’s chest. Examining it under the light, he became increasingly alarmed the more he looked. It bore a striking resemblance to the heart core that had been extracted from Su Ruhui’s body. The only difference was that this spherical object did not emit light.
Taking advantage of his inattention, Hei Guanyin flashed A-Nan a signal with his eyes. After a moment of hesitation, A-Nan understood his meaning and subtly retreated without shifting his expression, taking out his spirit fire gun in Sang Chiyu’s blind spot. Hei Guanyin continued, “Young Master Sang, I beg you, give me a chance to live and investigate this matter. Otherwise, the Underworld and the refugees in the Snowlands will be in grave danger.”
A-Nan slowly raised the spirit fire gun, aiming it at the back of Sang Chiyu’s head from a distance.
Sang Chiyu put away the round core and looked up at Hei Guanyin, his two eyes calm without a single ripple in them. Hei Guanyin wasn’t sure if his words had moved him. Before Sang Chiyu came to the Underworld, he thought he was like Su Ruhui, abandoned by the Secret Sect and forced to come to the Underworld. Someone who wanted to be a villain, but didn’t quite have the heart to fully be one. If you don’t go all the way down a path, giving up halfway usually leads to a miserable end, just like Su Ruhui. But looking into those emotionless eyes, Hei Guanyin suddenly felt uncertain.
“I hear you’re quite learned.” Sang Chiyu suddenly spoke up.
Hei Guanyin forced a smile: “Young Master Sang flatters me.”
A-Nan observed Hei Guanyin’s gaze and at his signal, placed his finger on the trigger.
“Then you should know that the components of gunpowder are sulfur, saltpeter, and charcoal.” Sang Chiyu said in his usual calm tone.
Hei Guanyin didn’t understand why he suddenly started talking about these things. He just dully narrated them out as if he were just making small talk with Hei Guanyin.
“My five senses have always been spiritually good since I was a child, especially my sense of smell. The smell of sulfur is awful; I really hate it.” Sang Chiyu said in a low voice.
Hei Guanyin’s expression darkened as he instantly realized that this guy had smelled the gunpowder in the bullets. Did he have a dog’s nose? Hei Guanyin could hardly believe it, hissing out, “A-Nan!”
At this shout, A-Nan pulled the trigger.
Sang Chiyu vanished in an instant. The bullet shrieked out with a fierce wind, passing through the spot where Sang Chiyu had been standing and piercing Hei Guanyin’s face. Hei Guanyin’s expression froze in that moment of surprise. Sang Chiyu reappeared behind him, placing his hand on top of his head. A-Nan clearly saw many vine-like, ice blue meridians emerge from Sang Chiyu’s palm, spreading across Hei Guanyin’s face and burrowing into his shattered cheek.
“What is Hei Guanyin’s secret arts?” Sang Chiyu asked.
A-Nan was so horrified at this scene he couldn’t make a sound.
Sang Chiyu lifted his face and gave him a glance. The man’s gaze was cold and murderous. A-Nan felt as though a knife was pressed against his forehead.
A-Nan collapsed to the ground and stammered out: “‘Divine Eye’, Can…can see through walls.”
Hei Guanyin’s head lay shattered into pieces. Sang Chiyu expressionlessly withdrew his hand. His face seemed frozen solid, retinas filled with frost and snow.
“The eight-armed skeletal monster, there’s something you haven’t told me.”
“How could that be?” A-Nan forced a smile, “I would never dare deceive you, Young Master!”
“The Snowlands is full of giant rocks and the cave entrance is blocked by rubble. It is not natural.” Sang Chiyu placed his hand on A-Nan’s head.
A-Nan felt a terrifying tremor run through the meridians in his head, and his entire body went limp like mud. Sweating profusely, he said: “Young Master is perceptive, I do indeed have some information I haven’t yet told you. We found traces of gunpowder outside the cave. Someone had planted explosives to deliberately collapse the cave and conceal the skeletons inside. If we hadn’t accidentally entered through another passage inside the cave, we wouldn’t have discovered the remains at all. Based on the gunpowder residue and the thickness of the snow covering the rocks, the explosion must have occurred at least seven years ago.”
Seven years ago… Sang Chiyu furrowed his brow in deep thought.
“Continue the investigation. Keep me informed of any developments.”
After he finished speaking, Sang Chiyu opened up a formless gate and turned to leave, stepping over a floor full of blood.
Kunlun’s Snowy Mountains.
The thugs were all completely terrified. Someone pulled out a gun and aimed it at Su Ruhui.
Su Ruhui gave a wry smile, “What a coincidence, I’d also like to know why my corpse is there.”
The system said he was not human—could he actually be a ghost?
Han Ye, however, remained calm, a look of intense interest in his eyes as he gazed at the corpse. He pulled Su Ruhui closer and felt across his face inch by inch. Su Ruhui thought he was having lustful thoughts again and struggled to get away, but Han Ye held him down, saying impatiently: “I’m not interested in you, just checking if you’re wearing a human skin mask. Keep dodging around and I’ll peel off your face!”
Su Ruhui surrendered with zero backbone and let him touch him with a wooden face. Han Ye felt around for half a day, confirming that the man before him wasn’t wearing a human skin mask and was indeed A-Qi from the Paradise Pavilion. He said, “You really weren’t tricking me. Something’s seriously off here. Someone get over here, examine the body.”
“House Head, he’s a ghost!” The thug shouted.
Han Ye gave a cold smile, “If he’s a ghost, how could he have been talking nonsense with you for so long? Hurry up, dissect the body and let’s see what this thing really is.”
When the boss gives an order, how could the subordinates dare disobey? Everyone drew their daggers and stepped forward to dismember the corpse.
Su Ruhui squatted down on the side to wait, and suddenly remembered the unread note Su Gou had given him earlier that day. He rummaged through his sleeve and unfolded the crumpled piece of paper under the light of the lamps.
A short line of text was written on it:
There are strange monsters in the snowy mountains that come out at night. Don’t leave the city after dark.
TL corner:
Goodbye Hei Guanyin 🫡 2TzmiJ