In the end, Murong Jing He didn't have the Corpse Ghost accompany them into the stone forest. Instead, he handed him a jade pendant along with a message to deliver to Qing Yan at the Jingbei Prince's residence in Zhaojing, instructing him to wait there for further instructions.
He claimed that he suddenly missed the two beauties in Jingbei and asked Qing Yan to bring them to Zhaojing.
Seeing that he didn't mention his current predicament or give any indication of how he planned to exit the mountains, Mei Lin didn’t stop him. She was somewhat puzzled by Murong Jing He—was he truly so lustful, or was he just so engrossed in playing his role that even in such dire circumstances, he couldn't stop thinking about his women?
Murong Jing He gave the Corpse Ghost two pieces of advice: first, to never show the jade pendant to any soldiers he encountered while leaving the mountain; second, to keep silent about having met him unless he saw Qing Yan.
And so, with a full stomach, the Corpse Ghost, wearing his ragged clothes and sporting his wild beard and hair, left with a heart full of shock and reverence for Murong Jing He's identity.
"Aren't you worried he'll run off with your jade pendant?" Mei Lin asked as she prepared the supplies for their reentry into the stone forest. Now that the Corpse Ghost was gone, Murong Jing He no longer insisted on staying close to her at all times.
"Where could he possibly run?" Murong Jing He responded indifferently. "Wherever he goes, if he shows that jade pendant, do you think he could survive? His only path to safety is to obediently go to Zhaojing and stay under Qing Yan’s watchful eye until I return safely."
Murong Jing He lay on the ground, his gaze fixed on a tiny blue wildflower, no larger than a fingernail, swaying on its slender stem in the wind. The petals were as fragile and translucent as thin porcelain, seeming as if they might shatter with a mere touch. Something in the sight stirred a distant memory within him, and his eyes took on a faraway, hazy look.
Mei Lin glanced at him and suddenly felt that after spending so many days in the mountains, the superficial, indulgent aura that once clung to him seemed to have been cleansed away, leaving only a pale, sickly complexion that was somehow easier on the eyes. Of course, she didn’t attribute this newfound appreciation to any change in her own mindset.
With a brief thought, she quickly grasped the logic behind his actions. Their previous experience had shown that the Corpse Ghost was a straightforward, almost foolishly honest man—he had been willing to steel himself and return to that nightmarish place with them, so there was no way he would run off halfway. Murong Jing He must have recognized this, which was why he sent him to deliver the message. This not only alerted Murong Xuan Lie and the others to his survival, forcing them to proceed with caution, but also removed a bothersome presence from their midst—a move that achieved two goals at once.
"Cunning," she muttered to herself, not bothering to say more. Since their first encounter, Murong Jing He had always been adept at exploiting every resource at his disposal. She should be used to it by now.
Having learned from their previous experience, they made thorough preparations before reentering the stone forest. They took the time to weave a crude bamboo mat, made a few torches soaked in pine resin, and packed plenty of food, including roasted yams and wild potatoes, but no meat. In truth, it wasn’t just Murong Jing He; deep down, Mei Lin was also somewhat apprehensive about it.
Murong Jing He claimed to have a "rudimentary knowledge" of esoteric escape techniques and various formations, so although their journey through the stone forest wasn’t entirely smooth, they didn’t get trapped as they had before. He explained that the stone formation was a natural one, not one set up by human hands with its many moving parts, so there were no hidden mechanisms. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to figure it out. A place like this clearly wasn’t enough to trap the Hidden King.
As soon as he finished speaking, they heard the sound of rotting wood cracking, and suddenly the ground beneath Mei Lin gave way. She fell straight down, dragging Murong Jing He with her. As they fell, the bamboo cart they had been using to carry their supplies got caught for a moment, but the wood couldn’t hold the weight of both people and the cart, and it shattered, sending everything tumbling down.
The pit they fell into wasn’t very deep, and their fall was cushioned somewhat, so neither of them was injured. However, they were both left dazed and disoriented when the cart and all their belongings landed on top of them.
Cursing under her breath, Mei Lin pushed the items off herself and climbed to her feet. She pulled out the fire starter she always carried and lit a torch. A quick inspection revealed that the soil at the bottom of the pit wasn’t black, which reassured her. She then found a place to plant the torch securely into the ground.
She untied the rope from her waist and moved the cart off Murong Jing He, revealing his pale, bloodless face.
His eyes were closed, his chest still...
Mei Lin’s heart skipped a beat. She quickly cleared the debris off him and gently lifted his upper body, placing her fingers under his nose. Only after confirming that he was still breathing did she let out a sigh of relief. She then tried everything—pinching his philtrum, giving him water—before finally managing to wake him up.
As it turned out, since Mei Lin was tethered to the cart by the rope around her waist, it slowed her descent. Murong Jing He, on the other hand, had landed first and had taken the full brunt of her weight and the cart, leaving him knocked out cold.
The pit was about twice the height of an average person, wider at the bottom and narrower at the top. Looking up, they could see a large hole in the wooden cover that had been intended as a trap. In their current state, it was impossible for them to climb out.
Mei Lin circled the pit with the torch in hand. Scattered across the ground were remnants of weapons, and in one corner, she discovered three skeletons. One was curled up in a ball, another clung to the pit wall with its body twisted into an unnatural pose, and the third sat upright against the wall, legs crossed, with a golden-backed Yanling saber across its knees. Judging by the size of the bones, the person must have been tall and robust in life. The only thing the three had in common was that their bones were as black as ink, an eerie sight.
"Cough, cough… Help me over there," Murong Jing He said, clearly noticing the same thing, as he endured the pain in his chest.
Mei Lin planted the torch near the skeletons before going back to help him.
When they got closer, Murong Jing He quietly observed, stopping Mei Lin when she reached for the skeletons to search them. After a long moment, he pointed his chin toward the ground in front of the seated skeleton and said, "There’s writing on the ground. Take a look."
Mei Lin focused on the ground but saw nothing unusual. Still, he insisted, so she had no choice but to lay him down on the bamboo mat and then get on her hands and knees to scrape away the top layer of soil.
The surface of the pit was covered with a layer of gray dust, likely accumulated over hundreds of years, just like the dust on the skeletons. After only a few scrapes, Mei Lin saw some etched lines beneath and, with renewed vigor, quickly cleared away more soil. Before long, four characters, bold and deeply carved into the ground, emerged. The characters were no larger than the size of a palm, but they were powerful, etched several inches deep into the earth, as if to engrave all the hatred and unwillingness of the writer into them.
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