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Living Funeral
Suddenly, a lantern lighter appeared, but Hu Qingming was not concerned. Why did I feel so uneasy? That person was stepping back slowly, lighting one lantern after another. The first floor of the tower gradually lit up, and since the tower was circular, we could see straight down to the ground floor.
Hu Qingming's goal was clear: he wanted to reach the fourth floor. However, we couldn't ignore that person; what if they decided to ambush us later? We would be in serious trouble.
We had to be cautious.
I called out to Hu Qingming, "Is it really okay to just go like this? Shouldn't we find out who he is?"
Zhang Xun and Nian Chen shared my concerns. Although both had been here before and remembered some things about this place, their previous visits had been rushed, and they certainly didn't know the tower well.
Seeing our hesitation, Hu Qingming said, "He hasn't blocked our path, which means he tacitly allows us to go up. There are many strange people and things in this building; as long as they don't provoke us, we won't bother with them."
After a moment of thought, I realized Hu Qingming had a point. There was no need to seek trouble. We quickly ascended to the second floor, where nothing seemed amiss, and then safely reached the fourth floor without incident. The fourth floor felt no different from the others; it was just as dark. At least on the first floor, there had been a lantern lighter; on the second, third, and fourth floors, not even a Ghost Shadow was present.
I asked Hu Qingming what we were doing on the fourth floor.
Hu Qingming replied that we would find out soon.
At this moment, Hu Qingming reminded everyone to stay alert as we walked forward. Our footsteps echoed on the floor with a "thud thud thud" sound.
We quickly arrived at a door—a red-painted wooden door that stood about two meters tall and was just wide enough for one person to pass through comfortably. Hu Qingming pushed the door open, and it creaked slowly.
I felt a bit nervous as our gazes fixed on the entrance, eager to see what lay inside.
Once the door opened, we stepped inside.
It was a relatively spacious room. Hu Qingming said, "Chen Fei, do you see it?"
I asked, "What did you see?"
The decorations in the room were quite ordinary, nothing seemed out of place, so I turned to Hu Qingming and inquired again. Hu Qingming replied, "Over there is your Fate and Birth Chart." His flashlight quickly illuminated a Spirit Platform.
I fell silent for a moment and said, "Let's go take a look."
After speaking, I walked towards the Spirit Platform. My Fate and Birth Chart, really? The fortune teller had never dared to calculate my destiny, so why would it be here in this tower?
Hu Qingming and the others followed closely behind me. It was a lie to say I wasn't nervous; I was indeed feeling a bit anxious. As I approached, I saw that on the Spirit Platform lay a roll of Bamboo Slip, bound tightly with a fine hemp rope. When I picked up the Bamboo Slip, I noticed a piece of yellow paper underneath it. The width of the yellow paper was just enough to be pressed down by the Bamboo Slip.
The flashlight clearly illuminated the words on the yellow paper in my line of sight. It read: "Do not disclose the mechanism; do not let outsiders see." These words were written in standard script, bold and strong, clearly penned by someone with skill.
Mechanism? For some reason, those two words made me think of the fortune teller.
Nian Chen asked, "Fei, what does it say?"
Seeing that the yellow paper was being shown to Nian Chen, he looked worried after reading it and asked, "Can we open it?"
I replied, "Yes, if it's a mechanism, why would it be placed here?"
However, Hu Qingming interjected, "Chen Fei, it's best if you look at it alone; don't let anyone else see." I nodded in agreement. Zhang Xun remained silent as I faced the Spirit Platform. There was nothing else on it except for this roll of Bamboo Slip and an incense burner that hadn't been used in a long time.
Hu Qingming, Zhang Xun, and Nian Chen took three steps back voluntarily.
I untied the fine hemp rope binding the Bamboo Slip. As the rope fell away, I took a deep breath to ease my anxiety. Slowly, I began to unfold the Bamboo Slip piece by piece. The first piece bore three characters: Chen Fei.
This Bamboo Slip recorded my fate. I proceeded to open the second piece of Bamboo Slip. However, there was nothing written on it.
My heart sank as I continued to read. The third bamboo slip was filled with dense characters, all in traditional Chinese, which I could somewhat understand. The more I read, the more captivated I became; this bamboo slip indeed contained very important information, and my thoughts grew heavier with each line.
Slowly, my palms began to sweat, and my lips moved silently. Not a word escaped my mouth. The people behind me did not disturb me either.
Finally, there was a line inscribed on the bamboo slip: "Do not disclose this opportunity." It was clearly a warning for me not to share what I had found. As I prepared to tie it up with a fine hemp rope, I noticed another line carved directly onto the Spirit Platform. It read: "If you go up, do not go down; otherwise, you will face certain death."
"If you go up, do not go down; otherwise, you will face certain death." I stared blankly at the words for a moment. Was this a reminder that I should just keep going up?
I put away the bamboo slip and thought about what Hu Qingming had said: to keep everything to myself and let it rot in my stomach after reading. Zhang Xun and Nian Chen didn’t ask anything either. I turned to Hu Qingming and asked, "Who placed the bamboo slip here?"
Hu Qingming replied, "It was Xiao Tongwen who placed it here for you."
"Xiao Tongwen?" Hearing that name again made me feel puzzled. Hu Qingming explained that after Xiao Tongwen came in, he never went out again; however, he had to leave something on the fourth floor before entering.
As it turned out, Xiao Tongwen had indeed done just that.
"Is Xiao Tongwen trapped in here?" I asked. Hu Qingming shook his head and said it was unlikely; perhaps he had confined himself voluntarily. This place could be quite beneficial for cultivation. If one could practice their skills here, it would be a good choice.
"Cultivating skills," I suddenly said. "Could the person who lit the lamp be Xiao Tongwen?"
Hu Qingming reassured me, "Don't worry about that; Fatty Zhang would never engage in such a trivial matter. If Xiao Tongwen truly placed the bamboo slip for me, then the hint must have been written by him."
I paused for a moment before saying, "If you go up, do not go down; otherwise, you will face certain death."
"Are we unable to leave?" Nian Chen asked.
I replied to Nian Chen, "Since we can come in, we can definitely get out." I wanted to ease Nian Chen's worries. The bamboo slip was safely tucked away in my backpack.
Zhang Xun asked, "Can we go to the Ninth Floor?"
I shook my head, indicating that I didn't know. Suddenly, I thought that since this place was a hint left by Xiao Tongwen, perhaps the words on the wooden sign outside the tower were written by Xiao Tongwen as well. That seemed quite possible. In reality, when I saw my own fate, I felt an emptiness inside me because there were no memories to fill it.
Was this fate calculated by Li Guang for me? At that moment, I was overwhelmed with thoughts and didn't know what to do.
Nian Chen said, "Actually, we know that there are Five Coffins hidden here. But right now, we haven't discovered a single one."
When he mentioned the Five Coffins, I was momentarily stunned. Initially, there were five people involved: Li Qiang, Zhang Pangzi, Zhang Xun, and one of them was me. So the last one should be Nian Chen.
I asked Nian Chen, "Are you the Fifth Person?"
"The Fifth Person?" Nian Chen repeated. Before he could respond, Zhang Xun answered for him, saying, "Nian Chen is not the Fifth Person."
"Then who is?" I asked.
There were six people in total; indeed there were six of us. When watching the video recording back then, it was still six people—the sixth person being Nian Chen. So who was the Fifth Person? The video had been unclear at that time.
Zhang Xun said, "The Fifth Person might already be dead!"
His tone carried a hint of sadness. Standing here, I glanced at Hu Qingming and thought that I should have known Hu Qingming, Jiang Changsheng, and Xiao Wentong before Zhang Xun and his group. Zhang Pangzi should have been among the second batch of acquaintances.
Now both Zhang Pangzi and Li Qiang could be dead; only the three of us remained. Had the Fifth Person died without ever meeting us?
I asked Zhang Xun who the Fifth Person was.
Zhang Xun replied that the Fifth Person wasn't actually a living person but rather a spirit that could only appear at night. Nian Chen added that he was indeed a spirit. I began to feel that things were getting a bit eerie. Could it be that Jiang Changsheng had revived a spirit?
I asked about Jiang Changsheng, but why was the camera able to capture him? It felt as if someone had deliberately erased this person from existence.
Zhang Xun replied, "Because a soul can occupy a dead body."
Nian Chen added, "As for why his face was erased from the photo, it's because it is always changing."
"What happened afterward?" I inquired.
Zhang Xun continued, "Later, he came here with us once, and then he disappeared. He hasn't shown up again in all these years." Hu Qingming listened to our conversation without saying a word.
A soul constantly switching bodies—could this person be a Taoist priest?
The events from back then originated with a Taoist priest. I stood there and asked, "Why did they all pretend to be dead at the funeral home last time?"
Zhang Xun said, "It was probably Jiang Changsheng's order. The others were truly dead; only Zhang the Fat and Li Qiang were not. It was likely to throw people off the scent."
Suddenly, I remembered that Zhang the Fat had always been watched by a pair of eyes. Just earlier, it was mentioned on the Bamboo Slip that darkness would eventually envelop everything. If we wanted to continue living, we had to break through this darkness.
Could the owner of those eyes be Li Guang's other self, the dead person inside Gao Ling's body?
It was uncertain. Just as I was pondering this, a series of urgent "thud thud thud" sounds echoed, as if someone was hurrying up the stairs. Our attention was immediately drawn to the sound of footsteps ascending.
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