The three of them continued walking forward.
The dense rows of zheng characters on the walls continued, layer upon layer. Nie Chaoxi searched the walls as she walked, hoping to find more text and more clues.
Soon, she stopped. “There is another passage here.”
Plague Rat and Wu Gou walked back and leaned in to look.
This passage was carved onto a stone pillar, positioned very low, almost touching the ground. If Nie Chaoxi hadn't been looking down while searching, they never would have found it.
She crouched down and read softly:
“Day XXXX.”
“There are no living souls left in the prison.”
“All are dead.”
“The last prisoner died three days ago. I watched him take his last breath, watched his body slowly grow cold, then burned him to ash, arranged them neatly on the bed, and carved his name.”
“His name was Chai 68,597.”
“Before he died, he told me: ‘Thank you for taking care of me for so long. You’re actually not a bad person.’”
“I’m not bad?”
“I’ve burned so many people to death. How could I not be bad?”
“But he said it so earnestly that I believed him.”
“Now that he’s dead, I’m the only one left in this prison.”
“I walk back and forth between the empty cells, over and over again.”
“No one curses me, no one begs for mercy, no one speaks to me.”
“The silence is terrifying.”
“I stood in the cell where the old man used to stay for a long time, and then I suddenly realized... am I free?”
“I don't have to watch over prisoners anymore, I don't have to burn anyone, I don't have to listen to those wails.”
“I can do whatever I want.”
“I want to go out. I want to see the sun, the wind and rain, the four seasons.”
“I want to see the things the old man talked about.”
“I walked to the exit and looked at the passage leading upward.”
“Then I stopped.”
“Because I suddenly remembered that Lord Zhu Pan ordered me to guard that thing.”
“That thing is still down there.”
“I cannot leave.”
“I dare not leave.”
“My body is sealed within the gate of the formation eye. If I leave this place, I will die.”
“Even if I don't die, Lord Zhu Pan will find me, drag me back, and then...”
“I dare not think about it.”
“So I came back.”
“Back to this dark underground, back to this empty prison.”
“To continue guarding that thing.”
“Until when?”
“I don't know.”
“Perhaps forever.”
Nie Chaoxi finished reading and paused before looking further down.
The handwriting that followed had changed.
It was no longer neat carvings but crooked script, as if written while trembling.
Some parts were even crossed out and rewritten repeatedly until they became a tangled mess.
“That thing that thing that thing that thing that thing that thing—”
“What exactly is that thing?!”
“I don't know.”
“I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know—”
“Zhu Pan only told me to guard it; he never told me what it was.”
“Maybe it's a stone, maybe it's a corpse, maybe it's a ball of light.”
“Maybe it's nothing at all.”
“Maybe there is no such thing.”
“Maybe Zhu Pan lied to me.”
“Maybe I am just a prisoner locked in here, not a jailer at all.”
“Maybe I am a prisoner.”
“Yes, I am a prisoner.”
“I've been locked here for ten thousand years, just like those prisoners.”
“They died, but I'm still alive.”
“Alive and suffering.”
“I want to go out.”
“I want to go out.”
“I want to go out.”
“I want to go out—”
“Shut up!”
Another line of text appeared suddenly, carved so deeply it almost pierced the stone pillar.
“I am the jailer! I am the jailer personally appointed by Lord Zhu Pan! I am the most loyal flame of Sky-Monitoring!”
“I must guard! This is an order! This is my mission! This is the meaning of my existence!”
“Stop these wild thoughts!”
“Think again and I will kill you!”
Then came more crooked handwriting.
“You can't kill me.”
“You're afraid to die.”
“You fear death.”
“You're a coward, just like me.”
“Shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up—”
Plague Rat frowned as he read. “What is this crap? She's arguing with herself?”
Nie Chaoxi nodded and continued reading.
“Day XXXX.”
“Today I burned myself again.”
“Burned half my body.”
“I thought that if I burned that strange self to death, everything would be fine.”
“I wouldn't have those strange dreams anymore, I wouldn't mysteriously remember things that don't exist, and I wouldn't mysteriously cry.”
“The fire on my body hurt terribly.”
“But I endured it and didn't scream.”
“I thought that as long as she died, I could become my original self again.”
“The jailer with absolute loyalty to Lord Zhu Pan, the flame without emotions.”
“The fire burned for a long time.”
“I watched my skin char, blister, and burst; I watched the muscles beneath sizzle.”
“It hurt.”
“But in my heart, I felt a little bit of happiness.”
“Because she was going to die.”
“The self that always wanted to escape, the self that always wanted to go out, the self that always called me an executioner, a beast, a monster... she was finally going to die.”
“The fire went out.”
“I looked down at the charred half of my body.”
“And then I realized she was smiling.”
“On that half of my face, there was actually a smile—a very gentle smile.”
“She said: ‘Thank you, I wanted to die too.’”
“I thought she was dead.”
“I breathed a sigh of relief.”
“But when I woke up the next day, I found she was still there.”
“In my head, still speaking.”
“‘You’re not dead?’ I asked her.”
“She said: ‘If you’re not dead, how could I be?’”
“‘I am you, and you are me. You cannot kill me.’”
“It turns out I cannot kill myself. It turns out she will always be there. It turns out I can never be rid of her.”
“I suddenly started laughing. I couldn't stop. I laughed at my own foolishness, I laughed at my own stupidity.”
“I laughed because I thought I could kill myself, I laughed because I thought I could go back to being who I was, I laughed because I thought there was still hope, I laughed because I thought there was still salvation.”
“There is no hope.”
“There is no salvation.”
“I am a madman who cannot kill herself.”
The text became scarcer and more sparse after that, until finally, only dense zheng characters remained, stroke by stroke, recording the long passage of time in the underground.
Plague Rat finished the last line and spoke up curiously, “What exactly is that thing Wing-Fire Snake is guarding?”
“Zhu Pan values it so much, and those bastards in Central Province have been plotting for ten thousand years. It definitely isn't anything ordinary.”
He looked toward the passage leading deeper down.
It was pitch black, and the end was nowhere in sight.
“Below is Underground Level Seven,” Wu Gou said. “That is where this poor monk encountered her.”
Plague Rat took a deep breath. “Fine, let's go down and see.”
He looked at Nie Chaoxi. “Sixth Sister, can you still make it?”
Nie Chaoxi nodded. Though her face was pale, her eyes were determined. “I can.”
Plague Rat grinned. “Good. Then let's go.”
Rate on N.U.
