Chapter 31 Key

Did Grandpa Si turn into a grenade spirit?

My first reaction was to think that when Buddha was teaching the sutras, there was a grenade buried in front of the altar. After listening to sutras day and night, the grenade turned into a spirit. Now that it was in its original form after death, I only needed to pull this ring to immediately become fried beef tartare.

I didn’t think it was possible. If a grenade was implanted in your nasal cavity during your lifetime and the lead wire accidentally got caught and pulled while you were picking your nose, it would truly be a terrible death.

I pulled the copper wire and Grandpa Si convulsed. Now that I thought about it, I had dug up Grandpa’s grave and sifted his ashes, cut off Granny Huo’s head, and smashed Chen Pi Ah Si’s face in. The nine families were really unfortunate to have offspring like me.

The copper wire suddenly loosened and I pulled out something that was deep in the nasal cavity. It felt really awesome.

The thing was covered in slimy mucus, so I wrapped it in my underwear and carefully looked at it with the oxygen light. I had seen it before. It was a copper key that was inset with a pearl. At this time, I saw Grandpa Si’s corpse start to shrink, and it kept twitching as the flesh began to emit an odor.

I covered my nose and stepped back, but grabbed the thing hanging around its neck at the last minute and pulled it off.

Grandpa Si’s body rotted and collapsed, and I was relieved to see it shrinking down into the pile of stones.

I looked at the two things in my hand.

I had seen this key in the Seven Star Lu Palace. It was in the mouth of that female corpse that was beside the green-eyed fox, and was said to prevent decay. When I took it out at that time, I thought it was to open the puzzle-box, but the key ended up disappearing later. I didn’t expect that it would end up in Chen Pi Ah Si’s hands, or that he would embed it in his nasal cavity.

Little Brother worked for Chen Pi Ah Si at that time, and Uncle Three needed to borrow one of Chen Pi Ah Si’s men. He ended up exchanging the black and gold blade for Poker-Face’s help. Did Little Brother take this key in the chaos and give it to Chen Pi Ah Si?

After that, the ninety-year-old Chen Pi Ah Si did his best and ventured to find the Heavenly Palace deep in the mountains with Poker-Face’s help.

I slowly began to see the parts that I hadn’t paid attention to before. I used to think about Uncle Three’s motives and what Poker-Face was doing, but now it seemed that it was better to understand Chen Pi Ah Si’s relatively simple purpose first.

Chen Pi Ah Si participated in the largest joint tomb robbing operation in history. With his character, he must have personally taken risks during that time. After that, he spent a long time in Guangxi and eventually found Little Brother who had lost his memory.

Chen Pi Ah Si must have purposefully been searching for Poker-Face, because for those in the Nine Gates after liberation, Guangxi was a place where too many stories had happened and too many secrets were hidden.

Little Brother, who had lost his memory, had been working for Chen Pi Ah Si since then. Chen Pi Ah Si was a very smart person. He probably didn’t want to know the truth, and only wanted to solve his physical problems. Maybe he got the original Warring States silk book and distributed it to those in the business until finally, Uncle Three solved its secret.

Based on my later understanding of him, when Uncle Three saw the silk book, he must have used it to set up a big trap. But Chen Pi Ah Si didn’t know this, so when he heard that Uncle Three was going to look for the ancient tomb on the silk book, he lent Zhang Qiling to him.

Poker-Face finished his work in the Seven Star Lu Palace, but I still didn’t know what he did after that. Based on what I knew now, he had taken the ghost seal, changed the silk books, killed Iron Mask who was in the jade armor, and then brought Chen Pi Ah Si the anti-decaying key. All of this seemed to have been prepared for Chen Pi Ah Si to come to the Heavenly Palace.

But I could still remember those feelings of doubt. When Poker-Face was in the Seven Star Lu Palace, I felt as if he had been there several times before.

But based on his character, if he didn’t want me to know, he would’ve flawlessly pretended that everything was fine. I think the reason I noticed was because he started to recover his memory in the process of entering the Seven Star Lu Palace. Even he didn’t expect it to happen.

In the process of assisting Chen Pi Ah Si to enter the Heavenly Palace, his memory completely recovered, and he already knew his purpose. That was why he finally entered bronze door instead of Chen Pi Ah Si.

What did Chen Pi Ah Si want? Entering here was risky for someone over ninety years old, so it couldn’t be for money or love. Chen Pi Ah Si definitely thought there was a way to prolong life here. If he had participated in the biggest grave robbery in history, then he should have been very familiar with these things.

If all the people in the Mystic Nine had participated in the biggest grave robbery in history, then that meant all their bodies had changed.

Zhang Qiling said that he was one of those in the Nine Gates who undertook the task of entering the bronze door.

Was that the cost of immortality? Many people in the Mystic Nine got the seeds of immortality during the biggest grave robbery in history, but the whole process had to be completed behind the bronze door. They needed to find the bronze door within a certain period of time, so that was why everyone went crazy looking for clues all over China in the 1970s. During this process, people were becoming zombies, and those who provided support started to die. In the end, only Chen Pi Ah Si remained.

I took a deep breath and felt a chill in the darkness.

I was the eldest son. When did my grandfather give birth to my father? Was it before or after the biggest grave robbery in history? Why was my grandfather so emotional after I was born and named me Wu Xie (1)?

What was this evil?

Was it possible that the changes they suffered in the biggest grave robbery were genetic? Could this explain the huge difference between Uncle Two, Uncle Three, and my father’s personalities, and the extraordinary interest the post-liberation generation of the Nine Gates had for these things?

Well, if I was Wu Xie, then what about Xiuxiu and Xiao Hua?

I dared not think about it anymore.

The thing that had been hanging around Grandpa Si’s neck was an iron plate with an address and a phone number stamped on it.

I was a little surprised that it was something like this. I flipped it over and saw that something else had been stamped on the back: If future generations see this iron plate and Chen Pi Ah Si of Guangxi, they can get a lifetime of wealth if they transport the intact corpse to the address printed on the back of this plate.

It was a body collection plate. I couldn’t help but smile. I came all this way just because I wanted to see this thing. I didn’t expect that it would be so worthless, but I at least got another clue.

Life was often like this. As I looked at the iron plate, I suddenly thought that I could make a lot of money if I found a random old guy’s body and sent it to that address. I immediately felt ashamed. This businessman’s habit had grown with age, which clearly showed that my value for life was getting progressively worse.

As I admonished myself that the purpose of my visit was very simple, I put the iron plate around my neck. After wearing it, I suddenly felt that something was wrong. The thing around my neck seemed to contradict what was written on the stone.

If Chen Pi Ah Si wanted future generations to transport his body back, why would he tell them to smash his own face in? It really didn’t make sense.

I jumped off the stone tower, embarrassed at my own nakedness. I didn’t think I would find myself in such a mess when I came to this place. Before reaching the stone wall again, I couldn’t help laughing at the five lines.

This wasn’t Chen Pi Ah Si’s handwriting— not because I knew what his handwriting looked like, but because I recognized it. This was Poker-Face’s handwriting.

I hadn’t seen it for a long time and I was a little rusty, but when I looked carefully, I immediately thought of it.

This should be what he left behind when he came here again after we parted ways.

This was for me. He knew I would fulfill my part of the contract.

I clenched my fist, and a sense of security that I hadn’t felt for many years suddenly rose up from the bottom of my heart.

If he believed that I would fulfill the contract, then I wouldn’t be facing a cold Heavenly Palace. He definitely would’ve left me something. A mark? A hint?

Chen Pi Ah Si didn’t leave this key to future generations, Poker-Face left it for me.

<Chapter 30> <Table of Contents><Chapter 32>

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TN Notes:

(1) Remember, Wu Xie’s name sounds like “no evil” 

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Tiffany’s extras:

• Wu Xie’s Private Notes: Chapter 17 The Xisha Islands
• Wu Xie’s Private Notes: Chapter 18 Qinglan Harbor
• Wu Xie’s Private Notes: Chapter 19 Transcription of Yongxing Island

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