Unfortunately, the “gravekeeper’s” ferocity didn’t last long. As the stench of blood slowly thinned, only two people in the vast chamber were still kicking.

  One was the grey-clad leader, and the other—surprise, surprise—was that burly guy who’d escorted us through the woods earlier. The one nicknamed “Bighead.”

  Lian and Hua had already pinned them both to the ground. The leader looked beaten half to death, yet somehow still kept his neck stiff and his grin smug. Blood dripping from the corner of his mouth didn’t stop him from cackling like he knew something we didn’t.

  “Hehehe… hahahaha! You fools…”

  A chill crawled up my spine. The man didn’t look like someone on his last breath—more like someone with a dirty trick still hidden up his sleeve.

  Hua flicked open his fan and pressed the edge to the man’s throat. “Still daring to laugh when death is already on top of you?”

  But the leader only laughed harder, voice turning sharp.

  “Laugh? You think catching me means you’ve won? Ridiculous! Do you idiots even understand the word ‘key’? Hahaha! You released the key—and my brothers died because of it! If the key gets destroyed, none of you are walking out of here alive!”

  I blinked. “Key? Don’t tell me you’re talking about… the gravekeeper?”

  The gravekeeper was currently squatting obediently beside my foot, its blood-red eyes vacant, licking its injured hand like a clueless oversized toddler. It clearly had no idea we were discussing its existential value.

  The leader stared at it with venom, then burst into a manic laugh.

  “Gravekeeper? Ridiculous! It’s nothing but a key! If we hadn’t been ordered not to kill the key, you think it could’ve slaughtered all my men? You all should’ve died back in the passage!”

  My throat went dry. I stared at the dumb, harmless-looking gravekeeper, my mind a storm.

  A key? This thing… is a key?

  Then what exactly does it open?

  Before I could think further, the leader suddenly lowered his head. A green glint flashed in his right eye and a sinister grin split his lips.

  “If you want to know… then open that coffin.”

  The coffin?

  My heart skipped. I stepped forward, but Lian caught my arm, brows tightening.

  “You open it,” he said coldly—to the leader.

  “You—” The man tried to resist, but Hua’s folded fan pressed sharply against his spine. The green light in his eye blinked out instantly, and he looked like a wet dog dragged into obedience as he was forced toward the massive black coffin.

  But once he reached it, he stopped short. His eyes darted wildly, then he barked, “Bighead! You do it!”

  The burly man named Bighead turned white as ash. Terrified, trembling, he stepped forward inch by inch.

  He placed both hands on the coffin lid and pushed. He pushed and pushed, grunting with all his strength—but the coffin didn’t move a hair.

  Worse yet, the gravekeeper hated watching someone try to open the coffin.

  It shot upright like a threatened animal. The low growl in its throat told me it was two seconds from ripping Bighead’s face off.

  “Whoa, whoa! Don’t you dare!”

  I panicked and waved the purple jade at its nose.

  Sure enough, the gravekeeper froze like a dog yanked by an invisible leash, still growling in frustration but refusing to pounce.

  Bighead’s voice broke into sobs. “Boss! I can’t—push it—alone!”

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  “Push!” the leader hissed, eyes glowing with malice.

  Bighead was about to mentally collapse when Lian finally stepped in. He raised a palm, and a gust of force shot out.

  “BOOM—”

  The coffin lid slid open a crack.

  “Screee—”

  The shriek was sharp enough to slice at one’s soul. Then—

  A volley of icy arrows exploded from the gap.

  “Watch out!”

  Lian wrapped an arm around me, his sleeve sweeping up as he leapt—light as a swallow—barely dodging the strike. Hua vaulted to the other side with equal grace, landing as effortlessly as falling petals.

  But poor Bighead… he didn’t stand a chance.

  “Thud—thud—thud—”

  Arrows hammered into flesh.

  His eyes bulged, a wet gurgle rattling from his throat as he collapsed to his knees, chest pierced through by seven or eight arrows. Blood spilled freely.

  He died instantly.

  The metallic scent of blood thickened in the air.

  I barely had time to gasp before the leader suddenly rolled across the floor, using the shower of blood as cover. He lunged straight at the gravekeeper—fast, vicious, precise.

  In one fluid motion, he tore out a short dagger and plunged it straight toward the gravekeeper’s heart.

  “No!” My throat was already raw from shouting. I reached out to stop him, but it was far too late.

  The moment the blade sank in, the “Gravekeeper” jerked violently, the blood-red light in its eyes dimming all at once.

  A few broken whimpers rattled out of its throat—pitiful, fragile, like a cub crying for help.

  I froze where I stood, something tightening in my chest until it hurt to breathe.

  The “Gravekeeper” struggled to lift its head, its gaze empty yet stubborn, as if searching for something—someone. But in the next heartbeat, its strength gave out. It collapsed heavily at my feet.

  Blood gushed from the wound in its chest, trickling between the tiles and snaking along the cracks toward a hidden mechanism.

  Click… click-click—

  A deep, grinding rumble rose from beneath the floor.

  All of us stared.

  The gang leader burst into triumphant laughter, drunk on his own malice. “Hahaha! I knew it! Only a key’s blood can open the mechanism!”

  Before our eyes, the concealed aperture yawned open, revealing a spiral stairway sinking into unfathomable darkness.

  I stared blankly at the fallen “Gravekeeper.” It felt like someone had slammed a fist into my chest.

  The gang leader sneered once, twisted his body, and dove into the opening. In the fog of blood, he slipped down the stairs and vanished, swallowed whole by the dark. Not a trace of him remained.

  I stood rooted to the spot, staring at that pitch-black hole, my heart thudding wildly. The opening in the floor looked like the gaping maw of some beast, fangs bared, ready to snap shut and grind the rest of us into bone dust.

  But I couldn’t care about any of that. I scrambled to the fallen “Gravekeeper.”

  “Hey! Hey, don’t fall asleep! Get up!” My hands shook as I pushed at its shoulder.

  The enormous body lay limp, the hole in its chest still leaking warm blood. Half its torso was drenched crimson. Its face—always that ghostly pale shade—looked even more lifeless now. Its eyelids hung half-closed, and there were dried tear tracks at the corners of its eyes.

  My nose burned. Just a moment ago, it had been squatting by my feet like some clueless mutt, sniffing here and there. And now—

  “Mom…” It forced out a final rasp—paper-thin, broken, soaked in pain and longing.

  With those two syllables, its head tilted aside.

  No sound. No breath.

  It… really was just a key?

  But that last “Mother”… that belonged to a person.

  I knelt there in a daze, fingers clutching its cold hand, cursing myself a thousand times over. I should have shielded it with everything I had. I shouldn’t have just watched—

  Lian approached behind me. “Let’s go.”

  “Go? He just died!” I shouted until my voice cracked, eyes burning hot.

  Lian’s gaze darkened. He glanced at the open mechanism, lowering his voice. “That man won’t stop here. Stay longer, and we will die here. Pointlessly.”

  I faltered, unwilling to accept it. “But I—”

  “If you insist on staying here,” Hua interrupted lazily, flicking his folding fan, though his tone was uncharacteristically grave, “I give it half an hour before something else crawls out of the dark. And none of us will be able to save you then.”

  He sighed. “There’s only one path forward. If we want to know who this tomb belongs to—and why they forged a ‘key’ like him—that’s where the answers lie.”

  I clenched my teeth and looked at the Gravekeeper one last time.

  What a pitiful way to go. No burial clothes, no rites. Just blood everywhere… and tears at the corner of his eyes, like a dog abandoned by its master.

  “Damn it.” I wiped my eyes with a harsh swipe, swallowed the ache in my chest, and turned away from the cold body.

  Lian’s gaze flickered, as if he wanted to say something, but he stayed silent.

  “Let’s go,” I said, stuffing the purple jade back inside my robe.

  So the three of us stepped forward, one after another, descending the slick stone steps into the darkness.

  Every step felt like treading on the tongue of some enormous beast—damp, cold, and waiting to swallow us whole.