Chapter 84: A Strange Change Appears Suddenly

After a brief moment, the passage ahead opened into a descending, winding slope some thirty feet long, with smooth bronze walls on both sides. At the entrance, three large characters had been carved above the doorway.

The masked man flashed a grin, swayed once, and leaped downward. His movement was as swift as lightning. Jade Blossom tried to stop him, but it was already too late; she could only stamp the ground in anxious frustration.

The moment the masked man landed on the slope, his feet had scarcely touched down when a metallic crash rang out. The bronze plates at the top split open of their own accord, and two enormous iron rollers fell from above, thundering after him.

He whirled around in haste and saw the rollers already bearing down upon him. There was no time to leap farther down and evade them, and he did not know what lay below.

In desperation, inspiration struck. He abruptly summoned his extraordinary strength, rooted himself with such force that the bronze floor beneath him sank inward, and then, steadying himself, thrust out both hands to brace the rolling iron drums.

His astonishing might left Jade Blossom, standing above, utterly aghast. She could not help wondering if he were some divine being in human form; otherwise, how could any mortal possess such tremendous strength?

After a moment’s daze, she cried downward, “Sister, sister, what is the matter?” At this point, she still took the masked man to be Plum Jade, and so called him sister.

The masked man could not speak, though he could hear. When he heard Jade Blossom calling for her sister, he thought someone else had arrived; but upon turning his head, he saw no one else. At the same time, he realized she was speaking as though to himself, and he felt it strange that she should mistake him for a woman. In his anxiety, he could only answer with a few hoarse sounds.

Not knowing he was mute, Jade Blossom heard only those ragged noises and believed the masked man had been crushed and injured by the rollers. Her heart lurched in panic, and tears fell from her eyes like broken pearls.

After propping up the iron rollers with his strength, the masked man felt them pressing ever heavier, and thought grimly, This is the end.

Looking up, he saw the iron drums blocking the entire passage, with only a gap of two or three inches between them and the slope above. Even if he knew how to contract his bones, he could not compress his body to such a tiny size. It seemed this time he could not escape disaster.

As he worried for his life, two cold laughs sounded from beneath the slope, followed by a taunt: “You brat, how much strength do you think you have? To hold up an iron roller like that, you’re bound to be crushed into meat paste sooner or later.”

The masked man looked over and saw two fierce men with bristling beards and vicious faces, staring at him with great satisfaction and sneering mockery.

The man on the right looked up and said, “Brother, let’s finish him off with hidden weapons.”

The one on the left shook his head. “That would be too kind. Let’s ignore him and let him suffer a little more before he dies.”

The man on the left nodded. “Just so. Let us brothers go drink in the safe chamber first, and come back later to deal with him.”

With that, they laughed coldly again, their bodies flickering twice before both vanished.

Jade Blossom, growing increasingly frantic, called out twice more for her sister, but below she still received only the same hoarse response.

At last she sighed to herself, I’ve truly worked myself into a muddle. Clearly she is using both hands to support the iron rollers and has already strained herself to the point of exhaustion.

In her anxiety, she reached at once for the concealed switch. Eager only to save a life, she did not think; unfortunately, she pressed the wrong button again. With a thunderous roar, another iron roller came crashing down.

Just as Jade Blossom was about to reach for a different switch, she suddenly saw eight burly men running from the tunnel behind her.

These eight men did not yet know that Jade Blossom had already betrayed them. The leader rushed up before her and bowed. “We eight brothers were ordered by the Cult Master to capture the masked man and take him to the Great Hall for execution. But when we reached the Valley of Broken Souls, we found the traps and mechanisms had all been destroyed, and the men assigned to guard them had either been killed or wounded. Presumably, madam also came after hearing the alarm. May I ask whether you have discovered the masked man?”

Seeing them, Jade Blossom had first been seized by fear, but as she listened, and heard that they had not yet discovered her betrayal, she secretly breathed, How close that was!

Seizing the opportunity, she said to them, “I have seen the masked man. Hurry and report to the Cult Master that the masked man has met his end on the Slope of Shattered Flesh.”

The leader of the men quickly nodded. “As you command!” He bowed again, then turned and called the other seven to hurry back the way they had come.

Jade Blossom knew that these eight men were trusted confidants of the Cult Master, the Yin-Yang Old Monster. How could she allow them to report back? The instant they turned away, she reached into her bosom, drew out a handful of iron pellets, and, with the swiftest of movements, struck at their vital acupoints.

The eight men had no idea what was happening. They each cried out in sudden shock and then collapsed dead on the spot. Even in death, they never knew what had struck them.

After felling the eight men, Jade Blossom hurriedly turned the hidden mechanism. Though she had engaged the device and locked the three iron rollers so they would no longer descend, she could not see the masked man below, nor could she cross over the rollers to descend.

So she called out, “Sister, have you been injured by the rollers? I have locked them with the mechanism. Hurry and roll down the slope to take cover!”

The masked man felt the pressure on the rollers suddenly lighten, and hearing Jade Blossom’s words, knew the mechanism had been broken. At once he released the hands that had been bracing them.

First he slowly drew back one hand; indeed, the rollers did not continue pressing down. Only then did he dare to let go completely. Delighted, he emitted a rough hoarse sound, which served as his answer to Jade Blossom.

Jade Blossom could not make out what was happening and asked again, “Can you walk?”

The only reply was still that hoarse sound. She said, “I’m going to activate the mechanism and let the rollers fall!”

Having spoken, she bent her ear to listen for any echo from below, but heard no more hoarse sounds. Just as she was about to press the switch and send the iron drums plunging down, there came suddenly from beneath the slope a violent crash of bronze plates. Startled, she froze and dared not press the button.

It turned out that after the masked man had leaped down the slope and discovered a square chamber below, with only the slope’s opening and smooth bronze plates on the other three sides and no way out, he had forgotten to take out the blueprint and search for the mechanism’s location. In a burst of anger, he swung his hand and unleashed a flurry of palm strikes at the mirror-smooth bronze wall.

The two thieves guarding the Slope of Shattered Flesh had been hiding in a secret room, happily drinking and gambling with finger-guessing games, when they were startled by the violent tremors. They opened the door to look and were shocked to see the masked man still standing there in anger, not crushed to death by the rollers, and instead striking the bronze walls with furious palm blasts.

The two burly men, somewhat tipsy, exclaimed, “You, you—are you human or ghost?”

Hearing them, the masked man turned and saw two figures standing in the hidden doorway. He gathered strength in his left arm and sent a single fierce palm strike toward them.

His palm force had reached a realm of extraordinary mastery. Not only could those two not withstand such a blow, but even the Yin-Yang Old Monster himself would have found it difficult to block.

Two heavy muffled groans sounded in succession, and both men were killed as his palm force shattered their skulls and burst their brains.

After killing them, the masked man leaped into the secret room and gave another hoarse sound, intending to tell Jade Blossom that she could now press the mechanism and drop the iron rollers.

Standing above the slope, Jade Blossom listened intently to the sounds below. Only when she heard the masked man answer with that hoarse cry did she dare press the mechanism. At once the iron rollers broke free of their hooks and crashed downward.

A series of deafening booms echoed through the tunnel. The two iron drums rolled all the way to the entrance of the secret chamber the masked man had entered, when suddenly the bronze floor beneath them sprang upward, and the rollers one after another plunged into the earth, restoring everything to its original state.

The masked man, standing inside the secret room, watched the changes outside. After the rollers fell into the ground, he heard two more thunderous crashes in succession, and the large bronze plates over the pit below flipped back into place. He could not help thinking to himself: The traps and mechanisms of this sinister dwelling are truly marvels of craftsmanship.

After the rollers had fallen, Jade Blossom also leaped down. Seeing the masked man unharmed, she finally let go of the anxiety hanging in her heart and asked, “Sister, how did you stop the rollers? I was nearly worried to death.”

The masked man flashed a grin and, after smiling, made a gesture.

Jade Blossom was a shrewd woman. Noticing that when he smiled, his manner was nothing like that of a woman, she asked in surprise, “You... you are a man!”

The masked man nodded. Jade Blossom then recalled how, on the day she had discussed breaking into the sinister mansion with Miss Huan, that woman had merely said a masked man would come at the appointed time, without ever explaining who he was. No wonder he had never answered when she kept calling him sister. So he was not Miss Plum after all. She asked, “Is Miss Plum your wife, or...?”

The masked man shook his head and took a writing board from his waist, writing: “She is my senior sister.”

Seeing that he did not speak, but only wrote on the board to communicate, Jade Blossom suspected he too might be mute, and so made a mute’s gesture as she questioned him.

The masked man nodded, thinking of his sad past—how he had been framed and harmed by others—and his eyes could not help glistening with tears.

Jade Blossom, after asking that question, had not expected to stir such pain in him. She immediately blamed herself in secret for exposing what he had kept hidden, making him suffer, yet she could not think of a single comforting word.

The masked man wrote again: “Let’s go. Hurry and break the mechanisms of this sinister house, so we do not invite disaster by lingering too long.”

Jade Blossom nodded, took back the blueprint from him, and the two studied it for a while, identifying the positions of the mechanisms and hidden switches. Then they pressed onward.

The farther they went, the more perilous the mechanisms became, and the more treacherous their changes. After they left the square chamber, they came upon a flat, straight tunnel.

Just as Jade Blossom stepped out of the tunnel entrance, a middle-aged woman hurried toward her in great alarm and whispered, “The Cult Master sent two people to inspect the Pleasure Quarter in succession, and both were lured into killing by the Ninth Sister’s scheme. The Ninth Sister fears that if the Cult Master has not yet received word, he may come himself to investigate. That would be disastrous, so she sent me secretly to ask the Tenth Sister what should be done with the jewels, gold, and silver?”

Jade Blossom lowered her head in thought and said, “Find a way to hide them. Deal with them after the last mechanism has been broken.”

The middle-aged woman nodded and turned into a narrow side tunnel.

Seeing the masked man stare after the departing woman as though lost in thought, Jade Blossom smiled and said, “There’s no time to introduce everyone properly. Move quickly. We can speak after the great work is done.”

Thus the two followed the underground passage. Before they had gone more than a few yards, they were startled to see two splendid sedan carts, with no horses to pull them, rolling automatically toward them head-on.

The masked man was greatly astonished to see such ornate carts moving on their own and could not help stopping to watch.

Jade Blossom said softly to him, “These two luxurious carts have self-propelled wheels. Inside sit two incomparable beauties. They are not very skilled in martial arts, but they can scatter a bewildering powder. I do not wish to kill them, so let me deal with them.”

She feared the masked man might suddenly strike and take the women’s lives, so she warned him in advance.

When the two ornate carts were about six or seven feet from them, the wheels rolling forward gradually slowed, and the hanging curtains began to rise slowly.

The masked man glanced into the carts and saw two girls dressed in fine clothing, apparently no more than fifteen or sixteen years old, each with a face of delicate beauty that seemed enchanting in every expression, whether anger or laughter.

In particular, the two girls’ four eyes, clear as autumn waters, kept sending him sidelong glances. Had he been some lecherous rogue, he would long since have lost his soul to their smiling, alluring charms.

Fortunately, this masked man was a blunt and rustic fellow, and the beauty before his eyes left him entirely unmoved.

Jade Blossom sharply commanded the two girls, “You two, immediately put away your shameless behavior, return at once to your chambers, wash the bewildering powder from your hands, change into plain dress, and prepare to go home.”