SES Chapter 207 Part 1

Chapter 207

The final line of the silk manuscript read: Whoever sees this book must know that the situation is perilous. You must urgently summon death-sworn warriors—those loyal, brave, and steadfast, willing to sacrifice their lives for righteousness—to resolutely undertake this great cause. Even if their brains are dashed and their blood spilled, they must not shrink, even unto ten thousand deaths. Five such warriors are required. Gather them, and together open the bottom casket.

Mu Dai’s gaze fell on the two wooden compartments at the bottom of the box, carved with kite-shaped motifs.

The key to the mechanism on this level was probably the words “death-sworn warriors.”

So this was what her master had wanted her to do.

No—no, that wasn’t quite right. Her master hadn’t actually known what it was either. Plum Blossom Ninth Lady had gone her entire life without uncovering this secret.

Mu Dai suddenly found it funny, in a darkly ironic way. Things had somehow gotten flipped around: originally, the proper sequence should have been for her to open the box, learn the secret, and then go recruit death-sworn warriors. Instead, she had stumbled headfirst into this mess without knowing anything, dragging along so many people—and one chicken.

Times had long since changed. Even worldviews were different now. “Death-sworn warriors” sounded alien even to her. How was she supposed to urgently recruit them? Put out a classified ad?

At her ear came Cao Yanhua’s hesitant, stammering voice. “B-Brother Luo… you can explain this to me, right? This ‘death-sworn warrior’ thing—it doesn’t mean what I think it means, does it?”

He forced an awkward smile, his heart pounding harder with every beat.

Words like “loyal and brave,” “sacrificing oneself for righteousness,” “brains dashed and blood spilled”—in his mind, these were terms that would never, ever apply to him in his lifetime.

And “resolutely undertake this great cause”—that kind of heroic language was for rulers and leaders, wasn’t it? Who was he? He’d started as a thief. He’d only gotten involved to help Little Master…

He unconsciously shrank back. He wasn’t that great. Absolutely not. If this was really heading toward death, then he was out.

Seeing that Luo Ren didn’t answer, he looked desperately to Wan San. Wan San gave a dry laugh. “Yeah… I don’t feel too good about this either.”

As he spoke, he picked the characters “death” and “warrior” out of the character tray. “How about… we just open it and take a look?”

Yan Hongsha hesitated. “Is that appropriate?”

The five death-sworn warriors who opened the box were supposed to be people willing to “resolutely undertake this great cause.” None of them seemed to have that intention.

Wan San said, “Depends on what the boss lady thinks. The key was given to her, and the box counts as hers.”

Mu Dai said, “Let’s look. We’ve already collected six of them and suffered plenty along the way. Can’t we at least look?”

Luo Ren nearly laughed out loud.

With another dull, grinding sound, the very bottom compartment slowly rose and came to a stop.

This layer was about ten centimeters deep. In the center were raised carvings of a phoenix, a huang, and a luan—three divine birds connected head to tail in a circle. Along the circumference were slots holding five transparent slips, their material nearly identical to the glass-like substance of the Guansi Archway plaques.

At the tops of the slips were written the words Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth. Below, written in cinnabar-red characters, were names. Mu Dai noticed that one of them read: Plum Blossom One Zhao.

Inside the box, there was also a block of cinnabar and another silk manuscript.

The charlatan opened the manuscript. It explained that the cinnabar was used to write names on the slips. In other words, once new death-sworn warriors opened this layer, they would erase the existing names and write their own in cinnabar.

Much of what was written in this manuscript was already familiar to them.

It began by stating that the vicious slips must attach themselves to living bodies. If the possessed host died, the slips would quickly leave—true enough. That was exactly how they had forced the vicious slip out of Pingtíng.

It went on to say that Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth could all temporarily restrain vicious slips, but Water was the most effective, since it was ubiquitous and easy to obtain. Wan San recalled how he’d once tried burning a vicious slip at Xiao Merchant River. Thinking about it carefully, he felt a bit impressed: this ragtag group of misfits had actually accumulated quite a lot of practical experience through sheer trial and error.

Finally, it discussed the power of the Phoenix–Huang–Luan Seal.

This section was new. In simple terms, the so-called sealing of the vicious slips by the Phoenix–Huang–Luan Seal was actually a clash between two opposing forces.

Even after being sealed for over a hundred years, if a vicious slip escaped, it would still carry residual power from the seal. That power wasn’t strong, but it always opposed the slip. It couldn’t stop the slip from doing evil, but it was a kind of belated remedy—like that time with the fishing-line puppet, where after the evildoer died, the slip still carried out a symbolic, almost pointless act of retribution, as if to prove it had done something.

It was kind of stupidly adorable.

And when people who truly opposed the vicious slips appeared, the power of the Phoenix–Huang–Luan Seal would transfer onto those individuals.

Cao Yanhua suddenly understood. “So after Xiao Merchant River, we could all see the Phoenix–Huang–Luan hints. Then later, at Five Pearl Village, when Hongsha joined us, she could see them too?”

The charlatan was annoyed. So the seal’s power wasn’t some innate gift. If he’d known earlier, he would’ve rushed to the scene at Xiao Merchant River. What a wasted opportunity—Yan Hongsha had ended up filling the last slot instead.

Wan San snorted. “This Phoenix–Huang–Luan Seal really isn’t that useful. It didn’t turn me into some reborn superhuman. It just gives the occasional hint, shows a water reflection.”

Yan Hongsha muttered, “I think it’s pretty useful. We’ve already collected six vicious slips.”

Wan San shot back, “You said it yourself—we collected them. We. Not the seal.”

Yan Hongsha protested, “But the seal’s power is on us! We are the Phoenix–Huang–Luan Seal!”

What kind of nonsense was that? Wan San was about to glare at her when a thought suddenly struck him. The more he thought about it, the colder his back became.

“Wait, wait,” he said. “What if… we’re already part of the Phoenix–Huang–Luan Seal?”

He stammered, “The seal itself is just an ordinary bronze object. Where does its power come from? What if the Phoenix–Huang–Luan Seal… is actually us?”

He’d seen too many stories like that growing up—swords that couldn’t be forged until someone threw themselves into the furnace; evil entities that couldn’t be sealed until someone slit their own throat and used their blood as the seal…

The charlatan cleared his throat and dropped another bombshell on him.

“I think it’s very possible,” he said in a scholarly tone. “In ancient times, distinctions between good and evil weren’t so clear. Human sacrifice existed. This manuscript keeps emphasizing loyal death-sworn warriors who don’t fear being torn apart, and it even has them write their names in cinnabar beforehand. It’s a bit like signing a death warrant…”

Cao Yanhua broke out in a cold sweat. “Keep reading. Hurry. What does it say after that?”

He leaned in nervously beside the charlatan.

The rest said that those who possessed the power of the Phoenix–Huang–Luan Seal could avoid harm from possession and would not be controlled by the malicious intent of the vicious slips.

It also warned that although vicious slips were “non-human,” through repeated possessions and deep integration with humans, they might gradually learn to think—and might even begin to communicate information among themselves.

As for the method of sealing them, it wasn’t mentioned here. It only said that once the Phoenix–Huang–Luan Seal was found, the method would naturally become clear.

When they finished reading everything, no sense of relief usually came with learning a great secret—only a deep, lingering heaviness.

The charlatan asked, “Are you going to write your names?”

No one nodded.

The charlatan pulled out his phone and carefully photographed the manuscript, then the circular carving of the Phoenix–Huang–Luan Seal. Mu Dai reached out to stop him. “Hey—”

“I’m just studying it. It’s interesting. I know it’s a big secret and can’t be shared. I’ll only research it here. Once we leave Fog Town, I’ll delete everything.”

Fine. Mu Dai withdrew her hand.

She watched as he folded the manuscript back up and put it away. Then, following the method described in the text, he pressed down on the heads of the phoenix, huang, and luan at the same time. The box let out a dull sound, and the bottom layer slowly sank back down.

The second layer rose from the sides, with the raised characters “death” and “warrior” standing out. The charlatan placed the “Seven Stars Killing Array” manuscript inside. After removing the character molds, the first layer appeared again, with the characters “human” and “heart” standing prominently in the center.

Wan San picked up those two molds as well, lowered his head, and put all the molds back into the character tray. Outside, Cao Jiefang paced anxiously back and forth. Listening closely, they could hear the faint sound of flowing water.