Chapter 251
Chapter 251 - Internal Fight
Three days had passed .
Ghost Li who have been keeping vigil in Ghost King’s stone residence, his countenance had changed from the initial calm and indifference to uneasiness and then anxiousness, and now he was already full of frustration and impatience . To him, even though he was prepared that a long period of time would be needed to study this exceptional astrolabe but he never expected that it would take three days and the crucial point was, although three days had passed but Mr Ghost seemed not to have made any progress .
According to his initial thought, when Mr Ghost first encountered this astrolabe, he triggered the change in it, by right he should be more knowledgeable about this treasure and it would not be that difficult to comprehend its ingenuity after a few days of study . But who knows in those three days, as he kept vigil beside Mr Ghost, saw him kept flipping this treasure back and forth, not only constantly looking at it, Ghost Li even felt that Mr Ghost was memorizing every ancient character on the tiny moving cubes .
However, Mr Ghost seemed to be in a dilemma, or maybe it should be said, while studying this treasure, Mr Ghost met with a huge problem, and after a few days, made no progress .
Ghost King residence was much bigger than the other stone rooms in the mountain, divided into two rooms, the outer bigger room was where Mr Ghost and Ghost Li were in, the inner smaller room was naturally Ghost King’s bedroom . Although he was not in but in these three days, both of them did not step into the inner room, with their cultivations, not to say three days and nights, even if it was ten days and nights without sleeping, they could also sustain well .
However, the most agonizing part was, the word ‘waiting’ .
For three days, Ghost Li never left this room, Xiao Hui naturally also stayed here too but due to its restless monkey nature, three days in the same place was suffocating for Xiao Hui . But right now Ghost Li and Mr Ghost were still staring at that astrolabe and couldn’t be bothered about Xiao Hui .
Xiao Hui scurried here and there in the room, in those three days it had already checked out every corner, right now it leapt up onto the big study desk often used by Ghost King, no one in the sect dared to do that but right now the owner was far away, nobody stopped it .
Xiao Hui being bored, one moment lay down on the big table, the next moment climbed up, the next moment danced, the next moment lay down with its belly exposed, until the last, afterall being too bored alone, it awkwardly sat up, kept scratching its head, its mouth making [zhi zhi] sounds, peering around, looking for things to play .
The room though big but it wasn’t that huge and so naturally, it gaze went to the inner room . Xiao Hui turned its head around and looked at Ghost Li, saw his somber face and rather hostile, clearly not in a good mood and Mr Ghost was focusing on studying the astrolabe in his hands, occasionally looking up, glanced up at Ghost Li and again looked back .
The two of them clearly had all their attention on the astrolabe, even if they had a little more alertness, at most they only looked at the other party, nobody had the least concern about the monkey over here . Xiao Hui shrugged its shoulder, pursued its lips, [zhi zhi] twice, swished its tail twice and turned around, glanced at that inner room and then jumped down from the table, slowly walked over .
The furnishings in Ghost King’s residence were not luxurious, instead it was extremely simple, evidently the owner of this place did not care for the secular luxury, the outer room was like this, the inner room too: a wooden bed, a round table, three round stools, four calligraphy paintings on the walls, the first was landscape, faint ink in white, a secular feeling; the second was a painting in spring, birds flying up to the flowers, full of spring: the third was a tiger crouching in the grasses, a different feeling from the other two, the tiger awe-inspiring, its stance powerful, clearly looking at the world with a dominating glare .
Xiao Hui naturally did not understand the paintings, they looked no different from a white banner but for the last painting, the tiger looked lifelike, Xiao Hui was shocked initially upon looking at it and then quickly got over it, grinning at the tiger and made a funny face, with a [pei] spat some saliva at it .
The three paintings were hung in a row on the inner room wall, complementing each other, although the paintings conveyed different meanings but at a glance they seemed to be in harmony, self-forming a pattern . And contrasting against these three paintings, on the other side of the wall, was a solitary painting .
There was no landscape in the painting nor any flowers or birds, it was a beautiful lady, and this was a meticulous drawing, extremely fine and detailed, down to the last finger, earrings, all extremely realistic, not to mention her dignified beauty, involuntarily evoking a feeling of adoration from the viewers, it could be said to be a rare painting in the world .
But a rare painting to the humans, to the monkey’s three eyes, obviously it would be very much discounted, Xiao Hui without any expression of being moved, glanced at it and then looked back to the tiger painting .
Not knowing to the monkey, what would a good painting looked like, or maybe a few monkeys vividly drawn?
Whether what kind of figure that the monkey preferred, clearly unable to be discerned but right now to Xiao Hui, it was still that tiger painting which mattered to it most, its three eyes blinked, leapt to the floor where the painting was hung on the wall above and looked up, the tiger had a commanding presence, the drawing skill was not amature, the strokes bold and vigorous, the tiger almost breaking out of the painting, roaring at the sky, thousands of animals in awe .
Xiao Hui looked at it for a long time, suddenly glanced outside again, saw that both of them were blocked by the stone walls, couldn’t look directly in, and after such a long time there was no movement outside, clearly both of them did not notice Xiao Hui’s movements .
The monkey turned back, scratched its head, the next moment, it seemed to make up its mind, leapt up into the air . The three drawings were hung up high, there was nothing below that it could use to climb up, for a normal monkey it would not be able to reach it but Xiao Hui was not an ordinary monkey, with such a jump, it could reach the top of the paintings, its monkey paw stretched out, easily took down that drawing .
Just that the drawing was rather long, following its descent, it slipped out and with a [pa] sound, dropped onto the floor .
Though this sound was not loud but the two exceptional figures outside, immediately were alerted, after a moment of silence, Ghost Li’s voice was heard, with a slight puzzlement called out, “Xiao Hui?”
[Suo suo, suo suo…]
Following which a strange series of dragging sounds were heard, under the stares of Ghost Li and Mr Ghost, the monkey ran out of the room, at the same time clutching a painting, a big portion of it was dragged on the ground, from the inner room to where Ghost Li was .
Both of them were stunned .
Xiao Hui held the drawing tightly, ran before Ghost Li and then [zhi zhi zhi zhi] unceasingly .
Ghost Li frowned, took over the paintings, opened it, saw the exceptional workmanship, the crouching tiger among the grasses, the strokes bold and vigorous, he assessed it with a few glances, looked at Xiao Hui, said, “Why did you take this painting for?”
Xiao Hui jumped, gesturing, its expression extremely excited, either pointing at the tiger or drawing a strange painting in the air, the next moment pointing to the north, happily being busy, confusing Mr Ghost who was watching from beside, although he was well knowledge and had vast experience but towards the monkey language from this monkey, he knew nothing, full of bewilderment, he could only turn and look at Ghost Li .
Who knew Ghost Li was also looking rather stunned too, watched Xiao Hui’s actions and unceasing [zhi zhi] sounds, Ghost Li glanced at the painting again, hesitated again and said, “You . . . don’t tell me you find this thing inside the painting looked very much like Big Huang and so wanted to take this with you and gift it to Big Huang later?”
Xiao Hui immediately nodded .
Ghost Li although was not in a good mood now but he was still unable to bear it, the ferocious tiger was lifelike and its demeanour was majestic, even though it was within the grasses, it was still awe-inspiring, how could it comparable to that big dog at Big Bamboo Valley which although had a fine coat of fur but was extremely lazy and greedy? And furthermore, to Ghost Li, he really couldn’t tell which part of the ferocious tiger exactly was similar to Big Huang .
Seemed like the monkey’s taste was really different from the humans .
But after being taken aback and finding it ridiculous, Ghost Li reminisced the time at the valley and Big Huang which was thousand of miles away, after a moment, with a faint smile at his lips, his expression also softened, quietly said, “This painting belongs to the Ghost King, we can’t take this away now but don’t worry, next time I will ask this from him for you . ” after speaking, he gently rolled up the painting and placed it aside .
Mr Ghost couldn’t help but ask, “ Who is Big Huang?”
Ghost Li paused and then indifferently looked at Mr Ghost, said, “A dog . ”
Mr Ghost stunned, for a moment was speechless and then with a cough, did not ask anymore and looked back at the astrolabe . Ghost Li patted Xiao Hui, softly gave a few instructions, nothing more than to instruct it not to run around and then turned back to the astrolabe, afterall, studying the astrolabe was then the important thing .
Xiao Hui sat beside them for a while and very quickly, started to be bored again, actually it could not be blamed, whoever it was that had to be with them for three days and night and watched them doing the same thing over and over again, would also be frustrated, what’s more a restless monkey?
By now, Mr Ghost seemed to discover something, suddenly pointed to those moving tiny cubes and said, “I see that the crux of this treasure, is these tiny cubes in orbit . ” Ghost Li slowly nodded, evidently also agreeing but he slowly frowned, said, “But we have been looking at it for three days and still can’t tell how these cubes are able to orbit by itself, not sure if mister has any brilliant idea?”
Mr Ghost was silent for a moment, said, “Have you ever thought that, the cubes’ trajectories, are similar to the stars movements . ”
Ghost Li’s body shook and then stared intently at the astrolabe, after a long time, clapped said, “It really makes sense . ”
Mr Ghost said, “Actually I am not sure too but I feel that it is indeed so, just that though these cubes trajectories are following the stars but it still contain many undiscovered mysteries, I think, to comprehend the crux of this treasure, it will be these ancient characters on the cubes . ”
Ghost Li nodded slowly . Both of them continued to converse and soon again their attention devoted to the astrolabe, Xiao Hui sat beside them for a while, again started to leave .
In the stone room, Mr Ghost and Ghost Li were heard discussing softly from time to time, Xiao Hui peered around for a moment, extremely bored again it quietly sneaked into the other room .
On the stone wall where the painting was pulled down by Xiao Hui, a few marks were revealed, it had a slight colour difference from the other walls, seemed like the painting had been there for some time already . Just that in this room, other than the four paintings, there was only the wooden bed and table and chairs, and nothing else interesting . Xiao Hui checked around and soon was bored again .
Just when it was at its extreme point of boredom, its three eyes suddenly blinked, as if discovered something and then jumped successively, its entire body suddenly jumped onto Ghost King’s bed, without any concern if it dirtied the bed or covers, it rolled and jumped . The furnishings were simple but it was also extremely clean, most likely Ghost King was also someone who loved cleanliness, not knowing if he saw this when he come back, would he be infuriated .
But right now Xiao Hui did not care about that, right now nobody was bothering it, it happily jumped and rolled on the bed, suddenly touched something at the corner of the bed, the entire bed shook .
Following which, the stone wall beside the bed, silently opened up a big crack and then retreated to both sides, revealing a big hole which one person could enter .
Xiao Hui, who already sensed something when the bed shook, had jumped down, crouched on the ground and suspiciously looked, until the wall silently revealed a secret door, it then slowly stood up, glanced at the door, only saw that it was in darkness, unable to see anything but nothing like ferocious animals ran out too, and the mysterious dark hole, seemed to be tempting the bored monkey, as if beckoning it .
Xiao Hui scratched its head, glanced back, in the outer room, Ghost Li and Mr Ghost again went into silence, seemed like another long day to study the astrolabe, the three-eyed monkey turned back, suddenly grinned, made a funny face and then lightly leapt, tunneled into the dark hole, the next moment disappeared into the darkness .
An indistinct wind, lightly blew from that mysterious hole, carrying a faint smell of blood! Entering into the secret door, an indistinct golden light glimmered in Xiao Hui’s third eye, radiating a strange glow, under this golden light, the darkness in the hole seemed to recede a little .
A tunnel which could only allow one person to traverse, making it difficult for one to pass but for a monkey, it was more than enough, Xiao Hui who was feeling adventurous, walked for a while in the tunnel and felt the ground depressed, the tunnel was heading downwards .
On both sides of the stone walls, as it gradually descended, the walls started to appear damp, some places even had water droplets dripping down in the darkness . In the silence, Xiao Hui’s figure slowly walked ahead, at times a light breeze with a strange faint smell of blood blew from the darkness ahead .
The tunnel going down was not steep but was quite long, Xiao Hui walked for a long time, it should be going deep down into the mountain . And at this moment, Xiao Hui suddenly stopped, at some place far ahead, a faint red glow was seen .
The monkey stood in the tunnel for a while, seemed hesitant and then glanced back at the path behind it, scratched it head, seemed hesitant whether to turn back and inform its master but that red light ahead, seemed to be luring it, the light flickering .
Finally, after calling out twice, the monkey still continued to move ahead .
Approaching the red light nearer and nearer, the blood stench in the tunnel turned thicker, Xiao Hui’s expression became nervous, stuck its nose out and sniffed, hesitation in its eyes . But looking at the red light which was just ahead, it still move ahead .
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