Book Synopsis
Book Tags
Donation Rankings
Comment
0 Comments
You May Also Like
墨書 Inktalez
The Blood Pearl in the seams of the Azure Brick is beginning to crystallize into frost flowers. I hurried along the west wall of the Imperial Medical Institute, the Chihwen Knife vibrating against my wrist, numbing my grip.
The map left by Chen Xing in the dry well last night burned in my palm, the lines drawn with Crane Top Red slowly seeping into my veins—Consort Shu's Huaqing Palace loomed on the map, swollen like a rotting heart.
At quarter past midnight, the sound of a pipa pierced through the thick fog. A night watch maid collapsed beneath a flowering crabapple tree, her skirt soaked in dark red liquid.
Her neck arched at an unnatural angle, and her pupil reflected a floating Blood Jade, twisting moonlight into silvery threads to consume. I hid in the shadows of the corridor, catching the scent of rotting pears wafting from deep within the Jade Agate—just like the aura from Consort Li's severed Jade Transformation finger bone at the bottom of the well.
"Bing Chen Year, July Half..."
The Chihwen Knife suddenly whispered, its blade stirring up a chilling wind as it turned. Eight palace maids with lanterns filed in through the moon gate, their steps synchronized like marionettes. The Chiwen painted on their vermilion lacquered lamps opened its vertical pupil under the glow of Blood Jade.
The smallest maid suddenly lunged at her companion. The sickening sound of emerald armor piercing an eye socket made my teeth ache.
I stepped on a glass lamp that had rolled to my feet and saw a centipede curled up in the wick, gnawing at a talisman.
In the chaos among the palace maids, serpentine veins bulged beneath their skin. As the victor knelt beneath the Blood Jade and opened his mouth, I flung out a silver needle from my sleeve, pinning it to his crown.
It was too late.
Fragments of Blood Jade shattered into flowing light and entered his seven orifices; his body swelled like a skin bag filled with magma. I rolled into the Jinshui River as an explosive wave surged behind me, toppling three layers of Glazed Tiles.
A torrential rain poured down, mixing with gelatinous remnants of shattered bones that writhed on the Han White Jade tiles, gradually forming the characters for "Yongchang Seventeenth Year."
As the first crow of dawn echoed, the imperial concubine's phoenix carriage crushed through the debris-strewn ground.
"I said long ago that Consort Shu's palace is filthy."
The Gilded Armor lifted half of a jade carving knife; its handle was unmistakably wrapped in silver threads supplied by Shang Gong Bureau. As her skirt swept over bloodstains, I noticed Stardust on her pearl-embroidered shoes that could only come from Qintianjian.
"Registrar Ye, what punishment do you think this deserves?"
The sound of the Imperial Guard digging suddenly ceased. Beneath the He Huan Tree in the back courtyard of Huaqing Palace, a whole box of jade carvings glimmered with a waxy sheen. The topmost piece, a Dragon and Phoenix Auspicious Pendant, was clearly a tribute that had just been stored two days prior, yet the Blood Pearl seeping from the entwined patterns was forming the birth characters of Consort Shu in the morning light.
As the Emperor picked up a piece of jade, a chill ran down my spine. The dark golden dragon patterns on his wide sleeves brushed against the Blood Jade, and to my astonishment, the ghastly cracks began to mend themselves on their own. The National Master hesitated, raising his hand, and a Silver Lock fell from his sleeve, grazing the back of my hand—its bite mark identical to the token Chen Xing had given me in a past life.
“Send it to Qintianjian,” he said. The Emperor's gentle voice echoed as my reflection surfaced on the Blood Jade's surface. In that reflection, "I" suddenly grinned widely, forming the words "Chiwen Bingchen" with my lips.
As the sound of the hourglass urged the sun to set, I excused myself to inspect the corpse and slipped into the Coroner's room. Consort Li's remains glimmered with a pearl gray in the dusk, but as moonlight streamed through the window, her stark white finger bones revealed agate patterns—mingling with the scent of the Emperor's personal incense that wafted into my nostrils.
“Twenty years ago... hic... it was just like this...” The Veteran Coroner lay drunkenly beside a cricket cage, liquid spilling from his Wine Gourd and corroding small holes in the ground. His missing left pinky suddenly pointed at me, its joints cracking as it spelled out in Morse Code: Be Careful of the Living Dead.
A midnight bang lodged in my throat. The Chihwen Knife unsheathed itself and slashed towards the medicine cabinet; Huang Qin Powder cascaded down, revealing a corner of a Bronze Coffin as the wall plaster crumbled away. The Coiled Chilong Pattern on the coffin was melting, and droplets of copper pooled on the ground, forming an arrow pointing towards the direction of the Tai Hospital's Ice Cellar.
From deep within the Ice Cellar came the sound of an infant crying. My hand gripping the knife suddenly throbbed with pain as a Birthmark emerged, displaying patterns identical to those on the Bronze Coffin. When a second cry echoed through the air, the Shattered Jade in my arms spontaneously formed into a key shape, while rhythmic knocking emanated from within the coffin... perfectly synchronized with my heartbeat.
Comment 0 Comment Count