Daomu Biji: Restart

Book 3: Chapter 9: Wine for the Dead

At that time, my mind was racing. First of all, Poker-Face had pulled me to sit down. The fact that he was the one to make the decision meant that it should be the safest course of action at the moment.

If it were me, I'd definitely run away instead of putting up a fight. Of course, that might not be the same for someone who was a bold and skilled master. I had heard that people who threw short punches liked to fight up close and personal with others. Did that mean that people like Poker-Face liked to mix in with groups of ghosts in order to drive the other ghosts out? Well in any case, he didn't let me go, which seemed to indicate that he had the situation under control.

Secondly, although I had all kinds of doubts, I knew I shouldnt speak at this time. Id just have to wait and see what would happen.

After I sat down, I lowered my head and peeked out of the corner of my eye at the corpse next to me. I hadnt noticed immediately when we first came up, but at this distance, I saw that the corpses murky eyes were also glancing at me. (Maybe that was just how they looked when the person died)

The corpses eyes had started to rot, so only the shape left over by the dissolved pupils could be seen. It was very strange to be glancing at each other, so I suppressed my heartbeat and slowly withdrew my gaze. I'm sorry, I thought to myself. I was wrong.

With the way I was sitting, the corpse was almost touching my knees. The distance was already too close, but when I realized that it was looking at me, the back of my neck began to itch.

Poker-Face didn't react, as if he thought the body beside him wasnt important. I secretly looked at him and found that his eyes were focused in a certain directionthere was something wrong with the corpse over there.

I followed his gaze. The twilight was already fading, leaving only extremely dim visibility. The "corpse" that Poker-Face was looking at also had its head lowered and remained motionless like the others. In fact, a large part of it was hidden in the darkness so we hadnt been able to see its outline clearly before we sat down.

But it was clearly very special.

I immediately started to feel my hands and feet go numb because this corpse was sitting with its back to everyone. And even though "it" was sitting, the height of its upper body was beyond that of a normal person. It was unbelievably tall.

This definitely wasnt one of the bodies we had dug up earlier. But what was it? It appeared that something foreign had showed up at this banquet.

Did Yao Ming (1) sneak in? I wondered.

Soon, the twilight disappeared, and with the exception of some moonlight filtering in through the tree canopies, the bottom of the whole grove fell into absolute darkness. I was a little confused at this time. Based on the height of that things upper body, I speculated that it was more than two meters tall overall. People this tall couldnt be grave robbers; theyd probably end up with a herniated disc.

At this time, I suddenly felt Poker-Face move. When I touched the area beside me and found that he was gone, I secretly cursed in my heart, what the fuck?! But I immediately felt him lift me up by the back of my shirt collar and pull me forward through the darkness.

I felt overjoyed because I thought that we were going to withdraw, but then I realized what direction we were moving in and realized that it wasnt the case at all. He was leading me right to Yao Ming. When we finally stopped, I immediately knew that the behemoth was sitting only an arms length away from me in the darkness.

Shit, is he going to propose a toast? I wondered.  

I was feeling really conflicted. First, he didnt leave me where I was; second, he didnt leave me where I was. But before I could react, he wrote on my back: "Turn on the flashlight."

I looked at the darkness in front of me and froze for a second.

But then I felt him take a breath and I realized that all of his muscles were beginning to tense up. This was him starting to regulate his breathing so that he could prepare to do something.

I didnt know what exactly he was planning on doing, but at such a close distance, it felt like a sneak attack.

In that case, I can't be in a daze. I also tensed up, took a deep breath, and then turned on my flashlight. I had already prepared myself to see anything and shouted in my heart, "Huzzah!"

When a light is suddenly turned on in a dark space, theres a brief moment where youre blinded and cant see the details in front of your clearly. But this didnt stop Poker-Face, for he almost instantly flew past. By the time I reacted, he had already flipped over the things back and spun his whole body around.

Then, I suddenly received a heavy blow to my temple that sent me flying. I didnt know who had kicked or elbowed me, but I instantly recovered my posture and knelt down on one knee, continuing to help illuminate the scene. At this time, I suddenly heard a snap and looked at the behemoth. It really seemed to be dead now.

I immediately looked at Poker-Face and saw him land on the ground. He was carrying whatever he had broken off from the behemoth in his hands. He didn't continue to attack but turned on his flashlight and looked at my temple.

I covered my eyes and asked, "What is it?"

"I don't know, but it was brought up from the tomb."

As he swept his flashlight over the "tall man, I started to walk over with a puzzled expression on my face. I couldn't help feeling sick and a strange feeling emerged in my heart, what is this?

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TN Notes:

(1) Yao Ming (1980-), retired Chinese basketball player, played for CBA Shanghai Sharks 1997-2002 and for NBA Houston Rockets 2002-2011