lcionline Chapter 317 The Demon from the Holy Lake
Chapter 317 The Demon from the Holy Lake
As soon as the female merchant dismounted, Song Erjiu rushed forward, like a weasel offering New Year's greetings to a chicken. "Thief!" the female merchant shouted, startling even the yaks in the post station.
The Tibetan couriers swarmed over like ants carrying food, rubbing Song Erjiu to the ground. The female merchant rummaged through her baggage and waved her hand: "Never mind, let him go."
Erjiu got up and saw a coral pendant lying on the ground, as red as a ripe cherry tomato. He quickly stuffed it into his pocket, feeling very pleased: "This was a good deal!"
Right now, the Wolf King was squatting in the yurt, writing a message to Song Xiaobai by carrier pigeon, pressing a wolf paw print on the letter, like a cat scratch. The "mysterious man" in the shadows caught sight of Song Xiaobai's shadow, his brows furrowing so deeply they could trap a mosquito: What kind of trouble is this little brat up to now?
As the moon shone brightly and the stars were few, Song Xiaobai began grinding herbs in a stone cave behind Yaowang Mountain. The stone mortar made a "thump-thump" sound, like striking a wooden fish.
Moonlight filtered through the gaps in the mani stones, painting dappled patterns on her face. She stared at the letter with wolf paw prints and sneered, rubbing her fingers together the silver prayer wheel around her neck—exactly the same as Du Xiaobing's!
"Clang, clang!" The yak bells outside the cave rang urgently. Song Xiaobai tossed the letter into the fire pit with a "whoosh," and the dark purple flames leaped up, making her eyes look cunning like a fox's: It seems it's time to close the net...
As dusk fell on Lhasa, a light snow began to fall. Cong Xiaoye huddled behind the felt curtain of the VIP tent at the post station, clutching a tortoise shell in her palm—the one she had found by Sizi's pillow that morning, with the Tibetan word for "heart" and Tang grass patterns engraved on the back.
Three days ago, the doctor said that the princess's "heart ailment" could only be cured by replacing her heart with that of a "divine deer from the snowy plateau." At this moment, Niwan Zi stared at the Hu merchant woman opposite him, who was applying ochre rouge, and watched as she deliberately slammed a gilded post station plaque onto the table. The bronze plaque was engraved with the Tibetan script "Lake Lhasa - the Holy Lake"—the Holy Lake being the forbidden area where the divine deer was said to roam.
Claiming to be a Persian spice merchant, he slipped a piece of Tang silk from his sleeve while showing rose ointment to a foreign merchant's wife. The silk was decorated with a deer-shaped totem in vermilion.
Niwan's purple pupils suddenly contracted: the pattern was exactly the same as the silver lock that Sizi wore close to her body, and that silver lock was a keepsake that Du Xiaobing left for her before he disappeared.
"Sir, do you know what lies hidden beneath the ice of the sacred lake?" The merchant's wife, fiddling with her agate prayer beads, had gold foil on her face that glowed with an eerie red light in the candlelight. Niwan Zi paused in stirring his butter tea. "I've heard it's 'deer heart blood,' which has remained uncorrupted for a thousand years and can cure all diseases..."
Cong Xiaoye blew the eagle whistle, extending it two notes longer than usual—this was a special signal for Niwanzi: it concerned Sizi's "heart".
When Niwanzi mounted his horse, the Tibetan Medical Canon in his arms pressed painfully against his ribs. The book stated: "The heart of the divine deer must be transplanted with the blood of a virgin as a guide and through seven esoteric Buddhist rituals."
Inside the carriage, Cong Xiaoye was pestering the Tibetan warrior to switch berths. The tortoise shell amulet on his waist fit perfectly with the tortoise shell of the rhinoceros. The wolf head tattoo on the warrior's sleeve reminded Niwan Zi of Du Xiaobing's diary: "The offerings under the wolf-headed scimitar are the keys to unlocking the secret path to the sacred lake."
“If you are willing to change your lodgings, I would like to offer you a ‘Deer Heart Tonic Pill’.” Niwan Zi lowered his voice and took out a small red-gold bottle from his bosom. The bottle was engraved with the Sanskrit word “Eternal Life”. The warrior’s eyes changed drastically. That was the kind of “life-extending medicine” personally bestowed by the Tibetan king.
Hu Shangfu was invited to the dining car to drink wine. As she passed Cong Xiaoye, a strange fragrance wafted over—identical to the scent that had been on Sizi's pillow when she was unconscious.
Niwanzi no longer stuffed roasted barley into Cong Xiaoye's palm, but dried deer tongue grass, which is the key ingredient in the "Deer Heart Technique" in the Medical Canon.
As the samurai searched the merchant's camel-hide trunk, Cong Xiaoye noticed a corner of a thangka peeking out from a hidden compartment at the bottom of the trunk. It depicted a nine-colored divine deer lying under a wolf-headed scimitar, its blood gushing from its heart turning into ice crystals.
He recalled the Tibetan legend that Song Xiaobai had told him: "Every seventy years, the divine deer will choose a girl with a 'heart disease' and exchange her life for hers."
Inside the dining car, the Hu merchant finally revealed the "Spice Manual," but when he opened it, he discovered a tantric ritual diagram hidden in a lining.
The silver bells of the merchant woman stopped ringing, their rhythm perfectly matching the pulse of the rhinoceros when it fell ill.
The words "Sacred Lake Altar" on the parchment stung Cong Xiaoye's eyes, and he recalled Cui Jiedushi's warning: Du Xiaobing was drawing a map of the trade routes around the Sacred Lake before he disappeared.
The purple teacup tapped three times, a signal to close the net. But Cong Xiaoye pressed down on her master's hand, pointing to the silver bracelet on the merchant woman's wrist—the inside was engraved with the same incantation as the rhinoceros silver lock. In the distance came the deep, resonant sound of yak bells, like a call from the depths of a sacred lake.
The merchant's wife crushed the wine cup, the dark purple liquid staining the carpet in the shape of a deer. Taking advantage of the moment, the merchant slipped the ritual diagram into the woman's sleeve; the bloodstains on the paper still matched the dent of the silver lock.
Cong Xiaoye then realized with a start: the "Heart of the Divine Deer" they were searching for was never the heart of a wild beast, but rather—
A sudden blizzard swept in outside the tent, and Song Xiaobai appeared at the tent entrance, the prayer wheel around her neck hanging down like a still heart. She gazed at the tortoise shell in Cong Xiaoye's hand and said softly, "On the full moon three days from now, when the ice on the sacred lake cracks... perhaps Sizi's fate should be chosen by her own hand."