Keeper | The Lost Tomb Fanfiction

Zhang Qiling

Chapter 48: Zhang Qiling

Steady footsteps resounded in the dark hallway. The space to walk through the hallway is enough for three men to walk side by side. Only the lamps on the wall light the pathway, showing a hall made of stones.

A figure walked and his figure was seen due to the lights. He was wearing a black jacket and pants. With a sword tightly held by his left hand, he strolled into the hallway with vigilance as he looked around the place.

Zhang Qiling doesn't know how long he has been since he fell in this place, but it should be far more than a week. Including the days that he must have been asleep due to the scent he smelled before he fell into this place.

When he woke up, he found himself lying on a bed inside a room. It was a normal room, with a bed, closet, and a bedside table but aside from that, a blank scroll hung on the wall. He tried to examine it as the scroll was made of special material but even after looking at it for half a day, he did not notice anything special aside from the material.

After leaving that room, he spent his days walking through countless hallways for more than five days. He seems to be in a maze, going on and on around in a circle. Up to this day, he has been through different doors with mechanisms and rooms filled with different things such as rooms full of gold, artifacts, jade and wooden slips, or main bedroom and guest rooms.

But aside from that, he saw random pictures painted on the walls. Sometimes it was a black cloud on a village or a bolt of lightning brought by a strong rain dropping on all mountains. It could also be a picture of people in a procession or animals sleeping on their nests. Either way, it was something normally seen everywhere outside this place, but can be said to be strange to find inside. Based on his observation of the place, it should be owned by a wealthy person or perhaps a person with a noble title in the past as just the room full of gold is enough to feed the country for a whole year. So it was strange to find most of the things in this place are ordinary.

His figure walks straight along the path and finally stops at another closed door. He raised his hand and traced the engravings on the door using his abnormally long index and middle finger. Stopping at a dent, he pushed it hard and the sound of a secret mechanism rolling filled the figure's hearing. He takes back his fingers and looks at the small slit on his index finger. It was odd at first, as he was able to open the door with his blood but as he was able to open all the doors using it and he healed fast, so he has grown used to it. Perhaps it's a mere coincidence but his instincts told him it is not. Either way, it is not something he is focused on at the moment.

Zhang Qiling watched as the door opened slowly and a dark room greeted his sight. After looking around for a possible threat, he entered the room with ease when he found nothing and heard the sound of the door automatically closing. Ignoring it, he used a flashlight to illuminate his way and focused on the center of the room, where the only thing inside the room is a yellow candle that is placed on what he thinks is a bronze platform.

Oddly enough, aside from the candle, no objects can be seen in the room aside from its flat wall that was made of jade. He walked over and used his gloved hand to take it before raising it at eye level. When he closely examined the candle, he found nothing special about the object. But as he was about to put it away, he saw something dark inside the candle. He took out a match from his pocket before lighting up the candle and putting it back in its previous place.

Suddenly, the room changed as a golden yellow light filled the room. Text scripts of unknown languages filled the walls, and pictures can be seen on the ceiling. Zhang Qiling saw this and was not surprised by it. What surprised him is that he cannot read or even understand what is projected on the walls and ceiling, something unimaginable for someone like him. Of all the years he was traveling from one tomb to another and one historical place to another, whether he can remember those or not, there has never been a script that he can't recognize, everything was easy for him to read and understand. But this one leaves him clueless and that makes him curious enough.

When he took another look at what was around him and found that he really can't read the script, he looked for a suitable position and sat down on the floor before taking out a pen and a notebook from his bag. He felt himself smiling, as he also saw colored pencils. Usually, these are not the things that can be found inside his backpack but when Wu Xie knew he needed to leave, he prepared the bag for him and these things are included, something he only noticed after he rummaged through his belongings when he boarded the train.

Not something he would normally do, Zhang Qiling started copying the script from the wall to the notebook. He remembers Wu Xie likes to study these kinds of things and bringing this back would definitely make him happy. Besides, he finished surveying the room. If he is right, the only exit is the door he entered, and the thing inside the candle is probably the key to getting out. Although he can do something to get the object from inside the candle faster, he felt a sense of satisfaction at the thought of Wu Xie's reaction when he showed him this. He chuckles at the thought of Wu Xie's curiosity about unknown things, and by showing these, Wu Xie would definitely not stop studying these as long as he cannot figure it all out. But it does not matter, as long as he and Pangzi are there to remind him to rest properly, it would be alright.

Snapping out of his thoughts, he went back to his writing. The more he wrote it down the more it came to him as a surprise that even though he cannot read the text scripts, it was actually easy for him to write them down in a notebook. His hand moves fluidly as if he wrote this text script before as if it was something he has been practicing writing for so many years.

A long time has passed, and page by page is being filled until Zhang Qiling is finished. He decided to draw the things on the ceiling last and was satisfied as it came out perfectly the same as it was drawn in the ceiling.

Last summer, Wu Xie taught him how to draw when there was a time that he became bored of going outside their house. So Wu Xie pulled him and Pangzi for an art lesson, and because of that, Zhang Qiling did not leave the village to travel outside and concentrated on the spontaneous art class. It was a fun memory, something he does not want to forget and wants to engrave in his mind.

Seeing as he is finished, he put away his things and walked toward the middle of the room again. He saw the candle was only one-third left of its previous length, so he took his dagger and slashed at it.

After a few seconds, only the round object remains on the platform. He took it and looked closely, only to find the object was made of bronze. He used his gloved hand to take it and was pricked, causing a small amount of blood to stain the object. Although he frowns at seeing this, he ignored the cut and put the object away as the sound of the door opening filled the room again.

Sure enough, it was the entrance he walked into. Without hesitation, he strides toward the door and leaves the room to walk out of the open door. But as he looked around, he was surprised at the sight that greeted him.