Wild Creatures

Chapter 131

Baoshan Sanren watched how Lan Zhan got Da Tuzi to switch off the water supply, and how carefully he lifted Wei Ying up so he could remove the staff from the wizard...and, oh!

"A-Ying, that's the Necromancer! The necklace of skulls!" She points to the very dramatic scene depicted on top of the fountain, the design ordered and installed by her daughter and son-in-law.

"Oh! Gosh, fuck it, grandma! You're right!" Wei Ying crows as Lan Zhan puts him down. "And then, could it mean that the dragon is a metaphor for vampires? They would be the apex predator, right? Despite legends of saints killing them, if they existed, humans would be no match for a dragon in this day and age, not counting explosives."

Meanwhile, the pizza size segment of the circular base separated away from the main structure, revealing the deep, dark hole and the beginning of the twenty step stairs.

"Wow!" She comes to stand next to Lan Zhan, who hasn't let go of Wei Ying yet, and furthermore, doesn't look like he's going to, either. "It's one thing to hear about this setup, and another thing entirely to see it with my own eyes. Well done, A-Ying, A-Zhan, for figuring it out."

Carefully, they make their way down the precarious steps, mindful of the razor sharp edges and how much it would hurt if they suddenly stumbled or lost their balance. Wei Ying is ever so aware of his grandmother's sharp eyes watching him as he uses the locket and his blood to gain entry inside the musty smelling room.

"It was very clever of my husband to use the blood as part of the key," she comments as the door slides open without even a squeak from the aged mechanism.

"I think it was another play on words, grandma. Otherwise, why call it a HeartStone aside from the shape, when the heart is the main organ to transport blood all over the body? Plus, I had a dream, but I must have forgotten it, and I only remembered bits and pieces of it when I came here." Wei Ying and Lan Zhan step back and let Baoshan Sanren walk in first.

They've been here before, and they know what it looks like inside, so they're both watching the wonder grow in those silver eyes, common to both grandson and grandmother, widen as she looks around.

Baoshan Sanren's sharp eyes take in the electric lights flickering into life above them, throwing long shadows onto the walls and across the multitude of weapons hanging up. The wooden work bench is covered in dust, adjoining the circular wall around the room, and it looks unbroken at first glance. Indeed, Wei Ying had thought it was so, until his grandmother marched up to a certain point and began to feel underneath for something.

"Grandma?" He asks her, coming to stand next to her.

"Aha!" She lets out a little cry of jubilation, at the same time. "There's a stopper here," she reveals, sliding it open and lifting up part of the bench like a trap door.

Even after so long, it opens smoothly, and now the three of them are facing an empty wall.

"Why aren't there any weapons hung up in this section?" She muses, tapping the side of her nose. "There must be a reason, right?"

Wei Ying shivered for a second, a sudden chill whispering down his spine. He gets that strange feeling of deja vu once again, and it prompts him to ask his grandmother a question.

"Is the outer surface smooth, Grandma?"

Both her hands begin to feel the wall, and she closes her eyes so her fingers can see better, rather than letting her eyes fall for the certain illusion that there is nothing here. Her gut tells her that there's definitely something here, and she winds up tapping on the wall, in two places.

There are two different sounds.

"It's hollow? On the other side?" Wei Ying paces behind her, not expecting anyone to answer. "That's two clues for sure, the fact that there IS a trapdoor means someone needs to get past the bench. And it's definitely hollow, and that could only mean one thing."