Tuoba Feng looked at the mummified corpse in the tomb again.
Yellowish wind and sand poured in from the open tomb door, blowing against the tattered clothes on the mummified corpse.
The hem of her skirt swayed like a phantom that could vanish at any moment.
"You should leave too."
"The Western Region... will no longer have any grave-keepers."
"No one can suppress you anymore."
"You are free."
The mummified corpse shook her head.
She wouldn't leave.
She couldn't leave.
She walked to Tuoba Feng, reached out, and gently embraced him.
Then, she used all her strength to push Tuoba Feng toward the tomb door.
Tuoba Feng didn't expect the mummified corpse to suddenly strike, and his body moved backward uncontrollably, exiting the range of the tomb door.
"You—"
The mummified corpse did not give him a chance to speak.
Pitch-black sinful karma bound Tuoba Feng as she raised her hand, and the drops of Tuoba Feng’s blood she had collected earlier appeared in her palm.
The fresh blood floated in the air before she flicked it toward the tomb door.
"Buzz—!!!"
Blood-red light shot into the sky as a dull tremor echoed through the underground space.
The mummified corpse stood inside the tomb door, watching the bright red blood draw an ancient seal in the air.
She knew how strong this seal was; it was a curse carved into the very bones of the Grave-keeper clan for generations, and also their most powerful protection.
"I'm sorry."
"And... thank you."
Thank you for giving me a hundred years of warmth.
Thank you for making me believe that I was also loved.
Thank you for allowing a monster like me to experience the feeling of being "human."
Boom!!!
The ten-thousand-jin tomb door slammed shut completely, kicking up a cloud of dust.
The world was split in two.
Outside the door was the path of life, freedom, and the human world that the mummified corpse had secured for all living beings with her last strength.
Inside the door was hell, the end, and the fate that she and all the dead were destined to face alone.
A deathly silence fell within the god's tomb.
The trace of a living person had vanished, and for a moment, the black-spot monsters, having lost their target, stagnated.
Then, countless pairs of eyes turned in unison toward the center of the burial chamber.
There stood their only kind.
"Roar—!!!"
They roared and lunged forward like a black tide, instantly submerging the mummified corpse's thin figure.
The mummified corpse did not resist.
She slowly curled up her body like a child who had made a mistake, hugging her knees as she let those monsters crash into her body, tear at her rotting flesh, and burrow into the gaps in her bones.
So heavy.
With every monster that merged into her, her body grew a bit heavier.
That was the weight of sin, the resentment of all the living souls who had died on this land over the millennia.
It was supposed to be this way.
She was the source of the disaster, the progenitor of all misfortune.
A thousand years ago, if she hadn't inexplicably awakened from a corpse change, and if she hadn't carried those terrible black spots on her body.
The Grave-keeper clan wouldn't have died, the Western Region wouldn't have become a dead land, and those once-vibrant lives wouldn't have departed one by one.
She should have died long ago.
When the first Grave-keeper exhausted his blood to suppress her, she should have died.
When Tuoba Feng's father died in battle against the black-spot monsters to reinforce the seal and protect their homeland, she should have died too.
She was a greedy thief.
She had stolen these hundred years of time and stolen Tuoba Feng's companionship for these hundred years.
She remembered him telling her about the world outside when he was a child, remembered his gentle look when facing Xiaoyun, and remembered the way his face was etched with the vicissitudes of life after walking alone in the Western Region for a hundred years.
Enough.
It was truly enough.
"I am a sinner..."
The mummified corpse thought silently as black spots already covered her entire body, her consciousness began to blur, and her vision turned pitch black.
But just then, a strange throb suddenly came from deep within her eye sockets.
What was... that?
She felt the power within her body draining away frantically.
The black spots that had merged into her body were supposed to make her violent.
But now, they seemed to have turned into nourishment, flowing through some invisible channel toward a distant place.
Was she being devoured?
No, it felt more like they were returning.
It was her eyes.
The pair of eyeballs that had mysteriously disappeared when her consciousness first formed.
She had never seen them, nor had she ever sensed them.
But at this moment, she felt them clearly.
Those eyes were calling her.
They were greedily sucking her origin, sucking the power of these black spots.
This sensation was painful, as if a siphon had been inserted deep into her soul, sucking with force.
Her consciousness grew lighter, and her body colder.
Is this complete death?
How strange.
Hadn't she already died once?
What would it be like for a corpse that had already died once to die again?
Would both her soul and form be annihilated?
Would her soul scatter?
It didn't matter.
She deserved it anyway.
Would the thing that stole her eyes take away her sins along with them?
If... if my death can make these black spots vanish completely, so that there are no more monsters in the Western Region, so that Tuoba Feng can... live well.
Then take it.
Take it all.
The mummified corpse gave up her last resistance, curling up on the ground and completely transforming into a twisted monster composed of black spots, with no human form visible.
She waited for the final end, for the moment her soul would scatter.
Just then, an earth-shaking explosion erupted!
"Boom—!!!"
Debris flew, and dust filled the air.
A violent gust of air dispersed the death qi in the tomb.
The mummified corpse's blurred consciousness jolted, and she struggled to open her eyes, but she could only perceive three figures coming against the light.
The person in the lead was covered in blood.
His hands were already a bloody mess—the price of forcibly tearing open the seal.
"Tuoba Feng..."
Oh, she had forgotten again.
The seal of the god's tomb could block black spots and suppress divine remains, but how could it possibly block a Grave-keeper with the blood of a sinner?
The mummified corpse's soul was trembling.
Why come back?
Why come back to die?!
Behind him, the figures of Su Xue and Piao were particularly striking.
Orchids bloomed around Su Xue, and a golden divine seal vaguely emerged at the center of each petal, exuding a vast and majestic aura.
In Piao’s heterochromatic eyes, the golden eye grew increasingly brilliant, as if an ancient baleful god was opening a heaven-devouring mouth behind her.
So powerful...
So dazzling...
What kind of power was that?
The mummified corpse felt her broken remains tremble slightly as if in resonance.
The level of that power was so high, sacred and peerless, that it made her feel ashamed and want to hide in a crack in the ground, yet she couldn't help wanting to get closer.
But she didn't have time to think.
Tuoba Feng had already rushed to her.
"Get away!!"
Tuoba Feng let out an angry roar, his long blade swinging out and sending several black-spot monsters that tried to bite her flying.
He scooped up the mass on the ground that no longer looked human.
He didn't find it dirty, he didn't find it disgusting, and he wasn't afraid of infection.
He just held her tightly in his arms, using his back to block the claws lunging from all around.
The mummified corpse felt his warm chest and heard that intense heartbeat.
She also wanted to turn back and hug Tuoba Feng, but she no longer had any strength.
Rate on N.U.
