Chapter 59: The Jade of Wishes

In the next moment, Ma Yu abruptly lifted his head from the coffin, breaking free from the corpse’s grip and crouching at the coffin’s edge to vomit. He had swallowed several mouthfuls of the foul liquid that had soaked the body, and now every organ within him seemed to be writhing in agony, the stench of decay boring straight into his mind. Yet, there was not a trace of disgust or pain on Ma Yu’s face—on the contrary, a crazed smile stretched across his lips.

“Jade... Jade, the Wishing Jade! At last, I have you in my hands!”

Ma Yu gently caressed the gleaming green jade disc, as though touching the delicate skin of a lover. All the while, the black water in the coffin churned restlessly, as if something within it was struggling to break free.

At that very moment, a series of clattering noises echoed within the coffin. The masked monkeys, who had been relentlessly pursuing Bai Xian and Meng Dejun, halted at once at the sound, abandoning their chase and charging instead straight for Ma Yu by the coffin.

But Ma Yu did not so much as flinch. Rather, he began to recite the little poem inscribed on the stone tablet.

“A thousand prayers carried upon its surface, ten thousand threads of longing entwined within. Heaven and earth’s power lies in the jade, to unravel every hardship under the sun.”

Suddenly, the Wishing Jade blazed with radiant light, so dazzling that it stung the eyes. The swarm of monkeys squeezed their eyelids shut. When they opened them again, they saw that Ma Yu was now holding an “iron staff” in his hands.

In the next instant, tongues of fire spat forth from the “iron staff,” licking across the ground. The nearest dozen or so monkeys erupted with splashes of blood; wherever the muzzle swept, monkeys fell in droves.

Just as Bai Xian had said, no matter how fierce these creatures were, they were still just monkeys—how could they possibly withstand a rifle?

Bai Xian and Meng Dejun had already taken cover the moment Ma Yu produced the rifle. Bullets raked over their heads, and monkey corpses piled up on the altar. The surviving monkeys, seeing this, flung away their masks and scattered in terror.

“Holy crap, it’s an AK!” Meng Dejun clutched his head. “The mural was real—the Wishing Jade really can grant any wish!”

Bai Xian felt the air growing thick with the aura of monsters and demons, her brow knit tightly. She hadn’t expected the jade could even conjure firearms. But why, then, did everything conjured in the murals ultimately turn to filth?

She could not yet unravel the mystery.

On the altar, Ma Yu, having vented his fury, tossed aside the rifle. The jade in his hand glowed once more, and a massive stone block materialized from thin air, crushing down upon the awakened corpse in the coffin and forcing back the monkey corpse that had been about to emerge.

Having finished all this, Ma Yu’s expression gradually returned to normal. He straightened his hair, then pressed the jade disc reverently to his chest.

“At last, Xiaowei, at last you can return! Come back to me, come back to my world.”

“A thousand prayers carried upon its surface, ten thousand threads of longing entwined within. Heaven and earth’s power lies in the jade, to unravel every hardship under the sun.”

“Wishing Jade—bring my beloved back to life…”

As Ma Yu’s voice faded, a shaft of sunlight pierced the altar from an unknown source, as though opening a heavenly ladder to the realm of the gods. A faint, ethereal soul form slowly descended within the beam of light.

When her feet touched the summit of the altar, the spectral form began to solidify, until at last it became a gentle-featured young woman.

Xu Wei gazed at her own body in bewilderment, then looked up into the tear-streaked face of the gaunt young man before her.

“Ma… Ma Yu! Wasn’t I already dead?”

...

“My God! Professor Ma actually brought his fiancée back to life!” In the shadows, Meng Dejun whispered in astonishment, his eyes alight with a restless ambition. “The Wishing Jade is really this miraculous! It can even resurrect the dead. Do you think if I ask Professor Ma to grant my wish he’d agree?”

At this, Meng Dejun began to weigh the depth of his past friendship with Ma Yu.

Bai Xian looked at Meng Dejun as if he was a fool. “If it were truly that simple, do you think that ancient kingdom would have vanished overnight?”

“But didn’t the mural say they died after eating clay that turned to delicacies? We just have to avoid eating anything, right?”

Bai Xian replied, “Have you not thought about gold and jewels turning to sewage, or beautiful women becoming vengeful ghosts?”

Meng Dejun slapped his forehead. In his excitement, he had forgotten all about that. If, in the dead of night, the beauty summoned by his wish turned into a corpse, he might be scared to death even before any ghost could claim him.

But what was the trigger that made wishes turn to dust? Was it time? Or some kind of price?

Recalling the murals beneath the earth and the inscriptions on the tombstone, a bold hypothesis began to form in Bai Xian’s mind. She turned to Meng Dejun and asked, “Do you know how Ma Yu’s fiancée died?”

“I heard it was an accident during an archaeological dig…”

...

“Do you know how much I suffered waiting for you?” Ma Yu clung to the girl in his arms. “We will never be parted again! With the Wishing Jade, anything in this world is within reach—gold and jewels, rare delicacies, even immortality. We’ll live like gods and immortals together.”

“Does such a thing truly exist in this world?” Xu Wei looked curiously at the jade disc in Ma Yu’s hand. She reached out to touch it, but the man holding her tightened his arm with a sudden shudder, quickly hiding the jade where she could not see.

“Of course it does. From now on, the whole world will belong to us.”

Xu Wei’s face froze for a moment, but she closed her eyes, savoring the embrace of her beloved after all these years apart.

Just then, Ma Yu’s gaze flickered down to the foot of the altar.

“My dear, wait here a moment while I take care of a bothersome fly.”

With that, Ma Yu released Xu Wei’s waist and slowly raised the Wishing Jade.

“I’ll give you a choice—leave, or die!”

Bai Xian smiled coldly, but her feet never ceased their motion. Only a few more steps and she would enter the range of the Immobilization Spell.

But it was too late. The jade’s radiance flared yet again. A massive, round boulder appeared from nowhere and came crashing down from above.

Bai Xian’s heart gave a start. Such a huge stone—no spear could withstand it. She could only dodge to the lower side. Yet as soon as she evaded the first, a second, third, and fourth followed in quick succession. The thunderous crashes blended together.

She dodged two of the giant stones, but was finally pinned beneath the third. With a tremendous crash, all fell silent.

Satisfied, Ma Yu withdrew his attention. But from behind the giant stones, Bai Xian’s gentle voice drifted out.

“Thirteen years ago, at the foot of the Heavenly Mountains, in a limestone cavern, Xu Wei slipped and fell to her death… Ma Yu, do you remember what it was like when you found her body?”

Ma Yu’s expression changed. The terrifying scene of finding Xu Wei’s corpse at the bottom of the cave all those years ago flashed through his mind—a memory long buried, now unearthed by Bai Xian’s single remark.

But he couldn’t fathom her purpose. Did she think he would surrender everything for such a simple phrase?

Just as he raised the Wishing Jade, intent on ending Bai Xian for good, a strange and familiar sound reached his ears—the exact same noise as thirteen years ago, when Xu Wei’s bones struck the cave walls and her flesh was torn apart by the rocks.

Disbelieving, Ma Yu slowly turned. Terror and horror twisted his features.

The slender, graceful Xu Wei who had been standing by his side, had vanished without a trace.

In her place was a heap of shattered, rotting flesh, protruding bones piercing through the skin, and viscera and brain matter scattered everywhere.

It was almost exactly the scene from thirteen years before.