The Tomb of Lee Hyun (1)

***LEI***

We all looked at Wang Lu who was giving us a cheeky grin. It looked like he knew what was going on.

"Xiao Lu, better 'fess up." Seven said. "You know something, don't you? I am pretty sure I can manipulate almost any type of water, but the water in this spring is different."

"Well… If I must tell you then, Ren lives here."

""Ren?""

"Ah! That's right! Seventh younger brother, I forgot to tell you; this spring appeared a few months after you left!" Xue-jie voiced out. "And Little Black lives here!"

"Little Black?" I asked.

Seven seemed to have recognized the name because he started to groan. "Little Black is a black tortoise that lives in Mist Falls."

"A Black tortoise?" asked Leo. "As in one of the celestial animals in Chinese mythology? As in 'the' black tortoise?"

"No Leo it's not that guy. He's busy up the heavens these days so you can be assured with that. Little Black is one of his children and he doesn't have a snake around him like how the black tortoise is depicted in the myths. But he's pretty powerful." Xue-jie answered.

"Is he nice?" Calvin asked. "What? He's a magical beast, right?"

"A celestial beast Calvin." I retorted.

"I know that. So, is he nice?"

"Depends on how you define 'nice'. If you're asking if he will eat you if you disturb him then no, he's not nice. But he's not that bad as long as you don't get to his bad side. He's very close to one person though and I think he tagged along for that very reason. Am I right, Xiao Lu?"

At Xue-jie's words, we all gave Wang Lu a skeptical look again. He was only smiling like an idiot though.

"You got me san-jie[1]. Qi-ge[2] I was just worried about you guys. And I think san-jie came along for the same reason. Ren, Little Black, is my friend and he's one of the strongest spirits in Nimbus Forest. He became the tomb's guardian about five years ago so he's wary with humans. So, let me do the talking, okay?"

We all nodded our heads. Wang Lu stood at the edge of the spring and jumped in.

"He said he was friends with the guardian. He'll be fine, right?" asked Chen and clutched my sleeve, something he usually does when he's nervous or worried.

"He'll be fine Chen." I turned to Xue –jie. "Xue-jie, why is Xiao Lu friends with Little Black?"

"Xiao Lu is a spirit in human form."

Everyone stopped and looked at her with a confused expression. Even Seven looked shocked and he had known the kid longer than us.

"San-jie, explain." Seven said.

"Where to start… Ah! Two thousand years ago Hauria Celestine, the Maiden of the Moon, created this dimension to cater Shadow Garden. But even if it's a pocket dimension, it is still connected to earth and somehow became a realm of its own. This place even became self-sufficient, having its own circulating energy. Nimbus Forest has the highest concentration of energy. Mist Falls is a waterfall within Nimbus Forest and being exposed to that power for a long time, Little Black, developed powers of his own.

"He was originally just a regular tortoise but getting soaked up in waters of Mist Falls he became powerful and intelligent. He formed his own consciousness. We even thought he was really the child of the Black Tortoise, but there was something missing."

"The snake." Seven inserted. "The Black Tortoise is depicted as a tortoise with a snake encircling its body."

"But the two are depicted as one, right?" Leo asked.

"Well yes. And that's what we thought at first. We really thought that Little Black was just an overpowered turtle spirit. But five hundred years ago, a snake spirit started getting stronger in Nimbus Forest. And it wasn't that far from Mist Falls. And then that snake spirit's energy suddenly disappeared.

"Ten years ago, while investigating the sudden disappearance of the snake spirit's energy, first older brother found Wang Lu in this very area."

"Wang Lu was the snake spirit." Seven said in realization.

"I still don't get it." Coby muttered.

"Coby," Xue-jie called. "In conclusion, Little Black and Wang Lu are brothers. You can say they are descendants of the Black Tortoise and are one entity with two minds. Little Black is the turtle and Wang Lu is the snake. But ninth younger brother thinks he is human so he doesn't really question his origins."

We suddenly heard a splash and Wang Lu emerged from the water. He was dragging a thick chain behind him. He tugged it further and the ground suddenly rumbled. A few meters from the spring, the ground opened up and I saw stairs that led down.

"Errm…"

"Guys, I want you to meet someone!" Wang Lu exclaimed.

The water in the spring suddenly exploded and a young man who looked very identical to Wang Lu, only with black hair, walked out of it.

"Guys, this is Little Black, but he calls himself Ren. He took on my form as a base and transformed into a human."

"You look like twins." said Calvin, sounding a little amused.

"Hello. I'm Ren. From now on, please call me Wang Ren, Lu's brother. And with the contract I had with Lee Hyun, I am the guardian of his tomb."

"San-jie! Qin-jie! He can stay with me right? Right?" Wang Lu asked with his eyes sparkling.

"Well, we have to talk to the master first." Seven answered.

"Oh right. Okay."

He, Wang Ren, suddenly walked up to me.

"You look familiar. Your aura as well." he said and started sniffing me.

"Uhm…"

"Hey kid! What are you doing to my brother?" Chen intervened and pushed Wang Ren away.

"Sorry, I was just checking if he really is the same person. But it seems like he's not. Anyway, you are here for the clue to the location of the Codex of Souls right?"

"Yes."

"Very well. Twelve years ago, the Maiden of the Stars came here and took the codex that had been under Shadow Garden's care for the last two thousand years. She left a scroll that entails its current location." Wang Ren said. "That scroll is somewhere inside the tomb. Unfortunately…"

"What?"

"Only a descendant of Lee Hyun can take the scroll out of the tomb safely. And to navigate the tomb, you need someone who knows what he's doing." he stated and pointed towards us. "Do you have anyone like that?"

I pursed my lips. I was not able to take into account the possibility of having special circumstances to access the tomb.

"Then it should be fine." inserted Xue-jie. We all looked at her with a questioning look. "Seventh younger brother is Lee Hyun's descendant, and Lei and Chen are descendants of the Zhang family, a tomb raiding family."

Wang Ren fixed his gaze on me and my brother. "You two are part of the Zhang Family?"

""Yes.""

"I see. Well then. Li Xue Er, Wang Lu and I cannot go with you inside. But with the descendant of Lee Hyun and the members of the Zhang Family, then you should be fine."

"Do you have any map?"

Wang Ren only smiled and shrugged. So it meant no, he did not have a map. I gathered my brother and friends.

"In this tomb, we're going in blind so we have to be careful." I warned. "There must be clues on how to navigate the tomb within the tomb itself. We have to be very careful and very sharp at any signs that may catch our eyes, you understand?"

They all nodded.

"Let's do this then."

We slowly descended down the stairs which led deeper underground. Leading us was Coby who used his fire powers to light our way. I walked behind him to check our surroundings. Meanwhile Seven stayed in the rear. When we got to the bottom of the stairs, I noticed the unlit torches at the walls.

"Coby, light up those torches."

Coby did what I said and lighted the torch closest to us. But it seemed like we did not have to worry about light source because after the fire blazed on the torch, one by one the torches attached to the walls also stared to light up. I could see a thin line in the wall where the fire traveled to get to the other torches.

"It's pretty neat." I said.

I looked around and observed the tunnel we were in. There was only one path and if there were any traps they weren't obvious.

"Chen, powder." I called.

My younger brother stood next to me and blew the handful of white powder on his hand. I watched as the small particles sailed to the space in front of us. I breathed a sigh of relief when no strings were revealed.

"Leo, try to roll this stone to the other side in a zigzag formation." I said and showed a stone as big as my fist. I picked it up above ground while we were on our way to the center of Nimbus Forest.

"Okay."

Leo used his ability; telekinesis, and the stone moved to the path in a zigzag formation. Once it reached the other side, I asked Leo to bring it back but the zigzagging will be on another direction. The stone returned to where we were without activating any sort of traps.

"Strange." I muttered.

My eyes landed on Seven who was only watching what was going on. I called him over.

"What do you think?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"About this…" I motioned to the tunnel.

"It's…" he stared at the tunnel like he was in a trance and suddenly started walking.

""Seven!""

Seven reached the middle of the path then turned to us. "Come on. It's safe."

We looked at each other and followed him. We reached the big stone doors and I was again at a loss on how to open it. But Seven seemed to know what he was supposed to do. He placed a hand at the center of the stone doors and it swung open on its own.

We were greeted by a vast space filled with rows of shelves. Various scrolls and books rested on it but there was one problem…

"Hyung," Calvin called. "Do you know what we're looking for looks like?"

"Oh sweet bloody Mary…" Leo muttered beside me.

Right… We missed that one detail.