Chapter 286

Chapter 286: No way, no way?

Yu Zhi Yi suddenly asked: “Is it okay now?”

Jiang Liu Bin froze and said: “What?” Then he realized she meant digging into the Heaven-Climbing Steps.

He hesitated and muttered: “This is no small matter…” Jiang Liu Yun could not hold back and said in a mocking tone: “No way, no way, as the Martial Alliance Leader’s son, you aren’t going to break your word, are you?”

He added with a snort: “You aren’t just a sore loser, right?”

The sarcasm was obvious. Jiang Liu Bin’s face twitched as he squeezed out: “You’re the sore loser!” He was still a teenager and could not stand a dare, so he said coldly: “I want to see what this wild girl can dig up.”

He warned again: “But listen: you must not disturb the foundation of the Heaven-Climbing Steps. If anything happens to them, even if I forgive you, my father won’t.”

Jiang Liu Yun snorted and said: “My sister would never let the Heaven-Climbing Steps have a problem.” He was already a total fanboy for his sister, and after seeing Yu Zhi Yi’s breathtaking lightness skill, he was even more devoted. In his mind, anything his sister wanted to do could not go wrong. And even if something did go wrong, it would never be her fault.

Before long, a dozen bodyguards followed Yu Zhi Yi’s orders and split into three teams. They started digging at the very bottom, the very top, and at a chosen spot along the middle section’s side of the Heaven-Climbing Steps.

Jiang Liu Yun asked with shining eyes: “Sister, what exactly is buried under here?”

Yu Zhi Yi answered calmly: “A very vicious kind of formation.”

Soon all three teams uncovered something at the same time. No one dared touch what lay in the pits, because it was eerie.

Each pit held the exact same kind of red oilcloth bundle. When the oilcloth was opened, the things inside were different. The bundle at the foot of the mountain contained several bones that looked like human leg bones. The one dug out around the middle held a few ribs, two human arms, and some other bones from an unknown part. The one at the top was the clearest of all: it was a human head.

Jiang Liu Bin watched the skull being lifted from the pit, then heard his men report what the other two bundles contained. His scalp prickled. He did not believe in ghosts and gods, but any decent person would feel a natural fear and respect when facing human remains. He could not believe someone dared bury such unlucky things near the Heaven-Climbing Steps, so he leaped, intending to check the torso and arms at the middle.

Yu Zhi Yi’s eyes narrowed. The instant Jiang Liu Bin jumped, she clearly saw several invisible black threads stretch out from the Heaven-Climbing Steps. The threads whipped around his legs and yanked down.

Jiang Liu Bin felt his feet sink. The lightness skill that always came so easily suddenly would not work. His eyes went wide as his face pitched toward the steps.

That was not even the scariest part. The truly scary thing was that some unseen force seemed to be steering his body. By his fall angle, he should have just hit the steps and landed. If his feet touched down, he would be hurt a little by the drop but nothing serious, and he could stop himself from sliding further.

But his feet could not touch the steps at all. His body kept flinging past them toward the ground hundreds of meters below.

Jiang Liu Yun yelped: “What’s going on? Is this brat trying to fake an injury?”

Jiang Liu Yi saw at once that something was wrong. Without thinking, he flashed down, reached Jiang Liu Bin’s side in a blink, and grabbed his brother’s arm. With Jiang Liu Yi’s help, the invisible force that had bound Jiang Liu Bin vanished at once. Still badly shaken, he let Jiang Liu Yi set him on the Heaven-Climbing Steps, then haul him up by the collar. In a short while they were back beside Yu Zhi Yi and the others.

Jiang Liu Yun rolled his eyes hard and said: “With skills that shaky, you dared mock my sister? Tch.”

Jiang Liu Bin’s soul had not quite returned to his body, so he did not even react. Jiang Liu Yun was about to say more, but Jiang Liu Yi stopped his foolish brother, then took off the jade pendant at his waist and said: “Look.”

Everyone looked at his hand. Jiang Liu Bin also came back to himself and stared, puzzled. Jiang Liu Yun widened his eyes and said: “Brother, why has your jade pendant faded? What did you do to it?” When their sister had first taken out the pendant, the whole family had seen it. The jade was top grade, the color even and beautiful, and even without direct light it seemed to glow faintly green. Now, the pendant still looked lovely, but in the sun it no longer shone much.

Jiang Liu Yi placed the pendant in his brother’s palm. Jiang Liu Yun jumped as if burned and did not dare throw it away, shouting: “Hot, so hot!”

Jiang Liu Yi looked to Yu Zhi Yi and asked: “Jin’er, what is going on?”

[When Jiang Liu Yi moved to save him, I already knew Jiang Liu Bin’s death trial would not happen today.] Yu Zhi Yi sighed inwardly. [His family’s ties to the Martial Alliance are too deep. Of course they won’t watch Alliance Leader Jiang’s whole family die.] She had already given them the pendant; how they used it was their business now.

She explained evenly: “Someone set a Misfortune-Gathering Formation on the Heaven-Climbing Steps. ‘Mei’ means bad luck. As the name says, everyone who uses the Heaven-Climbing Steps will pick up misfortune.”

She pointed at the bundles and said: “The medium used to set the formation is the bones of a person who suffered constant bad luck in life. The misfortune is stained with yin energy. If someone has strong fortune and does not come here often, picking up that misfortune and yin once or twice is not a big deal. But for people with weak fortune, or people who must use the Heaven-Climbing Steps often, the misfortune and yin build up year after year. As I said before, the light result is bad luck dogging you and bloodshed following. The heavy result is a ruined family and deaths.”

She looked to the pendant and said: “This jade pendant wards off evil. When Brother just went to save him, even though Jiang Liu Bin was wrapped in misfortune, that misfortune and yin fear the Evil-Repelling Talisman. Ordinary evil-repelling talismans lose their power after use. They either fade or crumble to ash. The pendants I gave you are much stronger. After use, they only fade and heat up.”