Afterlife Department

Chapter 289 – Entity

The corners of Yi Bing's lips were pulled down and he sneered as he lowered his head after he was done looking above them. 

"Hey? What's wrong?" Huo Ling called as he pulled Yi Bing's sleeve. "Did you see or hear something?" he asked before his face paled again. "Is it… is it something horrible?" he asked. "Did you see something… strange?" he clutched tightly at Yi Bing's sleeve. "Hey… say something!" he told him. His eyes are watery because of the unshed tears from being scared. 

Although Yi Bing finds the present Huo Ling cute, but he can't tease him anymore. "No." he answered. 

"Eh…?" Huo Ling muttered. Suddenly, he thought of something.. "Wait… could it be my friends?" he asked as his eyes lit up. "Did you see them? Where are they?" he asked. 

Yi Bing raised his head and turned to Huo Ling. "Five hundred feet above us." He answered. 

"Huh?" Huo Ling felt he has become deaf. "Sorry, could you repeat that?" he asked. He thought he had heard Yi Bing wrong. Five hundred feet above them? Is Yi Bing kidding him? There's already no air five hundred feet below the ground! 

Yi Bing 'kindly' repeated it. "Your friends… they are five hundred feet above us." He told Huo Ling. 

"Huh?" Huo Ling's mind finally really crashed. "HUH?! WHAT?! 'five hundred feet'… you're kidding!" he said as he hit Yi Bing's chest. "How can they be five hundred feet above us?!" he asked. 

Yi Bing also thought about it before he rephrased his words. "Your friends… we are five hundred feet below them." He told Huo Ling. 

Huo Ling felt the cogs in his brain have broken apart. "… what?" he muttered under his breath as he stared at Yi Bing in shock. "Five hundred feet… we're five hundred feet… under… ground…" his eyes widened. "You don't mean – " he said. 

Yi Bing nodded. He finally could tell Huo Ling the bad news. "Yes. You're dead – " he said. 

" – I have reached the central part of the tomb?!" Huo Ling excitedly exclaimed as he looked at Yi Bing with sparkling eyes in excitement. 

It was Yi Bing's mind turn to crash. "… huh?" he muttered as he looked at Huo Ling with a strange gaze. … fck. He thought as he finally figured it out. This is the most idiotic Huo Ling he has met. 

"Oh, my god! So, this is really the priestess' corpse?!" Huo Ling was shocked as he looked at the female corpse on top of the table. He then turned to Yi Bing with an extremely serious expression. "I'm really, really sorry for earlier." He said. "I was already used to my father's and grandfather's tricks, and this matter just coincided with my birthday, so I thought you're an actor they hired, as well as the priestess as the actress they hired…" he explained and continued to ramble about his family's history. 

Huo Ling's family is one of the families that the ancestors were once grave robbers. Their family's wealth mainly came from the wealth that they amassed from grave robbing in the past. However, as time passed, only a few people from these families are doing grave robbing. However, in this modern time, they call it 'archaeological project'. They go to ancient tombs to study them for the country, and the treasures they'll find, they will hand to the government. 

Yi Bing stared blankly at Huo Ling before he raised his hand and… slowly, placed it on his forehead. He felt an incoming headache even though grim reapers don't get biologically sick. He felt like Anna and Kristoff is playing in his mind. He's internally debating whether he should break the news to Huo Ling, telling Huo Ling that he is already dead. 

Suddenly, his narrowed eyes because of headache twitched and he pulled Huo Ling's arm. 

"Huh? What? What's wrong?" Huo Ling asked as he turned to Yi Bing. "Oh, right. I seem to forgot something – " he said as he pondered for a second. "Right. You're not an actor hired by my family to put a show for me. Neither is the priestess. Then, you are really…" he said as his voice suddenly slowed. His eyes widened and his mouth opened wide as he stared at Yi Bing in shock. "Y-y-you… you're really… really – !" he said as he pointed a finger to Yi Bing. 

Yi Bing grabbed his finger and pressed his hand down. 

"You're really a ghost?!" Huo Ling exclaimed as his fingers gripping Yi Bing's sleeve loosened. He took a step back with a horrified expression. 

Yi Bing. "…" too fcking slow… too freaking naïve… what to do with this Huo Ling? He thought as he face-palmed a hundred times in his mind. "Never mind that." He said and dragged Huo Ling away. "Let's go leave." He told him. 

"W-what?!" Huo Ling was shocked. "No! I'm not going with a ghost!" he told Yi Bing and stopped with feet moving. He also tried to pulled his arm from Yi Bing's grasp. 

However, Yi Bing's hand is like an iron grip. "You won't go away with a ghost, but want to stay in this ghostly place instead?" he asked. He didn't give Huo Ling a chance to speak as he raised him up and placed him on his shoulder like a sack. "Either way, there are ghosts. So, choose where there is a lesser number of ghost: me." He told him. He took a step before he stopped. "Right. I already said I am not a ghost." He added. 

"No! NO! NO!" Huo Ling shouted as he hit Yi Bing's broad back with his fists. "I'm not leaving! I'm not leaving!" he said. "Even if you're not a ghost, but you're no better than a ghost!" he told him. 

Hearing his words, Yi Bing's feet stopped. "What did you say?" he asked. 

Huo Ling, noticed something wrong, immediately changed his words to preserve his life. "I – I mean, I don't even know who you are, really. Only your name." he explained. "Might as well be a ghost – " eh muttered in a low voice. 

However, who is Yi Bing? "I'm not a ghost, but…" he said as he turned to look at Huo Ling at the same time Huo Ling turned to look at him. He flashed a handsome smile, but his words are not the least bit pretty. "I'm worse than a ghost." He told him before he resumed walking. 

Huo Ling felt like his brain crashed again as he felt his brain currently couldn't process what Yi Bing said. 'worse than a ghost'? What do those words mean? What's worse than a ghost? 

Yi Bing felt Huo Ling's body stiffened and he stifled his laughter. However, he felt he couldn't laugh again when he saw a figure appeared at the end of the hallway. "… tch." He clicked his tongue when he felt the dangerous aura. 

"Hm? What's wrong?" Huo Ling asked when he noticed Yi Bing stopped. 

Yi Bing didn't answer and just looked at the figure standing at the end of the hallway opposite them. He has wasted so much time bickering with Huo Ling he had forgotten about this troublesome entity. Well, calling him an 'entity' is very insulting since Philip is a human, unlike Yi Bing who is neither a human nor a ghost. 

'entity' is more suitable to call Yi Bing than Philip. 

Philip glanced at Huo Ling lying on his stomach on the shoulder of Yi Bing, wriggling like a worm as he tried to escape from Yi Bing. "Where is his body?" he asked. 

"Oh?" the corner of Yi Bing's lip curled up. "My kind may be worse than yours, but you are more ruthless than us." He said. The 'you' he is referring to is a collective pronoun, but he isn't referring to Philip as a human. He is referring to Philip's identity. 

"Huh? Who are you talking to?" Huo Ling asked, unaware of the smoke of the gunpowder in the air. He tried to turn, but Yi Bing forced his head to remain unmoving. 

But, that didn't stop Huo Ling from hearing Philip's voice earlier. Huo Ling is slightly keen in sounds in this life, thus he identified Philip's voice. 

"Philip?!" Huo Ling was surprised. He tried to turn, but Yi Bing remained unmoving. And so, he was forced to talk to Philip with his back facing Philip. "Philip, why are you here?" he asked. "Are the others also here? How is Rourou? Did something happen to her?" he fired questions to Philip. "Philip?" he called when Philip didn't answer him. 

Instead, Philip talked to Yi Bing again. "Where is his body?" he asked. Huo Ling's body is very important. 

"What? What body are you talking about?" Huo Ling asked. "Philip, are you referring to the body of the priestess of this tomb? Wow, you're so smart! The priestess' body was preserved, so it is rude for us to call it a 'corpse'." He said. "Philip, the priestess' body is ahead of this hallway. Just go straight – " he told him. 

Yi Bing can't help listening anymore. "He's not talking about the priestess." He told him. 

"Huh? Then, what body is he talking about?" Huo Ling asked. 

"Your body."