Chapter 10: Coiling Dragon, Azure Phoenix

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The Little Brother reacted at once. The moment Zhang Wuxun finished uttering the first syllable, he shot forward, grabbed Wu Xie and Da Kui, who were sprawled in a heap, and sprinted toward the passage behind the coffin.

Third Uncle Wu cursed and, together with Pan Zi, who had finally come to his senses, ran for his life.

Especially when they heard the coffin lid crash to the ground behind them, the two men wished they could grow ten more legs to help them run.

Once they had rushed into the passage, Zhang Wuxun, who had been waiting nearby, spun around and delivered a sweeping kick to the blood corpse that came shrieking after them.

He put every ounce of strength into it. The blood corpse went flying backward and slammed into its own stone coffin with a tremendous crash, knocking the coffin a considerable distance across the floor.

After his black-footed ambush succeeded, Zhang Wuxun had no intention of lingering for a fight. Carrying the things he had snatched, he tore down the passage and soon caught up with the Little Brother and the others.

A robbers’ tunnel suddenly appeared ahead.

Pan Zi jumped into it and rolled across the ground to bleed off his momentum. Then he hurriedly switched on the wolf-eye flashlight hanging from his waist and swept the beam around. Only after confirming that there was no danger did he call for the others to jump down.

Zhang Wuxun brought up the rear. The moment he landed, he scanned the area, then began stuffing a moderately sized bronze vessel into the tunnel while calling for the others to help.

“Hurry! Use mud to seal the gaps. The blood corpse isn’t dead yet. It’ll be tracking our scent here any moment.”

The Little Brother hurried over to help Zhang Wuxun hold up the bronze vessel. Third Uncle Wu and the others quickly poured water onto the soil beneath the tunnel, mixing it into mud and smearing handfuls into the gaps between the vessel and the tunnel walls.

One handful after another, they soon sealed the gaps tight.

“Shh!” The Little Brother raised an index finger to his lips, signaling everyone to keep quiet.

Clomp, clomp—

Through the wall, they heard the blood corpse’s heavy footsteps drawing closer.

Then, all at once, the sound vanished.

Wu Xie hurriedly covered his mouth and nose. His heart pounded wildly, nearly leaping out of his throat.

The Little Brother placed a hand on the hilt of his knife and held his breath. Silently, he pressed his ear close to the wall, listening intently to the sounds outside.

Zhang Wuxun likewise rested a hand on the mechanism lock of the ebony box, ready to act.

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No one knew how much time passed before the heavy footsteps sounded again. This time they were moving farther away, and at great speed. Clearly, something had lured the blood corpse away.

Zhang Wuxun lit a candle in his heart for the unlucky soul that had been forced to take the blame, mourning him for two full seconds.

Only when the Little Brother’s taut body relaxed and he turned around to sit down did everyone finally come back to themselves. They realized that they were drenched in cold sweat, and a wave of fear swept over them in retrospect.

“Damn it all.” Third Uncle Wu cursed under his breath. He pointed at Zhang Wuxun and Pan Zi, his face twisted with anger. Zhang Wuxun was an outsider, so he had no authority to lecture him; all he could do was berate Pan Zi.

“Are you out of your mind? You think that thing was easy to take? You’d rather have money than your life, is that it...?”

He continued for quite some time, and Pan Zi’s head drooped lower and lower until it seemed ready to burrow into the ground.

Zhang Wuxun listened to the old man’s veiled reproaches with his left ear and let them out through his right, paying not the slightest attention.

Only after Third Uncle Wu had talked himself hoarse and paused to catch his breath did Zhang Wuxun shine his flashlight into his pocket for him to see.

“Look. See that? A pair of jade bottles, each carved with coiling dragons and phoenixes with twin ears. Just look at the quality of the jade and the craftsmanship. A single one would be worth at least a million, wouldn’t it? And this is a matching pair.”

Third Uncle Wu had spent many years looting tombs. His eye was both discerning and exacting, so he could naturally recognize that the jade bottles were extraordinary.

“You little bastard.” Third Uncle Wu laughed as he scolded him. “I honestly can’t tell whether you’re lucky or unlucky.”

Zhang Wuxun gave a sheepish grin. “You fellows only got dragged into this because of me. I’m not keeping everything for myself. Everyone who saw them gets a share.”

Third Uncle Wu was not one to dither. After thinking briefly, he said, “I won’t take advantage of you. We’ll split it thirty-seventy. Thirty for me, seventy for you.”

“Deal.” Zhang Wuxun nodded.

How Third Uncle Wu intended to divide his thirty percent was none of Zhang Wuxun’s concern.

In truth, with these two treasures alone, the trip had already been worthwhile.

But Third Uncle Wu clearly had other objectives.

Zhang Wuxun’s appearance had undoubtedly disrupted his plans.

After settling their nerves, the group finally began examining the tomb chamber where they had ended up.

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Pan Zi had only taken a rough glance earlier and had not examined the place carefully. Now, after looking around, he let out an astonished cry.

“Good Lord, why are there so many coffins?”

The tomb chamber was enormous. Side chambers flanked it on both sides, while numerous stone coffins stood in the middle. Their material and dimensions were similar to those of the stone chamber that had housed the blood corpse earlier. They appeared to be arranged haphazardly, yet a closer look revealed something peculiar about the pattern.

The ceiling was covered in grand, intricate murals, while every wall was lined with inscribed stone slabs. Wu Xie was most interested in these. He immediately grabbed his miner’s lamp and hurried over to examine them.

Zhang Wuxun walked up to the first stone coffin and shone his flashlight over the inscriptions, carefully trying to make them out. He recognized more than half of nothing at all, managing only to vaguely distinguish references to ghost soldiers and something called a ghost seal. The more he looked, the more baffled he became.

“Little Innocent, come take a look and tell me what this says,” Zhang Wuxun called to Wu Xie.

In the notes, Wu Xie was the brains of the trio. He had a profound knowledge of ancient scripts and knew far more than the others.

“Who’s Little Innocent? Me?” Wu Xie asked, pointing at himself in confusion. When Zhang Wuxun nodded, he rolled his eyes in exasperation, carried his miner’s lamp over, and stared at the inscription for a while.

“Oh,” he said. “It more or less records the life of the owner of this stone coffin and his accomplishments. The master of this tomb was a feudal lord of the State of Lu. He possessed a ghost seal capable of borrowing ghost soldiers from the underworld. It was extremely powerful, so the Duke of Lu eventually granted him the title of Prince Lu of Grief.”

Zhang Wuxun nodded, then pressed him. “What happened afterward?”

“Afterward, he passed away peacefully.”

Zhang Wuxun raised an eyebrow. “That’s it?”

Wu Xie shrugged. “That’s what it says. Apparently, Prince Lu of Grief owed the underworld a favor, so they recruited him as a civil servant to work off his debt.”

Zhang Wuxun nodded and did not dwell on it. According to the notes, the true corpse of Prince Lu of Grief was not here anyway. Whether the man had ascended to heaven or descended into the underworld was irrelevant. What Zhang Wuxun truly cared about was the ghost seal.

That was connected to the Little Brother’s ten-year vigil at the Bronze Gate later on.

The contents of the other stone coffins were largely the same, and Zhang Wuxun was not particularly interested in them.

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