Chapter 9: The Blood Corpse of Fang Ding

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When it came to locating burial chambers, Uncle Wu was an old hand. He took Pan Zi and Da Kui off to work, while Zhang Wuxun and the others stayed by the fire to watch.

After all, Zhang Wuxun knew nothing about it. Going over there would only mean getting in the way.

As for Wu Xie, there was no need to mention him. After nearly a full day on the road, he was already nodding off like a pecking chick.

And Little Brother… Zhang Wuxun imagined him bent over with his backside in the air, grunting as he dug through the earth.

No. He couldn’t take it.

It was far too destructive to his image.

Nearly half an hour later, the tunnel was finished.

Uncle Wu came over and saw his eldest nephew looking ready to drop from exhaustion. After thinking for a moment, he said, “We’ll go down earlier tomorrow. Get some rest tonight and recover our strength.”

There were tents ready for them, one per person, so there was no problem at all.

At four in the morning, Zhang Wuxun was roused by a rustling sound.

When he went outside, he saw that Uncle Wu and the others were already packing the things they would need.

Little Brother also emerged from his tent, a pack on his back and his knife in hand.

Pan Zi went to wake Wu Xie. Zhang Wuxun packed his own bag, tied up his hair with a peachwood hairpin, took the ebony box in his left hand, and carried two self-heating meals and a bag of yak jerky in his right. He walked over and handed them to Little Brother.

Little Brother merely lifted his eyes and glanced at him, making no move to take them.

Zhang Wuxun held them out without moving, thinking, Let’s see who can outlast the other.

Little Brother pressed his lips together and let out a soft sigh. In the end, he reached out, took the food, and put it into his backpack.

Zhang Wuxun raised his brows, satisfied.

He knew that after entering, Little Brother would spend some time acting alone. With his damned habit of bleeding himself at the slightest provocation, there was no way compressed biscuits would be enough.

Carrying mining lamps, the group descended into the hole they had dug the night before.

The space below was quite large, more than enough for everyone to stand.

Da Kui took up his pickaxe, preparing to break through the section of brick wall they had cleared the previous day.

“Don’t.”

Little Brother’s sudden voice startled Da Kui. He turned around and met Little Brother’s sharp gaze, then immediately fell silent.

Little Brother stepped forward and extended the middle and index fingers of his right hand, feeling along the seams between the bricks.

“There’s an anti-theft compartment inside. When removing the bricks, they can only be pulled outward. Don’t push them in, and don’t smash them.”

As he spoke, his fingers stopped at a certain spot. He suddenly exerted force.

With a scrape, his fingers actually thrust into the gap between the bricks. Then, relying only on those two fingers, he pulled the brick free.

Pan Zi and the others stared in stunned disbelief.

“Inside the wall is the alum acid once used in alchemy. The moment the barrier is broken, it will pour all over us.” Little Brother pointed toward the layer of dark-red wax behind the brick.

Wu Xie swallowed and asked hoarsely, “What would happen if it really poured onto someone?”

Zhang Wuxun patted him on the shoulder and chuckled. “Nothing much, really. At worst, it would burn all the skin off your body and leave you looking rather bloody. You’d still be alive.”

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Wu Xie’s expression turned rather unpleasant. Who knew what he had imagined?

Zhang Wuxun clicked his tongue. The poor kid looked terrified.

Little Brother had Da Kui dig a shaft five meters straight down, then carefully used a needle and a tube to channel the alum acid into it.

Only after the wax wall had turned white did Little Brother stop. He put away his tools and said, “That’s enough.”

The group immediately transformed into a team of laborers and began moving bricks.

Before long, they had opened a passage just wide enough for one person to squeeze through. They tossed in a fire striker to test the oxygen level.

After confirming that it was safe, they climbed through one by one.

The floor of the tomb chamber was made from a single slab of stone, covered in ancient writing arranged in what looked like a Bagua diagram.

They lit the eternal lamps hanging on the walls. In the very center of the chamber stood a four-legged square bronze vessel. Zhang Wuxun paid little attention to the carvings on the ceiling; he was more interested in the stone coffin behind the vessel.

He knew there was a blood corpse inside.

According to the later entries in the notes, the person lying within should have been King Mu of Zhou.

Wu Xie braced his hands on his knees and studied the writing on the floor. By then, Pan Zi had already climbed onto the bronze vessel.

“Third Master, there are treasures in here!”

Zhang Wuxun swiftly pulled a sturdy sack from the side pocket of his backpack. He shook it open with two loud snaps, put on his gloves, and approached the vessel with a beaming smile, holding the mouth of the sack open in anticipation.

Pan Zi laughed and picked up the most beautiful large jade vase inside, decorated with blue-green patterns, and placed it in the sack.

Uncle Wu cursed them with a laugh. “You two boys, those are offerings for rituals! Are you trying to become offerings yourselves? Get down here, both of you!”

Pan Zi waved dismissively. “Don’t try to scare me. There’s plenty of good stuff in here. Look, there’s even—”

Suddenly, a “click-click-click” echoed through the empty tomb chamber, eerie and hollow.

Pan Zi’s voice stopped dead. His face went pale, and he stood rigidly in place.

Everyone turned toward the source of the sound.

“Click-click—”

Another sound.

It had come from Little Brother.

Wu Xie’s eyes widened. “Little Brother, you—”

Could a massive tomb corpse have become sentient?

His lips trembled, but Wu Xie wisely kept the rest of that thought to himself.

Little Brother continued making the clicking sound, his eyes fixed tightly on the stone coffin. The frightening part was that his mouth had remained closed the entire time.

Everyone felt their skin crawl.

Uncle Wu kept signaling frantically for Pan Zi to get down from the vessel.

Then, all at once, Little Brother fell silent.

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The tomb chamber became so quiet that one could hear a pin drop.

The seconds passed. Little Brother’s expression grew increasingly grim.

Suddenly, the stone coffin gave a sharp crack. The next moment, it began shaking violently, as though something terrifying were about to burst out.

Da Kui’s legs went weak. Rolling his eyes upward, he began to collapse.

Wu Xie was terrified too, but he hurried over to support Da Kui and gave the soft flesh on the inside of his arm a hard twist.

“Ah—”

Da Kui instantly came to his senses.

Hearing the noises from the coffin, Little Brother bent his knees and was about to kneel.

Zhang Wuxun’s face turned cold. He flew forward and kicked the stone coffin, sending it sliding a good ten centimeters across the floor.

Everyone was startled by his sudden action.

The stone coffin stopped shaking as well.

Whatever was inside seemed to have been frightened.

Zhang Wuxun’s voice was cold enough to freeze the air.

“You think you’re worthy?”

At that moment, the aura radiating from him was as vast and surging as a tide, like that of a savage beast looking down upon the world.

A strange knocking sound came from inside the coffin. The thing within grew frantic, as though trying to argue its case.

Zhang Wuxun snorted coldly, then made a series of clicks of his own.

Wu Xie felt he was about to faint. What kind of cursed luck did he have? Why were all the people around him either giant tomb corpses or experts at pretending to be them?

Little Brother stared at Zhang Wuxun in astonishment. He opened his mouth, but in the end said nothing.

Zhang Wuxun clicked once. The thing inside the coffin immediately knocked once in reply. The two sides went back and forth, seemingly negotiating.

In the end, intimidated by him, the thing inside the coffin took the initiative and backed down.

A trace of amusement appeared on Zhang Wuxun’s face. He pushed the stone coffin back into place, then took a packet of tissues from his pocket and wiped away the footprint he had left on it.

Everyone else looked utterly numb.

Zhang Wuxun returned to the bronze vessel, picked up the sack from the floor, and pointed toward the other large blue-green jade vase inside. Facing Pan Zi, who was still standing there stupidly, he mouthed, “Put in one more.”

Still dazed, Pan Zi actually did as he was told.

“Run!”

Zhang Wuxun tightened the drawstring on the sack and hauled Pan Zi down by the arm. The moment Pan Zi’s feet touched the ground, he let go, grabbed the ebony box beside him, and shouted, “Run! What the hell are you all standing there for? Move!”