Chapter 247: The Bronze Coffin

The moment the trigger was pulled, the gun suddenly blew up right next to my ear. That damn rifle actually exploded! The explosion instantly took out the guy who fired it. The gun must have been soaked through when it fell into the water earlier. This model wasn’t waterproof. I thought it would be fine once it dried out, but clearly, I was wrong. When I was fighting the giant bats earlier, the gun had been knocked away before I could use it. It was a stroke of luck that someone snatched it from me; otherwise, I would have been the one blown apart. I never expected to have such a massive stroke of luck.

I slammed onto the ground, my ears ringing in waves. I was instantly deaf to all surrounding noise. I could only see the men in black falling into a sudden panic for some reason. Taking advantage of their confusion, I immediately rolled over, grabbed my canteen, and scrambled toward He Yu and Old Qian. I splashed water directly onto their faces. He Yu snapped awake within seconds, but Old Qian was still dazed and muddled. I couldn’t wait for them to fully regain their senses. Using every ounce of brute strength I had, I hauled them up from the ground, and we sprinted toward the nearest rock wall, dragging each other along.

Seeing us flee, the masked men reacted quickly and gave chase. Bullets struck the rock wall in front of us, making us all duck our heads in terror. Suddenly, a head emerged from the shadows at the base of that very wall.

I looked closer and saw it was actually a person! He had triggered some hidden mechanism in the cave, causing the rock wall to split open down the middle. He stepped aside to clear a path and waved at us frantically to come over. At a time like this, anyone helping us was an ally, whether we recognized them or not. I dragged Old Qian along as He Yu and I bolted into the crack one after the other. The moment we were inside, the fissure sealed shut, cutting off the pursuers outside.

I ran until my heart felt like it would leap out of my chest, leaning against the rock wall and coughing uncontrollably. He Yu had been dragged into a hundred-meter dash the moment he woke up, and he was now bent over, gasping for air. Old Qian was in even worse shape. Having been dragged along while semi-conscious, he had lost a shoe somewhere. He sat on the ground, groaning and wailing, “I’ve never suffered such indignity! Ow, my foot… I’ve definitely rubbed a layer of skin off! Ow!”

“Wait, I… just now… where did those people come from?” He Yu asked between gasps.

I had just caught my breath and was about to speak when the person behind us struck a Fire-starter. The flame flared to life, instantly illuminating our section of the fissure. I glanced at the man who had waved us in, and a cold shiver ran down my spine. The sweat on my body turned icy. I locked eyes with He Yu, then looked down at Old Qian on the floor.

All three of us recognized the man in the fissure. He Yu and I had even seen his dismembered corpse inside a black box on the research ship. Yet here he was, standing alive before our eyes, having saved our lives ten seconds ago. I truly began to doubt if I had actually woken up from the hallucinations, or if this was just another one. But the blood Han Zhuo had splattered on me still felt warm. This couldn’t be a hallucination.

Tian Xiao held the Fire-starter. The flames flickered in the draft of the fissure, casting shifting shadows across his face. His eyes were incredibly deep, his face lined with wrinkles, and his hair was white, yet the muscles in his arms and legs remained firm. He didn’t stoop at all; from a distance, his silhouette looked no different from a young man’s.

He looked at us with a deep frown, then turned to walk deeper into the fissure. “Follow me. A single rock wall won’t hold them for long. We need to leave this place immediately.”

He Yu and I exchanged a look, then quickly helped Old Qian up. We followed closely behind Tian Xiao in a state of utter disarray. After our frantic run, only two bags remained: one containing the corpses of the boy and girl, and the other holding the Nine-Ring Jade Casket. Our most vital supply bag had been lost somewhere. After walking only a few paces, Old Qian started howling about a stomachache.

Tian Xiao didn’t stop. “The hallucinations are me caused by the Peyote Stone. The Peyote Stones here are larger than the ones outside and look more like ordinary rocks. It’s a type of toxic cactus. He probably ate the flowers of those plants, so his hallucinations will be more severe. A stomachache is normal. If the pain gets too bad and his stomach can’t absorb it, he’ll just throw it up.”

He Yu supported Old Qian. “Is there an antidote? What if we get hit by it again later?”

Tian Xiao said, “The fuzz on the Peyote Stone is the source of the hallucinations. But as they say, where there is poison, the cure is never far. There is alpine meltwater seeping through these rock walls that can neutralize the effects. That’s the water he used to save you just now.”

As we walked, He Yu kept shooting me looks, clearly wanting to say something. I signaled him to stay quiet. I still hadn’t fully processed everything; the impact of Han Zhuo’s death had been too much. If that gun hadn’t backfired at the last second, my life would have ended right there.

He Yu leaned in and whispered, “Right when you splashed me awake, I heard gunshots coming from above us.”

“That was Yuqing. He’s in the upper rock layers. We only established contact a short while ago,” Tian Xiao explained, having overheard He Yu.

Hearing this, He Yu hurried to get in front of Tian Xiao. “Old senior, to be honest, we’ve been traveling for so long, and things outside have turned into a total mess because of your Tian Family. Can’t you give us a proper explanation? What exactly is going on here?”

I stopped as well. “And those people just now, who are they? Why are they trying to wipe out the Five Masters?”

Tian Xiao didn’t stop with us. Carrying our bag with the Nine-Ring Jade Casket and holding the fire-starter aloft, he continued walking forward. “Like you, I came here to find confirmation. All of this will become clear once we reach the Underworld Hall.”

He Yu and I were left completely bewildered. But we had no choice; there was only one path here. This old man, Tian Xiao, was acting all mysterious and cryptic. We could only suppress our questions and our desire to solve the mystery for now, following him deeper into the dark.

The end of the fissure opened into a circular cavern, still shrouded in darkness. Beyond the cavern lay a long, narrow path of green stone slabs. To one side of the path was a bottomless abyss, where nothing could be seen but swirling banks of mist. We walked along the meter-wide stone path, the atmosphere growing more eerie with every step. We couldn’t see the beginning or the end of the road. Even the light from our flashlights was swallowed by the heavy, blurring fog. It was the kind of walk that left a man feeling utterly untethered and hollow inside.

We walked for half an hour before I finally spotted a stone standing by the roadside. Three words were carved into it: Yellow Springs Road^[1].

He Yu instinctively shrank half a step behind me. After glancing at the stone, his eyes immediately darted toward Tian Xiao ahead. Tian Xiao paused his stride. “No need to be afraid. The corner tower you saw back in the royal city was the Pavilion of Retrospection^[2]. That city was essentially a manifestation of the King of Gune’s desire to recreate his worldly achievements. The presence of the Yellow Springs Road here proves we are about to enter the territory of the Underworld. The Underworld Hall should be just ahead.”

He Yu gave a couple of dry laughs. “This King of Gune certainly had a sense of ceremony. It’s just a bit too damn creepy for my taste.”

“Aren’t we going to wait for Tian Yuqing?” I asked.

“He’ll follow us,” Tian Xiao replied from the front.

Past the Pavilion of Retrospection, a long chain bridge stretched out before us. As the mist dissipated, we could clearly see several massive sarcophagi resting within the Underworld Hall at the end of the bridge. Tian Xiao visibly quickened his pace. Old Qian and I didn’t possess his level of balance, so we had to wait for the bridge to stop swaying before we could take even a small step. By the time we made it across, Tian Xiao had already been waiting by the coffins for quite a while.

The entire Underworld Hall was adorned with carved beams and painted rafters. Every single mural on the four walls depicted scenes related to the immortals. Three coffins were placed within the hall. Two of similar size faced the chain bridge directly, while the largest one, situated in the very center of the hall, stood dozens of centimeters taller than the other two. This was a lotus stone sarcophagus, carved into the shape of a blooming lotus. Coffin nails had been driven into it from eight directions, copper coins were placed at the four corners, and the body of the coffin was wrapped tightly with chains as thick as a man’s waist.

“This burial method is way too elaborate. Whatever’s inside must be incredibly fierce for them to use both coffin nails and suppressing coins,” He Yu said beside me, staring at the central sarcophagus.

The moment Tian Xiao entered the Underworld Hall, he began searching for something. The two of us just watched him wander about aimlessly, but after all his frantic pacing, we couldn’t tell what he was looking for or if he had found anything at all.

“Senior, what are you looking for? Tell us so we can help you search,” He Yu said, stepping forward.

But Tian Xiao just shoved him aside.

While we were still scratching our heads in confusion, Old Qian suddenly started shouting. He was sprawled over the standard-sized coffin, gesturing for us to come over. “Quick! Come look! This one is a bronze coffin!”

We immediately gathered around to look. At a glance, we instantly spotted the difference between the two coffins facing the chain bridge. One was shorter, looking like it was meant for a child. The other was of normal size, which was the one Old Qian was talking about. I initially thought he had misidentified it, but when I reached out to touch it, the damn thing really was a bronze coffin!

Bronze coffins were colloquially known as “Golden Houses^[3],” though calling them that didn’t fully capture their true value. Bronze coffins were exceptionally rare, and anyone buried in one had to be of extraordinarily high status. Who on earth was buried in here to warrant a bronze coffin that even the King of Gune didn’t get to use?