Chapter 74: Breaking Free

No one knows when this iron chain bridge was built. Every step made it tremble violently. I gripped the chains on either side, moving with extreme caution, afraid that even the slightest extra movement might snap the fragile links and send the whole thing collapsing.

As I held onto the chains and walked forward, I called out Fourth Brother’s name loudly. But most of my shouts echoed into silence. The more silence I got, the slower I moved. Ten minutes later, I found myself standing beside the Jade Coffin.

Something was seriously off. The five bronze pillars were spaced far apart, but with how loud my voice was, there should’ve been at least some echo. Could I be hallucinating again?

When it comes to bad luck, no one can top me. Other people could descend into the underworld dozens of times and never encounter anything this bizarre. Me? I’ve stumbled down here twice and already lost count of how many hallucinations I’ve had. It’s gotten to the point where I’ve developed a conditioned reflex.

Based on past experience, this situation felt all wrong. I clenched the chain in my hand and kicked it hard. The jolt sent pain shooting through my toes, but I still didn’t dare go any farther. Instead, I crouched down against one side of the chain bridge.

That position gave me a bit more sense of security.

If this wasn’t a hallucination, then it really was Fourth Brother calling me up earlier. But now that I was calling him, why wasn’t he answering? There had to be more than one possible explanation.

The first possibility was that in the short time—less than twenty minutes—it took me to climb up, Fourth Brother and Old Luo encountered some kind of serious trouble. So serious that even veterans like them couldn’t handle it, and they decided to hide and deliberately ignore me.

But that didn’t make much sense. If Fourth Brother were really in danger, he wouldn’t have called me up. Out of all of us, I’d be the last person he’d rely on for help. Even an injured Lu A’yao could easily outmatch me ten times over. Calling me up would be useless at best, and a liability at worst.

Chen Si isn’t that stupid.

There was another possibility. I struggled to recall the moment I heard the voice—yes, it was definitely Fourth Brother calling me.

Assuming I wasn’t hallucinating and everything was real, then the key wasn’t whether it was truly his voice. The key was that he called me, and only me. The result of that call was simple: I climbed up the bronze pillar without hesitation.

Fourth Brother is a calculating man. He never does anything without a purpose. The only benefit he could gain from this was relocating me onto the chain bridge.

But why? Did he sense some kind of extreme danger in the golden sands below and wanted to get me out of harm’s way?

Then why not bring Lu A’yao and Xiao Qi up too? Setting Lu A’yao aside, Xiao Qi is the only professional medic in our team. Leaving her behind would be a terrible decision.

The pain in my foot faded quickly. My gaze slowly shifted to the glowing green Jade Coffin. All the possibilities I’d just considered were riddled with contradictions. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, I had to face the fact that I might really be hallucinating.

It wasn’t Fourth Brother who lured me up here. It was something inside the Jade Coffin. No matter which bronze pillar I climbed, I’d have to pass by this coffin. It chose me out of everyone, probably because I had the weakest, most unstable mind.

Fourth Brother might actually be nearby, but I couldn’t speak or call for help. I was stuck in a deadlock, unable to move forward or back.

The Jade Coffin in front of me seemed to become even more translucent. It must have lured me up here to force me to open it.

Grandpa once said, “The dead can never overpower the living. Whether it’s a corpse or a ghost, as long as you show enough ferocity, they’ll back off.” I just didn’t know if that applied to something that had been lying here for over a thousand years.

I immediately drew the mountain-splitting blade from my waist and held it in front of me. No matter how terrifying a corpse might be, it shouldn’t be immune to a sharp weapon. With no outside help, the only way forward was to play along with it and look for an opening.

So I moved closer to the Jade Coffin. All I could hear was the pounding of my own heartbeat. Once the chain bridge stopped swaying, I steadied myself, took a deep breath, let go of one side of the chain, and slid the blade into the seam of the coffin lid.

Gripping the blade with both hands, I traced the seam all the way around. The heavy lid loosened completely. Afraid the weight might snap the blade, I switched to using my shoulder to push. The lid shifted halfway with a dull thud, and a shower of dirt fell all over me.

I took one glance inside—and immediately collapsed to the ground in shock.

The corpse inside was staring at me with wide, venomous eyes! Not only that, but the eye that was visible had two pupils. The moment it saw me, its eye curved into a slit.

How could a wet corpse still have its eyes open?! I didn’t dare push the lid any farther. I turned and scrambled to my feet, bolting away.

But just as I started running, I felt something trip me from behind. Whatever it was yanked me back hard. I fell flat, smashing my head against the chain. Blood started pouring out instantly.

I instinctively looked back—and saw a mass of fine, thread-like tendrils pouring out from the coffin’s seam.

One of my legs was already entangled. The barbs on the tendrils cut into my skin, making me cry out in pain. There was no time to think. I raised the blade and slashed wildly.

But in the next second, the tendrils found their opening. They wrapped around my wrist and surged straight toward my face.

In my hands, the blade was practically useless. I had no skill with it. In no time, I was wrapped up like a dumpling. The tendrils forced their way toward my mouth. I was suffocating, being dragged backward by those thread-like things, inch by inch.

I was on the verge of tears. What the hell was this?! I didn’t even take anything from you, so why won’t you let me go?

The lid of the Jade Coffin had been completely pushed open. Those fine threads were dragging me into the coffin, and it was only then that I finally saw the thing inside clearly. It was a deformed creature with two pupils in each eye, its entire face grotesquely twisted. It looked exactly like those Owl-faced Birds.

The moment it saw me looking at it, it let out a low, cackling laugh.

This wasn’t a person. This was a monster.

It leaned closer and closer, until that eerie, grinning owl-like face was practically pressed against mine. Just then, the threads trying to force their way into my mouth seemed to push something in. I wasn’t paying attention and accidentally opened my mouth, and whatever it was choked me.

The stench of rotting fungi exploded in my mouth. The moment it hit, I was jolted with a burst of strength. I thrashed wildly, trying to kick the monster away from my face. The moment my foot connected, the thing scattered like mist.

That burst of strength snapped a good portion of the threads. The tendrils binding my limbs suddenly loosened, and I fell straight down from midair, crashing hard into the highest pile of golden sand.

The fall was brutal. I might’ve broken my left arm—I couldn’t use it at all. The sand and the treasures buried in the golden mound came crashing down on my chest one after another, nearly making me cough up blood.

My throat was filled with fungal tendrils. The suffocation left my entire body numb. I struggled again and again, but I didn’t have the strength to dig myself out.

The sounds around me gradually became clearer, and then I felt a powerful force yank me out from the pile of gold.

The moment I was pulled free, I vomited up a mass of black fungal threads. I dropped to my knees and dry-heaved violently. My mouth was filled with the taste of blood and the stench of rotting mushrooms. I coughed so hard it felt like my lungs were going to come out.

Hou Jinshan rushed over from the side and grabbed me, shouting something loudly. Then he was dragged away by one of Fourth Brother’s men. The moment he let go, I collapsed again.

My vision was swimming. I couldn’t hear anything except for the thudding of my own heart, which had just started beating normally again. The ringing in my ears was deafening. Half-lying on the ground, I saw Lu A’yao had already woken up. Xiao Qi was helping him stand beside Fourth Brother, and they seemed to be talking about something.

I also sensed the entire cave beginning to shake. Stones were falling from the walls of the Tomb Chamber. Before I could fully come to my senses, someone grabbed me and started dragging me toward a tunnel in the chamber wall.

I was completely carried along. The moment I dropped to my knees, I started crawling deeper into the tunnel. In a daze, I heard Lu A’yao shouting for everyone to move faster. Then another wave of intense ringing hit my ears, and I shut my eyes, blindly crawling forward with the others for what felt like half an hour.

At the end of the tunnel, water appeared. It led straight into a pool. I barely had time to take a deep breath before someone pulled me into the water and dragged me toward the surface.

When I was finally hauled onto the shore, I caught the faint scent of fresh air for the first time in what felt like forever. The ringing in my ears faded. I could hear birds chirping in the treetops. My whole body was so exhausted I couldn’t move. I cracked my eyes open just a sliver and saw the first rays of sunlight peeking over the distant mountain ridges.

I closed my eyes again and thought, Is this another illusion? But if it is, it’s the best one yet. No Owl-faced Birds, no fungal threads, no corpses, no bronze pillars. What a wonderful world.

And with that thought, I drifted off to sleep.

This chapter is almost over. The pace will slow down a bit from here, and things will get a little easier. Mostly, it’s time to sort things out.