Chapter 93: The Burial Coffin

Later, the two of us chatted some more, and I realized that He Yu had an extremely stereotyped view of the Lu Clan. It was so intense that I started to wonder if someone from a branch of the Lu Clan had offended his family in the past. Otherwise, where would all that resentment come from?

Chen Canghai turned out to be pretty skilled at wilderness survival. I had been too caught up in conversation to notice earlier, but now I realized the pile of coffin boards we used to build the fire had all been soaked in water, probably for quite a long time, too.

After talking with He Yu for about twenty minutes, I saw that the other two were still messing around inside the cave. I gestured to He Yu that we should go check on them, just in case something went wrong.

This hanging coffin burial cave wasn’t very deep, but it was extremely dark. Just a few steps in and you’d hit the back wall. As soon as I entered, I saw Lu Ayao and Chen Canghai, one squatting and the other standing, both staring intently at a few small coffins tucked into the deepest part of the cave.

With just a glance, I felt a strong hunch that the question I’d been turning over in my mind was finally starting to take shape. I’d boldly speculated earlier that the cliff face we were currently inside might be hollow, with a system of retractable axles embedded within. To pull off the illusion of “appearing out of nowhere,” the entire cliff face might have to be hidden beneath the river.

Now, in front of us were two small coffins, much smaller than standard coffins and tucked away so deep in the cave that we hadn’t noticed them at first. Their wood was several shades darker than normal, and after years of soaking in water, some parts were completely moldy.

One of the coffins had a large crack at the corner, and even now, a dark green burial fluid was still oozing out. The liquid was green. I couldn’t help wondering if coffins that had been submerged for so long would start growing moss inside.

He Yu stepped forward, arms crossed, and looked at the two stacked coffins. “Whoa! What’s this? Just a crappy little cave, and we actually found something interesting?”

I watched as he squatted down to touch the decorations on the coffins, then exclaimed, “Hey, there’s gold dust in here! Look at this, layer upon layer, even the wood has gold inlays. Whoever this was must’ve been someone important. So why’s it just sitting here? Should we open it up and take a closer look?”

Lu Ayao shook his head. I noticed he was pressed close to the cave wall, turned sideways, examining the far side of the coffins. I moved closer and asked, “What are you looking at?”

Lu Ayao stood up, raised his makeshift torch, and took two steps back, signaling for me to crouch down and take a look. I crawled over, and the moment I saw it, every hair on my body stood on end.

Clear as day, I saw several small handprints on the coffins, grayish-white, scattered across both the coffins and the stone wall. The upper coffin had a large hole in it, and the handprints clearly extended out from that hole. Something had crawled out of it.

I froze like I’d been rooted to the spot. He Yu squeezed in beside me and measured one of the nearest handprints with his hand. After a moment, he sucked in a sharp breath. “Damn. This is bad. The smaller it is, the worse it gets. This thing… it’s a child, isn’t it?”

Lu Ayao said, “An infant. Judging by the size of the handprints, not even full-term.”

“Not full-term?!” His conclusion shocked me. “You mean… it wasn’t a natural death? A burial sacrifice? That’s just too cruel.”

Before I could finish processing that, He Yu slapped my shoulder. “Hey, hey, hey, something’s off with these footprints. Does your kid have eight legs?”

I snapped, “Screw you! Starting with the nonsense again? Your kid’s the one with eight legs.”

He Yu waved me over. “No, I’m serious, damn it. Come look! Look at the spacing between the baby’s hands and feet. Isn’t it way too short? If it crawled out with one hand on the wall and one on the coffin, there should be two prints on each side, right? So why are there four here?”

I leaned in for a closer look and immediately understood what he meant. There were four sets of handprints on the stone wall behind the coffins. The first and last sets were especially clear and easy to distinguish, but the middle two were fainter due to lighter pressure, so I hadn’t even noticed them at first.

“What the hell is this? Four evenly spaced sets of hands and feet? Was this thing even human?” I swallowed hard, my heartbeat starting to race again.

Lu Ayao swept his torch around the cave. Chen Canghai glanced down for a moment, then straightened up and began scanning the surroundings. He was incredibly alert; from the start, he’d barely crouched down to examine the prints at all. His eyes were like scanners, sweeping every corner of the cave.

After a moment, Lu Ayao said, “Let’s open the one on the bottom.”

This was He Yu’s favorite part. Not only was he fearless, he was downright eager. He even complained that the top coffin was too heavy, then kicked it aside without hesitation. Burial fluid splashed everywhere, revealing the coffin underneath.

The two coffins were nearly identical in construction and carvings. I checked them over from top to bottom. The one He Yu had kicked down was already rotted beyond recognition, but the one beneath it was completely intact. Naturally, all of our attention was now focused on the pristine coffin below.

“This won’t do. We need to take some precautions,” He Yu said. “The one on top already sprouted legs and ran off. Judging by the look of this one, it might not be much different. Xiao Yao, go outside and bring me my heaviest bag.”

He Yu’s words made sense this time, and I had no problem listening to him. I turned and headed out to fetch the bag. His large backpack was unusually heavy. Back when we were preparing for this dive, I had suggested traveling light, but he insisted on bringing it anyway. He treated that pack like it was his lifeline.

I lugged the bag over to He Yu, and he squatted down to unzip it. Inside was a hefty submachine gun, along with several modified black powder firearms. There were at least a dozen magazines of ammunition. Clearly, when Han Jian had told us to pick our gear, this guy had stashed away a lot of good stuff in secret.

I didn’t know how to use a gun, so He Yu handed one of the black powder rifles to Chen Canghai. Chen caught it one-handed, removed the magazine, and loaded it with practiced ease.

“Looks like you’ve done this before. Trained?” He Yu asked casually.

Chen Canghai raised his hand slightly, but still didn’t make a move, just standing to the side. I figured it wasn’t that he didn’t want to respond to He Yu, but that he couldn’t spare a hand right now to pull out his phone and type.

I drew the claw knife from my waist and held it in a reverse grip.

He Yu raised the heavy submachine gun and said to Lu Ayao, who was standing beside the outer coffin with his shovel in hand, “Old Lu, open this coffin however you like. If anything inside dares to sit up like it’s got a death wish, no matter what it is, we’ll empty a magazine into it first and see.”

Lu Ayao nodded at us. Then the shovel blade spun half a turn in his hand, and with a sharp crack, he jammed its upper edge straight into the seam between the outer coffin and its lid.

He gripped the handle, pushed forward with force, and levered it up, popping the lid halfway open. But this kind of coffin had an unusual structure; the central section was likely solid, making it very hard to pry open.

Right away, Lu Ayao pulled out the shovel blade, raised his leg, and kicked the tail end of the outer coffin. The lid slid half a meter along the rim, revealing the inner burial compartments and the small coffin placed in the center.

Before I could even get a clear look at the burial goods, Lu Ayao stepped off the stone wall without a second thought and leaped onto the edge of the outer coffin. Wedging his shovel blade into one corner of the inner coffin, he pried the entire lid off with ease.

I exchanged glances with He Yu and Chen Canghai, and the three of us began edging closer to the outer coffin.