Chapter 20 Mysterious Ghost Coffin
Lei Xueting seems to be really going to open the coffin, but I am not worried, because I learned from Lin Yuxi that the old woman often goes into ancient tombs and has seen all kinds of situations. It is impossible for her to find trouble for no reason. I guess there must be something hidden in this coffin to deal with the zombie guards outside. She wants to open the coffin and take it out to run away.
The old blind man thought about it and guessed what was going on, so he let me go and walked over to the coffin and said, "You don't have the corpse-suppressing talisman now. If the body inside doesn't decay after we open the coffin, and the vitality from our breath activates it, we won't be able to escape. I think we should think of another way."
Seeing that he lowered his posture and spoke in a negotiating tone, Lei Xueting stopped deliberately finding fault and looked at the coffin and said, "Before I entered this ancient tomb, I asked Xiao Xi to look up a lot of information. There is a wild history that records that a leader of a branch of the White Lotus Sect died here. He believed in the Taoist Ghost Talisman , and could be called a master. He was obsessed with drawing ghost talismans during his lifetime. I guess there must be a lot of ghost talismans buried in his coffin after his death. After death, no one wants to become a zombie, but everyone wishes that their bodies do not decay. Although he used strange medicine or Nine-orifice Jade to preserve his body, he would definitely put talismans on his spiritual orifices to prevent himself from resurrecting."
What she said makes sense, but I think it is unreasonable. Putting the ghost talisman in the coffin is a deterrent to the dead body, just like a living person putting a bomb next to his pillow every day when he sleeps. How can he feel at ease? Some people wish to ascend to heaven after death, but there are also misers who don't want to go anywhere and only focus on the treasures they buried with them. You said that putting a talisman on your body is like putting a layer of shackles on it. Let alone ascending to heaven, you can't even keep your own property. Who would be so stupid?
But the old blind man thought it made sense. They were both old and wise, and they would not fight a battle they were not sure of. Since they both thought it was okay, why should I say anything, or I would get slapped again.
After the two of them talked, Lei Xueting pulled out two 50-centimeter-long iron crowbars from her waist and gave one to the old blind man. This made me feel a little strange, as if she had come prepared with tools for prying the coffin, and she had two of them. The front end of the crowbar was flat and forked, just right for inserting into the gap of the coffin lid. The two of them worked together, and with a click, they pried the coffin lid open. The old blind man pushed it to the ground, revealing the coffin board inside.
The coffin was painted red, which was particularly dazzling under the light, as if it was covered with blood. The old blind man nodded and said, it looks like he is indeed a person of status. In our area, people without status used to use black lacquer coffins. This one was painted red, which means that the owner is either rich or noble, maybe he is really the leader of the White Lotus Sect.
Lei Xueting rolled her eyes at him and said, "Stop talking nonsense and pry open the coffin lid." The old blind man did not say anything back and helped her insert the crowbar under the coffin board.
At this time, Lin Yuxi waved at me, motioning me to come over. I shook my head. My whole body was sore and weak, and it was difficult to take a step. Lin Yuxi puffed her cheeks and looked very unhappy. She had to crouch down and sneak in front of me. She leaned over to my ear and whispered, "Aunt Ting said some unofficial history, which was not the information I found. I don't know why she lied."
My heart trembled. Why did the old woman lie to us? I understood immediately that she must have the corpse-suppressing talisman in her hand, and she also knew that there was a zombie in the coffin. She did this to use the zombie to deal with me and the old blind man, and to find out whether I had read the Ghost Talisman Sutra. I was just about to remind the old blind man not to get involved, but with a few bangs, the two of them had already pried open the coffin lid, and more than a dozen coffin nails fell to the ground.
The two of them stared at the same time, Lei Xueting said "Huh", and the old blind man said "Ah", both of them looked quite surprised. We both stood on tiptoe to look over there, but the outer coffin blocked our view and we couldn't see what was going on inside the coffin. Because we were scared by the old zombie in red robe, we didn't dare to move forward.
They were stunned for a long while before Lei Xueting spoke in a daze: "This man is simply crazy. He made himself look like this. I just don't know if he did it before he died, or after he died..."
The old blind man shook his head and muttered, "Although the legend says that corpses can transform into immortals, it doesn't mean that one can become an immortal just by decomposing their own corpses. This guy is really a lunatic."
Lin Yuxi was itching to go after hearing this, so she supported me and walked forward, saying, "Let's go and take a look." I couldn't help but go, as she dragged me away like I was kidnapped. Fortunately, I held onto the wall all the way and didn't fall.
The old blind man and Lei Xueting were staring into the coffin in a daze, not even looking up when we approached. We stood opposite them, looked down, and were also stunned. The body of the deceased, like Xiaoqing, maintained a high degree of lifelike state before death, with a lifelike face, as if he was still alive and sleeping. This was a man, probably in his fifties, with a white face and a tuft of beard under his chin. Unexpectedly, Lei Xueting's guess was right. There was indeed a corpse-suppressing talisman on the forehead of the corpse, which looked mysterious and unpredictable.
But this guy was naked, not wearing a single thing, and from his chest to his thighs , it was not flesh, but was cut off and replaced with a large piece of shiny steel structure. The upper and lower flesh was tightly connected to the steel, and it was impossible to tell that they were spliced together. The transition between the skin and the steel was perfect, without any holes or flaws.
This steel structure is very strange. There is a round disc with a spell cast on the chest. There are hollow iron bars all around. The iron bars are sharpened on both sides. There is only a few inches of space between them. It is not allowed to penetrate anything, otherwise it will be cut. The inside is hollow. When the flashlight shines into it, it can clearly see a circle of yellow talismans inside. In the center of the yellow talismans is an ancient book with torn pages. On the ancient book is a golden tomb guardian beast. This is a term I learned later. At that time, I thought it was a small monster made of gold.
The little monster had a ferocious face and was about the size of a duck egg. I thought it weighed at least three or four pounds. Not to mention whether it could be sold as an antique, if I could just sell it for the price of gold, I would make a fortune.
Lin Yuxi shrank back in fear at first, then when she saw the golden monster, her beautiful eyes sparkled: "Wow, gold, Aunt Ting, we are rich!"
The old blind man cursed angrily: "Fuck it, this is a mechanism, whoever touches it will die."
Seeing him speak so vulgarly to Lin Yuxi, Lei Xueting couldn't help but get angry. She glared at him and said, "How do you know it's a mechanism? I guess it was because he was hacked to pieces during the war, and the middle part couldn't be found, so he made this iron box as a supplement, and put his favorite things in it."
"Well, why don't you try it?" said the old blind man with strange eyes.
"Touch me if you want. Do you think I was brought up by being scared?" Lei Xueting actually took action, swinging the crowbar and hitting the thin iron bars with blades.
The three of us were all terrified and shouted at the same time: "Stop..." But it was too late. We heard a loud "clang" and sparks flew. The thin iron bar, which was as thick as a finger, was not damaged at all, but a dent appeared on the crowbar.
At the same time, a strange sound came from the sky, approaching the surrounding slope walls, mud and sand flew, revealing a series of shining arrows. Lei Xueting hurriedly took a flashlight to look carefully, and found a bow and arrow launcher hidden between the cracks in the stone. The impact triggered the mechanism, and the arrows broke through the mud and sand, all exposed on the wall, ready to go!
