This Taoist priest is so unprofessional!

After laughing, Zhang Chen's expression turned serious again.

He glanced at the dark back mountain, and the smile on his face vanished completely.

"Since those people dare to dig up graves, they're no saints. Today was just a test; if they come back tomorrow, they'll probably resort to violence."

Zhang Chen paced around the courtyard for a couple of steps, then stopped and looked at Wang Xiaoer.

"We must go up the mountain before they arrive and find out what the situation is like up there."

The two of them were used to staying up late anyway, and at this moment they had no intention of sleeping at all.

The two of them took advantage of the cover of night and quietly sneaked into Coffin Mountain.

As soon as you step into the forest, a chilling aura hits you, and the temperature around you seems to drop by more than ten degrees.

The air was filled with the pungent smell of damp, decaying leaves and soil; inhaling it made one's chest feel tight.

Wang Xiaoer's extraordinary intuition was amplified at this moment. He didn't even need to consciously sense it to clearly perceive that the yin energy of the entire mountain was like countless icy streams, converging from all directions towards the same direction deep in the forest.

"This way," Wang Xiaoer said in a low voice, pointing in a direction.

Zhang Chen nodded without the slightest doubt.

The two followed the invisible flow of yin energy, one in front of the other, and made their way deeper into the mountains and forests.

They hadn't gone far when they discovered traces of human activity on a worn path.

Several plants that had just been trampled down had green sap still oozing from their broken ends, and an empty mineral water bottle lay nearby.

Further on, a broken section of a Luoyang shovel head lay carelessly discarded in the grass, covered in fresh mud.

"It seems that the tomb raiders have already been here." Zhang Chen squatted down, picked up a bit of soil, and smelled it.

"The soil was freshly turned over; we don't know if it was the same group of people."

Wang Xiaoer didn't speak, but his eyes became even more wary.

The deeper you go into the mountains and forests, the clearer the faint "weeping of the earth" becomes.

The sound no longer drifted from afar, but rather felt like someone was whispering in your ear with a whimpering voice, as if pressed against the back of your neck.

It was bleak, mournful, and carried a chilling despair.

Wang Xiaoer felt his teeth aching, and his heart was throbbing with pain from the crying, as if an immense sorrow was about to well up in his chest.

"Don't let that sound distract you!" Zhang Chen shouted, took out a bottle from his bag, poured out two pills, and handed one to Wang Xiaoer.

"Hold it under your tongue, and keep your mind clear!"

Wang Xiaoer did as instructed, and a faint taste of cinnabar and herbs spread in his mouth, slightly easing the nausea and vomiting feeling in his mind.

Zhang Chen also put one in his mouth and took out a Bagua compass from his pocket.

However, he only glanced at it before his brows furrowed.

The magnetic needle on the compass seemed to be drunk, spinning wildly in place, sometimes to the left, sometimes to the right, with no fixed direction to be found.

"Damn, this cheap stuff is so unreliable," Zhang Chen muttered, putting the compass away.

"The magnetic field and yin energy here are in complete chaos, which means there really is a large tomb here! The entrance might even be nearby!"

He had barely finished speaking.

"Click, click, click..."

A series of synchronized footsteps suddenly came from the valley not far ahead.

The sound was heavy and oppressive, each thud feeling like a footstep on one's heart.

Along with the footsteps came the clanging sound of metal armor rubbing against each other.

"Someone's here!" Wang Xiaoer's body tensed instantly.

"No!" Zhang Chen seemed to have thought of something. He grabbed Wang Xiaoer and dragged him behind a boulder that was taller than a person.

"Don't make a sound, don't breathe!" Zhang Chen's voice was extremely low, carrying an unprecedented seriousness.

The two clung tightly to the cold rock, their heartbeats feeling as if they were about to stop.

The mist in the valley had thickened at some point, resembling a gray-white curtain.

The "click, click, click" of footsteps grew closer and clearer.

Finally, a figure emerged from the thick fog.

Then came the second, the third, the tenth, the hundredth...

That was a squad of soldiers.

A group of soldiers wearing tattered and rusted ancient armor and wielding broken spears.

They walked out of the valley in neat rows, expressionless, with empty eyes, and passed by the boulder where Wang Xiaoer and his group were hiding.

The pale moonlight shone on them.

Their bodies were semi-transparent!

The moonlight could easily penetrate their bodies and illuminate the swaying shadows of the trees behind them.

Their feet weren't touching the ground at all; they were three inches off the ground, and they were "walking" forward in such a bizarre way.

Ghostly soldiers are borrowing a path!

Wang Xiaoer's pupils shrank to the size of pinpoints, and his blood seemed to freeze at that moment.

This was the first time in his life that he had ever witnessed such a terrifying scene that only existed in folk tales.

Shock, horror, and a profound awe from the depths of his soul rendered him completely immobile, unable to move even a finger.

Zhang Chen held his shoulders tightly, afraid that he might not be able to resist standing up.

He leaned close to Wang Xiaoer's ear and whispered almost inaudibly, "Close your eyes! Don't look! This is the manifestation of the evil spirits and malevolent energy accumulated over thousands of years in the ancient tomb. It's not a ghost, but it's even more malevolent than a demon! If they detect the presence of a living person, we'll be in big trouble!"

Wang Xiaoer immediately closed his eyes tightly, but the sound of the uniform footsteps and the clatter of armor echoed in his mind like a demonic chant.

Wow, I've only ever seen this in movies before, I never thought it actually existed!

This immersive experience is a hundred times scarier than anything shown in the movies!

What kind of important figure is buried in this tomb? How could they possibly raise such a ghostly army!

Time seemed to stretch on endlessly at that moment, each second feeling like an eternity.

The ghostly army seemed to stretch endlessly, with no end in sight.

Footsteps and the sound of friction echoed through the deathly silent forest, creating a marching symphony from hell.

After an unknown amount of time, when Wang Xiaoer was almost fainting from holding his breath, the sound finally faded away.

Wang Xiaoer and Zhang Chen remained motionless against the boulder, trying their best to hold their breath.

After a while, the surroundings became completely quiet, with only the rustling of the wind through the leaves remaining.

Zhang Chen let out a long breath and released his grip on Wang Xiaoer's shoulder.

Just when they thought they had safely escaped and were about to breathe a sigh of relief.

At the end of the line, the silhouette of an exceptionally tall general suddenly stopped.

He was much more solid than the surrounding ghost soldiers, and his armor was more elaborate. Although it was also tattered, it exuded an indescribable majesty and murderous aura.

He stood still, like a silent statue.

Then, slowly, very slowly... he turned his head.

The movements were as stiff as a rusty machine, and a sickening "creak" sound came from the neck.

Finally, the darkness beneath his tattered helmet and his two empty eye sockets stared straight ahead at the boulder where Wang Xiaoer and Zhang Chen were hiding.