The Martial Saint of the Defiled World

The group quickly withdrew their hands and took a step back.

The outer coffin lid wasn't opened; it was just slightly ajar, about two fingers wide.

Even through this tiny crack, air was gushing out.

The taste this time is different from the last time, just like the spices.

Cui Ping sniffed, and his expression changed instantly.

"Oh no, retreat quickly!"

Chen Awu reacted quickly, grabbing Cui Ping's arm and pulling him back several steps.

Jin Yi and the Wang brothers also retreated, all the way to the base of the wall.

"What's wrong?"

Cui Ping covered his nose: "There's a custom in Daliang's burial practices called 'incense sealing'."

"Put spices in the coffin and bury the person in the spices. There are dozens of spices, some fragrant and some poisonous."

Chen Awu stared at the coffin.

A wisp of very faint smoke was drifting out from the gap where the outer coffin lid was misaligned.

Cui Ping said, "We have to wait until the smoke clears up before we can see."

Five people stood against the wall, staring at the coffin.

The wisp of smoke lingered for about half the time it takes for an incense stick to burn before gradually disappearing.

Chen Awu took out a piece of cloth from his waist, soaked it in water from the water bag, and covered his mouth with it.

The others did the same.

Chen Awu slowly walked back to the coffin and pushed the lid open with his hand.

The coffin lid is loose; now we can finally move it.

"Open the lid."

Wang Jiuyi and Wang Sanjiu came over, stuck the pickaxe handles into the crack, and pressed down hard together.

The outer coffin lid was lifted up little by little.

Raise it to half a foot high, and you can see what's inside.

There is also an outer coffin inside.

It has the same shape as the outer stone coffin, only smaller.

The space between the wooden coffin and the stone coffin was filled with something.

It looks like spices.

Cui Ping leaned closer: "This is the inner outer coffin. In Daliang's burial system, there are three layers of stone outer coffins. This is the second layer. The coffin is inside the inner outer coffin."

Chen Awu handed the tinderbox to Jin Yi, jumped into the coffin, and landed on the spices.

He squatted down and touched the wooden coffin.

The wood was as hard as stone, jet black and shiny, and smooth to the touch like a mirror.

"What kind of wood is this?"

Cui Ping leaned over the edge of the coffin and looked down: "Lacquered wood, the wood is coated with lacquer, more than a hundred layers. Once the lacquer dries, it hardens like this. This wood won't rot even if it's soaked in water for a thousand years."

Chen Awu walked around the wooden coffin once.

Like stone coffins, wooden coffins have a gap between the lid and the body.

Something was also poured into the cracks.

It wasn't a sealant, but wax.

Cui Ping said, "This is a wax seal. In the burial system of Da Liang, the inner coffin is sealed with wax. The wax is mixed with medicinal herbs to prevent insects and decay."

Chen Awu picked at it with his finger.

The wax is soft; a piece comes off easily with a simple pry.

"This is so broken."

He pried the piece of wax off, threw it aside, and continued prying.

Soon, all the wax around the edge was scraped off.

He pushed the wooden coffin lid with his hand, and the lid moved.

"rise."

He lifted the wooden coffin lid with both hands.

The wooden coffin lid was much lighter than the stone one; with a little effort, he managed to put it on.

He lifted the lid and placed it aside.

The coffin underneath was now visible.

A cloth was covering the coffin lid.

The cloth was tattered and blackened, but the embroidered pattern was still visible—a large bird with outstretched wings embroidered in gold thread, just like the one in the mural.

Cui Ping lay on the edge of the coffin, his eyes widening in shock.

"This is……"

He swallowed hard.

"The shroud, which is placed over the coffin, is something only nobles of the Daliang family can use."

Chen Awu reached out and touched the piece of cloth.

The cloth was completely rotten and would break at the slightest touch.

He parted the rags to reveal the coffin lid underneath.

He touched the edge of the coffin lid with his hand.

There was no gap between the cover and the body; they fit together perfectly, like a single piece of wood.

"How do I open this?"

Cui Ping thought for a moment: "There should be mortise and tenon joints. The coffin with the main beam is held together with a hidden tenon. We have to knock the tenons open from both ends."

Chen Awu squatted down to look at both ends of the coffin.

Sure enough, there was a groove at each end, with wooden tenons protruding from the grooves.

He tapped it with his hand.

The tenon is very tight; it looks like it can't be hammered.

"Nine One, bring the chisel down."

Wang Jiu jumped into the coffin and handed him the chisel.

Chen Awu placed the chisel tip against the tenon and used a pickaxe to strike the back of the chisel.

After knocking dozens of times, both tenons went in.

He pushed the coffin lid open again.

The coffin lid moved.

He lifted the lid and placed it aside.

When the torch shone inside, several people gasped in shock.

A person was lying in the coffin.

He wore a black robe embroidered with gold thread, which glittered in the firelight.

His face was covered with a piece of jade, carved into the shape of an animal head.

There was a pile of things on his chest, and it was hard to see what they were, but in the firelight, the gold, jade beads and the like were so bright that it was hard to open one's eyes.

A belt was tied around his waist, and the belt was adorned with jade pieces, one overlapping the other.

She was wearing things on her hands, her fingers were covered with rings, and there were at least twenty or thirty rings on both hands.

She wore bracelets on her wrists, three or four on one wrist, some gold and some jade.

She wore a necklace with beads ranging in size from soybeans to fingertips, in all sorts of colors: red, green, white, and yellow.

She was wearing boots, the uppers of which were covered with beads, and even the soles were inlaid with jade pieces.

Chen Awu didn't rush to reach out; he first held up the tinderbox and shone it around.

Photograph from head to toe, and from toe to head.

Cui Ping stood to the side, making a gurgling sound in his throat, then another.

Wang Jiuyi clung to the edge of the coffin, his eyes wide open like copper bells.

"How much is this worth?"

Chen Awu remained silent and handed the tinder to Jin Yi.

"Lifted it up high."

Jin Yi stood on tiptoe and held the fire tinder high.

Chen Awu reached out and touched the jade on the man's face first.

He peeled back the jade, revealing a face underneath.

His face was dry, the skin clinging to his bones, his eye sockets were sunken, his mouth was open, and his teeth were showing.

He glanced at it and then put the jade cover back on.

Then he reached out and touched the pile of stuff on the man's chest.

The pile of things was strung together; there were jade, beads, gold pieces, and some kind of gemstone, all connected by silk thread.

The silk thread was already rotten; it would fall apart at the slightest touch.

He gathered the scattered items together, took them out one by one, and placed them on the coffin lid.

Wang Jiuyi leaned over to take a look.

"Fifth Brother, this..."

Chen Awu ignored him and continued taking things out.

After taking the one from the chest, take the one from the neck.

After taking the one around the neck, take the one around the waist.

The belt around his waist was adorned with jade pieces. He untied the belt, and the jade pieces jingled as they fell into his hand.

The belt was very long, wrapping around the man's waist twice, and contained at least a hundred jade pieces.

After taking what was in their waistband, they took what was in their hands, then what was on their wrists, and finally what was on their feet.

After prying out the beads and jade pieces, he reached out and touched the body.

I felt something under the pillow.

He lifted the pillow and found a knife underneath.

The knife was about a foot long, and the scabbard was made of leather, but the leather was rotten, and the blade was exposed.

Cui Ping leaned closer to take a look.

"Made of copper."

He rubbed the blade with his hand, removing a layer of rust to reveal the copper underneath, which gleamed with a dark yellow light.

There are words on it.

Chen Awu held it up to look at it.

There were indeed words engraved on the blade, winding and twisting, but I couldn't recognize a single one.

Cui Ping stared at it for a long time.

"I don't recognize many of the characters in Daliang's writing, but they're all auspicious phrases, like 'fortune' and 'longevity'."

Chen Awu put the knife aside and reached inside again.

I felt something under my feet.

He tried to push the body to one side, but couldn't move it.

Wang Jiu reached out to help, and the two of them worked together to move the body to the side.

There was a box under my feet, square and neat, made of some kind of wood, rotten and about to fall apart.

Chen Awu took the box out.

The box lid fell off at the slightest touch.

It contains a seal.

Cui Ping took it and looked at it for a long time before his hand trembled.

"This is the official seal."

He held the seal up to the fire tumbler.

"This is a general's seal. This man is a general, a general of the Great Liang."

Chen Awu took the seal, looked at it, and put it aside.

He reached inside again.

I felt something under the corpse.

He tried to turn the body over, but couldn't.

"Give me a hand."

Wang Jiuyi and Wang Sanjiu came over together, and the three of them grabbed the corpse's clothes and tried to turn them over.

The body was stiff and difficult to turn over.

After searching for a long time, they turned the body over.

There was a layer of something underneath him.

It was a layer of jade pieces, one by one, covering the bottom of the coffin.

The jade pieces come in various sizes, from the size of a palm to the size of a fingertip. They are square, round, long, and flat, and all are engraved with patterns.

Cui Ping glanced at it, his legs went weak, and he almost knelt down.

"Jade...jade suit..."

Chen Awu had never heard of this.

"What?"

Cui Ping's voice was trembling as he spoke.

"There's a saying passed down from our elders that the emperor of the Great Liang Dynasty was buried in a jade burial suit. The suit was made of jade pieces sewn together, covering him from head to toe, one piece on top of another, completely airtight."

"But nobody's ever seen it. Everyone said the tomb raiders stripped it naked. I never expected... I never expected there would be one here..."

Cui Ping lay on the edge of the coffin, staring blankly at the jade pieces.

"This...this...this is the King of Great Liang!"

He swallowed hard.

"The general cannot afford this; this is the king, the king of Great Liang."

Chen Awu stood up.

The contents of the coffin are now piled up to fill the coffin lid.

Gold, jade, beads, gemstones, it was overflowing.

The firelight was so bright it hurt people's eyes.

Wang Jiuyi chuckled twice.

"It's been sent."

Wang Sanjiu also laughed, his mouth agape in a wide grin.

Kim Eul held up the tinderbox, his mouth stretched from ear to ear.

Cui Ping squatted down and examined the items one by one, his hands trembling violently and his breath coming in gasps.

Chen Awu did not laugh.

He stood there, staring at the pile of things, and after a long while, he finally spoke.

"Pack it up and move it out."

Wang Jiuyi and Wang Sanjiu came up, took off the bundles from their waists, and put the things inside.

My hands were shaking while I was assembling it; I kept dropping things.

Cui Ping squatted down beside them, reading out the names one by one.

"Jade discs, jade cong, jade huang, jade jue, jade rings, jade tubes, jade beads, jade pieces, gold rings, gold bracelets, gold necklaces, gold pieces, gemstones, beads, beads, and more beads..."

He was reciting when he suddenly stopped.

It wasn't that he wanted to stop; some sound made him stop.

Chen Awu also heard it.

Wang Jiu stopped packing the bundle and looked up.

What was that sound?

Everyone stopped and listened carefully.

thump.

Another sound.

This time I heard it clearly; it was coming from the outer tomb chamber.

Chen Awu's expression changed, and he waved his hand at Jin Yi.

Jin Yi stuck the tinder into the crack in the wall, crouched down, crawled through the collapsed hole, and went outside to look.

Jin Yi quickly crawled back out of the collapsed hole.

He crawled out much faster than he went in, his eyes wide open.

He felt like something was stuck in his throat, and it took him several breaths to finally speak.

"There's movement inside that stone sarcophagus!"