Ancient tomb excavation traces

Hearing rustling sounds from inside a dusty, lifeless coffin was far more eerie than hearing them elsewhere. We stared at the coffin in horror and astonishment. Bao Cai, who feared nothing more than the supernatural and illogical, swallowed hard, his voice trembling like a leaf, and said, "No... could it be Princess Chu rising from the dead? I've read many reports saying... saying that the dead in coffins come back to life... and... will kill people. This is all retribution. The curse on the coffin doesn't seem to be just empty talk. Now it's all over... I never thought I, Liu Bao Cai, would experience the feeling of 'dying mysteriously' as described in the reports in my lifetime..."

Seeing his mournful face, Chen Yu was displeased and cursed, "Pah, you thieving monkey! Can't you say something auspicious for your grandfather? You're just spouting bad luck! What's the point of feeling if you 'die mysteriously'? Besides, that Princess Chu is already in her coffin, what are you worried about her causing you? If you ask me, she's still not at peace even after she's dead, let's just go all the way, pry open the coffin lid, and send that dead zombie back to the eighteenth level of hell so she can never be reincarnated and won't be able to be fierce even if she wants to."

Whether it was because Chen Yi's words were too disrespectful or what, as soon as she finished speaking, the scratching sounds from inside the coffin became very urgent, like a living person trapped inside, desperately scratching as if they could hardly breathe. Moreover, as her movements became more intense, the entire wooden lid began to shake violently.

How could one person grab and ram simultaneously? And these sounds weren't coming from the same point. Just as we realized the problem with the coffin, Bao Cai's legs went weak, and he collapsed to his knees, repeatedly kowtowing before the coffin, muttering, "Oh dear, Princess, please don't be angry...please don't be angry...Fatty Chen was just being sarcastic and had no intention of sending you to the deepest hell. And...and...we were just passersby, we didn't mean to disturb you...please, please calm down, calm down..."

Bao Caishen was muttering and praying incoherently. Chen Yi, seeing his appearance, didn't know whether to laugh or cry. She could only reach out and pull him away, saying, "Coward! Who's the villain here? Get up! This banging and kowtowing is getting on my nerves!"

Bao Cai shook off his hand, put on a serious face, and complained, "I've read a lot of books on tomb raiding. They say that if there's a lot of noise inside the coffin, it means the owner doesn't want us to open it. People die and want peace and quiet, but now we're causing trouble. I think we should just take some funerary objects that we can use to make a living. Why do we have to look at this Princess Chu? She's been dead for so long. She's either a dried corpse or a wet corpse. It's scary to look at. Do you expect to conjure up a celestial being in this gloomy cave? I'm not lucky enough to have this sight to look at."

"You start screaming when you encounter ghosts? Who was just confidently saying they were going to retrieve the funerary objects inside? So you're thinking of doing nothing and waiting for a windfall? Let me tell you, the more dangerous it is, the more valuable the stuff inside is. Stand up!"

"Oh dear," Bao Cai waved his hand without looking up, saying, "I told you I'm unlucky. I think the gems on the bronze wall are pretty good, so I'll take those and run away as soon as possible! I don't want to stay in this godforsaken place for another second."

Just as the two were arguing, the ancestor solemnly made a shushing gesture. At that moment, the banging of the coffin grew stronger and stronger, as if some monster or beast was imprisoned inside and was about to wreak havoc on the world. Listening to the sounds rising and falling, my throat went dry with tension.

The old ancestor remained unresponsive, listening intently with his eyes closed. I anxiously looked at him, hoping for a clear instruction. A short while later, he opened his eyes sharply and exclaimed, "Not good! There's not just one corpse inside; judging from the sound, there are three!"

Upon hearing this answer, everyone's expression darkened, except for the young Taoist priest, who frowned and stared intently at the coffin, seemingly deep in thought.

A chill ran through me. Three corpses inside Princess Chu's coffin? A princess sharing a coffin with others? I stared at the coffin in horror. Just then, the contents inside began to jolt, seemingly about to leap out. My heart burned with rage. I looked to the ancestor and cried out urgently, "Elder Feng, what should we do?"

The scene was like a pot of soup being simmered on a fire too high, the water about to overflow, the lid sizzling and making everyone anxious. I thought this would be a bit tricky even for experienced tomb raiders, let alone three ordinary people from the modern world who had never seen anything like the supernatural. Just as I was extremely anxious, hoping for a way to stop the things inside from breaking out of the coffin, suddenly, the coffin lid was knocked open, and a chilling draft rushed out, making me shiver. As soon as I looked up, I saw a bluish-gray hand suddenly reach out.

I exclaimed in surprise, but the ancestor, looking at the scene before him, calmly said, "Perfect! The thing inside jumped out on its own! We don't need to open the coffin!"

I felt ashamed. I had thought that even our ancestor might have never seen anything like this before, which was why he hadn't acted rashly. Now it seemed I had overthought things. He was merely observing, seemingly waiting to see Princess Chu's true face before taking action. His mindset was worlds apart from my current tension.

I stared at the arm in horror. It was long and slender, like a green snake, unlike anything a human could have. It reminded me of the sinister green ghosts I read about in ghost stories when I was a child. Could it be that Princess Chu had turned into that?

I dared not look any longer, yet I could not resist my curiosity. The coffin was kept being pushed against, and before long, a strange human face squeezed out from the crack in the coffin. The face was very small, and the skin was neither dry nor wet, like wax dripping onto old tree bark.

She stared at us blankly, like the face of a young woman in a Japanese Noh mask. As her long, thin neck emerged from the coffin, I could feel every muscle in my body tense.

Even more shockingly, through the dark cracks in the coffin, I could vaguely see a white shadow, getting closer and closer to the opening... Before long, I finally saw it clearly...

Those were long, narrow eyes that peered at us through the gaps in the darkness, carrying a captivating and eerie power.

She struggled, squeezing her head out through the gap. I noticed that her hair was connected to another corpse; the two were intertwined, like some kind of conjoined monster strung together by a wire.

Bao Cai was closest to the coffin. He screamed and leaned back, struggling to move, his body completely stiff with fear. Seeing this, the young Taoist priest grabbed him and stepped onto the deathly coffin with the lightness of a crane.

The ancestor saw the monster inside, pulled out his red copper scimitar, and shouted to the young Taoist priest, "Little Celestial Master, catch!"

The young Taoist priest tacitly accepted the curved knife. Red copper was a divine object, capable of cutting jade like mud and dispelling evil spirits. He fiercely plunged the curved knife into the wooden coffin, and a crimson stain instantly gushed out from the coffin. It seemed that the coffin itself was very evil, and the two heads inside, after being sealed, screamed and quickly retreated back into the coffin.

The coffin fell silent again. My heart was in my throat, my eyes constantly searching for the people in the cracks. I had a feeling that those two monsters, neither human nor monster, were not so easy to deal with. They were restrained and retreated, but I guessed they would come back again soon.

Before he could exhale, the coffin was suddenly lifted up by a huge commotion. The young Taoist priest only had time to grab the red copper scimitar, but he lost his balance and fell heavily to the ground.

Upon seeing this, Chen Yi exclaimed in surprise, "Holy crap, what the hell! Even the rice dumplings know how to assess the situation!"

Seeing the young Taoist priest struggling, I immediately ran over and helped him up, asking how he was. He waved his hand, staring at the wooden coffin, and said in a deep voice, "The talismans are all used up. If the evil spirit inside can't be sealed, it will be difficult to deal with once it comes out..." As he spoke, his blood surged, and he spat out a mouthful of blood. I saw the jade pendant inside his clothes glowing, and within that crimson light, there was a clear circle of dark shadows, like a scene of a celestial dog eclipsing the sun. I had a bad feeling: Could it be the evil spirit inside the seal causing trouble? Had the young Taoist priest already succumbed to his injuries?

I was extremely anxious, but I could only pretend to be relaxed and optimistic, saying, "There are many of us, and with Boss Feng and Chu Ba here, we can definitely handle what's inside!"

That being said, I can’t be sure right now. After all, this is the main coffin, and what’s inside won’t be anything good. I’m just saying this in the hope of easing the young Taoist’s sense of responsibility and not letting him have to do all the work of exorcising ghosts and suppressing evil.

The young Taoist priest and I returned to the ancestral group. At the same time, the coffin lid suddenly fell to the ground. Before I could even cry out, I saw three strange figures poking their heads out from inside. Their sinister aura was like that of crocodiles emerging from a pool of water with evil eyes, ready to strike their prey.

They slowly climbed up to the coffin and its rim, their hair hanging down to the bottom, about 1.7 or 1.8 meters long, like a floor-length veil. They were dressed entirely in robes, which had become one with their withered, flattened flesh.

"What fierce evil spirits! Even red copper can't subdue them!" The ancestor looked at the three people standing on the coffin. They stared down at us with their lifeless, empty eyes. Although their eyes were devoid of any emotion, they revealed a powerful sense of killing intent.

Their fingernails were very long, a purplish-gray, willow-leaf shaped. Chen Yi said, "Damn it, these gray fingernails are so long, like blades. If you wanted to dig into someone's heart, you could probably dig it out. If they make a move, Grandpa will chop off their hands first." As he spoke, he suddenly realized something and asked in astonishment, "Wait... if there are three of them, which one is Princess Chu?"

Chen Tiao's words made me realize that I had been so afraid that I had forgotten about Princess Chu.

The young Taoist priest stood to the side, his eyes fixed on the three rice dumplings, and said coldly, "None of them are. Judging from their clothing, they should be the three priests depicted on the coffin relief."

Upon hearing this, I gasped. Indeed... although the robes were worn out, the bird and cloud patterns embroidered on them were still clearly visible. But why were they inside Princess Chu's main coffin?

I was shocked; things were far more complicated than I had imagined. At that moment, the contents of the silk scroll that Lan Quexi had once told us suddenly flashed through my mind. I didn't know how to describe this bizarre event, but I suppressed the strangeness in my heart and finally said a fact: "When Princess Chu died, she had a full head of white hair and looked like an old woman in her seventies. She shouldn't have had black hair..." As I spoke, goosebumps involuntarily rose on my skin. This fact itself was more terrifying than ghosts.

Upon hearing what I said, Lan Quexi's expression darkened slightly, and she said, "That's right... they are not the ancestors I am meant to protect. They might be substitutes, substitutes used to cover up the truth..."

I asked in disbelief, "Then where is Princess Chu's true form?"