Tomb raiding: Carrying a coffin during a funeral procession, rewarded with the Dragon Elephant Prajn

"Floating corpses" refers to the bodies that float in rivers and lakes.

People who have never lived by the river may not understand, but those who live by the river should know very well that every year, especially in the hot summer months, several bodies of animals will float downstream.

Whether it's drowning while swimming, suicide due to despair, or accidentally falling into the river, these things are unavoidable.

The body inside the gourd cave seemed to emanate a ghostly blue light.

Wu Xie mustered his courage and tried to get closer, but saw the dead float slowly sink into the water again.

At the same time, as the floating corpse disappeared, the pounding sound from the black coffin behind Li Changsheng also stopped.

Professor Sun frowned, ignoring the vanished floating corpse, and stared intently at the black coffin on Li Changsheng's back.

"What's inside that black coffin you're carrying? Open it!"

Li Changsheng didn't care about the gun that Professor Sun pointed at him; he even laughed.

Are you sure you want to open it?

"Stop talking nonsense and open it!"

Professor Sun glared at him fiercely, feeling inexplicably anxious.

From the moment Li Changsheng arrived at Zhelongzhai, he had a vague premonition that this professor from before might be able to unlock the secrets of the Xianwang Tomb.

However, he also couldn't see through this young professor and always felt that the other party was not simple.

For a moment, the scene quieted down, but the atmosphere became tense and angry.

Sweat beaded on Wu Xie's forehead as he quickly tried to stop them, saying, "We can't open it! People will die if we do!"

No one knew better than him what kind of monstrosities were inside the black coffin.

Let's not even talk about the Iron-Faced Man inside the Lu Palace, who has already turned into a blood-soaked corpse.

Take, for example, the other great witch zombie that came out of the blood jade coffin in Tibet; it was something that Professor Sun's broken pistol couldn't handle.

If Li Changsheng hadn't intervened, Professor Sun and his daughter would have been torn to pieces.

But little did Professor Sun know that Wu Xie's good intentions were seen as a sign of guilt, making him increasingly convinced that there must be some secret hidden inside the black coffin!

Without a word, he pressed the gun to Wu Xie's head and looked at Li Changsheng coldly, saying, "Open the coffin, or I'll kill him."

Li Changsheng's smile remained unchanged.

As a funeral director, his attitude towards customers wasn't very good. However, if someone insisted on giving customers extra food, it wasn't unacceptable.

However, just as Li Changsheng was about to remove the black coffin, a croaking sound came from the depths of the gourd cave, interrupting their actions.

"Dad, there's some noise ahead."

Sun Xiaomei had never experienced such a scene before, and her voice trembled slightly.

At the same time, they also secretly pulled Wu Xie over.

Professor Sun's gaze shifted, and finally he glanced at the black coffin behind Li Changsheng before putting away his pistol.

He glared at Wu Xie, who was hiding behind his daughter, and snapped, "You go first!"

Wu Xie shrugged helplessly and had no choice but to keep walking forward.

The deeper they went into the gourd cave, the more they discovered that the creatures inside were unusually large!

For example, water spiders, which are common in many places, are usually only a few centimeters long, but here they can grow to tens of centimeters, ten times larger.

The gourd cave is narrow at both the front and back, but the middle part is the most spacious.

The four walked to the middle section and found that the fossils there were the largest and towered to the top of the cave.

Countless borers swarmed around the rotting plant roots, making a buzzing noise.

More importantly, as the four of them went deeper, the croaking sounds became clearer and clearer.

Sun Xiaomei took out another cold firework from her backpack, opened it, and threw it toward the source of the sound.

When the cold fireworks illuminated the area under a stone pillar, the group gasped in shock.

Beneath that stone pillar, dozens of enormous toads were perched.

These toads were almost half a meter tall, about the size of a medium-sized dog.

These toads had bumpy, uneven backs that looked particularly disgusting.

Moreover, every time the croaking sound is heard, a long tongue pops out and precisely snatches away the moth in mid-air.

Wu Xie gasped, shocked. "Brother, isn't that just one of those toad sculptures outside? I thought it was an exaggerated carving, who knew it was real!"

There are eighteen stone toad sculptures near the mountain god temple, and nine more inside the temple.

Each one was half a meter in size. At first, Wu Xie didn't pay much attention to it, thinking that ancient craftsmen had simply enlarged the toad's proportions.

Who knew, the ancient craftsmen weren't lying, they were all realists!

Professor Sun was equally shocked when he saw the toad.

However, he quickly realized what was happening and hurriedly urged his daughter.

"Quickly, these toads are highly poisonous!"

Before the words were even finished, the four of them saw the swarms of toads suddenly fall silent, their bellies bulging.

A moment later, the bumps on their backs began to wriggle, and puffs of white mist sprayed out.

The white mist instantly spread across the water's surface and extended outwards along the gourd-shaped hole.

"Holy crap, poisonous miasma!"

Wu Xie was so shocked he almost jumped up.

He now understands where the poisonous miasma of Zhelong Mountain came from!

It was actually made by those poisonous toads from the Calabash Cave!

But Wu Xie didn't have time to think. Seeing that the white mist was about to spread to their side, he could only turn around and run away.

Wu Xie didn't know how long he had been running, but when he stopped, panting heavily, the white mist behind him had disappeared.

But what terrified him even more was that the white mist was gone, and so were Li Changsheng, Professor Sun, and his daughter!

"Brother Li?! Little Sister?"

"Holy crap, no way, don't scare me!"

Wu Xie refused to believe it and quickly shone his flashlight around, but he still couldn't see any of them.

He panicked immediately!

In this godforsaken place, without companions, especially without Li Changsheng by his side, he doubted he could last even half an hour. He would either be eaten by toads or dragged away by the floating corpses in the water, becoming a floating corpse himself.

Wu Xie thought to himself that if he had a choice, he would rather become a dead drifter. Being eaten by a toad was too embarrassing. If Xiu Xiu and the others knew, they would laugh their heads off.

Just as Wu Xie was lost in thought, he suddenly heard Sun Xiaomei's voice calling from not far to his right.

"Brother Wu, what are you standing there for? Come here quickly!"

Wu Xie quickly looked over and discovered that there was a stone platform on his right, which blocked the light of the flashlight, preventing him from noticing Li Changsheng and the other two on the other side of the platform.

He breathed a sigh of relief and quickly ran over.

The stone platform is about three meters high, rising more than two meters above the water.

Irregularly shaped stone pillars also stand on top!

The surrounding area consists of clearly man-made steps.

Wu Xie stepped onto the steps and subconsciously let out a soft breath after leaving the water.

From the moment he entered the gourd cave, he had been soaking in cold water. After such a long day, his legs were almost numb from the cold.

Once on the stone platform, Wu Xie saw Li Changsheng and Professor Sun standing by the platform, looking at the stone pillar in front of them.

He followed their gaze and saw that there were more than a dozen simple patterns carved on the stone pillar.

The image above roughly means that the villagers of Zhelong Mountain once discovered a mountain god with a black face and fangs inside the gourd cave.

To make offerings to the mountain god, they set traps to capture these enormous toads, then hoisted them up with long poles and sent them into the gourd cave to be offered to the mountain god.