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

The winding tributary of the Wujiang River resembles a soaring serpent, meandering through the towering mountains.

Amidst these precipitous cliffs, a group of more than thirty people carefully walked along the plank road.

Li Changsheng and his group set off at six in the morning and did not cross the mountains until the sun was setting, finally arriving at Coffin Gorge.

The group stood on the riverbank, the splashing waves hitting their faces and bringing a long-lost coolness.

But at this moment, no one spoke. They all looked up at the canyons on both sides of the river, their eyes filled with awe!

On the cliffs on both sides of the canyon, one coffin after another stood.

These coffins were placed in recesses carved into the cliff face of the canyon, with only half of the coffin's tail showing.

At first glance, the coffins on the canyon cliffs seem to stretch endlessly to the ends of the earth.

"So many coffins!"

Tiger, one of Xiang's men, exclaimed in surprise, his eyes filled with greed.

"Boss, if we could flip them over one by one, we'd be rolling in money!"

However, upon hearing this, Ah Ning merely glanced at him indifferently and casually said, "If you don't want to be beaten to death by the local people, then go and steal."

"Huh, what does that mean?"

Foreman Xiang slapped Hu Zi on the head and scolded him sternly, "Look at the third coffin on the left side of the canyon. The red paint on that coffin probably hasn't even dried yet! This is the ancestral burial ground of the local people. If they find out you've opened these coffins, they'll fight you to the death!"

Zhang Wei nodded with a smile and explained, "Brother Hu, even if you open the coffin, it won't make a difference. The local custom is to bury the dead simply. Apart from the bones, there are basically no valuables inside the coffin."

Tiger scratched his head, gave a sheepish apology, and then fell silent.

Just as everyone was still in shock looking at the coffin on the cliff of the canyon, a cell phone suddenly rang out from the crowd.

Everyone was taken aback and looked toward the source of the sound.

"I'm taking this call."

Li Changsheng took out his phone from his pocket and calmly walked to the side.

As soon as the call connected, Wu Xie's voice came from the other end.

"Big brother! You'd never guess who I saw in the Xisha Islands! I..."

Before Wu Xie could finish speaking, the phone was snatched away, and then Wang Pangzi's comical voice came through.

"Master Li, it's me, Little Fatty! Do you remember me?"

"Fatty Wang, what are you doing hanging out with Wu Xie?"

Li Changsheng remembered that Fatty Wang was also one of Wu Sansheng's employees, responsible for secretly protecting Wu Xie in Xisha.

However, he was not close to Wu Sansheng; their relationship was purely that of employer and employee. He was unaware of the grudges and feuds between the Nine Gates and the Wang family.

Wang Pangzi was momentarily speechless, then chuckled and explained that he had been hired by a marine resources exploration company to search for the missing Wu Sansheng in the Xisha Islands.

No sooner had he finished explaining than Wu Xie snatched the phone back.

He briefly recounted his experiences in the Xisha Islands over the past few days, and then said, "Brother, I've inquired locally, and my third uncle has indeed been to the Xisha Islands. However, I don't trust that Haiyuan Resources Exploration Company, so I chartered another boat myself to go find my third uncle."

Li Changsheng gave a few perfunctory words, then thought for a moment and added another instruction.

"Remember not to hang out with that bald guy; he's probably in big trouble right now."

"Don't worry, brother. This bald guy Zhang has contacted me several times, but I've ignored him! Fatty has also agreed to refund his company's deposit and come help me."

"Just keep it in mind."

"Brother, I bought a lot of local specialties from Xisha. I'll bring you a gift when I come back."

Li Changsheng ignored Wu Xie's rambling and hung up the phone immediately.

At this point, Aning and the others discussed it and decided to climb the cliffs of the canyon to the north and venture deeper into Coffin Mountain.

The cliffs on both sides of the river are almost vertical, and the canyon walls are as smooth as a mirror.

However, this was no challenge for the mercenaries under Aning's command. They were all elite mercenaries who had received professional training and had seen blood on the battlefield.

The small cliff was no problem for them.

In less than ten minutes, they set up the climbing ropes, which extended all the way to the top of the canyon cliff.

At this moment, Zhang Wei took out a hand-drawn map from his pocket and handed it to Aning.

"Miss Aning, you'll have to walk this path yourselves from here on out. This is a map I drew based on accounts from company employees who have been to Coffin Mountain. The map only covers the area within five kilometers of Coffin Gorge; no one has ever been deeper inside."

Ah Ning nodded, accepted the map, and thanked her guide, Zhang Wei.

The group climbed halfway up the ropes, where they found some bird paths carved out by the locals on the rock face.

These bird trails truly live up to their name; they are no wider than a finger's width and are carved out of almost vertical rock walls, so that when a person stands on them, they are pressed tightly against the rock face.

It can be said that this bird trail is extremely dangerous; without a safety rope, it would be almost certain death.

Further up, past several wooden coffins that are hundreds of years old and long since rotted, you can see many bright red murals on the rock wall.

These murals, made with some unknown mineral pigments, remain clear even after enduring wind and rain.

The murals mostly depict scenes of terrifying natural disasters.

Floods, earthquakes, landslides, severe droughts, rampant plagues, falling meteors...

Almost every natural disaster imaginable is depicted in these murals.

Xiang touched the murals and observed them for a while before saying, "Judging from the lines of these murals, they range from ancient tribes all the way to the Ming and Qing dynasties. It seems that the local people would habitually carve murals on the coffins they placed there."

Black Bear muttered, "This place is really unlucky; it's run into all sorts of disasters."

Upon hearing this, the Taoist priest Gou scoffed, "You don't understand. Before the Warring States period, the Bashu region lacked irrigation systems and suffered from floods almost every year, making it a place plagued by disasters. Later, during the reign of King Zhaoxiang of Qin, Prefect Li Bing built the Dujiangyan Irrigation System, which solved the problem of alternating floods and droughts in the Bashu region, laying the foundation for the later 'Land of Abundance'."

"Who says I don't understand? It's Dujiangyan, you know..."

Black Bear muttered something, but as soon as he finished speaking, he caught a glimpse of a deep cave hidden on a cliff covered with vines.

Hei Xiazi immediately perked up and told everyone about his discovery.

Aning said, "Mike, you and Caisong go take a look."

Mike nodded, and together with another short mercenary from Southeast Asia, they swung like on a swing, tied themselves to a safety rope, and swung to the cave a dozen meters away.

Once Mike reached the target location, he pulled out a dagger from his boot and cut down the surrounding thorny vines.

A moment later, he suddenly shouted excitedly.

"Boss, there really is a cave here, and it looks like there's a stone door inside."

Upon hearing this, everyone felt that their hard work over the past few days had not been in vain, and they had finally found some clues.