Chapter 160: Main Text, Chapter 162: The Tenth Corpse

Main Text, Chapter 162: The Tenth Corpse

The corpse moths that grew from inside the female corpse have mostly been burned to death by Pangzi; the few that remain, though not few, are ultimately just blind moths that swarm only toward bright things. At first they were quite frightening, but now they don't amount to a major threat. Moreover, the corpse moths outside the "cave chamber tomb" have already dispersed; these that just flew in were quickly all swatted flat by us.

The strangest thing is, where did that phoenix coffin go? My tomb‑raiding intuition tells me again that it must be the work of the "tenth corpse". The urgent priority is to drag it out; otherwise, not to mention finding the Xian King's true bones, we can't even be sure we'll get out.

I was about to go over and check, but I noticed the two murals in the "cave chamber tomb" flicker a few times and then vanish, as if they had never existed. I closed my eyes, shook my head hard, opened them again—sure enough, they were gone, leaving only stark white walls. These paintings were done with dye lacquer; even if the sealed micro‑environment were broken and eroded by outside air, they would not disappear so quickly and completely.

Here, Shirley Yang said to me, "Lao Hu, look over there… and over there—good God, all the murals in the tomb chamber have… evaporated."

I looked in the direction of the sound—sure enough, the tomb contained only dazzling white quartz rock, the murals had completely vanished. Pangzi, feeling baffled, asked me, "Commander Hu, is there perhaps some hypnotic flower growing here? Why don't we find it and pluck its blossom?"

I replied, "There aren't that many demonic flowers—don't believe me? Try slapping your own cheeks. Anyway, my wounds still hurt like hell, so this definitely isn't a hallucination… Look, the phoenix coffin is lying outside the tomb chamber."

The phoenix coffin we had moved to stand upright in the tomb chamber doorway is now lying flat outside the breach; the green glow only illuminates a small part of the coffin, the rest swallowed by the darkness outside. The coffin is definitely a size larger than the gap—unless it suddenly shrank, the opening must have expanded without our noticing.

But there is another possibility: something moved the phoenix coffin sideways and carried it out. Who did it? The queen's ghost? Or the "tenth corpse"? Or perhaps the Xian King never died, hiding in a corner of the tomb, toying with us, these "welcoming boys" who came knocking?

The more I thought, the colder I felt, so I forced myself to stop pondering. Whatever it is, since we can't get the "dust‑chasing pearl", in old age our blood will clot and we'll die anyway—might as well be strangled to death by a ghost in this ancient tomb; if the ghost dares to choke me, I'll come back as a spirit and fight him again, then simply take over his lair and cultivate elixirs here to become an immortal.

After a bout of random thoughts, I steeled myself and focused. It seems the things in the "Xian King's Tomb" are truly hard to fathom, not to be judged by ordinary reason; we must first clarify what's happening here before we can devise a plan, otherwise reckless action will just throw away our lives for no clear cause of death.

While I was mulling it over, Pangzi shouted, "Why is the wall covered in yellow water? This tomb looks like a popsicle about to melt."

I also felt the ground underfoot was odd. Hearing Pangzi, I saw a few corpse moths that had escaped land on the wall, unable to fly again, slowly being swallowed by it. I quickly touched the nearby white quartz rock; my glove came away with a slick layer of pale yellow occult water. Wiping it away revealed the colored murals again—actually they were concealed by molten stone slurry. The white stone pillars and walls of the tomb are gradually turning yellow; perhaps the yellow wastewater seen everywhere in the yin palace of the "Xian King's Tomb" comes from this highest "cave chamber tomb".

I don't know why this white quartz rock secretes so much wastewater; we're wearing gas masks and can't smell it, but we can see the sticky, thick fluid—no need to sniff to know it certainly isn't fragrant.

The yellow wastewater on the floor grew thicker and denser, and we didn't know if it was toxic, so we dared not risk stepping on it, nor did we know whether anything strange had happened outside the "cave chamber tomb"; all we could do was first find a place to settle.

Fortunately, there was an alchemy furnace that Pangzi had kicked over; we three quickly set it upright. The furnace was like a sturdy copper pot—Pangzi stood in the middle, while Shirley Yang and I each took a side lug, thus temporarily staying above the yellow water. However, the tomb ceiling dripped fluid like rain, luckily Shirley Yang held up her "Vajra Umbrella" to shield us.

I saw that all three of us had splattered with some wastewater; our skin wasn't red or itchy, just slick and cool, seemingly lacking any corrosive poison. I couldn't help thinking how lucky we were—if this yellow broth were poisonous, there'd be no life left here.

The situation stabilized somewhat; we three each steadied our minds, shook the remaining glow sticks to full brightness, and tossed them into the corners around the tomb chamber so we could see the surroundings clearly.

I suddenly noticed something and pointed it out to Shirley Yang and Pangzi: "In the very center of the tomb chamber, a flat humanoid shape has protruded."

Shirley Yang threw the last two glow sticks over there; the tomb chamber's melting wasn't severe, the water on the floor was only a thin layer that didn't submerge the sticks—we saw green light drifting. This time the three of us saw more clearly: the humanoid shape in the chamber's center wasn't protruding; rather, the surface white quartz slowly dissolved, making the shape emerge. Originally there was just a tiny white stone bump flush with the surroundings, too slight to draw notice, until the human outline appeared did we realize something was off.

Pangzi pointed there and said, "This is ninety‑nine percent the Xian King's remains; Commander Hu will go dig him out, then we'll decide whether to braise or steam him, and we'll take our time cleaning up."

Shirley Yang shook her head: "In the melted stone, only a human‑like shape has just appeared; we can't yet be certain it's the Xian King's true remains. Better to wait and see, letting the bones fully emerge from the hardening quartz before we act."

I stared fixedly at the humanoid figure in the stone; this "cave chamber tomb" is too abnormal. After calming down and thinking, I finally found some clues and told Shirley Yang and Pangzi: "That shape may not be the Xian King's bones—it's a human‑shaped coffin, with a few of the king's rotten bones likely placed inside… Moreover… this tomb chamber isn't really a tomb; it might be a dry corpse."

Shirley Yang is knowledgeable, but she understands only half of what's going on in this ancient tomb, so she asked me: "What do you mean? I don't quite get it—why say the cave chamber tomb isn't a tomb?"

Seeing that the humanoid coffin only showed a faint outline, I seized the moment to tell her: "Don't you find it strange? Here we only have a phoenix coffin, yet this coffin, fused with the quartz, is merely a box—whether wood or stone—and the Xian King couldn't possibly have just a coffin without an outer coffin."

Shirley Yang seemed to grasp: "Are you suggesting this tomb chamber is the Xian King's outer coffin? Do you have any theoretical basis?"

I told Shirley Yang, "No theoretical basis—just folk legend and my own guess. The white quartz we see isn't really stone at all, certainly not ordinary white quartz; this whole cave chamber tomb is clearly the tenth corpse represented by that ox‑head longevity candle, and it seems to be beginning… to revive."

Pangzi also found it strange and asked, "Commander Hu, quit talking nonsense—where in the world is there a dry corpse this huge, big enough to… to hold all of us inside?"

I said to Pangzi, "How could there not be? I think this is a gigantic lingzhi outer coffin. Haven't you heard that on the twentieth day of the seventh lunar month, the ominous star leaves the palace and the Grand Duke descends? The ominous star in heaven governs the turbid Grand Duke below, and the Grand Duke comes in major auspicious and major inauspicious varieties. The place we stand is a major auspicious geomantic spot—likely the subterranean ten‑thousand‑year‑old meat lingzhi. The Xian King filled it with his own wife, who has a Grand Duke's eye, and we are already inside the corpse shell of the meat‑lingzhi Grand Duke."

"Meat lingzhi" is the ancestor of all things; it is said that if one takes the meat lingzhi that lives fixed in a major auspicious spot and likens it to immortal flesh—edible and capable of rebirth—while the opposing "aggregated flesh" that runs counter to the Year Star is an ominous menace. However, the meat lingzhi that the Xian King made into a coffin and outer coffin is dead, having lost its life, leaving only a dry, hard husk; presumably the meat inside has been refined by the Xian King into immortality pills. After the five observances are sealed, perhaps its outer layer no longer grows, occasionally leaking wastewater, but the interior no longer regenerates, having become semi‑petrified. Until it absorbs air, this rare primordial organism will again begin to "move".

I wiped some of the yellow wastewater from the edge of the alchemy furnace with my hand and double‑checked, thinking perhaps this "meat lingzhi" is gradually coming back to life; the earlier vision of the black pig crossing the Heavenly River with corpse‑energy shooting to the clouds actually applies here. The heavenly signs are exceedingly rare; I estimate it's always the twentieth of the seventh month in this tomb, so maybe once the meat lingzhi's corpse shell encounters vital energy it will revive—not a melting, but the dry flesh inside slowly softening; who knows what fierce demon it will later become.

From inside we cannot discern the outer shape of this dead meat lingzhi, but judging from the internal corpse‑shell structure, its outline might be a rare human head shape, possibly with a nose and eyes; merely the dry, hard husk of this meat lingzhi is already so huge that we can hardly imagine what it would look like when fully fleshed out.

I felt the situation worsening, a grim premonition rising—better not wait for its interior to soften and reveal that coffin; if we can't open it, we'll use explosives. Since we're hesitating, I grabbed the explosives, urged Pangzi to act quickly, preparing to blast open the meat lingzhi's corpse shell. But the humanoid coffin that had just shown a outline suddenly split open a great gap; before we could see what lay inside, it jerked and sank into the ground. I cursed, "Damn, why did it pick this moment to drop?" Then I realized, uh‑oh, that might be the second Grand Duke's eye socket—if it keeps sinking like that, even bringing in an excavator probably wouldn't dig it out.

At this point we had no choice but to fight. I was about to call Shirley Yang forward together, to hook the coffin and outer coffin with a Flying Tiger Claw, but when I turned to summon her, I saw countless pallid human hands sprouting from beneath the furnace, dragging Shirley Yang and Pangzi downward. Before I could grasp what was happening, several hands seized my ankles, and a huge force yanked me down; my body kept sinking while my mind stayed clear: "Damn, this immortal flesh is actually made from human corpses."