Chapter 95: Moving Coffins

"Water burial...?"

Ning Zhe looked at the three precious coffins at the bottom of the pond, feeling that his body temperature was constantly dissipating in this cold pond water.

Water burial is a very ancient funeral custom, often linked to metaphysical concepts such as "gods" and "eternity". Even in today's modern society, many countries and regions, such as a certain mysterious eastern country, still retain this custom. The number of corpses floating on the river surface every year even clogs their mother river until it stinks.

In general, there are several forms of water burial,

One is to put the corpse on a self-made boat and let it flow down the river, letting nature take its course. Wherever the boat capsizes, that is the final resting place of the deceased.

Two is to tie the corpse with heavy objects such as stones or iron ingots and throw it into the water, sinking into the river. Qu Yuan and the boys and girls sacrificed to the river god died this way.

Three is to dismember the corpse and feed it to carnivorous animals in the water, such as catfish, crocodiles, pythons, etc. These large aquatic animals are mostly regarded as river gods and lake gods by the ignorant people in the feudal period.

Four is to cremate the corpse into ashes, and then sprinkle the ashes into the rivers, lakes, and seas, to show that all rivers flow eastward and will never return. It is a more artistic way of handling, and many people do this in modern times.

But looking at the various forms of water burial, none of them conform to this scene. Putting the corpse in a coffin and sinking it to the bottom of the pond, whether in the Central Plains or other regions of Kyushu, is rarely seen in such funeral forms.

Not to mention building a pavilion directly above the sunken coffin and placing a Three Immortals statue carved from giant stone.

The meaning of sinking the dead under the god statue is to suppress demons, wash away ghosts, and make enemies never turn over... In ancient Yunzhou, there was a custom of sending the coffins of those who died unjustly to temples and asking Buddha statues to suppress them... Later, it gradually decreased because of the stern protest of monks, which made the working people scold that the damn Buddha had no use.

—So what is buried in these three coffins? Is it a person, or a ghost?

Ning Zhe surfaced to take a breath, looked up at the base of the pavilion above his head, and dived into the bottom of the water again.

The red coffin with the "Fu" character, the white coffin with the "Lu" character, and the black coffin with the "Shou" character were sinking at the bottom of the pond. The clear pond water surged with clattering foam sounds in his ears, as if countless people were whispering in his ears, and as if countless wronged ghosts were wailing in the abyss.

After getting closer, Ning Zhe began to examine the places on the coffins that he hadn't looked at carefully just now.

The lids of the three coffins were all covered tightly, and the four sides were nailed with iron nails. Circles of thick iron chains were wrapped around them, and a copper lock was hung on the chains. The style was very strange, looking like a copper-cast human head tied to the coffin, with a ferocious and distorted expression on its face.

The lock on the red coffin with the "Fu" character was a crying face with a big mouth, looking resentful and sad, as if it had encountered some unfortunate thing.

The lock on the black coffin with the "Shou" character was a decaying face covered with sores, looking sick and weak, as if it was entangled by some illness.

The white coffin with the "Lu" character...

The white coffin with the "Lu" character has no lock.

Ning Zhe looked closer. Although it was also wrapped in iron chains, it was not locked tightly like the other two coffins. The copper human head lock that should have been tied to it didn't know where it went. Under the loose iron chains, he could see a row of neat holes on the coffin board.

The coffin nails nailed to this coffin were also pulled out.

"This coffin has been opened..."

Ning Zhe narrowed his eyes and examined the "Lu" character written in gold regular script on both ends of the white lacquer coffin, and thought of one thing: when he first entered Chuyun Shanzhuang, he also saw a coffin with the "Lu" character written on it in the open space under the stilt house.

That was the thin coffin containing Ji Bochang's corpse, and Ji Bochang had a nickname in the Ascender circle—God of Wealth.

"..."

Let's see the situation inside the coffin first.

Ning Zhe dived to the side of the white coffin with the "Lu" character, grabbed the loose iron chain to pull down his body, and grabbed the warped corner of the coffin lid with his other hand. Just as he was about to exert force, a thumping sound, mixed with the clattering foam sound, rang out:

Thump—thump—thump—

Thump thump—

The efficiency of liquid as a sound transmission medium is far better than gas. Ning Zhe looked in the direction of the sound. The thumping sound came from the red coffin with the "Fu" character above. It seemed that someone was sealed inside, knocking on the coffin lid rhythmically. Thump—thump—thump—

Thump thump—

As the thumping sound spread in the water, a sharp pain came from Ning Zhe's right calf, and the strong pain made his body spasm.

His right leg had cramps.

Ning Zhe switched his identity without hesitation, turned into a brown bear with fat and strong muscles, climbed the iron chain on the white coffin with the "Lu" character

Today is suitable for 【Moving the Coffin】.

Thump—thump—thump—

Thump-thump—

The sound of knocking on the coffin lid became increasingly urgent, like a death knell urging one's life. Ning Zhe swam forward without looking back. The white coffin with the 'Prosperity' character, wrapped in iron chains, seemed to weigh a thousand jun. Even for a three-meter-tall giant bear, dragging it through the water required immense effort.

Splash—

=9+Shu_ba

Ning Zhe climbed onto the bank and used his hands and feet to drag the white 'Prosperity' coffin wrapped in iron chains up.

"Damn..." Seeing this scene, Lan Shiwen couldn't help but be stunned.

Once again, Ning Zhe had changed the future he had foreseen. In the future development Lan Shiwen had seen, Ning Zhe had returned from the pond in his human form, but now what returned was a plump, sturdy giant bear, dragging a ghastly white coffin behind its rear.

"Just good luck," Ning Zhe changed back into his human form and said panting: "Luck is something that cannot be predicted."

"That's true," Lan Shiwen nodded, his gaze involuntarily drawn to the gold-lacquered 'Prosperity' characters on both ends of the ghastly white coffin.

Lan Shiwen had also seen Ji Bochang's coffin.

Ning Zhe briefly told him about the situation at the bottom of the pond, and Lan Shiwen also truthfully informed him of the previously foreseen situation where Ning Zhe was crushed to death by the statues of the three immortals. After the two put their heads together, they had a rough guess about the true situation of this 'Gathering Immortals Garden.'

"It seems Ji Bochang was controlling 'Wealth Wu Tong' here and became the God of Wealth," Lan Shiwen lifted a corner of the white 'Prosperity' coffin to make it easier for Ning Zhe to untie the iron chains on it, and said: "The Fortune, Prosperity, and Longevity immortals worshipped in Gathering Immortals Garden are actually three ghosts. Three different rules were sealed in coffins and submerged at the bottom of the water, with a statue erected on top to suppress them."

"And the white 'Prosperity' coffin was opened by someone, and that person was most likely Ji Bochang."

Ning Zhe pulled the iron chains out from under the coffin and said: "The three coffins of Fortune, Prosperity, and Longevity each contain a different rule. 40 years ago, Ji Bochang obtained the key, entered Gathering Immortals Garden, opened the white 'Prosperity' coffin, controlled Wealth Wu Tong, and became the God of Wealth."

40 years later, Ji Bochang was about to die, and in his madness, he wanted to drag Yuncheng down with him.

"The frequent deaths we experienced just now must have been the influence of the ghosts in the other two coffins," Lan Shiwen nodded and said: "Either Ziwei Tianzun of Boundless Fortune or the Old Immortal of the South Pole of Boundless Longevity—the rules of these two immortals were continuously exerting influence on us, putting us to death time and time again."

"Or both," Ning Zhe threw the dismantled iron chains to the side and turned his head to look at the bamboo by the pond.

A flash of bright red silhouette stood there quietly, leaning against the slender green bamboo, holding an old, withered, and yellowed almanac in her hands.

He Nianjun stood by the pond, her snow-white face without features gazing quietly at the center of the pond.

(End of Chapter)