[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-survival-guide-in-a-mysterious-world":3,"chapter-survival-guide-in-a-mysterious-world-survival-guide-in-a-mysterious-world-chapter-95":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Survival Guide in a Mysterious World",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2299064,4497,"Chapter 95: Moving the Coffin","survival-guide-in-a-mysterious-world-chapter-95",95,"\u003Cp>“Water burial…?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ning Zhe stared at the three colored coffins—red, black, and white—at the bottom of the pool, feeling his body temperature steadily draining away in the icy water.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Water burial is an ancient funeral custom, often linked to mystical concepts like “deities” and “eternity”; even in today’s modern society, many countries and regions—including a certain mysterious Eastern great power—still preserve this practice, with so many corpses drifting on rivers each year that they clog and foul their mother rivers with stench.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Broadly speaking, water burial takes several forms:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One is placing the corpse on a homemade small boat and letting it drift downstream, natural and unforced; where the boat capsizes becomes the deceased’s final resting place.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Two is tying the corpse to stones or iron ingots and sinking it into rivers or lakes—Qu Yuan and the child boys and girls sacrificed to river gods died this way.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Three is dismembering the corpse and feeding it to carnivorous aquatic animals such as catfish, crocodiles, and constrictors, which feudal-era commoners often regarded as river or lake deities.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Four is cremating the corpse to ash, then scattering the ashes bit by bit into rivers, lakes, and seas, symbolizing how all waters flow eastward and never return—a more poetic method, still practiced by many today.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But reviewing all these forms of water burial, none match this scene before him: burying a corpse inside a coffin and sinking it to the bottom of a pool—this funeral practice is exceedingly rare, whether in the Central Plains or elsewhere in the Nine Provinces.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not to mention building a pavilion directly above the sunken coffins and placing a massive stone statue of the Three Immortals atop it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Burying the dead beneath the statue’s base symbolizes suppressing demons and purging ghosts, ensuring enemies can never rise again… In ancient Yunzhou, there was a custom of sending the coffins of those who died unjustly to temples, asking Buddhist statues to suppress them… Later, due to fierce protests from monks, the practice gradually diminished, causing the laboring masses to curse: “What good is this damn Buddha?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>——Then what is buried in these three coffins? Human? Or ghost?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ning Zhe surfaced for air, glanced up at the pavilion’s base above him, then dove back into the pool.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The red coffin marked “Fu,” the white coffin marked “Lu,” the black coffin marked “Shou”—three coffins lay still at the bottom, the clear water bubbling around his ears with a swishing sound, as if countless voices whispered beside him, or as if countless wronged ghosts wailed from the abyss.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Drawing closer, Ning Zhe began to examine the parts of the coffins he had barely noticed before.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>All three coffin lids were sealed tightly, nailed shut with iron nails around the edges, wrapped in thick iron chains, each chain ending in a strange copper lock shaped like a human head cast in bronze, its face twisted in a grotesque expression.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The lock on the red “Fu” coffin was a weeping face with a gaping mouth, appearing furious and sorrowful, as if it had suffered some great misfortune.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The lock on the black “Shou” coffin was a face covered in festering sores, sickly and weak, as if plagued by unbearable illness.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The white “Lu” coffin…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The white “Lu” coffin had no lock.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ning Zhe leaned closer: though iron chains still wrapped around the white “Lu” coffin, they were not locked tight like the other two; the copper human-head lock that should have been fastened there was gone, and beneath the loose chains, he could see a neat row of holes drilled into the coffin lid.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The coffin nails driven into this coffin had also been pulled out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“This coffin has been opened…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ning Zhe squinted at the golden regular script “Lu” characters painted at both ends of the white-lacquered coffin, and recalled something: when he first entered Yunshan Manor, he had seen another coffin marked “Lu” on the open ground beneath the stilted building.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That coffin held Ji Bichang’s corpse, and Ji Bichang had a nickname in the Ascended Circle—God of Wealth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Better to see what’s inside first.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ning Zhe dove beside the white “Lu” coffin, gripped the loose chains with one hand to pull his body down, and with the other seized the raised corner of the lid, ready to force it open—when suddenly, a thudding sound rose through the swishing bubbles:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thud—thud—thud—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thud-thud—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Liquid transmits sound far better than air; Ning Zhe turned toward the source—the thudding came from the red “Fu” coffin above, as if someone trapped inside rhythmically pounded the lid: Thud—thud—thud—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thud-thud—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the thudding spread through the water, sharp pain shot up Ning Zhe’s right calf, making his body convulse.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His right leg had cramped.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ning Zhe instantly switched forms, abandoning his human body for a massive, well-fed brown bear; his broad paws gripped the chains on the white “Lu” coffin and dragged it, along with the coffin, toward shore.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Today is auspicious for [Moving the Coffin].\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thud—thud—thud—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thud-thud—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The pounding on the lid grew frantic, thudding rapidly like a death knell; Ning Zhe swam forward without looking back, the white “Lu” coffin wrapped in chains weighing a thousand catties—even a three-meter-tall giant bear struggled mightily to drag it through water.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Splash—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>=9+shu_ba\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ning Zhe crawled ashore and dragged the chained white “Lu” coffin up with his hands and feet.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Damn…” Lan Shiwen stared, stunned.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Once again, Ning Zhe had altered the future he had foreseen: in Lan Shiwen’s vision, Ning Zhe had returned from the pond in human form—but now he returned as a massive, well-fed bear, dragging behind him a pale white coffin.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Just luck,” Ning Zhe reverted to human form, panting. “Luck can’t be predicted.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“True enough,” Lan Shiwen nodded, his gaze drawn to the golden “Lu” characters painted at both ends of the pale coffin.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lan Shiwen had seen Ji Bichang’s coffin before.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ning Zhe briefly described the scene at the pool’s bottom; Lan Shiwen, in turn, honestly recounted his premonition of Ning Zhe being crushed by the Three Immortals statue. Together, they pieced together a rough guess about the true nature of this “Gathering Immortals Garden.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It seems Ji Bichang mastered the ‘Wutong’ here and became the God of Wealth,” Lan Shiwen lifted one corner of the white “Lu” coffin to help Ning Zhe unfasten the chains. “The Three Immortals—Fu, Lu, Shou—worshipped here are actually three ghosts; three distinct rules sealed inside coffins and sunk beneath the water, with a statue above to suppress them.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“And the white ‘Lu’ coffin has been opened—likely by Ji Bichang himself.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ning Zhe pulled the chains free from the coffin. “The three coffins—Fu, Lu, Shou—each sealed one distinct rule. Forty years ago, Ji Bichang obtained the key, entered the Gathering Immortals Garden, opened the white ‘Lu’ coffin, mastered the Wutong, and became the God of Wealth.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Forty years later, Ji Bichang is about to die, and in his madness, he intends to drag Yun Capital down with him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Our repeated deaths just now must have been caused by the ghosts inside the other two coffins,” Lan Shiwen nodded. “Either the Purple Emperor of Boundless Blessings, or the Southern Immortal of Eternal Longevity—these two immortals’ rules have been continuously affecting us, killing us over and over.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Or both.” Ning Zhe tossed the disassembled chains aside and turned his head toward the bamboo beside the pool.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A slender crimson figure stood silently there, leaning against elegant green bamboo, holding an old, withered yellow almanac.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He Nianjun stood by the pond, her snow-white face devoid of features, gazing calmly at the center of the water.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of Chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",1268,"2026-06-20T06:29:21.893Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","9fd96e7e6776c2cc4a18b2699f016fa6ac80adaa835b41959a436b8ed93feea4","survival-guide-in-a-mysterious-world-chapter-96","survival-guide-in-a-mysterious-world-chapter-94",353,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fsurvival-guide-in-a-mysterious-world-cover.jpg"]