Chapter 193: Trap

In an instant, the sound of the mechanism churning traveled from the bottom of the coffin all the way outward, and before Third Uncle could react, he heard a "clang" from the darkness in the direction they had emerged from, as if something heavy had fallen into the huge iron vat they had seen earlier. In the enclosed space, the sound was extremely loud, making his heart clench. Third Uncle quickly pulled his hand out, wiped it on his clothes without regard for the filth, and turned his flashlight toward the direction of the iron vat, thinking to himself, this is bad.

This wasn't like being above ground—if a falling rock blocked the tomb passage or sand poured in from the ceiling, there would still be time to dig a counter-tunnel to escape. But here, inside a coral reef under the sea, once any mechanism trapped them, it meant certain death; there was no point even thinking of a way out, just choose the spot for your corpse.

Xie Lianhuan, on the other side, was also startled, because the vibration had transmitted from the coffin. He thought the coffin might undergo some strange change and immediately retreated far away.

Although Third Uncle now hated Xie Lianhuan to the bone and wished he could cut him down with one knife, he was still a relative after all, so he couldn't just let him run wild. He shouted for Xie Lianhuan to stop and not move, then jumped down from the iron coffin and cautiously approached the iron vat to see what the mechanism had triggered and what had fallen into the vat.

The iron vat was less than twenty steps away, and soon he reached its side. By then, the mechanical sound of the mechanism running had ceased, as if it had stopped. Third Uncle swallowed his saliva and shone his light above the vat, discovering that the ceiling of the tomb chamber above the vat had a flip panel—what we call a "ghost step." Such mechanisms in the ceiling often held extremely heavy rubble; once triggered, the weight would fall and crush a person into a meat patty. But what had fallen down this time was not a boulder, but two massive iron chains, dangling straight into the iron vat.

Third Uncle was taken aback, wondering what kind of mechanism this was—it didn't seem like a trap meant to deter grave robbers. The trigger point was inside the coffin, and the object fell into the iron vat—it wouldn't kill anyone. So what could have fallen? The more he thought about the incongruities in this tomb chamber, the more puzzled he became. He steadied himself, pulled out his dagger and bit down on it, then crawled onto the iron vat and carefully peered downward along the iron chains.

Once he looked, he saw a strange object lying at the bottom of the iron vat. Looking closely, he found it was two pitch-black, ghost-claw-like pipa locks, securing a skeleton. Its limbs were tangled with the iron chains, arms and legs broken, appearing to be a sacrificial slave.

The skeleton was extremely robust, wearing tattered bronze scale armor, with an oddly shaped skull. The pipa locks were fastened through its collarbones; one collarbone had already snapped, but the other was still firmly attached.

Third Uncle was greatly astonished and thought to himself: using pipa locks to pierce the collarbones was an ancient torture method used to restrict a prisoner's freedom. In ancient times, for individuals with extraordinary martial arts skills, ordinary locks were insufficient to restrain them, so they would lock the collarbones. Once the collarbones were perforated, they became extremely fragile; any excessive force would cause a fracture—that's why the collarbone is called the "lock bone" in Chinese.

The skeleton had already rotted away completely, even the bones had developed dead scales, looking as if they would shatter at the slightest touch. Third Uncle shone his flashlight carefully and saw that the shape of the skull was abnormal compared to an ordinary person—not just its size, but its length was twice that of a normal person's skull. Third Uncle couldn't quite describe what it resembled, but his instinct said it looked like a large banana.

Within this ancient tomb, such a strange skeleton was trapped—truly bizarre to the extreme. Judging by the structure of the tomb chamber, the skeleton had obviously been hanging from the ceiling long ago. As soon as the mechanism inside the coffin was triggered, the skeleton would suddenly fall down—ingenious indeed.

But what was the purpose? If it was a anti-theft mechanism, while it was frightening, it had no killing power. Could someone who managed to reach this underwater tomb chamber be scared off by a dead skeleton? And this hanging skeleton was clearly no ordinary corpse—then what was it?

Third Uncle's imagination was extremely lacking, and in his shock, he had no clue, but his mind was racing. In an instant, he thought: could this skeleton be so horrifying because it was a corpse that had undergone a zombie transformation? The chains were as thick as a bowl's rim and fitted with pipa locks—clearly what they held was immensely powerful in life. He had long heard that in the Miao borderlands, there were skilled people who raised little ghosts and walking corpses in yin grounds. Could the tomb owner here have used pipa locks to restrain a corpse that had already turned into a zombie, using it as a guard dog? The skeleton had completely rotted; even if it had been a zombie, it was now reduced to ashes and nothing to fear. Curious and bold as he was, Third Uncle climbed onto the vat for a closer look, while calling out to Xie Lianhuan to come over and photograph this thing so he could ask about it later.

But Xie Lianhuan did not respond. Third Uncle paid no mind and climbed inside the vat. However, the inner surface of the iron vat was coated with a layer of dust that had drifted down from the ceiling. His wet foot slipped, and he spun around on the vat wall, tumbling straight into the pile of bones.

The bones were already powdery and brittle, having fallen apart when they dropped, and this collision shattered them almost into pieces. Third Uncle hastily scrambled to sit upright, adjusted his flashlight, and saw that he had fallen right into the skeleton's embrace, with the deformed skull hanging beside his head. His impact had cracked it open, revealing the cranial cavity inside. A large cluster, like a honeycomb, was stuck to the interior of the cranial cavity, covered all over with egg-like pearls—insect eggs.

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