[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-the-grave-robbers-chronicles":3,"chapter-the-grave-robbers-chronicles-the-grave-robbers-chronicles-chapter-92":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","The Grave Robbers' Chronicles",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":20,"prevChapterSlug":21,"totalChapters":22,"novelImage":23},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":16,"volume":17,"translator":18,"content_hash":19},15949,44,"Chapter 92: Thousand Coffin Fire Dragon Array","the-grave-robbers-chronicles-chapter-92",92,"\u003Cp>Liang Shive waved his hand, indicating that he was not clear about this, but he said that the fifth-rank officials of the Qing dynasty were not as few as I thought. Most of the sword-bearing guards in the palace were fifth-rank, and there were about a thousand of them in total. Adding in those from various imperial palaces and special units, the number far exceeded that here. Moreover, we haven't opened all the coffins here, so we can't be sure that all the bodies inside the coffins are wearing peacock feathers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Manchus do not practice cave burial. Moving the corpses here must have taken a lot of trouble. If, as Liang Shive said, a massacre of such scale unrelated to war occurred, it must be to cover up some barely known matters. These thousands of people, no one knows what they saw or heard, and they were wiped out by some ruler.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Liang Shive said that there is an ancient tomb from the Qing dynasty beneath this Thousand Coffin Cave. Perhaps the secret lies there. After all, the two places are only separated by a few layers of blue bricks; no one would believe it's a coincidence. If you want to know more details, you'll have to go into the tomb first.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, provided we can reach the entrance of the ancient tomb.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After hearing him out, I felt even more that the ancient tomb below was mysterious and unfathomable. Liang Shive saw that the torch was indeed dim, and he briefly told me some allusions, but I had never heard of them. At that moment, Old Yang urged us to hurry up and get going. I didn't want to waste words anymore, so I told Liang Shive we could talk while walking. The three of us got up, stepping over broken coffins and human bones, and walked onto another path.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>By now we had confirmed that the bodies here were completely decayed, so there was no need to avoid those coffins. Thus, we no longer followed the order laid out by the coffins, but relied on the compass on the shiye's watch. While observing the surrounding terrain, we pondered a shortcut to break out of this coffin formation quickly and efficiently.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When observing from the top of the cliff, I remembered that our destination was on one side of the circular cave, right against the cave wall. So as long as we crossed these coffins and walked along the cave wall, we would definitely reach there. However, now that we were inside the formation, if we still went back along the coffins to the cliff, we might cause more trouble. It would be better to make a decisive decision and directly climb over the coffin walls here, which could be faster.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Immediately, we had Liang Shive hold the torch while we took the lead, stepping over the coffins on the side and walking towards the edge of the cave. Along the way, we directly pushed down any broken coffins, and lifted intact ones aside. Without much effort, we forcibly opened a horizontal passage through the maze of the coffin formation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When lifting the coffins, because the bottoms were the most decayed, the bodies inside would often fall out. We examined them as we walked, discovering that these people had been wearing official robes when they died. The silk clothes had all turned black and moldy, but occasionally we could still make out the patterns on them. Liang Shive clicked his tongue in amazement, saying that all these people were in military officer uniforms, so they were probably soldiers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In addition to these, sometimes a few nests of small rats would come out, quite large in size. To avoid complications, we ignored them all and passed by.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Strangely, after passing through six or seven coffin walls, there was still no sign of the end ahead. I couldn't help wondering, was it that even walking like this, we still couldn't escape this damned coffin maze? At this point, we were like riding a tiger—hard to get off. All three of us were anxious and uneasy, but we had to steel ourselves and continue.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Head down, we walked for another ten-odd minutes, and finally the cave wall appeared ahead. By then the torch was very weak, its flame only half the size of a fist. Our visible range had shrunk to an indescribable extent. Liang Shive calculated our position and said that, based on the direction, the open space should be around us, but he wasn't sure which direction.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I raised the torch, trying to illuminate a bit further, but the surroundings only seemed darker. Old Yang said not to count on the torch now; we still had high-tech stuff. With that, he pulled out a flare gun and fired a shot straight up.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The flare shot up like a meteor, and I instinctively looked up, waiting for it to ignite. Unexpectedly, as the meteor flew, it suddenly made a \"pop\" sound, bounced, and fell straight down.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I saw it and let out an \"oh no\", thinking to myself, damn it, I forgot this was a cave. Shooting a flare straight up, it would hit the ceiling before it even started burning.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The flare fell rapidly, and only when it was almost on the ground did it burst open with a \"puff\". This was the phosphorus pentoxide flare used by expedition teams; it could burn for about 50 seconds with a very high initial ignition temperature. As soon as I saw how close it was to the ground, I knew something bad was going to happen. Sure enough, within seconds of hitting the ground, flames had already sprung up there.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I kicked Old Yang and cursed him for being brainless. Fortunately, the coffins here were very damp; otherwise, with that move, we would have had to run back to put out the fire. Before I finished speaking, Liang Shive patted my hand and shouted, \"Two grandfathers, this time it's bad!\" I turned around and saw that where the small flame had just started, a wall of fire suddenly shot up. Incredibly, the fire wall was spreading at an alarming speed along the paths between the coffins. In a flash, a fire dragon crawled across the ground in the pitch-black cave, and wherever it went, the coffins on both sides of the path made cracking sounds.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing this, Liang Shive's face turned pale. He hastily crouched down, scooped up a handful of dirt from the ground, sniffed it, and shouted, \"Kerosene! The soil has been drenched in kerosene!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I was shocked. I crouched down and squeezed the soil; it was indeed true. I quickly yelled for Old Yang to extinguish the torch. I felt a chill in my heart—who would have thought the coffin formation had such a lethal trick hidden? That we had made it this far without incident was a miracle. If we had accidentally dropped the torch on the ground just now, we'd have been burned to charcoal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The fire dragon in the distance showed no signs of slowing. At some point, it had split into two branches, flames leaping over a person's height, and in a short time, the cave was brightly lit. I took a quick look and finally could see the layout clearly. The entire Thousand Coffin Array had interconnected pathways, and in not a big space, there were several places with coffins of different colors, seemingly mechanisms to create optical illusions in the dark. But the paths among them were all linked. Sooner or later, this fire dragon would burn its way to us; we had to find a place to take shelter.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I anxiously looked around and saw that the sunken open space was actually just over ten meters to our left, but a wall of fire had already separated us from it. The soil inside didn't seem to be burning, making it look like a good refuge. At that moment, the head of the fire dragon was charging towards us. No time to think. I shouted to them, \"Stop staring stupidly! The pit is over there! Damn it, charge through and get down into the underground palace!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The two of them snapped out of it and directly stepped on coffins, charging madly towards the open space. I didn't know I had the potential for hurdling either; I managed to jump over coffins that were less than two meters wide. In just a few seconds, I arrived before the fire wall, and a wave of scorching heat hit my face.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I wanted to charge through in one go, but as soon as I got close to the fire wall, I smelled the scent of burning hair. My feet hesitated, and I wanted to stop, but unfortunately my inertia was too great, and I couldn't brake. So I shouted, closed my eyes, and jumped over. Fortunately, I was fast enough. I just felt a burning sensation and tumbled to the ground. I rolled over to put out the flames on myself. Then Old Yang and Liang Shive also charged through and tumbled to the ground to extinguish their fires.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>By then I understood why the ground here was sunken—it turned out the surface layer of oily soil had been scraped away. As I rolled, I didn't have time to look closely before Old Yang rolled over beside me, screaming.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I quickly took off my outer clothes and helped pat out the flames on Old Yang. I helped him up and saw that he was fine except his eyebrows were burned off. Turning around, I saw Liang Shive rolling continuously, but the fire on him wouldn't go out. I figured it was probably because he had fallen on the ground and his clothes had gotten kerosene, so the fire couldn't be smothered. I quickly tackled him down and used the dirt on the ground to put out the fire.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Liang Shive was howling in pain from the burns, steam rising from his whole body. Old Yang and I stripped off his clothes and saw several scorched black patches on his back. Fortunately, he had broken out in a cold sweat, which provided some protection. Overall, it wasn't fatal. I opened my canteen and poured half the water on his back to cool him down. Then I looked up to assess the situation around us.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The open space we were in was cut off by the fire wall. Outside was chaos, and waves of heat assaulted us, causing all the hair on our bodies to curl. Many coffins kept exploding, probably due to the steam inside, and coffin boards flew half a person's height into the air. I saw that the situation was hopeless; the Thousand Coffin Cave would surely be completely burned down. Since we were in a low-lying area, the oxygen might soon be burned up—we'd either suffocate or burn to death. I hurried to look for the \"reverse\" robbers' tunnel that Old Yang had mentioned. Before I could take a few steps, Old Yang grabbed me and shouted, \"Bad news! Grab—grab your weapons, the King of Hell is calling the roll!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I didn't understand what he meant. I turned around and suddenly saw six or seven huge rats, driven mad by the fire, leaping through the fire wall and charging straight at my face. I ducked to dodge, and before they could attack again, Old Yang shot one and sent it flying. I raised the extinguished torch as a weapon and knocked away the ones that came at me. But at the same time, more than a dozen rats darted out like lightning. This time I was too close, and my back was scratched a few times. I immediately fell to the ground. Old Yang fired a few more shots to drive them back. I looked up—good heavens, the coffins outside the fire wall were covered with rats of all sizes, their burning red eyes fixed on us.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>My heart sank. The rats that had jumped in were intimidated by Old Yang's gunfire and dared not approach for now. But those outside the fire wall, seeing that this spot where we stood seemed not to be burning, would inevitably keep charging in one after another, risking their lives. Their numbers would keep increasing. In a few minutes, once they realized they held a numerical advantage, they would swarm us and eat us down to skeletons.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I saw that fighting here head-on would not be worth it. I grabbed Old Yang and told him to ignore the rats for now. The most important thing was to find the robbers' tunnel, lower Liang Shive down first, and then block the tunnel—then we'd have nothing to fear. Old Yang's face was covered in veins from the fire burns. My words snapped him back to his senses. He ejected the magazine, checked the bullets, shoved the gun into my hand, then hoisted Liang Shive onto his back and walked towards the center of the pit. I followed him, holding a pistol in one hand and the torch handle in the other.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We had only taken a few steps when the nearest rats suddenly screeched and charged like lightning. I raised my hand and fired four shots in quick succession, hitting three of them. But the remaining two had already leapt in front of me. With no other option, I swung out my slapper, and with a deafening bang, I blasted the two rats into paste in midair.\u003C\u002Fp>",2250,"2026-05-28T17:13:44.893Z","2026-06-01T04:28:20.357Z",1,"deepseek-v4-flash","78c0cdcb5e2debd7ae7ef6afd41ddd9901b22ad8c94bb7f0f6f9a14e935a2b31","the-grave-robbers-chronicles-chapter-93","the-grave-robbers-chronicles-chapter-91",513,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-grave-robbers-chronicles-cover.jpg"]