Chapter 662: Extra Chapter 1: Exactly the Same

Jin Wuya and I obviously came in together.

The tomb chamber door was narrow; when we both entered at the same time, our bodies bumped a little, but just after we got in, Jin Wuya had disappeared.

I tentatively shouted a few times: "Jin Wuya? Shi Yin?"

No response.

Nor were there any footsteps or breathing sounds.

Everywhere was mist, watery and dim, eerily silent.

In an instant, countless terrifying thoughts flashed through my mind.

After all, I had just witnessed a Red Armor Army member being sacrificed, and I couldn't help but wildly guess whether there might also be a mass sacrifice.

Was our operation this time too hasty?

But everything was already set in stone—advance meant death, retreat meant death; death either way, and everyone had prepared for sacrifice, so what was I still agonizing over here?

Once my thoughts were sorted, my whole mind became clear.

What I need now is not emotional thinking, but rational thinking.

Sacrifice, sacrifice—it is inevitable.

What I must do is, while I am still temporarily alive, to search for the thousand-year female corpse as much as possible and find the clue to break the situation.

I no longer called out anyone's name, but instead felt my way forward.

The needle of the Blood Compass had broken; otherwise I could have taken it out now to guide me.

But upon second thought, with such heavy yin and evil qi, the Blood Compass might not have any substantive effect here either.

After all, it couldn't even hold up at the tomb chamber entrance just moments ago.

I felt my way forward cautiously, each step I took extremely careful.

I know well that upon entering here, the Shi Family's direct bloodline is the key to breaking the situation; as long as I stay alive, there is hope to break it, and even if they are temporarily trapped, they can be rescued.

But if I gave up or died, everyone who entered with me today might not have a good ending.

I walked like that for seven or eight minutes, yet I still saw nothing.

No, this doesn't make sense.

If this is the main tomb chamber, then no matter how large it is, with my pace, walking straight ahead for seven or eight minutes should have already reached the chamber wall.

Inside the main tomb chamber there should be coffins, burial goods, and the like; there shouldn't be nothing visible or tangible.

The current situation can only indicate one thing: I am very likely walking in circles in place.

Similar to being ghost‑hit wall.

Thinking of this, I immediately bit the tip of my tongue, clenched my jaws, and blood instantly welled up from the tongue tip, filling my mouth with a metallic taste.

I kept biting my tongue tip like that and continued walking forward.

This time, after walking only a few dozen steps, vague silhouettes suddenly appeared ahead.

My heart leapt with joy—could it be Shi Yin and the others?

But when I walked closer to look, it was definitely not them.

The figures I had just seen were actually stone statues, each carved almost lifesize in human shape; from a distance they could pass for real people.

The mist was hazy, I couldn't see clearly, so I moved in close to examine the stone statue nearest me.

When I saw on its body surface, near the collar, a specially carved shield‑like mark, my head buzzed.

This mark is exactly the same as the one engraved on the front of my jade tablet!

That is the insignia of the Red Armor Army's fallen warriors!

In other words, these stone statues were made according to the image of the Red Armor Army.

Why?

These stone statues couldn't have been made by my great‑grandfather and his companions after they entered the tomb; the only possibility is that they originally belonged to this tomb chamber.

They… are burial goods.

All the burial goods in a large tomb should be closely related to the tomb's owner.

The appearance of these stone statues is enough to show that the tomb's owner originally had countless ties with the Red Armor Army.

Besides the shock, I began to move.

I examined them one by one and found that each statue, on the lower side of its neck, bore the Red Armor Army warrior's mark.

Before I could finish checking, the ground suddenly trembled, and the surrounding water mist scattered widely.

Those stone statues actually began to move with the frequency of the ground's vibration.

They surrounded me, turning nonstop, from slow to fast, until I could only catch fleeting afterimages of the stone statues.

I stood in place, my head about to split from pain.

Some fragmented memories flashed through my mind, yet I could not grasp them at all.

With both hands pressing my temples, I rubbed hard; in a daze I saw, as the mist completely cleared ahead, a golden‑thread nanmu coffin appear.

That coffin was about half again larger than an ordinary coffin, its sides carved with hornless flood dragons, while its lid was covered in runes.

The whole golden‑thread nanmu coffin gave me the first impression of being… expensive!

This is something money cannot buy.

This thing not only does not rot for a thousand years, it also has a fragrance; more importantly, according to my grandfather, a fine golden‑thread nanmu coffin can absorb heavenly and earthly spiritual qi, bringing only benefits and no harm to the corpse interred within!

Strangely enough, I was actually drawn to this golden‑thread nanmu coffin, stepping forward step by step.

It simply sat there quietly, with no restraints or bindings.

Only when I drew near did I see that beside the coffin, near the head end, and all over the surrounding ground, there were dried, blackened bloodstains everywhere.

Could this be the bloodstains left when my great‑grandfather and the Red Armor Army were attacked back then?

When I stood firmly before the coffin, my heart inexplicably began to race.

Fragmented memories churned again in my mind.

This time, I could capture some images.

And those images all revealed bloodshed and rebellion.

I seemed to hear a girl's hysterical cries, and the despair of calling to heaven and earth with no answer.

It all felt as if it had truly happened to me before.

I shook my head hard, a metallic taste of blood filled my mouth, and only then did I realize that, at some point, I had loosened my bite on the tip of my tongue.

I immediately bit down again to stay awake.

I raised both hands, placed them on the head of the coffin lid, and pushed it toward the foot with all my strength.

The coffin lid was heavy; as my palms rubbed against it, wafts of fragrance unique to golden-thread nanmu wood assailed my senses, captivating my heart.

I pushed the coffin lid open bit by bit, revealing a woman lying peacefully inside the large coffin.

The woman wore a large red wedding dress, her hands folded over her chest; I specifically glanced at her belly—it was flat.

However, there were also dried bloodstains beneath her.

And her face was covered with a black talisman.

A yīnfēng blew, lifting the lower half of the black talisman; the woman's face flashed by, the talisman fell back down, once again covering her face.

But just that glance made my whole body feel as if I had fallen into an ice cellar.

I wasn't sure whether I was still in the phantom mirror, or I myself was hallucinating, or my eyesight was poor, and I had merely glanced hastily and misseen.

Otherwise, why would the woman lying in the coffin look exactly like me…?