Chapter 19: The Giant Corpse Fiend

The old man looked at the severed rope in his hand, his heart filled with shock and doubt.

‘What happened? Why did he cut the rope?’

He stared at the pitch-black hole before him, which looked like a gate to the underworld, ready to swallow one life after another.

He waited by the hole for a while, but no sound came from the other side. After waiting a bit longer and still receiving no response, he simply shouted toward the hole, “Zuo Qingcang, are you still there? If you can hear me, say something back.”

There was no reply from the dark hole, only the echo of the old man’s voice bouncing back and forth inside the opening.

He called out a few more times, but no matter how much he shouted, Zuo Qingcang did not respond. It was as if he had completely vanished inside the Tomb Robber’s Tunnel.

“What’s going on with him? There’s no signal as we agreed, and he doesn’t answer when I call.” Though he knew that Zuo Qingcang was usually steady, and the current situation must be unavoidable, the lack of response still made the old man feel very anxious.

A few minutes later, gritting his teeth, the old man tied the other end of the rope to a stone statue and headed into the underground Tomb Robber’s Tunnel himself.

“Damn it, I have to risk it.” He was aware of their predicament: the entire ancient tomb had become a death trap, and besides risking their lives, he and Zuo Qingcang had no other way out.

The old man tugged on the rope around his arm, took a deep breath, and crawled down into the hole. The dark Tomb Robber’s Tunnel was not very deep; its vertical drop was only about one or two meters, because, like the previous Number Two Tomb Robber’s Tunnel, its first part was a horizontal passage.

However, unlike the Number Two Tomb Robber’s Tunnel, the Number One Tomb Robber’s Tunnel had a more winding path, twisting and turning, whereas the Number Two Tomb Robber’s Tunnel had been straight in its horizontal section.

The old man felt the cold soil as he crawled deeper into the Tomb Robber’s Tunnel, guided by the faint light of the Luminous Pearl. But the Luminous Pearl’s glow was very limited; starting from about a meter ahead and behind him, both ends of the passage were swallowed by complete darkness.

In that environment, it was true darkness without a single trace of light. It made the old man’s heartbeat grow heavier and his breathing more labored.

At first, he thought about calling out Zuo Qingcang’s name in the Tunnel. But the pressure from the invisible darkness felt like a chilling grip from the depths, tightening around his heart and making him too afraid to shout in the dark.

A few minutes later, a light finally appeared before the old man, and he quickly sped up, heading toward the glow.

He didn’t notice that, unlike the Number Two Tomb Robber’s Tunnel, after the horizontal passage, the Number One Tomb Robber’s Tunnel didn’t lead upward but downward.

In other words, the Number One Tomb Robber’s Tunnel led to the lower level of the ancient tomb.

The old man finally reached the end of the Tunnel, which opened into a Stone Chamber. The Tunnel connected horizontally to the Stone Chamber at the point where the wall met the ceiling.

The Stone Chamber was brightly lit, casting a golden hue throughout the room. On the ceiling, the legendary Eternal Lamps, said to burn for ten thousand years, emitted light and heat. The light he had seen from the Tunnel obviously came from here.

On three sides of the room, the old man saw three passages shrouded in darkness, deep and bottomless.

But what caught his attention most was not that; it was Zuo Qingcang’s tall figure in the middle passage. When Zuo Qingcang saw the old man looking his way, he immediately made a shushing gesture, stopping the old man from speaking.

‘What’s going on?’ Then Zuo Qingcang pointed to the floor of the chamber. At first glance, the old man saw nothing, but after looking longer, his face turned pale, and he felt a chill creeping up his spine.

Upon closer inspection, he realized that the Stone Chamber’s floor was covered with a layer of transparent liquid. Comparing it to the walls and floor, this slime was at least half a meter thick.

‘Corpse Fiend…’ From Zuo Qingcang’s lip movements, he confirmed this judgment: what covered the chamber’s floor was an enormous Corpse Fiend, spreading over dozens of square meters.

This was why Zuo Qingcang hadn’t spoken loudly.

In fact, because the Corpse Fiend was almost completely transparent, Zuo Qingcang had been attacked as soon as he entered the Stone Chamber. A strong force tried to grab him and wrap him in the transparent slime. The two struggled intensely against each other, which was why the old man had felt the rope being pulled hard.

Luckily, Zuo Qingcang’s strength had greatly increased by then. Using his powerful muscles and explosive force, he managed to break free from the Corpse Fiend’s grip. To escape, he cut the rope and fled into the passage. The Corpse Fiend did not chase him after he entered the passage.

However, this also cut off his contact with the old man. Zuo Qingcang guessed that the old man might either leave or come in to find him. So he decided to wait there for half an hour; if the old man hadn’t entered by then, he would go deeper into the passage alone.

During that time, he also observed the Corpse Fiend carefully.

‘Its transparent body probably means all the nutrients inside have been absorbed and broken down.’

‘And judging by the Corpse Fiend’s appearance and its earlier attack, could it be in some kind of dormant state due to lack of food?’

Zuo Qingcang tested a few times and found that as long as he didn’t touch the huge Corpse Fiend or make loud noises, it wouldn’t attack him. He suspected the Corpse Fiend had entered a dormant state, and the initial attack was likely just an instinct. It might even be so weak that it couldn’t defeat Zuo Qingcang.

But Zuo Qingcang didn’t test this further. Knowing that staying away and not making noise would keep it from attacking was enough. After all, this wasn’t a game; even if he could kill the Corpse Fiend, he would gain nothing and risk waking it from its dormant state.

If it was truly dormant, then based on their earlier struggle, once it woke up and used its full strength, combined with its huge size, Zuo Qingcang wouldn’t be able to handle it easily.

Just as Zuo Qingcang was thinking this, the old man reached the end of the Tomb Robber’s Tunnel. After gesturing for silence to stop the old man from speaking, Zuo Qingcang pointed to the floor.

Seeing the old man’s pale face, Zuo Qingcang knew he had noticed the Corpse Fiend on the ground.