Chapter 6: Ancient Tomb

Zuo Qingcang felt a strong malicious gaze fixated on him. That feeling was something he only experienced in his previous life when a gun was pressed against his forehead.

So he stopped, not moving at all, because he feared any movement might provoke an attack from the other side. He could only try his best to use his ears, the corners of his eyes, and the sensitivity of his skin to continuously survey the surroundings, trying to find the source of this malice.

But there was nothing. Besides the sound of his own heartbeat and breathing, Zuo Qingcang heard no other noises. He also saw no other living beings.

After about five minutes of this standoff, just as the muscles in Zuo Qingcang’s half-crouched position began to ache, and he was considering whether to retreat recklessly, the fluorescent light in front of him suddenly flared up, illuminating the entire tree hollow around him.

Amidst a bright emerald green glow, the tree hollow near him turned a sickly green color. The whispering female voice in his ears started again. The next moment, Zuo Qingcang’s pupils instantly widened, and his breathing became heavy.

Because about thirty meters in front of him, the tree hollow that had been swallowed by darkness became perfectly clear under the fluorescent light.

Three crystal coffins stood upright there. The tree hollow was very low, so their upper parts were wrapped in various vines and branches. Zuo Qingcang could only see that in the lower halves of the crystal coffins were a pair of pale, dried feet. The parts above the feet were covered by white long dresses.

‘This should be a female corpse…’

Zuo Qingcang could even see their black hair dragging on the ground, reaching the heels of their feet. In the three crystal coffins, the scenes in the left and middle coffins were like this.

But what really made Zuo Qingcang’s breathing heavier was the coffin on the right. That crystal coffin had been opened by someone, and it was empty.

Just then, the rustling, murmuring female voice was now close at hand, sounding as if it was speaking right into Zuo Qingcang’s ear. He could feel something crouching behind him, blowing air onto his ear.

The hairs on Zuo Qingcang’s back stood on end. He didn’t have time to think too much; he thrust the Dagger in his hand fiercely toward his back, producing a series of metallic clashing sounds.

After the thrust, Zuo Qingcang didn’t check the result. His whole body shot forward like a giant python. All the muscles in his body moved, propelling him swiftly through the tree hollow, moving like the muscles and scales on a snake’s body.

Behind him, a piercing female voice screamed, seemingly filled with infinite anger, resentment, and despair.

Zuo Qingcang barely managed to glance back. He could only see a figure entirely wrapped in a white robe and black long hair, crawling on all fours like some kind of alien, charging toward Zuo Qingcang’s back.

The Dagger had struck the other’s body as if hitting a steel plate. Even now, Zuo Qingcang could still feel the lingering numbness in his arm.

Another monster that was difficult to confront with mere flesh and blood. After making this judgment, Zuo Qingcang ran forward without looking back, deliberately avoiding the positions of the other two crystal coffins.

But perhaps Zuo Qingcang’s earlier thrust had angered the monster behind him. The female corpse chased Zuo Qingcang relentlessly. Moreover, she seemed very adapted to this environment; after moving on all fours, she ran extremely fast within this tree hollow. Even though Zuo Qingcang burst forth with strength several times, he couldn’t shake her off.

Instead, his own stamina was severely depleted. The female corpse got closer and closer. Zuo Qingcang could even feel the piercing scream right at the back of his head.

At this critical moment, a pair of withered hands suddenly reached out from the top of the tree hollow. At the same time, an aged voice spoke.

“Come over here…”

At the brink of life and death, Zuo Qingcang didn’t have time to think too much. He directly grabbed the outstretched hand and felt a surge of strength. Combined with the force from his own legs pushing off the ground, it pulled him upward out of the tree hollow.

It turned out that in this dark, dense forest, there was an exit from the tree hollow. If someone hadn’t reached out, Zuo Qingcang would have never found this exit. He was directly dragged out of the tree hollow into a Corridor. The one who pulled him out was a gaunt, emaciated man. After pulling him out, the man immediately stretched a torch from his other hand toward the tree hollow.

A female corpse, its entire head enveloped in black long hair, charged out of the hole and ran straight into the torch. Under the torchlight, she let out a fearful scream.

The man shouted, “The torch won’t hold her for long. Quickly, move the stone over to block the hole.”

Zuo Qingcang reacted quickly. Upon hearing this, he immediately stood up and rushed toward the stone slab behind the man. He pushed with both palms, shoving the stone slab toward the hole. Seeing this, the man threw the torch into the tree hollow. Then, together with Zuo Qingcang, taking advantage of the moment the female corpse retreated, they pushed the stone slab together to block the tree hollow.

“Ah!!!!”

Piercing screams and loud banging impacts continuously came from the other side of the stone slab. Zuo Qingcang and the man beside him could only press hard against their side of the slab.

After a long time, the impacts finally stopped. The terrifying scream also vanished. All around returned to silence.

The man gasped heavily and said, “It’s fine now. They can’t leave their coffins for too long. These ghostly things should have gone back.”

Only then did Zuo Qingcang have the mood to look at the surroundings. They were now inside a Corridor. A torch was planted in the Corridor, while the rest of the Corridor extended into darkness at both ends, unknown where they led.

The Corridor seemed severely damaged, with broken walls and protruding tree roots and vines everywhere.

In the torchlight, Zuo Qingcang looked at the man beside him. It was an old man with dry skin, gaunt and emaciated like a mummy. The old man’s face was covered with crisscrossing wrinkles.

Looking at the old man beside him, Zuo Qingcang asked, “Who are you? Where exactly is this place? What was that thing just now?”

“Heh heh heh heh.” Hearing Zuo Qingcang’s questions, the old man didn’t answer directly but instead laughed softly. He laughed until Zuo Qingcang’s expression grew darker and darker. Then he spoke in official language with a heavy accent.

“What I’m called, even I have almost forgotten. As for where this is, I don’t know either. Like you, I was shipwrecked and ended up on this deserted island.”

The old man sighed and continued, “As for that ghostly thing just now, it’s called a Yin Woman. It forms when a young woman who died with resentment absorbs enough corpse energy.

Not only does it move like the wind and is impervious to blades, its whole body is also filled with corpse poison.”

Zuo Qingcang looked at him coldly and said, “You came from a shipwreck too? How long have you been here? Have you tried to go to sea?”

“Go to sea?” The old man chuckled softly. “You don’t understand. This island, no matter how skilled you are, you can’t leave. No ships will pass by outside. Not to mention this island, even this tomb before us, we can’t get out now.

Having come here, we are destined to grow old alone here.”

“Tomb? You mean the place we are now is a tomb?” Zuo Qingcang said, frowning. “Who would build such a tomb on a deserted island like this?”

“Ordinary people certainly wouldn’t.” The old man’s eyes emitted a sinister glow, and he said mysteriously, “But the owner of this tomb was no ordinary person. When he was buried here, he was still alive.”

“Alive?”

The old man glanced at Zuo Qingcang, patted his bottom, and stood up. “Let’s go. Just talking won’t make you understand. I’ll take you to see for yourself.”

Seeing the old man pick up the torch and slowly disappear into the Corridor with its bit of light, Zuo Qingcang thought for a moment and still followed. After all, he knew nothing about this place. In fact, besides following the old man, he had no other choice.

The Corridor was very long, looking like an endless passage to the Underworld. The old man walked ahead and said, “I’ve studied this place for a long time. The architecture here is all in the style of the Western Wei period. This tomb probably has a history of over two thousand years now.”

‘Western Wei?’ Zuo Qingcang recalled Liu Zhicheng’s memories in his mind. The Western Wei the old man spoke of was the first named dynasty on the Central Plains. The Central Plains people, who had just moved beyond the tribal system and mastered farming, domestication, and other technologies, gathered together for the first time and established the first dynasty on the Central Plains continent. After that, the Central Plains experienced over two thousand years of division and unification before reaching the current Great Qi Dynasty.

To make an analogy, the so-called Western Wei would be equivalent to the Xia Dynasty in Earth’s China. It was a distant and mysterious dynasty.

But this made Zuo Qingcang even more puzzled.

“Over two thousand years ago? Did the people of Western Wei have the technology to come to such a remote deserted island and build such a tomb?”

“It was Dao Arts.” The old man said with emotion. “In ancient times, humans, gods, and Mo lived together. Anyone born possessed various incredible supernatural powers. They could cultivate Dao Arts and Martial Arts.

But as times changed, fewer and fewer people could cultivate Dao Arts and Martial Arts. Many powerful supernatural abilities were lost. However, this Western Wei tomb still preserves traces of many profound Dao Arts that no longer exist today.

This place was not built by human strength at all.

It was constructed by the group with the deepest Dao Arts cultivation during the Western Wei period.

They traveled thousands of miles to this barren land and built such an ingeniously crafted tomb just to bury one thing.”

Listening to the old man’s words, Zuo Qingcang was somewhat skeptical. Whether in this world or on past Earth, ancient people always liked to exaggerate the powers of ancients and mysterious forces.

He thought that the Western Wei people back then had just entered the feudal era. Dao Arts might have some mysterious power, but they couldn’t possibly possess such ocean-crossing technology to come to such a remote deserted island. It was more likely created by a mysterious civilization lacking records in history.

One must know that the so-called New Continent was only truly discovered and colonization began after the Great Qi Dynasty, when the Imperial Court vigorously developed maritime transport and navigation technology. Before that, the so-called overseas immortal islands and countries across the sea were merely legends.

The old man looked at the torch in his hand and said, “Walk faster. This torch is about to go out. It’s also my last torch.”

The Corridor was even longer than Zuo Qingcang had imagined. Zuo Qingcang silently counted in his heart. The two walked for nearly three hours before reaching a large bronze door.

The door was tightly closed, but on the left side of the Corridor by the door, there was a gap only wide enough for one person to pass through. The old man’s torch now had only faint threads of flame left. He walked toward the gap and said, “I couldn’t get past this door before. But after all, the tomb’s history is too long. After an earthquake, a crack appeared here, allowing me to go in and take a look.

Let’s go. The secrets of this tomb are all inside here.”