Vollständiges Metamorphose-Handbuch

Kapitel 20

I couldn't help but yell "Ah!" and instinctively tried to run away. However, my body was still stuck in the crevice, and the result of this effort was that my head hit a heavy rock—first in front, then instinctively tilting my head back, and then hitting it hard from behind.

"Hey Lao Xu, are you alright?" the young master's voice rang out beside me. Behind me, the maid also shone a flashlight over.

I closed my eyes and shook my head to avoid the beam of light shining on my face from the maid. I was still stuck in the crevice, but I didn't know when, the young master and the maid had already come to my side. And the face I had just seen outside the stone gate was actually the young master.

I was terrified by him, and fueled by resentment, I don't know where the strength came from, but I managed to squeeze out of the stone door in an instant. I felt a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. I glared at the young master and snapped, "What were you doing groping around in the dark? Don't you know that scaring someone can kill them?"

I'm puzzled. Why aren't the young master and the maid using flashlights in such a dark tomb? Is it really necessary to be so frugal? If the maid were holding a flashlight like this, I wouldn't be scared by the young master at all.

Looking at my disheveled appearance, the young master said smugly, "Old Xu, you made such a commotion just now, I was just worried that something might be there, so I told you to be careful!"

I ignored the young master, took out the bronze piece I had just picked up, handed it to the maid, and explained the situation to them. Hearing this, the young master became curious and came closer to examine the bronze piece.

The girl held up the flashlight and examined the text for a long time, her brows furrowing deeper and deeper. Finally, she said, "This character... it looks so familiar. I think I've seen it before..."

I was overjoyed. Our biggest problem was that no one understood this bird language. If we could decipher this bird script, many mysteries could be solved.

The young master asked the girl curiously how she understood bird language, only to be met with a big eye roll from her. I smiled and asked for the girl's opinion, "Do you think this is from the same object as the bronze artifact you retrieved from the Yellow River?"

The girl shook her head, not answering my question, but just staring blankly at the bronze fragment. I didn't press her further. In fact, I trusted my own judgment; this bronze fragment was definitely from the same era as my two original pieces, and from the same object—all from the Western Zhou Dynasty. That was a legendary era, but because it was so ancient, many things were buried in the torrent of history, impossible to verify.

"Ah..." the girl suddenly exclaimed, "I remember now, I saw this character at the professor's place. I asked the professor about it, and he said it was probably the character '姬' (Ji)..."

"Ji?" I was filled with doubt. Even people who don't know much about history, as long as they have read the book or watched the TV series "Investiture of the Gods," know that Ji was a major surname of the royal family in the Western Zhou Dynasty. Moreover, the Ji surname has a very long history, which can be traced back to the time of the Yellow Emperor. The legendary Yellow Emperor was surnamed Ji, and he was named Xuanyuan because he invented the wheeled chariot. This is recorded in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas."

I couldn't help but feel happy. In any case, we figured it out. It turned out that the Yellow River Dragon Coffin had some connection with the Western Zhou royal family. As for what kind of connection it was, I couldn't guess.

I shone my flashlight around and saw that it was similar to the stone chamber I had just seen—a large stone chamber, resembling a tomb. However, after a quick glance, I didn't see any coffins or other such objects. Curious, I asked, "What is this place?"

The young master seems to have lost his mind, always giving me the cold shoulder. Hearing this, he said, "How would I know where this is?"

I ignored him and looked around with my flashlight. It was really strange. Just now, above Liu Qu's tomb, there was clearly a Song Dynasty tomb, but now this seemed to be another tomb altogether. Judging from its style, it looked like a Han Dynasty tomb, perhaps even a little earlier than the time of King Liu Qu of Guangchuan.

I couldn't help but smile wryly. We hadn't even found the coffin of Liu Qu, the King of Guangchuan, and now we had inexplicably stumbled into another tomb. The most urgent thing was to find a way out, return to the upper level of the tomb, pour out Liu Qu's River-Suppressing Seal, and lift our curse. We didn't have much time left and couldn't afford to waste any more.

I looked around with my flashlight, filled with curiosity. No matter what kind of tomb it is, it's impossible to create an empty burial chamber. But this burial chamber was completely empty, except for a stone platform in the middle that was about half a meter high, two meters long, and half a meter wide, which looked somewhat like a coffin.

But with such a large tomb, why would they use such a simple coffin? As I pondered this, I walked over there.

Logically speaking, a typical tomb would be like the one Liu Qu described above, with pavilions and terraces surrounding the coffin, arranged exactly as it appeared in life. A simple earthen stool like this would never be used alone. The Han Dynasty placed great emphasis on elaborate burials, and royal tombs were especially meticulously constructed; such a hasty arrangement would be entirely unacceptable.

The young master also came over and asked curiously, "Old Xu, do you think there might be some treasure here?"

I rolled my eyes at him, annoyed. He's about to die, and he's still thinking about treasures. He's really risking his life for money! Everything here is a treasure. Even a random item from the Han Dynasty could be worth tens of thousands of dollars. But the problem is, we need to be alive to spend it.

The girl also came over, and the three of us circled the half-meter-high white platform, but still found nothing. Moreover, judging from the appearance of the stone platform, it fit perfectly with the ground, as if it had always been there and hadn't been moved later.

I asked the girl if she had ever seen such a burial style before. She shook her head repeatedly, saying she had only ever excavated earthen graves before, and this was the first time she had seen such a magnificent tomb. However, if this was a coffin, it didn't match the original scale of the tomb at all. The young master, wearing plastic respirators, carefully brushed the dust off the stone platform. Sure enough, the stone was very rough, and the surface was uneven, completely unlike the coffin of Liu Qu that we had just seen.

The girl suddenly covered her mouth and laughed, which was quite strange. I was puzzled, wondering if she had made some discovery. I asked her, and it turned out that when this little girl saw the stone, she actually thought of some modern abstract art works. She said somewhat mischievously, "If this stone platform were taken out, it would be enough to make those so-called abstract artists abroad furious. We Chinese had already studied abstract art as early as the Han Dynasty and achieved extremely high artistic accomplishments."

The young master and I couldn't help but smile; we hadn't expected the girl to have such a witty side. I said, "Everyone, stop fooling around. We don't have much time left. We need to hurry up and find a way to get back up there, open Liu Qu's coffin, find his epitaph, and discover a way to break the curse. That's the important thing."

"Old Xu, girl..." The young master held a flashlight in his hand, his gaze fixed on a corner of the stone platform, and called out with a look of surprise and doubt, "Come and see, what is this?"

Upon hearing this, my daughter and I eagerly rushed over. To our surprise, the corner of the stone platform, which my daughter had described as an outstanding example of Chinese abstract art, actually had a palm-sized thunder pattern. Its style and shape were very similar to the pattern on the bronze fragment I had just discovered, and it also bore a bird-script character, which should be the "姬" (Ji) character my daughter had mentioned.

A thought struck me, and I quickly brushed away the dust from the other three corners of the stone platform. Sure enough, each corner had an identical thunder pattern, with a bird-script character "姬" (Ji) wrapped around it.

The girl stared blankly at the scattered "Ji" characters around the stone platform, her face a mixture of emotions—fear and excitement, utterly bizarre. Suddenly, she forcefully raised her fist and slammed it down heavily on a spot on the stone platform. I was startled, thinking to myself, "Has the girl gone mad? She's actually using her fist to smash a stone! Does she think her delicate fists can even touch a rock?"

But before I could finish my thought, I suddenly heard a "chattering" sound of a mechanism being activated. The girl seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, her expression relaxing. "Just as I thought. I've heard the professor mention before that this stone platform is controlled by a mechanism from the outside and can be opened freely."

I watched as the stone platform slowly moved to the side, miraculously revealing a dark opening beneath it. I couldn't help but marvel at the wisdom of the ancients. This stone platform had been buried underground for thousands of years, yet the mechanism opened without any stiffness. Moreover, judging from the platform's immense weight, it couldn't have been controlled by an ordinary mechanism.

Fearing there might be hidden traps beneath the stone platform, the three of us immediately took a few steps back and silently watched the moving platform. Due to the deathly silence inside the tomb, my ears seemed much more sensitive than usual. Suddenly, I heard a faint whistling sound and instinctively turned my head. What I saw shocked me: the stone door I had just squeezed through was being pushed forward inch by inch by something.

I quickly tugged at the young master beside me, but he forcefully shook off my hand and was about to speak. I made a shushing gesture and pointed to the stone door next to me that led to another tomb chamber.

The girl turned around at this moment, and the three of us stared blankly at the stone door that was slowly moving, feeling an indescribable fear in our hearts.

As the stone gate inch by inch moved forward, in the dim yellow shadow of our flashlights, a blurry figure peeked out, half its head emerging—my heart skipped a beat. Besides the three of us, there probably wasn't a fourth person in this place; what had appeared now was likely some strange thing…

Thinking of this, I involuntarily took a step back. The stone door finally opened completely, and the blurry figure gradually became clearer—

The girl suddenly screamed hysterically, "Professor—"

Indeed, the figure that suddenly appeared was the professor. He had died in his office, and then, inexplicably, we found his body in the moat protecting the coffin of Liu Qu, the King of Guangchuan. Just recently, his body, like Old Bian's living dead, mysteriously disappeared, but now, he has inexplicably reappeared here. What kind of supernatural power exists in this eerie place that can turn the dead into the living dead?

My whole body trembled slightly, and I could even clearly hear the sound of my upper and lower teeth clattering together. The professor was still wearing his blue work clothes, and his face, pale from being soaked in water, looked even more ghastly under the light of our flashlights. The stench of rotting corpses mixed with the stench of rotting sand from the Yellow River filled my nostrils, making me feel nauseous.

The girl was on the verge of a mental breakdown when she suddenly burst into manic laughter. A chill ran down my spine; I knew something was wrong. She'd been driven to the brink of madness by these successive events, and if I didn't snap her out of it immediately, the consequences would be dire. Without thinking, I suppressed my panic and grabbed her, slapping her hard across the face.

I slapped her hard, and her once pretty face immediately swelled up. Fortunately, the slap finally woke her up. I first looked at myself, then at the professor who was completely unconscious, and I didn't know what words to use to describe him. I couldn't hold back anymore, and tears welled up in my eyes.

"No!" The young master took a step back, surprised and suspicious. "Old Xu, something's wrong... Watch out, there's something behind the professor..." As he spoke, he had already aimed his crossbow at the professor.

Earlier, due to the distance and the complete darkness of the tomb chamber, illuminated only by the dim light of our flashlights, we were able to recognize the professor thanks to our familiarity with him. However, now that we are extremely close, we can clearly see that his blue work clothes are covered with white, thread-like substances that resemble snot or mushy noodles. And behind the professor, there is a noticeable shadow, the nature of which we cannot discern.

The girl seemed to have calmed down, her face streaked with tears as she watched the professor approach us step by step—suddenly, without warning, three words flashed into my mind!

"The Three Corpse Gods!"

The Three Corpses are a concept from Taoism—Taoism believes that the human body has three dantian (energy centers), upper, middle, and lower, each inhabited by a deity, collectively known as the "Three Corpses." It is said that the Three Corpses' surname is "Peng," the upper corpse is named "Ju," the middle corpse is named "Zhi," and the lower corpse is named "Ji."

Another theory suggests that the Three Corpses refer to three types of corpse worms, known as the Upper Corpse, Middle Corpse, and Lower Corpse. The "Baopuzi: Weizhi" states that the "Three Corpse Gods" belong to the category of souls and spirits. Legend has it that the Three Corpse Gods enjoy wandering freely and wish to cause people to die early so that they can be properly sacrificed.

Of course, modern science considers such claims absurd. However, I once heard from a businessman I knew that the concept of the Three Corpse Gods circulated among the people of Nanpaizi. It is true that the Three Corpse Gods exist within the human body; even after death, they remain alive. Under normal circumstances, they do not cause harm and eventually return to the earth along with the corpse. However, if the deceased harbored extreme resentment during their lifetime, or if their body came into contact with certain substances after death, it could activate the Three Corpse Gods residing within the body.

Normally, only the lower corpse is activated, characterized by white, thread-like objects covering its body. These are said to be the tentacles of the lower corpse, using them to contact external evil energy, absorb the corpse's own vital energy, and draw nutrients for its growth. The activation of the lower corpse results in the deceased undergoing a transformation, often referred to as "zombie resurrection," which seems to refer to this phenomenon. It is said that initially, the lower corpse shows no distinguishing features, but after seven days, its body becomes streamlined, it leaps out of the coffin, and walks freely.

The activation of a corpse is extremely difficult. The corpse must be buried underground for hundreds or even thousands of years to absorb the yin and evil energy from the ground. Only under specific conditions, and upon contact with the yang energy of a living person, is activation possible.

As for the "Upper Corpse," that's an even more mysterious and enigmatic concept. It's said that the Upper Corpse possesses its own consciousness, and if it were to revive, the consequences would be unimaginable.

If I hadn't seen the professor covered in something resembling stale, overcooked vermicelli, I would never have guessed about the mysterious Three Corpse Gods. Could it be that Old Bian was in the same situation earlier? But what exactly is in this place that could cause corpses to undergo such bizarre transformations one after another?

Although I vaguely knew what kind of colleague this was, knowing was one thing, but figuring out how to deal with it was another. Legend has it that once the Three Corpse Gods are activated under certain conditions, they will instinctively attack all living things, drawing life essence from them to fuel their own rapid growth.

As I was lost in thought, the professor was closing in step by step. I was terrified; although the tomb was large enough, there was nowhere to hide. I gave the young master a wink, and he understood, grabbed his crossbow, nocked an arrow, and aimed at the professor's head.

The girl looked on with reluctance, but then turned her head away. She knew in her heart that the person in front of her was no longer the kind, refined, and learned professor, but a monster possessed by a corpse.

With a "whoosh," the young master's bamboo arrow was steadily shot towards the professor. Just as the bamboo arrow was about to pierce the professor's head, all the white, thread-like things on the professor's body, resembling mushy vermicelli, stood up and coiled around the bamboo arrow.

The bamboo arrow, halfway through its flight, right before our eyes, clearly veered off its original trajectory and struck the hard ground beside us. Meanwhile, the professor continued to approach us step by step.

"Run..." I screamed frantically in my mind, but my legs felt weak and I couldn't lift them at all. I huddled together with the girl, whose eyes were filled with terror and despair, and whose whole body was trembling.

We're doomed...

I sighed inwardly, even feeling a sudden urge to give up. But as I turned my head, I saw the girl's desperate yet bright eyes, and for some reason, a filthy image of her disheveled state in Shazhen surfaced in my mind: I saw her chest, and I thought she would be angry, but instead, a smile appeared on her pale face, and she asked me—"Does it look good?"

Is it pretty?

My ears were ringing, and all I could hear was the girl's question: "Is it pretty?"

"Damn it, Old Xu, what are you daydreaming about? Run!" Seeing that the young master and I didn't move, he had already run a few steps, but he turned back again, grabbed the bamboo arrow, and charged at the professor.

"Don't let him touch you!" I was anxious, but the tomb chamber was only so big, where were we going? Another tomb chamber? The professor had pushed open that stone door to enter; who knew what other secrets lay inside? For some reason, I was terrified of the other tomb chamber. Just thinking about the iron chain hanging over the pool made me very uneasy.

I always felt that the iron chain was like a soul-suppressing chain that had bound the wronged souls of a thousand years ago, possessing a mysterious power that was unfathomable and not to be desecrated.

"Let's go down!" the girl suddenly said, pointing to the dark cave that had been opened on the stone platform.

"Go down?" I had considered going down, but—what was waiting for us in this dark cave?

Damn, I'm starting to admire those southern climbers. Climbing a few antiques is no easy feat. If they were like us today, it would be a near-death experience, incredibly dangerous. You never know when you might lose your life and become someone else's sacrificial offering.

The young master was holding the professor back. I shone my flashlight around and saw that the hole beneath the stone platform was pitch black and bottomless. Jumping in rashly would likely result in being killed by the professor, or at least left half-dead!

"Old Xu, hurry up, I can't hold on much longer!" The young master had already provoked the professor, who had been activated by the corpse, into a ferocious state, narrowly escaping death several times. This guy usually paid attention to training and was agile, but even so, he was still almost caught by the professor several times. The professor could no longer be called a professor. In the moment of their struggle, I clearly saw that the white thread-like objects that were originally wrapped around the professor seemed to have thickened considerably. Moreover, in the struggle with the young master, they even extended tentacle-like things one after another, attacking the young master from time to time. Several times, the young master was even ripped off his clothes. Each time, the young master had to frantically tear his clothes to stop it. He was already sweating profusely, becoming increasingly flustered, fighting and retreating, and was almost at the dark entrance of the cave.

After seeing the professor rise from the dead—and now, I can only describe the professor's condition as rising from the dead—the girl remained in a daze, deeply disturbed. I can understand her feelings; after all, Lao Bian was just a colleague, and one with whom she had little connection. But the professor was different. She had watched him grow up, and they were also related by blood. Anyone would find it unbearable to see their loved one not only dead but also unable to find peace, reduced to such a grotesque, inhuman state.

"Old Xu, what are you daydreaming about? I'm going to die..." the young master shouted anxiously, and in a moment of carelessness, he got caught on the white thread-like object on the professor's body again. The young master pulled hard, tearing off a piece of clothing, but the professor took the opportunity to use his two rough, pale fingers to fiercely strangle his neck.

Seeing the situation was dire, without thinking, I raised the bamboo arrow and stabbed it into the professor's eye. Countless white, thread-like things surged up from the professor's body, wrapping around the bamboo arrow and trying to entangle my fingers along it. I hurriedly let go and took a step back, pulling the young master towards me.

The young master stumbled back a few steps, barely avoiding the professor's fatal attack. Relying on my agility, I winked at the young master and pointed to the dark cave entrance.

The young master understood and gave me a thumbs-up in appreciation. He shouted excitedly to attract the professor's attention and walked towards the dark cave entrance. Our intention was clear: we had no idea what lay at the bottom of that dark cave. Since we weren't going to jump down, we might as well let the unfortunate professor do the deed. After all, he was already dead, so it seemed we didn't need to have any sense of respect for the elderly.

I watched as the young master lured the professor step by step to the dark entrance of the stone cave, where they were just a step away. The young master suddenly turned around, then very unkindly pulled the maid beside him and hurriedly darted to the side.

Seeing my chance, I quickly circled behind the professor, raised my foot, and was about to kick him in the back. If I could kick him into the hole, we'd be safe for now. But the instant I raised my foot, I saw a deathly pale face, a狰狞恐怖 (zhengning kongbu - ferocious and terrifying) smile on its lips, grinning at me…

"Ah..." I couldn't help but scream. The young master and I had noticed something behind the professor earlier, but after a fierce battle, neither of us had managed to get behind him. Only now did I see clearly that the professor's clothes were completely rotten, but a huge human face had sprouted from his vest. It looked like an enlarged version of the professor, with a hideous smile on its lips and blood-red eyes staring intently at me.

I stopped abruptly halfway through my kick. I don't even understand how I managed to do it.

Countless white, thread-like objects swept towards me, overwhelming me. All I could see was this ghastly white expanse and the grotesque, terrifying smile of the professor's face, magnified several times over, on his vest. The damp, rotting smell of yellow sand filled my nostrils, and the shadow of death slowly spread through my heart…

"No!" Driven by the instinct for survival, I screamed and, with the flexibility of an acrobat, passed through those pale, thread-like objects. However, both the professor and I were near the dark entrance, and the consequence of my passing through was that I was now standing in front of the dark cave.

For some reason, a chill ran through me. Looking at the dark, gaping opening, it felt like a portal from the underworld to the mortal realm. Countless evil spirits lay below, waiting to devour my flesh...

Behind me, the stench of damp, rotting yellow sand assaulted my nostrils once more. Instinctively, I stepped back, only to find my footing missing its mark—

With a loud thud, I plummeted downwards. My body fell rapidly, and my heart sank with it. Darkness, boundless darkness, like a ghostly underworld without a single ray of light. I felt as if I had returned to my mother's womb; terror and despair engulfed me in an instant…

It seemed as if I could hear the mournful howls of countless vengeful ghosts, or the clanging of swords and the thunder of horses charging across an ancient battlefield...

It seemed like an incredibly short instant, yet also like tens of thousands of years had passed, when my body crashed heavily into the icy, bone-chilling water. The shock of the frigid water jolted my previously dazed mind back to its senses. The instinct for survival made me hold my breath and quickly surface. Taking a deep breath, my heart pounded wildly. Thank goodness—I'm still alive!

"Bang...bang..." Just before I could catch my breath, water splashed everywhere next to me, and another heavy object fell into the water.

"Young Master...Girl..." I cried out in terror. My nerves, which had just relaxed, tightened again.

"Damn it!" Next to me, the young master surfaced from the water and cursed angrily. On the other side, the girl had already fumbled for and turned on the flashlight, and the dim light finally gave me a tiny bit of evidence that I was still alive.

Fortunately, the flashlight the girl carried was a military-grade flashlight, waterproof and shockproof, with a strong and long-lasting battery. In the dim light of the flashlight, I saw that although the girl's face was pale and lifeless, her big, bright eyes were clear and bright, carrying a stubbornness that came from her very bones.

"Old Xu, Old Xu, are you alright?" the young master asked with concern.

"Fine!" I felt bitter inside. Having fallen into this inexplicable, godforsaken place, what else could I say?

"Damn it!" the young master couldn't help but complain, "Didn't we agree that you would step on the professor? Why did you change your mind at the last minute and jump down yourself? Now look what's happened, we don't even know where we are."

I was also puzzled. I had initially assumed that a place controlled by such intricate mechanisms must be the main burial chamber of some royal tomb, but I never imagined it would be something like a deep well. Soaking in the icy groundwater was truly uncomfortable. Although the weather wasn't cold, we were deep underground. The girl still had an upset stomach; if she stayed in the cold water for too long, she'd either be killed by the professor possessed by the corpse, or freeze to death here.

"Girl, are you alright?" I asked her softly. She had been frightened quite a bit today, and when I asked her, she just nodded without saying a word. So I said, "We have to find a way to get up here; this place is no fun at all."

The young master and the maid both agreed. Upon hearing this, the maid shone her flashlight into the hole above, preparing to see just how deep it was…

The dim beam of the flashlight shone on the cave entrance, and we looked up—at the entrance, a huge human face appeared, deathly pale, with a ferocious smile on its lips.

"Professor..." the girl called softly, her voice trembling. The professor was still up there, guarding the entrance to the cave.