Vollständiges Metamorphose-Handbuch

Kapitel 42

I suddenly remembered the gray shadow I'd seen when he fired the light-emitting bullet, and a chill ran down my spine. I quickly cried out, "Don't be reckless..."

Before I could finish speaking, a mournful cry rang out above me—

Waaaaaah..........

It was that damned crying again. I looked up abruptly and saw a pale green shadow flash by not far in front of us.

Damn it, let's go! I didn't care about anything else, I quickly grabbed the girl's cold little hand and ran towards the stone steps. There was absolutely no way back, the only way was to get out of here as soon as possible. Seeing me run towards the stone steps, Huang Zhihua and the young master hurriedly followed. But I had only taken a few steps.

"What happened?" The young master, who was following closely behind me, couldn't stop in time and bumped into my back. He asked anxiously.

I didn't use the wolf-eye flashlight, relying entirely on the miner's lamp overhead for illumination. The white stone steps were very long and high, and I didn't know where they led. They looked very similar to the white stone steps in the Guangchuan King's Mausoleum. Logically speaking, the coffin of the tomb owner might be located at the top of the stone platform.

But now, with the miners' lamps lit at dusk, I can clearly see that not far in front of us, there are several people standing indistinctly... several people wearing gray clothes.

I couldn't help but shiver. Thinking of the scene I had seen when the flare went off, I was instantly terrified—there was absolutely no one in this place, so what was that gray shadow?

"Ahead—" I pointed ahead.

Those gray shadows were blurry, but they were definitely there.

The young master gasped, and after a long pause, he finally asked, "What is that?"

Huang Zhihua clearly displayed the composure expected of a soldier. After the life-or-death struggle and the bizarre and thrilling scene, he was no longer too surprised. He calmly analyzed, "There are two possibilities. One is that someone entered here first. You just said that the corpse in that stone chamber was clearly a modern person; the other possibility is..."

He didn't explicitly say what the other possibility was, but everyone understood from his bitter smile—it wasn't a person at all, but something that shouldn't exist.

"No matter what it is, we have to get through it!" I took a breath. There was no way back. Behind us were layers upon layers of corpse worms, and what other dangerous and bizarre things awaited us ahead?

I steeled myself and instructed the young master to take good care of the girl. Huang Zhihua had already gripped the gun in his hand and walked ahead of me. The bronze sword in my hand emitted a cold, eerie light under the miner's lamp, gleaming with a chilling sharpness that seemed out of place in this era.

I even clearly felt the bronze sword in my hand vibrate slightly. For some inexplicable reason, I thought again of the sixteen bird-script characters—

The Eight Trigrams and the Sixty-Year Cycle, Divine Secrets and Ghostly Tricks, Transformed Serpent and Dragon Bones...

My heart clenched involuntarily. Suddenly, it seemed as if I had realized something. Yes, the underground structure of this tomb chamber was strikingly similar to the stone platform in the Guangchuan King's Mausoleum. From the white jade-like building materials to the layout, they all seemed very similar, and even the incomplete remains...

"Heavenly Cripples and Earthly Defects?" Could it be referring to these mutilated corpses?

I couldn't help but turn around and look at the red glowing corpse worms not far away, which could even be described as beautiful. A vague sense of panic and indescribable discomfort rose in my heart...

What is the connection between the Guangchuan Royal Mausoleum, the Shadow Kunlun Wind Eye, and the Dragon Coffin under the Yellow River Eye, and why is this the case?

What do those sixteen characters represent? The first time I saw those sixteen characters was when I drew this ancient bronze sword. At the time, I thought it was a hallucination, but—Old Man Nanpaizi said that these sixteen characters are also engraved on the Zhenhe Seal? What is the connection between the Zhenhe Seal and this ancient bronze sword?

The girl gently tugged at me from behind. I turned to look at her, and through the gas mask, I saw an eerie light flash in her once innocent eyes—

"Brother Xu, this place is very strange..."

"What's strange?" I asked. The girl said this place was very similar to the Guangchuan King's Mausoleum, and the young master beside her nodded in agreement, saying they might be from the same period. I said, "Isn't that obvious? If they're not from the same period, how can they break the curse of the Yellow River Dragon Coffin? What are we doing here?"

"Shh..." Just as we were speaking in hushed tones, Huang Zhihua gestured for us to be quiet.

As we ascended the stone steps, we got closer and closer to those gray shadows, and the distance became clearer... In the distance, I could vaguely see that these gray shadows stood on both sides of the wide white stone steps, indistinctly arranged and ascending in an orderly fashion.

The orderly arrangement sent a chill down our spines. The young master gently tugged at my sleeve and whispered, "Old Xu, did you see that?"

I muttered under my breath, "I'm not blind, how could I not see?"

"What is this thing?" Huang Zhihua asked me.

I shook my head and couldn't help but joke, "It's probably some kind of welcoming ceremony. This Golden Thread Maiden is very hospitable, arranging for people to line the streets to welcome her?"

"Nonsense!" The young master made a disdainful gesture and sneered, "It's really about taking our lives. This girl is shameless; she's gone mad with desire for men, so she wants us here to keep her company. But then again, she hasn't seen a man in thousands of years, so her loneliness is understandable..."

As I listened to the young master's increasingly outrageous words, I couldn't help but glare at him fiercely and said angrily, "After the coffin is opened, you can stay here and comfort her lonely heart!"

As we spoke, we approached the nearest group of gray shadows. Even under the light of the wolf-eye flashlight, they were still blurry and unclear, but all four of us knew in our hearts that these things definitely existed.

Now I was walking at the very front, and just as my foot stepped onto the same stone step as the gray shadow, my heart sank for no reason, and the ancient bronze sword in my hand trembled involuntarily, emitting a cold, clear light under the miner's lamp.

In any case, this is the only way out. Whether we want to open the coffin of the Golden Thread Maiden or get out and break the curse of the Yellow River Dragon Coffin, we have no way back.

With a heavy heart, I stepped onto the same stone step as the gray shadow and stood on the same platform. Holding the ancient bronze sword in one hand and the wolf-eye flashlight in the other, I shone it on the gray shadow on my left.

This—could it be considered a person? At least many years ago, he must have been one of my kind. But now, only a skeleton remains. By the bright beam of my wolf-eye flashlight, I looked up and saw a gray coat draped over a skeleton that was now nothing but bones. The beam of my wolf-eye flashlight focused on its face…

Two rows of gleaming white teeth and dark, hollow eye sockets gave it an eerie look in the darkness... For some reason, this skeleton, now just a skeleton, stood upright on the stone steps. Was it guarding its master, or waiting for us uninvited intruders?

Strange! The young master was also holding a wolf-eye flashlight, shaking his head repeatedly, the beam of light sweeping across the two gray skeletons as he muttered something.

Huang Zhihua asked curiously, "What's so strange about it?" "They're just two skeletons, probably buried alive with the dead."

Those who dare to enter the tomb chamber are naturally not afraid of the two skeletons, but for some reason I also feel strange—in the Western Zhou Dynasty, a slave society, slaves were buried alive with their masters, as if the status of slaves was even lower than that of pigs and sheep. This should have been an extremely common thing, but for some reason, I also had a strange feeling that I couldn't explain.

Suddenly, I felt someone tug at my clothes from behind. I turned around and saw the girl pulling on my clothes, whispering, "Their clothes are so strange. They've been exposed to the air for a thousand years and they haven't decayed!" Ah... Hearing the girl say that, I instinctively exclaimed. Before, I had only felt an indescribable strangeness, but now I finally understood. Indeed, no fabric could be preserved for a thousand years, whether in ancient or modern times. The bodies of these corpses had long since decomposed, but why were their clothes preserved intact during the decomposition process?

Moreover, the clothes were quite strange, shaped like a modern raincoat, complete with a hood that concealed the skeleton, adding an extra layer of mystery and eeriness. I was even somewhat surprised to find that the grayish surface of these clothes seemed to absorb light, especially when we shone our flashlights on them, the light seemed to dim instantly. Clothes that hadn't decayed for a thousand years—if we could take these out, they would be priceless… completely overturning modern people's understanding of ancient times. Huang Zhihua muttered to himself, and as he spoke, he actually walked towards a skeleton on his right.

"What are you doing?" I was startled and snapped, "We can't let them get away... Let's go!" With that, I quickly pulled the girl along and strode forward. Seeing our unfriendly tone, Huang Zhihua reluctantly followed behind me, seemingly wanting to say something, but ultimately held back. From the first row of gray skeleton shadows that appeared, a pair of such skeletons would appear every three steps. As I walked quickly forward, I explained to Huang Zhihua that those skeletons were definitely not just decorations; they might have some powerful traps set up, so it was best to be careful and not provoke them.

Just from those gray clothes that hadn't decayed for a thousand years, I knew these skeletons were definitely not ordinary funerary objects. Historically, there are some descriptions of tombs with slave owners—slaves were of extremely lowly status, often buried haphazardly in a pit with dozens of people in one place. But now... these gray skeletons appearing in the main tomb chamber represent a completely different meaning. I thought again of the scattered corpses under the stone steps earlier. To be honest, those were more in line with the ancient people's funerary practices.

"I understand!" Huang Zhihua was easy to talk to, nodding and saying he would keep it in mind.

Waaaaah...

Just as we were speaking, suddenly, a mournful cry rang out overhead... a soft, sobbing sound that reached our ears. "What was that sound?" the young master jumped up, asking urgently. I looked up, and sure enough, a series of green shadows spun in mid-air in front of the gray skeleton before vanishing into thin air.

"Damn it," I cursed under my breath, immediately realizing something was wrong. I quickly grabbed the girl and rushed forward, but I never expected that two gray skeletons on the white stone steps ahead would suddenly appear in front of me with lightning speed... I lost my footing and almost crashed into them, but luckily the girl pulled me back. My miner's lamp met the skeletons' eyes, their two rows of white teeth looking particularly terrifying. For some reason, I felt—they seemed to be laughing. Yes, a strange and ferocious laugh, just like the eerie and ferocious smiles of Wang Quansheng, the professor, and others after their deaths.

"It's bad..." the young master cried out, "We're surrounded..." I turned around abruptly, and sure enough, the rows of gray skeletons that had been standing neatly on the stone steps had all surrounded us, and our path was blocked as well. Almost without thinking, the bronze sword in my hand flashed with a cold light, and I slashed at the nearest gray skeleton, shouting at the same time, "Young master, protect the girl..."

As soon as I moved, Huang Zhihua followed suit, brandishing his military bayonet with an air of overwhelming power. But to my utter surprise, my incredibly sharp weapon, capable of easily cutting through chains, seemed to have no effect whatsoever on the seemingly decaying skeleton. The gray shadow skeleton moved with unbelievable speed, its two white claws already reaching for my throat. I involuntarily screamed, ducked, and narrowly dodged, but in doing so, I lost my balance and fell to the ground. At the same time, another gray shadow skeleton's white claws reached for the girl beside me.

The girl screamed in fright and instinctively turned to run, but we were already surrounded by gray shadow skeletons behind us... I whirled around, using my bronze sword as a brace to keep from falling, but the gray shadow skeleton in front of me was already inches away, its claws digging fiercely into my gas mask, almost tearing it off.

With a loud "bang," a bullet narrowly missed my nose and struck the skeleton opposite me squarely in the chest. To my utter surprise, the gray skeleton, struck by the bullet, merely swayed slightly before lunging at me again.

Enraged, I raised my hand and swung the bronze sword fiercely at those ghostly claws. But as I did so, I could no longer hold on and crashed to the ground.

I distinctly felt a tightening in my hand; something had snatched the bronze sword. Looking up, I saw Huang Zhihua, seeing my danger, disregarding his own safety, fiercely slashing at me with his military bayonet. But a green shadow lunged at my face...

Damn it! A surge of rage rose within me, and malice welled up within me—time and again, it was this ominous green shadow that was causing all this trouble. I lay stiffly on the white stone steps, ignoring the excruciating pain in my back from the sharp stones, and swung my ancient bronze sword, its cold, sharp light flashing, fiercely slashing at the ominous green shadow.

A mournful cry escaped the green shadow as it missed its target, and it quickly drifted away. At the same time, before I could even get up from the ground, three gray skeletons pounced on me again.

In the empty tomb, only my voice echoed. Not far away, crimson light flickered on the ground, and countless corpse worms were stirring restlessly.

A terror beyond words gripped my heart. I looked around blankly; in the entire tomb chamber, I stood alone, utterly alone. A deathly silence enveloped me, the air thick with an oppressive heaviness…

Young master, where did the maid and Huang Zhihua go? I forced myself to calm down and recalled the whole incident.

Right, the key to everything seems to lie with that ghastly green ghostly figure. I thought about it, and when I chased it to the top of the stone steps, it shouldn't have been long, maybe three to five minutes at most. In such a short time, what could possibly take away the three of them, young master and his companion, without anyone noticing?

Just as I was lost in thought, suddenly, a muffled gunshot rang out...

Gunshots—that's right, Huang Zhihua was carrying a gun. I listened intently; the gunshots seemed to be coming from above. Without thinking too much, I ran quickly towards the platform at the top of the stone steps.

In the distance, I could faintly hear that "wailing" crying sound again, but it was very faint.

"Old Xu..." Just as I was about to step onto the stone platform, a familiar voice rang in my ears.

Young Master? I was overjoyed and quickly turned around. I saw the young master supporting the maid, with Huang Zhihua holding a gun, protecting the two of them, standing behind me.

"How did you get behind me?" I asked, puzzled. I clearly heard their gunshots coming from above.

The young master glared at me fiercely. They had been behind us all along. I had just run forward like a madman, and they were afraid that something might happen to me, so they followed. However, they were entangled by the gray shadow skeletons, and it was only after they finally got rid of them that they were able to catch up.

I'm so confused. How could this be? If they were down there all along, why couldn't I find them when I went back to look for them? Besides, the gunshots just now clearly came from up above.

I was full of doubts, but now that I see the young master, the maid, and Huang Zhihua are all safe and sound, I can finally relax. This is an ancient tomb with too many inexplicable phenomena. I can't possibly investigate them all, but as long as we are all alive, that's better than anything else.

The young master asked me if I had found anything. I said that I had lost track of the pale green ghostly figures, and when I went down to look for them, I couldn't find them. When I came back up, they were behind me again.

The girl swayed and said, "Could it be that we've encountered the legendary Suspended Soul Staircase?"

I frowned. The legendary Suspended Soul Staircase is actually just a very powerful mechanism, but it requires certain conditions, such as the walls and the interplay of light and shadow. It would never be a stone staircase like this. There is only one stone staircase here, leading directly to the top platform. It's obvious that it could not be a Suspended Soul Staircase. Moreover, if it were really a Suspended Soul Staircase, we would probably just be going around in circles and would not reach the stone platform.

Huang Zhihua said, "Since we can't figure it out, why don't we go up and take a look?"

I nodded in agreement, but I was still puzzled and couldn't help but ask, "Did you fire the gun just now?"

“No…” Huang Zhihua looked at me with confusion and said, “These gray shadow skeletons are not afraid of bullets at all, shooting is useless. Your method is better, it’s much more efficient to just cut off their hands and feet.”

No? I clearly heard gunshots coming from upstairs just now. If it wasn't him who fired, could there be other living people in this tomb? I couldn't help but think of the foot wearing sneakers when I was down there... It's undeniable that someone got in here before us.

But judging from the rotting corpses, those who entered before us must have been dead for several months...

The more I thought about it, the more uneasy I felt. I seemed to have grasped something vaguely, but when I tried to think about it carefully, it was all just a blur.

Young Master, Huang Zhihua, and the maid had already climbed onto the stone platform, and I hurriedly followed. Young Master, wearing plastic gas gloves, was touching the long iron chain. Seeing me approach, he laughed, "Old Xu, this Golden Thread Maiden and King Liu of Guangchuan definitely have something going on, look at this..."

"Don't talk nonsense!" I hurriedly stopped the young master from spouting nonsense. Indeed, the layout of the stone steps, the building materials, and even the iron chains are strikingly similar to those inside the Guangchuan King's Mausoleum. However, King Liu Qu of Guangchuan was a person from the Western Han Dynasty, but everything here clearly indicates that the tomb owner was a person from the Western Zhou Dynasty.

The Western Han and Western Zhou dynasties differ by only one character, yet they are separated by a thousand years. Moreover, based on my judgment, the Guangchuan King's Mausoleum is suspected of being a usurper's tomb. The enormous above-ground burial chamber we see is not actually the tomb of the Guangchuan King. Furthermore, I do not believe that a mere Guangchuan King could have built such a massive underground tomb.

Huang Zhihua moved swiftly, already stepping over the meter-high iron chain and heading towards the other side of the stone platform. Fearing something might go wrong, I hurriedly told him to be careful.

Huang Zhihua stood on the edge of the stone platform and looked down, frowning as he said, "It's so deep down here, Lao Xu, come over here..." He turned around as he spoke.

I looked around and saw that the other two sides of the stone platform were connected to the stone wall, with an iron chain running across them, separating the two sides of the stone platform. However, such a barrier was actually completely useless. Whether you crawled under the iron chain or stepped over the iron chain, it was a very easy thing. I couldn't figure out what the purpose of this iron chain was.

The maidservant gracefully crawled under the iron chain, and I quickly stepped over it as well. When it was the young master's turn, he very improperly tugged at the iron chain, seemingly wanting to test its sturdiness.

Just then, I suddenly heard a piercing "sizzling" sound beside my ear...

That sound... it sounded like some kind of mechanism being activated. Oh no, my gut feeling told me something was wrong. Just as I was about to speak, the maid beside me cried out in alarm...

"What is this thing?" Huang Zhi gasped and asked in surprise.

On either side of the iron chain, on the originally bare stone wall, four black corpses suddenly appeared out of thin air. The surface of these four black corpses was half-rotten, but each of them was locked with iron chains at their feet, and they had blood-red eyes.

"How did these things get here?" The young master was dumbfounded, yelled, and ran towards me. As soon as he moved, the four black corpses moved as well, inching closer to us...

This wasn't the first time that the girl, the young master, and I had seen such a terrifying thing. We had seen black corpses like this many times in the Guangchuan Royal Mausoleum. Seeing this terrifying thing again now filled us with even more fear. Huang Zhihua, however, was seeing this thing for the first time and was completely dumbfounded.

Four black corpses approached us step by step. The nauseating stench of decay and rotting sand filled my nostrils once more...

"Brother Xu, what should we do?" the girl asked me, her voice trembling with tears.

I frowned and looked down at the stone platform. This side was a smooth stone wall with no steps to descend. It was dark and gloomy below, and I had no idea what it was used for, but it was our only way out. I made a quick decision and told the young master to prepare ropes. "You go down first, I'll cover your retreat."

Go down? Huang Zhihua found a pebble from somewhere and threw it down heavily. With a "plop," a response came quickly from below... water... a pool?

I was even more confused. Was there a pool of water below? But I didn't have much time to think. When I turned around, a black corpse was right in front of me. Its blood-red eyes were staring at me, and its face had a ferocious and terrifying smile, like a savage beast eyeing its prey.

I couldn't help but shout, and the bronze sword in my hand transformed into a cold light, sweeping across the black corpse. "Ah..." came the girl's scream from the side. I turned around and saw a black corpse grabbing at the girl's neck. The girl ducked to avoid it, but to my surprise, the black corpse's movements were far more agile than I had imagined. It reached out and grabbed the girl's slender waist.