The Complete Collection of Yellow River Ghost Coffins

Chapter 55

"Clang...clang..." Just as I was talking to the young master, a gong suddenly rang out from the distant tunnel.

"What...what's that sound?" the young master stammered. "Who's making that noise?"

I turned around and looked at Old Chen and Old Zhang, who were following closely behind me, and asked, "What is that sound?" Strange, I felt like I had heard that sound somewhere before.

"It sounds like a ghost gong..." Old Chen said in a low voice, "Why is there the sound of a ghost gong here?"

Old Zhang remained silent, his face cold. Suddenly, Huang Zhihua, who was walking in front, stopped, and I had to stop too. Not far in front of us, in the light of the miner's lamp, a shadowy figure stood there all alone.

"It looks like a person!" the young master said in a low voice.

"People?" A bitter smile tugged at the corner of my mouth. Are there still people in this place? Of course, excluding the five of us, there's also the girl trapped in the tomb chamber, but now her fate seems uncertain.

Huang Zhihua had already drawn his gun and was walking forward step by step when the young master pulled him back and whispered, "Be careful, it might be a girl, don't accidentally hurt her."

I rolled my eyes at him and drew my bronze sword. When my hand gripped the broken hilt of the sword, I had a strange feeling—as if some strange power was slowly merging into my body.

One step... two steps... three steps... I gradually got closer. Using the beam of light from the miner's lamp above my head, I could see clearly that the person was not a girl at all. It was actually the corpse driver from Donghua Town who had set off before us. He had brought Wang Quansheng's corpse with him.

Old Zhang shoved me aside and rushed ahead of me, his eyes fixed on the lone figure standing in the tunnel—

"How did he end up here?" Huang Zhihua had clearly recognized the man as well.

"He's dead!" Old Chen, who hadn't spoken until now, said in a low voice.

I felt an indescribable terror rising in my heart. He... the corpse driver, actually drove himself into a grave? He's dead too?

After taking a few more steps forward, I could finally see clearly that the corpse driver was still wearing the long Taoist robe he had worn when we parted ways that day, and he was carrying the hollowed-out gong in his hand. As he walked, the gong would occasionally make a "dang... dang..." sound.

"Striking a gong to ward off evil spirits?" I couldn't help but shudder. This... this talisman was actually being held in the hands of a corpse.

Since he had his back to us, I couldn't see his face clearly, but from his stiff body and the wet Taoist robe on his back, I could tell that this person... no, or rather, this corpse was strange.

Now, he stands quietly inside the tunnel, his back to us, blocking our way. No matter which side we take, we can't avoid coming into contact with him if we want to get through.

Huang Zhihua habitually asked me what to do. I looked at Old Man Zhang, after all, this man had once been his friend.

Old Zhang walked up to us, stopping just three steps away from the corpse driver. I was worried something might happen to him, so I grabbed my bronze sword and stood guard beside him. Although I really disliked that old man, we were all in the ancient tomb, so it was only right to look after each other.

"Old friend, may I pass?" Old Zhang said in a deep voice.

Perhaps it was Old Zhang's voice that startled the corpse-driver, for he stiffly turned around and stared straight at us...

For a moment, I had an urge to run away. My God—this person must have drowned. His stomach was swollen, and on his face was that familiar, extremely ferocious and eerie smile. His entire face was twisted and deformed, extremely terrifying. His mouth could not close, revealing two rows of black teeth, like the fangs of some kind of animal.

"Clang..." Another broken gong rang out, striking our hearts hard, causing indescribable pain.

The corpse of the corpse driver walked stiffly towards us step by step... Old Zhang seemed to be terrified, standing there motionless. I watched as the corpse driver reached out a hand and grabbed Old Zhang's neck. I was shocked and couldn't help but scream. I slashed the ancient bronze sword in my hand down hard at the corpse driver's corpse.

A cold glint flashed from the ancient bronze sword, and I felt a powerful force surge through it. Then, a bloodcurdling scream rang in my ears. The corpse-driver staggered back several steps, his unfocused eyes fixed on me, as if we were mortal enemies, filled with unspeakable resentment and rage. But to my surprise, after less than a minute of confrontation, the corpse-driver's body turned around and, with stiff steps, quickly ran into the depths of the tunnel.

"Bang bang bang..." Three gunshots rang out from behind me. I turned my neck and saw that Huang Zhihua was still holding the gun. The three bullets were fired at the front almost simultaneously.

Under our watchful eyes, all three bullets must have struck the corpse of the corpse driver, but his body only swayed slightly before he continued running at breakneck speed, disappearing into the dark tunnel in the blink of an eye.

I couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, feeling a chill on my vest and my clothes soaked with sweat...

"I've ruined him!" Old Zhang muttered to himself as he looked into the depths of the tunnel.

"Why did you drag all these unrelated people into this?" Old Chen complained to Old Zhang. I couldn't help but glare at him fiercely. Why didn't we cremate Wang Quansheng's body back then? Instead, we let this corpse-driver bring it to Donghua Town. Now, the corpse-driver himself has become a corpse, driving himself into his grave. Wang Quansheng's body has disappeared again. Who knows where he'll pop up from to deliver a fatal blow?

And then there's Huang Zhihua. It was him who trusted Old Man Zhang's nonsense back then. Now look what's happened—Wang Quansheng's body hasn't been dealt with, and another life has been lost.

I turned to look at Huang Zhihua, wanting to complain, but in the pitch-black tunnel, under the light of the miner's lamp overhead, his face was as pale as a dead man, so I swallowed all my complaints.

"Let's go, this isn't the time to talk about this. We need to find the girl quickly..." The young master only cares about the girl; as for the rest, no matter how many people die, it's none of his business.

I agreed and walked forward. After a few steps, I saw wet footprints on the ground. Besides the five of us, the only other person here was the corpse driver from before.

Could it be that there's water near the tunnel? Did he climb out of the water? Otherwise, why would his footprints be wet? Or had his body begun to decompose, and the ground was covered in bodily fluids? I couldn't help but think of Old Bian's death, when everything was also wet...

Does this mean that all those who died from the curse of the Yellow River Dragon Coffin had wet bodies?

Thinking about this, I couldn't help but shudder. This... was too bizarre. The body was wet, so how come it wasn't decomposing? I thought of Professor Wang. Why did his body end up in the Guangchuan Royal Mausoleum after his death? Of course, aside from the deceased Professor Wang, I'm afraid no one else could answer this question for me...

By the way, Chen Laogui should also be one of the first people to come into contact with the Yellow River Dragon Coffin. Why did Lao Cai and the others die, but he remained unharmed?

Old Zhang said I have a strong birth chart. Does that mean everyone has a strong birth chart?

Thinking about this, I couldn't help but ask, "Mr. Chen, may I ask you a question?"

"You want to ask me why I'm not dead yet, right?" Old Ghost Chen said with a sinister smile.

"That's right!" I said honestly, forcing myself to be brave. The young master next to me turned to look at him and said loudly, "That's right! Old Chen, since everyone who has come into contact with the Yellow River Dragon Coffin must die, why are you alright? Oh...right, Old Zhang, your two apprentices are no good either. If it weren't for those two bastards, we wouldn't have had to take that risk in the middle of the night. Old Xu almost lost his life in there back then."

Although Old Chen could be considered to have saved my life, to be honest, I have an inexplicable aversion to their Southern Crawler faction. First, Old Zhang dragged us into this innocent mess, and now even the corpse driver is dead here. He clearly knows that anyone who has come into contact with the Yellow River Dragon Coffin is bound to die from the curse, yet he still drags others down with him time and time again.

"I'm just lucky to be alive!" Old Chen chuckled coldly.

"Luckily alive?" I couldn't help but sneer. "Anyone who came into contact with the Yellow River Dragon Coffin, except for me and the young master, is now missing, and the girl's fate is unknown. Why is it that everyone in your Southern Crawler faction is safe and sound? You are, and so are Wang Ming and Hu Lai." I voiced my doubts. Originally, I wouldn't have thought about it, but the more I thought about it, the more suspicious I became. It seemed that everything here was connected to them!

Nowadays, even the equally sinister corpse drivers are dying violent deaths. If it's because they are "southern scoundrels" who have come into contact with many corpses, they become immune? But do corpse drivers have come into contact with fewer corpses?

"Why don't you doubt yourself?" Old Zhang said in the same icy tone.

"Myself?" I sneered. I admit that when I came to the Yellow River Dragon Beach, it was indeed a moment of greed, but Wang Ming and Hu Lai weren't exactly good people either...

“We, the Southern Crawlers, naturally have some things for exorcising evil spirits!” Old Chen said, frowning.

I turned around with a whoosh, grabbed Old Man Zhang, and said angrily, "Since you have a way to deal with the curse, why do you insist on sending us into the Shadow Kunlun Wind Eye to our deaths, looking for a way to break the curse?"

“Our method only works on Southern Crawlers; it can’t be used on ordinary people. Of course, you can try it if you’re willing!” Old Chen said grimly.

I don’t know if it’s just my imagination, but I feel that since entering this tunnel, Old Chen, who was originally quite easy to talk to, has become gloomy. Could it be that dealing with private people too much in the dark underground world has naturally turned him into this half-dead man?

"What can we do?" Huang Zhihua asked anxiously. For him, the Shadow Kunlun Wind Eye and the Yellow River Dragon Coffin were not important. What mattered was... how to stop this damned curse from spreading and prevent more people from dying.

Old Chen said, "You really want to know?"

The young master glared at him and sneered, "Nonsense!"

"Alright, I'll tell you!" Old Chen sneered coldly, "It's very simple. Use two ounces of flesh from a hundred-year-old rotting corpse as a base, plus some special medicine. Those Chinese medicines aren't hard to find. If you need them, I can give you the formula. As for the rotting corpse, just dig up an ancient tomb and you'll find some."

I felt nauseous watching Old Man Chen's mouth open and close, and the young master couldn't take it anymore and started gagging! Huang Zhihua covered his mouth, his face changing drastically.

"What's wrong?" Old Zhang suddenly raised his voice and asked, "I suppose you are very interested in this formula. Although our ancestors strictly forbade the formula from being leaked, if you insist, I don't care about violating the ancestral rules."

I glared at the damned old man, quickened my pace, and glanced at Huang Zhihua, signaling him to keep an eye on those two old ghosts. I was even starting to regret asking them for help; they were simply...inhuman! Can people who've eaten rotting corpses even be considered human?

Although I don't have a deep relationship with Hangzhou, we've cooperated very well in the fierce battles we've fought in the Shadow Kunlun Eye. So, with just a glance from me, he understood what was going on and nodded slightly at me. Young Master had been frightened by Old Ghost Chen and rushed to the front, but now he suddenly stopped without warning.

I lost my balance and bumped into him, asking urgently, "What's wrong?"

Chapter Seven: Water Walls and Floating Coffins

I stomped hard on the ground, making the soil crunch. Only then did I realize that the soil in the tunnel was only one-third mud and two-thirds sand, much like the water and sand in the Yellow River.

I said, "That's really strange. How come it's so damp here, and there's so much sand? I remember very clearly that the original tunnel wasn't like this; there was no water!" The young master also said that he didn't find any water when he went out yesterday.

Huang Zhihua said that the water seemed to have suddenly seeped out from below. Could it be that the Yellow River had risen and flooded the cave?

I shook my head. It didn't look like water had flooded the cave; it was more like there was already water on the ground. I tried hard to recall the scene when we left yesterday. Back then, the tunnel was surrounded by dense black vines on all sides. We had to deal with those man-eating vines while desperately trying to escape, and no one paid much attention to our surroundings. Moreover, we didn't know that this was another passage; we just thought it was another passageway in the tomb, and no one paid any attention to it.

"Could there be a fork in the road? Have we taken the wrong path?" I asked Huang Zhihua in a low voice. As for the young master, I didn't really count on him anymore. Ever since the girl disappeared, he seemed to have lost his soul, and his reactions were slower than usual.

Huang Zhihua said he hadn't noticed either. Old Chen pushed me from behind, and when I turned around, I was terrified. Standing behind me wasn't Old Chen, but Wang Quansheng! Old Chen and Old Zhang had vanished without a trace.

Wang Quansheng was still the same as before, except that the clothes he was wearing were now tattered and his whole body was soaking wet, as if he had just crawled out of the water. From his exposed skin, it was clear that his body was slightly rotting, and there were even maggots growing in some places. I even saw a wriggling maggot poking its head out from inside his clothes on his chest...

I gasped, drew my bronze sword, and slashed fiercely at Wang Quansheng.

Wang Quansheng didn't dodge. The bronze sword in my hand pierced his chest, but his hands were outstretched, ignoring the sword piercing his body, reaching for my neck. A twisted, ferocious smile was on his lips, and bright red blood seeped from his eyes, flowing down his distorted, pale face.

"Old Xu..." Huang Zhihua exclaimed from behind me. I snapped back to reality, gripped the bronze sword, and retreated, retreated further...

The young master pulled me back, and I stumbled, barely managing to avoid Wang Quansheng's hands with their incredibly long fingernails...

"How...how did he get here?" the young master stammered.

Still shaken, I looked at Wang Quansheng, who was standing three steps away, and asked Huang Zhihua and the young master beside me, "Where are those two old geezers?"

"I...I don't know..." the young master stammered.

"Damn it!" Huang Zhihua cursed, raising his gun at Wang Quansheng's corpse and muttering, "While we were talking, who knows where those two old devils ran off to? It's best if they were eaten by ghosts."

The young master shivered, gently tugged at me, pointed to Wang Quansheng standing stiffly in front of us, and whispered, "Old Xu... do you think it's possible that Wang Quansheng ate them?"

"Shut up!" I cursed viciously, but cold sweat was pouring down my back. There was only one tunnel leading forward. The two old men were clearly behind us, but now they had vanished without a trace, and Wang Quansheng's corpse had suddenly appeared behind us.

To be specific, Wang Quansheng should have been the first unlucky soul to die under the curse of the Yellow River Dragon Coffin, but—why has his body remained unchanged for over half a year? Logically, he should have been reduced to nothing but a pile of rotting flesh…

I shivered, constantly reminding myself not to be afraid... He's just a dead man, what can he do to you? But precisely because he's a dead man, I couldn't help but be afraid.

"Bang!" Huang Zhihua aimed and fired... The bullet whistled as it flew out. At such close range, Wang Quansheng stood motionless like a target, and the bullet naturally hit Wang Quansheng's head without any suspense. Huang Zhihua was a smart man. Seeing that I had just pierced his chest with the bronze sword without any reaction, he went straight for the head.

The bullet's power was extraordinary. Wang Quansheng had obviously activated his internal corpse under some unknown circumstances after his death, but he was still flesh and blood. His head was pierced by the bullet, and half of it immediately fell off.

I looked at the half-head lying on the muddy ground, red and yellow pus oozing out, with some tofu-like stuff mixed in, and several white maggots crawling inside. I immediately felt nauseous, my stomach churning like the Yellow River. I tried to hold it in, but behind me, I could hear the young master retching...

Wang Quansheng, missing half his head, didn't collapse as we expected. Instead, he laboriously turned his neck, and I could even hear the cracking sound of his neck twisting. Right before our eyes, his neck did a full 360-degree rotation, a complete circle. Then, in the next moment, I couldn't help but take a step back. Behind me, I heard the young master's bloodcurdling scream…

I simply cannot describe the shock I felt. Wang Quansheng was facing away from us, and on his back, where he was shirtless, was a gigantic face, more than twice the size of an average human face. Yet, it had eyes and a nose, and what was even more terrifying was that this face was indistinguishable from Wang Quansheng's original appearance. The corners of his mouth formed a bizarre, twisted, and ferocious smile, revealing pitch-black fangs...

This isn't the first time I've seen something like this. Back at the Guangchuan Royal Mausoleum, the professor's back also had a human face, and moreover, countless tentacles grew out of it...

Why is this happening? Why does the curse of the Yellow River Dragon Coffin cause strange changes in the dead?

I held up the ancient bronze sword, protecting the pale-faced young master, while Huang Zhihua had already raised his gun again—

"Bang bang bang..." Three shots were fired in quick succession, all hitting the face behind Wang Quansheng. His already pale and hideous face was now riddled with bullet holes, making him even more eerie. Yet, he continued to walk towards us step by step.

The three of us retreated again and again... No, this thing is obviously indestructible. I gave Huang Zhihua a wink, and he understood, raising his gun and aiming again, while I waited for my chance to strike—

"Bang..." A gunshot rang out, and at the same time, I kicked Wang Quansheng's corpse. It would be a lie to say that I was not afraid, but now that things have come to this, I'm going all out. Even if I am partly responsible for the old man's death, he doesn't have to haunt me like this.

When anger rises, courage also grows. With a bang, I kicked the ghostly face hard. I don't know if it was my imagination, but I seemed to hear a painful groan. Wang Quansheng's corpse staggered back several steps after being kicked.

Behind him was the tunnel wall, and as he retreated, his entire body crashed heavily into it—no, I'm absolutely right, his entire body did indeed crash into the wall. The once solid tunnel wall now felt like mud. The three of us watched helplessly as Wang Quansheng's body gradually disappeared into the wall, an extremely eerie sight.

"What...what exactly is going on?" the young master stammered.

I discovered that among the three of us, the young master was clearly the most timid, yet no matter how bizarre or strange things happened, he was always the first to be able to accept them.

“There’s something wrong with this wall!” Huang Zhihua said in a deep voice.

After thinking for a moment, I mustered my courage and walked toward the spot where Wang Quansheng's body had fallen. I was so focused on the seemingly normal wall in front of me that I neglected my footing. Before I knew it, I stepped on half of Wang Quansheng's head, which had been shot off by Huang Zhihua. I slipped and stumbled forward involuntarily.

"Old Xu..." came the young master's exclamation from behind. I plunged headfirst into the tunnel wall, feeling as if I had fallen into water. Yes, it was water. I smelled the extremely familiar stench of rotting yellow sand in my nose. I struggled with all my might, but for some reason, my body uncontrollably fell downwards.