Zhang Chen whispered, “I’ve been thinking, and something seems off about Gao Xiang. We can’t just blindly follow him. Now that we’re out of the forest, I think I can try to find our way.”
Lu Xiaoting asked, “Then… should we tell Teacher Zhou and the others?”
Zhang Chen carefully pulled her back, “He’s too close to Gao Xiang and might be noticed. Besides, my thoughts are just speculation. We can’t all run together. It’s best to split into two groups, and whoever successfully gets down the mountain can immediately call the police.”
As they spoke, Zhang Chen grabbed Lu Xiaoting and suddenly turned, and they both ran.
After running some distance, both Zhang Chen and Lu Xiaoting relaxed their vigilance slightly. Zhang Chen nervously surveyed the surroundings and whispered, “I remember we came up from the left path. Should we try to go back the same way?”
Lu Xiaoting hesitated, “Okay.”
After walking a few steps, Lu Xiaoting suddenly let out a short cry. Zhang Chen nervously said, “What are you doing? Don’t make a sound!”
Lu Xiaoting looked at him, her voice trembling, “There’s… there’s a coffin in front of us!”
Zhang Chen was startled and looked ahead, indeed seeing a coffin covered in fresh mud, as if it had just been dug up from the ground.
The two looked at each other, and what frightened them most was not the coffin itself, but the fact that there had been nothing on the path just moments ago, and this coffin seemed to have appeared out of thin air.
Lu Xiaoting asked, “What should we do?”
Zhang Chen looked behind him. He felt that Gao Xiang was grotesquely chasing after them. Plus, the coffin in front of them seemed motionless and not dangerous, so Zhang Chen gritted his teeth and decided, “Let’s continue forward.”
Lu Xiaoting hesitated, and Zhang Chen said, “Let’s go, don’t wait. I feel that Gao Xiang is more terrifying than an immobile coffin.”
He pulled Lu Xiaoting carefully forward, and as they passed the coffin, they could almost smell the decaying odor, and their hearts were beating wildly.
As they passed the coffin, Lu Xiaoting almost stumbled and quickly steadied herself by holding onto Zhang Chen.
In that moment, Lu Xiaoting’s gaze accidentally swept across the coffin and suddenly saw a line of text, her body instantly stiffening. The text read: “Zhang Chen and Lu Xiaoting buried in this coffin today.”
In an instant, her mind went blank, and fear quickly surged.
Zhang Chen had also seen the text and could no longer control his inner fear. Without thinking, he instinctively reached out to wipe away the text.
Just as his hand was about to touch the coffin, a whooshing sound came to his ear, and a wooden stick swung over, hitting Zhang Chen’s arm hard.
Zhang Chen cried out in pain and turned to see that the person before him was actually Gao Xiang!
Lu Xiaoting’s voice became sharp with terror as she shouted, “What are you doing!”
Gao Xiang, holding a stick as thick as a bowl, smiled and said, “You, go die! Disobedient people must die—”
The ground’s tremors grew increasingly intense, and a dark, massive object emerged from the ground nearby, growing taller and taller, yet impossible to identify.
One side was devouring, the other growing.
“By the command of Wei Tian, I execute gods and slay ghosts. Make light be light, make darkness be darkness. By my order, Six Ding and Six Jia, strike!”
“
With that command, a sword broke through the sun and moon, flashing like lightning, with a power seemingly capable of swallowing heaven and earth. In an instant, the surrounding air currents were swept up by this powerful energy, creating wind and cloud movements that shook heaven and earth.
The one making a move was Xia Xianning. After suppressing the soil’s devouring with his might, he launched a second attack, slashing down with a sword. Amidst the surging magical power, the ground’s soil flew up, transforming into millions of blades, cutting towards the massive object emerging from the ground.
When Xia Xianning acted, Luo Mingbai didn’t need to exert himself. He stood nearby with folded arms, wanting to see what was growing out of the ground. However, after two moves, he suddenly noticed another group of people walking behind that thing, and part of the soil blades were still heading directly towards them.
Luo Mingbai remained calm, waving his hand. The red thread wrapped around his wrist instantly flew out, like a beautiful and brilliant waterfall, instantly inserting itself between the soil blades and the approaching people.
The two magical powers of the same origin collided, creating an instant of brilliant light.
The soil turned to powder, dispersing in the air before falling to the ground.
Taking advantage of this moment, he helped the two people who were about to fall.
At this point, the thing emerging from the soil revealed its true form under Xia Xianning’s attack – it was a massive tomb. The tombstone was over three people tall, standing like an iron tower. Beneath the tombstone was a half-raised mound, and at its top, a crack had opened, revealing the coffin board inside.
Most frightening were the nine red characters on the tombstone – “Those who see this stele, accompany me to the bottomless hell.”
Luo Mingbai exchanged a glance with Xia Xianning, then asked, “Is everyone okay?”
The two he had just rescued were Zhou Junyi and the cameraman.
Zhou Junyi smiled bitterly: “You saved us again. We’re fine, but Wen Qianqian seems to have fallen inside.”
Luo Mingbai’s expression darkened. “What happened?”
His hand was still gripping Zhou Junyi’s arm. Xia Xianning asked, “Are you hurt?”
Luo Mingbai was stunned. “No.”
Xia Xianning rubbed his palm, wiping off a bit of mud before releasing his hand, saying, “I must have seen wrong.”
Luo Mingbai mocked, “You could even see that wrong?”
He let go of Zhou Junyi, casually putting his hands in his pockets, and asked again, “What happened to Wen Qianqian? Why are you here?”
Zhou Junyi’s peripheral vision swept over Xia Xianning briefly, their eyes meeting for a moment before he looked away and explained the entire sequence of events to Luo Mingbai.
Gou Songze threw down the iron shovel and sat on the ground, breathing heavily, his palms covered in blood blisters.
He caught his breath and heard someone jumping into the pit, thinking it would definitely be Xia Xianning. But when he looked up, he saw that Luo Yingbai had jumped next to the coffin.
Xia Xianning had originally wanted to observe carefully, but seeing this, he quickly followed down without further thought.
He asked softly, “Did you discover something?
Luo Yingbai replied, “I’m not certain. Xianning, don’t follow me. Go set up a protective barrier at the tombstone first. Otherwise, if the tombstone collapses, the people in this pit might not survive.”
Xia Xianning immediately returned to the surface, and soon Gou Songze and Wei Shou came to accompany Luo Yingbai at his signal.
Luo Yingbai had no time to care who came or went. His gaze fell on the coffin, and a strange feeling arose in his heart. The patterns on the coffin were too unique, so distinctive that they provoked unsettling associations.
Wei Shou brought a camera and took two photos of the coffin, then moved close to Luo Yingbai and whispered, “Senior brother, are these patterns a magical formation?”
Luo Yingbai slowly nodded.
Wei Shou looked puzzled, “But I’ve never seen such an arrangement method before. Look, the entire coffin is carved with sword-wielding human figures, densely packed like floor patterns. With no space left for life or death gates, can it really be effective?”
