Trap

Chapter 23: Trap

The others were stunned when they heard Zhou Tong's words.

Li Changqing, Liu Yunzhi, and the others, who had never gotten along well with Zhou Tong, wanted to retort. But before they could speak, Zhou Tong had already entered the Bronze Coffin, leaving them with no target for their anger. Their mouths merely hung slightly open.

Ye Fan and Pang Bo exchanged a glance. Without the slightest hesitation, they followed right behind Zhou Tong and quickly climbed into the Bronze Coffin.

Having witnessed Zhou Tong's abilities, they had decided that until the danger was over, it was best to stick with him.

People tended to follow the crowd blindly.

Seeing Zhou Tong slip into the Bronze Coffin so solemnly, then seeing Ye Fan and Pang Bo follow after him, everyone else immediately rushed toward the coffin as well.

By the time Li Changqing, Liu Yunzhi, and the others came to their senses, half the people had already climbed inside.

"Run!" They could not spare another word and hurriedly followed the crowd into the Bronze Coffin.

Once everyone had entered the Bronze Coffin, some began examining the things Zhou Tong had brought back.

Zhou Tong still held a lamp, making the coffin's pitch-black interior considerably brighter.

"Ye Zi, what does this plaque say?" Pang Bo handed his plaque to Ye Fan and asked.

"Great... Thunder... Sound... Temple!" Ye Fan read the words aloud one by one in the lamplight.

"Great Thunder Sound Temple? No way!" Pang Bo was astonished, then looked toward Zhou Tong at the innermost end.

The Buddha preached with a voice like thunder. Thus it was called the Great Thunder Sound Temple!

Legend said that the Great Thunder Sound Temple was where the Buddha lived, yet Zhou Tong had actually torn down even the Buddha's signboard?

"Zhou Tong, you even dared tear down the Buddha's home?" Pang Bo asked.

Zhou Tong shook his head. "It was just an abandoned temple, built solely to suppress demons. I grabbed these things and ran back because once I took them away, the evil demons suppressed beneath the temple were going to escape."

"You've got some nerve! Why release demons like that?" Pang Bo asked in shock.

Zhou Tong explained, "There was no other choice. Nine Dragons Pulling Coffin needs energy to set off. If those demons weren't released, where would the energy come from? Without energy, Nine Dragons Pulling Coffin couldn't depart. Wouldn't we just starve to death on Mars?"

For a moment, Ye Fan and Pang Bo were both speechless.

Soon, all their classmates had climbed into the Bronze Coffin.

At that moment, booming sounds suddenly came from outside, like the charge of ten thousand troops or raging waves in a furious sea. Even the Bronze Coffin atop the altar began to sway slightly.

"What's happening?" Everyone was terrified.

"Nothing. Just a Mars sandstorm," Zhou Tong said calmly. "Wait quietly here for Nine Dragons Pulling Coffin to depart. Don't go outside, and don't cause any more trouble."

He looked over the Buddha Treasures he had distributed. They were all emitting faint glimmers of light, and his heart settled somewhat.

Zhou Tong had not wanted to distribute these Buddha Treasures, but he feared some unforeseen change. He had no choice but to spread the treasures around, filling the entire Bronze Coffin with Buddha Light.

"Ah, my Prayer Beads!!" Zhang Ziling suddenly cried out. He had been holding a Prayer Bead that Zhou Tong had just given him, but it had been snatched away in the blink of an eye.

Zhou Tong quickly fixed his gaze on one male classmate and walked straight toward him.

The male classmate wanted to back away when he saw Zhou Tong approaching, but this was the inside of a coffin. How far could he retreat? Soon, his back pressed against the coffin wall.

Holding the lamp in one hand, Zhou Tong extended the other and said flatly, "Something I, Zhou Tong, gave away—do you think you can just steal it? I'll give you one last chance. Hand it over!"

Zhou Tong's voice was calm, but everyone could hear the domineering force behind his words.

This was not a negotiation. It was an order!

This classmate was clearly timid. He shrank back and directly handed over the Prayer Bead he had just snatched.

Zhou Tong took the Prayer Bead and returned it to Zhang Ziling. Then he placed his palm on the classmate's shoulder and said calmly, "I know you've always been timid. You don't have the guts to do something like this. Who put you up to it? Speak."

At that moment, someone standing in front of Liu Yunzhi spoke up. "Zhou Tong, aren't you being a little too overbearing?"

Another person added, "We're all stranded here, and we're classmates. We should get along peacefully instead of turning against each other like this. Let it go. There's no need to be so merciless."

But Zhou Tong did not even spare them a glance. He continued looking at the classmate he had seized and said calmly, "I just tore down the Buddha's Great Thunder Sound Temple and released the evil demons it had suppressed beneath it. Now, demons are dancing outside the Bronze Coffin. Only inside the Bronze Coffin is safe."

"Tell the truth honestly, or I'll throw you out."

Zhou Tong's tone remained calm, but everyone felt a chill rise in their hearts.

He was completely lawless!

"I... I'll talk!" The man met Zhou Tong's eyes and immediately understood that Zhou Tong was not joking. If he kept resisting, Zhou Tong would definitely throw him out.

"It was... it was Li Changqing!" he said at once. "Li Changqing said that you had brought back so many things, they had to be treasures. He urged me to steal Zhang Ziling's Prayer Bead."

"Is that so?"

Zhou Tong looked at Li Changqing nearby, turned, and walked directly toward him.

"I didn't urge him!" Li Changqing stubbornly refused to admit it. "His own greed got the better of him. It has nothing to do with me. I admit that I spoke carelessly and said you brought back countless treasures, but I absolutely never told him to steal anything!"

Zhou Tong looked at Li Changqing in silence for a moment, then shook his head. "For the sake of four years as classmates, I won't kill you. But this is the last time..."

"Roar..."

At that moment, a spine-chilling sound erupted from outside the Bronze Coffin, shaking heaven and earth. It was as though a primordial giant beast had shattered the earth, broken free from its seal, and roared until mountains and rivers trembled and stars and moon shook. It sent a shudder rising from the depths of one's soul.

Even Zhou Tong felt as though his body were trembling.

This was the instinctive response of an ordinary cultivator facing holy might.

The Crocodile Ancestor is about to break free! I hope the traps I set work! Zhou Tong silently prayed in his heart.

In truth, Zhou Tong had been preparing for Nine Dragons Pulling Coffin's departure long ago.

He knew that the greatest obstacle on this journey was the Crocodile Ancestor beneath the Great Thunder Sound Temple. It was a genuine demon saint. If anything differed even slightly from the original story, he might have to pay an enormous price.

Therefore, while still on Kunlun Mountain, he had collected a large amount of jade, refined it into several hundred jade shards, and used the methods recorded in the Purple Sun Scripture to carve one-use Dao patterns onto them, turning them into the weakest kind of forbidden artifact.

On his way back from the Great Thunder Sound Temple earlier, he had scattered those jade shards around the temple.

Of course, those things were not meant for the Crocodile Ancestor, but for the Little Crocodiles.

As long as they could blow up a batch of Little Crocodiles and fill Nine Dragons Pulling Coffin's energy in advance, this greatest crisis would naturally be resolved.

Boom!!

At that moment, delight suddenly appeared on Zhou Tong's face, because he knew that his traps had been triggered.

A moment later, with a clang, the Bronze Coffin suddenly closed. Zhou Tong's heart finally settled. He knew the hardest trial had passed. What came next was the cultivation world of the Big Dipper.