Stealing Heavenly Secrets from Cover the Heavens Section 33

The coffin lid also shook, revealing a gap in the process.

A sinister aura directly enveloped everyone present.

Then, under the pull of an invisible force, they were all sucked into the ancient coffin.

With a loud "clang," the lid closed again.

Immediately after, the nine dragon corpses leapt into the air, dragging the ancient bronze coffin into the ancient starry road opened by the Five-Colored Altar.

As the ancient road closed, all the jade pieces and stone slabs on the Five-Colored Altar exhausted their divine energy and turned to ash.

A gentle breeze blew, scattering the ashes with the wind.

Only the cracks remained, as if telling the story of what had just happened.

Caught in a sudden turn of events, a group of people was trapped inside the pitch-black interior of the ancient bronze coffin.

Some of Ye Fan's more timid classmates were already mentally broken, filled with panic and helplessness. Fear kept them from crying out loud, lest they disturb the lost souls in the coffin.

"Wah, wah."

But their low sobs only added to the eerie atmosphere inside the coffin.

"What do we do? Who can save us?"

"Are we really inside the bronze coffin right now?"

"Why is this happening? Is there any way out?"

For every timid person, there were bold ones. After initially adjusting to the darkness, they began to speak up.

Hearing voices, the others seemed to realize they weren't alone in being sucked into the coffin—a whole group had been pulled in together. They had support.

Then, everyone grew bolder.

They pulled out their phones. Some started dialing numbers, while others turned on their phone lights, adding a bit of brightness to the pitch-black space.

Unfortunately, the light from the phones was too weak to fully illuminate the entire coffin interior.

Fear still lingered in their hearts.

"Everyone, don't panic. Even though we can't contact the outside world for now, something this earth-shattering happened on Mount Tai. The relevant authorities will definitely come to rescue us as soon as possible."

At that moment, Ye Fan's classmate Zhou Yi, one of the organizers of their Mount Tai trip, finally showed some leadership at this crucial moment, speaking loudly to comfort everyone.

"Zhou Yi is right. Don't panic, everyone. Stay calm to avoid secondary injuries. Take out your phones, turn on the flashlight, and gather together. Don't spread out too much." Another organizer, Wang Ziwen, followed up with his voice in the darkness.

Their words steadied their classmates quite a bit. Everyone took out their phones and moved toward the light source.

Then Lin Jia also spoke up to comfort them: "Don't panic, everyone. What's done is done. Fear won't help. The most important thing now is to take a headcount and see if anyone's injured."

Ye Fan had his phone on too, but instead of crowding together with the others, he kept sweeping the flashlight around, as if searching for Li Zhi.

His instincts told him that Li Zhi might have the answers he wanted about what just happened. That dark, mysterious passage formed by the Bagua Diagram kept flashing through his mind—could this be an ancient civilization resurfacing?

"Brother Li?" Not seeing Li Zhi nearby, Ye Fan called out softly.

Maybe his voice was too low, or maybe the noise from everyone gathering together was too loud—Ye Fan didn't hear a response from Li Zhi.

Then, their group started counting heads.

"One, two, three, four... twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty."

The person in charge of the count said with a trembling voice: "How are there thirty people?"

Their group had twenty-nine people. Now there was one extra, sending chills down their spines. Had someone inside the coffin stood up?

Just then, Ye Fan spoke up: "A friend of mine fell in with us too."

Then he shouted toward the dark area: "Brother Li, say something to everyone."

As they waited for Li Zhi to greet them, a burly figure climbed up from the ground in a dark corner.

The noise drew all their attention.

The black shadow, panting heavily and coughing a few times, got up and walked toward their light source. Everyone assumed it was Li Zhi.

"What a damn place," the black shadow muttered as he walked, as if he'd taken a hard fall.

"Pang Bo?" Ye Fan said in surprise after hearing the shadow's voice.

"It's me," Pang Bo replied, then walked up to them and asked, "Are we inside the bronze coffin?"

Before anyone could react and ask why Pang Bo was here, a dense, muffled sound of pounding on the coffin lid suddenly echoed inside.

"Thump, thump, thump."

Ye Fan's classmates froze in terror on the spot.

"Slap, slap." Phones kept hitting the ground as some people's limbs went weak from fear.

"Ah!"

Finally, a female classmate couldn't take the suffocating pressure anymore and let out a piercing, shrill scream.

In an instant, the crowd that had just calmed down fell into chaos again.

Everyone scrambled desperately to squeeze together.

They quickly packed into the southeast corner, pushing deeper inward, terrified of being on the outskirts.

"Don't panic, don't crowd," Zhou Yi and Wang Ziwen shouted repeatedly.

In the end, everyone huddled into that southeast corner, some so crushed they could barely breathe, nearly suffocating on the spot.

Ye Fan, Pang Bo, Zhou Yi, Wang Ziwen, Lin Jia, Li Xiaoman, and Kai De formed an arc-shaped human wall, shielding the other classmates behind them.

Only then did they cautiously pull out their phones, turn on the flashlight function, and shine the light toward the source of the sound.

And then they saw it—in the center sat a smaller bronze coffin, less than four meters long, less than two meters wide, and less than two meters high.

On top of that Small Coffin, a figure with long hair covering its face was lying across the lid, frantically slapping the coffin board.

The "thump thump" sound was coming from him.

As if sensing the harsh light, the figure turned his head to look at them, sounding somewhat annoyed: "Turn off the lights. Can't you see I'm busy?"

"Clatter clatter clatter" came the sound of teeth chattering from the corner, along with a faint smell of urine wafting out.

"Brother Li?" Ye Fan called out, a mix of surprise and doubt in his voice.

"Ye Fan, you do your thing, don't mind me." Li Zhi didn't seem keen on interacting with Ye Fan's classmates.

Seeing that Ye Fan apparently knew the disheveled weirdo, Lin Jia, standing beside him, asked in a low voice: "Ye Fan, who is he?"

"My neighbor, Li Zhi." Ye Fan looked helplessly at Li Zhi, who was still relentlessly slapping the coffin lid.

Lin Jia asked curiously: "What's he doing?"

"No idea," Ye Fan shook his head.

After overhearing their exchange, the classmates packed tight behind them seemed to catch on—that disheveled man was just like them, sucked into the bronze giant coffin.

Rage flared in some hearts.

Ye Fan said to Lin Jia: "I'll go check it out."

Pang Bo, standing on his other side, spoke up: "Ye Zi, I'll go with you."

Ye Fan nodded, and the two walked together to the central area, near the Small Coffin.

Up close, they finally saw what Li Zhi was actually doing.

Li Zhi was making rubbings of the patterns on the Inner Coffin.

"Brother Li, what are you doing?" Ye Fan asked, puzzled.

Without turning his head, Li Zhi replied: "Can't you see? I'm rubbing the greatest miracle in the universe."

At that moment, Pang Bo seemed to recognize Li Zhi too, and said in surprise: "You're Boss Li from the Antique Style Jewelry Shop."

Li Zhi glanced back at him: "Pang Bo, you little brat, you actually caught this world-shaking opportunity too."

"World-shaking opportunity?" Pang Bo was baffled.

Just then, Zhou Yi and Wang Ziwen led their classmates over as well.

"This is an Inner Coffin, right?" Zhou Yi began explaining coffin lore to the group.

Seeing Li Zhi daring to lie on that Inner Coffin making rubbings, the fear in everyone's hearts seemed to fade somewhat, replaced by curiosity.

As more and more people gathered around, Li Zhi said to Ye Fan: "Ye Fan, do me a favor—help me rub the lid. I need to hurry and get the rubbings on the four sides done."

Ye Fan reached out and took the Rubbing Pad Li Zhi handed him, then continued along Li Zhi's path, slapping away, while asking: "Brother Li, why are you carrying all this stuff?"

"Didn't I tell you? I came to Mount Tai this time to investigate a cave dwelling left by an Ancient Cultivator. Of course I prepared thoroughly." Li Zhi didn't look up, continuing to pull out more paper and Rubbing Pads from his bag.

Some of Ye Fan's classmates eyed the two of them with suspicion.

The word "tomb raider" surfaced in many minds.

Lin Jia walked over to Ye Fan and asked: "Ye Fan, when we were heading up the mountain earlier, you were looking for him, weren't you?"