The Chase!

Ghost Tree.

Uncle Zhang was taken aback, and then examined the pattern more carefully. At first, he was a little skeptical, but the more he looked, the more he agreed with Master Li's feelings.

"I hadn't thought of it until you mentioned it... it seems to be true." He had never actually seen the powerful Ghost Tree, but he had heard of it.

According to legend, the Ghost Tree is a divine tree that grows in dark places.

There are few rumors and records about the Ghost Tree, but every traceable rumor involves a major calamity in a certain region.

It seems to represent misfortune and terror. It is said that the Ghost Tree will not wither. Even if it is cut down, as long as the core is still there, it can still grow when planted.

But every inch of its growth is a nightmare for both the living and the vengeful ghosts.

It grows for thousands of years, nourished by blood, fed on resentment and despair, absorbing nutrients from corpses, and then spreading into a dead zone that few can approach.

The place covered by its branches and leaves is hell.

Master Li stared at the patterns on the coffin, and the more he looked, the more he felt that way. Simple patterns could not possibly evoke human emotions. Once they did, it could only mean that the meaning behind the patterns was something that humans feared ingrained in their bones, just like most people are afraid of ghosts. Even though they have never seen a ghost, they are still afraid of such a being.

After explaining the story of the Ghost Tree to everyone, Uncle Zhang continued, "I once found a record of the Ghost Tree in my great-grandfather's notes. He wrote that he encountered the Ghost Tree once when he was young."

"Is it really like the legends say?" Unica asked eagerly.

"I don't know. The notes don't describe the appearance of the Ghost Tree much, they only say..."

Uncle Zhang sighed softly, changed his tone, and repeated the original text from the notebook.

"I injured my leg, and they all thought I was dead, so they didn't wait for me. I fell behind and chased after them for two days. In the distance, I saw a tree covered with human heads and corpses. I thought they had already passed by, but after a closer look, I realized that they were among the heads on the tree, right at the very bottom."

It was just a straightforward narration, but everyone who listened was terrified.

"I fell seriously ill after just one look at it. I stayed home for two months, but my leg didn't get better. Instead, I developed heart palpitations. Every night, I'm woken up by nightmares. In my dreams, those heads and eyes are staring at me, smiling, and calling my name."

These were all written by Uncle Zhang's great-grandfather. It must be said that in that era, not many people could write, and even fewer could leave behind a diary.

"My great-grandfather's notes are very valuable. I inherited them from my father and often look through them; I've even memorized a lot of them," Uncle Zhang said. "My great-grandfather fell ill after just one glance at them, and none of his companions survived either. The Ghost Tree is too evil; it's not comparable to the gatekeeper ghost."

"So you're saying that if you run into them, it's best to avoid them?" Ash was hired and didn't know the various taboos surrounding tomb raiding.

"What if the secret to resurrection lies in the Ghost Tree?" Master Li murmured. "We've been searching for this for so long."

Before coming here, I never imagined that the secret of the demon daoist's resurrection was related to the Ghost Tree. As long as the Ghost Tree wood core is intact, it will not die and does indeed have the power of resurrection.

But it was a whole tree, impossible to move, and the core was hard to extract. They might even kill someone before they even touched the core.

That's too dangerous.

Uncle Zhang is much calmer than Master Li. He has always been a more laid-back person, while Master Li is more competitive.

Uncle Zhang said, "We can't really risk our lives. We'll see how it goes. At worst, we'll get sick when we get back. But don't even think about getting any closer; anyone who gets close to it never ends well. As for a way to resurrect... we're not even sure if it really exists yet. If we do discover something, we can find other methods to take back and study it for a few years. That would be better than staying next to the Ghost Tree."

Unica thought to herself, "This demon daoist is truly an extraordinary person. It's just a tomb, yet he has a gatekeeper ghost and Ghost Tree. If this were made public, how much research value would it have?"

Master Li tacitly agreed with Uncle Zhang's words, then shook his head. "The Ghost Tree grows in a dark and sunless place, the most evil place on earth. This Heavy Yin Mountain does meet the environmental requirements, however, I have heard another version of the story."

Yu Xing finally interjected, "What's the story?" He was enjoying the story, and the tree was quite interesting. For some reason, he felt a vague connection between the tree and the pattern.

It's somewhat similar to the curse power that had been rampant within him for so many years, only recently disappearing under the system's suppression.

It's not so much a thought, but more like an intuition.

"The Ghost Tree can even grow on people." Master Li then finished his sentence, smiling mysteriously. "Some people have dark and complex hearts; the Ghost Tree can flourish just as brightly as it grows on their hearts."

Everyone present was stunned for a moment, then burst into laughter.

This is absurd. If a tree grows based on an abstract concept, what form must that tree actually take?

While there's some truth to it, it can't be true. It even has a philosophical undertone, so just treat it as an unrealistic myth.

"After all that talk, whether or not we encounter the Ghost Tree be another story. We need to open the coffin first, right?" Ash's accent was strange, but he was always so enthusiastic. "Master Li, Uncle Zhang, how do we open it?"

Most coffins have the same structure, so how else can they be opened? It's just a matter of lifting the lid.

But how to lift the lid is a skill only tomb raiders would know.

"Alright, everyone get ready. Whoever gets the Ghost Controlling Seal, scatter and escape. Stop and rest when you reach a safe place until Carlos uses the paper figures to regroup us one by one." Master Li didn't waste any more words. He exhaled a breath of stale air, telling himself not to get too excited and that it's always better to be safe than sorry.

Yu Xing tilted her head and watched as Master Li placed his hand on the coffin.

The coffin was pitch black, covered in gray, and beneath the gray were twelve iron coffin nails.

The coffin nails were rusted and covered with a dense layer of reddish-brown nails. As Master Li began to work, Uncle Zhang explained, "These are ghost-suppressing nails. They must be used to hold the gatekeeper ghosts down so they won't rise when no one enters the tomb. There's also a specific order for removing the nails. Since you haven't studied Qimen Dunjia, I won't go into detail. Just pay attention to this order; the order is different for each gatekeeper ghost, and they might be needed in this tomb."

Now that he had said that, the others busied themselves carefully noting down the order in which Master Li would make his moves.

Master Li's fingers were strong enough that he could easily pull out a long nail an inch without tools, simply by using his fingers, and then pull it out completely.

Yu Xing didn't have this skill, but he was still somewhat interested in it, unfortunately he had never done tomb raiding before.

The long nails clattered to the ground. When the last nail was in Master Li's hand, he casually let it fall freely. Suddenly, a cold, eerie wind arose, and the icy chill seeped into everyone's clothes.

In an instant, the weather turned freezing cold, and the chill below seemed to burst forth from its dormant state, as if spring had suddenly been reversed back to the depths of winter.

Especially since this room isn't very large, and there are only four doors serving as entrances, the chill makes it feel like an icebox.

"Achoo!" Unica was shivering and involuntarily covered her nose and sneezed.

The coffin trembled, and even the lid shook.

"Watch out, it's coming out!" Master Li herded everyone to the safe path he had just pointed out, telling them to prepare to escape. Then he focused intently on waiting beside the coffin, ready to grab the Ghost Controlling Seal moment the gatekeeper ghost emerged.

He was so focused that he didn't notice that two young figures had stealthily positioned themselves on either side of him, within easy reach of the coffin.

Thump!

The coffin shook violently, half of the coffin lid was blown off, and a dark, withered hand emerged from inside.

Immediately afterwards, the other half was also ripped off. Yu Xing ducked to avoid the flying coffin lid and squinted at the rising gatekeeper ghost.

This is a large, entirely black zombie.

The zombie's face was stiff and wrinkled, like the wrinkled skin left after dehydration. But no one who looked at it would think it was weak and frail; they would only think that this thing must be very troublesome.

The zombie was still wearing an ancient-style robe, though it was rather large. It must have been much fatter when it was first forced into the coffin alive.

Unlike ordinary zombies, it has no eyeballs; its eyes are two large, dark holes. Its mouth is open, but instead of the sharp teeth that zombies usually have, it has no teeth at all, only a long tongue comparable to that of the Impermanence a figure in Chinese mythology associated with death).

This makes it look more like a ghost.

Although the coffin lid was gone, the gatekeeper ghost was not entirely unrestrained. Its limbs were bound by thick chains, the ends of which were fastened to the inside of the coffin with tight locks, forcing the gatekeeper ghost to sit inside the coffin and roar, unable to move an inch. Its hands could only be raised to the coffin opening, and any movement would cause the chains to rattle.

This is why we followed the Big Dipper formation so strictly. Once we passed through the Big Dipper formation, the chains of the gatekeeper ghost would not break automatically, giving them crucial time. Otherwise, they would have been met with a brutal giant zombie that would fly out and kill people as soon as its coffin was opened.

The gatekeeper ghost had at least reached the level of a flying zombie.

Its empty eyes stared at the crowd as if they could see, its mouth was wide open, its tongue hanging down to its chest, emitting terrifying, indescribable cries.

Uncle Li looked somewhat dazed upon hearing the cry.

Uncle Zhang, who was a little further away, shouted a reminder: "Take the Ghost Controlling Seal first!"

Yes, the Ghost Controlling Seal. Where is the Ghost Controlling Seal?

Master Li came to his senses and kept scanning the coffin. He couldn't see the bottom of the coffin, so the ghost must be on the gatekeeper.

However, the gatekeeper's clothes were the highest-class formal attire at that time, layer upon layer. Who knows where the Ghost Controlling Seal is? The chains can't hold back the awakened gatekeeper; at most, the gatekeeper can break free of the chains in two minutes.

Perhaps jewelry is a more plausible explanation. The Ghost Controlling Seal can be placed on headdresses, necklaces, bracelets, and belts. The gatekeeper ghosts wear gold jewelry in these areas, so it's highly likely that the Ghost Controlling Seal is hidden there.

Master Li steadied himself, intending to examine the object carefully, seize it in one fell swoop, and then run away immediately.

But just then, a hand reached out from each of his left and right, both aimed at the head of the gatekeeper ghost.

No, to be precise, it was aimed at the root of the gatekeeper ghost's tongue.

In a fraction of a second, the left hand, gloved with black leather, reached under the long tongue even faster, pulling it out before the gatekeeper could bite down, bringing with it a two-finger-wide gold plaque.

The gatekeeper ghost immediately went berserk, snapping a chain and reaching for the sign with its claws.

Yu Xing withdrew her hand and dodged to the side, still having the leisure to examine the plaque she had received.

The sign was covered with an unidentified substance and looked completely unremarkable at first glance, but as soon as Master Li saw it, he became excited. "That's it! Get it quickly!"

Get it and run!

Before the word "run" could even be uttered, Yu Xing, the owner of the hand that held the sign, had already vanished.

When Master Li looked back, he saw that San had already run towards the left passage without looking back. Carlos had been trying to take the Ghost Controlling Seal from under the tongue on the right, was chasing after him. The two disappeared in an instant, even faster than Uncle Zhang and the others who were originally standing further away.

Master Li chuckled and scolded, "That little rascal runs way too fast!"

The gatekeeper roared, and the chains snapped one by one, except for the one at his ankle that remained intact.

Master Li, Uncle Zhang, Lin, the bespectacled man, Ash, Unica all scattered and ran towards the three passageways. Almost instantly, the room was empty. The gatekeeper ghost broke free of all its restraints and jumped out of the coffin like a monster, dragging its deformed body as it chased after the passageway where Yu Xing had left.

Yu Xing entered the passageway and found it to be a winding, maze-like passage with numerous forks in the road. He pursed his lips and randomly chose one of the paths to enter. After a short while, he heard the footsteps of a second person.

He turned around and saw that it was indeed Carlos.

Carlos had no choice but to chase after them because the quest notification came right after Yu Xing obtained the Ghost Controlling Seal.

[Ten minutes later, the person holding the Ghost Controlling Seal completes the mission. Countdown: 9 minutes 21 seconds 32 seconds]

[9 minutes 18.28 seconds]

I knew it; the theory of tomb raiding made it impossible for them to actually work together happily and amicably!

From the Yu Xing obtained the Ghost Controlling Seal, the countdown began. Carlos should have received this notification as well, so Yu Xing thought that Carlos would try his best to seize the Ghost Controlling Seal within the limited time.

The instant he saw the gatekeeper ghost, he had a gut feeling that the thing was behind the tongue. Because of a part of his memory being blurred, Yu Xing trusted his intuition completely, because perhaps it was something he had experienced during that forgotten period that was reminding him what to do.

Carlos, relying on his Magician's abilities, concluded after examining the gatekeeper's entire body that the object was most likely hidden behind its tongue, thus allowing Yu Xing to preemptively claim it.

Before the two could say anything, another set of footsteps caught up. The footsteps were spaced far apart, but each time they sounded, it was clear that the other person was getting closer and closer.

"San, the gatekeeper is coming!" Carlos reminded Yu Xing, recognizing the urgency of the situation.

Yu Xing chuckled. It was almost a certainty that the gatekeeper ghost would come after him. The Ghost Controlling Seal was with him; he had even snatched it right in front of the gatekeeper ghost. Who else would the gatekeeper ghost chase if not him?

There was another intersection ahead, and his eyes flashed as he darted toward a fork in the road.