Gu Cheng and Hu Bayi naturally knew nothing about this.
Once they entered the secret chamber, the flashlights in their hands finally came in handy.
They could now see what was inside.
The chamber was not very large, only about forty square meters.
Other than the airtight door, there were no other exits.
As for its contents, they were neither biological weapons nor valuable strategic supplies.
Instead, a dozen or so large coffins lay piled haphazardly inside.
The eerie sight instantly made Hu Bayi frown.
"What's going on?!"
"Why are there so many coffins stored in this chamber?!"
Gu Cheng looked wary too. "That's not all. Hu, take a closer look."
"These coffins are different sizes, and their craftsmanship and designs all have distinct styles. They clearly aren't from the same dynasty."
Hu Bayi carefully examined the coffins.
Then he sniffed the air.
There was a nauseating stench of decay.
But it was not poison gas.
The rotten smell probably came from corpses.
Puzzled, he immediately asked, "Do you smell that? Doesn't it smell like rotting corpses?!"
Gu Cheng had a vague idea of what was going on, but he could not explain it outright. He only warned, "Everything about this place is strange. Let's be careful."
"Right."
Then Gu Cheng noticed something else.
The ground was soft. With just a little pressure, his foot left a deep impression.
Vines and plants grew sparsely across the chamber's walls and floor, some even creeping onto the coffins.
The chamber was supposed to be a vacuum environment. How could plants possibly grow here?!
Gu Cheng could not figure it out.
"My guess is there's a group of tombs from the Jin and Liao periods nearby. When the Sakura People built their underground base here, they dug up all the tombs. They took the burial goods and dumped the remaining coffins and bones in this chamber for storage."
"That's why there are coffins from all sorts of dynasties here."
Hu Bayi was beginning to learn how to analyze things too.
Gu Cheng nodded. Hu Bayi was probably close to the mark.
"But where's Yingzi?"
Hu Bayi sounded anxious.
Gu Cheng gestured toward the coffins with his chin. "Open them and take a look."
Hu Bayi looked stunned. "You mean Yingzi might be inside a coffin?"
"It's a hunch."
Hearing that, Hu Bayi had no choice but to steel himself and start opening the coffins.
Most of the coffins here already had their lids open.
Only a few still had their lids on.
Holding the Mountain-Splitting Axe, he kicked the lids off two in succession, but both contained only decaying remains.
Gu Cheng stood where he was, keeping watch over the rest of the chamber.
But he failed to notice the ground bulging slightly, as though something was burrowing beneath it.
The thing crept toward Gu Cheng's feet, then slowly emerged from the soil. It was a vine.
It gently split apart, forming the shape of a small hand.
Then it silently wound around Gu Cheng's foot.
Gu Cheng was wearing padded winter clothes, and the dried black flood dragon blood had formed a crust over them.
For a moment, he did not even notice the vine wrapping around him.
Only when it coiled up to his waist, twisting around him like a braided rope, did he feel something.
He looked down.
The sight startled a cry out of him, and he instinctively swung the Little Divine Edge.
The blade severed the section of vine wrapped around his waist.
Under attack, the vine stopped concealing itself.
It yanked straight downward.
Gu Cheng felt the ground give way beneath him, and his entire right leg sank into the earth.
At the same time, the vines and plants scattered throughout the chamber all began moving as though they had come alive.
Caught off guard, Hu Bayi instantly had both feet ensnared by a vine.
He was swept off the ground.
Hu Bayi felt the world spin around him.
The vine had hoisted him upside down, leaving him dangling in midair.
Countless vines slithered toward him like snakes.
They quickly climbed over his body, then wound tightly around him.
It looked as though they meant to wrap him up like a mummy.
"Hu!"
Gu Cheng's expression changed drastically, and he shouted.
Then he swung the Little Divine Edge, slicing through several vines crawling toward him.
At the same time, he mustered all his strength and strained with his right leg, managing to pull his foot much farther out of the ground.
Once he could see the vine wrapped around his ankle, he brought his blade down.
His right foot was freed at once.
Now vines surged toward him from every direction.
More vines kept bursting out of the ground, one after another.
Cold sweat poured off Gu Cheng at the sight. What the hell were these things?
This never happened in the TV series!
He quickly scanned his surroundings.
After running two steps to his right, he leaped onto a coffin.
Then he used it as a springboard and charged toward Hu Bayi.
"Hu, I'm coming to save you! Watch out!"
He reached Hu Bayi and swiftly cut through the vines. Hu Bayi dropped straight out of the air and slammed into the ground.
Fortunately, the ground was soft.
Hu Bayi had already braced himself. He rolled, scrambled to his feet, then quickly climbed onto a nearby coffin.
He had only just moved away.
Several vines burst out of the spot where he had landed.
Hu Bayi could not help thinking how close that had been.
He hurriedly raised his submachine gun and sprayed the vines with bullets.
Severed lengths flew everywhere.
But the vines around them showed no sign of thinning out. If anything, there seemed to be more and more.
"No, Hu. We can't keep this up."
"Then what do we do?!"
"Go for the source. Find their roots and rip them out!"
"Where are the roots?"
Gu Cheng's gaze settled on the most conspicuous large coffin at the far end of the chamber.