It rested on a concrete platform.
In the TV series, it had been described as a stone coffin.
But what Gu Cheng saw was a bronze coffin.
The workmanship of the bronze coffin was exquisite.
Its entire surface was gilded and painted in five colors.
The paintings depicted auspicious divine beasts, such as cranes, qilin, tortoises, and snakes.
They were meant to bless the coffin's occupant with immortality after death.
The lid also bore a star chart of the twenty-eight celestial mansions, while a ring of golden cloud-scroll patterns encircled the base. Some unknown secret technique had kept the colors as vivid as new even after hundreds or thousands of years. It was a breathtaking sight.
If Gu Cheng's guess was right...
The mastermind controlling these vines was either underground or... inside that bronze coffin.
"Let's head over there!"
The coffins beneath their feet were unstable. One careless step could send them tumbling to the ground.
Gu Cheng called out to Hu Bayi.
Then he ran toward the bronze coffin, stepping across the other coffins.
Hu Bayi had no time to think and ran after Gu Cheng.
With one final leap, they landed on the concrete platform holding the bronze coffin and breathed a small sigh of relief.
Countless vines were still attacking them from every direction like things possessed.
But at least they no longer had to worry about their footing.
"Cover me. I'll open the coffin!"
"Got it!"
Hu Bayi tossed several grenades into the thickest clusters of vines, blasting countless tendrils apart.
Gu Cheng crouched down and began examining the bronze coffin.
A dozen seconds later.
[Item name]: Soul-Nourishing Golden Coffin [Item grade]: Low-grade magical artifact [Item ability]: Yin-Gathering Grand Formation. [Item description]: Gathers yin energy from within a hundred-li radius to nourish yin souls.
Gu Cheng froze.
This bronze coffin was actually a supernatural treasure?
The Yin-Gathering Grand Formation, nourishing yin souls.
Fuck, one look at that and you knew it was nothing good.
Still, that made sense.
Whoever lay inside such a sinister coffin was bound to be trouble.
He might well be the one controlling these vines.
Gu Cheng shoved hard at the coffin lid, but it would not budge.
Even when he strained with all his might, it remained firmly in place.
"Looks like brute force won't work. There must be a mechanism somewhere."
He quickly felt around the coffin.
"Hm?"
He suddenly noticed a raised carving of a beast's head on the front of the coffin.
He examined the beast's head carefully.
By chance, his fingers brushed its eyeballs, and he discovered they could move.
They could be rotated like the combination dials on a lockbox.
He tried turning them a few times.
He could see the characters for yin and yang carved into the eyeballs.
After a moment's thought, he turned the left eye to yin and the right to yang.
Then he pressed them gently.
The beast's mouth snapped open with a click and shot out a small arrow.
Fortunately, Gu Cheng had been prepared.
He had feared that pressing the wrong combination might trigger a trap.
The instant he pressed the eyeballs, he dropped flat on the ground.
He avoided the arrow by the narrowest of margins.
The small arrow missed Gu Cheng but struck a vine instead.
The vine instantly went still.
Then, in an instant, nearly half the vines attacking Hu Bayi went still as well.
Hu Bayi, who had been scrambling frantically to fend them off, was bewildered.
He thought they might be about to pull some new trick.
But a few seconds later...
The motionless vines suddenly dropped to the ground and began emitting white smoke. In just two or three breaths, they dissolved into puddles of putrid liquid.
At the same time, an enraged roar erupted from inside the Soul-Nourishing Golden Coffin.
The entire bronze coffin shuddered.
Both Gu Cheng and Hu Bayi jumped in fright.
"Young Master Gu, what did you do?!"
Hu Bayi stared at the bronze coffin in terror.
Holy shit, the corpse's come back to life!
Still shaken, Gu Cheng stared at the putrid liquid on the ground. If he had been careless and taken that arrow, would he have been the one dissolving into a puddle now?!
He crouched in front of the beast's head again.
This time, he hesitated for a long while before taking a gamble and turning both eyeballs to yang.
He pressed them again.
The instant he did, he dropped flat.
This time, he could clearly hear a series of clicks coming from inside the bronze coffin, like gears turning.
Hiss!
There came a sound like pressure being released from a sealed door.
The bronze coffin's lid suddenly loosened.
A visible white mist seeped from the gap between the lid and the coffin.
Gu Cheng immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
Looks like I got it right this time.
He got up and was about to speak to Hu Bayi when a stabbing pain shot through his nose.
His throat felt as though a red-hot knife were slicing through it.
His head suddenly grew heavy, too.
Gu Cheng instantly knew something was wrong.
"Hold your breath! It's poisonous!"
Gu Cheng grabbed Hu Bayi and pulled him aside.
Only after the white mist had sunk to the ground did Gu Cheng hold his breath and approach, signaling Hu Bayi with a glance.
Hu Bayi nodded.
Gu Cheng braced both hands against the coffin lid and gave it a hard shove.
The lid, which had refused to budge a moment earlier, now slid aside effortlessly, as though it had been lubricated.
After pushing the lid open, Gu Cheng...
Was just about to retreat.
But a hand like a ghost's claw suddenly shot out of the coffin and seized his wrist.
In less than a breath, he felt his wrist go numb.
At that critical moment...
Hu Bayi's axe chopped viciously into the clawlike hand.
It severed the hand outright.
Gu Cheng immediately retreated, drawing the Little Divine Edge and prying the severed hand off.
A handprint wreathed in black mist had already appeared on his wrist.
His left hand still had no feeling at all.
Gu Cheng was horrified. This undead corpse is vicious! It only grabbed me once, and it did this much damage.
Just then...
A figure, blue-black all over and shrouded in black mist, rose ramrod straight from the bronze coffin.
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