Gu Cheng listened to the child's chilling sneer by his ear and spoke slowly.
"These two little ghosts were killed by having mercury poured into their skulls while they were still alive. Then they were trapped in this Soul-Nourishing Golden Coffin for over a thousand years. Their resentment ran so deep that they became vengeful ghosts long ago."
"I doubt the owner of this Soul-Nourishing Golden Coffin ever imagined that the two children he brought in as burial sacrifices would take over, not only claiming the coffin but controlling him as well."
"This bronze coffin is called the Soul-Nourishing Golden Coffin."
"The formation engraved on it draws in yin energy from a hundred miles around to nourish souls. After over a thousand years of nourishment, these two children's souls are already as powerful as Ghost Kings."
Hu Bayi listened, chilled to the bone.
Two undead as powerful as Ghost Kings?!
Wouldn't that make them even more terrifying than a White-Haired Jiangshi?!
It looked like he would be leaving his life here today!
But Hu Bayi wasn't one to give up easily.
Though he knew there was a vast gap in their strength,
he still raised his Mountain-Splitting Axe, ready to fight the two Little Ghost Kings to the death.
Just then, Gu Cheng suddenly said, "If you're willing to let go of your hatred, I can take you to the surface and give you a proper burial."
"They say the dead find peace in the earth. That way, you can reincarnate and become human again."
"We live in an age of prosperity now. Life won't be as bitter as it was before. You can enjoy happy, carefree lives."
"Bah!"
The Little Ghost King's voice rang out.
It seemed to be the boy.
He stared at Gu Cheng, his face twisted with malice.
"You self-righteous fool!"
"You've never suffered what we suffered. What gives you the right to tell us to let go of our hatred?!"
"Once you've become my fertilizer, let's see whether you can let go of yours!"
With that,
the vines that had fallen to the ground began moving again, lashing toward Hu Bayi.
And that wasn't all.
The soft ground began to heave, its soil churning like ocean waves.
A hand suddenly burst through the earth.
Then a corpse crawled out of the ground.
The corpse wore a shit-yellow military uniform, its entire body rotten. It had only an upper torso; its lower half consisted of tangled vines that drove it to crawl toward Gu Cheng and Hu Bayi in an utterly grotesque posture.
More corpses crawled out, one after another.
Soon, crawling corpses packed the floor of the chamber.
Hu Bayi's face turned deathly pale.
Gu Cheng, too, was stunned by the horrifying sight.
Especially when he noticed that the vast majority of the crawling corpses wore shit-yellow military uniforms.
A thought suddenly struck him.
Perhaps the Sakura Soldiers back then hadn't withdrawn because they had lost the war.
Gu Cheng gave a heavy sigh. "If that's how it is, don't blame me for what comes next."
With that, he suddenly raised a round mirror high.
The moment he aimed it at the two Little Ghost Kings,
their expressions changed drastically.
They turned to flee.
Unfortunately, they found they could no longer move.
Gu Cheng roared, "Hu, strike!"
Without hesitation, Hu Bayi chopped off a crawling corpse's head, then followed through with a backhanded horizontal sweep.
One swing of his axe took off both Little Ghost Kings' heads.
Gu Cheng then jumped into the coffin.
The Little Divine Edge flashed in his hand as he plunged it into the two heads and shredded them into pulp.
Only then did he stop!
Without the two Little Ghost Kings controlling them, the vine-driven corpses finally fell still.
This time, they truly stayed still.
All the vines visibly withered, then crumbled into powder.
The crawling corpses that had emerged from the earth vanished along with them.
The darkness in the chamber gradually faded.
At last, the chamber's doorway came into view.
Gu Cheng and Hu Bayi immediately spotted Fatty guarding the entrance.
Fatty was bracing himself desperately against the door.
Gu Cheng's warning had come true.
Someone had shoved him hard from behind.
He had nearly been pushed into the chamber.
Luckily, he had grabbed the handle of the Airtight Door in time.
Still badly shaken, he had hurriedly sat down on the floor, his back against the Airtight Door and his feet braced against the frame.
Just as he was worrying about Gu Cheng and Hu Bayi's safety,
the darkness in the chamber suddenly vanished.
He could see Gu Cheng and Hu Bayi now, too.
The two stood beside a large coffin that looked exceptionally ornate and valuable, smiling at him.
"Hu, Young Master Gu, are you all right?!"
Fatty hurriedly asked.
"We're fine. Keep guarding the door. We'll be out in a bit."
After giving that instruction,
Hu Bayi looked into the coffin again.
Since the two Little Ghost Kings' heads had been cut off,
the mercury inside their bodies had drained out.
He and Gu Cheng wasted no time taking the few burial treasures out of the coffin.
"Young Master Gu, what was that mirror you used just now?"
"You just shone it on those two little things, and they couldn't move."
"That was incredible!"
Gu Cheng pulled a round bronze mirror from his pocket. "You mean this?!"
Hu Bayi nodded.
Gu Cheng grinned proudly. "This is a real treasure. It's called the Corpse-Suppressing Mirror. I found it at the other end of the coffin just now. It was set into the coffin, so I pried it out."
[Item name]: Corpse-Suppressing Mirror [Item grade]: high-grade magical artifact. [Item abilities]: corpse suppression, soul suppression [Item description]: A corpse-suppressing bronze mirror, a Maoshan magical artifact. Effective against evil entities such as walking corpses and wandering spirits.
"The Corpse-Suppressing Mirror?!"
Hu Bayi repeated in amazement.
"Yes, it's a Maoshan magical artifact, specifically made to deal with evil things like jiangshi and ghosts. I don't know who set it into this coffin, but it really saved us. Without it, we really couldn't have handled those two little things."
Hearing that, Hu Bayi couldn't help feeling grateful for their luck.
He had already prepared himself to die.
He had never expected to find a way out of such a hopeless situation.
Their luck truly was unbelievable.
"Let's go. We still have to find Yingzi."
Gu Cheng said.
"Right."
Hu Bayi took off his jacket and bundled the exquisite burial treasures inside it.
Just as they were about to step across the scattered coffins to return to the doorway, a coffin lid suddenly flew open from within. Gu Cheng and Hu Bayi both flinched in fright and dropped into fighting stances.
But then...
"Gu? Brother Hu? What are you doing here?"
Yingzi sat up in the coffin and stared at them in bewilderment.