Yan Feifan's ability had finally found its moment to shine.
But the situation inside was unclear.
And he was no good at fighting. Lu Ding felt uneasy about letting him go in alone.
Perhaps sensing his concern,
Yan Feifan took a rope out of his bag and tied it around his waist as he spoke. "Don't worry, Brother Lu. I exchanged for this specially made rope at the Bureau. It works with my innate talent. Once I'm inside, if anything goes wrong, I'll tug on it. When you feel it move, just pull me out!"
"Why don't we forget it? There's no need to take risks. We could sign out some explosives from the Bureau and blast it open just the same."
Mostly, he really was afraid something might happen to Yan Feifan inside.
A White-Haired Hou had come out of this place, after all.
Although a monster like a White-Haired Hou posed little threat to Lu Ding,
if Yan Feifan encountered one, he really would be meeting a living King of Hell, liable to have his account deleted and restarted at any moment.
"Brother Lu, this might not sound pleasant, but you killed Ye Xuan today, and that Spirit Sea Realm old man too. You went too far. The higher-ups might punish you. With all the time that could take, someone else might beat us to this place."
"Delay breeds trouble. Besides, I can pass through walls. At worst, I'll eat a little dirt. Nothing will happen."
Lu Ding understood that reasoning too. In fact, he had already thought of it when he attacked.
But even so,
he would never have held back, much less let those two go.
Once enmity and grudges had formed, failing to kill them then and there would only mean more complications later.
Even if the Bureau punished him for excessive force, he would accept it.
Ye Xuan and that old man had to die first!
Lu Ding nodded. "Then be careful. Stay alert, and tug the rope the moment anything happens."
"Don't worry, Brother Lu."
Yan Feifan stepped forward.
The solid wall let him pass through as though it were a curtain of water.
A vast altar plaza came into view. White bones lay piled into mountains in all manner of positions, and bloodstains, dried for who knew how long, marked the altar floor.
Ahead, a massive suspended coffin hung in the air, its four corners secured by four thick chains.
Yan Feifan did not rashly approach. He surveyed his surroundings and found nothing else in the burial chamber besides the bodies on the altar and the coffin hanging overhead.
Finally, his gaze settled on the suspended coffin again.
"If there really is treasure here, it should only be in there."
"But how is Brother Lu supposed to get in...?"
He could pass through walls, but Lu Ding could not.
And he could not get the stone door behind him open.
Yan Feifan turned around, wanting to see whether there might be a mechanism inside that opened the stone door.
He thought the idea was ridiculous-who would design a mechanism for opening a tomb door inside the burial chamber? But the next second, when he twisted the beast head beside him and the stone door rumbled slowly open, Yan Feifan learned something.
Never underestimate the way ancient people's minds worked.
Someone really had put the mechanism inside.
Wasn't that downright brainless?
The stone door opened, bringing Yan Feifan's strange expression into Lu Ding's view.
"Brother Lu, I've really had my eyes opened. Someone actually put the door-opening mechanism inside. Were they afraid the dead would come alive and be unable to open the door...?"
Yan Feifan's grumbling cut off abruptly.
Fear flashed in his eyes.
He turned to look at the suspended coffin.
"B-Brother Lu, the thing inside couldn't still be alive, could it?"
"Who knows? Maybe the tomb's owner wasn't willing to die just like that and left himself a fallback, waiting to revive someday."
Lu Ding walked into the burial chamber, picking up where Yan Feifan had left off.
Although Lu Ding had never personally witnessed such a case,
the Bureau 749 archives recorded plenty of them.
Revived old monsters.
Old monsters that had undergone corpse transformations.
Old monsters that had wanted to live another life, only to turn into monsters.
Not everyone could calmly accept their own death without pulling some stunt.
Yan Feifan quietly retreated behind Lu Ding.
"Brother Lu, what should we do next? Go up there? Or find a corner and light a candle, then run if it changes color or goes out?"
"We're not gold-touching captains. Men light candles, ghosts blow them out. Rather than go up ourselves, I'd prefer to bring it down."
Who knew whether going up would trigger some mechanism?
If something lunged straight into their faces when they opened the coffin, they would have no room to dodge.
Lu Ding raised his hand and sent a slash toward the chain securing one corner of the suspended coffin.
Clang!
The chain snapped, and the suspended coffin swayed. Lu Ding immediately followed with several more slashes.
The dark coffin fell and smashed heavily into the ground not far in front of them, shaking the earth and sending loose stones tumbling down.
Cracks spread all across the vast altar plaza from the impact.
Lu Ding floated forward.
He kicked the coffin lid flying, revealing the sight within.
A man lay inside, clad in armor, his cloak like blood. A sinister faceplate concealed his features, while the hands resting across his abdomen showed no trace of decay, looking just like living flesh.
When things defied the norm, something sinister was at work.
Before Yan Feifan beside him could even react in surprise,
Lu Ding sent a slash at the male corpse's head, aiming to behead it.
In a flash, the mask covering the male corpse's face writhed, manifesting eerie eyes and stretching into a grotesque smile.
Then it twisted at an unnatural angle to evade the strike and rolled to its feet, its lips moving without making a sound.
Bang!!!
Lu Ding swept out a whipping kick, sending the male corpse flying backward and embedding it deep in the wall.
"Brother Lu, it looks like it has something to say."
"Not listening!"
Lu Ding's voice was icy. He raised his hand and circulated his qi. Slashes erupted and ravaged everything in the burial chamber in an indiscriminate attack.
He had no time to listen to the nonsense of something that might be a ghost, a demon, a spirit, or an evil entity-anything but human, at any rate.
If it was not human, it had to die.
Inside the burial chamber, the male corpse dodged the attacks as best it could, but bloody wounds still covered its body. Its armor fell away, exposing vivid red flesh beneath.
Waves of foul stench rose from the flesh and drifted through the burial chamber.
Lu Ding kept sending out slash after slash.
The male corpse's dodging grew slower and slower.
At last, Yan Feifan behind him found the corresponding information in Bureau 749's archives section on his phone.
"Brother Lu!! A living corpse!! This is a Living-Molt Living Corpse!! It's being forced into its final molt right now! Quick, kill it! Don't let it finish molting!!!"
A Living-Molt Living Corpse was similar to a jiangshi, but they belonged to the same genus, not the same species. According to legend, many powerful figures in ancient times had been unwilling to accept that their lifespans were nearing their end.
Before their allotted time ran out, they would search for all sorts of methods to extend their lives, or even return from death and achieve immortality.
The Living-Molt Living Corpse was one such method.
This method originated from a tenet of a secret Buddhist vajra teaching: "If one is despised by others, the sins of one's previous lives, which should have condemned one to the evil paths, shall be extinguished through the contempt one suffers in this life, and one shall attain unsurpassed perfect enlightenment... Thus, lay down the butcher's knife and become a Buddha on the spot."
This had originally been a tenet for spiritual attainment.
Later generations twisted its meaning, using evil arts to follow its path in reverse. Those who had committed countless killings could use this method.
Before their allotted time ended, they would refine themselves into living corpses while still alive, expelling the poisons of slaughter, resentment, and sinful karma from their bodies and condensing their sins into armor. Shedding that armor was molting-casting off the old self and the sins of slaughter in hopes of someday being reborn as a new existence.
But what emerged from this method was never human. It was a living corpse, a monster, and certainly no longer its former self. Everything would be shed.
All that remained was a powerful living corpse that acted on instinct, devouring raw flesh and drinking blood.
A living molt meant rebirth. Even if the timing of its molt was wrong, as long as it could finish, it would emerge in an entirely new and formidable form.
During the living molt, however, the living corpse was extremely vulnerable.
Just like a snake.
Reminded by Yan Feifan, Lu Ding recalled this information too. He flew across and closed in on the living corpse, the spiritual qi within him surging as he unleashed his full power. A Flying Bear phantom appeared behind him.
At that moment, he already possessed three-tenths of the Flying Bear's likeness. With brute force alone, he overpowered the living corpse and tackled it to the ground.
"Dismemberment beats a living molt-let me help you!"