Tomb Raider: I Am Hu Bayi's Cousin

Chapter 254 Jade Armor
At that moment, Hu Ming and Wu Sansheng chased away the few people who were being unruly.

The two of them lay on it and spent quite a while carefully and intact removing the jade ornament.

Sure enough, this thing was quite heavy. The two exchanged a glance and decisively stuffed it into their nephew's backpack.

"Nephew, be careful! This thing is very valuable; if it gets bumped or scratched, the loss will be huge!"

The two men patted Wu Xie's shoulder in an old-fashioned manner, giving him earnest advice.

Yes, that makes sense!
Both of them were a full twelve years older than Wu Xie; they were his elders!
You know what, it's no wonder that there are always some old fogies in movies, TV dramas, and novels who like to use seniority to intimidate others.

At this moment, Hu Ming was already truly feeling the thrill of having a backup plan.

Seeing Wu Xie's frustration, he couldn't refute it.

Hu Ming felt a surge of secret pleasure.

Beneath the jade nest was a painted wooden coffin, with scenes of the encoffining process depicted on it.

Just as the group was about to pry it open, Hu Ming's earlobe suddenly trembled slightly.

He heard it.

A long, soft breath came from inside the coffin.

The sound was faint, but now there was only a wooden board separating them!
Everyone gathered around and naturally heard it clearly.

"."

"What the hell? Third Uncle, could it be that I'm too nervous and misheard?" Wu Xie gasped and gritted his teeth.

Zongzi (sticky rice dumplings) are not scary.

With Hu Ming around, they weren't even afraid of blood corpses.

Even something as bizarre as the ghost soldiers from before, Wu Xie could barely accept.

but…

Judging from the burial standards of nobles during the Warring States period, this coffin...

It should be a two-layered outer coffin and a three-layered inner coffin.

With all these layers of sealing, let alone flies, even fresh air can't circulate properly. Even living creatures would have suffocated long ago.

But what did he just hear? Breathing? That thing inside is still alive!?
In fact, Wu Xie guessed correctly.

Fatty and Panzi didn't believe this explanation, thinking that they had all just hallucinated.

Immediately, the two men lay down and pressed their ears to the coffin lid to listen carefully.

A few minutes later, the two men looked up with grim expressions.

Both pairs of eyes were filled with horror.

That wasn't an illusion; there really was a living, breathing creature lying inside the coffin!
However, since we've already come this far, we can't just put the coffin back on and head home.

Hu Ming silently stepped forward, reaching his hand into the gap between the painted lacquered wooden coffin and the bronze outer coffin, and found the mechanism.

With a gentle pull, the sound of the mechanism operating could be heard.

Suddenly, the painted wooden coffin rose up and split in two like a lotus flower.

Then the left and right halves of the coffin lid flipped over and slid down along the gap.

This is an extremely sophisticated mechanical expansion device.

During the Warring States period, the Mohist school brought this field to its peak, and Hu Ming happened to be skilled in it, so he immediately saw the strangeness in it.

Inside was a man dressed in black "armor".

He sat up straight the moment the coffin was opened.

Fortunately, none of them were cowards; they quickly noticed the support rod behind them.

The armor is a jade figurine.

It is woven from meteorite jade, and its color should be bronze, not jet black.

This is enough to show that the jade figurine has long lost its original function.

Those who lie inside waiting for transformation will ultimately end up with nothing.

You could tell from his expression: his eyes were tightly closed, his face contorted in extreme pain. Inside the painted lacquered wooden coffin, you could also see a thick layer of keratinous material that looked like scales.

That's human skin.

Shed human skin.

This layer of jade figurines is actually the last layer of "coffin".

Its scientific name is *Golden Thread Armor*.

Upon closer inspection, it was indeed evident that the corpse's chest was rising and falling, but the breathing was so slow that it was difficult to notice.

Upon seeing this, everyone couldn't help but grit their teeth.

Just imagine, an existence that has survived more than two thousand years of history from the Warring States period into the 21st century—it's terrifying to even think about.

"Tsk!"

Hu Ming glanced back at the young man, a half-smile on his face.

The young man had already gripped the black gold sword tightly and slowly approached.

Hu Ming didn't know what the relationship was between the Zhang family and those three people, but as long as he did know, he was determined to kill Tie Miansheng.

"please!"

Amidst the bewildered stares of the crowd, Hu Ming stepped aside to let the young man raise his knife...

The next moment, to everyone's astonishment...

The young man had already stabbed the "living dead" in the head through the gap in the jade figurine.

The force was so great that it pierced almost half of the blade.

If it weren't for the bronze outer coffin, this knife would probably have pierced through the entire coffin long ago.

This strike was both extremely ruthless and incredibly fast.

So fast that there was almost no struggle before the still-breathing corpse completely died.

Wu Sansheng didn't even realize they were almost there.

This old fox was genuinely stunned at this moment; he wasn't pretending.

"Who the hell are you? And what deep-seated hatred do you have for this King Lu Shang?"

"We finally met the real deal, such a rare living dead, and you just stabbed him to death without saying a word!?"

The fat man opened his mouth and shouted, looking somewhat distraught.

After the young man finished doing all this, he pulled out his knife, wiped away the blood, and sat back down without saying a word, showing no intention of explaining.

Hu Ming had no choice but to speak up: "The reason? Little Fatty, do you want that jade figurine? That's the reason."

"You saw the blood corpse before, right? It was dug out of the jade terracotta warrior and turned into this grotesque thing."

"Everything you want to know is in that purple jade box."

At this moment, the young man suddenly pointed to a purple jade box next to the living dead in the coffin and said indifferently.

The young man has calmed down a lot now...

Of course, the guy has the same expression 365 days a year, so no one can tell the difference.

But the fact that he was willing to speak meant that he had recovered.

"A purple jade box?"

Hu Ming looked at the young man with a half-smile.

Others might not know, but he didn't? No, Wu Sansheng should have figured it out too.

There were signs that the coffin had been recently opened; though they were very subtle, they were not to be missed by the old fox.

The young man clearly opened this place first and took the Ghost Seal from it.

As for the scroll of silk inside the purple jade box, Hu Ming dared to swear that it was definitely brought in by Xiao Ge, and was taken out from an ancient tomb from the Song Dynasty.

The purple jade box was originally meant to contain the Ghost Seal...

(End of this chapter)