Ancient tomb excavation traces

Seeing this, the ancestor carefully pulled me away, and everyone leaned against the Netherworld Tree, watching warily as more and more mutated corpses broke through the ground. Just as our nerves were on edge, with a bang, a huge dark shadow crashed down from above, striking several walking, decaying corpses on their heads.

It all happened so fast, my heart leaped into my throat. My ancestor covered my mouth and only slowly released me after my breathing had calmed down. I gasped for breath as the rotting corpse turned into a puddle of flesh at my feet. But what was horrifying was that its surviving hand was still stubbornly reaching towards the back of the tree.

Just as we calmed our racing hearts, more shadows rained down from above, thud after thud. Everyone clung tightly to the tree trunk, feeling as if their hearts had been shot several times.

By the dim light, they could see that what had fallen from the tree was actually a coffin lid! After that, several more dried rice dumplings fell down, their faces pressed against the ground, twisted as they stood up. It was estimated that their bones had broken when they fell, so one shoulder was drooping, and they looked very strange.

They slowly made their way towards the hollow in the old tree, clearly becoming the leader in the silent procession. These corpses were clad in lamellar armor made of woven leather; the ancestor said that based on their attire, they resembled royal guards of the King of Chu, his elite troops.

Everyone held their breath. I saw Bao Cai next to the ancestor staring wide-eyed, making muffled noises. If Chen Yi hadn't covered his mouth, he probably would have been screaming in terror.

"What's going on?" Old Master asked the Ancestor through mouthing.

The old ancestor replied softly, "Who knows? Let's see."

One after another, dried rice dumplings fell straight down from the tree, completely unprepared, in a bizarre way. If they were alive, it would be a suicidal act of collective suicide.

At this moment, the back chamber was filled with horrifying human heads, and the overwhelming stench made my insides churn violently. I felt like vomiting, but I was afraid of attracting the attention of the moving horde of corpses, so I could only endure it. The old ancestor wasn't much better off. He pinched his nose, his face contorted in disgust, and rolled his eyes at me several times, probably turning green with nausea.

Just as we were about to be overwhelmed by the fumes, the young Taoist priest suddenly emerged from the tree trunk and slowly walked into the horde of corpses, following the first few mummified bodies. I stared blankly at his strange behavior, then realized what he was doing and cursed inwardly, "Damn! What's he doing? Is he so possessed by demonic possession that he's mistaken those rotting corpses for his companions?" We watched his figure disappear into the thick fog, filled with indescribable astonishment.

My heart skipped a beat, and I tried to pull him back, but my ancestor reached out and pinned me against the tree trunk, pinching my nose and saying, "Are you crazy!"

I was agitated and forced a sound out of my throat: "He'll die!"

The old ancestor held me tightly and said, "His infiltration of the zombie horde may have been intentional, or it may have been due to re-possession by evil forces. Either way, you must believe him..."

Upon hearing the word "believe," I paused slightly, then nodded helplessly. Just then, the corpses that had been like walking corpses suddenly knelt down in front of us, ignoring the coffin lid falling from above, and orderly prostrated themselves, as if this behavior was a faint consciousness in their minds, like a kind of... My mind went blank. Were they performing some kind of ritual?

I stared in disbelief at the scene before me; corpses continued to rise from the ground. Logically, they shouldn't have any thoughts anymore; what force was pulling them?

A flash of lightning struck my mind; every detail often signifies an inevitability. Could it be that the red light and vibration just now awakened these dead people? Did the young Taoist priest say "it's too late" because he knew the Dust-Avoiding Pearl had already been activated? Judging from their current appearance, facing the tree behind us, are they on a pilgrimage...? What will happen after their pilgrimage?

I dared not think further, but then I heard a churning sound, like someone constantly grinning at themselves... and the source of this sound... my hair stood on end. Could it be the face at the top of the golden cauldron, fused with the tree? It moved?

While our attention was focused on the moving horde of corpses, something unexpected happened: a walking, desiccated corpse grabbed Lan Quexi with lightning speed. Lan Quexi screamed, and several corpses surrounded her, dragging her towards the center where the golden cauldron was located.

The situation happened suddenly. We, leaning against the tree, almost simultaneously left our safe positions, rushing to save Lan Quexi without a second thought. Just as I exposed my back, a hand suddenly grabbed my shoulder, pulling me to the ground. Immediately afterward, a dark mass of corpses surged towards me. I screamed, trying to get up, but was engulfed by another wave of corpses…

I used to think I was tough, but now I have a feeling that disaster is about to strike and I can never recover. This thought overwhelmed me with despair, and I silently closed my eyes…

Just when I was about to give up hope, the old ancestor in front shouted, "You little rascal! Get up! Go up now!"

I had resigned myself to certain death, but upon hearing the shouts, it felt like my brain had been struck by a club. I cursed myself inwardly, "Feng Liu, did you get your head caught in a door? It's not even the last moment yet, why are you trying to kill yourself!" At that moment, I suddenly opened my eyes. Not far from me, a rope was swinging back and forth—it was the ancestral flying tiger claw! Chu Ba was carrying Mi Ling's corpse on his back, tied with a belt, wielding his twin swords, growing more and more ferocious as he fought, seemingly determined to carve a bloody path for me.

Watching them struggle against the stormy waves to save me, I don't know where the strength came from, but with a shout, I suddenly overturned the rotting corpses that were encasing me, climbed onto one of the bodies, and leaped forward, trying to grab onto that lifeline. But at that moment, a dark shadow pounced on me, suddenly grabbing my leg and trying to pull me down.

Caught off guard, I slipped and fell a step, my palms burning with pain. But I didn't want to betray the kindness of my ancestors who had saved my life, so I gritted my teeth, gripped the rope tightly, and looked down to see Miss Chu! She had woken up sometime earlier, clinging to me desperately, and said in a hysterical voice, "You can't leave! I sensed his will. He needs you. Only your two bodies can complete the ritual to bring Princess Chu and our ancestors back to life. Then we can attain immortality! You can't leave!"

Listening to her incoherent yet self-righteous tone, I couldn't help but find it amusing, thinking to myself, "Why should I help Old Monster Sima complete the ritual!"

But seeing Chu's true colors revealed, her appearance utterly dark, I suddenly understood why she had been putting on an act in front of me and Lan Quexi. She'd gone mad, claiming she felt Sima Laoguai's call and saw us as the final sacrifice! Damn it! The more I thought about it, the angrier I became. In a fit of rage, I shouted, "A vicious woman like you shouldn't even think that Sima Laoguai will take you to heaven after attaining enlightenment. You'll only end up in hell, never to be reborn!"

However, this woman was already deeply wicked. She relentlessly grabbed my leg, and I realized that she lived like those rotting corpses, with a fanatical thought of sacrificing herself for the Lord already in her mind. If I softened my heart again, I would probably become a victim of this thought! With this thought, I struggled to break free from her grasp, and she couldn't hold on and fell down.

I turned my gaze to Chen Yu, who was trapped. He saw Lan Quexi being dragged away by the dried corpses and was desperately trying to pull her out of the pile of corpses, but the corpses kept piling up on her. Seeing this, I gritted my teeth, disregarded everything else, pushed off a tree trunk to steady myself, and pounced over, pinning down some of the dried corpses surrounding Chen Yu. In an instant, excruciating pain shot through my body. Chen Yu excitedly pulled me up, saying, "Liu Zi!"

I had been wounded by an arrow and was in so much pain that I didn't even have the strength to respond. I simply gestured for Lan Quexi to go up the tree first. Chen Yi, being my childhood friend, immediately understood what I meant and said, "I understand!" Then, he turned to Lan Quexi and said, "I'll clear the way, you run ahead!"

Lan Quexi gave me a meaningful look. She wasn't a pretentious girl, and then nodded. Chen Yu pulled her along. The horde of zombies saw their target and were about to run away, but then they lunged at it again. I grabbed one of their legs and yelled, "Run! Quick!"

Chen Yi turned around and glanced at me, exclaiming excitedly, "Liu Zi, you're fucking righteous!"

I was dragged a little distance by the rotting corpses. Just as I was about to get up, I felt something pressing down on the soil below. I realized that more corpses were about to emerge, so I quickly pushed myself up. When I got up, I found a few corpse worms still clinging to my hide. I frantically brushed off these horrifying creatures. Now there was nowhere to step, nowhere to hide. The rotting corpses slowly surrounded us, making it impossible to move.

Chen Yi was risking his life for Lan Quexi, shouting and using both hands and feet to knock down as many as he could. Lan Quexi was no pushover either. The two of them struggled to reach the rope, and Chen Yi crouched down, picked her up, and lifted her up. At this moment, he had no free hands to stop them and could only stand there while several rotting corpses grabbed his feet, one of which even had its mouth wide open.

I had a bad feeling and shouted. In that critical moment, a head squeezed out from the pile of corpses. He pushed through the horde of corpses, reached the grinning, rotting corpse, raised his Mongolian knife, and stabbed it fiercely, shouting as he did so: "You think you're so tough? I'll make you itch, make you itch!" The person was Bao Cai. He had silently hidden in the horde of corpses and appeared when he saw Chen Yi being attacked by the corpses.

To avoid becoming a burden to Chen Yu and his companions, Lan Quexi nimbly climbed a tree trunk. Chen Yu and Bao Cai, holding their knives, found themselves with nowhere to retreat and were surrounded.

Seeing the dire situation, I was extremely anxious. Suddenly, I heard a creaking sound coming from the upper part of Blue Magpie Creek. Looking closely, I saw a coffin. The lid was missing, and two dried rice dumplings clung to the sides of the coffin. The coffin was teetering on the verge of collapse. On a whim, I shouted for Chen Yu to step back.

Lan Quexi also heard the commotion and immediately stood up, pressing her back against the tree trunk. Chen Yu, holding Bao Cai, gritted his teeth and overturned several dried corpses. At this moment, the ancestor also came over from the other side to help. He and I grabbed several rotting corpses blocking Chen Yu and Bao Cai's retreat, twisted their necks, and the rotting corpses immediately fell to the ground powerless.

With nothing to stop them, and seeing that the coffin above was about to fall, Chen Cai and Bao Cai recklessly pounced on me and the ancestor, knocking us both over.

At the same time, a loud thud followed by the cracking sound of flesh being smashed—the dried rice dumpling had helped us eliminate our own comrade! The falling coffin and the pile of corpses underneath formed a staircase, making it easy for us to reach the rope. It seemed like a path arranged for us by fate. Just as I was feeling extremely fortunate, I heard a melodious laugh…

My heart skipped a beat. My ancestor had the same reaction as me. We looked at each other and suddenly had a strange feeling that something we couldn't see was helping us. The coffin that had just fallen didn't seem to have broken the branches because of its own weight. It wasn't a coincidence, but rather something inevitable. Someone wanted us to escape... I glanced at Mi Ling. She was silently on Chu Ba's back, yet she seemed to have a life of her own.

The old matriarch, feeling quite overwhelmed by Chen Tiao's weight, coughed a few times and scolded, "From now on, you'll only eat vegetarian food, no more meat! All that fat, it almost broke my ribs!" With that, she pushed him away with a look of disgust, stood up, and said, "No wonder those rotting corpses didn't come near Eighth Prince earlier; it seems Princess Chu behind him kept them in check! At least she has some conscience!"

Hearing the ancestor's words, my heart skipped a beat, and I couldn't quite describe the feeling. But we didn't have time to think about it; the number of corpses would only increase. And it was clear that the corpses near the tree seemed to be under some kind of command, coming to grab us. The outer layer of corpses were all facing the mud, forming a shape around the tree—sure enough, they were on a pilgrimage. I was worried about the young Taoist priest who had followed the flow of corpses ahead; I wondered what had become of him…