Book 1: Chapter 10: My Name Is Zhang Qiling


    I sighed and said to myself, <em>quit it. Why are you trying to scare me with these kinds of words now? I was a rookie ten years ago, but now I can jump into coffins directly without trembling.</em>


    That being said, I still couldnt help but feel a little nervous. How long had it been since Ist opened a coffin? I took a deep breath and walked over, immediately noticing that the inside of the sarcophagus was in a strange state. Generally, coffins either had rotten cotton wool or a pool of ck water with fungus in them. The inside of this sarcophagus, however, was like a reef parasitized by barnacles. Theyers of densely packed barnacles looked like calluses, and the corpse was lying on its side on top of them. All the exposed bones were also covered in barnacles, so it was impossible to see what the body looked like.


    I carefully examined it and found that it was an undecayed skeleton. The head looked like it had been mummified, the lower body had already turned to white bones, and the barnacles had flourished so much that they were even in its mouth. When I shined my shlight there, I could see that they had even grown all over its throat, which immediately made my own throat ache.


    Fatty tapped the corpse with the crowbar and found that the barnacles had formed a kind of husk in many ces. But the most bizarre thing was the corpses ear.


    We could see that on the side of the corpse facing us, there were seven ears. They were arranged in a particrly strange way and seemed to extend all the way to the neck and back of its head. I initially thought it was some kind of strange mushroom, but Fatty pried the corpses head up with a crowbar and looked at the other side, which turned out to be normal.


    The seven ears were facing the big sound amplifier above the coffin. There was the constant rumble of thunder outside and it sounded like countless people were talking all around us. Fatty swallowed and looked at me, at aplete loss for words.


    <em>This is really weird. No wonder Fatty said its a monster.</em>


    I looked down and found that each ear had a hole in it like a normal ear. But when I took a closer look with my shlight, I saw that these ears had been artificially made from the ear bones, mandible, and skull. The shape of the ears was really just skin that had been cut with a knife.


    This person didnt have a deformity. In fact, the seven ears seemed to be a special kind of decoration that was simr to a tattoo.


    Such a wild and ancient form of worship was rare in the Central ins, but everything seemed to indicate that this ethnic group worshiped sound.


    The tomb owner''s clothes had rotted away, but I could tell that this was a burial style of the Central ins. Fatty tapped on the bottom of the coffin with the crowbar to see if there were any funerary objects underneath. The barnacles broke apart as soon as he hit them, allowing him to reach the bottom of the coffin.


    But the bottom was empty.


    It wasnt umon for a coffin to be empty, but Fatty still seemed excited for some reason. He appeared to have found something and quickly shined his shlight on it. Generally, the space under coffins was used to hide gold and luminescent pearls. It was often only palm deep, and had buckets filled with pearls or gold dust. But the space under this coffin couldnt be illuminated with our shlights.


    "Its a fucking well," Fatty said. He used the crowbar to continue poking around the rest of the coffin bottom. We found that there was a deep, rectangr well under the coffin with a stone pir sticking up from the bottom. It was apparently the only thing holding the body up in the air since the whole area around it was empty.


    There also seemed to be something hanging on all the well walls.


    I didnt know if the stone pir supporting the corpse was strong or not, so I didnt dare step on the corpse. I grabbed Fattys belt as he ced two feet on the edge of the coffin and poked his head into the gap between the coffin and the corpse like he was doing push-ups. He used one hand to hold his shlight as he looked down. He was gasping for breath and trembling as he said, "It''s all bronze pieces of varying sizes. They look like scales." He handed me his shlight and then took a few pictures with his phone beforeing back up and showing me the photos.


    I pulled him up and started looking at the photos, which showed an amazing sight. Row upon row of countless bronze scales were neatly hung on the well walls below. Many of them had fallen to the bottom of the well, and some ces had been damaged enough to reveal the rock wall behind.


    Almost all the bronze scales had corroded into one solid piece, and thousands ofyers of rust bloomed everywhere.


    "It''s time to test your ability to talk nonsense after all these years, Mr. Nave. If you donte up with a theory today, Ill definitely lose sleep."


    Iy down on the edge of the coffin, trying to get into the same position as the corpse so I could listen to the thunder. At this time, the sound seemedpletely different. The thunder above reached my ear and mixed in with the echoes in the underground well. The whispers that were originally iprehensible seemed to be clearer, like people talking.


    Although I still couldnt hear them clearly, the talking sounded so very realistic that I broke out in a cold sweat. I realized that this thing might be a device for tranting thunder. By using this bell and the deep well below, we could trante thunder into sounds that could be understood.


    It was fucking nonsense, but it still felt amazing.


    I took Fatty''s crowbar and tried to knock off all barnacles on the body and inner walls of the coffin. Without these obstacles, the sound became clearer and even resonated throughout the ancient tomb. I actually felt that this wasnt thunder, but the mountain talking to me through the resonating thunder.


    And it seemed to be a human voice that was bing clearer and clearer. As I listened carefully, Fatty said, "Maybe the thunder here speaks in the Fujian dialect. Ill listen."


    Just as I got out of the way so that he could listen carefully, a loud p of thunder suddenly sounded outside, instantly echoing in the tomb. Even I heard it clearly this time.


    Wu ~ Xie ~ Wu ~ Xie ~ Wu ~ Xie ~


    The voice that was calling seemed to be saying "Wu Xie".


    Fatty and I looked at each other, and then he grabbed me and ran away. What are you doing?! I shouted.


    "You idiot, it must be haunted! Run!" Fatty said.


    He had a point. How was it possible that thunder was calling my name? If someone was calling my name in that tomb, then it really was haunted. When we rushed out of the grave robbers tunnel and into the rain, Fatty started cursing, "I fucking told you we can''te by ourselves! See?! We already ran into a problem! I dont even have any donkey hooves!!!


    We scrambled out, rolling and crawling as we rushed into the dark, wild forest. But before we had gone a few steps, lightning shed and we saw a man in a poncho standing with his head bowed in the rain.


    There was another sh of lightning right after that, and Fatty and I screamed in terror, "Uncle Yang!!!


    The two of us didnt bother stopping as we rushed past the man while protecting our heads. But the man caught the back of our cors at the same time, pulled us back, and dropped us to the ground.


    As it rained harder and another sh of lightning lit the area, he lifted the hood of his poncho. Poker-Face looked down at us with an expressionless face.


    ****


    <strong><em>Oh my God, these two idiots. I love them so much hahahaha</em></strong>