Book Synopsis
Book Tags
Donation Rankings
Comment
0 Comments
You May Also Like
墨書 Inktalez
The heavy rain continued for nearly ten minutes before it gradually lessened. Even though the downpour had diminished, it still hadn't stopped completely. At least now we could stand up; just moments ago, the rain had been so intense that we could barely move.
The three of us managed to support ourselves and stand up, but my whole body ached. That rain was something else; it felt like I had been beaten up. "Oh my God, it hurts so much! This rain could kill someone!"
"Yeah, finally it’s letting up," Jiao Ba said as Changshan turned to him and asked, "Are we continuing?"
Jiao Ba switched on the flashlight and looked ahead. "We don’t need to continue."
"What? Planning to go back?" I wiped the rainwater off my face, soaked to the bone. A gust of wind blew, making me shiver.
Suddenly, he laughed. "Hey, looks like this heavy rain wasn’t for nothing. Look ahead."
I turned on my flashlight and shone it forward. When I saw the spot where we had dug earlier, my spirits lifted immediately. Before us was a large rectangular pit, clearly a grave site, likely exposed by the recent downpour.
"Not bad! This saves us some effort. Looks like this heavy rain wasn’t in vain," Changshan said excitedly.
"Let’s go check it out." I waved my hand, and the three of us quickly walked over to the grave pit. Shining the flashlight down, we saw a coffin less than three meters deep at the bottom. It wasn’t large—smaller than the one from the wreck—and there was about half a meter of space around it, enough for a person.
"It seems this pit isn’t very deep, only about three meters. They must have been in quite a hurry," Changshan squatted at the edge and peered inside.
"Alright, let’s not waste time. Let’s go down and take a look."
Just as I was about to move, Jiao Ba grabbed me and said, "Hold on! Let the corpse gas dissipate first; otherwise, we might get poisoned."
We waited above for another ten minutes or so. Growing impatient, I asked, "Is it ready yet? It’s been over half an hour already; soon it’ll be an hour." My time with Mai Lao was running out; we couldn’t delay any longer.
"Alright, let’s go down." Jiao Ba jumped down first, landing on top of the coffin before stepping onto the ground.
Changshan and I hurriedly followed him down. We positioned ourselves around the coffin; there was just enough space for all three of us. I shone my flashlight on it—it wasn’t black but rather a unique shade that resembled a mix of red and black.
"This coffin has a really special color; maybe it belonged to someone of significance when they were alive," I said as I brushed off the dust from the coffin lid.
Jiao Ba looked around the coffin without lifting his head and said, "You're mistaken; this is a very ordinary coffin. Both the wood and the size are quite standard, it's just that the color is a bit special."
"It seems this coffin has been around for some time; the surroundings are almost completely corroded. I estimate it must be at least a hundred years old," Changshan said beside me, tapping on the coffin lid.
"A hundred years? So it really could belong to someone from the Ming Dynasty?" With Changshan saying this, I felt it was quite likely.
"Stop speculating, let's just open it and see. Brother Yi, use a knife to pry open the nails on this coffin lid; we're getting ready to open it," Jiao Ba said as he took out a sharp knife and began to remove the nails from the coffin.
Changshan and I quickly joined in. The nails were quite long, but perhaps due to the passage of time, they came out with little effort. In just a few moments, we had removed all the nails from the coffin.
Jiao Ba glanced at us and said, "Come over here; let's push the lid aside. Remember not to breathe once we open it; hold your breath."
Changshan and I moved to Jiao Ba's side. "Alright, prepare to push," Jiao Ba growled. The three of us exerted our strength simultaneously. The coffin lid was surprisingly light compared to those of the two female corpses we had encountered earlier.
With minimal effort, we pushed the lid aside. As it hit the ground, we quickly covered our mouths with our hands. I noticed a wisp of black mist emanating from inside the coffin, but it quickly dissipated.
We held our breath for about a minute. I signaled to Jiao Ba, asking how much longer we needed to hold it. Jiao Ba indicated we should wait a little longer; there was nothing we could do but continue holding our breath.
Just before two minutes had passed, Changshan was the first to crack. He gasped loudly, "I... I can't hold it anymore!"
Jiao Ba exhaled as well, "It's fine now, Brother Yi; you can breathe."
Once I relaxed, I looked at him and said, "Damn, that almost suffocated me! I thought there was nothing wrong anymore."
Jiao Ba remained silent as he quickly picked up a flashlight to examine the body inside. The flashlight slowly moved from head to toe; inside lay a male corpse that had not decayed.
Of course, it couldn't compare to the previous female corpses from the Ming Dynasty. Those two Demon Worm Corpses retained their youth eternally, while this Male Corpse had withered muscles and appeared almost like a dried-up husk.
His face was somewhat deformed; all his teeth protruded outward, and his eyelids were squished together. His limbs were naturally bent, with his legs resembling those of a frog—quite an awkward sight.
The Male Corpse wore a hat and clothing similar to a long robe that was slightly decayed but not severely so. From the appearance of his clothing, it was evident that he was dressed in traditional Han attire from ancient times.
During the reign of the emperors, the clothing of other ethnic groups was quite different from that of the Han people. However, I couldn't distinguish which dynasty this corpse belonged to, as I wasn't an expert—unless it was clothing from the Qing Dynasty; I could recognize that at a glance.
Surrounding the corpse, there was nothing but a rusted, broken knife. There wasn't even a blanket covering it, making the situation seem exceedingly shabby. No wonder Jiao Ba said this coffin was very ordinary; it truly was too common, lacking any burial goods.
"It's a male corpse. How is it preserved so well? It hasn't decayed at all," Changshan said, gently pressing down on the corpse's arm with the back of his knife.
"Yeah, it's relatively well-preserved. Brother Changshan, can you tell which dynasty he is from?" I glanced at him and asked.
"He should be from the Ming Dynasty? It looks quite similar," Changshan replied cautiously, not wanting to make a definitive statement.
"Are you sure you can't determine that?" I asked again.
Changshan didn't answer me directly but instead turned to Jiao Bayi and asked, "Jiao Ba, what do you think? Which dynasty is this corpse from?"
Jiao Ba suddenly took a deep breath and turned to us, saying, "You're right; this male corpse is definitely from the Ming Dynasty. There's no doubt about it."
"How can you be so sure? I was just guessing earlier," Changshan said with a look of surprise.
"Of course." Jiao Ba then shone his flashlight on the corpse's head and gently lifted the hat off.
"Hey Lao Ba, what are you doing? We're not here to rob graves; don't mess around," I said. This guy really had the demeanor of a grave robber; he couldn't help but act this way wherever he went.
"This is just a commoner's grave; what could I possibly steal? As you've all seen, aside from that useless broken knife, there's nothing in this coffin. What do you expect me to steal?" Jiao Ba replied somewhat displeased, his tone rather firm.
"Then why are you lifting off the hat?" I pointed out.
"It's precisely because of this hat that I'm confident he's from the Ming Dynasty. Look at it; this hat is called a 'wangjin,' which was commonly used during the Ming Dynasty. From this alone, we can conclude that he is definitely from that era," Jiao Ba said proudly, a mischievous smile on his face.
"Can you tell what kind of person he was in life? Was he an official or a commoner?" That detail was also important.
"I can't tell. Anyone could wear a wangjin; it doesn't distinguish between high or low status. So we can only confirm that this male corpse is indeed from the Ming Dynasty," Jiao Ba replied calmly.
"If that's the case, then this must be our next stop," Changshan said, a bit surprised.
"That's right, it definitely is. I've suspected this island for a long time, and it turns out I was right. Our arrival here can't be a coincidence; it must have been arranged beforehand," I replied, just as I noticed Jiao Ba cutting open the corpse's clothing with a knife.
"What the hell are you doing? I didn't know you had this kind of interest," I said with disgust.
Without looking up, Jiao Ba replied, "I'm doing serious work. I'm checking how he died. What do you think I could be doing? Desecrating the corpse? You really crack me up."
I was left speechless by his words, realizing that my earlier thoughts were indeed quite distasteful.
"What did you find?" Changshan asked.
"Look, there are multiple wounds on his chest. The most severe one is this stab wound that goes straight to the heart. From this, we can infer that he was murdered. The body hasn't completely decomposed; otherwise, we wouldn't be able to tell," Jiao Ba said as he sheathed his knife, his expression serious.
"Could it be... that there was a battle here before?" I felt like the answer was about to emerge.
"It seems so. Although one corpse alone doesn't prove much, I have a strong feeling about it. As for why this body hasn't decayed, I think it has a lot to do with the geographical environment here; this small island seems to possess some kind of magic." Jiao Ba casually covered the corpse's clothing again.
"I don't know about magic, but I definitely feel that this island is quite eerie," Changshan said, pointing upwards with his index finger.
Jiao Ba and I followed his gesture and looked up. When I finally saw it, I was immediately stunned, my eyes wide in shock. From the pit where we stood, what had once been a sky filled with dark clouds had transformed into a blood-red expanse—not the fiery red of sunset clouds, but a deep crimson like fresh blood...
Comment 0 Comment Count