Chapter 206
Chapter 206
Bang!
A deafening crash rang out.
The entire coffin plunged down and smashed into the brick-and-stone ground.
It instantly sank three inches!
The ground split, fragments of stone flew everywhere, and dust billowed through the air…
The sound seemed to strike my heart as well, and I could not stop my whole body from trembling slightly.
At the same time, however, it also brought a kind of release.
The tension that had kept my emotions wound taut actually eased a little.
It was like taking an exam: the torment was worst while you waited for the results.
Once the results were announced, good or bad, the weight in your heart finally dropped–just as the coffin had dropped now.
Almost the instant it struck the ground, a strange sound came from within!
Scrape, scrape…
It was the piercing sound of long fingernails scratching across a blackboard.
Old Cao released the phoenix pole he had been carrying across both shoulders and straightened, abandoning the coffin-bearing posture.
He shrugged with a bitter smile.
“All right. The malevolent coffin has hit the ground, so the thing inside is bound to wake up now. Hear those claws scratching at the lid? Give up any wishful thinking and prepare to fight!”
Big Bull, the others, and I knew there was no avoiding tonight’s battle.
We had hoped to carry the coffin smoothly into the northeastern mountains and bury it, but we had not even made it out of the Bai family’s backyard!
Shing!
With a metallic ring, I drew the ritual blade straight from the sheath at my waist and gripped it in my hand.
It felt heavy in my hand.
When fighting demons, wicked creatures, and ghosts under ordinary circumstances, I would always test them first.
Who opened a battle with their killing move?
Naturally, you escalated gradually and revealed your trump card only after exchanging spells and blows–your most powerful technique posed a danger to you as well.
But I did not dare proceed that way today!
Who knew how vicious the thing inside this sinister coffin might be?
Ideally, we would kill it in a single instant, without giving it any chance to unleash its violence.
Another reason was that my cultivation had risen again over the past six months and more, increasing the quantity of qi within me. I could now launch as many as three consecutive attacks with the ritual blade.
As I drew the blade and pinched a talisman between my fingers, Old Cao, Big Bull, and the others quickly tightened the phoenix ropes already securing the coffin!
They certainly could not prevent the corpse-fiend from breaking out, but they would make the task harder. Even forcing it to expend a trace more strength would help.
Clatter, clatter…
The coffin began to shake violently, the movements so great that it almost bounced against the ground!
Old Cao and the others looked as though they were desperately pinning down a huge black fish thrashing beneath them.
“Big Bull, are the knots secure?”
“All set, Coffin-Bearer Cao! Every one is tied fast!”
“Fall back. Leave it to me.”
Old Cao roared and slammed both palms onto the coffin lid.
Smack!
The shaking coffin immediately went still for a moment.
Smack, smack, smack…
Old Cao’s hands struck the coffin in a furious barrage.
I did not know what he was doing–my coffin-bearing arts had not reached such a profound level–but I could sense wave after wave of qi being rapidly hammered into the coffin.
For a time, he barely managed to suppress its bucking and shaking.
Hum!
A droning vibration seemed to sound through the air.
The Five-Ingredient Ink-Line Cord and Nine-Bone Corpse-Suppressing Nails on the coffin all began to shine!
The ink-line cord glowed red.
The Corpse-Suppressing Nails glowed white.
The phoenix rope that Old Cao, Big Bull, and the others had just pulled tight and knotted glowed yellow.
The sight brought sudden understanding!
“So Old Cao is using his own qi to forcibly activate the ink-line cord and Corpse-Suppressing Nails sealing the coffin.”
Huff…
He let out a long breath and rapidly retreated to my side in a few swift steps.
He lightly wiped the thin film of sweat from his forehead.
“Fortunately, both seals still work. Activating them took some effort, though. Everyone, it looks like we’re in for a bitter fight tonight.”
I froze.
“Even this won’t hold it?”
Old Cao smiled bitterly.
“The corpse-fiend is certain to break out tonight! After more than a century, both seals have weakened. Even with me forcibly activating them, they can hold it only a few more minutes and make breaking free somewhat harder.”
Then he turned toward the quietest of the four coffin carriers.
“Silent Gourd, you’re the fastest runner. Hurry back to the coffin shop and bring a paper horse with spiritual resonance and a paper figure with spiritual resonance to reinforce us. I’m going all in today!”
As he spoke, Old Cao took a wooden token from his pocket and thrust it into the man’s hand. A trace of reluctance flashed through his eyes.
I understood how he felt.
Even for a highly accomplished funerary-paper artisan, creating a paper effigy with spiritual resonance was extraordinarily difficult.
There were few fixed rules to follow.
It required the right time, the right place, and the right people, along with a perfect fusion of the artisan’s qi and will inside the paper creation. It was an opportunity born of one’s state of mind!
The process was profoundly mysterious and difficult to put into words.
Over the past ten-odd years, Old Cao had managed to make only four paper horses with spiritual resonance and two paper figures with spiritual resonance!
That showed how precious such paper creations were.
The wooden token was the credential anyone other than Old Cao needed to control his creations.
“All right!”
Silent Gourd nodded. Without wasting words, he turned to leave.
The four coffin carriers who had long worked with Old Cao, half disciples and half friends, were Big Bull, Ergou, Flat-Top, and Silent Gourd. Silent Gourd usually drew the least attention and spoke the least.
“Wait! Let them volunteer when you get there. If none of them want to come, choose any one horse and one figure.”
Only after Old Cao added this instruction did Silent Gourd set off at a run.
Paper creations with spiritual resonance had already awakened spiritually. They lacked the intelligence of true living beings, but possessed simple awareness… When Silent Gourd returned with Old Cao’s wooden credential, they would react.
Big Bull sighed.
“Coffin-Bearer Cao, making you sacrifice so much this time…”
“Oh, stop fussing! We’ve always been a team. You’re the coffin carriers who work under me! Besides, isn’t dealing with dangerous situations like this precisely why I made those paper creations with spiritual resonance?”
Old Cao waved a hand, stopping Big Bull from saying more.
As a coffin bearer, he had to be mentally prepared for this too.
I spoke gravely from the side.
“Since the corpse-fiend is certain to break out, let’s make every possible preparation for battle. Meditate and regulate your breathing first. Recover what you just expended and bring your minds and bodies back to their peak.”
“Last week, I learned a type of talisman art from Master called the Qi-Restoring Talisman. The ones I can draw aren’t very effective yet, but they’ll still speed up the recovery of qi and stamina. Something is better than nothing.”
As I spoke, I rapidly cast four talismans in succession.
They flew out and attached themselves to the chests of Old Cao, Big Bull, Ergou, and Flat-Top.
After thanking me, the four sat cross-legged.
I was exceptionally gifted, and my qi naturally recovered much faster than an ordinary practitioner’s.
Besides, Old Cao and the others had done most of the work carrying the coffin. I had not exerted myself much, so my stamina and energy remained almost entirely at their peak.
I did not yet need a Qi-Restoring Talisman to recover anything.
I simply gripped my ritual blade and stared fixedly at the coffin ahead.
…
Three minutes later.
Scrape, scrape…
The piercing sound of sharp nails scratching the coffin lid came from within once more.
The coffin began shaking again!
More and more violently.
Snap, snap, snap!
An invisible force forcibly broke the phoenix ropes Big Bull and the others had tied around the coffin. Old Cao’s rope, which had nearly reached the level of a ritual implement, did not snap.
Instead, it shot far away like an elastic band.
I immediately pushed off and crossed the distance in a few swift steps using the footwork of internal martial arts. I quickly retrieved the resilient phoenix rope and placed it in the hands of Old Cao, who sat cross-legged with his eyes closed as he recovered.
Next, the glow of the dense Five-Ingredient Ink-Line Cord wound around the coffin began to flicker between light and darkness.
It resembled a lightbulb receiving an unstable electrical current.
At last, with a sudden whoosh, the cord burst into flame!
It looked like an enormous net of fire wrapped around the coffin.
Within a few breaths, the entire ink-line cord had burned to ash and scattered on the wind.
Freed from the phoenix ropes and ink-line cord, the malevolent coffin now seemed to come “alive.”
Whoosh!
It abruptly rose upright from the ground and stood on end.
The dark-red talismanic inscriptions drawn across its surface emitted an eerie blood-red glow.
Scrape, scrape…
Sharp fingernails continued scratching inside the coffin. At the same time, a tremendous force pushed the lid outward from within, producing the sound of wood grinding against wood.
Pop!
A three-inch white bone nail shot out of the coffin lid.
Then…
Pop, pop, pop!
The Nine-Bone Corpse-Suppressing Nails were ejected almost one after another.
At this point, every method sealing the coffin had vanished!
But the sound of fingernails scratching the lid suddenly ceased as well.
The sinister coffin stood upright near the backyard entrance.
Not a sound could be heard.
The silence was deathly!
But I knew this was the calm before a raging storm!
The true trouble would arrive at any moment…
My mind and body were stretched taut to their limits.
Old Cao, Big Bull, and the others had finished meditating and now stood beside me, staring just as fixedly at the upright coffin ahead.
Trickle, trickle.
Suddenly!
The faint sound of running liquid arose in the courtyard.
We saw bloody fluid continuously seeping and flowing from the gaps in the coffin!