Chapter 169

Chapter 169

The movement inside the Coffin came without warning.

A rust-covered human hand reached out from the stone Coffin and dropped beside Chen Zhao’s face, brushing past a lock of his hair.

After consuming the Danghu, Qin Ying’s eyesight had become exceptionally sharp. She caught the fleeting alarm that crossed Chen Zhao’s usually unflappable, Tibetan-fox-like face.

She also saw the lock of hair beside his cheek turn rust-red in the blink of an eye.

The soldier accompanying them was quiet but quick on the uptake. He lunged forward and dragged Chen Zhao away from the stone Coffin.

The hand protruding from the stone Coffin ignored them. Instead, it closed tightly around the mass of Di Shang Qin Ying had sent flying.

The mercury-colored, jellylike Di Shang struggled in the rusted hand.

Its body trembled as it emitted a piercing shriek.

That alarm-like sound had been one thing out in the open.

Inside this long, narrow corridor, it became an entirely different kind of noise, one that stabbed straight into their eardrums.

Qin Ying gritted her teeth. The Little White Monkey beside her, with a blade strapped to its back, had clapped both hands over its ears and looked as though its head might split apart. She stepped over at once.

She threw her damp garment over its head, then pulled the half-man-tall Little Monkey against her side and helped cover its ears.

Only then did the Little White Monkey, whose hearing was far keener than a human’s, manage to catch its breath.

It turned and wrapped its arms around Qin Ying’s thigh.

Amid the ear-splitting din, the two of them had now been through an ordeal together.

“Retreat!”

Chen Zhao was no reckless fool. A small mass of Di Shang was not worth risking their lives over.

At his command, he prepared to lead Qin Ying and the others back out.

Then another sudden change occurred.

The chunks of rust on both sides began writhing with a dry rustle. Like living creatures, they crawled across the walls.

Within moments, rust had sealed the hole at its weakest point.

At the same time, rust spread like mold over the Di Shang that had escaped its cage only to return.

As the coating thickened, the trembling, shrieking Di Shang fell silent and became a perfectly regular sphere.

The rusted hand protruding from the Coffin slowly withdrew like a snake after finishing its prey, leaving behind only a narrow slit that had not fully closed.

The noise had stopped, but Qin Ying’s ears were still ringing.

She patted them and looked at Chen Zhao.

All his earlier ease had vanished. After exchanging a glance with the soldier, the two turned and hurried back to the entrance to tear away the rust.

They had only taken a few steps down the rust-red corridor. Logically, even if rust had sealed the hole, locating the way out should have been easy.

Yet when Chen Zhao and the soldier began digging at the entrance, the situation clearly spiraled out of control.

The thick calluses on Chen Zhao’s fingertips were scraped open. Qin Ying also stepped forward to help, smashing at the rust with a wooden stick.

But once they triggered the mechanism, they could not dig nearly as fast as the rust multiplied.

The rust was alive!

Chen Zhao hissed. Staring at his palm, he cursed under his breath, “So the hunter gets his eye pecked out by the goose.”

Qin Ying leaned closer and discovered several tiny spots of rust growing on the thick calluses of his palm.

The fuzzy red rust looked like a cluster of tiny mushrooms sprouting from the cracks in his calluses.

Chen Zhao rubbed his palms together until he finally scraped away the clusters of rust spikes.

He was about to say something when Qin Ying’s utterly calm voice cut in.

“I think we should bail.”

Chen Zhao had no idea what she meant by “bail” before Qin Ying continued, “The rust seems to be growing toward us.”

Chen Zhao looked up, and his scalp went numb.

Just as Qin Ying had said, the rust on the floor and ceiling was closing in on them.

If they did not run, they would be crushed to death among those razor-sharp growths.

“Enough thinking. Run!” Chen Zhao never hesitated when the time came to act.

He whistled and called to the Little White Monkey, “Get on.”

Afraid that his precious Little Monkey might get rust on its paws, he hoisted it onto his back before breaking into a run.

He took the lead while the soldier brought up the rear.

Qin Ying ran between them in the protected position.

After they raced farther down the corridor, she warned, “The place where the sand rats died is just ahead. There must be something there. Be careful, General!”

She had barely finished speaking when she heard Chen Zhao curse up ahead.

Every hair on the Little White Monkey’s body stood on end as it clung to his back.

Qin Ying craned her head out for a look, then echoed his curse word for word.

A little over ten paces ahead, the corridor was packed with stone Coffin after stone Coffin, all sheathed in rust.

Only a narrow, winding gap remained between them.

To pass through without touching a single stone Coffin, they would have to move as carefully as if they were walking a tightrope.

At the end of this stretch of corridor stood a massive stone door.

The seams around its frame were packed with densely clustered “people.”

These rust-encrusted things sealed the stone door while clinging to it like relief carvings.

Qin Ying faltered for a moment.

If she remembered correctly, those things on the wall that practically begged to be doused in rust remover were the same creatures she had seen in her dream.

They were the unknown things an old man resembling a Shaman had herded with a Bone Staff.

A thought struck Qin Ying.

The Bone Staff!

She turned her head, searching all around.

Perhaps she looked distracted, because Chen Zhao, still carrying the monkey, said sternly, “Stay focused.”

“We’re not trapped yet.”

Instead, Qin Ying raised a hand and pointed toward the lower-right corner of the stone door.

“There.”

The thick thigh bone of some unknown animal was wedged diagonally into a crack between the stones.

The bone had been carved in a simple, ancient style.

It was the staff used to herd those strange creatures in Qin Ying’s dream.

Not a single speck of rust could be seen on the floor within three feet of the Bone Staff.

The living rust feared it.

Qin Ying declared with certainty, “We’re going there!”