Chapter 8

Chapter 8

I withdrew my hand and looked at Lu Lingzhu.

“If you want to follow the rules of a Tomb Raider Captain, then why don’t you just leave?”

Lu Lingzhu turned her head sheepishly and pulled out a handful of talismans, tossing them into the air.

“Heaven and Earth are natural, the filthy Qi is dispersed. Nothing is forbidden; all evils avoid me.”

With that “nothing is forbidden,” she essentially took back what she had just said.

However, the candle blowing out earlier was still a bad omen. It was all Lu Lingzhu’s fault for making things so difficult.

I glared at her petulantly. “You open the coffin yourself!”

“I’ll do it then! It’s no big deal!”

Lu Lingzhu stepped forward and looked down at the coffin lid, suddenly letting out a small cry of surprise.

“Huh? Look, there’s writing on this.”

It was a hexagonal coffin made of oak with handles on both sides. There was no cross carved in the center; instead, a line of English was written: “Houska Castle.”

Lu Lingzhu stammered, “H-H-*cough*, Qiao Moyu, you read it!”

I almost laughed. It’s truly terrifying to be uncultured; she didn’t even recognize a few simple English words.

“I told you a long time ago to study more instead of loafing around all day.”

I shook my head while leaning in to take a look.

“Hao-Haoyan, we should give this kind of opportunity to show off to you young people. You do it!”

Lu Lingzhu looked at me suspiciously.

“You don’t know how to read it either, do you?”

“Heh, how is that possible? I passed the CET-4 English exam, okay?”

“Then why aren’t you reading it yourself?”

Seeing Lu Lingzhu and me starting to bicker again, Jiang Haoyan shook his head helplessly.

“Houska Castle. It should be the name of this castle.”

Jiang Haoyan lowered his head in thought.

“That name sounds so familiar. I feel like I’ve heard it somewhere before.”

“Hmm… where was it?”

The construction of foreign coffins is different from ours. One side of the lid is fixed while the other has a handle that can be opened directly.

While Jiang Haoyan was still mumbling to himself, Lu Lingzhu had already reached out and flipped open the coffin lid.

“Foreigners’ names all sound the same. There are so many ‘hus’ and ‘haos’ out there.”

As soon as the lid opened, Lu Lingzhu took a large step back. After waiting for a while and seeing that nothing happened, we finally leaned in to look.

We discovered the coffin was actually empty.

“What? Not a single burial object!”

Unwilling to give up, I leaned half my body into the coffin, scanning every inch with my light. There really was nothing.

“I knew it wouldn’t be this easy. Whatever, let’s go explore inside.”

The castle looked large, but it only had one floor. There was a hall in the center, and the two sides formed a ring of small rooms. Lu Lingzhu and I planned to split up. She and Song Feifei would go left, while I took Jiang Haoyan to clear the rooms on the right. We would meet up once we finished the half-circle.

The first room on the right contained a scattered pile of candlesticks and vessels. They were covered in dust, and it was hard to tell if they were worth anything.

I checked several rooms in a row without finding much. It wasn’t until I opened the fourth room that I saw someone squatting in the corner, their back to me, eating something.

*Crunch, crunch.*

The sound of gnawing on bones was exceptionally clear in the silent, dark room.

I was a bit surprised.

“Lu Lingzhu, you cleared your side that fast?”

As soon as I spoke, the sound of the person eating stopped. Only then did I realize something was wrong.

It wasn’t Lu Lingzhu.

The figure was draped in a black cloak. Although he was squatting, his shoulders looked very broad and his frame was tall; it was clearly a man.

Sensing trouble, I was about to reach into my bag for my peach wood sword when the person lunged at me.

The light from the Searchlight hit his face, revealing a deathly pale complexion, emerald green eyes, and bright red lips. Two sharp fangs protruded from the corners of his mouth, looking exactly like a vampire from the movies.

I quickly lunged to the side to dodge his attack.

The vampire bared his teeth and lunged again. I thrust out instinctively, stabbing the peach wood sword into his chest.

To my surprise, the peach wood sword wasn’t very effective. Peach wood is the essence of the five trees, also known as “immortal wood,” and is used to ward off evil and protect houses. Apparently, it didn’t work well in England. It seemed regional differences truly did exist.

I flipped my palm, and the Thunderstruck Wood Talisman unleashed a bolt of lightning.

“Aow-!”

The vampire let out a wretched scream, crashing miserably against the wall before seizing the chance to bolt out the door and vanish into the darkness.