Almost at the same time, everyone turned towards the source of the sound.
Five flashlights simultaneously illuminated the stone coffin in the center!
The piercing sound was indeed coming from within the stone coffin!
"Shi Tou! Grab your gear!" Fu Honglang roared, as if facing a formidable enemy.
Shi Tou pulled something out of his backpack, followed by a length of cotton thread.
He dipped the thread into the container, and when he pulled it out, it had turned blood-red.
Fu Honglang rushed to his side in a few strides, grabbed one end of the thread, and together they lined up and approached the stone coffin, rapidly wrapping the thread around it.
There was a coffin bed beneath the stone coffin, so passing the thread underneath was not difficult.
What I couldn't understand was what they were doing.
After they finished wrapping all the thread they had around it, the stone coffin trembled violently for a moment before quieting down.
Fatty, already terrified, gripped my arm tightly with both hands, his body trembling uncontrollably.
I wasn't faring much better, as this was my first time encountering something like this.
"Xiang... Master Xiang... There aren't any zongzi inside, are there?" Fatty asked.
"How should I know," I replied, forcing a calm demeanor.
Wang Yang seemed unfazed, crossing his arms. "Even if there are zongzi, they won't be able to get out after being tied up like that."
I didn't understand what he meant. Could a length of cotton thread really bind a zongzi inside the stone coffin?
"Cotton thread, black dog's blood, this is the signature technique of the Xiqin school from the Central Plains..."
"Xiqin school?"
Wang Yang explained, "I've only heard about it. In the Central Plains region, there's a tomb-robbing sect that calls itself the Xiqin Gate. They rely on their sense of smell for grave robbing..."
Hearing this, I couldn't help but recall how Fu Honglang would sniff the air wherever we went, and how his sense of smell was exceptionally keen.
"So, there really are zongzi in the coffin?" Fatty asked again.
Neither Wang Yang nor I paid him any mind, as I hadn't seen a zongzi myself either.
"We shouldn't linger here," Fu Honglang said, walking over to us.
Fatty chimed in, "Master Fu, it's not suitable to stay long."
"Exactly, not suitable to stay long," Fu Honglang corrected. "We need to find people quickly. It will be dark soon, and the Yin energy is heavier at night. The things inside might come out then."
"What's inside?" Fatty asked timidly.
Fu Honglang replied, "Probably an old zongzi..."
"There are really zongzi?" Fatty swallowed hard and asked.
Fu Honglang nodded, not seeming to be joking at all, and I couldn't help but feel a sense of unease.
"Let's be quiet when we move later, don't disturb it..." Fu Honglang instructed.
At his words, Fatty didn't even dare to breathe loudly.
Shi Tou found a tomb passage at this point and waved us over.
We quickly tiptoed towards it, holding our breath as we passed the stone coffin.
Upon reaching the entrance of the tomb passage, Shi Tou took the lead again.
The passage sloped downwards, and inscriptions were carved on the walls on both sides. I didn't look closely at what they were.
We proceeded with extreme caution. Shi Tou, in particular, tapped and probed the ground ahead with a more than two-meter-long branch every few steps.
He was doing this to check for any traps.
The tomb passage was very damp, and it grew colder the further we went.
After about twenty minutes, we arrived at a double stone door.
The stone door was ajar, and on either side of it stood two stone figures with ferocious visages. One held a trident, and the other a meteor hammer.
Before I could take a closer look, Shi Tou and Fu Honglang had already entered. Fatty also urged me, "Master Xiang, hurry and follow..."
With no other choice, I quickened my pace and followed them in.
Fu Honglang, eager to find his wife, had no interest in the things within the underground palace at this moment.
As for Wang Yang, he was even less interested. In all the time I'd known him, he seemed to have no interest in anything except for Sister Ying.
Whether it was antiques or money, I had never seen him show any particular eagerness.
After entering through the stone door, a gust of wind met us. I shone my flashlight forward and discovered a bridge not far away, with the faint sound of rushing water.
Upon reaching the stone bridge, we looked at each other in perplexity.
"Why is there a bridge here?" Fatty asked.
I examined the craftsmanship of the stone bridge and noticed that it was inscribed with silk texts.
The general meaning was that living people should not enter, and so on.
"Look, what is that?" Wang Yang pointed his flashlight at the stone wall not far away.
The stone wall was covered in dense pits. Some pits were empty, while others contained objects.
As we approached, we realized that each pit contained a mummified corpse wrapped in black cloth.
These were the floating corpses we had seen in the river earlier...
"The mummies we saw before, they floated out from here?" Fatty asked.
"Very likely," Fu Honglang replied. "But according to logic, those dried corpses wouldn't have fallen off on their own... Someone must have moved them, or rather, put them into the river."
I scanned the stone wall. Its height was indistinguishable, disappearing into the distance. As for its width, it was at least several tens of meters, spanning the entire length of the bridge.
I couldn't fathom how the builders of this underground palace had carved so many pits into the walls, nor how they had placed the dried corpses one by one...
There were at least several thousand corpses on that wall...
Seeing this, I was utterly convinced that those dried corpses were not burial objects.
They were very likely sacrifices.
After each ritualistic sacrifice, the bodies were wrapped in black cloth and placed in those wall niches.
I couldn't imagine what kind of sacrificial ritual this was.
"Master Fu, why do you think sister-in-law and the others threw those dried corpses into the water?" Fatty asked.
Hearing this question, I too felt a bit curious.
If Mao Guizhi and the others had indeed entered before us, logically, they should have simply crossed the river. Why would they put those dried corpses into the river?
Fu Honglang shook his head. "I'm not entirely sure..."
"Boss, how about I go ahead to scout, and you wait here for me?" Shi Tou offered.
Fu Honglang nodded and pulled a string of copper coins from his backpack. I glanced and recognized them as the Wu Di Qian.
"Take this with you," Fu Honglang said.
Shi Tou nodded, took the copper coins, untied the string, grabbed the coins in his hand, and stepped onto the stone bridge.
Whether it was an illusion or not, the moment Shi Tou stepped onto the bridge, I vaguely saw something flash across the stone wall where the dried corpses were placed, moving very quickly.
I wasn't sure if I had seen it wrong...