I was pulled back to the shore by Ye Yang before I could recover from the shock. "You can shatter the void? What's this one-sword soul-sending all about?"

"Don't ask! It's a secret technique!" Ye Yang choked me with one sentence. "Give me your Zhan Ming Blade, I'll cut away your misfortune for you."

I knew that no one could get Ye Yang to talk about something he didn't want to.

I kept pondering, what was this "one-sword soul-sending" all about?

"One-sword soul-sending" probably involved sending a ghost somewhere. It must be a Wu Clan swordsmanship inheritance.

Ye Yang sent Meng Die back to where Cang Tianji was. A sword qi coupled with a black dragon of misfortune would surely shatter Meng Die's soul, and Cang Tianji wouldn't fare well either.

I've made an enemy of Cang Tianji.

If I ever get the chance, I'll settle this score with him properly.

As I stood up, supporting myself with the Nine-Ring Zhan Ming Blade, the guiding ghost turned around again and led us deeper into the secret passage.

I don't know how far the other party led us before stopping at the edge of a sinkhole.

The sinkhole wasn't large, but it was bottomless. All around the sinkhole were iron chains that disappeared deep into the ground.

I just glanced at the iron chains before turning to look at Ye Yang, who was also nodding slightly.

His judgment was the same as mine. These iron cables were exactly like the chains we had seen in the waterway. There must be a coffin connected to the other end of the iron cables.

The guiding ghost pointed at the iron cables, then at Ye Yang and me, and held up one finger.

I looked at the other party and said, "Are you saying that we can each drag away a coffin? And whatever we get out of the coffins is our own business. Am I right?"

The guiding ghost smiled and nodded, then pointed twice at our chests. I responded, "Are you saying that because we both come from the Coffin Gate, the coffins below are a gift from you?"

"But we're not from your lineage, so we can't take away the sect's treasure?"

The guiding ghost nodded again. My face darkened. "How can I prove that you're also from the Coffin Gate?"

After a change of expression, the ghost suddenly appeared in front of Ye Yang and me, and simultaneously pointed both hands outwards.

The other party's fingers were aimed at the space between our eyebrows. Under normal circumstances, with his speed and our preparedness, whether we dodged or counterattacked, he wouldn't have been able to touch our foreheads.

However, the moment the other party attacked, Ye Yang and I seemed to be restrained by some force, and we watched helplessly as his fingertips pressed against the space between our eyebrows.

I only felt as if a stream of consciousness had been forcibly stuffed into my mind, and then an open coffin appeared before my eyes.

Before I could see the scene inside the coffin clearly, my mind returned to clarity.

Ye Yang gently touched me. "He's the spirit guardian of the Coffin Gate. We can trust him!"

Actually, in my heart, I never considered myself a successor of the Coffin Gate. I didn't care about the Coffin Gate or have any interest in exploring its secrets.

This outcome was acceptable to me.

I walked up and casually poked at an iron chain with my foot, but the spirit guardian slapped my leg and pushed me back to my original position.

Before I could figure out what he was going to do, he gestured for me to wait a moment and then flashed away.

When he returned, he was accompanied by the corpses of Fang Xuan and the four great families' sorcerers. At this time, Fang Xuan's eyes were devoid of any expression. What came over was just his corpse.

The spirit guardian pointed to the chain I had chosen, probably asking me: Do you want to change it?

Seeing me shake my head, the other party waved his hand, and eight walking corpses walked out from the four great families' people, grabbing the chains and dragging them backwards.

As the iron cables in the sinkhole slowly rose, the hands of the eight corpses cracked rapidly as if they were gripping a blade.

In just a few seconds, the force transmitted from the iron chains blasted both hands of a walking corpse into several pieces, leaving only two bare wrists.

The spirit guardian not only ignored the walking corpse, but also revealed a hint of excitement, constantly urging the walking corpse to speed up with gestures.

Ye Yang said in a low voice: "There's something in the coffin they're pulling up."

I probably understood what was happening here. There were countless coffins in the sinkhole, but perhaps only a few contained real treasures.

If the coffin pulled up by the walking corpse contained nothing but a corpse, it would be thrown into the river outside along with the iron chain. That's why there were coffins everywhere in the water.

Those sorcerers who strayed into Dead Man's Gulch probably couldn't escape the fate of being refined into living corpses by the spirit guardian.

Like the walking corpse that was crippled just now because of dragging the coffin, it wasn't worthy of being buried in a coffin. It would just be wrapped in a layer of black soil, like a mud figure, and thrown into the ground. Over time, it would naturally become a grave.

The gully inside and outside was full of coffins and graves, which was probably how Dead Man's Gulch got its name.

As for why the people from the four great families appeared in the caves on the mountain wall, I guess Meng Die was playing tricks. She didn't want me to see through the secrets of Dead Man's Gulch too early, so she used this trick.

Back then, Niu Tianlu shouldn't have been a successor of the spirit guardian's lineage, or even a member of the Coffin Gate. Otherwise, he wouldn't have risked bringing corpses up the mountain to drag the coffins in the sinkhole.