A moment later, no trace of any evil spirit could be seen in the focusing lens. Zhang Shi led the group towards the graveyard.

"So this evil spirit is really weak. It can't even withstand a single axe blow. It's not even as strong as those wild beasts."

"Let me tell you, I just swung an axe..."

Zhao Feng proudly showed off his achievements, and the fear he had felt earlier vanished completely.

Ge Dalong finally relaxed and smiled.

"People are always afraid of the unknown, but once they actually encounter and overcome it, they find that it's not so bad."

Wu Qing followed behind the group, her eyes glued to the system panel, seemingly studying something. Zhang Shi stopped and patted her on the shoulder.

"What are you looking at?"

Wu Qing looked up, a puzzled expression on her face.

"Something's not right with the experience points. We've killed at least dozens of monsters this time, but the experience bar has only increased by a little over half. I checked the experience points for each monster, and they're only 15, which is even lower than the last dungeon."

Upon hearing Wu Qing's words, Zhang Shi also realized something was amiss. He had already reached level 7, with an experience bar of 3000 points, so it was reasonable that his experience points hadn't changed much. However, the others were still level 6. After killing so many monsters, they should have leveled up by now.

"This dungeon is rare, why is the experience value so low?"

Upon hearing their conversation, Ge Dalong used his mysterious appraisal method to examine the copy's information, muttering to himself as he did so.

"The experience points gained from monsters in the Village of Doubt decrease as the party grows. In a solo challenge, defeating a normal monster grants 50 experience points, increasing to 40, 30, 20, 15, etc..."

Zhao Feng interrupted.

"There are only four of us, so we should get at least 20 experience points. How come we only get 15 experience points for killing a monster? Is there a bug in the system that puts us in the five-person team category?"

Zhang Shi suddenly recalled the scene he had witnessed in the well. His expression turned serious, and he carefully examined his surroundings using his True Concentration technique, but found nothing unusual.

Seeing Zhang Shi's expression, Zhao Feng also realized what was happening and angrily swung the flint giant axe around him.

"Damn it, stop playing tricks on me. If you're so capable, come out and show me what you're made of. Let's see if I can take you down."

Zhang Shi realized that he was being entangled by that strange entity, and he had no way to counter it.

"When soldiers come, we'll meet them head-on; when water comes, we'll dam it. Let's not worry about that for now; the mission is the priority."

The mysterious fifth person was invisible and intangible, and no one could do anything about him. They could only remain on guard and attend to other important matters.

The four returned to the graveyard, where they were greeted by the same coffins that had been dug up.

"With so many empty coffins, where did all the corpses go? Could they have turned into zombies?"

When Zhang Shi heard Zhao Feng mutter this, he recalled the information he had obtained from the first appraisal of the black tiger and began to have some guesses.

The four set out and searched the graveyard for a long time, but they found nothing. There was no trace of the so-called secret room.

Zhang Shi squatted on the ground, wiping away his sweat while looking at the tombstone in front of him.

This tomb, like others, had been dug up. The tombstone was severely weathered, its surface pitted and damaged, but the inscriptions were still faintly discernible:

The Tomb of Huo Youming

Zhang Shi noticed that all the graves in this cemetery belonged to people with the surname Huo, and guessed that the majority of people in this village probably had the surname Huo.

Seeing Zhang Shi squatting in place, the group gathered together, intending to rest for a while.

Wu Qing took out a tablecloth and spread it on the ground. She then took some food and distributed it to everyone, which reminded Zhang Shi of the picnic scene during a spring outing.

Although picnicking in the cemetery was a bit eerie, everyone was used to it, and since it was already noon, they didn't stand on ceremony and sat cross-legged on the ground to eat and drink.

"Hey, what an unlucky name. Huo Youming sounds like 'the underworld.' I really don't know what his parents were thinking."

Zhao Feng, being a chatterbox, casually made a joke upon seeing the tombstone in front of him.

Zhang Shi froze, forgetting even to chew the piece of paper in his mouth, and turned to look at Ge Dalong.

Ge Dalong also realized the crux of the matter and read it out slowly and deliberately.

"Deep within the netherworld!"

Zhang Shi dropped the bread and stood up.

"This is it."

After circling the tombstone twice, Zhang Shi still couldn't find anything amiss. He and Ge Dalong had conducted countless thorough searches of the area, but to no avail.

"In the depths of the underworld, could it be that they want us to dig a hole? But this person's grave has already been dug up."

Zhao Feng's casual remark struck Zhang Shi as quite reasonable. He took out a shovel from his backpack and prepared to start digging.

Wu Qing quickly stopped her.

"This is not a good idea. This is someone's resting place, and this place is so eerie. If you dig up the grave like this, it might cause trouble."

Zhao Feng also took out a shovel and began digging a pit near the coffin on his own.

"If you have too many lice, you won't be afraid of them biting. We're already entangled with one unclean thing, so what's one more? Besides, I'd love for it to show itself so it can taste my big axe."

Seeing that Zhao Feng had already started, the others stopped holding back and joined in digging holes and excavating.

All of them had high stats, so they worked very efficiently, and the soil in this graveyard was also quite loose. Before long, the four of them had dug a large pit five or six meters deep nearby.

"Thump!"

A tremor ran through Zhang Shi's shovel, indicating he had struck something hard. Wu Qing quickly grabbed a small shovel and began carefully digging in the direction Zhang Shi had dug. After a few shovelfuls, the object beneath was revealed—a stone artifact carved with intricate patterns.

Zhang Shi immediately examined it, but the identification only showed a bright outline and did not provide detailed information about the item.

The group carefully continued digging, and after a while, what was below was finally revealed.

"It's a coffin."

"No, it's a coffin!"

Ge Dalong said in a deep voice, with a hint of surprise in his tone. Seeing that everyone was a little confused, he explained.

"To put it simply, a coffin is a large outer coffin that is placed over the inner coffin. Ordinary people don't use this for their funerals. Judging from the patterns on it, the person buried inside must have been someone important."

Zhang Shi composed himself, unsure whether he should continue digging.

Finding another grave beneath someone else's is already extremely strange. Judging from the shape of this coffin, the person buried here was likely no ordinary person, and if anything goes wrong, it could bring them considerable trouble.

“The shadows are dim in the depths of the netherworld. Didn’t the couplet tell us what’s inside? At most, it’s just some evil spirits. What’s there to be afraid of? Come and lend a hand, let’s dig.”

Zhao Feng remained fearless, continuing to dig downwards around the coffin to expand the surrounding space and make it easier for everyone to move around.