Chicken feet delivery, what's not to like?
..."Could it be that it was bitten by a corpse demon?" I asked, but then I immediately realized something was wrong. If it really was a corpse demon, it would not only drain his body, but would also tear him apart and eat him.
It's pitiful that Wang Jian wanted to become an immortal, but this is the final result, which is truly lamentable.
"Hey, what's this?" I reached out and took a bronze plaque from the mummified corpse's hand. Upon closer inspection, I saw a pattern engraved on it: a snake's head and a bird's body. Under the light, its eyes looked so eerie, just like the bronze human face statue.
I was taken aback. I had seen similar patterns several times before in Shu tombs. Now it seemed that they were sacred objects used by the ancient Shu people for worship, or that the snake-headed, bird-bodied monster itself actually existed.
Xiang Fei's expression also turned serious. "This should be a sacrificial artifact of the ancient Shu people, used to communicate with the Shu immortals, or a totem worshipped by the Shu people, a symbol of ancient Shu. It was probably unearthed when Wang Jian was building his tomb. Perhaps the secrets of the Shu immortals are hidden on it."
"You should keep it," Xiang Fei said. "This will be useful to you later."
Nodding, I put the bronze plaque away, and we continued our investigation. The body of Wang Jian, the emperor of the Former Shu, was already shriveled. Xiang Fei pulled him out, and his dragon robe was still intact. As for the crown he wore, it was priceless.
Beside Wang Jian's body lay an ancient painting. We took it out and opened it, discovering it was a scroll depicting a woman, none other than Xie Xiaoyan.
In the painting, she stands amidst the clouds like a fairy; she can only be described as breathtakingly beautiful. I was somewhat dumbfounded. What on earth is going on? Why is Xie Xiaoyan's portrait here? Did Emperor Wang Jian of the Former Shu dynasty see her?
A series of questions arose in my mind, and then Xiang Fei suddenly said, "Have you noticed that the scene in this painting seems somewhat familiar?"
"Does this look familiar?" I wondered, carefully examining the painting. Suddenly, it dawned on me that the scene in the painting was the place where immortals ascended to heaven, except that Xie Xiaoyan was standing in the clouds and the dragon vein below was obscured.
"This... could she have become an immortal?" I couldn't believe it, and I felt more and more confused.
Just then, the black cat suddenly made a shushing gesture, indicating that we should listen to the stone door. We immediately listened carefully and heard something moving around outside the door, back and forth.
We walked over quietly, and the sound became even clearer, like the sound of a person's footsteps.
The atmosphere grew tense. After a while, the footsteps finally left. I asked in a low voice, "What could it have been?"
"I don't know. The footsteps are so heavy. They can come through the stone door. It can't be the old blind man."
Speaking of the old blind man, we all felt a bit awkward. Xiang Fei sighed and said, "This time, we don't know if the old blind man was possessed by a ghost or if he had been lying to us all along. The divine bones in that ancient coffin must be of great importance. Also, I think I saw something written on that golden cloth, but the old blind man took it away, so we can't say for sure now."
"If that's really the case, the old blind man has been hiding very well. But I always feel that he's not that kind of person. Perhaps there's something strange here controlling him."
Xiang Fei nodded, "Let's not worry about him for now. Let's think of a way to get out. We don't even know if we can open this stone door."
When I turned around, I saw that the body of Wang Jian, the emperor of the Former Shu, was gone. I was terrified and immediately ran over with Xiang Fei. We looked at each other in disbelief. Could a mummified corpse really run away on its own?
"That's strange. There are only three of us here. Even if something stole the mummified corpse just now, wouldn't we have noticed?"
I nodded in agreement. Even if we don't trust our own reaction, we should trust the black cat's reaction. He'd probably hear a pin drop.
"What could have happened? Did it grow wings and fly away on its own?"
The black cat, who had been silent all along, spoke again, "There should be more than just the three of us."
Hearing him say that startled us. "What do you mean?"
The black cat pointed to the surroundings of the cave, "And these too."
When I looked, I saw that the black cat was pointing to the coffins on the cliff face, and I couldn't help but shudder. "You mean, there are people in these coffins?"
The black cat shook its head. "You'll see when you get there," it said, and then climbed up like a big cat.
He drew his Tang sword from his back and slashed at a coffin.
With a loud crash, the coffin was split open, and a mummified corpse fell out. However, it was not Wang Jian, the emperor of the Former Shu, but an ordinary mummified corpse, which appeared to be a burial object.
Then the black cat chopped open a few more times, and they were all ordinary mummies with nothing unusual about them.
Suddenly, Xiang Fei's expression changed. "No need to look anymore, he's over there." He pointed to a rock on the cave ceiling. We looked over and saw Wang Jian's mummified corpse crawling there, its withered face facing us.
Then, the coffins on the cliff face began to move, as if something was trying to crawl out of them.
"Oh no, these mummies are alive!" Xiang Fei shouted. "Quickly, burn them!"
We quickly lit the pine resin and threw it onto the coffin. The fire started instantly, but there were too many coffins, and if we wanted to burn them, we would have to set them all on fire, but then we would be burned to death inside.
"Hehe," a sinister laugh came from above. I saw the emperor of the Former Shu laughing at us; his withered head was as ugly as could be.
With a series of 'bangs,' the lids of the coffins burst open, and mummified corpses crawled out, all grinning sinisterly at us, the sound echoing through the cave.
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