Chapter 383 Under the Coffin

"Sir, there seems to be a stone slab underneath. We can't dig any further."

The prefect of Jingzhao had been watching from the side and he also noticed the problems reported by the yamen runner.

The yamen runners dug deeper along the tomb, but the huge stone actually covered the entire pit. They couldn't help but wonder, "How could there be such a huge stone under this tomb?"

Lin Guozhang was also shocked and ordered, "Go around the rocks and continue digging from the periphery."

It's impossible that the ground is entirely made up of boulders.

But Wei Qingyan stopped him, "No, there is a high possibility of a secret room underneath. If you dig down forcefully, it will easily collapse."

By then, the secret room will be sealed, and they will not be able to know what is going on inside, which may even cause the collapse of other tombs in the Lin family's ancestral land.

She had this guess because of Old Man Shen's dream. Although Shen Changshan was trapped decades ago, Shen Hongxing, Wang Zhi and others only happened a few months ago.

If their souls are trapped here, there must be a carrier to pull their souls here.

There were no signs that Lin Jinzhi's tomb had been disturbed. She guessed from the beginning that there might be another passage, so she placed the carrier under Lin Jinzhi's tomb.

Originally, he could have directly looked for another passage, but the ancestral land was too large, and it was too difficult to blindly look for the secret room. Secondly, as if there was some guidance, Wei Qingyan instinctively wanted to dig down from Lin Jinzhi's tomb.

Now that such a huge stone has been dug out, Wei Qingyan is even more certain that there is a secret room underneath.

If the stone slab is used to support the top of the secret passage to prevent it from collapsing, there should be stone pillars or other supports underneath the stone slab.

Before anyone could react, she jumped down. As soon as her hand touched the stone slab, a bone-chilling chill penetrated into her fingertips.

This stone slab is full of negative energy.

After hearing what Wei Qingyan said, Father-in-law Lin almost exploded with anger.

This is the ancestral land of his Lin family. Any movement of soil or wood may destroy the feng shui of the tomb, let alone asking people to dig a secret room underground. It is simply too much.

He was anxious to find out the truth, but he also knew that Wei Qingyan's concerns were justified. He didn't know how big the underground secret room was. If he rashly dug and caused the entire place to collapse, who knew how many ancestral tombs would be affected.

His ancestors died and their peace was disturbed. He would not even be able to face them after his death.

He asked, "Princess, how should we do this?"

Wei Qingyan pursed his lips and said, "Let me see."

After he finished speaking, he used his toes to jump onto the tallest pine or cypress tree nearby, overlooking the entire ancestral land from above.

"What is the Crown Princess doing?" a yamen runner was puzzled.

The Jingzhao prefect mused, "Because I'm looking for the entrance to the secret room."

If there really is a secret room underground, there must be an entrance. Otherwise, what is the purpose of building a secret room?

The secret passage must bypass those tombs, and the Crown Princess must be using this to find the entrance to the secret passage.

A yamen runner sighed, "The Crown Princess is really skilled."

The prefect of Jingzhao Prefecture agreed and sighed, saying that digging holes in other people's ancestral land like a mouse was really lacking in virtue.

I don’t know who the Lin family has offended.

As the prefect of Jingzhao said, Wei Qingyan was indeed using Lin Jinzhi's tomb as the center point, spreading out in all directions and deducing possible routes.

But the more she looked, the tighter her brows furrowed, and finally, she fixed her gaze on a certain place.

Lin Guozhang naturally also heard what the Jingzhao prefect said, so he kept looking up at her. Finally, when he followed Wei Qingyan's gaze and fixed it on his father's grave, Lin Guozhang's heart skipped a beat.

He almost instinctively ran towards General Lin's grave, but Wei Qingyan was good at light work and arrived at General Lin's grave earlier than him.

"This is my father's grave, Princess, is there a mistake?"

Wei Qingyan saw him swallowing nervously, and then thought of the information he had obtained earlier. He knew that Lin Guozhang was a filial son, so he could probably understand his feelings.

But she didn't say much to comfort him. After looking around the tomb, she finally stopped in front of a stone lion in front of the tomb.

After looking at it carefully for a moment, she walked to another stone lion. The neck of that stone lion was slightly smooth. She tried to turn it, but there was no response, so she pressed the top of the stone lion's head again and turned its head.

A scene that made Lin Guozhang's eyes bloodshot appeared. General Lin's tombstone slowly moved away like a door.

Behind the tombstone is a dark secret passage.

"Where is my father's coffin?" He stared blankly as Wei Qingyan threw a tinder in. The coffin that was originally behind the tombstone disappeared, and there was only a passage for the two of them to walk side by side.

Wei Qingyan couldn't answer his question. After waiting for a moment, he said, "Let's go in and take a look."

"Princess."

Just as Wei Qingyan was about to step into the secret passage, the Jingzhao prefect stopped him and said, "Let me go and take a look first. If there is nothing wrong, you can go in."

Lin Guozhang also realized that Wei Qingyan was of noble status. Besides being the Crown Princess of Feng Zhao, she was also the Crown Princess of the Great Wei Dynasty. She couldn't let anything happen here. He hurriedly said, "I will go in too."

Wei Qingyan knew what they were worried about. Seeing that the distance between the two tombs was not far, he thought there should be no danger, so he nodded.

Lin Guozhang's guards and the yamen runners of Jingzhao Prefecture led the way and took their respective masters down the secret passage.

About a cup of tea later, the Jingzhao prefect came out first, helping Lin Guozhang. "Crown Princess, as you expected, there is indeed a small secret room inside, and there is a coffin in the secret room, roughly below Lin Jinzhi's coffin.

There are many puppets in the coffin, and we dare not touch them. Please go in and take a look."

"That's my father's coffin. It was preserved with a special potion, and I applied the antiseptic myself. I wouldn't be mistaken, but where is my father's remains?"

Lin Guozhang looked dazed and muttered, "Who would move my father's coffin? Who would steal my father's bones?"

Seeing how devastated he looked, Wei Qingyan said to the Jingzhao prefect, "Lord Liu, please take care of the father-in-law. I'll go in and take a look."

Father-in-law Lin might have guessed it, or maybe he hadn't, but he and Lin Wanzhi were father and daughter after all. If he didn't ask, Wei Qingyan wouldn't say much.

The secret passage is not long and the secret room is not big, but it is well ventilated, so the coffin in the secret room still looks intact.

However, the front of the coffin was cut open, and the entire inside was open, with dozens of puppets of varying ages placed inside.

Wei Qingyan took out the outermost puppet. There was a strand of black hair on the back of the puppet. She drew a talisman on the back of the puppet with the blood from her fingertips, and then carefully separated the black hair from the puppet. Then she saw a light mist floating out of the puppet's body and slowly condensed into a human shape.

It’s Wang Zhi!

He seemed to have lost his consciousness and looked dazed. Wei Qingyan first put him into the talisman.

She then took out the puppets with green hair stuck to them at the back and treated them as before. She collected the souls of Shen Hongxing and the other students into the talisman.

The puppets after that had their birth dates engraved on them. Wei Qingyan did the same thing. Some of the puppets still had souls left in them, while others had their souls completely devoured by the evil magic, probably because it had been too long.

After ordering the yamen runners to carry the coffin and the puppet out, Wei Qingyan was left alone in the secret room, looking up at the huge stone that was dug out from Lin Jinzhi's tomb.

No one else noticed, but she had good eyesight and saw some complicated patterns carved on the stone slab above her head. Wei Qingyan had never seen such patterns before, but she guessed that they echoed the puppets in the coffin below.

She jumped up and pushed the stone slab upwards, wanting to see if there were any other mysteries, and she also wanted to find Shen Changshan's soul.

In Old Man Shen's dream, Shen Changshan was with Shen Hongxing. When she was helping Lin Jinzhi to resolve the grudge, she already knew Shen Changshan's birthday, but Shen Changshan's birthday was not on the puppets just now.

Then his soul was not trapped in the life-resisting formation, but stayed there perhaps because of other opportunities. If we can communicate with it, we may be able to get other clues.

Outside, when Lin Guozhang saw the birthday on the back of a puppet, his face, which had already turned pale due to the disappearance of his old father's body, turned completely blue-gray.

The birthday on the back of the puppet was actually that of his eldest son who died young.

A puppet engraved with his eldest son's birthday was hidden in his father's coffin. He knew without much thought that this was evil magic.

The death of his eldest son was most likely caused by this evil magic.

He thought of a possibility that someone could perform such evil magic in the Lin family's ancestral land. He was so angry that he spat out a mouthful of blood.

His body tilted back and he fell straight back.

The Jingzhao prefect was so frightened by this sudden change that he quickly caught the man and exclaimed, "Father-in-law of the Emperor."

When Wei Qingyan came out of the secret passage, he saw the Jingzhao prefect anxiously pinching Lin Guozhang's Ren Zhong point.