Chapter 213 The Man in the Coffin
In front of me is a flat valley with large areas of grass stretching out in the sun. The wild grass near the edge is half a person's height and there are many dead branches and broken vines. It is not easy to walk on it, but it is very different from the forest I was in before. There is no trace of evil in the air, only the freshness of grass and water vapor. I can also hear the sound of flowing water faintly in my ears. Even people who don't understand Feng Shui can tell that this is a place of great natural beauty.
But there was a world of difference just across the formation. If he hadn't walked here himself, Han Zhong would really have suspected that he was hallucinating.
"A thousand years ago, this place was not called Mozi, but Qiling Mountain, because people said there were gods in the mountain. Once, someone fell off a cliff and prayed to the gods for rescue. The prayer came true, and the gods really saved him. Later, more people prayed to the mountain, and it got this name."
Jiang Wu said as he stepped on dead trees and weeds, "But in fact, the person who made the wish was accidentally kicked off the cliff by my master. He rescued him because he was afraid of losing his merits, but he didn't let me tell anyone."
"This place is very beautiful, and there aren't so many weeds. My master would use magic to clear the weeds every year. Later, he got lazy and gave this job to me. At that time, I thought he was testing me on purpose, so I worked very hard and checked everywhere, fearing that he would find a weed."
"But he had forgotten about it a long time ago. But I thought it was interesting, so I often walked in the woods and cast spells."
Further ahead is a low slope, half of which is exposed rocks and the other half is covered with dark green grass. Various kinds of weeds grow all around, making it look messy.
"There used to be a patch of purple irises here. That's where I first saw you, but when I came back later, it was no longer in bloom."
Jiang Wu lowered his voice, "You like this flower very much, and you planted a lot of it in Wujiang Palace. You always take one away every time you come. But I have tried many methods, but I can't make the purple iris flowers bloom again on this hillside."
"So you gave me the Purple Iris Tail when you saw me at Champs-Elysées?"
"Yeah." Jiang Wu glanced at him, "But you just threw it away."
"..." Han Zhong coughed lightly, "My fault."
"You don't remember." Jiang Wu shook his head and led him to a forest behind a low slope. Fire appeared from his fingertips, burning all the vines and dry grass in front of him, revealing a cave entrance that was one person tall.
"At that time, they said that according to the ancestral system, you should be buried in the Great Zhou Imperial Mausoleum, but I didn't like it, so I brought you back to Qiling Mountain and built a mausoleum for you here."
He felt a little guilty when he said this, "It's a little shabby, don't mind it."
Han Zhong didn't mind at all, "You can burn it if you want."
Jiang Wu: “…”
It was not enough to burn. Although Jiang Wu himself did not care about his body after losing his soul, he knew that the world cared about it, and maybe Yan Zhong would care too, so he still dug a tomb. Moreover, he did not know how many years he would live, and thought that the wooden coffin would rot, so he simply ordered people to make a bronze coffin.
The passage was not very long. After walking for about half an hour, the two men saw a stone door. The door was not high, just over two meters, which was enough for two people to pass through. The inside of the door was in full view.
The empty tomb chamber was probably only as big as a basketball court and about the same height as an ordinary house. In the center stood a bronze coffin carved with a five-clawed golden dragon. Surrounding it was a circle of eternal lamps, already covered in dust.
There were no strange formations, no weird spells, not even a trace of evil spirit, and it had nothing to do with the imagined imperial tomb. It couldn't even be called an imperial tomb, it was as simple as walking into someone's food cellar.
No one would have thought that Emperor Zhaowu of Yanzhou, who had left a profound mark in history books, would be buried in such an ordinary small tomb.
Jiang Wu is indeed not humble, and this mausoleum is indeed shabby enough.
Han Zhong did not hesitate to step forward and patted the bronze coffin lid, saying with emotion, "I never thought I would be able to see my own coffin in this lifetime."
He tried pushing it, but the pattern didn't move, so he held the coffin and looked at Jiang Wu, who was standing at the door but didn't come in. He raised his eyebrows and asked with a smile, "Can you please lift the lid of my coffin for me, Imperial Master?"
His tone was so natural that Jiang Wu was stunned for a moment, then he stepped forward and pushed open the coffin lid with one hand.
Inside the nearly two-meter-long bronze coffin, a bright yellow prayer flag embroidered with spells of the Siming clan occupied the entire coffin. There was an undulating arc under the prayer flag. Jiang Wu knew that there was a skeleton underneath. He even knew the position of the skeleton's hands, because he had arranged them himself, changing the angles several times for fear that the person in the coffin would feel uncomfortable.
"What does the spell on it mean?"
"Go to heaven and be free from the sufferings of this world."
Han Zhong traced the dense handwriting on the prayer flags with his fingertips and murmured, "You wrote all of them yourself."
Jiang Wu did not notice the tone of his statement, and just thought he was asking questions, and nodded, "Well, only the people of the Siming clan can write it personally to be recognized by the destiny of heaven and earth, and can reach the highest point in the sky."
Han Zhong's fingertips gently touched the complicated and ancient spells. The light in the tomb was dim, and his dark eyes were covered by the curtain, so his expression could not be seen clearly.
"This copper coffin is a little small."
"ah?"
Jiang Wu was a little confused. He had clearly enlarged the size, and Yan Zhong's hands placed across his waist did not touch the wall of the coffin. Or was his requirement too low?
"Nothing." Han Zhong said this casually, and reached his fingertips under the prayer flag, roughly at the position of the corpse's chest. He fumbled twice, and then took out something very familiar.
A black imperial jade ring, with a thick black ownerless soul swimming slowly, emitting a familiar power.
Jiang Wu looked at the jade ring in amazement, "I don't remember having this thing."
He was the one who put Yan Zhong into the coffin with his own hands and changed his clothes. He did not remember putting the black jade ring in the coffin.
"Maybe you forgot? Or someone else put it there?" Han Zhong raised his eyebrows and handed the black jade to him.
Jiang Wu doubtfully stretched out his hand to take it, but just when his fingertips were about to touch it, a black shadow suddenly rushed out from the corner and went straight towards the black jade. Jiang Wu was startled and was about to stop it when suddenly a gunshot rang out and a black bullet engraved with spells pierced through the black shadow.
“Ah——”
Along with this familiar scream, the black shadow hurriedly hid in the corner, but it was still a step too late. The golden-red spell that overflowed from Jiang Wu's fingertips shot out again, wrapping the black shadow into a small golden ball, and flew back to Jiang Wu's palm obediently.
"I was wrong!"
“…”
Only that person, no, his soul, could admit his mistakes at such a familiar speed.
Han Zhong looked at Jiang Wu with a half-smile, "Why did you keep such a person around you back then?"
Jiang Wu was silent. Why? Because the man was thick-skinned and insisted on staying by his side, but he was too lazy to care and just let him stay there. It was not until he got stabbed in the back that he remembered to kill the man. The killing was so smooth that he even forgot he had killed such a person. As a result, the man was revived when he used the forbidden spell.
Seeing that he didn't say anything, Han Zhong turned to look at the golden ball in his palm, his eyes slightly cold, and the soul in the golden ball inexplicably sensed the crisis. Sure enough, the next second, he heard Han Zhong's light words, "To avoid repeating the same mistakes, let's kill him."
Jiang Wu looked at him in some surprise. It was the first time he heard Han Zhong say the word "kill", especially in such a light tone, just like Yan Zhong who decided to kill the entire family of the former emperor's deposed crown prince.
Han Zhong met his gaze naturally, tilted his head and said, "The soul has no human rights and is not protected by law."
Little Golden Ball was also a witness to the extraordinary tacit understanding between the monarch and his subject. He had witnessed countless times how Yan Zhong would immediately take action upon hearing the words "kill" Jiang Wu. Therefore, he had already desperately tried to escape before Han Zhong had even finished his words.
According to the previous practice countless times, Jiang Wu should have trapped it with his spiritual power in an instant and then strangled it immediately, but this time, for some reason, Jiang Wu was a step too slow, and it escaped from his palm.
Seeing that the small golden ball was about to disappear into the dark passage, Han raised the gun in his hand again and pulled the trigger. With a bang, in this tomb where the light was so dim that only people's faces could be seen, the bullet hit the fast-moving small golden ball with incredible accuracy.
“Ding-dong!”
The smell of gunpowder filled the tomb. The small golden ball was hit hard on the stone wall of the tomb by a gunshot, leaving a white mark, and then fell to the ground and rolled under Han Zhong's feet.
Han picked up the little golden ball and looked at it. He found that the little golden ball was shaking slightly. He raised his brows slightly, "Are you so scared? Didn't you die once?"
"Your Majesty, please spare my life..." The spirit in the small golden ball had been frightened to the point of losing its mind. It seemed to have mistaken him for Yan Zhong back then, and kept shouting for His Majesty to spare his life.
Han Zhong curled the corners of his mouth, but did not take any action in the end. He held the small golden ball in his hand and stretched out his other hand towards Jiang Wu, with the imperial black jade in his palm.
"They won't be able to hold out for long in Yanzhi Mountain. Zhou Gongming will soon arrive. Time is short. The ownerless spirits here are enough for you to repair your spirit. Just absorb them here."
“…”
Jiang Wu took the black jade, and the uneasiness in his heart spread again. He looked up at Han Zhong. The candlelight was dim, and Han Zhong's face was half hidden in the dark and half in the light, looking at him gently.
Jiang Wu pursed his lips and suddenly turned his head to look at the bronze coffin behind him. "Where did you find the jade in the corpse?"
"It was on his chest. It was probably hung around his neck when he was buried. It was covered by his lining, so you didn't notice it."
"I want to see it."
“…”
Han Zhong frowned and smiled bitterly, "I'm a living person standing in front of you, and you're still thinking about a skeleton from your past life?"
Facing his teasing, Jiang Wu just looked at him quietly, with no intention of giving up.
Han Zhong's smile faded slightly, and he said helplessly, "Fine, go ahead and take a look. If I don't let you take a look, you'll have to ask me about it many times."
Jiang Wu turned around and walked to the bronze coffin. He pinched the layer of yellow prayer flags and lifted them down little by little. What caught his eye was a bright yellow nine-dragon golden crown, which was the one Yan Zhong used most often.
He was about to continue flipping it down when a hand suddenly blocked his view, and the next second he heard a long sigh.
"Still so stubborn."
“…”
Jiang Wu stood there in a daze, feeling the cool temperature on his face, and said word by word, "...Yan, Zhong?"
His trembling voice in disbelief made the person behind him sigh again, and then another hand held him around the waist and hugged him into his arms, and a familiar low voice sounded, "It's me."