Ch. 8 - Inside The Coffin

Everyone fell onto the five-colored altar, knocking over a pile of ancient books made of jade blocks and stone slabs. With a loud crash, the altar was left in chaos.

So close was it that one could almost touch it, sending a chill down everyone's spine and filling their hearts with fear.

This five-colored altar, built by ancient ancestors countless ages ago, was used to worship the heavens. Could it be that the ancient emperors truly summoned something here?

At that moment, everyone suddenly felt an aura of ancient sorrow and timelessness flow through the air, stirring their emotions.

Now, before them, lay nine dragon corpses and the bronze coffin. Could they have really been summoned by the five-colored altar?

According to legend, long before the times of Emperor Qin and Emperor Wu of Han, the ancient Three Sovereigns, Five Emperors, and Seventy-Two Monarchs had all held grand sacrificial rites here. What did they summon then?

Radiant beams of five-colored light began to shine. The jade blocks and stone slabs on the altar became translucent, and the ancient characters carved upon them began to glow. The entire massive altar began to emit a gentle light.

“Crack, crack...”

The sound of breaking echoed out. The jade blocks and slabs began to fracture, releasing streams of radiant light. The carved ancient characters seemed to come alive, bursting into the air and floating in the void.

“Sizzle, sizzle...”

More glowing characters appeared, hovering mid-air. The jade and stone fragments turned to dust in a light breeze. All the engraved characters escaped their physical bindings.

Above the bronze coffin and around the crater, thousands of ancient characters shimmered, as if forged from molten iron, glowing with metallic luster and substance.

“Crack, crack...”

Again the sound of shattering. Even the small five-colored altars nearby released radiant characters into the air.

The area around the bronze coffin sparkled like swaying stars, especially under the blood-red setting sun, adding a layer of mystery.

There were still others atop Jade Emperor Peak who hadn’t fled earlier. Now, seeing Ye Fan and the others fall into the pit and witnessing this strange phenomenon, they panicked and rushed down the mountain in fear.

In the chaos, some tripped and fell. Cries of pain and pleas for help echoed all around.

Meanwhile, the ancient characters in the sky gathered together and gradually formed a massive bagua (eight trigram) diagram. A mysterious power emanated from it.

It was a breathtaking sight. The glowing characters and symbols carried unimaginable energy. As they merged, they formed a gigantic bagua diagram hovering over the bronze coffin and the nine dragon corpses. It looked as if it had been forged from refined metal, solid and imposing.

“I want to leave!” someone in the pit cried in despair.

“I can’t move...” Fear rooted everyone in place, unable to act.

“That is...”

At this moment, in the center of the eight trigrams, a yin-yang symbol appeared, two interlocking fish-like shapes.

Even in this modern era of technology, the profound meaning of the ancient Yin-Yang Trigram remains unsolved. Some have used astronomical parameters to correlate it with star positions and orbital velocities. The founder of modern binary computing was also inspired by this diagram.

To this day, the origins, purpose, and applications of the Yin-Yang Trigram are still shrouded in legend and speculation, with no definitive proof.

Ye Fan and the others now witnessed a previously unknown use of the diagram, it was tied to space and time.

Around the massive Yin-Yang Trigram, space warped and light shimmered. The eight trigrams corresponding to Heaven, Earth, Wind, Lake, Mountain, Thunder, Fire, and Water lit up in sequence, like an ancient code.

The two yin-yang fish trembled like doors slowly opening, revealing a crack leading to a distant, unknown part of the cosmos.

Light pulsed continuously as the eight symbols blinked and eventually shone together, emitting a dazzling brilliance.

“Boom!”

A low rumble. The yin-yang fish in the center fully opened, revealing a mysterious, massive passage shrouded in darkness.

At the same time, the nine colossal dragon corpses atop Mount Tai began to tremble. The bronze coffin let out a loud metallic clang and shook violently.

Ye Fan and the others, standing near the coffin, screamed in shock. Many female classmates cried out in terror.

“What do we do?”

“Help...”

Everyone felt helpless. The girls sobbed loudly.

Some, more composed, watched the coffin in alarm. The lid had shifted and a strange aura was seeping out.

“Bang!” The coffin trembled again. Its lid almost fell off. A mysterious force pulled at everyone. In the next moment, the world spun, their vision blackened, and all were drawn into the coffin.

“Ah...” “Help!” Some were on the verge of a breakdown, screaming in fear.

“Bang!” The nine dragon corpses hanging from the cliffs shook. At the same time, the bronze coffin lid slammed shut. Next, the nine dragon corpses rose into the sky, dragging the bronze coffin slowly into the dark and mysterious passage revealed by the Yin-Yang Trigram.

“Boom!” All of Mount Tai trembled, as if the heavens themselves were collapsing. Radiant five-colored beams shot up from the Jade Emperor Peak. Then, as the blood-red sun dipped below the horizon, the peak darkened. The giant Yin-Yang Trigram diagram in the sky gradually closed and disappeared. The coffin and dragons vanished without a trace! All the jade and stone slabs on the altar turned to ash, scattered by the wind.

What had just occurred under the blood-red sunset was bound to shake the world. Mount Tai would become the center of global attention, but none of this mattered to Ye Fan and the others anymore.

“What do we do? Who can save us?” “Are we really inside the coffin?” “Why did this happen? How do we get out?” People kept trying to call with their phones, but no signal got through, only worsening the fear.

“Don’t panic,” said Zhou Yi calmly. “Though we can’t contact the outside world now, such an extraordinary event at Mount Tai will definitely reach the public quickly. Rescue will come.”

“Zhou Yi is right,” said Wang Ziwen, his voice steady. “We must remain calm. Everything will be fine.”

“Yes, no point in panicking now. What’s important is finding a way out,” added Lin Jia, a female student who appeared composed despite the situation.

Ye Fan remained silent, quietly sitting there, haunted by the image of the strange passage formed by the Yin-Yang Trigram. Were they still atop the Jade Emperor Peak? He had a bad feeling.

By the dim light of their phones, pale and terrified faces could be seen. Some trembled uncontrollably.

Li Xiaoman sat nearby, hugging her knees. Though pale, she remained calm. Beside her was the American student Cade, speaking with her softly in English.

Liu Yunzhi clenched his fists so tightly that his knuckles turned white, clearly anxious, but showing no outward panic.

Truthfully, everyone felt uneasy. They were trapped inside a sealed bronze coffin.

“Did everyone fall in? Let’s count heads.”

“One, two, three... twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty!”

As the student counting reached thirty, his voice began to shake. “Why are there... thirty people?!”

The class had thirty-three students. Three had been studying abroad and couldn’t attend the reunion, and another five couldn’t come due to personal reasons.

With the return of the three abroad, twenty-eight made it to Mount Tai. Including Li Xiaoman’s American friend Cade, the count should be twenty-nine.

Now, there were thirty people?

In the cold, dark coffin, everyone felt a chill in their bones. Fear gripped them.

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