Ch. 9 - The 30th Person

"How can there... be one more person?"

"Who... who is it?"

The voice of the person asking was trembling.

All the phone screens lit up, and everyone looked around in fear, afraid that a stranger’s face might appear among them.

People who knew each other instinctively moved closer together, nervously scanning the surroundings.

At that moment, everyone finally confirmed, there was indeed one extra person, sitting in a corner not far away.

"You... who are you?"

"Are you a human or a ghost?"

Trapped inside the mysterious bronze coffin, anything eerie could happen, everyone was filled with unease.

A heavy cough came from the dark corner. The shadowy figure shifted, then let out a low, hoarse voice: "Ghost... ghost..."

The raspy sound echoed inside the bronze coffin. In that instant, everyone felt a chill run from head to toe. Their hair stood on end, and an eerie coldness spread through the air.

Everyone felt like they had fallen into an ice cellar. Many were terrified to the core. Some female students even let out sharp screams and cried loudly, nearly collapsing to the ground.

"Ghost... place..." the voice said, still weak. It was clear the figure was exhausted, swaying as he tried to stand up.

"What a damn ghost place... are we... inside the bronze coffin?" The dark figure in the corner slowly stood up, asking in a confused tone. His voice was gradually gaining strength.

Seeing the tall shadow rise, many people instinctively stepped back.

As the figure moved toward them, he said, "It’s me, Pang Bo."

"Stop! Don’t come any closer!" everyone shouted, raising their phones and peering into the dark with their dim lights.

Ye Fan stepped forward from the crowd and slowly walked toward him. "Are you really Pang Bo?"

"You can’t even recognize my voice?" In the darkness, a familiar figure appeared in the glow of a phone, thick eyebrows, big eyes, a strong build.

Pang Bo had been Ye Fan’s best friend in college. Because of some personal matters, he hadn't made it to the reunion. His sudden appearance here made everyone deeply suspicious.

"I don’t believe it. Pang Bo didn’t come to the reunion. Who... are you really?" someone at the back said, voice trembling.

Someone who should not have been there was now inside the coffin, this made many people’s scalps tingle.

"I’m Pang Bo, of course. Does anyone have water? I’m dying of thirst." The shadow continued walking forward.

"Stop!" the crowd still couldn’t believe it.

Pang Bo had to stop. In order to prove his identity, he tried his best to explain, bringing up many stories from their college days.

"I believe he’s Pang Bo," Ye Fan said firmly, then walked up and hugged him tightly. They hadn’t seen each other for some time, and even in this situation, the reunion was heartfelt.

"At first, I couldn’t attend the reunion because of family issues. Later, I heard you all were coming to Mount Tai. Once I took care of things at home, I came right away..."

Pang Bo took the bottle of mineral water that Ye Fan handed him and gulped down several large mouthfuls before explaining how he ended up inside the coffin.

By the time he arrived, everyone had already gone up the mountain. He had taken the cable car up along the ropeway.

Overall, he had been fairly lucky. Just before the nine dragon corpses and the bronze coffin slammed into Mount Tai, he had safely reached the Jade Emperor Peak by cable car.

Instead of fleeing downhill with the crowd, he had clung tightly to a big tree and waited for the mountain to calm down. He was unharmed.

From afar, he saw Ye Fan and the others fall into the crater. When he ran over, he witnessed ancient characters glowing and flying into the sky. He found himself frozen just outside the pit, unable to move.

Only when the bronze coffin shook and the lid shifted did he get pulled into the coffin right after the others.

Perhaps because he had been outside the five-colored altar, Pang Bo had blacked out when he fell into the bronze coffin.

It was only at this point that people gradually put down their suspicions. The tension in the air began to ease.

"We must find a way to save ourselves. Being trapped in this coffin is making me uneasy. I have a bad feeling..." Li Xiaoman’s face was slightly pale, her beautiful eyes staring into the dark depths of the coffin. Compared to the other girls, she and Lin Jia were handling it calmly.

Upon hearing this, many people felt a chill run through their bodies.

"Everyone, stay together. Don’t split up," Zhou Yi suggested.

People huddled close, using the dim light of their phones to examine their surroundings.

Sticking close to one side of the coffin, they saw blurry bronze carvings: a fierce nine-headed divine bird soaring into the sky, and massive ferocious beasts covered in inch-long spiked fur roaring toward the heavens...

The bronze carvings were covered in green patina. Some of them were actually ancient mythical beasts from the Classic of Mountains and Seas, such as the Four Fearsome Beasts, huge, terrifying, vividly depicted creatures that made people shudder.

As they followed the inner wall of the bronze coffin, they also found many carvings of human figures, likely ancient ancestors and gods from distant times.

Later, they discovered a massive section filled with strange, densely packed patterns, resembling a star map.

The giant bronze coffin was twenty meters long and over eight meters wide. What they had seen so far was only a fraction of the carvings.

They didn’t continue observing, because at that moment, they sensed there was something deeper inside the coffin.

Everyone raised their phones. Gathering their courage, they walked forward a few steps and faintly saw a dark rectangular object in the center.

Clearly, it wasn’t a corpse, nor did it look like anything alive. That gave them a slight sense of relief. They continued walking.

"There’s a coffin inside the coffin, it’s another bronze coffin!" When they got a clear look, many of them gasped.

In the very center, there was another bronze coffin, less than four meters long and under two meters wide, ancient and dim, carved with old patterns and covered in green patina. Its weathered appearance exuded a chilling aura.

"It’s not just a coffin within a coffin. This is the real coffin meant to hold a body. The large outer one is called a guo, an outer casing. Together, they’re called a guan guo burial set." Pang Bo explained to those unfamiliar with these burial terms.

Upon learning that the inner coffin was the one meant for a corpse, many people instinctively backed away, terrified.

What kind of person could be buried in such a mysterious bronze coffin? Everyone was filled with both suspicion and fear.

Compared to this ancient bronze coffin, all the archaeological stories and imperial tombs they’d heard of before suddenly felt insignificant and trivial.

Who had ever seen a twenty-meter-long bronze coffin? Who had seen a mysterious coffin fall from the sky? Who had seen nine dragon corpses pulling a coffin?

It made people wonder, was there really just one body inside? It was nearly impossible to imagine what lay buried within.

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