Chapter 252: Blood Jade |
On the other side, the four people guarding the Box of Sealing watched the fiery blade aura of the Flaming Sword through a shared Mobile Phone screen.
In reality, Bai Mu had used the Hand of Walrider to scout the Zombies in the Tomb Chamber ahead of time. He then unleashed a combo attack, stacking the effects of Critical Strike, Secret Sword Art, and the Flaming Sword. However, to those unaware of the mechanics, his maneuver looked incredibly flashy.
It looked as if he had simply bumped into some cannon fodder and casually one-shotted them with a basic attack.
"That skill is so cool," Brewing Cat remarked, staring at the Mobile Phone screen. "No wonder he dared to go off on his own."
'Is he really that strong?' I Love a Sword muttered inwardly. He was finally certain that he had severely misjudged the man. This was no pretty boy relying on others; he was clearly a low-key expert.
"By the way, that mummified corpse in the red dress inside the coffin should be the true body of this female ghost, right?" Scattered Fireflies asked, looking at the coffin on the screen. Having finished off the Zombies, Bai Mu strode confidently into the Tomb Chamber.
Bai Mu could be seen looking around with his Night Vision Camcorder. Only after confirming there were no other Zombies in the Tomb Chamber did he approach the coffin. The chamber was not large, measuring roughly six meters square. The floor was paved with staggered square bricks, and a low stone bed was built right in the middle. The rotting wooden coffin rested upon it in the most prominent spot.
Scattered around the wooden coffin was a pile of bronze artifacts and layers of silk textiles. The brocade quilt had long since faded to an earthy yellow, but the patterns remained faintly distinguishable—it was the motif of a phoenix holding a branch.
Two bronze lamps shaped like goose feet sat at the head of the coffin bed, with black grease still lingering in their basins.
"Big Brother Bai probably wants to investigate the scene," Scattered Fireflies chimed in. "He is always like this. He likes to investigate the Script thoroughly." "But there's no need to go this far, is there..." I Love a Sword said, feeling his stomach churn.
Bai Mu thrust his hand straight into a Zombie's stomach, rummaged around, and yanked out a somewhat moist intestine. He then gouged out the Zombie's eyeball, used the Flaming Sword to light the bronze lamps in front of the coffin bed, and brought the eye close to the firelight to examine it carefully.
His movements were as precise as a surgeon's. In just a few strokes, he disassembled the chopped Zombie fragments into individual components. The Zombies' hearts, lungs, bones, intestines, and eyeballs were all neatly arranged together. The scene carried a highly professional vibe, as if he had been dismembering corpses for years. "Look at the eyeball in his hand," Brewing Cat pointed out. "That eyeball looks quite fresh."
Using "fresh" to describe an eyeball felt a bit bizarre, but it was surprisingly fitting. The eyeball resting in Bai Mu's palm was a cloudy, translucent color. To their surprise, it was not shriveled, but plump and full.
"These Zombies... they don't look like they've been dead for hundreds of years." Following her prompt, I Love a Sword also noticed the anomaly. Being right there at the scene, Bai Mu had naturally spotted these oddities as well. Or rather, he had crouched down to sift through the corpse fragments precisely because he found these Zombies strange from the start.
In fact, the peculiarities he uncovered were far greater than what the four could see through the Mobile Phone screen.
First were the two bronze lamps at the head of the coffin bed. He had easily ignited the oil inside them, which meant they hadn't gone out from running out of fuel. Around the bronze lamps, he found signs of knocking and impact; they had been extinguished by external force.
Second was the pried-open coffin lid. At the four corners of this coffin, he found a hammer, iron nails, and an iron chisel identical to those dropped at the entrance. These were grave robbers' tools, indicating that the coffin had been pried open by thieves. From this, he deduced that the bronze artifacts, jewelry, and silk scattered nearby were likely burial objects originally from inside the coffin.
Bai Mu tried to reconstruct the scene as it happened. The grave robbers successfully tunneled into the mausoleum, then pried open this Tomb Chamber and the coffin of its owner. Just as they were happily carrying away the burial items, an accident occurred, causing them to knock over the bronze lamps and drop the loot they were holding onto the floor. "Did they encounter that female ghost?" Bai Mu guessed out loud.
He glanced at the Zombies' clothes. Although the mummy inside the coffin had been dead for many years, it was still obvious that her garments were incredibly magnificent. The red dress featured golden thread embroidery, and there was a dazzling array of jade and gold ornaments.
In contrast, these Zombies were dressed very simply in basic gray robes. Furthermore, judging by the organs Bai Mu had harvested during his dismemberment, these Zombies were all male. Logically speaking, a woman of noble status would never have so many men in her Tomb Chamber; at most, some handmaidens would have been buried with her.
Taking the difference in decay between these Zombies and the red-clothed mummy into account... the Zombies' time of death was clearly much later than hers. "Looking at it this way, these Zombies must be the grave robbers who broke into the mausoleum." Bai Mu set down the eyeball in his hand. "So you guys couldn't even make it past the first Tomb Chamber before being sucked dry by the female ghost, turning into her Zombies to guard her true body?"
"That's a bit amateur, my grave-robbing brothers," Bai Mu commented. "But if that's the case, there's actually one more strange thing."
He cast another look at the Zombie fragments, which were practically devoid of moisture and resembled dead, rotting wood. Then, shifting his gaze to the mummy inside the coffin, he suddenly stepped forward and reached out his large hand.
"Is Brother Bai... finally making his move...?" I Love a Sword let out a long sigh of relief. The previous sight had left him feeling somewhat physically ill. "No... it looks like he's found something else," Brewing Cat said.
Bai Mu's hands could be seen roaming all over the mummy's body, though he made sure not to damage her structural integrity.
"It should be right around here. Or did I guess wrong?" Bai Mu slipped his hand inside the mummy's red dress, feeling around everywhere. "He... he won't even spare a mummified corpse?!" I Love a Sword cried out in shock.
"No... he wouldn't do that, would he?" Scattered Fireflies said weakly.
"Why do you sound so lacking in confidence?" Brewing Cat laughed.
As they chatted, Bai Mu's hand came to a halt inside the mummy's mouth.
Of course, he wasn't that perverted. The mummy had long since rotted into a withered yellow hue. Even if embalming measures had been taken, the muscles and body tissues had shrunk and gone soft. He simply pried open the mummy's mouth, and from behind a row of shattered teeth, he pulled out a fist-sized, spherical Blood Jade.
The jade was blood-red through and through. Cold to the touch, it emanated an eerie, unsettling aura.
[Name: Blood Jade]
[Type: Special Item]
[Note: An evil artifact formed from the condensed vital blood of living humans. If not extracted directly from the living body of a ghostly entity, the Blood Jade will dissolve into stagnant blood, making it exceptionally rare and difficult to obtain.]