Chapter 254: Zombie King |
"How can you be sure she was a Concubine and not the main wife?" Bai Mu asked. "For all we know, she could even be the daughter of the King of Huainan." "If she were his main wife, she wouldn't have been buried in a separate, smaller Tomb Chamber. She would have been entombed right alongside the King of Huainan."
I Love a Sword used the bronze lamp to illuminate the sarcophagus, circling it slowly.
"This sort of Personal Seal was typically used by a Concubine to prove her identity. Furthermore, only half of this Silver Hook Belt remains. Assuming the tomb robbers didn't make off with the burial items and instead became Zombies right here, there is a very high chance the other half is resting in the hands of the King of Huainan. It was likely a private token of their affection."
"But the most glaring evidence lies in her burial items. Her coffin is filled mostly with jewelry and jade artifacts, yet it lacks any complete sets of ceremonial vessels. There isn't even a simple epitaph in this Tomb Chamber. This indicates she was highly favored, but her family background and status were not noble enough. Her Tomb Chamber doesn't meet the standards of a 'main wife' or a 'princess', but it is certainly far grander than that of an ordinary sacrificial victim. Therefore, she is most likely a Concubine, and a deeply cherished one at that. Otherwise, the King of Huainan would not have given her a private Tomb Chamber, nor would she have been chosen to accompany him in death."
Brewing Cat flashed a meaningful smile. "That female ghost had a slender waist, long legs, and such an impressively pale and ample bosom. When she was alive, she must have been a delicate beauty, highly skilled in song and dance. No matter how you look at it, the King of Huainan was still a man. It is only natural he would be captivated by such a stunning woman."
"Sounds like a classic case of an old man robbing the cradle," Work Three Rest Four suddenly quipped.
"You are not wrong about that," I Love a Sword agreed. "Since this woman was a favored Concubine, there was most likely a massive age gap between her and the King of Huainan. She was just a young girl in the prime of her life. Because she was so favored, she was forced to become a 'burial sacrifice' at such a tender age, fostering a deep and overwhelming resentment. It makes perfect sense why she would transform into a vengeful spirit under those circumstances."
"If that is the case, it seems the King of Huainan was not quite as single-mindedly devoted to seeking immortality as the script's synopsis suggested," Bai Mu pointed out. "Furthermore, that female ghost was dressed entirely in red. In ancient times, wasn't red exclusively reserved for joyous occasions like weddings? Wouldn't wearing such garments for a funeral burial be considered extremely inauspicious?"
"You have a sharp eye, Brother Bai. That red attire is undoubtedly the most bizarre element in this entire Tomb Chamber." I Love a Sword looked down at the desiccated corpse resting inside the coffin. "To be buried in red is to use the color of celebration for a funeral, completely shattering the boundary between the living and the dead. Even commoners understand this basic principle, so it is impossible for a royal tomb to commit such a blatant mistake."
"If it was intentional... that is incredibly grim news for us..." I Love a Sword's face turned a shade paler. "Because this tomb was intended to be an ominous place from the very beginning of its construction?" Bai Mu asked.
I Love a Sword nodded solemnly. "I fear the King of Huainan failed in his pursuit of immortality and ultimately strayed onto a dark path, attempting to resurrect his soul through an unholy vessel. If that is true... then this entire tomb is nothing but a meticulously designed ghost palace. The tomb's layout, its Feng Shui, and even all the burial sacrifices—they are all offerings meant for him."
"If the King of Huainan truly sought to defy the heavens, squandering his vast fortune to hire Extraordinary Experts to construct this ghost tomb, then he has likely spent centuries absorbing the Yin energy and fortune from within his coffin. He would have drained this once-blessed land until it became a place of profound evil, which is what brought about the disaster upon the county town at the foot of the mountain."
"What's worse is that he hasn't even awakened from his seclusion yet, and this tomb is already an incredibly dangerous place of supreme evil. If he were to awaken now, he would likely have cultivated an indestructible body impervious to weapons, possessing the strength to cleave mountains and harboring several terrifying supernatural abilities."
"Even minor deities or immortals crossing paths with such a Zombie King would end up having their souls completely shattered and absorbed. A monstrous entity like this would bring absolute calamity the moment it steps into the world. Once he awakens, his endless craving for the life essence and blood of the living would be unquenchable. There is no telling how many would perish or how much blood would spill."
The more I Love a Sword spoke, the paler his complexion became.
"No, we have to get out of here right now!"
"Those drained commoners at the foot of the mountain were clearly the work of the King of Huainan's ghost slaves! They've been harvesting the blood essence and Yang energy of the living to feed him!"
"His evil cultivation is nearing completion, and he's on the verge of awakening. If we don't clear this script before he rises from his slumber, he will absolutely not let us leave alive. We will instantly become his first meal!"
"An abomination like him is more than a thousand times more terrifying than that Red-Clad Female Ghost. If we run into him, it's a guaranteed death sentence!"
The deeper I Love a Sword dove into his analysis, the more suffocating the peril of this script felt to him.
Nearly half an hour had passed since they first entered the script. Yet, progressing at a snail's pace, they had only just reached the very first Tomb Chamber. Although the intelligence they gathered here was incredibly valuable, the realization hit him like a ton of bricks: this script actually came with a hidden time limit.
If they failed to escape before that invisible countdown hit zero, their deaths were all but guaranteed.
"So this is a C-rank script..." I Love a Sword took a deep, trembling breath and gritted his teeth. "To think it would be this sinister and cunning."
With the sole exception of Bai Mu, the three girls standing nearby were thoroughly unnerved by his dark conclusions.
His reaction was simply too extreme. Even when confronting the Red-Clad Female Ghost earlier, he hadn't lost his composure to this degree. Dressed from head to toe in a traditional Daoist robe, his very presence had previously provided them with the comforting sense of security one might feel when encountering a capable Daoist priest in a zombie flick.
Up until now, his judgment and deductions had been highly reliable. For instance, after exchanging only a few blows with the female ghost, he had correctly deduced that her true physical body lay elsewhere, proving that he genuinely possessed some skill.
Yet now, even this capable "Daoist priest" was frightened entirely pale. It was terrifying to imagine just what kind of monstrosity this "Zombie King" truly was. Even Bai Mu found himself frowning slightly at I Love a Sword's words. He had already suspected that the King of Huainan harbored malicious intentions, but it had never crossed his mind that the ruler would repurpose his own tomb into a sanctuary for cultivation, practicing demonic arts deep underground for hundreds of years just to transform himself into a Zombie King.
Bai Mu had felt all along that the Red-Clad Female Ghost and the low-level Zombies were far too weak. Logically speaking, a C-rank team script should be significantly more difficult than a C-rank solo script. If the regular mobs were on the weaker side, it meant the final boss at the end of the dungeon would be outrageously powerful. In other words, the final boss of the Prince of Huainan's Tomb could very well surpass the might of the Mountain Evil God from the Corrupted Forest Blood Hunt.
That made things incredibly thorny. An entity like that had absolutely no business being the boss of a C-rank script. Bai Mu could see right through it—the Paradise system was just coming up with new, convoluted ways to torture its players. Fortunately, their assigned objective was simply to escape the tomb, not to fight the Huainan Zombie King to the bitter end. By throwing the players into the script just before the Zombie King fully awakened, the system provided them with a sliver of relatively safe time, which barely managed to justify lowering the script's overall danger rating to C-rank.
If they actually dawdled until the Zombie King awoke, the script would become an unwinnable death trap. Its difficulty would instantly skyrocket far beyond C-rank.
"Figuring this out now means it's still not too late," Bai Mu said calmly. "Since that is the situation, Brother Sword, I have a proposal."
I Love a Sword looked over and asked, "What kind of proposal?"
"Why don't we split into three groups and take separate routes?"