285: Peony Pattern, the Secret of the Seal

He hesitated for a moment before turning and leaving the Stone Chamber.

"Brother Ye, how is it? Any findings?" Meng Ziyi asked eagerly.

Ye Bai nodded. "There are findings; two coffins are hidden here. Let's go in and take a look."

"Wow... two coffins... what should we do?" Yang Mi hugged Meng Ziyi tightly in fear.

Meng Ziyi gripped Yang Mi's cold palm, giving her support. "Don't be afraid, we aren't alone. We still have Brother Ye!" She cast a reassuring look at Ye Bai.

"Right! I am not alone!" Ye Bai promised solemnly.

The three of them stepped into the Tomb Chamber together and came before the coffins.

Meng Ziyi carefully studied the Peony Pattern on the coffin lid and said in surprise, "Brother Ye, look, there are words here!" She pointed at the characters in the top right corner of the Peony Pattern.

Ye Bai looked in the direction she pointed. He identified them for a while before understanding the words.

At this time, Meng Ziyi noticed several footprints on the coffin.

"Eh? These footprints look so familiar!"

Ye Bai looked in the direction she pointed. Sure enough, he found four footprints, and all four were stepped on the edge of the coffin. It looked like they were trying to jump out.

But they were trapped.

They struggled for a long time but still couldn't crawl out.

"These footprints look unusual; they seem like human footprints," Ye Bai said.

"Exactly! These footprints are about the same size as human shoes. Let's go find their owner!" Meng Ziyi said enthusiastically.

"Did you forget the scene we just saw? What if they're zombies?" Yang Mi said worriedly.

Ye Bai frowned slightly; he felt the situation was grave. These four footprints clearly belonged to four humans. Could they be dead?

"zombies can't be killed easily! Let's be careful!" Meng Ziyi said, staring cautiously at the footprints.

"Mhm," Ye Bai responded.

The three of them stepped closer to the footprints again. Suddenly, a wave of chill struck. They couldn't help but shiver several times, goosebumps breaking out all over.

"The temperature here has dropped." Ye Bai looked up and scanned the surroundings.

He felt the spiritual energy flowing in the air becoming sparse. He estimated that the magnetic field here had become distorted.

"Let's leave here quickly!"

The three of them left the Stone Chamber, passed through a long Passage, and arrived at another Stone Chamber.

Just as they crossed the Stone Door, they felt a thick, dark wind blowing toward them. They couldn't help but quicken their pace.

Walking out of the Passage, the view ahead suddenly opened up.

A massive, empty Tomb Chamber appeared before them. Its structure was the same as the Stone Chamber. Hundreds of luminous pearls were embedded in the ceiling, emitting a soft and brilliant light.

The Tomb Chamber was empty, with no other furnishings except for rows of coffins.

"There are actually coffins here too," Meng Ziyi murmured in shock.

She stared wide-eyed at the outer coffins. The outer coffins here were all wrapped in black cloth, making it impossible to see the coffins inside clearly.

"Brother Ye, could these be zombies?"

"Who knows. Let's be careful," Ye Bai said. Just as he finished speaking, a burst of eerie and sinister laughter suddenly rang out.

"Gaga gaga—"

The laughter was hair-raising. The three of them trembled involuntarily.

Meng Ziyi clutched her chest and said tremulously, "Who... who exactly is buried here?"

Ye Bai shook his head. Although he didn't fear ghosts or monsters, he was also confused by this sudden, strange laughter. What was going on?

"Gaga hahaha..."

The eerie laughter echoed in their ears continuously. Yang Mi and Meng Ziyi were plagued by a splitting headache, their mental states on the verge of collapse.

Ye Bai covered his forehead with his hands and buried his head in his knees. Gradually, the laughter stopped. He opened his eyes and looked around, only to find that the previously empty Tomb Chamber was now crowded with coffins!

Numerous coffins lay densely all around them, containing men, women, boys, girls, the elderly, and the infirm. They all looked lifelike, with eyes closed and mouths slightly agape as if in a deep sleep. However, their sunken eye sockets made them look extremely eerie and terrifying.

Seeing this scene, Meng Ziyi and Yang Mi were already scared out of their wits, huddling on the ground and trembling.

Ye Bai crouched down to carefully examine these outer coffins. He found that the coffin nails on every outer coffin were mottled with rust and severely corroded. It was evident that these coffin nails had once been pried open.

Furthermore, there were bloodstains on the coffin nails; it seemed they had indeed been nailed back in after being pried open.

Ye Bai speculated: This Tomb had once been raided by Tomb Robbers, who, in a fit of rage after failing, pulled out all the coffin nails and threw them into a fire pit.

Consequently, the owner of this Tomb was burned alive beside the fire. He died a truly tragic death!

"Brother Ye, these coffin nails look very strange!" Meng Ziyi reminded him in a low voice.

Ye Bai nodded slightly. He observed the coffin nails closely; they were covered in rust.

Judging by the bloodstains on the coffin nails, they were at least twenty to thirty years old. Yet, the bright red blood on the coffin nails was clearly fresh.

After the coffin nails were pulled out, the owners of these outer coffins must have tried to escape, only to end up dying inside the coffins.

Ye Bai speculated that they were trapped inside the coffins and died of suffocation.

With so many coffins, it would have been impossible for them to escape the narrow, enclosed spaces of the coffins on their own.

Moreover, the coffins were filled with Yin Qi. If they had rashly entered the coffins, they would surely have met with disaster.

In the end, they were still suffocated to death inside.

Ye Bai sighed. What a sin! To escape legal punishment, they had committed such heinous crimes, even involving the lives of innocent people. They truly deserved their deaths!

Looking at the blood on the coffin nails, Ye Bai suddenly asked, "Ziyi, Sister Mi, do you smell a fishy stench?"

Meng Ziyi nodded. "It seems so. I've never smelled such a pungent fishy stench before."

Yang Mi covered her mouth and gagged twice.

"Strange! This smell is very unique. Could it be the smell of rotting corpses?" Ye Bai frowned.

Hearing Ye Bai's words, a shiver ran down Meng Ziyi and Yang Mi's spines.

The smell of rotting corpses! It was simply hair-raising!

"Ah! I remember now! An expert once told me that in the Mausoleums of ancient emperors or royal Tombs, a special room for burning incense and purification was always built. This kind of room is called a Corpse Refining Room." Meng Ziyi realized.

"You mean there are many corpses here?" Yang Mi asked fearfully, her lips trembling.

"Exactly!" Meng Ziyi replied certainly.

"Then... then let's get out of here quickly!" Yang Mi hurriedly tugged at Meng Ziyi's sleeve.

Meng Ziyi shook off Yang Mi and firmly objected. "No! Since there are many corpses here, perhaps their souls are hiding among them. If we run, won't we be letting the tiger return to the mountain? We might as well take the opportunity to destroy them and eliminate a harm to the people."

"Ziyi has a point. Let's deal with these coffins first before considering anything else," Ye Bai agreed.