188: A thousand-year-old female corpse

In the end, the two still agreed to enter together. After entering the stone door, there was another narrow, damp passage, with dim candlelight flickering from the corpse lamps on the walls.

They kept going forward.

"Damn it, another door! And three doors!"

Before them were three diverging paths.

The dark cave mouths were like three gaping maws of monstrous beasts, silently opening and closing, blowing out a chilling aura that had been sealed for thousands of years. The air was filled with a mix of earthy and decaying smells.

"One path each, let's finish this quickly," Lin Fan said concisely, pointing to the leftmost one.

"Alright, the middle one is mine," Zhang Dabao said with a chuckle, shouldering the shockingly ugly greatsword. "Lin Boy, don't blame me, your Daoist master, for not warning you. In tombs like this, the middle path usually leads to the main burial chamber. Don't let your Daoist master take all the treasures alone!"

Lin Fan was too lazy to banter with him and walked directly into the left passage.

The passage was not long, about a hundred feet, ending in a heavy stone door.

There were no mechanisms on the door; it was merely ajar.

Pushing open the stone door, a chill, distinctly different from outside and carrying a faint, delicate fragrance, wafted out.

Before his eyes was a tomb chamber, not too large, but exquisitely arranged.

There was a stone bed carved from a single piece of white marble, a dressing table, and a few wooden stools that had long since decayed. Other than that, there was nothing else.

In the center of the tomb chamber, a coffin made of thousand-year-old darksunken wood (yin chen mu) lay silently.

Above the coffin, a line of small characters was carved in a flowing, vigorous script, like a Dragon and Phoenix.

"Beloved Sister, Tomb of Qingxue."

Lin Fan's gaze paused on the character for "sister," and he understood. It seemed this was not the main burial chamber.

He walked to the coffin, took a deep breath, and exerted force with both arms.

"Creak—"

The heavy coffin lid was slowly pushed open.

There was no imagined stench, nor any terrifying dry bones.

Inside the coffin, a woman lay quietly.

She was dressed in a light purple palace gown, her dark hair cascaded like a waterfall, and her face was serene. Her skin showed no signs of decay; instead, it had a rosy glow like that of a living person, so delicate it seemed it could be broken by a breath. Her long eyelashes, like butterfly wings, rested quietly on her eyelids.

If he hadn't felt no breath or heartbeat, Lin Fan would have almost thought she was just sleeping.

How in the world… was this how someone who had been dead for thousands of years was supposed to look?

Lin Fan's heart suddenly pounded.

His gaze was quickly drawn to the woman's slightly parted red lips.

Between her lips, a soft, milky white halo, as if it could dispel all the gloom in the world, was quietly blooming.

It seemed to be a bead?

Lin Fan's heart stirred, and he no longer hesitated.

He stretched out his hand, carefully reaching into the woman's mouth, and took out the warm, jade-like bead.

The bead felt cold in his hand, yet it seemed to contain infinite vitality, causing all the pores on his body to open. His Qi flowed much more smoothly.

"Good stuff!"

Just as the bead left her mouth.

Lin Fan's pupils suddenly constricted!

He seemed to… see the woman's eyelids twitch ever so slightly! As if they were about to open, but then instantly returned to stillness.

Was it an illusion?

Lin Fan's heart instantly leaped into his throat, and he stared intently at her face.

But after watching for a long time, the woman remained in her serene, sleeping posture, with no further movement.

"Am I seeing things?" Lin Fan chuckled self-deprecatingly, put the bead, whose specific use he didn't know, into hisPregnant (huai—chest/bosom) and stopped thinking about it.

He respectfully bowed to the female corpse, then slowly closed the coffin lid, turned, and left the eerie tomb chamber.

After he left.

Inside the dark coffin.

The woman's fingernails slowly lengthened by half a fen (about 0.2 cm) at a speed imperceptible to the naked eye.

Lin Fan returned to the three-way intersection.

Zhang Dabao was already waiting there, looking annoyed and cursing at an empty box.

"Damn it! A pauper! He's really a pauper!"

As soon as he saw Lin Fan, his eyes lit up, and he rushed over in a single stride.

"Lin Boy, how was it? Did you find anything good on your side?"

Lin Fan took out the bead he had just acquired and dangled it in front of him.

"Just this."

"Holy crap! An Imperishable Everlasting Pearl?!" Zhang Dabao's drool was almost dripping, and he lunged to snatch it.

Lin Fan flipped his wrist, retracting the bead.

"What about your side?"

"Don't even get me started," Zhang Dabao slumped to the ground, looking utterly dejected. "It was completely different from what your Daoist master guessed. The middle path led to a woman's tomb chamber. Judging by the words on the coffin, it should be the tomb owner's wife."

He paused, a look of disgust on his face.

"What a pity, that woman had already rotted into a pile of dirt. Inside the coffin, besides a few worthless broken trinkets, there wasn't even a single hair left."

"Rotted into dirt?" Lin Fan frowned. "The one on my side, though, is like a living person."

He briefly recounted what he had just seen.

After listening, Zhang Dabao's small eyes instantly glowed green!

"Like a living person?! There's such a good thing?!"

He scrambled up from the ground, hoisted his greatsword, and was about to rush towards the passage Lin Fan had taken earlier. "No way! Your Daoist master has to go see it! And while I'm at it, see if that woman has any other treasures hidden on her!"

Lin Fan's heart stirred, and he also felt there was something strange about this matter.

Logically, why would the tomb owner not leave such a supreme treasure that could preserve a corpse from decay to his wife, but instead give it to his sister?

There was likely another hidden reason behind this.

"Daoist Priest, wait a moment."

Lin Fan stepped forward, blocking him.

"That female corpse is a bit strange. I always feel it's better not to disturb her easily."

He pointed to the last, and widest, passage on the right.

"The immediate priority is to explore the main burial chamber first."

"I guess the real big guys should all be inside."

Zhang Dabao heard this and, though unwilling, knew Lin Fan made sense.

He licked his chapped lips and chuckled.

"Alright! I'll listen to you!"

"After we've explored the main burial chamber, we'll go meet that 'Sleeping Beauty'!"

The two no longer hesitated, walking one after the other into the last passage, leading to the unknown.