The burial zone lived up to its name. Under the spotlight, Wu Tianzhen saw rows upon rows of neatly stacked ebony coffins resting on platforms.
Unlike ordinary coffins, these were not laid flat but stacked one atop another, resembling a pile of unusually grim bricks.
Wu Tianzhen slowly navigated the winding paths between the coffin walls, feeling as though he were walking through narrow alleys. He half-expected a coffin to suddenly flip open like a window and greet him.
The thought sent a shiver down his spine, almost making his goosebumps leap out of his sleeves to escape. He recalled Fatty’s earlier description of “a batch of corpses sitting up and applauding him,” and his skin crawled.
If Fatty were here, he might not be so scared. But alone, visiting these “dead or alive” deceased, Wu Tianzhen had to exert half his strength to keep his legs from buckling.
The path twisted and turned like a mountain road. Soon, Wu Tianzhen could no longer discern his direction. However, even returning the way he came would likely be futile; the transparent substance should have sealed the entrance again by now.
“Supreme Lord Laozi, Jade Emperor, Queen Mother of the West… Happy Sheep, Beautiful Sheep…” Wu Tianzhen invoked deities to bolster his courage, his lips muttering prayers he didn’t even realize he was uttering.
Just as he was about to finish his prayer to the entire Green Pasture, a coffin beside him suddenly vibrated ominously!
“Holy crap!” Wu Tianzhen lunged to the other side of the path, his back pressed against the outer wall of a coffin. An icy chill penetrated his clothes.
He paid no mind to the cold, his eyes fixed on the moving coffin opposite him.
The paint on these coffins, whatever it was, faintly reflected images. Under the harsh light, Wu Tianzhen met the gaze of his own pale reflection in the coffin’s surface, his mind going blank.
After a long moment, the coffin remained still.
Wu Tianzhen finally exhaled, feeling as though his bones had been drained. He couldn’t help but lean against the coffin behind him for support.
And then—
The coffin he was leaning on moved.
Wu Tianzhen: …
“Ahhhhhhhh!” With a surge of adrenaline, he kicked the coffin with a speed and force he didn’t know he possessed, sending it crashing to the ground!
Having rested there for years, the coffin was no longer sturdy. Its occupant tumbled out amidst the scattered wooden planks, staring at Wu Tianzhen, the intruder, with hollow, black eye sockets.
Wu Tianzhen’s scream was loud, and his actions were swift. He immediately stomped on the skull that had fallen to the ground, crushing it. Without daring to look at the deceased, he sprinted dozens of meters down the path.
He darted through the coffin stacks like a headless fly until exhaustion forced him to stop.
Then, he noticed that in the spot where he had stopped, one coffin was noticeably larger than the others, looking less like a coffin and more like a cramped room.
This colossal coffin pressed down on the smaller ones, exuding an overbearing presence.
Wu Tianzhen stared at this behemoth coffin for a moment, then wisely took a step back.
When something is out of the ordinary, there’s usually a reason. He felt this thing was problematic.
But just as he was about to escape—
With a “crack,” his foot tripped over a piece of broken wood. Wu Tianzhen’s legs were already weak from running, and this stumble nearly sent him to his knees.
He desperately leaned back, narrowly avoiding a kowtow to the coffin. The excessive backward lean, however, sent him tumbling uncontrollably, and he landed with a thud!
Right on top of that colossal coffin!
Wu Tianzhen: !!!!!!
With a “crack,” the coffin lid split open.
Wu Tianzhen felt his soul was about to abandon his body. He tried to straighten up, but his backside was stuck in the hole he had created.
“Damn it!” He steeled himself and reached in, breaking off the jagged splinters. Just as his backside was finally freed and exposed to the light—
A hand suddenly emerged from the coffin, gripping Wu Tianzhen’s arm tightly!
It was like a bolt from the blue. Wu Tianzhen felt a strange sense of relief, as if he couldn’t escape. He quickly drew his gun, intending to use technology to send these feudal remnants to oblivion!
But a voice stopped his righteous crusade.
“Holy mother of god!!!” The familiar voice came from the coffin, followed by the coffin’s sudden up-and-down jolting, as if it were on a vibrator.
“You bastard, I’m one of you!!!”
That familiar “bastard” made Wu Tianzhen’s eyes well up with tears. The plump hand, resembling a zombie’s, reaching out from the coffin suddenly felt dear.
“Fatty, what are you doing here?!” He reached out and pulled Fatty’s upper body out.
Fatty seemed unharmed, except for a visible lump on his head. His expression was a mixture of confusion and anger.
“Damn it, that wall ambushed me!” Fatty tried to stand up in the coffin, but with a crack, he stepped through the bottom.
His leg sank into the smaller coffin below, and his face turned a sickly green.
Wu Tianzhen cautiously glanced at the coffin below and whispered, “…You stepped on it?”
“Crap!!” Fatty pulled his foot out with a constipated expression. “It’s still wet, want to try?”
“Forget it, you enjoy yourself,” Wu Tianzhen waved his hands and helped Fatty fully out of the coffin.
Fatty continued, “I just leaned against that wall to rest for a bit, and damn it, that wall just collapsed! Can you imagine? It just flipped over!”
“I’m like kicking myself in the ass—I’m so unlucky!”
“Even that’s not all. It was like I was digging coal in a mine with a pickaxe, step by step into misfortune!”
“Everything went black, and before I could see clearly, with a bang, harder than Tom chasing Jerry, I hit my head against the wall and was knocked out cold!”
“…Uh, so when did you wake up?” Wu Tianzhen asked, a hint of guilt in his voice.
This brought up a painful memory for Fatty, and he fixed his eyes on Wu Tianzhen.
“…When did I wake up?” he repeated, murmuring. “Fatty here sat on your face, damn it, even a pig would wake up!”
“Then, as soon as I opened my eyes, before I could fully come to, your gun barrel was almost shoved into my skull!”
“If I didn’t wake up then? If I didn’t wake up, I wouldn’t need to wake up ever again!”
Wu Tianzhen: …
He gave a dry chuckle and was about to apologize when he heard a rumbling sound.
…The coffins behind them were shaking again.