The inside of the pitch-black bronze outer coffin gradually grew quiet. No one spoke any further. Every person was filled with fear as they stared at the inner bronze coffin ahead — the vessel for the body. The labored breathing of the group filled the air, and every heart was tightly wound.
The bronze coffin was mottled with green rust and age. What manner of figure was truly entombed within?
“All of this must have something to do with the five-colored altars on Mount Tai.”
Only after a long time did the group begin to murmur among themselves, trying to understand why all of this had come to pass.
“That’s likely — it has to do with the five-colored ancient altars. They were what drew the nine Dragon Corpses and the bronze outer coffin here.”
Everything they had witnessed was far too bizarre and implausible, dealing a severe blow to the thoughts and understanding of all those present. The five-colored altars had been built by the ancient forebears of high antiquity — their mystery was truly inexhaustible. Ye Fan found himself thinking of many things. How many secrets, lost to history, lay hidden within the obliterated records of ancient times?
No danger had come to pass, and the group’s emotions gradually settled, allowing them to reflect more seriously on what lay before them.
“Perhaps the Nine Dragons Pulling the Coffin was summoned by the ancient forebears of high antiquity.” The moment those words were spoken, someone immediately refuted: “The people of high antiquity all perished who knows how many years ago.”
“What I mean is, the Nine Dragons Pulling the Coffin was delayed in its arrival. It appears only now — as a belated response to the call of antiquity.”
When one of the female students put forward this theory, everyone froze momentarily. A summons from the ancient forebears of high antiquity — a Nine Dragons Pulling the Coffin delayed in its coming — a response that had crossed thousands of years. It was almost too fantastical to accept!
“What the truth really is, we have no way of knowing. Everything is only speculation, and there are many possible explanations.”
“Yes — perhaps the Nine Dragons Pulling the Coffin has nothing to do with the ancient forebears at all, and simply returned of its own accord.”
“Did you all see those bronze engravings? There were ancient forebears of high antiquity, and primordial deities. Many of the human figures carved into the bronze bore tear marks — one could feel from them a sense of vast desolation and sorrow, as though they were narrating a story from a time long past.”
“Perhaps it is true — the Nine Dragons Pulling the Coffin, breaking through all barriers of heaven and earth, returning to its homeland. A tale soaked in tears and blood… Born it departed, and as dry bones it returns, wrapped in the burial shroud.”
Could it truly be that the ancient forebears of high antiquity possessed unknown means, and had explored some distant, uncharted realm? The Nine Dragons Pulling the Coffin, returning home — having gone forth in life, returning now as bones.
As they spoke, everyone’s fear gradually lessened, and they speculated on all manner of possibilities. Yet they still regarded the bronze coffin at the center of the chamber with deep reverence, and no one went near it — let alone even contemplating opening it.
“I would think rescue personnel should have already climbed Mount Tai by now — perhaps they are not far away at this very moment.”
“Let us hope nothing goes wrong — that they get us out soon.”
The group had no means to escape the outer coffin on their own. The walls of the bronze outer coffin rose eight or nine meters high, and with the lid sealed shut, there was no way out.
Just as the group was hoping for a swift rescue, the bronze outer coffin suddenly shook with a violent trembling. Everyone lost their footing, swaying and staggering, and many fell directly to the ground.
“What is happening — what is going on?” Everyone was alarmed and uncertain. Some of the female students had already taken on a tone close to tears, clinging tightly to whoever was nearest.
“Have the rescue personnel arrived? Are they trying to get us out?”
Amid worry and fear, the shaking of the bronze coffin grew even more violent. No one could keep their footing — nearly every person had fallen to the ground, coming into close contact with the icy-cold bronze surface.
“BANG!”
Another great shudder — like an aircraft tearing through a cold, freezing layer of clouds high in the sky and accumulating a thick shell of ice — the trembling would not cease.
“BOOM!”
A final massive tremor, as terrible as a thunderclap, seeming as though it would shatter every solid thing in existence. One could clearly feel that the great bronze outer coffin had undergone a colossal collision.
Yet it was precisely in that moment that the bronze engravings throughout the dark interior of the bronze coffin emitted small, faint points of light, and in an instant dispersed an impact that surpassed all imagination.
Everyone was baffled. Just a moment ago, it had seemed as though the world was about to be turned completely upside down — yet in an instant, total stillness had returned. It gave one the strange feeling of an illusion.
“No — there was genuinely a terrifying force of impact just now. How could it have suddenly gone still?”
“It’s not an illusion. The bronze coffin truly underwent a violent collision, tumbling and overturning several times — yet we were not affected at all.”
Just then, everyone was startled to see that the inner bronze coffin for housing the body had come to rest against the side wall of the outer coffin — suspended there firmly, not having fallen at all.
“The bronze outer coffin has now tipped and overturned. The smaller inner bronze coffin must have been cast and secured to the original base of the outer coffin, immovable by so much as a hair’s breadth — and so after the outer coffin tipped and was overturned, it now appears at first glance as though the inner coffin is hanging against the side wall.”
One could imagine how terrifying the force of that impact had been — yet it had been neutralized by the faint glow emanating from those bronze engravings. It was beyond comprehension.
“Light — light is coming in from outside!” Li Xiaoman cried out.
Everyone turned their heads at once, looking in the direction Li Xiaoman was facing. Sure enough, there were faint traces of dim light filtering through ahead.
“The bronze outer coffin has tipped over — the lid has been displaced at an angle, opening a gap. We are finally out of danger!”
The lid of the bronze outer coffin had shifted from its original position. The gap was wide enough for two people to walk out side by side, though the outside was quite dim — meaning the light filtering into the bronze coffin was faint.
A cheer rose from the group, and everyone rushed forward at once, wanting to escape that pitch-black and terrifying space — unwilling to remain even one second more.
Yet when the group rushed out through the bronze outer coffin, every single person froze like a clay statue or a wooden carving.
The earth looked as though it had been soaked in blood — a reddish-brown color, cold and hard, utterly Desolate. The view in every direction was one of barren emptiness. Scattered across the ground stood enormous rocks, which from a distance resembled rows of gravestones.
The light of this world was dim and overcast, suffused with a dull, oppressive murkiness, like a lifeless dusk drifting with a faint black mist.
The group stood rooted to the spot. This was absolutely impossible — this could not be the summit of Mount Tai!
An endless expanse of reddish-brown earth, vast and deathly silent, without a single trace of life — this was not any place they had ever known.
They had never seen it. They had never heard of it. It was an entirely unfamiliar and mysterious place.
“This is… where? Have we… left Mount Tai?” The person who spoke was trembling as they asked.
“Did the rescue people isolate us in some uninhabited region — to protect against danger from the nine Dragon Corpses?” Even the student who said this could not convince themselves with those words.
Everyone felt a premonition of something dreadful — as though something very, very wrong had happened to them. In that instant, many people simultaneously tried to make calls on their phones, but it was completely impossible to get through. There was no signal whatsoever.
“This is not Mount Tai. Where are we?” Many faces wore expressions of panic — none of the joy one would expect after escaping danger, only dread.
From being trapped inside the bronze coffin to emerging once more — it had been no more than a quarter of an hour. Yet the scene before their eyes had changed utterly and completely. The heroic, towering Mount Tai — from whose summit one could look down upon ten thousand peaks — was gone. Before them stretched an endless wasteland of gently undulating terrain blanketed in gravel.
Ye Fan stood quietly, taking in all of this. The ominous premonition he had harbored had now proven true. From the moment he had seen the Taichi Eight Trigrams diagram coalesce atop Mount Tai and form that dark, vast passageway, a grim association had stirred in his heart. Though at the time he had not seen the Nine Dragons Pulling the Coffin enter that passageway connecting to an unknown realm, there was no need for further thought now. What lay before his eyes was proof enough — they were not on Mount Tai. They were not even on Earth any longer.