As soon as the coffin lid was opened, I was hit by a wave of a foul, putrid smell. Leaning in closer, I saw that the coffin was filled with black water, shrouded in mist, and the humidity was rising. Below, I could vaguely see limbs tangled together; I had no idea how many corpses were inside, but they had already been waxed and stuck together, forming a massive block of bodies. I could count at least twelve limbs just with my hands. The scene was simply disgusting.

Dun Youping frowned at the sight but then relaxed his expression, letting his gun droop. Judging by his change in demeanor, I estimated that this thing probably posed no real danger; I wondered what he was so tense about earlier.

Inside the coffin, there were several rows of dark golden nails, hammered down from the top every few centimeters. It was hard to tell whether they were pure gold or gilded. Beneath the block of corpses, there was a strange object. Fatty used a flashlight to illuminate it inch by inch from below, and it appeared to be a stone slab inscribed with characters. Among the bodies and in their hands, there were jade and ivory artifacts—things of significant value that were also easy to carry.

Fatty looked eager but was too disgusted by the corpses to dare reach into the coffin, which was floating with a layer of human oil, to retrieve anything. After pondering for a long time without coming up with a solution, he had to give up and turned to examine the bodies instead, shaking his head as he looked: “This is just too tragic. They say the owner of this tomb was a practitioner of Taoism, yet such sinister things are laid out here. How could he have achieved enlightenment? He deserved to be robbed by us.”

I was baffled and, seeing the scene inside, felt my nerves getting a bit overwhelmed. I didn’t dare to look a second time and asked, “Why is this joint burial coffin so disgusting?”

Fatty chuckled, “Comrade, are you foolish? Have you ever seen a joint burial that looks like twisted dough? This thing was clearly a live burial. These people were piled together, drugged, drowned, and suffocated inside. This is called nurturing energy and hiding corpses.”

When he mentioned twisted dough, my throat itched. I was already quite hungry, and the image of that block of corpses overlapping with a large twisted dough made me feel like I was going to vomit. However, it seemed he knew the background of this thing, so I steadied myself and asked for more details.

Seeing that I didn’t understand, Fatty, eager to show off, said, “You don’t even know this? It’s like a child without a mother. It’s a long story. Back when I was in the lofty mountains of Changbai—”

I heard him start rambling and interrupted, “Stop your nonsense! Don’t you see what time it is? What does nurturing corpses have to do with Changbai Mountain? If you don’t know, then don’t talk rubbish!”

Fatty was the type who got riled up easily. He stiffened his neck and said, “Who says I don’t know? I just wanted to start from a broader perspective. If you don’t want to listen, fine. This thing is called a nurturing corpse coffin, which is a concept in feng shui—generally used in certain mountain tombs. If there’s this coffin, it indicates that there are two excellent feng shui burial spots in this ancient tomb. If coffins are placed in spots not meant for them, the empty spots, gathering the spiritual energy from the sea and rivers, will attract malevolent entities. So, a nurturing corpse coffin is placed here, burying someone with a blood relation to the tomb owner, which counts as a joint burial. This coffin must be identical to the main tomb chamber, and in feng shui, it’s called nurturing energy. Do you understand?”

The胖子 recited everything in one breath, and I understood only half of it, unable to help but exclaim, “So all these people inside are—”

The胖子 slapped his thigh and said, “That’s what I’m saying! This guy probably stuffed his whole family in there; it’s so tragic!”

I shouted, “How could such a thing happen? This carefully chosen feng shui was meant for the descendants, and now the whole family is buried together—what good is the feng shui then?”

Seeing that I was taking it seriously, the胖子 replied, “What are you believing in? Those rich people can’t be that stupid; they must have brought in a few poor nephews from the outer family to accompany them in death. This kind of thing happens most in open tombs; I’ve seen plenty, but never one this big.”

I looked at the pile of corpses, thinking about the scene during the burial, and couldn’t help but feel moved. Grandpa’s words echoed in my mind: human hearts are the most unpredictable. For something that has no factual basis, these people’s lives were taken away as if they were mere weeds.

But since the coffin lid was already open, the胖子 would surely not let it go easily. He scratched his head and said, “Seeing how pitiful these people are, why don’t we go next door and get a few jars to scoop out this water? Accumulated water in a coffin is the most inauspicious.”

I knew what he was up to and said, “Look at you, with that greedy look, I can tell you’re still eyeing these ghostly items. Can’t you just settle down? There will be plenty of things for you to take in the ghost palace later.”

The胖子’s face flushed, and he cursed, “Damn it, am I that kind of person?”

I was too lazy to argue with him and replied, “Now is not the time to be concerned with such trivial matters. If we can’t get out later and suffocate here, we probably won’t even have a coffin; no one will come to pity us then.”

Mentioning this made us tense up again. Without a word, the胖子 began searching the ear room, but unfortunately, aside from a cat corpse, there was nothing useful.

The闷油瓶 had been staring blankly at the pile of corpses for a long time, and suddenly, he seemed to notice something and took a sharp breath.

This person is usually very calm, and whenever he gets nervous, it usually means something big is about to happen. So his sudden movement startled me, and I quickly crouched down, raising my gun.

He remained standing there, frowning, staring intently at the coffin. After a full five minutes of silence, he finally turned to us and said, “Actually, there’s only one person in here—”