Chapter 66 - Burial Grounds (XII)
Editor: Kitty
The sarcophagus was opened, and a beam of strong light shone onto Luo Jian. At that moment, Luo Jian was very nervous. He was afraid that they would spot any flaws, so he had to work hard to hold his breath. Unconsciously, he internally began to run through his mental technique, the mental technique of the disguiser. This was originally a mental technique used in battle that would make his weapon invisible. But now, Luo Jian was very nervous and afraid of them spotting flaws. Naturally, he subconsciously wanted to divert their attention, so he began to run through his mental technique repeatedly.
Maybe what he was doing was self-defeating. The mental technique of the disguiser really had the effect of helping him hold his breath and feign death. Therefore, when the lid of the coffin was opened and several people of the enemy team gathered around Luo Jian to inspect him, they did not realize that the person lying in the coffin was actually alive and started a discussion around Luo Jian.
“Boss, is this the owner of the tomb?” The first speaker was a man. If Luo Jian could open his eyes, he would find that he was a brawny man who was eight feet tall. As for his looks, he appeared a little naive and carefree. Since his name was unknown, he was temporarily named ‘Brawny’.
The boss that Brawny called out to was naturally the team leader. He was a gloomy man with long waist-length hair and wore what seemed to be a set of ancient European aristocratic clothes. His fingernails appeared old, long, and black. His face was pale-white and bloodless, but there in the depths of his eyes, a blood-red light shone through. At first glance, he looked like a vampire that had just climbed out of the cemetery.
The vampire boss didn’t answer the strong man’s words. Instead, the woman with black, long, straight hair beside him spoke. She glanced at Luo Jian in the sarcophagus and smiled: “It’s a handsome boy.”
The long-haired woman dressed in a cla.s.sical oriental style. In the gloomy tomb, she unexpectedly wore a red cheongsam. She had luscious bangs, and her hair was long and black. She had put on some light makeup, and her eyes appeared extremely charming. As they stood beside each other, this woman and the vampire leader formed a sharp contrast between two cultures, but they appeared quite harmonious this way.
“It’s clearly a dead man, but the body hasn’t rotted. Will it wake up in the next second?” The long-haired woman approached the coffin and reached out a hand to touch Luo Jian’s cheek. Luo Jian’s senses were very sharp as he was feigning death. Naturally, he could feel the woman’s actions. Poor Luo Jian did not dare to move but secretly ran through his mental technique in even more of a frenzy.
Obviously, the woman did not just want to touch Luo Jian’s face. She felt around his face all the way down to his neck. Luo Jian realized that she was feeling his pulse. His heart suddenly became cold. Just as he wanted to open his eyes, he felt that she had removed her hand. She concluded, “The body is cold, and there’s no pulse. This person is really dead.”
His body was cold? Luo Jian was puzzled. His first thought was whether this woman was helping him in his pretence. But when he thought about it, he realized that could not be true. Why should the other party help him in concealing the truth? When Luo Jian felt that he could not comprehend what was occurring, he suddenly realized a problem. Before that, he was so tense that he never realized that his body really was cold!
The hands that were folded on his chest could not feel any warmth at all. Luo Jian felt as if his body’s temperature had suddenly and dramatically been reduced from 37 ℃ to only about 10℃. It was completely in line with the temperature of the tomb and sarcophagus! At the same time, Luo Jian also felt that his heart rate was greatly reduced as well; it was not beating very fast. Instead, his heartbeat was very calm and seemed as if it were about to stop beating.
Luo Jian did not quite understand why. He thought for a while, and ultimately, he could only attribute all these occurrences to the mental technique of the disguiser, which he had been frantically running through his mind. Regarding this, Luo Jian had made the right guess. When holding weapons, the mental technique could not only make his weapons invisible but also allow Luo Jian to form a kind of disguise that fully integrated into the surrounding environment.
It could hide any traces of life, reduce the frequency of one’s breathing and heartbeat, reduce the temperature of one’s body, decrease the biological characteristics to the greatest extent, and weaken one’s sense of existence. He became like a stone on the side of the road. Luo Jian, who held all these characteristics now, lay in the coffin, and naturally, others would view him as a person who had died.
Not to mention, in fact, the stalker also did something to Luo Jian. Otherwise, the enemy team was basically all seniors. Would this woman, who had touched Luo Jian at such close range, not be able to feel his heartbeat? Wouldn’t she feel that Luo Jian was actually feigning death?
With this in mind, Luo Jian was relieved and continued to pretend, and at the same time, he p.r.i.c.ked up his ears to listen to what these people were discussing. Luo Jian kept his eyes closed and could not see how many people were there, but when he listened to them, it seemed that there were only three people present here. In fact, there were two members who had not met up with the team and were still wandering around in this huge tomb.
When the three people reached the main tomb, they began to discuss how they should proceed next in front of Luo Jian. They did not know that the enemy team’s captain was lying in front of them and eavesdropping! Luo Jian really did not know how to describe his current situation. He was nervous and happy, but he did not dare stop running through his mental technique even for a brief moment, for fear of exposing his flaws.
While Luo Jian was becoming increasingly nervous, the enemies began talking. Luo Jian could hear three different voices that were in the discussion. At the beginning, he heard the female voice say:
“What is our purpose?”
“Escape from the secret chamber?” It was Brawny who spoke. In general, the vampire team captain had only uttered a few words. His sense of existence seemed to be lower than that of Luo Jian.
“No, no, no, you are wrong. We should not only escape from the secret chamber, but also escape from it faster than the enemy and leave before them so that we are the winning team. If we are lucky enough, we can kill one or two enemies and obtain huge rewards.”
The woman clearly defined their goals and delivered a speech: “However, the note left by the secret chamber has made it clear that the opposing team has less than five members. Therefore, the chamber supplemented them with more than one Oracles! I think all of you know what an Oracle is and what kind of trouble they will pose. Although stalkers will not purposefully come at us, it’s possible that we will be affected. We must avoid this situation. So, I will make it clear now: Don’t be greedy for any easy gains, and don’t focus on killing the enemy! We can only be winners if we find the exit faster than them!”
Luo Jian could not help but cheer when he heard what she said. In his opinion, this woman’s line of thought was very clear, and she had a good grasp on the actual situation. She knew how to advance and retreat, as well as how to preserve themselves. The person definitely played the role of a strategist in their team.
Of course, their conversation had not ended yet, and the woman continued: “The tomb gave us the hint that we can only find the exit after crossing the bridge. I have speculated before that this is a secret chamber composed of a tomb and an underground karst cave. We first appeared in the tomb, so the opposite side of the bridge is the underground karst cave.”
“If we want to go to the underground cave, we have to find the bridge connecting the two places, right?” The vampire team captain finally chimed in. His voice was very cold. Just by hearing his voice, Luo Jian felt as if his whole body turned cold. At this time, the vampire team captain laughed: “Then to go to the bridge, we have to find the map of the tomb.”
“But this is very strange……” Brawny seemed to be a straightforward person. He did not know how to think out of the box when he faced a problem or when he was confused. Therefore, he asked, “How do you know that there will be a map of the tomb in the main tomb vault?”
“If there is no map, there will be something else that would be useful. In short, the tomb vault is definitely there to guide us. The tomb is too large, and there are mechanisms and monsters everywhere. There is no person or prop in our team that can guide us, so there will be a map in the tomb, and the most likely place where it would be is in the main tomb vault.”
While listening to their conversation, Luo Jian began to think about the clues left by the secret chamber. The portrait of the tomb owner? Could it be a map? Luo Jian mulled over it and thought that what the woman had said was right. There was no one in Luo Jian’s team who could guide the way. They did not know what the new Oracle’s ability was like, but to a large extent, it did not seem that he could.
According to the clues given by the secret chamber to the two teams, Luo Jian felt that the secret chamber was very lenient with his team because the message on Luo Jian’s note directly pointed out the tomb owner’s portrait and suggested that Luo Jian needed to go to the main tomb vault, while the enemy team’s clue had only the bridge. Although it also indicated that the underground cave opposite the bridge was the location of the exit, it also required the enemy team to work hard to figure out how to get to the bridge.
Now, the problem was that Luo Jian knew that he had to look for the tomb owner’s portrait, but this group of people did not know. They came here just to look for the ‘map’ that possibly existed.
Of course, where was the map? Luo Jian doubted momentarily and suddenly clenched the scroll in his hands unconsciously.
Yes, Luo Jian had a scroll in his hands now. It was not known if the stalker had intentionally left it here, but the problem was that this was a scroll! Generally, ancient scrolls contained portraits and calligraphy. Although Luo Jian did not know what the scroll was for, he knew that it might be the portrait!
As he thought of this, Luo Jian could not wait to open the scroll, but he was not able to move now. Due to his sensitivity towards light, Luo Jian knew that the sarcophagus he was lying in was still open. The people of the enemy team seemed to be standing beside the sarcophagus. Luo Jian did not know where they were standing, but their voices rang out almost in his ears. Luo Jian could even feel the sarcophagus vibrating a little, which showed that one of them was either still leaning on the sarcophagus or sitting on its edge.
He was in a horrible situation. The three enemies were close at hand. Any action that Luo Jian performed would be detected by them. Luo Jian could not even open his eyes to observe his environment, and it was easy for him to be attacked while he lay in the sarcophagus. According to Luo Jian’s estimation, the lid of the sarcophagus was only half open; only the upper part of his body was exposed, and the lower part of his body was covered by the lid. This made it very difficult for Luo Jian to escape!
Moreover, he had the scroll in his hands. This was a very obvious target. Sooner or later, they would find out and take away the scroll. At that moment, it depended on what choice Luo Jian made. Should he feign death and allow the group to easily take away the scroll for the sake of self-preservation or simply counterattack them?
T/N: Double chapter releases today because I did not update yesterday.