TLDP: Ch25. The Hidden Treasure
Chen Haozhe and the rest had already jumped down. They couldn’t hide the shocked expression on their faces as they saw the unceasingly trembling zombie on the ground. Zhang Zixuan was different as he excitedly looked at the zombie and said: “I have seen the information about ghosts and G.o.ds in ancient books in the past, but I was always doubtful about that. However today, I must study this thing carefully. I really want to know what methods gave this corpse the ability to move!”
“You cannot do that!” My weak voice sounded as I tried to speak.” This zombie is poisonous you cannot touch it without careful preparation.”
Hearing my interruption and weak voice, Zhang Zixuan turned and immediately frowned: “Brother Xiaolong, your complexion is deathly pale, your breaths are heavy and your Yang energy is also dropping, have you fallen ill?”
Zhang Zixuan quickly checked my pulse and looked at my eyes with meaningful eyes as he said: “It’s actually a common cold, just eat this pill, you’ll get better in no time.”
Zhang Zixian gave me a pill of which the shape was the same with the Detoxification Pill before. And as I put it into my mouth, I found out that the pill was without a doubt the Detoxification Pill as I remembered its flavor!
Zhang Zixuan was really an amazing doctor; he only needed to check my pulse to know that I didn’t take the Detoxification Pill from before. Moreover, he calmly helped me conceal the truth and gave me another pill. This… I owe him a huge debt.
I looked straightly at his eyes with a grateful expression: “Thank you.”
“No problem Brother Xiaolong, as a doctor, I’m really curious about this zombie. Moreover, I want to know this zombie’s status, whether it was General Long Chen or not. Besides, you are the only Daoist priest here and are still responsible for protecting us. This zombie’s poison is really nothing to me, have you forgotten my ability?” Zhang Zixuan stood as he patted his own chest.
What else can I say? I nodded and replied: “Okay, I’ll try to protect everyone as best as I can. However, I suggest that we use rope to tie the zombie up first, in case it jumps and attacks anyone.”
Some bodyguards quickly tied the zombie up as it was still trembling occasionally.
The zombie’s mask was actually buckled on with a helmet. That was why it was still not destroyed after being shot with a sniper rifle two times. As Zhang Zixuan took off the face guard, everybody shouted in surprise!
The zombie’s face had all been covered with green hair and was very dreadful to look at, the hair on its head was just like a ball of wool.
It was really true, this should be the Green Haired Zombie!
According to ‘Niu School’s Past Records on Demon Subjugation’, zombies were divided into many kinds as different conditions may bring about a different zombie.
And the most common condition was: the body must be buried in a place with extremely dense Yin qi, and the corpse must not be decayed. After being exposed to the dense Yin qi for over a hundred years, it would then come to life. Long hairs would then grow and cover its whole body. When it first arose, the hair would be white and as it continued to be exposed to the dense Yin qi over time, the hair would turn black, green, purple and red; of which the last evolution would make the zombie turn into a true demon. This demon’s strength was even listed in the list of first ten ‘most difficult evil spirits to subdue’.
This green haired zombie was not in the ‘100 most powerful evil spirit’ list, although it was more powerful that the white and black haired zombie and had an inexhaustible stamina. Its weakness was also very obvious, that was, it was void of thought. As long as one’s own Yang qi was shielded against its Yin qi, one only needed to wait for a chance to paste one Zombie Suppressor Charm on it and it will be suppressed.
The only particular thing about this zombie was that it was fully armored. It would be impossible to use a Zombie Suppressor Charm on it! I suspect that even the old swindler would stare helplessly at this zombie, and would have had no way to deal with this zombie!
Chen Haotian luckily brought along his sniper rifle as he then shot this zombie’s cerebellum.
I couldn’t even imagine what would happen if any archeological team or tomb raider came here. Even if they were lucky enough to break through the woman ghost’s chamber, they absolutely wouldn’t have had a chance in surviving this coffin chamber if they didn’t bring something like that sniper rifle which could explode the zombie’s brain!
And if I heard Zhang Zixuan’s a.n.a.lysis right, this zombie should not be General Long Chen as its facial shape was not the same.
Another riddle popped up in my head, who was this Long Chen? Not only did is tomb being guarded by a woman ghost, it was also guarded by this invulnerable armored zombie! Then wouldn’t the next dreadful existence we meet later be more ferocious and tougher?
Zhang Zixuan took a vial and collected the zombie’s hair, skin, nails, and other items as he said that he would research it later.
Chen Haozhe waved his hand and shouted: “Continue forward!”
Because this coffin chamber’s cloudy gas was too heavy, Chen Haozhe ordered a bodyguard to take a Sun Charm to break through the chamber and open the next stone door.
As this bodyguard received his order and held the ignited Sun Charm, he hurriedly rushed to the next chamber’s stone door and probed if there were traps inside. However, when the Sun Charm finally burned out, this bodyguard’s three Yang fires were instantly blown out by the cloudy gas and instantly died.
“He died?” Chen Haozhe asked.
Xia Chaoran nodded: “His three Yang fires had been extinguished and the soul left the body… Wha…! Don’t come! What do you want to do?! Ah, well… okay… just leave me alone now!”
Xia Chaoran panicked as he anxiously reported: “Second young master, the bodyguard who had just died said that there is a long corridor in front of us, and after his probing, the first three floors didn’t have any traps. Moreover, he requested that you must take care of his family.”
Chen Haozhe took a deep breath as he said: “Your family will have their rightful allowance fee and will be settled in a new home. When has my Chen family treat you unfairly? Just rest in peace!”
He quickly ordered two bodyguards to inquire about this information and discovered that there really was a corridor in front. Their flashlight’s light could not reach the end of the corridor which made these two bold bodyguards scout ahead. And through their report, the preceding 10 floors were safe and didn’t have any traps.
Everyone quickly prepared to go as they held a Sun Charm I gave them and rushed through the coffin chamber lightning fast. After all 15 people had rushed in the corridor, I shut the stone door to the coffin chamber. The cloudy gas inside it was too dense, it should be closed quickly.
The corridor was also built from a piece of quartzite block and was about 3 meters in height and width. It was very long. The air was moist and muddy, it was even hard to breathe. Chen Haozhe took out and put on a nasal filter as he spoke: “These are a TS military base research and development product, it will filter out poisonous gas. Everyone must put this on to avoid being suffocated by the toxic gas.”
Eight bodyguards had died and five of them were left behind to blast out the stone door. There were only 17 people in the team now, as for Shasha… she would soon die. Five of eight bodyguards in the team would also be fated to die as the rabies virus will have an outburst in several days.
Two bodyguards lead the way as we ate our dry rations while advancing. Chen Haozhe said: “Everybody, you don’t need to worry, I actually have a way to go out. As long as we thoroughly explore this ancient tomb, no matter if I find the items I want or not, I will lead you to exit this tomb. The faster we explore this tomb, the faster we will go out.”
We had been advancing for about 200 meters when the two bodyguards in front shouted: “Second young master! There are two coffin chambers here!”
We quickly walked forward and discovered that the corridor had ended as there were two stone doors which were connected to each other.
Chen Haozhe issued a new order: “Open the stone door!”
The left stone door was opened first and we could see that this coffin’s chamber was identical with the former. Its size was 9 meters to 6 meters and was lighted by a torch on the wall. There were three chests inside. The two bodyguards carefully strode forward and opened the chests. It was fully filled with gold, silver, and jewelry! There were gold bars, shoes made from gold, pearl necklaces, jade pendants, and furniture that were carved from jade! And according to Miss Jiang these items were rare antiques!
Everyone’s eyes instantly shone, including myself. Miss Jiang may come from a very wealthy family, but women were fond of jewelry, not to mention that these were rare antique pieces of jewelry. Zhang Zixuan’s vision drifted from one to the other, although he was also gazing at these pieces of jewelry, there was no greed in his eyes. It seemed that he wanted to pick out certain jewelry pieces to flatter his female companion. Chen Haozhe, he seemed to hope that he found the things he wanted in these piles of jewelry. And Chen Haotian, he only took a slight glance at the many pieces of jewelry. I was thinking if I could take several pieces of jewelry… and give it to Mom… and Xu Xiaoling, then it would be great.
Chen Haozhe took a deep breath as he said: “Everyone, don’t move these treasures yet, just wait for me to sort it first. If I cannot find the things I want. You may take the treasures as souvenirs. After all, everybody has paid a lot to arrive here. As for the unfortunate deaths, their pension will be doubled.”
Chen Haozhe continued speaking: “Let’s go to the opposite stone chamber and take a look at it.”
We arrived at the opposite stone chamber, and the chamber also had no traps. There were 3 large chests here as well that were identical to the previous three treasure chests. We opened all the chests as they were also fully filled with various gold, silver, and jewelry!
Miss Jiang’s brows slightly twitched as she spoke: “This General Long Chen’s ident.i.ty is getting more and more mysterious. I am very familiar with the Song Dynasty history. But I really don’t know about this Long Chen character. Moreover, if he was only a General who defended the border pa.s.s, how would he have this much wealth? And how would he master the Daoist magical arts? Even more so, his tomb is huge and is built in the barren mountains and trackless hill…”
Chen Haozhe said: “The answers should be in front of us in that regard, let’s continue forward.”
We left the chamber and returned back to the corridor. Chen Haozhe personally closed the two treasure chambers’ stone doors.
We slowly strode forward in the corridor for more than 200 meters, and finally saw another stone door as everyone stood at either side to avoid the poisonous arrows.
The stone door opened, and no poisonous arrows flew out. Under the bodyguard’s lead, we slowly entered the new chamber.
This chamber was very huge! It was about 30 meters to 30 meters in size! There were some legendary pearls on the walls that illuminated the chamber. The air was very heavy and muddy in here, even if we had on our nasal filter, we could still feel that it was hard to breathe. Everyone was trying hard to not breathe too deeply as being poisoned would result in dire consequences. There was a grand stone platform in the middle of the chamber, with a coffin made of jade in the middle of it. Four other stone beds were placed at the four angles of the stone platform respectively with an armored zombie on each bed!
I was instantly anxious and tensed up! If these four powerful zombies jumped up, we would absolutely be stranded here! However, it seemed that the cloudy gas here was not dense as the four zombies didn’t even move one bit as if it cannot suddenly come to life. I turned quickly and said to Chen Haotian: “Brother Chen, quickly use your sniper rifle to blow up that zombie’s brains before it jumps and attacks us!”
But at this time, there were voices from the bodyguards from several directions.
“Second young master, there are three treasure chests here!”
“Report to second young master, there are some books here.”
“There is a man in a high ancient bronze mirror here.”
Chen Haozhe quickly issued an order: “Open those chests!”
The bodyguard opened the chest. But, the instant the chest was opened, he immediately retreated backward! One whiff of cloudy gas instantly wreaked havoc! Xia Chaoran instantly turned terrified and loudly shouted: “Cloudy gas! These chests have cloudy gas!!! The bodyguard’s three Yang fires will be instantly blown out!!!”
Under the light of their flashlights, everyone could see a large amount of black beetles pouring out from the chests. Each of them was about a pinky length long. Zhang Zixuan was anxious as he quickly shouted loudly: “Corpse insect! It’s a poisonous corpse insect! If we are bitten by it, the body will be instantly festered and we will quickly die!”
Good things really never come in pairs, However, extreme misfortunes never come alone! [1] Just when we were about to meet our demise, the four zombies suddenly jumped!”
Small elegant b.u.t.terfly![2] You were going to stimulate me to my death…
~~~~~~~~~~End of Chapter 25~~~~~~~~~~