Tomb raider: You're going to extract my alien bloodline?

Chapter 13 Living Corpse

The dull thud emanating from the black coffin struck everyone's heart like a heavy hammer.

"Damn it! There really is something inside!" Fatty Wang's face turned pale, and he subconsciously took half a step back. Realizing what was happening, he suddenly stepped forward. "I've been digging for so many years, and I've never seen such an arrogant zombie! Are they welcoming us with gongs and drums?"

Wu Sansheng's face was ashen. His eyes flashed with a sharp light, as if he had made up his mind. He shouted at Pan Zi and Da Kui, "Grab your weapons! Be careful! First, open this outer coffin lid and take a look!"

Despite his abdominal injury, Pan Zi remained fierce and courageous. Upon hearing this, he immediately forced himself forward and, together with Da Kui, wedged the blade of the entrenching tool into the gap between the black outer coffin lid and the body. Wu Sansheng also stepped forward to help, and the three of them worked together.

"Crunch... crunch..."

A teeth-grinding scraping sound rang out as the heavy outer coffin lid was slowly pried open. Qin Yuan stood slightly to the side, his muscles tense, his fighting instincts heightened to the extreme. He stared intently at the widening gap, a clear warning coming from his alien bloodline: what was inside was extremely dangerous!

Wu Xie held the gun, his finger tightly gripping the trigger, his heart pounding like a drum. The fat man, on the other hand, remained vigilant, his eyes darting around as if searching for something.

Finally, with a loud crash, the heavy black outer coffin lid was completely pried open, fell to the ground, and kicked up a cloud of dust.

The scene inside the outer coffin was revealed to everyone; inside was a slightly smaller, exquisite inner coffin inlaid with agate!

After everyone worked together to pry off the jade and agate, the fat man reached into the coffin and touched it. Suddenly, the dark red lacquered coffin seemed to come alive, blooming like a lotus flower from the bottom up. At the same time, the coffin lid cracked open from the central axis and flipped to the left and right, revealing the scene inside the coffin.

Unfortunately, before the fat man could even boast about his skills, a chilling scene unfolded: a person clad in black armor sat bolt upright in the coffin, accompanied by the clattering of mechanisms!

The figure had its back to the crowd, its black armor gleaming coldly in the dim light.

"Holy shit!" Wu Xie was so startled that he almost pulled the trigger!

"Don't move!" Fatty Wang reacted quickly, grabbing Wu Xie's gun barrel and staring intently at the armor with his small eyes. He lowered his voice, "He's wearing something valuable! Don't fucking break it!"

At this moment, everyone finally saw the true face of the mysterious King Lu Shang. The coffin was fully opened, and the mechanisms stopped operating. The seated corpse did not turn around, but its profile and back were clear enough.

It was a rare wet corpse, its skin a ghastly, almost transparent white. Its eyes were closed, but its features were contorted and its mouth slightly open, as if it had endured immense pain.

"Strange..." Wu Xie suppressed his discomfort and whispered, "Since he has a way to keep that woman's corpse from decaying for a thousand years, why can't he preserve his own body? Why does he look so... pained?"

Wu Sansheng, being a seasoned veteran, after his initial shock, cautiously circled around to the side of the coffin, peeked inside, and immediately cursed, "I fucking thought it was another zombie! Look, there's a wooden stick supporting him behind him! No wonder he can sit up!"

Upon hearing this, everyone breathed a slight sigh of relief and crowded around to take a look. Sure enough, on the back of the black-armored corpse, there was an intricately designed wooden rod connected to a mechanism at the bottom of the coffin. As soon as the coffin was opened, the mechanism would be triggered, and the corpse inside would be automatically seated by this wooden rod.

"Hey! That King Lu Shang was really scheming!" The fat man patted his chest, feeling both lingering fear and amusement. "What a pity, he didn't even consider that those who are afraid of ghosts don't raid tombs, and those who raid tombs aren't afraid of ghosts! Anyone who dares to open someone else's coffin underground is a desperate man who's risking his life. Trying to scare us off with such tricks is seriously underestimating my courage!"

The atmosphere immediately relaxed considerably, and Da Kui even chuckled.

Everyone's attention was immediately drawn to the black armor worn by the wet corpse. The armor had an ancient design, covered the entire body, and the plates were tightly packed together. In the firelight and flashlight beam, one could vaguely see that there seemed to be golden threads connecting the plates.

"This...this isn't ordinary armor!" Wu Xie exclaimed excitedly after careful examination. "Three coffins and two outer coffins...this seems to be the last coffin. Its scientific name is jade burial suit! It's the highest-grade burial garment before the Han Dynasty! It's made of thousands upon thousands of jade pieces woven with gold thread, a prayer for the body to remain incorrupt and the soul to ascend to heaven!"

"A jade burial suit?!" The fat man's eyes instantly lit up with greed. He rubbed his hands together, ready to rush forward. "Damn! This is a national treasure! I've struck it rich this time!"

However, he quickly noticed something was amiss: "Wait a minute, if it's a jade burial suit, why are these jade pieces black? Like they've been burned?"

Wu Sansheng frowned, took out the dagger he always carried, and carefully used the tip of the blade to pry at the connection between a piece of jade armor and gold thread, trying to see if he could remove a piece to study. He was experienced and knew that such jade garments often had intricate structures and required special techniques to peel them off completely.

Just as the tip of his blade touched the black jade armor, attempting to pry it up—

"Buzz..."

A very slight tremor suddenly came from inside the jade garment!

The pale, wet corpse's chest area was rising and falling very slightly!

Da Kui, being closest and seeing it most clearly, froze instantly with a smile. His eyes bulged almost out of their sockets, his finger trembled as he pointed at the heaving chest, making a gurgling sound in his throat before finally letting out a heart-wrenching scream:

"It's...it's alive! This thing seems to be alive!!!"

Everyone was terrified by this horrific sight that defied comprehension, and they retreated in panic!

"Impossible! How could someone who has been dead for thousands of years still be breathing!" Wu Sansheng's face was also deathly pale, and his hand holding the dagger was trembling.

"It's turned into a zombie!" Pan Zi endured the excruciating pain in his abdomen, raised his gun again, and aimed at the breathing, wet corpse.

Qin Yuan's pupils constricted, and the alien bloodline within him surged even more violently! Beneath that jade piece, he sensed not just the resurrection of the dead, but a more bizarre and chaotic life force! It was as if the jade garment itself, or rather, the combination of the jade garment and the corpse, had undergone some kind of mutation!

"Don't panic!" Although Fatty Wang was also terrified, his greed eventually overcame his fear. He had sharp eyes and noticed that the gold-threaded jade garment seemed to have a hidden knot tied with gold thread under the armpit!

"Get out of the way! Let me handle this!" the fat man shouted, drawing courage from who-knows-where, he lunged behind the coffin and reached for the gold knot on the jade burial suit! "Living or dead, I'll just get this treasure off first!"

"Fatty! Don't move!" Qin Yuan sensed that the jade garment and the corpse's aura were almost integrated. If Fatty pulled it, the consequences would be unimaginable. He hurriedly shouted to stop him!

But the fat man's hand had already touched the knot!

At this critical moment!

"Whoosh—!"

A whooshing sound, like a black lightning bolt, shot down from the cliff above everyone's heads! Its speed far exceeded the limits of what the naked eye could perceive!

"Clang!!!"

A deafening, crisp metallic clang rang out!

An ancient, unadorned, jet-black sword, carrying immense force, grazed the fat man's neck and embedded itself in the tree trunk behind him.

The fat man yelled "Ouch!" and pulled his hand back as if he'd been electrocuted. He was so frightened that he scrambled back several steps and landed on his bottom.

"Fatty!" Qin Yuan strode forward and helped Fatty Wang up.

At the same time, a black figure, with an almost gravity-defying lightness and speed, silently landed between the group and the coffin from the cliff cave entrance where they had come down earlier.

It was Zhang Qiling!

He maintained his perpetually indifferent expression, glanced at the still-shaken fat man, and said in a low voice:

"Don't touch it if you don't want to die."

At this moment, Qin Yuan had already helped the fat man up and stood in front of him, his face somewhat cold. "Isn't this young man Zhang going a bit too far?"

Zhang Qiling glanced at him, pursed her lips as if somewhat aggrieved, and pointed to the wet corpse dressed in a jade burial suit, its chest heaving:

"It's still alive. If we remove the jade terracotta warrior, it will immediately rise from the dead! At that point, we will all be buried with it!"

"Alive...alive?" Wu Xie's voice trembled. "A living corpse...thousands of years old?"

Zhang Qiling did not answer, but his silence spoke volumes.

Qin Yuan frowned, about to speak again, when the fat man tugged at his sleeve from behind and whispered, "Forget it, Little Blackie, I'm fine. It's just that I was too quick this time. That guy is the infamous Northern Mute in the underworld. Don't get into a conflict with him because of me."

Seeing that Qin Yuan remained silent, Zhang Qiling ignored everyone, turned around, and walked step by step toward the living corpse sitting in the coffin.

His movements were slow, yet they carried an invisible sense of oppression. His gaze was calmly fixed on that twisted, grotesque face, as if he were looking at an inanimate object.

Under the horrified, confused, and incredulous gazes of everyone, Zhang Qiling reached out his hand, placing his two unusually long fingers on either side of the zombie's pale neck.

Then, he leaned down slightly and said, "You've lived long enough."

Before the words were finished—

"Snap!"

A sharp, bone-crackling sound, so clear it sent shivers down one's spine, suddenly rang out in the silent cave!

The continuous, chilling breathing stopped abruptly!

The violent heaving of his chest subsided instantly, and deathly silence returned.

Having done all this, Zhang Qiling expressionlessly drew the black and gold ancient sword and sheathed it. Then, he reached into the coffin and rummaged around for a moment, taking out a simple-looking box that was dark purple in color.

Zhang Qiling casually tossed the purple-gold box to Wu Xie, who was standing closest to him, and said in a calm tone, "The answers to what you want to know are all in here."