Chapter 23 Inside the Coffin

In the darkness, some people were quietly crying, while other people were s.h.i.+vering from the cold. When they closed their eyes, the terrifying scene of foreheads being penetrated with holes and blood flying out with brains seemed to flash before them. It felt like they were stuck in a nightmare, and an evil spirit was lingering around their hearts.

It was hard to forget the scene of how their cla.s.smates had tragically died, their bright blood flying out, their unresigned despair, their eyes unclosing, their young countenances… Occasionally, the memories of the four years they spent as cla.s.smates together would appear in their minds. Thirteen colorful lives were now forever gone, all in one day.

At this moment, although they were temporarily safe, it was impossible for them to calm down, so much so that some of them wound themselves up into even greater terror. The tragic deaths of their cla.s.smates and the sinister divine crocodiles would occasionally appear within their minds; they might never forget it for the rest of their lives.

The inside of the huge bronze coffin was completely black. Some women were crying and some men were gasping. Although they had escaped, the road in front of them was vast and obscure, making it hard to antic.i.p.ate what would happen next.

Nine dragons pulling a coffin…where were they going? Where was the other sh.o.r.e? Where was Heaven? Would they see light again? The sea of bitterness was endless. Were they following an ancient path that G.o.ds had once followed? The place where crowds of G.o.ds would return to, just what sort of place would that be?

The inside of the bronze coffin calmed down only after a long time did . According to Earth’s time, it was already late at night for them. Everyone was dispirited and tired, and they all slowly sank into sleep.

Quite a few people were also anxious and scared even in their dreams; their hands tightly held onto the divine relics, as if they had obtained some sort of support they could rely on.

This was a torturous night. Many people had trouble sleeping calmly, and they would frequently be roused by nightmares, or even the sound of women crying. It wasn’t that they were extremely weak, but what they had gone through was just too terrifying. If someone told you a story, regardless if it was true or false, no matter how frightening it was, it was still nothing more than a story. But personally experiencing it was a completely different matter.

A group of city-dwellers with ordinary and comfortable lives suddenly experienced this kind of desperate event. What they had experienced was practically unbelievable. Personally seeing demons from legends eating their cla.s.smates’ corpses and having to watch as the people beside them died one after another, how could they not be terrified?

Even Pang Bo, with his carefree nature, found it difficult to sleep. It wasn’t that he was too scared, but that the people around him would always wake him up. Ye Fan was the same; the people beside him would occasionally scream out in their dreams or even cry in their nightmares, causing others to have trouble sleeping peacefully.

Just five or six hours later, the majority of them had all woken up. Only after another two hours did everyone’s mood start to calm down. At this moment, none of them knew just where this ancient bronze coffin was in the universe, and each person began to wonder about their situation.

The bronze coffin was not shaking in the slightest, as if it had long since stopped at a star field. Or was there another stop? Or it was also possible that they might just be forever floating within the depths of the lonely cosmos?

“What sort of place are we going to?”

After crying and giving vent to their feelings, even the weakest-natured women had no choice but to begin pondering this question.

“Are we going to go to where the G.o.ds are?”

The path of the starry sky was first started in ancient times. In the distant place they were going to, there really might be existing G.o.ds, and it might even be a world of G.o.ds.

“Do G.o.ds really exist? We’ve already seen nine dragons pulling a coffin, we’ve seen the Great Thunderchant Temple of the legends, and we’ve seen the Ancestor crocodile. There’s no reason for us not to believe in G.o.ds. But, there are some things I don’t quite understand. According to what I know, G.o.ds should be a race. Or were they like us, and once on Earth?”

As a modern generation, they all pretty much didn’t believe in G.o.ds at all. But now they had no choice but to face this reality, and hearing w.a.n.g Ziwen’s reasoning, they felt that it was a bit easier to accept.

“Or, maybe the G.o.ds aren’t actually that different from us. It’s possible that they might be the result of human evolution; maybe they’re the ancient people we’ve heard about.”

“No matter how they arose, or whether they were even just a special race, we have no choice but to admit there really are supernatural ent.i.ties like G.o.ds and spirits, and it’s very obvious that an ancient civilization must have long ago come into contact with them.”

On the summit of Mt. Tai was the five-colored altar which had been constructed for that ancient civilization. Countless years before, the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, as well as seventy-two kings had all climbed Mt. Tai for the Heaven Bestowal. This was enough proof.

“Or maybe those G.o.ds are our ancestors…”

The Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors were all G.o.d-like existences back in ancient times. Legend had it that they actually were G.o.ds, so Mt. Tai was definitely not so simple. There were definitely many possibilities.

Maybe they were calling out to some sort of life within the starry sky and so they were transmitting information out to the lonely universe.

Maybe they could fly and go anywhere they wanted, and so the Earth of ancient times already caused them to feel a bit restricted due to being too small. Thus they decided to go to Mt. Tai and leave Earth to enter the depths of the boundless universe.

Maybe Earth was just a relay point for those people and G.o.ds so they only stayed for a short time. In their endless lives, this was just a short moment.

Maybe…

With the ancient times being so distant, no one could say anything for certain. Everything was just a ‘maybe.’ But there was just one thing that no one could refute; the ancient civilization had definitely opened the gate to the starry sky and entered into the boundless cosmos.

“Why are you not saying anything?”

The ancient bronze lamp had already been extinguished, and the bronze coffin was completely dark. Everyone kept a bit closer to each other. Beside Ye Fan was that person that had attacked him. He was leaning against the wall. From the very start, he hadn’t said anything, causing him to attract Ye Fan’s attention.

“What, do you hate me for beating you?” Pang Bo was very dissatisfied, and he coldly sneered, “You almost pushed Ye Fan out of the five-colored altar and cost him his life. Hitting you is just a slight punishment; even pus.h.i.+ng you out into the midst of the divine crocodiles wouldn’t have been too excessive.”

“Hey, wake up. Say something.” A person beside the man shook him.

However, what no one expected was that this person not only didn’t have a reaction, but he simply collapsed onto the ground with a plop!

“You…what’s wrong?!” The person who shook him was shocked and quickly retreated.

At this moment, everyone felt that there was something wrong. Even if he was fast asleep, he wouldn’t be able to stay asleep after falling onto the floor like that. He was completely motionless, silently lying on the ground, just like a dried up tree.

“Wake up, hurry and wake up!” Pang Bo walked forward and shook him. Seeing he didn’t wake, he then slapped his cheeks a couple times before suddenly shouting out, “His skin is so cold, and his body is even a bit rigid!”

Hearing this, everyone felt their hairs stand on end. A bad feeling appeared within their hearts, causing them to feel cold from head to toe.

Ye Fan felt that this situation was very bad. Reaching out his hand to his mouth and nose, he despondently said, “Dead. He stopped breathing a long time ago.”

“WHAT?!” Everyone became alarmed.

How could a healthy person suddenly die like this? Just before, he had been in the middle of a nightmare and talking in his sleep. But now, he was completely silent as he silently lay there with no life.

The air in the huge bronze coffin immediately became extremely tense and oppressive. In the darkness, the only sound was the sound of people’s rough breathing. Their bodies felt ice-cold. This was far too sudden and sinister. Everyone tightly held onto the divine relics in their hands.

“Turn on your cell phones. Just why did he die?” Ye Fan also raised his cell phone, borrowing the weak light to observe the corpse.

He saw a deathly pale face, two prominent eyes opened very wide in fear, and a mouth that was opened slightly with a slight dribble of blood coming out.

“He really is dead.” Everyone was disappointed and frightened. The sudden death caused everyone to feel like a cold wind was blowing on their back. Apparently, some sort of dreadful existence was within this bronze coffin.

A few daring cla.s.smates examined his whole body, trying to find the cause of death.

“Look, his neck….”

His neck was completely bruised and covered with b.l.o.o.d.y scars.  It appeared as if someone had strangled him, and the blood-red color was a ghastly sight.

“Ghost…there’s some ghost in the bronze coffin!” The woman’s heart was filled with fear, and her voice was trembling with fright.

Hearing this, quite a few people felt their scalps go numb. That red-purple scar appeared as if it had been left behind by the fingerprints of an extremely malicious spirit.

It definitely appeared as if he had been throttled to death while he had been alive. With the inner coffin not far from them, a frightening connection was drawn by people. They felt as if the inner coffin was a gate to h.e.l.l, causing people to shudder and take a couple steps back.

Ye Fan creased his brow. Reaching out his hand to the corpse"s throat, he found that the Adam’s apple had been completely disintegrated and only weak skin was holding it intact. The small traces of blood that stuck to his hand appeared especially sinister, causing people’s hearts to tremble.

“There’s no ghost. He was killed by a person!” Just at this moment, Liu Yunzhi appeared extremely gloomy as he said this, coldly turning to look at Ye Fan.

Pang Bo saw that his gaze swept towards Ye Fan and immediately cast him a sideways glance and said, “What are you trying to say?”

“From the wound, we can see that he was strangled to death by a person. Who could accomplish this in such a quiet manner?” Liu Yunzhi’s expression was very cold. Glaring at Pang Bo and Ye Fan, he continued, “Only someone close to him with very powerful hands could be capable of this!”

Saying this, his intention was very clear. This was an attack towards Ye Fan. The person closest to him was now dead, and with his excellent physique, everyone was aware of how powerful his hands could be.

“That is complete rubbis.h.!.+” Pang Bo became enraged. Grabbing onto his Great Thunderchant Temple copper plaque, he started to walk forward.

Liu Yunzhi sneered. Staring at him, he said, “You want to kill me to help silence the truth?”

Ye Fan pulled on Pang Bo, stopping him from rus.h.i.+ng forward.

“It was Ye Fan, he killed him!” Li Changqing who had been standing beside Liu Yunzhi from the start and helped him out a couple times shouted in a fearful voice, “It was definitely Ye Fan, he’s retaliated against him because he hates him for almost pus.h.i.+ng him out of the altar!”

Hearing this logic, the other people immediately recalled what had happened not long ago, and several people immediately recoiled.

“Right, it was Ye Fan! It was him who killed his cla.s.smates!” Li Changqing gnashed his teeth in anger, saying, “Maybe even the people beside him helped out!”

Pang Bo immediately had an urge to go over then and viciously thrash them.

Buzz.

Liu Yunzhi’s jeweled vajra scepter began emitting a metallic vibration, and an extremely weak light began flowing on it.

Everyone was startled; their divine relics had already become ordinary objects which couldn’t blossom in radiance any longer, but Liu Yunzhi’s vajra scepter still had some divine energy left. This was beyond people’s expectations.

“Ye Fan, you are too vicious. Even if he was the first to make a mistake, you shouldn’t have retaliated by killing him…” Liu Yunzhi pressed forward a couple steps while holding his jeweled vajra scepter.

“If I said I didn’t kill anyone, would you believe me?” Ye Fan swept his gaze over everyone.

“I naturally believe!” Pang Bo was the first to stand out.

“I also trust you!” Zhang Ziwen also walked up.

Ye Fan once again turned to look at everyone and said, “You don’t believe me?” His gaze fell on Li Xiaoman.