Chapter 9: Real-life Secret Room Escape
Lin Yan watched a Jar Spirit causing chaos from the VIP seats, completely satisfied, and didn’t even care about being startled by Fatty’s appearance.
By the time Wu Xie and the others recovered from their leg weakness, they felt a mix of eeriness and wry amusement.
At that moment, Zhang Qiling reacted: “Oh no, he’s heading for our tomb-robbing hole! If he disturbs the one in the stone coffin, we’re all done for!”
With that, he darted into the darkness in a few bounds, grabbing his Black Gold Ancient Saber to chase after Fatty.
Wu Xie had just recovered from his leg weakness and asked Wu Sansheng: “Third Uncle, should we go help him?”
Wu Sansheng glared at him: “Help my ass. With that time, you might as well check out those two side chambers—he came from there.”
Wu Xie hurried over, and Lin Yan followed suit upon seeing this. Before going, he saw Wu Sansheng subtly gesture to Da Kui, which made his steps quicken a bit—better to stick with Wu Xie.
No matter what they were planning, not getting tangled up with them was what a bystander should do, or else he might get schemed by the old fox and die without even knowing it.
The two reached the side chamber on the right and saw a tomb-robbing hole dug from above, with a candle burning with eerie green light in the corner and a backpack discarded on the ground nearby.
“So he’s a Mojin.” Wu Xie suddenly understood. He opened the backpack and skimmed over batteries, tools, and such; importantly, he pulled out a map of this tomb chamber. The seven coffins marked on the map looked just like the seven coffins, and beside them were notes from several people, boldly labeled with four big words in prominent font: Seven Star Suspicious Coffin.
“Seven Star Suspicious Coffin?” Wu Xie clearly remembered something. Lin Yan looked at him with interest upon hearing this—though he didn’t recall what the book said, an on-site pop science lesson was still fine.
Wu Xie sensed his gaze and smiled at him: “Lin Xiaoge, do you know what a Seven Star Suspicious Coffin is?”
Lin Yan shook his head.
Wu Xie grinned even wider, clearly immersed in the joy of explaining: “I saw it in the notebook my grandfather left me. In a Seven Star Suspicious Coffin, only one is real; the others are rigged with mechanisms or eerie things. Open the wrong one and you’re done for. That guy who died in the previous coffin probably picked the wrong one. The tomb-robbing hole outside was likely made by his panicked companion who fled this tomb chamber in a hurry.”
Lin Yan rubbed his chin thoughtfully and gave an affirming nod to Third Master Xiao’s case-cracking talent: “Solid analysis—the truth of the matter is probably just that.”
Wu Xie nodded, picked up the map, and said: “Let’s go find Third Uncle; he probably wants to know too.”
Lin Yan packed up Fatty’s backpack and followed him out. As expected, they were the only two left in the tomb chamber—the old fox had quietly slipped away with his subordinate long ago.
Wu Xie looked at the mine lamp left behind amid the tomb’s mess—it was the same one from the corpse-pit floor that had been underwater before! Don’t ask how he knew; anyone with eyes could see the flickering was off!
Wu Xie looked at Lin Yan somewhat helplessly: “My Third Uncle and them wouldn’t just ditch me and run, right? What do we do now?”
Lin Yan glanced around; it was deathly quiet, no echoes at all. They really had all left. So, young comrade Wu Xie’s lifelong quest to find Third Uncle was starting now? Full of fighting spirit!
Just him and Wu Xie, two weaklings, stuck in a tomb chamber full of coffins—it was truly a bit scary. Lin Yan involuntarily shivered and called to Wu Xie: “No matter where they went, they’re definitely not going back the way we came. We might as well follow that tomb-robbing hole; maybe we can catch up to them.”
Wu Xie nodded; that was the only way now. He made a mark by the tomb-robbing hole entrance. If Wu Sansheng and the others didn’t go this way, they’d see he was missing and know he went out through this tomb-robbing hole.
Just as he turned to call Lin Yan, a click sounded from the tomb chamber.
Instantly, both froze in place.
Wu Xie slowly turned his head and saw the side chamber’s candle had gone out. Just as he breathed a sigh of relief, in his peripheral vision, two corpses sat up in the coffin they’d opened. He could only see the top one was definitely a corpse, but the one below…
He swallowed hard, frantically signaling Lin Yan with his eyes that there was danger behind him, while tiptoeing toward the tomb-robbing hole.
Lin Yan followed Wu Xie’s gaze and saw the thing sitting up. He kept telling himself: It’s just a corpse; sitting up is a mechanism. It won’t come over; just hurry and go and it’ll be fine… right?
Of course, on the surface he maintained the transmigrator’s cool demeanor, calm as could be—though a close look would reveal his expression had stiffened.
By the time they finally reached the tomb-robbing hole, Wu Xie’s legs were so weak he could barely stand. Seeing the corpse hadn’t followed in his peripheral vision, he shouted, “Run!” and bolted inside like a rabbit.
Lin Yan had nearly calmed down, but that shout scared him into a cold sweat. He instinctively yelped and scrambled forward after Wu Xie as fast as he could.
They didn’t know how long they crawled before finally smelling fresh air. Wu Xie said excitedly: “I see firelight! We’re almost there! The exit’s right ahead!” His voice was still trembling a bit.
Hearing this, Lin Yan perked up too and crawled forward faster.
Wu Xie, after so many scares, was barely managing to crawl out. He tumbled out the tomb-robbing hole entrance, and when Lin Yan emerged, he nearly rolled onto him.
Dodging the feet under him, Lin Yan quickly steadied himself and pulled Wu Xie up. The two, covered in grime, exchanged a smile full of the joy of seeing daylight again.
But when they looked ahead, where was this any exit? It was just a tomb passage with firelight!
The tomb passage before them wasn’t just similar to the entry point—it was identical. Wu Xie was on the verge of tears: “I really thought we could get out.”
Lin Yan gave him a sympathetic look, thinking: Young comrade, you haven’t wrecked this tomb yet—how could you leave? You’re the guy who raises corpses every time he opens a coffin and destroys every tomb he enters! This passage is obviously toward the tomb center! Wasn’t that Qilin thing found here? Your intermittent bug-repelling physique and the hand-slashing life whenever you disagree with Xiaoge await you, young comrade!
He patted Wu Xie’s shoulder: “We’re already here, so let’s check the map for other ways out. There’s a stone coffin ahead and the Seven Star Suspicious Coffin behind. As long as nothing’s chasing us, this spot’s still safe enough. Besides, we might find a way out soon.”
Wu Xie sighed and pulled out the map, discovering the reverse side was a bird’s-eye view of the tomb, clearly marking the positions of each coffin and tomb-robbing hole.
Seeing “collapsed” marked on the tomb-robbing hole leading to the surface, Lin Yan was helpless too. No wonder Wu Xie couldn’t get out of his first tomb despite having a map—the exit had caved in.
Now they had to find another way.
Remarkably, a dead-end passage to the left was also marked with a tomb chamber, drawn in dashed lines—probably accessible via mechanism or some other method.
Wu Xie pondered this, went to the stone wall, and started tapping and prodding everywhere. Lin Yan, an ordinary guy who couldn’t remember details, joined him at the stone wall with interest, thinking this place felt like an escape room—he figured the mechanism was either underground or in the wall.
Sure enough, when he pressed a stone slab where the wall met the ground, it loosened.
He pressed again but it wouldn’t go down, so he called to Wu Xie: “Wu Xie, I found the mechanism—come help!”
Wu Xie crouched down with him, and together they finally pressed the slab down.
He fully expected a door to open through, but instead the ground gave way beneath them, and the two tumbled down in a heap.
