Chapter 455: Suolong Village!

"Are you kidding me? Look at the time! Are we leaving or staying? Just say the word and stop dawdling." Wang Shi and Feng Minglong stood at the head of the coffin, glaring at me. They had no idea what kind of fit I was throwing, suddenly wanting to search for something in a strange, ruined temple.

"We can't just walk away. We're outsiders here, completely unfamiliar with the area. Even if we manage to slip away, the villagers will probably drag us right back before long. Why ask for trouble?" Gripping the Underworld Live Show Phone, I wandered through the temple, using the Judging Eye to scan every inch of the ground.

"You're right, but it still rubs me the wrong way. We were forced to carry a coffin the second we arrived, and who knows what they'll do to us next. It's all that little brat's fault for running his mouth!"

"Complaining won't help, though stalling for time isn't a bad idea. If we can uncover the village's secrets, the people outside might hesitate to act rashly and avoid doing anything too extreme." Wang Shi seemed to understand my logic, and he began pacing around the temple, mimicking my search.

Time was limited. To prevent the villagers from walking in on us, I sped up my search.

I scoured the place inside and out, checking the Buddha statue in the main hall and even the blind spots up in the rafters. Unfortunately, I still found absolutely nothing.

"The Live Show text only arrived after I stepped into the temple. Assuming the Underworld Live Show has been watching me through the stream this whole time, they wouldn't get the location wrong. The sarira has to be in this temple." My brow slowly furrowed as my gaze landed on the only spot I hadn't checked yet—the coffin behind the Buddha statue.

"You two, get over here and help me open this coffin!"

At those words, Feng Minglong and Wang Shi's faces immediately changed.

"This place is wicked. Who knows what's hidden inside that coffin? If you let it out, all three of us might end up dead."

"Exactly. Just looking at it, you can tell this isn't an empty tomb. The dead must be left undisturbed. Messing around like this will provoke the wrath of both men and gods."

Wang Shi and Feng Minglong completely opposed the idea, and I couldn't just force my way. Just as I was about to try and talk some sense into them, the village clan elder walked in.

He was incredibly old and hunchbacked. Even the pale Paper Doll Mask on his face couldn't completely hide his gray, knotted beard.

'A step too late,' I sighed inwardly in disappointment. With the clan elder right there, I definitely didn't dare open the coffin in front of him. Waving at Wang Shi and Feng Minglong, I took the lead and grabbed the foot of the coffin. "Don't just stand there. Let's carry it out first."

It took the combined strength of all three of us just to lift the coffin, and even with a massive effort, we barely managed to carry it out of the main hall.

"What kind of wood is this? Why is it so heavy?" Wang Shi and Feng Minglong had it easier since they were sharing the weight. I was lifting the rear end all by myself, my arm muscles bulging under the intense strain.

The hunchbacked clan elder trailed right behind us, his eyes fixed on our every move. He was wearing a mask, so I couldn't read his expression. I had no choice but to grit my teeth and dutifully haul the coffin outside the temple.

The moment we crossed the temple threshold and set the coffin down, the surrounding villagers spontaneously closed in around us.

None of them spoke. They just kept their eyes glued to us, leaping into a bizarre, exaggerated dance that sent their colorful garments fluttering wildly.

"Step aside," Lu Shan said, standing beside the clan elder and acting as his translator. The three of us outsiders backed away as four burly men stepped out of the god-welcoming procession. They were bare-chested. Working in pairs, they bound thick wooden carrying poles with hemp ropes, securing the four corners of the coffin. Then, all four squatted down and lifted the coffin with practiced ease.

'Professional technique. Are they the village's coffin bearers?' I thought, silently slipping the phone behind my back. I did my best to keep the villagers from noticing I was recording, as it would be a massive sign of disrespect to them.

With the coffin hoisted up, the four men took the lead at the front of the procession. Right behind them came a raucous band blowing horns and beating drums, followed by four others carrying the Soul Sedan Chair. The three of us outsiders brought up the rear, trailing alongside some of the village women and children.

"This god-welcoming custom is certainly unique. A coffin and a Soul Sedan Chair—half-wedding, half-funeral." My gaze stayed locked on the coffin at the front of the line. There was an eighty percent chance the Underworld Live Show's target was right inside it. "I'll play it by ear. If I get it, I'm lucky; if I lose it, it's fate. I can't force it."

The god-welcoming procession hadn't run into any trouble on the way up, but as the old saying goes, it's easier to climb a mountain than to descend. I couldn't tell if the unluckiness of the coffin was clashing with the Soul Sedan Chair, or if it was something else entirely, but the procession's pace slowed to a crawl.

"Keep a sharp eye out. Watch your surroundings," I warned. My senses were extremely sharp, and a chill kept crawling down my spine. I had a nagging suspicion that something else had slipped into the god-welcoming procession.

After descending the mountain and just as we were about to enter the village, another accident occurred.

One of the coffin bearers shouldering the carrying pole lost his footing and tumbled to the ground. The heavy square coffin was perfectly balanced among the four of them, so the moment he let go, the hemp rope snapped under the uneven strain, and one corner of the coffin slammed directly into the dirt.

The clan elder flew into a rage. He stormed over and viciously kicked the burly man several times, then carefully pulled out a white cloth to collect the soil where the coffin had struck the ground.

The burly man hobbled away, looking like he had sprained his ankle. He also felt entirely innocent, as if he had been inexplicably tripped by something out of nowhere. After all, these coffin bearers were highly skilled professionals who prided themselves on their perfect balance; they were supposed to be able to navigate mountain trails and muddy bogs with total ease.

The clan elder cursed for a while longer before calling Lu Shan over. He then pointed a stiff finger straight at me through the crowd, instantly filling me with a sense of foreboding.

It didn't take long for Lu Shan to jog over and relay the elder's intentions to me.

One of the coffin bearers was injured, and I was to take his place.

There weren't many men in the village to begin with. I shot a look at Wang Shi and Feng Minglong, but both of them looked entirely aloof, as if this had absolutely nothing to do with them. It made my teeth grind with irritation.

Leaving the coffin stranded at the village entrance was highly unpropitious. Persuaded by Lu Shan, I draped the oversized robes of a coffin bearer over my shoulders, accepted the Paper Doll Mask the elder handed me, put it on my face, and hoisted the carrying pole to take the injured man's place.

The carrying pole was thick, cleverly designed to work with short supporting sticks and hemp ropes. With the four of us evenly dividing the coffin's weight, it wasn't actually too exhausting.

I didn't think much of it at first, but as we walked, something gradually felt wrong. I couldn't tell if it was just an illusion, but the closer we got to the village, the heavier the coffin became.

By the time we reached the village entrance, my shoulder had been pressed into red welts. The truly bizarre part was that the other three bearers were moving smoothly, their expressions relaxed. They didn't show the slightest sign of strain.

'Is this coffin targeting me? Is there actually a corpse inside?'

Enduring the pain in my shoulder, I trudged along, staggering step by step until we finally reached our destination.

The long god-welcoming procession drew to a halt in front of a stone building in the center of the village. It was the largest structure around. An incredibly old, hand-carved wooden plaque was mounted above the lintel, bearing three ancient characters. The middle character was 'Dragon.' The other two were somewhat blurred, and I didn't look at them closely.

The coffin could not touch the ground during the god-welcoming. Led by the clan elder, only the four of us carrying the coffin and Lu Shan entered the stone building.

Flickering white candles cast dancing shadows across rows of lacquered wooden spirit tablets arranged on the altar. I swept a quick glance over them; every single name bore the surname Lu.

'Is this the Lu Clan's ancestral hall?'

At the elder's command, the four of us carefully lowered the coffin onto the bluestone floor tiles. Then, he personally pushed open the lid.

I stood on my tiptoes to steal a peek. There was no corpse inside the coffin; there was only a Double-Faced Buddha Statue carved from white jade.

The statue was incredibly bizarre. Its most special feature was its chest, where a black-and-white heart was sealed.

'The Good and Evil Sarira?!'

A body of white jade and a heart of Buddha bone. The sculpture was carved so lifelike that those two diametrically opposed faces almost seemed to be alive, radiating an aura that made one afraid to meet their eyes.

'So the deity the village is trying to welcome is the Two-Faced Buddha. Now that I've found the Good and Evil Sarira, my next step is to map out an escape route.' I completely hid the flash of joy in my eyes, keeping my expression perfectly neutral.

The elder directed the other bearers to lift the sculpture out of the coffin and place it onto the ancestral hall's altar. The instant the White Jade Buddha Statue pressed down on the altar, every single spirit tablet on the table began to tremble slightly, as if reacting to some unseen resonance. A moment later, a faint tremor could be felt through the ground beneath the entire village. The only things unaffected were the flames atop the white candles, burning as steadily as before.

Once the tremors finally ceased, the elder led the other men outside, leaving only Lu Shan in the ancestral hall.

The doors to the ancestral hall closed. I returned to Wang Shi and Feng Minglong, silently watching the stone building. My gaze gradually locked onto the wooden plaque resting above the lintel. Having studied the profound texts of Profound Truth and the martial manuals of the Crushing Fist, I had some knowledge of ancient Chinese characters. The more I stared at the three faded characters on that plaque, the more familiar they looked. A fragmented memory suddenly surfaced in the depths of my mind, and I blurted out the three words: "Suolong Village?"