Chapter 009: The Thirtieth Person Inside the Bronze Coffin

"How could this be... there's one more person!"

"Who... who is it?"

The person asking was trembling in their voice.

All the phone screens lit up, and everyone fearfully looked around, dreading the appearance of an unfamiliar face.

People who knew each other tried to huddle together, nervously scanning their surroundings.

At that moment, they finally confirmed that there was indeed one extra person, standing in a corner not far away.

"Who... who are you?"

"Are you a person or a ghost?"

Being in the mysterious bronze coffin, anything eerie could happen, and everyone was extremely uneasy.

A rough cough came from the dark corner, and the figure moved, then uttered a low and hoarse voice, saying, "Ghost... ghost..."

The hoarse voice echoed inside the bronze coffin. At that moment, everyone felt a chill from head to toe, their hair standing on end, and a bone-chilling cold spread throughout.

People felt as if they had fallen into an ice cellar, many were terrified, and some female students even screamed and cried out loud, almost collapsing to the ground.

"Ghost... this place..."

The voice was slightly weak, and it was clear that the figure was very tired. He swayed and tried to stand up.

"This really is a ghostly place. Are we inside the bronze coffin?" The figure in the corner slowly stood up, asking a somewhat confused question, his voice gradually becoming stronger.

Seeing the tall figure stand up, many people involuntarily stepped back.

The figure continued to move forward while speaking, saying, "It's me, Pang Bo."

"Stop, don't come any closer!" Everyone held up their phones, using the faint light to peer ahead.

Ye Fan pushed through the crowd and slowly approached, asking, "Are you really Pang Bo?"

"Can't you even recognize my voice?" In the darkness, a phone screen lit up, revealing a familiar figure holding the phone. He had thick eyebrows and big eyes, with a sturdy body.

Pang Bo was Ye Fan's best friend from university, who couldn't make it to the gathering due to some personal matters. His sudden appearance now made everyone suspicious.

"I don't believe it. Pang Bo didn't come to the gathering at all. Who... who are you really?" someone's voice trembled from the back.

A person who shouldn't have been there was standing right inside the bronze coffin, making many people feel the hair on their scalp prickle.

"I am, of course, Pang Bo. Does anyone have water? I'm dying of thirst." The figure continued to move forward.

"Stop!" Everyone was still finding it hard to believe.

Pang Bo had to stop, and to prove his identity, he explained many past events from their university days, including some old stories that only they would know.

"I believe he is Pang Bo." Ye Fan said firmly, then strode to Pang Bo's side. The two hadn't seen each other for a while, and even in this situation, they hugged tightly.

"At first, I couldn't make it to the gathering on time because of some family matters. Later, when I heard everyone was coming to Mount Tai, I naturally rushed over after finishing up at home..."

Pang Bo took the bottle of mineral water Ye Fan handed him and drank several large gulps before recounting how he ended up inside the bronze coffin.

When he arrived, everyone had already gone up the mountain, and he took the cable car up.

Overall, he was lucky. He reached the Yuhuang Peak safely just before the nine dragon corpses and the bronze coffin collided with Mount Tai. He didn't follow the crowd down the mountain but instead clung tightly to a tree, waiting until Mount Tai calmed down without getting injured.

Later, he saw from afar as Ye Fan and the others fell into the giant pit. When he ran over, he saw the ancient characters shining in mid-air. He was fixed outside the pit, unable to move a step. It wasn't until the bronze coffin shook and the lid shifted that he was taken in after everyone else.

Perhaps because he was outside the five-colored altar, Pang Bo was knocked unconscious by the fall into the bronze coffin.

Only now did everyone gradually dispel their doubts, and the tense atmosphere finally eased.

"We must find a way to save ourselves. Being in this bronze coffin makes me uneasy, and I have a bad feeling..." Li Xiaoman's face was a bit pale, her beautiful eyes staring at the dark depths of the coffin. Compared to other female students, she and Lin Jia were very calm.

Hearing this, many people felt a chill run through their bodies.

"Let's stay together and not separate," Zhou Yi suggested.

Everyone gathered together, using the faint light from their phones to examine their surroundings. They were pressed against one side of the coffin, where they could see vague bronze engravings: ferocious nine-headed birds spreading their wings, and huge ferocious beasts covered in foot-long hard bristles roaring at the sky...

The bronze engravings, covered in verdigris, depicted some of the ancient ferocious beasts recorded in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas," such as Taotie, Qiongqi, and Wu. They were massive, ferocious, and lifelike, striking fear into those who looked at them.

After walking along the inner wall of the coffin for a while, they also found many human figures engraved, like ancient ancestors and some ancient deities. Then, they discovered a large area of strange patterns, dense and starry, resembling a star chart.

The bronze coffin was twenty meters long and over eight meters wide. What they saw was just a small part of it. They didn't continue to observe, as at this moment, they sensed that there seemed to be some object deep within the coffin.

All the phones were held together, and everyone mustered their courage to take a few steps forward. Vaguely, they could see a rectangular object in the center of the darkness.

Obviously, it wasn't a corpse or a living creature, which slightly reassured everyone, and they continued to move forward.

"Inside the coffin, there's another coffin!" When they finally saw the object clearly, many gasped.

At the very center lay another bronze coffin, less than four meters long and less than two meters wide. It was simple yet dim, with ancient engravings, covered in verdigris, and etched with the marks of time, filling them with a sense of dread and fear.

"It's not that there's a coffin inside the coffin, this one is the real coffin, the one used to hold the body. The outer bronze coffin is called the 'coffin chamber,' and together they are known as 'coffin and chamber.'" Pang Bo explained to those who didn't quite understand the meaning of the terms.

Upon hearing that the inner coffin was the one used to hold the body, many people stepped back, their fear reaching its peak.

What kind of person was buried in this mysterious bronze coffin? Everyone was filled with both surprise and terror.

The archaeological secrets and imperial tombs they had heard about before paled in comparison to this bronze coffin. It was nothing!

Who had seen a twenty-meter-long bronze coffin? Who had seen a mysterious giant coffin falling from the sky? Who had seen nine dragon corpses pulling a coffin? It made one wonder if what was buried inside was even a human corpse. It was unimaginable what could be inside the coffin.