Chapter 10 Boundless Land
The bronze coffin’s interior was pitch-black. Gradually, everyone calmed down and no more words were said. Each and every person was full of fear. Staring at the bronze inner coffin in front of them, they knew that it was this coffin that was used for a corpse. Nervous coarse breathing was the only sound that could be heard.
Just what was inside this rusted bronze coffin?
“This is all because of Mt. Tai’s five-colored altar.”
Only after a long pause did everyone begin discussing the event. They wanted to know just why this had all occurred.
“Right, it probably was all because of the five-colored altar. It brought the nine dragon corpses and bronze inner/outer coffin.”
What they had seen was too unimaginable. It had a huge impact on their thinking and understanding of the world. The five-colored altar should have been constructed by the earliest people in ancient times, so it definitely had many mysteries.
Ye Fan pondered for a long time. Just what kind of secrets that no one knew about were in that section of history that had been destroyed?
With no more danger appearing, everyone gradually calmed down. They began to speculate on everything that had happened.
“Or maybe the nine dragons pulling the coffin were called by the earliest people in ancient times.”
As soon as this suggestion was made, someone refuted it, saying, “The ancient times occurred so many years ago. Everyone related to it is long dead.”
“My meaning is that the nine dragons pulling the coffin arrived late, and so they only appeared now. But they were called in ancient times.”
When a female classmate brought up this idea, everyone was stumped for words. The nine dragons and ancient coffin arrived late from a calling in ancient times? They were responding to a call from millennia ago? That was inconceivable!
“The truth is something we have no way of knowing. There are many possibilities and we can merely guess.”
“That’s right. It’s also possible that the nine dragons pulling the coffin had absolutely nothing to do with ancient times, and they simply came of their own accord.”
“You guys all saw the carvings. There were people from ancient times and gods from the Ancient Desolation. Many of the people in the carvings had tear stains, letting us know how bleak and sorrowful that time was. It’s obviously recounting an ancient story.”
“That might be true. The nine dragons pulling the coffin broke charged through the dangers of space to return to their home! A bloody-teared, ancient story…”
Was it really possible that the earliest people used some method that no one knew about to explore an unknown and remote space? Nine dragons pulling a corpse to return to their home, dedicated to the point that their bones dried up, but their corpses were still intact?
In the midst of their discussion, everyone’s fear lessened as they brought up all kinds of possibilities. But they still continued to stay away from that centermost bronze coffin. They were all daunted by it. No one would touch it, let alone open it.
“I think that the people who are coming to save us should have climbed up Mt. Tai by now. They might even be near where we’re trapped by now.”
“If nothing unexpected occurs, they should be able to rescue us soon.”
No one had any means of escaping the ancient coffin. The bronze coffin was 8-9 meters tall, and the lid was sealed. There simply was no way to get out.
Just as everyone was contemplating their rescue, the bronze inner and outer coffins suddenly began a fit of violent trembling. The ground they were standing on became unstable, shaking and swaying, and quite a few people were knocked down onto the ground.
“What is it, what’s happening?” Everyone was completely bewildered. There were even some female classmates who once again began sobbing, tightly grabbing on to the person beside them.
“Did the rescue people arrive? Are they trying to get us out right now?”
In the midst of their worry and fear, the bronze coffin’s trembling once more violently increased, and this time no one could remain on their feet. They were all knocked onto the icy-cold bronze coffin’s floor.
BANG!
Another round of shaking began. It was like an airplane passing through frigid cloud layers; as if a thick layer of ice formed on the plane, causing it to constantly rock.
Boom!
At the end, the last tremor sounded like a clap of thunder, breaking people’s hopes. They could clearly feel the huge bronze coffin had just made a huge collision with something.
But it was at this moment, in the pitch-black bronze coffin, that those bronze carvings began emitting weak specks of light. The lights somehow counteracted the unimaginably strong impact force.
Everyone was completely bewildered. Just now, they clearly felt as if the very ground was turning upside down. But in just another split second, it returned to being completely calm and quiet.
“Something’s not right. Just now, there was clearly a terrifyingly strong impact. How can it be calm now?”
“Right, the bronze coffin definitely received a fierce collision. We even flipped over a couple times. But we didn’t get injured.”
At this moment, everyone was shocked to discover that the inner coffin was now hanging on the outer coffin’s side wall. It was firmly fixed there, with no signs that it would fall.
“The bronze inner and outer coffin were definitely overturned. The small corpse-storing coffin is definitely fixed onto the larger coffin’s bottom and can’t be moved. So we know that the whole coffin must have turned over, and that’s why it appears like the inner coffin is hanging on the side.”
The huge impact just now must have been exceedingly strong, but it was completely resolved by just the weak lights that came from the bronze carvings. It seemed unimaginable.
“Light, there’s light outside!” Li Xiaoman cried out in surprise.
Everyone turned their heads where Li Xiaoman was looking, and sure enough, there were dim rays of light that were entering the coffin.
“When the bronze coffin flipped over, the lid must have come off! We can finally escape!”
The bronze coffin’s lid had already moved from its original position. Now there was enough space for two people to walk shoulder-to-shoulder. But the outside was very dusky, so the light that was coming in wasn’t very obvious.
Everyone let out a couple cheers before scrambling forward to run out. They didn’t want to stay in this pitch-black and dreadful place for even one second longer than they had to.
However, when everyone rushed out of the bronze inner/outer coffins, they all were struck dumb, appearing like wooden carvings or clay models.
The ground appeared to have been contaminated with bloody water, appearing reddish-brown. It appeared cold and hard. The dull and desolate ground was empty as far as the eye could see except for some sporadic huge towering rocks that appeared like tombstones.
The light was bleak and murky, appearing lifeless and spiritless. A faint and dark mist lingered this evening.
Everyone was completely dumbstruck. There was no way this place was Mt. Tai’s summit. The russet-colored ground spread as far as the eye could see, and there were no signs of life in this deathly stillness. There was no way this was a place they had seen before.
A place they’d never seen before, a place they’d never heard anything of. It was completely unfamiliar and mysterious.
“Where…is this? Have we…left Mt. Tai?” The voice of the person speaking trembled.
“Maybe the people who rescued us brought us to an isolated place because they are afraid of the nine dragon corpses?” The classmate who said this didn’t even believe his own words.
A bad premonition seemed to rise within everyone. This turn of events did not seem very encouraging. At this moment, many people started to try making calls on their cell phones, but there was simply no way for them to get any signal.
“This place isn’t Mt. Tai. Where are we?” Many people revealed panicked expressions. Instead of the joy of escaping one trap, they were all terrified.
From the moment they had been trapped in the bronze coffin to now, it had only been a quarter of an hour. But the scene before them appeared to have changed greatly. The completely imposing and towering Mt. Tai that looked down on thousands of other mountains could no longer be seen. Instead, this new terrain was basically completely level with only some gentle slopes. Covered in pebbles, it was boundless and barren.
Ye Fan calmly looked at everything. His ominous premonition turned out to have come true. He had had a bad feeling when he saw the Taiji eight trigram diagram condense to form a huge and dark channel. Although he didn’t see the nine dragons pull the coffin into the channel towards some unknown place, at this moment he didn’t need to consider it anymore. The sight before his eyes was enough for him to know that he was no longer on Mt. Tai. In fact, this wasn’t even Earth.