Chapter 1: The Mysterious Stone Coffin

  Hangcheng County's Zhuzikeng Village is surrounded by mountains on all sides, and in the south it is also a rare poor and remote village. However, this place is actually a rich limestone mine area of the rocky city. After a long period of mining reform, this small mountain village far from the town gradually accepted the management of the mineral resources department. The reason is that the Ministry of Mines promised to build a mine highway leading to the town for the village.

  After the construction of the mine road was completed, the mining department contracted the village's mines to outsiders. As a local resident, they accepted a small subsidy from the mine residents, only 200-300 yuan per year, and some families didn't even have that much.

  In Xiaoyucun Village, there is a convention for mining. Before the first mining, a special worship ceremony must be held to ask the gods for protection. When opening the altar and performing rituals, the village chief must lead the villagers to participate together.

  The contractor originally did not want to accept this feudal superstition ceremony, but under the villagers' consistent insistence, he reluctantly accepted it.

  In the ritual, there is one thing that people pay most attention to, which is setting off firecrackers. If a thousand rounds of firecrackers go off continuously from start to finish, it means the mountain god is willing to let the villagers mine. If the thousand rounds of firecrackers stop suddenly, it means the mountain god does not agree with the villagers mining. If they force the mining, they may provoke the anger of the mountain god and be punished.

  But this time the ritual did not go smoothly, and the firecrackers stopped firing. It took three or four attempts to successfully set off a thousand-firecracker string, but the village chief was unable to change the mind of the mining contractor.

  On August 10, 2006, the mining project in Zhuzikeng Village was fully launched. Yu Chengyao, who had just graduated from junior high school, and his neighbor's younger brother Lan Xiaohai competed for a spot to join the mining project.

  "The results are out, and I have no hope of getting into high school. If I don't go to the mountains to mine, who knows how my master will punish me!" Yu Chengyao, 175cm tall and 65kg in weight, had thick eyebrows and bright eyes that shone with a strange light. However, at this moment, this sixteen-year-old robust youth was frowning and looked listless.

  Lan Xiao Hai carried a pickaxe and put on a safety helmet, walking towards Yu Xian Yao. He patted Yu Xian Yao's shoulder and smiled happily: "It doesn't matter anymore, what high school or not, I can share the burden with my parents today and earn money for my family, it doesn't matter if I don't read books!"

  "After all, you're here for the money, what about me?" Yu Xingyao still looked listless, and followed the main team into the newly excavated mine with his hand held by Lan Xiaohai.

  They said it was a large team, but in fact there were only more than a dozen people. Among these dozen or so people, only Yu Xiangyao and Lan Xiaohai were from the village. The contractor was originally unwilling to use two people, and it was only because the two of them agreed to calculate the labor cost as less that they agreed.

  In this mining area, there are two caves. One is a high cave on the middle of the mountain, and below the high cave is the famous Zhuzi Cave in Zhuzikeng Village. Legend has it that this is a heavenly blessed place, the residence of immortals.

  The area of Zhuzi Rock Cave is about 300 square meters, with stone benches, stone tables and stone beds inside, which can accommodate hundreds of people. It is cool in summer and warm in winter.

  The mine was opened right next to Zhuzi Rock, why not directly enter from the cave of Zhuzi Rock, but instead go through the trouble of opening another tunnel from the side of the rock cave?

  It's already obvious here, this blessed place, would the villagers be willing to let people destroy it?

  But as if it were fate, at noon, a whistle sounded in the mine tunnel. The whistle was a signal that all the dynamite had been laid and was ready to blast open the rock.

  Upon hearing the whistle, all miners had already evacuated the mine, but Yu Xianyao and Lan Xiaohai didn't make it out in time. Just as the two were about to exit the mine, a deafening explosion erupted from behind them, causing the mine to instantly collapse. The stone walls that had been securely fixed around them suddenly shattered with the shockwave of the blast.

  Yu Xianyao and Lan Xiaohai were shocked into a dark space, and the two were also dizzy from the intense shock.

  In the darkness, the cold water dripped from the cave roof and hit the stone wall with a pattering sound. A chill ran through him, instantly waking up Yu Xianyao. He felt like his whole body was falling apart, and he struggled to prop himself up with his hands to lift his upper body.

  All around was dark, quiet except for the sound of dripping water. He still remembered that he and Lan Xiao Hai had exited the cave together before, but the explosion seemed to have blown them apart. He raised his hand to touch the safety helmet on his head, it was still there. He touched the miner's lamp on the helmet again, the glass was shattered.

  He didn't know if this headlamp was still usable, so he tried pressing the switch. With a crackling sound, a beam of light pierced through the darkness in front of him.

  "Thank goodness, this broken thing can still be used!" Yu Xingyao muttered softly, his voice echoing in the darkness as he looked around with the help of the miner's lamp. Stone bench, stone table, stone bed...

  As long as it was a person from Zhuzi Village, he could confirm that he was now in the Zhuzi Rock Cave. He looked around and found Lanyu Hai just a short distance away, with a large stone slab pressing down on his chest like a coffin lid.

  Yu Xingyao was shocked and hastily endured the pain to get up and run over.

  "Ah~oh~" He let out a loud roar, his thick and powerful voice causing the bats in the cave to flutter about in unison. Yu Xianyao struggled to move the stone slab away, revealing Blue Little Sea. But strangely, Blue Little Sea didn't have a single wound on him, which seemed very eerie.

  Yu Xing Yao gently shook the Blue Little Sea, and soon the Blue Little Sea woke up. As soon as he opened his eyes, he raised his hand to cover them and scolded loudly: "A Yao, are you sick or something? Why did you shine a light into my eyes?"

  Upon hearing Lan Xiaohai's lively voice, Yu Chengyao finally let out a sigh of relief and scolded with a smile: "Damn it, earlier there was a huge stone slab on your body, I thought you were crushed to death!"

  Yu Xiangyao moved the light away, and Lan Xiaohai finally saw clearly that a stone slab, similar to a coffin lid, was quietly lying on one side. After seeing the stone slab, he suddenly let out a loud cry and jumped up from the ground.

  "This is grass, where's the stone slab? This is clearly a coffin lid!" Lan Xiaohai patted his chest lightly, his face already deathly pale.

  Yu Xianyao looked at Lan Xiaohai with a surprised and suspicious expression, then lowered his head to examine the stone slab again. This stone slab seemed to have been polished by human hands, and it was indeed a coffin lid. After Yu Xianyao's movements earlier, the outline of the bottom of the stone slab was now visible, making the shape of the coffin lid even clearer.

  "I'm going, and it's really a coffin lid!" Yu Xingyao also shouted in surprise, his face turned pale in an instant. Large beads of sweat flowed down from his forehead, at this moment he only felt that his whole body was icy cold.

  In the darkness, two 16-year-old boys were both frightened. Suddenly, Lan Xiaohai patted Yu Xiangyao's shoulder and pointed to a place in front of him, his face pale with fear, and his terrified expression made Yu Xiangyao jump as well. Following his hand, the beam of light from the headlamp fell on the place where Lan Xiaohai was pointing.

  A stone coffin lay horizontally beside the ruins, due to the collapse of the cave, the originally spacious Zhuzi Rock Cave now only had over a hundred square meters left, and the entrance was also blocked. The stone coffin beside the ruins did not have a lid, facing the two people directly. Along the edge of the coffin, a fleshless hand palm could be seen grasping the edge of the coffin, with the phalanges looking exceptionally pale and eerie in the light beam.

  "Coffin... coffin board... there really is a coffin board!" Xia Hai's face turned pale, and he stuttered as he spoke, his whole body trembling violently.

  Yu Xianyao's face also looked very unsightly, but after all, he had followed his master to learn ancient martial arts for ten years, and his skills were high and his courage was great. After the initial shock, he gradually calmed down, and this coffin appeared very abruptly. Zhu Ziyuan didn't have this coffin before, how could it suddenly appear?

  Yu Xianyao felt a wave of heat emanating from his chest, and a faint golden light penetrated through his thin shirt.

  "A Yao, what's on your chest? Have you been possessed by an evil spirit? Don't scare me!" Xiao Hai's face turned even paler as he scrambled to Yu Xingyao's side. He stared at Yu Xingyao's chest in terror, his hands tightly grasping Yu Xingyao's arm.

  Xiao Hai's hand was icy cold, causing Yu Xingyao to shiver all over.