Volume 6 Chapter 19: The trap

In the blink of an eye, the sound of the trap stirring came from the bottom of the coffin and spread all the way out. Before Uncle San could react, he heard a “bang” in the darkness of the direction they were heading, as if something heavy had fallen into the huge iron cylinder they had seen on the way in. In the confined space, the sound was extremely loud, and it made his heart shrink.

Uncle San quickly withdrew his hand, wiping it on his body without caring about the filth, and then turned the flashlight in the direction of the iron tank, thinking to himself, “This is bad.”

This is not the ground. If there is a rock falling on the tomb passage or yellow sand pouring down from the tomb roof, there is still time to fight back and escape through the hole. This is the coral reef plate at the bottom of the sea. Once there is any mechanism that traps them, they will die without a chance of survival. There is no need to think about it. Just pick the location where you will be dead.

Xie Lianhuan was also shocked because the vibration came from the coffin. He thought that the coffin would change and retreated far away.

Although Uncle San hated Xie Lianhuan so much that he wanted to kill him with a knife, he was still his relative after all, so he couldn’t just let him run around. He stopped Xie Lianhuan from moving, jumped down from the iron coffin, and carefully walked towards the iron tank, wanting to see what the mechanism had triggered and what had fallen into the tank.

The iron tank was less than 20 steps away from him, and soon he reached the side of the tank. At this time, he could no longer hear the mechanical sound of the mechanism operating, and it seemed that the mechanism had stopped operating. Uncle San swallowed his saliva and looked up at the top of the iron tank. He discovered that there was a flip-top on the top of the tomb chamber above the iron tank. This is what we call a “ghost stepping on air.” Such mechanisms on the top of the tomb chamber are often placed with extremely heavy rocks. Once triggered, the heavy object will fall down and crush the person into a meat pie. Now, what fell from above was not a boulder, but two huge iron chains that hung down into the iron tank.

Uncle San looked at it in surprise and thought to himself, “What kind of mechanism is this? It doesn’t seem to be a trap to prevent tomb robbers. The place where the mechanism is triggered is in the coffin. If something falls into this iron tank, it won’t kill people. What will fall down?

Thinking about the irrationality of this tomb chamber, Uncle San’s heart was even more puzzled. He calmed down, took out his dagger and bit down on it, then crawled onto the iron tank and looked down carefully along the iron chains.

At first glance, he saw a strange object lying at the bottom of the tank. Upon closer inspection, he discovered that it was two black, ghostly-looking latch locks, holding a skeleton. The limbs were tangled with the iron chains, and the hands and feet were broken. It looked like a slave who had been buried alive.

The skeleton was extremely burly, wearing tattered bronze scales. The skull was strange. The lute lock was locking the clavicle of the skeleton. One clavicle had already broken, but the other was still firmly hanging on it.

Uncle San was greatly surprised and thought to himself, “Using a lute lock to wear a clavicle is a kind of torture in ancient times, used to restrict the freedom of prisoners. In ancient times, people with high martial arts skills could not be restrained by ordinary locks, so they would use the method of locking the collarbone. The collarbone is extremely fragile after being pierced, and once excessive force is applied, it will fracture. The reason why the collarbone is called the collarbone is also because of this reason.

The bones had rotted away, and even the bones had turned into dead scales, as if they would break apart at the slightest touch. Uncle San carefully shone his flashlight on the bones, and saw that the shape of the skull was different from that of ordinary people.

It was so strange that it was really bizarre. Looking at the structure of the tomb, it is clear that the skeleton has long been hanging from the ceiling of the tomb. If you touch the mechanism inside the coffin, the skeleton will suddenly fall, which is really ingenious.

But, what is the purpose of this? If it is a mechanism to prevent theft, it is terrifying, but it has no lethal effect. Can people who come to this underwater tomb be scared away by the dead bones? And the skeleton hanging there is obviously not an ordinary corpse. What is it?

Uncle San had a very limited imagination, and he was even more at a loss when he was frightened. But his mind was quick, and in an instant he thought, “This skeleton is so terrifying, could it be a corpse that has turned into a zongzi?” The iron chain was as thick as a bowl, and it had a latch, so it was obvious that the thing it was locking was extremely powerful when it was alive. I had heard that there were people in the Miao region who could raise little ghosts and walking corpses in the underworld. Could it be that the owner of this tomb had used a pipa lock to lock a corpse that had already turned into a corpse, using it as a watchdog?

The bones had already rotted away, so even if it was really a zongzi, it would have been reduced to dust and ash, and it was not to be feared. Uncle San was curious, and he was also brave enough to climb into the iron tank to take a closer look. He also called out to Xie Lianhuan to come over and take a picture of this thing so that he could ask about it when he got back.

Xie Lianhuan did not respond to him, so naturally, Uncle San did not care and climbed into the tank. Unexpectedly, the inside of the tank was covered with a layer of dust that had drifted down from the top of the tomb. He stepped on it with his wet feet, and suddenly slipped. He spun around on the tank wall and fell into the pile of bones.

The bones were already powdery and brittle, and when they fell, they fell apart. Now, after the impact, they had almost turned into pieces. Uncle San quickly sat up, took his flashlight and looked around. He saw that he had fallen into the arms of the skeleton, and the deformed skull was hanging by his head. It had been smashed by his fall, exposing the cranial cavity inside. A large mass of what looked like a honeycomb was stuck to the inside of the cranial cavity, and it was full of eggs that looked like pearls.