HINLEY Yang splashed the strong liquor onto my shoulder again, and the sudden pain made sweat bead on my forehead. Just as I was about to cry out, the instant I opened my mouth, I suddenly spotted an "figure" at the end of the wooden beam. The sound of "pain" that had rushed to my lips was forcefully swallowed back. I quickly raised the "Wolf's Eye" to shine behind Professor Sun, and Shirley Yang, sensing something was amiss, also drew the "Vajra Umbrella" from behind her back.

The black beam, after descending into the deep chasm, was suspended between two sheer cliffs draped with ancient, damp vines. The space was extremely narrow. Looking up, one could see a faint, hazy strip of white light, the height soaring thousands of feet. Looking down was only blackness veiled in thin smoke and mist. Listening to the rush of water, it seemed to be hundreds of meters below our feet. This area was suspended between heaven and earth. As human eyes adjusted, the surrounding light felt neither truly dark nor truly bright. From my position, I could just make out an old man with a long beard seated just behind the ancient vines covering the cliff face, though only his outline was visible; one couldn't see clearly without getting closer.

Professor Sun saw us staring intently in his direction and quickly turned back to look. He also spotted what seemed to be a person hiding in the crevice of the cliff, gasped in surprise, and hurriedly covered the wound on his head, shrinking back.

Fatty, on the other end of the wooden beam, noticed this situation. He pulled out the "Chain Shotgun" ready to fire, but I quickly raised my hand to stop him: "Don't move. It looks like just a corpse. I don't know if it's Commander Feng. Let me go over and check first."

This time, no one dared to congregate in one spot on the black beam again. They dispersed from each other, trying to distribute the weight on the wooden beam evenly. I wrapped my wound, felt for the dried donkey hoof in my bag, sidestepped past Professor Sun, and reached the cliff wall. I used the engineer's shovel to push aside the climbing vines, revealing a suspended coffin hidden within the rock crevice. The coffin was made of ancient pine wood, its bark resembling layers of dragon scales rippling across the surface.

The lid of the suspended coffin had been lifted, and the corpse inside was sitting up. Its eye sockets were sunken, the flesh withered and yellowed, but the ancient corpse retained an air of spiritual grace. Its hair was tied up in a bun, bound with a crown made of thorny vines, and it was clad in a wide, grey robe, cradling an ancient, intricately patterned long bronze sword in its arms. Its eyebrows and beard were entirely white, and the long beard drifted slightly in the air.

The old man in the coffin might have been dead for millennia, but in this perfect locale within the "Coffin Gorge"—a place that gathered the winds and conserved the qi—he remained as lifelike as a living person. His garments and appearance remained uncorroded and unblemished.

I shone the "Wolf's Eye" over the ancient corpse that had risen from the coffin. I had never seen such a figure possessing an immortal bearing before. Sun Jiuye said, "This suspended coffin tomb is unusual. I fear this is the burial site of an ancient hermit!"

Although I saw the ancient corpse possessed an immortal air, I harbored some doubt about Professor Sun's words. With my eyesight as a 'Grave Robber Captain' (Mojin Xiaowei), it was difficult to immediately discern the identity of the ancient corpse, so how could he state so definitively that it was an "ancient hermit"? It seemed merely a subjective speculation born of "lack of knowledge, superstition, and wishful thinking." I asked him on what grounds he made such a judgment.

Sun Jiuye said with a straight face, "When have you ever seen me talk nonsense? Isn't it obvious—pine bark as the outer shell, thorny vines as the crown—this is the burial rite of ancient hermits. It is explicitly recorded in historical texts; it definitely won't be wrong."

The cliff burials with suspended coffins in the Bashu region were all constructed by ancient peoples and most were thousands of years old. According to records from various local gazettes throughout the dynasties, besides the ancient Ba people, many hermits who sought immortality and the Dao favored suspended coffin burials. After death, they were interred on the cliffs of secluded, deep gorges. Using ancient pine wood as the sarcophagus, the accompanying grave goods were very simple—only things like "embroidered slips, tortoise shells, and bronze swords," mostly rudimentary 'spirit objects' (mingqi) that even ancient tomb robbers wouldn't bother with. In the gorge area not far from Mount Wu, there is a section updated fastest by sword-fighting novels. Names like "Military Book Gorge" and "Sword Gorge" are named after the mingqi discovered in suspended coffins, but what those so-called "military books" and "ancient swords" truly were? They are now impossible to trace.

We had seen a large cluster of dense suspended coffins in the "Coffin Gorge," all of the rock-pile type—meaning several holes were chiseled into the cliff face, wooden stakes inserted, and the coffins rested horizontally upon them. This particular "hermit's" suspended coffin below the Golden Swallow Cave, however, was hidden within a natural, narrow cavity in the rock fissure, a space so tight it was difficult for a person to stand upright. The ancient corpse, sitting up in the coffin, nearly touched the rock ceiling above its head.

Seeing that the suspended coffin tomb was naturally formed, Professor Sun became even more certain of his judgment. Even if this ancient corpse was not a recluse, it was most likely a distinguished scholar who understood the He Tu and Luo Shu, familiar with the profound mysteries of heaven's creation. It was a pity this tomb had already been disturbed; otherwise, how could the corpse in the coffin have possibly sat up on its own? It must have been dragged out by the tomb robbers using a rope snare.

Fatty was impatient listening to Professor Sun talk about "hermits." He leaned on one end of the wooden beam and kept asking me, "Old Hu, are there any mingqi inside the coffin? Can we take some small souvenirs back?"

I took the flashlight, pushed aside the ancient vines, and stuck half my body into the rock fissure of the tomb. I looked above, below, left, and right. Besides "one corpse, one coffin, one sword," there were some fragments of pottery and tile. Etched onto the rock wall were several simple diagrams of the Big Dipper’s seven stars, suggesting that the tomb owner in life was likely versed in esoteric arts like "astronomy and metaphysics."

I carefully examined the pine coffin again. The lid was pushed to the side and was quite severely damaged. Around the neck of the ancient corpse sitting in the coffin hung a cord—indeed, grave robbers had visited. All these details were accurately predicted by Sun Jiuye, one by one. Seeing this, I couldn't help but admire his insight. I turned to the others on the wooden beam and said, "The coffin was clearly robbed a long time ago, and judging by the technique, it was done by professionals. Likely experts." Then I tried to pull the bronze sword held in the ancient corpse's embrace. The sword remained firmly sheathed, unmoving, as if the deceased, even after thousands of years, was unwilling to let go of his close companion burial sword.

I entered Coffin Gorge with a specific purpose and was not interested in that bronze sword. I was only curious why the thieves who robbed this suspended coffin hadn't taken the bronze sword? Did they perhaps take something more important back then? After speculating for a while, I wanted to test if the ancient corpse was rigid and desiccated to get a clearer understanding of the feng shui and dragon energy in Coffin Gorge. I put on gloves and intended to gently lay this figure with an immortal bearing back into the coffin, but unexpectedly, it toppled over with just a touch. The body showed no stiffness at all.

Sun Jiuye asked, puzzled, "Hu Bayi, why are you moving that ancient corpse? Just looking is enough. Absolutely do not touch it. There won't be any burial goods in the suspended coffin that you would value. Report this discovery later; your contribution will be considerable."