An icy gust brushed past my face, compelling me to shield the flickering candle flame with my hand. Though the candle was obscured, the tactical spotlight on my climbing helmet remained brightly lit. In the instant the beam shifted, Fatty, Sun Jiuye, and I clearly saw it—a sight that made the hair on our heads prickle and stand straight up. Every single one of the hundred thousand-plus pores on our bodies broke out in a cold sweat.

On that sheer cliff face layered with shattered jade, a pitch-black entity, like a wraith, was scrambling to emerge over the edge. Then, my vision blurred; before there was even time to blink, the specter within the jade wall was upon us. I saw a contorted, coal-black face struggle into view, starkly manifest before the three of us with a chilling coldness.

Knowing instantly that things were dire, I let go of the candle. I jerked my head aside to dodge, but the plank road embedded in the cliff was frighteningly narrow and steep, permitting no wide movements. Any sudden shift could send one tumbling into the deep ravine or cause one to knock over the companions jammed beside them. Thus, even as I twisted sideways to evade, I only barely managed to avoid the phantom that lunged out from the jade wall.

The beam of the tactical spotlight tracked my rapid evasion, momentarily flooding the area with illumination. I felt something furry brush tightly against my skin, grazing the side of my face with a searing, painful scrape.

"Fatty!" someone shouted. Fatty swung his entrenching tool, bringing it down with a mighty smash. The blade sliced through the air, passing directly over my head and slamming into the dark shadow emerging from the jade wall. The resulting clang jarred his knuckles until his hand went numb. Though Fatty was quick, the shovel missed its mark. The shadow, seemingly without substance, darted away like a wisp of black smoke, shooting into the gap between the earth and the jade plates with a whoosh.

Silence, thick as death, returned to the plank road above the Lingxingdian in the tomb. Only the ragged sound of our breathing and the frantic pounding of our hearts remained. Blood began to trickle from the gash on my face.

After that instantaneous flash of contact, I was certain this was no mere illusion or hallucination conjured by the Duxian's trickery. There was indeed something terrifying hidden within these walls packed with ancient jade. Yet, sealed by dirt for centuries and able to move within the wall—I had never witnessed such a thing in my life. Could it truly be the "Phantom" depicted in the Bingzhu Yexing Tu (Candle-Holding Night-Travel Scroll)?

Shirley Yang and Yaomeier, positioned further back, hadn't clearly seen what happened. But Sun Jiuye had a sharp view. He muttered lowly, "It's definitely not a ghost. Ghosts and phantoms are usually electromagnetic field phenomena; they couldn't leave a wound like that on your face. That thing might very well be the Corpse Immortal from Coffin Mountain—that’s what Feng Shigu was trying to find!"

I didn't believe in Corpse Immortals, but no other explanation fit what the phantom in the jade wall was. At least one thing was certain: it couldn't be biological. No living thing could possibly remain active after being entombed in soil for centuries; even a jiangshi couldn't change its form to slip into a rock fissure.

Shirley Yang turned to us. "The scrolls and paintings left by the Earth Immortal Feng Shigu intentionally omit details about what happens within the Lingxingdian. The Bingzhu Yexing Tu only depicts this single, embedded passage. We still don't know what lies inside the Earth Immortal's tomb. To find the truth, I think our only choice is to enter the tomb of the Guanshan Taibao and investigate."

Professor Sun nodded. "We can't get out of Coffin Mountain anyway, and with the Corpse Immortals lurking near the plank road and the jade walls, this spot isn't safe. Logically, we should stop beating around the bush and go in to thoroughly destroy Feng Shigu's sarcophagus and grave goods. But I worry that the Earth Immortal anticipated our actions; entering the Lingxingdian is tantamount to setting it free."

Fearing the Corpse Immortal hidden in the jade wall might suddenly burst out to attack again, I urged Sun Jiuye not to hesitate. Though our equipment was limited, I reminded him not to forget the most crucial piece of gear in the world—our spirit. With an unwavering belief in victory, no hardship could stop us. I then grabbed his arm and urged him onward, deeper into the subterranean plank road. Since we had used up the cold smoke flares, we couldn't gauge the depth of the cave within the Pangu Vein mountain, so we could only grope our way downward.

This time, everyone proceeded with twelve times the caution, daring not to carelessly touch the dirt surrounding the jade walls on either side. After walking down for a while, we found even more ancient jade underfoot, and the two walls were riddled with jade stone openings of varying depths. Inside these holes were countless small coffins, most shattered and ruined, not a single one intact. It seemed the interior of the Pangu Vein mountain was a massive, natural jade deposit, and all the jade bricks and walls were mined from it, then artificially carved to form a jade grotto.

Looking at it from a feng shui perspective, this Pangu Divine Vein lying supine within Coffin Mountain nurtured a jade marrow within its belly, much like an elixir refined from gold and water inside a stomach—the condensation of the five elements' essential energy between heaven and earth. The marvels of creation by celestial spirits and earthly gods lie outside common reason, so finding anything in this mountain was no longer surprising.

I inwardly marveled, realizing that the Earth Immortal Feng Shigu lay at the end of this plank road. I wondered if the man was dead or alive. Had he truly ascended to immortality within the Pangu Divine Vein? Could the few of us handle him? Thinking this, I touched the Guixu Gua Mirror tucked into my inner garment. The tales of bronze mirrors suppressing corpses could not be wholly trusted; we absolutely could not rely solely on the mirror. Burning the thing with lamp oil would be the safer bet in the end.

Just then, we could feel the embedded passage nearing its end. The illumination from the spotlight and the wolf-eye flashlight reached the floor below. From the side, this jade grotto resembled a long-necked flask; though narrow at the top, the bottom opened into a surprisingly spacious area—an entirely different cavern.

The cave was so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. The air was thick with impurities, and the light beams cast by the lamps could only penetrate four or five meters at most. We couldn't see the location of the Lingxingdian at all. Suffering from the lack of wide-area illumination from the cold smoke flares, we could only stumble about like blind men touching an elephant. I suddenly recalled Yaomeier mentioning she carried fire pigeons from Fengwo Mountain, and asked if she could release a few so we could get a clear view of the surrounding terrain. Yaomeier quickly rummaged through her backpack and finally pulled out a bamboo tube, saying she only brought this one, no more. I told her not to be stingy: save the best steel for the crucial blow, save the fine wine for the state banquet. Being completely blind right now was precisely when it was needed. "Light it up!"

The fire pigeon was a rocket propelled by a spring mechanism. It had many uses—not only attacking enemies but also serving as a signaling device. Furthermore, its brightness was immense, suitable for use as an ancient flare. It was a type of saltpeter-based hidden weapon passed down by our predecessors at Fengwo Mountain since the late Southern Song Dynasty.

Yaomeier held the fire pigeon in her hands. This saltpeter weapon had been crafted personally by her great-uncle, Old Manager Li, and was reputed to be immensely powerful. She had never used it before. Unsure if it would work, she silently hoped the founding ancestor of Fengwo Mountain would watch over them and prevent any mishap. She immediately asked me for a lighter to ignite the fuse.

Seeing Yaomeier prepare to shoot the fire pigeon horizontally, I quickly signaled the others to step aside. Just as everyone was about to move, we heard a sudden cascade of noise from the cliffs above, sounding like a small landslide, with large stones and masses of loose earth tumbling down.

Startled by the falling rocks above, Yaomeier, under significant psychological pressure during her first descent into a tomb, forgot the fire pigeon in her hand was already lit as she looked up to watch. Hearing the fuse hissing, she snapped back to attention, cried out in alarm, and quickly raised the bamboo tube. This fire pigeon used a fast fuse. At that moment, the nitrates shot out, and amid a piercing whistle of air resistance, the pigeon, constrained in the tube, immediately erupted in flames and shot skyward.

The fire pigeon unfurled its half-meter-long fiery wings and soared upward. Its roar echoed loudly, and the fan-shaped blaze instantly pierced the deep darkness beneath the earth, angling sharply into the rock face and embedding itself in a stone step of the plank road, burning fiercely.

Although this fire pigeon was of modern manufacture, the craftsmanship of Fengwo Mountain had long been in decline, still adhering to the manual workshop model of a thousand years ago. The gunpowder formula and raw materials followed folk recipes, which could not compare to modern illumination flares; the light was difficult to sustain, and the blinding flame began to dim almost instantly.

However, I managed to catch a glimpse of the terrifying scene high above in that fleeting light. The mountain body above Coffin Mountain had been severely eroded by the Nine Deaths Shocking Tomb Worms (Jiusi Jingling Jia), and chunks of crumbling rock began to fall from the sky. Several of these rocks tumbled into the belly of the Pangu Corpse Vein, sliding down the deep fissures. Because the rocks were massive and the fissures narrow, they became wedged between the jade walls of the passage, not falling directly into the cavern below. But the constant rockfalls shook loose a large amount of sealing earth from the steep walls on both sides, exposing large sections of the jade walls and stone coffins. Vague ghostly figures flickered in and out between the walls, seeming to drift toward the jade marrow cavern at the bottom of the mountain belly. The Corpse Immortals in this ancient tomb were certainly not limited to one; the numbers were too vast to estimate, leaving us utterly stunned.

The light of the rapidly dimming fire pigeon was instantly swallowed by darkness as it was covered by the falling debris and mud. The dust kicked up by the rockfall billowed up, crashing down right above our heads. Unable to dodge completely, we choked on the dust for a long time, terrified of being crushed by larger stones, and urgently retreated deeper into the cavern.

Brushing the layer of dust off our climbing helmets, we saw the others were equally grimed and disheveled. The scene above the cavern had weighed heavily on all our hearts. There seemed to be no safe place in this Earth Immortal’s tomb. If we had made it this far, what were we to do now?

When Yaomeier released the fire pigeon, the recoil knocked her to the ground. In the brief flash of the magnesium light, she had seen several pitch-black strange beasts deep in the grotto, indistinct shapes that looked like the tomb-guarding stone beasts that flank the entrance to a burial chamber. Finding them might reveal the direction of the tomb gate. So, she guided us a few steps in the dark, and sure enough, in a corner not far away, we found a black iron beast covered in scales and horns.

Sun Jiuye suggested this might be the Iron Qilin recorded in history books—a type of illumination device found in imperial mausoleums. He wondered if the Iron Qilin’s belly still contained fuel and how it was operated.

I knew this Iron Qilin was called the Qilin Dragon-Locking Lamp. Tomb lamps were largely similar, whether the Everlasting Candles or Ten-Thousand-Year Lamps of the netherworld. Igniting this Qilin Lamp would be no challenge for a Mojin Xiaowei who specialized in grave robbing. I reached the beast's head, found the nose ring, and pulled it outward with force. With several kaka sounds from inside the creature's belly, rolling flames spewed from the gaps in the Iron Qilin’s armor.

The Dragon-Locking Lamps were fixed to the ground, connected by oil channels. Once this fire dragon ignited, others nearby began to sputter flames one after another. Dozens of these Iron Qilins studded the cavern, illuminating the area brightly. However, the Qilin Dragon-Locking Lamps before the Lingxingdian were extraordinary; the flames they emitted were not from grease or oil, but a chilling, eerie phosphorescent fire that made the subterranean cavern look like a den of ghosts.

Squinting through the gloom, we could see a towering gateway in the deep recesses of the cavern—two tightly closed tomb doors studded with bronze nails arranged in a pattern corresponding to the Lingxing Yueshu (Celestial Lodge Constellations), a notation used only by hermits and secluded masters. Standing guard before the gate were two rows of clay sculptures, all resembling fierce, yellow-turbaned Lishi (Vajra guardians), each with a divine head and monstrous face, standing motionless, protecting the deepest secret of the Earth Immortal Village.

I noticed Sun Jiuye beside me looked pale, staring blankly at the Lingxing Gate, muttering to himself. I couldn't make out what he was saying. I thought, 'Distance breeds suspicion'; I had to remain wary of any unusual action from him. After all, the old man held too many secrets; God knows which of his words were true and which were lies.

Fatty urged me, "Old Hu, hurry up! We’ve got tails following us." Hearing this, I knew things were bad. I looked up quickly and saw, flickering amidst the scent of ghost fire, countless shadowy Corpse Immortals struggling to crawl out of the walls, continuously surging toward the Lingxingdian below. Illuminated by the phosphorescent fire, they seemed entirely swallowed by the black, misty ghosts, and the light in the main cavern before the underground palace began to dim again.

Seeing we were almost cornered, without even a moment to catch our breath, I couldn't help but curse inwardly: what in the hell were these subterranean Corpse Immortals? Why did we have to run into them in the Earth Immortal’s ancient tomb?

I mused that a wise man does not fight a losing battle—this wasn't just truth, but basic common sense. I called out to the group, "We need to get into the tomb quickly to find the Earth Immortal Feng Shigu; we can't get tangled up with them here..." With that, I beckoned the other four toward the Lingxing Gate.

The five of us knew our lives were at stake and dared not delay. We rushed to the tomb doors and exerted all our strength to shake the stone slabs. The Lingxing Gate was carved from fossilized ironwood thousands of years old, incredibly hard and heavy, but it hadn't been reinforced with molten copper or lead. Each of us strained with all our might and finally managed to push one half of the stone door open a crack. A chilling, oppressive aura billowed out. Although it was pitch black inside, we saw no traps or mechanisms triggered.

I saw that the crack, though narrow, was just wide enough for a person to squeeze through. Fatty and I pushed Yaomeier and the others in first, then sucked in our stomachs and exerted ourselves to squeeze through the Lingxing Gate. After getting inside, Fatty immediately began pushing the door back, calling out, "Hey comrades! Let’s put that class solidarity into practice and lend a hand!"

I stopped him. "Don't waste your energy. The Earth Immortal’s stone door won't stop those things outside. Hurry up and retreat inside."