The corpse moths bred from the female corpse had already been largely incinerated by Fatty, and though a significant number remained, they were nothing more than blind insects, drawn only to light. Initially, they were quite alarming, but now they posed little real threat. Moreover, the corpse moths outside the "Cave Tomb" had dispersed, and those that had just flown in were swiftly crushed by us.

What struck us as most peculiar was the disappearance of that Phoenix Coffin. My grave-robbing intuition screamed that the "Tenth Corpse" must be behind this. The immediate priority was to flush it out; otherwise, we wouldn't just fail to find the True Bones of King Xian, we might not even be able to get out.

Just as I was about to investigate, the two murals in the "Cave Tomb" flickered a few times and vanished, as if they had never existed. I squeezed my eyes shut and shook my head hard, but when I opened them again, they were truly gone, leaving only stark white walls. These paintings had been rendered with zhandan lacquer; even if the sealed microenvironment had been breached and eroded by outside air, they wouldn't have disappeared so swiftly and completely.

Here, Shirley Yang said to me, "Lao Hu, look over there... and over there. Good heavens, all the murals in the chamber... they've evaporated."

I followed her gaze. Indeed, only gleaming white quartz remained in the chamber; the murals had vanished without a trace. Fatty was equally perplexed and asked me, "Commander Hu, is there some kind of hallucinogenic flower here too? Maybe we should find it first and pluck its blossoms."

I replied, "There aren't that many demonic flowers in the world. Try slapping yourself twice if you don't believe me—my injuries are still killing me, so this certainly isn't an illusion... Look, why is the Phoenix Coffin lying outside the chamber entrance?"

The Phoenix Coffin, which we had carefully stood upright at the chamber doorway, now lay flat just outside the opening. The green fluorescence only illuminated a small portion of the coffin; the rest was swallowed by the darkness beyond the chamber. That coffin was definitely a full size larger than the head-shaped gap. Unless the coffin suddenly shrank, it meant the humanoid opening had expanded without our notice, becoming larger than before.

However, there was another possibility: something had carried the Phoenix Coffin out and laid it down. But who could have done that? Was it the Queen Consort's phantom? Or the "Tenth Corpse"? Or perhaps King Xian wasn't dead at all and was hiding in some corner of this chamber, playing games with us—the "guiding attendants" who had delivered ourselves right to his doorstep?

The more I pondered, the colder I felt. I had to steel myself and stop overthinking. Whatever it was, if we couldn't obtain the Muchen Pearl, I’d die of coagulated blood in my old age anyway. Dying here, strangled by a ghost in this ancient tomb, might even be more satisfying. If a ghost here dared to strangle me, I’d become a ghost myself after death and fight it again. Then, I’d just seize its lair and practice alchemy here to become an immortal.

After a flurry of wild thoughts, I bolstered my courage and refocused. It was clear that the contents of the "King Xian Tomb" defied easy comprehension and couldn't be dealt with by conventional logic. We had to first figure out exactly what was happening here before we could devise a strategy; otherwise, acting rashly would only cost us our lives without us even knowing how we died.

As I was pondering this uncertainty, I heard Fatty exclaim again, "What's all this yellow fluid on the walls? It looks like this tomb is melting, like a cream popsicle!"

I also noticed something strange underfoot. Hearing Fatty’s comment, I saw a few stray corpse moths land on the wall, unable to fly further, slowly being consumed by the surface. I quickly reached out and touched the white quartz beside me; my glove came away damp with a layer of pale yellow viscous fluid. Wiping it away, the colored murals reappeared, concealed by the melted rock slurry. The white rock pillars and walls of the cave were gradually turning yellow. It was possible that the yellow sewage ubiquitous in the Yin Palace of the "King Xian Tomb" all originated from this highest "Cave Tomb."

For some reason, these white quartz rocks were secreting so much fluid. We were all wearing gas masks, so we couldn't smell anything, but we could see that the sewage was sticky and thick. Even without smelling it, we knew it certainly wasn't fragrant.

The yellow fluid on the ground was growing deeper and thicker. We didn't know if it was toxic, so we dared not step on the floor. We also had no idea if the outside of the "Cave Tomb" was undergoing some bizarre transformation. Our immediate need was to find a secure footing.

Coincidentally, there was a large alchemy furnace that Fatty had kicked over. The three of us immediately righted it. This furnace was like a heavy bronze pot. Fatty stood in the center, while Shirley Yang and I stood on the handles on either side, thus temporarily avoiding the yellow water on the floor. However, the ceiling also began to drip considerable sewage, like rain, which Shirley Yang fortunately blocked using the "Vajra Umbrella."

I noticed that all three of us had been splashed with quite a bit of the fluid. Our skin didn't turn red or itch, but it felt slippery and cool, suggesting it lacked any corrosive toxicity. I inwardly breathed a sigh of relief; if this yellow soup were poisonous, none of us would be alive.

As the situation stabilized somewhat, the three of us did our best to calm our minds. We activated the remaining fluorescent tubes and threw them into the corners of the chamber to get a clear view of the surroundings.

I suddenly spotted something and motioned for Shirley Yang and Fatty to look where I was pointing: "A flat, humanoid shape is emerging from the very center of the chamber."

Shirley Yang tossed her last two fluorescent tubes toward that spot. The chamber wasn't dissolving severely yet; the sewage on the floor was only a thin layer, not deep enough to submerge the tubes. We watched the green light float, and this time, the three of us saw much more clearly: the humanoid shape in the center wasn't emerging from below, but rather, the surface white quartz was slowly dissolving, revealing the human outline beneath. Originally, there was just a slightly raised white stone, seamlessly integrated with the surroundings, not immediately noticeable. Only when the contours of a human body were revealed did we realize something was amiss there.

Fatty pointed and declared, "This is ninety-nine percent King Xian's skeletal remains. Let this commander go dig him out, and then we can decide whether to roast him or steam him slow and tender."

Shirley Yang shook her head. "The stone that's melting has only just revealed a human shape; we can't be absolutely certain those are King Xian's true remains yet. It’s better to wait and see until the bones are fully exposed from the deeper quartz before we act."

I stared intently at the human shape embedded in the stone. This "Cave Tomb" was too anomalous. Calming down, I finally found a thread of understanding. I told Shirley Yang and Fatty, "That humanoid shape might not be King Xian's bones; it's a humanoid coffin. King Xian's few rotten bones are likely inside it. Furthermore... this entire chamber isn't a tomb; it might be a desiccated corpse itself."

Shirley Yang was knowledgeable, but her understanding of the dark dealings in this ancient tomb didn't match mine by half. She had to ask, "What do you mean? I don't quite follow. Why are you saying this cave-chamber isn't a tomb?"

Seeing that the humanoid coffin had only revealed a shallow outline, I seized the opportunity to tell her, "Don't you find it strange? There's only the Phoenix Coffin here, and this other coffin, fused with the quartz, whether it's wood or stone, is still just a coffin. How could King Xian have a coffin but no outer sarcophagus (guó)?"

Shirley Yang seemed to grasp something. "Are you suggesting this chamber is King Xian's outer sarcophagus? Do you have any theoretical basis for that?"

I replied to Shirley Yang, "No theoretical basis, just folk legends and my own speculation. This white quartz rock we see isn't rock at all, nor is it white quartz. This entire cave-chamber is clearly what the Ox-Head Longevity Candle represents—the Tenth Corpse. And it looks like it's beginning to... resurrect."

Fatty found this strange too and asked, "Commander Hu, stop spouting nonsense. Where in the world is there a desiccated corpse that massive? Big enough to... to contain all of us."

I said to Fatty, "Why wouldn't there be? I think this is a giant Zhixian Sarcophagus. Haven't you heard that whenever the seventh month, twentieth day of the lunar calendar arrives, the malevolent star leaves its mansion and the Taisui descends the mountain? The malevolent star in the heavens governs the turbid earth, and the subterranean Taisui also brings great calamities. Where we are standing is a point of great geomagnetic turbulence—probably the ten-thousand-year-old decaying rouzhi [fleshy fungus] that died underground. King Xian used his own wife to fill the Taisui Eye, and we are standing inside the carcass shell of this Rouzhi Taisui."

Rouzhi is the ancestor of all things. Legend says that the rouzhi residing in a fixed point of great turbulence is likened to the immortal flesh that grants eternal life; eating it restores life. However, the "Conglomerated Flesh" that orbits opposite the Suixing (Jupiter/Taisui) is an ominous evil object. But the rouzhi used by King Xian as a sarcophagus is dead, having lost its vitality, leaving only a dry, hard shell. It's estimated that the flesh inside was refined by King Xian into immortal pills. With its sensory organs sealed, perhaps its outer layer stopped growing, occasionally seeping sewage, but the interior no longer regenerated, becoming semi-petrified. Only upon contact with air has this rare primordial organism begun to "move" again.

I smeared some of the yellow fluid from the side of the alchemy furnace and confirmed it again. I realized that perhaps this rouzhi was gradually coming back to life. That bizarre phenomenon of the black pig crossing the celestial river with its corpse energy soaring to the clouds must have been a premonition of this. Such celestial signs are extremely rare. I suspect it's the twentieth of the seventh lunar month here every day; perhaps once this rouzhi carcass encounters living energy, it reactivates. This isn't melting; it's the desiccated flesh inside gradually softening. God knows what fierce demon it will transform into next.

From inside, we couldn't discern the external shape of this dead rouzhi, but judging by the structure of the inner shell, its exterior might be in the rare shape of a human head, perhaps even possessing eyes and a nose. The mere hard, dry shell of this rouzhi was already this massive; I hardly dared imagine what it looked like when covered in flesh.

I felt the situation was rapidly deteriorating and a sense of foreboding washed over me. I decided against waiting for the interior to soften and reveal that coffin. If it wouldn't open, we'd use explosives. What better time than now? I took out the explosives and urged Fatty to work against the clock, preparing to blast open the rouzhi's corpse shell. But just then, the humanoid coffin, which had only shown a faint outline, suddenly split open with a large crack. Before we could make out what was inside, it shuddered violently and sank into the earth. I cursed aloud—why did it have to drop at this crucial juncture? Then realization struck: that spot was likely a second Taisui Eye socket. If we let it sink further, even an excavator probably couldn't retrieve it.

We had no choice but to fight. I was about to tell Shirley Yang to come forward and use the Tiger Claw grappling hook to snag the coffin, but when I turned to call her, I saw countless pale human hands emerging from beneath the furnace, pulling Shirley Yang and Fatty down. Before I could process what was happening, several hands clamped tightly onto my ankles, dragging me down with immense force. My body sank continuously, yet my mind remained clear: "***, so this immortal flesh was constructed from human corpses."

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