Immortality begins in Goose City

Chapter 24 Tomb Raiders

"All of you, shut the hell up!" Wu Zhichong roared like thunder, drowning out all the noise.

With lightning speed, he pounced like a tiger, his large, fan-like hand whistling through the air, making a precise grab in mid-air!

"grumble--!"

A sharp, piercing scream rang out.

Wu Zhichong landed steadily, raising his right hand high!

The five fingers, like iron clamps, tightly gripped a struggling and writhing creature.

It was a wildcat, entirely black, with its eyes glowing an eerie green in the torchlight, baring its sharp teeth and kicking its limbs wildly.

"What's the panic?" Wu Zhichong looked around at the still-shaken crowd, his voice booming, "It's just a stray cat! Look how scared you all are!"

Everyone looked closely and then breathed a sigh of relief.

But Hu Laosan's face turned extremely ugly.

"A stray cat entered the tomb..." His voice was dry, filled with deep worry.

"This is a very bad omen... There's a cat in the tomb, especially a black cat... This tomb... is probably really unclean."

"What the hell are you yelling at!" Wu Zhichong crushed the black cat to death, tossed it aside, and glared at Hu Laosan.

"I don't care if it's a zombie or a cat demon. Even if that imperial concubine were to resurrect and crawl out, I'd still riddle her with bullets!"

"Keep cleaning! Hurry up!"

While the servants continued cleaning, Huang Shujian signaled Hu Wan to place oil barrels and fishing nets around the pit opening, and the gunmen returned to their positions, more vigilant.

As more rubble and soil were brought up, the outline of the tomb chamber became clearer.

Occasionally, one or two startled earth snakes or bats would dart out, but they were quickly dealt with by the prepared servants.

The sky darkened completely without anyone noticing.

The torchlight became even more conspicuous, and the flickering flames cast long shadows of everyone on the ruins of the pit walls, their menacing shapes adding to the eerie atmosphere.

When the anal chamber was completely cleared out, a dazzling golden light and jewel-like brilliance suddenly came into view!

Under the firelight, mountains of gold and silver ingots, exquisitely crafted gold artifacts, jade, emeralds, agate, pearls...

There are also a large number of porcelain pieces, scrolls, and calligraphy and paintings that, though covered in dust, still reveal their extraordinary quality, scattered among broken boxes and collapsed display shelves.

The allure of wealth almost dazzled everyone.

Many of the servants' eyes widened immediately, and their breathing became heavy involuntarily.

"What are you all looking at!" Hu Wan's sharp voice rang out just in time.

"Open your dog eyes and look carefully! These all belong to the young master! They belong to the Huang family!"

"Anyone who dares to have any wicked thoughts..."

He glared menacingly at the crowd, his finger almost poking the servants' noses: "Anyone who reaches out, I'll chop off their hand! Anyone who hides something, I'll kill them! Do you understand?"

The servants were startled and lowered their heads, no longer daring to look at the treasures.

Under Hu Wan's personal supervision, the servants carefully carried the gold and silver jewelry, intact porcelain and calligraphy and paintings from the tomb chamber up one by one and piled them on the open ground in front of Huang Shujian.

The pile of items grew higher and higher, and the glittering jewels seemed to overflow.

Hu Wan did a quick inventory, his face beaming with smiles, and leaned close to Huang Shujian, saying, "Young Master, a rough estimate suggests that these gold and silver items alone are worth several thousand, nearly ten thousand silver dollars!"

"If those porcelain pieces and calligraphy/paintings find someone knowledgeable, their prices could increase several times over! We've really struck it rich this time!"

Huang Shujian merely glanced at it indifferently, showing little joy on his face.

His gaze remained fixed on the deep, dark entrance to the tomb.

Over there, as the last batch of rubble was cleared away, only a large and ornate coffin remained in the center of the tomb, standing alone amidst the ruins.

The coffin was a deep, dark purple, and even covered in a thick layer of dust, the wood was still remarkably fine and smooth, emanating a subtle, calming fragrance.

The surface of the coffin is carved with intricate and exquisite patterns, mostly auspicious symbols such as clouds, cranes, and lotus flowers. The craftsmanship is superb, demonstrating the dedication of the artisans at that time.

"It's agarwood! And it's top-quality old agarwood!" Old Hu San leaned closer to take a closer look and couldn't help but exclaim in a low voice.

"Judging by its age and size, it's probably a rare artifact over a thousand years old!"

"Only in a humid and hot place like Lingnan can such a giant tree grow and be preserved."

"This imperial concubine was not prominent in life, but she enjoyed such a luxurious coffin after death, tsk tsk..."

Wu Zhichong walked up to Huang Shujian: "Young Master, shall we... open the coffin?"

Huang Shujian took a deep breath and nodded.

Several servants carrying specially made ropes with iron hooks stepped forward, firmly wedged the iron hooks into the gap between the coffin lid and the coffin body, and then the men pulled hard backward at the same time!

"Creak—squeak—"

The heavy coffin lid rubbed against the coffin body, making a teeth-grinding sound, and was slowly pulled back.

Hu Laosan stared intently at the opened coffin, his expression suddenly changing!

"No!" he exclaimed, "This coffin...it shows signs of being pried open!"

Upon hearing this, everyone's hearts tightened.

The coffin lid was pulled open completely and fell heavily to the ground beside it, kicking up a cloud of dust.

The torchlight immediately shone into the inside of the coffin.

There was no dazzling array of burial jewelry as expected.

Instead, it was a main coffin...

On top of the main coffin lay a corpse that had long since decomposed, leaving only bare bones and some tattered silk fabrics, lying there quietly.

The skeleton was an ominous grayish-black color, and the head was tilted to one side, as if it had suffered inhuman pain before death.

The next moment, the skeleton suddenly sat up in shock!

"A ghost!"

"It's come back to life!"

"Fire! Fire now!"

The servants standing at the front were terrified and instinctively wanted to pull the trigger!

"Don't move! Don't fire!"

Hu Laosan's shout rang out just in time. He raised his hands to help the frightened servants, "It's alright! Stay calm!"

"What's the panic!"

In the end, it was Wu Zhichong who spoke up and suppressed all the servants.

At his command, the servants barely managed to control their urge to fire, but the muzzles of their guns still trembled as they aimed at the sitting corpse.

Sure enough, the corpse simply sat up stiffly and then remained motionless.

Seeing this, Hu Laosan looked knowing, took a deep breath, and untied a sturdy hemp rope from his waist.

He swung the rope around in his hand a few times quickly, aimed carefully, and then threw it forward with a jolt!

The rope loop drew an arc in the air and precisely looped around the upper body of the corpse.

Hu Laosan used both hands to pull and drag backward forcefully.

"Splash—!"

The corpse, already decayed, was pulled apart by the force and dragged out of the coffin, scattering on the ground and raising a cloud of dust.

Several bones rolled to the side of the torch, and apart from their grayish-black color, they were otherwise unremarkable.

Dead beyond dead.

After the initial shock subsided, the crowd still looked at the pile of bones with fear in their eyes.

Which dead body still moves?