Volume 3: The Tomb of the Fox Immortal - Chapter 46: Complete Chaos

Upon hearing Da Gou's miserable scream coming from behind, I immediately whipped my head around. To my astonishment, Da Gou's body was actually floating mid-air! His hands were desperately clawing at his own throat, and his legs were kicking back and forth in the void, looking precisely as if an invisible pair of hands had gripped his neck and hoisted him up.

Seeing this, a wave of terror washed over me. Glancing at the phone, I saw there were still a full thirty seconds remaining. Wasting not a single second, I pulled the Soul-Suppressing Bell from my bosom, held it before my eyes, and rapidly chanted the incantation.

The very instant I snapped my eyes open, I caught sight of a massive, stalwart shadow standing behind Da Gou. Yet this shadow was suspended in mid-air, its two thick, powerful arms locked in a death grip around Da Gou's neck, hoisting his entire body straight up. Curiously, this burly figure possessed a torso alone, while its head was entirely empty and blank.

At this sight, a fierce curse burst from my lips: Damn it all, this is a headless ghost! How on earth did this bastard show up at a time like this? Judging by the looks of it, Da Gou would be choked to death by this headless ghost in less than ten seconds.

Now I was caught in a brutal dilemma. If I waited for the time to run out, Da Gou would undoubtedly be strangled to death by the headless ghost; but if I went over to save Da Gou, the corpse-ghouls within the three Five Elements Departure-Evil Arrays would inevitably awaken, and not a single one of us would escape when that happened.

Right in the midst of this distraction, the headless ghost seemed to sense that I could see him. He turned his head to eye the rune carvings before me, and then abruptly dropped Da Gou from his grasp.

I watched as Da Gou's body plummeted from mid-air, and instantly checked the phone in my palm. The time had ticked down to the final five seconds.

Seeing that Da Gou was temporarily out of danger and knowing I could afford no further distraction, precisely as the countdown hit the very last second, I violently raised the Soul-Slaying Blade and drove it fiercely downward into the rune carvings beneath me.

Yet at that exact moment, I felt my arm as though clamped in a pair of iron pliers; no matter how hard I struggled, I could not break free. Glancing sideways, I saw a headless torso hovering beside me, its two hands tightly gripping my right arm which held the Soul-Slaying Blade.

At the sight of this torso, I cursed furiously and shouted, "You bastard, I'll finish you off today!"

With that, I abruptly loosened my grip on the Soul-Slaying Blade with my right hand, caught it with my left hand the very moment it began to fall, and then gripped the blade tightly to drive it down with all my might into the rune carvings below.

With a crisp crack, the stone brick beneath me was cleaved in two by my blade. I turned my head to glare at the headless ghost beside me and lashed out with my left hand straight at its chest.

Realizing its attempt had succeeded, the headless ghost flashed violently and vanished into thin air in the blink of an eye.

Seeing that the headless ghost had disappeared, I hurriedly checked the phone I had dropped onto the ground. A full minute had already elapsed!

Knowing the situation was dire now that the time had passed, I scrambled to my feet and ran over to Da Gou's side. I gently patted his cheek, and feeling someone tapping him, Da Gou slowly regained consciousness.

The very moment Da Gou came to, the two of us heard a series of loud, thumping noises echoing from within the burial chamber.

Hearing this sound, I knew things had truly gone wrong—the corpse-ghouls inside those two stone coffins were about to rise.

Seeing this, I hurriedly helped Da Gou up from the ground and yelled, "Da Gou, run! The corpse-ghouls in the tomb are coming out!"

Da Gou hadn't fully recovered his wits yet, but upon hearing my shout, he instinctively looked over at the two black stone coffins in the burial chamber. The two coffins were shaking incessantly; judging by the looks of it, whatever was trapped inside would break out before long.

At this, Da Gou let out a shrill scream, and before I could even react, he turned on his heels and bolted for the tunnel like his life depended on it.

Seeing Da Gou dash away, I realized my warning had been entirely redundant. I cast a harsh glance at the two stone coffins in the tomb, feeling a surge of fierce determination. I yanked my backpack off, unzipped it, and pulled out the red concentrated time-bomb—one of the two types of explosives Xu Tian had prepared for us.

Once the explosive was out, I saw four red frames on it, with a red button right at the bottom.

I surveyed the scene in the burial chamber; those two corpse-ghouls would emerge before long, and I could no longer afford to hesitate.

I quickly calculated in my mind: the corpse-ghouls wouldn't take long to burst open the stone coffins, and the time it would take them to crawl out and reach the tunnel entrance would be within half a minute.

At this thought, I gritted my teeth. To ensure absolute safety, I had no choice but to cut that time in half. I pressed the red button on the device, and a long, sharp beep instantly emanated from the explosive in my hand.

I had never used such a thing before; back in the army, it was all rifles and artillery, and I never had the chance to lay hands on explosives. That piercing beep genuinely gave me a start.

Suppressing the panic in my heart, I pressed the buttons on both sides to set the timer for fifteen seconds. I swung the backpack back onto my shoulders, glanced one last time into the burial chamber, and pressed the red button on the explosive once more.

The instant I pressed the red button, the numbers on the display instantly switched from fifteen to fourteen. Simultaneously, two violent explosions roared from within the burial chamber.

The lids of the two stone coffins were blown straight off into the air! The lid of one coffin, propelled by the sheer strength of the corpse-ghoul inside, was actually embedded fiercely into the ceiling overhead!

The very second I pressed the button, I turned on my heels and sprinted for the tunnel for all I was worth.

I ran forward at a pace of at least three steps per second, glancing back over my shoulder amidst my frantic dash. Two pitch-black figures were already standing right at the entrance of the tunnel, fixing their unblinking gaze upon my fleeing form.

My heart tightened at the sight. Could it be that the time I set was still too long? Why hadn't it detonated yet?

Just as this thought crossed my mind, a blinding sheet of roaring flames surged suddenly from the mouth of the tunnel behind me. The two corpse-ghouls happened to be standing right beside the explosive; amidst a flash of fire, both figures instantly dissolved into billows of smoke and dust.

However, I had no time to rejoice. That sheet of fire instantly surged straight toward me from the tunnel in the blink of an eye. Before I even had a moment to register it, I felt a violent wave of pressure slam heavily against the backpack on my back. The sheer impact hurled my entire body into the air, while a searing agony flared up from the backs of my legs, accompanied by the distinct smell of scorched hair at the back of my head.

I was hurled violently against the ground by the force of the impact. I quickly thrust my hands out to brace against the floor, preventing my face from making intimate contact with the earth. Fortunately, I wore thick leather gloves when descending into the tomb, yet even so, the friction completely shredded the gloves away, sending waves of excruciating pain through my palms.

I quickly buried my head in my hands and pressed myself flat against the ground while the scorching heatwave raged through the tunnel for a long while before finally subsiding. The backpack on my back, however, was completely ruined, entirely scorched by the intense heat. It was a blessing that I had only brought this single pack of explosives; otherwise, surviving such a heatwave without setting off the explosives would have been a miracle.

Thinking of this, I felt a quiet sense of relief that I hadn't taken two packs of explosives, or ten lives wouldn't have been enough to save me.

Driven by the heatwave and the pressure wave generated by the explosion, the tunnel began to collapse progressively. Fortunately, I was already quite a distance away from the tunnel entrance, and there was still time to get up and run.

At this thought, I scrambled hastily to my feet, gritted my teeth against the burning pain in my legs, and began running toward Xu Tian's burial chamber.

Just a moment prior, after Xu Tian had safely destroyed the six runes, he had begun pacing back and forth, gazing down the tunnels on either side of the burial chamber. After waiting for a short while, Xu Tian heard a tremendous roar erupt from the tunnel on the right. Immediately afterward, he felt the burial chamber itself begin to tremble, sending layers of dust sifting down from the ceiling.

Hearing this deafening roar, Xu Tian grew suspicious. It was merely destroying a few stone bricks—how on earth managed to kick up such a massive commotion? Could something have gone awry on Li Kun's end?

With this thought, Xu Tian walked over to the right-hand tunnel. Standing at the entrance, he peered back and forth inside, but saw nothing except churning dust, followed by rocks of various sizes tumbling down from above.

Seeing this, Xu Tian's heart skipped a beat, and he muttered, "Oh no, could something have happened to Old Li? Why is the tunnel starting to cave in?"

No sooner had the thought crossed his mind than an explosion several times more violent than the previous one erupted from the tunnel on the left.

The instant he heard this ferocious blast, Xu Tian's expression froze. Never one to utter profanities in the past, Xu Tian couldn't help but curse aloud, "Damn it all! What went wrong on Old Liu's side too? Could Old Liu have actually triggered that pack of concentrated time-bombs?"

With that, Xu Tian hurried toward the left-hand tunnel. But just as he peered into the tunnel, a sheet of fire mingled with a scorching heatwave rushed straight toward him.

The moment he laid eyes on the wall of fire, Xu Tian executed a fierce pivot, ducked rapidly to the side of the tunnel, and pressed his back tightly against the wall as a torrent of flames roared out from the passage.