“Senior Sister, I’m scared.”
“Don’t be afraid. I’m up here.”
Zhang Ze held up a lamp to illuminate Qiao Lezhi below.
Senior Sister Qiao was holding a smaller door panel and digging upward through the soil and rock.
With her Golden Core Realm Cultivation Level, she swung it incredibly fast, carving out the tunnel cleanly and efficiently.
“I say, Senior Sister, do you really not remember anything?”
“It’s not that I can’t remember. I simply never attended those few Morning Classes.”
Sigh.
Zhang Ze sighed and crouched on the ground, rubbing his brow.
“Raise the lamp higher. I can’t see.”
“Okay.”
“By the way, Senior Sister, do you really not need me to call someone to take us out?”
“You’re not allowed to call anyone.
“It would be Embarrassing.”
“Junior Brother, you have to trust my Strength. I’m not bragging, but Senior Sister is Invincible Among Peers.
“As long as we have perseverance, we can definitely dig our way out.” Qiao Lezhi was brimming with confidence.
“Oh.”
Zhang Ze felt that he had been regretting things constantly lately, regretting that he trusted others too much.
Especially when it came to trusting Senior Sister Qiao, Zhang Ze had made the same mistake twice in a row.
He really should not have let Qiao Lezhi continue talking Just Now.
Instead, like an overbearing CEO, he should have immediately taken out the Jade Pendant, contacted the Sect, and summoned thirty Flying Boats to rescue them.
Zhang Ze truly had not expected that Qiao Lezhi, a dignified Golden Core Stage Sword Sect Cultivator, had not even learned the Sword Sect’s basic Sword Sect Escape Technique.
Zhang Ze Thought the Pavilion Master’s evaluation had merely been exaggerated, but he had not expected Senior Sister Qiao to genuinely know nothing.
Logically speaking, Golden Core Realm Cultivators had already vaguely glimpsed the threshold of the Dao.
Learning Escape Techniques and Daoist Magic involving shifting forms and changing shadows should be as Simple as breathing.
They might not be useful in a fight, but they were definitely sufficient for traveling.
For example, if one were trapped Underground, then unless there were other Restrictions, one Escape Technique would be enough to get out.
But Qiao Lezhi knew none of them. Not a single one.
The peerless genius Body Cultivator, Senior Sister Qiao, was a Monstrous Person who practiced Body Refining even while breathing and drinking water.
She had her own unique understanding of Cultivation.
If she could not learn a Daoist spell, then that meant the spell was useless.
Therefore, attending class was inferior to sleeping.
Sleeping was Cultivation.
Senior Sister Qiao’s wise and mighty mind had formed a perfect Closed Loop.
And this Closed Loop allowed Qiao Lezhi, whenever she was awake, to forever wear a confident, sunny smile.
Thus, when Senior Sister Qiao had patted her ample chest and guaranteed Zhang Ze that she could lead him out,
Zhang Ze chose to trust her one more time.
In the end, his trust had been misplaced.
Zhang Ze took out the Jade Pendant, intending to secretly call for help.
Senior Sister Qiao’s voice came from far above.
“I’ve broken through!”
Upon hearing this, Zhang Ze put away the Jade Pendant.
After a while, Senior Sister Qiao’s voice came again.
“But I didn’t dig my way out. I don’t know where this is!”
Forget it, forget it.
“Hello, Sister Mei’er?”
“Could you contact my Master?”
“Yes, have him come rescue me.”
“It’s not urgent. I’m not in danger; I’m just lost.”
“Yes, okay. Goodbye, Sister Mei’er.”
After putting away the Jade Pendant, Zhang Ze waited In Place for Senior Sister Qiao to come down and for his Master to come pick him up.
However, Senior Sister Qiao seemed to have Discovered something interesting.
“Junior Brother, come quickly. There’s something fun.”
“You attended more classes than I did. Help me take a look.”
“Oh, I’m coming.”
Zhang Ze stood up and climbed upward through the tomb tunnel Qiao Lezhi had dug.
When Zhang Ze climbed out of the tomb tunnel like Hu Ba, he Was Startled.
This was the hall that had once housed the Spirit Snake Statue.
The ground was covered with Spirit Stone powder and fragments of the Statue.
Miraculously, the hall had not collapsed from the explosion, and its supporting Structure remained sturdy.
Qiao Lezhi was crouching in the center of the hall, intently observing something.
A Prompt appeared before Zhang Ze’s eyes.
【City of Thousand Mechanisms Side Quest triggered】
【Hidden Quest: Awakening and Rebirth, completion 0】
“Sigh, haven’t all the related Side Quests disappeared completely?”
“What disappeared?” Qiao Lezhi asked.
“Nothing.”
Zhang Ze wandered over to Senior Sister and Discovered that the thing Qiao Lezhi was Staring at was half of a snakehead Stone Statue.
Judging from the snake statue’s design and the distribution of the surrounding fragments,
it should be the Unawakened Spirit Snake that Zhang Ze had blown apart.
A Small Coffin was embedded where the snake’s brain had been.
“I say, Senior Sister, why don’t we really give up Cultivating Immortality and go rob tombs instead?”
“No. It’s too tiring.”
The Small Coffin’s material was unknown. The exposed part was pitch-black all over, with spiral Patterns naturally formed across its surface.
The more Zhang Ze looked at the spiral Patterns, the more familiar they seemed. He felt as though he had seen them somewhere before.
He kept staring until Qiao Lezhi grew Somewhat impatient, and only then did he remember where those Patterns came from.
Steel Bars.
Zhang Ze drew a Steel Bar from his Waist and compared it with the Patterns on the coffin. He Discovered that they were indeed made of the same material, except that this one had decayed rather badly.
Whether it was a coincidence or whether fate had its own mysterious designs,
“Why don’t we dig this thing out and take a look?”
Qiao Lezhi was not a person with much patience. Since her clever Junior Brother had suggested it, she naturally did as he said.
Before long, Qiao Lezhi had pried the Small Coffin loose.
The Small Coffin had been Forged from a single piece of Dragonwood.
There seemed to be several tiny words carved into the bottom of the coffin.
Zhang Ze and Qiao Lezhi’s faces were nearly touching as they narrowed their eyes, trying to make out what was written on it.
“Don’t”
“Open?”
“What are you looking at?” Old Li’s voice suddenly sounded behind Zhang Ze.
Half of Zhang Ze’s soul nearly flew out of his body.
Qiao Lezhi was startled as well. She exerted a little force, and the Dragonwood Small Coffin was crushed to pieces in her hand.
No matter how small the coffin, it was still a coffin; and any room containing a coffin was a Tomb Chamber.
Zhang Ze felt that places like this always followed certain tropes.
Whenever more than two people were in a Tomb Chamber, something was bound to happen, and whenever a coffin was opened, someone was certain to cause trouble.
The Zombie in the coffin had definitely installed a camera in the Tomb Chamber and was simply waiting for the right moment to Reanimate.
The moment the Small Coffin shattered, a flash of white light appeared before Zhang Ze’s eyes, and a cloud of Green Smoke escaped from within.
But just as it escaped Senior Sister Qiao’s palm, Elder Li slapped it into the ground.
Zhang Ze raised the lamp and shone it over.
He Discovered that the thing seemed to be a ball.
It also seemed to have been knocked unconscious by Elder Li.
After using the Steel Bar to pry the ball out, Zhang Ze held it in his hand and squeezed it. Its Feel was soft and springy.
“A fish ball?”
He Threw the Little Ball onto the ground, and sure enough, it bounced back into Zhang Ze’s hand.
It was even springier than Star Lord’s urine fish balls, and it did not seem dangerous either.
After throwing it two more times, the Little Ball suddenly flashed twice.
A System Prompt appeared before Zhang Ze’s eyes.
【Hidden Quest: Awakening and Rebirth, completion 100 percent; Subsequent Quest awaiting exploration to unlock】
Huh?
This task had appeared for no apparent reason and vanished without warning, leaving Zhang Ze unable to make sense of it for a moment.
Qiao Lezhi came over.
“Junior Brother, you’re clever. What is this thing?”
Zhang Ze turned his head.
“Master, you’re clever. What is this thing?”
Elder Li stroked his beard and pondered.
“I don’t know. But what do you think would be placed inside a coffin?”
Zhang Ze stopped squeezing the Little Ball.
He remembered the Phoenix gallbladder from *The Ghost Blows Out the Lamp*.
He remembered the Old Monsters from Grandpa Wang’s bragging Short Stories, those who had died for thousands of years yet retained their Divine Souls, waiting to be reborn.
He remembered the bizarre Spirit Stone Statue that the Spirit Snake Daoist had dug out.
He remembered the two tiny words carved into the bottom of the Dragonwood coffin.
“Don’t open.”
Being very filial, Zhang Ze Threw the Little Ball into Elder Li’s hand.
“Whatever it is, please help me Seal this thing, Master.”
“Preferably suppress it for forty-nine days.”
However, just as Elder Li pinched the Little Ball and was about to Seal it with the Sword Sect’s Secret Technique,
he suddenly felt a tremendous force surge out of the Little Ball.
The Little Ball slipped from his hand, bounced twice on the ground, and sprang back into Zhang Ze’s hand.
Zhang Ze felt a little cold.
“Senior Sister, go light a candle in the southeast corner of the Tomb Chamber for me.”
“Let’s see whether the flame is green.”