Tomb Raider: I Am Hu Bayi's Cousin

Chapter 71 Killing the Zongzi
Yang Xueli walked to the coffin and looked at the hole peeking out from the top. What was that?
She glanced inside a few times and saw the mezzanine, so she wisely stepped back a bit.

"Fatty, don't move..." Fatty came over and eagerly reached into the hole, startling Hu Ming. Hu Ming quickly grabbed Fatty's shoulder and angrily said, "You want to become a one-armed fat man?"

The fat man finally understood. So there was a mechanism involved? He shook his hand tremblingly, but thankfully, it was still there.

"Mingzi, what is this?" Hu Bayi stared at the cave entrance, wondering what it was for. He felt he knew too little, after all, he only knew the Sixteen-Character Yin-Yang Feng Shui Secret Technique, which was just theoretical knowledge.

"This is the mechanism to open the coffin, but there are sharp iron clamps installed inside. Once you reach in and touch the mechanism, the clamps will trap your arm and could break an adult's arm," Hu Ming explained, looking at Hu Bayi.

It could also be considered as imparting some knowledge to Hu Bayi, to prevent him from being so half-baked and still going around exploring ancient tombs. He'd suffer sooner or later, especially the fat guy, whom Hu Ming gave a special look.

"Do you understand?"

"Mmm." The fat man nodded repeatedly, his face full of lingering fear. If Hu Ming had stopped him a little slower, he would have already put his hand in. The thought of becoming a one-armed fat man made his heart tremble.

"How do I open it?"

Yang Xueli stared at the coffin for a long time, still unable to figure out how to open it.

She is a smart woman. When she encounters these strange things, she thinks about them carefully, learns from them, and is now learning from Hu Ming.

Hu Ming frowned upon seeing this, then asked the fat man to bring over a piece of wood whose diameter did not exceed the opening of the hole.

Upon hearing this, the fat man was taken aback at first, but he still went outside the well to fetch a sturdy poplar log.

Hu Ming inserted a piece of wood into the hole at the top of the coffin.

Click!

The sound made everyone tense up, especially the fat man, who broke out in a cold sweat.

Fortunately, it wasn't Fatty's arm.

Hu Ming took out half a piece of wood, then rolled up the sleeve of his right arm. This action scared Fatty and Hu Bayi so much that their expressions changed.

"Mingzi, no, it's too dangerous," the two said in unison.

"It's alright, the mechanism has already been used."

Hu Ming flexed his fingers, then reached into the cave and began to grope around. Soon, he found the mechanism to open the stone coffin, grabbed the latch, and swung it.

Click!

The entire stone coffin began to shake. Hu Ming quickly took a few steps back and breathed a sigh of relief. He had only lied to Hu Bayi and Fatty to avoid making them worry.

At this moment, everyone looked at the stone coffin with trepidation.

Finally, the stone coffin slowly rose up, with the lower half emerging from the burial bed.

The burial platform was moved inwards slightly, and the coffin was slowly lowered and placed on the platform.

They realized that the coffins they had seen before were actually lids.

No wonder I couldn't find the gap between the coffin lid and the coffin.

"Wow, a coffin? There are people who play with coffins like this? I've really seen something new today."

The fat man was shocked, but he did not slow down. He grabbed the large lid of the stone coffin with both hands and lifted it up.

Hu Ming, Hu Bayi, and Yang Xueli quickly helped, each taking one corner and pulling together, as the large cap on the coffin was simply too heavy.

"No, I can't lift it."

The large lid of the stone coffin, like a hat, covered the coffin below. The fat man's face turned red, but he couldn't lift it, as could Hu Bayi and the other two.

"How about this, we lift it from one side, raise the big cap, and then flip it," Hu Bayi suggested. Everyone thought this was a good method; by concentrating their strength, they were sure they could do it.

"Okay." Hu Ming nodded. That was the only way. The ice stone coffin's lid was too big, and he couldn't lift it properly. So he grabbed one corner and lifted it up, and the four of them pulled together.

The large stone cap of the coffin was lifted and tilted, reaching a height of about one meter. Several people then took turns using their hands to lift and straighten the large stone cap.

"Whoo~"

Even Hu Ming was so exhausted that he had to take several deep breaths.

It's really too heavy.

"What is this?" Yang Xueli's attention was drawn to the large hat-shaped stone cover. She was very excited and pointed to the carvings inside the large hat-shaped stone cover. Each one was only thirty centimeters in size, but the workmanship was very exquisite.

However, no one cared what she had discovered; they were all staring at the coffin.

Inside the coffin lay two living corpses, so lifelike that their expressions, skin, eyebrows, and hair were incredibly vivid, as if they might open their eyes at any moment.

The corpses were a man and a woman, both dressed in burial clothes, but these burial clothes were different from those worn by ordinary people after death.

It was red, the red burial robe embroidered with gold thread, styled like the dragon robe worn by Tang Dynasty emperors. The female corpse's burial robe was embroidered with a phoenix, seemingly influenced by the Tang Dynasty. Did the kings of these small border kingdoms in the Western Regions all like dragon robes?
Huh? Hu Ming noticed that the male corpse's hand was clenched, and the palm was down, probably covering something. He gently lifted the male corpse's hand and saw that it was an exquisite jade bottle.

There was a jet-black pill inside, which Fatty and the others also noticed. They stared wide-eyed as Hu Ming picked up the jade bottle.

Wherever the jade bottle went, their eyes followed it without ever leaving its side.

What's inside?

The fat man thought that the contents of this bottle must be a treasure. Putting aside the contents, the jade bottle itself was a valuable item.

Yang Xueli glanced at the fat man and said indifferently, "There is this bottle on the mural in the tomb. It contains a milky white pill that Prince Gumo presented to Queen Jingjue. Now that thousands of years have passed, it is normal for the pill to have changed color."

Hu Ming glanced at Yang Xueli and said, "You're right, but can you tell what kind of pill this is?"

Just then, the two corpses in the coffin twitched their fingers slightly, and their bodies rapidly grew hair.

His face was almost covered in hair, with red hairs protruding directly from his cloak. In the blink of an eye, the cloak was riddled with tiny holes.

"Oh no, the corpse is about to turn into a zombie!" Hu Bayi's expression changed drastically. He regretted not lighting candles before opening the coffin. He couldn't possibly break the rules left by his ancestors, could he?
"A zombie resurrection?" Hu Ming couldn't help but ask.

He immediately took out two catties of glutinous rice from his spatial storage and spread it on the two bodies.

"Zi...Zi..."

The two corpses were emitting black smoke, but their bodies were still trembling. Seeing this, Hu Ming said to Hu Bayi and the others, "Back off, run!"

Upon hearing this, everyone immediately turned and left, even the fat man couldn't care less about the treasure at this moment.

However, to everyone's surprise, although the two rice dumplings were injured, they were surprisingly fast. In the blink of an eye, they were about to catch up with everyone. Just as Hu Ming saw the fat man running at the back about to be caught by the rice dumplings...

Hu Ming turned around and kicked the male zombie next to the fat man away.

Seeing the female rice dumpling rushing towards him with its mouth wide open, Hu Ming remained calm, took out a donkey hoof and stuffed it into its mouth to immobilize it.

Then the male zombie pounced on Hu Ming and knocked him flying. Hu Bayi didn't have time to worry about Hu Ming, so he took out the donkey hoof that Fatty had given him and stuffed it into the male zombie's mouth.

Hu Ming stood up at this moment, wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth. He took out a peach wood sword, knowing that these two zombies wouldn't last long.

Hu Ming took the peach wood sword and, where Hu Bayi and the others couldn't see, poured black dog blood onto the peach wood sword.

Then it was inserted into the male zongzi's heart. The male zongzi trembled all over, and then black smoke rose from his body as he fell heavily to the ground.

Seeing this, Hu Ming drew his peach wood sword and also struck the female rice dumpling.

Seeing that both rice dumplings had fallen over, Hu Ming couldn't help but slump to the ground.

Panting heavily, Hu Bayi and the others breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing this.

(End of this chapter)