System: Infinite Evolution into Qilin Bloodline

Naga means snake woman in Khmer, so a nine-headed Naga is a nine-headed snake woman.

The entire cave was filled with countless human skin figurines, but the situation inside the coffin in the middle remained unknown.

As you approach the coffin, a system notification sounds, indicating that the Nine-Headed Naga should be inside the enormous coffin.

Zhang Hao, Wu Tianzhen, Fatty, Yi Sa, and Ding Yudie descended to the bottom of the cave and, upon reaching the coffin, saw Zhang Qilin staring blankly at it.

Zhang Hao followed Zhang Qilin's gaze and noticed that English letters were engraved on the coffin.

These letters are the same as those on the stone gate at the end of the passageway.

"Hey bro, is this also a mark you left behind?"

Wu Tianzhen noticed that the writing on the coffin was the same as that on the stone door, so she asked a question.

Zhang Qilin nodded.

"Tianzhen, come and see, there are pictures here."

Just as Wu Tianzhen was about to ask something, the fat man suddenly spoke up.

The group followed Wu Tianzhen over and saw that there were more than a dozen pictures carved on one end of the coffin.

When Zhang Hao saw a nine-headed serpent appear on the screen, his heart skipped a beat. Could this be the Nine-Headed Naga?

"Naive, can you understand what the picture is trying to convey?"

Zhang Hao asked.

“Uncle, I can understand some of it, but I have no knowledge of Khmer Empire culture, so there may be some discrepancies in the details.”

"SaSa has been researching the Khmer Empire for a long time in order to find the Khmer king's tomb. If there's anything you don't know, you can communicate with SaSa so that we can perfectly interpret the images."

Ding Yudie said.

Wu Tianzhen and Yi Sa nodded at the same time, and then began to study the picture at one end of the coffin together.

"The images on the coffin are continuous with the content of the murals at the entrance."

Wu Tianzhen studied it for a while and then said excitedly.

"As soon as we entered the Khmer king's tomb, we saw many murals in the tomb chamber."

The murals depict the process by which the Khmer king established the Khmer Empire. The reason he was able to establish the Khmer Empire was because of his daughter, the Khmer princess, who turned into a monster.

At first, the Khmer princess assisted the Khmer king in winning many battles, but later she gradually lost control and summoned many man-eating monsters.

It is said that this monster has a human skin and should be a green worm.

Later, in order to stop the Khmer princess from causing harm, the Khmer king had no choice but to sacrifice his own lifespan to seal her away.

The images on the coffin depict the story after the Khmer princess was sealed away.

"What happened after that, and why did the Khmer Empire suddenly disappear?"

Wu Tianzhen glanced at Zhang Hao; this was the first time he had ever seen Zhang Hao so eager to know the answer to something.

"Uncle, please wait a moment. I need to ask Yi Sa a few questions to clear up my doubts so that I can interpret the meaning of the picture as accurately as possible."

After he finished speaking, he started talking to Yi Sa, asking mostly questions about the culture and customs of the Khmer Empire.

About half an hour later, all his doubts seemed to be resolved, and he began to decipher the images on the coffin.

"When the Khmer princess summoned those man-eating monsters, some unseen and intangible monsters also came into this world with her."

Those monsters are more terrifying than man-eating monsters; they can possess people's bodies, drastically change their personalities, and turn them into unfamiliar beings.

As they change, they also gain special abilities, such as the ability to breathe underwater.

These people are easy to identify; every person whose body has been possessed by a monster will have a special mark on the back of their neck.

At first, everyone thought it was a good thing. Many people, wanting to gain the ability to breathe underwater, began to actively seek out monsters and welcome them into their bodies.

However, as time went on, the side effects gradually became apparent.

Those whose bodies are possessed by monsters will become increasingly violent, abandoning all their relatives and becoming completely ruthless.

They would not hesitate to kill their friends and family.

More importantly, the lifespan of a person whose body is possessed by a monster will be greatly shortened.

Before long, the body will emit a putrid odor, and then it will die.

At this time, the monster will change into a new body.

As a result, the Khmer Empire experienced a sharp decline in population.

Meanwhile, the conflict between those who support monsters entering their bodies and those who oppose it intensifies.

War eventually broke out.

The side that opposed the monsters entering the bodies won, and they decided to execute all those who were possessed by the monsters.

After they killed all the people whose bodies were possessed by the monster, they discovered a shocking truth.

That is, these monsters seem to be unkillable. As long as a person is alive, or even a corpse that has just died, they can burrow inside and take over the body.

In order to stop the monster from harming people, the Khmer king made a momentous decision based on the advice of the high priest.

He decided to sacrifice the lives of everyone in the empire to stop the monsters from spreading.

So they found this place and executed everyone in the Khmer Empire, hollowing out their bodies to make human skin figurines.

On the eve of the event's completion, the high priest, along with his two disciples, stole three soul-summoning tokens, national treasures of the Khmer Empire, and escaped.

After listening to Wu Tianzhen's interpretation of the dozen or so images on the coffin, everyone fell into deep thought.

Zhang Hao had come to understand that the monsters the Khmer people spoke of were the preserved consciousnesses of those who had gained immortality by possessing the bodies of others.

It's just unknown how the Khmer princess obtained the blue-skinned insects and their consciousness.

The video mentions that the Khmer princess helped the Khmer Empire establish its power in the early stages of its history, and only started doing these things later.

It is very likely that the body has not yet been completely taken over by the consciousness of others in the early stages.

Later, after his body was taken over by someone else, his personality changed drastically, leading him to take actions that caused the destruction of the Khmer Empire.

"The Khmer king was truly a ruthless man, willing to sacrifice the lives of the entire empire's people to stop the monster's spread."

"Sasa, could it be that our ancestors, the Three Surnames Water Demons, were the escaped High Priest and his disciple?"

"If all of this is true, I think it's very likely that the ancestral tablets we carry are actually the national treasure of the Khmer Empire, the Soul-Guiding Token!"

Yi Sa and Ding Yudie had the same idea.

If their ancestors were the high priest and two disciples of the Khmer Empire, then everything makes sense.

"What are you guessing for? Isn't it said that people whose bodies are possessed by monsters will have marks on the back of their necks? Just look at the back of your necks and you'll know!"

The fat man stepped forward and said something.

Yi Sa and Ding Yudie's faces immediately fell.

"It seems to be true. Yu Die and I do have a special mark on the back of our necks, which appeared after we became water demons."

"Actually, besides the mark, there is another way to verify it. The last part of the picture says that to open this coffin, you must use the three soul-guiding tokens, national treasures of the Khmer Kingdom!"

Only after Wu Tianzhen pointed it out did everyone notice that there were three fist-sized holes in the middle of the coffin.

That must be the mechanism for inserting the soul-guiding token to open the coffin.

Yi Sa and Ding Yudie picked up their ancestral tablets from their chests and said helplessly, "But the Jiang family's ancestral tablet was lost a thousand years ago, leaving only the Yi and Ding family's tablets, which are impossible to verify."

"That's not necessarily the case!"

As Zhang Hao spoke, he took out the ancestral tablet he had obtained.