Chapter 59: Stealing

Scenery aside.

The coffin guards, wrapped in cocoons and covered with white silkworm threads, were hardly any different from An Yishou, whom we had encountered earlier.

The only distinction was that An Yishou still had tattered clothes clinging to him.

Everyone was struck with horror, hesitant to move forward, and could only stop and watch from across the small stream.

Among the group, only Fatty Dong understood supernatural and ominous matters, so I turned my head to ask him.

"Fatty, are these things alive or dead?"

Fatty Dong replied, "Xiao Meng, what kind of question is that! An Yishou is dead too, he's just acting perversely and has a dense aura of yin. Based on Taoist Master's years of experience going head-to-head with demons and ghosts, these coffin guards all have clear brows and pure auras; they definitely won't be able to stir up any trouble!"

I frowned and asked, "Are you sure?"

Fatty Dong answered decisively, "Sure! If you don't believe me, I'll go over right now and slap them twice to set an example for you."

With that, he twitched his chubby buttocks and prepared to leap across the stream.

The scarred bodyguard, bound to him by the Mandarin Duck Rope, was so frightened upon seeing this fellow attempt to rush over that he immediately yanked the tether.

"Hold it right there!"

It wasn't that I doubted Fatty Dong's judgment.

It was simply that I had been driven half-mad by his constant pitfalls along the way.

As I was pondering how to verify his conclusion, Xiaoyao said from behind, "Brother, I need to use the bathroom. Accompany me."

Hearing this, Mantis Luo looked irritated.

"So many damn issues!"

Xiaoyao puffed out her chest, her pretty face full of resentment as she pointed a finger at him.

"Damn Mantis, what are you acting so high and mighty for?!"

"If it weren't for my brother, your flesh would already be rotting. Hurry up and untie this rope for your grandma!"

Having reached the final destination, Jiang Sheng'er was no longer in a rush. Besides, with Fatty Dong as a hostage by his side, he wasn't afraid of Xiaoyao and me acting recklessly, so he waved his hand at Mantis Luo.

The Mandarin Duck Rope binding the two of them was untied.

Because the light here was too glaring, I accompanied her to a dark cluster of trees some distance away.

Xiaoyao squatted down and whispered to me, "Brother, I observed them all the way here. Each of them has a horn knife slightly larger than a utility knife on their wrists, locked onto a wrist mechanism. However, before crossing the bridge, I noticed several spare horn knives in the scarred guy's pack. I'm going to secretly steal them in a moment!"

My eyes widened.

"Steal?!"

Xiaoyao nodded earnestly.

"Right! When I traveled the jianghu with my master, although my main focus was on magic tricks, I also learned the arts of the Rong clan. It's just that my master usually didn't let me cross boundaries and steal other people's rice bowls."

Of course I believed her.

It was simply that Xiaoyao had been captured too abruptly this time, leaving her without any of her magical props. Otherwise, had she casually performed a couple of illusions along the way to spin their heads, we would have shaken off these bastards long ago.

Joy surged in my heart.

"How do you plan to steal them?"

Xiaoyao explained to me.

"When they open the black coffin later, their attention will be focused inside. I have a hundred percent certainty of lifting the horn knives from the scarred guy's pack. If I succeed, I'll cough twice. If you don't hear me cough, try to stall as long as possible while they open the coffin so they have no bandwidth for anything else."

This was indeed a good plan.

If the horn knives could truly be stolen successfully and an opportunity arose to completely cast off our shackles, I would never let the Golden Silkworm Molting fall into other hands, and I had a hundred ways to make these tomb-blind fools regret it.

I thought for a moment and instructed her with utmost solemnity.

"Xiaoyao, if you aren't completely sure, don't make a move. Safety is paramount!"

"Even with the restraint of the Mandarin Duck Rope, Brother has the confidence to lead you out. Trust me!"

Xiaoyao nodded.

I stood up and started walking back.

Yet this girl didn't move.

"Time to head back."

"Brother, I really do need to pee."

"Fine, go ahead."

"Turn around and turn off the spotlight, or are you planning to watch me pee?"

Xiaoyao's pretty face flushed red, her expression speechless.

I smiled. "I almost forgot you're a young lady."

When she finished, the two of us returned to the streamside.

Mantis Luo came over and buckled the Mandarin Duck Rope back onto our wrists.

Holding a stone, Fatty Dong tossed it one after another at the coffin guards on the opposite side, looking entirely indifferent.

"See that? Taoist Master has been pelting them for a while, and not a twitch!"

With the main coffin right ahead, there was no way we would give up now, and since neither of us could figure out what was going on, I made a decision.

"Move out!"

Mantis Luo and the scarred man immediately grabbed their daggers, guarding Jiang Sheng'er with tense expressions.

The stream wasn't wide, and the group leaped across it in one bound.

Arriving before those coffin guards and inspecting them with the spotlights, a wave of revulsion washed over us.

Their bodies were covered in numerous cocoons containing remnants of silkworm corpses, with chaotic silkworm threads outside connecting the various guards together like spiderwebs.

Fatty Dong's nerves were made of steel. Before anyone could react, he picked up a branch, directly pried open the silkworm threads, and poked them a couple of times.

"Look, completely weathered, breaks at the slightest touch."

"The tomb owner is so damn cruel, burying living people with him. Taoist Master is going to make him get up and pee later!"

Looking closer, the body of the coffin guard where he poked was pitch-black, resembling dried meat, and kept flaking off in chunks.

This probably wasn't a live burial.

First, their identity was that of coffin guards, and there were almost no historical precedents of funerary attendants standing up.

Second, this tomb was filled with Mohist mechanical arts everywhere; I judged the owner to be a person from the Warring States period, and burial rites contradicted Mohist philosophy.

Third, no traces of sacrificial rituals were visible around, which did not align with ancient burial customs.

Judging by the current situation, these coffin guards should have employed some secret technique to cause silkworms to swarm over their bodies, leaving them standing here to guard the coffin.

I observed carefully. The silkworm thread net almost enveloped the entire high platform, much like anti-theft barbed wire around a villa, yet there was a large split in the southwest corner—whether formed naturally or carved out by someone, it was impossible to tell.

Seeing no immediate danger, I was the first to crawl through the gap.

After stepping inside and taking two steps, I felt a secret shock.

This wasn't a naturally formed fissure; someone had intentionally cleared away the silkworm thread net!

The basis for this judgment was that the split in the silkworm threads extended forward, forming a winding path with erratic directions—weaving left and right, advancing and retreating—yet consistently heading toward the main coffin. This path clearly avoided certain dangers within the cluster of coffin guards.

In Qimen Dunjia, there were various labyrinth layouts designed to trap intruders: the Nine-Turn Xuanji Steps, the Six-Ding Shadow Alley, the Eye of Heaven Barrier-Breaking Platform...

This discovery filled me with both joy and anxiety.

The joyful part was that by following the path forged by our predecessors, we could bypass the potential risks of the coffin guard cluster, since I wasn't very well-versed in the Eight Trigrams and Nine Palaces.

The anxious part was that if someone had entered before us, were the contents of the main coffin still there?

Throughout the journey, I hadn't caught a glimpse of Sister-in-law. Could it be her?

On second thought, that seemed unlikely.

We had broken through several major mechanisms just to finally get inside. If Liao Xiaoqin had been here, these mechanisms would certainly have been dismantled by her before we arrived.

I kept my discovery to myself, merely following the torn fissure in the silkworm threads and moving forward rapidly.

Within minutes, we cleared the array of coffin guards, passed through the Mohist mysterious bird stone carvings, and climbed onto the high platform.

Everyone finally arrived before the main coffin!