Zhang Yuanqing's gaze fell upon the top of the corridor gate. On the curved wall of three voussoirs and three courses of brickwork hung a yellow paper talisman, painted with twisted cinnabar incantations. This had not been present in the illusion.
"Huh?"
Zhang Yuanqing stared at the yellow talisman for a moment before ultimately deciding not to touch it.
*Can't be reckless.* Having already put away his handgun and boxing gloves, he thought quietly to himself.
Instead of walking toward the main burial chamber behind him, he headed down the tomb passage in the opposite direction.
Just moments ago, he had remembered a description from a tomb-raiding novel: when ancient nobles died, an epitaph would be erected in the tomb corridor, recording the deceased's identity, date of birth, and life achievements.
Walking into the passage, Zhang Yuanqing searched around and indeed spotted an alcove carved into the green brick along the wall, housing a stone stele.
Most of the inscriptions on the stele had worn away with time, leaving the details incomplete.
From what remained, Zhang Yuanqing pieced together a rough understanding of the commandery princess's background. She was the eldest daughter of an early Ming prince, named Yin Yao. Intelligent from childhood and peerlessly beautiful, she possessed a rare talent for cultivation.
She had once trained under Lady Sandao of Song Prefecture. After finishing her apprenticeship, she roamed the world, living for two sixty-year cycles until passing away in the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty, remaining unmarried her entire life.
*This commandery princess was the Old Hag's disciple?!*
"Of all the Night Wanderer Transcendent stage dungeons, my first was Lady Sandao Temple, and my second is her disciple's grave? What kind of twisted karma do I have with that Old Hag?!"
No words could describe Zhang Yuanqing's current feelings, except perhaps—*what the absolute fuck!*
With mixed emotions, Zhang Yuanqing left the passage and returned to the burial chamber.
Passing through the six-meter-long corridor gate into the main burial chamber, he found a Sumeru pedestal stone coffin platform resting in the center of a space as massive as a five-star hotel lobby. Atop the platform sat a white jade outer coffin.
Niches were built into the eastern, western, and southern walls.
All of this matched the illusion. The only difference was that much of the porcelain and pottery was shattered, and two half-man-tall black wooden chests had been forced open, their contents scattered all over the floor.
There were clothes, books, and various items used by ancient women.
None were particularly valuable. There was not a single large gold, silver, or jade piece, though there were plenty of small gold and silver trinkets, such as gold buttons the size of a thumbnail.
Clearly, it had just been ransacked.
*Now that makes sense...* Zhang Yuanqing muttered. But as the words left his mouth, they morphed into righteous indignation:
"Stealing from the dead—Wang Xiao'er went way too far!"
...Zhang Yuanqing froze, suddenly realizing that the price of the Houtu Boots had begun to kick in.
*An honest man!*
Glancing at the coffin, he hesitated to touch it, haunted by past trauma from opening coffins. Instead, he began checking the scattered items on the floor.
Clothes, bronzeware, ceramics, ceremonial regalia, gold buttons, bent silver hairpins... Zhang Yuanqing inspected them one by one without finding a single item.
He then flipped through the yellowed, brittle books: several miscellaneous texts, a few geographical records, and a manual titled *Night Wanderer Breathing Method*.
"Nothing of much value. Tsk, did Wang Xiao'er manage to take every single item? While those three items looked valuable, it's a bit too coincidental that the chamber only had those three..."
Just then, Zhang Yuanqing uttered a quiet "Huh?" His eyes locked onto the *Night Wanderer Breathing Method*. It was not the book itself that caught his attention, but something slipped inside its pages.
He picked up the manual and discovered a sheet of parchment tucked between the leaves. It detailed a sacrificial ritual—by gathering the materials recorded on the parchment and performing the ceremony, one could pray for power from an unseen, supreme existence.
Holding the parchment for a few seconds, an item description appeared:
[Name: Mass-Produced Parchment]
[Type: Leather/Hide]
[Function: Sacrificial Offering]
[Description: Perform a sacrificial ceremony according to the instructions on the parchment to borrow power from an unseen, supreme existence.]
[Remarks: It carries no price, provided the sacrificial materials can be gathered.]
*What a strange item...* This was the first time Zhang Yuanqing had seen anything like it. To be precise, it was his first time encountering the concept of "sacrificing to a supreme existence."
Interpreting the item through his own understanding, he reasoned:
"Gaining some sort of boost through sacrifice is a lot like buff skills in games. I just don't know how strong the buff is. Once I return to reality, I'll gather the materials and give it a try. Since there's no backlash, it'll just cost a bit of money at most. If the boost is substantial, it could be another trump card."
Zhang Yuanqing attempted to store the parchment in his inventory and was delighted to find it could be stowed away.
*Just getting this parchment makes it worth it!* he thought, overwhelmed with guilt.
Now he had become a grave robber too.
Walking over to the jade outer coffin, he pressed both hands against the lid. Just as he prepared to push it open, an item description flashed across his vision:
[Name: Thousand-Year Jade Coffin]
[Type: Coffin]
[Function: Body Nourishment]
[Description: An item left behind by Lady Sandao, originally used to preserve her physical body. After Lady Sandao's death, her lay disciple commissioned a stone coffin to replace the jade one.]
[Remarks: What a truly touching display of filial devotion between master and disciple.]
*Pfft—*
Zhang Yuanqing could not help but burst into laughter.
The Old Hag had indeed been lying in a stone coffin—one he had opened with his own hands.
Zhang Yuanqing thought to himself: *No wonder when I opened the coffin for the Old Hag, her lips were pale and her skin was dull, looking completely neglected.*
"No, no, how can I laugh? I shouldn't take pleasure in someone else's misfortune... That said, when the Old Hag woke up and found herself lying in a stone coffin, I wonder what was going through her mind. If I get the chance, I definitely have to ask. Well, at least after I reach the Dominator Realm..."
"No, no, you shouldn't reopen other people's old wounds."
Muttering under his breath, he quietly applied strength with both palms, gradually sliding the lid of the outer coffin open.
Inside the outer coffin lay an inner jade coffin.
Taking a deep breath, Zhang Yuanqing gingerly opened the lid of the inner jade coffin.
Inside lay a green-robed Taoist. His hair was white and his face lined with wrinkles, yet his complexion was ruddy, as though he were merely asleep.
Zhang Yuanqing silently closed the inner coffin lid, then slid the outer lid back into place, swearing in his heart never to open another coffin again in his life.
*The itinerant Taoist was in the coffin. He's actually here! He really was here...* Zhang Yuanqing's mind was brimming with complaints.
The itinerant Taoist's presence here was unexpected, yet entirely logical.
According to Wang Xiao'er's account, the itinerant Taoist sought the commandery princess's tomb because his lifespan was nearly spent, driving him to make one final gamble. Leaving aside whether he ever obtained a secret method for immortality, this jade coffin alone—capable of nourishing the body—was an irresistible temptation.
What did it mean for one's lifespan to be at its end? It meant the physical body was decaying toward death.
By nourishing the flesh, this coffin did, in a sense, possess the power to prolong life.
After seeing the Taoist inside the coffin, Zhang Yuanqing connected the dungeon introduction with Wang Xiao'er's account, and many pieces fell into place.
The chain of events must have unfolded like this:
Upon finding the ancient tomb, the Taoist was thrilled to discover that the coffin could slow physical decay, and he sought to claim it for himself. However, he feared the commandery princess inside.
Taking advantage of the vengeful spirits in the items sleeping during the day, he incited Wang Xiao'er to steal the items from the tomb. That way, once the commandery princess realized her treasures were gone, she would pursue the thief in fury. On the other hand, the items acted as guardian spirits; without clearing away those three terrifying spirits, he would never dare reside in the tomb for long.
The moment the princess left, he entered the tomb and claimed the coffin.
*"But there's a fatal flaw in this deduction. When the princess realized her base was stolen, why didn't she storm back? Why did she not dare enter the tomb again...?"*
With that thought, a realization struck Zhang Yuanqing. He backed out of the main burial chamber and returned to the ante-chamber.
Standing beneath the arched corridor gate of three voussoirs and three courses of brickwork, he looked up, scrutinizing the yellow paper talisman pasted on the wall.
In the illusion cast by the bronze mirror, that yellow talisman had not existed.
In other words, this object had only appeared after the bronze mirror was removed from the tomb. Because the mirror was unaware of the talisman's presence, it had not manifested in the illusion.
Who had pasted the yellow talisman was blatantly obvious.
It had been put up after the bronze mirror was stolen and the princess had left the tomb.
Scaling the steep brick wall, Zhang Yuanqing hooked his fingers into the mortar joints and climbed up inch by inch, his entire body weight supported by only a few fingertips—a feat no ordinary person could ever pull off.
Reaching the arched ceiling, he pinched the brick crevice with two fingers and reached out with his other hand. Not daring to tear it down directly, he tapped the yellow talisman with his finger.
An item description appeared:
[Name: Blazing Divine Talisman]
[Type: Talisman]
[Function: House Protection]
[Description: A talisman drawn with blood infused with the divine power of the sun. It can suppress evils and safeguard the peace of a household.]
[Remarks: It can only be used once.]
"As expected, it was this talisman that kept the princess out. Unable to return to the tomb, she could only wander the village. Thank goodness I didn't tear it down earlier..." Withdrawing his hand, Zhang Yuanqing leaped down from the wall.
"It seems the princess can't come back. So as long as I stay inside the tomb until ten tomorrow morning, I can clear Mute Village and return to reality."
At this point, the Mute Village dungeon was essentially conquered.
*Exhausting. I nearly died three times in one night. This was ten thousand times more terrifying than the arena tournament. Why am I always so unlucky, running into hell-mode dungeons every single time...* Zhang Yuanqing was in foul spirits.
Soon, however, his mood darkened even further as he remembered that the dungeons he was entering were very likely those the Demon Lord had cleared.
And with the Demon Lord's hidden ratings, there would be plenty more hell-mode dungeons waiting for him in the future.
*It's all the Demon Lord's fault!*
*Wait...* Zhang Yuanqing frowned. If hiding in the burial chamber was enough to clear the dungeon, then by normal logic, once the commandery princess's appearance window ended—meaning the end of the fourth watch—the dungeon should have concluded.
All the bosses were cleared, so there was no point in remaining.
Yet the dungeon's main quest required surviving for twenty-four hours. Once dawn broke, he would still have to spend another ten hours inside.
"Those ten hours are completely pointless. That's ridiculous. Is it a bug? If it's not a bug, based on my experience, this dungeon must have a hidden quest. Those ten hours are reserved for Spirit Realm walkers to complete it..."
"Survival dungeons never give any hints. Whether there's a hidden quest is something you have to deduce yourself, unlike Yinyang Town, where the Spirit Realm notifies you the moment a hidden quest is triggered."
*What is the hidden quest?*
Items that sleep by day, a commandery princess who can't return home...
Zhang Yuanqing understood.
The hidden quest was to help the princess recover her items and return to the ancient tomb.
Therefore, the mechanic of the items sleeping during the day was designed so Spirit Realm walkers could search for them without distraction.
"From the looks of it, finding the items is no easy task either, but that doesn't matter—I have Little Doubi!" The more Zhang Yuanqing thought about it, the more confident he became, his eyes lighting up.
Moreover, it suited his honest, helpful nature.
Having made up his mind, Zhang Yuanqing sat down in a corner of the outer chamber, rested his back against the brick wall, and closed his eyes for a nap.
Three hours later, the lightly sleeping Zhang Yuanqing woke up. Putting on the Red Dancing Shoes, he scaled the steep brick wall, slipped into the robber's tunnel above, and climbed his way back out of the earth.
Daylight had broken outside.
The mountain hollow was lush with greenery, flanked by overlapping peaks covered in dense forest.
Making full use of the Red Dancing Shoes' wear duration, Zhang Yuanqing walked out of the deep mountains, accompanied them in a dance outside the village, and only then entered.
Just as when he had first arrived yesterday, the dilapidated, ruined village was dead silent. There were no voices of living souls, but no signs of danger either.
Zhang Yuanqing spat out Little Doubi and commanded him to seek treasure.
Little Doubi crawled over to his master's feet, spread his short, stubby arms, hugged Zhang Yuanqing's calf, and nuzzled it with his chubby cheek in an affectionate gesture.
After surviving the crisis from last night, the infant spirit's blossoming intelligence had taught him gratitude.
Paddling his four limbs, Little Doubi led the way ahead while Zhang Yuanqing followed at a leisurely pace. Before long, they found Corpse No. 1 in a narrow alley.
Corpse No. 1 lay stiffly on the ground like a frozen corpse. There were no obvious external injuries, but Zhang Yuanqing's face was heavy with grief.
The spirit body inside the yin corpse had been destroyed.
When refining a yin corpse, the very first step was binding the remnant spirit body back to the flesh.
The spirit body was the foundation of a yin corpse, its very core.
Without that fragmented spirit body, the yin corpse was reduced to an empty husk, effectively ruined.
Zhang Yuanqing dropped to his knees beside the corpse with a thud and kowtowed vigorously:
"Brother, you died for me! I will never forget this debt of gratitude. I can only repay you in the next life. Rest in peace!"
After finishing his kowtows, Zhang Yuanqing felt something was slightly off, but with his honest nature, he didn't dwell on it. Instead, he reached down and picked up the humanoid membrane beside the corpse.
The Flawless Human Skin was still there, untouched by the princess, having peeled itself off the corpse.
"You're the one that made me sacrifice my brother. You're nothing but trouble! The moment I get out of this dungeon, I'm selling you."
Heartbroken and indignant, Zhang Yuanqing put it back into his inventory, then proceeded to Teacher Xu's courtyard to retrieve the silver rouge box resting on the study desk.
Next was finding the ghost doll and the bronze mirror.
Little Doubi led Zhang Yuanqing through winding paths across the ruined mountain village, eventually returning to Wang Xiao'er's residence.
Beside the small path outside the courtyard still lay the headless corpse of the old man.
Watching the infant spirit crawl into the courtyard without hesitation, Zhang Yuanqing raised an eyebrow. Just as he was about to hurry after it, he caught sight of the old man's corpse.
An inexplicable wave of guilt and sorrow washed over him.
He walked over to the old man's corpse, dropped to his knees with a thud, and performed three honest, resounding kowtows to express his apologies.
Rising to his feet, he followed Little Doubi into the inner room where the coffin stood. The little infant spirit was lying beneath the coffin, patting the packed earth with its tiny hands and babbling, "A-ba, a-ba!"
With a spark of realization, Zhang Yuanqing drew his Bloodthirsty Blade, using its sharp tip to chisel into the hard dirt.
After digging a dozen centimeters down, the blade suddenly struck with a metallic *clink*, seemingly hitting something hard.
Zhang Yuanqing brushed away the loose dirt to reveal the lid of an iron box in the pit. Continuing to dig, he widened the hole until he finally hoisted the iron box out.
The box was half a meter long, twenty centimeters wide, and thirty centimeters tall, secured by a brass padlock.
Zhang Yuanqing sliced through the padlock with ease and lifted the lid. Inside lay a chest full of gold, silver, and jade wares. Resting at the very top was an entirely black, translucent sculpture of a baby girl with prominent ears.
The girl's mouth was open, revealing no tongue inside.
Beside the sculpture lay a palm-sized circular bronze mirror, covered in dust. Its back was engraved with a pair of phoenixes whose eyes were two red gemstones.
Zhang Yuanqing turned the bronze mirror over to gaze into it, yet his face did not appear on its surface.
It was a mirror that reflected no living soul.
Holding the two items, he waited a few moments until their item descriptions appeared:
[Name: Yin Jade Doll]
[Type: Handicraft]
[Function: Possession]
[Description: Originally a piece of yin jade nurtured for a century in a land of extreme yin, it was accidentally obtained by a lonely, helpless little girl. Keeping the jade on her person for a prolonged period, she gradually succumbed to yin qi and died shortly after. Her spirit body merged with the yin jade, transforming into a sculpture.]
[Remarks 1: The spirit body within the yin jade yearns to play games. Anyone who refuses to play with her will be possessed. This possession cannot be avoided and cannot be blocked; the spirit body cannot be utterly destroyed.]
[Remarks 2: Let's play a game! I want to be the third person, hehe~]
Zhang Yuanqing stared in shock, murmuring, "A... a rule-based item..."
Any item whose properties contained absolute terms like "cannot be avoided" or "cannot be destroyed" was without question a rule-based item.
Only rule-based items possessed such overbearing absolute authority, because rules were rules—immutable and unalterable.
The ghost doll's function was singular, yet it was undeniably a rule-based item.
In fact, when he had learned that gathering three people was the only way to avert the ghost doll's crisis, Zhang Yuanqing had already sensed it; it shared obvious similarities with the rules of the Red Dancing Shoes.
—One had to dance to resolve the rule and escape pursuit.
Instinctively, subconsciously, and entirely out of character for an honest man, Zhang Yuanqing tried to store the ghost doll in his inventory to claim it for himself.
[Ding! This item cannot be collected.]
*This belongs to the commandery princess. I shouldn't take it...* After feeling ashamed for a few seconds, Zhang Yuanqing looked at the second item's description:
[Name: Ghost Mirror]
[Type: Mirror]
[Function: Charm Art, Ghost Revealing]
[Description: Everything in this world can be reflected, save for the elusive human heart. The Ghost Mirror was an item crafted by Commandery Princess Yin Yao after roaming the world for two sixty-year cycles, enduring life's vicissitudes, observing all manners of men, and achieving mastery in charm arts. It can record what it sees and hears, manifesting illusions that blur truth and falsehood.]
[Remarks: From the moment you use it, you become—the Great Sage.]
*The Great Sage? That counts as a price?*
Since he had not bound the item, Zhang Yuanqing could not experience what the price of "the Great Sage" actually meant.
Regardless, it was unimportant. What mattered more was returning the items to that poor commandery princess.
Finding a bamboo basket in the outer hall, he placed the three items inside, picked it up, and walked out of Wang Xiao'er's stone house, heading toward the rear.
It was time to complete the hidden quest and bring this dungeon to a close.
Chapter 232