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墨書 Inktalez
If I were to say I was under the Ghostly Veil, that would be nonsense. I wasn't fully armed, but I had enough protective charms and talismans on me that if they couldn't block something as trivial as the Ghostly Veil, then I might as well give up this line of work.
Master Pan noticed my urgency and said slowly, "It's due to the formation. The structure of this place is quite special. Besides the formation, there are also some principles of water refraction and light scattering involved. In short, this illusion formation is intricately laid out; even my corpse-seeking technique has been blocked. If it weren't for your insistence earlier, I might have given up. However, now that you've seen the image, I should be able to locate that Senior Master's Corpse."
"Where exactly did you see it?" I asked.
"If I'm not mistaken," he replied, "it should be right here."
The small slope was only about a meter long but had a steep angle of around sixty to seventy degrees.
I asked in confusion, "Master Pan, didn't you say it was a mirrored image? Why did I see it at your head?"
"Marvelous! This Senior Master is truly a genius in the realm of formations. It's likely that this clever arrangement is something even my Master couldn't devise."
I thought to myself that if he considered his Master a junior in front of him, then what did that make me? Out loud, I said, "Master Pan, have you figured out anything yet?"
Master Pan nodded and said, "Fortunately, I've seen this kind of arrangement before. Did you notice how little soil there is between these stones? In some places, there's even none at all?"
I nodded and replied, "Hmm, could it be that this Senior Master arranged the stones like this on purpose?" The stones were old, but there was indeed much less soil between them compared to other places.
Master Pan nodded again and continued to admire the clever arrangement of the stone pile without revealing how to break it. In this area, I was just an outsider and couldn't understand the intricacies. Master Pan's research seemed endless. I finally had to interject, "Master Pan, it's getting late. If we don't find this Senior Master's Corpse soon, it'll be dark."
"Oh," Master Pan exclaimed, then squatted down and forcefully pried open the stone in the middle of the small slope. He moved down the slope and removed three stones below using the same method. Then he instructed me to move two stones from above and toss them aside. "Come here; let me show you something particularly impressive."
I carefully jumped down from a large stone nearby. Master Pan smiled and said, "Even though we've moved six stones already, this small slope is still very stable. So even if you walk from above, there won't be any problems. The key is right here." He pointed to an irregular stone beneath his feet.
That stone was on the far right of the slope and looked unremarkable. I asked, "Do we just need to move it? Is this the seventh one?"
"Yes," Master Pan replied. "Looks like you're not so foolish after all."
In truth, it wasn't that I was clever; he had already mentioned showing me something particularly impressive. Anyone could tell this was the last stone left. Since we had already moved six stones, moving one more would make seven—an important number in Taoism. Seven is associated with celestial powers; almost all numbers in Taoism relate back to seven—like the Seven Stars Formation or Seven Days After Death or Three Souls and Seven Spirits, among others.
I said, "So what will happen if I start moving it?"
Master Pan replied, "It will collapse. Move the stone and then get out of the way immediately."
I nodded, handed the flashlight to Master Pan, rolled up my sleeves, and prepared to shift the last stone. Master Pan stepped aside next to a large rock, watching my movements with anticipation. I glanced at him, and he nodded. I placed both hands on the stone and pulled with all my strength.
As soon as I moved the stone from its original position, I heard the smaller stones on the slope begin to roll down slowly. I quickly released the stone and darted over to Master Pan's side. The sound of stones crashing against each other echoed around us. Peeking out, I saw that dozens of stones that had been on the slope had all slid down and piled up below, revealing a rectangular black hole about half a meter high in the upper part of the slope.
Once the stones settled, I took the flashlight that Master Pan handed me and shone it into the dark space.
In the upper part of the slope lay a small coffin, slanted and dark red in color, coated with a thick layer of grease for preservation. It was hard to tell what material it was made of, but it seemed to be wood.
Since some stones had already rolled away from beneath it, the coffin appeared unstable, as if it could slide down with just a gentle push. Fortunately, it wasn't very high.
I looked at Master Pan and asked anxiously, "So Senior Master's corpse should be inside that coffin, right? It won't roll down, will it?"
Master Pan slowly emerged from behind the large rock and stared at the small coffin. He said, "The corpse is definitely inside. However, something feels off. Normally, this coffin would roll down by itself or even open its lid on its own. Why hasn't it fallen?"
"After so many years, there must have been some movement in the earth's crust. That could be why the coffin hasn't fallen," I suggested. "Should we try to get it down now?" Although I was puzzled about why this small coffin needed to fall or why it would open by itself, I didn't feel like asking further questions; nightfall was approaching.
Master Pan nodded, crouched down, picked up a fist-sized stone, and playfully said, "Watch me smash it down with this stone."
Thank you to One Meter of Gentle Breeze for twenty flowers. Thank you to Wuyou Ruirui for five flowers. Goodnight everyone.
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