Chapter 119
Chapter 119
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: uly
Chapter: 119
Chapter Title: The Woman in the Stone Coffin
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“Kraaak!”
“Aaak!”
Screams could now be heard.
“Should we go out, or just leave them be?”
Ak Muyoo asked.
“Leave them be.”
Yo Pung said as she climbed on top of Ak Muyoo.
“Some people are out there fighting to the death…”
“Even in the middle of war, babies are born.”
“That’s true.”
The sounds of weapons clashing and screams continued. But the two stayed in the room, steadfastly focused on their own business.
The next day.
The two left the cave house and descended below. Traces of battle were scattered everywhere down there. Several corpses were visible.
“Those are…”
Ak Muyoo trailed off.
“People you know?”
“Boundless Heaven martial artists. The ones over there are Ten Heavens martial artists.”
“Why would they fight here?”
“The place where I saw them was the ruins of the Absolute Six Heavens.”
“Then one side must have found treasure there. They fought over it.”
“If it wasn’t for treasure, they wouldn’t have a reason to fight.”
“That place collapsed.”
Yo Pung pointed to the right. The spot she indicated was the center of the village, where the ground had sunk in deeply. It looked like it had crumbled from a powerful impact.
“Those bastards got lucky.”
“Who? The ones we fought?”
“Yeah.”
“Why do you say they got lucky?”
“A tomb was created.”
“Ugh.”
“Uh!”
A groan emanated from the collapsed area.
“Someone’s alive in there.”
Ak Muyoo and Yo Pung headed to the sunken ground. A person lay there, half-buried, looking at first glance like one of the dead.
“Isn’t that a coffin next to him?”
Yo Pung asked.
“Looks like it.”
Ak Muyoo nodded. A stone coffin lay tumbled beside the man.
“Let’s pull him out first.”
The two descended below.
“Tch!”
Ak Muyoo clicked his tongue. The fallen man was Sun Woo Chang Cheon, the leader of the Boundless Heaven Squad. Sun Woo Chang Cheon’s right arm had been severed.
Ak Muyoo carried Sun Woo Chang Cheon back to the cave house on the hill. He washed the wound with water from the kitchen, then searched Sun Woo Chang Cheon’s pockets. Fortunately, he carried golden wound salve. After applying it, Ak Muyoo tore the lower hem of his windbreaker robe to bandage the wound.
After laying Sun Woo Chang Cheon in the room, he went back down. Yo Pung had dragged the coffin up and was examining it from all angles.
“What are you doing?”
Ak Muyoo asked.
“That guy must have brought it, right?”
Yo Pung asked back.
“It wasn’t here before, so yeah, he brought it.”
“What do you think’s inside?”
“Why worry? Just open it.”
“Can we open it when it has an owner?”
“He’s not the owner.”
Ak Muyoo shook his head.
“He’s not?”
“The ruins of the Absolute Six Heavens belong to the Cheonjung Citadel Clan, one of the families of the Chacha Kingdom. Those people went onto someone else’s land and stole it.”
“Then this belongs to the Cheonjung Citadel Clan?”
“I was the head of the Cheonjung Citadel Clan, so it’s mine too.”
“What do you mean you were the head of the Cheonjung Citadel Clan?”
Yo Pung asked with a surprised face.
“It’s a long story. I’ll tell you when we have time later. More importantly, let’s see what this is. Let me take a look…”
Ak Muyoo examined the coffin.
Words were inscribed on top, but they were faded and illegible.
“This looks like ‘jiang’ for corpse.”
Ak Muyoo pointed to the bottom character and asked.
“Yeah. The top one looks like ‘da cheon’ for Great Heaven?”
“Then it’s Great Heaven Corpse?”
“What does that mean?”
“We’ll find out when we look.”
Ak Muyoo peered between the coffin lid and body. It seemed completely sealed, with almost no gap.
“I can fit my fingers in here.”
Yo Pung pointed to the top of the coffin. There was a hole there big enough for a hand.
“Why didn’t I see that?”
Ak Muyoo tilted his head. When he’d checked earlier, there’d been no such hole.
“This.”
Yo Pung picked up something from the ground. It looked like it had been plugged into the hole.
“That was in there?”
“I don’t know if it was stuck or plugged, but when I pushed to open the lid, it fell out.”
“Doesn’t the lid budge?”
“Not a bit.”
Ak Muyoo examined the coffin again. Her saying it wouldn’t move at all piqued his curiosity even more.
“Maybe it’s full of jewels?”
“Jewels?”
“There’s a gold mine there.”
“So you’re saying they stuffed it with gold and labeled it ‘Great Heaven Corpse’ on the lid?”
“Doesn’t that make sense?”
“You want money that badly?”
“I supported the Wind Squadron because of money too.”
“I get your thinking, but I don’t think it’s gold.”
Yo Pung said with a smile.
“Maybe they hid gold inside and did that to keep it secret?”
“We’ll know when we open it.”
“Should I break it?”
“Let’s save breaking it as a last resort. First, stick your hand in that hole and check what’s inside.”
Yo Pung pointed to the hole.
“Me?”
“Then should I, the woman, do it?”
“You’re stronger than me.”
“Being scary and being strong are different.”
“…”
“Like you said, it might be full of gold.”
“You’re ridiculous.”
Ak Muyoo chuckled and thrust his hand into the hole.
“Urk!”
Ak Muyoo groaned.
“What’s wrong?”
Yo Pung asked.
“No idea.”
Ak Muyoo moved his hand left and right. Something caught his hand.
“There’s something in here.”
Ak Muyoo gripped it and tried moving it up and down. It wouldn’t go down, but it flipped upward.
“It flipped up… Want to push?”
“Yeah.”
Yo Pung pushed on the coffin lid.
Grind!
The lid shifted slightly.
Only then did Ak Muyoo pull his hand out. But his hand was covered in blood.
“You’re hurt?”
“Got cut, I think. It’s not bad.”
He took out his windbreaker robe and wiped the blood from his palm.
“Let’s put salve on it first.”
Yo Pung took out the golden wound salve and applied it.
Once the bleeding stopped, Yo Pung pushed the coffin lid.
Thud!
The lid slid off and fell to the ground.
“Ugh!”
Ak Muyoo grimaced.
It wasn’t a box for valuables—it was truly a coffin. Inside lay the corpse of a woman.
“But…?”
Ak Muyoo tilted his head.
Normally, when a person dies, they’re washed, dressed in burial clothes, wrapped and bound in cloth, then placed in a coffin. Those two steps together are called enshrouding and burial. But the corpse in the coffin wasn’t wrapped or bound in cloth, and the clothes it wore weren’t burial garments but everyday attire.
And as far as he knew, in ancient times, corpses weren’t placed in coffins. They were buried directly or sealed in large jars baked from clay. Even more astonishing was the state of the corpse.
She was quite a beauty, and generously estimating her age at early forties, conservatively late thirties. After thousands of years, all moisture should have evaporated, leaving flesh clinging to bone, but the corpse in the coffin showed no such decay. It looked just as it had before encoffinment.
“Isn’t that… blood?”
Yo Pung said in a frightened voice. The corpse’s forehead was smeared with blood.
“It’s my blood.”
“There are trickle marks, and you’re saying it’s your blood?”
She was right. Blood had trickled down the corpse’s forehead.
“My blood…”
“Eek!”
Yo Pung grabbed Ak Muyoo’s arm.
The blood gathered at the corpse’s forehead had been absorbed and vanished in an instant.
“The corpse is desiccated, that’s why.”
“It doesn’t look desiccated?”
Yo Pung stared at the corpse.
“That’s what I think too, but…”
“Poke it with your finger.”
Yo Pung said.
“Where?”
“Poke her cheek.”
“Should I?”
Ak Muyoo brought his finger to the corpse’s cheek.
He stopped right before the cheek.
“W-Why?”
Yo Pung stared at his finger and asked.
“What if it’s squishy?”
“W-What if it is?”
“Yo Pung, want to do it?”
“You already stuck your finger out, you do it.”
“Anyway…”
“Do it.”
Yo Pung grabbed Ak Muyoo’s arm and pushed it forward.
Squish!
“Uwaak!”
Ak Muyoo jumped back.
“Aaak!”
Yo Pung screamed and plopped down right there.
“W-Why?”
“It’s… too soft.”
“…So you screamed because it’s soft?”
“A corpse from way before fifteen hundred years ago shouldn’t have soft skin.”
“You wanna die?”
Yo Pung shrieked.
“Are you scared?”
“W-Who said I’m s-scared? Aigoo, my throat’s suddenly dry. I’ll go get some water. That okay?”
“Go ahead.”
Yo Pung jumped up and dashed to the spring. Ak Muyoo looked at the spot where she’d been sitting. The sand was quite damp.
“Pfft!”
He chuckled and kicked dry sand over it. Soon the wet sand was covered.
“There must be some records…”
He searched the coffin here and there. But nothing stood out.
“Hm?”
Ak Muyoo’s eyes widened. The woman seemed to be clutching something in her hand.
“Maybe there’s something there.”
He grasped the corpse’s hand.
The corpse’s hand was ice-cold. At first, nothing happened.
Zzzzt!
Then suddenly, his arm and body trembled as if struck by lightning. Something seemed to flow from his hand into her. Ak Muyoo looked at the woman with a bewildered face.
‘This feels like Heavenly God Five Dam energy…?’
He tilted his head.
Then he recalled a conversation with Ma Dunjirang, king of Nuran Kingdom.
— I don’t know why I absorbed the Heavenly God Five Dam energy when I didn’t need it.
— It was a great help to us. And it might not seem necessary to you now, but someday it will be a huge aid. And you might be able to save someone else with it.
— To save someone, I’d have to extract and give it, but I…
— Heavenly God Five Dam is primordial energy. It entered your body on its own, so it will leave on its own too. Probably just holding hands will do.
“You must be the one who needs it.”
Ak Muyoo murmured, gazing at the woman. At some point, the flowing energy stopped.
Ak Muyoo opened the woman’s hand.
She clutched a stone.
Thanks (感謝)
“Jeez!”
Ak Muyoo scratched his head.