Everyone’s expressions became serious when they heard Xiao Lou’s words.

In the other room, the group had followed Xiao Lou’s instructions and stopped resisting. They collectively returned to the stone room and saw Chu Huaying standing in front of the sarcophagus. Then they heard Xiao Lou’s analysis.

Ye Qi quickly understood. “So everything just now was an illusion? That’s why all our card skills were invalid on her and stabbing her with a dagger didn’t hurt her?”

Xiao Lou agreed. “This room hasn’t changed. The sarcophagus is still in place, there is no fresh blood leaking from it and nothing has crawled out. It is just that we were affected by a hallucination after entering this room and didn’t know we were in an illusion. If we couldn’t discover it in time, we would have ended up fighting desperately with the resentful spirit and would have just consumed our physical strength in vain.”

Shao Qingge rubbed his temples. “Xiao Lou, do you mean that everything we saw after entering this room was an illusion and we needed to be ‘struck to death’ by the resentful spirit to return to the present state? However, under normal circumstances, anyone would resist when seeing the resentful spirit. The fiercer we resist, the more ferocious the resentful spirit will become?”

“Yes, it is only when we don’t resist and we are ‘killed’ by her resentment that we can escape the illusion she created.” Xiao Lou paused before continuing, “These women were buried alive in the ancient tomb. Before they died, their resentment gathered and they became resentful spirits. This might give us important clues.”

Ye Qi’s voice entered his ears. “Clues? What clues did the illusion just now give us?”

Xiao Lou wondered, “Did you see a woman wearing a red wedding dress, embroidered shoes and some jewelry?”

Ye Qi nodded. “Yes, she was a bride with messy hair and bloody tears in her eyes. Her face was as white as a ghost. By the way, what is the difference between a ghost and a resentful spirit?”

Xiao Lou wasn’t clear about the exact difference between a resentful spirit and a ghost. It seemed there was nothing wrong with considering her a ghost? Ye Qi’s answer told him that the resentful spirits in both rooms were brides.

Xiao Lou thoughtfully looked at the coffin in front of him. “Since both women were wearing wedding dresses, it is likely they were buried directly in the sarcophagi on their wedding night.”

Everyone heard this and sucked in a breath.

The wedding night should be the happiest moment for a woman. In ancient times, women were raised by their parents and married at a young age. When they got married, they must’ve fantasized about how tall and brave their husbands would be and how kindly he would treat them. On their wedding night, they would be shy and nervous…

As a result, they were married in their wedding dress and instead of being sent to the bridal room, they were put in a sarcophagus. The shock, fear and anger of the two women was conceivable. It was no wonder that after they were buried alive, their resentment persisted and they even brought those who entered the room into an illusion.

Qu Wanyue spoke in a soft voice, “Burying a bride alive is too cruel… Professor Xiao, is this the priest’s ceremony you mentioned?”

“Yes, I previously speculated that this ancient tomb is a living tomb. It seems this guess isn’t wrong. The owner of this ancient tomb likely had the brides carry out a living sacrifice ceremony. They were put in the coffin and buried alive.” He stared at the sarcophagus in front of him. “At present, we have only found one sarcophagus on each side. Perhaps there will be more in the ancient tomb.”

After all, it was a living sacrifice. This was such a big tomb, would there only be two sacrifices inside it?

Xiao Lou leaned over to look closely at the spells on the sarcophagus. He always felt they were a bit familiar. Suddenly, he thought of the scene of the woman in red choking his neck. In the scene, the woman had a twisted comb in addition to the hairpin. This comb seemed to have the same symbol on it?

Xiao Lou left the stone room and stopped in front of a mural. It was the mural of the grand wedding scene. He found that there were many utensils and wedding dowry boxes with similar symbols. It was just hard to notice such a subtle clue when the mural was so big.

Xiao Lou said, “The sarcophagus, comb and dowry items all have the same symbol. It is likely the symbol of the woman’s family.”

Old Mo came over to take a closer look. “This symbol looks a bit like… a ghost face symbol?”

Yu Hanjiang also came and stood beside Xiao Lou. He observed the mural and spoke softly, “I heard that in ancient times, villages and tribes would have their own gods that they believe in. This totem is indeed like the symbol of the bride’s clan.”

Xiao Lou pressed against the voice headset and asked the other team, “Look carefully at the symbols on the sarcophagus and then go to the mural outside. Can you find the same pattern?”

Ye Qi’s excited voice soon entered his ears. “Found it! The wedding banquet dowry boxes are engraved with the exact same pattern as the one on the sarcophagus. It is a bit like… a wolf totem?”

Xiao Lou told him, “The one we found here is more like a ghost face totem.”

Gui Yuanzhang heard this and analyzed in a low voice, “The women buried alive in the two stone rooms are obviously from different tribes. It is possible that the owner of the tomb married women from different tribes and buried them alive on the wedding day so as to achieve the effect of the priest’s ceremony?”

The more they heard, the colder they felt. From the moment they entered this living tomb, everyone had felt it was weird and gloomy. It turned out that too many living people were buried here. They were also brides buried on their wedding day.

Chu Huaying calmly said, “Then in order to leave, we must find all the brides buried alive, draw a floor plan based on their location in the tomb and guess the exit of the ancient tomb?”

Xiao Lou suddenly remembered the priest’s ceremony of Liuxi Village. At that time, seven gems were placed in different corners of the village in the shape of a ‘human body.’ A girl was brutally killed that year. How many brides were buried alive in this tomb? Where were they buried and what was the meaning of this ceremony?

Xiao Lou took a deep breath. “We have to slowly look for the other brides. Let’s open the sarcophagus first.”

Everyone, “……”

Open the sarcophagus and take a look? How could Xiao Lou say it so calmly? Everyone felt dumbfounded.

Yu Hanjiang understood Xiao Lou’s thoughts. “Do you want to open the coffin for an autopsy?”

Ye Qi remembered the woman with bloody tears just now and got goosebumps. “Professor Xiao, are you sure you want to open the coffin? Perhaps a zongzi will really pop out?”

Xiao Lou said, “The keeper is principled and will rarely use the same trick twice in a row. Just now, she scared us with the resentful spirit so there should be no zongzi.”

He went to the sarcophagus as he spoke. The lid of the sarcophagus flying up and the bride in red crawling out from it was just a hallucination.

Currently, the sarcophagus was just placed there quietly. Xiao Lou motioned for Yu Hanjiang to open the lid of the coffin. Yu Hanjiang’s method was simple and crude. He directly pried open the lid with the dagger and lifted it up. Sure enough… there was a skeleton in a red wedding dress lying in the coffin.

It was too old and the body had long decayed. Only white bones were left among the bright wedding dress, making people get the chills. After being put in the sarcophagus, she struggled frantically so the inside of the sarcophagus was covered with black-red blood everywhere. She pounded on the sarcophagus with both hands until her hand bones were broken. Her wooden comb was also lying quietly inside the coffin.

Xiao Lou stated, “In terms of bone development, this girl shouldn’t be older than 18 years old.”

Everyone, “……”

Lu Jiuchuan couldn’t help scolding them. “This group of animals, they actually buried such a young girl alive in the coffin?!”

Xiao Lou picked up the wooden comb engraved with the ghost face totem. “We will take this. Perhaps it will be useful with a later mechanism.”

Xiao Lou opened the sarcophagus while on the other side, Gui Yuanzhang did the same. Inside were the white bones of the bride who was also dressed in a wedding dress. In addition, they found a bracelet in the coffin.

Ye Qi thought about it. “Just now, the female ghost was wearing this bracelet when she grabbed Sister Huaying’s neck.”

He picked up the bracelet carefully.

Xiao Lou told them, “We will continue to enter the depths of this labyrinth. This ancient tomb will definitely have more than these two people buried alive.”

CG 10K event

Proofreader: Fictional Reality & Paranoid Kitten