Chapter 247 – Blackwave Zither (3)
She still continued to be cautious. First, she circled around the crystal coffin, searching for any inscriptions or anything that would inform her on the identity of the person resting inside. Unfortunately, not even a word or two could be found on either side of the coffin nor in the surroundings.
Once again, she stood in front of the coffin for a while, slightly shutting her eyes and using all the cells in her body in order to probe the environment around her.
The aura contained in this hall was very warm and extremely pure, making her unable to perceive any kind of danger.
The little qilin spoke, “There’s no danger in here, not even a speck of evil energy. Us qilins are a race extremely sensitive to the presence of evil energy.”
Ning Xuemo used her finger to lightly tapped the coffin lid. A sharp and clear sound echoed from her action, “Little Apple, tell me, do you think that person could be a walker?”
“A walker?” The little qilin expressed his confusion.
“It means a zombie! A living corpse with red or green eyes, tearing all kind of living creature to death wherever it goes… that kind of zombie.” Ning Xuemo described the characteristics of the zombies she saw on television.
“It’s unlikely! Zombies should have an aura of death which I can easily smell out.” The little qilin replied without hesitation. It obviously knew what a zombie was.
Finally, Ning Xuemo relaxed. Earlier when she circled around the coffin, she didn’t see any of those inscriptions or anything meant to ward off evil as mentioned in legends like crucifix, black ink line with golden thread or glutinous rice[1].
Let’s say that the person sealed inside the crystal coffin is not a zombie. The other reason why he might not have rot is due to coffin preserving him. There must be some kind of function in that coffin that halts the organism’s decomposition, a rot-proof function. Just by looking at the zither, she could infer that conclusion. Despite the passage of time, the zither still had a vibrant color with the lacquer on it without any flaw. It could be seen that the rot-proof technology inside this coffin was high-end.
As an expert in trap mechanisms, she prudently circled and examined the coffin 7-8 more times but didn’t find any mechanism that could allow her to open the coffin. It seemed like the lid and the rest of the coffin were fused into a whole, without even a single opening or crack found.
The little qilin impatiently said, “Master, let me open it with my bite!” Although it couldn’t use any psychokinesis, the strength of a divine beast couldn’t be underestimated, especially its teeth which were as hard as diamond. It could even bite through steel not to mention crystal.
Perhaps it was because it’s a divine beast or maybe because he was imprisoned inside the stone essence spirit for a 1,000 years, its teeth were as white as jade and didn’t have the yellow tinge nor the foul breath of a carnivorous beast.
Ning Xuemo pat its teeth, making it close its mouth. This coffin was still an ancient relic after all. Even if the coffin was kept intact, she would take it out, not to mention damaging such a delicate relic which she couldn’t bear to do. Hence, she rejected the little qilin’s rough way of handling it. As she repeatedly wandered around the room, from time to time, she readjusted the angle of the oil candles, making their light reflect above this time.
However, no matter how the angles were modified, the refraction of the light through the crystal coffin remained the same, making it difficult to see if there was any other things out-of-ordinary in this place.
The little qilin was sitting on the ground, impatient, as it watched her occupied. It was senselessly bored. It watched the thin chains linked to the coffin. Since it wasn’t allow to bite the coffin, then it shouldn’t be a problem if it just gnawed on the chain, right?
It wanted to grind its teeth on it…
Pleased with its bright idea, it started to use its claws lightly pushed the chains. The chains moved and collided with each others, jingling like the sound of small bells in the wind.
‘Such a pleasant sound!’
The little qilin pushed each chain one by one. Each chain emitted a different sound. Some were like the murmurs of a stream, others sounded like a light breeze while the rest reminded it of big and small pearls dropping onto a plate…
It became addicted to that new game. Ning Xuemo listened for a moment before her mind suddenly stirred! Her gaze fixed itself on those chains.
[1] In Thailand, they used a type of glutinous rice as offering to ward off evil. For more infos, click here.