Chapter 159: The Stone Coffin

"Darkness descends!"

Dense dark elements drifted around Xu Han, then swarmed to cling to his body.

He lowered his head to look at himself, taking a deep breath.

Could these dark elements conceal his vital life aura? He had no choice but to gamble on it.

He stepped forward and walked straight ahead.

Soon, he reached a spot just ten meters away from the outermost tomb guard.

At such a close distance, the tomb guard should easily be able to detect the life aura of a living creature.

Yet those tomb guards still stood blankly in place, motionless, as if they had perceived nothing at all.

Xu Han's eyes lit up.

There's a chance!

This group of tomb guards hasn't noticed me!

He took another step and continued forward.

Five meters, three meters, one meter...

He stood right in front of the tomb guard, close enough to smell the musty odor emanating from it.

And yet, the tomb guard remained stupidly rooted to the spot.

At this, Xu Han felt completely at ease.

He unleashed his full speed, rapidly rushing toward the bronze gate.

The distance of one hundred meters was covered in just a few breaths.

He even brushed against the bodies of several tomb guards along the way, but those tomb guards merely glanced around in a daze before resuming their lifeless, vacant postures.

That was easy!

Stepping onto the stairs, he came step by step to the front of the bronze gate.

Fierce and ferocious exotic beasts were carved onto the heavy bronze door: a winged fierce tiger, a fire phoenix spreading its wings, and a gigantic tortoise with trees and rocks growing on its back.

Although the carvings of the beasts had faded, one could still sense a trace of pressure emanating from them.

He reached out and pushed.

The bronze gate felt as heavy as tens of millions of tons; no matter how hard he pushed, it wouldn't budge.

After trying for a moment, he gave up the idea of simply pushing it open.

Presumably, there must be another way to open this bronze gate.

His gaze wandered across the bronze gate.

Soon, he spotted a fiery red gemstone at the very top of the door, resembling a scorching sun.

Xu Han raised an eyebrow, a faint golden layer covering his pupils. The information panel for that gemstone immediately appeared before him.

[Name: Sun Stone]
[Quality: Epic]
[Description: A stone containing the power of the blazing sun, which can be used to craft or strengthen equipment.]

It's actually a Sun Stone!

There is a Sun Stone in a place like this?!

The Sun Stone, much like the Moon Stone, was a top-tier material used for crafting high-level equipment.

However, unlike the Moon Stone, the Sun Stone had much broader applications. After all, dark-attribute classes were relatively rare, but aside from dark classes, virtually every other class could utilize the Sun Stone.

Consequently, equipment crafted from Sun Stone fetched a much higher price on the market, and ordinary people couldn't buy it even if they wanted to.

However, the Sun Stone was not the main point.

Xu Han's gaze fell upon a slot right next to the Sun Stone.

That slot looked like a crescent moon, positioned in contrast to the blazing sun beside it.

Could it be...

Xu Han retrieved a crescent-shaped stone from his spatial ring.

It was precisely the Moon Stone.

The shape of the Moon Stone matched the slot perfectly!

This might very well be the key to opening the bronze gate.

Stepping onto a nearby stone statue, he quickly climbed up to its head and aligned the Moon Stone with the slot, pressing it firmly in.

Click!

A crisp sound echoed through the empty hall.

The Moon Stone embedded itself flawlessly into the slot.

Looking at the completely motionless door, Xu Han froze.

Are you fucking kidding me?

Why isn't the door opening?

Could this not be the key to the door?!

Damn it!

This time he had taken a massive loss.

Not only couldn't he get through the door, but he had also lost the Moon Stone he had acquired.

No way!

Even if he couldn't get through the door, he had to pry out the Moon Stone, and the Sun Stone next to it as well. He couldn't just return empty-handed!

Gritting his teeth, he reached out to pry the Moon Stone loose.

But the Moon Stone was firmly locked inside the bronze gate, refusing to budge no matter how hard he pulled.

Xu Han was getting annoyed!

What kind of scam is this?!

He raised his hand, clenched it into a fist, and slammed it directly against the bronze gate.

Thud!

A muffled sound echoed from within the bronze gate.

The next second, the previously dull Sun Stone and Moon Stone suddenly began to emit a faint glow.

The light flowed like water, gradually spreading downwards.

Within just a few breaths, it had coursed across the entire bronze gate.

Boom!

The bronze gate emitted a deep, rumbling sound, then slowly opened inward, revealing a pitch-black passageway.

...

At that moment, Li Hu and the few remaining members, who were fighting tomb guards in the tunnel, also heard the muffled sound echoing from afar.

"What was that sound?" Li Hu asked with a deep frown.

"It seemed to come from over there!" the winged man pointed toward the front of the tunnel and said.

"Move fast! Finish off these damned skeletons," Li Hu growled in a low voice.

The other two sped up their attacks, quickly disposing of the tomb guards before dashing forward.

In another tunnel, the exploration team led by the monk Basong also heard the distant muffled sound.

Basong frowned slightly. "Such a dense aura of malevolent gloom."

"Could something have been released?" Chai Chai asked in a low voice. "Captain, should we still go?"

Basong nodded, a gentle smile blooming on his face. "Of course we go."

"There are definitely squads from other countries here. Since they are in the front—to use a Dragon Country idiom—we shall be the oriole waiting behind the mantis catching the cicada."

Chai Chai smiled and nodded. "Our captain is as wise as ever!"

The group pressed forward along the tunnel.

...

Xu Han stared at the wide-open bronze gate.

Does that actually work?

Why is this bronze gate behaving like a computer mainframe? It won't boot up unless you hit it a few times?

With a leap, he landed firmly on the ground and walked straight into the bronze gate.

As soon as he stepped through, a chilling gust of wind howled past.

Xu Han instantly felt as though he had been transported back to the Northern Suburb Ice Fields.

The temperature here was at least minus thirty or forty degrees. Anyone with a slightly weaker constitution would probably be frozen solid into an ice cube.

Boom!

The heavy bronze gate slammed shut behind him.

Along both sides of the grand hall, groups of eerie blue flames flared up with a whoosh, casting an otherworldly blue glow over the entire chamber.

Xu Han frowned slightly.

With the bronze gate closed, his retreat was cut off.

Still, since he had already arrived, he might as well see it through. He wanted to see what kind of treasures were hidden in this place.

Looking around, this appeared to be a magnificent palace hall.

Dozens of meters high, it was majestic and spectacular.

Lining both sides of the hall were massive stone pillars, each thick enough for four people to embrace, standing like loyal soldiers.

Standing within the hall, an oppressive aura weighed heavily on Xu Han's heart, making him feel rather uncomfortable.

He looked ahead.

A gigantic stone coffin came into view.

Estimating with his naked eyes, the coffin was nearly two people tall and close to ten meters long.

Xu Han clicked his tongue inwardly.

Just how tall must the person lying in that coffin have been?

Yet, in such a massive mausoleum, there was only a single coffin? Nothing else at all? The master of this tomb was quite thrifty.

Just as Xu Han was pondering this, the coffin lid began to tremble slightly.

Then, it slowly slid open.

A gigantic palm slammed onto the edge of the coffin with a boom, a sound like a thunderclap echoing throughout the entire hall.

"What petty thieves dare to disturb the slumber of our King?"