Doomsday Awakening GL - Chapter 19

After the breakthrough, An Yimu did not linger and continued to walk forward. After about an hour, the distance between the fissure walls slowly began to narrow.

An Yimu looked up and found that the distance thousands of meters above hadn’t changed, and the light intensity hadn’t changed. The narrowing here was because the two walls had turned into slight slopes. Hope rose in An Yimu’s heart. If the slope was just a little gentler, she might be able to climb up.

The bottom of the fissure was very dark and damp. If An Yimu’s constitution, which was four times that of a normal person after her breakthrough, hadn’t been so robust, she probably couldn’t have endured it.

The path ahead grew narrower, and An Yimu searched for a place where she could climb.

At the bottom of this fissure, the most difficult thing to bear was not the lack of food but the absence of living people. An Yimu was the only living person in this pitch-black expanse.

Humans are social beings. Although An Yimu was not talkative, it did not mean she could endure this silence forever.

She sighed as she walked, still deeply worried about Nuan Qianyu and Ling Qiuyu.

“Perhaps they think I’m dead and have already gone to Chongming City.”

She didn’t know if Qin Yongsheng was reliable. If he was there, he could at least help the two of them.

After walking for another ten minutes, An Yimu was surprised to find that there was no more road ahead?

She walked up, unable to believe it, and touched the wall. It was solid. There really was no road. She looked dejectedly at the seven- or eight-meter high platform. How was she going to get up there? The end of the fissure didn’t seem to be here. Why would there be no road? Had the earthquake blocked it?

An Yimu was at a loss for a moment. She found a corner to sit down and rest for a while.

She closed her eyes, trying not to think.

Since the apocalypse, she had displayed an extraordinary calmness. She could kill zombies and protect others, but did anyone know that she was also afraid? She was just a girl, and no one liked the grotesque appearance of zombies. However, what truly disturbed her was the inexplicable pleasure she felt every time she killed a zombie.

She didn’t like this aspect of herself. She felt… unlike herself.

An Yimu patted her face, trying to gather her spirit, and leaned her back against the wall.

Click…

While her mind was wandering, she suddenly felt herself falling downwards.

An Yimu instinctively protected her head and tumbled down. Her head was buzzing until she stopped rolling. Ignoring the pain in her body, she quickly stood up and looked around.

Did she accidentally touch some mechanism that made her fall down just now?

An Yimu couldn’t help but feel lucky that this passage was a sloping hole. If it had been vertical, she would have been instantly killed by the fall.

What shocked her even more was that she seemed to have fallen into a tomb?

This thought made all the hairs on her body stand up. A gloomy atmosphere spread around her.

She couldn’t climb back up now, so she could only enter this tomb to look for another exit.

At a glance, there was an arched entrance. A lamp was burning at the entrance. An Yimu was curious. How long had this lamp been burning? Was it the legendary eternal lamp?

She pulled out the spider leg tucked into her waist and walked inside. Inside were stone steps that seemed endless, with frequent forks. Fearing getting lost, An Yimu tore off a piece of her clothing to use as a marker every now and then.

She couldn’t be sure if this was a tomb, but the gloomy atmosphere suggested there were no living people here.

After walking for a while, she realized she had been to this spot before. The place was truly intricate. The angle of the stairs was unusual, with the treads slightly sloping downwards. Furthermore, some areas were flat, and some were raised.

An Yimu didn’t like things related to ghosts and monsters, so she was truly an amateur. She suddenly recalled Nuan Qianyu mentioning the “Suspended Soul Staircase” ($xuacute{a}n hacute{u}n toverline{imath}$), the principle of which was to use reference objects to deceive. Every so often, there would be intentional or unintentional markers. Once noticed, these markers would mislead people from the correct path. Blindly walking with closed eyes was sometimes easier to get out.

Relying on her excellent memory, An Yimu closed her eyes and continued to grope her way forward. She soon felt a distinct change in the surroundings. Opening her eyes, she saw a large blue-green bronze door. The door was covered with various patterns. The most eye-catching was a fire phoenix. Black flames surrounded the phoenix, and its wings were spread open, looking lifelike, as if it would fly out at any moment.

An Yimu noticed a recessed area in the middle of the door.

Upon closer inspection, it was the exact shape of the jade pendant she had obtained earlier.

An Yimu guessed that this jade pendant was likely the key to opening the door. But what would be behind the door?

Even though she didn’t know much about this, she knew that to prevent tomb raiders, the tomb owner would definitely have made arrangements.

If the Snow Silkworm she killed was the spirit beast guarding this tomb, it meant the tomb owner’s identity must be quite high. But who would place a tomb thousands of meters deep, a depth difficult for even modern people to reach, let alone ancient people?

Perhaps it wasn’t a tomb.

An Yimu reached out to touch the bronze door. It was cold to the touch. She could feel the ancient aura emanating from the door.

But she had no way back.

After making up her mind, An Yimu took the jade pendant from her pocket and placed it in the recess according to its shape.

Crack—

A small seam opened in the middle of the door and began to move outward.

The dust falling as the bronze door moved made An Yimu want to sneeze.

She waved the dust away, retrieved the jade pendant, and walked inside.

The inside was very spacious, containing nothing.

It was like a massive cube, terrifyingly empty. An Yimu could hear faint echoes with every step she took.

This should not be an ancient tomb. An Yimu was secretly relieved. Influenced by Nuan Qianyu, she was genuinely afraid of a “Zongzi” (a Chinese zombie or ghoul) popping out. But… compared to zombies…

Swoosh—

An Yimu immediately felt something was wrong. She seemed to have stepped on something and her foot sank a bit. At the same time, the sound of something cutting through the air came from her ear. An arrow grazed her cheek.

A cold sweat broke out. She was almost pierced between the eyebrows by that arrow.

This stone chamber was strange. There were triggers for mechanisms on the floor.

She looked back and saw the bronze door gradually closing. A faint light suddenly lit up in the four corners of the stone chamber.

The entire stone chamber brightened up. She could clearly see the floor was divided into countless small squares, and at the same time, an exit opened up in the wall directly opposite.

An Yimu knew nothing about this and didn’t understand the situation, only that one wrong step could cost her her life.

Can I really get out of here… An Yimu lowered her eyes.

Perhaps, death was waiting for her at the end of the line.

An Yimu looked at the exit opposite her but couldn’t take a step. She could only try. Perhaps the next square held a bottomless pit. Perhaps ten thousand arrows would shoot out. She licked her chapped lips, hesitating.

She stepped onto the first square.

She heard a rumbling sound, and a… a coffin? rose from the center of the stone chamber.

An Yimu recognized it. It was Yinchenmu (Submerged Black Wood)!

The older the Yinchenmu, the darker its color. It does not fade, decay, or attract insects, and its material is hard. It is said that it can preserve the body forever.

It takes at least several thousand years for a Yinchenmu tree to grow, mature, sink into the ground, and form. This extreme rarity is highly sought after and only available to royalty. A body placed in a casket made of Yinchenmu and buried will never rot, making it more valuable than an anti-corrosion coffin made of crystal and more effective than a refrigerator’s preservation function.

There is an ancient saying: “A handful of Wumu (black wood) is better than a chest of jewels” ($Zgrave{o}ng yv{o}u zhbar{u} bv{a}o bar{i} xibar{a}ng, bgrave{u} racute{u} wbar{u} mgrave{u} bar{i} fbar{a}ng$). This shows its preciousness. Yet now, a coffin of Yinchenmu appeared before her…

An Yimu’s face became even paler. She was always a good citizen who believed in science. If a thousand-year-old “Zongzi” truly jumped out of this coffin, then she…

Was this really an ancient tomb? Who would be inside that coffin?

She gritted her teeth and took the next step. Suddenly, numerous small holes appeared on the side wall, and countless arrows shot out like a sky full of meteors.

The chamber was empty except for the suddenly appeared coffin; there was nothing else to hide behind!

An Yimu took a few leaps, stepping on two more squares, and hid behind the coffin.

Arrows shua shua shot from one side of the wall to the other.

At the same time, the sound of gears turning started, Kā chā… kā chā…

An Yimu’s heart leaped into her throat, wondering what else was about to emerge.

Just then, she saw countless dense white worms crawling out of the wall…

Simultaneously, a sound came from the coffin behind her, as if something was pushing the lid…