"How... how did another person appear?!"
"Who... who is it?"
The person asking the question trembled, their voice barely audible.
All the phone screens lit up, and the crowd nervously looked around, fearful that a stranger might appear before them.
Familiar faces huddled together, cautiously scanning the surroundings.
At that moment, they finally confirmed that someone had indeed appeared—standing in a corner not far away.
"Who... who are you?"
"Are you a person or a ghost?"
In the mysterious bronze coffin, anything strange and sinister could happen, and everyone felt a deep unease.
A hoarse cough came from the dark corner, and the shadow moved slightly. Then, a low, raspy voice echoed, "Ghost... ghost..."
The hoarse voice reverberated inside the bronze coffin. In that instant, everyone felt a chill run through them, their hairs standing on end, and a sense of cold dread spread across the air.
The crowd felt as though they were falling into an ice cave. Many people, their courage failing them, let out high-pitched screams, while some women sobbed loudly, almost collapsing to the ground.
"Ghost... place..." The voice sounded weak, and it was clear the figure in the corner was extremely exhausted. They swayed, attempting to stand up.
"It's really... a ghostly place. Are we... inside the bronze coffin?" The shadow slowly stood up, speaking in a somewhat confused tone, and the voice grew stronger.
Seeing the large shadow rise, many people instinctively backed away.
As the shadow moved closer, it continued, "It's me, Pang Bo."
"Stop, don't come any closer!" Everyone raised their phones, using the faint light to peer forward.
Ye Fan parted the crowd and slowly walked toward the figure, asking, "Are you really Pang Bo?"
"Can't even recognize my voice?" In the darkness, the light from the phone screens revealed a familiar figure holding a phone in front, with thick brows and big eyes, a robust body.
Pang Bo was Ye Fan's best friend from university. Due to some personal matters, he hadn't made it to the gathering, but now he suddenly appeared, raising suspicions in everyone.
"I don't believe it. Pang Bo didn't come to the gathering, so who... are you really?" someone asked, their voice trembling.
An unexpected person standing in the bronze coffin left the others feeling a chill down their spines.
"I'm Pang Bo, of course. Does anyone have water? I'm dying of thirst." The shadow continued moving forward.
"Stop!" The crowd still couldn't believe it.
Pang Bo had to stop. To prove his identity, he went on to explain several stories from their time at university.
"I believe he is Pang Bo." Ye Fan said firmly, walking up to Pang Bo and giving him a tight hug. They hadn't seen each other in a long time, and despite the current situation, the embrace felt warm.
"I couldn't come to the gathering at first because of family matters. But after hearing that everyone was coming to Mount Tai, I finished up my family business and made my way here…" Pang Bo explained, taking the water bottle Ye Fan handed him, and drinking several large gulps before continuing with the story of how he got into the bronze coffin.
By the time he arrived, everyone had already reached the mountain. He took the cable car up the mountain. Fortunately, he had arrived safely at Yuhuangding just before the dragon corpses and the bronze giant coffin collided with Mount Tai. He didn't flee with the crowd but held onto a tree, waiting for the calm to return to Mount Tai. He wasn't injured.
Later, he saw Ye Fan and the others fall into the giant pit. When he rushed over, he witnessed the ancient characters floating in the air. He was stuck outside the pit, unable to move. It wasn't until the bronze coffin shook and the lid moved that he was pulled inside.
No one knew if it was because he had fallen near the Five-Colored Altar, but when Pang Bo fell into the coffin, he was knocked unconscious.
Only now did everyone start to relax, their tense nerves beginning to loosen.
"We must find a way to escape. Being in this bronze coffin makes me uneasy, I have a bad feeling..." Li Xiaoman said, her face slightly pale, her beautiful eyes fixed on the dark corner of the coffin. Compared to the other women, she and Lin Jia appeared much calmer.
Upon hearing this, several people shivered, feeling the cold creep into their bones.
"Let's stick together and not separate." Zhou Yi suggested.
The crowd gathered together, using their phones' faint light to examine their surroundings. They huddled against one side of the coffin, where they could make out blurry bronze engravings—ferocious nine-headed birds soaring high and gigantic, ferocious beasts with long spiked fur roaring at the sky...
The copper engravings, corroded by green rust, depicted terrifying beasts mentioned in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" such as Taotie, Qiongqi, and Taowu—huge, ferocious, and lifelike, making anyone who saw them uneasy.
As they walked along the inside wall of the coffin for a while, they also saw many human figures etched into the metal—ancient ancestors and distant gods. Then, they discovered a vast and strange pattern, dense and dotted, resembling a star map.
The bronze coffin was 20 meters long and over 8 meters wide. The images they had seen so far were just a small section. They didn't continue their inspection, as they had begun to notice that there seemed to be some other object deeper inside the coffin.
Everyone raised their phones, cautiously stepping forward. Faintly, they saw a blurred rectangular object in the center of the coffin's deep darkness.
Clearly, it wasn't a corpse, nor did it seem to be a living creature. This slightly reassured them as they continued walking forward.
"There's a coffin within the coffin, it's another bronze coffin!" When they finally made out the object in front, many people gasped.
At the very center, there was another bronze coffin—less than four meters long and just under two meters wide, ancient and dull, engraved with old patterns, covered with copper green, worn by time, giving off an eerie aura.
"This isn't a coffin within a coffin. This is the real coffin, the one used to enclose the corpse. The larger bronze coffin outside is a 'coffin case,' which serves as a protective outer layer. Together, they are called the coffin case." Pang Bo explained to those who were unfamiliar with the concept.
Upon hearing that the smaller coffin was the one holding the remains, many people took frightened steps backward, their hearts filled with dread.
What kind of person could be buried in such a mysterious bronze coffin? The crowd was filled with both awe and fear.
All they had heard about were archaeological secrets, royal tombs, and ancient tombs, but none of them could compare to the vast, imposing bronze coffin before them. Who could even imagine what might be entombed inside?
Who had ever seen a 20-meter long bronze coffin? Who had ever witnessed a mysterious giant coffin fall from the sky? Who had ever seen nine dragon corpses pulling a coffin? It made them question whether the coffin truly contained a human corpse or something far more unimaginable.