Chapter 527: Non-standard Routine

Zu'an's expression was strange. "Killed violently..." He thought that if this were in the world of *Ghost Blows Out the Light*, a major zombie would undoubtedly emerge.

Mi Li pointed at the tomb occupant's body. "Look, he has a total of seven wounds," she said. "Six of them are concentrated on his left side—his arm, thigh, and pelvis are covered in injuries from both blunt and sharp weapons. Some are healed, others are fresh, indicating he was subjected to a brutal attack at the time of his death."

"Could he have been a human sacrifice?" Zu'an asked. They had seen too many human sacrifices on their journey, and given the customs of the Yin-Shang period, such an act was not beyond possibility.

Mi Li shook her head. "Probably not," she replied. "While human sacrifice was common during the Yin-Shang period, it usually involved captured enemies. Even if their own people were occasionally sacrificed, they would never use a general of such high status. Judging by his wounds, he most likely died in battle, and his body was respectfully buried here by the Shang King."

"Oh," Zu'an murmured, finding her analysis very reasonable.

"What's that?" Pei Mianman suddenly exclaimed. While the two of them were talking, she had been carefully examining the coffin's contents and suddenly noticed something unusual.

Zu'an looked closely and saw a bronze prosthetic hand on the body's right side. Its shape was almost identical to a real hand, even down to the fingernails.

The back of the hand was adorned with patterns like the taotie mask and scroll clouds, creating an uncanny beauty.

Mi Li then said, "This must have been the fatal injury the tomb occupant sustained during his life. His hand was severed on the battlefield, and he bled to death. It also appears that Shang Dynasty soldiers couldn't find his hand on the chaotic battlefield afterward, so they had to create a prosthetic for him to ensure his body was complete for burial."

"A prosthetic?" Zu'an murmured, his expression peculiar. As he explained to Pei Mianman, he was filled with awe, marveling that such ancient times already possessed such an invention.

Pei Mianman couldn't help but exclaim, "A general who died on the battlefield is truly respectable."

After their moment of reflection, they searched the coffin. Though it contained many precious gold and jade artifacts, they did not find the jade cong they sought.

As Zu'an was about to close the coffin lid and leave, Mi Li asked, surprised, "Are you just leaving like that?"

"What else?" Zu'an replied, a puzzled expression on his face, not understanding her meaning.

"You're not taking any of this treasure? You have the space in the Glazed Treasure Pearl anyway," Mi Li said, looking distraught. "This is like entering a treasure mountain and returning empty-handed!"

Since their souls were now bound, and reshaping her body in the future might require a lot of money, Mi Li naturally wanted Zu'an to possess as much wealth as possible.

Zu'an shook his head and refused. "I'm not a tomb raider," he said. "Since these were the tomb occupant's personal belongings, which he surely cherished, how could I take what he loved?"

"Pedantic!" Seeing she couldn't persuade him, Mi Li turned her face away, pouting and sulking.

[Rage from Mi Li +222,222...]

Pei Mianman was clearly not interested in the burial goods either. After they replaced the coffin lid, they turned to leave.

Suddenly, a creaking sound came from behind them. Their hearts leaped, and they quickly turned around.

They saw that the recently closed coffin lid had suddenly shifted slightly, revealing a gap.

Pei Mianman felt a chill. "Ah Zu, you closed it properly, didn't you?"

Zu'an swallowed hard. "I did," he replied.

Was it going to reanimate?

No sooner had this thought crossed his mind than a withered hand suddenly stretched out from the coffin and gripped its side. A chilling wind swept through the entire tomb, making it significantly colder than before.

"Ah!" Pei Mianman screamed in fright. Even for a cultivator, the sight was truly terrifying.

"Run!" Zu'an knew something was wrong and quickly pulled Pei Mianman, trying to leave.

"Moo!"

A powerful bellow of an ox rang out, and a colossal figure charged towards them.

The force of the charge was so immense that they dared not confront it directly. They quickly dodged to the side, and only then did they clearly see what it was.

It was a gigantic water buffalo, identical in appearance to the ox statue they had just seen in the tomb passage, but several times larger.

Looking towards the corner where the ox statue had been, they saw that the bronze ox statue was indeed gone.

At that moment, with a bang, the adjacent coffin lid was completely flung open, and the dried corpse inside slowly stood up.

Zu'an: "..."

Pei Mianman: "..."

The water buffalo, meanwhile, happily trotted over to the dried corpse and nuzzled against it affectionately, their posture extremely intimate.

Zu'an couldn't help but say, "Senior, we were just passing through and didn't pilfer your tomb. We even re-covered your coffin lid when we were leaving, so there's no need for you to personally come out and see us off, is there?"

The dried corpse seemed to hear him, turning its head to look. Its eyeballs were still faintly visible. Its mouth opened and closed, and a harsh, grating voice croaked: "Outsiders... trespassers... die..."

He casually beckoned, and a long *ge* (dagger-axe) flew out of the sarcophagus into his hand. He then swung it forward.

A blast of azure *qi* instantly appeared before them. Zu'an and Pei Mianman hastily deployed their ultimate defensive moves. With a bang, they were both sent flying backward into the wall, causing dust and sand to rain down.

Feeling his blood churn and the web of his thumb tingle, Zu'an's expression darkened. The opponent's casual strike possessed such immense power, and their combat strength far exceeded that of the previous skeleton warrior.

If they couldn't even defeat the previous skeleton warrior, how could they possibly be a match for this general?

Zu'an was extremely frustrated. Shouldn't the usual trope involve some fifth or sixth-grade villains showing off in front of him, arrogantly declaring the gap in their levels, only to be ultimately defeated by him?

Why was he constantly encountering ninth-grade, eighth-grade, or even Grandmaster-level super experts? He was either being crushed or on his way to being crushed. Was he even allowed to live like this?

At this point, the skeleton general, presumably named Ya Chang, was about to step out. He instinctively began to kick away the obstacle in front of him, but his foot stopped halfway. He looked down, realized it was his own sarcophagus—where he would eventually return to sleep—and instead simply jumped out.

Zu'an gritted his teeth and immediately used the Sunflower Phantasm movement technique, creating two illusory figures that charged towards the opponent.

General Ya Chang swung his *ge*, striking both illusory figures. However, the figures quickly shattered, and the sensation of striking air made him pause.

In that instant, Zu'an had appeared behind him and swung his sword directly at his head.

His previous experience fighting skeleton warriors outside had taught him that these creatures' weakness was their heads. So this time, he planned to launch a surprise attack to see if he could catch the opponent off guard.

If General Ya Chang were alive, such a sneak attack would certainly be useless given the cultivation gap between them. But now that he was a dried corpse, his consciousness and agility were certainly not what they used to be, which offered Zu'an a chance to strike.

As expected, he fell for it. Zu'an was overjoyed and quickly thrust his sword forward.

Just as the sword was about to pierce the back of his head, a mighty "Moo!" rang out, and a colossal figure slammed into him.

It was the ox statue, which had been standing nearby, protecting its master. Zu'an was sent flying as if hit by a large truck.

Zu'an spat out a mouthful of fresh blood, feeling half of his body both aching and numb. If not for his tough constitution, an ordinary cultivator would have had half their ribs shattered from such an impact.

The ox continued to bellow and charged towards him, its two massive horns gleaming with a cold light. If struck by them, he would undoubtedly be disemboweled.

"Ah Zu, be careful!" Pei Mianman attacked at that moment. She waved her jade-like palm, and a ball of black fire flew towards the ox statue, exploding in front of it.

The ox statue bellowed, stomping and twitching, but the black flames had a special property, and the fire on its body could not be extinguished.

At this moment, General Ya Chang came to its side, extended his hand, and stroked its back. Streaks of black energy spread out, and wherever they passed, the flames slowly extinguished.

He then turned and looked at Pei Mianman. "You hurt my beloved ox... die!"