Chapter 36.3: Opening Coffins.

Chapter 36 Part 3

Without delaying it any longer, Ye Jingzhi jumped into the grave’s pit and went to the coffin. He looked at the coffin with a heavy gaze. Xi Jia also walked up to the side of the hole, staring firmly. Within the villagers’ noisy curses of hate and sounds of smashing, Ye Jingzhi pushed open the grave with his palm and revealed the situation inside.

Xi Jia’s eyes slowly widened as the scene inside the coffin entered his eyes. As the coffin was pushed open, the expectations in his eyes slowly disappeared and was replaced with complete disbelief, nearly shaking with shock.

His body couldn’t stop shaking. Xi Jia suddenly turned his head, went up to group of villagers, and bellowed, “Are you crazy?! Are you crazy?!!! You actually put a person in a coffin and buried her alive! You buried her alive! Buried her alive!!!”

Behind Xi Jia, the ice-cold and emotionless moonlight sprinkled onto the coffin, illuminating a nearly rotting corpse.

This corpse seemed to have just died not even ten days ago. The body hadn’t completely rotted. Those two large eyes were rigidly looking at the sky. Both hands were shaped into claws and lifted in front of her chest. Her ten fingers had already begun to rot, but her fingernails weren’t attached to her fingertips. Instead, they had fallen to the side of the coffin. This young girl had exhausted her strength to look at the sky. Perhaps ten days ago, she was looking at the cover of the ice-cold coffin. She had desperately tried to use her nails to dig through the small crack in the coffin. All ten of her fingernails were broken, but the coffin stayed shut due to the thick soil. She died unwillingly with her eyes open, staring at the coffin as she was buried alive!¹

After the eighth grave had been dug up, the villagers no longer used their farming tools to hit against the barrier. Instead, they firmly glared at Xi Jia and the others. Under Xi Jia’s questioning, they didn’t have a trace of remorse on their faces, only strong hatred and killing intent. It seemed like as long as Xi Jia walked out of the barrier, they would also stuff Xi Jia into a coffin and bury him alive.

Looking at this group of uncouth people who were practically crazy, Xi Jia’s eyes slowly sunk. He deeply inhaled a breath and slowly exhaled. Restraining the anger in his heart, he turned around and went back. “Master Ye……We have to continue.”

Ye Jingzhi didn’t use a magic technique this time. He personally put the lid of the coffin that he had pushed open back on and covered it with soil.

The two walked to the next grave without an inscription.

They dug the grave and opened the coffin.

It was another girl who looked like she’s only eighteen or nineteen years old. Her nails were all broken, and the degree of rot wasn’t as great as the first corpse. A bit of the delicate and beautiful shadow could still be seen in her bright eyes. The swollen face revealed a trace of fright and despair.

The 10th grave, the 11th grave, the 12th grave……

Until the 22nd grave, every gravestone had no name. Most of the girls looked comparably young. They were buried alive, trapped in a coffin, and died in despair.

Xi Jia slowly became numb to the anger he had felt since the beginning.

He didn’t know why these girls would be locked in coffins and buried alive, but he did know that his own understanding towards these villagers was perhaps too simple.

The old man had said that 23 people had died within two months in their Yuanjia Village.

Among them, there were seven graves with seven men with the surname Yuan.

Furthermore, there were fourteen graves with nameless girls who were buried alive.

Ye Jingzhi and Xi Jia placed the coffin lid back on the 22nd grave together. They went to the 23rd grave. As before, it was a grave with no name. Behind them, the white-haired old man’s eagle-like eyes were staring straight at them. The villagers stood behind the old man, holding hoes and sickles.

These villagers seemed to be unaware that they couldn’t kill the three people inside the barrier. There was only a single message in their ignorant yet eerie gaze: As long as these three people dared to come out, they would definitely kill them.

Ye Jingzhi cracked open the earth and jumped into the grave pit. Xi Jia had long been prepared to see another female corpse buried alive. However, in the next moment after the coffin had been pushed open, a male voice sudden sounded, “Evil spirit, hand over your life!!!”

Ye Jingzhi leaned to the side, and a yellow talisman paper brushed past his hair. Xi Jia watched in astonishment as Pei Yu jumped out of the coffin. No different from his junior sister, he held a peach wood sword in his hand and used strength to stab towards Ye Jingzhi.

Master Ye unperturbedly extended two fingers and effortlessly caught the blade.

Pei Yu was instantly stunned silly. He raised his head to look. The next moment, he suddenly jumped back into the coffin and drew the coffin cover back on himself as he trembled. He was even muttering, “It can’t be Hell King Ye. It can’t be Hell King Ye. It can’t be Hell King Ye……”

Xi Jia, “……”

Xi Jia jumped down into the pit. He pushed open the coffin that wasn’t tightly covered and dragged Pei Yu out.

Charlatan Pei had his eyes shut and was still chanting that phrase. After he was dragged out by Xi Jia, he turned his head to look at Xi Jia, and then looked at Ye Jingzhi who was next to Xi Jia.

Pei Yu, “……I think it’s better if I go back.”

Xi Jia, “Can’t you show some promise?!”

Originally, there was a somewhat heavy atmosphere. Once Charlatan Pei appeared, it instantly dissipated a bit. After rescuing Pei Yu, they walked up to the villagers. Separated by the barrier, their gazes met with the murderous gleams in the villagers’ eyes.

The villagers also looked at Pei Yu with a surprised gaze, as if they couldn’t understand why this person would be in a coffin.

Pei Yu didn’t know about the situation inside of those fourteen coffins beside him. Although he was immediately terrified once he saw Hell King Ye, he felt a complete sense of security as he followed behind Master Ye and started to talk about the things he had seen to Xi Jia, “……The people of that village had indeed been slaughtered, and by a malicious ghost. When Junior Sister Wang and I came to investigate the situation, that malicious ghost suddenly rushed out of one of the coffins. I quickly went up against it. Later, I was no match and was stunned by the malicious ghost. After I woke up, I found myself in a coffin. The strange thing is that I actually can’t open it from the inside. Magic power has no effect on it. A moment ago, the coffin was suddenly opened. I thought it was the malicious ghost so I attacked.”

Xi Jia gently nodded his head. This wasn’t any different from what Junior Sister Wang had said.

Since they had rescued Pei Yu, Xi Jia could relax a bit. However, once he thought about those fourteen young girls who had died unwillingly without closing their eyes, he felt his heart being weighed down by a huge rock.

He looked at Ye Jingzhi, and Ye Jingzhi also looked at him. Finally, Xi Jia stepped forward. With the barrier in between, he looked down at the white-haired old man who had hidden his shrewdness and viciousness. He asked one word at a time, “Those fourteen girls weren’t killed by a malicious ghost. They were buried alive by you all. Why did you kill them?”

Pei Yu was currently concerned about whether or not his own junior sister was injured. Suddenly hearing this, he suddenly froze and looked at Xi Jia in shock.

Holding a knife in his hand, the old man sorrowfully laughed once, “The matters of our Yuanjia Village are our own business. You’re not qualified to care!”

Looking at the complete lack of guilt in the old man’s expression as if it was inevitable and proper, Xi Jia was fuming with rage as he gritted his teeth. Suddenly, he really wished that this old man wasn’t human but a malicious ghost instead so he could send the old man’s soul flying and scattering with his fist.

Ye Jingzhi asked out loud, “Are they your village’s people?”

The old man’s body stiffened.

Xi Jia thought of a possibility all of a sudden. He widened his eyes in disbelief and looked at the villagers.

There was no change in the old man’s expression, and the villagers uttered curses and spat. Since their farming tools couldn’t break open the barrier, they shouted a stream of profanities and spat on the barrier.

Pei Yu was a bit slower than Xi Jia. After a few minutes, he understood the meaning of Ye Jingzhi’s sentence. He quickly grabbed his junior sister and said, “Good thing nothing happened to you, Junior Sister. It’s your first time leaving the sect to ghost hunt, and you actually run into this sort of utterly heartless situation. Fortunately, I used my all to protect you so you could escape. If you were to get caught by the malicious ghost or run into a group of inhuman things and get kidnapped, Master would definitely peel my skin off.”

The young lady was also terribly frightened and nodded incessantly.

Xi Jia’s cold gaze swept across this group of beasts in front of him. He simply was unable to see any trace of humanity in their eyes. They were unruly and cruel, and they didn’t feel guilty from Xi Jia’s questioning about burying those fourteen women alive. Even now, they were all holding weapons and couldn’t hide their intention of wanting to kill these outsiders.

The old man raised his head and said righteously, “They are of course our village’s people!”

“Do you dare say that again?!”

The old man loudly said, “Since they have married into our village, they’re people of our Yuanjia Village!”

Xi Jia suddenly somewhat understood why a malicious ghost would appear in this kind of place and slaughter over a hundred people at these two villages. He tightly balled his hands into fists and turned to look at Ye Jingzhi. The instant he turned his head, he saw Charlatan Pei in his peripheral who was equally angry against a common enemy and a frightened young lady shivering to the side.

Suddenly, Xi Jia’s line of sight went stiff, staring straight at young lady.

At the same time, Ye Jingzhi’s eyes also sank as he turned to look at the young lady with an ice-cold gaze.

Pei Yu was unable to make heads or tails of it, “Why’re you guys staring at my junior sister?”

Xi Jia’s expression slowly sunk, and he calmly asked, “Pei Yu, you just said that you were protecting your junior sister so she could escape. Is that true?”

Pei Yu didn’t understand why Xi Jia wanted to ask. He nodded, “That’s for sure. It’s her first time going out. As her senior brother, I definitely must protect her. Is there a problem?”

Xi Jia’s line of sight passed over Pei Yu, looking at the young lady standing behind him. At this moment, the young lady slightly lowered her head, and the hair across her forehead blocked her expression. Her lips, however, lightly hooked up to show a strange smile.

The silent atmosphere was heavy and stifling.

Suddenly, the young lady lifted her head and fixed her eyes on Pei Yu in front. Her eyes were pure white. There was only the whites of her eyes without a trace of black in them. She suddenly shot out her hand towards Pei Yu’s chest.

Ye Jingzhi’s palm landed on the female ghost. Xi Jia pulled Pei Yu’s arm and dragged him over.

The female ghost was pushed back three meters by Ye Jingzhi. Master Ye’s hit landed on its body, and a great amount of yin energy scattered out in a flash. However, the female ghost didn’t seem to be affected. She started to giggle. Her neck turned 90°, and yet her shoulders didn’t move as her head hung on the shoulders. She used those deathly pale eyes to look at few people inside the barrier and the villagers outside running away in fright.

Pei Yu didn’t dare believe it as he said, “Impossible! That’s my junior sister, she’s definitely Junior Sister Wang!”

Ye Jingzhi, “A malicious ghost has entered her body. She’s your junior sister, but she’s also not your junior sister.”

The female ghost opened her mouth and began to loudly shout all of a sudden. Her mouth opened wider and wider, almost to the size of a skull. When the huge bloody mouth started to yell, countless yin energy flew out from the mouth and wrapped around the bodies of the fleeing villagers. They started to howl and roll around on the ground in pain.

Xi Jia coldly stared at it and said, “I should’ve known much earlier. Since that the malicious ghost is so powerful that even Pei Yu needed to ask for help, and his junior sister’s magic power isn’t high, how could she not have the slightest injury? You said that you were sealed into a coffin by a malicious ghost and didn’t know where Pei Yu was. In reality, that young lady had escaped under the cover of her senior brother. You couldn’t kill Pei Yu so you could only trap him inside a coffin. Then, you caught up to this young lady and entered her body!”

The Author has something to say:
God Stick Pei: Is my junior sister going to die or not!? AHHHHHHHH!!!

Translator’s Notes:
¹ 死不瞑目 Dying unwillingly with their eyes open/Died without closing their eyes: Can be taken literally, but also means to die with unresolved grievances. ↵