Tales of the Strange works

Chapter 134

    

light, all of us gasped in astonishment.There is no coffin, only a casket.Row after row, I don't know how many coffins there are...Some of the coffins are rotten, some have collapsed into flat shapes...The drum beat for about an hour, pounding away. With a pry bar and leverage, it finally pried open one corner of the coffin lid.

Just then, a corner of the coffin opened. In an instant, a visible plume of black smoke emerged from inside.

I was closest to the head, and it bellowed, "Danger! It's corpse gas!" It shouted, quickly retreating backward, barely dodging the small puff of black smoke.

I reacted a little slowly, ran away, but still inhaled a small amount.

I suddenly felt a little dizzy, and at the same time my nose got warm, with blood flowing out.

"Don't move around, lie down flat quickly! It could be fatal!" The old man from Xiangxi shouted at me anxiously.

I lay flat on the ground, and after just a couple of minutes, I felt more than just dizzy. My throat also started to feel tight and uncomfortable.

It felt like something invisible was choking me, making it hard to breathe. At the same time, my hands and feet started shaking uncontrollably.

"Hold him down!"

His face was pale and constantly shifting between emotions, while the others held me down tightly with their hands on my limbs.

"Open your mouth and swallow it straight down, don't bite," the old man from Xiangxi fished out a black pill from his small bag and stuffed it directly into my mouth.

I gulped down the black pill hastily, and then he pulled out a small sealed bag. Inside the bag was a handful of green willow leaves that looked fresh despite being sealed.

He stuffed a handful of green willow leaves into my mouth, wouldn't let me chew or swallow them, just told me to keep holding them in without letting go.

After five minutes, he said, “It should be almost done. Open your mouth and spit it out. Be careful not to swallow it.”

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When I spit out those willow leaves, they weren't green anymore. They were all black.

Seeing me spit out the blackened willow leaves, the old man let out a sigh of relief and said: "It's alright, you didn't inhale much. Plus, I happened to bring something with me, otherwise, you wouldn't have lasted ten minutes."

Although my head was still a bit dizzy, I could feel myself getting better. I struggled to get up and thanked the old man for his help.

"When I saw him safe and sound, I let out a sigh of relief. He said in a grave tone; “It’s fortunate that I came down this time and found Mr. Zhao. The corpse aura..... We grave robbers are most afraid of encountering this thing. Once you inhale this thing, even the strongest person won't last more than ten minutes.”

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At this moment, the old man from Xiangxi narrowed his eyes and looked at the bronze coffin. His face was solemn as he said; "There's corpse qi, and it's so thick that it's turned black. This means the person inside the coffin hasn't decomposed yet, only white bones would not produce such a strong corpse qi."

"It's good that the corpses haven't risen yet, but if they all rise...the corpse-tying ropes passed down from our ancestors have broken. We can only use mouth money now. As for whether the mouth money will hold them back," the old man shook his head, "We can only pray to the ancestral masters for protection and leave it to fate."

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" Let me know if you have any other text you'd like me to translate!

Having said that, he reached into his bosom and pulled out a plastic bag. It had several layers, with newspaper wrapped inside the innermost layer. The old man carefully unraveled the newspaper and extracted from it a pure gold copper coin with the patina of ages.

This gold-plated copper coin has a diameter of no more than three centimeters, which is a small ping money. The obverse inscription "Yinggan Tongbao" in four characters, written in seal script and rotated, is an eight-point script with a vigorous and ancient style.

I was startled because I recognized this coin.

This should be a Tongbao coin minted by Li Shun, the leader of the uprising army during the Chunhua period of the Northern Song Dynasty. It ranks among the top 50 famous ancient coins and is extremely rare, with only one iron small flat coin and one copper-made zhewu coin (a type of Chinese currency) found so far, both being first-class treasures.

Moreover, the aged man from Xiangxi's hands held a genuine gold "Yinggan Tongbao"... Never before seen, no record of it exists in any historical coin catalog.

This should be a unique piece.tion and fame in the Jianghu, he was far inferior to the Qi Liu family from Tianjin."Sir, this 'flower child begging for food' couldn't possibly be..." Chen Jian-sheng seemed to have thought of someth...