Chapter 1053: Seventeen Hanging Coffins
Smack!
A whip lashed out, landing directly on the Martial Artist’s face, leaving a vivid red mark!
The Martial Artist was stunned for a moment, then cursed, "You unreasonable woman! Aren’t you afraid of offending the Star Pavilion Alliance? Of offending our Alliance Leader, Liu Zixuan?"
"Star Pavilion Alliance? Alliance Leader?" Liu Zixuan laughed scornfully, "The name Liu Zixuan is not your guardian angel. The Star Pavilion Alliance doesn’t give you the right to bully with numbers or act tyrannically. Get out now and call all your so-called Star Pavilion Alliance high-level members here."
The Martial Artist paused briefly, then beckoned everyone to leave. As they reached the door, he shouted, "Just wait for us. When our Headquarters’ high-level members arrive, your life will be forfeit!"
"Zixuan, people like that shouldn’t be let go!" Luo Xi cursed unhappily.
"How could I not know that they shouldn’t be let go!"
Liu Zixuan took a couple of deep drags on his cigarette, but perhaps due to anger, he didn’t smoke smoothly and coughed a few times forcefully. His beautiful master gently patted his back, "Are you alright?"
Liu Zixuan waved it off, "People like this, killing them all wouldn’t matter much; they have no real value in the Martial Realm. But killing them now might be satisfying, yet is it the fundamental solution to the problem?"
"To change the status quo of the Martial Realm, we must start with the upper ranks. Only by slowly infiltrating can we make them abandon these bad habits, and only then will there be a strong Martial Realm capable of truly protecting our home against foreign Martial Artists."
Luo Xi thought for a moment, "So, you’re letting them call the high-level members?"
"Exactly, and they’ll certainly bring the so-called high-level members of the Star Pavilion Alliance. After all, with the Celestial Dao Alliance decimated, the Star Pavilion Alliance is the strongest force left, and they will come with vengeance in mind." Liu Zixuan assuredly stated.
His beautiful master laughed mockingly, "Bringing the Star Pavilion Alliance high-levels to avenge you, the Alliance Leader of the Star Pavilion Alliance... We’re in for quite a show!"
Liu Zixuan furrowed his brow with several black lines, "What kind of nonsense Alliance Leader, I’ve never considered it."
"Enough about those disappointing topics, let’s go check out those coffins."
Luo Xi quickly changed the subject, walking over with Liu Zixuan and his beautiful master to the array of coffins.
"There are seventeen coffins here." Liu Zixuan rubbed his chin, "This arrangement, does this number have any significance?"
Luo Xi shook his head, "I’m not very knowledgeable about this, and the old beggar never mentioned anything related."
His beautiful master circled the coffins twice, her eyes glinting as she asked, "Zixuan, don’t you think the patterns on these coffins look familiar?"
Liu Zixuan squinted his eyes and scrutinized the patterns closely, "They resemble those in the Celestial City Seven-Star Tomb, could they be related to the vanished Lanlou Ancient Country?"
"No."
His beautiful master declared with certainty, "Think carefully, where did we first see these patterns?"
Prompted by this, Liu Zixuan frowned and carefully reminisced.
The Seven-Star Tomb where Liu Zixuan obtained treasures was that two-story pavilion, and that pavilion was referred to by Old Madman Zhou and his beautiful master as the offering hall of the Lanlou Ancient Country.
The first floor was the place where the people of the Lanlou Ancient Country offered incense and prayed. The second floor, however, was a unique room.
At that time, there was a little girl lying on the bed in that room, and unknowingly, Liu Zixuan entered an Illusion Realm through a Jade Hairpin in the room. In the Illusion Realm was something akin to a palace and the same little girl, yet alive.
Liu Zixuan vaguely remembered the girl saying that when the time came, they would meet again.
And the patterns currently on the coffins were exactly those on the girl’s clothing!
This girl, who remained uncorrupted over a thousand years and still appeared alive despite not breathing, had left a deep impression on Liu Zixuan and his beautiful master.
Awakened from his memories, Liu Zixuan muttered, "Back then, the pattern was on that girl’s clothes!"
"Right, I remember telling you the story of the Lanlou Ancient Country. That girl wasn’t from the Lanlou Ancient Country; she saved it and caused its disappearance, so these coffins have nothing to do with the Lanlou Ancient Country."
His beautiful master suddenly had a thought, "Then I suspect these coffins aren’t the main feature of the Seven-Star Tomb!"
"Not the main feature?" Luo Xi furrowed his brows. Though unfamiliar with the Lanlou Ancient Country legend, the items before him, laid out so clearly, left no room for anything else.
"In Star Sea, from ancient emperors to present-day common folk, auspicious numbers have always been chosen. The rules of tomb chambers were always about even numbers, not odd ones. Here are seventeen coffins—an odd number—unlucky and violating standard tomb rules!" his beautiful master elaborated.
Luo Xi spread his hands, "But this tomb chamber hardly looks like a tomb; it resembles more a cave, with surrounding mountain walls that don’t look constructed like this..."
Saying this, Luo Xi’s eyes suddenly sparkled, "Could there be some hidden mechanism?"
Liu Zixuan scratched his chin, carefully examining the arrangement of the seventeen coffins.
The seventeen coffins were all suspended in the air, albeit not high up, roughly 1.5 meters above the ground, reachable by hand.
With a tap of his toes, Liu Zixuan soared into the air, standing atop the suspended coffins and gazing downward.
The layout of the suspended coffins was vaguely circular, but irregular, resembling a flower petal.
Objects in the outer circle were more numerous, gradually decreasing inward, leaving the center vacant.
In that vacant spot, a complete suspended coffin could be perfectly placed!
After landing, Liu Zixuan positioned himself beneath the vacancy, inspecting the uneven ground carefully.
"The mechanism doesn’t seem to be here. The ground is too solid," his beautiful master observed.
This matched Liu Zixuan’s findings, no mechanism on the ground, and the walls offered no clues. Could it be...
Suddenly realizing, Liu Zixuan looked up.
Those floating coffins did resemble blossoming petals, with nothing overhead, suggesting the mechanism might be above the coffins.
With nothing atop the suspended coffins except patterns, Liu Zixuan decided not to survey further upwards, instead clasping a few Ghost Gate Needles and launching them out, forming a small Defense Array.
Immediately after, Liu Zixuan directed Luo Xi and his master, "Attack the array!"
"Huh?" Luo Xi and his master paused momentarily, for Liu Zixuan stood in the center; wouldn’t their attacks harm him?
"It’s fine; just attack with all your strength. But just one strike each!" Liu Zixuan intended to tap their strength, channeling it through the array as a medium, towards the vacancy, curious to see what would transpire.