We two have also fought side by side many times, and this sudden change is not enough to make us lose our composure. I pointed my gun lightly to the left, and the black shadow from just now went in that direction. Wen Bin understood intuitively, holding a Sanqing Bixie bell in his hand. These zombies are said to have copper skin and iron bones, and swords and guns cannot penetrate them. Daoist priests will often use bells when dealing with corpse transformations and other such things. This bell is made of brass, with a handle on top shaped like the character for "mountain", symbolizing the three pure ancestral masters.

  This thing has its own rules, if it is placed on the left before casting a spell, it is called "Ling", and if it is placed on the right, it is called "Lang". On top of it are engraved talismans, images of the Three Pure Ones, and scriptures. When shaken, it makes a "ding-dong" sound, hence the phrase "ling-lang dazzling to the eye".

  The Three Purities Bell, also known as the Emperor's Bell, produces a clear and pleasant sound to ordinary people. However, it is extremely piercing and terrifying to evil spirits, ghosts, and even zombies. In the Qing dynasty writer Yuan Mei's collection of strange stories "Zi Bu Yu", there is a story called "Fei Jiang" which contains the sentence: "The master said: Zombies are most afraid of the sound of bells, you should wait for it to fly out at night, then enter the hole and shake two large bells, don't stop your hands. If you pause for a moment, the zombie will enter the hole and you will get hurt." In the Daoist classic "Tai Qing Yu Ce" volume 5, it is said: "What the Daoists call holding the Emperor's Bell in one's hand, throwing fire thousands of miles away, and shaking the bell eight times in a row." All this explains the evil-repelling power of the Three Purities Bell. When Zha Wenbin held it in his hand and shook it lightly, the entire room seemed to have a chain reaction, with echoes ringing out continuously. As he continued shaking the bell, he took a step forward and rushed straight towards the Eastern Hall.

  He had just entered the left hall and I hadn't followed up yet, when I saw his right hand already flipping out a talisman from his bosom. As soon as I stepped inside, I was prepared, only to see that there was actually someone in the left hall who was kneeling towards Cha Wenbin. Upon closer inspection, wasn't this person Gao Cheng?

  It's really strange, the evil spirit is afraid of the Taoist priest, which can be explained, one thing suppresses another. But isn't his reaction a bit too quick? Before I could finish speaking, Cha Wenbin had already walked forward, the bell in his hand ringing loudly again. He walked to Gao Cheng's side and pressed the talisman onto his forehead, but unexpectedly, the talisman floated down to the ground, not sticking at all!

  What's going on? I have no idea, ask Wenbin. He also looked bewildered, turned around and stared at me with an expression that was simply awkward to the extreme. It was as if someone who had done a great job on a task suddenly messed up the last step, which totally embarrassed him.

  I whispered: "Didn't you apply glue? Pick it up and spit some saliva on it to stick it again?"

  Zha Wenbin's face turned even redder, he bent down to pick it up and slowly stood up again, putting it back in his arms. Then he stretched out his hand and put it under Gao Cheng's nose, saying: "The corpse energy has dissipated, now he is just an ordinary dead body, no different from the rotten meat on the chopping board."

  "Is he dead?" I ran over to take a look, and at this moment, Gao Cheng's head was hanging down, just like that Japanese war criminal who had been wrongly identified. The longevity robe on his body was also tattered and worn out, looking as if it had been torn apart by Dazi.

  "Zombies aren't all that powerful, are they? A dog can be bitten to death?"

  "He's not a zombie, just a puppet, being controlled by someone else. Now that this puppet has served its purpose, it's been discarded like trash."

  "Wasn't that black shadow just him?"

  "No." Zha Wenbin stroked Gao Cheng's cheek and said, "If it were him, the blood on the ground wouldn't have coagulated so quickly. Look at the wounds on his arm, they're all torn and bitten. The blood on the ground has already solidified into a lump." At this point, Zha Wenbin seemed to have reacted and immediately told me, "The plan to lure the tiger away from the mountain, let's hurry out!"

  I rushed ahead of Cha Wenbin by one step, because I was behind him. The several lanterns that were originally hung on the wall in the main tomb chamber were still lit up, and under the light, a person's shadow was pulling something very long on the wall. I just stood there without daring to move, and when Cha Wenbin was about to go out, I also pulled him back with one hand. He raised his head and looked, and he too was stunned in place.

  I don't know how to describe my feelings at this moment, if you've been with someone for a long time, you can recognize their back. If there's another person who has lived with you for years, you can even distinguish their shadow.

  The silhouette of the shadow was tall and familiar, and my eyes suddenly had something called "tears" that swayed back and forth. I didn't understand why this tomb was empty, but the shadow was so real. On either side of it, the shadows of me and Zha Wenbin merged with him to form a pinwheel shape, but the two of us were still standing in our original positions.

  "Stones..." Zhang Wenbin called out softly, and then the shadow moved. I saw him walk down from the wall, one step, two steps, with a shaky body and penguin-like gait. This gait had once climbed mountains with us, crossed rivers with us, we had walked through our youth together, but there was that day when we got separated and could never find each other again.

  I stretched out my arms, just like the mural said. At this moment, I really hoped a miracle would happen, and it would be him? If so, I thought I would give him a big hug...

  A brave general, a fearless warrior; what can't be invaded, the dragon's might is endless. This ancient phrase often echoes in my mind, without you, who will laugh and argue with me? Aren't you a great general, claiming to be a god descended from heaven? Then descend upon us!

  If a person could walk out of the shadow on the wall, this story should be called "Liao Zhai". Unfortunately, the shadow is like an illusion, visible but untouchable. When he was less than three steps away, I saw the shadow take a step forward, but that one step was like a repeat of history, just like when he entered the coffin and never appeared again. The shadow disappeared into nowhere, as if it had stepped into an abyss, and everything vanished after that one step.

  He came out of nowhere and disappeared into thin air, as if he was playing a joke on me and Zha Wenbin. Suddenly I remembered that night, the cigarette butt, and how similar it was to today. A thought suddenly popped into my mind, and I grabbed Zha Wenbin: "Tell me, has he ever left us? Tell me, you saw him just now, didn't you?"

  Zha Wenbin choked with emotion, he fell silent, I saw his lips twitching, after a long while he turned his back to me and I heard the most wordless sob of a man.

  "Chubby!" My scream was heart-wrenching, echoing and colliding in this empty ancient tomb, a painful wail...

  If it weren't for that one sound, I might have found it hard to walk out of the shadow of being chubby, but this very sound also instantly ignited my hope.

  Suddenly a "bang" hit me and I felt like my soul had escaped.

  "Where did the sound come from?" I asked, looking around. Zha Wenbin had already flashed out a step ahead of me and was now standing beside the coffin, holding a rope in his hand. "Come over here!" he said to me.

  When the person arrived, a section of the rope had already swung over. This was indeed an extremely thin cord, only slightly thicker than the hemp thread used by women to weave shoe soles, and it felt rough to the touch. Cha Wenbin held the other end of the rope standing on the right side of the coffin, while I stood on the left. He gave me a glance, and I understood that this rope was for preventing the corpse from suddenly sitting up and attacking us when we opened the coffin. Apparently, he had already found where the sound was coming from - inside this very coffin.

  First, it was the outer layer of the coffin. At first, we found that this coffin had been moved by someone before. Cha Wenbin then directly pulled out the Seven-Star Sword. The blade of this sword was exceptionally thin and it easily slipped through a small gap at an angle on the head of the coffin and came all the way to my side.

  I didn't care about anything else, took off a thick sweater and wrapped it around the sword blade. Cha Wenbin was making gestures with his hands, "One, two, three!" He shouted loudly: "Promotion and wealth!" I and he used force together, using the Seven-Star Sword as a crowbar. With a "crack" sound, the front corner of the coffin was opened by about 3 cm. At this time, I directly inserted the barrel of the gun into the opening. With this opening, Cha Wenbin simply put his hand in. He searched around the opening with his hands and exerted a little force, pulling out a small wooden stick about the size of a chopstick. This thing is called "Tong Xiu". In ancient times, there were no nails, all connections required tenons, Tong Xiu was the only live tenon on the coffin. However, this thing is troublesome because it can only be opened from the inside out, not from the outside in. It's said that such a setting is to prevent being buried alive and then really suffocating to death after coming back to life. Such cases are not uncommon in ancient and modern times, both at home and abroad.

  Take this thing away, now it's just an adult who can push the lid open. I and Zha Wenbin each held one end of the rope and slowly threaded it through the gap, then pulled it straight and wrapped it around the coffin from below, crossing over each other. The two of us each pulled on one end of the rope, using one foot to press against the top of the coffin with great effort, then suddenly yanked the lid open together, "Whoosh!" - the lid opened like a drawer on rails...