Chapter 96 Moving the Coffin
Chapter 96 Moving the Coffin
"Water burial...?"
Ning Zhe looked at the red, black and white treasure coffin at the bottom of the pool and felt his body temperature gradually dissipating in the cold water.
Water burial is a very ancient funeral custom, often associated with metaphysical concepts such as "gods" and "eternity". Even in today's modern society, there are still many countries and regions, such as a certain mysterious oriental country, that still retain this custom. Every year, there are so many corpses floating on the river that even their mother river is silted up and stinks.
Generally speaking, there are several forms of water burial.
One is to place the body on a homemade boat and let it float downstream, letting nature take its course. Wherever the boat capsizes, that is where the deceased rests.
The second method is to tie the body to heavy objects such as stones or iron ingots and throw it into the water, drowning it in the river. Qu Yuan and the boys and girls who were sacrificed to the river god all died in this way.
The third method is to dismember the corpses and feed them to carnivorous animals in the water, such as catfish, crocodiles, anacondas, etc. These large aquatic animals were often regarded as river gods and lake gods by the ignorant people in the feudal period.
The fourth is to cremate the body into ashes, and then scatter the ashes in rivers, lakes and seas to show that all rivers flow eastward and never return. This is a more artistic way of dealing with it, and many people in modern times also do this.
……
But looking back at the various forms of water burial, none of them is consistent with the scene before our eyes. Putting the corpse into a coffin and sinking it to the bottom of the pool is a rare form of funeral, whether in the Central Plains or in other areas of Kyushu.
Not to mention building a pavilion right above the sunken coffin and placing a statue of the Three Immortals carved from huge stone.
The dead body is sunk under the statue, which symbolizes suppressing evil spirits, cleansing ghosts and making enemies never to rise again... In ancient times, Yunzhou had the custom of sending the coffins of people who died unjustly to the temple and asking the Buddha statue to suppress them... Later, the monks' solemn protests gradually decreased, which made the working people angrily curse the shitty Buddha for being useless.
——Then what are buried in these three coffins? People or ghosts?
Ning Zhe surfaced to take a breath, looked up at the base of the pavilion above his head, and dived back into the water.
The red coffin with the word "Fu", the white coffin with the word "Lu", and the black coffin with the word "Shou" - the three coffins were quietly sinking under the water. The clear pool water was bubbling around his ears, as if countless people were whispering in his ears, and as if countless evil spirits who had died in vain were wailing in the abyss.
After getting closer, Ning Zhe began to carefully examine the parts of the three coffins that he had not paid much attention to before.
The lids of the three coffins were tightly closed and nailed on all four sides with iron nails. Thick iron chains were wrapped around them and a copper lock was hung on the chain. The style was very strange, and it looked like a copper human head was tied to the coffin, with a hideous and distorted expression on the face.
The lock on the red coffin with the word "Fu" is a crying face with a big open mouth, which looks angry and sad, as if it has encountered some misfortune.
The lock on the black coffin with the word "Shou" on it is a withered face covered with sores. It looks sickly and weak, as if it is suffering from some illness.
The white coffin with the character Lu...
The white coffin with the word "Lu" on it has no lock.
Ning Zhe took a closer look and saw that although the white coffin with the word "Lu" on it was also wrapped with iron chains, it was not locked tightly like the other two coffins. The copper human head lock that was supposed to be tied to it was gone. Under the loose iron chains, a row of neatly arranged holes could be seen on the coffin board.
The nails that were nailed to this coffin were also pulled out.
"This coffin has been opened..."
Ning Zhe narrowed his eyes and looked at the golden-painted cursive characters of "Lu" on both ends of the white-painted coffin, and thought of something: when he first entered Izumo Villa, he also saw a coffin with the word "Lu" written on it in the open space under the stilt house.
That was the thin coffin containing Ji Bochang's body, and Ji Bochang had a nickname in the circle of ascenders - the God of Wealth.
"..."
Let’s take a look at what’s inside the coffin first.
Ning Zhe sneaked to the side of the white coffin with the word "Lu" on it, grabbed the loose iron chain and pulled himself down, and with his other hand grabbed the raised corner of the coffin lid. Just as he was about to exert force, there was a sudden thumping sound mixed with the sound of foam:
thump -- thump -- thump --
dong dong——
Liquids are much more efficient than gases as a medium for transmitting sound. Ning Zhe looked in the direction of the sound and saw that the dongdong sound came from the red coffin with the word "Fu" on it. It seemed that someone was trapped inside and was knocking on the lid of the coffin in a very rhythmic manner.
dong dong——
As the knocking sound spread in the water, a sharp pain came from Ning Zhe's right calf. The intense pain caused his body to spasm.
His right leg cramped.
Ning Zhe changed his identity without hesitation, abandoning his human body and turning into a fat and strong brown bear. His broad bear paws grabbed the iron chain on the white coffin with the word "Lu" on it, and he swam towards the shore, dragging the coffin.
Today is a good day to [move the coffin].
thump -- thump -- thump --
dong dong——
The sound of knocking on the coffin lid became more and more urgent, dong dong dong dong like a death knell. Ning Zhe swam forward without looking back. The white coffin with the word "Lu" wrapped with iron chains seemed to be of a thousand pounds heavy. Even a giant bear three meters tall would have to exert all its strength to drag it in the water.
wow-
Ning Zhe climbed up to the shore and used his hands and feet to pull up the white coffin with the word "Lu" wrapped in iron chains.
"Oh my god..." Seeing this scene, Lan Shiwen couldn't help but be stunned.
Once again, Ning Zhe changed the future he had predicted. In the future development that Lan Shiwen saw, Ning Zhe swam back from the pond in human form, but now what came back was a fat and strong giant bear, dragging a pale coffin behind its butt.
"Just good luck." Ning Zhe turned back into a human and said breathlessly, "Luck is something that is unpredictable."
"That's true." Lan Shiwen nodded, his eyes inevitably drawn to the gold-painted "Lu" characters on both ends of the pale coffin.
Lan Shiwen had also seen Ji Bochang's coffin.
Ning Zhe briefly told him the situation at the bottom of the pool, and Lan Shiwen also told him the situation that Ning Zhe was crushed to death by the three immortal statues, which he had predicted before. After the two of them discussed it, they had a rough guess about the true situation of this "Gathering Immortals Garden".
"It seems that Ji Bochang controlled the 'Five Channels' here and became the God of Wealth." Lan Shiwen lifted a corner of the white coffin with the word "Lu" on it to make it easier for Ning Zhe to untie the iron chain on the coffin, and said: "The three gods of fortune, wealth and longevity enshrined in Juxian Garden are actually three ghosts. Three different rules were sealed in the coffin and sunk to the bottom of the water, and a statue was erected on top to suppress them."
"The white coffin with the inscription 'Lu' has been opened by someone, and that person is most likely Ji Bochang."
Ning Zhe pulled the iron chain out from under the coffin and said, "The three coffins of Fu, Lu, and Shou contain three different rules. Forty years ago, Ji Bochang got the key, entered the Juxian Garden, opened the white coffin with the word Lu, controlled the five channels, and became the God of Wealth."
40 years later, Ji Bochang is about to die, and he is so crazy that he wants Yundu to be buried with him.
"We died frequently just now, probably because we were affected by the ghosts in the other two coffins." Lan Shiwen nodded and said, "It could be the Heavenly Venerable Ziwei of Infinite Blessings or the Immortal Nanji of Infinite Longevity. The rules of these two immortals are continuously influencing us, putting us to death time and time again."
"Or both." Ning Zhe threw the disassembled chain aside and turned his head to look at the asparagus fern by the pool.
A bright red figure stood there quietly, leaning against a graceful green bamboo, holding an old and withered almanac in her hand.
He Nianjun stood by the pond, his snow-white face without facial features staring quietly at the center of the pond.
(End of this chapter)