Volume II – The General’s Tomb Chapter Forty-Three – Cold Elixir

After hearing what Li Kun said, I rolled my eyes and replied, “You’re really blinded by money, aren’t you? All right, just remember not to take too much, leave some behind.”

Li Kun assured me, “Relax, I know what I’m doing.”

With that, he set his backpack aside, leaned into the coffin, and started working busily. Watching Li Kun pull one item after another from the ice coffin made my eyelids twitch uncontrollably; I couldn’t shake an ominous feeling in my heart.

After a while, I said, “Li, that’s enough. We haven’t even checked the main burial chamber yet.”

No sooner had I spoken than Li Kun looked up and called out, “Liu, come here quickly.”

I turned my head and saw Li Kun, face puzzled, shining his flashlight on the female corpse’s face inside the coffin. I strode over in two steps and looked at the corpse. Li Kun pointed at her face and said, “Liu, doesn’t her mouth look strange to you? It seems puffed up.”

I looked down. Her lips were tightly closed, but her cheeks were slightly swollen, as if something was stuffed inside her mouth.

I took a pair of leather gloves from my jacket pocket, slipped them on, and said, “Li, shine the light on her face.”

Li Kun shifted position, directing the beam onto the woman’s face. I reached out and gently touched the puffed area of her cheek.

The moment my hand brushed her skin, I realized her face was unnaturally hard—like touching an iron plate. And indeed, something was in her mouth.

Bracing myself against the coffin with my waist, I bent over, gripped her cheeks with both hands, and pressed gently. Suddenly, her mouth sprang open.

As her jaws parted, both Li Kun and I saw a milky-white bead clasped between her lips, its surface carved with scale-like patterns resembling those of a dragon.

We exchanged glances. Then, I reached into her mouth. The instant my gloved finger touched the bead, an icy chill shot through me. Without hesitation, I grabbed the bead and quickly withdrew my hand.

The moment the bead settled in my palm, the cold seeped through the glove, a frosty layer spreading over its surface. My hand couldn’t bear the chill any longer, so I hastily set the bead on the coffin lid.

Once the bead was in place, I tore off my gloves and blew warm breath on my hands. “Just what is this thing? It’s unbelievably cold!”

Li Kun was just as curious about the milky-white bead. Seeing how the cold had affected me, he reached out to touch it.

I stopped him at once. “Don’t! This isn’t some ordinary object—it might even be poisonous with cold.”

Hearing this, Li Kun quickly drew back. “Is it really that dangerous? It doesn’t look like much to me.”

I pondered for a moment and said, “Now I know why this woman’s corpse has remained so well-preserved.”

Li Kun turned to me. “You mean it’s because of that bead?”

I gazed at the bead on the coffin lid. Wisps of cold emanated from it, as if freezing the very air around it.

Silently, I realized this bead must be the reason the corpse remained intact for a thousand years. But what exactly was it? Milky white, radiating cold… Could it be?

I turned to Li Kun. “Could this be the legendary Frost Pellet?”

Li Kun looked puzzled. “Frost Pellet? What’s that?”

I explained, “According to legend, a thousand years ago, the Frost Pellet was a treasure renowned throughout the land. There were two kinds—a pair known as the Mother and Child Pellets. The Frost Pellet was specifically used to preserve corpses. They say, if you place one in a body’s mouth, the corpse will never decay for ten thousand years, and its flesh will become as hard as iron—impossible to damage even with blades or firearms.”

Li Kun exclaimed, “So it actually has a use? That means this Frost Pellet is more valuable than everything else here!”

I nodded. “Exactly. The value of this Frost Pellet probably surpasses everything in this place combined.”

Li Kun clapped his hands in delight. “That’s great! By the way, Liu, didn’t you say there were two of these pellets? What’s the other one?”

I replied, “The other is called the Water Pellet. It’s said to be a miraculous elixir that can bring the dead back to life. But that’s just a rumor. Whether it really exists is impossible to say.”

Li Kun nodded. “That sounds a bit too far-fetched—bringing the dead back to life? If it were real, those ancient emperors would have gotten their hands on it already.”

I said, “Enough talk for now. Pack up—let’s check out the main burial chamber.”

Li Kun replied, “Wait a moment. I want to see if there’s anything else good in here.”

I shot him a look. “You’re never satisfied, are you? Fine, but make it quick.”

With that, Li Kun bent over and rummaged inside the coffin again. As he did, I suddenly remembered something—Incense for the Dead!

Without delay, I crouched down, unzipped my backpack, and pulled out the incense. I quickly lit the sticks and placed them one by one in the crevices of the ice coffin.

Seeing nothing unusual happen, I let out a sigh of relief and turned back to Li Kun, who was still rummaging inside.

Just then, Li Kun was searching around the woman’s waist. He felt something—a palm-sized plaque tightly bound at her waist. He tugged at it for a while, but it wouldn’t budge.

Frowning, he tried to untie the cord. But in the process, his face pressed close to the corpse’s icy cheek. A shiver ran through him. Beautiful as she was, she was still a long-dead body, and the cold sent a chill down his spine.

Having leaned so far into the coffin and spent so long inside, Li Kun began to feel short of breath.

In that moment, Li Kun, holding his breath, gave a mighty tug and finally wrenched the plaque free. As he exhaled in relief, his face was still close to the woman’s, and he inadvertently breathed out right onto her features. Then he quickly pulled himself out of the coffin.

At that moment, I had just finished lighting all the incense. Before I could react, Li Kun, holding the plaque, called out, “Liu, look what I found!”

I glanced over and saw a palm-sized plaque of pure, translucent green in his hand.

I walked over to him and took the plaque. Just then, Li Kun caught sight of the five sticks of incense behind me.

He pointed. “Liu, when did you light the incense?”

Still examining the plaque, I replied absentmindedly, “Oh, just now.”

Li Kun patted my arm urgently. “Liu, Liu, stop looking at that! Check the incense quickly!”

Noticing the anxiety on his face, I sensed something was wrong. I turned and saw that all five incense sticks had snapped cleanly at the base and were pointing directly at the ice coffin.

Seeing this, I understood why I’d felt so uneasy earlier. I immediately asked Li Kun, “Did you do anything just now?”

Li Kun thought back, then his eyes widened. “Liu… I might have accidentally breathed out… right onto the corpse’s face.”

Hearing this, I took several steps back, grabbed my Type 87 automatic rifle, and aimed it at the ice coffin. “Li, you’ve made a grave mistake. You just gave the corpse a breath of yang energy. With yin and yang thus mingled, if it doesn’t rise, that would be a miracle.”

Li Kun swallowed hard. “What do we do now?”

I replied urgently, “What are we waiting for? Forget the main chamber—we run, or we’re dead!”

Li Kun quickly slung on his backpack, raised his gun, and aimed at the coffin behind us.

“Go!” I ordered. I leapt from the platform and slid down, with Li Kun close behind.

But before we could even reach the bottom, a sharp crackling sound split the air above—like bones snapping, or ice shattering.

At that instant, I shouted, “Li, run! The corpse is rising!”

We had just turned to flee for the stone door when, without warning, the transparent coffin lid shot past over my head and smashed down onto the stone door before us.

We looked up. The lid from the woman’s ice coffin had flown across the chamber and embedded itself deep into the stone door, sealing it tightly. Beneath the lid lay the milky-white bead, now shattered into several pieces—the very Frost Pellet we’d found moments before.