Chapter 465 Duress
“A coffin?!”
The expression in Black Lotus’ eyes changed, “The Ghost Clan will not use this stuff to keep corpses after their death, only the Human Clan will do. Which mighty practitioner of Human Clan in the ancient time had such a coffin?”
“Did the human coffin block the entrance to the ancestral land of the Ghost Clan?”
Su Li’s gaze flickered. After hesitating for a moment, Su Li tiptoed gently and jumped to the side of the coffin with the help of the wall.
Su Li did not use her genuine energy in this process.
To save the little girl of the Duan Family, she had no choice but to use the Isolation Tactical Matrix modified by the demon crystal before. And the cracks on the matrix plate increased, so she would rather not use the matrix plate unless she had to.
Black Lotus couldn’t “see” the coffin, so he could only watch Su Li apprehensively. After Su Li stopped and no danger occurred, he sighed with relief. But he still remained vigilant and reminded Su Li, “Be careful of the fraud!”
Su Li nodded slightly. She grabbed the wall with one hand while she was slowly approaching one end of the coffin.
After Su Li approached that, she could see the entire coffin. This was a sarcophagus which was covered with dust. And it was inset upside down into the top of the stone wall. The coffin lid was missing and there were no terrible things inside the coffin as she had imagined.
“No corpse.”
Su Li became a little focused and hanged upside down with a foot hooking in a pit on the top stone wall. She pushed away a thick cobweb. After cleaning up the sarcophagus carefully, she found a line of small characters at the bottom of the sarcophagus.
“The Great Emperor Hen…, ten thousand… foundations, rest eternally.”
The writing was so abraded that Su Li could barely recognize a part of it. She thought to herself, “A Great Emperor with the word Hen in his title? Black Lotus, is there such a practitioner in the ancient Human Clan who called himself emperor?”
Black Lotus rolled his eyes, “There were many emperors in the ancient Human Clan, and dozens of emperors whose name had the word Hen. This coffin is so severely damaged that I can’t tell which emperor it belongs to.”
Black Lotus could not give an answer and Su Li did not force him. She continued to clean up the sarcophagus and try to find other useful traces. She might have used a little more force as she cleaned the dust at the bottom of the coffin. Two holes were made by her fingers at the bottom of the coffin.
“Well…”
Black Lotus was dumbfounded as he heard the voice. He was in a cold sweat, “How could you break the coffin of a mighty practitioner? If this Great Emperor is still alive, we will be dead meat!”
Su Li was also stunned, because she did not do it with force. How could the sarcophagus be broken?
Although she hadn’t seen the material of this sarcophagus, it should not be easily broken by the force of the physical body alone. Moreover, she didn’t have the intention to break it.
Thinking of this, something came up to Su Li’s mind. Her gaze suddenly changed, and she tore the holes even bigger without saying a word.
Black Lotus was freaking out as he saw what Su Li was doing.
“Su Li, are you out of your mind? This is the coffin of a great emperor of your Human Clan. Do you know what realm he is in? He…”
“Be quiet!”
Su Li reproached with a cold tone, which calmed Black Lotus down for a moment. Then, he also noticed a hint of difference with his gaze changing.
“This is…”
Click-clack…
The sound that the stone shells cracked constantly came from Su Li’s hands. Su Li tore quickly and a hole big enough to allow one person to go through emerged in a few minutes.
“So it is.”
Su Li straightened up. After sensing the ancient pneuma emanating from the cave, she narrowed her eyes.
“I found it was strange before. No matter how exaggerated the shape of the coffin, the bottom must be flat. However, its bottom was sticking to the top of the cave and showed a curved shape. It turned out that there was a gap! As time went by, it had been filled with a thin layer of stones.”
“The pneuma from the ancestral land is becoming even stronger.”
Black Lotus transmitted his voice. Although he could see neither the sarcophagus nor the entrance of the cave and only hear the sound, he couldn’t help but become excited, “The real entrance must be inside!”
Su Li agreed lightly. She flashed into the stone cave without hesitation. Then, the underground stone well was quiet once again.
As time flowed by, half a month passed in a blink of an eye.
In the ancestral temple of the Duan Family, the dignified woman was kneeling on a cushion and softly chanting Buddhist scriptures. But she glanced at the dry well from time to time with some worries in her eyes.
It had been so long. But the mysterious Dr. Su had not come out yet.
She could not help but sigh faintly. Duan Rong came a few days ago and was going to enter the well to have a check. She could barely stop him after a long persuasion.
Because of this, Duan Rong looked at her differently.
“If I continue to stop him next time, it will be sure that I have to expose my cultivation.”
The dignified woman was worried. She unconsciously grasped the bracelet in her hand firmly. Then the cord of the bracelet broke and the Buddha beads scattered to the ground. She hurriedly got up to pick them up, but she felt even more worried.
This was not a good sign!
“Eldest Brother! As I said, that Dr. Su definitely has bad intentions and she is not a good person!”
In the front hall of the Duan Family, all eight chairs were taken at this time. It was crowded around the hall and it was so busy.
Duan Rong was taking the seat of honor. Looking at his sister, who was standing in the middle of the hall and spouting off her opinions, Duan Rong was gloomy, but said in a calm tone, “Duan Yiyi, are you still thinking that you can do whatever you want in this family with the will left by our mother?”
Duan Yiyi’s face turned a little pale. Of course, she respected and feared her brother, because he had been running the family in just a few decades and turned it to the most powerful family in Nanli City. But when she thought the humiliation Su Li brought to her at the main gate, she couldn’t stay calm!
“Brother, I know that Dou’er has just recovered from her illness and we should lay low at this time. But that dry well is left by our ancestors. Would you be glad to see the serendipity inside being taken by an outsider?”
Duan Rong’s face became more and more gloomy. If the hall weren’t full of people from different big families, he would have slapped this bitch to death, who was worse than useless!
“Head of the Duan Family, it’s not good for your health to be angry. Since an outsider is allowed to explore the dry well in the ancestral temple of the Duan Family, why do you stop us?”
“Exactly! Are we inferior to a practitioner of Jindan Realm?”
“Since we have already been here, you wouldn’t let us leave empty-handed, would you?”
“I came here because of your sister’s invitation. If you throw me out, it won’t make sense.”
“…”
The heads of the families in Nanli City chattered. They seemed to be prepared and united to put pressure on Duan Rong.
Duan Rong looked gloomy, but he didn’t dare to refuse them explicitly.
Although the Duan Family was the most powerful family in Nanli City, he couldn’t stop these people if they united even with two Duan Families.
Duan Yiyi finally realized that when she saw the scene, and panic surfaced in her eyes.
She invited wolves into her own house!
What stupid had she done?
Duan Rong took a deep breath and tried to keep his voice from trembling because of his grievance and anger, “Everyone, I didn’t know the invitation. It was Duan Yiyi’s own initiative.”
As soon as he spoke that, a young practitioner sitting first on the right hand raised his eyebrows and said with a smirk, “This lady of the Duan Family has summoned all of us with your name, Head of the Duan Family.”
Duan Yiyi was confused and nervous instantly, “I didn’t…”
Bam!
A slap was fiercely hit on her face. Duan Yiyi screamed and spurted blood. Then she fell to the ground and was unable to say the next half of her sentence.
“We are discussing important business with the Head of the Duan Family. How dare you cut in?”
An elder sitting on the other side said in a faint tone. He withdrew his palm and turned to look at Duan Rong with a pair of turbid and old eyes. Being silent for a moment, he burst out laughter and said,
“I think the head of the Duan Family is a sensible person and would not let us down.”
Duan Rong took a deep breath and said coldly, “All the family heads can follow me into the ancestral temple. But if the men you bring try to go in, don’t blame me for ignoring our fellow relationship and fighting with you!”
The atmosphere in the hall suddenly relaxed as Duan Rong said that. The young practitioner laughed, “Rest assured, Head of the Duan Family! We became the head of our families based on our strength, so no one will hold us back.”
“What the head of Ying Family said makes sense!”
“Keep relaxed, Head of the Duan Family!”
Seeing the gang of bandits in front of him smiling, Duan Rong was furious. But for the survival of his family, he restrained his anger and continued to warn,
“If you can’t find anything through this exploration of the dry well, I will ask you not to come back to disturb the peace of my Duan Family in future! Although there are many mysterious legends in the Ghost Circle, my family would not have come down if there were measures in the well. That’s what I want to say. Everyone… please take care of yourselves!”
After saying that, Duan Rong snorted and left with flinging his sleeves. He didn’t look at Duan Yiyi all the time.
It was not the first time that Duan Yiyi had made a big mistake, and he chose to forgive his sister every time because of his soft heart. But this time, Duan Yiyi almost ruined the family. And he had to compromise under the pressure and was forced to allow those people to enter the ancestral temple of the Duan Family.
He would rather not have such a sister!
“Duan Yiyi, get out of Nanli City tomorrow. Otherwise, don’t blame me for being a ruthless brother!”
After saying this, Duan Rong left the hall with the heads of other families. Duan Yiyi knelt dumbfounded on the ground, and she didn’t wipe away the blood at her mouth corner.
Meanwhile, the dignified woman praying in the ancestral temple sensed something and stood up from the cushion with a slight expression change.
It was pneuma from her husband and other twelve practitioners of Yuanying Realm!
Twelve people, all the most powerful practitioners in Nanli City, came here?!
The dignified woman’s look immediately became terrible. Even if she was at the late stage of Yuanying Realm, she had no chance to win against twelve strong enemies of the same realm.
Besides, three of them were not much worse than her.
She had once frightened them with some means of the Ghost Clan and made them mistakenly think that there was an old ancestor in the Duan Family. However, if she fought with them fairly and openly, she would have no chance to win.
“Dr. Su, I’m afraid I have to go back on my word.”
The dignified woman’s heart was flooded with bitterness. And then she saw Duan Rong with a gloomy face walking into the ancestral temple with a group of heads of families.
Those heads of families were stunned when they saw the dignified woman.
“My wife is praying for my daughter. Sorry to make you see that.”
Duan Rong expressionlessly explained. The crowd was relieved and commended Madam Duan one after another. But their attention was already paid on the dry well, and it seemed that they had been well prepared to explore the dry well.
Duan Rong snorted coldly and pointed to the dry well, “You have been here three hundred years ago, so there is no need for me to go down the well personally, right?”
“Head of the Duan Family is profoundly righteous, and we won’t bother you with this small issue.”
The elder, who slapped Duan Yiyi before, laughed. As the old saying said, the skilled were bold. He leaped into the well, and disappeared instantly.
Seeing that, the others couldn’t wait any longer. They also jumped into the well one after another before Duan Rong said something.
The dignified woman bit her lips tightly. She couldn’t help but worry about Su Li. She unconsciously took a step forward but was suddenly stopped by her husband.
“My dear, you have done enough.”
Duan Rong turned around. His eyes were as clear as water but mixed with helplessness. “Dou’er heard your dialog with the doctor. So, it will still be in vain even if you can keep your word.”
The dignified woman’s heart shuddered, “You…”
“Yes, I know everything.”
Duan Rong sighed softly and grabbed the dignified woman’s hands firmly, “How could I deserve to marry a wife like you. After the matter is done and whatever the result is, I will not want to be the head of the Duan Family if we are still alive! You and I will take Dou’er to find a lotus land and live a stable life there. I don’t care whether you are from the Human Clan… or the Ghost Clan.”
The dignified woman trembled slightly as she heard the words, and her eyes were full with tears. But when she saw her husband’s helpless look after he was deceived, she couldn’t help but laugh through her tears.
“Darn it! You didn’t tell me after you knew it! I have been worrying over the years… Alas, if Dr. Su can’t come out, I will erect a monument for her, because Dou’er has been saved by her and I feel guilty.”