Upon hearing Xiao Lou's words, everyone's expressions involuntarily turned serious.
In the secret chamber on the other side, following Xiao Lou's instructions, everyone stopped resisting and returned to the stone chamber like the others. They saw Chu Huaying standing in front of the stone coffin and heard Xiao Lou's analysis.
Ye Qi quickly realized: "So, everything just now was just an illusion? So, all our card skills were ineffective against her, and even stabbing her with a dagger couldn't hurt her?"
Xiao Lou nodded: "This secret chamber has never changed. The stone coffin remains in place, no fresh blood has seeped out, and nothing has crawled out. However, we were affected by the illusion as soon as we entered the chamber, so we didn't know we were in an illusion. If we don't realize this in time, fighting desperately with the vengeful spirit will only waste our energy and be futile."
Shao Qingge rubbed his temples and said, " Xiao Lou, are you saying that when we entered the secret chamber, everything we saw was already an illusion, and we had to be'strangled' by this vengeful spirit to return to reality? And normally, when we see a vengeful spirit, we will avoid it and resist it. The more fiercely we resist, the more ferocious the vengeful spirit becomes?"
"That's right. Only by not resisting and being 'killed' by her resentment can we escape the illusion of resentment she created." Xiao Lou paused and continued, "These two women were buried alive in the ancient tomb. Their resentment before their deaths, which condensed into vengeful spirits, may give us some important clues."
Ye Qi's voice came from beside him: "Clues? What clues was that illusion giving us?"
Xiao Lou asked, "The woman you saw, was she wearing a red wedding dress, embroidered shoes, and some jewelry on her head?"
Ye Qi nodded: "That's right, a bride, with disheveled hair, bloody tears streaming from her eyes, and a face as white as a ghost... Speaking of which, she really is a ghost, isn't she? What's the difference between a vengeful spirit and a ghost?"
Xiao Lou couldn't quite explain the difference between a vengeful spirit and a ghost in a short time, so it didn't seem wrong to think of her as a vengeful ghost.
Ye Qi's answer told him that the vengeful spirits in both secret chambers were the same bride.
Xiao Lou looked thoughtfully at the coffin in front of him and said, "Since both women were wearing wedding dresses, it is very likely that they were put into the stone coffin and buried alive on their wedding night."
Everyone gasped upon hearing this.
The wedding night is probably the happiest moment in many people's lives.
In ancient times, women were raised with great care and hardship by their parents, and married at a young age. When they got married, they must have imagined what kind of tall and heroic man their husbands would be, and how good they would be to them. On their wedding night, they might have felt shy and nervous...
As a result, instead of being led to the bridal chamber, she was put into a stone coffin while wearing her wedding dress.
One can imagine the shock, fear, and anger the two women felt at that moment.
No wonder the resentment they felt after being buried alive lingered for a long time, even drawing those who entered the stone chamber into a dreamlike state.
Upon hearing this, Qu Wanyue said softly, "Burying the bride alive, that's too cruel... Could this be the priestly ritual that Professor Xiao mentioned?"
"Hmm. I previously speculated that this ancient tomb was a live burial tomb, and it seems I was right. The owner of the tomb was likely to perform a kind of live sacrifice ritual, which is why he put the bride in the coffin and buried her alive." He looked at the stone coffin in front of him and said, "Currently, we have only found two stone coffins, but there may be more in the ancient tomb."
After all, it was a human sacrifice. They went to great lengths to build such a large tomb, so it seems unreasonable to only sacrifice two people.
Xiao Lou bent down to examine the runes on the stone coffin closely, feeling that they were somewhat familiar.
Suddenly, he recalled the image of the woman in red forcefully choking him—
Besides the hairpin, the woman also has a crooked comb on her head, which seems to be engraved with the same symbol.
Xiao Lou turned and walked out of the stone chamber, stopping in front of the mural.
The mural depicted a grand wedding scene, and he noticed similar symbols on many of the tableware and dowry chests at the banquet.
However, it can be quite difficult to notice these subtle clues within such a large mural.
Xiao Lou said, "The symbol appears on the stone coffin, the comb, and the dowry items, so it is very likely the symbol of the woman's family."
Old Mo leaned closer for a closer look and said, "This symbol looks a bit like... a ghost face totem?"
Yu Hanjiang also walked over and stood next to Xiao Lou, looking at the symbols that appeared in the mural, and said in a low voice: "I have heard that many villages and tribes in ancient times had their own gods. This totem does look like the symbol of the female maternal clan."
Xiao Lou pressed the voice headset and asked his teammates on the other side, "Take a close look at the talismans on the sarcophagus, and then go look at the murals outside. Can you find the same pattern?"
Soon, Ye Qi's excited voice came from beside them: "Found it! All the chests in the dowry at the wedding banquet are engraved with the same patterns as those on the stone coffin, they look a bit like... wolf totems?"
Xiao Lou said, "What we found here looks more like a ghost face."
Upon hearing this, Gui Yuanzhang whispered his analysis: "The two women buried alive in the stone chambers are clearly from different tribes. Could it be that the tomb owner intended to marry women from different tribes, bury them alive on their wedding day, and perform a priestly ritual?"
The more they listened, the more a chill ran down their spines.
From the moment they entered this living burial tomb, everyone felt an eerie and sinister atmosphere.
So they buried too many living people? And they were all brides buried on their wedding day?
Chu Huaying calmly said, "So, if we want to leave the ancient tomb, we need to find all the brides who were buried alive, and then draw a floor plan based on the location of their burial chambers to deduce the exit of the ancient tomb?"
Xiao Lou suddenly remembered the priestly rituals of Liuxi Village.
At that time, the seven gems were placed in different corners of the village, arranged in the shape of a human figure, to commemorate the girl who was brutally murdered years ago. How many brides were buried alive in this ancient tomb? Where were they buried? What was the significance of the priesthood?
Xiao Lou took a deep breath and said, "We'll have to find the other brides slowly. Let's open the stone coffin first."
Everyone: "..."
"Shall we open the sarcophagus and take a look?" Xiao Lou said this with such calmness. It was as if everyone was oblivious to the fact that he was just eating rice.
Yu Hanjiang understood Xiao Lou's thoughts: "You want to exhume the body for an autopsy?"
Ye Qi recalled the woman with blood and tears from earlier, and goosebumps rose on his back: " Professor Xiao, are you sure you want to open the coffin? Maybe a zombie will really pop out this time?"
Xiao Lou said, " Guardians also have principles. They rarely use the same trick twice in a row. They already scared us with the vengeful spirit, so there shouldn't be any zombies easier to deal with than the vengeful spirit."
After saying that, he walked up to the stone coffin.
The coffin lid flew off just now, and a bride in red crawled out—it was all an illusion.
At this moment, the stone coffin remained quietly in place. Xiao Lou gestured for Yu Hanjiang to open the coffin lid. Yu Hanjiang's approach was simple and brutal: he went over and used a military knife to split the lid open horizontally, lifting it off completely.
Sure enough, inside the coffin lay a skeleton... dressed in a red wedding gown.
The time was too long ago, the body had long since decomposed, leaving only bare bones, dressed in a bright red wedding gown, a sight that sends chills down one's spine.
After being placed into the stone coffin, she struggled frantically, leaving black and red bloodstains all over the inside of the coffin. Her hands were so badly injured from gripping the coffin that all the bones in her hands were broken.
But her wooden comb lay quietly in the coffin.
Xiao Lou said, "Judging from the degree of bone development, this girl should be under 18 years old."
Everyone: "..."
Lu Jiuchuan couldn't help but curse: "These beasts, they actually put such a young girl in a coffin and buried her alive?!"
Xiao Lou picked up the wooden comb with the ghost face pattern carved on it: "Take it for now, we might need it for the later mechanisms."
Since Xiao Lou and his team opened the coffin to examine the body, Gui Yuanzhang's team also opened the stone coffin.
Inside were also skeletons dressed in wedding gowns, and they found a bracelet in the coffin.
Ye Qi remembered: "When that female ghost grabbed Sister Huaying by the neck, she was wearing this bracelet on her wrist."
He carefully picked up the bracelet.
Xiao Lou said, "Let's continue deeper into the maze. There are definitely more than two people who were buried alive in this ancient tomb."