Volume One: The Graveyard of Eight Coffins Chapter 33: Ram's Urine

I had been prepared for this. When I saw the creature charging at me, I swiftly dodged to the side. But in doing so, I exposed Ma Su, who was behind me. The creature spotted Ma Su and abandoned me, swinging a claw straight at him.

Ma Su seemed frozen with fear, standing as still as a post, making no attempt to evade.

My scalp tingled with terror; I wanted to pull him away but it was already too late. My heart sank.

But just as the creature’s claw was about to strike Ma Su, he suddenly cried out, “A gentleman reasons with words, not with fists…”

I nearly burst into tears of frustration. Had old Ma lost his mind? Or had his years as a professor dulled his sense? That thing was a monster—what was the point of reasoning with it?

To my astonishment, the creature was actually startled by Ma Su’s sudden outburst. Its body flinched, its arm froze mid-air, and it stared at Ma Su with wide eyes. I guessed that, in its eyes, Ma Su was the real monster.

Ma Su grinned, thinking his words had worked. But the creature’s pause lasted only a moment before it regained its senses and slapped Ma Su hard across the face.

Luckily, its brief hesitation lessened the force of the blow, but even so, the slap landed with a loud crack, sending Ma Su tumbling to the ground.

“Professor Ma!” I cried out, rushing to his side without a second thought.

Ma Su seemed dazed, spinning in circles on the floor.

I grabbed him and saw that one side of his face was swollen, blood streaming from his nose. He muttered urgently, “My glasses… my glasses…”

He waved his hands around blindly. I looked and found his glasses lying not far away, quickly scooping them up and handing them back to him.

He fumbled to put them on; the lenses were cracked into eight segments, but hadn’t completely shattered, so he could still manage with them.

Ma Su glanced around. “Where’s that creature?”

I looked up and realized the creature had vanished without a trace.

We were both baffled. Could it turn invisible? Or teleport? How had it disappeared in the blink of an eye?

I stared at Ma Su’s sorry state and couldn’t help chiding him, “Professor Ma, we can’t go on like this. You can’t just charge ahead without knowing what you’re facing. We've barely entered, and you’ve already been thrashed by a monkey. What if something even more formidable shows up? We could both die here.”

Ma Su waved his hand dismissively. “I deliberately let my guard down to get a closer look at that creature.”

I eyed him skeptically. “I used to think that when it came to bragging, my third uncle was unmatched. But now, I see his title is in jeopardy…”

Ma Su rubbed his swollen face, exclaiming, “What do you mean? You don’t believe me?”

I quickly replied, “I believe you, I believe you. You’re the professor—how could I not believe you… So, did you learn anything about the creature?”

He nodded, saying he had some clues, and turned back toward the coffin.

After all, I had invited Ma Su and he was an older man. Seeing him struck like that made me feel guilty, so I hurried after him, worried he might get hurt again.

The room was enclosed. Since the creature had disappeared, the most likely explanation was that it had returned the way it came—perhaps back into the coffin.

We approached the coffin and felt a cold wind blowing outward from the opening the creature had used. Inside, all was pitch black, without a glimmer of light or a sound.

I considered tossing something inside to test the situation, but before I could, Ma Su reached into his bag and pulled out a pistol.

I was startled. Ma Su was just a university professor—why did he have a gun?

“P-Professor Ma… You brought a gun? Why didn’t you use it earlier?” I stammered.

Ma Su shrugged, “Don’t make a fuss. It’s not a real gun—it’s a tranquilizer pistol. Because of my work, I often have to conduct field research, exploring ancient tombs and ruins, and sometimes we encounter rare creatures. The tranquilizer gun is for sedating animals.”

“Well, damn, even a tranquilizer gun is better than nothing,” I said, feeling a bit more at ease. I told Ma Su to use it at the first sign of trouble, whether it was a person or a monkey.

We stood at the opening of the coffin, shining our flashlights inside. The space was not very large; the beam illuminated all of it, but there was no sign of the monkey-faced monster. Had it not returned to the coffin?

I knelt to get a closer look. Though I didn’t see the creature, I could feel a cold wind blowing against my face from inside the coffin. Why was there a draft?

Growing suspicious, I leaned in and finally noticed something odd: at the foot of the coffin, near the base, was a dark hole. The cold wind was pouring out from it.

It seemed likely that the noises we’d heard earlier also came from this wind.

Just then, Ma Su tapped my shoulder. “Li Yang, something’s not right…”

I thought so too, and was about to tell him what I’d found when I realized he was examining the broken ends of the coffin, running his hands over them. Clearly, his discovery was something else.

“What did you find, Professor Ma?” I asked.

He shook his head. “I was wrong. These coffins aren’t from the Qing dynasty—they’re modern, artificially aged.”

“Not from the Qing? So, they’re not those dug-up ones?” I felt a wave of frustration. That meant the coffins before us were another mystery.

Ma Su continued, “They’re definitely not from the Qing. I’d say they’re less than ten years old, made from very ordinary wood.”

I waved him over to the coffin. “Let’s leave the coffins for now. There’s a hole inside—my guess is that creature crawled into it.”

“A hole?” Ma Su was startled. He grabbed his flashlight and leaned into the coffin to look. After a moment, he emerged, face flushed with excitement. “There’s something down there. The black mist might be tomb air. There could be a large tomb underneath. I have to go down and see for myself.”

“What? A tomb? Under this building?” I was dumbfounded, unable to believe my ears.

But Ma Su nodded solemnly. “I’m eighty percent sure. And I think the tomb has already been opened by someone.”

I glanced around at the strange, solitary coffins and the eerie silence. My main concern was for my third uncle and Liang Yue, and even those two corpses we’d fought—they had all vanished as if into thin air. I looked once more at the hole inside the coffin, gritted my teeth, and said, “Fine. I’ll go down with you.”

If Ma Su was right, and there really was a large tomb below, then if my uncle and Liang Yue were still alive, they were likely down there too.

Ma Su nodded and climbed into the coffin, feet first, easing himself into the hole. I followed quickly, squeezing through the narrow opening.

Beyond the hole was a sloping passageway. The space beyond widened considerably.

The tunnel appeared to be man-made, so it wasn’t hard to traverse. The soil was firm and reassuring underfoot. Ma Su set aside the flashlight and lit a candle made of cypress pitch.

As we made our way down the slope, I noticed the path doubled back; the whole passage seemed to spiral downward.

After a while, Ma Su glanced at his candle—the flame’s color was changing. It had started yellow, but the deeper we went, the bluer it became.

Ma Su looked back at me. “Put on the mask I gave you, and don’t take it off unless absolutely necessary.”

The mask reeked, and I’d already taken it off. But seeing how serious he was, I reluctantly put it on. “Professor Ma…” I began.

He raised a hand. “Li Yang, we’ve known each other for a while now—no need for formalities. Just call me Old Ma, it feels more friendly.”

I knew Ma Su was easygoing and informal, so I nodded. “Old Ma, what did you stuff in this mask? The smell is awful—musky and fishy—it’s making me sick…”

Ma Su gave me a sympathetic look. “Brace yourself. It’s not pleasant, but it works. The mask was soaked in ram’s urine.”

What? Ram’s urine? Damn…

I nearly threw up, barely holding it in—otherwise, vomiting inside the mask would have been even worse.

Ma Su explained, “Collected during the ram’s rutting season. It’s especially effective against tomb miasma and corpse gases. So bear with it…”

I stifled my nausea. “Old Ma, you’re a renowned professor, but you research ram mating habits? Isn’t that a bit much?”

Ma Su glared at me. “What do you know? I’m a paleobiologist; modern creatures evolved from ancient ones, so there are connections. Don’t underestimate ram’s urine—the saying ‘folk remedies cure serious illnesses’ has its merits.”

I scoffed, “Isn’t that pseudoscience? Many experts have said folk remedies are unscientific and misleading.”

(End of chapter)