The Sickly Regent Prince Who Was Abandoned as a Substitute Bride

Chapter 524

"Watch out!" Dongfang Wan'er grabbed the Regent's belt, and the two narrowly avoided a crossbow bolt shot from above. Suddenly, the opposite stone wall cracked open, revealing neatly arranged bronze coffins. The wolf head reliefs on the coffin lids opened their mouths, spewing out puffs of green smoke. She spotted a glimpse of clothing peeking out from the gap in the leftmost coffin—the black armor worn by the Imperial Guard Commander. The Regent's token glowed hot in the green smoke, its star pattern perfectly matching the Big Dipper pattern on the coffin lid, and the number "Thirty-Four" was now slowly seeping blood from the crack in the coffin lid...

Suddenly, spiderweb-like ripples appeared on the surface of the underground river, and foul-smelling water splashed three feet high, revealing the crisscrossing bony ridges on the monster's head—the creature was covered in iron-blue scales, each the size of a palm, with serrated edges that gleamed coldly. Its forelimbs were humanoid but had three-toed claws, and its hind limbs dragged a long, fish-tail-like tail. Three rows of sharp teeth hung upside down from its gaping maw, and saliva mixed with decaying leaves dripped onto the blue bricks, hissing white smoke rising from them.

Dongfang Wan'er spun around to avoid the oncoming stench, and twenty-four piercing silver needles shot out from her sleeve, their tips glowing with a peacock-blue poison. However, the needles only sparked a string of sparks when they struck the monster's scales, failing to even penetrate them. She glimpsed a slightly lighter-colored scale on the monster's lower jaw and was about to shoot again when she saw the Regent raise the bronze token high above his head. The star map patterns overlapped with the Big Dipper on the coffin lid, and the blood seeping from the token's edge drew ancient incantations in mid-air. The monster roared like a bull, its forepaws pressing against the water's surface, where a thin layer of ice formed. The rotating star map was reflected in its crimson pupils, and it slowly retreated three steps.

"Look at the coffin lid decorations!" Dongfang Wan'er seized the opportunity to leap to the left side of the coffin, her fingertips tracing the right eye of the wolf head relief, discovering a very fine indentation there. Just as she was about to press down hard, a "crack" sound of bones dislocating suddenly came from inside the coffin, followed by the ear-piercing sound of fingernails scratching the coffin lid. When her fingertips touched the gap in the coffin lid, a stench of putrid heat rushed out, and the corpse of the Imperial Guard Commander sat up straight, a murky roar rolling from his throat. His once handsome face was now swollen and deformed, the veins under his skin throbbing like living creatures, and a forked tongue protruding from the corner of his split mouth.

Even more chilling was the fact that the skin on his forearms was visibly transforming into scales, his five fingers splitting into three-toed claws, and black patterns of a wolf's head totem appearing on his palms. Dongfang Wan'er instinctively fired the hidden arrow from her waist, only to find it piercing his shoulder without any resistance—these monsters seemed to exist between reality and illusion! The Regent's star chart suddenly dimmed, and a strange, trembling sound mixed into the monsters' roars, like a summons from the deep sea.

With a deafening crash, the lids of thirty bronze coffins simultaneously sprang open, sending up clouds of verdigris. The emerging "living corpses" were in various poses; some dragged half-rotted leg bones, others had their chests split open to reveal beating black hearts, yet all bore the same wolf-head totem pattern and eerily glowing pupils. Their joints creaked strangely as they moved, and the movement of their arms revealed subtle bone deformation beneath their skin. When the first living corpse extended its claws, Dongfang Wan'er finally saw the crescent-shaped notches at its fingertips—exactly identical to the bloody handprints on the pillars!

A sharp shriek suddenly rang out from the horde of monsters, and the scaled monster from the dark river pounced again, this time oozing green venom from its scales. The Regent's token suddenly shattered in two, and the star map transformed into fireflies, flying towards the top of the coffin. But when it touched the Big Dipper pattern, it lit up with nine beams of light. Dongfang Wan'er had a flash of inspiration and tossed the map into the air. In the instant the layout of the secret passage overlapped with the star map projection, she finally saw that the number "Thirty-Four" was the location of the seventh star of the Big Dipper. At that moment, the claws of all the living corpses were pointed directly at their throats, and the stench of decay filled the air...