"Quick, get back!" Mr. Li exclaimed.

Hearing the shout, Tiezhu turned around to see a red and a white skeletal hand about to grab him. Being well-trained by Mr. Li in martial arts for several years, Tiezhu reacted swiftly. He rolled forward and dodged behind the stone coffin.

The white skeleton missed its first grab, immediately bouncing out of the stone coffin and lunging towards Tiezhu. Seeing the skeleton coming again, Tiezhu became anxious. He jumped aside and swung the iron shovel in his hand at the skeleton, but it moved unbelievably fast, dodging the blow.

"Bang!" The shovel hit the wall, sparking a few flames. Meanwhile, the skeleton swiftly leaped from the left side of the coffin to the right, standing upright in front of Tiezhu.

By now, Mr. Li had taken out a yellow talisman and chanted, "Evil spirits, ancient spirits, heed my command! Above the six heavens, below the six earths, disturb as you will, but be bound by thunder! By the decree from above, I command thee, be stilled!" Finishing his chant, he threw the yellow talisman at the white skeleton.

"Snap!" The talisman stuck to the skeleton's body, rendering it motionless.

In just a few seconds, Tiezhu felt as if he had escaped from the underworld. Sitting on the ground, he felt exhausted. Mr. Li hurried over, asking, "Are you okay, son?"

"I'm fine, nothing happened." Although Tiezhu had put up a fight against the skeleton moments ago, he was shaking now, not accustomed to such encounters.

"Strange! The soul curse has been lifted, yet there's still a soul tether. Why hasn't this fellow's soul departed?" Mr. Li was puzzled, carefully examining the entire tomb chamber.

At that moment, I crawled in through the opening and saw my brother sitting on the ground with the skeleton nearby. I asked what was happening. Tiezhu explained the situation, and I exclaimed excitedly, "Wow, you're amazing, brother! You actually fought with this thing! Incredible! The shovel even lost its edge, trying to strike it!"

"It was supposed to hit him, but it missed and hit the wall instead!" Tiezhu said, exhausted.

"The wall? Where? Let me see!" Mr. Li asked eagerly.

The walls of the tomb chamber were made of soil, not stone. How could the shovel lose its edge? And there were sparks earlier. Mr. Li had noticed, but in the rush of the moment, he hadn't thought much about it. Now, it seemed very odd, so the three of them went to the wall where the shovel had struck.

There was a dent on the smooth wall, with a bit of white powder inside that was hard to notice without careful inspection. Tiezhu scraped at the dent with the shovel, and as the soil fell away, a large marble pillar emerged.

Mr. Li examined the pillar closely, feeling a chill run down his spine. Suddenly, he snatched the shovel from Tiezhu and made marks on other spots in the chamber, instructing us to scrape them open.

Soon, five marble pillars were revealed.

Mr. Li looked at the five pillars and muttered five words, "Five Corpse Soul-Locking Array!"

"Hey, who did you offend? Even after death, they're still troubling you," Mr. Li circled the tomb chamber, inspecting each pillar carefully. "No mistake, it's the Five Corpse Soul-Locking Array."

"What's the Five Corpse Soul-Locking Array? Are these five corpses the 'Five Corpses of Wealth' that people often mention?" I asked, curious.

"No, the Five Corpses of Wealth are different. They refer to a deity in Feng Shui associated with wealth, not these five corpses," Mr. Li explained, continuing, "These five corpses represent hunger, pain, illness, sorrow, and disaster, utilizing talismans to form an array, trapping souls within, subjecting them to the torment of these five conditions. Er Pang died within this array, and now his soul is enduring the torment."

"Oh! That's terrifying! Master, you must save him!" We were both shocked to hear this.

"Since we've encountered it, we'll surely save him. Let me think about how to do it. It's been a while since I dealt with these things." Mr. Li scratched his head with his pipe, "Yiming, bring me the yellow paper and pen from my room, and bring more incense. Tiezhu, go kill the remaining black chicken in the coop and bring a bowl of blood. Oh, we won't have eggs to eat for a while."

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After we left, Mr. Li carefully examined the five pillars. The Five Corpse Soul-Locking Array trapped five different elemental energies: hunger (earth), pain (metal), illness (wood), sorrow (water), and disaster (fire). Using talismans, these energies were balanced to create a closed energy field, imprisoning souls.

To break the array and save the souls, it was necessary to maintain balance among the five elements while neutralizing the energy fields. Otherwise, the souls would be scattered, making it difficult to reunite them.

Soon, we returned with everything Mr. Li had requested.

Mr. Li immediately lit the incense and drew five symbols on the yellow paper, corresponding to the five elements: metal restrains wood, wood restrains earth, earth restrains water, water restrains fire, and fire restrains metal. He then affixed the symbols to the five pillars. With a gesture in his left hand and a wooden sword in his right, he recited, "Five corpses, five corpses, roam the boundless. I command thee to leave suffering and flee calamity. Any defiance shall be met with dispersal, turning into ashes!"

Finishing his chant, he thrust the wooden sword into the ground.

"Swoosh!" The symbols on the pillars ignited simultaneously, turning into blue smoke and disappearing in an instant.

"Whoosh!" The white skeleton, which Mr. Li had immobilized with the talisman, collapsed to the ground.

"It's finally done!" Mr. Li sighed with relief. We were stunned.

"Er Pang, rest in peace. If anything happens, we'll do our best to help!" I prayed silently.

"Alright, you two, tidy up here and then go home to rest. Oh, don't forget to put that guy's bones back in the coffin and cover it properly. I'm going to bed now. I'm getting old; my body can't keep up!" Mr. Li instructed before leaving.

"This old man is something else. He's making us clean up while he goes to sleep," I grumbled.

Early the next morning, we went to Mr. Li's house. To our surprise, he was practicing Tai Chi in the yard, not looking like someone who couldn't keep up with his body.

"You're here. Let's practice some boxing together," Mr. Li continued.

"No thanks, I strained my back lifting that coffin lid yesterday. It was so heavy!" I complained, sitting on a stool by the stone table.

"By the way, Grandpa, what should we do with the tomb chamber? Fill it in?" Tiezhu also sat down and asked.

"Hehe, yes, I was just about to mention that. Help

me fill in that vegetable cellar too."

"Huh? Fill in the vegetable cellar too? Where will you store your cabbage in winter?"

"Haha, I never intended to dig that cellar in the first place. How much can an old man like me eat? You'll have to store your cabbage there; I'll come to get it later," Mr. Li laughed heartily.

"Yeah, why didn't we think of that back then?" We looked at each other, realizing our oversight.

Seeing Mr. Li's satisfied expression, Tiezhu stood up and pulled out a dark dagger from his pocket, walking up to Mr. Li, "Hey, we didn't do this for nothing. Look at this. What do you think it is?"

"Oh?" Mr. Li stopped and took the dagger, "Where did you get this? Hehe, could it be from that guy's coffin?"

"Yes, it was found in the coffin, buried under the decayed coffin fragments inside. We found it yesterday during the cleanup. Take a look; it's very sharp." Tiezhu said.

"Swish..." As the dagger was pulled out, it gleamed with a cold light. It was over a foot long but three fingers wide, feeling quite unwieldy. The entire dagger was jet black, emitting an endless aura of death from both edges, sending shivers down one's spine.

Mr. Li examined the dagger closely, observing for a while before noticing two seal characters on the guard, "Tian Ci, this is actually Tian Ci! It's unbelievable, what a sword, what a sword, truly worthy of its reputation."

"This isn't a dagger, is it? How can you call it a sword? Do you know about it?" I asked, curious about the dagger in Mr. Li's hand.

"Hehe, of course. You two probably don't know. When this sword is drawn, it exudes a murderous aura, making it fearsome. If I'm not mistaken, this sword should have been forged by the great swordsmith Gong Sun Yen."

"Tian Ci? Is there any significance to it?" Tiezhu leaned in with great interest.

"Hehe, when you hear 'Tian Ci', you might not know what it means, but you've probably heard of the legendary sword 'Zhan Lu', right? That's the sword forged by the swordsmith Ou Yezi, fulfilling his lifelong dream: to create a weapon that was invincible yet devoid of any killing intent. So Zhan Lu became known as the compassionate sword."

"Zhan Lu?" I felt like I was entering a mythical world. "Is Zhan Lu real? I thought it was just a legend."

Mr. Li tapped my head with his pipe, "How many times do I have to tell you? This is a sword, not a dagger!"

"I'll remember, I'll remember..." I winced in pain.

"Legend has it that when Ou Yezi was forging Zhan Lu, the sword's murderous aura was so heavy that he snapped it in anger. However, the broken part, devoid of any killing intent yet extremely sharp, was then forged into the world-renowned Zhan Lu Sword. As for the broken part with the intense killing intent, Ou Yezi buried it under Mount Tai. Later, it was discovered by the swordsmith Gong Sun Yen during the late Qin Dynasty and forged into this 'Tian Ci.'"

"Tian Ci not only shares Zhan Lu's sharpness but also exudes a strong aura of death. Buried under Mount Tai for hundreds of years, its properties have only intensified. Hence, it has always been a weapon used by Taoist priests to exorcise evil spirits. Unfortunately, it disappeared during the later Han Dynasty. I never expected you would come across it. What a coincidence!"

Mr. Li's face lit up with joy.

"Since it can ward off spirits, wouldn't keeping it in the coffin affect the Five Corpse Soul-Locking Array?" I pondered aloud.

Mr. Li looked at me approvingly, "Indeed, this sword can alleviate the suffering of the souls trapped in the Five Corpse Soul-Locking Array. It seems someone is secretly assisting us. Who could this deceased person be? It's beyond comprehension! To sacrifice such a good sword for him."

"Since you like it, it's yours. It's found you, so it has chosen you as its master. Take good care of it; it'll surely come in handy in the future!"

Tiezhu was delighted and carefully put away the sword.