Wait for Me to Rise from the Coffin - Chapter 2

Chapter 2

At the stroke of midnight, the abyss shuddered.

Then, the entire bridge began to sway.

Before I could even reach for my command token, a crack split the surface of the black coffin.

The scent of blood surged from the gap, so thick it felt as though three hundred years of stale gore had been bottled up inside.

The chains strained to their absolute limit.

With a sharp *clack*, they all snapped.

The coffin lid was pushed open inch by inch.

It didn’t explode outward; it was forced aside slowly by the person within.

A hand emerged first.

Pale and slender, its wrist was still entwined with broken Curse Chains.

Immediately after, a figure braced himself against the edge of the coffin and sat up.

His black robes were tattered beyond recognition, and his long hair fell forward, obscuring most of his face.

But when he raised his eyes, my back went completely numb.

They were red.

Like they had been burning in the dark for three hundred years.

I knew who he was instantly.

In this world, the only person capable of crawling out of the Demon-Suppressing Coffin was Mo Tingyuan.

I expected him to pounce on me.

But in the next moment, he fell heavily to his knees.

*Thud.*

The dull sound made my chest ache.

He looked up at me, his eyes fixed, never once blinking.

It was as if he feared that if he blinked, I would vanish.

“Ji Jianqing.”

He called my name, his voice as raspy as crushed stone. “Three years.”

I froze where I stood.

“How do you know my name?”

He didn’t answer, only continued to stare at me.

“Three years. One thousand and ninety-five days.”

“On the first day, you told me the wind on the bridge was strong and your hands were chapping.”

“On the sixty-seventh day, you cursed the kitchen for cooking the salted fish as hard as rocks.”

“The one hundred and twenty-third day was the Qingming Festival.”

“You burned twenty-seven paper ingots for me, saying that if I truly died a wrongful death, I should take as many as I could.”

My face went white.

Those words… I had spoken them all alone, to the coffin.

“You could hear me this whole time?”

“Yes.”

“Then why didn’t you ever answer me?”

His Adam’s apple bobbed heavily.

“Back then… if I had spoken, you would have died.”

A chill settled in my heart. “What do you mean?”

“The Demon-Suppressing Coffin does not seal the flesh; it seals the soul.”

“I could hear the outside world and see shadows, but the moment I truly made a sound, the seal would have followed your aura and struck back at you.”

“You guarded the formation day after day.”

“If I had answered you even once, it wouldn’t have been the locks that shattered first-it would have been your life.”

“Because you are the Seal Keeper.”

“Because this coffin was never meant to lock away only me.”

He didn’t have time to explain further.

In the next instant, he reached out, grasped my wrist, and gently pressed my palm against the side of his neck.

His pulse was erratic.

The vibration made my palm go numb.

“I am out.”

The red in his eyes was terrifying, yet his voice dropped low, as if he were coaxing me. “Do you want me dead, or do you want me?”

My mouth hung open, my mind a complete blank.

“I…”

He suddenly shifted half a step forward.

His movements were slow, as if he were afraid of startling me.

His lips were almost pressed against my palm, yet they never quite touched.

“Choose the latter,”

His voice trembled.

“I beg of you.”

Before I could react, a brilliant white sword-light exploded overhead.

The Tai Xuan Sect’s Demon-Slaying Formation had been triggered ahead of schedule.

“Jianqing, stand back.”

Wen Changsheng’s voice pressed down from mid-air, sounding unnervingly cold. “Your Master is here to finish this.”

Mo Tingyuan instantly pulled me behind him.

In the next breath, ten thousand swords fell at once.