The Coffin is the Dead's Final Destination

She heard the sound of footsteps and voices approaching, and then, she breathed a sigh of relief.

It was Tuoba Feng.

He was still alive; that was wonderful.

The mummified corpse remembered the names of many people, but now, she could no longer hear the voices behind the vast majority of those names.

They were all dead, turned into a handful of withered bones beneath the yellow sand.

Yet Tuoba Feng was actually still alive.

Only, he was no longer alone; a very small child followed by his side.

"Daddy, it's so dark here. I'm scared," a timid, milky voice spoke.

"Don't be afraid, Xiaoyun. Daddy is here," Tuoba Feng's voice drifted over; that voice, once filled with resentment and despair, was now very calm.

"Remember what Daddy taught you. Put your hand in this groove and don't move. It will be over in a moment."

"Mm..."

The mummified corpse saw Tuoba Feng leading a little girl who looked to be only four or five years old toward the coffin.

That little girl was Xiaoyun.

He knelt down, his expression full of struggle.

Tuoba Feng seemed to struggle for a long time, his face filled with an unbearable heartache.

Xiaoyun was too young, so small that it broke his heart.

However, there was no other way.

The tribe of the Grave-keepers was currently withered away, with fewer than twenty living people remaining.

The power of the seal was weakening day by day, and even a child as tiny as Xiaoyun had to come and contribute her blood.

"Daddy, are you unhappy?"

Xiaoyun tilted her little face up, using her chubby little hand to stroke Tuoba Feng's rough cheek. "Xiaoyun is very brave. It doesn't hurt at all."

She was so well-behaved and sensible that she in turn comforted her father.

The mummified corpse watched silently from within the coffin, and an emotion called sadness submerged her once again.

All of this... was caused by her.

The deaths of the Grave-keepers were because of her.

The mutation of the land was because of her.

The rampant swarms of monsters in the sand sea were also because of her.

She felt as if she were a natural monster, a creature that brought only disaster and misfortune.

In her heart, she cautiously apologized to the father and daughter outside.

'I'm sorry.'

'I'm truly... sorry.'

"Xiaoyun, how about Daddy tells you a story?"

To distract his daughter's attention, Tuoba Feng began to recount stories he had gone to great lengths to hear from others when he was young, stories about the world outside the Western Region.

"...On the outside, the water is green, and you can sail boats on it."

"In the spring, it will be full of a pink plant called peach blossoms. When the wind blows, the petals fall down like rain."

"Wow..." Xiaoyun's eyes sparkled, filled with yearning.

"That must be so beautiful!"

"Daddy, I want to see red flowers and green grass. We only have yellow sand here."

The mummified corpse listened, silently fantasizing in her heart as well.

If even the yellow sand was so pretty, what would green grass and fresh flowers look like?

Would they be softer than the sand?

Would they be sweeter than this dry air?

The bloodletting began.

The stone spikes on the coffin pierced Xiaoyun's delicate skin, and fresh blood flowed slowly along the patterns on the coffin.

Xiaoyun's body trembled, her little face instantly turning deathly pale, but she bit her lip hard and did not make a sound.

Tuoba Feng held her gently, continuing to tell her about the outside world in her ear, his voice trembling.

"Wait... in the future, Daddy will take Xiaoyun out of the Western Region to see real flowers, okay?"

Xiaoyun shook her head, her voice somewhat weak from the pain.

"We can't, Daddy."

"We are Grave-keepers. We have to guard the tomb in the Western Region."

"If we leave, what will happen to the divine remains here?"

Inside the coffin, the consciousness of the mummified corpse nodded in agreement.

Yes, she could not go out either.

They could not leave, and she could not go out.

She suddenly felt that she and Xiaoyun were a bit alike.

Both were trapped in this stretch of yellow sand, only one was outside the tomb while the other was inside.

This made her feel that she wasn't quite so pitiful anymore.

The process of bloodletting was agonizing, but Xiaoyun endured it without making a single sound.

Finally, the bloodletting ended.

Tuoba Feng hurriedly picked up his weakened daughter and bandaged her wound with herbs he had prepared beforehand.

"Our Xiaoyun is so brave. You lost so much blood and didn't even cry out in pain."

Xiaoyun leaned into her father's broad chest and smiled weakly.

"Only little kids cry out in pain. I'm already four years old; I'm an adult."

"Daddy, I will practice my blade techniques diligently."

"The monsters outside are so fierce. After I grow up, it will be my turn to protect Daddy. Then Daddy won't have to work so hard."

Tuoba Feng's eyes reddened, and he nodded heavily.

"Good."

"Come, Daddy will take you to pick sand jujubes right now. The sand jujubes our Xiaoyun loves most."

"Yay, eating sand jujubes!"

The little girl's cheerful cheering was the only bright spot in this deathly silent god's tomb.

The mummified corpse could only stay inside the coffin, watching the receding backs of the father and daughter as they leaned on each other.

It was not until the sound of their footsteps completely vanished that the burial chamber returned to its deathly silence.

The mummified corpse suddenly felt... a bit lonely.

Over the centuries, the god's tomb had gradually become desolate, and many of the vibrant human voices in her memory had disappeared.

Year after year, she had only herself and this cold stone coffin for company.

Ugly black spots had also gradually begun to grow all over her body.

Scattered like mold spots, they covered every inch of her skin.

Actually, she was willing to stay in the tomb forever.

After all, the coffin is the dead's final destination.

However, she felt as if she... envied Xiaoyun a little.

Even if Xiaoyun could never leave the Western Region and never see the flowers and green grass she wanted to see.

At least she could still run across the vast desert of the Western Region and feel the sunlight and the wind.

Most importantly, she had a father who loved her so, so much.

After that day, Xiaoyun became a frequent visitor to the god's tomb.

Sometimes Tuoba Feng would bring her, his tall figure standing silently in a corner of the burial chamber like a silent statue.

He would watch his daughter skillfully slit her wrist and drip the blood into the groove of the coffin.

The emotions in Tuoba Feng's eyes were complex; there was heartache, numbness, and even a trace of indiscernible... dependence.

More often than not, Xiaoyun came by herself.

She was already very familiar with the path. Her small figure would traverse the dim tomb passages, her footsteps crisp and lonely.

While letting her blood, she would chatter away to the divine remains inside the coffin.

"Lord Divine Remains, Daddy and the uncles went to clear those black monsters again today, so they couldn't come to see you."

Xiaoyun's voice was crisp and pleasant.

"But I remembered the way, so I came over by myself."

"Do you think I'm being a bit too noisy?"

The mummified corpse lay quietly in the coffin, listening to the girl's sweet, clear voice.