CHAPTER 919: CHAPTER 466: THE CORPSE THAT WON’T BURN

The exclamations shattered the solemn and sacred atmosphere of the ritual, causing a commotion among the crowd observing the cremation.

The first to speak was a brawny servant, who had been standing next to the fire, responsible for adding wood.

At that moment, he stared intently at the coffin in the fire, his voice trembling, not daring to shout too loudly.

A few Chen Family members nearby stretched their necks to peer over the more-than-man-high pile of firewood.

When they finally made out the scene inside the coffin, their eyes widened in shock, collectively recoiling as if they had seen a ghost.

One of them even covered their mouth, unable to hide the fear on their face.

This commotion quickly drew the attention of other family members, who gathered around in small groups, whispering among themselves.

"What’s happening? How is the coffin still intact?"

"No idea, it’s been burning so long, even if it’s made of nanmu, there should be some reaction by now..."

Chen Xu’an was standing on the outskirts of the crowd talking with Fang Cheng and others, and upon hearing the disturbance, his expression darkened.

Suppressing the unease in his heart, he quickly made his way through the agitated crowd to the front of the fire, asking:

"What’s going on?"

The servant guarding the fire pit quickly lowered his head, swallowing hard:

"Second Young Master, we’ve added wood three times and even poured gasoline, but this coffin seems unburnable."

"Also, the old master’s... his body doesn’t seem to be changing at all..."

Hearing this, Chen Xu’an abruptly looked up, his gaze fixed on the black lacquered coffin atop the pile.

His pupils suddenly contracted, and he too drew a sharp breath.

Fang Cheng and Lin Chuqiao exchanged a glance and moved to the edge of the crowd, equally fixated on the anomaly in the fire.

The raging flames engulfed the coffin, the flickering tongues of fire reaching over two stories high.

The wood crackled and popped, sending embers flying upward.

Even from several meters away, the heat could be felt searing against their faces.

Under such fierce flames, ordinary wood would have burned to charcoal by now.

But this coffin remained unusually resilient, showing only faint signs of charring at the edges.

The worst was the outer layer of black lacquer cracking in large patches, revealing the dark red wood beneath.

"It’s a nanmu coffin," Lin Chuqiao softly explained to Fang Cheng.

"Wealthy people often use this wood for coffins because its density is much higher than ordinary wood. It’s hard as iron and naturally resistant to decay; the temperature of a normal pyre can barely burn through it."

Fang Cheng nodded slightly, having already known that.

However, the current situation clearly went beyond merely being "hard to burn through."

The blaze from the pile covered most of the coffin.

Several orange-red flames licked continuously at the coffin’s opening, penetrating inside.

Meanwhile, Chen Hongye inside seemed completely unaffected.

Since his body attributes had successively surpassed the threshold of 60 points, Fang Cheng’s height had grown to 1.85 meters, taller than most of the Chen Family members around.

While others had to stand on tiptoe to barely glimpse the inside of the coffin, he could clearly see everything within.

At that moment, the funeral robes on Chen Hongye’s body, baked by the flames, turned a singed yellow, with the edges slightly curling, yet never catching fire.

The pitch-black hair merely twisted and wilted without turning to ash.

Even more bizarre was his undamaged skin, showing no signs of charring from the flames.

Not a single mark of smoke or scorching could be found.

Instead, in the flickering light, it vaguely emitted an eerie sheen, like a layer of fine wax had been applied.

Fang Cheng relayed the scene he saw in a low voice to Lin Chuqiao.

Upon hearing this, Lin Chuqiao’s eyes brightened with barely contained astonishment:

"Even the funeral robes can’t catch fire? This level of resistance is beyond what nanmu can offer... there must be something else protecting him."

"This is downright ghostly!"

Pan Wendi joined them at this moment, his face filled with wonder and a hint of excitement.

"What is this old man made of, could it be he mastered the legendary Vajra Unbreakable Body?"

Bai Ling followed up with a soft query:

"Sister Xiao Chu, could this be another form of sinister Black Magic?"

Lin Chuqiao said nothing, her brows tightly furrowed in thought.

Something clicked in Fang Cheng’s mind, as if he had grasped a vague idea.

He took a half step forward, focusing his gaze intently, observing the fire pit.

His pupils glimmered with a hint of red, and the "Scavenger’s Eye" silently activated.

Under this layer of dark red visual filter, the details previously obscured by flames and smoke became instantly clear.

Fang Cheng suddenly discovered that Chen Hongye’s entire body was enveloped in a subtle halo.

It was not caused by the fire’s glow.

It must be some sort of abnormal energy seeping from inside the corpse, gradually emitting through the pores.

Such a sight...

Much like thermal imaging seen through night vision goggles, it clearly indicated the presence of highly concentrated biological energy within the corpse.

Moreover, this energy formed a tangible qi field that tightly encased the body, acting as an invisible barrier to withstand the intense heat of the flames.

Even part of the energy continued to slowly dissipate outward, attaching itself to the clothes and surrounding coffin boards, as if covering them with a layer of protective membrane.

This, it seemed, was why the coffin’s burning efficiency was partially reduced, making it difficult to fully consume quickly.

Fang Cheng observed carefully, making speculations in his mind.

Meanwhile, the Chen Family members were also gathered, whispering in disbelief.

A corpse that won’t burn was something beyond their comprehension — utterly bizarre and unheard of.