“Ye Qiu, look inside quick!”
Tang Fei shouted in terror.
No reminder was needed, as the moment Ye Qiu smashed the bronze door open with his fist, his gaze had already shifted inside.
In Ye Qiu’s line of sight, numerous vermilion coffins appeared.
There were at least seventy or eighty of them, all vermilion, scattered haphazardly, emitting an eerie, sinister aura under the torchlight.
Uncle Guardmountain exclaimed, “Heavens, so many coffins.”
Smack!
Master Longbrow slapped Uncle Guardmountain on the forehead, scolding, “No sense of the world.”
Uncle Guardmountain clutched his forehead, looking aggrieved.
Ye Qiu lifted his foot, about to step inside, when Master Longbrow’s voice rang out again, “Something’s off! Very off!”
Ye Qiu lowered his foot and asked, “What’s off?”
Master Longbrow explained, “In tombs like this, coffins are normally arranged orderly, not strewn about like this.”
Ye Qiu asked further, “What does that mean?”
Master Longbrow said, “It can only mean one thing: someone else was in this tomb before us.”
What?
Everyone’s expressions changed.
Master Longbrow pointed inside, saying, “Look, many of those coffins have their lids pried off. Clearly, tomb raiders were here before we arrived.”
“Impossible!” Uncle Guardmountain said, “The bronze immortal gate was dozens of metres underground, and the tomb entrance’s bronze door was intact. No one could’ve got in.”
Master Longbrow cursed, “Fool! Can’t tomb raiders enter from somewhere else?”
Uncle Guardmountain was stunned.
Tang Fei added, “Master, you said before that the tomb’s owner was no ordinary person, and the bronze doors are incredibly solid. Wouldn’t it be tough for tomb raiders to get in?”
“It’s tough, but not impossible.”
Master Longbrow said, “Don’t underestimate tomb raiders’ skills. They might’ve known the main entrance was too hard, so they found another way in.”
“Without exaggeration, if this Taoist wanted to enter this tomb, it’d be effortless.”
Uncle Guardmountain said in surprise, “Master, you know how to raid tombs?”
“Not just know, I’m quite skilled…” Master Longbrow abruptly stopped, slapped Uncle Guardmountain on the forehead, and barked, “Speak again, and I’ll end you.”
Uncle Guardmountain felt glum, muttering to himself that the dignified leader of a sect was a shameless tomb raider in disguise.
“Whether tomb raiders were here or not, since we’re here, let’s go in and see.”
Ye Qiu spoke, then stepped inside.
The others followed closely.
Ye Qiu approached a vermilion coffin and glanced inside, instantly spotting a skeleton.
Then, he went to a second coffin, looked in, and saw another skeleton.
Ye Qiu checked over a dozen coffins, all the same: each contained only a skeleton, nothing else.
No burial goods, not even a scrap of clothing.
The corpses had no garments and were all severed at the waist, split into upper and lower halves.
“Waist-severed burial!”
Master Longbrow said, “These must be sacrificial victims, killed by waist-severing.”
Uncle Guardmountain felt a chill down his spine and cursed, “Damn feudal society, waist-severing for burial? That’s outrageous.”
Master Longbrow remarked, “That’s nothing. Some large mausoleums even have mass burial pits.”
“How do you know?” Uncle Guardmountain asked.
“I’ve naturally seen…” Master Longbrow’s tone shifted, “Why are you asking? Want a beating?”
Uncle Guardmountain quickly covered his forehead.
Ye Qiu silently counted, noting ninety-nine vermilion coffins, then proceeded further inside.
Soon, they reached another tomb chamber.
The chamber was in disarray, with ten coffins inside.
All the coffins were opened, their lids strewn on the ground, and several skeletons were also tossed out.
There were no burial goods in the coffins.
Ye Qiu noticed fragments of broken porcelain and bronze at the bottoms of some coffins.
“Looks like the old man was right. This tomb was raided by tomb raiders,” Ye Qiu said.
Tang Fei asked, “But where did the tomb raiders get in?”
Ye Qiu replied, “We’ll likely find out if we keep going.”
They continued deeper into the tomb chambers.
They passed through over a dozen chambers, each with its bronze door blasted open, the interiors in chaos, and no burial goods left.
The tomb raiders had stripped the place bare.
In two chambers, they found thief tunnels, suggesting the raiders had dug their way in.
The group pressed on.
Gradually, a heavy, chilling yin energy filled the tomb, cold and piercing, making them shiver.
After a while, they came upon another bronze door.
This door was about four metres long and three metres high, ancient and grand, heavy and solemn.
It was embossed with a lifelike five-clawed golden dragon.
“This must be the main tomb chamber!”
Master Longbrow looked at the bronze door and said, “I wonder if the main chamber was hit by the tomb raiders.”
“If it was, it’ll be hard to identify the tomb’s owner, and any treasures would’ve been taken.”
As is well known, the most valuable burial goods are usually placed in the main chamber’s sarcophagus.
Tang Fei examined the bronze door and said, “All the bronze doors we’ve seen were destroyed, but this one is shut tight and undamaged. I think the tomb raiders might not have entered the main chamber.”
Master Longbrow frowned, “These tomb raiders were skilled. Since they took so many treasures, they’d know the most valuable ones are in the main chamber. It makes no sense they didn’t go in.”
“The fact that this bronze door is intact suggests two possibilities.”
“First, the raiders faced danger before entering the main chamber, forcing them to leave.”
“Second, they couldn’t break through this bronze door.”
Tang Fei was puzzled, “Why didn’t the tomb raiders enter the main chamber?”
Uncle Guardmountain said, “Stop guessing what the raiders were thinking. Let’s break the door and go in.”
Ye Qiu prepared to punch the bronze door but was stopped by Master Longbrow.
“Hold on. Main tomb chambers are often full of dangers. Unless we find the mechanism, breaking it open by force could trigger unexpected risks.”
Master Longbrow began searching for a mechanism.
After ten minutes without success, he sighed and said, “Lad, you’d better do it.”
“Step back, it might be dangerous.”
Ye Qiu stepped forward and smashed a fist into the bronze door.
