Chapter 144: A Peculiar Arrangement

This was rather strange. Generally speaking, a tomb of this size could not possibly have been built without a single mechanism or trap. Moreover, Guo Fan and I suspected that there might not even be a tomb gate here. That was perfectly normal. Many ancient grand tombs had no gates at all. Once construction was complete, the craftsmen would be killed inside as sacrificial companions, keeping the tomb’s location utterly secret. This was how many great tombs had been built, and it did not seem particularly strange to us.

After entering through the opening, we discovered a small burial chamber for accompanying sacrifices. Two pits had been dug in the middle, each containing a coffin, both of them remarkably well preserved. The occupants were probably attendants or servants buried alongside the tomb’s owner. There were no especially valuable burial objects, mostly ceremonial implements and the like. Judging by the contents, the two men had likely served as ceremonial attendants during the owner’s lifetime.

Even then, I remained puzzled. According to what Three Flat Melons had said, although Longtou Mountain had been home to many small countries in ancient times, most of them were really no more than tribal settlements or villages. There had never been any large-scale states. Yet the specifications of this tomb were beyond those of even the princes, marquises, generals, and ministers of the Central Plains—indeed, they nearly rivaled the tombs of the Central Plains imperial family. My curiosity about the tomb’s owner deepened considerably.

What sort of status could someone have possessed to build a mausoleum of such grandeur in a place like this?

We searched the small burial chamber but found little of interest, so we began walking toward the stone door. Beyond it lay a tomb passage. It was exceedingly quiet, the kind of silence that stirred a faint sense of dread. Fortunately, none of us were timid men, and it did not trouble us much.

Six powerful flashlights illuminated the surroundings. The walls on either side of the passage had little decoration and were built entirely of blue-gray bricks, giving the place a solemn, austere appearance. Strangely, there were no eternal lamps or anything similar along the passage. We had been walking for some time when I suddenly heard a click.

Guo Fan had the most experience. He hurriedly called out to everyone, ordering us to stop.

“Don’t move! That sounded like some kind of mechanism.”

We all froze and waited. After a while, nothing happened. I suddenly remembered something Black Sunglasses had once told me about mechanisms in ancient tombs and said, “Don’t be nervous. After being left for so many years, the mechanisms in ancient tombs usually rust and become difficult to trigger. Ancient devices were generally made of iron, and after such a long time, they should have stopped working. There probably isn’t any real danger.”

The others nodded uncertainly. Even Guo Fan looked at me in surprise. They probably had not expected me to know anything about such matters. I was secretly feeling rather pleased with myself when, without warning, an iron arrow shot out and struck Lei Jun in the shoulder. He gave a muffled groan and clutched the wound.

The sudden arrow left me feeling awkward. I had only just finished making that confident speech, and it had immediately come back to bite me. It was an unpleasant sensation indeed.

Everyone hurried over to examine him. Fortunately, the arrow had been badly damaged by the passage of time and was covered in rust. Although it had pierced Lei Jun’s shoulder, it had not gone very deep. Our expedition clothing was quite thick, and the arrowhead itself was so corroded that it was no longer sharp. It had merely torn the skin, causing no serious injury.

“Looks like the boss was right,” Guo Fan said. “The mechanisms are all rusted shut. Otherwise, more than one arrow would have come flying out—and it wouldn’t be in this condition.”

He began carefully surveying the surroundings. Although my earlier statement had been thoroughly disproved, everyone secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and we resumed walking, slowly and cautiously.

Judging from everything we had seen so far, it was extremely difficult to determine what era this mausoleum belonged to. None of us could be called an expert in that field. The only one with any experience was Guo Fan, but his expertise lay mostly in tomb raiding; he knew little about identifying artifacts or dating ancient structures.

Since we could not make sense of it, we decided not to waste time trying. We continued deeper into the tomb. After walking another twenty or thirty meters, several more iron arrows shot out. Fortunately, they were even more heavily rusted and caused us no harm. Such mechanisms were quite common in ancient tombs, and we had encountered them often enough that nobody became overly alarmed.

Just as we reached a bend, we suddenly heard a gunshot.

There was no mistaking it. It was unmistakably the sound of a firearm.

Someone else was inside this ancient tomb.

At once, I thought of the so-called South Gate. It seemed they had entered the tomb as well, and judging by the gunshot, they could not be far away.

But why had they fired? Could there be some danger here?

I glanced at the others. Every one of them wore an astonished expression. Then we all raised our weapons and began moving forward with extreme caution. Small burial chambers lined both sides of the passage, most of them containing grave goods, along with a few small sacrificial pits.

The gunshot had put me on edge. Yet since entering the tomb, apart from the rusted mechanism near the entrance, we had encountered no other danger, nor had anything strange occurred.

Still, the layout of the mausoleum was peculiar. It resembled a square within a square, layer wrapped around layer. I had no idea what principles had guided its construction. None of us were experts in tomb raiding, and we understood very little about such things. I began to regret not asking Monk Wei to find me a genuine expert beforehand. Even if it had cost a fortune to hire one, it would have been money well spent. At a time like this, someone like Old Han or Adviser Guo would have been invaluable. With a man like that beside us, we would not have been wandering around in complete confusion.

A soft, irregular pattering reached us.

Drip. Drip.

There was water falling somewhere nearby. Perhaps the tomb had deteriorated with age. I was just about to raise my flashlight when Guo Fan suddenly seized my arm.

Everyone was startled.

A man was lying on the ground directly ahead of us.

My hand instinctively closed around the grip of my gun. At that moment, Zhang Feng said, “He’s dead.”

When we approached to examine the body, we discovered that the man had probably died only recently. His death had been horrifyingly violent: his entire abdomen had been torn open and his entrails removed. If our nerves had not been reasonably strong, we would have vomited on the spot.

It was a good thing we had not brought Anna. If she had come with us, I had no idea whether the foreign girl would have thrown up immediately.