Shen Bao gasped for breath, his face etched with the terror of a narrow escape.
"It was so terrifying, I almost became food for that monster,"
Recalling the disgusting appearance of the floating corpse, Shen Bao still felt like vomiting.
"Hurry and wash yourself."
Seeing Shen Bao's face smeared with pus and emitting a foul odor, Ye Fan reminded him with a wry smile.
Shen Bao then remembered that the severed arm of the floating corpse had splattered him with filth.
He quickly began to clean himself by the river.
"Not only are there monsters like the Chi Xu in this river, but there are also floating corpses. It doesn't look like a place for living people at all. Ye Fan, we're probably in an ancient tomb."
Recalling the events that had transpired, Shen Bao said in a deep voice.
Ye Fan frowned slightly. Everything they had seen and heard along the way did not resemble anything used by the living. Whether it was the white-boned figures, the Chi Xu, or the floating corpses they had just encountered, these were things that appeared only in places where the dead gathered, in extremely Yin locations.
If this logic held true, then the place they were currently in might indeed be a cemetery.
"Whether this is a cemetery or a palace, we must find a passage to the surface, otherwise, we will be trapped and die here."
Ye Fan's face was grim, his eyes filled with deep worry.
This place was too vast. After walking for so long, they had likely not even covered half the distance. Escaping from here was incredibly difficult.
Moreover, since this place was designed in that era, they likely didn't want anyone to leave alive. Therefore, the passage to the surface must be very well hidden.
Getting out would not be easy.
Shen Bao nodded heavily. The two rested by the bridge for a while, ate some dry rations to replenish their energy, and then set off again, moving forward quickly.
Leaving the underground river, they entered a vast open space with only a few dilapidated houses scattered on both sides.
Seeing these small houses, Ye Fan's expression grew even more somber.
"What's wrong?"
Shen Bao asked, confused by Ye Fan's gloomy expression.
"Yin houses."
Ye Fan spoke softly, uttering only two words.
But these two words made Shen Bao instantly tense up, his face turning pale.
"You mean, these small houses are Yin houses? How do you know?"
It had been a guess before, but now hearing Ye Fan say it, a sense of dread surged in his heart.
Ye Fan narrowed his eyes, a coldness in the depths of his pupils.
"These houses have no windows. Only places where the dead reside lack sunlight. Moreover, these small houses face south, while houses for the living generally face north to better utilize sunlight. However, the dead have heavy Yin energy and cannot be exposed to sunlight, hence they face north."
Hearing Ye Fan's explanation, Shen Bao quickly looked over.
He saw that these small houses indeed all faced south and were exceptionally well-sealed.
"Why are there several Yin houses here? This neither conforms to modern burial customs nor ancient ones. If this is truly where the kings, nobles, and generals of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom were buried, then tomb chambers and underground palaces should have been built, not these small houses."
Ye Fan frowned continuously, finding the scene before him extremely strange.
Even he could not explain such an bizarre situation.
Seeing the doubt in Ye Fan's eyes, Shen Bao's face was equally grim.
"Could it be that they did it intentionally? After all, their defeat was too sudden, so they didn't have time to build mausoleums for the deceased and could only bury them hastily?"
Ye Fan shook his head. "Since they could build a seven-arched bridge, why wouldn't they have time to build underground palaces? Besides, even if it was just an earthen grave with a tombstone, it would be more solemn than building these small houses."
The ancients valued etiquette, and any behavior that deviated from it would be discarded.
Therefore, Ye Fan was utterly perplexed by the Yin houses before him.
"We'll know when we open them. What can we figure out just by guessing outside?"
Shen Bao said in a deep voice, then slowly walked to one of the Yin houses. He fiddled with the wooden door, and instantly, the wooden door was removed.
"Ye Fan, come quickly."
Shen Bao called out to Ye Fan urgently.
"What is it?" Ye Fan hurried over. Before he could get close, he smelled a rotten stench.
Upon seeing the situation behind the wooden door, even Ye Fan couldn't help but feel disgusted, nearly vomiting.
Behind the wooden door, a person lay quietly. This person was severely decomposed and crawling with maggots.
However, judging by the person's attire, they appeared to be modern.
"How could this happen? Have outsiders entered here?"
Ye Fan frowned, asking in confusion.
"How could there be anyone else besides us? If someone had found the King's treasure, the entire Taiping Town would have been abuzz. Why haven't we heard even a whisper of it?"
Ye Fan sighed and shook his head. "But if no one broke in, how can this corpse be explained?"
"Based on the skeletal remains, this should be a male skeleton, about 1.75 meters tall, slender. Due to the large bones, judging from the teeth, the deceased was around fifty years old, and had been dead for over half a month."
As a tomb keeper, one must be very familiar with corpses.
In his previous life, Ye Fan had seen countless corpses, so inferring the age and gender of the deceased was second nature.
"But who managed to get here first?"
Seeing Ye Fan analyze it so thoroughly, even Shen Bao couldn't help but believe him.
Ye Fan shook his head helplessly. Currently, they had not found any traces of living people other than themselves.
If someone had truly come here, there would have been evidence of their presence. But this place seemed as if no one had visited for centuries.
"Let's go check the other Yin houses."
Ye Fan said in a deep voice, then walked to another Yin house nearby.
Due to the long passage of time, the wooden door had already rotted. With just a gentle kick, the wooden door could be easily dislodged.
This second Yin house was no different from the first.
The difference was that the deceased in this small house was a woman.
She was wearing a white dress, and half of her face was covered in maggots and had been gnawed clean. One eyeball had fallen out, looking extremely terrifying.
This sight made Shen Bao frown tightly, unable to bear looking any further.
"There seems to be a piece of paper here."
Ye Fan's eyes were sharp. In the woman's left hand, he seemed to grasp a piece of paper.
Bending down, he pulled out the paper. On it, in elegant calligraphy, was a short line of text.
"Encountered danger in the mountains, failed the young master's entrustment, too ashamed to face the family's expectations."
And following this sentence, there seemed to be three hastily written characters: regret, regret, regret.
The three characters for regret were written sloppily, as if written in a panic.
Pocketing the paper, Ye Fan's expression became grim.
"What were the identities of these people, and why did they die here?"
If they belonged to a certain family, why didn't that family take their bodies back?
After all, Chinese people valued returning to their roots the most. Even if they died a thousand miles away, they would wish to return to their hometown.
Yet, the people here were casually abandoned.
What was the reason for this?