The stone chamber suddenly felt suffused with a chilling aura, and I noticed Wang Yang's expression had also changed.
As the coffin lid moved inch by inch, I swallowed hard, my heart pounding in my chest.
With a "clang," the moment the coffin lid fell to the ground, dust billowed up within the stone chamber.
A hand suddenly gripped the edge of the stone coffin; something was about to crawl out!
Damn it, this time I’ve really encountered a zombie!
As the saying goes, he who walks by the river often gets his feet wet.
Just as I was preparing to witness the zombie emerging from the coffin, a familiar face poked out from within the stone coffin.
Li Zha Four?
I blinked in surprise, initially thinking I was mistaken. I glanced at Wang Yang beside me and saw a look of astonishment on his face too, which confirmed I wasn't mistaken.
How did this guy end up in the stone coffin?
Had he turned into a zombie?
As my mind raced with wild thoughts, Li Zha Four was also stunned to see us. He then flashed a foolish grin, "Boss Xiang, Boss Wang…"
Hearing him speak, I breathed a sigh of relief.
Zombies couldn't talk, which meant Li Zha Four hadn't turned into one yet.
If he hadn't become a zombie, why was he hiding in this stone coffin?
"How did you get in here?" I couldn't help but ask.
Li Zha Four, with a wry face, gestured for us to help him out.
Wang Yang and I walked over and discovered that beneath the stone coffin was a bottomless passage.
After pulling Li Zha Four out, I peered inside again, but saw no one else.
"Why are you alone?" I asked.
Li Zha Four sat on the ground, panting heavily, and then began to explain the situation.
Zhou Yongxiang had hired a tomb-raiding expert. This expert brought two people, along with Zhou Yongxiang and Li Zha Four, making a total of five.
After entering this place, Xiao Ding was responsible for standby at the entrance, while the five of them continued forward.
According to Li Zha Four, the tomb-raiding expert hired by Zhou Yongxiang discovered a secret passage, and they all squeezed into it. However, they unexpectedly fell into a pool, which contained monsters. Before everyone could get a clear look at what they were, one person was dragged away by a monster and vanished without a trace.
I knew the tomb-raiding expert Li Zha Four was referring to must be the fellow I'd met before, the one I felt had military experience.
I hadn't expected him to bring two people.
I asked Li Zha Four if he knew the man's name.
He said, "I heard Boss Zhou call him Da Jun…"
I nodded and asked, "And then what happened?"
"After we got out of the pool, we went to a tomb chamber, where there were many antiques…"
As he said this, Li Zha Four's gaze became evasive.
"Did you touch those antiques?" I asked.
He pursed his lips and said, "I was just curious and wanted to have a look… I heard that Da Jun say those antiques were from the Tang Dynasty, so I wanted to take a few out… But who knew, when I took the antiques, I triggered a mechanism, and our group got separated."
"What mechanism?" Wang Yang couldn't help but ask.
Li Zha Four couldn't give a clear explanation for a long time, mentioning stone walls collapsing, the ground caving in, and then more paths appearing.
I was completely lost, but Wang Yang seemed to have grasped something. He asked, "Was the thing you took shaped like a gourd-shaped jade?"
Li Zha Four froze and said, "How did Boss Wang know?"
I also looked at Wang Yang, perplexed. He pondered for a moment and said, "I didn't expect that legend to be true."
"What legend?"
He let out a breath and said, "Actually, there's a legend about Zheng Maisi… His ancestor was a disciple of Yuan Tiangang. Yuan Tiangang was proficient in obscure arts and possessed great skill in mechanisms. When we were on that spiral staircase earlier, I sensed the traces of Qimen Dunjia."
"Yuan Tiangang? You mean the Yuan Tiangang who did physiognomy for Empress Wu?" I asked.
Wang Yang nodded. "Indeed, that Yuan Tiangang."
"The ancestor of the emperor of Da Changhe was actually involved with Yuan Tiangang?" I was a bit surprised.
"That's just a legend. Yuan Tiangang also had a work on mechanism research, but unfortunately, that work has long been lost… It seems now that it has been preserved by the Zheng Maisi family."
Wang Yang said, glancing around the surroundings with a somewhat grave expression, "It appears we are in for a lot of bad luck this time."
I had heard many legends about Yuan Tiangang, such as calculating the bone weight for Empress Wu and co-authoring the "Tui Bei Tu" with Li Chunfeng, countless tales.
It could be said that he was a remarkable figure in history.
I hadn't expected that the emperor of Da Changhe would also have a connection to him.
"Boss Wang, do you mean we can't get out?" Li Zha Four asked, looking worried.
Wang Yang stroked his chin. "I'm not entirely sure of the current situation. It's best to find Boss Zhou and the others first, as there is strength in numbers."
I nodded in agreement.
Li Zha Four blinked. "Ah? Then you mean we have to go back?"
He then glanced at the stone coffin behind him, looking very reluctant.
Wang Yang smiled and said, "If you don't want to go, you can wait for us here."
Upon hearing this, Li Zha Four suddenly stood up and said, "I'll go with you…"
Seeing his demeanor, I couldn't help but feel a mix of amusement and exasperation.
Leaning over the stone coffin, I shone my flashlight down, but it was pitch black, making it impossible to see anything.
The only thing visible was a steep stone staircase, straight and narrow, with many sections so small that they could only accommodate half a foot.
Wang Yang took the lead. We took out climbing ropes from our backpacks, secured them to the stone coffin, and then descended one by one.
It was fine at first, but after descending for a while, my calves started to ache.
These stone steps could only be stepped on with the balls of my feet, so my center of gravity was naturally on my feet, making my calves bear a lot of strain.
Darkness soon enveloped us, and the beam of the flashlight swayed around us as we moved.
I noticed that the stones on the wall appeared to be granite, so I surmised that we must have entered the interior of the mountain.
Continuing downward, not long after, a gust of wind blew upwards from below, indicating that the space below must be large, otherwise the airflow wouldn't be so strong.
"We're at the bottom."
Wang Yang said, and then I heard the sound of him landing on the ground.
I looked down and realized I was only about a meter above the ground. Untying the climbing rope from my waist, I leaped down as well.
After landing, I surveyed the surroundings. It was a large stone chamber, empty and devoid of anything. On the east side was a passage, dark and completely unseen within.
Li Zha Four was the last to descend. After he landed, he looked around at the situation, somewhat incoherently babbling that when he had climbed up this way earlier, it had already collapsed, so how was it fine now?
The fellow even crouched down and started tapping the ground with his hands, as if afraid of cracking it open.