Under the reflexive reactions of Little Liang and me, the others in the group gradually noticed the anomaly as well. They turned around and saw the eerie black shadow silently following us not far behind, and were immediately scared witless, swimming forward as fast as they could.

As I struggled forward, I pondered secretly, could this black shadow be the one that crawled out of the coffin yesterday evening? It did dive headfirst into the Tuo River at the time.

But the current situation didn't allow me to think too much, I could only grit my teeth and run for my life.

I have to say, we owe this strange thing quite a bit. If it hadn't been chasing us, we might not have been able to swim so fast.

Before the next wave of strong undercurrents hit, I successfully found a place to take refuge – on the right side of this underground river, there was a deep, dark underground cave. My intuition told me that this was likely connected to the ancient tomb frequently visited by tomb raiders, and this underground cave might even be part of that mysterious ancient tomb.

The underground cave had obviously been eroded by underground water. Now, most of the underground water had flowed into the Tuo River, the water level in the cave had dropped, revealing some muddy and damp ground, forming the bank of this constantly flowing underground river.

Afraid of being caught by the eerie black shadow in the water, I jumped ashore without a second thought, followed closely by Comrade Little Liang, who landed almost at the same time.

Uncle Mei was the third to come up. I quickly went to support my future father-in-law. Next were the Xiaoling Guards. Jiang Yongguang was either a mediocre swimmer with poor stamina, or he was just too responsible, staying behind to cover the rear. He was the last one to come up, with the black shadow not far behind him.

When everyone's headlamps shone into the water, the eerie black shadow finally revealed its true face – it was a corpse that had been rotting for a long time. The flesh on its face had been mostly eaten away by fish and shrimp, and its eyeballs were nowhere to be seen, leaving only empty eye sockets.

Seeing such a horrifying scene, Little Liang screamed and subconsciously tried to throw herself into my arms.

Of course, I couldn't hug her. Are you kidding me? My future father-in-law was standing right there. I pushed her aside, almost causing her to fall on her backside.

At this moment, Uncle Mei pulled down his oxygen mask and shouted loudly, "It's the end! A water ghost is here to claim lives! Trapped in this place between heaven and earth, there's no escape!"

I didn't know if Uncle Mei was really frightened by the corpse, or if he was deliberately saying these things to scare Little Liang. Anyway, the atmosphere was so tense that even several tall and strong Xiaoling Guards were frightened and their legs went weak.

In the blink of an eye, seeing that the rotting corpse was already close, Jiang Yongguang, to his credit, had some courage. He pulled out the diving knife from his waist, stepped forward, and prepared to fight the water ghost.

Just at this moment, the water flow in the river suddenly became turbulent. It seemed the time had come, and the intermittent undercurrents entered a strong phase again. The amount of water from upstream suddenly increased, and several large waves even crashed onto the shore, knocking several people standing in front to the ground.

The rotting corpse that had been chasing us upstream also disintegrated under the impact of the water flow. I saw its two arms separate from its torso at the same time. At the same time, hundreds of bright silver fish suddenly emerged from the corpse's belly. These small fish scattered in the turbulent undercurrents and disappeared in an instant.

Seeing this, I suddenly realized that the rotting corpse was not a water ghost at all. The reason it was able to chase us upstream was all due to the small fish in its belly.

This group of silver fish was probably eating its internal organs inside the corpse, swimming forward while gnawing, thus driving the corpse to follow us upstream. We didn't know about the existence of the small fish, so we mistook the corpse for a water ghost.

With the truth revealed, Jiang Yongguang also breathed a sigh of relief, sheathed the diving knife in his hand, and forced a smile, saying to everyone, "False alarm, there are no ghosts in this world, stop scaring yourselves!"

Little Liang was completely exhausted, I didn't know if it was from the rapid swimming or from being frightened by the corpse.

But the good thing about just coming out of the water was that even if she peed her pants in fright, no one would be able to tell, since her pants were already soaked. Of course, that's another matter if she was feeling hot.

After this turmoil subsided, I pointed to the huge underground cave in front of me and asked Jiang Yongguang, "This should be the ancient tomb, right?"

Jiang Yongguang didn't answer me immediately, but walked around to observe the situation.

This underground cave was indeed huge, like a magnificent palace hidden underground, but judging from the rock walls and cave passages alone, there was no trace of artificial excavation.

"I'm afraid we haven't found the ancient tomb yet. This underground cave should have been formed by the erosion of underground water over many years, but what is certain is that it must be connected to the ancient tomb."

As he spoke, Jiang Yongguang picked up an object from a nearby rock crevice that gleamed with metallic luster and had a section of rope tied to one end.

I squinted my eyes and saw that it was a grappling hook, often used by thieves in martial arts movies. This thing is also called an iron chicken claw. It's essentially an iron claw that can be thrown to hang on walls, rock faces, and treetops. It can be used for climbing or retrieving objects from a distance.

Without Jiang Yongguang's explanation, I understood that this must be another tool left behind by tomb raiders.

After finding the first clue, Jiang Yongguang began to follow the trail, looking around for landmarks. Soon, he found some more traces left by tomb raiders.

Some of these traces were tools, some were the remains of tomb raiders themselves, severed limbs, and some were even cultural relics they had stolen from the ancient tomb – such as jade *zhang* (ritual blades), bronze artifacts, gold foil products, etc.

Jiang Yongguang and the others carefully preserved these cultural relics, cautiously placing them in their personal bags for safekeeping. During the process, I only glanced at them carefully and could tell that these cultural relics were very valuable.

"These are all national treasures, right?" I asked softly.

Jiang Yongguang shook his head and said, "Strictly speaking, only first-class A-grade cultural relics are national treasures. These may not all be national treasures..."

Speaking of this, his tone turned cold, and he said in a deep voice: "But excavating these cultural relics is enough to give each of the rats in the ancient tomb a peanut."

"Rats?"

I was stunned at first, and then realized that this should be the official jargon used within the system to refer to tomb raiders. Thinking about it carefully, tomb raiders dig holes and drill into the ground every day, aren't they just rats? This jargon is also apt, much more appropriate than those self-aggrandizing names that tomb raiders give themselves, such as "Yuan Liang," "Tu Fuzi," "Zhi Guo Longtou," "Zhangyan Batou," or even "Mojin Xiaowei" and "Faqiu Zhonglangjiang."

While speaking, I observed his expression and could tell that Jiang Yongguang also deeply hated tomb raiders.

Especially when he said "a peanut for each of them," Jiang Yongguang said it through gritted teeth.

I guessed at the time that he must have a blood feud with the tomb raiders, otherwise he wouldn't have such strong hatred.

Sure enough, Jiang Yongguang then said to me: "Remember, Little Chen, tomb raiders are not ordinary petty thieves, especially those rats who rob big tombs. When they get desperate, they dare to eat cats! Because once they are caught, their lives are over, so they are really willing to risk their lives."

Speaking of this, his tone suddenly became a bit lower, and he said faintly: "Several of my brothers, including the master who brought me into the profession, have all been killed by rats..."