Chapter 19 The Truth Revealed

I didn't expect Hong Jie to have such a good attitude. She had been bitten all over by piranhas, yet she still had the leisure to joke with me.

I quickly winked at her and whispered, "Hong Jie, don't talk nonsense. My old man is right next to us. What will he think if he hears that?"

Unexpectedly, Hong Jie became even more insane after being bitten by the piranhas. Instead, she shamelessly said, "What are you afraid of? What if he hears it? Call him over to play together. I'll give you two a twenty percent discount!"

Uncle Mei was sitting aside, smoking in silence. When he heard Hong Jie's words, he glared at her with disgust.

Old Wu, who was bandaging the wound, also spat and cursed, "What a shameless whore!"

Hong Jie didn't care at all and laughed to herself. Her eerie laughter echoed in the empty tomb, making people's hair stand on end.

For a moment, I even felt that Hong Jie seemed to be possessed by an evil spirit. Otherwise, why would she suddenly say these crazy things? And why would she be so abnormal?

Just as Hong Jie was acting crazy, Uncle Mei finished smoking, stood up, and took two steps forward. He suddenly pointed to the front and said, "Huh? It looks like there's someone ahead!"

I quickly got up and walked over. Following Uncle Mei's direction, I looked ahead and saw a faint, cold light in the pitch-black depths of the underground.

The light was cool in tone. It didn't look like natural light such as sunlight or firelight. Instead, it looked a bit like the light from our headlamps.

Considering that Wang Zhanggui and the others had entered the tomb in advance, I guessed that this might be the group ahead.

"Could it be Wang Zhanggui's people? Waiting at the tomb entrance to meet us?" I asked.

"That's possible!" Hong Jie finally stopped laughing and walked over, saying, "Great, we've met our companions!"

When Old Wu heard this, he quickly limped over and said through gritted teeth, "Damn it, when I see Wang Zhanggui, I have to complain. This *da rou guo* (big meat pot - a dangerous situation) is too dangerous. There are actually piranhas in the tunnel! It's really damn weird. Where do you think these piranhas came from?"

None of us could answer this question. The only intellectual who could possibly answer this question had already been killed by him.

We walked forward, following the light, as we spoke.

Hong Jie shouted from afar, "Hey! Who's up there? Is that Tu Gou (Earth Dog)? Or Xiao Shuai (Little Handsome)?"

But after shouting for a long time, no one responded. The entire space was filled only with Hong Jie's echo.

I felt a hint of weirdness, and a layer of cold sweat began to seep out of my back. I took a few more steps forward and vaguely saw a figure standing in the position of the light source, leaning against the wall. His hands seemed to be clutching a weapon, guarding it in front of his chest, as if he were standing guard.

This posture immediately reminded me of the bronze statues we encountered outside the last tomb. They were standing in place in this strange way, holding a weapon similar to a golf club.

After taking two more steps forward, we could vaguely see the person. He was a pretty young guy, looking to be in his twenties. At this time, his eyes were closed, his face was pale, and there was blood on the corner of his mouth, looking like a dead man!

"Xiao Shuai?! Xiao Shuai, what's wrong?"

Hong Jie recognized the person at a glance and quickly ran forward.

We followed behind.

Going around to Xiao Shuai's front, I was immediately startled—

Xiao Shuai wasn't standing by the wall. He had been nailed to the wall by a bronze spear!

The bronze spear pierced directly through his chest, and the end was thrust into the wall of the tomb passage. Before he died, Xiao Shuai was clutching the spear tightly with both hands, as if trying to pull it out.

His whole body was suspended, pierced by the spear, and both feet were off the ground. Blood flowed from the wound in his chest, forming a pool on the ground below.

Seeing this scene, Hong Jie asked in horror, "What exactly is going on? Who... who killed Xiao Shuai?"

Uncle Mei and I couldn't say why. We were both frightened by Xiao Shuai's bizarre death.

At this moment, Old Wu also limped over. When he saw Xiao Shuai's death, he said with a pale face, "We're done for! We're in big trouble this time! Judging from the way Xiao Shuai died, he obviously angered the owner of the tomb!"

Hong Jie trembled and said, "Old Wu, don't scare people. What do you mean by angering the owner of the tomb? The owner of the tomb has been dead for thousands of years. How could he cause trouble and harm people?"

Old Wu said with great seriousness, "I'm not lying to you! Look carefully at how Xiao Shuai died! He was pierced through the chest by a bronze spear, and his body was nailed to the wall, with his feet off the ground! I ask you, can a living person have that kind of strength? To stab Xiao Shuai, this big guy who is over 1.8 meters tall, to death on the wall?"

What Old Wu said was indeed correct.

Xiao Shuai was over 1.8 meters tall and not thin. He weighed at least 150 or 160 pounds.

For such an adult man, with the ability to resist, to be pierced through the chest by a spear and nailed to the wall, was really too unbelievable!

This had to make people think in a supernatural direction!

At this time, Old Wu said again, "And have you seen that the weapon that killed Xiao Shuai is a bronze weapon from this ancient tomb! It must be that we dug up the grave and angered the owner of the tomb. We were targeted by the Yin soldiers guarding the tomb, and Xiao Shuai was killed by these Yin soldiers!"

The more Hong Jie listened, the more frightened she became. She asked uneasily, "Then what should we do? Why don't we just not rob this tomb? Our lives are important. Let's go back the way we came?"

Old Wu pointed to his bloody legs and said, "Xiao Hong, have you lost your memory? The way back is full of piranhas. How can we go back? We have no way out!"

Hong Jie looked devastated after hearing this.

There were unknown Yin soldiers guarding the tomb in front of us, and piranhas that ate people without spitting out bones behind us. We were simply stuck in the middle, with no way to advance or retreat!

After hearing Old Wu's explanation, I was a little scared in my heart, but since I had ventured into the Tuojiang Ancient Shu Tomb with Jiang Yongguang, Xiao Liang, and the others last time, my courage had been trained.

I knew that many supernatural events could actually be explained. Some seemingly scary scenes, after understanding the truth behind them, were often not so scary.

Therefore, I felt that there must be a more reasonable explanation for Xiao Shuai's death.

I walked around a few steps nearby, with my headlamp on, looking for clues.

Even if, as Old Wu said, Xiao Shuai was killed by the Yin soldiers guarding the tomb, these Yin soldiers should have left some traces, right?

As the saying goes, Heaven rewards those who work hard. After I walked around with my head down, I suddenly noticed that the ground in front of Xiao Shuai's body seemed to have sunk in, forming a small pit where the blood flowing from Xiao Shuai's body gathered.

I took out my diving knife and knocked on the small pit, but heard a "tuk-tuk" echo. The small pit seemed to be hollow, and the material under the soil should be metal.

I knocked on the ground next to it with the diving knife. At first, I didn't find anything, but after walking a few steps forward, I suddenly knocked on the same hollow structure again, making a "tuk-tuk" echo.

However, this piece of ground did not sink, but was level.

Uncle Mei, Hong Jie, and the others were attracted by my behavior and asked curiously, "Rongsheng, what are you doing?"

I waved my hand at them, asking them to step back a few steps, and then squatted on the ground, raised my elbow, and slammed it hard on the hollow ground.

With a bang, the ground suddenly caved in, seemingly triggering some kind of mechanism!

Immediately afterwards!

A spring sound suddenly came from a dark spot on the side wall, and suddenly, with a "swoosh," a sharp and heavy bronze spear shot out horizontally, passing dangerously over my head and stabbing hard into the wall on the other side!

If I hadn't been squatting on the ground, but standing in place, then at this moment, I would have been nailed to the wall by this sharp spear like Xiao Shuai.

At this time, I turned to look at Uncle Mei, Hong Jie, and the others, and said with a smile, "The mystery is solved. It wasn't any Yin soldiers that killed Xiao Shuai, but this mechanism."