322: Chapter 316: Solution 322: Chapter 316: Solution The Eight Gates, within Qimen Dunjia, refer to Kai, Xiu, Sheng, Shang, Du, Jing, Si, and Jing.
Among these eight gates, Shang, Si, and Jing are ominous; Kai, Xiu, and Sheng are auspicious.
As for the remaining Du Gate and Jing Gate, they are considered neutral.
Using his Geomancy Inspection Skill, Chen Hai closely observed the tomb chamber where he found himself.
If nothing was amiss, his current location should be Jing Gate, one of the Fierce Gates.
Compared to Si Gate, although Jing Gate is also greatly ominous, entering this gate does not guarantee death; between life and death, there is a thread of survival, pregnant with possibility.
Chen Hai’s Geomancy Inspection Skill, though not omnipotent, allowed him to detect that sliver of life force between heaven and earth.
After lingering in the tomb chamber for nearly half an hour, he again set foot forward, heading towards the chamber’s doorway.
In these squarely-shaped tomb chambers, except for the one where he started, most chambers have a door on each wall.
Those unaware of the tricks would keep straightforwardly heading in one direction.
But in reality, after passing through several doors, their direction would have shifted, and unwittingly, within these chambers, they would wind up going in circles.
But now, led by that thread of life detected with his Geomancy Inspection Skill.
Chen Hai weaved through the chambers, sometimes turning left, sometimes right.
Even at times, he would enter a chamber and then immediately retreat through the door behind him.
The monsters that had been corroded by Evil Qi and transformed were several, all directly turned to pus by his Corpse Transformation Talisman.
These monsters, even if encountered by a fully-armed squad of soldiers, would definitely incur heavy casualties, with little chance of good fortune.
However, under Chen Hai’s Corpse Transformation Talisman, they couldn’t cause any disturbance!
Truth be told, even without relying on the Corpse Transformation Talisman, Chen Hai’s Flame Power would be enough to deal with these creatures.
Yet under the scorching of his flames, these monsters could still struggle a bit before finally being reduced to ashes.
Among these creatures killed by Chen Hai, there was one that he had incinerated with his flames.
At that time, if he hadn’t been quick to dodge, the monster, still ablaze and not completely devoid of combat strength, would have nearly harmed him.
Given this situation, after trying once to deal with the monster using his Flame Power,
Upon encountering these creatures again, Chen Hai did not overthink; he picked up the fish spear wrapped with the Corpse Transformation Talisman and directly thrust it at them.
Although these monsters were quite strong, in essence, they were still merely corpses.
As long as they were corpses, the Corpse Transformation Talisman could control them utterly.
The Corpse Transformation Talisman, upon touching the monster, would immobilize it immediately.
Afterward, in merely the blink of an eye, the monster would be completely dissolved into pus.
Chen Hai had a bundle of Corpse Transformation Talismans on him, more than sufficient to deal with these monsters.
Since this method was simpler and quicker, naturally, he wouldn’t foolishly ignore it and resort to his Flame Power to face these creatures!
Previously, he wandered through the tomb’s labyrinth for half the day without finding a way out.
However, after using his Geomancy Inspection Skill, it took him only about fifteen minutes to exit the labyrinth and arrive in a passageway.
This tomb passage was roughly two meters high; looking straight ahead, it seemed to plunge into unfathomable depths.
The floor of the passageway was entirely paved with uniformly cut bluestone tiles.
As for the sides, they were composed of large rectangular slabs of bluestone carved with various figures and war scene reliefs.
“Could the owner of this tomb actually be some emperor?”
“Otherwise, for a common official to use such a scale for their Yin House would definitely be excessive.”
“If it were misinterpreted that their descendants had scheming rebellion intentions, the consequences would be dire—might lead to a sentence of exterminating the entire family.”
Chen Hai, who gathered the surroundings of the passage into view with the light of the flames enveloping his body, unexpectedly murmured a sigh.
Regrettably, he was a poor student, and his knowledge of history was a mess.
Even if he wracked his brains, he couldn’t deduce which dynasty or which emperor might have his tomb buried near the Black Stone Reservoir in the Western Suburb of the Capital City?
“Who cares who the owner of this tomb is?
Even if he was of high status in life, what does it have to do with me?”
“I’ve entered this place, and killing the water monsters is only secondary.”
“What I truly desire is merely that Fierce Blade…”
Not being able to figure things out, Chen Hai didn’t bother to think further.
He gripped the fish spear in his hand and stepped straight ahead towards the front of the passage.
“Clang, clang, clang…” The entire passageway appeared neat and orderly, with no visible abnormalities.
Chen Hai had just set foot on it, advancing less than ten steps when countless tiny holes suddenly appeared in the bluestone slabs on both sides of the passageway.
Some holes released arrows, while others emitted Black Water…
What was even more outrageous was that the stone tiles on the ground would occasionally flip over suddenly.
Luckily, Chen Hai was always vigilant, his Flame Power perpetually enveloping his body.
He avoided the arrows shot from the holes on both sides with several rolls.
The black water that emerged made a sizzling sound as it hit the stone bricks on the ground, and white smoke rose up.
Chen Hai had also relied on the Flame Power to evaporate the obviously highly toxic black water before it could actually land on his body.
Inside this passageway, he discovered some more skeletons.
Among these scattered bones on the ground, there were also quite a few arrows.
It seemed that some tomb robbers had left the maze of the tomb chamber and made it all the way here, only to die under the traps in the passageway.
As for why they had become skeletons instead of being transformed into monsters?
Chen Hai felt that it might have something to do with the severe mutilation of their corpses.
He proceeded with extreme caution, treading carefully all the way.
A passageway about twenty meters long took him nearly an hour to finally reach the end.
There was a stone door that stood three meters tall, entirely made of Han White Jade.
Touching the stone door, Chen Hai could clearly feel the unique coldness of the Han White Jade.
However, this exquisitely carved Han White Jade door, with dragons and phoenixes, had been chiseled open in the middle, breaking off the door bolt inside.
But this saved Chen Hai a lot of effort; he reached his hand out and gently pushed, and the seemingly cumbersome door easily swung open.
“In this trade of grave robbing, there really are some formidable figures!”
“It took me quite a bit of effort to get here, and I almost slipped up in that passageway just now.”
“Yet someone has managed to enter this main tomb chamber before me.”
…
With a light sigh, Chen Hai used the light of the fire to survey the scene in the tomb chamber before him.
In the previous maze, those square rooms were utterly empty.
Aside from some zombie monsters entrenched within, there was nothing at all.
Such chambers could only serve to deceive; they were not true tomb chambers.
The tomb chamber before Chen Hai’s eyes was entirely different.
On the floor of this chamber, there lay scattered various items.
Some, illuminated by the firelight, twinkled intermittently, suggesting that they were likely golden objects or gemstones for burial.
“Roar, roar, roar…” In a corner of the tomb chamber, a bloated monster with straw-like hair roared incessantly at Chen Hai.
Yet the monster seemed somewhat wary of Chen Hai.
Howling with a fierce cry, it locked its gaze on Chen Hai, but didn’t immediately charge towards him.
“Oh, you’re afraid of me?
It seems you still retain some awareness, don’t you?”
“You were stabbed with two fish spears and retreated here; what are you up to?”
“As a monster transformed by the curse of Evil Qi, are you planning to use the Evil Qi here to recover from your injuries?”
With one glance, Chen Hai had confirmed the identity of the monster before him.
Clutching the fish spear, he strode towards the creature.
The monster, faced with Chen Hai, turned tail and ran without a word.
“This isn’t water.”
“Running into me in here and thinking you can escape?
Dream on!”
“Fire arise, burn!”
Chen Hai’s strength had not fully recovered yet, and he couldn’t control flames within a two or three hundred-meter range like at his peak.
Yet, engulfing the monster in the water nearby into the flames was still not a problem.
The burning flames caused the monster to wail chaotically.
In just a split second of effort, Chen Hai, who had shot forward, had already blocked the escape at the tomb chamber’s entrance.
The monster had barely approached when Chen Hai thrust the fish spear directly at it.
To prevent the flames from damaging the talisman paper and reducing the effectiveness of the Corpse Transformation Talisman, before the fish spear had even struck the monster, the fire burning on its body was already extinguished by Chen Hai’s incantation.
Compared with the monster trapped in the maze, the strength of this water monster was obviously much greater.
After all, this thing had ventured outside the Great Tomb and devoured quite a bit of Blood Food.
Taking advantage of the moment when the fish spear hit the target and the Corpse Transformation Talismans started taking effect, Chen Hai flicked his wrist and threw over a dozen Corpse Transformation Talismans at the water monster.
In just two howls, the monster’s body melted away like a wildly burning candle, vanishing without a trace.
“Is there a thief’s tunnel in the reservoir that allows one to bypass the maze and the passage to directly enter this side chamber?”
“Otherwise, how could that monster from the water appear in this tomb chamber!”
“Finally, that thing is dealt with!”
“But what about that knife?
Is it in this main chamber of the Great Tomb?”
…
After scanning around and seeing no thief’s tunnel in the tomb chamber, Chen Hai stepped towards the inner door of the chamber.