Tomb Raiding: My Family's Last Clan Chief is Little Brother

Chapter 355 White Coffin Bed
The young man's sudden warning startled the Huo family, who feared that something terrible might jump out of the two coffins buried together, and they quickly moved away.

Huo Xiangu spoke slowly, breaking the somewhat stiff atmosphere, "It's just a joint burial coffin. Since it's placed here, there must be nothing of value inside besides the remains."

Zhang Wuxun leaned closer, trying to discern something from the patterns on the coffin, but couldn't make anything out. He could only ask the young man, "Did you sense something?"

The young man shook his head uncertainly, then repeated the advice to stay away from them before walking straight ahead.

The tomb passage that followed was very spacious, with stone slabs laid flat. After walking about fifteen meters forward, we encountered another tomb door.

This tomb door was also opened using a gravity mechanism. After the stone door was raised, the left front side chamber appeared in front of you, and behind it was a dark passageway that led straight through.

We've reached a point where we're almost at the center of the ancient building. The surrounding walls are no longer made of volcanic rock, but rather of ordinary stone bricks.

There were no suspended niches in the tomb chamber. There was only a coffin in the northeast corner of the room, without an epitaph. There were many stone boxes, smaller than Tezuka's that we had seen in the mezzanine, scattered on the floor.

Most of the boxes were open and scattered on the ground. Zhang Wuxun picked up one with a lid, scraped off the sealed amber, and inside was a withered right hand. You could clearly see that the bones of the index and middle fingers had repeatedly cracked and healed.

This is Tezuka, belonging to someone in the Zhang family.

The young man also saw what was inside the box, and his brow furrowed slightly.

“Someone stole many of the Zhang family members’ hand bones after entering this place.” Zhang Wuxun said in a deep voice, looking at the scattered stone boxes on the ground.

It's highly likely that Chen Wenjin's group took the hand bone out of one of the hidden compartments and left the box here carelessly.

Could it be that the people behind this are trying to extract something from these bones? Those guys are truly obsessed.

Zhang Wuxun was very displeased. This disgusting behavior was even more despicable than that of tomb raiders who only sought wealth.

The coffin placed in the corner also showed signs of being opened, and the remains inside may not have survived either.

The young man patted him on the shoulder and said, "Let's go."

Zhang Wuxun nodded, closed the box, and placed it neatly in the corner. Then he directed the Huo family to tidy up the scattered stone boxes on the ground and place them against the wall.

Emerging from the passageway behind the side room, they were greeted by a magnificent octagonal wooden building in the Han style, with its flying beams and carved pillars. They were standing on the veranda at the edge of the courtyard.

Looking up, there is a huge seven-star roof, with a bronze bell the size of a football hanging under each of the horizontally extending eaves.

Outside the corridor, eight thick golden nanmu pillars stand against the railing, their bright red paint adorned with carvings of a new hybrid mythical beast that resembles both a dragon and a pixiu. On the scales covering the beast's body, a small qilin pattern is also carved on some of them.

The young man reached out and touched one of the pillars carved with gold and jade Pixiu, his finger finally stopping on one of the scales of the Pixiu pattern, and said a string of numbers, "One-thirteen, two-six, three-seven."

The Huo family was completely bewildered and didn't understand, but Zhang Wuxun knew that his younger brother had told him this, so he nodded.

The young man tapped lightly on several of the Pixiu's scales with lightning speed. Zhang Wuxun then moved to another pillar and, after touching the first abnormal scale, tapped out "1-19, 2-8, 3-11" based on the pattern.

After he finished tapping, the young man who had already walked to the third pillar tapped out three more numbers: "1-17, 2-4, 3-13".

There are a total of eight pillars, but only three of them have mechanisms; the rest are just for support.

With the final strike, the three pillars suddenly began to slowly rotate.

As Zhang Wuxun turned around, a gap appeared in the pillar in front of him, just wide enough for one person to pass sideways. Peeking down, he discovered that the structure inside the gap was made of stone, leading straight down into complete darkness. Judging by the depth, it went all the way through the courtyard in front of him, and there was a vertical row of small bricks on the inner wall that could only be stepped on by one foot.

"Let's go, get off here," Zhang Wuxun called out.

After saying that, he was the first to climb over the railing, step onto the first brick, and then continued down. Two minutes later, his feet touched solid ground.

Below was a large stone chamber, with the sound of flowing water reaching everyone's ears, and the air was much more humid than above.

After the last person climbed into the secret passage, the young man followed them down. He then tapped a pillar, and the secret passage spun and retracted.

When some members of the Huo family tried to stop them, Zhang Wuxun glared at them and they immediately shrank back, not daring to utter a single word.

The sound of water came from the irrigation channels on both sides of the stone chamber, which were half a meter deep. Although it was called a stone chamber, it could also be considered a tomb passage, because its layout was very similar to the underwater tomb that Zhang Wuxun had seen before. He wondered what connection there was between Yangshi Lei and Wang Zanghai.

The young man walked ahead, and on the stone slabs on the ground were many large-petaled nine-turn lotus flowers, with some small lotus flowers adorning the edges.

Unsure if there were arrows nearby, the Huo family members cautiously followed in the footsteps of their young brother.

Fortunately, everything was normal, and they passed through the stone chamber without incident. In front of them was a square opening about one meter wide, and the group filed in.

The first hundred meters of the stone path were specially repaired and very symmetrical. After that, it runs directly through the cracks in the mountain. You can hear the sound of flowing water as you walk, sometimes loud and sometimes soft.

After walking for more than an hour, the view suddenly opened up before us.

This is another karst cave, with water flowing continuously from more than a dozen dragon heads carved into the stone walls, converging into the pool below.

The water in the pool is very clear, and the bottom of the pool shines with a jade-like light. Standing on high ground, you can see that the pool below is shaped like the outline of a giant Qilin.

In the very center of the pool stands a stone platform, the upper part of which protrudes above the water. Steps are set along the edge, and a white marble lotus-shaped jade bed is placed directly on top. Reflected in the clear water and the jade's luster on the bottom, it appears quite sacred.

It was a coffin bed, about three meters long and two and a half meters wide. It was very large; you could easily stand on it, hold hands, and dance the Four Little Swans.

There are also four white marble pillars with rolling balls on top at the edges. The curtains and gauze that originally hung around the perimeter have been damaged and are hanging precariously on the silk threads.

Through binoculars, one can see deep marks on the coffin bed indicating that it had been pressed down by heavy objects over a long period of time. Clearly, a very heavy coffin once sat on it, but now that coffin is gone.

Zhang Wuxun looked across the pool again, where the entrance to the cave was located. From this angle, the self-closing stone behind the entrance showed no signs of damage.

"Should we go down?" Huo Chu Shi asked.

"That's how it seems at the moment," Zhang Wuxun said. "This is already the main burial chamber, but it's obvious that the items have already been taken away." "You mean... cough cough..." The air here was humid, and Huo Xiangu coughed even more violently than before, "The archaeological team from Banna?"

“Perhaps.” Zhang Wuxun’s voice turned cold.

Huo Xiangu took a sip of the now-cold herbal tea, suppressing the itch in her throat. "That means what I need isn't in the coffin they took away, or something happened and they left it in the ancient building."

Zhang Wuxun didn't want to say anything more, and turned to look to the side, "Brother, going into the water?"

Seeing the young man nod, Huo Chushi immediately rummaged through his backpack to find water quality testing equipment. He tied an empty water bottle to a rope, lowered it down to submerge some water, and then pulled it up. He then took out several pH test strips to test the pH value of the water.

"Weakly alkaline, not exceeding 8.5, you can go down," Huo Chushi said happily.

Everyone changed into diving suits and descended into the pool using ropes.

Upon entering the water, an icy chill instantly swept over the entire body, causing one to gasp in shock.

They quickly swam to the stone platform, climbed the steps, and stood on the white marble coffin bed. Only after being freed from the icy water did everyone breathe a sigh of relief.

Since the jade bed was in the middle of the pool, they were still five or six meters away from the stone steps on the other side of the tomb entrance. They might have to swim over there later. Changing clothes would take too much time, so they could only rub their arms and lean against each other to keep warm.

Someone took out a smokeless stove from a waterproof backpack and lit it. Although it didn't dispel much of the cold, it was better than nothing.

Zhang Wuxun squatted on the edge of the coffin bed, staring at the jade light at the bottom of the pool. Suddenly, he realized that what was glowing was not white jade, but a layer of luminous stone beneath it. The white jade on top was not actually jade, but a very high-grade and rare glass that was close to snow color.

He clicked his tongue inwardly. As expected of the Zhang family of the Chessboard, using such a large amount of glazed tiles in a tomb was something he had only heard of in his previous life. When the tomb of Yelü Pugu, a member of the Khitan royal family, was discovered during the archaeological excavation of Jinbaotun in Kailu, not only were a large number of glazed tile artifacts found, but even the burial chamber was made of glazed tiles, making it even more luxurious than the tombs of emperors.

While the others were resting, the young man wasn't idle either; he was studying the white marble pillars.

After inspecting all four pillars, the young man walked to the pillar in the northeast corner and reached out to turn the ball bearing on it.

The white jade ball rotated once like a globe, then clicked and locked in place.

At the same time, the pool began to tremble and the waves rolled, frightening the Huo family members who huddled in the center of the coffin bed, at a loss for what to do.

As the water surface trembled, a large, dark mass gradually rose from the water near the tomb entrance. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a dozen or so neatly arranged stone pillars.

The Huo family members looked at each other in surprise, and then immediately began to change into dry clothes from their backpacks. Damn it, who would have thought there was a hidden bridge underwater?

The stone pillars rose to a point one centimeter above the water surface before stopping, with a one-meter gap between the two rows of pillars.

The young man stepped onto the stone pillar first and walked over to the steps behind.

The group quickly followed and arrived at the tomb door. Huo Chushi directed people to use a special hook tool to pry up the self-locking stone, open the tomb door, and walk out.

After passing through a stone path, they came to another side hall. Upon seeing the layout inside, the Huo family members were overjoyed.

"Zhang Family Ancient Building!"

"Holy crap, is that the Zhang Family Ancient Building?" Huo Xiaoli exclaimed in amazement as she looked at the simple and intricate wooden model on the round stone platform.

The model in front of us is a miniature of the entire Zhang Family Ancient Building and the surrounding mountains and rocks. It is more than two meters high, and the main building in the center has seven floors. Every detail is exquisitely crafted.

The underwater Yao village is located on the top two floors of the ancient building, and they are currently on the seventh floor of the ancient building.

"Take a picture." Huo Xiangu's face was filled with undisguised joy. Her emotions surged up, and she immediately covered her mouth with a handkerchief and began to cough. Huo Xiuxiu gently patted her back.

Zhang Wuxun frowned, but after a moment's thought, he didn't stop her.

"Okay!" Huo Xiaoli responded, took out his precious camera, and leaned over to take pictures of the model of the ancient building.

Unexpectedly, the stone slab under his feet slipped, and he was slammed down by the overturned slab and disappeared from sight.

This sudden turn of events caught everyone off guard, and they immediately retreated to a safe place.

Huo Chu shouted several times towards the spot where Huo Xiaoli had fallen. Hearing faint cries for help coming from inside, they immediately discussed how to rescue her.

These traps are usually anti-theft mechanisms set up in the main burial chamber of ancient tombs, with the traps placed near the coffin of the tomb owner.

The mechanism works on the same principle as a seesaw, and is also called a series of flip-top mechanisms.

This involves digging a pit about three meters deep in the tomb passage. The length and width depend on the specific conditions of the tomb passage. Sharp weapons, such as knives and awls, about ten centimeters in diameter are distributed at the bottom of the pit.

Then, two movable stone slabs with problems were laid flat on the pit and level with the tomb passage. Then, a crucial temporary support plate was placed under these two stone slabs. Each stone slab had a rotating roller in the center.

When an intruder first steps onto the first stone slab, he will be unharmed because there are supports on both sides. However, as he continues to walk forward, he will step on the edge of the third trapdoor below. The rollers will turn, and the slab will tilt downwards at an extremely fast speed, slamming the person on it directly into the spiked pit.

They would either be pierced and die instantly, or be seriously injured and eventually trapped inside, with almost zero chance of survival.

After confirming that the person was still alive, Huo Chushi and his team used the person as a stake in the middle, tied one end of the climbing rope to the tomb door, and then Huo Chushi carefully lifted his foot and walked towards the stone slab that had just been turned over.

After taking five or six steps, I felt something under my feet that seemed to be about to flip over, so I immediately bent over and lay down to increase the contact area, and then slowly rubbed myself against the edge of the stone slab.

Under the force of gravity, the stone slab gradually began to tilt and soon opened to an angle. Huo Chu Shi threw in another rope that he had prepared in advance, so that Huo Xiao Li below could grab it. Then, the person pulling on the other rope above began to pull hard, and Huo Xiao Li was pulled up without much effort.

The two of them clung fearfully to the edge of the rickety stone slab. Only after being pulled to safety little by little by the others did Huo Xiaoli begin to complain of leg pain.

"Holy crap, holy crap, that scared me to death."

Huo Xiaoli was covered in cold sweat, feeling extremely frightened. "If I hadn't instinctively grabbed the edge of the board when I fell, which would have thrown me off balance, the spikes below would have pierced me right through the heart."

Thank you so much to [Dali Chen], [Huahua Guolai], [Lin Meng] and other generous donors! Sending you a huge heart!
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(End of this chapter)