Tomb raiding: Trying to become a little painter

Click...click...

As the mechanism clicked, a stone door slowly rotated and opened from the inside out on another stone wall in the passageway where Qin Henian and Zhang Qilin were leaning against.

With the sound of footsteps, a chubby head peeked out from inside the doorway. Sensing the undisguised breathing, the chubby-headed man, Wang Pangzi, turned his head and spotted the two familiar figures. Instantly, a wide smile spread across his face, like a sunflower blooming in the morning sun...

"Hey bro! He Nian! So you two were here all along! No wonder I didn't see you two before. I thought you, bro, the professional missing persons, had kidnapped He Nian!!!"

"Wu Xie! Blackie! Come quick... look who I've caught!"

With a double entendre, Fatty Wang, with his keen senses, had already noticed the different atmosphere among his brothers. But as he finished speaking, Fatty Wang noticed that his brother's noble head seemed to lower slightly. In an instant, Fatty Wang knew that things were not developing as he had imagined, and he felt a little uneasy, wondering if what he had just said was a bit awkward.

"They caught them? Someone else was eyeing this tomb...."

Wu Xie followed Wang Pangzi through the stone gate, and as he peeked out, he met a pair of bright, sparkling eyes, and his heart skipped a beat.

This scene was a memory that Wu Xie would cherish for a lifetime... In the darkness of the tomb passage, two beams of flashlights shone separately, illuminating the way. At the edge of the light, a woman stood wearing a gray-blue robe embroidered with flowing clouds, a belt embroidered with a red-crowned crane carrying a branch and soaring around her waist, and several exquisite and noble-looking pendants tied around her waist. Half of her long hair fell down, flowing gracefully, while the other half was casually tied in a high ponytail, with a light blue and gold hairband matching her clothes. Underneath her attire, a stunningly beautiful face was revealed.

Her lips were rosy and moist, her nose was straight and high, her eyelashes were long and black, her eyes were wide open, her forehead was small, and her features were delicate. Her long hair was draped over her shoulders, in front of her, and behind her. In the darkness, this scene was a stunning "light"...

"Pah! Don't talk nonsense, naive boy! Besides two gold bricks, I don't have anything else in my bag!"

Upon hearing Wu Xie's words, Fatty Wang quickly spat a few times and raised his hand to wave it twice. He thought to himself that he couldn't let his bad luck continue. He had finally managed to get the South Blind and the North Mute together again, so he couldn't afford to lose out on this trip. He had to bring back some valuable treasures.

"Alright, Fatty, stop blocking the doorway. If you don't move, I won't hesitate to kick you against the wall. With your body like that, you'll probably rot there and there won't be anywhere to pick at you!"

Hearing the familiar voice, Hei Xiazi's smile widened. He looked at the person blocking the doorway and issued his final ultimatum.

"Move it! Move it now!"

"Why did you suddenly get so angry, like you've swallowed gunpowder..."

When Fatty Wang heard someone urging him from behind, he quickly moved aside and stopped blocking the stone doorway.

A minute later, everyone who had gone down into the tomb gathered together, except for the dead men. Wu Xie was now surrounded by people, but no one spoke. Only his unreliable master looked at him with a half-smile, as if to say, "You are now the leader of the team, and you decide how to proceed from here."

There was only one passage in the tomb chamber, leading in two directions. Looking at the dark passage, Wu Xie's first instinct was to go left, but he'd never had much luck in tombs, so he decided to go the other way. He pointed to the right and said to the others...

"Go to the right!"

Seeing that Wu Xie made up his mind so quickly, Qin Henian and the others didn't say anything more, and turned to head to the right of the tomb passage.

After navigating a straight line, three turns, descending stone steps twice, and activating seven mechanisms, the group finally arrived at a deeper part of the family tomb after traversing a narrow mountain path only about one meter wide.

This is a large, high stone platform, only about five meters in size. There are no railings or pillars around it, only a dark abyss. Only when everyone is standing on it and shining flashlights can we see a glimpse of its true nature.

"Wow! Oh my god! Are we on an irregularly shaped circular bridge?"

"There are no handrails or cable cars. The stone platform is flat and neat. It's pitch black in the darkness of the mountain. If there were any traps or mechanisms up there, we would all be wiped out like dumplings being dropped into a pot!"

Fatty Wang was the first to survey the surroundings. He saw that the only path in the middle of the mountain was the tomb passage and the mountain tunnel, which was only one meter wide. Apart from the stone platform they were standing on, there was a hollow passage leading to the tomb in the mountain behind them. The other 270 degrees to the left, right, up, and down were endless darkness and abyss. If anyone made a wrong step, they could fall into the abyss and be left with no trace.

He couldn't help but make a joke before starting to remind everyone.

"This place is indeed dangerous, but it's just a stone platform. The ground is smooth and even, so there shouldn't be any traps here!"

Wu Xie looked at the stone platform on the ground, scanning it many times but finding nothing wrong. So he prepared to sit down and rest for a while. They had chosen the wrong path. They would go back to the other side to take a look after they had recovered their strength.

Just as Wu sat down, a "click" sound suddenly came from the air on the stone platform, the sound of a mechanism being activated.

"My God! Wu Xie!!! I have to admit, you're incredibly lucky!"

Based on what Fatty Wang had said before, Qin Henian finally understood what Xiao Tiandao meant by a combination of bad luck and evil...

Qin Henian was also at the very back of the group, unsure how to face Zhang Qilin. He thought he should stay at the back, but unexpectedly, just as he stepped onto the stone platform, he heard the sound of a mechanism activating. His mouth, unable to obey his commands, immediately turned towards Wu Xie and "surrendered"...

Click! Buzzing...

The instant the mechanism clicked, cracks began to appear on the stone platform from the outside inwards. With a brittle gust of air, the fragments of stone fell like water into the abyss below...

Click! Click... Click! Click...

The cracking sound continued. Zhang Qilin, Hei Xiazi, Pan Zikan, and Wang Pangzi reacted quickly, taking ropes from their backpacks and tying them to sharp knives or other objects. They then plunged the ropes into the stone path and the rocks high up on the mountain, trying to find a crack so they could grab a chance to survive after the stone platform shattered.

Click... Click...

Whoosh...whoosh...the wind howls past...

Two minutes later, Hei Xiazi and Zhang Qilin each pulled one of the knives and daggers that had been stuck into the mountainside. Because they had exerted a lot of force, their weapons were stuck quite deep. With one pulling Pan Zi and the other pulling Wu Xie, they were still safe.

The stone platform was now shattered. In the instant he felt the sensation of falling through the air, Fatty Wang grabbed the rope he had secured in the crack in the stone. Unfortunately, due to his weight, the rope slipped off and he plummeted into the dark abyss below. The man in the vest next to Fatty Wang was also caught in a crack in the stone. Due to the uneven weight distribution, the crack in the stone path was torn apart, and the two of them fell helplessly downwards.

"Fatty! A vest!"

The moment the fat man and the man in the vest plummeted, Qin Henian knew he was in trouble. Fortunately, he was an aerial tyrant; his arms transformed into transparent wings, and he swooped down towards where the two were falling...