Tomb raiding: Trying to become a little painter

Heave-ho! Heave-ho! Heave-ho…

In a tranquil forest, a dark figure, wielding a high-tech folding Luoyang shovel, bent over, diligently digging into a circular hole barely half a meter high...

Under a large tree in the woods across the way, Qin Henian was lazily leaning against the trunk, acting as a supervisor.

A dozen minutes later, a large head covered in dust and unkempt suddenly emerged from the tunnel, its eyes fixed on the long-haired, ethereal figure.

"He Nian! The blind man has finished digging the tunnel, we can go in now!"

The sound, like a bell, carried into the woods dozens of meters away. At the bottom, the black bear emerged with a thud, brushed the dust off his body, took off his sunglasses, and casually picked up his t-shirt under his leather jacket, blowing on the dust off the lenses while calling out to Qin Henian.

"coming!"

As they crawled into the tunnel, it was pitch black. Two pairs of golden eyes shone brightly in the darkness. The two of them kept speeding up their crawling through the tunnel and soon reached the end of the tunnel.

Because Hei Xiazi was the one lying in front of Qin Henian, he was the first to stop when they reached the end of the tunnel, paused for a couple of seconds to think, and then spoke.

"He Nian, can you fly? Can you take me across this Silver Lake?"

Silverwater Lake?

Qin Henian recalled the contents of the wooden slips he had previously written on. According to the records, Silverwater Lake was a dead lake formed by the accumulation of discarded weapons, rust, various ores, and strange stones, all soaked in water for many years. It was named Silverwater Lake because a layer of white, iridescent floating matter would condense on the surface of the lake.

Of course, to put it bluntly, it's just a dead lake that looks good but is useless. But if the Silverwater Lake is in a tomb, then it's a different story. It can only mean that the things in this water have been soaking for too long, and the whole lake, including the water, has become poisonous with iron.

It is colorless and odorless, but if a person stays by this lake for too long, it can easily affect the brain, causing physical reactions such as dizziness, fainting, sudden death, or even paralysis of the brain nerves....

"How come there's such a large lake of silver water here? Let me take a look at its structure first. Wait a minute!"

Qin Henian looked at the Silver Lake in front of him, its length and width clearly visible in his pair of golden, vertical pupils. Through the stone walls and the underground lake, Qin Henian quickly discovered that the shape of this lake was quite unusual. Its distribution seemed to be circular, and the width of the lake was not large, estimated to be about seven or eight meters, but its length was unusual, as it was a large circular lake that had been transformed around the entire underground palace.

This structure creates a situation where one cannot linger. To explore this tomb, one must act quickly and decisively. If one stays in the tomb for too long and wanders around aimlessly, one might end up collapsing on some random stone brick.

"Blind man, make way!"

After surveying the Silverwater Lake before him, Qin Henian shrank back, crawling onto the black bear's back. His long, slender legs draped over the bear's waist, and with his arms outstretched, his short, transparent, blue-purple wings suddenly unfurled. In an instant, a burst of blue-purple flames engulfed the surrounding air, cutting through the air currents as Qin Henian, carrying the black bear, flew through the tunnel across the Silverwater Lake, landing on the opposite side. There stood an ancient, large stone gate carved with flowers, leaves, and snakes!

"Wow! The carving technique on this underground palace gate is quite impressive. This method is indeed a tradition from the Yuan Dynasty. It seems the Huo family isn't so wasteful after all. At least their guess about the era was correct!"

Black Bear's pupils were surrounded by golden halos. As the details were magnified, the countless carvings on the stone gate came into view. The strokes and order of the carvings were immediately apparent. He grinned and said.

It is said that the Qiyan tribe was brave, and one of them, Temujin, entered the Central Plains and became Genghis Khan in modern times. He led many Mongolian tribes to change their allegiance, but they were later replaced by the Qing Dynasty. He remembered that he had also been to his father's study, which contained a lot of modern history. He learned a lot from it. Many things there were quite different from what they knew at that time, but this did not prevent Hei Xiazi from confirming that the strokes on the stone door were the work of people from that time.

"As the burial site chosen by the Huo family this time, those old folks in the Huo family must have known something about it to some extent. Otherwise, if the younger generation of the Huo family were to die in such a tomb, wouldn't those old guys be able to take over the power of the head of the Huo family in one fell swoop!"

Wait… usurping power!

Holy crap! I think I've hit the nail on the head!

Qin Henian was originally analyzing when Huo Youxue's team would meet up with the other teams. It was possible that these teams would meet somewhere in this forest, since Qin Henian and his companion had only just discovered that the entire tomb was structured like a silver river after entering it.

Hearing Qin Henian's suddenly louder voice, Hei Xiazi snapped out of his reverie, which had been drifting over the stone door, and raised an eyebrow, saying...

"Maybe that's what they're thinking?"

"Without Huo Xiangu to support the Huo family now, the rest of the Huo family members are just a bunch of rotten fish and shrimp, and they can't put on any face."

"You'd have to be blind to see. Choosing a family head is real, choosing an heir is real too, but the people chosen might not be the ones who came... Of course, if these people all successfully return, then that's a different story."

As Hei Xiazi spoke, the abacus in his mind clicked rapidly; if he could rescue these people, he didn't know how much they would be worth…

Qin Henian and Hei Xiazi analyzed the situation while observing the stone door standing in front of them, trying to figure out whether they could enter...

In the rainforest on the other side, Huo Youxue finally managed to regroup her team. Apart from a few unlucky ones who had been injured during the escape and left one or two people to guard them, she reorganized the team and led the group of only fifteen people, including Wu Xie, with enough supplies to continue their journey toward the last node on the Human Skin Book.

While Huo Youxue's team continued their journey through the rainforest, another team was also traversing the woods on the other side of the rainforest. However, unlike Huo Youxue's team, this team clearly had nearly half as many members as Huo Youxue's.

Quack! Quack!..

*Pfft! Pfft…*

"Huh? What are those things overhead? They're all dark..."

The sound of flapping wings rang out from the treetops, and a series of bird calls, including the flapping of wings, rose and fell overhead.

Along with the leaves growing on the treetops, black and green intertwine...

Just then, someone in the larger group looked up with curiosity in their eyes and saw this scene, blurting out their question.