Tomb raiding: Trying to become a little painter

Boom!

The stone door trembled and was about to close. Huo Youxue bent down and stepped out of the side room first, followed by two servants. The other servants did not come out because the stone door closed too quickly.

The screams from inside the tomb were incessant. Huo Youxue stood in the passageway with a grim expression, staring intently at the stone door she had just come out of.

"Boss... Boss, Yu Yang... are they beyond saving...?"

The two Huo family members who came out behind Huo Youxue were pale and their lips were trembling, clearly terrified.

They were blocked by a stagnant river as soon as they entered the tomb, and several people died while searching for the mechanism to get down. They still haven't found anything, and most of their men are in a side room. These experiences alone have almost shattered their already fragile hearts and courage. Now they are on the verge of collapse. One of the men looked up at Huo Youxue with a pale face, eager to know what his boss was thinking.

"I had no idea this tomb would be so dangerous. I thought it was just a Yuan Dynasty tomb with a few more traps that the old folks from the Huo family had found, but I didn't expect there to be so many traps inside, and even more monsters..."

Huo Youxue's heart was bleeding from the loss of so many of her men. She had put a lot of effort into training her subordinates, not to mention the elite talents who understood government affairs who came with her this time.

"Then... what do we do now? Boss... there are only three of us left. If we stay in this tomb any longer, we won't have enough supplies! The supplies left by the people outside are only enough to get us out of the desert."

Yu Jing and Yu Rong were two fellows who had just escaped from the bat nest with Huo Youxue. Yu Jing's mentality had broken down a bit after experiencing so much, while Yu Rong was still able to stay calm and understand the situation. He immediately started discussing the return trip with Huo Youxue.

This tomb is too dangerous. You only have one life, so it's best to go back as soon as possible.

After a long silence, Huo Youxue sighed before speaking.

"Let's go back!"

"The situation in this tomb has exceeded my expectations. I'm not in a hurry to deliver results to the King of Hell. Even if I don't become the head of the Huo family when I go back, with my abilities, I will eventually oust the person who has become the head!"

With her mind still sharp and clear, Huo Youxue displayed the demeanor of a leader. After analyzing the situation, she turned and, without looking back, led the remaining two men behind her back back to where they had just come down.

Deep inside the tomb, Qin Henian finished reading the conversation between Huo Youxue and her companion, nodded, and his opinion of the woman improved considerably.

Ambitious, capable, and intelligent, this woman is quite good!

After observing the situation on one side, Qin Henian turned his attention to the other two groups, leaving only the remaining two groups.

"Sigh! It seems that the woman from the Huo family won't be able to make any money there, even if she's blind."

Then I'll just have to go after the other two suckers. Everyone wants to live, and Black Bear doesn't believe no one will ask him for help... 500,000 for one, 500,000 for two... 500,000 for three...

Big money is coming!

After seeing Huo Youxue's decisive decision to withdraw, Hei Xiazi sighed, turned his gaze to the other two teams, leaned against the wall, and gradually disappeared into them.

After Hei Xiazi left, Qin Henian focused intently on the team with the most "refined" image: Huo Jincheng, the self-proclaimed clever member of the Huo family, was conducting a documentary about tomb raiding...

In one of the tomb chambers on this side, the pitch-black environment felt like a bottomless pit, giving one a sense of coldness and loneliness.

Thud…

Several beams of light were switched on, and Huo Jincheng, along with a few of his trusted men, entered the tomb chamber he had chosen. The light illuminated the surroundings; the stone troughs on the dusty walls, which should have once held many precious antiques, were now completely empty, sparsely covered in dust—cleaner than their own clothes pockets!

"Putting aside the gold, silver, and jade artifacts, how come this tomb is so clean that there isn't even any bronze or wood inside! This...this...could this tomb have already been robbed once before?!"

Huo Jincheng was completely bewildered. He looked around and saw that apart from a square stone platform in the middle of the tomb chamber with a stone coffin on it, there wasn't a single thing in the place where burial goods should have been placed!

Is this the layout a tomb should have?

"Young Master Jincheng, could the valuables in this tomb be inside that coffin?"

At this moment, a man with a large black birthmark on his face appeared behind Huo Jincheng. He raised his arm and pointed to the large coffin in the center of the tomb, guessing.

"Generally speaking, the most valuable burial items in a coffin are women's jewelry and men's belts and swords, while other large items are displayed outside."

“But there’s nothing outside this tomb right now. If things are really as you say, then let’s open the coffin!”

Huo Jincheng also had a gambler's mentality, mainly because this tomb raiding trip had been far too arduous. He had long heard of Wu Xie's formidable and uncanny abilities, and this time he had certainly learned his lesson! From now on, if he ever touched anything underground again, he would never see the Wu family again!

With Huo Jincheng's confirmation, the men who had followed them in went forward and surrounded the coffin in the center of the tomb chamber. They stood in all directions, so that if anything unexpected happened, the others could step forward to help!

creak!creak!

Ee...ya!

The coffin lid was quite heavy. Several people first used a hot knife to cut a slit, then used a crowbar to pry it open. Everyone worked together, their faces turning red, before they finally managed to push the coffin lid open a crack. They then increased the force of the crowbar and pushed hard, moving the coffin lid forty or fifty centimeters, revealing a small portion of the contents inside the coffin.

"Good heavens, how did this mummified corpse lose its head?"

The guy who was talking to Huo Jincheng earlier was a guy Huo Jincheng had trained for many years. He was nicknamed Lao Yuan and was also the most loyal one by Huo Jincheng's side. Although he was not good-looking, his birthmark was congenital and he could usually fool people.

Old Yuan was bold yet meticulous, quick-witted. The moment the coffin was opened, he peeked inside and saw a shriveled male corpse dressed in a magnificent, representative embroidered Yuan Dynasty robe and trousers. The shriveled head had rolled to one side of the jade pillow inside the coffin. The remaining half of the body was much more shriveled in the upper half than in the lower half, and the outline and muscles of the lower half were also more robust...

But upon this discovery, Old Yuan's gaze gradually froze, his pupils dilated, his heart pounded, and even the skin under his eyes trembled...

"Holy crap! Young Master Jincheng, run! This thing is a half-bottle, also known as a headless ghost in the underworld! Its lower half is like iron and steel; even if we blast it with detonators, it won't die!"

Old Yuan was shouting loudly incoherently, not retreating at all, and grabbed his young master, running towards the stone gate.