Tomb raiding: Trying to become a little painter

"call..."

Once he regained his footing, Wu Xie patted his chest with lingering fear and shone his flashlight on the spot where he had just slipped.

"Huh? Ning, look down there! I think I see a head? And a hand, short blond hair... a foreigner... wait, Ning! There's someone down there!"

Wu peered into the cave and saw a large, dark, square shape. A small head was peeking out from the edge of the shape; upon closer inspection... it seemed to be a person's. Shining the flashlight to the side, it appeared there was also a hand buried in the sand...

"Let me see, move aside!"

Without saying a word, Ah Ning stretched out her arm and pushed Wu Xie aside. She then shone her flashlight into the dark cave. As the light swept across, sure enough, there were two or three people buried in the lower level of the ship. They looked quite deep, and some of them were buried so deep that their heads were not even visible.

The more Ah Ning looked at her, the worse her expression became, so he quickly called for help.

"Quick, smash the opening wider, everyone go down and rescue them!"

With a series of clanging hammer blows, the already rotten ship planks were quickly smashed through. A Ning was the first to jump down, followed by Wu Xie and the others.

As soon as his feet touched the ground, Wu Xie noticed something unusual. The bottom of the wooden boat seemed to have rotted away long ago, leaving only a mixture of yellow soil and sand. The hand he had found earlier was buried not far from where Wu Xie had jumped down.

Someone's coming here!

As soon as Wu Xie finished speaking, a mercenary followed him, and the two of them walked together to the spot where the hand had been buried.

Extending his clean, white hand, Wu Xie grasped the hand buried in the sand. The moment he touched it, he felt its icy coldness. He couldn't help but secretly check the pulse with his index finger, and the result was obvious—there were no signs of a living person. Startled, Wu Xie turned pale, and his mood instantly soured.

"This...this person is gone..."

Wu Xie, looking rather unwell, drew a conclusion, then quickly walked over to A Ning and told her about it.

After hearing what Wu Xie said, A Ning could only sigh and look at where they were standing. There was a large square box in front of them, and unfortunately, her teammate was trapped underneath it.

"Are you ok?"

Ah Ning crouched down and looked at the person who was being pinned down, her face full of concern.

"No...not good, team leader. I feel a tightness in my chest. Am I going to die? Can you save me? I don't want to die, team leader!"

The person being pinned down looked utterly hopeless, their eyes filled with longing as they gazed at Ah Ning, yet the weight on their body made them feel they were about to collapse.

"Don't worry, we'll help you right now!"

After saying that, Ah Ning called over the people she brought, including Wu Xie, to help lift the large block off the person. However, despite their great effort, they couldn't move the block, and the person underneath began to whimper.

"It hurts...it hurts so much..."

The person being pinned down was turning pale and then purple, completely out of sorts, constantly crying out in pain, and even rolling their eyes back.

"Wait, we can't pull all at once like this. Let's see what this big block is and whether we can move it separately. If we keep doing this, the person trapped underneath will die of pain before we even get him out of there. And this big block is pressing on his chest. We can't lift him all at once to avoid rupturing his internal organs."

Wu Xie spoke immediately, timing it perfectly, and looked down at the person who was barely breathing.

"Row."

Wu Xie's suggestion was agreed upon by A Ning, so the group began to ponder the large cube in front of them.

"It looks like a clay box, but it's not like a traditional clay box."

After observing for a while, Wu Xie started brainstorming. Seeing that there were many patterns on the clay box, he moved closer to examine them.

"These patterns all seem to be continuous, does it not have a lid?"

Wu Xie looked at the clay box with some doubt, just as A Ning overheard his words. She tried to examine the clay box in front of her and found that it really did seem to be just as Wu Xie had said.

"Could it be that the designer intentionally hid the lid?"

Ah Ning is also very intelligent; she observes and guesses at the same time.

"A lacquered tomb! This isn't a shipwreck at all, but a sea burial chamber. This kind of lacquered tomb is very rare. You have to put the person in first, then seal it with lacquer, and then print patterns on the lacquer. However, this coffin isn't made with any real lacquer."

"It looks like it's made of a mixture of clay, sand, and lime, so this tomb is at least before the Han Dynasty."

Wu Xie conducted a series of analyses, and these results were obtained. However, the coffin lid has not yet been found; the lid must be exposed first!

"Everyone, look around this coffin. Is there any continuous but uneven part?"

Wu Xie's eyes lit up, and he began to mutter to himself.

"Do you need my help, you naive little thing?!"

Just then, Wu Xie heard a familiar voice. Reflexively, Wu Xie turned his head and saw six more people behind him. Ah Ning, who had been standing with him, was now standing on the other side, and the mercenaries she had brought were all lying on the ground.

"Fatty! It's you! Are those mercenaries alright?!"

Realizing what was happening, Wu Xie glanced around and saw a group of people lying on the ground.

"They're fine, don't worry."

These words were spoken by Qin Henian. Qin Henian looked at the package of oil paper in his hand. There was a lot of white powder in the oil paper. He had taken out several packages of oil paper from his bag when he saw the wooden boat stuck in the mountains. The package was full of "sleeping pills" that he had made when he had nothing to do.

The dosage was small, but it was enough to make people sleepy for quite a while. And luckily, the people around him were all quite skilled. Each of them quickly and quietly knocked out everyone except Wu Xie with a few packets. Even Master Ning collapsed next to Wu Xie.

"Okay, I understand. Henian, you've come at the perfect time. I was just thinking about this mortar-casting tomb. You should all come and take a look!"

As Wu Xie spoke, he stepped aside to let everyone pass. As for the foreign mercenary who was trapped underneath, his face was now red and purple. It was estimated that after being trapped for so long, his lungs were failing, and he was probably already dead.

"Hey, a mortar-poured tomb! Come, let Fatty take a look!"

Without wasting any words, Fatty Wang, with his arrogant tone, headed towards the spot where Wu Xie had been standing.

"Goodness, this looks pretty decent, but where's the coffin lid? I've searched it twice and haven't found anything!"

As he spoke, Fatty Wang's chubby little hands had already circled the upper half of the coffin several times. To be honest, he had rarely seen this kind of coffin before, and it was probably the first time he had ever seen one. He had heard Taoist priests talk about encountering this kind of coffin before.

"Hey Fatty, are you sure you can handle this? If not, why don't you let Zhang the Mute come? We're stuck here with a blind man in the south and a mute man in the north. If you can't find a blind man, fine, but you can at least find a mute man, right?"

Hei Xiazi provided real-time commentary, looking on with an air of anticipation.