After transmigrating into the book, I helped my mother reconcile with her divorced husband.

The rain stopped.

It was quiet outside. The guards had disappeared. Apart from the room where they were staying, there was no light or sound in the entire courtyard.

When Lu Yun went out to relieve himself, Gu An didn't even try to stop him. She not only lent him her umbrella but also pointed out the location of the outhouse and reminded him to be careful of the hidden well while strolling around the yard.

The so-called "dark wells" are collapsed burial mounds; one can easily fall in if not careful. It won't kill you, but you'll be a bit disheveled and might come back up with some belongings.

This place was originally a village, but due to war, all five hundred people in the village, regardless of age or gender, died overnight. It was winter, and the snow covered all the corpses. When the snow melted the following spring, the bodies began to decompose and stink.

Just then, a group of Taoist priests passed by, collected the bodies by household, and buried them nearby.

What is meant by burying nearby? It means choosing a patch of soft, suitable soil in front of or behind the house, a place to dig a pit and bury the dead. A year later, the Taoist priests returned to their temple and passed through the village again. They found the feng shui of the place unusual, so they built a Taoist temple there, centered around the village.

Unlike other Taoist temples, all the buildings were built on the original site, except that the tombs were avoided. Inside the buildings were enshrined the Taoist deities and immortals, while outside were the graves of innocent people who died unjustly due to war.

When the Taoist temple was first built, it was a thriving place of worship, with people praying for peace in their homes and for good fortune in having children. The Taoist priest always granted their requests and allowed those with affinity to settle in the temple and practice with him. Two years later, one day, when the practitioners awoke in the temple, they found the Taoist priest gone. Not only the priest, but also all the statues of deities, food, vegetables, and their own changes of clothes were nowhere to be found.

The valuables that the practitioners brought with them also disappeared.

Lu Zhiyuan dozed off on the table.

"Don't tell me a thief broke into the Taoist temple."

“It wasn’t that the Taoist temple was broken into by thieves, but that the Taoist priests themselves were thieves.” Gu An laughed. “They were a group of tomb raiders disguised as Taoist priests. In fact, tomb raiders and Taoist priests have something in common. They understand feng shui and can pretend to be supernatural. When they passed through this area, they found the village strange, its overall shape resembling an insect. These insects are plentiful in tombs, but almost nonexistent on the ground.”

Who would plan a village to resemble an insect, especially an insect from a tomb? It's extremely unlucky for the living.

Looking at the corpses again, they were different from ordinary corpses; their decomposition was strange. The leader, observing the terrain by day and the celestial phenomena by night, concluded that the village was inhabited by tomb keepers, and that beneath the village lay a rare and enormous tomb. The leader also suspected that the villagers' massacre was related to a secret hidden within the village.

Lu Zhiyuan yawned again, glancing outside out of the corner of her eye. Lu Yun had been gone for a quarter of an hour, enough time for him to patrol the courtyard.

"I've read stories about tomb raiders, and they always have a specific target in mind. It's not surprising that they could discover the strange things about this village; what's strange is those who massacred the village. They slaughtered the entire village, yet they didn't find the ancient tomb hidden beneath it. Does General Gu think that makes sense?"

"To be honest, Your Highness, when I first heard about this, my reaction was the same as yours—I thought it was an illogical story, until I learned the truth. The massacre was perpetrated by bandits from the mountains, who naturally coveted the burial goods in the tomb. But they were illiterate, unreasonable, and utterly ignorant of respecting the elderly and caring for the young. To force the village chief to reveal the entrance to the ancient tomb, they killed seven respected elders. And wouldn't you say it, these elders happened to be the ones who knew about it?"

Seven is a very special number, especially when used for funerals.

Seven old men and seven houses were arranged in the shape of the Big Dipper on the back of the "insect." Any tomb raider who was even slightly studious, had a basic understanding of feng shui, or was even more observant, would have known that these seven old men were no ordinary people. Unfortunately, they knew nothing, thinking these old men were the least useful, and killed them cleanly and efficiently with a single stroke.

After the old man died, the bandits went door-to-door pressuring the villagers. But the secret of guarding the tomb was passed down through generations, and the successor had to be personally chosen by the elders—the conditions were extremely strict. Before the bandits entered the village, the elders were still alive and the tradition hadn't yet begun. How could they tell the bandits what they didn't know?

Having failed in their attempt to steal a chicken, the bandits, enraged, slaughtered the entire village. This was said to be caused by war, because most of the bandits were forced to take to the mountains by the conflict. They killed people because it was harder to steal from the living.

The government was too busy dealing with its own problems to investigate the bandits. The soldiers didn't investigate either; when the incident occurred in the village, they were busy fighting against the enemy.

If you calculate the time, the time when the bandits massacred the village coincided with the Ganzhou grain smuggling incident.

Gu An also got here because of the draft grain inspection plan.

As for those tomb raiders, they were smarter than those bandits. They first pretended to be good people collecting the remains of the villagers, taking the opportunity to investigate various parts of the village. Burying a person requires digging a pit, and digging a pit requires choosing a location. The location may seem random, but it was actually chosen with some thought.

After the body was placed in the coffin, they did not stay in the village, but left the village, leaving people nearby to observe.

After a six-month observation period, confirming that no one was interested in the village, he returned to it and, under the guise of suppressing evil spirits, built a Taoist temple. The temple was built on the original site, and the buildings were also renovated from the original structures. Although it appeared to be a large-scale project, it actually cost very little money.

Cultivate on the ground, explore tombs underground, and once you've explored everything, you need to find a chance to transport the treasures out.

How can we transport goods without anyone noticing?

The answer is to publicize the miracles of the Taoist temple, attracting many ignorant people to come to the temple to burn incense and pray for blessings. Taking advantage of the crowds, the tomb raiders disguise themselves as practitioners and openly and legitimately transport the treasures out.

With the items gone, the Taoist priest and the temple lost their value. Taking advantage of everyone's inattention, they staged a clever escape.

Gu An established his headquarters here because the emptied tombs underground could provide refuge. When things were peaceful, they lived quietly in the original Taoist temple; when trouble arose, they could hide in the underground tombs for temporary shelter.

Because of tomb raiders, the underground tombs were either collapsed, sunken, or destroyed. No one but the tomb raiders knew where the entrances and exits were. Besides the intact burial chambers, some tombs in the Taoist temples were exposed, posing a significant risk of falling in.

Gu An said that there was no cover because they used these as traps to help them block the enemy when they were in danger.

As they were talking, Lu Yun returned.

One shoulder was splattered with mud, and the umbrella in his hand was half broken.

Lu Zhiyuan frowned: "You fought with someone? Have you forgotten what I told you? You must not fight until you are healed."

Lu Yun put the umbrella aside and looked at Gu An, saying, "There were spies, from the palace. We bumped into each other. I didn't make a move; it was General Gu's men who did."