Tomb raiding: Intercepting Yin Xinyue and building a family of immortals

Wu Jizong nodded and took the lead, diving into the water cave.

Next came Wu Laogou and his second brother, then Su Chen, and Wu Laobatou!

Blackback Sixth Brother stayed at the very back to cover the rear.

As Su Chen crawled into the cave, he was immediately greeted by a strong smell of rotting wood.

The cave entrance is behind the waterfall, and over time, many dead trees have been washed in.

Over time, the rotten wood accumulated, and stepping on it felt like stepping on cow dung.

There was a stream inside the cave, but fortunately the water wasn't deep, just up to our ankles.

Once inside the cave, the light dimmed.

After walking a dozen or so steps, it became completely pitch black.

Wu Jizong fumbled for a torch behind his back and lit it with a match.

The cave was of unknown depth, winding and twisting, leading all the way into the depths of the mountain.

But then, Wu Laogou touched the cave wall and exclaimed with delight, "Dad, there are traces of human excavation on it!"

Wu Jizong quickly raised his torch and, sure enough, saw clear carving marks on the cave wall.

"That's right, Brother Su was right after all. The craftsmen back then left themselves a way out!"

Su Chen smiled and casually said, "It was just a coincidence. I might not be so lucky next time."

Indeed, this is true. It is extremely rare that the craftsmen were able to excavate this secret passage without the supervision of the foreman when building this sacrificial pit.

Often, you might not find even one out of a hundred ancient tombs.

The vast majority of the craftsmen were trapped and died inside the tomb.

The most famous example is Cao Cao, whose seventy-two suspected tombs were never completed by the craftsmen who worked on them.

The group continued deeper into the secret passage, which gradually widened, eliminating the need to bend over.

After walking for about one or two hundred meters, Wu Jizong suddenly stopped and turned around, saying, "There's no road ahead!"

Su Chen and Old Wu led the way to the front of the group and found a vertical shaft ahead.

Shining a torch on it, they found that they still couldn't see the bottom.

Old Wu touched the edge of the shaft with his hand and found his hand covered in moss, making it extremely slippery.

However, the presence of moss is a good thing, proving that the shaft is not very dangerous.

If not a single blade of grass grows, then we should be worried. Who knows if there's highly toxic mercury underneath, or some other monstrous substance?

Then, he picked up a small stone from under his feet and threw it into the shaft.

About three or four seconds later, I heard the echo of the stone hitting the ground.

Old Wu decisively said, "Bring out the rope and go down to take a look!"

Wu Jizong agreed and took out a roll of thick hemp rope from the bundle on his back.

He found a protruding rock nearby, marked the spot, tied a rope around his waist, and nimbly descended into the shaft.

A short while later, Wu Jizong shouted from below, "Dad, we've reached the bottom!"

Upon hearing that Wu Jizong had reported that everything was safe, the others followed him down to the bottom of the well.

To Su Chen's surprise, despite his advanced age, Old Wu was still incredibly agile. He descended the more than fifty-meter-deep shaft without even breaking a sweat.

Upon reaching the bottom of the shaft, the group noticed a small stone door in front of them.

Old Wu, with a solemn expression, said in a deep voice, "Torch!"

Wu Jizong quickly handed over the torch.

In the firelight, Su Chen discovered that the stone gate was actually carved with many auspicious beast reliefs.

"Strange, what auspicious beasts are these craftsmen carving in the secret passage?"

Old Wu frowned slightly when he saw the auspicious beast relief on the door.

Su Chen stepped forward and examined it carefully, then said in a deep voice, "Grandpa, this auspicious beast is a Pixiu!"

"brave troops?"

Upon hearing those two words, Wu Laogou immediately said, "I know, I heard a storyteller mention it before. He said that the Pixiu has a mouth but no anus! Because the Pixiu is believed to gather wealth from all directions without releasing it, it symbolizes attracting wealth!"

"That makes even more sense. These craftsmen built this secret passage to escape, so why would they have the leisure to carve a Pixiu?"

Wu Jizong shook his head, clearly finding the explanation unreasonable.

Su Chen thought for a moment and explained in a deep voice, "Pixiu not only means attracting wealth, but in ancient times, it was also a mythical beast that was used to ward off evil spirits and dispel bad luck."

"To ward off evil spirits? But isn't this just a sacrificial pit?"

Wu Laogou and the others all looked puzzled, wondering to themselves if there was some evil spirit hidden in this sacrificial pit.

Just as everyone was looking at each other in bewilderment, Wu Jizong said, "Whatever it is, let's go in and take a look first."

Old Wu stared at the Pixiu relief on the stone gate, pondered for a long time, then turned to Su Chen and asked, "Brother Su, in your opinion, what exactly does this relief on the stone gate mean?"

"I don't know, we'll have to go inside and see for ourselves."

Su Chen knew that there was indeed a blood corpse in the general's tomb inside Biaozi Ridge!

But what's inside this sacrificial pit built in the inauspicious White Tiger position is anyone's guess.

but……

He believed that even if there were things like rice dumplings inside, they couldn't possibly be more ferocious than a blood zombie.

After all, this is just a sacrificial pit, not the main tomb.

The stone gate was not large, nor was it perfectly sealed.

The mountain spring water from the waterfall flows into this stone gate.

Wu Jizong tried and found that the stone door was extremely heavy and could not be pushed open at all!

"Ji Zong, use the Mountain-Breaking Hammer!"

Old Wu made the final decision with a single blow, and his son, Wu Jizong, quickly took out a uniquely shaped iron hammer from his bundle.

This is not the hammer commonly seen in later generations, but a weapon.

Among the eighteen heroes of the Sui and Tang dynasties, Liang Shitai, the owner of Guachui Manor, ranked fifteenth, and his weapon was a pair of iron mountain-breaking hammers.

It's not like the exaggerated hammers in movies and TV shows, the kind that's bigger than a watermelon.

In reality, the head of this battlefield hammer is about the size of a melon.

Although the hammerhead is small, it can cause great damage.

Wu Jizong then gestured for everyone to step back slightly before unleashing a powerful blow with his Mountain-Breaking Hammer.

In an instant, pebbles flew everywhere.

There is now a rather large dent on this stone door.

"This is fucking shoddy..."

Su Chen thought to himself, "Chang Sha's Nine Gates should be considered a failure of the Unloading Ridge faction. They rely entirely on brute force! They're going to squander all of our ancestors' knowledge!"

Seeing this, Su Chen couldn't stand it any longer and quickly stopped him, saying, "Brother Wu, don't smash it yet, I have a way to open the stone door!"

Upon hearing this, Wu Jizong was taken aback and quickly asked, "Do you have a solution?"

"Try it first, and if it really doesn't work, then you can smash it."

"OK then."

Wu Jizong thought for a moment, put away the Mountain-Breaking Hammer, and gave up his position.

In the past, when they went down into tombs, they would simply open up mountains and pump out water; they never thought of doing anything delicate.

In recent years, with the popularity of gunpowder and explosives, it's not uncommon for gunpowder to be used to blast mountains.

Su Chen arrived at the stone gate and pushed around it with his hands.

He discovered that the stone gate wasn't completely unmovable; it was just that whenever he pushed it a short distance, something would block it.

Watching his movements, Wu Jizong hurriedly asked, "How is it? Did you find anything?"

Su Chen said, "I think I understand now. There's a trap behind the stone door that can hold it in place. But it's not a big problem; these kinds of traps are easy to break."