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

Old Wu chuckled and gave a thumbs up.

“Young man, you know a lot. There is indeed such a saying. I just tasted it, and the mud here tastes a bit fishy, ​​so it's probably a Warring States period tomb.”

Before he could finish speaking, Wu Laogou and his second brother suddenly turned around and cried out in surprise, as if they had dug up something.

"Grandpa, flip the pot!"

Upon hearing the words "flip the pot," Old Wu and his son Wu Jizong's expressions changed drastically.

This means there's something wrong with the tomb; it's been haunted!

The group immediately noticed that the soil on Wu Laogou's shovel was bright red.

"The mud is stained with blood; there's a blood-soaked zombie inside this tomb!"

Wu Jizong's voice trembled as he subconsciously looked at his father, Old Wu.

Faced with this situation, Wu Laogou and his second brother were at a loss and stood frozen in place, while the old leader, with his rich experience, cursed in a deep voice.

"Don't panic, I'm here!"

He squatted down and scooped some soil from Wu Laogou's shovel into his palm.

After kneading it for a while, I smelled it and then tasted it.

"It's cinnabar, not blood."

Su Chen noticed that Old Wu visibly relaxed.

The other members of the Wu family also felt relieved.

Several of Old Wu's brothers had perished in the Blood Corpse Tomb, so he knew its horrors better than anyone else.

If he really encountered the Blood Corpse Tomb, Old Wu would never go down there under any circumstances.

However, Old Wu forgot one thing.

Cinnabar has been used to ward off evil spirits since ancient times. Unless there is something strange in the tomb, who would mix so much cinnabar into the burial mound?

Su Chen's heart skipped a beat, and he quickly said, "Old foreman, why don't we hurry up and go in during the day to set up the cooking pot? At least we'll have more security!"

"This……"

Old Wu hesitated for a moment. Grave robbing has always been done at night.

Going into a tomb during the day is against the rules.

Biaozi Ridge is a remote place, so much so that even if you were to play music and sing here, no one would notice, let alone go down into a tomb or open a coffin.

He thought about it for a moment and nodded in agreement.

"Alright."

After discussing it, Su Chen and the others joined the excavation work.

With everyone taking turns, it only took a little over two hours to dig a sloping tunnel nearly eight or nine meters deep.

They finally reached the top of the tomb when the shovel made a sharp cracking sound.

Old Wu, who was at the very bottom, shouted at the top of his lungs, "Grandpa, it's the dome!"

The dome is one of the most common tomb shapes. It is mostly arched, but the eaves droop down, which is the opposite of the houses where the living live.

Of course, besides domed roofs, there are also flat roofs, inverted bucket roofs, etc.

Old Wu told Wu Jizong to go down and replaced him with Old Dog Wu.

The next step is to dismantle the tomb roof.

Don't be fooled by what it sounds like; dismantling the top of a tomb is actually a skilled job that requires dexterity and patience.

The first line of defense against tomb robbery is the secrecy of the burial site, and the second line is the tomb roof.

There are countless examples, such as the Heavenly Fire Glazed Tile Top, the Flowing Sand Top, and the Natural Stone Top.

Fortunately, Wu Jizong was an experienced professional in the field and had dismantled many tomb roofs. The anti-theft measures on the roof of this Warring States period tomb were not very strict, and after a short while, a few tomb bricks were removed.

With a good start, the rest is much easier.

Wu Jizong's movements became increasingly swift, and it took him about half an hour to create a hole.

However, he did not rush down, but turned around and returned to the ground.

The tomb has never been opened and has accumulated a large amount of harmful gases, and there is not enough oxygen inside.

The tomb must be ventilated for a while before it can be lowered into the ground.

It was getting late, so the group set up camp on the spot, ate some dry rations, and replenished their fluids.

After eating and drinking to their hearts' content, and with the tomb chamber ventilated, Wu Jizong prepared a torch to go down into the tomb.

He nimbly crawled into the tunnel and descended to the bottom of the tunnel using a rope.

Old Wu stood at the cave entrance and shouted, "How is it?"

"Father, there are many treasures!"

Wu Jizong below exclaimed excitedly.

"Father, there's still gold!"

Gold?

The people on the ground looked at each other, all showing surprise and delight.

Ancient smelting and mining technologies were underdeveloped, resulting in extremely low gold production...

Especially during the Shang and Zhou dynasties, gold was generally only owned by the top nobles and was not used as currency.

It wasn't until the State of Chu during the Warring States period that coins were first made from gold.

Generally speaking, the ancient practice of rewarding someone with a thousand or ten thousand gold coins usually refers to copper coins, not actual gold.

It wasn't until the Tang and Song dynasties that gold was truly awarded as a reward.

During the Tang and Song dynasties, smelting and mining technologies improved, and with increased exchanges with foreign countries, the amount of gold in the country gradually increased, which enabled the emperor to reward his ministers with gold.

So if you travel back to ancient times, especially the Qin and Han dynasties, and the emperor says he will reward you with ten thousand taels of gold, don't be too happy. In reality, he will only reward you with a few dozen catties of copper.

With Wu Jizong leading the way, everyone became excited.

One by one, they went down inside, leaving Old Wu to stay upstairs to keep watch.

However, before going down into the tomb, Su Chen pulled Black-backed Old Six aside and whispered, "Old Knife, if anything goes wrong, run immediately."

Seeing Su Chen's solemn expression, Black-backed Old Six immediately understood and slowly nodded.

The two crawled down the tomb robber's hole one after the other and followed the rope all the way to the tomb chamber.

The tomb chamber is not large, only about ten steps from north to south.

However, there were quite a few funerary objects in the tomb, especially on the east side of the tomb wall, where there was a weapon rack.

Although thousands of years have passed and the wooden handles of weapons like spears and halberds have rotted away, the bronze spearheads remain.

The other wall facing north is covered with murals recording the life of the tomb's occupant.

It's unknown what pigments were used in these murals, but even after thousands of years, the colors remain vibrant.

The north wall of the tomb contains various coins, including some gold ornaments that Wu Jizong mentioned.

Su Chen glanced at the murals on the north wall of the tomb and found that the content recorded on them was roughly consistent with his guess.

The tomb's occupant was a general in King Lu Shang's army, and he was in charge of the Fox Camp.

However, whether due to excessive killing or other reasons, this commander of the Fox Camp fell seriously ill at a young age and died during the march.

Furthermore, according to the murals, after his death, the Fox Kingdom was cursed, and all the fox-transformed soldiers were struck dead by lightning. King Lu Shang then buried the general in this place.

Looking at the mural, Su Chen shook his head.

He felt that the truth was probably not so simple.

Just as he was pondering this, Wu Laogou's second brother, who was not far away, suddenly shouted.

Su Chen walked over and took a look, only to find that there was a recessed niche on the last tomb wall, which was the west tomb wall.

Inside the niche was a bronze statue of the Four-Eyed Nine Heavens Mysterious Lady, which was more than half a person's height!

The most eye-catching feature is the four eyes of this statue of the Goddess of the Nine Heavens, which are inlaid with extremely precious gemstones.

Bathed in the firelight, it shone brightly, drawing the attention of everyone present.

Old Wu's eyes lit up, and he couldn't help but ask, "Dad, this gem must be incredibly valuable!"

Wu Jizong knows about antiques, but he doesn't really know much about gemstones.

He thought for a moment and said, "Who cares? Second brother, go and pry off the gem."

Wu Xiaoer agreed and quickly climbed up the niche using both hands and feet.

Just as his hand was about to touch the gems, Su Chen had a sudden inspiration and hurriedly shouted.

"do not move!"