Tomb Raider: I Am Hu Bayi's Cousin

Chapter 335 Under the Arched Bridge

"Down...down?"

"No way, Uncle Ming, are you kidding me? There's no bottom to be seen down here, who knows how deep it is! We're not even sure if the climbing rope is long enough!"

Wu Xie was dumbfounded.

Beneath the white marble arch bridge, an impenetrable black mist hangs in the air.

Even if you focus the light with a searchlight, you still can't see the bottom; it doesn't look like a good place at all.

“That’s right, Mr. Ming, this place is a dead pit, full of sulfurous toxic gas. The underground is probably even more toxic.”

"Our gas masks are already barely enough for this part, let alone what they're like down below!"

This place is filled with sulfurous toxic gases accumulated from volcanic activity.

In such a confined environment, the lower the terrain, the more concentrated the toxic gas becomes.

Now, even with gas masks on, they feel a slight stinging sensation in their throats, proving that gas masks are insufficient to completely filter out toxic gases.

Panzi has a lot to say about this, as he encountered such mineral deposits when he was fighting in a certain southern region.

If they got down there, even with gas masks, they would all be poisoned to death.

"First, this is an arched bridge. What's below it? It's the moat! I can tell from the air currents that the elevation difference here isn't significant, so it's very safe."

"Secondly, believe me, the terrain here is unique, and the conditions down below are special. There's no sulfurous toxic gas; you can even take off your gas mask!"

Hu Ming quickly set up the climbing ropes and gave them a strong tug to test their sturdiness.

"In short, the path has been shown to you; whether you come down or not is up to you."

Before the three could react, Hu Ming had already swung down the rope.

"Damn, this uncle of ours is too reckless! How did he know there was no poison gas down there? Was it intuition?"

The fat man was completely dumbfounded, and pointed blankly downwards.

"I seem to have heard someone say that Master Ming's intuition is always very accurate and has never been wrong..."

Upon hearing this, Panzi said thoughtfully.

"Alright! We'll trust Hu Ming's intuition this once! Tianzhen, you go first, Panzi and I will cover the rear!"

The fat man's face twitched. He gritted his teeth, steeled himself, and held his rifle, keeping watch for those behind him. At the same time, he spoke to Wu Xie.

These human-faced birds are really smart. As soon as Hu Ming appeared for an hour, they began to get restless and eager to try.

"it is good!"

Wu Xie knew this wasn't the time to be modest, so he nodded, grabbed the rope, and swung down.

Immediately, the fat man and Panzi swung down one after the other.

It took them the time it takes to smoke half a cigarette to finally swing down the rope.

It's worth mentioning that there were some bronze chains, about the thickness of an arm, lying across the air; it's unclear what their purpose was.

The underground was pitch black, and the ground was covered with dry stones and mud.

The moat was dry. Below, Hu Ming had already thrown away his gas mask; he wouldn't need it for the next phase.

The smell of sulfur was strong all around, but surprisingly, there was no discomfort whatsoever.

Seeing this, the three of them finally felt relieved and removed their gas masks.

To be honest, it's quite inconvenient to carry this thing around.

With the slightest movement, the glass goggles on the mask fogged up, greatly obstructing vision.

"There really isn't any poison gas here? The air doesn't smell good, but my throat doesn't feel irritated anymore. Hey, that's really strange!"

"Uncle Ming, your intuition is truly amazing! You can even sense this?"

The fat man sighed in surprise as he put away his mask.

"Intuition? I guess so!"

Hu Ming raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything more.

Otherwise, tell them, "He's read the original novel, does he know what's going on here? Are you kidding me?"

"But... Uncle Ming, the moat here is all dried up, which is different from what Third Uncle said. Could it be that we've come to the wrong place?"

"The moat that Third Uncle is referring to, could it be the moat of the Third Hall, the Heavenly Hall?"

Wu Xie picked up a handful of dry mud and asked, puzzled.

"...You also studied architecture, so let me ask you, which ancient imperial tomb had its moat dug in sections?"

"The structural diagram your third uncle obtained was left behind by Wang Zanghai hundreds of years ago, but after so many years, this moat should have dried up long ago, right?"

"Even if this place is connected to an underground river and has flowing water, with the passage of time and geological activity, it is hard to guarantee that the underground river will not change its course."

Hu Ming shook his head and explained.

At first glance, the moat is about sixty meters wide and extends far and wide.

The riverbed was full of uneven black stones. A fault appeared in the riverbed ahead, which was a ditch about one meter deep and more than twenty meters wide.

Countless life-size black ancient human and horse figurines, along with some bronze chariot remains, are interspersed throughout the ditch, forming a continuous expanse.

The black stone is likely the raw material used to carve the human and horse figurines.

"Look here, all the statues have severe water erosion marks, which is enough to show that there was water here a long time ago."

"But for various reasons, the moat eventually dried up, and these are the evidence."

Hu Ming stepped forward and pointed to the sculptures.

The surfaces of these terracotta figures have long been severely corroded, their faces are blurred, and even their facial features are no longer discernible.

The bronze chariots are in even worse condition; these remains are traces of their survival after being eroded by the water.

"But that's not right, is it? These funerary figurines symbolize welcoming guests or the procession of emperors."

"Logically speaking, shouldn't these things be placed in the underground palace or the burial pit?"
Wu Xie went up to take a look and found that it was indeed the case, but a new question arose.

(End of this chapter)