Tomb Raider: I Am Hu Bayi's Cousin

Chapter 572 The Hexagonal Bronze Bell Appears Again!
Although it's called a stone gate, it's actually more like a dragon-severing gate or something similar.

After the passage at the back was sealed off, the Zhang family had no intention of reopening it.

Unfortunately, the ancient and unsolvable problems are somewhat powerless with modern tools.

A rusty jack, now supporting the heavy stone door with its animal-head design, opened a path for survival.

The three carrying Huo Xiangu rushed inside like the wind.

Hu Ming looked at the three people who were three minutes faster than him and the young man with a bit of confusion, and suddenly understood.

One reason.

The ancients were right: when people are emotionally agitated or in extreme danger, their potential is truly limitless.

One reason.

The ancients were right: when people are emotionally agitated or in extreme danger, their potential is truly limitless.

Behind the beast-head stone gate is a spherical space about half the size of a football field.

Seven thick stone pillars, each requiring two people to encircle, support the perimeter, with a seven-star roof at the top.

In the middle of the stone chamber is a high platform that looks very similar to the Zhang Family Ancient Building, with two winding rivers in front of it.

A quick visual estimate suggests that both rivers are about six people wide, and one of them is completely empty.

There are six ancient stone bridges over the small river near Hu Ming and his group.

At the head of each bridge is a stone carving of a terrifying animal. It is difficult to describe the exact appearance of such a thing, but one thing is certain: these stone carvings all give people a sinister and malicious feeling.

In a short while, Hu Ming's gaze had swept over the seven stone bridges, and each one gave him a bad feeling.

This was Hu Ming's intuition, a feeling that came from his bloodline; these seven stone bridges, more or less, contained deadly dangers.

"Don't go over there, follow the young man, there's something strange about these seven bridges!"

"You need to understand, this is the deepest part of the Zhangjia Ancient Building Complex tombs. The bridges here aren't for the living!"

Hu Ming grabbed the fat man who was about to step up and pointed to the young man who had turned a corner and run towards the side of the stone chamber.

“That’s right, both rivers are protective coffins, and those seven stone bridges are full of deadly dangers. Just as Hu Ming said, these seven stone bridges are not meant for the living. Stepping on them will surely lead to disaster.”

"Among them, Fatty, the middle path under your feet leads to the lair of Mithra on the mountaintop."

The young man had already arrived in front of the stone wall. He squinted and carefully examined the dome under the light. Once he found the right spot, he untied the grappling hook from his waist, swung it around in the air a few times, and then suddenly released the rope and swung himself up.

The dome here is constructed from seven thick stone beams, resembling a giant umbrella frame supporting the stone chamber, and is covered with ancient and strange animal totems belonging to an unknown civilization.

Interestingly, these stone carvings appear to have been specially crafted; some features resembling eagle beaks or fish tails are clearly hooks that were intentionally crafted!
Upon closer inspection, the arrangement of these "hooks" is extremely meticulous. Once ropes are attached, they form straight aerial passages above the stone beams.

Clearly, this place was specifically designed by the craftsmen for hoisting certain objects when it was built.

The grappling hook that the young man had thrown up got tangled in one of the hooks. He tugged at it to check its stability, then glanced at Hu Ming indifferently.

He then pretended to clutch his chest and cough lightly, implying that he had just been injured and was not very agile.

"Alright, alright, I got it... Leave it to me."

Hu Ming sighed helplessly. He never expected the young man to have this side to him.
Grabbing the rope, Hu Ming climbed up in a few leaps.

He fell off the stone beam, untied the climbing rope from his waist, and secured it.

Hu Ming squinted at the nearest stone hook, roughly estimated the distance, then pushed off the wall with both feet and released the grappling hook in his hand.

In an instant, Hu Ming, with the climbing rope, traversed nearly two meters in mid-air.

As his body began to fall under the influence of gravity, Hu Ming had already grabbed the first stone hook and wrapped the rope around it several times.

Then, by continuously increasing the force of his body swinging back and forth in the air, he seized the opportunity and, at the moment of releasing the stone hook, exerted force with both arms to throw himself towards the stone hook further forward.

The distance between each stone hook here is about two meters. Hu Ming kept repeating the previous actions, using the stone hooks to build an aerial cableway in mid-air.

Before long, Hu Ming's figure had disappeared into the darkness above the river, leaving only the cable car behind him.

"Hu Ming has already set up the road, hurry up and follow."

The young man called out softly to the astonished Wu Xie and the others, then darted up as well, grabbed the aerial cableway set up by Hu Ming, and nimbly swung forward.

"You can do it like that?"

Wu Xie and his two companions were stunned, instinctively exclaiming "Holy crap!" Watching the two figures disappear, the three didn't dare delay. They helped Xiao Hua tie Huo Xiangu behind her back, then climbed up in one go, mimicking Xiao Ge's upside-down descent.

We continued onward, crossing the stone chamber from the air, and traversing the river, until we reached the end of this journey.

At the end of the stone beam is a towering stone platform, upon which a ladder made of white marble winds its way up, leading to a mysterious space enclosed by luxurious curtains.

Hu Ming landed on the ground first, stepped onto the stone platform, and lifted the curtain.

Behind the curtain was a large bed made of jade, which was empty except for a dent caused by heavy objects pressing down on it over the years.

At the same time, the young man and his companions arrived and landed.

"What's going on? We've come all this way, this should be the deepest part of the ancient underground palace, so why is there only an empty coffin bed here? Where's the coffin on top?"

The fat man, panting heavily, fell to the back. After catching his breath, he looked at the scene before him in surprise and asked.

"Fatty, you're saying this is a coffin bed? Are you sure?"

Wu Xie's heart stirred, and he asked thoughtfully.

"Of course! Before I met you, you unlucky bastard, I spent more time in tombs than in bed sleeping!"

“This thing is clearly a coffin bed. Look, this dent is the mark left by the coffin pressing down over the years. Judging from the situation, it must have been pressed down for at least a thousand years to leave a mark on the jade platform.”

The fat man stepped forward and gestured with his fingers to the shallow indentation on the coffin bed, speaking with great conviction.

"The fat man is right, this was where the most important coffin was placed before, as for the coffin itself..."

"Remember what I said? More than thirty years ago, that archaeological team's goal was to transport the coffins out of here, so that someone could usurp their place and steal the Zhang family's greatest fortune in thousands of years..."

"The giant rice dumpling we just encountered was transported out from here."

Hu Ming nodded, confirming what the fat man had said.

This is the most important part of this burial complex, and also the place where the ancestor Zhang Qiling first went to his final resting place.

"Uncle Ming, these things are not important right now. How do we get out of here?"

"It looks like this is the end. I've searched all around, but I can't find a way out."

Xiao Hua walked around the stone platform and said in a deep voice.

"You should ask the bro that question. Now's not the time to waste. Follow me, I know how to get there!"

Hu Ming raised his hand, feeling the slight stinging sensation from his arm directly contacting the air, knowing that time was of the essence.

During his fight with the previous Zhang Qiling, Hu Ming's clothes were damaged to varying degrees, especially the clothes on his arms, which were reduced to tattered rags.

This abnormal stinging sensation wasn't due to any internal injury on Hu Ming's part, but rather because the structure of the air had subtly changed!
Although no strongly alkaline mist was observed, the alkaline substances in the air were already somewhat excessive.

Hu Ming took a few steps to the edge of the stone platform and jumped down.

The stone platform was built on top of an underground river, surrounded by water below. Hu Ming fell into the water in a far from perfect manner, splashing a large amount of water.

Holding his breath, he dived down about three meters and found a passage large enough for one person to pass through at the base of the stone platform.

After entering the cave, the space inside was very spacious. After diving downwards at an angle for a while, steps appeared underwater in front of us, leading upwards.

Led by Hu Ming, the group jumped down one by one and followed behind him, groping their way forward in the cave.

However, what the group didn't see was that after the fat man went into the water last, a thick white mist drifted in from the direction of the cave entrance they had come from.

The passage was very short, less than ten meters long, and the group had already dived to the top, their feet touching the bottom and half of their bodies above the surface.

The group climbed the steps one by one, and followed the passage to its end, where they found an exceptionally spacious underground cavity.

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"Damn it, we're in big trouble! Dude, your ancestor was too damn cunning! I have a feeling we're all doomed!"

The fat man stared blankly at the road in front of him, a rare look of headache on his face.

Before them, a wide barrier stretched out, creating a path in mid-air. However, this space was densely covered with golden threads, like a spider web.

Moreover, countless tiny things were densely hanging on the silk threads.

Fatty had seen a replica of this thing made of gold in the underwater tomb, and Wu Xie had also seen the terrifying original...

This is a bronze hexagonal wind chime!!!
A bronze hexagonal wind chime that can easily induce hallucinations once it is rung!