Tomb Raider: I Am Hu Bayi's Cousin

Chapter 66 Entering the Tomb
With a sudden pull, snap, an iron ring was pulled out.

Hu Bayi was overjoyed. "Professor Chen, this is a mechanism. Once it's opened, we won't be able to escape the ancient tomb. But everyone, please be careful."

"Old Hu, there's another one here." Yang Xueli, with her sharp eyes, noticed that there was still an iron ring sticking out of the ground.

This iron ring and the previous iron ring are aligned in a straight line, with a distance of two meters between them.

"There's one here too!" the fat man exclaimed, grabbing the iron ring protruding from the ground and pulling it up with a snap. However, the iron ring was caught in a chain as thick as a thumb, which was connected to the ground.

"There's one here too..." They discovered four iron rings, all chained together.

The iron chain extended underground, and upon closer inspection, it was discovered that it was a huge stone slab, with four iron rings at the four corners of the slab.

Whoosh! Hu Bayi lay down and blew on the stone slab. Dust rose up, and soon a crack appeared.

Hu Bayi was overjoyed. He took the entrenching tool and used its edge to cut along the crack. The crack went around the stone slab, and he threw the entrenching tool aside.

“Little Sa, Little Chu, Fatty, the four of us will each hold a ring and pull upwards.”

The four men grabbed the iron ring with both hands and pulled upwards with all their might. Their faces turned red from the shock, but the stone slab was finally lifted.

Next, she pulled the stone slab aside, revealing a dark hole about two meters in size. Yang Xueli peered down and, with the help of her headlamp, could see what was below.

It's about three meters deep, and it even comes with a stone ladder, so it's easy to go down.

Shirley Yang frowned slightly, and then, just to be safe, she took out a sparkler from her backpack and threw it down. Clang, clang, the sparkler lit up, but there was no movement below.

"I'll go down first, you all be careful," Hu Bayi volunteered. As the leader, it was his duty to take the lead. He carefully descended the stone steps. Before him was a spacious area, but there were no evil spirits.

Suddenly, the hand that had been touching the black donkey's hoof slowly released its grip.

When Professor Chen and his team came down, each of them was wearing a headlamp, illuminating the entire space.

This time, it completely satisfied the expectations of their archaeological team. Everyone's face was filled with surprise, and their eyes were wide open as they looked at the ancient tomb. There were no treasures or anything, but the walls of the tomb were covered with murals.

In terms of the quality of murals, the murals in this ancient tomb are among the best.

Professor Chen has seen countless ancient tombs and murals throughout his life, but compared to what he saw before him, those murals were like kindergarten drawings. This was truly the work of a top master.

There are dozens of murals, each one like a living, breathing real world. Looking at them, you'll feel like you're not looking at a mural, but at a real world landscape.

Especially the women in the murals, with their snow-white, tender skin and slender, exquisite figures, as if sculpted with a knife. Any more or less would be imperfect, which is the beauty of just the right amount of perfection.

The woman had long, slender, white fingers, a tall figure, and smooth, silky hair. Although her face was covered by a white veil, one could vaguely see her stunning beauty through the semi-transparent veil.

Yet, it seemed unclear, as if a mysterious radiance shone upon her face.

Call ~
Even just looking at the murals, everyone was mesmerized, seemingly afraid of disturbing the woman in the murals. To be precise, there was such a stunningly beautiful woman standing there, ready to move at any moment.

"Old Hu, how much is this mural worth?" the fat man asked, his voice trembling, his eyes wide open.

"priceless!"

Professor Chen came to his senses, looked at the fat man and said this, and then said to Yang Shirley, "Shirley, if I'm not mistaken, this is the Queen of Jingjue. Look at her, although she is wearing a veil, you can still vaguely see that her peerless beauty is different from that of Han women in the Central Plains."

Click... Sadi Peng and Chu Jian are carefully taking photos of the mural.

I'll watch it when I get back tonight.

The woman in the mural wears a queen's cloak and crown, which makes her look perfect, like a fairy without any flaws, but the aura she exudes is that of a superior being who looks down on all living beings.

Just looking at the murals, one is awestruck by their stunning grandeur.

“It’s definitely the Queen of Jingjue, it’s her.” Yang Xueli frowned, her beautiful eyes fixed on the first mural. In the mural, a beautiful man with a bewitching appearance was kneeling, his head pressed tightly against the ground. His side was outside the mural, so he couldn’t be seen from inside.

After all, it is a mural, supposedly a two-dimensional space, and can only be displayed on one side. The woman sits proudly on a throne inlaid with sparkling gems, looking down on the kneeling man.

The throne is carved with a pattern resembling a dragon, but upon closer inspection, it is revealed to be a jet-black python with a palm-sized golden crown. Both the python and the queen are carved with lifelike detail.

The queen in this design is not wearing the cloak and crown of an empress, but only a white long dress, somewhat similar to Hanfu, which makes her look slender and graceful, as if she were untouched by worldly affairs.

A sweet-looking palace maid stood beside the kneeling man, holding an exquisite crystal plate in her hands. On the plate was a white bottle containing a round, whitish object, resembling a pill.

In the second mural, the Queen looks at a palace maid, who appears blurry...

In the third mural, the palace maid has disappeared, and the queen wears a veil that covers her beautiful eyes. Her eyes are deep and dark, like black holes, and looking at them seems to devour one's soul.

Yang Xueli quickly looked away and took a deep breath.

"Queen Jingjue is too eerie. The second mural should depict a palace maid disappearing after she glanced at her, and the third mural shows a man assassinating a woman..."

The fat man stared incredulously at the second mural, then looked at Yang Shirley. "You mean this queen's eyes can make someone disappear with just one glance? That's ridiculous! What about her husband?"

Yang Xueli wasn't in the mood to listen to the fat man's jokes. "The plate and jade bottle from the second mural appeared in the fourth mural, but the pill inside is gone, and the man kneeling on the ground is also gone..."

"Strangely, the man reappears in the fifteenth mural, wearing a crown. It seems he is Prince Gumo, right? He supposedly succeeded in assassinating the Queen of Jingjue after failing?"

The murals didn't record anything clearly, so Shirley Yang couldn't deduce anything. She looked at the last mural, "In this mural, Prince Gu Mo has a woman beside him. Judging from the woman's strange attire, she should be..."

She carefully examined all the murals, upside down, right side up, and even when they were propped up.

"The mural records that a diviner gave Prince Gumo a pill, saying that swallowing it would grant him immortality. Prince Gumo gave it to Queen Jingjue, hoping to get close to her, gain her trust, and assassinate her, but he ultimately failed..."

"Gu Mo Kingdom was destroyed by Jing Jue Kingdom. As a result, the Prince of Gu Mo escaped and disappeared for a long time. There is no record of where he went. But when the Prince of Gu Mo returned, he actually used the art of diplomacy and united with the Western Regions to destroy Jing Jue Kingdom..."

"When they stormed into the ancient city of Jingjue, a hurricane swept up a sandstorm that engulfed the city. As for how Prince Gumo escaped, it is not recorded above, but it is recorded in this mural. This is the ancient tomb of Prince Gumo."

Professor Chen then combined the murals for analysis, which led him to a fairly accurate deduction of the incident.

"Holy crap, there's a coffin here, look!" the fat man blurted out, interrupting Yang Xueli's train of thought. She looked over and saw a coffin with intricately carved patterns lying there.

Fatty, Huba, Sadipeng, and the others were studying the coffin.

Hu Ming had arrived beside them without them noticing, but Hu Bayi and the others were focused on the murals and did not notice his arrival.

(End of this chapter)