The Unorthodox Tomb Raider

After lingering for a moment on the human face relief on the stone pillar, Fang Yun withdrew his thoughts and led the group to search for the entrance to the tomb.

............

The caves are interconnected, making it difficult to discern directions inside, and one must also be wary of those black worms.

The group of four walked through countless forks in the road, and it took them about half an hour to finally find the entrance.

In the past half hour, the four of them found a total of five tomb raiding holes. Judging from the size and method of digging, they should all have been left by Jin Suanpan. There were also clods of soil covering the entrances of the holes.

After some probing, it was discovered that four of the five tomb raiding tunnels were dead ends. Those four tunnels led to the four walls of the ancient tomb, all of which were incredibly thick and impenetrable.

As for this last tomb robber's tunnel, it was dug steeply downwards.

After the group of four climbed down the tunnel for about fifty or sixty meters, the tunnel suddenly turned upwards. After climbing another seven or eight meters, they came to a slab of blue bricks.

He reached out and tapped the blue brick, and it immediately cracked. It was a blue brick that had been broken long ago, but had been pieced back together.

Seeing this, Fang Yun's lips curled up.

"Vacant position!"

This empty space is a location in the Underworld Palace used to conceal wind and gather dragons. It is called an empty space because it is the only weak point in the entire Underworld Palace, while the other solid spaces are all made of thick stone walls.

Of course, the tomb owner was aware that the empty space was weak and could be broken by tomb robbers, so there must have been hidden mechanisms and formations on the empty space. Once the empty space was broken, the mechanisms would be activated.

However, this tomb is only half-finished, so it may not have any traps. Even if it did, the Golden Abacus would have already broken through them.

Only tomb raiders can use feng shui techniques to find vacant spots and enter the underground palace directly.

After removing all the broken bricks overhead, Fang Yun climbed up and pulled the three of them out one by one.

Once the phosphorescent tube was turned on, the entire underground palace came into view.

This underground palace is about 200 square meters or more, but the inside is completely empty.

Apart from six empty stone shelves placed in the corner of the underground palace, there were no other decorations in the palace.

"The Underworld Palace!"

Partridge Whistle glanced around, his expression growing increasingly puzzled.

“Brother Fang, this place has a structure of round sky and square earth, with a dome-shaped roof. There are also six stone stands used for worshipping the six directions around it. Judging from the scale, it is definitely a Tang Dynasty tomb.”

"But such a standard... is only used by royalty. Li Chunfeng's highest official rank was only fifth grade. His tomb should not be so luxurious."

"Since the six stone stands for the sacrifices to the six directions are here, this place is undoubtedly the Underworld Palace. However, the Underworld Palace is completely empty. Not only is there no decoration, but there is not even a coffin."

“Look at the murals on the walls. They all depict women, and only their outlines are shown, without any coloring... This underworld looks like it was prepared for a royal woman, and it's still unfinished.”

Having heard Fang Yun say that this place was Li Chunfeng's tomb, Partridge Whistle had no doubts, only some confusion.

Along the way, there have been too many illogical and unconventional things.

Upon hearing Partridge Whistle's question, Fang Yun also felt a headache coming on.

1001671055

The events beneath the Dragon Ridge Caves are difficult to explain, as tectonic movements destroyed most of the Western Zhou tomb, the Tang princess's tomb was only half-built, and Li Chunfeng's test of gifting treasures...

After thinking for a moment, Fang Yun had no choice but to make up an explanation in response:

"For the royal family, it was a great taboo for two tombs to be adjacent. It is possible that when the construction of the tomb was halfway completed, they discovered the Western Zhou tombs nearby, so they abandoned the tomb."

"However, since Jin Suanpan said this was Li Chunfeng's tomb, he may have obtained some important information and confirmed the information about Li Chunfeng's tomb."

"Otherwise, he could have just told me that this was a Western Zhou Dynasty tomb or a Tang Dynasty royal tomb."

Upon hearing Fang Yun's words, Partridge Whistle nodded thoughtfully and said, "Li Chunfeng..."

"Perhaps the Western Zhou tomb and the Tang royal tomb were both false tombs, and Li Chunfeng used the two tombs as protection to hide his own mausoleum."

"If that's the case, then everything makes sense. You truly are a Feng Shui master, with a meticulous mind."

"That's very likely." Fang Yun nodded in agreement, but inwardly he was full of complaints.

Brother-in-law, you're overthinking it.

It was a coincidence that the Western Zhou tomb and the Tang tomb were found together. Li Chunfeng had simply set up some traps in the abandoned Tang tomb and hidden a piece of dragon bone celestial book.

(This story was quite complicated, so I wrote it myself. Please forgive me if it differs from the original work and TV series.)

Chapter Fifty-Four: Li Chunfeng's Guidance

Finding nothing in the underworld palace, the four discussed it and decided to explore the front hall.

This is the Underworld Palace, the main hall where the tomb owner should have been. It is located at the deepest part of the underground palace. Outside the Underworld Palace, there are many other front halls and side chambers to explore.

After passing through the stone gate of the Underworld Palace and entering the front hall, everyone was shocked again.

This front hall is enormous, several times larger than the Underworld Hall, and even the entrance to the Pill Hall in Ping Mountain may not be as large as this.

The surrounding mountain walls were completely covered by city walls, which were also covered with molten iron, making it look like an underground fortress.

This also shows the noble status of the tomb owner. Ordinary princes and princesses would not be qualified to have the emperor build such a palace-like hall for them.

However, only half of the front hall was built; the pavilions and halls inside were just bones, without any substance.

Like the Underworld Palace, this front hall also had no mechanisms or decorations.

Upon arriving at the palace gate, they discovered that the exit was blocked by a huge rock.

Upon seeing the sealed passage, Partridge Whistle's face lit up with joy, and he said:

"Brother Fang, there is indeed something wrong with this Tang Dynasty tomb."

“If it is a completely abandoned tomb, why bother to seal the road? Just seal the front hall and not the underworld. There must be another world beyond this passage.”

"That's right! If they don't want us to come in, why don't they just block the Underworld Palace?"

Hua smiled with delight. Both the Underworld Palace and the front hall were completely empty, with nothing superfluous. So what was the point of sealing off the passage here?

The sealed stone gate clearly reads: "There's no silver buried here."

The passage was completely sealed off, and city walls had been built around the mountainside, making it impossible to dig a tunnel. Fang Yun also suggested:

"Since this road is blocked, we can choose another one."

Afterwards, the four of them turned on their phosphorescent tubes and strolled around the city wall.

Before long, they found a hole in a corner of the city wall.

The entrance to the cave was hidden behind a load-bearing pillar that supported the cave ceiling. It was only about one meter wide and two meters high. When the phosphorescent tube shone inside, the inside was actually still loess rock layers on both sides.

It was extremely rudimentary, looking like a large robber's hole.

"armillary sphere!"

At this moment, Fang Yun's pupils contracted, and his gaze suddenly fell on the rock ceiling inside the cave.

On the top of that rock, there is a carving no bigger than a human head. The carving looks like a globe, but upon closer inspection, you can see that it is divided into three concentric circles and a base.

Upon seeing this, Fang Yun immediately understood.

The exit of the front hall was blocked by Li Chunfeng, and the hidden door and carvings were also left by Li Chunfeng.

Now that we've entered the tomb, the main event should be about to begin.

There was no way back, so the four of them went straight into the secret door.

Entering the hidden door felt like returning to the cave in front, surrounded by layers of loess and rock, except there were no more forks in the road.

The cave sloped downwards, and after walking for about a minute, the four of them reached the end of the cave.

But at this moment, the loess land disappeared, and what everyone was stepping on was a large blue brick.

Partridge Whistle, standing on the blue bricks, lightly stamped his foot and nodded to Fang Yun:

“Brother Fang, there is a path to survival under this brick. We may be standing on the top of a tomb passage, but I don’t know why this brick is so thin. It’s only about the thickness of a fist.”

The shortcut left by Li Chunfeng is, of course, easy to take.

But Li Chunfeng is really something, setting up this secret passage so carelessly, it looks like a robber's tunnel.

While inwardly complaining, Fang Yun said aloud:

"Since the secret passage has been dug this far, there must be a way out. We'll find out soon enough by exploring!"

Click...

The next moment, Partridge Whistle took out a shovel and started prying at the blue brick.

As soon as he pried open a small hole in the blue brick, Partridge Whistle burst into laughter.

"As expected, we are now standing on top of a tomb passage."

"I just don't know what the purpose of digging out this secret passage is. Perhaps it was dug out by the craftsmen who built the tomb in order to survive."

Moving aside the blue bricks, one can see a dark and deep tomb passage below.

Seeing this, the four of them jumped into the tomb passage one after another.

The faint light from the phosphorescent tube broke through the darkness. A quick glance to the left and right revealed that the exit on the left side of the tomb passage was not far from them. They could even see the cave outside the exit, which was filled with white silk.

The tomb passage on the right is deep and long, stretching as far as the eye can see, and nothing can be seen except for darkness.

Partridge Whistle saw that the exit on the left side of the tomb passage was closer, and was about to go forward to investigate, but was stopped by Fang Yun.

"Don't go there, go to the right instead."