The Unorthodox Tomb Raider

At this moment, Fang Yun chuckled and squatted down next to the spring to take a look.

"This type of coffin is called 'internal concealment coffin'! No need to connect the coffin, only the tomb!"

"It is precisely because of this inner hidden passage that this place can be considered an auspicious site, and an extremely auspicious one at that!"

Upon hearing this, Partridge Whistle suppressed his agitation and looked at Fang Yun, asking:

"Brother Fang, are you saying that this place is an auspicious location according to feng shui?"

"Correct."

Fang Yun nodded and slowly said:

"When we were outside the mountains, you saw the scenery around Longling. The surrounding mountains were barren and unprotected. It didn't have any of the feng shui principles of 'real and virtual'. It looked like a dangerous place."

"Actually, that's not the case. If you combine these countless mountains, you'll find that the earth's veins are crisscrossing, branches are rising together, and the terrain is encircling and protecting the mountain we are in. There are also colorful clouds covering it, presenting a sense of deep dwelling, tranquility and accumulation."

"This kind of momentum does not match the majestic and powerful dragon-like momentum required for an imperial mausoleum, but it is more than enough to bury anyone other than the emperor."

"Furthermore, unlike the water in an ordinary coffin, this inner coffin contains water from the heavens that comes from the Yellow River. It will neither dry up nor overflow, and it is as long-lived as the Yellow River. It has the appearance of a vessel for storing things, and it is safe and auspicious."

"If members of the royal family are buried here, it will ensure the prosperity and stability of the royal family and the peace and tranquility of the clan, thus providing protection."

"If the tomb owner is a woman, burying her here can protect her offspring and ensure their safety and prosperity."

“The inner secrets…” Partridge Whistle nodded, then asked thoughtfully, “Brother Fang, I have a question.”

"The first underworld palace we passed through was built to royal standards, and the murals were all of women. I suppose this inner chamber was prepared for that royal noblewoman?"

"Correct."

Fang Yun replied affirmatively, a smile spreading across his face.

Now that we've gotten this far, things become much easier to explain!

“I only had some guesses before, but after seeing the inner chamber, I can confirm the situation of this tomb.”

"This place must have been built by the emperor for his daughter. That princess must have been extremely favored by the emperor, which is why the emperor went to great lengths to find this hidden place in the mountains for his beloved daughter who died young."

"But when the tomb was being built, they discovered that there was another Western Zhou tomb here. It was impossible for the royal family to be buried next to someone else's grave, especially since the emperor valued his daughter so much. So they looked for another place."

"Therefore, two tombs remain here, one from the Western Zhou Dynasty and one from the Tang Dynasty."

"Later, Li Chunfeng came here and used the tomb passage of the Western Zhou tomb and the Tang tomb that had no burials to build a small mausoleum between the two tombs."

"In my opinion, the Western Zhou stone slab we encountered in the tomb raider's tunnel when we entered the mountain is from that Western Zhou tomb. You're right that the stone slab was moving."

"Remember the armillary sphere? It had three sections and could rotate!"

"I see!"

After listening to Fang Yun's explanation, Partridge Whistle suddenly understood, and all his doubts disappeared.

"The outermost layer is the Western Zhou Dynasty tomb, the middle layer is the Tang Dynasty princess tomb, and the innermost layer is the Li Chunfeng tomb!"

"The three tombs are like the three rotating instruments on the armillary sphere, which are driven by the underground water source, and the three tombs are constantly changing positions."

"That blocked entrance to the tomb isn't necessarily a dead end. It's just that underground water pushed the tomb in front of the entrance, blocking it. If someone broke through the bricks, they might have entered the tomb itself..."

"If we had spent a little longer entangled with the black snakes in that labyrinth, we might have been trapped inside by these moving Western Zhou tombs and Tang princess tombs."

Seeing Partridge Whistle solve the riddle himself, Fang Yun felt a surge of emotion.

This tomb is both difficult and easy to find.

Jin Suanpan suffered from a lack of manpower; with his methods, discovering these three tombs wouldn't have been difficult.

Jin Suanpan probably discovered that the tomb was only half-built and contained no gold or jade funerary objects. He wanted to go back and explore the Western Zhou tomb or simply leave the mountain.

However, when he turned back, the tunnels he had dug were blocked by the Western Zhou tomb. He dug two more tunnels, but they were dead ends. Finally, he encountered a large number of black snakes in the maze.

“Brother Fang, there is a stone door here, and there must be hidden mechanisms and locks around it.”

With all his doubts resolved, Partridge Whistle felt relieved and turned his attention back to the tomb.

Inside this octagonal foyer, there is only a sealed stone door; otherwise, there is nothing unusual.

By this time, Fang Yun had rested enough, and the wound on his hand had been carefully bandaged by Hua. After hearing Partridge Whistle's words, he slowly reached out and touched the spring.

"It is filled with a pure essence, never drying up, never overflowing, neither too much nor too little..."

As he spoke, Fang Yun reached his hand into the spring, scooped up the water, and splashed it out.

After about a dozen splashes, a strange change suddenly occurred at the spring.

The spring stopped gushing water, and the water in the pool receded rapidly until it all flowed into the pit below the spring.

　1.3 Click...

At the same time, the stone door behind Partridge Whistle made a clicking sound and then slowly pulled up.

After the stone gate was fully raised, the spring water in the pool gushed out again, forming the Inner Canal.

"Brilliant... gravity mechanism..."

"Li Chunfeng...mathematician, meteorologist, astronomer, feng shui master, geomancer, Taoist master..."

"You've been hiding this for hundreds of years."

Thinking about the rules and methods of how this mechanism works, Fang Yun shook his head and smiled, a hint of appreciation flashing in his eyes.

"I am indeed not as good as you now... what a pity."

"You died too young. In this era, no one can compare to me."

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Chapter Sixty-Two: The Extraordinary Blood of the Qilin, A Gift of a Thousand Years

The stone door opened, and all four of them were immediately drawn to it.

Behind that stone door was another room, which looked a little larger than the entrance hall where the hidden spring was located.

In the center of the room, a Bagua stone platform rose up, and on the platform was a stone coffin painted with auspicious clouds and gold lacquer. Facing everyone, a golden Bagua plate was embedded in the head of the coffin.

Upon seeing the coffin ahead, Partridge Whistle's eyes lit up; this must be the real Underworld Palace.

Just as he was about to take a step, he remembered the traps he had encountered earlier, and the Bagua plate embedded in the coffin in front of him suggested there might be other mechanisms. He withdrew his leg and looked at Fang Yun, saying:

"Brother Fang, may I enter the Underworld Palace?"

"Don't touch that coffin, let me explore it first."

After replying in a low voice, Fang Yun walked directly into the Underworld Palace.

Upon entering the Underworld Palace, it was discovered that the palace's layout was identical to the entrance hall in front, essentially an enlarged version of it.

It is still a Bagua space, except that the 19 hidden springs in the center of the Bagua have been replaced by a stone platform for placing the coffin.

Apart from that, the surrounding area was completely empty, without any decorations or ornaments, and there wasn't even a mural on the eight walls.

Clearly, even if there were mechanisms, they would only exist on the coffin.

At this point, there was no other choice but to search for the mechanism.

After scanning the underworld twice, Fang Yun knelt down in front of the coffin and carefully examined the golden Bagua plate.

This golden Bagua plate has three layers, and it looks like a three-layered building block, with the layers getting smaller as you go up.

The first layer is inscribed with the term "Eight Directions," the second layer with the term "Eight Trigrams," and the third layer with the term "Eight Gates."

The only problem is that the order of these three layers is messed up. I think that if we can straighten all three layers of the Bagua, we can activate the mechanism.

"Life Gate...Gen...Mountain...Facing Northwest!"

When Fang Yun properly positioned the three-tiered Bagua plate and aligned the position of the Gate of Life with the position of the Gate of Life in the Underworld Palace...

Click...

With a cracking sound, the golden Bagua plate trembled and retracted into the coffin.

At the same time, on the golden Bagua plate, a cloud-shaped stone flipped up, revealing a dark crack. From that crack, a gold medal was slowly pushed out by a machine.

Looking up at the gold medal, you can still see two lines of regular script characters.

Upon seeing the words engraved on the gold medal, the three brothers, including Partridge Whistle, curiously peered over. Only Fang Yun took two steps back, a look of disbelief on his face.

"The alien bloodline Qilin... a destiny beyond the heavens... is that referring to me...?"

Fang Yun murmured to himself, his thoughts drifting away in an instant.

"That's right... someone who could predict the fate of the Tang Dynasty and the next two thousand years with Yuan Tiangang... how could he not predict mine?"

The alien bloodline Qilin that Li Chunfeng mentioned is undoubtedly him.

However, he couldn't discern Li Chunfeng's intentions regarding this matter beyond the reach of fate.

It's possible that Li Chunfeng could have predicted that he was from beyond the heavens, but it's highly unlikely that he could have predicted his destiny. The system itself is his greatest destiny and the biggest change in his life.

But if he didn't foresee it, why did he follow the original story exactly the way he came, only to leave behind a sentence at the very end? Could it be that Li Chunfeng really foresaw something?

boom!

Just as Fang Yun's thoughts were in turmoil, a dull knocking sound rang out.

Fang Yun suddenly woke up and looked in the direction of the sound, only to see that the gate of the Underworld Palace had been closed.

Looking again, they saw that the old foreigner had already pulled the gold medal off the coffin. Seeing that he had triggered the mechanism, the old foreigner was now looking at everyone with a guilty expression.