The whole nation: You're put to survive on a desolate planet, you'll be running an alien b

After the convoy left the valley, the rain actually lessened a bit, as if something had blocked it from the imperial tomb. The mountain ridge ahead remained silent, its blackness stark, and even the headlights seemed to just absorb the light through a thin layer.

"Two more kilometers ahead, into the restricted area," Qin Yue reported from the lead car, her voice low. "The signal will start to drop, the magnetic compass will deviate. All equipment will go offline."

Li Haotian hummed in agreement, but his gaze remained fixed on the monitoring screen of the isolation chamber. The silver cocoon was excessively quiet; the silvery-white patterns on its surface rippled slowly like water in the infrared light, and its heartbeat remained steady—beat after beat—as steady as a timer.

But he always felt that this was not a sense of security, but a kind of "forced" submission.

The wheels rolled over gravel, the noise becoming shrill. The next second, the temperature plummeted as if someone had poured a bucket of ice water down my neck. The defroster was still running, but a ring of frost, as fine as white salt, had visibly formed around the edge of the windshield.

"Damn... how much is it?" Liu Hu rubbed his hands together, his breath turning white. "I was sweating just now."

"It's not the temperature." Su Wan placed her hand on the metal lining of the car door, then quickly withdrew her fingertips. "It's that the heat is being drawn away. It's like... something is being eaten."

The convoy stopped in front of a half-collapsed stone gate. The animal-face stone carvings on both sides of the gate were blurred by time, but the corners of their mouths still maintained a wide smile, as if waiting for someone to go in.

A person was standing in the shadow of the door.

Wearing a straw raincoat and a bamboo hat, his figure was as thin as a withered branch. Raindrops fell on the bamboo hat, making a very soft sound, but they never reached the dry stone ground around his feet.

The gravedigger.

He didn't say "we're late," nor did he say "you shouldn't have come." He simply tapped the ground with the old wooden cane in his hand. A thin piece of bronze was embedded at the tip of the cane, which made a dull thud when it struck the stone, like striking a hollow drum.

"Starting from here, we'll consider the outer ring of the imperial mausoleum." The tomb keeper's voice wasn't loud, but he was dressed very neatly. "The living must not scatter, and the lamps must not be left unlit."

Li Haotian glanced around. The fog flowed along the ground, creeping slowly like water. When the headlights shone on it, the fog wasn't white, but a grayish darkness, as if coal dust had been mixed in. As the fog flowed over the tires, a thin layer of frost immediately formed on their surface, even making the brake discs appear icy white.

"Death energy," Qin Yue said in a low voice, her tone carrying a hint of seriousness for the first time. "It's thicker than the documents."

The tomb keeper seemed to have heard him and nodded: "The outer sealing formation is damaged in one corner, and death energy is seeping out from the crack. The fact that you were able to get here means that corner is quite badly damaged."

He turned and walked into the stone path. With each tap of his wooden staff, a faint talismanic light illuminated the ground, like scales submerged in water being stirred up. The talismanic light was not bright, but it was steady, causing the mist above it to recede slightly, leaving a narrow path.

"Where are the lamps?" Li Haotian asked.

The tomb keeper didn't turn around, but simply raised his hand and waved. Suddenly, a few eerie yellow flames lit up in the cracks of the broken altar beside the stone path. The flames weren't flickering, but rather "standing," like needles stuck in the air, their long, thin flames burning silently.

They form a line, extending along the stone path, illuminating an even deeper darkness.

When Su Wan got out of the car, the portable drone case on her shoulder was covered with a layer of frost. She wiped it off, her fingertips going numb: "My battery temperature control is alarming... the metal casing is frosting up too fast."

"Don't gamble with your life using equipment." The gravedigger finally turned to look at her, his eyes like water at the bottom of a well. "The death energy here absorbs heat and thoughts. The more you try to measure it with it, the easier it is to throw yourselves in."

Liu Hu, annoyed, retorted, "You can eat thoughts too? Does that mean you can't even think at all?"

The tomb keeper didn't answer, but simply raised his wooden staff, pointing to the low tombstones on either side of the stone path ahead. The tombstones were densely packed, like a cluster of upside-down teeth. Tiny characters were carved on their surfaces, and when the mist swirled around them, the characters seemed to come alive, flickering at the edge of his vision.

"Ahead lies a maze for the living," the tomb keeper said. "The maze doesn't kill people, it kills their obsessions. The deathly aura will draw out what you hold dearest, show it to you, let you hear it, and give you an 'easier' path. If you stray off course, the light won't reach you, and you'll become a monument within the maze."

As the words fell, the fog clung even closer to the ground, as if someone had pressed down the tide, only to make it thicker. The people in the convoy moved closer together, their footsteps unconsciously softening.

Li Haotian looked back at the quarantine vehicle. The frost on the exterior was heavier, but the silver cocoons in the monitor were smoother than before. The silvery texture no longer undulated restlessly; instead, it seemed to have been soothed by some rhythmic breathing. His heartbeat slowed down—

a bit.

The pause was longer.

One more time.

Li Haotian frowned and pressed the earpiece: "Vitality signs in the isolation chamber?"

The technician's voice was tinged with surprise: "The heart rate dropped by fifteen points, and the breathing... if you count that as breathing, it's much more stable. Like... entering a deep sleep."

Upon hearing the word "sleep," the tomb keeper's eyes twitched slightly: "Silver Cocoon?"

Li Haotian did not deny it: "You knew?"

"There's a formation in the imperial tomb, originally meant to suppress 'abnormalities'." The tomb keeper slammed his wooden staff on the ground, and a circle of talismanic light expanded. "Some things that come in will be suppressed and quieted; others will be fed and fattened up. The one you brought—it's up to its fate."

"Fate is something we have to rely on ourselves," Li Haotian said coldly. "Lead the way."

Stepping onto the stone path, the temperature dropped even further. The mist clung to the soles of his boots, feeling like countless cold hands groping upwards from his ankles. After walking less than ten steps, Liu Hu suddenly stopped, muttering under his breath, "...I smell smoke."

Everyone was taken aback. Where did the smoke come from in the mountains after the rain? But the next moment, Li Haotian also smelled it—a very faint burnt smell, like the ash left after burning paper money.

Even more strangely, a faint red light, like a brazier, peeked through the fog at the end of the stone path.

"Don't look." The gravedigger's voice suddenly turned cold. "The lamp is in front of you; don't let your eyes follow the illusion."

Human instinct always requires confirmation. Liu Hu tilted his head slightly, and just as his gaze shifted away, he felt as if he had been pulled by something, and his toes almost stepped out of the narrow path of the talisman light.

Qin Yue grabbed him by the back of his collar and forcefully pulled him back: "What did you see?"

Liu Hu's face turned pale, and his Adam's apple bobbed: "I... I saw my mom over there... she was calling me home for dinner."

His voice was hoarse like sandpaper, but there was an untimely longing in his eyes. As soon as that longing appeared, the fog seemed to hear it, and its flow along the ground noticeably quickened, swirling towards his shoes.

The tomb keeper raised his hand and flicked his finger, sending a sliver of eerie yellow light floating in front of Liu Hu, like a grain of hot rice. Liu Hu jerked back, his eyes clearing slightly.

"Obsession," the gravedigger said calmly. "If you have a mouthful of food left uneaten, someone will serve it to you. Once you've eaten it, you can't go back."

Liu Hu gritted his teeth and spat fiercely onto the ground, the spittle instantly freezing into ice beads upon landing.

Su Wan didn't look up at any "light" in the fog. She took the small unmanned reconnaissance bee out of the box, pressed it with her palm, and the bee's wings fluttered slightly. As soon as the thing took off, its fuselage was quickly covered with frost, like it was wearing a layer of white armor.

"It won't last long," Su Wan whispered. "I only need one minute."

"What do you want?" Li Haotian asked.

"Mist flow." Su Wan stared at the screen, her fingers flying across the screen. "The death energy isn't uniform; it's like it has airflow channels. If I draw its flow lines, I can trace back to its source."

The tomb keeper sneered, "You dare to use iron wings to draw eerie winds? You've got some nerve."

"If you weren't brave enough, you would have died long ago," Su Wan replied calmly.

The drone flew low, skimming the edge of the talismanic light, its camera capturing subtle speed differences in the fog. On the screen, gray vector lines rapidly formed, like ripples in a river. Su Wan's brows furrowed deeper: "Something's not right... The outer ring should theoretically be a circulation, but it's showing a 'convergence point' here."

She zoomed in on the image. The vector lines were clearly being stretched in a certain direction, as if being sucked away by something.

"It looks like a crack." Su Wan looked up, her gaze falling on the thicker fog. "Moreover, the edges of the crack are 'eaten open,' irregular, showing signs of secondary damage."

"It was gnawed on?" Qin Yue's heart sank. "It wasn't a natural break in the formation; it was torn apart by someone or something."

Li Haotian gripped the old bronze plaque tightly in his hand. The plaque felt even colder at that moment, as if it were pressed against his bones. He suddenly felt an extremely slight "rebound," as if an invisible wall was breathing in front of him.

He squinted and whispered, "The deathly aura here... isn't just yin."

The gravedigger paused, turning to look at him: "You smelled it?"

"It's not smelling." Li Haotian raised his hand, his fingertips lightly tracing the air as if touching fine sand. "There's a remnant of a rule. It's different from the void tearing I've seen before... It doesn't devour everything; it's 'opposing,' like water and fire clashing, suppressing each other yet also giving rise to each other."

Qin Yue understood a little: "Mutual restraint, yet mutual generation?"

Li Haotian nodded, his voice even lower: "There's something in the imperial tomb that specifically counters the 'emptiness' of the void. But the cracks that have been gnawed open seem to indicate that someone is using it to nurture something else."

As they spoke, a soft metallic clang came from the isolation vehicle. Everyone turned around, and a thin crack appeared on the frost on the outer wall of the isolation chamber, as if gently pushed aside by the internal temperature. The silver pattern on the surface of the cocoon in the monitor lit up for a moment, then quickly dimmed. Their heartbeats slowed, but became more steady.

a bit.

One more time.

It was as if guided by some ancient rhythm, resonating with the patterns deep underground.

The tomb keeper stared at the rhythm, his eyes filled with complex emotions: "The tomb-guarding lamp recognizes it."

"You recognize it?" Liu Hu's throat tightened. "That thing didn't escape from the tomb, did it?"

The gravedigger didn't answer, but pointed his wooden staff forward: "Don't linger too long on the outer circle. The deathly aura is like a tide; when the tide rises, the maze of the living will become even more 'enthusiastic'."

As soon as the words were spoken, a series of light footsteps suddenly came from the mist, like someone jogging on the stones in wet shoes. The sound emerged from the stele forest on the left, accompanied by rapid breathing and even a familiar shout—

"Haotian! Don't go! Come back!"

The sound was like a knife, piercing straight into Li Haotian's eardrums. His eyes instantly turned cold and hard, but his body instinctively stiffened, as if the door of an old, moldy room had been suddenly pushed open.

Qin Yue noticed his pause and immediately reached out to grab his wrist: "Don't listen."

The gravedigger raised the lamp, and the eerie yellow flame suddenly blazed brightly, as if opening the throat of darkness. The sound was immediately muffled, as if it came through the thick earth.

Li Haotian slowly exhaled a breath of white air, his gaze shifting from the mist to the lamplight: "Keep going."

Su Wan forcibly pulled the drone back; its outer shell was frozen brittle, and it cracked with a "crack" when it landed in her palm. She seemed unfazed, however, and transmitted the newly generated mist flow model to everyone's terminals: "Source direction, southeast and slightly below. The crack appears to be near the outer ring altar."

"The broken altar and the ghostly lamps..." the gravedigger repeated in a low voice, as if recalling something. "There used to be a lamp-sealing array there, to suppress the 'mouth.' Now the mouth has been bitten open, and the lamps are still lit—meaning that what's inside hasn't fully awakened yet, but it has already begun to breathe."

Li Haotian looked up into the depths of the fog. The eerie yellow light lines stretched out like thin veins, ending in a darkness resembling a closed mouth. The air was bone-chillingly cold, metal frosted over, thoughts became illusions, and a single misstep by a living person would be swallowed whole.

In this deathly atmosphere, the silver cocoon was as quiet as a baby animal being lulled to sleep.

He suddenly had a bizarre intuition: they hadn't broken into a tomb, but rather entered a "nest" that had been prepared long ago.

"Everyone," Li Haotian said, his voice not loud, but it brought everyone back to reality. "Stay close to the light, don't respond to any sounds, don't look at any 'people'. Stop at the altar."

The tomb keeper tapped the ground with his wooden staff once more, and the talismanic light spread forward, with lanterns lighting up one by one, like road signs placed in the darkness.

The fog surged along the ground like the sea.

They continued along the narrow path of light, their footsteps swallowed by the deathly silence, leaving only the slow, persistent beating of Silver Cocoon's heart through the carriage.

a bit.

Another one.

It's like counting down the hours until something sleeping deep within the imperial tomb will awaken.