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

As the stone door closed for the last inch, the talismanic light tightened like a stitch, snapping shut on the "talisman eye." The pale blue flame of the ghostly lamp flickered, then steadied itself again. The black mist, trapped behind the door, still clung to the crack, wriggling like a resentful tongue licking its lips.

Li Haotian didn't turn around immediately. His hand was still on the stone door, and he could feel the subtle "opening and closing" of the space itself—not the stone moving, but the space itself breathing. He heard the sound of teeth scraping against each other fade away in the distance, but it didn't disappear; it just retreated into the deeper darkness, learning to be quiet.

"The smell is definitely not clean," the gravedigger whispered.

Li Haotian withdrew his hand and sneered, "If you can't cut it off cleanly, then find a way to cut it off. Didn't you say that the imperial tombs have 'rules'? Bring out the rules."

The gravedigger glanced at him, his gaze lingering on the token for half a second, as if weighing something. Then he slammed his wooden staff down, causing the ghostly lamp to drift forward three inches, its light reflecting a deeper layer of gray on his face.

"There are rules, but they're not free," he said. "You just used the token to forcibly change the seal's form, infringing on the 'authority' within the mausoleum. The pursuers smelled not only blood, but also the stench of rules being broken."

Qin Yue, standing to the side and slightly behind, felt her Adam's apple bob when she heard the word "power." She had come to too many events with the official logic, habitually categorizing everything into procedures, authority, and restrictions. But at this moment, she suddenly realized: the "authority" they were discussing wasn't granted by the system, but rather a kind of inherent "operability" existing in a higher dimension. Official restrictions were like paper here.

Su Wan tightened her backpack strap and lowered her voice: "Let's not talk philosophy here. What we need most right now is time."

"Time can be bought," the gravedigger said. "And it can be borrowed. But the interest on borrowing a life is high."

Li Haotian's eyes darkened: "State your terms."

The tomb keeper didn't answer immediately, but turned and walked towards the side corridor. The side corridor was narrow, the walls were damp, and moss grew in the cracks of the stones like dark green veins. When he reached the third dim lamp, he raised his hand and pressed it on an inconspicuous brick on the wall. The runes in his palm lit up—the brick silently slid away, revealing a downward staircase.

There was no wind in the stairwell, yet it was even colder, as if it were forcibly stripping people out of the warmth of the living.

Liu Hu subconsciously touched the butt of his gun: "This isn't the main tomb passage."

"The secret chamber of the tomb." The tomb keeper turned around, his voice calm. "Only I can open it. You all stay close, don't touch the walls, and don't look back. Especially you—" He stared at Li Haotian, "Don't stick the tokens on randomly anymore."

Li Haotian didn't answer, but followed. Qin Yue noticed that the usual sarcasm on his lips had disappeared, replaced by a more cautious coldness. She suddenly understood: it wasn't that he wasn't afraid; he was just used to suppressing his fear as calculation.

At the end of the staircase was a low bronze door. The door was not decorated with animal patterns, but only had four intersecting straight lines, as if dividing the space into a nine-square grid. The tomb keeper laid his wooden staff horizontally, the runes on the staff aligning with the lines on the door, and gently pushed it—without the sound of metal scraping, the door seemed to "retreat" a step, revealing a deeper darkness.

A dim lamp drifted in, its light seeming to be drawn in, becoming short and harsh, illuminating only an area of ​​about three zhang (approximately 10 meters). In the center of the secret chamber sat a bronze coffin, its lid riddled with fine holes, the edges of which were blackened as if burned. At each of the four corners of the coffin rested a stone weight, engraved with faded seal script characters, yet radicals such as "镇" (zhen, to suppress), "禁" (jin, to forbid), and "绝" (jue, to sever) were still discernible.

There was a low platform in front of the coffin, with a thin nail stuck in it.

The nail was neither iron nor copper; it was entirely black, yet its surface had a cold sheen, like the frost on the back of a knife on a winter night. Extremely fine lines were engraved on the nail, spiraling in circles, like thread sewing some kind of seam shut.

Qin Yue only glanced at it, and goosebumps rose on her back. It wasn't just her imagination; she could feel the air around it tighten, as if space itself dared not expand in its presence.

"A pre-Qin dynasty artifact used for warding off evil spirits." The tomb keeper walked to the low platform, his tone becoming serious for the first time. "The black coffin nail. One of the tomb's trump cards."

Li Haotian's eyes lit up, almost blatantly: "What can you do?"

"Nail the crack shut," the tomb keeper said. "For a short time, nail the 'opening' of space into a 'dead end.' Tracking will stop, and the sense of smell will be blocked. You're carrying the silver cocoon and have been tainted with the scent of the evil seal bullet. Even without this, if you retreat to the outer circle, you'll still be tracked down by the scent."

Upon hearing "cut off tracking," Su Wan's breathing quickened: "How long is 'short time'?"

"It depends on how hungry the thing you've messed with is." The tomb keeper looked at Li Haotian. "Usually, it takes one incense stick to half an hour. If the other party tries to bite it, the nail will get hot. When it gets too hot to handle, you have to leave, or find another place to nail it."

Li Haotian stared at the nail, his mind already analyzing its value: something that could seal cracks meant it could "intercept" things in many places. Even if he couldn't take the core, he could still get his hands on the scraps—like the metal in the holes of the coffin, the remnants of talismans from the four corner stone talismans, or even a tiny scrap of metal falling from the nail on the black coffin…

The moment he had this thought, the gravedigger's wooden staff tapped lightly on the edge of the low platform, producing a muffled sound.

"Don't bother calculating," the tomb keeper said calmly. "If this thing moves three inches from the platform, the barrier will move. If the barrier moves, the entire secret chamber will treat you as tomb raiders."

Liu Hu's lips twitched: "Deal with? How should we deal with it?"

The tomb keeper offered no explanation, only glancing at the row of holes in the coffin. In the dim light, those holes resembled rows of staring eyes.

Su Wan reached out and pressed down on Li Haotian's wrist, her voice not loud, but like a needle: "Live first, then talk about getting rich."

Li Haotian withdrew his hand, as if he hadn't heard, and turned to look directly at the tomb keeper: "You didn't bring us here just out of kindness. There are conditions."

The tomb keeper was silent for a moment, as if grinding each word out of his throat: "First, you must ensure the seal remains intact. Your token can be reshaped, but it can also be torn open. If you allow the seal to break for short-term gains, and half of what's inside the imperial tomb awakens, the pursuers will turn the outside into their canteen."

Qin Yue's heart sank upon hearing this. She suddenly thought of the people who had evacuated from the outer perimeter, the temporary cordon, and her colleagues who were still patrolling with conventional weapons—if this place were breached, the so-called "emergency plan" might not even be able to hold onto the word "plan."

The tomb keeper continued: "Secondly, I promise not to take the core artifacts. The coffin nails can only be borrowed, not taken out of the secret chamber. The coffin, the stone weight, the pedestal runes—not a single part of them may be touched. If you want compensation, I can give you 'corners'—but I must choose them."

Li Haotian narrowed his eyes: "You'll give me a scrap? Why do you believe I'll return it?"

"I don't believe it," the tomb keeper replied crisply. "So I have a third condition: before you leave this level, I will rewrite the seal eyes in the sealing hall, and you are not allowed to interfere with your token again. Your only responsibility is to keep your silver cocoon under control and prevent it from biting around."

"You certainly know how to escalate things," Li Haotian chuckled, but his smile was cold. "Don't play the saint. What you're afraid of isn't me taking the things, but that after I take them, you can't protect this mausoleum, right?"

A shadow crossed the gravedigger's eyes for a moment, but he didn't deny it: "If I can't keep watch, I'll die. I've kept watch for so many years, I don't want to die at the hands of someone like you."

Qin Yue suddenly spoke, her voice steady: "Tomb Keeper, the official forces can only do so much in the outer circle. But we need an executable plan. Giving us the Xuan Coffin Nails is like giving us an evacuation window. We can use this window to pinpoint the location of the Nameless Cult's second door and move the Silver Cocoon to the 'hiding' place you mentioned. We also need the stabilization of the seal you desire."

The gravedigger glanced at her, as if for the first time truly considering her someone who "could understand": "Your rules don't count here. You still want to talk about 'enforcing' them?"

Qin Yue's throat tightened, but she didn't back down: "Precisely because it doesn't count, we need to find something that does. Otherwise, we can only wait for them to judge us."

After those words were spoken, the room grew even quieter. The flickering lamplight tilted slightly, even without a breeze, as if some unseen presence had heard it.

Li Haotian was silent for two seconds, then raised his hand and said casually, "Fine. I agree. I won't take the core artifact unless the seal is broken, and I'll rewrite the talisman eye for you."

He spoke so smoothly that it made Su Wan uneasy. She looked at him, but he didn't even glance at her, his eyes fixed on the black coffin nails as if they were a path that would allow him to live.

The gravedigger stared at him, as if trying to pierce the truth from his brow: "You agreed too quickly."

Li Haotian shrugged: "Life is more important. I'm a very pragmatic person."

Su Wan coughed softly behind him, just loud enough for him to hear: "Don't play with fire."

Li Haotian's lips twitched, but he didn't reply. In his mind, however, he had already broken down the word "corner" into more than a dozen possibilities: if the tomb keeper said he would choose, then he would force him to choose something that could be "chosen"; if he wasn't allowed to move the coffin, then he would let the tomb keeper "borrow" some residue from the holes; if he wasn't allowed to take the nails, then he would record the patterns, make rubbings of the symbols... and then slowly gnaw on them after he got out alive.

The tomb keeper reached out and grasped the coffin nail. In that instant, Qin Yue clearly saw his knuckles turn white, as if he were holding not metal, but a snake that would bite. When the nail was pulled out, there was no sound, but all the dim lights in the secret chamber dimmed slightly at the same time, and then lit up again at the same time, as if space had blinked.

A chill swept over him. Liu Hu couldn't help but shiver.

"Let's go." The tomb keeper put the coffin nails into a gray cloth cover, and fine frost patterns immediately appeared on the surface of the cover. "Back to the Sealing Hall. I'll give you the window you asked for. But remember—finish what you need to do within the time it takes for an incense stick to burn. When the time is up, the pursuers will smell you again."

Li Haotian nodded, his tone calm as if he had truly resigned himself to his fate: "One incense stick's time is enough."

Su Wan looked at his profile, but only one thought came to her mind: the more he agreed with her words, the more he was calculating how not to lose out.

Qin Yue followed them out of the secret chamber. The bronze door "receded" back to its original position behind them, and the brickwork silently closed. The stairs led upwards, and the dim light of the lamplight, like a thin thread, drew them back to the newly stitched stone door.

The talismanic light at the crack in the door was still shining steadily, but Qin Yue could sense that the thing behind the door hadn't gone far; it was just lying in wait, waiting for them to reveal their next weakness.

The tomb keeper placed the gray cloth cover next to the talisman eye of the stone gate, looked up at Li Haotian: "Are you ready? The moment I nail it down, the crack will be forcibly fixed. Your scent will be 'smoothed out,' but the silver cocoon will also be pressed tighter—if it resists, the seal will tremble."

Li Haotian looked up, his gaze passing over the stone door, as if he could see the steadily beating silver cocoon inside the isolation pod. He lowered his voice: "Little Black, bear with it. I'll find you a place to sleep."

The dim lamplight flickered slightly, as if in response.

The tomb keeper gripped a nail in his right hand and tapped the ground with his wooden staff in his left. Runes of light crept up the edge of the stone door, drawing a clear "mouth" across the crack. He took a deep breath and flicked his wrist—

The cold light of the coffin nail fell along the talisman lines.

The next instant, the air seemed to be pierced, emitting a very faint muffled sound. The subtle "opening and closing" of the stone door abruptly stopped, as if a mouth had been nailed shut. The distant scraping sound of teeth also ceased, abruptly, like a predator suddenly losing its sense of direction.

Li Haotian's eyes turned cold: "The window is open. Let's go, while it's blind."