Ancient tomb excavation traces

Holding the hand of the Chu Kingdom witch, I naturally received some teasing from my two buddies. Fortunately, I have nothing to hide, and I took their jokes as a way to lighten the tense atmosphere. But to be honest, although we were all laughing and joking with each other, we were actually quite heavy-hearted, because we couldn't be sure what awaited us behind the door.

After the joke, the entire space returned to complete silence. I took a deep breath, while Chen Yi's hand touched the bronze door on the west side. The door was very thick, about twenty centimeters high, and quite sturdy.

He glanced at us, signaling to open the door. I gently released the witch's hand, picked up my Mongolian knife, and nodded to him.

The door was slowly opening, and all the questions were about to be answered. At that moment, my breathing became heavy, my heart filled with both anticipation and trepidation.

The light inside the door grew brighter, and before we could even see what was inside clearly, a thick, putrid stench wafted out from the widened crack in the door. It smelled a bit like the meat stalls in a market, but even worse.

I forced myself to endure the discomfort, while Bao Cai behind me pinched his nose and said in a muffled voice, "Damn it, Lao Cai, this smell is disgusting. There must be some filth piled up inside. Let's not go in."

Chen Yi crouched down, seeing that Bao Cai was about to back out again, and turned back to whisper, "Liu Bao Cai, you still complain about the smell? When you lived in my room, I never complained about your smelly feet!"

"Get lost!" Bao Cai cursed. "You think you're so special!"

Chen Tiao chuckled and said, "Hey! Stop talking. Look at Liu Zi, an art student. He's not as pretentious as you, a graduate student who needs to be so dedicated to his studies!" As he spoke, Chen Tiao winked at me and then pulled a green bottle from his belt. The bottle looked familiar, and upon closer inspection, it turned out to be Tiger Balm.

I smiled wryly. This was the thing Old Jiu always carried with him when he went out. He was afraid of being ripped off when he was appraising treasures, so he carried this with him and used it to refresh himself anytime, anywhere. Sure enough, he took a few drops of the medicated oil and put it on the tip of his nose. After feeling refreshed, he passed his magic weapon to the young Taoist priest.

We each applied a little; it was quite stimulating and actually masked some of the stench.

"How's it going? Feeling much better now?" Chen Yi stood up, looking smug.

I nodded, intending to say that his strange quirk had been helpful, but before I could say anything, Chen Ting grinned mischievously and yanked open the bronze door. As soon as the door opened, a stench assaulted my nostrils.

The young Taoist priest nearby sensed something amiss and quickly spread his arms to shield us, saying, "Back off! There's a corpse aura!"

Hearing what he said, I quickly covered my mouth and secretly cursed Chen Yi's ancestors for eighteen generations.

The stench overwhelmed all our senses, and when the blast of air finally escaped, everyone opened their eyes and was terrified by what they saw.

Staring at what was in front of me, my mind went blank, and I muttered in a trembling voice, "Wh...what's going on?!"

Now, everyone stood frozen before the bronze door on the west side. Inside, there were no living people as we had initially expected, only eternal lamps. Their pale light illuminated the strange and gloomy bronze holes in the four walls.

The hole resembled a vampire's lair, but was even more eerie, because in this dark environment, slightly yellowed white strips of cloth were wrapped around human-shaped objects, creating a stark contrast. It looked like a cocoon, or like the mummies inside a pyramid; they were placed eerily on the wall, neatly arranged.

The scene before me was like a white figure standing in a dark window, which gave the whole space an eerie feel. Moreover, there were many corpse cocoons, with nine such things on each wall.

This feeling was unsettling. Imagine the holes in the walls were coffins, these corpses standing upright—if we went in, it would be like entering an ancient mortuary. The thought sent a chill down my spine, and I forced myself not to think too deeply about it.

The first among us to regain his composure was the young Taoist priest. He looked at the cocoons of corpses on the four walls and then went inside. I wanted to stop him, but my legs wouldn't obey me, and I could only watch helplessly as his white figure stood in this dim space facing dozens of corpses wrapped in strips of cloth.

From my vantage point, although the faces of these corpses were covered, their heads were not all tilted back or looking straight ahead; rather, they were slightly lowered, as if staring at the young Taoist priest.

After a few seconds of internal struggle, I urged my legs forward. The witch followed behind me, while Bao Cai darted to the little Taoist priest's side, as if he were a protective shield.

We looked around. This space was much taller than the anteroom, and it was filled with many cold weapons. Most of these weapons were made of iron, and a small number were made of bronze. Among them were some shields and armor.

I walked over to the young Taoist priest, who was examining a bronze sword closely.

Looking at the artifacts in the bronze chamber, the old man said, "That's strange. How could there be weapons belonging to palace guards in the tomb of a witch..."

His words caught my attention, because I also couldn't understand why a woman would need such a burial object.

Just as I was pondering this question, the young Taoist priest beside me stroked the patterns on the sword and said calmly, "Because the corpses we see now are people from the palace; they were part of the funerary sacrifices." The young priest put down the bronze sword, turned to look at our puzzled faces, and said, "This is to the west, the White Tiger position. The White Tiger symbolizes power and is associated with military strategy. The person who designed this tomb placed these funerary soldiers here to guard the main coffin chamber in the Yellow Dragon position. If I'm not mistaken, the east is the Azure Dragon position, which should also be a room. Its conditions might be similar to this place, but relatively better..."

"Damn, I didn't expect this Chu tomb to be a multi-chambered tomb... Could it be that the witch was really some powerful figure in the palace?" Chen Yi stroked his chin, thinking seriously, as if he had figured something out. He asked me, "Hey, Liu Zi, do you think the owner of this tomb was a concubine, or even a beautiful princess?"

When I heard him start speculating wildly, I quickly added, "You're overthinking it. If she were a concubine, would you really let her fall in love with a court entertainer, and then have such an impressive tomb built for her after she dies?"

Chen Yi nodded and murmured, "That makes sense... So she must be the princess..."

"If you ask me, no matter what this woman's status is, her ruthlessness is unmatched. It's one thing to make someone die with you, but to wrap them in strips of cloth so they can't die lying down, but stand here like corpses, it's terrifying." It was Bao Cai who spoke suddenly, picking up his bronze sword as he spoke.

Upon hearing this, Chen Yi retorted, "What do you know? This witch boss just wants to use these people to scare cowards like you and make you back down!"

They were exchanging barbs, and I shook my head, thinking how really something these two were, coming to such a place to bicker. But it was good, though; the eerie space was now filled with liveliness, and the oppressive feeling gradually lessened.

I continued studying what I had just looked at. There were characters engraved next to each bronze hole, which looked like names. But I wasn't good at recognizing these Chu characters, unless a student like Xue Wei, who was good at rigorous examinations, was present.

Thinking of my old friend, I sighed softly. Looking down, I noticed a long, narrow channel beneath each bronze wall in this space, encircling the entire area like the drainage channels in a public bathroom. Upon closer inspection, the center of the bronze casting was higher than the channel, similar to how we lower the area near the drain when renovating a balcony to allow water to drain smoothly. This design was ingenious and clever, but considering the bronze chamber was so sealed, there shouldn't have been any need for drainage. So what was its purpose?

My heart was filled with unease, and I had a feeling that this place was full of conspiracy. I pinched my chin and analyzed it in my heart, putting all the suspicious points together: Huanglong mechanism - new soil - living people - panting - spying - west bronze door - corpse cocoon - weapon - trough.

This analysis gave me a sudden sense of foreboding. Putting all the problems together, I imagined I had indeed discovered the secret of the Yellow Dragon's mechanism and was about to activate it, while a living person had been secretly watching us. To prevent us from entering the main coffin chamber, he used his familiarity with the place to open the bronze door on the west side and lure us inside. Logically, if the western room wasn't dangerous, we would have easily exited and opened the main coffin chamber; he had no need to resort to this unnecessary method. Now, only one possibility remains: as the Miao girl warned us at the beginning, and as the young Taoist priest said, the tomb guardians exist to protect the main coffin chamber. Therefore, the conclusion is—we will all die, and that living person is certain we will die in the western bronze chamber. As for how we will die, that remains unknown…

Thinking about it, I suddenly realized that the tank wasn't as simple as I thought. Feeling a strange aura spreading over me, I immediately crouched down. Chen Yu and Bao Cai behind me saw my sudden movement and asked me what was wrong, whether I had found some treasure. I didn't listen, because just then, my hand touched something red on the edge of the tank—it was blood. This was a blood tank, and this room might be a slaughterhouse!

I stood up in surprise, and the shock I felt after discovering this problem left me speechless. At that moment, the young Taoist priest was looking at the bronze wall, but his research differed from mine; he was looking at the cocoon of corpses.

I thought he must have discovered something wrong, and was about to ask when the Miao girl grabbed me and said, "You've seen everything you needed to see. If you stay here any longer, you'll really die..." Her tone was urgent, and from her anxious expression, I sensed that something bad was about to happen.

Just as I thought, after the young Taoist priest looked away from the cocoon, he said in a deep voice, "The situation is terrible. Some of the strips of cloth wrapped around their bodies are old, but some are new... and the materials are different too."

Upon hearing this, Chen Yu, who was selecting weapons, turned around and casually asked, "What do you mean by 'new' and 'old'?"

However, after the young Taoist priest said that, I instantly understood that these corpses were not all from the Warring States period; some of them might be from the late Eastern Han Dynasty.

"Damn it," I cursed inwardly. New strips of cloth meant new corpses, meaning they might have come here to rob tombs like us, and then been turned into corpse cocoons. The Miao girl kept warning us not to come in because she knew what was inside…

Damn it! I kept cursing, unable to imagine what methods the person hiding in the shadows would use to kill us. Panic gripped my whole body, and I felt incredibly weak.

The Miao witch behind me was clearly a little scared, while the young Taoist priest stared intently at the cocoon and said to us, "Let's go..." I could sense a hint of danger in his tone.

Seeing the valuable items, Bao Cai was having a good time. Without turning his head, he said, "Immortal, let's wait a little longer. There are so many good things here, each one should be worth a lot of money. Let's just pick a few good ones, and we'll have plenty to enjoy when we get out..."

"Enjoy what? How much can you sell bronze artifacts for in this era? I picked them out for my own use, and you..." When Chen Yi saw something good, his IQ and perception dropped to zero.

Unaware of what was happening, cold sweat was already pouring down my forehead. In my line of sight, directly in front of them, a corpse was moving strangely. It was moving very slightly, but because its body was wrapped in strips of cloth, its shape was twisted and deformed as it struggled.

I swallowed hard, as if half-awake and half-asleep. Old Jiu turned around and glanced at us, his smile freezing on his face. He seemed to sense the awkward atmosphere and asked us quietly, "What's with those expressions on your faces, you three? What's wrong?"

We stood there speechless, because at that moment a series of "clucking" sounds came from all corners of the space. The sounds reached our ears and went straight to our hearts, making us feel uncontrollably cold and goosebumps.

At this moment, Bao Cai, who was greedy for money, was stunned for a moment. He finally realized what was going on, and his expression changed 180 degrees in an instant. It was a kind of inexplicable and extreme fright.

"The new strips of cloth were just wrapped on recently, and the stench in the entire bronze chamber comes from them!" The young Taoist said, picking up a bronze sword from his side. He strode up to Chen Cai and Bao Cai, shoved the two stunned men aside, and then swung his weapon at the mechanical cocoon that was pulling the strips of cloth.

In an instant, dark red blood stained the white cloth strips and splattered on Chen Cai and the others. Bao Cai was now fully awake. He screamed, terrified. The young Taoist priest pulled him to the center, and he stumbled and fell to the ground, collapsing, "What... what is this? The mummy is alive?"

The young Taoist priest stared sharply at the strangely shaped cocoons, which resembled a large group of mechanical dancers, and said, "Do you remember what I told you, 'The living are dead, the dead are alive'?"

"What?" Bao Cai said blankly, his voice hoarse, clearly terrified.

My heart skipped a beat, and I muttered to myself, "Could these people be the male members of the Liu family, and... and my benefactor's son, Wang Yu?"

Before I could finish speaking, Chen Yi looked at me incredulously and said, "Damn, is this the same as the seven tomb raiders we encountered in modern times?"

I stared at him blankly and said, "No...it's more complicated...to put it simply, they lived and died...and died and lived again!"

"What!" This was the most surprised expression I had ever seen on Chen Ting's face.

Faced with that familiar smell, my mind went completely blank, and I thought to myself: I've finally found it.

However, what horrified us all was that the corpse cocoon that had just been slashed in the chest by the young Taoist priest revealed its rotting flesh. It moved and crawled towards us, and its appearance was as terrifying as could be.

We retreated in despair, but the cocoons behind us kept falling off the bronze wall and writhing in a bizarre way. Some of the stronger ones had broken free of the cloth binding them, revealing terrifying eyes.