Ancient tomb excavation traces

(A single arrow pierces the clouds, and a thousand armies come to meet. Thank you to reader sidneyliu for the donation.)

I don't know how much time passed, but I heard the sound of dripping water beside my ears. I wanted to open my eyes, but I was too exhausted, so I changed my position and continued sleeping, as if I were still at home in Hangzhou, wrapped in a blanket. But after regaining consciousness, pain and cold began to invade my entire body. In my hazy state, I could hear two people sighing. I curled up and then opened my eyes. The voice was all too familiar!

I turned around and saw a man in front of me wearing a rusty red linen short shirt. I was overjoyed to see him and excitedly shouted, "Eighth Master!" Actually, in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, Chu Ba and his ancestors were all younger than me, but they were very old-fashioned in their ways and had their own status in the martial arts world, so it was just natural for me to call him that.

He was happy to see me and quickly said, "Little rascal, you're finally awake!"

We held hands, our excitement overflowing. When we looked up, we saw a number of rotting corpses lying in a dark corner in front of us, with scattered debris around them. They were gravediggers just as unlucky as us.

Liang Jiu said that the corpses were lying haphazardly on the ground, and while we were unconscious, he had pulled them all to a corner to prevent us from being disgusted by the sight. I thanked him for his thoughtfulness, and after looking around again, I realized that we were in a very small cave, a steeply sloping fissure-shaped, isolated space.

Bao Cai said that he had done a study on cave creatures when he was in college and had been to similar places. He said that these isolated caves would be slowly eroded by water over the years and continue to expand. These caves seemed to have a life of their own. In this process, they would gather and communicate with other caves like their own, and then gradually form underground passages. Their location is above the groundwater and below the surface water, and they are called seepage zone caves.

The stagnant waters we were trapped in had an upper layer of corpse oil and a lower layer of underground runoff. Because oil is denser than water, the two combined to form two water layers.

The whirlpool carried us away in a U-shape, and we were now at the other end of the U. The water here was crystal clear; I could even see blind fish swimming in it. But I didn't understand why stagnant water would create a whirlpool. When I asked this question, Bao Cai gave a rather eerie answer. With a sinister expression, he mumbled that it was ghosts from the underworld collecting people; otherwise, even two water layers would be stirred up, and the groundwater in front of us wouldn't be so clear.

I pondered Bao Cai's words for a while, but my final conclusion was the opposite of his. If it really was some strange phenomenon that science couldn't explain, then the sudden vortex was our savior. It meant that we were not destined to die, and even the King of Hell wouldn't take us.

However, this was just wishful thinking on my part. If the wise and experienced ancestors and the young Taoist priest were here at this moment, perhaps they could answer the questions in my heart. Thinking of this, I sighed deeply, the accumulated bitterness in my heart wandering through every part of my body. In fact, the three of us discussed the vortex in order to avoid touching on a reality. But no matter how much we avoided the heavy problem of "eight people enter, three return," there will eventually be a moment when we still have to face it.

I was the first to speak. I told Chu Ba about Liang Jiu's tragic death. Chu Ba paused for a moment, then looked up at the water flowing through the crevice. As if he had seen through it all, he said calmly, "Of the nine of us sworn brothers, three of us, including Ninth Brother, have died after we started tomb raiding... But Ninth Brother's death was respectable..."

Seeing him staring blankly at a certain spot, I knew he was in great pain. Xue Wei was missing, Chen Yi was dead and his body was nowhere to be found, the young Taoist priest was fighting to the death, and Liang Jiu, in his current state, still had to hold his mind to protect us. This reality was heartbreaking, and I wanted to say something but didn't know how to start.

After a moment of silence, I asked about the situation of the Eighth Ancestor. He looked up at me, then lowered his head, sighed, and said, "Back then, Ninth Brother, Piao Ba Zi, and I covered your retreat, but there were so many skeletons. Ninth Brother's back was ripped open in an instant, and he was badly injured. He told us to pull the escape route first. When Piao Ba Zi established the Tomb Raiders' Sect, he made a rule that if you were to enter the underground and encounter danger, someone must pull the escape route first."

As they were talking, Chu Ba pulled a leather pouch from his waist, took a swig of wine, and continued with a touch of melancholy, "You know how desperate people are in this world. If we all stayed in the pit (the ancient tomb), the old and young outside wouldn't be able to survive. Piao Ba Zi made this rule because he didn't want the whole army to be wiped out. But I know that although he appears calm on the surface, he's actually more heartbroken than anyone else. When Jiu Di decided to stay, we hardened our hearts and ran to the middle of the cocoon-like mound. Who knew that when we entered the crevice, there was a huge green python inside. That green python was powerful, and at that time, Piao Ba Zi's poison was acting up. He was worried and said that you would be in danger, so he told me to come and find you immediately. In the Tomb Raiders, Piao Ba Zi's words are military orders. We were under his command, so we naturally had to obey. So, I endured the pain in my heart and came to find you."

Chu Ba chuckled bitterly as he spoke, "But the journey wasn't smooth. The pits and ravines were full of traps and malevolent spirits used to guard tombs. After surviving by the skin of my teeth, I managed to escape, but accidentally slipped through a crevice and fell into the water. Just as I was recovering, I heard you shouting something. I called back, but you couldn't hear me. I waited a long time and noticed small whirlpools in the water. I guessed there was something mysterious inside, so I went into the water, and that's when I found you..."

After hearing what Chu Ba said, my heart sank deeper and deeper. Thinking of how our ancestors were still thinking of us even when they were suffering from the poison, I don't know why, but my nose suddenly felt sore.

On the eighth day, after drinking a few mouthfuls of wine in silence, he asked me what had happened to Chen Tiao and the Little Celestial Master. I took a sip from his wine jar and then told him everything that had happened to us.

He and Chen Yu were drinking buddies, and they got along well. When he learned that Chen Yu was in danger, he said, "Well, he is indeed a man of character, worthy of being a close friend. It's just a pity that he can't..." He couldn't finish his sentence.

The three of us were still grieving. For the next steps, Bao Cai and I decided to follow Chu Ba's lead. Chu Ba nodded in agreement, saying, "If the chief clerk isn't dead, he'll definitely find a way to catch up with us. Let's go to the main coffin chamber and retrieve some funerary items; otherwise, this trip will have been in vain, and everyone who died will have died for nothing."

Bao Cai naturally agreed to the decision, but I had no good feelings towards that dark place. Thinking back to my original intention of coming here, I was to help my benefactor find Wang Yu's remains and bring them back, but in the end I only got his name tag. However, I had told the little Taoist priest that if he didn't come to find us, I would go back to find him, and even if something really happened to him, I would still bring his body out of the ancient tomb.

The ancient tomb was fraught with danger, so we decided to rest and recuperate in this peaceful place. My watch shows 21:19 PM. This is our second night here since entering the tomb. We haven't eaten anything during this time, but we've exhausted our strength to survive. Now, filling our stomachs is the most important thing, but in the chaos of battle, we've used up everything we could eat. The only thing we can eat now is the blind fish we saw earlier. However, every place has its own specialties. Blind fish have no eyes, but they are more agile than any other fish. Bao Cai and I tried to pounce on them several times, but to no avail. Fortunately, Chu Ba was there. He let us rest while he used his nimble hands to catch a few fish. Under his sharp knife, these fish became delicious sashimi, with a slightly sweet taste.

After giving me some food, Chu Ba washed my wounds with clean water and then used a knife to cut away the rotten flesh. I endured the pain, but watching those disgusting layers of flesh disappear, I felt a sense of relief. Thankfully, Chu Ba still had some Prunella vulgaris (a type of herb) on him. He said that when digging graves, they would bring their own herbs for bruises and sprains, storing them in bamboo jars. Seeing the sealed bamboo jars, I thought of the Miao shaman; I wondered if she was still alive…

We talked about those strange people. Chu Ba said he was glad he didn't encounter them, otherwise he would have torn them to pieces to avenge Chen Yi and Liang Jiu. I said these strange people are all sinister and don't look easy to deal with. I've only encountered two, but there might be more. If I really did encounter them, they would be even more troublesome than skeletons because they have minds and can use Gu and Gu techniques.

However, Chu Ba was also a passionate man, much like his ancestor in some ways—both were fearless. He said, "Whoever they are, if they block my path or harm my brothers, I will surely kill them."

Upon hearing this, I felt a greater appreciation for Chu Ba. I thought to myself that if I had such courage and bravery, I might be able to change something. However, I had only just entered the underground world and was still inexperienced. It was already a stroke of luck that I was still alive.

It was 05:23 a.m. the next morning. What should have been a sleepless night turned into a deep sleep for Bao Cai and me. Chu Ba stayed up all night watching over us, compiling our escape route and discussing our next move.

Because the main coffin chamber is at the top, we don't go through the groundwater. Bao Cai was naturally happy to hear that we wouldn't have to fall into the water, but climbing up through the inverted funnel-shaped gap with its sloping tubular opening was undoubtedly dangerous, and the distance looked at least twenty meters high.

Chu Ba had a solution to this problem. He stripped clothes from the pile of corpses, rinsed them in clean water, then cut them open with a knife and wrung them out. The cloth was wet, so it wouldn't tear easily.

The first to go up was Chuba. He met us from above, secured the rope, and then called us up. Baocai is a very good climber. Before, when there was no food at Old Wang's house, he climbed trees to pick wild fruits and was quite skilled.

At this moment, he was as agile as a monkey. I smiled bitterly to myself. This was no Liu Baocai, who would make a fuss over the slightest thing.

However, the higher up it went, the more difficult it became. The top was a sloping, narrow opening, the most difficult tubular section of the funnel to traverse. Bao Cai, who had been able to climb just moments before, suddenly switched to a wall-hugging crawl.

He hadn't crawled more than a few steps when he seemed to sense something amiss. Bao Cai propped himself up with his hands, looked at his chest, and upon seeing it, he screamed. He suddenly rose from the wall, his head slamming against another crevice in the wall. In an instant, he lost control and slid down the sloping wall, the strip of cloth carrying him as he crashed into the funnel-like wall he had just been on. He was dazed from the impact, and after regaining some clarity, he frantically patted his chest, as if he had encountered something terrifying.