Ancient tomb excavation traces

Beside the fire, the young Taoist priest put a piece of artichoke in his mouth, chewed it up, and applied it to Bao Cai's bleeding buttocks. Although Bao Cai cried out "Ouch!", the herb clearly brought a bit of coolness to his wound, because his lewd face revealed a shameless expression.

To avoid abruptly finding out why the young Taoist priest had come, I chatted with him for a while. He told me that his name was Zhang Zhuyi, his patriarch was Zhang Daoling, the founder of the Celestial Masters sect, and that his specialty was exorcism and warding off evil spirits.

I initially found it amusing, thinking his miraculous feats stemmed from the ignorance of ancient people. But since he saved me, I couldn't show disrespect. After some thought, with a hint of admiration, I asked him, "Was the old lady possessed by an evil spirit? And your magic cured her?"

Zhang Zhuyi nodded, then shook his head, saying, "The reason that old woman was like this wasn't because she was possessed, but because the men in her family had died. She was heartbroken and bound by her grief. I couldn't help but use some tricks with talismans to unlock her inner shackles."

Hearing what the young Taoist priest said, I was a little surprised. I didn't expect him to be so honest, and then I said, "So, that old lady wasn't possessed at all, she was just overthinking it?"

The young Taoist priest nodded, and I then understood that many times, to deal with inner demons, one only needs to exploit the weaknesses inherent in human nature and address the root cause.

"By the way, you just said that the men in their family are all gone, what happened?" I asked him. At this moment, the wind was blowing the flames, as if an unseen shadow was controlling them. I shivered. Obviously, it was not appropriate to discuss the topic of "death" in an open space, because the cool breeze and the incessant chirping of insects made me feel uneasy.

The young Taoist priest looked at me carefully, and after considering it for a moment, he sighed and said, "The men in their family died in an ancient tomb."

"What!" I exclaimed in surprise, thinking I had misheard.

The young Taoist priest seemed to have anticipated my reaction, so he didn't even look at me and continued, "Aunt Liu's illness stems from her feeling that her husband disturbed the people sleeping underground, so she was punished, and this punishment extended to her. That's why she's always suspicious and feels that something terrible is following her."

"They all died in the ancient tomb, how do you know that?" At this moment, Bao Cai, who was lying nearby, couldn't help but interject.

"It was Aunt Liu's daughter, Cui'er, who told me that the Liu family was originally poor in Xijian Village. In order to survive, three of the men in the family went into the forest with two tomb raiders. Aunt Liu had been waiting for them to return, but in the end, only one of them, a man named Ge Yun, escaped."

"Ge Yun!" I was shocked. It turned out that the male member of the Liu family was one of the five people in the group! At this moment, even Bao Cai was shocked and sat up.

The young Taoist priest hadn't expected such a strong reaction. He looked at us with a strange expression and then asked, "Do you know him?"

I wanted to say I didn't know him, but in fact, Ge Yun organized that grave robbing. Now, all six people who were involved at the time, including Ge San, are dead. If I tell the truth, the little Taoist will know that we went to rob a grave. After thinking it over, I shook my head.

The young Taoist priest looked at us suspiciously, clearly not believing us. Bao Cai, whether trying to change the subject or genuinely afraid, said we shouldn't discuss such chilling topics after just experiencing a life-or-death situation that night. However, since it involved Ge San's younger brother and our benefactor's son, I still wanted to understand, so I asked the young priest to continue. The young priest hesitated for a moment before continuing, "After Ge Yun came out, he gave Cui'er some money and told her about the deaths of the men in her family in the ancient tomb. Initially, Aunt Liu thought Ge Yun wanted to keep all the artifacts in the tomb for himself, so he killed her family members. But later, because of a single sentence and reaction from Ge Yun, she abandoned that idea."

"What did you say?" I asked, puzzled.

The young Taoist priest looked at me meaningfully and said, "The living are dead, and the dead are alive..."

"The living are dead, the dead are alive?" I repeated it, a strange feeling creeping into my temples, making them throb. With a hint of fear, I asked the young Taoist priest, "What does this mean?"

The young Taoist priest replied, "Cui'er told me that her mother asked Ge Yun what that sentence meant, but Ge Yun repeated it in a strange, eerie tone. He kept saying something about a curse, that anyone who went in would suffer the tomb owner's revenge, that those who died inside would be reborn, and that in the end, their bodies would rot and become the tomb's guardians!"

Rebirth? Decay? Guardian? Hearing these three words sent a chill down my spine. I thought of those seven tomb raiders, lying on the ground for no apparent reason, their bodies like rotting corpses… I wondered: Could it be… could it be that these ancient and modern people who became corpses share some commonality, and that they all encountered some strange event before they died? I glanced at Bao Cai in disbelief, and Bao Cai looked at me with the same puzzled expression.

If our journey through time was indeed caused by that strange stone gate, then the place we'd be going to next might be the Chu tomb that modern tomb raiders entered. According to our current timeline, that ghost gate is still in the same place, and we might be able to return to the modern era through it.

I calmed my turbulent emotions and then casually said to the young Taoist priest, "No wonder you said Aunt Liu felt that Ge Yun wasn't greedy for treasures anymore. It seems he suffered some kind of shock, which caused him to lose his mind." I tried to avoid topics about the dead being reborn or turning into corpses at night, because it was too creepy, as if several figures would suddenly emerge from the darkness and silently take our lives.

The young Taoist priest nodded. I bit my lip, thought for a moment, and, taking advantage of the current depth of our conversation, asked the question that had been nagging at me: "Little Celestial Master, there's a question I've wanted to ask you for a long time."

The young Taoist priest tossed a dry branch into the fire. The fire subsided for a moment, then began to rise again, making his features appear even more profound in the light. He said, "Ask away!"

I could tell he seemed prepared, and without beating around the bush, he went straight to the point: "Why are you in this woods in the middle of the night?"

The young Taoist priest smiled upon hearing this, turned to me, and said, "Because I'm going to the same place as you... just with different purposes..."

The same place? An ancient tomb!

Upon hearing this, I shuddered, considered my words for a moment, and said, "So, you already knew why we came here."

The young Taoist priest nodded, as if to say, "Of course!"

My expression changed slightly, and I said in a deep voice, "What is your purpose?"

The young Taoist priest smiled slightly and said naturally, "After hearing about the fate of the men of the Liu family, I became very curious about the ferocious creature in that ancient tomb, so I came into the mountains to find out what happened to the Liu family."

Upon hearing this, Bao Cai chuckled and said, "You little Taoist priest, you're quite the inquisitive one, running off to an ancient tomb to figure out things that have absolutely nothing to do with you. Isn't that just a waste of time?"

Upon hearing this, the young Taoist priest stood up, dusted off the dirt behind him, and said, "There are too many things in life that cannot be explained. Once you understand them, your heart will be at peace. But did you two go to the ancient tomb seeking wealth?"

"Sort of, but not entirely..." I said.

"What do you mean by that?" The young Taoist priest looked down at me.

"You know we live in a chaotic world, and we need to survive. Besides the three members of the Liu family and Ge Yun, who you know, another person who went into the tomb was Wang Yu, the son of my benefactor. He also lost his life inside. So I want to go into the tomb to find his body so that he can return to his homeland. But now Ge Yun's brother, Ge San, is dead. I don't know what Wang Yu looks like, nor do I know how to get to the ancient tomb," I said helplessly.

The young Taoist priest looked at me with some disbelief and said, "That's quite a coincidence..."

"Who says otherwise..." I chuckled dryly. The ancient tomb, Wang Yu, Ge Yun, the male members of the Liu family, and the three of us now seemed to be bound together by some force.

The young Taoist priest sat down beside me again, exclaiming, "I never expected Brother Feng to be so sentimental!" His eyes held a hint of admiration as he continued, "Brothers, although I don't know the way to that ancient tomb, if you trust me, I can locate the burial site!"

Upon hearing this, I was taken aback at first, but then I was overjoyed. I thought that Zhang Zhuyi was a disciple of a master and had some impressive skills, so it would be a good thing for me if he could find the Chu Tomb.

However, Bao Cai, who was standing nearby, muttered, "I'm not going. I already have such a hole in my body from the man-eating vine. If I go and die a horrible death like the Liu family, that would be such a waste!"

Seeing Bao Cai's reluctant expression, I smiled at the young Taoist priest, then lowered my voice and said to Bao Cai, "We have to go to that Chu tomb! We must go! Only in this way can we find out if this tomb and the stone gate we encountered in modern times came from the same tomb!" Just when all hope was about to be lost, a young Taoist priest who knew the way appeared out of nowhere. How could I give up?

Bao Cai looked up at me, scoffed, and said, "If I die like those people, all the problems will be buried in the ground."

Seeing his cowardly appearance, I couldn't help but get angry. I stood up and said, "You stay here if you're not going. Once we get the funerary objects, I'll go and dump them myself!"

When it came to money, Bao Cai reacted exceptionally quickly. He blinked a few times and said with a grin, "No, young master, I'll go... I'll go!"