Tomb raiders: You stole my little Qilin?

"Could we be going the wrong way?" Wu Xie squatted on a rock, zooming in and out of the photos on his phone several times.

Xie Yuchen traced the route in the air with his finger: "The direction is right, the proportions are right, it should be around here."

Exhausted, Fatty Wang found a shady spot under a tree to sit down and chugged half a bottle of water. "Were the ancients playing a joke on us? Even marking a spot involves hide-and-seek?"

Wu Wei didn't speak. He slowly walked around the center of that area, his gaze sweeping over every inch of the ground and rock walls.

Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the tree canopy overhead, casting dappled patterns on the ground.

Wu Wei suddenly noticed that the distribution of light spots in the area beneath his feet was somewhat strange.

The light spots in other areas were scattered randomly, except for a small area near the rock wall where the light spots were arranged in a straight line.

Wu Wei walked over, reached out and brushed aside the thick layer of fallen leaves, and discovered a stone trough embedded in the ground underneath.

The stone trough was about two fingers wide and was completely filled with soil and gravel, with a layer of moss on the surface that was similar in color to the surrounding ground.

At the end of the stone trough, the bottom of the rock wall was completely covered by a dense vine.

"Come help."

Wu Wei called Fatty and Wu Xie over, and the three of them worked together to pry open the vines, revealing a narrow crevice in the rock behind them.

On the side wall of the rock crevice, a third mark was clearly carved.

"Hiding in a place like this, aren't you afraid you won't even be able to find it yourself?" Fatty Wang poked his head in for a look, then pulled it back out.

"Who would want someone else to find their tomb?" Xie Yuchen smiled and peered into the crevice in the rock using the light from his phone.

Wu Wei added, "Of course, a king's tomb should be hidden as concealed as possible. If a main road is built leading to the tomb, wouldn't that be openly telling others to rob it?"

The light and shadow path on the parchment forks after the third mark.

One line extends to the upper left, and the other goes to the lower right. The two lines meet again in the middle and then continue forward.

This means that no matter which path you take, you will reach the same destination.

The problem is, they searched for a long time near the third marker and only found the path that went to the upper left.

There wasn't a trace of the road in the lower right corner.

Wu Xie was puzzled. "This isn't right. There should be two paths."

Wu Wei held the sheepskin scroll up in the sunlight again to examine it carefully.

He noticed several subtle shadows on the light and shadow lines in the lower right corner, like some broken points, almost transparent.

Wu Wei squatted down and used his finger to draw a line on the ground along the light and shadow path in the lower right corner, extending all the way to the foot of the rock wall.

Then, moving further up the rock face, my finger poked a loose rock.

The rock looked like it blended seamlessly with the surrounding rock face, but when Wu Wei exerted force, it dented inwards a bit.

Wu Wei glanced back, and the three of them stepped forward and pushed a stone to reveal a hole behind them, just big enough for one person to pass through sideways.

The cave entrance was pitch black, and a cool, damp air wafted out, carrying the smell of damp earth and stones.

"There's a hidden door!"

The fat man compared his own size to the narrow space and said, "It's so narrow, I'm afraid I'll get stuck if I go in."

After discussing it, the four of them decided to split into two groups to avoid missing anything.

Wu Wei and Wu Xie took the secret passage in the lower right, while Wang Pangzi and Xie Yuchen took the path in the upper left. After confirming the markers on both sides, they met at the intersection.

The dark and narrow path was more suitable for the two slender brothers.

"Call me if anything happens." Wu Wei put his phone back in his pocket and checked the battery level.

"What do we do if there's no signal?" Fatty Wang took out his phone and waved it. The screen showed only one bar of signal, which was intermittent.

"Then shout it out," Wu Xie joked.

The two groups separated at the third marker.

Wu Wei squeezed into the secret passage, with Wu Xie following behind. The two walked in one after the other.

The passage was narrower than it appeared from the outside, with the stone walls on both sides almost touching your shoulders. With each step, you could feel the rustling sound of your clothes rubbing against the rocks.

The flashlight beam was compressed into a thin column of light in the narrow space, illuminating the stone wall in front.

After walking about fifty meters, the dark passage suddenly opened up and turned into a small stone chamber.

The stone chamber was empty, with a stone pillar standing in the center, its surface covered with densely packed symbols.

Wu Wei shone his flashlight around and recognized that the symbols and the text on the parchment scrolls were from the same system, resembling some kind of sacrificial prayer.

At the top of the stone pillar was a stone box. Wu Xie stood on tiptoe and tried to reach it, but couldn't.

Wu Wei found two flat stones nearby to stand on, stepped on them, and took the stone box down.

The stone box was unlocked. Inside, there was a palm-sized bronze plaque. The surface of the plaque was rusted, and a bird-shaped pattern with outstretched wings could be vaguely seen.

"What is this?" Wu Xie took the bronze plaque and examined it from all angles.

Wu Wei carefully examined the patterns on the bronze plaque and recalled the contents of the parchment scroll.

The royal family of Wei Kingdom claimed to be "descendants of the divine bird".

"It might be some kind of credential; it should be useful." Wu Wei carefully put the bronze medal into his pocket.

"Go out first and meet up with them."

The two emerged from the other end of the secret passage, waited for a while, and then met up with Xie Yuchen and Fatty Wang, who were taking the route to the upper left.

There were no problems over there; it was a straight road leading to the end. But along the way, they discovered a hollowed-out stone wall filled with shattered pottery shards.

"What a waste of time." Fatty Wang dusted himself off, looking annoyed.

"We only found one bronze medal." Xie Yuchen handed the bronze medal in his hand to Wu Wei.

Wu Wei took out the bronze medal from his pocket; it was exactly the same!

The two looked at each other, their eyes conveying the same message: the entrance to this imperial tomb must be nearby.

Fatty Wang complained, "Others build tombs, he builds a maze."

"The more complex the explanation, the more important it is."

Wu Wei pressed his arm; his right arm, which had just had its cast removed, was still a little sore after a while.

Wu Xie noticed Wu Wei rubbing his arm and walked over to hand him the remaining half-bottle of water: "Brother, is your hand alright?"

"It's nothing." Wu Wei took the water, drank a few sips, and shook his head.

Continuing to follow the route on the parchment, after crossing the fourth marker, the group arrived at a depression surrounded by three rock walls.

The terrain here is low-lying, and the ground is covered with a thick layer of gravel and dead branches, which crunch underfoot.

On the opposite rock face, a stone gate is embedded in the rock, with a huge, lifelike bas-relief of a bird with outstretched wings carved on its surface.

Moss grew at the joint between the bottom of the stone gate and the rock wall, but the joint looked like it had been broken.

There were some footprints on the ground that hadn't faded.

"Someone has been here."

Xie Yuchen immediately became alert.