Tomb raiders: You stole my little Qilin?

As Xie Yuchen finished speaking, the other three also cautiously looked around.

Fatty Wang squatted down to examine the footprints: "These footprints look like they're two days old."

Wu Xie bent down to take a look and nodded: "If those people are still inside..."

"Then let's each rely on our own abilities," Wu Wei interrupted him, his tone indifferent.

Such acts of snatching food halfway through a tomb raid are nothing new in the tomb raiding business.

Wu Wei walked to the stone gate, took out the two bronze plaques from his pocket, and examined the reliefs on the gate.

The stone gate, weathered by a thousand years of wind and frost, remains perfectly embedded in the rock wall.

The mythical bird with outstretched wings occupies nearly two-thirds of the area on the facade, with its head held high and wings spread out, and every feather is carved with exquisite detail.

The two eyes of the divine bird are positioned exactly in the shape and size of two recessed slots, identical to those on the bronze plaque.

Wu Wei inserted the two bronze plates into the two grooves on the left and right respectively. With a soft "click", the bronze plates fit perfectly into the grooves.

Immediately afterwards, a series of dull creaking sounds came from inside the stone gate, as the ancient gears were reawakened.

A layer of dust settled in the crack of the door, and the heavy stone door slowly slid open inward, revealing a dark passageway.

A musty smell wafted from the depths of the passageway, dry and cold, mixed with a faint scent of rust and stone dust.

Wu Wei took out a flashlight from his backpack and stepped inside first, followed closely by Wu Xie, Xie Yuchen, and Fatty Wang.

The inner walls of the passageway are made of large bluestone slabs, and the joints between the slabs are filled with a dark-colored material, which remains perfectly sealed even after thousands of years.

Every few steps along the wall there is a groove, in which are the remnants of carbonized lamp oil.

The flashlight beam shone on the wall, and the bas-relief birds seemed to come alive in the light and shadow, appearing to rise and fall and fly on the stone wall as the beam of light moved.

The four walked very slowly, each of them on edge.

The most dangerous places in the tomb passages are often these seemingly ordinary passages, with trapdoors, pits, hidden crossbows, and poisonous smoke—any one of them could be enough to give someone a hard time.

Wu Wei held a flashlight in one hand and a short sword in the other, ready to deal with any unexpected situation.

There was a thin layer of dust on the ground, and you could vaguely see the previous footprints, which stretched deep into the tunnel without any sign of turning back.

After walking about thirty meters, a stone gatehouse appeared ahead.

Three oddly shaped characters were carved above the gate tower. Wu Wei recognized them as "Wei Wang Mausoleum".

Several broken bronze arrows lay scattered on the steps below the gate tower, their arrowheads still bearing the dark green rust, clearly traces left after some kind of mechanism was triggered.

"Someone has cleared the way for us." Fatty Wang chuckled twice when he saw the broken arrows, and his steps became lighter.

Wu Wei remained vigilant. "There's no blood."

Xie Yuchen frowned. "Not bad skills?"

Wu Wei grunted in agreement, then noticed that the area where the broken arrows were scattered was quite large, extending from the steps all the way to the inside of the gate tower, indicating that there was more than one mechanism.

"Watch your step," Wu Wei warned, stepping across the threshold first.

After entering the gatehouse, there is a spacious anteroom.

The anteroom is rectangular, with large murals painted on the four walls, the colors of which are relatively well preserved in the dark and enclosed environment.

The scene depicts a large army marching out to war, with chariots, cavalry, and infantry lined up in layers. At the very front is a person dressed in brightly colored robes, holding a bronze sword and pointing it into the distance, with a majestic posture.

In the corner of the antechamber stood four stone warrior statues, each life-size, holding a halberd, with clearly discernible patterns on their armor.

The most bizarre thing is their eyes, which are inlaid with something and have a faint, eerie glow in the darkness.

Wang Pangzi curiously leaned over to touch it, but Wu Xie grabbed him.

He shone his flashlight on the eyes of one of the stone statues. Under the beam of light, he could see more clearly that the eyes were not black, but dark red, eerie and dangerous.

At the feet of the stone statue lay several broken pottery jars and some metal fragments whose original appearance was no longer discernible, as if they had been disturbed.

Wu Wei squinted at the stone statues. He led the group around them and continued forward, passing through the antechamber and entering an even narrower tomb passage.

This tomb passage is longer than the previous one, and the reliefs on the walls on both sides have changed from depicting war to feasting and sacrifice.

Rows of kneeling figures, hands raised, bowing in the same direction.

At the end of that direction was a huge stone door, but there were no locks or handles at the door seams.

In the very center is a human figure wearing a crown, with his hands folded in front of his chest, and a groove in the middle of his palms.

Xie Yuchen walked up from behind, took the short sword from Wu Wei's hand, and probed it into the groove: "Not deep."

"You'll probably need a key."

Wu Wei held the parchment scroll in his hand and brought it close to the bronze door, aiming at the concave shape.

But the parchment was too soft and didn't match at all.

"Wait, did we forget something?" Wu Xie frowned, trying to recall which step they had missed.

Just as the three of them were at a loss around the stone door, Fatty Wang suddenly raised his hand and said, "Well, I should be able to open it."

After saying that, he picked up a piece of jade that was oval in shape and concave in the inside.

He found it while rummaging through broken pottery shards and casually put it in his pocket.

"Fatty!"

The three men spoke at the same time, staring blankly at Fatty Wang.

"Haha, hurry up and open it!"

The fat man urged him on, his voice lacking confidence, without looking at the other three.

Wu Wei took the jade piece over, and the jade was warm to the touch.

He looked at the groove on the bronze door; it was the same shape and size.

The jade piece was inserted into the groove, and with a gentle push, the stone door emitted a heavy rumble.

The door slid open slowly to both sides, and a stream of air, carrying a rich sandalwood scent, flowed out from the crack.

Behind the door is a downward-sloping staircase, with a small light shining every few steps on the walls on both sides.

The light wasn't the orange-red of a torch, but a cool, pale green, yet it made the entire space exceptionally bright.

"An everlasting lamp," Xie Yuchen said softly.

He had only seen this in ancient books. It was said to be lamp oil made from the oil of merfolk from the South China Sea mixed with some special minerals, and it could burn for thousands of years without going out.

As the group descended the steps, one of the wall lamps lit up with each step, as if something was waiting in the darkness, welcoming their arrival in this way.

The stone steps underfoot are wide and flat, and the walls on both sides are still covered with reliefs.

The content changed from a banquet to a picture of ascending to heaven, with countless winged human figures rising from the ground and gathering in layers towards the dome.

The further down you go, the cooler the air becomes, and the sandalwood scent grows stronger, almost solidifying into a tangible substance.

At the end of the steps is an arched stone gate with four ancient characters engraved on the lintel: "Eternal Bliss".

After passing through the archway, a bright and open space suddenly appeared before me.

It was an extremely spacious hall with a high dome and countless luminous pearls and gems inlaid on the four walls. Under the illumination of the ever-burning lamps, it reflected colorful light, making the entire hall magnificent.

At the very center of the dome is depicted a giant golden bird with wingspans of over ten meters, looking down at the visitors below.

In the very center of the main hall stands a huge coffin, carved entirely from a single piece of white jade.

At each of the four corners of the jade coffin stood a bronze lamppost, each lamppost burning with a pale green, ever-burning flame.

Wu Wei stared at the white jade coffin, his intuition telling him something was definitely wrong, but 999 was currently in hibernation, and the abnormal energy guide had also been lost.

A dull thud came from a corner of the main hall, followed by Fatty Wang's scream:

"Ouch! Fatty's butt's really suffering today!"

Everyone looked in the direction of the sound and saw that Fatty Wang had climbed up a wall and was reaching for the ruby ​​on it.

He slipped and fell heavily to the ground.

The wiped wall revealed some strokes of text.

Seeing this, Wu Wei took off his coat, held it in his hand, and swept it against the wall.

After the dust was wiped away, a passage of text was revealed, occupying half of the wall.

Wu Wei took out the notes he had made during the last translation of the parchment scroll, and read them aloud sentence by sentence, referring to the text on it:

"I offered my flesh and blood to the divine bird, and the divine bird granted me eternal life. Whoever enters this room..."

"All are sacrifices for me." As Wu Wei uttered the last four words, the hall fell silent for a moment.

Then, a series of fine, piercing friction sounds rang out simultaneously from all directions of the main hall.

The stone statues that had been standing quietly in the corner suddenly began to move and slowly surrounded them.