Tomb raiding live stream: Starting as the mute Zhang

The platform was silent.

The wind rustled the vines on the rock face. The circular pattern carved into the stone was particularly clear in the afternoon light. The mountain-shaped symbol at the center, with its rough lines, looked as if it had been carved out with some sharp tool.

"Gatekeeper..." Professor Zhou Xu'an repeated the word, his finger unconsciously pushing up his glasses. "Mr. Xie, what do you mean by gatekeeper? Someone who guards a tomb? Or some kind of religious position?"

Xie Linyuan kept his eyes closed and did not answer.

He sat on a flat rock in the center of the platform, his black-gold ancient sword resting across his knees. It seemed that the words he had just spoken weren't his, or perhaps he had forgotten them immediately after saying them.

Liu Desheng couldn't help but say, "Hey, explain yourself! What do you mean by 'gatekeeper'? Whose gate are you guarding? The tomb gate?"

Kun Ge aimed his live stream ball at the rock face pattern, and the chat exploded with comments:

[ID archaeology enthusiast: I've never seen this pattern before!]

[ID Semiotics Student: It resembles some kind of family crest or totem]

[ID Conspiracy Theorist: The Gatekeeper...sounds suspicious]

[ID: Terrified! Goosebumps!]

Lin Guoce put down the walkie-talkie. The signal was too weak, and the transmission was interrupted. He walked to the rock wall and carefully examined the pattern. His fingertips brushed along the edge of the engraving, feeling the rough texture of the weathering.

"It's carved very deeply," he said. "It wasn't carved casually. It was repeatedly chiseled with tools."

"And the location is very well hidden," Jiang Shouyi added. "If Zhou Hao hadn't been so observant, and if it weren't for the vines covering it, he wouldn't have been able to find it at all."

Zhou Hao scratched his head: "I just noticed that the vine looked a little different... it looked like it was deliberately covered up."

Xu Jiashu held his damp book, his eyes darting back and forth between the illustrations and the pages. The illustration in the corner of the page he had turned to did indeed resemble the original, but the details differed. The illustrations on the book were more intricate, with a ring of fine runes surrounding the circle.

He opened his mouth as if to say something, but then held it back.

"Let's continue cleaning." Professor Zhou Xu'an took out a small brush and shovel from his bag and began to carefully clean the moss and dirt around the pattern.

Chen Man and Wang Yihan helped hold up the vines. Kun Ge held up his phone to provide illumination.

Xie Linyuan opened his eyes and watched their actions.

His fingers tapped lightly on the hilt of the knife. Once, twice, three times. The rhythm was slow.

The cleanup was slow. The rock face was severely weathered, and even slight pressure could damage the carvings. Twenty minutes later, the pattern was fully revealed.

In addition to the central circle and mountain-shaped symbol, there is a line of very faint inscription below the circle.

The handwriting has been almost worn away by time, and only a few strokes can be barely made out.

"This is... seal script?" Zhou Xu'an squinted and took out a magnifying glass.

Jiang Shouyi leaned closer: "It's not all seal script. Some characters look like variants... I can't understand them."

Lin Guoce looked at Xie Linyuan: "Mr. Xie, do you know him?"

Xie Linyuan stood up and walked to the rock wall.

He glanced at the line of text, his gaze lingering on a particular character for a moment.

"No need to look," he said.

"Why?" Zhou Xu'an asked.

"The characters were carved later," Xie Linyuan pointed to the edge of the carving. "They're lighter than the pattern, and the tools used are different. Someone tried to interpret the pattern, but gave up halfway through."

Everyone looked closely. Indeed, the engravings on the text were much shallower than the patterns, and the edges were rougher, as if they had been ground from ordinary stone.

"Then... what's the content?" Chen Man asked softly.

Xie Linyuan remained silent for a few seconds.

"Warning," he said.

"What warning?"

Xie Linyuan did not answer. He turned around, walked back to the stone, and sat down again.

Lin Guoce and Zhou Xu'an exchanged a glance. Zhou Xu'an continued to study the incomplete text with a magnifying glass, while Lin Guoce began taking pictures and trying to make a rubbing using equipment.

Xu Jiashu finally couldn't hold back any longer.

He opened the book, pointed to that page, and said in a trembling voice, "This...this book has a similar picture! It says below...it says, 'Those who see this mark have entered the underworld. Living people should not approach.'"

"The underworld?" Liu Desheng scoffed. "Master Xu, who are you trying to scare?"

"It's true!" Xu Jiashu spread the pages of the book out. "Look!"

Zhou Xu'an took the book and carefully examined the line of small characters. The characters were written with a brush, and the ink had turned yellowish, but the writing was still clear.

"The handwriting is from the Republican era," the professor judged, "but the content... is probably a copy of earlier materials."

He looked at Xie Linyuan: "Mr. Xie, is the gatekeeper you mentioned related to this 'Netherworld'?"

Xie Linyuan looked at the valley in the distance.

"Behind the door is another world," he said. "The gatekeeper doesn't let anything out, nor does he let anyone in."

After he said that, the temperature on the platform seemed to drop a few degrees.

Wang Yihan crossed her arms: "Mr. Xie, you seem... quite knowledgeable about these things?"

Xie Linyuan shook his head: "I've heard of it."

He lied.

It wasn't hearsay, it was memory. Fragments of Zhang Qiling's memories churned in his mind. Those memories about the Bronze Gate, about the Ultimate, about the secrets guarded by the Zhang family for generations. This pattern was the mark of a certain branch. But which branch it was, the memory was incomplete.

The system hasn't given me enough room to act out the role; many deep memories haven't been unlocked yet.

Lin Guoce put away his camera: "Whatever this is, our mission remains the same. Continue towards the target area. But now..." He glanced at the sky, "It's already 3 PM. We won't be able to reach the designated campsite today."

The sky darkened. The distant mountains were shrouded in a gray mist.

"It's going to rain." Jiang Shouyi looked up at the sky. "The rain in the Qinling Mountains can start anytime."

"We'll spend the night on this platform," Lin Guoce decided. "The terrain is relatively flat, with a rock wall behind us, and we only need to be vigilant in one direction. It's safer than camping in the dense forest."

The group began to move.

They cleared the rubble from the platform and set up the tents. They had only brought three portable tents this time, so they'd have to squeeze in. Lin Guoce arranged for one tent for each man and one for each woman, and he and Xie Linyuan would take turns keeping watch so they wouldn't take up any tent space.

Xie Linyuan did not object.

---

At four o'clock in the afternoon, the rain did indeed come.

First, large raindrops pattered against the leaves. Then, a continuous curtain of rain poured down from the gray sky. Puddles quickly formed on the platform, and rainwater flowed down the rock face, washing over the carved patterns.

Everyone took refuge in tents or under the canopy.

Xie Linyuan sat on the edge of the sky, watching the rain wash over the rock face.

Rainwater seeped into the engravings of the pattern, meandering along the lines. As the water flowed past the mountain-shaped symbol in the center, he noticed something—

The angle of light reflected from certain recessed areas of the symbol after water accumulates is different.

Those weren't ordinary chisel marks. There was something inside.

The rain intensified, reducing visibility to a dozen meters. The only sounds left in the world were the rain and the wind.

Inside the tent, Kun was livestreaming, but the signal was intermittent. Chen Man and Wang Yihan were talking quietly. Liu Desheng and Zhou Hao were playing cards. Xu Jiashu was drying his book. Jiang Shouyi was fiddling with a compass, his brow furrowed.

Lin Guoce sat next to Xie Linyuan, wiping his military short blade.

"Mr. Xie," he began, "what did you do before?"

Xie Linyuan didn't look at him: "A lot of things."

"Including going into tombs?"

Xie Linyuan remained silent.

This is the default setting.

Lin Guoce continued wiping his knife: "I've seen your file. It's completely blank. Your records before the age of twenty-five are spotless. It's like... you just appeared out of thin air."

Xie Linyuan remained silent.

"I don't care about your past," Lin Guoce said. "I only care whether you can guarantee the safety of the team."

Xie Linyuan turned his head and looked at Lin Guoce.

His eyes looked particularly deep in the shadows of the rain.

"Some things can't be solved with guns," he said.

"Then what do we rely on?"

"Thanks to this." Xie Linyuan patted the black gold ancient sword on his knee.

Lin Guoce stared at the knife for a few seconds: "You saved me last night, and you saved Xu Jiashu too. I owe you a favor. But if one day you threaten the team or the mission, I will take action against you."

Xie Linyuan nodded: "Okay."

The answer was very calm, as if it wasn't about a life-or-death struggle, but rather what to have for dinner.

The sound of rain gradually subsided.

At six o'clock in the evening, the rain stopped. A dark purple gap appeared in the sky, and the setting sun shone its last rays through the clouds.

The platform was washed clean. The patterns on the rock face were even clearer when wet.

Professor Zhou Xu'an couldn't wait to step out of the tent and continue studying the incomplete text.

Xie Linyuan also walked to the rock wall.

He stretched out his hand and pressed his finger on the mountain-shaped symbol in the center of the pattern.

Press firmly along the groove of a depression.

咔。

A slight mechanical sound.

Something inside the rock wall has loosened.

Everyone heard the sound.

"What's that sound?!" Liu Desheng crawled out of the tent.

Xie Linyuan withdrew his hand.

The pattern on the rock face, with the mountain-shaped symbol in the center, slowly cracks open.

It wasn't the rock wall that cracked; it was the pattern itself—the lines of the symbol—that shifted half a centimeter to either side, revealing a hidden compartment underneath.

In the hidden compartment, there was a thin black sheet.

"This...this is a mechanism?!" Zhou Xu'an's eyes widened.

Xie Linyuan took out the thin slice. It was cool to the touch, and the material was neither stone nor jade, somewhat like obsidian, but heavier. The slice was about the size of a palm, irregularly shaped, and had worn edges.

On the front of the thin plate, there is a more intricate pattern: a circle containing intersecting mountain lines, with a dot at the center of the mountains.

There is a line of text engraved on the back.

This time the handwriting is clear.

It is ancient seal script.

Zhou Xu'an leaned closer to look and read it out word by word: "'The door is in...the heart of the mountain...the key is in...the veins of blood...' The rest was unclear."

"What do you mean?" Chen Man asked.

Jiang Shouyi's expression changed: "The heart of the mountain... refers to the center of the mountain? The vein of blood... could it be...?"

He looked at Xie Linyuan.

Xie Linyuan put the thin slice into the inner pocket of his coat.

"This is a piece of map," he said.

"Map? What map?" Lin Guoce pressed.

"Find the map of the door."

"Door? What door?"

Xie Linyuan did not answer. He walked to the edge of the platform and looked towards the valley to the northwest. The valley was shrouded in mist after the rain, but his night vision allowed him to vaguely see that the area with the unusual color of the trees, the outline of the terrain, and the lines of the mountains on the thin sheet... had similarities.

A system notification flashed through his mind, but there was no information about an increase in his acting prowess. It only confirmed that he had touched upon a crucial clue.

Xu Jiashu suddenly said, "I remember now! There's another sentence in the book! 'Gather all four black stones, and you will see the true gate!'"

He frantically flipped through the book, finally finding that page: "Look! Here! 'With the black stone as the guide, the four pieces return to their places, and the mountain gate opens by itself!'"

Zhou Xu'an took the book and looked at it. There was indeed a line of small characters written in the blank space next to the pattern.

"So there are four of these thin slices?" Zhou Hao asked.

"And we found the first piece!" Liu Desheng exclaimed excitedly. "Does that mean we're very close to the great tomb?"

"Not necessarily," Xie Linyuan said. "It might just be a signpost at the entrance."

His voice was calm, but everyone understood the subtext: finding the entrance is just the beginning.

Lin Guoce watched Xie Linyuan put away the thin slice: "Mr. Xie, that thin slice should be handed over to the archaeological team for safekeeping."

Xie Linyuan shook his head: "You can't handle it."

"What do you mean?"

"It's cursed," Xie Linyuan said casually, as if he were saying, "It's dusty." "Ordinary people who come into contact with it for too long will have nightmares and become mentally exhausted. In severe cases, they may even experience hallucinations."

Xu Jiashu was so frightened that he took two steps back.

Zhou Xu'an frowned: "A curse? There's no scientific basis for that..."

"You can give it a try." Xie Linyuan took out a thin slice from his inner bag and handed it to Zhou Xu'an.

The professor hesitated for a moment, then took it.

The thin slice felt cool to the touch. He stared at it for a few seconds, but didn't notice anything unusual.

"I'm fine..."

Before he could finish speaking, he suddenly felt dizzy. The thin slice in his hand seemed to have become heavier, and a cold sensation spread from his fingers to his arm. A very faint buzzing sound rang in his ears, like many people whispering in a distant place.

His hand trembled, and the thin slice fell to the ground.

Xie Linyuan bent down, picked it up, and put it away again.

Zhou Xu'an's face turned pale as he leaned against the rock wall, asking, "What...what was that just now?"

"A curse," Xie Linyuan repeated.

This time, no one objected.

Lin Guoce took a deep breath: "So, only you can take it?"

"I have a special physical condition," Xie Linyuan said.

This is the truth. Zhang Qiling's Qilin blood can resist many negative substances. Although he currently only has 20% of his martial prowess and his bloodline is diluted, obtaining a single piece of the Cursed Fragment is enough.

Night had completely fallen.

A campfire rose on the platform. The flickering firelight cast swaying shadows on the patterns on the rock face. The "gatekeeper's mark" seemed to come alive in the firelight.

After dinner, Lin Guoce arranged the night watch order: he would watch the first half of the night, and Xie Linyuan would watch the second half.

The others went into the tents to rest.

Xie Linyuan lay in his sleeping bag under the sky, his eyes closed, but he wasn't asleep.

He recalled the pattern on the thin film in his mind.

The heart of the mountain... the key lies in the veins of blood...

The "bloodline" likely refers to the Zhang family's Qilin blood. But where is the heart of the mountain?

Also, where are the other three thin slices?

Just how many things from "The Grave Robbers' Chronicles" and "Ghost Blows Out the Light" are hidden in this world?

And now, he is the only one in the know.

The gatekeeper's mark... Zhang Qiling was originally the gatekeeper.

What is the connection between the character he plays and the secrets of this world?

Xie Linyuan opened his eyes and looked at the rock wall above him, which was reddened by the firelight.

The pattern flickered in the firelight.

The Qilin tattoo on his shoulder blade started to get hot again.

This time, the burn was even more noticeable.

It seemed to be echoing something.

It echoes the mountain.

It echoes the secrets that have been buried here since ancient times.

Late at night.

In the deep mountains after the rain, all was quiet.

The only sound was the occasional crackling of the campfire.

And, from the very, very deep valley, came an extremely faint...

The sound of the wind?

Or was it some other sound?

Xie Linyuan sat up and gripped the hilt of the black gold ancient sword.

His night vision allowed him to see the dense forest surrounding the platform.

Something is moving in the woods.

more than one.

They are cautious and keep their distance.

But they are close.

The second attack is coming.