From Under One Person: Sincere Journey Through the Heavens

"Young hero, you also recognize ancient seal script?"

After yesterday's encounter, Chen Yulou was extremely impressed with Jiang Liu's abilities, but he was unwilling to lose face in front of him, especially since his brothers had worked so hard for so long. He couldn't just give up now, otherwise his prestige would be greatly affected.

"I don't recognize it, but I've seen similar seal script characters before."

"In fact, the tombstones of the Yuan people also used ancient seal script."

Once Chen Yulou realized that Jiang Liu didn't recognize the characters and had only seen similar ones in books or elsewhere, he calmed down and began to spout nonsense in a serious tone, "When the Yuan people entered the Central Plains and established a dynasty, they also had to learn our Han people's writing system, otherwise they would not have been able to rule the Han people at all."

"That's true."

Jiang Liu had to admit that the civilization nurtured by the land of China was indeed unique. Even though it was occupied by barbarians, in order to manage the people on this land, they had to gradually "Sinicize" and become part of the Chinese civilization.

Besides this, outsiders have no other choice but to either leave or choose a more resolute path—

Extinction of the race!

Looking back at that period of history from his past life, Jiang Liu realized that some insightful individuals among the other powerful nations might indeed have understood this point and chosen the path of extermination, only to fail...

"Load the explosives!"

Luo Laowai couldn't wait any longer. With a single command, the unloading warriors and engineers who had been busy for most of the day were all excited. They drilled holes in the tomb door, stuffed in explosives, and moved clusters of explosives to the front of the tomb door, setting the fuses. They thought that if they could blast open the tomb door and enter, they could harvest a large number of funerary objects, sell them to foreigners, and obtain a lot of money and opium.

No matter how well Chen Yulou disguised his expression, Jiang Liu noticed something was wrong and realized that the content written on the tomb door was definitely not the name or deeds of the tomb owner.

But by then the fuse had already been lit, and all they could do was wait for the tomb door to be blown open.

Boom!

As the explosives took effect, a plume of grayish-white smoke shot straight into the sky, and a tremendous boom echoed throughout the Old Bear Ridge area, cracking the tombstone.

"Explosives are still the best! Haha!"

Luo Laowai immediately led the engineering battalion into the still-smoldering smoke, ordering them to move the rubble that had been blasted out, but he himself dared not rush in directly, fearing the traps and mechanisms inside.

After the rubble was cleared away, a passage about two zhang high was revealed. It was pitch black inside, but roughly square in shape.

Judging from its direction, it should extend underground into Ping Mountain.

"Young Master Jiang, are there any poisonous insects in here?" Chen Yulou dared not be presumptuous and asked Jiang Liu, the "expert," for his opinion, just in case.

If there are poisonous insects inside, like on that mountain, we should wait until they use their abilities to eliminate the centipedes, earth dragons, and the like first.

"No."

The river's energy circulated throughout the heavens, reversing in all directions. Using its own magnetic field to search, it indeed found no living creatures within.

Even after learning that there were no poisonous insects, Chen Yulou did not dare to relax. He beckoned to the Unloading Ridge Warriors and asked them to bring some cages containing pigeons.

Releasing pigeons to explore the tomb passage can help eliminate some of the traps and mechanisms.

After the pigeons returned, the Unloading Ridge Warriors put them back in the cage. However, Chen Yulou did not allow anyone to enter immediately. Instead, he summoned eight more Unloading Ridge Warriors, had them stand back to back, each holding a straw shield, forming a semi-circular sphere, and entered the passage to conduct a second exploration.

As the eight people stepped into the tomb passage and walked about ten meters, streams of acid sprayed out from the animal mouth decorations on both sides of the passage, corroding the surface of the straw shields, emitting puffs of white smoke, and producing a pungent odor.

Fortunately, the straw shield of the Unloading Ridge Warriors was extraordinary. The straw inside was soaked in water and sewn with multiple layers of leather, with a total of twelve layers inside and out. It would not burn when exposed to fire and would not be damaged by nitrates.

However, there are not enough grass shields, not enough for everyone, and the acid sprays from both sides of the tomb passage. If there is no full protection, some damage is inevitable.

"It seems that the mechanism is inside the walls on both sides and is connected to a mechanism-like structure at the bottom of this tomb passage. It doesn't matter if we fly in, but if we walk in, the pressure on the tomb passage will trigger the mechanism at the bottom, causing acid to spray out from both sides of the tomb passage." After thinking for a while, Chen Yulou also thought of a way to solve the mechanism.

Since the tomb owner built such a tomb passage, there must be a way to break the mechanism and allow people to pass through. Presumably, once you reach the end of the tomb passage and explore around, you will be able to find the mechanism to stop the acid spray.

Otherwise, the only option would be to deplete the acid in the walls of the tomb passage.

But this was clearly a foolish idea—according to Chen Yulou’s estimation, since the tomb owner built this tomb passage, which resembled a city gate, to deal with a large number of tomb robbers, the acid stored in the walls of the tomb passage must have been considerable.

"Young heroes, could you please lend me a hand?"

Luo Laowai said with a chuckle.

"I won't help."

Li Muxuan loved to contradict others, and besides, he had no liking for Luo Laowai whatsoever, so he naturally rejected him immediately with a cold laugh.

Lu Jin remained silent.

Luo Laowai's face twitched when he was rejected, but he could only force a smile and dared not get angry.

"Jiang Xingzhe?"

The girl in red asked Jiang Liu.

"Let's try to understand each other. I can understand that you want to expand your power and take care of your family, but I also hope you know that the three of us still have to survive in the world of supernatural beings and we still have to take care of our reputation. If word gets out that we're going into tombs with you, other supernatural beings will laugh at us and despise us... You could say that we've already made up our minds to be with you, so please don't ask for anything more."

Jiang Liuyi refused righteously, "Besides, Commander Luo has already said that we only need to be responsible for eliminating the poisonous insects and that earth dragon king."

Therefore, we will not interfere too much in other aspects; at most, we will learn from you.

At most, we will offer assistance if your people are in danger, and will do our best to save their lives. Of course, we will protect Mr. Chen's safety!

Upon hearing this...

Chen Yulou opened his mouth, but hesitated, and could only send Kunlun, the most courageous among them, to the end of the tomb passage.

He gifted Jiang Liu, Lu Jin, and Li Muxuan each a weapon... He didn't want them to repay this favor so easily, since they might encounter even more dangerous situations later, so he had to keep it in case of emergency!

# Chapter 141 Fake Tomb?

Under Jiang Liu's gaze, Kunlun donned an overcoat made of the same material as the grass shield, making his already tall frame appear even more bulky.

He strode into the passage, and the acid sprayed from the animal mouth reliefs on both sides of the wall hit his coat, emitting wisps of foul-smelling white smoke, but it did not harm him in the slightest.

Boom boom boom!

He took three steps and leaped into the air. Despite his heavy body, he was not clumsy. He stepped onto the grass shield formed by the eight people in front of him and jumped to the front, arriving at the end of the passage first.

At the end of the tomb passage was a stone door, with a chain connecting the left and right sides, the ends of which passed through square holes on both sides of the tomb passage. Apart from that, there was nothing else that looked like a mechanism.

Then, Kunlun shouted loudly, drew a cleaver from his waist, focused his Qi in his Dantian, and swung it down with all his might.

Ding!

He cut the fist-thick chain, which shrank into the square holes on both sides of the tomb passage, and the animal mouth reliefs that sprayed acid immediately became ineffective.

"Truly worthy of being called Kunlun!"

Seeing that the acid-dissolving mechanism had stopped, Chen Yulou was overjoyed, praised Kunlun, and led the group into the tomb passage.

Jiang Liu, who had entered the tomb passage, placed his hand on the wall, released his magnetic field, and let it penetrate through, giving it a slight tremor.

Click! Click! Click!

A sound similar to breaking glass echoed from within the walls, accompanied by a hissing sound, like metal being corroded.

What's going on here?

Red Girl was filled with doubt and surprise.

"The container holding the acid was destroyed."

After Jiang Liu finished speaking, he walked to the other side of the wall and performed the same operation. "What was sprayed out just now was acid, so the container must have been made of ceramic or glass, which is fragile."

To prevent it from activating again when we come out later, we should destroy this mechanism completely.

If you're so capable, why didn't you do it just now?

Chen Yulou wanted to complain, but he held back in the end and just flattered him, saying, "Brother Xingzhe is really amazing. This skill of hitting a cow across a mountain is something that ordinary people can't learn in less than twenty years."

"For us, having mastered the nine orifices and the eight meridians, possessing such abilities, is merely the basic skill for beginners," Li Muxuan said with a disdainful smile.

"Truly worthy of being called a divine being who cultivates in the mountains!"

This made Chen Yulou feel awkward for a moment, but fortunately he was good at talking and easily turned the matter around, and came with the others to the second tomb door at the end of the tomb passage.

Unlike the first tomb door at the entrance of the tomb passage, the gap in the middle of this second tomb door was not sealed with molten lead or iron, and it was only about half a meter thick. Seven or eight adults could push it open with force.

"Generally speaking, tomb doors aren't opened so easily unless the tomb's occupant wants someone to come in..."

Thinking of the ancient seal script inscriptions on the first tomb door, Chen Yulou felt a bad feeling.

But now that we're in, how can we go out again?

We should at least obtain one or two artifacts to make our brothers' hard work worthwhile.

When the second tomb door was pushed open, a secret chamber, roughly the size of two or three basketball courts, came into view. It was surrounded by city walls and looked like a small city, except that there were no models of houses or buildings in the city, only nine coffins.

There was one large coffin and eight smaller ones. The eight smaller coffins were arranged according to the eight trigrams, guarding the larger coffin in the center. The larger coffin was suspended in mid-air by four chains, which was quite peculiar.

Chen Yulou, being cautious, left over two hundred people outside while he and Luo Laowai led thirty to fifty people, along with Jiang Liu and his group, into the peculiar tomb to investigate.

Torches were lit, illuminating the room and allowing everyone to see the surroundings more clearly.

Around the nine coffins lay a large pile of skeletons, and judging from their rotten clothing, they must have been Miao people from the Laoxiongling area.

Upon closer inspection, there were over a hundred of them!

And in the innermost circle near the eight coffins, there were twenty-four fist-sized bronze animal models: koi, otter, oriole, swallow, spotted dove, hoopoe, black-spotted green frog, silkworm moth, mantis, cicada, cricket, firefly, silkworm, eagle, wild goose, crab, white-crowned bird, jackal, white peacock, red-crowned crane, Siberian tiger, elk, magpie, and bald eagle.

Each animal was inscribed with strange runes, similar to talismans.

"Brothers, charge! Open the coffin!"

Luo Laowai instructed the engineers to ignore the skeletons on the ground and the twenty-four bronze animal models, and instead open the eight coffins.

"and many more!"

Chen Yulou keenly heard some noises and shouted, but it was too late; one of the coffins had already been opened.

However, the imagined mechanism was not triggered, and the coffin was empty, with neither a corpse nor any burial objects.

"empty?"

The group gasped in surprise.

Chen Yulou leaned closer to take a look and indeed found nothing in the coffin. He frowned deeply, and he had never heard of the arrangement of the coffins before.

Who would arrange a coffin according to the Bagua (Eight Trigrams) method?

At this moment, the two bandits opened the second coffin, which, like the first, was empty.

"Damn it! Could we have been tricked by the tomb owner? Are all these coffins actually empty?" Old Luo cursed angrily.

Chen Yulou ignored it, gazing at the main coffin suspended by four chains, pondering that this might be a fake tomb, and that to enter the real tomb, he would first have to decipher the mechanisms here.