Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Meng Fuyao smiled and shook her head. “There’s no need to be so clear on who saved who,” she said as she took big strides, walking past the painting and the crystal formation to arrive at a stone wall. “Behind this door is the passageway of the tomb.”
There were strange characters on the door, though it was unknown whether it was written using cinnabar or blood. Meng Fuyao did not even raise her head and directly muttered the translation, “Those who dare to dig my tomb will die without any descendants.”
Zhan Beiye was carefully scrutinizing the Gun Tribe’s characters that were hard to understand. When he heard that line, he asked dumbfoundedly, “You can decipher the language of the Gun Tribe?”
Meng Fuyao chuckled. “All the tomb owners in the world only know this curse.”
Zhan Beiye looked at her and laughed. “I really like how silly and bold you are.”
Meng Fuyao pretended not to hear. She looked at the huge door shaft and said, “I don’t know whether the door opens inwards or outwards. Let’s give it a try.”
It turned out that the door could only be opened from the inside. Meng Fuyao inserted a dagger into the seam of the door and moved it up and down. “There is a door lintel and two jambs on both sides. It seems like there’s also a lock that is quite complicated,” she said.
She reached out her hand and ordered, “Fatty! The crowbar!”
There was only silence behind her. Meng Fuyao froze for a moment and remembered what she just said. For a while, she was a bit confused, and as she turned her head, she met the peculiar gazes of the people behind her.
Meng Fuyao twitched her mouth and embarrassingly said, “Slip of the tongue, slip of the tongue… ”
Two soldiers handed over two awls and asked, “Do these work?”
“I will make do with it,” Meng Fuyao replied as she used the tools to open the door. Behind her, everyone stared at her so intently that it was slightly awkward. Meng Fuyao predicted that Zhan Beiye was probably looking at her with an expression that said, ‘so you are a tomb raider’.
‘Sigh, this is too embarrassing.’ The reputation that she had been maintaining up till now had dissipated.
To be honest, the skills that Meng Fuyao was showcasing belonged to a tomb raider’s skill sets and not of an archaeologist. For excavations on a national level, they would usually invite some “folks” to help solve complex situations without damaging the site. Meng Fuyao’s skills were picked up from one such “folk”.
Moments later, there was a sound of a crack. The door of the dead person had finally been opened by Meng Fuyao.
Meng Fuyao pulled Zhan Beiye away as a pungent smell that seemed to have gone stale for 1,000 years wafted from the depths of the passageway towards the people standing at the door.
A look inside revealed a fifty-meter long passageway without any stone doors on the walls. It was starkly different from the Han Dynasty and Tang Dynasty tombs that Meng Fuyao had encountered in the past world, whereby boulders were used to block the passageway, and that made her slightly relieved. If there were too many boulders, it would have been impossible to blast them up using the current gunpowder technology.
The group cautiously stepped into the passageway, and Meng Fuyao instructed the group to light up the lighters. The top of the passageway was filled with colorful illustrations that mainly depicted warfare and sacrifices. Occasionally, they saw strange statues. As Meng Fuyao’s gaze passed by a corner of the mural, she vaguely felt that something was wrong, but that thought flashed by in a split second. The soldier that held the lighter had already walked passed that corner and also because they did not have many lighters to waste, Meng Fuyao had no time to stop and investigate.
As she walked, Meng Fuyao kept throwing out a few crystals that she had picked up earlier to test if there were any booby traps. The soldier who had the lighter was walking in front and answering Ji Yu’s queries. Suddenly, he froze as if he saw something and subsequently, fell against the wall of the passageway.
Following a thunderous sound, the walls cracked, and huge heaps of golden sand flowed out like river streams. The sand quickly filled up a crack that was very hard to notice, and another thunderous sound followed.
The soldier suddenly dropped vertically.
Whoosh!
Zhan Beiye, who was walking at the back of the group, suddenly leaped to the front, his robes rustling against the wind. As a black figure flashed by, Zhan Beiye picked up the falling soldier. Below him, the ground creaked and suddenly swiveled, revealing a trench that was four to five meters deep. In the hole lay sharp blades that seemed to be waiting for their next victim.
Zhan Beiye, while carrying the soldier, did a flip in mid-air and kicked against the ceiling of the passageway. Using that momentum, he flew away from the trench.
He had just landed when yet another thunderous noise sounded. The spot on the ceiling where he had kicked suddenly cracked open and sharp stones enveloped by huge volumes of soil cascaded down like torrential rain. Before long, the trench was already filled to the brim, but the stones continued to fall, and there was a vague clicking sound.
Meanwhile, Meng Fuyao had been flailing her arms wildly and shouting, “Go over! Quickly go over! The passageway is going to be sealed up!” Beside her, another crack appeared, and a large volume of sand flowed out from it, instantly culminating into a thick layer by her feet. Before long, the passageway would be filled up.
Ji Yu had already kicked the soldiers over one by one. “Quick!” he hollered. “Miss Meng, quickly go over!”
“You go first!” Meng Fuyao shouted at him as she kicked another soldier over. Facing Zhan Beiye who looked like he was going to dash past the foggy layers of sand towards them, she said, “I forbid you to come over unless you want all of them to die!”
Zhan Beiye stopped in his tracks. In an instant, the muscles on his face twisted together.
The stones were falling at an alarming rate, and it looked like no one was going to be able to dash past. A wall was forming between the two groups and the remaining hole that was only as wide as half a human was closing up. Zhan Beiye’s anxious face appeared in that hole and gritting his teeth, he stopped the soldiers around him at the speed of a tornado, before running towards the other group.
At that time, there were only two soldiers left beside Meng Fuyao and Ji Yu, and they refused to leave, but the height of the sand was already reaching their knees. Meng Fuyao and Ji Yu looked at each other, and both of them leaped up, kicking a soldier each to the other group. The soldier that Meng Fuyao kicked over barely passed through the hole that was less than a meter wide and bumped right into Zhan Beiye, who had no choice but to catch him and step back. However, the soldier that Ji Yu kicked slid away like a fish to the back of where Meng Fuyao was standing and gave her a hard push.
The height of the hole could only allow a person to pass by horizontally. There was no time to lose.
Meng Fuyao was anxiously staring at Zhan Beiye and did not expect that the soldier would make such a move. She was pushed towards the hole, and in her hurry, she only managed to grab on to Ji Yu.
Stones dropped down continuously, and the hole was quickly filled up by sand and soil. To make matters worse, a huge stone on the ceiling that was at least half a tonne suddenly loosened and crashed down!
The spot that the huge stone was crashing down on was directly where Meng Fuyao would pass by the hole. She could do nothing to stop her momentum and could only anticipate herself getting smashed into a flat patty.
Zhan Beiye suddenly pounced over and pointing his sword and sheath up vertically, he carried the weight of the stone on his shoulders and his weapon, blocking its downward fall.
Splash!
A mouthful of blood splattered on the huge stone.
The mass of the stone was far more than 1,000 kg. Adding on to that the weight that comes from the downward momentum, even Zhan Beiye who was bestowed with great strength had to vomit blood as a result of the force.
Amongst the sound of scattered stones and sand, there was a slight creak coming from Zhan Beiye’s sword that was forcefully bent by the weight of the stone, or it could also have been the sound of Zhan Beiye’s bones creaking under pressure. However, Zhan Beiye stayed where he was, and at the corner of his mouth where there was still fresh blood stains, a new streak of blood flowed out.
The soldier that pushed Meng Fuyao also rushed over. He used his weapon and his shoulder to carry the weight of the stone, just like how Zhan Beiye did.
The sand in the hole spilled as Meng Fuyao squeezed past it. Using one hand, Zhan Beiye pulled her to the safe zone.
Ji Yu similarly tried to squeeze out of the hole, but he was too late. The huge stone suddenly fell, its sharp tip pointing directly towards Ji Yu’s left arm.
There was a sound of bones cracking, as Ji Yu’s left arm was pressed under the stone.
The color drained from Ji Yu’s face, but he did not look at his arm at all. Determinedly, he pushed Zhan Beiye away and pulled out the sword that was about to break.
As the sword was flung away, clattering on the floor of the passageway, Zhan Beiye staggered back and spat out another mouthful of blood.
A ray of another sword flashed by.
Blood splattered all over.
Ji Yu had chopped away his left arm.
Right after, with a flip, he rolled onto the ground.
The huge stone landed with a crash, splitting the passageway into two and forever sealing it.
Ji Yu’s left arm was eternally left in the passageway of the Gun Tribe’s tomb.
Left behind with his arm was the soldier who was on the other side of the huge stone. It was destined that he would not survive right from the moment that he pushed Meng Fuyao.
Ji Yu pushed against the huge stone, not caring about the blood oozing out from his left shoulder. He hit the stone with all his might and screamed, “Three! Three!”
There was no voice coming from the opposite side, only a faint commotion.
Meng Fuyao ran over and placed her ear against the stone. Vaguely, she heard muffled sounds of struggling, thumping, gasping and a horrifying yell.
What happened on the other side?
What appeared in the other half of the passageway that was separated by the huge stone?
The soldier left behind, the one who gave her his only chance to survive, what did he encounter?
Was it not just the flow of sand that could bury people alive?
Listening to the petrifying gasps and hollers, he must have seen something so scary that he could not tolerate. As a person who was waiting for his death, and an elite of the Black Wind Horses who had killed countless people, what could terrorize him to such an extent?
Fear of the unknown made her imagination run wild.
Meng Fuyao grabbed tightly on the huge stone and imagined how lonely, bitter and horrified he felt while facing the empty passageway, a tragic ending, the appearance of something petrifying and a hopeless struggle.
Her heart was bleeding in pain and blood rushed up to her throat. She banged her head against the huge stone, without knowing why she did that. It was as though this was the only way to alleviate the pain in her heart, but no matter how much she banged, she could not save him. She could only watch and “listen” to him fighting to his very last breath in terror.
A warm palm suddenly appeared in front of the huge stone, and her head crashed heavily into it.
That palm, which had blood stained with ash, cushioned her head and stopped her self-abuse.
