TLDP: Ch20. Exploring the Ancient Tomb

The other black bear upon seeing its companion killed so quickly unexpectedly turned around and ran back into the depths of the jungle.

Who said that a wild animal had no wisdom?

The bear had been driven away as everybody went back into their respective tents and rested. I suddenly saw Xiaohui follow Xia Chaoran to the same tent. I could only raise my head and look up at the starry sky as I drowned myself in melancholy and dejected feelings… I tried hard to bring myself tranquility to dilute the scattered and sorrowful mind inside… as I saw a lonely star hanging in the distant horizon… it was like me… being lonely forever… always alone… forever…

The next day, we left leaving early. And according to Miss Jiang, the nearby periphery had a very good Feng Shui pattern, and it was very rare. The tomb might be built nearby.

Being together with these people for the past few days made me realized that there were many people who had special abilities like me.They just didn’t expose their ident.i.ty to the public easily.

Xia Chaoran was indeed blessed with Yin Eyes as he can see ghosts directly, however since his mental and psychological capacity was poor, he had asked Miss Jiang’s family to seal his eyes. It wasn’t until four days ago did the seal get lifted by Miss Jiang, it was because of that, that his pupil turned green. It was said that the Yin Eyes were very powerful. For comparison, my ‘Opening Eyes’ technique could make me see ghosts, however if certain high-leveled ghosts or spirits intentionally hid itself from my vision, I could absolutely not see it. However people with inborn Yin Eyes were different, no ghosts or spirits could hide from the Yin Eyes.

Aside from that, Chen Haotian was truly amazing! It we were to exchange places, I could only avoid the black bear’s attack, even parrying it reluctantly would be hard. But he only used his shoulder to casually throw the black bear! No matter the reflexes, instinct or psychological quality, Chen Haotian was second to none!

Chen Haozhe, he was just always with Shasha ******* [1] all day, never did he show his ability till now. However, I felt that this person was certainly sinister, he is outwardly fierce and powerful, but soft and cowardly inside, making people felt disgusted.

As for Zhang Zixuan, as n.o.body got injured or sick, no one knew about this highly skilled doctor ability. He was about 23-24 years old, with an ordinary physique, and it seemed that he didn’t practice martial arts. Moreover, he had a frivolous character, almost the same as Chen Haozhe. He frequently acted in a completely uninhibited manner with his female companion **** [2]. However, once in awhile, he would talk with me.

Miss Jiang’s ability could be described as mysterious. What was this legendary sealing art anyways? Nevertheless, she was also skilled in the art of making herself invisible, and her Feng Shui technique, was not to be underestimated. As for her physical prowess, this girl also seemed to not have any martial arts foundation as her physical strength could be said to be as equal as Zhou Huiqing’s. She often went back behind the team, and asked me to talk about my experience when exorcising ghosts. However, since I only experienced it several times, my stories had quickly ended after a few days.

Whether the tomb was really here or not, Chen Haozhe was also uncertain, and I really didn’t know where he got this kind of information. But fortunately Miss Jiang was on the team, we moved and excavated an open area according to her direction. We dug up the ground in the vacant lot till we hit three meters deep and finally found the quartzite stone slab!

It was very obvious that this was indeed an ancient tomb, and a very large ancient tomb at that.

However this greenstone slab were covered with cement, even if we tried to move it or remove it, it just wouldn’t budge. n.o.body knew how to enter this ancient tomb.

But since the day got darker, Chen Haozhe decided to make the encampment first, and then everyone could discuss the methods of entering the tomb.

There was not a professional grave robber on the team, therefore we could only decide to blast the tomb wall with dynamite.

After being together for several days, I knew that I would be safe as they wouldn’t harm me. Therefore that night, I decided to sleep well. After all, we might run into various unthinkable situations tomorrow.

But because the morning exercise had become a habit, I naturally woke up at 3:00 am and could not sleep anymore. So, I opened the tent, and started doing push-ups outside.

My whole body seemed to have been refreshed after finis.h.i.+ng 300 push-ups. I crossed my legs and sat on the ground, closed my eyes and meditated. Although it was summer, the early morning was still terribly cold. However, since my Yang qi was quite exuberant, it only had a slight effect on me.

I stood after sitting for about  half an hour since the sounds of bodyguards walking around made me unable to focus anymore, so I stopped meditating. I immediately took out my black backpack and began to reorganize my things. I pulled out five Sun Charms, Moon Charms, and Heart Mind Purifying Charms and put it into my pants’ pocket respectively to prepare for an emergency situation. I also inserted my Shadowbane sword in my belt. These things must be placed in a place that was easy to get to, otherwise when a crisis occurred, I would have no time to take it out from my backpack.

Everyone got up very early today and had a simple-quick breakfast. Several bodyguards took out C4 explosives, a detonator, and wires. Then. they drilled some holes in the stoneslab’s wall and arranged the explosives and the wires in each hole.

As they had finished setting up the explosives, everyone hid far away from the tomb’s wall as the C4 explosives were detonated! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! The ground was shaking as the loud explosive sound made many wild animals nearby howl, it was very obvious that the explosions made them restless.

The stoneslab’s walls were broken into pieces by the explosion. However we could not immediately entered the tomb because the tomb chamber had been buried for hundreds of years and since no air was able to circulate inside, there would definitely be toxic gas in there.

Two hours later, Chen Haozhe ordered a bodyguard to get down and said in coaxing words that he was to explore the conditions down there while he didn’t tell the bodyguard that he might probably die while scouting. The bodyguard took a flashlight as he directly jumped down and spent five or six minutes in the tomb, as he then reported without any abnormal conditions. Chen Haozhe said: “We can go down there now!”

Ten bodyguards quickly connected ropes and jumped down, who were then followed by Chen Haotian then myself…

Under the s.h.i.+ning flashlight, the tomb’s chamber could be seen clearly before everyone’s eyes.

The entrance to chamber was about six meters to nine, and there were piles of stones and soils on the ground. There were paintings that were hung up on the wall as well as several paintings that had been scattered on the ground due to the explosion. Chen Haotian and I looked at the paintings on the wall and picked up some from the ground, as we discovered that the paintings were human portraits. There were seven paintings of which portrayed the same person.

It was a man…

The man’s eyes in the painting were very bright, they were profound in depth and held an imposing aura. He had a tall nose, thin lips, and sword-like eyebrows which cut through his temple. It could be said that his appearance was impeccable. His pitch black hair was hung and coiled as it formed a chignon as he held an opened folding fan in his hand. His waist and body was slender and elegant as if it was made from an exquisite jade and gave off a calm-tranquil aura. He really had the bearings of a handsome-elegant man! Even a famous actor wearing the same ancient costume would not have this much elegance.

Of the seven paintings, five ware a brocade robe, two wore helmets and armor while riding on a warhorse. It seemed that this man was an army general during the ancient times.

While we observed and appreciated the portrait, the other team members had also jumped down and did the same thing. Miss Jiang asked in an amazed tone: “What a handsome and elegant man… is this Liu Bowen?”

“No.” Chen Haotion replied lightly: “Look at this warhorse’s painting, there is a young soldier behind him who carried the flag with the character ‘Long’. In the ancient times, usually the character that is written on the flag is carried by a soldier who represents the surname of that general. And comparing it to this portrait, of a man holding an opened folding fan, you can see that the angle of the ‘Long’ character written on the right lower corner of the fan has the same original complex form of Chinese traditional character.”

“Brother Chen Haotian, you can see such a tiny character clearly?” The highly skilled doctor Zhang Zixuan pulled out a magnifying gla.s.s and immediately observed the lower right corner of the fan on the painting. He carefully scrutinized the painting for a while as he nodded in affirmation as he said: “It is indeed the ‘Long’ character written in traditional Chinese.”

Chen Haozhe interrupted from the side: “Jiang sister, let’s not study the portrait first. Since we didn’t enter properly from the tomb’s entrance there are rubbles and broken stone doors in front and behind us, where do we start now? It is estimated that this ancient tomb will have some kind of strange things waiting for us, if we are to make a mistake in choosing which path to take, we will run into trouble!”

Miss Jiang was still immersed in observing the paintings and replied absent-mindedly: “Ask Zhang Xiaolong, he is the Daoist priest here.”

Seeing the everyone staring at me, I just helplessly said: “I can exorcise ghosts and evil spirits, but robbing a tomb is not my specialty, you should not have asked me about this. If I had to choose, I feel that we must advance to the right.”

After I spoke, the everyone present was immediately silent, from their complexion I could clearly understand the thought in their minds: d.a.m.n, you spoke thoughtlessly to take the right path, what would we do if we were to encounter some kind of dreadful thing on the right? Wouldn’t this be making us court our own death?

Feeling the surrounding atmosphere get awkward, Miss Jiang finally put off the paintings and stopped her appraising as she said: “I am not too sure about this tomb chamber’s pattern right now, so I’m unable to calculate the right direction in which we should take, we can only take a side to inquire more and advance at the same time.”

“Then let’s just walk to the right then. OK, several of you, go and clean the rubbles on that door.” Chen Haozhe pointed his finger to several bodyguards and ordered them.

On the wall near the right door, there was a gold rotating dial disk which was about the size of a child’s palm. Before the three bodyguards arrived at the door, they sent eyes signal with each other, as one bodyguard rotated the gold disk, the other two hid at the side of the stone door. As the rest of us quickly moved to the side and avoided the direction that the door faced. Because it would be a disastrous if the door was opened and some poisonous arrows suddenly flew at us.

As the disk dial was being turned clockwise, a burst of gear sounds arose as the stone door opened upward!

n.o.body knew who was buried within this ancient tomb. Chen Haozhe said a couple days ago that the tomb was possibly Lu Bowen’s which turned out that it was not his. I never thought that the people in that era had the technique to manufacture this gear-like instrument which can easily pull a large and heavy stone door upward.

The stone door had been opened, there were no poison arrows. After several seconds, the bodyguard that hid on the left side of the stone door carefully walked toward the door. He slightly trembled for a while and went inside with his flashlight on.

But, when he just strode in one step, there was suddenly a faint click sound as the stone door above him fell down instantly.

A b.l.o.o.d.y scene appeared before us! As the bodyguard’s head was smashed by the stone door! His neck was pressed down to the chest as both of his legs were squashed and the fractured bones pierced through his clothes and pants.

Because the stone door was obstructed by the bodyguard’s body, it was only half close, while the other half was stuck due to the dead bodyguard.

Everyone was deadly silent!

Everyone present held their own breath as they watched the b.l.o.o.d.y scene…

Then, vomiting sounds were heard in the chamber, Miss Jiang, Zhou Huiqing, Shasha and Xia Chaoran all started vomiting.

I suppressed the urge to vomit. I had seen the previous dreadful disgusting Murong Daiyu’s face, as well as the comb demoness appearance. Therefore I more or less had some resistance in seeing these kinds of scenes. The remaining bodyguards seemed to have seen b.l.o.o.d.y scenes before as no one amongst them vomited. As for Zhang Zixuan, he seemed to have seen these kinds of scene because of his profession. And for the Chen brothers, their complexion didn’t change at all. Especially Chen Haotian, he  just calmly spoke: “We had expected that these kinds of things would occur, his foot just stepped on a trap on the floor, and apparently triggered the trap mechanism!”

Miss Jiang leaned on the wall as her hand wiped her mouth and asked: “Brother Chen, there are many traps here, how do we go in?”

Chen Haotian replied calmly: “The dead bodyguard’s body is holding the the stone door up, we can crawl to pa.s.s through the open pa.s.sage next to his body.”

When Miss Jiang heard his reply, her complexion changed drastically as she looked like that she would vomit again…

~~~~~~~~~~~end of ch20.~~~~~~~~~~~