Transmigración La consorte del dios de la guerra

Capítulo 3

While Fatty was talking, some changes occurred in the room. I knew that Fatty was engrossed in smoking and hadn't noticed, so I looked around while desperately trying to recall the records of the "Five Ding Disfigurement Technique" in the book "The Secret Techniques of Tianyuan Mountain and Water". Gradually, I gained a lot of new insights.

As the saying goes: "Don't bury a grave at the dragon's head, and don't live in a house at the dragon's eye."

In my opinion, the location of this old house must have been a dragon's resting place where the body was buried. Although I don't know what the terrain of Tianjin was like in ancient times, I know that the burial site of the "Five Ding Disfigurement Technique" has extremely strict requirements. It must be placed next to the dragon's eye of the dragon's resting place. If it is placed too precisely, it will easily turn the buried body into a scourge. If it is placed too far off, it will not have the effect of suppressing the dead. Therefore, this kind of evil technique has always been very rare and no one uses it. Once a precious dragon's resting place is discovered, people will be happy to occupy it and not want to waste it to harm people.

Tianjin, as the estuary of Beijing, is the resting place of dragons before they travel the world. Such a dragon's sleeping place is one in a million since ancient times. It is extremely difficult to find a burial site in this densely populated area, because the burial site must be backed by mountains and face water, with the Azure Dragon Mountain on the left, the White Tiger Mountain on the right, and the court mountain in front, with all directions submitting. Only by gathering the power of the mountains and nourishing the energy of the water can it become an excellent feng shui treasure land.

Moreover, using a dragon's resting place as the burial site for the "Five Ding Disfigurement Technique" is inherently taboo by nature, often causing the surrounding feng shui of such a place to drastically transform into a place of four deadly aspects: life energy cannot gather, malevolent energy cannot escape, ghostly energy condenses, and cold energy breeds. This special feng shui pattern prevents human energy from entering and yin energy from escaping, cutting off all sides and turning it into an isolated island.

After being relentlessly attacked and harassed by Fatty and me, he actually used that corpse-suppressing talisman to break through the outer mechanism of the 'Five Ding Disfigurement Technique'. He's probably not going to escape unscathed. We'll have to deal with him carefully before he can get out of there alive.

As I pondered anxiously, the cracking sounds on the floor of the small room, which was only a dozen square meters in front of me, grew more and more frequent. The floor in front of the wardrobe gradually collapsed, slowly revealing a small, deep pit. The round opening of the pit was dark and murky, constantly emitting a damp, musty smell, as well as the stench of decaying corpses.

Looking at my rented little house in this state, my mind raced. Could it be that after we disturbed the "Five Ding Disfigurement Technique," the true dragon eye burial site appeared, and the place where the woman who was skinned alive was buried was right next to this strange deep pit? Could the fortune teller's advice to enter an extremely yin and gold-rich place with my yang body to save my life and avert disaster be coming true in this place?

I saw the fat man busily bowing repeatedly to the deep pit, muttering to himself as if arguing with the woman in the portrait. I didn't bother with him for the moment, so I found my flashlight, put in the batteries, and casually stuffed a few lighters into my pocket. I thought to myself that this "Five Ding Disfigurement Technique" wasn't an easy evil spell to get rid of; I figured I'd have to go down there myself. Then I grabbed the kitchen knife as well.

Once everything was ready, I said to Fatty, "I don't want to hide it from you anymore. Someone has set up a very vicious feng shui formation here. I only recently learned about this. If we don't break this formation, I'm afraid neither of us will have a peaceful life. Fatty, you have a big family and a lot of business, and your health isn't good. It's inconvenient for you to do such a dangerous thing. You'd better leave here as soon as possible. I'm going down to do something. Consider it a sacrifice of my life for the happiness of your whole family."

It's not that I was born brave, but I've been having a really bad time lately. The thought that if I succeeded, I could break my terrible fate and get rid of my girlfriend's bad luck, and we could definitely be reunited, made me impulsively want to jump down right away. But then I suddenly remembered the powerful force of the eerie portrait in the closet staring at me, and I felt a little uneasy, but I couldn't care less about that now.

Fatty was stunned by what I said and didn't know how to persuade me. I laughed and was about to jump down when Fatty reached out and grabbed me. He took a nanmu necklace from his neck and handed it to me, saying, "I bought this when I went to Thailand. Wear this. It's been blessed. It can protect you if you encounter any ghosts."

I took the necklace and examined it. It was quite old, an antique, made of thirty-six tiny nanmu beads strung together. There seemed to be many small characters engraved on the beads. I said to Fatty, "This necklace is very valuable, it doesn't seem fake. This place is very eerie, but it's not haunted by ghosts, just a trap. Nothing will happen, don't worry." As I said this, I refused to give it back to him and casually hung it around my neck. However, I understood why we were still safe and sound. With the power of this "Five Ding Disfigurement Technique," how could we possibly tear off the corpse-suppressing talisman and stick it on the portrait? If it weren't for this thing protecting them, they would probably have vomited blood and died on the spot.

After Fatty gave me the nanmu necklace, he wanted to leave but felt bad. After all, we've been brothers for years, and it wouldn't be right to leave me behind. He took two steps toward the door, then resolutely turned back and said loudly, "No way! If something happens to you, I'll feel guilty for the rest of my life. I'd rather die quickly. If we're going down, let's go together. After all, I know Tianjin better than you do!"

I was overjoyed, feeling a bit like my scheme had succeeded, because even if Fatty wanted to leave, he couldn't. Since the "Five Ding Disfigurement Technique" had been alerted, this place had already been sealed off, and Fatty no longer had the nanmu necklace for protection, so how could he escape! However, if I hadn't given him this option beforehand, it would have been inappropriate for me to be blamed for this perilous and uncertain journey.

Chapter Eight: The Horrifying Experience at the Burglary Cave

I took out a flashlight, a lighter, and candles, and gave some to Fatty. I peered down into the hole; it didn't seem deep, and a chill was blowing up. The round opening was big enough for one person to go down, so I cautiously slid down first. The spot where I landed was covered with a thin layer of mud, and half of my foot sank into it. Upon closer inspection, I realized the hole was narrow at the top and wide at the bottom. It looked only about one person's height, but it was as deep as two people's when I jumped down. It wasn't that deep, though. Soon, I discovered another parallel opening to my right, much larger than the one we had slid down into, extending diagonally inward. Seeing that there was hope, I quickly called Fatty to come down too.

Fatty muttered a prayer as he followed me into the right-hand passage. The passage sloped slightly downwards, allowing only one person to crawl forward at a time. It was dug with sharp edges and lines, and the curves of the rounded parts were extremely beautiful. The semi-circular shovel marks on the earthen walls on both sides were stacked one on top of the other and were extremely symmetrical. It didn't look like the work of the ancients at all. After crawling for a while, I felt a chill in my heart. Why did this hole look so much like a tomb robber's tunnel?

I have a relative who owns an antique shop that buys and sells old items. In our spare time, we used to talk about tomb raiding, so I know a little about tomb raiding tunnels. Digging a tomb raiding tunnel is like a doctor diagnosing a patient; it involves observation, listening, questioning, and palpation. "Observation" refers to using your eyes to examine the feng shui and find the exact location of the ancient tomb, which is the most difficult part. "Listening" means smelling the soil to determine its quality and understanding the geological structure and soil information of the ancient tomb. "Questioning" involves building rapport and gaining trust by chatting with local elders to learn about the ancient tomb. Finally, there's a specific technique called "cutting" in tomb raiding. This involves accurately calculating the orientation, angle, and terrain factors in advance, and then digging a tunnel from a distance that leads directly to the coffin of the tomb owner.

Fatty was following behind me when he suddenly reached out and tugged at my heel, signaling me to stop. I struggled to turn my head and managed to get a little space around. I saw that Fatty's face was covered in sweat, and I knew he was exhausted. He was already fat, and being cramped in the cave, he was probably about to faint. So I turned my flashlight on him, intending to stop and ask him how he was doing and whether he could keep climbing.

When Fatty saw the flashlight beam, he quickly tried to block it with his hand, yelling, "No, don't shine it on me! This cave is so dark and scary when this flashlight shines on it."

I realized that made sense. The cave was only big enough for one person to crawl through, and it was already narrow and deep. The earthen walls on both sides were almost touching my face. The bright white light from the flashlight shone on the earthen walls, making them appear pale and eerie, quiet and sinister. More importantly, it was distorted. The areas that the flashlight couldn't reach were made even darker, and that darkness was bound to make people feel uneasy. I quickly turned off the flashlight, took out a lighter, and flicked it. Sure enough, the flame felt less glaring than the flashlight beam and even had a bit of warmth, which was much more comfortable.

When Fatty saw that I had turned off the flashlight, he breathed a sigh of relief and asked me, "We've climbed this deep without any oxygen. We're doomed. Besides, we don't even know where this leads. Isn't this too dangerous?"

I said, "There's no need to worry about that. This tunnel leads to the surface, so there's definitely air in it. Didn't you see how strong the lighter flame was just now?" The fat man was taken aback, not understanding for a moment, and asked me, "What tunnel did you say? A tomb raider's tunnel?"

The hole in front of me slopes downwards at an angle; it's probably a cut-through tunnel. They must have scouted the straight-line distance from the outside and been digging towards the acupoint of the Dragon's Rest. I have immense respect for the expert who dug this tunnel. It's also the first time I've learned where the excavated soil goes. Every so often, I noticed a slightly larger pit beneath me, filled with many sturdy woven bags. Apparently, the digger carried some kind of specially concocted potion that could solidify and strengthen the soil, and the excavated soil was packed into these bags. They tamped it down, poured on the chemical solution, and it immediately shrunk into a solid mass. Then they pressed it tightly into the bottom of the tomb. This way, they could dig and tamp the soil into the ground at the same time, eliminating the need to transport soil outside to build a grave mound. But I knew I couldn't explain it to Fatty in a short time, so I simply said, "I'm talking about the tomb! Someone dug a hole in the ground to steal from this tomb. Look at how this hole was dug; it's definitely the work of a master. The shovel marks are even, square ones with lines, and round ones with arcs. If we climb along the hole, we'll definitely succeed. Don't worry, Fatty, follow the Red Army, and the future is bright."

So Fatty followed behind and I led the way, continuing to slowly crawl forward. The earthen walls on both sides of the tunnel were tamped down by the shovels, so there was no need to worry about them collapsing. However, the tunnel was dark and oppressive, and the further we crawled, the more oppressive it felt.

Finally, I bumped into a hard rock. Touching it, I realized it was brick, with iron pieces embedded in the cracks and traces of lime. I thought to myself, this must be the Vajra Wall. The tunnel we had crawled through immediately turned ninety degrees in front of this wall, digging along the brickwork. Judging from the shovel marks, it was done in the same way as the tunnel we had crawled through. I was a little confused. Could it be that the expert digger miscalculated the angle and didn't hit the weakest part of the tomb's back wall, but instead hit the Vajra Wall, which was more than three meters thick, in front of the tomb?

There was no time to think. I led Fatty forward and we continued climbing. We hadn't gone far when we suddenly smelled a pungent odor that made us cough. I quickly lit a lighter, but it didn't go out, which meant there was still enough oxygen.

The lighter flashed, and I noticed something strange ahead. The flashlight was too focused, shining directly on the brick wall to my right, and the lighter's flame immediately illuminated some shadows in front of the hole. In the previously empty hole, there was now a pair of human legs, still wearing shoes, with the soles blocking my way! At that moment, my scalp tingled with fear. I thought climbing through the tunnels dug by experts would be a simple matter, but it was like seeing a ghost. A living person had appeared out of nowhere and blocked my path in the blink of an eye.

I didn't care about anything else. I kicked the fat man and whispered to him, "Hurry up and crawl back. Something's wrong with this tunnel."

The fat guy was panting heavily behind me. Hearing my words, he quickly curled up and turned to crawl back. But he was too fat to turn around in the tunnel, so he had to use his elbows to support himself and crawl backwards. We hadn't crawled back a few meters when the fat guy suddenly stopped. I turned around and asked, "What's wrong, buddy? Grit your teeth and hang in there. We can rest after we get out. Now is not the time to rest."

The fat man, panting, said to me, "Sir... it seems like someone is blocking my way, blocking the road, I can't get out." His face was pale with fright, and it was a miracle that he could even speak.

I shone my flashlight through the fat man's shadow and saw a leg blocking the hole. I had looked carefully when I passed by and hadn't found any secret passages or mechanisms. One side of the hole was smooth mud, and the other side was a solid brick wall. I had no idea where the leg came from, or whether it was dead or alive.

Seeing that there was no way to retreat and that staying in place was not a solution, I could only whisper to comfort Fatty, "Let's crawl forward a bit more, you're too tightly packed behind you!" Fatty was already out of breath from exhaustion. When he saw that I had just told him to retreat and now wanted him to move forward, he immediately retorted angrily, "Are you trying to kill me? I can't crawl anymore. If you want me to crawl again, you'll have to let me crawl over you."

I know we've encountered something unusual. I can't say for sure what it is right now, but I have a vague feeling that we've run into a ghost wall. That's a deadly trap that only a master could set up. The "Secret Techniques of Tianyuan Mountain and Water" already states that if you encounter this situation, you must not stop.

I thought about it a lot, but I didn't have time to explain to Fatty, so I kept urging him: "Why are you talking so much nonsense? If I tell you to move forward, just crawl forward. Hurry up and obey orders."

The fat man sensed something was wrong with my tone and knew the situation might have changed, so he stopped complaining and followed me as I crawled forward. We hurriedly crawled forward for nearly a hundred meters, and the pair of legs blocking our way disappeared from sight. Suddenly, I stopped.

Two forks suddenly appeared in front of me, and even if I had two more heads, I still wouldn't be able to figure it out. Examining these two forked tunnels closely, compared to the one we had crawled through, the work was extremely haphazard, clearly done in a hurry. However, the technique was basically the same as the smooth tunnel we had dug. There was a lot of dirt piled up at this fork in the road, accumulated during the digging of these two passages.

No amount of speculation would yield any results, so I told Fatty to stay put and wait. I crawled into the left-hand tunnel to scout ahead. I could clearly feel a strong wind in the tunnel, indicating it was connected to something else. That meant I didn't need to worry about the air quality. I turned on my flashlight and crouched down to crawl into the left-hand tunnel. This tunnel was clearly dug in a very rushed manner; it was narrow and difficult to navigate, even for one person crawling.

The narrow cave was so low and oppressive, it felt like being buried alive underground. I hadn't crawled far when I encountered a pair of human legs ahead. The shoes on their feet were the same ones I had seen before, completely blocking the way out.

I wasn't discouraged. I immediately climbed back the way I came. Fatty saw me return and asked how it went and where it led. I briefly explained what happened at the end of the passage. I was very puzzled and couldn't understand it. Was it just a dead end? Did the guy who dug the tunnel lose his sense of direction and distance underground and end up dying here? What's even stranger is why something suddenly appeared and blocked our way when we were crawling into the tunnel?

I dared not think about it anymore. At this moment, I was most afraid of scaring myself. I rested for a few minutes and, following the same pattern, crawled into the hole on the right. I didn't know if it was also sealed off by corpses until I saw it. If this path was blocked, I would try to find another way.

I climbed to the end of the narrow tunnel, and sure enough, there were still those terrifying human feet dangling inside. I couldn't help but want to curse, but seeing that there was no way out, I had no choice but to retreat back to the fork in the tunnel.

Bang bang—bang bang—, suddenly there was a sound of knocking on wooden boards not far away, mixed with a woman's low voice speaking in a low voice, very much like the intermittent and piercing sound of a radio station in the middle of the night, which was even more eerie underground, startling both Fatty and me.

I whispered, "Damn you, fatso, when did you learn to talk from your stomach? I'm impressed. Stop pretending, it's terrifying."

The fat man also whispered, "Don't fucking talk nonsense, that's not what I said at all! When have I ever seen you, Fatty, speak like a woman? I bet it's the woman under the coffin nail!"

We froze in the darkness, both of us drenched in cold sweat. After a long while, the woman's voice and the sound of the wooden board being struck disappeared, and all we could hear in the darkness was the heavy breathing of Fatty and me.

At the fork in the road, the light suddenly shone through, and a cool breeze blew by. I smelled the strong scent of the Xianghai River. Could it be that someone else had opened some secret door on the other side? I quickly turned on my flashlight, and there was a large coffin in front of me, blocking the middle of the road and completely blocking the walls on both sides, with only a small gap at the top.

Finally, there was a coffin. I felt a sense of relief. This pit was clearly a robber's hole. It would be strange if there was no coffin! This huge vermilion coffin had been in the pit for a long time. Without a coffin bed or outer coffin, it was bare and somewhat rotten. There were many maggots crawling in and out of the crevices.

Fatty and I perked up, and we both thought that there might be a passage out behind the big coffin. Fatty immediately picked up the sharp kitchen knife and tried to dig a path out from the side of the big coffin after working hard for half a day. He was sweating profusely from digging, but he didn't succeed.

Later, I suggested, "Why don't we just climb over from the top? We can open the coffin lid and see what treasures are inside. A coffin this big is really rare; it probably holds a lot of good stuff!"

The fat man, panting, said, "Come on, this passage is so narrow, only an experienced driver like me can get through. If you, a complete idiot, were to get stuck, what if the coffin lid rotted and you fell in and had a close encounter with a zombie? Do you think I should crawl in and pull you out?"

Fatty's words made sense. Looking at the coffin crawling with maggots, I was genuinely worried the lid wasn't sturdy enough. If I fell in, I'd never get a peaceful night's sleep again. Just as I was thinking of a solution, I heard a rustling sound coming from behind, sounding exactly like a swarm of long worms crawling towards me. I immediately turned pale with fright. I'm terrified of wet, slippery things. I shuddered and hurriedly said to Fatty, "Alright, you fatso, you go first. I'll crawl over even if it kills me! Hurry up, there's something coming from behind!"

Chapter Nine: No One in the Tomb

I knew that although Fatty wasn't afraid of worms, the rustling sound was extremely unpleasant. Sure enough, Fatty didn't hesitate and hurriedly climbed onto the lid of the large coffin, then pulled me up with him. We both gasped for breath as we squatted on the head of the coffin. If we really fell into the coffin, who knew what kind of monsters were inside? We needed to conserve our energy to prevent any unforeseen events.

After two minutes of panting, the rustling sounds grew closer. I shone my flashlight to get a better look and saw a lot of hairy spiders. They weren't very big, but what was terrifying were their long, black hairs, which were tangled together and surging toward the coffin. The air was thick with a stench, reminiscent of rotting corpses. I wondered why there was such a large group of spiders here, since most spiders are solitary. What did they eat to grow so big? Fatty and I didn't dare delay any longer and scrambled forward along the coffin lid.

Damn it, there's always something to fear, and something to be afraid of. The moment I fell in, I couldn't help but curse: This damn shoddy construction! They didn't even use coffin nails to hold the coffin lid in place! Isn't this a scam?!

Before the cursing had even finished, a stench assaulted my nostrils and mouth, instantly choking me and rendering me speechless.

You can fall into all sorts of things in this life, but there are probably very few people who have fallen into a coffin in such a sorry state as Fatty and me. At least before this, I never would have imagined that there would be such a big coffin in the world that wasn't nailed in place!

Inside the stinking coffin, slippery and filled with icy liquid, several corpses were piled one on top of the other. On top was a face down corpse, its skin wrinkled and shriveled, its bones exposed, completely naked. The first thing I touched was the bald back of the head; I dared not touch anything below that, not even gold ingots.

As the saying goes: "Mountains have form, dragons have no trace, deep tombs and cold corpses foretell great misfortune; coffins without outer coffins, corpses dressed in red, black aura clinging to the body, life is over." This refers to burial sites associated with dragon shapes. If you encounter a large, uncoffined coffin, and the corpse, which should be relatively warm deep underground, is ice-cold, then it's a very bad omen, with no hope of escape. Such ominous places are places where powerful people have cast spells to kill, and who knows, those clumsy spiders might have already eaten many unlucky guys like me and Fatty!

These two sentences echoed in my mind, and the thought that Fatty and I were in a situation that seemed very much like a death sentence sent a chill down my spine. Struggling to stand up in the coffin liquid, I was terrified out of my wits. I finally managed to stand up with great difficulty, and only my head was sticking out. This coffin was really deep. The broken coffin lid was already shattered into pieces. Fatty and I each held onto a slightly larger piece of rotten wood, panting heavily as we stared at each other.

"What do we do now?" Fatty and I spoke almost at the same time, but then quickly shut our mouths. The stench of the rotting corpse in the coffin was suffocating, and everything was dark and blurry, so we had no idea what we were stepping on.

We stopped talking and trudged forward, stepping on the messy corpses in the coffin liquid. It took us almost ten minutes to walk two or three meters. Finally, we reached the end. There was something outside the other end of the coffin. If we didn't see it clearly, Fatty and I still didn't dare to jump down.

We took one look in the flashlight's beam, and Fatty and I both felt a bitter taste in our mouths. It was a solid mud wall—a dead end! It seemed this large vermilion coffin was crammed into the very back of the alley. If we went back, not only would the stench from the coffin be unbearable, but we'd also be walking on who-knows-what kind of human flesh and bones, covered in slippery coffin fluid, and then there would be swarms of black-haired spiders waiting for us at the other end of the coffin. Don't even mention it; I couldn't bear that torture.

Fortunately, I soon saw a round hole, only wide enough for one person to crawl through. It was very narrow and led to the earthen wall at the end of the coffin. I hadn't noticed it before because the hole was a bit collapsed. But now that I looked closely, I couldn't help but think that this was probably another tomb raider's hole!

Without saying a word, Fatty and I crawled into the hole, our speed as we raced each other like starving ghosts reincarnating.

With two screams, Fatty and I fell heavily to the ground. The hole was just a thin layer of soil. In our haste, we didn't see it clearly and stepped into the void, falling down. Shining the flashlight around, we saw that we were in a large, empty room.

We were probably trapped in a tomb. The damp, musty smell and the strange, eerie feeling immediately enveloped my entire body.

I was so dizzy from the fall that my back ached and I couldn't stand up, so I just lay on the ground and started thinking about this strange thing.

The "Five Ding Disfigurement Technique" appeared in the house. The woman in the portrait must have been skinned alive and buried here. She wouldn't be buried in the main burial site of the Dragon's Rest. According to the "Secret Techniques of Tianyuan Mountain and Water", there is no doubt about this! Could it be that the large vermilion coffin we just encountered was the original owner who was buried in the main burial site of the Dragon's Rest?

It's very likely that the person who set up this setup discovered that the burial site had already been occupied when they buried the poor woman. So they had no choice but to drag the unfortunate tomb owner and coffin out and throw them outside. By the way! That large vermilion coffin didn't have any nails. Could it have been nailed to the woman's portrait?

However, there are still some doubts that I can't figure out. For example, the weight of that large coffin must be very heavy. It would be impossible for a person who set up the formation to drag it out of the tomb and move it to such a high tomb-raiding hole. Also, what about the human feet that Fatty and I encountered in the tomb-raiding hole? It's definitely not an illusion. They were wearing shoes. So what's going on?

Just as I was lost in thought, the fat man, who had already stood up and was looking around curiously, shouted, "Old Feng! Is this where the real master we're looking for is buried? Don't lie there like a dead dog and refuse to get up. You're not going to break your bones from this height! Are you lying there to occupy someone's lair as your campsite?"

I stood up, rubbing my backside, and said, "I can't even tell which way is which in here. This tomb robber's hole doesn't look like it leads to the end. I think we should wander around in this tomb chamber first. I don't even know if we can get out! It looks like the tomb robber's hole we fell into is connected to the tomb chamber. With only one entrance, I'm afraid the air will stagnate for much longer than it will circulate. We must take precautions. However, the tomb chamber looks very big, and I can feel the wind, so we don't need to worry about these things for now."

As I walked around, I explained to Fatty, “Speaking of tomb chambers, Fatty, you don’t understand. The blue bricks in Tang tombs are three or four hands thick, and they are all the base bricks. They can be opened with a shovel and an iron rod. But the Ming Dynasty preferred to use a seven-spoke, seven-vaulted tomb roof, which is a fourteen-layered structure of blue bricks, more than three meters thick. Only this small area in the center of the tomb is a slightly weak ‘empty space’.”

"Later, this practice of leaving 'empty spaces' for defense changed drastically because such places were easy to breach. However, the tradition of leaving 'empty spaces' was preserved, only made extremely small, just a few inches in size, too small for a person to enter. Overall, though, the sturdiness and luxury of Tang tombs are still among the best in Chinese history. Below the tomb passage, there are several giant stone gates, deep in the mountains, and surrounded by thick stone walls. It is beyond description as impregnable."

Fatty listened with great interest and interjected, "Don't they use traps or mechanisms to harm people? I've seen plenty of poisoned arrows and traps in those movies."

I said with a bit of relief, "There are one or more mechanisms above the empty spaces in the tomb. These mechanisms are hidden in the bricks of the tomb chamber. Once the bricks of the empty space are broken, the mechanisms will be triggered, such as quicksand, poisoned arrows, stone pillars, and possibly falling trapdoors or dragon-severing stones, completely sealing off the underworld. They would rather break the empty spaces that gather wind and energy than let the funerary objects fall into the hands of tomb robbers. Fortunately, the expert who came in before us had already broken these mechanisms, saving us a lot of trouble."

The fat man wiped his sweat and said, "Not bad, not bad. After we get out, I have to quickly burn incense for this senior. He's done such good deeds, I really admire him! But what do we do now?"

“We have two things to do now. One is to find the woman's body in the portrait. She was skinned alive and suppressed by the ‘Five Ding Disfigurement Technique,’ it’s quite pitiful. If we find it, we’ll burn it, which will be a good deed. Of course, this will also free us from the threat of this vicious formation.” I thought about it and decided not to tell Fatty. If we couldn’t break this evil formation, we wouldn’t be able to leave this old house, and I didn’t want him to worry. “Second, now that we’ve finally found the true owner of this Dragon’s Resting Place, there must be some treasures in the tomb. We can take a couple without breaking the bank, and Fatty, your old Xia Li will be ready to be upgraded.”

As soon as I said that, Fatty became less enthusiastic about doing good deeds. Instead, he looked around and stared at anything that was shiny. His greedy look with shining eyes made me wonder where all the money Fatty made, as a beneficiary of the telecommunications monopoly, went.

This place, which should be called a tomb, is too rudimentary. Fatty and I wandered around for a long time without finding anything, and we were both a bit discouraged. Disappointed, we turned off our flashlights and squatted down to rest.

I whispered to Fatty, "We've looked around, and I still can't figure out which dynasty or era this was built in. It's really strange! So many construction projects on the surface haven't uncovered this place, and there's no sign of collapse on the tomb's roof. Either it's buried very deep and built too solidly, or a master craftsman used some method to hide some clues, leaving us disappointed. Fatty, think about it, we were crawling around in the cave just now, what part of Tianjin is this on the surface?"

Fatty racked his brains for a long time, gesturing wildly as he tried to figure out where we were. Unfortunately, the tunnel was so winding and twisting, sometimes up, sometimes down, that he was completely disoriented and couldn't tell which way was which. He couldn't possibly give me a straight answer. Finally, he could only say, "Well, I reckon we're still in Tianjin! But, by the way, your old house isn't far from the Haihe River, so maybe we should just wander around that area!"

I glared at him and said, "That's all nonsense. You call yourself an old Tianjin native? Hurry up, get up and wander around some more. Staying underground for too long is no joke. I refuse to believe we can't find our way!" I said, a little annoyed.

Chapter Ten: A Narrow Encounter

Fatty and I searched even more carefully this time, but we were still at a loss and found nothing. The flashlight we brought was old and worn out, and we couldn't see anything clearly. In addition, the air in the underground palace was getting more and more turbid. Fatty finally got tired and leaned against the wall to catch his breath and rest. But he didn't expect that the brick wall was a hidden door. He slipped and almost fell in.

Startled, Fatty squatted there for a long time, panting heavily. When he stood up, he bumped his head on someone with a thud, and was so frightened that he almost fell into the hidden door. I was standing next to Fatty and grabbed him to prevent him from falling to the ground.

The person who had been knocked aside by the fat man bounced back, only to be a desiccated corpse hanging headfirst from a rope, armless, its head almost touching the ground. We'd gone around the underground palace twice and hadn't seen anything like this in the air. How come a flying corpse appeared just from the fat man pressing the wall?

Fatty steadied himself and, with the help of my flashlight, could see that there were many things hanging around him, all of them just like the mummified corpse he had just bumped into, hanging upside down in several rows like clotheslines.

I let go of Fatty's hand, amused by the bizarre scene: "Strange things happen every year, this year it's my house! Enough said, let's start digging! This old tomb buried underground has finally shown its true colors." Fatty grinned, his smile more like a grimace: "Feng Yixi, Feng Yixi, why is it that every time I meet you I die? You still have the mind to dig for treasure, I'm afraid even if we find some treasure, we won't be able to take it with us!"

Seeing the group of mummified corpses of unknown origin, my mood strangely improved considerably, and I felt much more at ease. I couldn't help but continue arguing with Fatty: "People die for wealth, birds die for food. Wealth and honor are meant to be sought in danger. Don't be unconvinced. A horse won't get fat without night grass, and a person won't get rich without windfall gains. Maybe this wealth and honor is a gift from God. Otherwise, how come your hand is so cunning, pressing the mechanism so easily? I bet the treasure cave in this tomb is already beckoning to us."

While joking around to relax, I looked around, hoping to find something that could save the day. Unfortunately, it was too dark, and the few glimmers of light were like will-o'-the-wisps, making it difficult to see anything. My nose was filled with the smell of rotten coffin boards. I sniffed around and realized that there were probably a lot of coffins hidden in front of me.

The mummified corpse hanging upside down was still swaying slightly. I shone my flashlight and checked the surroundings. There was nothing unusual. I carefully avoided the corpse and gently tapped on the hidden door that Fatty had pressed earlier.

Fatty grabbed me and said, "Dude, something's not right. We were just saying we were underground in the middle of the city. There have been a lot of construction projects going on over the past few years, how come no one has discovered this place?"

I'd been thinking about this for a while. As I used a kitchen knife to clear away a mummified corpse that was obstructing my view, I said to Fatty, "Don't be silly. Chinese culture is so profound. If someone subconsciously wanted to hide something like this, I don't think it would be difficult. Think about it, that woman's portrait, which had been dead for so many years, along with those grotesque scribbles, hadn't been discovered. Yet, it managed to make a commotion in the cabinet, telling us to pull out the nails. So I'm not surprised at all that this tomb is so mysterious. The only strange thing is that we seem to be heading towards the city center, not straight towards the Haihe River. What the hell is going on?"

The mummified corpse I parted spun around and a bunch of things fell down, one end landing on Fatty's shoulder. Fatty leaned over to take a look and saw a thin, long rope. He immediately cursed angrily, "What the hell is this? A hanging rope you carry around with you!" He then tossed it to me to show me.

By the light of my flashlight, I could see clearly what was in my hand. My hair stood on end, and I cursed, "You fat bastard! What is that thing? It's clearly a long piece of human skin!" I threw it back at the fat man to show him.

The fat man jumped in fright, flung the rope in his hand far away, and rubbed his hands together, cursing, "Don't try to act all high and mighty. Can human skin be that long?"