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Situ Xiang was overjoyed and, using the same method, knocked down several skeletons in succession. Yin Li stood in the corner, her legs trembling with fear, barely daring to breathe. Even so, she was still spotted by several skeletons, who approached her, carrying wooden stakes. Their empty eye sockets were like two black wells, so deep they resembled the entrance to hell.

Yin Li's face was as white as paper. She slumped to the ground, staring blankly at the skeletons and the wooden stakes in their hands. Tears welled up in her eyes, but she couldn't bring herself to cry.

Situ Xiang turned around and saw this scene. He shouted urgently, "What are you standing there for? Run!"

Yin Li sat motionless on the ground, staring straight at the skeletons. They were already in front of her. Situ Xiang leaped to save her, but was entangled by several skeletons that suddenly rushed at him, and could only watch helplessly as Yin Li's despairing gaze met his eyes.

It's all too late.

"Jack! What did you say?" Shanhu shouted, "You're going to abandon Brother Xiang?"

Jack maintained a nonchalant smile throughout: "It's not that I don't want to care, it's that I can't. It's so high up, if Brother Xiang fell, he'd probably be dead already. Instead of wasting time here, we'd be better off going to the main burial chamber to get the treasure. Don't forget, Uncle Tian offered a high price!"

"To hell with the high price!" the fourth brother said viciously. "In this underworld, it's all about loyalty. Brother Xiang has never treated us unfairly, and we will never abandon him! Even if all that's left of him is his corpse, we'll carry his body back with us!"

Jack stared coldly at the two of them for a long time before finally letting out a cold laugh. He shoved Qin Wen, whom he had subdued, aside, clapped his hands, and said, "Good, that's loyal enough. Looks like you're going to waste your time here."

"If you want to go in by yourself, we absolutely won't stop you!" Shanhu said with a gloomy face, "Anyway, you're not one of our brothers!"

Jack smiled coldly, a vicious look appearing in his handsome eyes. He slowly said, "I didn't want to do this, but since you've forced me, I have no choice but to disregard my reputation!" With that, he reached into his clothes.

Startled, Lao Si and Shan Hu drew their machetes and lunged at him. Jack suddenly pulled out a black pistol and fired a shot into the air. The sharp gunshot pierced the silence of the ancient tomb, and everyone was startled, retreating in panic.

The cold muzzle of the gun was pointed at Lao Si and Shan Hu, and the two men slowly lowered their raised machetes. Four eyes stared at the Glock 17 9mm pistol, and they retreated cautiously.

“I told you I didn’t want to do this,” Jack sneered. “Uncle Tian knew you couldn’t be trusted, which is why he sent me. I don’t want to say it again! Get out of here!”

Yin Li stared in despair at the skeletons before her and the sharp wooden stakes in their hands. Was she really going to die like this? She had just graduated from university and just found a job. Her life had only just begun. Was she really going to die here?

At that moment, she suddenly remembered the wooden plank. It said that if the ancient tomb were opened, disaster would befall the world. Now it seemed, its words had indeed come true.

She closed her eyes involuntarily; she was unwilling to die like this!

After a long while, the wooden stake she had imagined did not fall. She opened her eyes in surprise and was immediately dumbfounded, staring blankly at the skeletons, not understanding what they were trying to do.

All the skeletons knelt on the ground, respectfully, even putting down the wooden stakes they were holding.

Situ Xiang was completely stunned by this unexpected turn of events. Countless skeletons knelt respectfully, as if nailed to the ground, motionless.

Yin Li leaned against the wall and slowly stood up. Looking at the countless white bones kneeling before her, a surge of emotion welled up within her, a memory deeply rooted in her heart. It was as if, long, long ago, someone had also knelt before her like this, worshipping her as a goddess.

How long ago was that? So long ago, I can hardly remember. That past has long since flowed away with the river of history, never to return.

Her eyes began to fill with confusion. She tilted her head slightly, gazing into the unknown distance, as if she were seeing the past from a thousand years ago. Situ Xiang looked at her and the kneeling skeletons on the ground, puzzled, and an absurd thought involuntarily arose in his mind.

Could it be that this girl named Yin Li has some connection with the owner of this ancient tomb?

As he pondered this, he suddenly heard the sound of flowing robes. Turning his head, he saw ripples spreading outwards like water across the wall directly opposite Yin Li. A woman in red leaped from the center of the ripples and flew towards Yin Li. Her robes fluttered, her black hair swayed, and she appeared ethereal and otherworldly.

What was going on? Situ Xiang thought he was hallucinating; he actually saw a woman fly out of the wall. This wasn't a fantasy movie; how could someone pass through a wall?

The woman in red glided gracefully through the air of the cave, landing softly before Yin Li. Her long, black hair and her stunningly beautiful face were exactly the same as the woman Yin Li had seen in her dream. Her attire was also remarkably similar to the portrait of Princess Zhaoling in the tomb passage.

Yin Li thought, I'm sure I know who she is now.

"You are Princess Zhaoling, aren't you?" Yin Li asked. "Did you save me?"

Princess Zhaoling did not answer, but simply gazed at her silently, a sorrowful smile on her lips. A breeze, seemingly from nowhere, stirred her robes, causing them to ripple in the air.

Yin Li looked back at her, her heart filled with countless questions she wanted to ask, yet she couldn't utter a single word, only feeling a dry, painful soreness in her throat. She thought sadly that this was the first time in her life she truly understood what it meant to be speechless.

Princess Zhaoling floated up, hovering in mid-air, and waved to Yin Li. Then, she turned gracefully, lifted her wide sleeves, and flew back towards the ripples. She disappeared into the wall without a trace.

Yin Li and Situ Xiang remained standing there, watching her appear and disappear, never once thinking of stopping her.

Suddenly, the two were startled. After regaining their composure, they found that everything in the tomb had returned to normal. All the skeletons were suspended in the air, impaled on wooden stakes, their movements and expressions exactly the same, as if they had never moved. Even the stone slabs that had been cracked by the wooden stakes were completely unmarked.

"Am I dreaming?" Situ Xiang looked around the entire tomb chamber in disbelief. Everything that had just happened seemed like a dream, a terrifying yet erotic and hazy dream.

Yin Li seemed to have realized something, and a light suddenly flashed in her eyes. She squatted down, plucked a handful of moss, examined it carefully, and exclaimed with sudden realization, "So this is Apocynum venetum!"

23. Lobu Demon Grass

“Apocynum venetum? What Apocynum venetum?” Situ Xiang asked.

"Apocynum venetum is a spice with hallucinogenic properties. It looks a lot like moss and has no smell when it grows on the ground. If you dry it and then burn it in an incense burner, it will have a beautiful fragrance. It is said that the fragrance comes from the breath of the gods in heaven, and inhaling it can help you communicate with the souls of the dead. Priests in ancient times used this spice in their sacrifices, and it was very precious."

"So, what we just saw was an illusion caused by the Apocynum venetum?" Situ Xiang asked curiously. It was truly amazing that the two of them had the same illusion.

“But,” Yin Li frowned, “this kind of grass became extinct two thousand years ago. There are very few records about it in ancient books, but its effects are only known after it has been dried and burned. How could it be still growing on the ground now?”

“Perhaps this underground-growing Apocynum venetum is different from the others.” Situ Xiang looked around the four walls of the tomb chamber. “Now let’s think about how to get out. There must be an exit here, otherwise…” He looked up at the deep hole in the ceiling, “otherwise we can only pray to God to give us another pair of wings so that we can get out of here.”

He began to examine the cave walls and floor inch by inch, but found nothing. Yin Li looked up and suddenly saw the spot where Princess Zhaoling had just passed through the wall. There, about five or six meters above the ground, was a small patch of Apocynum venetum growing. Upon closer inspection, one would notice that the patch of Apocynum venetum seemed to protrude slightly by half an inch from the surrounding rock surface.

"Xiang..." Yin Li wanted to call him over to look at the protrusion, but as soon as she called out, she realized how ambiguous the way she addressed him was, and her face turned as red as a tomato. Situ Xiang was taken aback, then couldn't help but laugh, saying, "Baby, what's up?"

"Who's your baby? How disgusting!" Yin Li's neck turned red, and she threw the apocynum venetum in her hand at him.

He easily dodged and was in front of her in the blink of an eye, saying in an ambiguous tone, "Baby, do you want to continue our tenderness from just now?"

Yin Li's expression changed, and she raised her hand again: "You pervert!"

Situ Xiang dodged her slender hand and stopped joking with her: "Tell me, what did you find out?"

Yin Li held her breath, pointed to the patch of Apocynum venetum on the wall, and said, "See for yourself."

Situ Xiang was an extremely intelligent man, and he immediately saw through the situation. He took out a climbing axe and several extremely long iron nails from his backpack and said, "You stay here and don't move around. I'll go up and take a look."

After saying that, he picked up his axe and swung it forcefully against the wall, instantly smashing a large hole. He climbed up using the hole, and when he encountered rocks too hard to carve a foothold, he hammered nails into the wall. Yin Li stared at him in astonishment. This man was not only skilled in martial arts, but also a first-rate mountaineer. Why would someone like him go tomb raiding? Even being a bodyguard would be safer than tomb raiding, wouldn't it?

Before long, Situ Xiang arrived at the clump of Apocynum venetum and used his axe to remove the thick layer of grass, revealing the rocks underneath.

His pupils dilated in an instant: on the protruding rock, a strange insect-shaped carving appeared, neither butterfly nor moth, indescribably bizarre.

"How is it? What's up there?" Standing at the foot of the stone wall, Yin Li's view was blocked by him, and she asked anxiously, "Are there any mechanisms?"

“It’s a butterfly,” Situ Xiang said. “It’s a butterfly pattern, exactly the same as the one on the round stone at the tomb entrance!”

Yin Li was startled, a hint of despair flashing in her eyes: "So, opening the door requires that jade pendant? But we didn't bring it down with us!"

Upon hearing this, Situ Xiang sneered and said, "So, you should thank me instead."

Yin Li was taken aback: "What, what do you mean?"

Situ Xiang slammed his axe into the wall, gripping the handle with one hand while reaching into his backpack with the other, pulling out a jade-green object. Yin Li recognized it immediately, and a surge of anger welled up from her core. No longer caring about her ladylike image, she jumped up and began to curse, "You bastard, you don't even know what kind of 'Xiang' you are! You stole my jade pendant! You pervert! You lecher!" By the end, she didn't even know what she was saying anymore. Situ Xiang seemed unmoved, saying calmly, "If you keep cursing, I'll come down and do what a lecher does."

Yin Li's face flushed red, and she screamed, "Go to hell!"

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I'm afraid I won't die anytime soon." Situ Xiang pressed the jade pendant forcefully into the carving. A soft click was heard, and his expression changed. He cried out in alarm. Without thinking, he leaped down the wall.

Seeing him jump down, Yin Li was startled and instinctively lunged forward to catch him. But how could a frail woman like her possibly catch such a strong and powerful man with muscles as hard as steel? By the time she realized the gravity of the situation, it was too late; Situ Xiang's massive body was pressing down on her. She cried out in alarm, and Situ Xiang caught her, using the momentum to roll to the side in the air, dissipating most of the force, and the two of them crashed together onto the hard stone floor. Before they could even feel the pain, a thunderous roar came from the sky, followed by a rain of rubble. Situ Xiang had pinned Yin Li beneath him, using his back to shield her from most of the debris.

After a strong tremor, the world finally returned to silence. Situ Xiang shook his head, brushing the sand off, and looked up.

The wall that had just been embedded with the jade pendant suddenly split in two amidst the earth-shaking tremors, moving in two directions and disappearing into the walls on either side, revealing an equally vast space inside.

Under Jack's control, the group moved forward cautiously, their shadows stretched long and eerily flickering by the dancing flames on the walls, creating an indescribably strange and oppressive atmosphere.

"How many bullets are in your gun?" Qin Wen suddenly asked.

Jack was taken aback, then sneered: "You're clever, aren't you? There are six bullets in the gun, enough to kill six people. But there are far more than six people here. But little girl, once I kill Fourth Brother, Mountain Tiger, and you, the remaining old, weak, women, and children will have no reason to resist."

Qin Wen sneered, "Six bullets might not be enough to kill us. If you miss, I can defeat you while you're changing magazines!"

“I don’t mind if you try,” Jack said with a cynical tone. “If I shoot, the first one won’t be you, but Professor Li. With him as my scapegoat, I’d be content even if I died.”

Qin Wen's expression changed. She tried her best to suppress her anger, gritted her teeth, and sneered, saying, "Fine, you win!"

"If I weren't ruthless, I wouldn't be alive today." Jack's eyes suddenly turned cold. "Enough talk, let's go!"

Calm, an unexpected calm. In the deep tomb passage, only the sounds of footsteps and breathing could be heard. Qin Wen raised her guard to its highest level; the calm before the storm is often more profound than the calm of everyday life.

Suddenly, her expression froze, and she stopped in her tracks.

"What do you want to do?" Jack's voice was icy cold, sending a chill down everyone's spine. They dared not doubt that such a ruthless person wouldn't pull the trigger.

"Xiaowen, don't be impulsive!" Professor Li said hurriedly, his face ashen. Jack's words had just pierced his heart like a sharp knife, filling him with despair. Now he could only beg Qin Wen not to resist; he wouldn't object even if she gave all the artifacts in the tomb to Jack.

"Look!" Qin Wen seemed not to have heard him, pointing to the base of the wall on the left side of the tomb passage, and said, "How could there be something like this here!"

Everyone turned around, but Jack's expression remained unchanged: "Isn't your method a bit too clumsy? Why don't you just say there's a million on the ground?"

Qin Wen scoffed at his words, ignored him, and walked straight to the wall. Jack was taken aback, only to see her squat down and pull out a handful of extremely thin grass from the base of the wall. His expression changed slightly.

"Moss?" Bai Yun Ning looked at the green patch with a puzzled expression and said, "Moss is growing in an ancient tomb under the desert?"

“This doesn’t seem to be ordinary moss.” Qin Wen held the grass in her hand up to everyone. “Look, this grass has tiny flowers growing at the top, with many layers of petals, and they’re green. It’s already strange for grass to grow in an ancient desert tomb, but for this grass to look like this, could it be a new species that hasn’t been discovered in the biological world yet?”

“It could also be a species that has been extinct for many years.” A hint of excitement flashed across Bai Yun Ning’s face. Qin Wen found it interesting; it turned out that besides her almost numb calmness, she also had other expressions.

“That’s right.” Qin Wen took a small plastic bag from her pocket, put the grass in it, and waved it in front of Jack, saying, “You don’t want this too, do you?”

“Who said I don’t want it?” Jack stretched out his hand, looking like he was robbing someone, and said, “Give it to me.”

Looking at his expression, Qin Wen was stunned. This man actually had such a childlike expression. Looking closely, he seemed to be only seventeen or eighteen years old. So young and handsome, why would he choose this path?

"You even want this? Do you think this can be sold for money?" Qin Wen gave him a mocking smile and threw the plastic bag at him.

Jack reached out and took the bag, but just as he grasped it, his vision blurred, and Qin Wen's face was inches away. Startled, he immediately dodged to the side. But he couldn't pull his gun back; Qin Wen grabbed it, her index finger and thumb locking around his wrist.

"Click!"

With a crisp sound of bones grinding together, Jack's hand loosened, and the pistol fell to the ground. A ruthless glint flashed in his eyes. Ignoring his dislocated hand, he launched a spinning kick straight at Qin Wen's chest.

Qin Wen lightly touched the ground with her toes and quickly jumped backward. In her haste, she jumped three or four meters away. Jack still wouldn't give up. Enduring the sharp pain in his wrist, he had just regained his footing when he launched another fierce kick at her.

"Stop!" A loud shout rang out, followed by the deafening roar of gunfire. Mountain Tiger picked up the Glock pistol that had fallen to the ground, pulled the trigger, and a bullet hole immediately appeared in the wall behind Jack.

The air was thick with the smell of gunpowder. Jack's foot froze in mid-air, then he slowly retracted it, turning to stare coldly at Shan Hu. His wrist was swollen badly. Although his expression remained unchanged, beads of sweat still trickled down his forehead.

"Jack, you lost." Qin Wen walked towards him and smiled slightly. "Since you lost, you should admit defeat."

24. Hellish Demon Flower

Jack turned his gaze to her, a fierce killing intent flashing in his dark pupils: "I didn't expect you to be even more despicable than me."

"All's fair in war," Qin Wen smiled even more brightly. "My dad taught me that in competitions, you need both tactics and strategy, as long as you don't violate basic ethics and competition rules. Otherwise, how could I have won the National Youth Taekwondo Championship for three consecutive years?"

Jack sneered, "Fine, I lost. Kill me or do whatever you want. But as long as I have a breath left, I will repay you tenfold for what happened today!"

"I'm not easily intimidated," Qin Wen said coldly, secretly amused. Turns out, acting cool was so much fun. She walked up to Jack, who didn't back down, but stared at her with eyes as sharp as knives, his face showing no fear. Qin Wen sighed, took his hand, and twisted it hard. Jack groaned, but gritted his teeth to keep quiet.

Qin Wen breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Okay, try raising your hand and see if you can move it."

Jack was stunned. He rotated his wrist; the bone had been set, and the pain was greatly reduced. He looked at Qin Wen, frowned, and said, "Do you know what you're doing? I can take your life at any time now."

“You can give it a try.” Shanhu brandished the gun in his hand. “This thing doesn’t have eyes. It wouldn’t be good if it hurt your face that’s used to fool little girls.”