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Chapter 68 - Burial Grounds (XIV)

Editor: Kitty

At that very moment, Luo Jian thought that he was surely going to die. The footsteps of those people were close at hand. This time, even if he held his breath like earlier, he had no idea how to deceive them again. Luo Jian’s heart shook, and he leaned on the stone gate and did not move. Since the stone gate could not be opened, the stairway tunnel was a dead end. Luo Jian had to make some preparations for when he was discovered.

He did not have any other alternatives.

But at this moment, Luo Jian, who was leaning on the stone gate, suddenly felt an inconceivable vibration against his back.

Luo Jian had indeed made the right guess. When the main tomb vault was opened a second time, it was the remaining enemy team members who had made their way here. But there were not two of them. Only ‘Clown,’ who had seen and fought with Duan Li before, returned to the team, and one of their team members was still missing.

However, the vampiric team captain did not care about his team members’ lives or deaths. When they opened the sarcophagus in the main tomb vault again, they found that the body lying in the sarcophagus, which was Luo Jian, had disappeared mysteriously, and only a soft hat was left behind in the sarcophagus.

In the face of this situation, as the strategist of the team, the long-haired woman immediately started speculating. She said, “If it’s not someone who had a method to carry the corpse away, then the corpse has escaped, or...... perhaps it wasn’t a corpse in the first place. ”

The straightforward Brawny immediately expressed his opinion: “But you touched the body with your hands before. There was no pulse.”

After Brawny spoke, the vampire team captain suddenly reached out a hand and placed it on Brawny’s shoulder. It could be seen that even the pale man’s hands were emaciated and white. The hands were not only skeletal, but they were also icy cold. His nails were as sharp as blades and made the big comrade of his, who was a head taller than him, shiver.

“Some people are still alive, even without a pulse. Like me.” The vampire team captain’s voice was particularly low. His eyes reflected a shade of strange red light. Under his eyes, he had deep eyebags. He seemed to be smiling, but in moments like this, his mouth curved up into a terrifying smile and made people’s blood run cold.

Brawny seemed to be frightened by his team captain. He did not dare to voice out his concerns sincerely and honestly, but Clown, who had just joined them, was very lively. He flipped open the sarcophagus’s cushion and soon found a small hidden door inside. Clown childishly laughed right at that moment: “It seems that I found the reason why the body disappeared.”

“Alright, we can try to open it and head down to have a look,” the long-haired woman said, instructing the clown to open the hidden door in the sarcophagus. Under the hidden door was the stairway that Luo Jian had entered previously. Even under the light of the flashlight, nobody could estimate how deep the deep, desolate, and narrow stairway was. The long-haired woman suggested that one member stay in the main tomb vault while the others head down through the hidden door to check out the situation.

And of course, the man left behind was Brawny, who had a tall and muscular build. The reason was that he was very large, and only one person could pass through the hidden door at a time. The stairway under the hidden door was also very narrow. If Brawny went in, he would have to walk with his back bent.

Therefore, Brawny was left behind. The long-haired woman, Clown, and their vampire team captain went down the stairway. They did not encounter any danger along the way. However, halfway through, they found the pieces of cloth cut off by Luo Jian, and the long-haired woman recognized them as pieces of the clothes worn by the corpse that had laid in the sarcophagus.

“Why cut off the clothes?” Clown was very puzzled when he heard about the corpse in the sarcophagus.

After thinking about it, the woman suddenly sneered and said, “Let me make some assumptions here. If the corpse we just found in the sarcophagus is really the corpse of the tomb owner, then he should be one of the ancients.”

“That goes without saying.” Clown wiped the make-up on his face that had smeared onto his clown costume and continued, “Although there is no exact explanation given by the secret chamber, this tomb was definitely built more than a thousand years ago. It’s unnecessary to figure out which year it was exactly, but the dead people buried here are definitely the ancients.”

“Although the secret chamber does not follow regular principles, the frequent tricks it plays with the resurrection of the dead can not be considered new, but this is the first time I’ve seen the resurrected dead cutting off their clothes.” The woman squatted down and picked up a piece of clothing from the ground.

The vampire team captain, who had understood the meaning behind his words, asked, “What do you mean?”

The long-haired woman was worthy of her title as the star strategist of this small team. She opened her mouth and describe Luo Jian’s situation immediately and exactly:

“If the corpse is really an ancient, then he must be very used to this type of garb with wide sleeves and long hem. On the contrary, if a modern man is wearing such a complicated outfit, he will walk one step at a time and stumble. He must also be very flustered and anxious to escape. This kind of impeding dress is a hindrance to him. But the temperature of the tomb is very low. If he has no other clothes to change into, he will not take off his clothes that easily. The only way is to cut the pieces off the sleeves to shorten them and remove the impeding cloth so that he can move freely.”

“That is to say, the corpse that we saw previously was actually someone who was pretending to be a corpse?” The vampire team captain licked his lips as if he was interested in this matter: “How interesting. Someone actually feigned death in front of us, and even I didn’t realize it.”

“The only reason why this person pretended to be dead in front of us was because he is afraid of us and knows that he won’t be able to fight us. This means that he is likely to have no other aid. He is alone—that is to say, we have found a lovely little solitary prey.” The long-haired woman narrowed her eyes, and she was mystically able to accurately guess the dilemma that Luo Jian was facing at this moment. One could catch a glimpse of her terrifying intelligence and ability to speculate with what she said.

“No matter what the situation is, if we continue to head down, we will definitely meet the cute little prey, right?” Clown was very excited and immediately took the lead to walk ahead of the woman, but after walking for a while, the clown could not help but stop.

“Dead end,” Clown said. When they headed down to the end of the stairway, in front of them was a barren wall. There was no door or exit. Nothing was there.

“That’s not quite right.” The vampire team captain stood behind the long-haired woman and held the flashlight to shine at the shadows of the stairway. The light could easily light up the narrow space. There was nothing else in the suffocating stairway except for the people present.

“This is impossible. We walked all the way down, and we did not find any other hidden doors or the like. This is the only way out. Did the fellow who pretended to be a corpse vanish into thin air?” The woman frowned doubtfully. She carefully thought through the whole issue with her hands clasped to her chest and looked at the bare wall at the end of the passageway from time to time.

“There must be a hidden door,” The long-haired woman said.

“He’s not gone. He’s still here.” The vampire team captain coldly snickered and said, “I can smell the scent. Besides us, there was someone here just now.”

“But there’s nothing here.” Clown took his flashlight and moved it here and there. The light of the flashlight followed his swinging motions. Clown had a casual and bold personality, and the narrow stairway seemed to make him uncomfortable. He jumped to the dead end and touched the wall, trying to find out where the mechanism could possibly be.

But after touching and searching, the clown did not find the mechanism but stepped on an object that was left behind on the ground. Then, the clown picked it up to have a look at it. It was a small flashlight.

“It’s a flashlight,” Clown said to his other two teammates. The three looked at each other, and the woman laughed, “Perhaps we will find the corpse that we are looking for behind the wall.”

After the woman spoke, the three people looked at the bare wall at the end of the passageway almost at the same time.

Just as the woman had said, Luo Jian really was standing behind the wall. He was only one wall away from the three enemies. He firmly bit his lips and did not dare to even breathe.

Because at that moment when Luo Jian thought he was definitely going to die, the stone gate behind him was activated in an unique manner. The door had not ‘opened;’ the entire wall ‘flipped.’ Since Luo Jian was leaning against the stone gate at that time, when the wall flipped, he was also flipped along with it. He ingeniously entered another mystical tomb vault from the stairway tunnel.

However, at this moment, Luo Jian was not in the mood to look at the tomb vault he was in. He only focused on the voices he heard from the other side. Those enemies were talking behind the wall that separated Luo Jian from them. Luo Jian knew that he was not out of danger yet, and even his current situation could only serve to throw Luo Jian into more danger.

Luo Jian did not know how the wall-turning mechanism activated. At that time, he simply leaned back against the stone gate, and he did not press any button or touch any strange parts of the mechanism. Then suddenly, the wall flipped over. Even the stone gate that Luo Jian was leaning on turned over. The gate worked the same way as a revolving door that was built in modern buildings today.

Luo Jian did not have much time left. He had to escape from the tomb vault immediately before the enemies found out how to activate the mechanism. Therefore, Luo Jian immediately circled around the small tomb vault.

This vault was totally different from the huge main tomb vault that Luo Jian had seen previously. Now, he was in a very narrow space. It felt like the sort of treasure room that was usually placed at the end of a hidden passageway. Although the small tomb vault was really tiny, it was filled with all kinds of treasures and ceramics. Coins were scattered all around the vault; there were several boxes containing gold and silver, exquisite jewelry, accessories, and weapons; and there was even a row of bookshelves filled with old books. There were not only paper books, but there were also old ones made of bamboo and carved into wood. Luo Jian even saw some of the shelves had gorgeous ancient women’s garbs hung on them.

What was even more amazing was that Luo Jian had dropped his only flashlight, which could be used as a light source in the dark, outside, but in this treasure cavern, Luo Jian did not feel that the vault was dark. All the objects could be clearly seen! After observing for some time, Luo Jian found that the wall was inlaid with many kinds of phosphorite similar to the one Luo Jian had previously obtained. There was not only phosphorite but also many luminous pearls.

No wonder the room was so bright.

Luo Jian had turned several circles in this treasure house. These delicate and valuable things were placed neatly. However, it may be because of the movement of the floor or due to certain small-scale earthquakes, but no matter how orderly the things were placed in this small vault, there were also many objects that fell messily onto ground. The fragile ceramics had shattered into tiny pieces so small that it could no longer break.

It was a pity that Luo Jian had no interest in these treasures at all. He simply circled around to look for a way out, but he did not know if the heavens were against him. Luo Jian could not find any other hidden doors in this treasure cavern except for the wall that could be turned over! In other words, this was a dead end!

The enemies outside the wall seemed to be discussing something. From time to time, their voices would travel to Luo Jian’s ears. Although he could not clearly hear what they said and did not know what they would do next, Luo Jian was still restless.

Soon after, Luo Jian began to fret. It should be said that he was already very anxious. He circled around the treasure cavern impatiently as he kicked a few pieces of pottery on the ground and destroyed several precious antiques. But while he was kicking, it seemed that Luo Jian had kicked a hard object, which hurt his feet for quite a while. He lowered his head and glanced at it. It was a statue placed on the ground.

Another statue.

Luo Jian frowned. He had seen many magnificent statues in the main tomb vault before, but he had always wondered why they were all statues of ghosts and monsters. Didn’t the note say that this was a tomb built by some clansmen for the gods they believed in?

But as a matter of fact......

Luo Jian thought of what the enemies had previously discussed. They seemed to have said that this was the ghost’s tomb.

But why? Why did the enemies think this was the ghost’s tomb? And Luo Jian had always thought it was the god’s tomb. Did this have anything to do with the story depicted by the murals on the walls?

Luo Jian could not infer anything from the few clues he had now. Due to him being overly anxious, however, he was able to calm down. He lowered his head and squatted down as he tried to pick the statue up from the ground. But when Luo Jian used his strength to yank at the statue, he found that the statue was completely fixed to the ground.

The statue was very small. It was a smaller variant of the ghost-headed, wolf-bodied statue. The wolf had a green, ghost-like face with ferocious fangs. Just looking at it would cause people to tremble.