Chapter 11
Chapter 11
“The hole’s so small that a person would get stuck the moment they tried to crawl through. Forget a zombie on the other side-even if it was just a three-year-old kid standing there with a knife, whoever went in would get chopped, and there’d be nothing we could do.
“I’m not going in there to die.”
The other tomb raiders all felt the same.
“Yeah, Boss. There’s strength in numbers. Isn’t this little girl a feng shui master? Let her figure out how to open the tomb passage first. No need to send her to her death.”
“Right. Don’t go in. Why don’t we try luring whatever’s inside out?”
“Hey, don’t we have a drone? Glasses, get your drone out.”
In a sealed space like this, with some unknown terror on the other side, people instinctively wanted to stick together. Aside from that absolute idiot No. 1, none of the other tomb raiders wanted to watch me throw my life away for nothing.
After a brief discussion, a bespectacled middle-aged man pulled a drone from his bag and, hands trembling, worked the controller to send it into the hole.
The drone was equipped with a far-infrared sensor and connected to a phone. At the moment, the screen was still pitch-black.
Slowly, a dark passage appeared on the camera feed, and everyone grew excited.
“It’s about to get through.”
“Crack!”
The drone had barely reached the mouth of the opening when it shattered. The image froze, and the last thing caught on camera was a pale white blur. I couldn’t tell if the lens had gone out of focus or if it had filmed something white.
Silence fell over the chamber. Without realizing it, everyone had retreated onto the steps, keeping as far away from that hole as possible.
No. 1 started throwing a tantrum again.
“Fuck, that’s the Yellow Heart Timber Collection, an imperial mausoleum! We’re already here. Are you telling me you can just walk away without even taking one look?”
No one else said a word. Only Grandfather Murong couldn’t help nodding along.
“That’s right, the Yellow Heart Timber Collection! If you get in there and touch the coffin, you’d have bragging rights for the rest of your life.”
No. 1’s eyes lit up.
“Old man knows what’s up. Fine, then you go.”
As he spoke, he strode over to Grandfather Murong and shoved him toward the hole. Grandfather Murong waved his hands frantically in refusal.
“I’m not going, I’m not going. I’m old, my body can’t take it anymore. You should leave an opportunity like this to the young ones.”
“Cut the fucking crap. You’re going whether you like it or not!”
No. 1 turned hostile faster than flipping a page and pressed his ax against Grandfather Murong’s neck.
“If you don’t go, I’ll chop you to death!”
I turned hostile even faster than No. 1. I kicked out, sent his ax flying, then slapped him twice across the face.
“I’ve been sick of you for ages. Who do you think you’re threatening?”
The other tomb raiders were stunned. They stood there dumbly, watching me beat up No. 1, and it took them a long moment to react. In the end, it was Murong Yue who came over to stop me. She grabbed my arm and whispered in my ear.
“Qiao Moyu, this won’t work. We have to go.”
It turned out that in the antechamber of the Yellow Heart Timber Collection, the layer of sealing stone above the passage weighed more than five tons. It was the final protective barrier to the main burial chamber, and the only mechanism that could open it was inside the Yellow Heart Timber Collection.
The tomb raiders were trapped in the antechamber. Cracking the Yellow Heart Timber Collection would be as hard as ascending to heaven, and opening the sealing stone was even more impossible. In short, once you went in, you weren’t coming back.
The ancients really had racked their brains to protect their mausoleums.
No. 1 stood where he was, clutching his face. First he looked shocked and bewildered; then he flew into a rage, picked up his ax, and charged at me again.
“Fuck! You little bitch, you dare hit me?”
I kicked him over again and followed up with two more punches.
“Yeah, I’m hitting you. Why should you make him go? Why not let me go?”
No. 1 was dumbfounded. I’d punched him right on the nose, and the ache made his eyes water.
“Huh? You want to go?
“You should’ve said so earlier. Who’d fight you over that? Was it really necessary to hit someone over a little thing like this?”
When they heard that I was willing to sacrifice myself, the other tomb raiders stopped standing up for No. 1. One after another, they very politely handed me equipment and encouraged me.
“Good luck. Judging from those moves just now, you might not be in trouble after all.”
“Yeah, yeah. Our boss actually trained in martial arts, but you’re even stronger than him. Impressive!”