When we crawled out through the tunnel, the morning sun had already peeked out, its red glow partially visible.

Seeing the magnificent light that swept across the earth, the fear in my heart finally subsided a little.

This was my first time tomb raiding. Although I didn't even see the tomb chamber, the blood-red words that suddenly appeared on the wall still gave me a very uncomfortable feeling.

Now that the tomb has been found, the Changwei Group will definitely continue digging. Shark transferred four trusted men from the company to guard the tomb, while the rest of us returned to the camp to rest.

I lay in my single tent and flipped through the Judge's Records, but I couldn't find the legend of the blood-written words on the wall.

This means that from my great-grandfather onwards, our Duan family has never seen this situation during tomb raiding.

Could it be that the tomb is really haunted?

I didn't sleep very comfortably that night.

In the dream, we entered the tomb passage once again, preparing to dig a tunnel to bypass the collapsed section, but behind the wall were piles of white bones.

Crimson blood gushed out from the gaps in the white bones, engulfing us.

Everyone screamed and ran away, but when they turned around, there was a rotting corpse behind them. He grabbed my wrist and questioned me about why I had demolished his house.

I sat bolt upright in bed, my face covered in cold sweat.

The monkey saw my appearance and smiled: "Young Master Duan, were you having a nightmare?"

I looked out of the tent; it was already dark. It took me a while to come to my senses, and I gasped for breath, "How did you get here?"

"The shark was prepared to go back into the tomb and sent me to call you to gather. I saw you were still asleep, so I didn't disturb you. Who knew you would wake up on your own?"

The monkey handed him a cigarette and comforted him with a smile, "Young Master Duan, don't overthink it. It's normal to be nervous since this is our first time tomb raiding! I also had a nightmare. I dreamt that behind the brick walls of the tomb passage, there wasn't yellow earth at all, but piles of bones, with blood gushing out, and a rotting corpse!"

I heard the monkey's words, and my hand, which was holding the cigarette, froze in mid-air.

His dream was exactly the same as mine!

Is it really possible for such a coincidence to happen in the world?

The monkey, oblivious to my odd behavior, shoved a cigarette into my hand: "I don't think there's anything to be afraid of. If there really is a ghost in that tomb, why doesn't it attack us directly instead of writing on the wall to scare us? It means either it can't reach us, or it's just a cowardly scaremonger, haha!"

The monkey's words didn't calm me down. I lit a cigarette and took two deep drags: "Did the shark say when it would make its move?"

“Ma Zhenhong went to the city to prepare materials during the day. They just arrived and they are eating at the canteen. Everyone is waiting for you. You should leave after you finish eating.”

The monkey unscrewed the bottle of mineral water and took a sip: "Ma Zhenhong said he specializes in robbing Ming and Qing tombs and doesn't know much about Tang tombs. But you're an expert, and he needs your help to excavate the tomb passage. During the day, he released a few rats into the tomb passage to confirm that the blood-written characters didn't release any poisonous gas."

Through the gap in the tent flap, I saw that stars had already appeared in the sky, and sighed, "Let's go!"

At 7:30 p.m., we gathered again at the top of the cliff.

After I finished burning incense, Ma Zhenhong took the lead in using a rope to lower a small sled down, and then said, "We have limited time, and the tunnel cannot be expanded further, so the parts I'm using are all parts that the blacksmith shop worked overtime to rush out. They can only be assembled inside! You guys lower the parts down from up there, and I'll be responsible for transporting them inside!"

The things Ma Zhenhong prepared were all wrapped in canvas, and it was unclear what they were. Judging from the sound, most of them were metal products.

After about two hours of effort, we finally managed to move the items into the tomb and reach the location where the tomb passage had collapsed.

This was my second time entering the tomb passage. Perhaps because of the nightmare, I kept trying to avoid looking in the direction of the blood-written words, but the more I tried, the more I couldn't help but look in that direction.

"Brother Zhao, take this and splash it over those words to cover them up!"

Ma Zhenhong handed a bottle to the monkey, then patted my shoulder: "I've been in tomb raiding for so many years, and I've encountered a lot of strange things, but in the end, they all turned out to be just us scaring ourselves! The most important thing for us is to have a strong mentality, otherwise we can scare ourselves to death!"

I saw the monkey cover the writing on the wall with red liquid from the bottle and asked, "What's in there?"

"Rooster blood, it wards off evil spirits!"

As Ma Zhenhong spoke, he began to unpack the canvas bags on the ground: "Everyone, come and help assemble it. Be careful, otherwise if the tomb passage collapses, we'll be all trapped!"

The materials he prepared were all detachable steel pipes, and double-layered steel pipes, with length and width that perfectly matched the tomb passage.

They assembled the steel pipes like scaffolding on a construction site, and then covered them with curved iron plates, essentially building a reinforced iron house inside the tomb passage.

As Ma Zhenhong used jacks to tighten the canopy at a specific location, the iron frame was completely fitted into the tomb passage.

"This method of reinforcing the tomb passage was invented by the master craftsman who introduced me to the industry. He called it arterial bypass."

Ma Zhenhong shook the iron frame to confirm its sturdiness and then said to me, "Mr. Duan, I don't know much about Tang tombs. In your opinion, how far do we need to dig forward if we're going to make a hole on the side?"

I took out a pen and paper and drew a diagram on it: "This tomb passage under our feet is thirty-seven meters long from the entrance to the collapsed section, and there are three courtyards. If my estimate is correct, starting from the entrance of the tomb passage, there is a courtyard every ten meters. This tomb should have four courtyards, and the last one is just three or four meters in front of us! After passing the courtyard in front, there is the stone door of the antechamber. Behind the stone door is the place where the tomb guardian beasts and funerary figurines are placed. Of course, this antechamber should be a section of the tomb passage."

The monkey looked at me curiously: "Young Master Duan, how can you be sure there are four courtyards here?"

“I analyze that this should be a single-chamber brick tomb. According to the funeral rites of the Tang Dynasty, only imperial relatives and first-rank officials with special merits could use double-chamber brick tombs. Ordinary people would leave a passageway in front of the single-chamber tomb to serve as the front chamber.”

I continued, “The capital of the Tang Dynasty was Chang’an, and most high-ranking officials and imperial relatives were buried in that area. Judging from the feng shui here, it doesn’t seem like a very high-ranking official was buried here, so this tomb is not of a high enough level! During Wu Zetian’s reign, the tomb of Shangguan Wan’er, who was known as the female prime minister, only had five courtyards! I estimate that there are four courtyards here, based on the analysis of the brick tomb system. So if we dig forward ten meters, we should be able to enter the main burial chamber.”

"I'll do as you say, let's get started!"

Having found his direction, Ma Zhenhong picked up the crowbar in his hand: "Everyone, stand under the shed. Although I have reinforced the tomb passage, the risk of it collapsing here is still very high."

Once we found a good spot, Ma Zhenhong, holding a crowbar, began to carefully pry open the stones on the wall.

Whoosh!

As small sections of the stone collapsed, quicksand surged down from behind the wall, carrying with it a large number of bones.

Looking at the white bones in the sand, even breathing became difficult.

The situation here is exactly the same as the dream I had!