As we explored further, we indeed discovered many traces of human habitation on both sides of the sacred path behind us, as well as destroyed foundations and some wooden houses that were still barely recognizable, filled with weapons that were rusted beyond recognition.

We walked a little further and the square beneath our feet came to an end. Ahead lay another large expanse of trees with branches laden with snow, and the darkness beneath us swallowed up all light.

Fortunately, Jung and others initially thought the established sacred path was convenient and did not demolish it.

We continued along the sacred path for about five minutes when a blurry shadow appeared ahead.

The monkey shone its flashlight on the mound in front of it, which looked like a peach that had been bitten in the middle, and patted my arm: "Young Master Duan, look at that thing, is that the treasure mound you mentioned?"

"That's it!"

Looking at the pagoda-shaped top, half of which had been blown away, I breathed a sigh of relief: "The top is still there, so the location of the tomb can be determined easily. The entrance to the tomb must be near it."

Upon hearing this, Song Laosan was the first to step forward: "There were no signs of anyone checking inside the ancestral hall just now, which means we are the first group to arrive here. Everyone, get moving and find the entrance to the tomb before making any further plans."

Although the journey had left me exhausted, the moment I saw the summit, I was instantly energized and strode forward.

But before I could even search carefully, reality gave me a cold shower.

Song Laosan stood beside me, looking at the tomb-raiding hole in front of us, and swallowed hard as he comforted me, "Xiao Duan, don't be too discouraged. What if this hole was dug a few years ago? There are no recent signs of human activity in the ancestral hall behind us, which means it's unlikely that anyone came here. And the later groups certainly don't know that this place has been robbed. As long as we hold this place, we still have a chance to wait for Duan Jinyan, right?"

"No, this tomb robber's hole isn't from before; it only appeared recently."

The monkey squatted down and examined the walls of the hole. It grabbed some soil from inside the hole and from the ground with both hands, and after comparing them, concluded: "This hole was newly dug. The difference between the two types of soil is not significant, which means that it was dug no more than 24 hours ago."

Song Laosan looked at the monkey with a skeptical expression: "You've only been learning to dig tunnels for a few days, and you dare to draw such a conclusion?"

The monkey retorted stubbornly, "Although I'm new to this, my teacher, Old Tian, ​​is an expert. Besides, soil identification is the first lesson in digging a hole; it's not some advanced knowledge. When Old Tian was teaching me, he didn't do anything else for the first few days but focused on teaching me how to identify the soil. I wouldn't say I'm a master, but my accuracy rate is at least 80%! Most importantly, the temperature here is very low, and the ground is frozen soil, which is the easiest type to identify!"

Seeing the monkey's confident demeanor, Song Laosan panicked: "If that's really the case, then things are going to be troublesome. This is a no-man's-land, and the people who dug the tunnel wouldn't need to cover up the stolen soil, but there's no soil around the edge of the tunnel, which means the digger was highly skilled. Xiao Duan, who do you think dug this tunnel? Was the other two doors dug by Duan Jinyan?"

At this moment, my thoughts were also in a state of great confusion, and I shared my analysis with Song Laosan.

Ever since I learned of Duan Jinyan's whereabouts from Su Gouzi, I have been making preparations for my journey to the Far East in a very busy manner, and my schedule is about the same as that of Wei Shengnan and others.

Moreover, I was attacked by Wei Shengnan when I was in the forest ranger settlement.

At that time, they mentioned a name called "Uncle Tian," but neither Song Laosan nor I had ever heard of such a person in the other two sects.

Could it be that our guess was wrong all along? Were the people we heard fighting the tiger and attacking us not Wei Shengnan and her group, but Duan Jinyan?

On second thought, I realized something was wrong. Back at the farm, Yevgeny had said that the team that captured him was led by a woman, which seemed to be Wei Shengnan's team.

In that case, the person under the tomb must be Duan Jinyan. If that's the case, we were quite lucky to arrive at the right time, just in time for Duan Jinyan to dig the tomb.

After listening to my explanation, Song Laosan thought for a moment and said, "What should we do next? Stay up there and lie in ambush, waiting for the people inside to appear so we can capture them?"

"This is a good idea. After all, they can only climb up one by one, which will greatly increase our success rate in capturing them."

While I thought it was a good idea, I also had other concerns: "As you said, the person who dug this tunnel is a master. Monkey just said that the tunnel was dug in less than 24 hours, but it's also possible that more than 10 hours have passed. Duan Jinyan's goal is just a jade seal in the tomb, and that's enough time for him to complete the task. The safest way is to go down there and see if they have succeeded."

While I was discussing countermeasures with Song Laosan, Monkey, who had been inspecting the tomb, turned around and sighed, "Young Master Duan is right. If we stay up there, we won't get anything, and we won't be able to get into the tomb through this hole."

Song Laosan and I both leaned over at the same time: "Why?"

“This tunnel has been tampered with; look here.”

As the monkey spoke, he shone his flashlight into the depths of the tunnel. Only after his reminder did I discover a metal ring on the tunnel wall that was almost the same color as the soil.

The monkey explained, "This iron ring is called a 'heartless hook' in the north, but it's called a 'coiled dragon lock' in the south. This thing..."

"This is a mechanism, similar to a bear trap. Once triggered, barbed iron teeth will extend and hook the person inside the tunnel, making it impossible for them to go up or down. The more they struggle, the deeper the hook will penetrate."

I've seen something like this in the Judge's Record. I shone my flashlight down and found that there was more than one dragon lock inside: "The purpose of the dragon lock is to seal the tomb passage so that when lone tomb raiders go down, they can prevent others from intercepting them or wild beasts from sneaking in. This thing is easy to place, but it can only be removed from below. It is almost impossible to remove from above."

Old Song was puzzled: "If the people who went down sealed the entrance, how did they get out? Aren't they afraid that someone else would seal the tunnel?"

The monkey didn't beat around the bush: "Old Tian told me that the tomb raiders who set up these kinds of traps were all highly skilled and daring. They didn't intend to return the way they came, but would continue to dig another passage. It was just that they were pressed for time and didn't seal the tunnel off."

"The person below is Duan Jinyan!" I answered without hesitation. "Wei Shengnan always travels with a large number of bodyguards, so she could easily have someone guarding up there. Only someone like Duan Jinyan, who plans to take the goods and leave, would set up such a trap!"