To my utter surprise, the woman actually mentioned Duan Jinyan's name and asked in astonishment, "Are you Duan Jinyan's accomplices?"

"That's right! But you're wrong about one thing. Duan Jinyan isn't from the team we're looking for, but from our team!"

The woman replied without hesitation, "I know Duan Jinyan is an insider in your field, but he is also an excellent explorer. We have cooperated many times before, and he and his apprentice were hired by us as guides!"

Upon hearing this answer, my eyes widened in surprise.

Unexpectedly, Duan Jinyan has such a wide network of connections. He wanted to go abroad to rob tombs, but he didn't organize his own team. Instead, he used his position as a guide to get a pass through Yannan University.

But the woman said it was just the two of them, master and disciple, and the young man with the Tianjin accent also said his master was dead. Could it be...?

Thinking of this, I shouted out a slang phrase: "Backed by the mountain of ten thousand ancestors, embracing a bunch of crabapple blossoms, where should I place their fragrance?"

The woman clearly didn't understand me: "What did you say?"

"Hold."

Upon hearing the woman's answer, I muttered a curse under my breath, and at the same time realized that she was lying to me.

This woman kept saying that Duan Jinyan was her teammate, but she didn't even know the secret code of Huang Qiurong, the successor of the Chengdu Begonia Flower lineage, which shows that they are not in cahoots at all.

Besides us, the other group looking for Duan Jinyan on this mountain is Wei Shengnan and her group.

Since this woman said she was looking for teammates, she's probably an accomplice of Wei Shengnan and her group.

Seeing that the woman didn't understand slang, I replied casually, "It's nothing. I just found this line of text on the wall above. Perhaps it's a record of how to solve the mechanism."

The young man from Tianjin was somewhat surprised: "What did you say? There are other agencies above me? Why can't I find them?"

"If you don't even understand the directions for setting up a Bagua chart, of course you don't have the ability."

I was now certain that this woman wasn't telling the truth, so I continued, "Now for the second condition: hoist all your weapons and equipment up to us with ropes. Once I've confirmed you pose no threat, I'll let you up!"

A burly man answered the question for the woman: "Impossible! If we hand over our weapons, wouldn't we become fish on a chopping board, at your mercy?"

I sneered: "The mechanisms up there are absolutely impossible for you to open on your own. Without us, you will be trapped down there forever. Do you think you have the right to bargain with me?"

The burly man remained unmoved: "We will not hand over our weapons; that's our bottom line."

I knew they wouldn't hand over their weapons. The reason they raised the price was just to pave the way for the negotiations: "Then send us three sets of rat suits, a complete set of tools and a medical kit, and a compass."

After a few seconds of silence, the woman agreed: "We can provide you with these things, but how can you guarantee that you won't go back on your word after receiving them?"

“We are Duan Jinyan’s friends, and we came here on his behalf. Since you are with him, I have no reason to harm you, and you have no other choice.”

I paused for a moment: "Okay, bring up the documents you just mentioned. If I can verify your identities, I'll let you up."

The woman seemed to realize her situation and sighed, "Okay, let the rope down."

He nodded to Song Laosan, signaling him to shine a flashlight on the well opening and lower the rope ladder down: "Hang your things up and then back away. Don't even think about trying to climb up, otherwise if we cut this rope ladder, you'll have no chance to come up at all."

Under my intimidation, the people below had no choice but to follow my instructions and hang a travel bag under the rope ladder.

We got a response, and the three of us worked together to pull the travel bag up.

The monkey opened the travel bag, looked inside at the three onesie rat suits with gas masks and headlamps, as well as tools such as a Luoyang shovel, and spat on the ground: "With such complete equipment, these people still have the nerve to call themselves a scientific expedition team? Aren't they obviously tomb raiders?"

I had been bitten on the arm by a giant salamander before, so I took out the first-aid kit, wrapped the wound haphazardly with a bandage, and then put on the rat costume. Next, I put the two doll skeletons that I had been carrying on my back into the travel bag and slung it across my body.

After about two minutes, I finally felt my body warm up, and then I took out the documents inside.

The document was wrapped in a file, on which was written entirely in Russian, which I couldn't understand.

Opening the document, there was a photo of a woman. She was pretty and delicate; even in a photo, you could tell she was a great beauty.

Looking at the other information, the girl's name is Jiang Man, she is one year younger than me, and she is a senior at Yannan University, currently interning with a geological research team.

The woman below waited for a long time without receiving a response from us, then asked, "Can you confirm our identities now?"

"certainly!"

I casually swung the rope ladder down.

"Xiao Duan..."

Seeing this, Song Laosan instinctively tried to stop me, but before he could say anything, he saw me throw down the stick that was wedging the rope ladder.

"Ding-dong!"

The iron rod fell to the ground with a thud, followed by a man's angry curse: "You bastard! You fucking tricked us?"

"Since ancient times, entering a tomb has been a battle of venomous creatures, with a nine-out-of-ten chance of death! You all lack common sense, so you can't blame others!"

I threw down a sentence and then ignored the people below. As a result, Song Laosan started using his flashlight to examine the stone statues in the room.

"You bastard! I'll fucking kill you!"

The man below roared again and began firing at those above.

Hearing the commotion below, the monkey asked me, "Young Master Duan, are you really going to ignore these people?"

"in spite of!"

Listening to the gunfire below, I steeled myself and said, "The space here is limited, and these people are of unknown origin. Letting them up here is like playing with fire!"

"That's right, they came here clearly for Duan Jinyan. In the underworld, life and death depend on one's own abilities. If we let them up here, we'll be the ones who die!"

At this point, Song Laosan also guessed the clue: "The people below are probably Wei Shengnan's accomplices. The only thing we can do is to inform Wei Shengnan of this news after we leave here."

The people below were still shouting, but I ignored them and stood in the middle of a circle of stone statues, turning my gaze to the compass in my hand, beginning to search for a way out of the predicament.