When Song Laosan saw that I was going to enter the hole created by the blast to chase after Duan Jinyan, he did not stop me. Instead, he said, "Little Duan, as long as we go down from here, we will be able to see Duan Jinyan. However, this scene of father and son recognizing each other may not turn out as you expect."

I thought Song Laosan was trying to comfort me, so I forced a smile and said, "Don't worry, I've always prepared for the worst regarding this matter, and I'm not afraid of being hit."

"No! I'm not talking about that; it's something much darker than you can imagine."

Old Song examined the guns and said in a deep voice, "Duan Jinyan abandoned you when you were five years old. He didn't even go back to attend your grandfather's funeral. In his heart, we don't know if he still considers himself a member of the Duan family. What I want to say is, if we encounter Duan Jinyan and the two sides fight, or even shoot each other, what will you do?"

That question stumped me.

Because I never imagined such a scene would occur.

I've always believed that we are still father and son, and even if we have a falling out, it's just a matter of going our separate ways and never seeing each other again.

If what Song Laosan said really happens, what should I do?

Song Laosan knew this was a difficult question for me, so he didn't force me to give an answer. Instead, he shared his thoughts: "What I want to tell you is that if this situation were to occur, I would definitely strike first. After all, you only have one life. How you choose is your own problem. But I suggest you think this through now, so you don't lose your composure when the gun goes off. Real gunfights aren't like movies. Hesitating for just a few seconds could cost you your life."

I didn't give an answer, but just walked over to the rope, pulled it a few times to make sure it was secure, and then wrapped it around my wrist: "Go down."

To avoid attracting attention, I turned off my headlamp while descending, and gradually figured out my location by feeling around.

The spot where Duan Jinyan and his team blasted open should be a courtyard leading to the tomb, or a place where materials were transported down there back then. The surrounding walls were very smooth, clearly indicating that they had been carefully repaired.

After descending a dozen meters, my foot, which had been bracing against the wall, suddenly slipped and I realized I had entered the tomb chamber. I immediately slowed my movements.

The moment my feet touched the ground, my vision was still completely dark, with no light emanating from the surroundings. Only after confirming that no one was around did I turn on my headlamp.

Our room is filled with wooden furniture. On the shelves are not only bronze mirrors, but also pure gold belt hooks, flower petals, square cups, ivory hairpins, combs, phoenix crowns, and various ceramic bottles and jars, which should all be used to store rouge and face powder.

After landing, the monkey picked up a few small porcelain pieces from the table and carried them with it, muttering to itself, "Young Master Duan, aren't we looking for the tomb of King Ze? Why does this place look like a woman's room?"

I shone my flashlight on the tomb door that had been opened from the inside and whispered, "The Jin people believed in the immortality of the soul. This should be the tomb of Lady Hushahu. These things are all items she liked in her lifetime. However, the phoenix crown worn by the empress and the other items should have been placed here as burial objects after her death."

After inspecting the room, Song Laosan picked out an ivory hairpin and held it in his hand. He looked at the furniture with regret: "These wooden items are exquisitely crafted, all top-quality pieces! It's rare to find such high-quality antiques in such good condition. If I could take a few of these out, the market would be in a frenzy!"

"The humidity in this tomb is too high; the lacquer belt will weather away if you put it on. Forget about it."

I saw a brocade phoenix robe hanging on the shelf next to me. I cut off a corner of it with a knife and wrapped it around my headlamp to block out the bright light.

Nowadays, most of the ancient official robes exhibited in museums, except for those from the Qing Dynasty, are authentic. Even if they are, they are imitations pieced together from fragments. For example, the robe in front of me was as sturdy as ordinary clothes in the tomb, but once it was taken to the ground, it crumbled like burnt paper ash at the slightest touch.

This tomb chamber was a sleeping quarters prepared by Hu Shahu for his wife, similar to the antechamber of a Tang Dynasty tomb. It was a place for the wandering soul of the deceased, not a burial place.

Although his tomb was built according to the imperial mausoleum, he did not truly rule the world, nor did he have the power to collect all the world's rare treasures. Therefore, apart from the phoenix crown he had overstepped his bounds to create, the other burial items could not be considered any unparalleled treasures. As a result, Duan Jinyan and his men did not take anything from the room and simply broke down the door to leave.

After Song Laosan and Monkey had picked out a few trinkets they liked, I led them out of the room.

Outside is a straight tunnel. On the right is a brick carving of the Twenty-Four Filial Exemplars, and on the left is a cave-like structure with square domes, each about one meter wide and two meters high.

There are a total of eight cave dwellings in this row, and a coffin is placed in the middle of each one.

The wood used in these coffins was not even as good as the furniture in Hu Shahu's wife's room; many of them were already rotten, exposing the bones inside.

These skeletons are generally small, and they should all belong to women. Along with the skeletons, there are also some scattered pieces of jewelry.

The monkey picked up a silver-inlaid jade ring from the ground, but feeling its quality was poor, it threw it back: "Hey, this is really strange! I've seen people buried alive with coffins again!"

“These are not people who were buried alive, or rather, they were not sacrificed as human offerings. They should be Hu Shahu’s concubines, who were buried here as ‘concubines’ after his death!”

I lifted the tattered lid of a coffin and shone my headlamp inside: "The shinbones of this skeleton are blackened, and there are still faint scratch marks inside the coffin, which means they were poisoned while they were alive and then nailed to the coffin to suffocate!"

Song Laosan was skeptical: "The concubines don't even have tombs. Isn't that a bit too shabby?"

"Although Hu Shahu built a temple in the underworld, he was, after all, a rebel, not a true emperor."

I didn't linger on these coffins for too long: "If my analysis is correct, Hu Shahu's greatest wish was to ascend the throne and become emperor, but unfortunately he never fulfilled this wish in his lifetime. That's why he built his mausoleum in the shape of a court, which is also the most expensive part of the mausoleum! Judging from the burial system of the concubines, the scale of the inner palace at the back is actually very small. I don't know if it was because of insufficient funds, or because he was killed by Shu Hu Gaoqi, which caused the construction of the mausoleum to be hastily ended, resulting in this anticlimactic situation."

"Thump—"

As I was inspecting the tomb passage, a sound like a stone slab falling to the ground suddenly came from afar, accompanied by a male voice shouting, "Second Master Duan! I've succeeded here!"