As Qu Ruilin stepped forward, our group entered the Buddhist hall and began a thorough inspection.

I carefully examined the ground with my flashlight and quickly discovered that the gaps in the bluestone slab in front of the Kishimo-no-Mae statue were wider than those in the other slabs. I tried to move the Kishimo-no-Mae statue, and sure enough, it was loose: "Manjing, help me!"

"Big brother, move aside!"

Seeing my movement, Manjing walked over and grabbed the Buddha statue, his arm muscles bulging, and let out a muffled shout.

"Boom!"

With a sharp crack, the Buddha statue was forcibly pulled out of the well, revealing a passage half a meter wide and one meter high behind it.

I shone my flashlight behind me and found that the Buddha statue had a sliding rail underneath, as well as two bronze clips for securing it.

And Manjing, that beast, actually broke the latch by brute force without finding the mechanism.

Even Wei Shengnan's bodyguards were surprised when they saw Manjing's actions, clearly stunned by his superhuman strength.

Time was of the essence, and I didn't have time to say anything. I squatted down and walked into the passageway.

Perhaps because it was enclosed, there was no dust in the passage, and even the musty smell from outside was gone.

I walked ahead for a while when the monkey behind me suddenly spoke up: "Young Master Duan, there's something on the ground here!"

"I saw it."

When I entered the tunnel, I saw the scattered objects on the ground, which were black and white powders. It didn't seem to have been deliberately spilled here.

Immediately afterwards, Song Laosan's voice came from behind: "It's lime and charcoal!"

"Be careful, don't touch anything here."

I didn't know the purpose of these powders either. I left a message and continued to explore.

The passage was excavated entirely underground, and the soil on both sides was compacted and reinforced. There were no signs of any hidden mechanisms.

After walking only a dozen meters forward, we entered another space.

This is a platform that is more than ten meters long and two meters wide, with a regular rectangular pit underneath.

The flashlight beam shone into the pit, which was densely packed with people.

To be precise, it was filled with corpses.

The bodies were of different genders and ages, but most of them were elderly.

Each of them was dressed in the traditional attire of the village, and their skin was plump, making them look like lifelike wax figures in a wax museum.

The monkey followed me out, and when it saw the scene in the pit, it was startled: "Holy crap! What's going on here? Are they imitating Qin Shi Huang and making terracotta warriors?"

"No, these are not fake, but real corpses."

Looking at the countless corpses in the pit, a thought popped into my head: "No wonder we didn't find any graves in Ping'an Village when we were on the surface. I initially thought it was a sky burial, but now it seems that they have clearly sealed all the dead people in the village here!"

The monkey found it hard to believe: "You mean, in Ping'an Village, all the dead people are being made into cured meat?"

"This is no ordinary cured meat. The ability to preserve a corpse so lifelike is something even many modern feng shui masters cannot achieve. Ping'an Village must possess a long-lost method of corpse preservation!"

Song Laosan shone his flashlight into the distance and found that the deep pit stretched as far as the eye could see: "It seems that the custom of sealing up corpses in Ping'an Village has been around for a long time. The remains here have been here for who knows how many years."

Qu Ruilin shone his flashlight to one side and discovered that at the edge of the pit, an extra layer of wall had been built using wooden planks and sticks. He said, "Behind these wooden planks are lime and charcoal. These things have the function of absorbing and preventing moisture. They are placed here to keep it dry."

Wei Shengnan's eyes revealed barely concealed disappointment: "So all that effort we put in was just to find a grave in Ping'an Village?"

One of the bodyguards chimed in, "No wonder this place is a forbidden area; it's the ancestral burial ground of Ping'an Village! The rule here is that only the clan leader and elders can come here, presumably because only they possess the method to prevent corpses from decaying. It has nothing to do with our purpose!"

The monkey, caught on to his professional instincts, said, "Since this is a tomb, why don't we go down and take a look, find some burial goods to take with us, so that our trip won't be in vain!"

"Give me a break! The people of Ping'an Village are so poor they can't even afford fine grains. What good things could they possibly have?"

I bowed to the corpse in the pit, recited a mantra for rebirth, and then said to Wei Shengnan, "Since this is just a tomb, let's not disturb the spirits of the dead and leave!"

"I have to go down and take a look."

Qu Ruilin threw down a sentence and walked along the path at the edge of the pit into the depths of the space: "Since there are the Three Yin Suppressing Hall and the underground Buddhist hall set up here, it is definitely not just a simple tomb! I don't believe that Ping'an Village would use such a vicious method to suppress its own ancestors and relatives!"

The monkey retorted defiantly, "How can this be suppression? They set up a Buddhist temple underground; couldn't that be to pray for the souls of their loved ones?"

"No! The purpose of the underground Buddhist hall is to use Buddhist karma to suppress the spirits and trap them here! The purpose of the Three Yin Hall is to serve as a place to nurture corpses, using extreme Yin energy to slow down the rate of corpse decay."

I explained the feng shui to the monkey, then said to Qu Ruilin, "This place does have a problem, but I don't think it has anything to do with the Miao Immortal Palace we're looking for! Perhaps it's just a unique custom of the village, sealing the body and soul of the deceased so that they remain in this world in another way! Since we are guests, we should respect the customs of Ping'an Village. This random inspection is a bit too much!"

Qu Ruilin ignored what I said: "If you're afraid of retribution, you can leave."

Wei Shengnan seemed to sense that Qu Ruilin's words were a bit harsh, and quickly explained, "I know what you said makes sense, but the people of Ping'an Village are too wary of us. They are only willing to let us into the village because they don't want to provoke conflict or let us disrupt their current way of life."

If we continue to treat the people of Ping'an Village with the utmost courtesy, we'll likely end up with nothing. To find the Miao Jiang Immortal Palace, we can't overlook any clues. Investigating the mass grave in this way is indeed disrespectful, but we have no other choice. At this time, we can't afford to have internal strife. You should understand what I mean.”

"Um!"

Although I don't think this place has anything to do with the Miao Jiang Immortal Palace, I still gave Wei Shengnan face and walked deeper into the area.

As I was walking, Manjing suddenly said, "Brother, do you think everything stored here must be corpses?"