The conversation of the three tomb raiders made us stop and take cover behind our bunkers.

Immediately afterwards, a clanging sound came from inside.

"boom!"

A few minutes later, the sound of an explosion echoed through the tunnel, and a gust of wind rushed in.

I peered into the depths of the tunnel, where billowing smoke and dust completely obscured our view.

After the explosion, there were no other sounds inside the tunnel.

The man named Dazhuang used very precise amounts of explosives when he blasted the outer stone gate, so their silence shouldn't be due to an accident, but rather because the stone gate they were talking about collapsed.

After waiting for about a minute, seeing that there was still no sound inside, I left the cover and walked forward.

The location where they blasted the rubble wasn't very far from us. After walking about twenty meters, a large area of ​​rubble appeared on the ground.

This is a circular space, still devoid of any decorations, with only traces of artificial excavation.

At the end of this space, a large hole had been blasted out; this should be the stone gate they had mentioned before.

Holding the crossbow in both hands, I slowly walked to the front of the collapsed passage.

Behind the stone door was a set of steps leading down. After confirming that there was no danger inside, I slowly walked down the steps.

"Clang!"

When we were halfway there, we heard the sound of something being knocked over from below, followed by an excited male voice: "These things look like gold, and they're quite heavy. If they're solid, we'll break even after just one job!"

"Thanks to your insistence on coming in and taking a look, our trip wasn't in vain!"

The other person excitedly replied, "Don't touch anything here yet. We're short on time. Let's go deeper in and pick out the most valuable things to take!"

As the sounds came from below, colorful lights and shadows also appeared at the entrance of the tunnel, like flashlight beams shining on jewelry and then reflecting off the light spots.

Hearing the voices from the three people below, I lowered my voice and said, "It seems our previous judgment was wrong. There should be burial objects inside. Everyone, try to keep the noise down and hold the three people inside down so they don't move around and trigger any mechanisms!"

Hearing my words, everyone else picked up their weapons and followed behind me.

As I reached the end of the passage, the scene before me came into view.

There was no light source in this space, and under the infrared light source of the night vision goggles, I could only see a small area around me.

Around me stood many round stone pillars, about half a person's height, with various items placed on them. Through my night vision goggles, I could only vaguely make out their outlines. The items on these pillars resembled large rugby balls, round in the middle and pointed at both ends.

Suddenly, a streak of light flashed in the distance, disappearing from my sight in an instant.

It was the beam of light from Dazhuang and the others' flashlights.

I took a deep breath, walked around the stone pillar, and discovered that at the end of this space, there was another sunken space.

The three tomb raiders walking in front of us were standing in front of a stone platform.

The stone platform was about three meters high, and only a vague outline could be seen.

Dazhuang shone his flashlight up the stone platform and said, "There's something on this platform, but it's covered by something. Can you give me a hand? I'll go up and take a look!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the other two grabbed Dazhuang by the legs and lifted him up.

Seeing the three's actions, the monkey slightly bent its knees, ready to charge: "Young Master Duan, let's do it!"

"Wait a little longer."

Seeing that Dazhuang had already climbed onto the platform, I didn't rush out immediately. Instead, I wanted to see if there were any mechanisms up there. Otherwise, if they accidentally triggered a mechanism and we rushed up, we would be in serious trouble.

After Dazhuang went up, someone below asked impatiently, "Dazhuang, what's the situation up there?"

"There really is something up there, but it's covered by a rag!"

Da Zhuang shone his flashlight on the stone platform, then bent down, lifted the object on top, and was so startled that he took two steps back: "Holy crap!"

"Splash!"

Then, the sound of something collapsing came from the stone platform.

The teammates below were getting impatient: "Dazhuang, what happened up there?"

"Damn it, this place is piled with skulls! It scared the crap out of me!"

Da Zhuang stood on it, cursing and kicking away several skulls next to him. He walked over again and said, "Damn, there's something good here. It's a big rooster made of pure gold, almost the same size as the real thing!"

"Awesome!"

The crowd below cheered: "We'll both take off our coats, throw the rope up, you wrap up the stuff, and then use the rope to pull it down! Be sure to go slowly, gold is soft, and any bumps will lower its value!"

Seeing that the three of them hadn't triggered the mechanism despite their efforts, I immediately pushed my flashlight aside and rushed forward, shouting, "Don't move!"

The flashlight beam came on, and my vision improved.

This space is different from the outside. The walls are painted with patterns in ochre red paint. There is nothing in them, just two intertwined lines.

Apart from the stone platform, all that remained in the room were human skulls that had rolled off from it.

"damn it!"

Hearing the shouts, the burly men below all drew their machetes, ready to fight us to the death.

"when!"

The monkey pulled the trigger, and an arrow struck the ground in front of the two men, sending sparks flying. "This is a compound crossbow! It can even penetrate a wild boar! Do you think you're bulletproof?"

I shouted back, "Gentlemen, we're not here to rob you. We just want to see if this place is connected to the Miao Jiang Immortal Palace. We'll check it and leave. We won't touch anything in this chest. If you don't want to fight, you'd better cooperate with me!"

"Brother, everyone's food is stained with blood. You can take what you want, but please don't hurt people!"

Dazhuang stood on the stone platform and raised his hands to my eye level: "We all have families to support! Can't we be more forgiving?"

"You're quite sensible."

When I heard Dazhuang say that, I didn't explain anything further: "You three throw all the knives far away, and then bring that golden rooster down from there, and be quick about it!"

Faced with our coercion, Dazhuang and his two companions had no choice but to comply.

Soon, the golden rooster was brought down, and Manjing and Linque stepped forward and tied the hands of the three of them together with a rope.

After subduing the three people, I circled around the space and said, "That's strange. There's no tomb chamber in the direction we came from, and the layout here doesn't look like a tomb at all!"