After listening to my words, Jiang Man paused for a moment: "The murals only record those berserkers, but there is no record of the hairy monster at all. Is it possible that the sealed hairy monster has undergone a mutation?"

I also found the origin of the hairy monsters very strange: "No, if those things were caused by mutations, they should have changed later. They couldn't be the same as those recorded in Ping An Village. The people of Ping An Village wouldn't recognize them either. In other words, the ancestors of the village who suppressed the berserkers had seen those hairy monsters."

"Is it possible that they are runaway slaves?"

Jiang Man had a sudden inspiration: "In the secret passage where we found the skeletons, there were no traps, but there were a lot of skeletons. These people must have been exposed to radiation. Some of them died halfway through the escape route, and those who managed to make it to the top were transformed into the monsters that attacked us, just like the berserkers in the murals, due to the radiation?"

"They shouldn't be slaves."

I shook my head: "Do you remember what the monkey said before? He said that the people of Ping'an Village were able to find the secret passage because they had a stone with the directions to this place carved on it. I think that stone was the escape route left by the craftsmen who built this place! And those hairy monsters we saw before were probably the group that carried the coffin into the cave. They were exposed to too much radiation, which caused them to mutate!"

Jiang Man glanced sideways: "That doesn't make sense. If they were the group that carried the coffin into the tomb, they should have left through the main gate. Why would they have died in the secret passage left by the slaves?"

I thought for a moment and said, "You've seen the records in the murals. The meteorite's radiation took effect quickly. Perhaps some of the coffin bearers in the tomb underwent abnormalities, and the rest were left in the tomb as a precaution."

Jiang Man retorted, "But that doesn't make sense either. Even if these people were exposed to radiation, why are their changes different from those of the previous berserkers?"

I came up with a reasonable explanation: "When those people were exposed to radiation, this meteorite was encased in a clay statue. After the clay statue was broken, those who came into contact with it turned to bones due to the strong radiation. If these people were carrying a coffin, perhaps the coffin blocked some of the radiation. Because the radiation levels were different, the resulting mutations were also different."

While the two were chatting, they passed in front of the huge statue. Jiang Man shone her flashlight on the statue's mouth and said, "I wonder how Monkey and the others are doing. Should we go up and check on them?"

"Forget it! Time is of the essence! The most important thing right now is to stop Duan Jinyan and the others from opening the door!"

I figured it would take a long time to go up and down from here, so I refused Jiang Man's offer and quickened my pace, heading back into the honeycomb-like cave.

Under the beam of a flashlight, the shadows of the statues inside the hundreds of small caves swayed, as if they had come to life.

Jiang Man shone her flashlight on the surrounding caves, checking them one by one: "There's still no movement here, which means the people ahead have already found the way. But it will take time for us to search through all these hundreds of caves one by one."

"We don't need to check all the caves. Just check the bottom two rows! This tomb is structured in layers, and since we haven't found anything in this space, what we're looking for must be on the next layer."

As I spoke, I stepped to the right and said, "Let's split up and search."

The cave has an arched structure, and the smaller caves below are arranged very densely. I walked to the front of the first cave and began to check them one by one.

After walking a dozen meters, I found that all these caves were the same: a small space had been carved out, and an ugly statue was placed inside.

As I searched, I suddenly noticed that the ground behind a cave statue was much lower than the others. Peeking inside, I discovered a small downward-pointing hole behind the statue. I quickly shone my flashlight towards Jiang Man and exclaimed, "Found it! It's over here!"

Hearing my call, Jiang Man quickly walked over: "I never expected this cave to be hidden under the statue, it's so well concealed!"

"This was the original design intention of the place, to hide the passage into the main burial chamber. And it's definitely not that simple; this is only a half-finished product."

As I spoke, I crouched down and entered the cave: "The sacrificial altar outside is like an offering table placed in front of a grave, which means that we are now very close to the main burial chamber!"

Jiang Man looked inside from the outside and said, "This is a tomb, and the passage is so narrow that it's difficult for even one person to pass through. How could we possibly transport a coffin and a corpse inside?"

"Judging from the content of the murals, the people who built the tomb dug up the entire mountain. We no longer know how they entered the main burial chamber."

I moved behind the statue and shone my flashlight down: "The cave below is fairly spacious. We can adjust our positions once we're down there. Stay close to me."

The small cave is narrow at the entrance, but once inside, it becomes spacious, with a space of several square meters. In front of it is a square cave about one square meter in size, with the entrance sloping downwards and turning at the front, with no end in sight.

After Jiang Man came down, I squatted down and entered the cave.

The cave was longer and steeper than I had imagined. Towards the end, it was like a slide, and I had to lie down on it to avoid sliding off. The route was also winding, and it seemed to have been modified from a natural fissure.

After struggling for about two minutes, I finally crawled out of the cave.

The first thing that catches the eye is a huge wall.

On this wall is a huge, blue human face, the ugly image of the tribal ruler.

Jiang Man walked closer and took a look: "This face is pieced together from turquoise, it must have taken at least a thousand pieces. This quality of turquoise is very rare on the market these days!"

"That matches up! Turquoise was the earliest gemstone used in the Xia Dynasty. Turquoise-related artifacts have been found at many sites that are confirmed or suspected to be Xia Dynasty relics! A dragon-shaped artifact pieced together from more than two thousand pieces of turquoise was also excavated at the Erlitou site!"

I glanced at the giant human face on the wall, quickened my pace, and circled around to one side, while wrapping the flashlight head with a strip of cloth: "We've been searching for so long, and finally we've found the burial objects, which means we've reached the main burial chamber. The third door must be nearby!"