Inside the secret passage of the tomb, I heard Jiang Man say that something was amiss. My first thought was that he had discovered traces of other teams, so I stopped and asked, "What did you find?"

“This passage is so narrow, and you were walking ahead of me, so even if there was a discovery, you should have seen it first.”

Jiang Man shook her head and leaned against the wall. "I just feel like someone is following us."

I shone my flashlight behind Jiang Man and looked at the empty corridor, asking, "Could it be that you're imagining things? This corridor is very narrow and quiet. Our footsteps should echo. Is it possible that you're too nervous and are mistaking our echoes for the people behind you?"

"No, I felt someone was following me, not because I heard any sounds, but... a psychological feeling."

Jiang Man looked down into the corridor, still on guard: "I don't know if you've ever had this feeling, but when you walk at night, you always feel like something is following you. Even if you turn around and make sure there's nothing behind you, you still have a feeling of unease, like... you can't see it, but you're very sure of its existence."

"Don't be nervous, you're just under too much psychological pressure. Do you remember the scene we saw in the fluorescent cave? The radiation in that cave might affect people's minds in some way."

I reassured Jiang Man for a few moments, then took the dragon-patterned pendant out of my pocket and hung it around her neck: "It's still uncertain whether there are any traps in this tomb passage, so I have to go first. Stay calm and I'll take care of everything."

"Um!"

Upon hearing my answer, Jiang Man took a deep breath: "Perhaps I really am affected by the radiation, because I have never felt this way in previous operations. This also shows that we are getting closer and closer to the main burial chamber."

"Don't be nervous, stay close to me."

Seeing that Jiang Man's emotions had stabilized somewhat, I led her to continue walking forward.

After rounding a corner, a passage about seven or eight meters long appeared in front of us.

I picked up the compass, glanced at the direction the needle pointed, and frowned slightly.

According to my calculations, we have now moved out of the area where the ancestral grave is located.

This means that after we entered that house, the distance we walked inside far exceeded its length.

This feeling is like a small house that looks only 20 square meters on the outside, but inside there are several rooms that are over 100 square meters. Logically speaking, it doesn't make sense.

Faced with this bizarre situation, I thought for a moment and said to Jiang Man, "Give me a bullet."

Jiang Man didn't ask me why. She quickly removed the magazine and handed me a bullet.

I took the bullet from Jiang Man and placed it horizontally on the ground. The bullet then slowly rolled forward two or three centimeters.

Seeing this, I finally understood the trick behind it.

The ground beneath our feet is sloping.

The reason we didn't notice anything unusual was because the angle of the ground's tilt was so small that it was almost imperceptible to the naked eye.

In other words, although we feel like we are walking on flat ground, we are actually walking downhill without realizing it.

Having figured out the terrain, I continued moving forward, and after walking two meters, I soon discovered something unusual again.

On the wall to the right of the passage, there is a rectangular pattern that looks like a door.

I shone my flashlight into the crack and discovered that it wasn't dug out; rather, it looked like a hole had been dug in the wall and a stone of the same size had been inserted.

Jiang Man also noticed this at this moment and said to me, "Our passage is only half a meter wide, but this gap is at least a meter deep. This stone was definitely not brought in from outside. It was directly carved out of the stone wall. Do you think that the original intention was to make a passage here, first dig out the outline, and then smash the stone in the middle and transport it away, but it was abandoned later?"

"No, if this place were really as you described, it should be a '冂'-shaped frame, but this stone is '口'-shaped and not connected to the ground below, which means it doesn't belong here, but is a mechanism."

I patted the wall with my hand: "This stone was pushed in from the other side. We can only see a part of it when we enter the tomb, but the designer can see the whole picture. We have no way of knowing what is outside this passage."

After listening to my answer, Jiang Man thought for a moment and said, "This haunted house has twelve doors, but only one is real. Since we've already discovered the mechanism here, should we try a different passage?"

"The twelve deadly gates are merely a means to confuse intruders, but that does not mean the correct path is without traps."

I looked away from the stone and re-examined the tomb passage. After confirming that there were no other changes, I led Jiang Man forward.

The newly discovered mechanism made me extra vigilant, but even after we had walked quite a distance, I still hadn't found the switch to trigger it.

Given the technology of the Xia Dynasty, moving such a large boulder would have required enormous manpower and resources. Since the boulder was transported in, it was impossible for it to be abandoned halfway through.

After much thought, I think there are only two possibilities for this situation. The first is that the switch for the mechanism is on the outside and can only be opened through some special means, or it is linked with other mechanisms.

Another possibility is that when the tomb passage was being repaired, a natural cave was discovered along the way, and the stone was used to patch up the hole.

If it's the latter, that's fine. But if it's the former, then there are definitely more than twelve passages here. There's another passage that we can't see, specifically used for building the mausoleum.

If that's the case, then our situation will become extremely dangerous.

Unable to find the answer, I slowed my pace to a minimum and carefully searched the road, only to soon encounter another problem.

There's a fork in the road ahead.

In the straight tomb passage, a fork in the road suddenly appeared, leading to the right.

This side path is no different from the tomb passage we're on; it's just that a new passage has been dug out on the side of the main passage.

Just as I was hesitating about which path to take, I suddenly heard the "rustling" sound of a millstone grinding against each other coming from the passage on the right. After a brief hesitation, I quickly walked towards the passage on the right.