It was very dark inside the cave, and you couldn't see anything in front of you. You could only hear the occasional dripping sound of water.
Tang Nian didn't care, but remembering that Lou Mu was still following behind her and couldn't be seen clearly in the darkness, she took out a tinderbox from her sleeve and blew on it gently.
The light from the tinderbox wasn't bright, but it was enough for the two of them.
After walking a short distance, we saw a light ahead, but it wasn't sunlight; instead, it was a kind of eerie, shimmering fluorescent light.
The passageway grew wider and wider. When they reached the end of the passageway, Tang Nian cautiously peeked out, then lightly jumped down and landed on the ground.
Lou Mu then circled the edge again, grabbed the stone wall, and jumped down.
Tang Nian covered the tinderbox and put it back in her sleeve, only then could she see the cave she was in clearly.
The cave was very large, and the pitted and uneven parts of the stone walls emitted faint glows. In addition to the passage we had just passed, there was another passage inside the cave, and at the very back of the cave was a coffin.
This is……
Tomb chamber?
Something inside the coffin seemed to be drawing her in, and a voice seemed to whisper in Tang Nian's ear, tempting her to open the coffin.
Tang Nian wanted to take a closer look, but as soon as she took a step, Lou Mu pulled her back. She lost her balance and fell into Lou Mu's arms.
Lou Mu had a faint fragrance about him. Tang Nian's face flushed, and her pupils instantly turned into vertical pupils. She quickly closed her eyes, slapped Lou Mu's hand away, stood up, and turned her back to Lou Mu.
Lou Mu wasn't in much better shape either. His ears were red and burning, and his face was flushed, making the beauty mark at the corner of his eye even more eye-catching. His fox ears, which had been well hidden, peeked out from his hair and twitched slightly.
Fortunately, the light inside the cave wasn't very good, and Tang Nian didn't turn his head. He was a hermit, otherwise, the fact that he was a fox wouldn't have been able to be kept secret.
That's right, Lou Mu is also a fox, but not a fox from Qingqiu, but a nine-tailed fox fairy who came down from Kunlun Immortal Mountain.
He had only seen a skeleton lying not far from Tang Nian, and when he saw her almost step on it, he tried to stop her. He didn't expect that Tang Nian would be pulled into his arms.
Lou Mu still felt a little nostalgic for the soft feeling in his arms, and he glanced regretfully at Tang Nian, who was carrying him on her back.
He feared his celibacy was about to be disrupted.
Tang Nian then realized that she had almost stepped on a skeleton, and the sounds around her had disappeared because of the accident.
No, it didn't disappear, it just became much quieter. Tang Nian probably wouldn't have noticed it if she hadn't listened carefully.
Tang Nian squatted down to examine the skeleton. The bones of the skeleton were slightly blackened. After thinking for a moment, she took out a talisman from her sleeve and stuck it on the skeleton's forehead.
When Tang Nian stood up, the skeleton had not changed at all. Tang Nian was not in a hurry and just stood aside and waited.
"The place we just came in from was a tomb robber's tunnel, right?" Tang Nian didn't turn around; she wasn't ready to look at Lou Mu yet.
This can't be blamed on Tang Nian. Tang Nian's reputation as a ferocious beast is widespread, and no one, whether in her clan or among humans, dares to hug her like this. So, she was a little at a loss when she was suddenly pulled away like this.
Lou Mu looked around, checking for anything else useful: "Hmm, it seems we've found the right place."
At this moment, the talisman on the skeleton in front of Tang Nian slowly began to burn. As the talisman burned, the skeleton slowly turned into ashes, with a wisp of black smoke floating on it.
Tang Nian nodded slightly. She had guessed correctly. The voice should have come from the skeleton. After using the talisman as a medium to destroy the skeleton, she finally had some peace and quiet.
Thinking about it, she rubbed her ears.
"Tang Nian, come here and look, do you recognize these characters?"
Tang Nian carefully walked to Lou Mu's side and looked at the stone wall in front of Lou Mu.
Unlike other parts of the stone wall, this one was not uneven. It also had many inscriptions carved on it, but due to the passage of time, many parts had become blurred.
"Buried alive, drowned, burned, strangled with vines, pierced by a thousand arrows—these correspond to the five elements, and require..."
The tomb dates back to an unknown era. The characters on the stone walls are different from those of the Great Chu Dynasty, and many parts are blurred. Tang Nian could only barely make out these characters.
"The deaths of the first four people correspond exactly to the inscriptions on this stone wall," Lou Mu said in a low voice. "The fifth person, did he drown?"
Tang Nian's heart skipped a beat; it really was the "Five Elements Altar".
What kind of important figures could be resurrected by activating the Five Elements Altar in such a place?
Thinking about it, Tang Nian suddenly turned her head to look at the coffin at the deepest part.
Yes, although this tomb looks simple, the light inside is made of luminous pearl powder. How could someone who could build such a tomb be an ordinary person?
Does Muyun County have a county annals?
Lou Mu nodded, then shook his head: "Muyun County is just a town formed by merging several surrounding villages a few years ago, so the county annals won't record this tomb."
Tang Nian turned her head and continued to observe the stone wall in front of her. It was impossible to go back to Xiangliu to check the documents, and there was no record of it in the county annals. The only place where she could learn about the Five Elements Altar was this stone wall in front of her.
Tang Nian gently touched the remaining blurry inscriptions, then suddenly stopped, her hand lingering in one spot for a moment before bending down to carefully examine them again.
"These words were scraped off." Tang Nian pursed her lips. Although she didn't want to admit it, the texture clearly indicated that someone had scratched them with a knife or sword.
Although the person was very careful, and because of the poor lighting, it didn't seem like there was anything wrong at first glance, but once you touched it, you could feel that it was different from other places.
Lou Mu frowned, bent down to touch it as well, and nodded solemnly.
But who would bother to smear this text?
The tomb remained undiscovered by the surrounding people, and the tomb-raiding tunnel had been untouched for a long time.
Could it be a fifth person?
Tang Nian shook her head slightly. The people here probably don't understand feng shui. The birth dates and times of the offerings at the Five Elements Altar are not something that ordinary people can understand, nor can they be found easily.
Suddenly, Tang Nian froze, straightened up abruptly, and looked behind her.
Lou Mu glanced at Tang Nian with some surprise, then straightened up.
"What's wrong?"
Tang Nian didn't answer. She looked around carefully, her gaze finally settling on the coffin.
Disappeared...
"Just now... it felt like something was watching me."
Lou Mu also looked at the coffin. His ears were more sensitive than Tang Nian's. From the moment he entered the tomb, he had heard faint breathing sounds. After Tang Nian burned the skull, the sounds seemed to disappear.
But in the quiet tomb, at Tang Nian's prompting, Lou Mu faintly heard a very faint breathing sound, which would be completely unnoticed if one did not listen carefully.
He glanced at Tang Nian, who stood beside him on guard, with some concern. He thought to himself, "That thing in the coffin has its eye on Tang Nian."
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