"Clang!"
As we started running, the lampshades hanging in the air began to sway like wind chimes, and the sound of stones rubbing together came from the end of the corridor.
As soon as I rushed into the corridor, I saw stones falling from above, but not like the falling of staircase ballast stones. Instead, they were slowly descending like an elevator, giving the feeling that they were forcing us to move forward.
With the staircase behind us blocked, if we don't rush through before the corridor closes, we'll be completely trapped in the room full of reliefs.
As the stones in the corridor fell, the sound of iron chains rising could be heard from the space ahead.
"call!"
As I walked through the corridor, a burst of flames suddenly shot into the sky, and the surrounding lights turned on one by one.
It was still a circular space. In the center of the hall was a coiled dragon in the shape of taking flight. A sun pearl in its mouth had been half pulled off by an iron chain, and the firelight inside illuminated the surrounding ground.
Around this coiled dragon, there are many bottles nearly two meters tall, densely packed like a forest, with a tray placed under each of the outermost rows of bottles.
Sasha and Ivan's expressions changed instantly when they saw the gold trays.
For foreigners who are unfamiliar with Chinese history, they have no idea of the value of various cultural artifacts. Therefore, most of the ancient Chinese tombs located overseas, apart from those excavated by the authorities, are severely damaged, with only a small number of gold, silver, and bronze artifacts being unearthed.
I saw Sasha squatting on the ground, slashing at a plate with the blade of his knife. I immediately stopped him, saying, "There are traps everywhere here. No one is allowed to touch anything without my permission."
Sasha looked at the knife marks on the tray and excitedly replied, "Mr. Duan, these plates are pure gold. Judging from their thickness, each plate must weigh at least one kilogram!"
"I told you, don't touch these things!"
I saw the undisguised greed in Sasha's eyes and said seriously, "The things here may be valuable, but the prerequisite is that we can leave here alive first, understand?"
Throughout the previous journey, Ivan had been dutifully fulfilling his role as a security guard. However, upon seeing so much gold, he couldn't contain his excitement and said breathlessly, "Mr. Duan, there's so much gold here that you can't take it all by yourself! If I can just take a few plates, I can retire completely! If we want to move forward, we have to knock over these bottles. So why can't we take it?"
Seeing that Ivan was on his side, Sasha spoke with more conviction: "I've spent my whole life toiling in the mountains, and my life has always been very difficult. Now that I'm getting older, I can't keep up with the pace anymore. Since I have the opportunity, I'm naturally going to make the most of my retirement money!"
"What do you mean by this? Are you rebelling?"
Seeing the greedy looks on Ivan and Sasha's faces, Song Laosan pointed to the enclosed corridor behind them and said, "Look carefully, this place is full of traps. Without our guidance, you won't be able to get out at all. If we don't work together, you'll only be buried with this gold!"
Sasha and Ivan's expressions turned somewhat grim after hearing Zhou Peng's translation. I then smoothed things over, saying, "Ivan is right. If we want to move forward, we will inevitably have to destroy these porcelain vases. As long as we can be sure that you won't damage the mechanisms here when you take the gold plate, we can allow you to take the items with you."
"etc!"
When Song Laosan saw Zhou Peng about to translate my words, he quickly stopped him and said to me, "Xiao Duan, according to the rules of the trade, we are the clients, and they are just helpers! The clients have no right to make exceptions for the helpers. If we let them take things, it will break the rules!"
What Song Laosan said was the unwritten rule in the industry: in such a cobbled-together gang, the leader must keep the members in check; otherwise, if these people become greedy, it can easily lead to disputes involving murder and robbery.
Although I understood this principle, I still signaled Zhou Peng to translate my words, and at the same time said to Song Laosan, "This is not China, they are not Chinese, and they will not follow our rules! Moreover, you know better than I do that we came here illegally, and it will be difficult to bring everything back to China. If we continue to argue here, it will only give Duan Jinyan more time."
Old Song sighed, "Damn it, I knew these forklift teams were unreliable."
Sasha and Ivan calmed down after hearing that I had agreed to let them take the gold, and I began to re-evaluate this space.
This is a circular space with a diameter of about fifty meters. Every so often, there is a door on the wall that looks like our entrance, but when you shine a flashlight over it from a distance, you can see that they are all blocked off.
Having followed me for so long, the monkey has learned quite a bit and immediately noticed something amiss: "Young Master Duan, all the porcelain vases in this hall are arranged in concentric circles around the central dragon, which looks like a formation."
"Yes, there are eight circles in total, which correspond to the Bagua (Eight Trigrams). Ancient formations were all based on this."
I noticed that all the porcelain bottles were sealed, so I walked over and knocked on them one by one. Hearing a dull sound, I continued, "I've seen this kind of formation in the Judge's Record. I don't know what it's called, but my ancestor gave it a name: Little Devil Crossing the Stele Forest."
Song Laosan raised an eyebrow slightly: "Since it's recorded in the book, there must also be a way to break the formation, right?"
"have!"
Within the limited space, I began to examine the bottles: "According to the book, there is only one correct exit in this room. Most of these bottles contain deadly traps. Only the bottles on the correct path contain harmless items. In other words, we can only pass through smoothly by finding the correct path and breaking the correct bottles. Strictly speaking, this is not a trap, but a gamble set up by a feng shui master."
"gambling?"
Old Song narrowed his eyes slightly: "I have heard of this. Legend has it that those famous feng shui masters are very confident in their skills. They will set up special formations as a test for tomb raiders, and some will even leave treasures in the tomb as a reward for the tomb raiders."
"This kid is crossing the Stele Forest, which is the kind of formation you're talking about."
I walked nine steps in the direction directly opposite the room and shone my flashlight on the porcelain vase in front of me.
Two lines of text appeared on the snow-white porcelain bottle.
The left side has a line of Jurchen script, and the right side has a line of regular script.
“Jin Xiangze’s disciple A Shiyi was killed; the virtuous passed by, while the mediocre were buried alive!”
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com