The rope suddenly snapped, causing my body to plummet rapidly.
"careful!"
Upon seeing this, Song Laosan lunged to the edge of the cliff and grabbed my wrist.
The feeling of falling from a height was like being on a pirate ship. I didn't even start to feel the fall until Song Laosan grabbed me.
Looking up, I saw that Song Laosan had been dragged halfway out in order to pull me back. Fortunately, Manjing and Monkey were quick-witted and grabbed him at the same time.
"Bang! Bang!"
The people below shone flashlights on my silhouette and kept firing at me from above, while Manjing and Monkey quickly pulled me up.
After the monkey pulled me up, it started groping me all over, checking if I had been hit by bullets: "Young Master Duan, are you alright?"
"I'm fine!"
I pushed the monkey aside, drew my sword, leaned out and cut the rope hanging outside in one stroke, then said, "The men in black robes are too fast. We barely rested on our way here, yet these guys still managed to catch up so quickly!"
"They are not the people in black robes."
Old Song shook his head: "The firearms are different! The Black Robe Organization uses high-powered pistols like the Type 54 and Type 92 pistols! But the gunshots we just heard from below the cliff were fired from Type 64 pistols. They were quieter and the sound was muffled, which means they weren't using standard ammunition!"
"Another group?"
The monkey was clearly surprised by this answer: "Are these people all crazy? They don't even say a word when they encounter other teams, they just start shooting?"
"Ordinary teams do not carry firearms."
I shook my head at the monkey: "If this team isn't from the Black Robe Organization, then there's only one possibility: they're He Hai's people."
"No way?"
The monkey seemed surprised by my guess: "I could understand why they were able to attack you in Qingyun Town! But we were being very cautious when we entered the mountains this time, how did these people manage to follow us?"
I didn't know how to explain this problem, so I just said what I was thinking: "I don't know! But looking at all the teams that were targeting the Miao Jiang Immortal Palace, none of them had any deep-seated hatred for us. Moreover, those people didn't know if we were carrying weapons. If they started shooting right away, it could easily cause a melee. If there wasn't a blood feud, no one would do something so crazy."
At this moment, Song Laosan spoke up, "After we escaped from the black-robed man, those people are definitely heading this way. The gunshots just now could have carried far, and they might have already revealed our location. In my opinion, we should act as soon as possible and find the bull-headed man to ensure our survival! I think there's something wrong with this cliff tomb. Should we go in and take a look?"
The monkey interjected, "Our location has been exposed. Should we go in and blow up the entrance to keep them out?"
"No! We don't know if there are any other exits from this cave, and judging from the entrance, it's clearly leading into the mountains. If we blow up the entrance, we'll bury ourselves!"
Old Song was also undecided at this moment, and turned his gaze to me: "Xiao Duan, what do you think about this?"
“The He family hates me deeply. Judging from their shooting just now, they must already know my identity. Now our retreat is blocked, and we have no other way but to go in.”
I picked up my flashlight and walked down the slope: "Let's go in and take a look. Even if this isn't Golden Bull Cave, it's better than waiting here for the He family to rush in."
After discussing it, we decided to walk down the slope.
The slope is six or seven meters high, and at the bottom, there is a space with a ceiling height of two meters.
At the end of this space are exquisite stone carvings. The whole structure is made of imitation wood, with carved beams and painted rafters all around. Mythical beasts are carved on the walls. The entrance is carved into the structure of an imitation wood archway, with exquisite patterns. Several large snakes seem to be about to emerge from the lintel, and their scales and tongues are carved with lifelike detail.
The monkey walked to the entrance, shone its flashlight on the protruding stone carving, and asked me, "Young Master Duan, is this the tomb entrance?"
"It's hard to say."
Looking at the mythical beasts around me and the patterns on the archway, I was somewhat confused: "These patterns have not been recorded in official history. They should be totems unique to ethnic minorities. As for the meanings represented by these mythical beasts, I don't know either."
"Thump! Whoosh!"
At the same time, we heard a whooshing sound behind us. Song Laosan said, "The people down below are using rope guns. They're getting ready to come up!"
Hearing Song Laosan's urging, I didn't have time to verify the age of these stone carvings anymore, and went to the front of the stone gate to inspect them.
The entrance to the cave is a huge stone door, and the ground beneath the door is sloping. At the very top of the stone door, there is a gap of about twenty centimeters between it and the door frame, which is sealed with a stone strip.
Old Song drew his military dagger and scraped the edge of the stone door with it: "This stone door is installed so tightly that even the tip of a knife can't be inserted! Could it be that this is just a relief carving and not a passage at all?"
"Won't!"
I crouched down and pointed to the patterns on the groove in front of the stone door, saying, "These vertical patterns are for moving this stone slab! It was probably covered with grease or some other lubricant back then! If I'm not mistaken, the inside of this door is arched and the outside is square, so that the stone door can completely block the passage inside!"
The reason the stone door sank was because a groove of equal width had been dug beneath it. Once the stone door was pushed in, it would sink into the groove! It's likely that ice was placed in this groove back then, allowing those above to adjust the angle of the stone door and let it sink slowly! After the stone door sank, the gaps on top of it were sealed with stone strips, indicating that the cave was sealed and not intended to be opened again, which is inconsistent with tomb design! However, in ancient times with limited technology, this method of sealing the door was simply unsolvable!
After listening to my explanation, Song Laosan glanced at the sturdy stone door and asked, "When you were taking inventory of the equipment before, you said you brought explosives, is that right?"
I knew that Song Laosan was a demolition expert, so I nodded and said, "Our explosives were taken from the explosives depot of a mining group. It is said to contain RDX, which is stronger than nitroglycerin and TNT. It is used in mines to blast rocks."
"nice one!"
When Song Laosan heard that we were carrying RDX explosives, he shone his flashlight on the seal on the stone door and said, "If we can get this stone off, we can use directional blasting to spread the shock wave downwards and shatter the stone door... but this sealing stone is too solid, I'm afraid it will be difficult to remove!"
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