At the entrance to the tomb passage in the mouth of the stone statue, I saw Qu Ruilin insisting on going in to check, and reminded him, "Duan Jinyan only has a few people left with him, and he still needs to go in to get something. He can't spare any manpower to guard the entrance, or rather, if there are too few people left, they won't be able to do anything. So there is a high probability that they will return from this side."
"Do you really think I'm a three-year-old? There are no keyholes in this space, which means this secret passage leads to the third door, not the third door we're looking for."
After listening to my words, Qu Ruilin narrowed his eyes and pointed to the passage: "You go first!"
Upon hearing Qu Ruilin's words, Song Laosan finally couldn't help but speak up: "Little Qu, we all come from the same sect. Duan is not our enemy. Using him as bait is neither chivalrous nor righteous!"
"I don't care! All I want now is Duan Jinyan's life!"
Qu Ruilin interrupted Song Laosan with red eyes, then turned his gaze to me: "If you want your people to live, then clear the way ahead, otherwise I guarantee you'll never find them in this lifetime. The feng shui here is like a yin needle hanging upside down. Do you want them to die in a place like this?"
"Brother Lin, wake up!"
When Wei Shengnan saw Qu Ruilin's appearance, her expression changed as well: "Duan Shenxing is Duan Shenxing, and Duan Jinyan is Duan Jinyan. You have lost your mind!"
"I've already lost my mind! If you had asked me to stay rational all the time, I would have been driven mad by hatred long ago! All I want now is revenge!"
Qu Ruilin let out a low growl, then turned his gaze to me: "I'm the one who captured them. Only I know where they're being held. If you want to save them, you have to do it my way."
"Qu Ruilin, you've gone too far!"
When Song Laosan saw Qu Ruilin's attitude, his face turned very ugly: "Duan Shenxing has not done anything wrong, nor has he offended you. Are you targeting him everywhere just because his surname is Duan?"
Qu Ruilin retorted with a ferocious expression, "Isn't that enough?"
Looking at the arguing group in front of me, and the furious Qu Ruilin, I took a deep breath and said to him, "Stop arguing. I can go scout ahead, but you must promise that no matter how this ends, you will take me to Monkey and the others!"
Qu Ruilin took a deep breath after hearing my words: "Okay!"
After receiving Qu Ruilin's assurance, I didn't waste any more words and went straight into the passage ahead.
At this moment, I became unusually agitated, not because of Qu Ruilin's threat, nor because of Duan Jinyan's indifference, or perhaps both.
The passage was shorter than I had imagined, and it wasn't carved out of stone. Instead, it was made of stone slabs stacked on both sides, with a horizontal slab at the top, like a small porch.
This thing reminds me of an ancient tomb entrance, not for people to walk through, but for the souls of the dead to enter and exit, just like the stones or bricks that are usually placed on graves.
This passage is only two meters long and functions like a screen, separating the main burial chamber from the outer hall.
After climbing through the main burial chamber, there is a pointed cave in front of you, with stone tables, stone platforms, and stone beds placed inside, and bronze artifacts on the tables.
We've arrived at the main burial chamber!
This place was built according to the living environment of the tomb owner during his lifetime. However, the burial culture at that time seems to be different from that of later times, because this main burial chamber is not the place where the tomb owner's coffin was placed.
There is a door on the right wall of the main burial chamber, and the stone walls on both sides of the door have several cracks.
On either side of this door, there are several copper nails on the walls, and on the ground are two piles of human bones and two heavily rusted bronze swords.
Judging from the bone hanging on the copper nail, these two skeletons were previously fixed to the wall with copper nails and used as guards for burial. They fell apart because of the recent shock.
Old Song shone his flashlight around the room and pointed to the stone bed, saying, "Look here!"
The stone bed in this room has a stone platform on each side, similar to a bedside table. At this moment, the stone platform on the left has been pushed over, and the last bull's head of the Three Treasures Key is inserted into the keyhole in the wall.
The third door has opened!
Looking at the unremarkable stone door on the right wall, I couldn't help but feel a chill.
The first two gates of the Miao Jiang Immortal Palace were magnificent and imposing, but the third gate was surprisingly ordinary.
I shone my flashlight into the passageway, which was a pitch-black corridor, one meter wide and ten meters long. The floor and walls were severely worn, like fish scales. The marks became more obvious every meter or so, and in addition to the vertical lines, there were also several horizontal lines.
Seeing these marks, I can roughly guess how the mechanisms here work.
At this moment, the end of the passage I was shining my flashlight on was the wall that had been there before, or more precisely, a rectangular stone slab that filled the passage.
This stone slab is secured by countless copper locks, and another section is attached to many boulders.
Once the mechanism is activated, the boulders will fall from above, pulling the stone slab backward.
The loud noise we heard earlier was the sound of the boulder being dragged down by the stone slabs.
Despite all our careful planning, we still couldn't stop Duan Jinyan from opening the third door.
At this moment, the centuries-old perseverance of Ping'an Village has vanished into nothingness.
The immense force of the dragging caused the walls here to crack, so there couldn't possibly be any other mechanisms.
To ensure the safety of Monkey and the others, I had already boarded the pirate ship under Qu Ruilin's coercion. After confirming that the third door was open, I was the first to run inside.
At that moment, I had no idea what lay beyond the passage, but all I could do was speed up and catch up with Duan Jinyan, while praying that there were other protective measures in place.
When Song Laosan and the others saw me run into the passage, they all followed me in.
I quickly covered the distance of more than ten meters, and when I reached the end of the passage, I found a huge staircase inside.
The boulder that was dragged back formed the first level, and there were seven or eight more levels above it. Except for the first step, which was two meters high, each of the remaining steps was one and a half meters high.
At the top of the steps, light could still be seen emanating from.
The light above was very bright; it didn't look like firelight, and even a flashlight couldn't seem to produce such brightness.
Seeing this, Qu Ruilin leaned against the steps, clasped his hands together, and placed them on his knees: "You go first!"
Without saying a word, I stepped on Qu Ruilin's hands and quickly climbed up the first step, then pulled him up.
And so, the four of us, supporting each other, began to climb up, floor by floor.
Three minutes later, I finally climbed the last step, stood up, and looked outside.
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