Unlike the monkey's excitement, a hint of worry flashed in Song Laosan's eyes: "There are quite a few things here, but I'm afraid not much can be taken out!"
The monkey mistakenly thought that Song Laosan meant that we couldn't take too many cultural relics with us, and said nonchalantly, "Don't bite off more than you can chew. Isn't your Song family just a business of dealing in goods? With your and Young Master Duan's knowledge of antiques, let's pick a few of the most valuable items to take with us. That will be a lot of money!"
"Third Master's point is not about weight, but about quality."
I explained to the monkey, "The preservation of cultural relics requires extremely high temperature and humidity. The temperature here is too low and the humidity is too high, which can easily cause the relics to crack. These burial objects have been in a low-temperature environment for thousands of years. Although they look as good as new now, they will probably all be ruined if taken out."
The monkey steeled himself: "We've gone through so much trouble to get in, we can't leave empty-handed! If all else fails, we'll take the gold; melting it down will at least be worth something!"
"If you travel all this way abroad just to bring back some gold, that would be a huge waste!"
I didn't agree with the monkey's explanation, and walked towards the pottery jar next to me with the knife: "I'll check the other pottery jars first, find the 'Immortal Scripture' first, and then we'll talk about other things."
"Snap!"
As I was prying open the second earthenware pot, I suddenly heard the sound of ice cracking.
At first, I thought the ice between the lid and the earthenware pot had cracked, but the sound continued even after I stopped moving.
I looked down and saw that the white marble floor tiles under my feet had been blasted open, creating a trench. I glanced to the side and saw the monkey holding a golden bowl and examining it. He roared, "Monkey! Put it back!"
The monkey was startled by me and put the golden bowl back into the jar: "Young Master Duan, what happened?"
I knew my perspective was different from theirs. Seeing that the floor tiles had stopped cracking, I said to Song Laosan, "Third Master, come and take a look at my feet. Is there anything unusual?"
"The ice beneath your feet has cracked!"
Old Song squatted down beside me and examined the area, his brow furrowed: "The ground here has a thin layer of ice due to the cold air, and now this ice has cracked, right in the gap between the floor tiles!"
I was startled: "Take a closer look at the floor tiles under these pottery jars, aren't they all made of one piece?"
Old Song walked around with his flashlight: "That's right!"
I pointed to a pillar on one side: "Take another look at this pillar. Doesn't it have no base and just stand directly on the ground?"
"You guessed right! The floor tile under this pillar is a single piece!"
Seeing that everything I said matched up, Song Laosan glanced at me and asked, "Xiao Duan, is there a problem with these things?"
"Ghost Balance!"
I told them the name of the mechanism: "It's recorded in the Strange Tales of the Judge's Record that some ancient tombs place burial objects on a balance scale, with the other end connected to a mechanism! If tomb raiders want to take the burial objects, they need to offer an equal weight of flesh and blood as a sacrifice, otherwise they will attract evil spirits to claim their lives! This is a huge ghost balance. Once the weight of the burial objects changes, it will trigger the mechanism and cause the hall to collapse!"
After telling this story, my heart was pounding.
If the monkey and Song Laosan had the same field of vision as me, it would have been difficult to discover this mechanism without comparison and inspection. Fortunately, I only moved the lid horizontally and did not lift it; otherwise, no matter which step went wrong, we would have been doomed.
Song Laosan stroked the cracks in the ice with his hand: "Just now, the monkey only picked up a golden bowl, and the mechanism here was triggered, which shows that it is still very sensitive. Moreover, the ice in these jars is relatively uniform, so it is not difficult to take things away."
As Song Laosan spoke, he turned his gaze to the frozen corpses in the hall.
I understood what he meant, but I didn't comment: "Find the scriptures first."
After confirming that there was a mechanism here, I became more cautious, carefully prying open the lid, afraid of using too much force and causing the horizontal stone under the jar to tilt.
There are thirteen jars in this row. I started by checking the jar in the middle and worked my way to the left.
I opened five jars in a row, and they were filled with a dazzling array of jewelry, jade artifacts, and palace items. It seems that this wicked monk really did amass quite a fortune back in the Tang Dynasty.
When I got to the sixth jar, I noticed that it was clearly different from the others. It had a thick layer of frost on its surface, and the lid wasn't as tight as the others; it was being pushed up by something.
I encountered resistance when I tried to move the lid, and I didn't dare to use too much force, so I squatted down to see if there was any mechanism inside.
I peered inside using the light from outside and came face to face with a woman whose face was deathly pale. When she saw me looking at her, she gave a sinister smile and pounced on me.
"Gulp!"
I was startled by the woman in the jar and fell to the ground with a thud.
When Song Laosan saw my appearance, he drew his pistol and pointed it at the pottery jar: "Xiao Duan, what's wrong?"
Seeing no movement coming from the jar, I swallowed hard and patted my chest: "It's okay! I was probably hallucinating again. I just saw a woman smiling at me from inside that jar!"
"You're just scaring yourself! This tomb is over a thousand years old. Who would be so bored as to hide in a jar and scare you like that?"
The monkey offered me a word of comfort, then squatted on the edge of the jar and peered inside with its flashlight. It then made a puzzled sound: "Huh?"
"What's wrong?"
"That's really strange! This jar is full of water, but it hasn't frozen at such a low temperature! And there's a hand sticking out from inside, holding the lid up; it looks like a child's or a woman's hand!"
The monkey gently pushed the lid with its hand: "The hand inside is already attached to the lid... Young Master Duan, give me your knife, I'll peel that hand off the lid!"
"If there's a corpse inside, what's the point of opening it?"
After calming myself down, I waved to the monkey and said, "Take a look under that lid. Aren't there a lot of talismans drawn on it?"
The monkey lowered its body: "There are indeed patterns on the lid, but it's covered in a layer of frost. I don't know if it's the kind of thing you're talking about!"
I took a deep breath: "What's in here is probably a corpse puppet. Stay away from that jar! From now on, we must move very quietly and not make any loud noise!"
Seeing my unusually serious expression, Song Laosan also became nervous: "Xiao Duan, what is a corpse puppet?"
Looking at the pottery jar in front of the monkey, I felt an indescribable sensation and goosebumps rose on my skin: "If the tomb guardian beast and the corpse statue in front were just to scare tomb raiders, then the corpse puppet is the real monster used to kill them! This thing can be resurrected. According to the Records of Judges, my great-grandfather's father, who is also my great-great-grandfather, personally dealt with this thing!"
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