After two days of probing, even though they had only reached the passage that Zhenmu had once reached, the man surnamed Yan, who had the map, had basically confirmed the accuracy of the map by passing through those traps.
On the seventh night, everything was ready.
A group of people entered the underground palace once again.
"This is the deepest place we've entered so far." Zhenmu stopped and looked back, "I encountered a long-haired female ghost-like creature here, and beyond..."
The group of people stopped and looked at the man surnamed Yan.
"What do we do, boss?" Xiao Li turned around with a smile.
The man stiffened his face and took out the map to carefully examine it, while Zhenhao frowned, "What to do? Of course, we continue forward! Mr. Yan, you said we couldn't avoid that thing, right? We didn't encounter anything in the last two days."
"That's not an ordinary zongzi or evil creature in the tomb, it's a guardian 'person'."
"Don't be impatient." The man gave Zhenhao a cold look. Perhaps because his face was already stiff, his expression seemed very indifferent. He nodded slightly to Xiao Li and Zhenmu, "Let's continue. The map only marks some traps, not all of them, and the guardian 'person' isn't marked. But we've encountered this before, we've explored tombs without maps, so this little incident shouldn't make us panic."
The calm and indifferent tone effectively calmed down the uneasy few.
Zhenhao glanced at Mr. Yan with a grim face and continued to follow the team. Walking at the end, Lei Jie squinted and sneered, while Xiao Luo, who was guarding her master's back, heard her master's gentle laughter and looked back at Zhenhao with a hint of disdain in her otherwise gentle eyes.
"Master, he's too obstructive, he might hold us back in such a dangerous place..."
"You can't touch him, little brat."
"......Oh." Xiaoluo lowered his head, while Sister Lei lifted her hand and rubbed the back of his head with her palm.
How long has it been since they saw someone with all their dissatisfaction and arrogance written on their face? Sister Lei narrowed her eyes and, in a sense, was really "naive."
"Wow, this catacomb is really huge. How long have we been walking?" Chunlei whispered.
Tiezi nodded, "After all, we have to be careful of traps based on the boss's hints, and also be wary of sudden appearances of gravekeepers."
"But is there really a gravekeeper? Although we haven't seen anything like a female ghost yet," Tiezi touched his face, "Hmm? Is it because we are too close to the underground? How can there be water drops falling? Oh damn, it even fell into my mouth!"
Water drops? Ah, probably it's because this place is so deep and located at the foot of the mountain, so it's not surprising that there's ample underground water vapor.
And... Chunlei rolled his eyes at him, "It's because your mouth is too big, you fool!"
"Tsk tsk tsk," Tiezi spat a few times, stopped, took out a water bottle from his backpack to rinse his mouth. Zhenhao, who had been walking behind the two with a straight face, lowered his eyes and bumped into him, almost knocking the water bottle out of Tiezi's hand.
"Move away, don't get in the way," Tiezi's face instantly distorted. He wanted to say something but was pulled back by Chunlei. "Don't cause trouble!" Chunlei shook his head slightly and gestured with his eyes: the boss is watching.
Fuming, Tiezi sneered at Zhenhao's back.
Through gritted teeth, he muttered, "Damn, wait until this Zhen guy isn't around and see how I deal with him!" As he said this, some water drops began to fall on his head. This time, the irritated Tiezi couldn't care less, a few drops of water were nothing to worry about!
At that moment, the front runners, Xiaoli and Zhenmu, suddenly said from behind, "It's a dead end up ahead!"
"A dead end..." Mr. Yan stepped forward and was about to say something while touching the wall, when Zhenhao behind him suddenly raised his voice in question, "What's the matter, Mr. Yan? Can you, with the map in your hand, still lead us astray?"
"...Well," After this statement, everyone present had only one thought in their minds: Has this person gone mad, picking a quarrel with Mr. Yan in front of them?
Zhenmu frowned and sighed, while Sister Lei's smile widened. Several people exchanged glances: 'Should we get rid of him?' Mr. Yan's face turned colder than before. He lowered his eyes, took out the map, and ignored everyone, carefully feeling the seamlessly aligned wall to find the mechanism.
"Tsk!" Chunlei and Tiezi turned their heads disappointment. Zhenhao, who hadn't spoken since they arrived, stood in a place where the illuminating rod couldn't reach, looked up at the dark and high top of the tomb passage, and slowly revealed a sweet, silly smile.
Ah~ It's here.
"By the way! Who was guarding the outermost tomb passage?" Wang Xiaomei turned to look at the man embracing her from behind.
"Hmm? It's Mu Ten and Mu Nine," Wen Fengjin said softly, constantly rubbing Wang Xiaomei's neck with his lips and chin.
Annoyed by his clinging, Wang Xiaomei pushed him away with some effort and grumbled, "You mean those two that look like jellyfish? Soft and making 'squeaky' sounds. I have to admit, they are quite cute."
"They can turn into a liquid like water. They take the opportunity to permeate their body part into the human body. The people infiltrated by Mu Ten and Mu Nine wouldn't even feel pain, and then they begin to devour... organs, intestines, and eventually flesh and fat. But they don't eat the skin, so in the end..."
"There's only a soft piece of skin left, right?"
"..."
"Calling them cute, I must be a fool," Wang Xiaomei said with a sullen face as she swallowed.
With a faint smile on his pale lips, Wen Fengjin hugged Wang Xiaomei tightly. His overly feminine and beautiful face unyieldingly pressed against her neck, his nostrils twitching as he sniffed something.
"...Why are you so annoying today! Sniffing around... Do I have any smell on me?" Wang Xiaomei couldn't bear it, turning her head as if to hit his neck.
Wen Fengjin looked at him quietly with his head down. The smile and the thing floating in his eyes embarrassed Wang Xiaomei.
Wang Xiaomei, feeling insecure, growled at him, "What... What do you want to say? Don't sniff me like a dog sniffing a bone!"
"Sniffing a bone like a dog... This metaphor is quite good," Wen Fengjin put his hand on Wang Xiaomei's hand pinching his neck, stuck out his tongue, licked his lips, "I wonder if Brother-in-law will let me have a bite?"
This flirty expression...
Wang Xiaomei: "..." My Little Wen Zi must be possessed today, yes, definitely!
"Don't come near me! My whole body has started to heat up! What evil thoughts do you have!" Wang Xiaomei screamed and ran around the coffins.
Wen Fengjin chuckled softly, then chased after him, neither fast nor slow.
What evil thoughts? Well, probably desires.
Wen Fengjin swept his long, narrow eyes behind him and then fixed his eyes on Wang Xiaomei, who was watching him with caution.
...Hurry up and come over here.
I can't wait any longer.
The person who wants my heart... My brother needs a new sacrifice.
Catacomb outer periphery.
"Xiaoli and Zhenmu, check the surrounding walls." Mr. Yan put down his backpack, took out a folded paper from inside. It was the rubbing of the inscription.
Xiaoli and Zhenbei glanced at each other, went to opposite sides. The unlit candles were neatly arranged in the seamless brick tomb passage, but no one suggested to light them.
Candles in the tomb are mostly made into some kind of mechanism, which is safer than risking danger and groping with illuminating sticks and flashlights.
Mr. Yan researches in silence, it's probably not going to be solved for a while. Chunlei and Tiezi sit on the ground in the tomb passage, resting to conserve their energy.
This time, Zhenhao didn't say anything, just leaning against the wall of the tomb passage with his arms crossed, unable to hide the restlessness even with his gentle and quiet face.
Lei sister carries her half-arm long pointed knife and sits on the side, her eyes sweeping over the wall in front of them, which is covered with large carvings of water patterns. Generally, the door of a tomb would be carved with some totem beliefs, or with the patterns of beasts guarding the tomb to deter tomb raiders, or at least with the life story of the tomb owner, like ascending to immortality.
How strange...
Xiao Luo didn't put down his backpack or sit down to rest, he looked around vigilantly first, then walked over to the side where Zhenbei was crouching.
Although the master said this man had a problem, Xiao Luo looked at him crouching silently with his eyes down, and after hesitating, he patted Zhenbei's shoulder.
Zhenbei looked up at him in surprise, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing..." After patting him, Xiao Luo felt a bit awkward not knowing what to say, and it took a while before he blurted out, "It's quite dangerous here... be careful."
Zhenbei hesitated, blinked, and then flashed a brilliant smile.
"Thank you, I'll remember that."
Xiao Luo thought he meant he would remember his advice, but little did he know that because of his good intention, he not only saved his master's life again with that small cloth bag…
"Hey, why are there more and more water droplets falling?" Chunlei touched his arm, although there was fabric between them, he felt a prickly itchy sensation when the water drops hit.
"Indeed..." Tiezi looked up, and a drop fell right into his right eye, "Darn it!" He rubbed his eye indiscriminately.
At that moment, there was a sudden muffled 'clacking' sound of a mechanism in action!
Everyone, including Zhenbei and Zhenhao, instantly switched from a lazy state to a defensive posture!
But upon closer inspection, it turned out that Zhenmu and Xiaoli had pushed a regular stone on the wall, while Mr. Yan stood beside them nodding lightly as he held the inscription.
It was because of triggering the mechanism that the wall, which had only carvings of water patterns before, started to crumble and reveal four recessed grooves, inside of which there were round stones with carvings of animal heads that could rotate, surrounded by a circle of clock-like numerical signs.
"A code? Haha, this tomb owner is quite trendy! Besides, I thought there was going to be an explosion with Chunlei, after all, making an entrance and an exit... I feel like they can come out as well." Xiaoli said with a mischievous smile.
The others also gathered around, marveling at the intricate mechanism.
"Mr. Yan, we don't know the code, what if we get it wrong..." won't we die? Zhenmu had just finished speaking, when a loud 'rumbling' sound suddenly came from above their heads, and even the ground seemed to tremble!
"What's happening?! Quick! It's a mechanism! The tomb is sinking--ahhh--! What's this! Ah--"
"What's happening!" Mr. Yan pushed aside the panicked group and walked forward, when he saw what was on the ground, his pupils contracted, even Lei sister and Zhenmu broke out in a cold sweat.
It turned out that on the ground, there was a soft-skinned person wearing clothes!
And the clothes on that skin were clearly Tiezi's!
"Tiezi-- is dead--!"
"What's going on?! Did you all see that? How did he get hit?" The man with the surname Yan roared at the stunned Chunlei next to him, and the rest of the people subconsciously moved away from the skin of their colleague.
Chunlei looked up blankly and said, "I, I don't know, I was with him just now, looking at the mechanism on the wall, and my stomach suddenly felt so hot, my throat—me—ugh—"
He widened his eyes, desperately opened his mouth to hold his throat and mouth shut, then in the horrified eyes of everyone, he 'softly' fell to the ground, turning into a skin...