Chapter 63: Master Tomb Raider Golden Abacus, Stone Door Deep In The Tomb Raiding Hole
The next morning, Su Mo and the others had already arrived at Pan She Slope on Dragon Ridge.
“If this damn place is a Feng Shui treasure land, I’ll go back and burn that book of the Sixteen Characters Yin Yang Feng Shui Secret Technique!”
Hu Ba Yi looked at the distant Fish Bone Temple, unable to help but feel both angry and amused.
This Fish Bone Temple was built in a gully, with undulating mountain ridges on both sides, majestic and perilous after being carved by winds for thousands of years. The wind howled through the gully with a wailing sound, like ghosts crying.
The mountain ridge was full of caves of various sizes, looking pitch black and bottomless.
Such terrain and Feng Shui was indeed not a place to build a temple.
Fatty and Da Jin Ya looked at the distant Fish Bone Temple, somewhat baffled.
“Isn’t this perfectly fine? The wind is howling, so the ‘wind’ in Feng Shui is there. It’s just a bit short on water, but when it rains, there should be water in this gully. It’s pretty much a Feng Shui treasure land!”
Hu Ba Yi smiled and shook his head:
“Building a temple is different from constructing a tomb. It’s absolutely impossible to just build anywhere. It must be a place with scattered star peaks, broad vistas, backed by mountains and facing water. Have you ever seen even a small land temple built in such a gully?”
Su Mo shook his head:
“The guy who built the Fish Bone Temple just wanted to cover his tracks, so it naturally couldn’t be reasonable in terms of Feng Shui form. We’ll know once we go inside the temple!”
With that, the group walked to the front of the Fish Bone Temple.
Sure enough, the Fish Bone Temple was built from the skeleton of the Iron Head Dragon King, with the fish head as the roof of the main hall and the fish mouth as the temple door.
Fatty tapped the fish mouth with an entrenching tool, producing a sound like clashing metal, and couldn’t help sucking in a breath of cold air:
“Master, how did you manage to pierce its bones on the river?”
Su Mo smiled faintly:
“If you follow me and diligently cultivate, one day you can do it too.”
With that, Su Mo turned and walked into the Fish Bone Temple.
They now basically confirmed that this Fish Bone Temple was something tomb raiders used to cover their tracks, so the tomb raiding hole was definitely inside the temple.
After Hu Ba Yi and Wang Pang Zi entered, they began searching for the tomb raiding hole entrance.
They saw that the Dragon King Lord clay statue in the temple had long collapsed, leaving only the base of a coral tray. Hu Ba Yi and Wang Pang Zi then went to move the altar, but the altar was built extremely sturdy. Though the two exerted all their strength, the altar and the upper half of the statue remained completely motionless.
Wang Pang Zi immediately lost his temper, grabbed his entrenching tool, and smashed wildly at the altar, but he only chipped off some mud from the top. The white stone base below was completely immovable.
“Calm down!”
Su Mo patted Wang Pang Zi’s shoulder, and the irritable wild horse that was Wang Pang Zi finally seemed reined in, instantly calming down a lot.
Su Mo turned and walked behind the altar, finding the space between the altar and the wall very narrow, only enough for one person to stand.
He bent down and felt under the altar base, then tapped there with his hand.
Bang bang…
The altar base indeed made a hollow sound!
Hu Ba Yi and Da Jin Ya immediately lit up with joy:
“There’s indeed a way in!”
Su Mo had tapped with his hand and knew that although the back of the altar base looked no different from elsewhere, it was just coated with a layer of yellow mud on the outside, with a thick wooden board behind it, clearly meant to cover tracks.
He then kicked out with one foot.
Bang!
The wooden board and the yellow mud plastered outside immediately shattered, revealing a dark pit.
Wang Pang Zi instantly turned from anger to joy:
“As expected of Master, spotting the pit mechanism right away!”
Su Mo smiled faintly:
“What mechanism? It’s just a wooden board plastered with yellow mud as a smokescreen!”
Hu Ba Yi quickly went over and used an entrenching tool to clean the cave entrance, finding it not small at all—Wang Pang Zi’s build could slip through with ease.
“This tomb raiding hole is dug with real kung fu. The round parts are as neat as if drawn with a compass, and the shovel marks on the cave walls are perfectly aligned one after another. This is the work of an expert!”
Su Mo naturally knew that the person who used the Fish Bone Temple to dig the tomb raiding hole actually had some connection to Hu Ba Yi.
This person was Golden Abacus, also the second disciple of Zhang Sanlianzi, the Second Martial Uncle of Hu Ba Yi’s grandfather!
Golden Abacus came from a merchant family, skilled in Qimen artifacts. He always carried a golden abacus, engraved on its beads and frame with the techniques of heavenly stems, earthly branches, specifically for calculating the five elements, eight gates, and Feng Shui arts.
However, Su Mo naturally didn’t want to explain this to Hu Ba Yi now, as it would be troublesome and make him, a transmigrator, seem too supernatural.
“Wait until the stale air inside dissipates, then we go in!”
Fatty then took out dried beef, chicken legs, white wine, and peanuts from his backpack, and the four ate right on the altar.
Anyway, this Dragon King temple was completely fake and had no spiritual efficacy, so there was no need to avoid any taboos.
While eating, Da Jin Ya couldn’t help voicing his puzzlement:
“Pan She Slope is full of empty caves everywhere. Why did this tomb raider go to such great lengths to build a Fish Bone Temple here for tomb raiding? Why not just pick a cave and dig in?”
Su Mo shook his head:
“The caves here are very chaotic, and there are definitely some eerie things inside. Digging in from the karst caves under those soil shells would be way too dangerous!”
“Last night at the old couple’s place, I looked at the layout of Dragon Ridge—it’s like an old dragon coiled and lying among the mountain ridges, with the Fish Bone Temple right in the dragon’s body. This tomb raider pinpointed the exact location of the ancient tomb, built the Fish Bone Temple here, and then dug a slant hole directly from one side!”
Da Jin Ya and the others, hearing Su Mo’s words, couldn’t help admiring this tomb raider’s abilities.
In that past era, to judge the exact location of an ancient tomb on a vast Pan She Slope just with Feng Shui arts was the mark of a generational supreme expert!
Hu Ba Yi thought for a moment and said:
“This tomb raiding hole is dug between many karst caves, so there should be enough air. But I’m afraid the space below is narrow, and the four of us going in would increase the carbon dioxide concentration. We should bring a few gas masks!”
Su Mo thought for a moment and said:
“Bringing a few is better safe than sorry, but in my view, the space below is definitely huge, and air shouldn’t be an issue!”
After the group ate and drank their fill and discussed, they followed the tomb raiding hole behind the altar into the pit.
This pit was indeed slanted toward one side, heading straight into the mountain ridge of Pan She Slope. Inside, wooden supports were placed at intervals, made very sturdy and solid, so there was no worry at all about the tomb raiding hole collapsing.
Hu Ba Yi held a candle and walked at the front. After walking some distance, a stone door blocked the way ahead.
“Damn, why is there a stone door here?”
