Chapter 154: One Crazy, Two?
As soon as Lin Yan moved, the several Big Rats behind him moved with him, glaring covetously at Uncle Tai and Master Liang, looking as if they would swarm forward and enjoy a midnight snack if they didn’t leave, which made Master Liang get goosebumps all over and stiffly pull Uncle Tai forward.
Fortunately, when Lin Yan climbed up the bronze tree, the Rat King led its little brothers and ignored the rest, following Lin Yan upward, but still lagging a meter or two behind him.
Seeing the threat gone, Master Liang breathed a sigh of relief. Once relaxed, he realized he was soaked through, with enough sweat from the heat and fear to take a bath, so he quickly took out his water bottle and drank a few mouthfuls to replenish fluids. Uncle Tai glanced at him disdainfully from the side, his attention on the enormous bronze pillar in front of him.
Seeing that Wu Xie and Lao Yang had already started climbing, he looked at the cloud patterns on the pillar and found them somewhat strange—this was the intuition of an old tomb raider, always feeling that this thing had some issue, so he hurriedly asked the still shaken Master Liang: “Can you tell what is engraved on this?”
“What is engraved?”
Master Liang was dazed for two seconds before recovering somewhat, turning to look at Uncle Tai. Uncle Tai silently pointed at the bronze pillar under the flashlight light, which was covered in deep and shallow patterns, some unusually deep. Although Uncle Tai was a tomb raider himself, after all, in terms of culture
Master Liang staggered forward a bit unsteadily, the previous sweat making him feel dehydrated, and the high temperature here even more suffocating; he felt his head was unclear.
“This is… cloud patterns and thunder patterns, symbolizing divinity. This is bronze? No wonder then. Bronze vessels are almost always linked to ritual vessels and sacrificial vessels; this pillar might be an incredibly massive sacrificial vessel.”
He stopped here, and Uncle Tai already understood the implication. Such a massive sacrificial vessel standing here—was it for sacrificing to whom? Or rather, who had the vast wealth and energy to build such an enormous sacrificial site? He looked around but discovered no corpses or sacrifices.
No, could those hundreds of coffins outside be for sacrifices? But that doesn’t make sense either—who would make coffins for sacrifices? Outside seemed more like silencing or… burial accompaniments.
Thinking this way, the people outside might be from the Qing Dynasty, but this thing might really not be from the Qing Dynasty. On this point, Master Liang had something to say.
Master Liang carefully stroked the surface of the cloud-thunder patterns, treating it like a rare treasure: “This thing might be older than I imagined.”
“What do you mean?” Uncle Tai frowned: “Could it be from the Han Dynasty?”
“No.” Master Liang shook his head, “Even older than that, possibly the Shang and Zhou eras or even before… I’ve handled quite a few sacrificial vessels, including some from Shang and Zhou, but honestly, this exceeds my knowledge. The craftsmanship looks like from that period, but such a massive sacrificial vessel and this casting style—honestly, I’m not sure. You know the Shang and Zhou eras too; it wasn’t just those two states then—some vassal states and even more remote civilizations aren’t even recorded in history, yet they’re closely tied to the recorded history. If I’m not mistaken, the makers of this bronze pillar might be one such nation lost in the river of history.”
A… new nation, or rather a new civilization? Uncle Tai’s breathing visibly grew heavier; he knew too well what this meant! It meant that if handled well, he would gain a new identity and live a completely new life, not as a rat surviving in the shadows!
Such a new discovery would be irresistibly attractive to those official archaeologists, and as the discoverer, his gaze involuntarily turned to Master Liang with a hint of murderous intent, while Master Liang was still carefully observing the patterns above, noticing nothing.
Now was not the time. Uncle Tai, head clouded by temptation, quickly reined himself in with self-control. He knew nothing about these things; professionals like Master Liang understood much more, and he was still useful. Plus those few above.
Uncle Tai pulled Master Liang, pointing at Wu Xie and the others already up ten-plus meters, with Lin Yan’s figure nearly swallowed by the darkness: “We need to catch up quickly.”
“Ah?” Master Liang was stunned by the pull, looking up to realize only he and Uncle Tai were left at the rear: “Oh oh, let’s hurry up too, or we won’t know how to proceed later.”
Indeed, without that kid who had been here before leading the way, who would know that massive coffin hid a secret passage? If it were him, Uncle Tai thought, he might have thought the tomb ended there, looted the armor corpse’s items, and turned back—how could he have reached here?
But now leaving was impossible; the coffin formation outside would take a while to burn out, going out meant being roasted alive, plus that hot spring… Looked like he had to stick with those people for now; this place surely had other exits, and he could plan once he knew.
Uncle Tai climbed while thinking: Wu Xie and Lao Yang were manageable—one looked like a family scion out for fun, maybe even a junior on the path; the other pure wild road, just a bit cleverer than Er Mazi. The key was Lin Yan and that little thing by his side—honestly, the trickiest in Uncle Tai’s view.
Too evil nature, both man and pet.
He’d been on the path for so many years and never heard of anything similar; the closest was from the Daoist Sect side. Though he seemed calm and steady, who knew if a dormant volcano lurked beneath that peaceful exterior. Fortunately, from what he saw, he and Lao Yang weren’t that close to Uncle Tai; this trio was basically held up by Wu Xie, so if Wu Xie were gone, perhaps…
He looked up at Lin Yan’s figure swallowed by the darkness; Lin Yan seemed to be in a bad state now, so that idea of his seemed… worth trying?
The few ahead and Master Liang behind him didn’t expect Uncle Tai to already have the thought of taking them all out so soon; if they knew… well, knowing wouldn’t change much— in a fight, it’d be one death several injuries, maybe Uncle Tai even trades one out.
Sneak attack was even less of an issue; how vigilant could greenhouse flowers be? Lao Yang wasn’t a total newbie but went straight to prison on his first tomb dive, after three years ground down, how much vigilance could remain?
It could be said that without accidents, solving them wasn’t particularly hard for Uncle Tai; the hard part was getting out safely after.
Of course, this assumed he had the tomb treasures and knew the exit; now… he could only follow behind them for the time being, especially… Lin Yan.
He saw Lin Yan’s off state too. By their account, Wu Xie and Lin Yan were both brought down by Lao Yang, first time down so shouldn’t know the way, yet Lin Yan suddenly surged ahead alone. Aside from the chance of being possessed by some evil nature thing, maybe he suddenly sensed something and hurried up.
What good thing could Lin Yan have sensed? Uncle Tai coldly laughed inwardly; later he’d find a way to dodge that evil nature pet of his—oh, now with three rats; capture the king first to catch the thief—once the man was in his hands, what waves could a mere pet make? It’d be in his palm.
Just as he could barely suppress his inner joy verging on laughter, Master Liang’s voice came from below: “Uncle Tai, can you help, help me? I, I can’t make it, can’t climb anymore!”
Master Liang’s voice yanked him back from fantasy; he looked down disdainfully, saw the sweat-drenched bitter smile, and still freed a hand to pull Master Liang up a bit.
Master Liang wiped sweat, panting roughly in complaint: “What chicken blood did they take to have such strength? I, I’m done for…”
He looked up desperately, finding Lao Yang and Wu Xie who were ahead ten-plus meters now barely visible, let alone Lin Yan who went up without even turning on his flashlight—no light seen now.
Wu Xie and Lao Yang climbed, feeling increasingly alarmed. Wu Xie looked at the increasingly dense branches beside him, somewhat terrified: “Lao Yang, did you climb up here last time? How long to climb?”
Just a few minutes and he felt done for; looking up made him dizzy, down was bottomless—truly stuck. Lao Yang climbed while consoling: “N-no problem! Just over a hundred meters above, climb and— you’ll arrive!”
Just over? What do you mean just over? Wu Xie wanted to die; at just twenty or thirty meters he was exhausted, a hundred-plus? If he slipped and fell, landing on ground might just hurt, but getting impaled on branches—that’d be torment!
Looking at the sharp tips of the bronze tree branches around, he couldn’t help shivering.
Suddenly he remembered something. When he and Lao Yang came up, Lao Yang gave him gloves, but Lin Yan climbed without gloves! Hadn’t he fallen into hallucination? Looking at Lin Yan’s vanished figure, he worried inwardly and, ignoring his aching arms, gritted his teeth: “Let’s go up first; finding Lin Yan is urgent!”
Lao Yang was anxious too; the big benefits promised after going up for Wu Xie—wouldn’t be ruined by Lin Yan? Since Lin Yan came, nothing was in his control, making him uneasy; he nodded: “Right! F-find Lin Yan first!”
After two steps he suddenly stopped: “Did we— forget something?”
“What?”
Wu Xie stopped puzzled, until hearing voices from below: “Fuck, there are still two people down there!”
He nervously looked at the two faint figures below: “They haven’t fallen into hallucination, have they?”
Honestly, Master Liang was okay, just feeling increasingly weak, forced to let Uncle Tai tie a rope around his waist to share the load so he could climb; otherwise staying put was his last stubbornness.
Uncle Tai climbed and felt it getting brighter above. Previously needed flashlight, gradually a dim yellow light appeared above the tree, like… golden thing’s reflection?
Could the top of the tree really be where treasures are placed?
After a few more meters, Uncle Tai confirmed it! The dim yellow light’s range grew with his advance; a voice screamed madly in his heart: Go up! Hurry up! Get it before them—it’s all yours!
Voice? Where from? Instinctual vigilance cleared him for an instant, then desire swallowed him; he sped up, even dragging baggage, rapidly nearing Wu Xie and Lao Yang’s position.
Wu Xie and Lao Yang saw figures approaching, grabbed nearby branches to make space. Wu Xie saw Uncle Tai climbing head down, Master Liang half-dead, probed: “You… okay?”
Uncle Tai seemed not to hear, but Master Liang looked up: “Not great… I’m exhausted, if not for Uncle Tai pulling me, I couldn’t have come up!”
“Uncle Tai?”
Wu Xie turned to Uncle Tai, who had flashlight in mouth, limbs nonstop, as if not seeing them. Anyone would sense wrong; Wu Xie signaled Lao Yang to help intercept.
“Fuck, h-how’s his strength so huge?”
Lao Yang on contact yelped; Wu Xie saw he was nearly dragged up by Uncle Tai. Was Uncle Tai this strong before? Dragging someone and still pulling others—Lin Yan’s strength was about that, right? What did he eat? Or hallucination from the bronze giant tree?
Seeing Uncle Tai’s unknowingly fanatic, crazed eyes, Wu Xie confirmed he was affected. But didn’t Lao Yang say just strange sounds and shadows? This could turn crazed? Not driven insane directly? Wu Xie and Lao Yang together barely settled Uncle Tai on a branch, but he still instinctively kept climbing motions.
Anyone would feel this wrong; Master Liang seeing this quickly untied his waist rope, secured to a branch, lest an inattentive slip dragged down by struggling Uncle Tai— that’d be dying in vain!
They say mental patients have astonishing strength; Wu Xie thought it rumor before, now experienced firsthand. He and Lao Yang barely subdued a fifty-sixty-year-old old man—outrageous!
