Chapter 68: Could There Be Two Heavenly Palaces?
As soon as Lin Yan finished speaking, except for Fatty who was still confused about the character relationships, the other two both abruptly turned their heads to look at him, startling him so much that he involuntarily shrank back a little.
Wu Xie stared at him blankly: “What do you mean Xie Lianhuan didn’t die? Lin Yan, did you find out something?”
Lin Yan’s lips moved a few times as he was about to speak, but he saw Zhang Qiling coldly staring at him from the front, so he swallowed what he wanted to say, shook his head at Wu Xie: “Nothing, just a feeling. My intuition isn’t reliable, don’t believe me.”
Wu Xie looked at him suspiciously a few times, and seeing that his eyes indeed showed that it was so, he continued crawling toward the tomb-robbing hole with doubt, attributing his earlier feeling to being too sensitive about things related to Third Uncle. At the instant Lin Yan said Xie Lianhuan didn’t die, he actually really felt that Xie Lianhuan didn’t die! But how could that be possible? The blood writing was already right here!
They continued forward, and sure enough, there was a tomb-robbing hole at the end!
Zhang Qiling went in first, tested that the wall could bear it, then pulled Fatty up first. Fatty was almost done for, his hands and feet joints scraped raw, cursing nonstop as he was gritted his teeth and pulled up. Next was Wu Xie. Lin Yan didn’t even let them pull him; he jumped up by himself. Not to mention, although he was no good at fighting, at least in terms of stamina, he could totally outdo Wu Xie! Speaking of which, when should he find a place to train? After all, his body was so good now, his skills had to keep up too!
The tomb-robbing hole first went vertically upward for more than a meter, then slanted outward. When they were halfway up, Wu Xie couldn’t make it. As Lin Yan was climbing, he felt one foot land on his shoulder, and it was withdrawn after no more than two seconds. He looked up and saw that the little weakling Wu Xie was already shaking all over, worse than the injured Fatty. He even suspected this little weakling couldn’t climb up!
Sigh, who let himself be below! Lin Yan disdainfully glanced at Wu Xie who was struggling to move upward but only advancing a few centimeters per minute. If he didn’t go up soon, he wouldn’t even see Fatty’s feet anymore! Protagonist, give it some effort, protagonist! He glanced at the stone wall that had completely closed below, still rubbed against Wu Xie and climbed up first, then grabbed his back collar in Wu Xie’s horrified gaze.
“Holy crap! Young comrade, you have innate divine strength!”
Fatty who saw this scene was dumbfounded, and even Zhang Qiling’s eyes showed a bit more surprise. Because they saw that after Lin Yan climbed up, he lifted Wu Xie entirely out! Not to mention anything else, just this visual effect was shocking enough! Due to the angle of the tomb-robbing hole, from Fatty’s view above, it even looked a bit like pulling up a radish. Cough, can’t laugh, can’t laugh!
From the moment Wu Xie’s hands and feet left the brick wall until his feet touched the ground, he was completely dazed. Who am I? Where am I? I was just climbing the wall, how did I get up here now? After a few seconds, he came back to his senses and looked at Lin Yan like he was looking at Godzilla: “Lin Yan, tell me the truth, is the effect of this jade that good? If there’s more, share some with me?”
Zhang Qiling’s gaze on Lin Yan also held some surprise. He hadn’t expected that in just two short weeks apart, Lin Yan had changed so much! And there was no deathly aura on him from normally using those yin objects, progressing this fast? He thought there was still time. Thinking of this, he suddenly felt a sense of urgency. It seemed some things afterward had to be advanced! He had forgotten many things. It looked like after going out, he needed to discuss with the people from back then.
At this time, Wu Xie suddenly remembered something: “Mute Bottle, what did you say earlier? What do you mean you passed out after? You passed out after coming in?”
Zhang Qiling was silent for a moment, slowly moving forward while saying: “It wasn’t passing out in the passage. Not long after we went in, we saw a dim yellow light, then we saw a… very, very magnificent grand hall. I don’t know how to describe it to you; if you’re fated to see it, you’ll understand. The pillars of that grand hall were all made of golden silk nanmu, each one wider than several people hugging. The treasure ceiling was nearly ten meters high, with a star map inlaid with luminous pearls.”
At this point, he took a deep breath: “However, these weren’t the most valuable things in that grand hall. In the middle of the grand hall, there was a stone disk with a very large heavenly palace model on it! If I’m not mistaken, in some place, he really built a heavenly palace!”
When he said this, Lin Yan recalled what Wu Xie had told him in the blue and white porcelain jar room earlier, about a large architectural complex. He quietly poked Wu Xie’s arm and whispered: “You said what you saw in that room before, is it this heavenly palace?”
Wu Xie shook his head: “I’m not sure either.” Then he raised his voice to ask Zhang Qiling: “The heavenly palace you saw, what architectural style was it?”
Zhang Qiling thought for a moment with his head down, then answered him: “I’m not sure what style it was either. If I had to say, it should lean toward Central Plains style, with pavilions, halls, rockeries, and flowing water all complete inside.”
Then this definitely wasn’t what Wu Xie saw! Lin Yan and Wu Xie exchanged a glance, both having a doubt in their hearts: Then what was the architectural complex they saw? What else did Wang Canghai build? Could it be that Wang Canghai, besides the heavenly palace Zhang Qiling saw, built another heavenly palace?
Zhang Qiling turned back to look at them, interrupting their eye contact: “The dry corpse we saw was on that stone disk! That dry corpse had shriveled, but the nails and hair were still growing, the nails almost as long as the fingers! It was a very well-preserved sitting golden body, the kind that could be directly enshrined in a temple. One hand pointing to heaven, one to earth. I suspected there were clues inside, so I went to probe. Sure enough, that corpse had something in its stomach!”
“What is it?” After talking for so long, they finally got to the point. Fatty, who had been getting drowsy listening from the front, perked up. He didn’t think such a special corpse wouldn’t have treasure!
However, Zhang Qiling glanced at him and shook his head: “Don’t know! At the time, I didn’t rashly take the thing out, just felt it through the corpse. It felt like a book box or a Ming Dynasty common nine-turn linked cannon—this is a common anti-tomb raiding mechanism. Once touched, it explodes, could be said to be ten deaths no life!”
Fatty sucked in a cold breath upon hearing this: “So perverted?” Wu Xie shook his head; people had already thought of tomb raiders coming, so how could they not guard against it? But in such a huge tomb chamber, just the Qimen Dunjia and this mutual destruction nine-turn linked cannon, why no other anti-tomb raiding methods? What exactly did this tomb owner want to do?
At this moment, Lin Yan recalled Zhang Qiling’s earlier description and had a flash of insight: “Didn’t you say before that the dry corpse was smiling? Is that smile… a bit off?”
Zhang Qiling nodded: “Indeed so!”
