Chapter 80: The Sorrow Of Three Skinny Guys And One Fatty
Over here, the three of them were still joking around and fooling about with the new member little zombie, while Zhang Qiling had already started surveying where to dig the tomb-robbing hole from.
After circling the Grand Hall twice, he returned to the three of them and pointed at Lin Yan’s backpack: “Shovel.”
The three exchanged glances, question marks popping up over their heads. After another glance, Wu Xie asked first: “Have you already picked the spot to dig?”
Zhang Qiling shook his head.
This was strange; the place wasn’t selected yet, so what was the shovel for? Shouldn’t they pick the place first?
“Then what do you need the shovel for? Isn’t that something you ask for after settling on the place?”
Zhang Qiling was getting a bit impatient: “Hand it over.”
Seeing that he was about to rummage through the bag himself, Lin Yan, afraid he’d mess up the stuff inside, opened it first: “I’ll get it for you!”
He first took a Luoyang shovel specifically for digging tomb-robbing holes from Wu Xie’s bag, but Zhang Qiling shook his head. Lin Yan was stunned for two seconds, then slapped his forehead—right, the multifunctional entrenching tool from Wu Yong was actually coming in handy!
Thinking of Wu Yong, his mood sank for two seconds, and he couldn’t help but touch the small box containing the nameplate through his pocket.
Wu Xie saw what he was thinking and, forgetting to follow Zhang Qiling to check suitable spots for the tomb-robbing hole, squatted down and patted his shoulder, comforting him: “It’s okay; when the time comes, we’ll see if he has any relatives and help send his stuff back, which counts as returning to his roots.”
Hearing this, Lin Yan thought to himself, isn’t his home your home? He’s a Wu Family member, so maybe when we get back, the people coming to pick up his stuff will already be there. But you probably won’t know about that, Third Master Xiao, Third Master Xiao—the current Wu Xie isn’t yet the Wu Family head who can stand on his own later; he still has a lot to learn.
He nodded, stood up, and walked toward Zhang Qiling, finding that he had already selected a pillar and was using the bladed side of the entrenching tool to chop at it, having already carved out a shallow pit. The hall ceiling was too high; without chopping some footholds on the pillar, it would be hard to climb to the top, let alone dig a tomb-robbing hole there.
Wu Xie followed behind him, tilting his head up to look at the ceiling. He hadn’t observed it carefully before, but now he realized that this treasure ceiling wasn’t the vaulted ceiling commonly used in the Ming Dynasty; it was a flat top, no wonder Zhang Qiling had casually picked a pillar to dig a pit on. This one pillar could at most accommodate two people chopping at once; seeing this, Lin Yan volunteered and took his dagger up.
Lin Yan was strong; controlling his strength to chop a few pits for footholds was no trouble. Wu Xie watched for a few glances and then stopped paying attention, wandering around the hall with Fatty instead. The difference was, Fatty was looking for treasure, while he was checking out those murals made of light and shadow.
In order, he started from the mural depicting the Heavenly Palace location. Upon looking, he realized the mountain range features looked just like those of Changbai Mountain in Jilin? If he remembered right, it should be several main peaks on the north slope! Never mind how he recognized it among so many snow mountain ranges; these peaks were too distinctive—once you’ve been there, you won’t forget.
The second painting depicted the funeral procession; judging by the attire, it was from the Yuan Dynasty. Combining it with Wang Canghai’s experiences, it was very likely made before he served the Ming emperor. So, the wild history claiming he built the Heavenly Palace just to win the emperor’s favor was definitely fake. But one thing was very strange: the entire funeral procession consisted of women.
Generally speaking, funerals required young, strong men, or direct bloodline of the tomb owner and accompanying slaves; who uses all women for a funeral? If it was Wang Canghai’s handiwork, it must involve some feng shui secret technique. Wu Xie had studied a bit of this knowledge, but without much practice, he was still a half-baked amateur and couldn’t figure out the reason for the moment.
After thinking it over without an answer, he thought to himself that if he had the chance to see Cloud Top Heavenly Palace, he definitely had to go down there to resolve his doubts.
At this time, he still didn’t know that he’d soon have the chance to see this Heavenly Palace with his own eyes.
After finishing the murals, Wu Xie turned to continue observing the cave entrance behind that mirror. Generally, tomb chamber structures were symmetrical, so he first groped around the mirror at the diagonal corner but didn’t find a similar corridor behind it. Likewise, there was no corridor behind the mirror at the axial symmetry point. This was somewhat strange; could this corridor have been specially made by the tomb owner for that White Coral? But according to the overall tomb chamber layout, this secret room should be right in the center of the wall behind the mummy, so why was it here?
Also, how did A Ning get in? They had been forced to enter through the tomb-robbing hole; what about A Ning? Did this woman know Qimen Dunjia, or was she just lucky and picked the life gate? Thinking of the mechanism that had been tampered with by who-knows-who, Wu Xie felt a headache coming on. If not for Xie Lianhuan’s dug tomb-robbing hole, they really would have died inside this time!
What exactly was the goal of that force disguised as his Third Uncle, running into this tomb over and over? Was it A Ning’s company? But though there were clues to the snake-browed bronze fish here, there was no snake-browed bronze fish itself! Could it be that twenty years ago, the mastermind came down for the snake-browed bronze fish? He took the snake-browed bronze fish and got the archaeological team out, wiping their memories? But didn’t his Third Uncle say that the snake-browed bronze fish had already been taken away and sealed by the higher-ups? How could there possibly be one here?
But if it had nothing to do with the snake-browed bronze fish, then how to explain the changes in Zhang Qiling’s body? Twenty years without aging—that was beyond science! Or did only Zhang Qiling among the entire archaeological team show this trait? If his Third Uncle didn’t have it, then maybe…
If Lin Yan knew what Wu Xie was thinking, he would definitely secretly mock his naivety: Zhang Qiling twenty years without aging? Small pattern, little brother; he looked like this back in the Republic era, a proper amnesiac centenarian, okay?
But right now, Lin Yan was still diligently smashing pits.
While Wu Xie and Fatty were wandering around the hall, he had already climbed up two or three meters. Not only did he chop out the foothold pits, but he also extra-chopped some handhold pits for assistance, standing steady as a rock. Zhang Qiling’s speed wasn’t as fast, only chopping the footholds. But his physical fitness was good, balance too, so a few less pits didn’t matter.
Fatty was carefully groping around the Cloud Top Heavenly Palace model, trying to find some treasure to make up for the fact of zero gains this tomb trip. Unfortunately, the model was all wood carving; some parts were gold-plated, but taking them alone wouldn’t be worth much. Fatty’s eyes darted, and he simply went beside the creepy-smiling mummy, groping from head to toe.
“Huh? Really nothing?”
Hearing Fatty’s voice, Wu Xie turned his head and saw him twisting his whole body behind the mummy doing who-knows-what, instantly getting goosebumps, thinking, does this Fatty have some strange fetish?
Just as he was thinking that, Fatty turned around to face him, his expression eerie: “I groped from the hole above this guy to the hole below, and really, there’s nothing! This golden body is too perfect; how did they do that?”
This… someone who can grope both holes is hardcore! Wu Xie had entered the trade too, but he really couldn’t bring himself to do that! He remembered what Zhang Qiling had said before and hurriedly asked Fatty: “Did you feel what’s in his stomach?”
Fatty nodded: “It’s a barrel-shaped thing; doesn’t feel like bamboo slips or anything, no edges, so it really might be the firecracker that young comrade mentioned! Who knows how much power it has after over a thousand years; just hope it doesn’t explode when touched!”
Over there, Lin Yan glanced at the two of them, shook his head, and resignedly chopped a few more footholds on the pillar. No matter what, all four of them would have to climb up, right? Thinking about it, he put extra force into certain pits, chopping them deeper, making them much larger than the ones beside.
Sigh, among the four of them, three were skinny, only Fatty counting as two; what could be done?
