Chapter 4: The Maze of Graves (Part 1)

  If it were an ordinary girl, she would have screamed in fright by now. However, Xia Yu Fei had dealt with dead people many times before and even had blood on her hands. Even a corpse with two red eyes was just a corpse to her. After a moment of shock, she calmly recognized the person she had stepped on as probably being from the same profession.

  Well, at this moment, I should say we were former colleagues.

  However, this former colleague was quite unfortunate and somewhat short-sighted. When crawling out of the thief's hole, he first handed over the things in his hands, only to be killed by a greedy accomplice with a Luoyang shovel or something else and stuffed back into the thief's hole that might have been dug by himself, becoming the most common standing corpse.

  Xia Yifei spent thirty seconds mourning the standing corpse comrades, then stepped on someone's face without any guilt and started climbing up. At the same time, he also hummed a tune that was so out of tune that even his own father wouldn't recognize it, as if he had long regarded dignity as a snack to be eaten away.

  So, Xiaoyan Fei is actually a bit schizoid. On the surface, she's violently cool and explosive, but behind the scenes, she's just a sarcastic, heartless and ruthless person. Her facial expressions change as quickly as an opera performer. Moreover, her two faces never get mixed up, whatever she wants to be, she is, without ever getting caught out.

  She successfully crawled out of the thief's hole and still gave Li Si comrade a bow: "Thank you, Comrade Li Si, for giving me a place to put my feet and not having to wander in mid-air. I wish you a good birth in your next life, so we'll meet again soon!"

  After finishing speaking, he put the combat knife back on his waist and walked towards the starting rest place with a familiar gentle smile.

  A leaf floated onto the standing corpse's forehead, as if expressing sympathy for him.

  A few people sitting under the tree looked at Xiaoyan Fei, who was covered in mud and had scratches on her face. Fang Yifeng, the young master of the Fang family, immediately jumped up: "What's going on? What happened?"

  Xia Yanfei gave him a look and then said to Fang Chen in a panicked tone, "Professor Fang, you'd better go take a look! There's a thief hole over there, and there are standing corpses inside. I suspect the tomb has already been excavated."

  Fang Chenye also urged a few people to hurry up and go in that direction, although there was only a small possibility that they were the ones they were looking for. However, seeing them unable to fight back and trying to make some gains still felt like it went against his professional integrity.

  The key is... He took a look at Li Yu who was walking in that direction with a similar look of panic, how to get rid of this person?

  Fang Chenye never expected Xia Yunfei's move, the seemingly kind and gentle girl took advantage of Li Yu's distraction to look into the cave and swiftly struck him on the back of his neck with the handle of a wild battle knife. The force of the blow made Fang Chenye instinctively cover his own neck.

  "Are you just going to leave him here? Aren't you afraid that he'll wake up later and spread the word in the village about our true identities as underground workers?" Fang Chen asked hastily, watching Xia Yunfei prepare to move the corpse out of the tomb.

  The result was Xiaoyan flying a strange look at him: "What joke? Of course, we'll carry him back and tie him up again. In the end, we still have to go back to the village. If he's bitten by a zombie, it's better for us to save our breath from saying that another team ambushed him." The words didn't take Li Yu's life seriously at all.

  At this time, Fang Chen realized that the girl beside him was Xia Gui Shou, the ruthless and cunning one from the rumors. Just a few words could make people aware of how many times she had walked between life and death, and also make people aware that this person was never a delicate lady from a noble family who was carefully protected.

  Fang Chen was lost in thought as he rummaged through the inside pocket of his jacket, suddenly bursting into a smile like a child who had just discovered a delicious piece of candy.

  But he didn't know that Xia Yunfei's gaze had already been caught by the smile that seemed to have turned its attention back to the cave.

  When the corpse was pulled up, everyone present was frightened. Xia Yannuo involuntarily furrowed his brow and carefully examined this unusual corpse.

  Just now in the cave, she didn't see clearly due to the light problem. Now that she sees it clearly, her heart feels a chill. The corpse's entire body presents a dark purple color, with bright red and bulging eyes. What's even more eerie is that all ten of his fingers are covered with scales. She squats down and randomly picks up a tree branch to try and pry one off, only to discover that these scales aren't covering the surface but rather... seem to be growing out of the skin itself.

  "Zhang Xuan is fine." Xia Yifei rubbed her chin back and forth with her thumb and index finger, "Why do I feel like I've been possessed by a ghost?"

  Lan Ruoxue clicked her tongue: "I think so too, what to do, are you going down or not?"

  "Down, of course we go down." She threw away the branch and stood up to pat her hands, "This poisonous cave may be just what we need. Boss Fang, what do you think?"

  Fang Chenye, who was eager to hurry down and find something, suddenly ignored Xia Yunfei's changed title and Lan Ruoxue's eyes, which had become vigilant the moment she heard the title "Boss Fang": "Then let's hurry up and take the equipment down! The sooner we get what we need, the sooner everyone can be free, right?"

  "Enlightenment? What a wonderful word."

  A few people, including Fang Xing, were old hands at this kind of thing and had no problem getting through the hidden passage. Even with Fang Ying carrying Li Yu on his back, who was still unconscious, Xia Yan even gave him another dose of sleeping pills just in case, they made it underground smoothly.

  The glow stick that had been dropped earlier had lost its light, and Xiaoyan shouted as she turned on the wolf eye flashlight. When she shone the beam into the darkness in front of her, everyone was shocked and took a cold breath.

  The flashlight illuminated a magnificent golden palace, with intricate carvings and paintings that seemed to radiate wealth. On the wall facing them was a mural of a majestic dragon riding on clouds and mist, so vivid it seemed as if it would burst out of the wall at any moment. Inside the palace, four pillars supported the weight of the structure. Xiaoyan put on her gloves, furrowed her brow, and took a closer look, astonished to discover that the pillars were made of golden nanmu wood.

  What is the value of nanmu wood? No one knows better than those who do this job, and it's said that it's worth a thousand gold coins, which is an understatement. This kind of wood has been used historically only for the construction of royal palaces and a few temples, and if ordinary people use it privately, they will be accused of overstepping their bounds, and not being charged with treason is already a imperial pardon. There are even rumors that Emperor Qianlong went to steal nanmu wood from the Ming dynasty's thirteen mausoleums to build his own tomb. And here, they openly use nanmu wood as load-bearing pillars, so who exactly is the owner of this place...

  "Whose royal relatives would be buried here, eh?" Blue Ruo Xue's slap on Fang Ying's forehead brought Xia Yun Fei back from his reverie. "Yun Fei, you tell me, is that true?"

  "I also think it's possible that he's a merchant, the ranking of scholars, farmers, workers and merchants is basically known to everyone. Plus, merchants have money, so using golden nanmu wood to build a temple isn't impossible either." Xia Yifei took off the cotton gloves on his hands and put on combat gloves for outdoor use, "Don't mention this for now...... Fang Chenye, what do you want to do?!"

  Because Xiaoyan shouted, Lan Ruxue and Fang Ying immediately turned their heads to look at the last one who came in, Fang Chenyan. Lan Ruxue's hand even touched the gun at her waist. However, Fang Chenyan, standing on the high platform composed of three layers of steps in the center of the main hall, didn't care about the three people at all, but just smiled foolishly like a possessed person.

  "What the hell did you hit?" Fang Yong instinctively moved to Xia Yu Fei's side and took on a protective stance, but Xia Yu Fei just frowned and pushed him away: "Move over there and keep an eye on those three people with him."

  Just as Xia Yanfei took a step forward, Fang Chenye suddenly turned around with his back to several people. The thing in his hand was a dark and gloomy handgun, and the muzzle was pointing at Lan Ruoxue who was about to draw her gun: "Don't move! I found it! I found it hahahahaha! It's right here!!! Xia Yanfei! It's time for you to take action!"

  Before he had finished speaking, he pulled the trigger ——

  Just as he pulled the trigger, he also turned the muzzle of the gun towards Xia Yifei who had just drawn out a short knife!

  It's all over!

  This was Xiaoyan's last thought as her speed couldn't outrun the bullets fired at such close range.

  In the split second before agony and darkness descended, she heard three people simultaneously call out her name.

  Lan Ruoxue, Fang Ying, and another... who is it?

  But at this moment she has fallen into the darkness that is rushing towards her.