Chapter 9: The Dragon Gate

  Tonight's unexpected event made us all sleepless, so we could only start another fire and the three of us sat around it chatting. The man who suddenly appeared didn't know what kind of person he was, he only spoke one sentence to us throughout the night, nor did we know his name or what brought him here. Aixia speculated that this person might also be a tomb raider, but whether he came here for the Witch King's Tomb is unknown.

  The next morning arrived quickly, and although the thick fog had not yet dispersed, the valley was already brightening up. The cigarette butts were scattered all over the ground in front of us. Although I hadn't slept all night and felt a bit tired, after washing my face, I quickly regained my energy. I turned around to look at that man and found out that he had been staring blankly for an entire night. I really couldn't understand what he was doing here. Maybe it's true what the oil seller said, that he's mentally ill.

  I stared at him for a while, and saw that he was indeed motionless. Suddenly, I had no strength to care about it anymore. I asked Aixia to prepare breakfast, then called out to Youzi to follow me again to climb up high to observe the terrain. This time, we must arrive at the excavation site behind the mountain before noon.

  Youzi said: "This route is more difficult to walk, we need to clean up our equipment and set off lightly."

  I didn't have any opinion, unfolded the simple map to study for a moment, and found a relatively easy route. Just as I was about to discuss with Youzi, I suddenly heard Aixia shouting loudly at us from the foot of the mountain: "You guys hurry down, that man has gone into the cave!"

  Youzi furrowed his brow and rushed down first, I followed closely behind. Just then, Aixia stood alone in front of the cave, pointing to the ground hole and said to us: "That man went down!"

  I could hardly believe it, busy peering into the cave, only to see a passage sloping down inside, dark and bottomless. After that strange creature retreated last night, none of us dared to approach the entrance of the cave. Now, taking a closer look, I found that there was a faint cold wind blowing out of the cave, with smoke and dust swirling inside, as if it were another world.

  Youzi was worried that the mysterious man would have an accident, after all, he had saved their lives before, so he shouted loudly into the cave: "Brother, brother, are you in there? Brother, can you hear me?"

  His voice echoed in the cave, but there was no response. It was unclear whether the man still didn't want to talk or had already walked away and couldn't hear Oil's voice. Ai Xia asked us what to do, whether we should go in and find him. Oil shook his head and said: "Let's not go in, this might be the lair of that strange creature."

  Just as the three of them were at a loss for what to do, they suddenly heard continuous sounds coming from deep within the cave. I was just about to lean forward to listen carefully when Oil suddenly shouted: "Quickly retreat!"

  At that moment, the familiar metallic friction sound came out again, followed by a chill that went to the bone. We knew that this movement was definitely not something else, but the strange creature from last night, and it was unclear whether it was brought out by the man. In short, all three of them were shocked and hastily retreated in a hurry.

  It was at this moment that I suddenly heard a cold hum, and immediately afterwards, I saw a figure emerge from the cave, jump out of the ground more than one meter high, roll two times and stop in front of us. Who else could it be if not that mysterious man?

  I saw him safe and sound, so I was about to pull him up to run, but he shook off my hand. He stood in front of the cave entrance, staring blankly as if it were last night all over again. After a while, he seemed to think it necessary to explain to us, and with great difficulty, he spoke: "It's daytime now, that thing doesn't dare come out."

  Youzi cautiously approached the entrance of the cave, shining his flashlight inside, and saw that it was indeed quiet. He let out a sigh of relief and asked the mysterious man, "What were you doing running in there? Don't you value your life?"

  The mysterious man shook his head slightly, but didn't say a word. Although I thought he was strange, I didn't find him annoying either. Seeing that he looked disheveled, I said: "You don't want to talk and we don't mind, why don't you go wash your face first, and then have breakfast with us later?"

  He rarely glanced at me with the corner of his eye, but suddenly discovered something and turned his head to stare at me. I didn't know what was wrong with him, so I raised my eyebrows to ask, but he turned his face back to Oilzi again. After a moment, I saw him frowning, seemingly muttering to himself, as if asking us, and briefly said two words: "Curse?"

  I and Oil Child were both stunned, thinking to ourselves how did this kid know about the curse? This kind of secret related to the Ya Shen tribe shouldn't be known by many people, could it be that Ai Xia was right, is he a high-ranking cultivator who has turned against the heavens? Otherwise, even if he saw the scars on our foreheads, he shouldn't have been able to immediately judge that this was caused by a curse.

  Ai Xia always thought that this mysterious man was also a grave robber. At this moment, hearing him say the word "curse", she was even more certain, and used the tone of the line to probe: "Picking stars from the sky, picking up the moon from the sea, good men don't ask about Panzi Ridge, but say that the phoenix perches on the wutong tree, where did you fall?"

  But unexpectedly, the man didn't even look at her and only asked: "Are you people going into the Witch King's tomb?"

  Youzi was a bit angry and frowned, saying: "You didn't answer any of our questions, do you want us to answer yours?"

  The man was silent for a moment, then suddenly said: "Ask your questions."

  "Alright, I'll ask you," said Youzi: "What is your identity, or rather... occupation. And why have you come here?"

  I thought he would definitely answer us this time, but after listening to the oily question, he shook his head lightly and said: "I'm very sorry, I can't answer any of these for you."

  Youzi almost blew up, perhaps thinking that this person had saved his life before, finally endured and did not explode, only coldly saying: "Well, then we also have no obligation to answer your questions."

  I thought to myself that this person didn't respond to the oil lamp, maybe he really had his own difficulties, and looking at him, he didn't seem like a "black button" person, let alone a policeman. Seeing the atmosphere become stiff again, I said to the man: "Then I'll ask another question, what's your name? It doesn't matter if you make one up, you've got to have something to call you."

  He thought for a moment and didn't know if he should make one up or not, then heard him say: "Zhou Xing."

  I don't care if he's talking nonsense or not, I continued asking: "Brother Zhou, are you planning to go... uh, enter the Witch King's tomb?"

  Zhou Xing nodded, perhaps I was used to his aloof personality, and his concession at this moment undoubtedly made me very happy. I said to him: "Okay, I'll answer you too. We're indeed going to the Witch King's tomb. If there are no conflicting interests, you can come with us."

  I'm saying this also for my own selfish reasons, from Zhou Xing's various performances, he should be a formidable character, anyway not an enemy, so I'll just pull him over, and it's good to have someone to take care of on the road.

  Zhou Xing heard my invitation and didn't object, only briefly saying "whatever" before walking back to where he sat last night, no longer paying attention to us, as if whether or not we wanted to enter the Witch King's tomb was the only answer he cared about.

  So the three of us also began to ignore him, just like last night, and started doing our own things. It was a strange feeling, when Zhou Xing was lost in thought by himself, he seemed to have turned into air, we could completely disregard him, as if there were still only the three of us in the campsite, and no mysterious man had ever appeared.

  After finishing breakfast, Youzi started packing his gear and threw away all the unnecessary things into a pit. After he was done, he beckoned me and Aixia to come over. I saw that after he had packed up, his backpack which was originally stuffed full had shrunk by two-thirds, and suddenly felt a bit uneasy, asking him: "Be careful when throwing things away, how come I feel like you threw the shovel down too?"

  "You think we're going to war with the tomb? I just checked, this Witch King's tomb doesn't need any excavation tunnels. The tools back then were too primitive, if they wanted to build the tomb in the mountain, they wouldn't have excavated it, otherwise ten thousand slaves wouldn't have been enough, the cost would be too high. I think the Witch King's tomb should be built inside a natural cave in the mountain, after the king was buried, the entrance was sealed with large stones, we can only enter through the ancient riverbed. Otherwise, if you want to dig it open with shovels, you'll have to call in an entire regiment."

  "What if the ancient riverbed is also sealed off?"

  "It shouldn't be, the energy of the mountain cave relies on water flow to gather, as the saying goes 'energy disperses when it meets wind, and stops when it meets water', once the water is cut off, that cave will definitely be abandoned, I believe they won't be so stupid."

  I don't want to delay on this issue, so I said: "Anyway, whether there is a road or not, we will know when we get there. Our goal is not to enter the Witch King's tomb, but to follow those people. If they can get in, then we must also be able to get in."

  Then the three of us took a short rest, and I told Zhou Xing about the route, but I don't know if he heard it or not. Seeing that the thick fog in the valley had dispersed a lot, everyone began to set off.

  The terrain of this valley is gentle, but it's very difficult to walk. A group of people braved the thorns and thistles, heading north through the valley, then climbed over a small hill, and arrived at a depression. According to our judgment, the location of the Witch King's tomb was on the other side of the depression.

  From here, it would be more convenient to go forward, but we were worried that the "black button" gang was nearby, so we didn't dare to cross directly from the open depression, but instead took a detour and climbed over the high rocks on both sides.

  The ancient tomb system of the Da Yu period was different from that of the Qin and Han dynasties. After the Qin and Han dynasties, the royal tombs were basically dug into the ground, covered with earth on top, or built with a "ming lou" (a tower for worship) above it. The underground palace was usually located more than 10 zhang below the surface. Occasionally, some emperors of the prosperous Tang dynasty would build their mausoleums by excavating mountains, but they also could not avoid building structures on the ground.

  However, the Witch King's tomb does not have any surface markers. Judging from its layout, it is likely built into a cave in the mountain body. The surrounding area is filled with tributaries of underground rivers to maintain the ancient tomb's energy. However, the underground water veins are complex and ever-changing, so finding the real entrance will definitely require some effort.

  Ai Xia knew little about the earth's pulse, and it was up to me and Youzi to make a decision. However, I didn't have any good ideas either. If we just looked for underground water veins, that wouldn't be difficult, but judging which one was the entrance to the Witch King's tomb was not easy.

  Youzi said to me, "It's not a good idea to search one by one. Why don't we go find the traces left behind by that group of people nearby? They should have already entered the ancient tomb. We can just follow the path they opened and enter."

  I was just about to nod in agreement when I suddenly saw Zhou Xing heading towards a place, he only faintly said "follow me" and then climbed down the high rock by himself. The three of us looked at each other, not knowing what he wanted to do, and could only follow along the rock wall and climb down.

  Zhou Xing walked very quickly, leading us to circle around, sometimes crossing rivers, sometimes climbing over rocks, and sometimes passing through grasslands. We were panting with exhaustion, even the strongest Oilzi was sweating profusely, but Zhou Xing's expression didn't change at all. He stopped in front of a mountain wall, I was about to ask him something when he started climbing up a big rock using his hands and feet.

  As he pulled open the thick vines on the mountain wall, I was shocked to see that beneath them was a dark cave entrance. The entrance was over half a person tall, and inside it was gloomy and dark, with no end in sight even when illuminated by a flashlight, indicating that it was extremely deep.

  "Oil son frowned and asked: 'This is...'"

  "Entrance." Zhou Xing replied briefly, without inviting us, and slipped in with a crouching posture.

  The three of us followed closely behind, also crawling into this stone cave.

  This is an extremely deep cave, extending straight down. We shone our flashlights forward and saw strange rocks towering in the depths. The further inside we went, the larger the space became, but it was impossible to see just how deep it was.

  Then everyone went forward and explored, after dozens of meters, they came to a huge cave.

  It's very sultry here, Tengchong County has volcanoes and is a place rich in geothermal resources. There are many hot springs alone, and we're clearly already inside the mountain body. The air around us is full of water molecules, which have been affected by geothermal heat for years, so it's like being in a big steamer. Even though we took off our coats, we were still sweating all over.

  Zhou Xing seemed to have been here before, and he led us all the way in with ease. Before long, everyone arrived at the riverbed of a dark river. The river had dried up, but there were still many signs of water flowing through it. This place was more than 50 meters away from the ground surface, and it must be an underground water vein. I had heard Youzi say before that if you want to enter the Witch King's tomb, you can only use the underground riverbed as the entrance. Now that Zhou Xing has brought us here, I couldn't help but believe him a little, maybe he really can lead us into the Witch King's tomb.

  The road seen here is winding and curved, but the top is very high. It seems to be because of the river water's long-term erosion, which makes the riverbed lower and lower. As a result of the diversion of the main stream later on, this place gradually dried up.

  We continued along the riverbed for several hundred meters, and I don't know how deep it was here. Zhou Xing continued to lead the way, leading us into a fork in the road. The four of us walked for over ten steps, and suddenly felt that our vision had opened up.

  All that can be seen in front is another vast cave, and there are no other entrances, only a copper gate on the left stone wall.

  You Zi was somewhat annoyed, and scolded Zhou Xing's broken road. This copper gate must be the entrance to the ancient tomb, but it is a "Dragon Gate". For example, in the case of the Wu Wang Tomb, which is a cave tomb, the main entrance will be sealed with large stones after the burial of the Wu Wang, while the other entrances will be equipped with heavy "Dragon Gates". These "Dragon Gates" can be opened with special keys, making it convenient for future generations to enter and maintain the ancient tomb.

  But then how did we end up with the key? Although it's true that behind this door is undoubtedly the entrance to the ancient tomb, it's a real dead end.

  Zhou Xing didn't mind Yu Zi's loud shouting and instead took out something from his pocket, saying to us: "I have the key."

  The three of us were stunned, wondering if this place was an ancient tomb or his backyard, and there's a key?

  You Zi was very anxious, thinking that Zhou Xing had too many secrets on him. We followed him and were bound to get into trouble. At this point, regardless of whether Zhou Xing wanted to speak or not, he kept asking what Zhou Xing's identity was and where the key came from.

  This non-stop chatter suddenly made Zhou Xing very impatient, he was silent for a while, and finally told us that the key was taken from the hole where the monster drilled out. As soon as I heard this, I was tongue-tied, it turned out that this kid had been guarding our campsite all night, just to wait until the next day, he must have been sure that the monster would not dare to come out during the day, so he sneaked in to steal the key, his courage was really big.