Chapter 14: The Rain of Stone Millet

  I found it strange that Zhou Xing had been sullen all week, not wanting to talk to anyone, and would only occasionally glance at you with a straight face. How come he's suddenly interested in Gao Yexiong?

  I took another look at Gao Yexiong and found that he didn't seem to have anything special about him, except for being a bit taller and having the demeanor of a martial artist. At most, he might know some two-handed techniques, but other than that, there was nothing else remarkable about him. It seems like I'll have an opportunity later, I must grab Zhou Xing and ask him thoroughly.

  As the crowd slowly walked past, the "Wang Fei Mausoleum" was right in front of us. Thinking back to our previous discussion about the strange bronze coffin inside, we didn't dare to enter rashly either.

  Li Xiang slightly bowed his head, holding the flashlight and slowly inserted half of his body, exploring the situation inside the tomb. He said to us: "It seems like there's nothing inside, just a coffin. Let's go in and take a look."

  I think everyone is still not being cautious enough, this Witch King's Tomb is the relic of the Ya Shen tribe. As long as we enter this burial chamber, it will be within the range of the underground palace. What kind of evil and strange things are inside, it's really hard to say. Even if there aren't any mysterious and unpredictable Dao like "Jian", it can't be guaranteed that there won't be any anti-theft mechanisms. If everyone stupidly goes in, I'm afraid just a few poisonous arrows would be enough to make everyone die without a place to bury their bodies.

  At that moment, I thought of You Zi. This kid's experience in sneaking around is probably the richest. Whether there are any mechanisms inside still needs to be checked by him. I gave You Zi a squeeze on the eyes.

  Youzi stopped him, rushing to the front of the tomb and blocking Gao Xiang who was about to step inside. He said to him: "Officer Gao, wait a minute, I...I'm still not quite at ease, let's not rush in yet, let me take a good look inside."

  Just as Youzi finished speaking, Su Qin suddenly raised her hand and interrupted: "Don't look anymore, everyone retreat a bit, there's a mechanism inside!"

  I was just thinking that there might be a mechanism in this chamber, when Su Qin suddenly said this sentence, and I also panicked, hastily retreating two steps. Suddenly, I realized that it was Su Qin who had spoken. Her position was even further back than mine, and she couldn't see the situation inside the tomb at all, so how could she know that there were mechanisms inside?

  So I said to Su Qin: "Miss Su, I heard that after Lu Ban, the most powerful ones in making mechanisms are the 'Mirror Flat Mountain People' of Sui and Tang dynasties. This is their ancestral craftsmanship, which later developed into the 'Mysterious Mechanism Gate'. Everyone in the school is a master of mechanisms. Are you not a member of the Mysterious Mechanism Gate? Otherwise, how can you see that there are mechanisms inside just by standing behind the stone wall?"

  Su Qin said: "What is the mysterious door of Jingping Mountain? I don't know what's inside the tomb, but there's a mechanism at the entrance. You see, this tomb has a door."

  Everyone heard the words and looked towards the door, and indeed found a threshold at the bottom, about 15 centimeters high.

  Gao Yexiu said, "In this tomb's structure, the cave often experiences seepage phenomenon. It might be that the inner and outer height difference of the burial chamber wasn't handled well enough. In order to prevent water from flowing in, a threshold was set up. This thing shouldn't be a mechanism, right?"

  Su Qin said: "Xiao Gao, you only got half of it right. This threshold is indeed to prevent water from flowing backwards, but the purpose of doing so is not to prevent water from flowing into the tomb. Look at the bronze coffin inside, this coffin is placed on a high stone platform, even if there is water flowing in, it won't have much impact. The real purpose of this threshold is to prevent water from flowing into the gaps of the mechanism and damaging it."

  At this time, Zhou Xing also began to focus on the threshold. He slowly walked to the front of the tomb gate and squatted down, stretching his hand into the back of the threshold to feel around. After a moment, he said to us: "There is a mechanism underneath."

  Everyone heard Zhou Xingye say so, and they walked over to take a closer look. I crouched down and slowly stretched my head behind the threshold, and indeed saw that there was a gap between the threshold and the ground. The gap extended vertically downwards, and it was pitch black inside, even with a flashlight, you couldn't see the deepest part.

  We just knew that this threshold was not simple. Su Qin said: "If you look along the wall of the tomb, you will find that the floor of the entire tomb is actually not connected to the wall. We have encountered such tombs when we did archaeological work before. In the whole tomb, only the stone platform where the coffin is placed is safe, and other places, no matter where we stand, will trigger the mechanism."

  I heard Su Qin say it with conviction, and I couldn't help but believe it a bit. In my heart, I had already guessed the name of this mechanism. I turned around to look at everyone and said, "What should we do now?" Looking around, I saw that except for this path of sacrifice, there was no other way to enter the underground palace.

  Li Xiang said, "If that's the case, then 'Black Button' should have also entered from here. In the tomb chamber, except for the stone platform, all other places are inaccessible to them. Could they have passed through the stone platform?"

  "You see, wanting to get past the stone pedestal is already quite difficult. This tomb chamber is very deep and long. It's easy to jump onto the pedestal, but wanting to jump from the pedestal to the other side, that's even more impossible."

  I said to the crowd, "Let's send two people to the stone platform first to check out the situation inside. Since those people can pass through here, there must be a way. After the people who enter find the way, everyone will come in."

  So the strategy was decided, and in the end, everyone drew lots and chose me and Su Qin as the scouts. The two of us slowly walked to the entrance of the tomb, and briefly discussed our plan for what we would do on top of the stone pedestal. I was just about to carefully examine the situation on top of the pedestal, so as not to overlook anything, in case something unexpected happened when I jumped up, but unexpectedly, Su Qin beside me had already let out a soft cry, and with a slight movement of her foot, she leaped up onto it.

  I secretly thought, "How can this woman be so careless? What if there's a mechanism on the stone platform and she jumps up like that, wouldn't it be defenseless?" But I saw her lightly bowing, steadily and steadily landing on the stone platform, without making any sound. My heart couldn't help but admire, Oilzi was right, this Su Qian is not simple, her skills are really good.

  Thinking of this, I worried that she had jumped onto the stone platform alone, and if something unexpected happened, it would be hard to avoid accidents, so I followed closely behind her and also jumped onto the stone platform.

  As soon as I entered the tomb, I felt a bit oppressive. In this enclosed space, even the air seemed to have cooled down several degrees. The tomb was only three meters wide and its length was quite long, making it seem extremely narrow. The stone pedestal in the center was only over one meter wide and two meters long, and the bronze coffin placed on top had already occupied a lot of space, leaving very little room for me and Su Qin to stand.

  This bronze coffin is extremely large and thick, it can be seen that it was cast from a huge stone mold, which was adopted by the Ya Shen tribe using underground dragon fire to smelt. This copper casting technology was very advanced 4,000 years ago. The ancient people first carved out the shape of the copper vessel in the stone mold, then combined two pieces of stone molds with thick iron chains, leaving only three character-shaped holes for pouring in the molten copper. During the process of pouring in the molten copper, they also had to constantly heat the stone mold from the outside. The entire process may have taken more than ten days to complete. After the stone mold cooled down, they started chiseling from the outside of the stone mold, thinning it out, and then placed the entire stone mold in water for further cooling. Once the copper vessel inside the mold was completely solidified, they could chisel open the entire stone mold.

  The bronze wares cast by this method have a very high density and are not easily corroded. This large bronze coffin has gone through thousands of years, although it has produced many green copper spots, its original shape is still preserved, the patterns on it are exquisite and luxurious, and it does not lose its simplicity, making it an extremely valuable art treasure.

  Su Qin was originally very curious about this bronze coffin, and now that she could see it up close, she couldn't help but exclaim in surprise. She put on her white gloves and gently felt the patterns on top. After a while, she took out A4 notebook paper and a pencil from her backpack and began to draw the patterns on the bronze coffin.

  I have no choice but to admire this woman's professionalism, so I hurriedly remind her that we are not in an archaeological excavation now, but rather tracking down evil forces, and at the moment, we are still inside the tomb chamber, let us focus on dealing with potential dangers.

  Su Qin waved her hand and said: "I'll be fine soon, you go take a look first to see if there's a way to get to the other side."

  I was about to speak when you suddenly heard a creaking sound coming from a corner of the tomb, the sound was very loud and sounded like an old wooden door slowly opening. Su Qin also became vigilant, immediately put away the paper and pen, raised the flashlight and swept it around.

  However, all around was empty and desolate, yet nothing appeared. I felt uneasy and said to Su Qin: "It seems that the arrival is not good, this ghostly place has no wooden door? It's probably triggered a mechanism!"

  Su Qin furrowed her brow and said to me, "How can there be a mechanism? This stone pedestal should be very safe. We've encountered this kind of tomb before, and as long as we don't step on the ground, there shouldn't be any problem."

  I said to Su Qin, "Miss Su, you scholars are just textbook thinkers. The things you've encountered before may not be the same when you encounter similar things again. What if that Wu Wang was a bit treacherous and set up a mechanism on this stone platform? Wouldn't we have fallen into his trap?"

  Su Qin raised an eyebrow, just about to retort, when suddenly we heard the sound of stones shattering from the direction of the tomb entrance. The two of us were startled and immediately shone our flashlights over there. In an instant, we saw that on top of the tomb entrance, a huge boulder was suspended high up. Because this boulder was hidden above the door inside, everyone had not noticed it at first. Now, hearing the noise, we saw that the boulder had loosened and was about to fall down and seal the entrance.

  No one expected this, and before they could even react, a loud rumbling sound was heard, and the giant stone had already come crashing down. However, just as the stone was about to block the entrance of the tomb, a figure with extremely quick movements darted in and landed on the stone pedestal beside us.

  I took a closer look and found that the person who had jumped in was Zhou Xing. He turned his head with a gloomy face and glanced at the tomb door, which was blocked, and said to us briefly: "Open the coffin quickly."

  I haven't figured out what he wants to do, suddenly I feel the whole stone room starting to shake, except for the stone platform, the rest of the floor is slowly sinking down under the pressure of huge stones. This reminds me that the floor of the tomb has a movable mechanism, at this moment the huge stone is about to come down, isn't the mechanism going to be activated?

  I was frightened too, and hastily said: "Quickly hide in the coffin, this tomb chamber has a hidden layer on top, inside are sharp 'stone nails', if the floor sinks to the bottom later, the stone cones will fall down, we'll all become hedgehogs!"

  At this time, Su Qin and Zhou Xing had already started pushing the coffin lid. It was clear that everyone knew what would happen next, but Su Qin suddenly heard me say the mechanism of the tomb, and immediately became suspicious of me. While pushing the coffin lid, she asked me: "Long Qiu, who are you? How do you know so clearly?"

  I only just realized my mistake, but at this moment I couldn't care less about talking to her. The three of us used all our strength to push the coffin lid open halfway. When we looked inside, we saw a very tall ancient corpse lying there. Su Qing didn't have the energy to argue with me for now and said to us: "Let's not damage the body, when we hide in, remember to hold your breath, after the stone nails fall, quickly come out, don't..."

  She hadn't finished speaking, Zhou Xing had already quickly taken out a black glove from his pocket and put it on, grabbed the corpse in the coffin with one hand, pulled the body out of the coffin and flung it to one side. Su Qin was so angry that she couldn't speak, pointing at Zhou Xing: "You... you..."

  Zhou Xing didn't bother to reason with her, and instead grabbed her and stuffed her into the coffin. He then called out to me to join them, and I had no choice but to squeeze in as well. I thought to myself that this kid really had no gentlemanly demeanor, but there was no time to scold him. We all huddled together under the half-open coffin lid. Before we knew it, the ceiling of the tomb chamber collapsed, and countless sharp stone cones fell from above like rain, hitting the ground with a loud clatter. Many of them landed on our heads and on the bronze coffin lid, causing a deafening roar that almost made my ears go numb.

  Three people hid in the coffin, not daring to breathe, and heard that the stone cones on top of the tomb were still falling, but didn't know how many there were. We squeezed into this coffin, and could only shrink and hide under the half-covered coffin lid, which was truly unbearable. Myself and Zhou Xing, two old men, were okay, but Su Qin was really miserable, she was squeezed between us, not daring to move, knowing that her life was at stake, so she bit her lip and endured, her face red with anger, not saying a word.

  I thought the stone would have stopped falling by now, but two minutes had passed and the copper lid was still clanging away. I was lying in an awkward position and my elbow felt numb, so I couldn't help but shift my body slightly. Su Qin was furious and pinched me, saying "What are you doing!"

  I said to Su Qin: "Sorry, my hand is numb, it's not intentional."

  Su Qin panted softly, hummed a sound, and was silent for a while before suddenly saying: "You guys listen, Shi Zhui seems to have finished."

  I quickly shifted my attention outside and found that the sound of falling rocks gradually stopped, it seems that heaven has left a way out for us to escape this disaster.

  Soon, the noise outside completely stopped. Su Qin was squeezed by us and couldn't breathe, eager to push me out, but was blocked by Zhou Xing. We were puzzled, and then saw him put his index finger on his lips, signaling us to be quiet.

  As the surroundings quieted down, I suddenly heard some faint sounds coming from outside.

  The sound was not loud, but it was a bit strange. It sounded like the noise made by living things. However, at present, the tomb chamber is sealed off, and the only three big living people are hiding in the coffin. What could be making the noise outside?

  Thinking of this, I broke out in a cold sweat and pulled Zhou Xing to ask: "Brother Zhou, when you pulled the corpse out of the coffin just now, did you find any signs of fake death?"