The real reason for entering the underground palace at 21

  Everyone was confused by this answer, thinking that the Lu Ban lock and the Xue Yu magic country were related again? What does this have to do with anything? The difference between the two is thousands of years, could it be that Master Lu Ban is a descendant of the magic country?

  One question after another, no one in the room spoke again, they just stared at Duan Lao who was deep in thought. At this time, Duan Lao took out a cigarette, lit it, and took two big puffs before continuing to speak: "Now nothing else matters, uncovering the secrets of the underground palace is the top priority, are you all ready?" When he said this, Duan Lao paused for a moment before sighing: "Actually, this underground palace could have been opened 12 years ago, but who knew there would be a twist in the middle, comrades, your wishes will soon come true."

  "Duan Lao, just assign the tasks! Everyone present is either a descendant or student of your comrades-in-arms. We can follow in the footsteps of our predecessors." Hai Chen's interjection also sparked agreement from others.

  At this moment, Lao swept his gaze over the faces of the crowd, and with a relieved smile, he continued: "Earlier, our team had differing opinions about the underground palace. Some said it was a tomb, while others said it was a mechanical fortress. These two guesses led to us parting ways, each trying to prove their own theory, which is why we ended up separated from each other, like heaven and earth. Now that I've collected my thoughts, I think we should start from the Rui Mountain Emperor's Mausoleum, one step at a time. I have a feeling this is a curse, the curse of the mechanical master. It's very likely that some of you will lose your lives in the following period of time. Therefore, I require all of you to listen to me from now on. I don't want to lose any single one of you. Have you all understood?"

  Everyone nodded, and Duan Lao assigned tasks to each of them. Afterwards, everyone went off to prepare on their own.

  Just like before, Liao Dongfeng and others first followed the underground water vein to find a passage into the inner chamber of the tomb. If they found one, that would be best; if not, then they would have to deliberate for a long time. Liao Dongfeng had a guess: since Duan Lao could choose the water route to find the entrance to the imperial mausoleum, he must have investigated and inferred this before, and it was probably not just his own achievement. Another point was that Liao Dongfeng always felt that something was off. Duan Lao usually didn't speak much, and Liao Dongfeng's understanding of him was also very vague. He felt that Duan Lao was hiding something in his heart, seemingly a huge secret. If he was pretending to be profound and experienced, then why were the people around him still following him so devotedly? If he didn't have real talent and learning, then his words wouldn't be so well-organized. Hai Chen was also a clever person, and his teacher wouldn't be inferior either. Therefore, Liao Dongfeng agreed to cooperate with many doubts, on one hand wanting to experience the great civilization of the ancients, and on the other hand continuing to interact with Duan Lao to understand him better, perhaps there would even be unexpected discoveries.

  Peng Jianjun's ideas and thoughts are not as many as Liao Dongfeng's, Liao Dongfeng points to where he hits, never ambiguous, even if there is an opinion, hit first and then talk, this person is more straightforward, with a direct heart and quick mouth, but also easy to get into trouble, so Liao Dongfeng must tell him his ideas, otherwise it will cause trouble.

  The night before departure, Liao Dongfeng carefully told his thoughts to Peng Jianjun. Peng Jianjun gave a thumbs up and praised: "High, really high! I also saw that the old man was not right, but I didn't expect him to have such depth. After hearing you say this, I suddenly realized it!"

  Liao Dongfeng heard it in his ears, smiled on his face, and found it beautiful in his heart. However, he suddenly heard Peng Jianjun say, "Hey? I'm saying, you're so clever, won't you one day sell me out and still have me count the money for you?"

  Liao Dongfeng's face sank after listening, and he didn't bother to respond to Peng Jianjun anymore. He turned his head and lay on the bed thinking about his own affairs. Peng Jianjun also knew that his previous words were a bit abrupt, so he quickly explained, but ended up making things worse with his clumsy words. In the end, they just left it at that, after all, their relationship was not ordinary, and Liao Dongfeng wouldn't hold a grudge over this one sentence.

  The fact is that Liao Dongfeng didn't take it to heart, and about an hour later, he found that Peng Jianjun had fallen asleep. He then took out the sheepskin scroll from his inner pocket and looked at it, thinking: "Things won't be so coincidental, will they? The content on the sheepskin scroll is roughly the same as the rough sketch given by Duan Lao. Could the dead person in the underground cave also know Duan Lao? And with the appearance of the corpse king, such a big commotion, how could Duan Lao not care? There must be a problem here, and it's possible that the mouse driver and Duan Lao are acquainted too!"

  It was late at night, and Liao Dongfeng couldn't sleep no matter what. He got dressed and came to the scene of the fierce battle from earlier in the day alone. There, he saw two figures wandering around not far away. From their conversation, he could tell it was Duan Lao and Hai Chen. What were they doing here at this hour? However, their subsequent conversation immediately cleared up Liao Dongfeng's thoughts.

  "How did this kid end up dead in a hole? There's no scroll on him, so someone must have taken it. Looks like we've indeed been watched all along."

  Hai Chen finished speaking, and Duan Lao continued: "Don't worry about who's watching us, this person will definitely make a mistake. You continue to raise the dead to disturb the peace, we must make the locals believe in the legend of the mouse curse. Once the place is in chaos, we'll have more time to decipher the secrets of the Rui Mountain Mausoleum."

  "Master, my skills in raising the dead are still far from perfect. Otherwise, this Corpse King wouldn't have been so easily destroyed. How about you take over next?"

  Liao Dongfeng was shocked when he heard the two words "raising corpses". He had heard his grandfather mention it before, and according to legend, raising corpses originated from the Maoshan Ghost Path and had a history of several thousand years. Initially, its purpose was to commemorate deceased loved ones, so they would use special preservation methods on the corpse and then use a soul-calling talisman to summon back the deceased's spirit, forcing it to stay within the corpse. At that time, the corpse could move, retain some memories from when it was alive, perform simple actions, and even eat, drink, urinate, and defecate like a normal person - just without being able to speak. More advanced techniques for raising corpses could preserve the deceased's body for nearly fifty years. Liao Dongfeng understood all this, but what he knew about raising corpses was vastly different from what had happened before his eyes. Could it be that there were other types of corpse-raising? His grandfather was so knowledgeable, surely he wouldn't not know about this?

  Liao Dongfeng had been hiding in the distance, until Hai Chen and Duan Lao left. At this time, he suddenly felt a little afraid of these two people. Just as he was about to get up to see what they were doing, his head buzzed with a loud noise, and he lost consciousness from then on.

  When Liao Dongfeng came to, he found himself in an unfamiliar place, like a cave or something, lying on a beast skin, with the surrounding walls being uneven yellow earth, and a simple electric stone lamp emitting dazzling white light, illuminating every corner of the cave. At this time, the back of his head was throbbing slightly, Liao Dongfeng furrowed his brow, reached out to touch it, and found that his forehead was bandaged with white gauze, before he slowly recalled what had happened earlier.

  Just then, footsteps came from the entrance of the cave. Liao Dongfeng also lay back on the animal skin with vigilance. Soon, the footsteps approached, and a large hand that was cold to the touch and slightly rough touched his forehead. Then he heard an old man's voice say: "You child, your courage is too great! You don't know how treacherous people can be! From now on, you must be careful, it's not every time you have such good luck." After finishing speaking, the old man took something out of his pocket and placed it next to Liao Dongfeng. Then he turned around and left, never coming back again.

  Liao Dongfeng carefully opened his eyes and made sure there was no one else in the cave before looking down at what the man had left behind. At first glance, it didn't seem like anything out of the ordinary, but after a closer look, he was shocked to see that on top of an animal hide were four or five old pieces of paper with strange and unusual writing on them. Although these writings seemed unfamiliar, Liao Dongfeng remembered hearing his grandfather mention them before, and he also recognized some of the characters himself. After deciphering the text with a rough understanding, he discovered that the content of the papers seemed to be talking about curses. However, what exactly it was saying, Liao Dongfeng couldn't quite grasp at first. It wasn't until he picked up each piece of yellowed paper one by one that he found a stack of hand-drawn diagrams on white paper slips underneath. Liao Dongfeng's eyes widened in surprise because these white paper slips were actually the torn-out pages from his grandfather's little red book. After carefully examining the paper slips, Liao Dongfeng finally nodded and sighed, "So that's how it is. The ghost face lanterns are alive, just like humans - they sleep when they're full and continue eating when they're hungry." After saying this, he flipped through a few more pages below and was shocked again, exclaiming, "I know why Old Man Duan had to enter the underground palace - he didn't have much time left!"