Volume 1: Ghosts of the Underworld Wail... Chapter 35: The Murderous Intent Behind the Stone Gate (2)

  She let out a soft sigh, "These sects were prosperous a thousand years ago, but they should have declined long ago, right?"

  Not to mention the Buddhist sects, Chen Long knew a thing or two about the Taoist sects, but after being reborn as a human, he was shocked to discover that many once-powerful sects had long since disappeared into the annals of history. As far as he knew, the four major tomb-raiding sects - namely the Mò Jīn Sect, Bān Shān Sect, Xiè Lǐng Sect, and Fā Qiū Sect - aside from leaving behind some legends, their true skills had all been lost to time. Although there were still people who believed in the existence of such individuals, Chen Long scoffed at the idea; did having a Mò Jīn symbol or Fā Qiū seal, Xiè Lǐng armor, and knowing a bit about Bān Shān techniques make one a true tomb-raiding master?

  Looking at Jiang Feng sitting dejectedly on one side because he couldn't get the door handle off, Chen Long joked: "You've tried everything except pulling it off, since you can't get it down I think we should just give up."

  Jiang Feng's eyes lit up: "Right, I haven't pulled it out yet!" After finishing speaking, he immediately grabbed the door handle and pulled it open with force.

  "Ka---" was grasped by him, the door guard popped out a small section from inside, and several people were startled. Then, "Ka-zi---ka-zi---" friction sounds kept coming out, but after waiting for half a day, the door still didn't open.

  "Jiang Feng, quickly, pull out another one too." Chen Long's eyes flashed with a sharp light as he shouted at Jiang Feng.

  "Alright!" Jiang Feng was momentarily excited, seemingly forgetting the potential danger behind the door. He gritted his teeth and pulled out another section of the guardrail.

  The stone gate shook violently and slowly opened with a loud rumble. The four of them did not rush in, but stood at the entrance, concentrating on preparing for possible attacks.

  Nothing happened, Chen Long tentatively took a step forward, and the scene behind the stone gate made him instantly stunned!

  The passage was winding and twisted, and after walking for so long, even Chen Long himself didn't know where he had arrived, but one thing was certain, the passage was extending downward, which means they were now absolutely deep underground.

  Behind the stone gate, the scene was so different from before that all four of them thought they had entered another world. This was a vast hall, with an area roughly the size of a football field at first glance. A brilliant blue light filled the entire space, like a dream or illusion, and in this moment, the four people were simultaneously enchanted by this magical scene. Upon closer inspection, it became apparent that the top of the hall and the twelve massive stone pillars supporting the space were all inlaid with huge gems, which emitted the brilliant light. There was no time to count them carefully, but Chen Long knew that there were hundreds of these gems. In the center of the hall, thousands or even tens of thousands of "people" knelt down, leaving only a narrow path in the middle that could be walked by one person at a time.

  "Ghostly!" Jiang Feng let out a cry of surprise, barely suppressing the strong urge to dig out the gemstone, looking at the corpses in the hall with eyes full of horror.

  The entire area, as large as a football field, was filled with kneeling corpses. This scene deeply shocked the four of them. Among these corpses, most had only skeletal remains left, but the clothes they wore were still not completely rotten and decayed. The large knives and long swords in front of them, although already corroded, still shone with faint green light and crystal white light under the blue glow. Some of the weapons contained copper, which had been ravaged by time and turned into verdigris, also known as cupric carbonate, a substance produced when copper reacts with oxygen, carbon dioxide, and water in the air. The green light was reflected from the verdigris. As for the white light, it came from iron products that had not yet fully oxidized. Although they had gone through thousands of years, due to the dry climate here, there was little moisture in the air, so some iron products were preserved and not completely corroded away.

  The further forward you go, the lower the corrosion degree of iron products is. It's probably due to the quality, so it's like this. Chen Long isn't very sure either.

  There were still many corpses that had not fully decomposed, with black flesh remaining on the skeletons, sunken brown skin on their faces and some gray hair left on their skulls, which made the four people's hearts tighten, not daring to be careless.

  Chen Long stopped beside a corpse, which was relatively intact and looked more like an unwrapped mummy. The flesh on the body had only shrunk and sunk in, without any signs of rotting. He was wearing official robes with golden threads still embroidered on them, emitting a faint dark golden glow. All four of them could tell that this was an official because he was short and slender, didn't have any weapons in front of him, and wasn't wearing leather armor. However, no one knew his specific rank, including Chen Long himself, who had only been a common young wandering knight in his past life and had nothing to do with the imperial court.

  As he was puzzled and couldn't figure out the secret of why the corpse didn't rot, he saw that the corpse's left hand was placed on its chest, with a different movement from the other corpses. This raised Chen Long's suspicions, as all the other corpses had their hands spread flat on the ground, so why did this person put his left hand in his pocket before death? Carefully reaching into his clothes and pulling out his left hand, Chen Long exclaimed, "Huh?" and suddenly made the three people behind him lean in. It was a pure black dagger, or it could be said to be a small sword, as it was slightly longer than a dagger, with a blade length of over 20 centimeters, and there was a recessed groove on the hilt, inlaid with an emerald green bead that didn't emit any light. On the surface, there didn't seem to be anything unusual about it, but Chen Long vaguely felt that this dagger wasn't so simple.

  Without warning, a loud "Boom" sound was heard, Chen Long's body shook violently, and a blood arrow shot out from his left shoulder. His body stumbled and fell onto the corpse. Fortunately, the corpse had some weight to it and didn't collapse, allowing Chen Long to use his hands to prop himself up on the corpse and stop the powerful impact force.

  Without any hesitation, Chen Long pulled Jiang Feng over to a stone pillar and pushed him against it. The two of them instantly became rolling gourds, knocking down more than ten skeletons along the way. Two loud "bangs" were heard, and suddenly there were two bullet holes at their feet. Jiang Feng's massive body jerked upwards, and with a swift motion, he pulled Chen Long back again. Only then did they safely reach the stone pillar and hide behind its thick column.

  Yuan Hua and Yuan Tian were not slow either, almost at the same time Chen Long made his move, they bent down and ran to another stone pillar. Fortunately, the opponent seemed to be alone, only shooting at Chen Long's side, so the two of them also arrived safely beside that stone pillar.

  Four people hid behind two stone pillars, no one made a sound, only Chen Long's breathing sounded "huff-puff-huff".

  His left shoulder was pierced, Chen Long's heart sank, and he gritted his teeth to endure the pain. He said in a low voice: "You shoot a few shots with the hunting rifle first, he won't dare come over. It seems like there is only one person, you hold him off, I'll deal with my wound first."

  Jiang Feng nodded, narrowed his eyes and walked out halfway, firing two shots in the direction where the bullets came from. "Boom! Boom!" The two sounds were like a stone sinking into the sea, clearly not hitting the opponent.

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