Chapter 32: The Birth of Mite Colonies (1)

  After walking for a while longer, I climbed up a small hill and suddenly the view opened up before me.

  "It's been a long time since anyone came here." Chen Long gazed at the scene before him, lost in thought. The four of them slowed their pace, taking slow and deliberate steps towards the center of this land, as if afraid to disturb the souls that rested here.

  After searching for about an hour, Chen Long heard a loud shout and identified the direction before running towards it. It was Yuan Tian's voice, because Chen Long's search direction was opposite to his, so he arrived last.

  "What's wrong?" he asked.

  Jiang Feng pursed his lips and pointed to the ground. Chen Long then saw some disordered footprints on the ground, and following one side of the footprints, he saw a small hill outside.

  "They came from that direction, about six or seven of them." Yuan Tian said softly, as if answering the doubts in everyone's mind. After finishing speaking, he looked towards the other end of the footprints: "They passed by from there, should we follow? But even if we follow now, it won't be of any use."

  "What did you say?" Jiang Feng pinched a cigarette, the tip of which flickered on and off, his face also changing with the weather.

  "They've been in for two days." Yuan Tian squatted down and carefully felt around, "Some of the shoe prints are even military boots. There were four adult men, and two lighter footprints, probably an old man or a woman. And these people were likely fully armed. If they're grave robbers, it's not ordinary." Yuan Tian's eyes were deep and profound, his tongue licked his dry lips, and he spoke in a low voice.

  "We are no match for them." Chen Long nodded, "If they all have firearms, it's best we don't encounter them. Otherwise, whether or not we can get out alive is an unknown quantity."

  "Shall we go after them and take a look? We can't just stay stuck here! We came to find the way, if we encounter them, can't we just run?" Jiang Feng loaded his shotgun and walked forward along the footprints.

  "Follow me! We have no choice." Chen Long said calmly, a talisman appearing in his hand.

  They had only been walking for five or six minutes when all four of them stopped at the same time, looking around in confusion. The footprints ended abruptly; to be precise, there were the most footprints here, surrounding a tombstone, but none ahead.

  "Could it be that they entered the underground world from here?" Yuan Hua's face showed a look of astonishment, saying something unbelievable.

  He picked up a blade of grass from the ground, Chen Long twisted off the root, put it in his mouth and chewed for a few times, then took out a yellow paper, applied the green juice on it, and finally spat out the crushed grass stem.

  The other three people looked at Chen Long quietly, their faces all looking a bit strange, clearly none of them knew what he was doing. "Qian Kun borrowing method, immortal guiding the way, shout!" Chen Long shouted in a low voice, his finger pointing, and the talisman paper stained with grass juice suddenly disappeared with a "whoosh" sound. Actually, this kind of guiding talisman didn't need to be recited, but in order to bluff the three people beside him, Chen Long pretended to concentrate like a Taoist priest.

  "Where did that paper go?" Jiang Feng asked with a look of envy on his face.

  "Do you recognize the words on the tombstone?" Chen Long didn't answer but instead asked back, pointing at the stone tablet in front of the four people, with a thoughtful expression.

  "This should be an epitaph, but its format is quite different from the current one, and I'm not sure what dynasty it belongs to." Yuan Tian wiped off some sand on top with his hand and carefully identified it. "This might mean the second year of Qianhua, do you know when that was?"

  "Qianhua second year?" Chen Long's eyes flashed with shock, "That was during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, when the Tang Dynasty split up. Hmm, according to today's calendar system, it should be around 910 AD."

  "This is written in cursive script, it's really too difficult to recognize." Yuan Tian said, "I can only make out the words 'taxes are heavy, national strength declines daily', the others I really can't recognize."

  Chen Long stared intently at the tombstone for half a moment, but he really couldn't make out what it said. He lived in an era more than 500 years after the Five Dynasties period, and since he had died young and wasn't a cultured person to begin with, it was perfectly normal that he couldn't read the ancient script from over a thousand years ago.

  "How can you understand this stuff?" Chen Long let out a sigh and looked at him with an odd expression.

  "Oh, I studied medicine, but in college, I also took classical Chinese as an elective. It just so happens that I'm very interested in the writing of the Tang and Song dynasties." Yuan Tian explained nonchalantly.

  "Let's move this tombstone now!" Chen Long said no more and walked to the front of the tombstone, gesturing to the three.

  "Are you saying move this thing away?" Jiang Feng exerted force to turn the tombstone, but it didn't budge, almost twisting his hand.

  "It's very heavy, all four of us together." Chen Long gestured with his hand, letting the three know how to turn.

  The three of them didn't ask many questions and cooperated very well, starting to use force according to Chen Long's instructions.

  The tombstone was moving inch by inch under the powerful arms of four men. Suddenly, a "creaking" sound came from the grave in front.

  "Alright." Chen Long patted Jiang Feng's shoulder and smiled slightly as he gazed at the cracked tomb.

  "No wonder I felt that this grave was a bit different! It turns out there's a secret passage inside!" Jiang Feng had an "I knew it all along" look on his face.

  "If you don't know where the switch is, even if you know this is a secret passage, you can't dig it open. Look at this kind of stone, its density is very high, and its hardness is also astonishingly high, plus it's so thick. If we rely on digging, we absolutely can't get in."

  Chen Long gazed at the entrance for a long time before saying, "The problem now is whether we should go in. There should be a switch inside to close and open it again, so that's not something to worry about. The key issue is where those people are inside? If we run into them, I think they'll be happy to send us on our way."

  "Damn it! Of course, we have to go in. There must be a way out inside. Those people must have found a way out, or they wouldn't have blown up the original path!" Jiang Feng pulled his sleeve, wanting to rush in immediately, but was held back by Chen Long.

  "What do you mean?" Chen Long asked, with a warm smile in his eyes, one hand already in his pocket.

  "Of course we have to go in, otherwise wouldn't we have come here for nothing?" Yuan Hua smiled slightly, seemingly sensing Chen Long's cautious expression, and then found a long wooden stick, leading the way into the tomb passage.

  "Let's go!" Chen Long calmly pulled his hand out of his pocket and beckoned to the two, then followed Yuan Tian into the tomb passage.

  Inside, there was an obvious switch. Chen Long waited until Yuan Tian finally came in, took out a flashlight and turned it on, then flipped the switch, and the originally open door of the tomb passage creaked shut again.

  A group of mites was found in the thousand-year-old ruins of Tang Hanguang Gate in Xi'an, which is a world-first discovery. Friends who are interested can go and investigate, according to reports on June 2nd.