Chapter 1 The Crystal Palace

The old man walked ahead, leading the way, and the rest of us followed closely behind.

Although the old man insisted that there was a crystal palace inside the ancient tomb, most of us, except for Xiao Liang and me, thought the old man was talking nonsense. No one believed that there really was a crystal palace in the ancient tomb.

Especially Hu Wazi. With Jiang Yongguang absent, he became the number one atheist in the team, not believing in any ghosts or gods.

On the other hand, Yunjie, his subordinate, was a bit superstitious and somewhat believed in the existence of the crystal palace.

The old man was quite capable. He walked ahead alone, without even using a flashlight. He walked in the dark in the tomb passage and could still recognize the direction, as if he had night vision.

Following him, we made three turns and two turns and quickly passed through a tomb chamber filled with bronzes, arriving at another, wider tomb passage.

Both sides of this tomb passage were carved with exquisite murals. The content of the murals was similar to what we had seen in the Tuojiang ancient Shu tomb and the Yazi River ancient Shu tomb, all in the ancient Shu style.

We didn't have time to stop and carefully observe the details on these murals, because the old man leading the way was walking too damn fast, and several of us young people almost couldn't keep up.

When we reached the middle of this tomb passage, the tomb passage made a turn to the left. At this time, the old man suddenly stopped, pointed to a crack in the wall at the corner of the tomb passage, and said, "Look, I didn't lie to you."

Hu Wazi was stunned by what he said and quickly asked, "Look at what? What's on this wall?"

The old man pointed to the crack in the wall and said, "Look at the crystal palace. From here, you can see the crystal palace."

Hu Wazi didn't believe it at all and snorted coldly, "Bullshit, isn't it? It's pitch black in this ancient tomb. How can you see anything in the dark?"

The old man pointed to the crack in the wall in front of him and said to Hu Wazi, "Look for yourself."

Although Hu Wazi said he didn't believe it, he still curiously leaned against the wall, squinted his eyes, and looked into the crack.

As a result, as soon as he looked, Hu Wazi's body trembled, and he suddenly shouted, "Fuck!"

As soon as he shouted this, I knew that he must have seen it.

If he hadn't seen the crystal palace, he definitely wouldn't have had this reaction!

Sure enough, after he pulled back from the wall, I saw that his entire face was frozen, and his eyes were wide open, as if he had seen a ghost.

Lao Wei quickly rushed forward and said, "Let me see! Let me see too!"

After speaking, he leaned against the wall in Hu Wazi's posture, and then also shouted, "Fuck!"

This made me unable to hold back, so I quickly leaned over and said, "I want to see too, Lao Wei, let me see."

Lao Wei reluctantly left the crack, and I quickly leaned over.

Looking inside along the crack in the wall, I was completely stunned!

I saw that the other end of the crack was a huge space with no bottom in sight!

In the center of this space, there was indeed a building made of crystal material, like a siheyuan (courtyard house)!

What's even more amazing is that the underground mausoleum should have been dark, but the location of the crystal palace seemed to have a beam of light shining in, just enough to illuminate the building, allowing me to see its entire appearance!

This kind of exquisite and mysterious design made me wonder if the crystal palace was the residence of gods!

Before I could finish watching, Xiao Liang leaned over and scrambled to watch it with me.

So, she and I were one above and one below, I was above, and she was below, and we looked at it with our heads stacked together.

Xiao Liang, like me, was shocked by this crystal palace, and she kept exclaiming while watching.

We stayed here for a full half an hour, observing this magical crystal palace.

The old man smiled very proudly and said, "How is it? I didn't lie to you, did I? There really is a crystal palace. I've been living inside it all these years."

Hu Wazi was almost dumbfounded and said in shock, "Do people really build this kind of thing in ancient tombs? How much of a project would that be?"

Lao Wei recalled and said, "Thinking about it carefully, this is not the first time I've seen this kind of building in an underground palace. In 1973, an archaeological team discovered an ancient tomb from the Song and Jin dynasties in Macun, Shanxi. It was the family tomb of a large local family, the Duan family. In this family tomb, there was a courtyard house built. I think the construction concept of this crystal palace is similar to that tomb. Oh no, I should say that tomb is similar to this ancient Shu tomb."

What puzzled me the most was not that there was a crystal palace inside, but why there was a light source in the location of the crystal palace.

I asked the old man, "Old man, where does the light source in the crystal palace come from? It's pitch black in this ancient tomb, how can light shine in?"

As soon as I asked this, Lao Wei also asked curiously, "That's right, in theory, it should be pitch black in the ancient tomb."

The old man smiled and said, "At first, it was indeed dark, and there was no light inside at all. Then one day, I suddenly heard movement above the crystal palace, dinging and banging, as if someone was chiseling a mountain and digging a hole. After a few more days, the hole was chiseled through, and light shone in."

"A grave robber's hole!!!"

Hearing this, we almost shouted in unison.

And it was a grave robber's hole that directly hit the top of the crystal palace!

This was a divine hole!

If there were no accidents, the crystal palace where the old man lived must be the core of the Qushang ancient city mausoleum.

Then, the grave robber's hole that directly hit the top of the crystal palace was undoubtedly a top-notch divine hole!

This immediately made me think of that person, the woman we had been chasing all along—the White-Clad Immortal, Ge Xueying!

I asked the old man, "Did you see clearly what the person who dug the hole looked like? Do you know if it was a man or a woman?"

The old man thought for a while and shook his head with difficulty, saying, "I really didn't pay attention. I was sleeping when the hole was opened. I was groggy, and besides, I live in the dark all year round. When the light shone in, I was a little uncomfortable and almost blinded by the light. I couldn't see anything."

I was a little disappointed to hear this, but actually, I knew without asking that this grave robber's hole was probably dug by Ge Xueying.

Xiao Liang also had the same thought as me. She whispered in my ear, "No need to ask, it must be the work of the White-Clad Immortal. Who else but her could dig such a divine hole in the Qushang ancient tomb?"

At this time, Lao Wei couldn't wait to urge, "Let's go to the crystal palace to take a look first, and don't let the grave robbers get there first. Old man, please continue to lead the way."

"Easy, easy."

The old man smiled all the time, nodded, and continued to lead us on our way.

We quickly followed his pace and walked forward together.

From this tomb passage forward, there were two inner and outer tomb chamber suites. In these two tomb chambers, what was placed was no longer bronzes, but some coffins carved into the shape of small boats.

These coffins were all made of wood. Because of the long years, they had more or less petrified, and even turned into quite valuable ebony.

Suddenly seeing these coffins, we all felt very shocked. The knowledgeable Lao Wei immediately introduced to us, "These boat-shaped coffins are also one of the characteristics of the ancient Shu kingdom. This is called a boat coffin burial, which was popular in the ancient Shu and Chu kingdoms..."