Chapter 2 We Enter the Tomb Again

We, as a group, brought all our equipment, fully prepared, and led by Lao Wei, we entered this ancient tomb passage for the second time.

The first time I went down into the tomb, I was a little nervous, always feeling that there might be some traps or mechanisms ahead, but the second time, I felt much calmer.

Even Xiao Liang, who had screamed several times last time, was very calm this time. He wasn't even afraid when he saw the dense bats hanging upside down on the tomb passage. He even waved at them and said with a smile, "Hi, bat brothers, we meet again."

This time we entered the tomb during the day, and the bats were all sleeping. Even if we disturbed them with our movements, they didn't fly out in swarms like last time. Instead, they just flew around a couple of times in the tomb passage, changed positions, and continued to hang upside down and sleep.

Lao Wei saw Xiao Liang teasing the bats, looking relaxed, and couldn't help but remind him, "Even though this is our second time in the tomb passage, there are still many insects and snakes inside. If you get bitten, you might be done for, so be careful."

We nodded quickly.

We walked along the tomb passage, and sure enough, we encountered many small animals along the way. When we reached the depths, I even saw a strange little thing in the corner of the tomb passage. The little thing looked like a mouse, but it was bigger than a normal mouse, and its body was round. It had big, sharp front claws and was squatting in the corner digging at the dirt.

I had never seen this kind of animal before, so I couldn't help but take a few more glances and asked Xiao Liang, "Xiao Liang, what is that thing? Is it a mutated rat?"

Xiao Liang glanced at it and immediately said with a smile, "What mutated rat! That's a mole, haven't you ever seen a mole?"

I said, "I've really never seen one before. This is the first time I've seen one."

But what is unfamiliar the first time becomes familiar the second. The next time I see this thing, I will definitely be able to recognize it.

We continued walking, and after a few more steps, Hu Wazi encountered two snakes, one big and one small, blocking the way in front of us. Both of these snakes were dark brown, and their heads were oval-shaped. Hu Wazi took a look and said, "It's okay, these snakes aren't poisonous. They're very docile. We can just step over them. They won't bite."

After saying that, he took the lead and stepped over the two snakes. These two snakes actually didn't even react. They were completely non-aggressive.

The rest of us followed Hu Wazi's example and walked over. After I walked over, I looked back and saw that the two snakes were indeed very docile and not aggressive at all.

After a lot of trekking, we finally arrived at the location where Liu Huangshu had set up the straw men that night. Lao Wei and the others had already come down in advance to test the air composition, and the oxygen level in the tomb passage had returned to normal.

The straw men had all been burned to ashes, and the surrounding ground had been hardened by the fire, making it hard and stiff to step on.

Hu Wazi sneered, "I want to see how many tricks Liu Huangshu still has! Do you think this bastard might have set up other traps ahead?"

Lao Wei immediately said, "It's always good to be cautious. Liu Huangshu is very cunning, so everyone should be careful in case there are other schemes ahead."

We nodded and continued to move forward. As we walked, the tomb passage began to widen, indicating that the people who had dug the tomb passage had put a lot of effort into this area.

Lao Wei immediately said, "The tomb passage changes from narrow to wide, the underground palace is close at hand. Brothers, we should be almost there."

I thought to myself that Lao Wei was indeed from the Xiaoling Guard, and his words were all well-structured.

However, at this moment, Hu Wazi, who was walking in front, suddenly said "Ouch" and pointed to the side of the tomb passage, shouting, "There's a dead person there! No, there are two dead people!"

I was startled, wondering if they were Liu Huangshu's men? Had these people died next to the straw men?

But when I looked over, I realized that these people were definitely not Liu Huangshu's men, because they had been dead for a long time, and their bodies had completely rotted, turning into piles of white bones.

Lao Wei walked over and glanced at them, boldly speculating, "Since they're already so badly turned to white bones, these are at least fifteen-year-old remains."

Hu Wazi asked, "Could they be the *tufuzi* (grave robbers) who dug this tomb passage?"

Lao Wei shook his head and said, "That's not the case. The age of this tomb passage is much older than these remains. It's at least a hundred years old, and it could even be a thousand years old."

At this time, Xiao Liang lowered his head and took a closer look, saying, "We can also roughly deduce the era they lived in from their clothes."

Xiao Liang was right. Although these corpses had already rotted, their clothes were still tattered and partially intact. I carefully identified them, and the clothes they were wearing looked a bit like the clothes worn by my grandfather's generation. My father's generation no longer wore this kind of old-fashioned clothing.

Lao Wei was bolder and directly squatted down in front of the white bones, using a knife to open the clothes and search the pockets for anything that could prove their identity.

As a result, he actually found a stack of small paper scraps, but the small paper scraps had long since rotted away, and they were pitch black, making it impossible to see anything.

Lao Wei was more experienced in life. He looked at the size and shape of these small paper scraps and asserted, "I guess these might be production team grain coupons!"

"That matches up. The time when grain coupons were in circulation is the same era as the style of their clothes," Xiao Liang said, nodding.

Just as we were identifying the identities of these remains, Yun Jie and Er Jun suddenly shouted from the side, "There are also some here! There are many more dead people here!"

Hearing this, I turned around and looked, and saw that there were actually four or five skeletons standing in the position where they were standing. So many skeletons suddenly appearing in the tomb passage was a bit scary!

"What is the identity of these people? Could they also be here to rob the tomb?" I asked.

Lao Wei said, "Probably. Coming to this kind of ghost place in groups, if they're not tomb robbers, they can't be here to protect cultural relics, right?"

At this time, Xiao Liang suddenly pointed to the front of the tomb passage and said, "Look, there's a stone tablet there!"

We immediately walked over, and sure enough, there was a stone tablet standing by the side of the road in front of the tomb passage. This stone tablet also looked old and had become one with the entire tomb passage. It was clear that after the tomb robbers had dug this tomb passage, some people had placed it here. Four large characters were engraved on the stone tablet from top to bottom. These four large characters were all in regular script and used the traditional Chinese characters. They wrote—

Death to tomb robbers!

"Good heavens!" I couldn't help but gasp and say, "This is a curse tablet!"

Hu Wazi scratched his head and said, "Who put this stone tablet here? The tomb owner? Judging from these four characters, this should be a tablet erected by the tomb owner to protect the ancient tomb, right?"

Lao Wei shook his head and said, "Obviously not. This stone tablet is standing in the tomb passage. It's clear that the tomb passage came first, and then the stone tablet. That is to say, it was only after this ancient tomb was robbed that someone erected this stone tablet here. Besides, this ancient tomb should be an ancient Shu tomb, but the characters on the stone tablet are regular script, which only became popular after the Northern and Southern Dynasties, a difference of more than two thousand years in age."