Chapter 1 According to the Confessions

According to the confessions of the three grave robbers, Yang Guo's tomb raiding gang had more than a dozen members. To descend into the tomb and capture them, even with firearms, the Xiaoling Guards had to maintain a numerical advantage.

Jiang Yongguang didn't act rashly. Instead, he contacted his local colleagues and asked them to send reinforcements to control the three tomb raiders on the ground. Then, he led us and the remaining Xiaoling Guards into the tomb to arrest the others.

The tomb entrance was located beneath the foundation of the new house. It was a 45-degree downward sloping tunnel, roughly one meter square in size. It wasn't possible to stand upright inside; we could only lie on our sides and slide down.

Jiang Yongguang took the lead, followed by two Xiaoling Guards. Me, Xiao Liang, and Uncle Mei were sandwiched in the middle, the safest position. Three more Xiaoling Guards brought up the rear.

A total of nine of us, with six guns, ensured that our combat power could completely suppress Yang Guo's tomb raiding gang. With that, we advanced into the ancient tomb.

Initially, Jiang Yongguang moved quickly, leading us downwards. But after descending for a while, Jiang Yongguang suddenly stopped. I heard him grab a handful of dirt and mutter, "Something's not right!"

"What's wrong?" I quickly asked.

Jiang Yongguang said in a deep voice, "This is a sanhetu (three-in-one soil) grout tomb."

"Sanhetu... what grout?" I asked, completely clueless, never having heard the name before.

Several Xiaoling Guards couldn't help but laugh.

Jiang Yongguang said, "It's not 'what grout,' it's a sanhetu grout tomb. This is a type of tomb popular in the Song and Yuan dynasties. At the beginning of the Ming dynasty, it was banned by Zhu Yuanzhang for being too extravagant, but a few years after Zhu Yuanzhang's death, this tomb style made a comeback."

At this moment, Old Wei, who was in front of me, used his headlamp to illuminate the side wall of the tomb passage. The soil layers had clearly changed—one side of the soil was the same color, just ordinary dirt, while the other side had a grayish-white color, even slightly greenish. This color was obviously different from ordinary soil.

Jiang Yongguang carefully stared at it for a moment, even leaned in to smell it, and said, "The composition of sanhetu in the Song Dynasty is different from that in the Ming Dynasty. Ming Dynasty sanhetu is composed of one part lime, river sand, two parts yellow soil, glutinous rice, yangtao vine juice, and mixed evenly. In the Sichuan area, rice wine was also used. This sanhetu is clearly a product of the Ming Dynasty."

I couldn't help but admire Jiang Yongguang. He was indeed an expert, able to recognize the era of this layer of soil at a glance.

But I quickly realized something was wrong. Could it be that Yang Guo and his gang weren't raiding an ancient Shu tomb, but a Ming tomb?

That would mess things up!

Logically speaking, if Master Gao wanted to find the ancient Shu jade slips, he should be looking for an ancient Shu tomb. The white-robed fairy was also looking for an ancient Shu tomb.

But the tomb that Yang Guo and his gang were raiding was a Ming tomb, which was completely different from our target!

Uncle Mei also questioned, "Da Yong, are we looking in the wrong place? Aren't we supposed to be looking for an ancient Shu tomb? How did we find a Ming tomb?"

"I'm also puzzled!" Jiang Yongguang said, caught off guard, "How could there be a Ming tomb by the Ma Mu River? There should be another ancient Shu tomb here!"

I thought for a moment and asked, "Could it be... that the ancient Shu people already used the sanhetu grout tomb burial method?"

Jiang Yongguang said with a wry smile, "You're joking a bit. For the ancient Shu people to use sanhetu grout tombs is as absurd as modern people riding dinosaurs to go out. It's absolutely impossible."

Jiang Yongguang was much more professional than me in this area. If he said it was impossible, then it must be impossible.

Xiao Liang thought for a moment and said, "Forget it, we're already here, let's go down and take a look, maybe we'll find something new."

"Yeah, that's right." Jiang Yongguang responded and continued to descend.

After descending a bit further, past the sanhetu grout layer, pieces of blue brick appeared where the tunnel had been dug.

Jiang Yongguang immediately said, "See? These blue bricks are clearly from the Ming Dynasty. This tomb chamber is a standard vertical shaft vaulted tomb, which is enough to prove that this is a Ming tomb, and a Ming tomb of considerable size."

The more I heard, the more confused I became. How did we end up finding a Ming tomb?

Where was the ancient Shu tomb?

Where was the dragon vein that Liu Bowen had severed?

Could it be that we were looking in the wrong place?

Seeing that the tomb passage had reached its end, and just beyond was the tomb chamber.

Because Yang Guo's tomb raiding gang was missing and their fate was unknown, Jiang Yongguang became exceptionally cautious.

He took out an air composition detector from his pocket, pressed the switch, and lowered it into the tomb chamber with a rope. The indicator light on the instrument flickered in the dark, confined tomb chamber. After about two minutes, the instrument emitted a sound indicating the test was complete.

"Beep beep beep—!"

Jiang Yongguang pulled the instrument back, glanced at it, and said, "The air composition is fine, it seems safe for now."

But he was very prudent and didn't jump down just like that. Instead, he pulled a blue brick from the side and threw it down.

With a muffled thud, the blue brick seemed to hit a hollow floor. Immediately afterwards, the sound of a mechanism came from the distant wall, as if some kind of trap had been triggered.

"Don't go down! There are traps!" Old Wei quickly reminded.

Jiang Yongguang nodded lightly and said, "You have to be careful when going down into a Ming tomb. The anti-theft technology of tombs in this dynasty was quite advanced. There are countless deadly traps. If you're not careful, you'll have to stay in the tomb and be buried with the tomb owner."

Xiao Liang and I exchanged a look and quickly nodded in fear.

But although there was the sound of a mechanism, we couldn't see the specific appearance of the trap. It seemed to be all thunder and no rain, just trying to scare people.

Jiang Yongguang was very patient. After waiting for a while and seeing no reaction in the tomb, he pried another blue brick from the side and threw it down.

It was still a muffled thud, followed by the sound of a mechanism, but other than that, nothing happened. It was as if the mechanism had malfunctioned.

After trying twice, Jiang Yongguang had a good idea of what was going on. Before we could react, he leaped down from the tunnel.

Old Wei was startled and quickly shouted, "Da Yong, be careful!"

Before he finished speaking, Jiang Yongguang had already landed on the ground.

With a thud, the floor made another sound, followed by another sound of a mechanism. Jiang Yongguang stood below and glanced around, suddenly exclaiming, "Fuck!"

His "fuck" scared us all.

I quickly asked, "What's wrong? What's wrong?"

Jiang Yongguang said in a deep voice, "Come down and see for yourselves, it's temporarily safe down here."

Upon hearing this, the Xiaoling Guards in front of us quickly climbed down the tunnel.

Me, Xiao Liang, and Uncle Mei followed closely behind.