The whispered voice in my ear was faint and elusive, making me extremely nervous. I suspected it was just an auditory hallucination caused by lack of oxygen, so I whispered to Xiao Liang beside me:

"Xiao Liang, did you hear someone talking deep in the ancient tomb?"

As a result, Xiao Liang's pale face turned even whiter. She stared at me with her big, watery eyes and said nervously, "Chen Rongsheng, don't scare me. You know I'm easily frightened!"

I quickly said, "I don't have the leisure to scare you. Just tell me, did you hear someone talking deep in the ancient tomb?"

Xiao Liang perked up her ears and listened, then shook her head seriously and said, "No, I can only hear the beeping of the air detector. Chen Rongsheng, are you hallucinating?"

I nodded slowly and said, "Maybe, it might be a sequela of my oxygen deprivation."

At this moment, Jiang Yongguang's detection also ended. He came back with the air detector and said to us, "There are no toxic gases. The oxygen content in the ancient tomb is indeed low, but it won't affect our normal activities. Let's go in."

After speaking, he took the lead, using the headlamp on his head to illuminate the way for everyone.

We quickly followed.

After entering through the bronze giant gate, we were greeted by a narrow passage. This was basically inside the ancient tomb, and in the distance, we could vaguely see the tomb chamber where the coffins were placed.

Entering the ancient tomb so easily was puzzling. Uncle Mei said in surprise, "This tomb owner is really hospitable! There aren't even any traps. You can see the coffin directly after passing through the gate. Aren't they afraid of tomb robbers?"

I also found it strange. All large tombs containing priceless treasures have quite complete anti-theft facilities.

For example, the mercury rivers of the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang, the Huang Chang Ti Cou (cypress planks stacked around the coffin chamber) of the Dahoutai Western Han Tomb, the quicksand traps of the Five Dynasties Tomb in Xiangyang, the white marble stone gates of the Cixi Eastern Mausoleum, and so on...

The cultural relics unearthed from the ancient tomb in front of us were all heavyweight. Even the scattered fragments in the riverbed met at least the standards of first-class cultural relics. However, this ancient tomb had an attitude of "My door is always open, welcoming you with open arms," which was really puzzling.

At this time, Jiang Yongguang explained, "This is not surprising, because the age of this ancient tomb is too long. If this is really the ancient Shu civilization closely related to Sanxingdui, then the construction time of this ancient tomb is likely to be four thousand years ago, or even longer..."

I subconsciously asked, "So what? Were the people of that era simple and honest, and there were no tomb robbers?"

Jiang Yongguang laughed at my question. He nodded and said:

"You could say that. Just imagine, there were not many civilized tribes on the land of China at that time. Only the ancient Shu Kingdom existed in this area. The rulers of the ancient Shu Kingdom did not yet understand what dynastic changes were, and thought that their rule would last for thousands of generations. In this case, who would dare to rob their tombs? Since no one dared to rob their tombs, why would they bother to build anti-theft facilities?"

I suddenly understood.

Jiang Yongguang continued, "In fact, the earliest tomb robbing behavior can be traced back to the Warring States period, so from that time on, the tombs of the major vassal kings gradually began to build anti-theft facilities. Among them, the most famous Huang Chang Ti Cou was not originally used for anti-theft, but to show the identity of the tomb owner, but as tomb robbers became increasingly rampant, this system gradually evolved into a high-standard anti-theft measure."

Speaking of which, Jiang Yongguang can be regarded as my enlightenment teacher in the field of tomb raiding. I learned a lot of knowledge in this area from him.

Listening to him explain professional knowledge in this area along the way, everyone was naturally distracted, and this gloomy and cold ancient tomb did not seem so terrifying. Even the timid Xiao Liang became much more relaxed.

However, just as we were chatting enthusiastically, a Xiaoling Guard walking in front of me suddenly fell to the ground with an "ouch." Jiang Yongguang quickly turned his head and asked, "What's wrong?"

The Xiaoling Guard who fell struggled and shouted, "Some... someone is pulling my ankle!"

These words startled us. How could someone be pulling his ankle while walking? Could someone be lying in ambush on this passage?

Unexpectedly, before I could take a closer look, Xiao Liang beside me also suddenly screamed, staggered, and knelt on the ground. Then she suddenly shouted in horror, "Ah! A hand! On the ground... there's a hand on the ground!"

These words sounded even more eerie—a hand on the ground?

I suppressed the fear in my heart and looked down at the position where Xiao Liang was. However, after this look, half of my scalp instantly went numb!

I saw a pale, gaunt hand stretched out from the ground near her feet. The five fingers of this hand were spread out, and the nails were sharp, as if it were a wildly growing weed, desperately probing out of the ground.

Even more terrifying was that there was also a similar hand in the place where the Xiaoling Guard had fallen not far away. This hand, like a plant commonly seen in the field, stretched out from the soil and grabbed upwards with force.

Looking around, I saw about four or five similar hands on this land. An ancient tomb built thousands of years ago contained several strange hands with complete flesh and blood. This scene really startled us, and even the knowledgeable Uncle Mei couldn't help but twitch his lips.

I wanted to pull Xiao Liang, who was kneeling on the ground, up, but I couldn't pull her at all. The bones in her body seemed to be softened, and she slumped on the ground. Before long, I vaguely heard a gurgling sound coming from under her...

Uncle Mei shouted nervously to Jiang Yongguang, "What is this thing? I think this ancient tomb is really weird! Let's get out of here as soon as possible!"

Jiang Yongguang was not panicked, and seemed completely unaffected by the bizarre scene in front of him. He locked the beam of his headlamp on the strange hand stretched out from the ground, and said in a calm tone:

"Don't panic, these are not dirty things, they are Haozi (grave robbers) buried in the ground."

"Haozi?" I couldn't help but be taken aback and asked, "Tomb robbers?"

Jiang Yongguang nodded slowly and said, "That's right, tomb robbers. I said a long time ago that tomb robbers are a group of vicious people. Their degree of danger ranks among the top of all criminals. These hands are the hands of tomb robbers who were buried alive in the ground..."

The more I listened, the more confused I became: "The hands of tomb robbers who were buried alive? Since the ones who were buried alive were tomb robbers, then who buried them alive?"

Jiang Yongguang sneered, "Of course, they were also tomb robbers. Xiao Chen, I bet you've never heard of 'living seeds' and 'becoming earth immortals', right?"