321: Chapter 315 Labyrinth 321: Chapter 315 Labyrinth This tomb passage had been in existence for who knows how long.
From the outside, the entrance wasn’t large; even crouching, Chen Hai could barely squeeze through.
But once he actually crawled inside, the space widened considerably.
Although it could still only accommodate one person at a time, at least Chen Hai didn’t need to stoop or curl up any longer.
The walls of the passage were firmly packed with soil, presenting no threat of collapse.
Although the full length of the passageway was yet unknown, what Chen Hai saw already indicated a significant amount of work.
One couldn’t help but wonder how long it had taken the original diggers to create a passage like this.
After moving forward for roughly twenty meters, Chen Hai finally reached the end of the tunnel.
This place was likely within the boundaries of the Great Tomb.
A stone wall blocked his path, its surface already cleared of dirt.
A wall made of irregular stones, bonded with glutinous rice, could very well be tougher than modern concrete walls.
A blaze of light, a fireball appeared before Chen Hai.
With the flame illuminating everything, he could see much more clearly around him.
If he wasn’t mistaken, he was now at the location directly under the dome of the Great Tomb.
The space here was a bit larger than inside the passage.
It would probably not feel too cramped even with two or three people here.
There were scattered human bones in one corner of the stone wall, no telling how long they had been there—the bones were turning a yellowish color, eroding with the dirt.
“People die for money as birds die for food,” the grave robbing business seemed mysterious, but in fact, it’s a hard-luck job!”
“Good luck, and you might hit a jackpot; bad luck, and you could lose your life in one go!”
Though he didn’t know what had happened here to leave these bones behind, Chen Hai still deeply sighed.
Someone had managed to forcibly create a hole of about thirty to forty centimeters in diameter in such a sturdy wall.
Through such a large hole, a person could just manage to wriggle through.
However, if someone were attacked halfway through such a hole, they would be utterly defenseless and completely at the mercy of their attacker.
Instead of diving straight into the hole, Chen Hai stood at the edge and, using his Divine Soul Eye, started to examine what lay beyond the stone wall.
“There’s such a heavy Evil Qi inside?
After death, ancient dignitaries often had living people buried with them for sacrifice!”
“This Great Tomb must also follow this practice, or the Evil Qi inside wouldn’t be so intense!”
“Just a wall apart, and with such a big hole serving as a passage, yet no trace of the Evil Qi can be seen from outside?”
“Perhaps, within the Great Tomb, there are the workings of a powerful Fengshui Array set up by a skilled person, binding all the Evil Qi within.”
Frowning, Chen Hai thought to himself.
Whoever was buried in such a tomb must have had an extraordinary status.
In the era when the tomb’s owner lived, traditions were yet unbroken, and with his status, finding powerful Feng Shui Masters would not have been difficult.
Chen Hai wasn’t afraid of mere Evil Qi.
After slight hesitation, he proceeded to crawl through the hole into the tomb chamber behind the wall.
The moment Chen Hai entered the chamber, a dense Evil Qi, almost tangible, rushed at him, seemingly trying to invade his body to swallow him whole.
Evil Qi and air are the same; both are intangible, insubstantial, and unconscious.
Such aggressively attacking Evil Qi must be guided by an Array, which caused it to seem almost conscious.
In this way, the Evil Qi not only merged more easily with the cave qi but also served as a defense against the intrusion of Tomb Raiders.
To the ordinary Tomb Raider who didn’t understand Taoist Skill and could not cope with the corrosion of Evil Qi, this was no different than a death-hastening specter.
Of course, as a rule, experienced Tomb Robbers with a heritage had some abilities and knew how to dispel Evil Qi.
“Such minor evil qi dares to flex in front of me, be extinguished!”
As for Chen Hai, faced with the surging dense evil qi, he flipped his hand, and a Danghui Talisman appeared in his palm.
Given the effect of the Danghui Talisman, it was naturally the most suitable for clearing away evil qi.
A beam of white light burst forth from the Danghui Talisman in Chen Hai’s hand, sweeping toward the surroundings.
In the blink of an eye, nearly all the evil qi in the tomb chamber had been cleared away.
When the evil qi disappeared and the air in the tomb chamber was no longer murky, Chen Hai even faintly felt that the air he breathed into his lungs seemed a bit sweet.
Of course, the reason for this sensation might purely be psychological.
After all, a single Danghui Talisman was worth a million, and if that million went down without any effect, Chen Hai would feel somewhat discontented.
Lighting up a flame, Chen Hai checked the situation inside the tomb chamber.
Within the entire tomb chamber, aside from some bones, he saw no other objects of value.
He had only stayed in the tomb chamber for a short while when he felt the evil qi inside starting to rise again, quickly becoming dense once more.
This tomb chamber was merely one of many within the Great Tomb.
After the evil qi here was cleared away, the evil qi from other places naturally surged in this direction.
Unless Chen Hai found a way to clear all the evil qi within the Great Tomb,
his use of the Danghui Talisman to clear evil qi in a specific tomb chamber was merely a temporary solution, not a cure.
“This place is not safe to stay, while I still have a few Danghui Talismans on hand, I should quickly check the other chambers!”
Taking out another Danghui Talisman, Chen Hai swiftly walked towards the open tomb entrance in the northwest corner.
“Roar…” Passing through the tomb entrance, Chen Hai found himself in another box-shaped tomb chamber.
Inside this chamber, a Green-haired Zombie was coiled.
The clothes on its body, though tattered, appeared to be from the period of the Republic.
Perhaps, this person was one of the Tomb Robbers of that era who snuck into the Great Tomb and failed to resist the corrosion of the evil qi, ultimately turning into the creature before him.
Faced with the Green-haired Zombie, Chen Hai was well-experienced.
Holding a fish spear in his hand, he thrust it fiercely into the creature.
The Corpse Transformation Talisman tied to the spear acted immediately, and in the blink of an eye, the Green-haired Zombie dissolved into pus and seeped into the ground.
Corpse Transformation Talismans were plentiful on Chen Hai.
After using up the talisman on the fish spear, he took out a few more and wrapped them around the tip.
Although the Danghui Talisman was the most effective in clearing away evil qi, considering his limited supply, he had to use it sparingly.
Next, Chen Hai mostly relied on Flame Power to resist the invasion of evil qi.
Ordinary flames were unlikely to burn such intangible evil qi.
But with the protection of flames around him, the evil qi couldn’t infiltrate Chen Hai’s body for the time being.
He continued to move forward.
The number of chambers he had entered totaled over a dozen, and four or five creatures had died at his hands.
Each chamber was square and seemingly identical.
“Fengshui Array?
Eight Gates?
Is this a labyrinth?”
“Am I moving around seemingly progressing, but in reality, have I been circling the same area?”
It wasn’t until Chen Hai returned to the starting point and saw the hole in the stone wall of the chamber he had initially passed through that he realized what was happening.
“Geomancy Inspection Skill, I know it too; Fengshui Array, I understand it quite a bit as well.”
“Now that I know I’m within an Array, facing a labyrinth, you think this thing can stump me?”
With a look of disdain, Chen Hai let out a light chuckle.