Chapter Seven: No Turning Back
1534 Words
Xiao Xi's powerful flashlight was of good quality; it hadn't broken even after being dropped two or three times, and the light remained as dazzlingly white as ever.
I first bent over and took a few steps forward, gathering the remaining talismans that had fallen to the ground. I wrapped them in a tattered plastic bag to prevent them from getting wet.
Then, I picked out a folding spring knife, a lighter, and a small makeup mirror from the scattered debris. I put the remaining cosmetics and my phone aside.
“Hey, that’s an iPhone 5…” Xiao Xi ran over and picked up the phone with a pained expression.
“Huh? Are you crazy?
No wonder you’ve been acting so erratically.”
I only knew it was a phone; the iPhone 5 and iPhone 6 were trash to me.
“Pah!
You’re the crazy one! This is an Apple, worth several thousand yuan.”
Xiao Xi said, wiping the water droplets and dirt off the phone with the corner of her hand.
I straightened up, shining my flashlight towards the end of the passageway, and chuckled, "Your apples sell for thousands of dollars?
Are they golden apples or jade apples?"
"You country bumpkin, I'm not talking to you anymore."
Xiao Xi huffed and puffed, stuffing her phone into her pocket.
"Shh!"
The sound was getting increasingly strange, so I made sure to be quiet and crouched down as I walked forward.
Xiao Xi followed behind, but this time, having learned my lesson, I was wary of her trying to ambush me from behind again. I turned around, shook my head, and made her walk beside me.
Understood, she glared at me, and stepped out from behind to walk alongside me.
The passageway was about twenty meters long. Because of the dark, somber atmosphere, even though the flashlight was bright, I still couldn't see what lay at the end.
We cautiously shuffled forward like we were wading through landmines, and finally saw that it was two closed blue stone tomb doors.
The stone door on the left was carved with a scene of the sunrise in the east, while the door on the right depicted a sky full of stars and moon.
I didn't know much about ancient tombs and didn't know what these symbols represented. I only heard rustling sounds coming from behind the tomb doors.
The sound seemed like something crawling, or something making noises. I was puzzled. How could a tomb buried deep in the mountain, where the people inside had been dead for years, still make sounds?
If it was that ghost, it was almost annihilated by the yellow talisman earlier; it wouldn't dare come out to die again.
After thinking for a while, I said to Xiaoxi, "Why don't we go back the way we came and exit through the water?
Anyway, the ghost was scared, and the water is safe."
Xiaoxi seemed equally puzzled by the strange sound, but after a quick glance, she shook her head and said, "We can't go back. You've heard there are traps in ancient tombs, right?"
I nodded. I had heard Grandpa Chen mention that, but we hadn't even gone in yet, so who cared about traps?
Xiao Xi turned back to look at the passageway and said, "This is the tomb passage. This path signifies that only the dead can walk through it; there's no turning back."
I thought to myself, this little girl is just spouting nonsense. Is she trying to fool me into thinking I don't know anything?
Although I only graduated from junior high school, I'm not illiterate. I'm even bordering on being a scoundrel.
I've heard a few stories about ancient tombs, including the one about Sun Dianying blowing up Empress Dowager Cixi's tomb. Didn't he enter through the tomb entrance?
So I asked, "If this path leads nowhere, how will the funeral procession members get out after the coffin is brought in?
Won't they all be buried alive inside?"
Xiao Xi stared at me blankly, as if looking at a fool, and explained, "Ancient tombs were burial grounds based on rank. Even wealthy families couldn't afford such grand scale.
Only generals, kings, or royalty could afford tombs of this size. Do you know how much manpower it takes to build a tunnel inside a mountain?
So these large tombs were definitely for upper-class nobles, and they would contain a large number of valuable burial goods.
To prevent tomb robbers from discovering them later, they would choose to seal the coffin bearers inside the tomb as burial goods.
"But it wasn't always that cruel. Sometimes they would build another 'path' specifically for the coffin bearers to exit, and then immediately seal it off, leaving no trace."
"But it wasn't always that cruel. Sometimes they would build another 'path' specifically for the coffin bearers to exit, and then immediately seal it off, leaving no trace." Although the tomb passage is called the "Road to the Underworld" because there's no turning back, this is just one explanation. The real reason is for security. Numerous traps and mechanisms are set up in the passageway so that anyone who crosses it cannot return; otherwise, they will suffer a terrible death.
This is why many types of tombs are meant to be entered but not exited. "
She made it sound so convincing, I almost believed her, but no matter how far-fetched it sounded, she couldn't fool me.
The whole 'tomb passage is full of traps, you can only go in but not out' thing—I think this girl is just making it up. If there were real traps, she'd just kill people in the passage. Why play hide-and-seek and then kill them later? What's the point?
Besides, what's the point of tomb raiding if not to prevent people from entering the tomb?
If they don't kill people in the passage, letting tomb raiders walk into the burial chamber, make a mess of the coffin, and disturb the peace of the deceased, that doesn't make sense.
I shook my head and said, 'No matter how eloquently you explain it, I'm determined to turn back.'" "
Xiao Xi, seeing my disbelief, got a little angry. She took out her phone, removed her coat, and threw it forcefully into the center of the passageway.
With a "crack," the stone slabs on the ground instantly split open to reveal a dark trap underneath.
I was startled and about to speak when I saw the stone walls, about four or five meters long, on either side of the trap slowly closing in with a rumbling sound.
Even if someone fell into the trap and survived, they would be killed by the stone walls or have their exit blocked when they tried to climb out.
I was completely stunned. Luckily, this girl was kind-hearted; otherwise, if I had been allowed to go back, I would have been in serious trouble.
My heart pounded as I asked, "How do you know all this? Are you a tomb raider?"
Xiao Xi smiled smugly and said, "I'm not a tomb raider. Aunt Ting likes to search for treasures in ancient tombs, and I'm responsible for collecting information on ancient tombs from various places. Over time, I've learned a lot about ancient tombs."
" "I've done a lot of research on this underwater tomb, so I know this passageway is a one-way street."
"If we can't go back, wouldn't that be easy for tomb raiders to get in? Even if they can't get out, wouldn't they just turn this ancient tomb upside down?"
Xiao Xi shook her head, saying there were mechanisms on the tomb door, and behind the door was a passageway with even more insidious mechanisms—it was absolutely impossible to get through.
"Stop showing off," I said. "Let's open the tomb door and find a way out as soon as possible. Once the ghost recovers its strength, you'll not only have to transform into its ghost head, but I'll also have to be its groom."
"You know what mechanisms are on the tomb door, right? Then go ahead."
Xiao Xi didn't seem to have had enough of showing off her knowledge. She rolled her eyes at me, then looked at the two tomb doors and... I grabbed a lighter and lit it, using it to heat the stone door on the right.
As the fire burned, a wisp of smoke rose, pungent and unpleasant. Xiaoxi immediately covered her mouth and nose, and I quickly held my breath.
After a while, the smoke dissipated. Xiaoxi extinguished the lighter, released her hand, and said, "That was poison coated on the stone door. If it touches the skin, it can kill instantly."
"The poison evaporated after the fire."
She pressed her hand against the spot she had just heated, and then told me that the tomb door might contain more than just poison; there might be other, more dangerous traps, like crossbow bolts, falling rocks, or poisonous gas—it was impossible to guard against them all.
She told me to be alert and, in case of any danger, to retreat quickly, but not more than ten feet away.
- Writer
