Tomb Raider: I Am Hu Bayi's Cousin

Chapter 759 Blue Flame! Gate! Mother Stone!
In the dim light, Hu Ming pondered for a moment, then took out a candle from his pocket.

"Humans light the candles, ghosts blow them out?"

Wu Xie looked over in surprise, having inexplicably learned to make a comical expression.

The tomb raiders' method does have its merits; using candles to probe the attitude of the tomb's occupant is one example.
First of all, judging from the current situation, this place does not look like a tomb at all, but rather an ancient site used for some kind of mysterious ritual.

Besides, it seems the host here has already reached some kind of consensus with Hu Ming, so why bother lighting candles?
Second come
Wu Xie glanced subtly at the three men—the fat man, the blind man, and the young man—who remained expressionless.

Forgive Wu Xie for speaking frankly, but of everyone present, besides himself who was relatively mild-mannered, who among them wasn't fearless?
Even if the coffin lid of the tomb owner couldn't be held down, these guys would be able to sit on the tomb owner and kill him with a single blow!
Who knows, given their intentions, they might actually be hoping the tomb's occupant will rise from the dead!
"Just watch, it's not that simple here. We need to keep going down."

Hu Ming shrugged, lit the candle, and placed it on a floor in the southeast corner of the ground, on a surface carved with a small coffin pattern.

"coffin?"

The blind man and the fat man curiously came closer.

Since entering, all I've encountered are layouts and structures imbued with religious and mythological significance; even the road general that blocked my way was a product of religion.

But this is the first time I've ever seen anything related to a coffin.

Although it is just a tiny, insignificant mark.

Something unusual must be going on!
The men instinctively gripped their weapons tighter.

At the same time, as if in response to their actions, a faint, eerie breeze suddenly rose in the enclosed space.

A strange, numbing sensation, mixed with a bone-chilling cold, instantly spread to every pore of everyone's body, causing them to shiver involuntarily.

"The color of a candle flame!"

Before the others could exclaim in surprise, the young man who had been staring intently at the candle flame narrowed his eyes and said in a deep voice.

"Don't worry, once we get here, there will be absolutely no evil spirits here."

Hu Ming took two steps back, pressed down on the young man, shook his head, and explained softly.

After the eerie gust of wind passed, the candle flame flickered violently with the movement of the airflow, and then…

Contrary to expectations, the candle's orange flame suddenly turned a deep blue!
In fact, the range of the flames expanded nearly tenfold!
The tiny candle flame was now the size of a fist, its eerie blue light illuminating the surrounding darkness in a truly bizarre way.

The human skin figurines and statues displayed around the room were all stained with an eerie blue color.

"Lo"

Wu Xie's pupils contracted sharply, his tattered lungs expanded and contracted violently, and he made a sound like a broken bellows coming from his mouth.

"Damn it! I've been tomb raiding my whole life, and this is the first time I've ever seen anything like this!"

Fatty looked worriedly at Wu Xie, whose face was pale and tinged with azure light. He held a detonator in his left hand and a shovel in his right, blocking Wu Xie's path and warily watching the flickering azure flames.

Under Hu Ming's calm gaze, Xiao Ge's indifferent gaze, Fatty Wu Xie's horrified gaze, and the Blind Man's wary gaze, the azure flames continued to expand relentlessly for a short period of time!
The raging blue flames had expanded to the height of two people in just a few minutes!
"This is a door, leading to deeper, deeper, to the real Thunder City." Before the others could ask any questions, Hu Ming stepped forward, lit a cigarette on the outer layer of the azure flame, and took a satisfying drag.

It's worth mentioning that the glow on the cigarette was different from the usual orange-red; instead, it was a deep, dark blue, like a flame.

The blind man and the fat man glanced at the cigarette in Hu Ming's hand, their eyes gleaming with desire.

They wanted to try lighting the smoke with the bright blue flame.

"Strange... This flame seems to have no temperature at all, as if it's just a simple light source, but... why can it light a cigarette?"

The blind man stretched out his palm, only a few centimeters away from the flame, yet he felt absolutely no warmth; on the contrary…

"Instead, it gives you a numbing sensation similar to being electrocuted!"

The blind man's brows furrowed deeply; the scene before him was madly challenging his already distorted worldview.

Looking down, the candle beneath the flame showed absolutely no signs of burning or melting. So, how did such a large flame ignite?
"Door?"

Wu Xie wisely refrained from approaching, instead frowning as he tried to decipher Hu Ming's meaning.

Is this thing a door?
How do I get in? Do I jump into the flames?
Hu Ming didn't explain, he just grinned, smoked a third of his cigarette in one go, and flicked the cigarette butt into the flame, where it was instantly burned away.

With a flick of his wrist, a palm-sized stone appeared in his hand.

"This is the mother stone... I obtained it from deep beneath the ancient city of Tongjing. It is also the key to unlocking this extraordinary portal... the only key currently existing in the world!"

"The one who lives deep in Lei City... well, how should I put it, his situation is not good, at least compared to our 'First Emperor'."

"Being half-dead is a bit much, but he's still an unlucky fellow who's been imprisoned in this 'prison' called Thunder City for countless years."

Hu Ming's tone was somewhat strange and playful.

Now, whether it's the conversation with the one below Thunder City or the things that "Emperor Qin Shi Huang" revealed before his death, Hu Ming has almost pieced together all the fragmented clues into a complete picture. So far, there are only some secrets that remain to be discovered.

"Prison, jail is a truly scathing comment that I can't refute."

A familiar voice drifted from the flames.

Several people looked at each other.

"Let's go, we don't have much time to waste here!"

Hu Ming scoffed dismissively and tossed the mother stone in his hand toward the flames.

snort~
A wisp of smoke rose, and the mother stone was instantly engulfed by the azure flames.

The next moment, the azure flames expanded instantly, filling the vast space in almost a breath, enveloping the expressionless Hu Ming and the few others who were inevitably a little panicked!