The story of Rose starts with being a brother

Chapter 551 Heavenly Palace on the Clouds (Seventeen) The Mysterious Hooded Man

"You...who are you?"

Hu Yifei looked at the hooded man in front of her and asked nervously.

The hooded man didn't answer; he simply glanced at the three men's faces before looking behind them.

At this moment, Hu Yifei and the others remembered the centipedes behind them and hurriedly turned around to look.

As the swarm of glowing green insects drew closer, the three of them couldn't care less and continued their escape.

"There are lots of bugs behind us, handsome, run!" Chen Meijia shouted to the hooded man standing there as she fled for her life.

But the hooded man showed no sign of panic, simply saying, "They won't go any further."

"Uh...what?"

The three were taken aback. When they slowed down and looked back, they saw that the dense army of centipedes had indeed stopped at the edge of the ditch.

After removing the flashlight, it looked as if a green silver river was flowing in the moat. However, this rushing "river" suddenly stopped in front of the ditch.

"Wow! Sister Yifei, look! These bugs really aren't coming any closer!" Chen Meijia said excitedly, shaking Hu Yifei's arm.

"I saw it!" Hu Yifei grabbed her hand, her eyes full of confusion. "What happened?"

"Could it be because they were also tired from running?" Guan Gu wondered.

Hu Yifei rolled her eyes: "Please use your duodenum to think, okay? Centipedes have so many legs, how could they get tired like that?"

"That's right..."

"It's because of fear."

At this moment, the hooded man spoke up.

Hearing this, the three looked over in surprise and asked, "Afraid? Afraid of what?"

“They’re afraid of where we are now, so they dare not go any further,” the hooded man said, looking at them. “This isn’t a place for you either.”

"Damn! You think we wanted to come? We had no choice!" Hu Yifei sighed, then asked, "By the way, handsome, who are you? What are you doing here?"

"Do you live here?"

Seeing that the centipede crisis had subsided, Chen Meijia began to control her little head and became infatuated with him.

Upon hearing this, Guan Gu Shenqi said, "Meijia, this is an ancient tomb. The people living here... should be ghosts."

"This is the first time I've ever seen such a handsome ghost," Chen Meijia chuckled.

"Big sister, have you seen any other ghosts?" Hu Yifei asked, speechless.

"But he's so handsome! Are all ghosts this good-looking?" Chen Meijia's voice softened unconsciously. "No wonder Xu Xian liked Nie Xiaoqian so much back then."

"..."

Guan Gu Shenqi paused for a moment before saying, "Didn't Xu Xian love Bai Suzhen?"

"Are you two out of your minds? Didn't you see the clothes he's wearing? Is he someone who lives in this ancient tomb?" Hu Yifei was speechless at the two of them; how could they still talk about other things at a time like this?

Then she looked at the hooded man in front of her, thought for a moment, and said, "We came in to see our friend. His girlfriend is an archaeologist named Jian Ning. She went into an ancient tomb to do archaeology a few days ago. Do you know her?"

"Jian Ning?" The hooded man looked the three of them over again after hearing the name, and then nodded.

"You know Jian Ning?" Hu Yifei was overjoyed upon seeing this and quickly added, "That's great! Are you also part of the archaeological team? Take us to find Jian Ning quickly; if we find her, we might be able to find our friends too."

"No."

"..."

The hooded man's words made the smiles on the three people's faces freeze instantly. Then he said, "The road ahead is dangerous. You'd better leave here quickly."

"Leave?" Hu Yifei glanced at the "Milky Way" in the distance. "We can't leave now."

The hooded man said, "Don't worry, it won't be long before these things in the ancient tomb are hidden away."

"why?"

The hooded man did not answer the question.

After exchanging glances, Hu Yifei and the other two asked, "Handsome, where is Jian Ning? We still need to go find our friend."

"Underground Palace."

Where is the underground palace?

The hooded man fell silent again.

Now Hu Yifei understood that the other party only chose to answer questions they were willing to answer.

I hate men who pretend to be mute!
"He looks so cool when he's not saying anything!"

"..."

Hu Yifei glared at the infatuated man beside her, and was about to continue asking the hooded man questions when he suddenly walked into the ditch.

Hey! Where are you going?

Seeing this, the three quickly followed, but the hooded man only glanced at them and did not stop them from following.

However, whenever the three of them got a little closer to him, the hooded man in front would quicken his pace to keep them at a distance.

In this eerie long line of terracotta figures in the ditch, the two sides silently moved through it.

"Sister Yifei, this guy is so handsome and mysterious, my heart is pounding!"

Finally, Chen Meijia couldn't help but speak up.

Upon hearing this, Hu Yifei chuckled: "Don't you get a racing heart when you see a handsome guy? You even said your heart raced when you saw Wen Sheng!"

“That was before. Besides, Wen Sheng already has Nuolan and Yu Mo… and Xin Ling too, so I’m not going to join in the fun.” Chen Meijia looked at the hooded man’s back in front of her. “I feel like this one is my type.”

"..."

Hu Yifei ignored her and glanced at Guan Gu on the other side, where she saw him tying a rope to a scabbard.

"Guan Gu, what are you doing?"

“Oh, I’ve discovered that carrying a sword on your back looks cooler.” Guan Gu Shenqi said, glancing at the hooded man in front of him. “Like him, I want to be a ruthless swordsman.”

"..."

Hu Yifei rubbed her temples, genuinely regretting having ended up with these two teammates.

After passing through the long line of terracotta warriors, a huge stone riverbank appeared ahead. On the riverbank was a huge statue whose full appearance was not visible, and at the bottom of the riverbank was a square hole covered by rubble.

Many of those rubble stones have now been moved away, clearly by people who went in later.

After arriving here, the hooded man looked around as if searching for something, then disappeared into the hole without looking back.

"Hey? Handsome guy!"

Chen Meijia called out when she saw this, but the other person did not return.

"Even crawling through a dog hole is so cool!"

"..."

"Stop being infatuated. They obviously know where Jian Ning and the others are. Hurry up and follow them, or you'll get lost," Hu Yifei said irritably.

Then she took the lead and crawled into the square hole. Guan Gu Shenqi and Chen Meijia, who were carrying knives, followed her in.

However, the three of them were stunned as soon as they entered.

"What about people?"

In the wide, straight corridor, the hooded man who had slipped in three seconds earlier had vanished. ...

"This is the central hall. I wonder how Yifei and the others are doing now."

After passing through the Imperial Mausoleum Square, Wen Sheng led Xin Ling and Dali into the central hall. Unlike the pitch-black front hall, this hall was not dark, with faint light constantly emanating from the front.

Hearing Xinling's worries, Wensheng wiped the dagger while comforting her, "I believe they will be fine. We'll probably have to meet up with them later."

Xinling nodded, but there was still a strange look in her eyes when she looked at Wensheng.

After hesitating for a few seconds, she couldn't help but ask, "Brother Wensheng, it seems like you weren't... very worried about them getting separated?"

"..."

Wen Sheng paused, looking at Xin Ling helplessly, and said, "Worrying won't help. Besides, don't underestimate them. Their abilities are beyond your imagination."

"Really?" Xinling recalled the appearance of the people in the apartment and found it hard to see what skills they could possibly have in this ancient tomb.

"of course."

They can't possibly say that as the protagonists of this world, how could they possibly die in such a remote corner?
Even if this ancient tomb is outrageous, when you think about it carefully, compared to the sci-fi plots in big movies, it doesn't seem so outrageous.

Seeing this, Xinling still felt something was off, but since Brother Wensheng had said so, she didn't press further.

"Uncle, which way should we go next?" Zhuge Dali asked.

Wen Sheng crouched down, picked up the Cold Flame Rod from the ground, and said, "Let's keep going. There should be more people ahead of us."

The deliberately soft footsteps echoed on the stone slabs, and in the dim light of the hall, the three of them kept looking around.

“That’s really strange,” Xinling said again. “I felt before that the tomb of the King of Dongxia had the architectural style of the Ming Dynasty. Just now, from the front hall to this middle hall, I feel that this is almost a Ming Dynasty tomb.”

Wen Sheng didn't speak. He knew that this was built by Wang Zanghai, so of course it had to have the style of that era.

As the three continued onward, the light grew brighter until a large, square boulder appeared before them, causing Xinling to pause in surprise.

"Is there a foyer inside the main hall?"

When he turned to look at Wen Sheng, the other man shook his head, indicating that he didn't know either.

However, the light we just saw was clearly coming from behind the boulder. Now that we've come this far, there's no other way but to go around the boulder.

However, just as she was going around the boulder, Xinling suddenly noticed two lines of small characters carved on one corner of the boulder.

"On the seventh day of the seventh month, in the Hall of Eternal Life, at midnight when no one was around, they whispered among themselves." Dali read these two lines out slowly and deliberately.

Wen Sheng and Xin Ling, who were standing to the side, both frowned.

"The inscriptions left by the people of Dongxia on the tombs are also in regular script?" Xinling asked in confusion.

"And there's even a poem left behind." Wen Sheng looked up and said, "Wasn't this hall supposed to be the Hall of Rebirth? How come it's also called the Hall of Longevity?"

Both of them found this rather puzzling and had no choice but to continue bypassing the massive stone gate.

Soon, after the three of them bypassed the giant stone gate, the scene that appeared before them once again shocked them.

"This is... the inner palace?"

Xinling opened her mouth in confusion. In front of her, a small palace base made of white marble appeared in the middle of a large hall. The brackets, flying eaves, and crouching beasts were all in the style of the Tang Dynasty.

Upon seeing this scene, even Xinling, who prides herself on having read many books, was somewhat stunned.

"Why is it Tang Dynasty style again?"

After being stunned for a while, Wen Sheng's footsteps brought her back to her senses, so she quickly pulled Dali into the palace in front of her with the plaque of the Hall of Longevity hanging on it.

The doors to the Hall of Longevity were open. After entering, Xinling finally understood why this small hall could emit light that illuminated the entire main hall.

Looking up, the dome, tiles, and beams of the hall are not just bricks and tiles, but a vast star map inlaid with countless luminous pearls and glass.

The small hall is supported by twenty-eight white marble dragon pillars, and the floor is polished black basalt, so shiny that it reflects the entire starry sky, making people feel as if they are walking on the cosmos.

"Is this... something that the Eastern Xia Kingdom could build?" This wasn't the first time Xinling had asked such a question.

In the center of the small hall, there was neither a coffin nor a dragon throne, but only a pool of milky green water that looked like a mixture of jade and milk.

Golden lotus petals float on the pond.

On both sides of the small pond, there are more than a dozen life-sized terracotta dancers. The terracotta figures have lifelike faces and graceful postures, as if they are about to dance at any moment.

"In the spring chill, the emperor bestows a bath at Huaqing Pool; the smooth hot spring waters cleanse the delicate skin." Xinling murmured as she gazed at the breathtaking scene before her, "No wonder it's called the Hall of Longevity."

After a pause, she said again, "But this shouldn't be what the imperial mausoleum of the Eastern Xia Kingdom should be. How can the Jin-Yuan period, the Ming Dynasty, and the Tang Dynasty, three dynasties separated by hundreds of years, appear in one imperial mausoleum?"

Not only was Xinling confused, but Wen Sheng was also deep in thought, which was also unexpected.

However, he also discovered something else here.

"Uncle, is this blood?"

Zhuge Dali stood beside a dragon-carved pillar, looking at the dark red marks on it that resembled solidified liquid, and asked.

Wen Sheng nodded, his gaze fixed on the pool of water in front of him.

“Some people died in the front hall, and even more people died here. Stand next to me.”

Upon hearing this, Xinling's face turned pale. Thinking of the corpses hanging from the beams in the front hall, she subconsciously gripped Wen Sheng's sleeve.

Looking up, I realized that the surrounding pillars were covered in bloodstains.

After thinking for a moment, she asked again, "But...why didn't we see a body?"

"In the pool."

Wen Sheng stared at the pool in front of him and said in a deep voice, "Let's go around it from the side."

After saying that, he took the two women's hands and tiptoed around the strange milky green Huaqing Pool.

Xinling was quite scared of this kind of thing. After Wensheng held her hand, she buried her face in his arm and dared not look anywhere else.

But Dali was different. Although she was also scared, she was also very curious, and her eyes kept looking back and forth at the pool.

As the three of them carefully avoided the area, they suddenly noticed something while staring intently at a terracotta musician.

"Uncle, that terracotta warrior seems to have moved slightly."

Wen Sheng nodded, continuing on his way, and said, "Never mind, let's keep going. That terracotta figure wasn't made of clay."

"What is that?" Xinling asked.

Wen Sheng glanced at her but said nothing, while Xin Ling's heart skipped a beat, and her lips trembled slightly as she said, "Could it be the real person..."

"Don't worry, the body inside is gone," Wen Sheng said softly.

"Uncle, the terracotta warriors seem to be turning their heads to look at us."

"..."

Listening to Wen Sheng and Dali's words, Xinling asked worriedly, "Why is the terracotta warrior still moving when the corpse inside is gone?"

There's something else inside.

"Uh, what..."

When Xinling said this, she glanced at the servants not far away, but the words caught in her throat and she couldn't finish them.

Her eyes widened as she saw dark, worm-like creatures crawling out of the eyes, ears, noses, and mouths of the terracotta figures staring at them.

“There are…there are bugs!” Xinling gripped Wensheng’s hand tightly, her voice trembling. “What are they? They don’t look like centipedes.”

“They’re not centipedes.” Wen Sheng’s gaze was slightly grave as he looked at the insects crawling out of the terracotta warriors and said softly, “They’re corpse beetles.”

(End of this chapter)