I raise furry animals and fly them to my motherland.

Chapter 181 Approaching the Thugs!

Xu Ying continuously communicated with the fruit bats and adjusted his direction.

Just as they were about to leave the maze, Lou Yiqun suddenly stepped on a loose brick.

With a soft "click," the sound of stones rubbing together came from above.

"Trap!" Qi Xiao suddenly tackled Xu Ying, and a huge stone slab grazed their backs and crashed to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Xu Ying coughed as she got up and found that the stone slab had divided the group in two—she, Qi Xiao, and Chen Su were in front, while Professor Mo and Lou Yiqun were trapped on the other side.

"Professors! Are you alright?" Xu Ying called out anxiously.

"It's alright!" Professor Mo's voice came from the other side of the stone slab, "But this slab is too heavy; we can't get across!"

Xu Ying's bat flew back to her shoulder, chirping as it relayed a message.

She nodded: "The bat said there's a control mechanism not far ahead that can reset the maze. Professor, you all wait here, we'll be right back!"

The three continued onward and soon arrived at a circular stone chamber. In the center stood a stone pillar engraved with runes, and the surrounding ground was inlaid with intricate star maps.

“The astronomical chamber of Jingjue Kingdom.” Qi Xiao deciphered the inscription on the stone pillar. “The stone pillar needs to be rotated according to the correct star sequence.”

Chen Su glanced at his watch and frowned: "We don't have time to solve the mystery."

Xu Ying walked to the corner of the stone chamber, and the image displayed on her night vision goggles revealed a night viper curled up there.

Night vipers are small to medium-sized venomous snakes, the most timid of all venomous snakes, usually running away as soon as they encounter danger.

Afraid of frightening the night viper, Xu Ying patted his satchel: [Wang Er, go ask this night viper if it knows how to get out of this astronomy room.]
King Cobra No. 2 poked its head out of the bag, slipped out, and darted in front of Night Viper, cornering it against the wall.

It bared its teeth: [Hey, kid!]
[You've been here so long, do you even know how to operate the mechanisms here?]
The night viper trembled, like a pitiful little bullied creature.

Xu Ying tapped Wang Er on the head: "What are you doing? Be polite when asking for help."

Intimidated by the king cobra, the night viper immediately surrendered.

Hearing the night viper's trembling hiss, Xu Ying turned to the others and said, "It says tomb raiders have been here. Let's see what they did."

The Night Viper twisted its body, turning its head toward several specific gems in the star map.

Xu Ying pressed the buttons in sequence as instructed, and the stone pillar emitted a dull rumble and began to slowly rotate.

The sound of walls moving came from afar.

A moment later, Professor Mo and Lou Yiqun were pleasantly surprised to find that the maze had been restored to its original state, and they hurriedly caught up with the group.

"That's amazing!" Professor Mo exclaimed. "This young station manager, Xu, is incredibly efficient in our work!"

Lou Yiqun, with an awkward smile on his face, echoed Professor Mo's words, "Yes."

Xu Ying carried him the entire way, leaving him with no opportunity to use his knowledge. He recalled the words he had spoken before entering the tomb, a sheepish smile spreading across his face, his eyes involuntarily reddening.

Xu Ying carefully placed the viper back in its original position. Suddenly, the king cobra on her wrist began to writhe violently, pointing towards the depths of the tunnel.

Not long after everyone stepped into the tomb passage, Xu Ying, with her keen hearing, suddenly grabbed Qi Xiao's arm: "Listen!"

A faint sobbing sound came from the depths of the tomb passage, like a woman weeping or the howling of the wind.

Lou Yiqun's face was deathly pale, and the searchlight in his hand trembled slightly.

"Is that the wailing of ghosts?"

Lou Yiqun's voice trembled.

Qi Xiao suddenly crouched down and pulled a bronze dagger from his boot. The dagger made a crisp metallic scraping sound as it was drawn, and the wailing sound immediately disappeared.

“It’s not a ghost.” Qi Xiao tapped the tomb wall lightly with his dagger. “This is a ‘wind-sounding trap,’ an anti-theft mechanism made by Han Dynasty craftsmen.”

He pointed to tiny, almost invisible holes in the wall, saying, "When air flows through these holes, it makes a human sound."

Professor Mo leaned closer to observe and suddenly realized: "It's just like the principle of an ocarina!"

"I had only seen this in literature before, this is the first time I've seen it in person. The wisdom of the ancients is truly amazing."

Qi Xiao nodded: "This sound can disrupt a person's sense of direction."

He gestured for everyone to look at the ground, "Look closely at the tomb raiders' footprints; they circled around here three times."

Xu Ying couldn't help but ask curiously, "Then why did these distracting sounds disappear as soon as Qi Xiao drew his bronze dagger?"

At first glance, it looks like bronze artifacts that suppressed the wailing and howling of ghosts; it's quite fantastical.

Professor Mo adjusted his glasses and explained, "This is the principle of sound wave interference in modern physics."

"The high-frequency metallic friction sound of the bronze dagger being drawn and these low-frequency whimpering sounds create a destructive interference."

"The peaks and troughs of the two sound waves cancel each other out, producing an instantaneous acoustic noise reduction effect."

Therefore, it wasn't the bronze artifacts that had a mystical effect of suppressing the wailing of ghosts, but rather a physical balance.

"This noise reduction effect can last for three to five minutes in the enclosed space of the tomb passage until the vibration of the bronze artifacts decays."

"Han Dynasty craftsmen were also physics experts, with a very sophisticated grasp of acoustics."

Xu Ying got goosebumps after hearing Professor Mo's words, and instantly felt the allure of archaeology.

The wisdom of the ancients from a thousand years ago shines upon her a thousand years later.

At that moment, the king cobra on Xu Ying's wrist sniffed: [There's a fresh scent of human blood here; the thief you're looking for is not far ahead.]
"The tomb raiders are just ahead!" Xu Ying whispered. "My snake smells fresh blood, and also... the smell of metal and gunpowder."

The team immediately went on alert.

After turning a few corners, a stone door that had been violently pried open came into view.

Inside was a spacious tomb chamber, the exquisite murals on the walls had been blackened by smoke, and the lid of the stone coffin in the center had been lifted and was leaning against one side.

"My God!" Professor Mo rushed into the tomb chamber and, upon seeing the scene inside, felt dizzy: "They...they looted the main tomb chamber completely!"

The tomb was in complete disarray, with all the burial goods swept away, leaving only a few broken pottery jars and scattered fragments of fabric.

Several modern backpacks were piled up in the corner, clearly left behind by tomb raiders.

Chen Su checked his backpack: "Food, water, tools, and this."

He picked up a small cloth bag and poured out a few gold coins and a jade disc engraved with exquisite characters.

“At least a million worth of cultural relics!” Professor Mo knelt on the ground, heartbroken. “The rest must have been taken away by them.”

Xu Ying crouched down, and several spiders moved quickly across the tomb floor.

A moment later, she pointed to a hidden passage on the other side of the tomb: "They left through here, no more than ten minutes ago. Someone was injured; the blood is still fresh."

Qi Xiao inspected the passage: "This is the craftsman's passage, leading directly to the ground."

“We have to catch up with them!” Chen Su gripped his pistol tightly.

(End of this chapter)