Dao Qi Wu Zang Guan Guan: I became a Daoist Master in the 1990s

Chapter 177 Entering the Ancient Tomb
As Xiao Zhou spoke, an invisible tension suddenly gripped everyone's hearts.

Qi Yun's gaze was sharp as an arrow, shooting straight towards the ancient tomb; his divine eye had been activated once more.

After a moment, he said in a deep voice, "It's not the work of evil spirits, but a periodic surge of the earth's veins, mixed with resentment from within the domain."

"Don't be impatient, hurry up, enter during the next gap in the gush."

Upon hearing this, everyone breathed a slight sigh of relief, but their hearts remained heavy.

Under Zhang Guisheng's hand gestures, the team quickly and silently left the forest ranger station and silently proceeded down a rugged, slippery path almost swallowed by weeds and vines into the valley below.

The atmosphere was so oppressive it was suffocating; the only sounds were the faint thud of boots on muddy, withered leaves and the heavy breathing of the others.

The surrounding forest was eerily silent; even the most common chirping of insects and birds had vanished, as if all living things had instinctively distanced themselves from this ominous place.

The closer you get to the bottom of the valley, the more damp, cold, and murky the air becomes, and the stronger the smell of decaying earth, water, and a faint musty odor grows.

The tomb robber's tunnel was located at the bottom of a shady hillside, half-hidden by a large number of dead vines and fallen rocks. It would have been extremely difficult to find if it had not been for the markings left by the previous team.

The entrance to the cave was crudely carved, barely allowing one person to pass through, and cold, rusty, fishy-smelling steam seeped out from it in wisps.

The soil and rocks below the cave entrance were all wet and dark black, with some empty compressed food packaging bags, mineral water bottles, and several discarded glow sticks scattered around.

There were several clear, messy marks on the muddy ground, indicating that the tomb raider had been forcibly dragged into the cave.

"This is it." Old Jin lowered his voice, his expression extremely solemn, and the compass in his hand trembled as if he had malaria.

Enter in sequence.

Old Jin leads the way, Master Qi is second, I'm third, Xiao Zhou and Lin Wei follow, and Lei Bao brings up the rear.

"Keep your distance and watch your step and your surroundings," Zhang Guisheng ordered quickly, his voice extremely low.

Old Jin took a deep breath, bent down first, and crawled almost onto his stomach into the cold cave entrance.

Qi Yun followed closely behind. His figure appeared normal, but a very faint, almost imperceptible aura circulated around him, quietly dispelling the cold, damp air that tried to attach itself to him, keeping it a foot away.

The cave walls were cold and slippery, covered with damp moss and some unidentified dark fungi, making them extremely uncomfortable to the touch.

The passage slopes downwards, deep and dark. After walking only a dozen meters, the light from the cave entrance behind you becomes as faint as stars.

The air grew increasingly damp, cold, and biting; even with a gas mask on, the chill seemed to penetrate the filter and seep into one's very bones.

Aside from the sounds of everyone breathing and crawling, the only other sound was the increasingly clear dripping of water.

After walking a while longer, the space ahead became slightly wider, and traces of artificial excavation appeared.

The tomb passage was built of blue bricks, but it was very old. The gaps between the bricks were full of dark water stains and salt frost, and the ground was uneven, covered with a thin layer of cold, bone-chilling sewage.

"We've entered the tomb passage. Be alert and watch your step!"

Old Jin's hoarse voice drifted from ahead, echoing through the narrow passage and sending chills down one's spine.

The tomb passage was indeed much wider than the previous tomb raider's tunnel, at least allowing people to walk with their backs bent instead of crawling, but the sense of oppression only increased.

The passage sloped downwards, its depths unfathomable, as if leading straight to the earth's core. When the headlamp shone through, it could only illuminate a small section; beyond that lay a thick, impenetrable darkness.

Just ahead, on one side of the stone wall, were several rusted iron arrows, their shafts decayed and seemingly about to crumble into dust at the slightest touch.

Old Jin suddenly stopped, made a defensive gesture, and pointed with his fingertips to several barely noticeable bumps and cracks in the wall and floor.

"Look here...and there...traps and obstacles!"
The queue in front wasn't cleared at all!

Qi Yun, standing to the side, remained expressionless. His fingertips trembled almost imperceptibly, and a nearly invisible thread shot out silently, precisely disappearing into the spot that Lao Jin had pointed to.

"Click—Buzz!"

A dull, sluggish creak of machinery grinding suddenly ripped through the silence!
Several crossbow bolts, carrying rust and muddy water, suddenly shot out from the hidden holes in the walls on both sides, trembling and embedding themselves in the brick wall opposite. The fletchings vibrated violently, emitting a teeth-grinding buzzing sound.

Although its power had diminished considerably due to its age, the sudden, deathly howl still sent chills down everyone's spine.

"Damn, that's insidious!" Lei Bao cursed in a low voice, his muscles tensing.

"Open your eyes wide, everyone!"
Every step must be taken where Abbot Qi or Old Jin has designated!

Zhang Guisheng's voice carried an undeniable sternness as he issued another warning.

The deeper you go, the more unpredictable and treacherous the surrounding environment becomes.

"Drip...drip..." The originally monotonous sound of water became complicated, sometimes dense like a sudden rain pounding on leaves, and sometimes sparse and drawn out, making people uneasy. The rhythm seemed to be controlled by an invisible hand, full of malicious mockery.

What's even more chilling is that the sound of water begins to be mixed with extremely faint, fleeting sobs, like a woman's suppressed weeping, or like the shrill whistling of a cold wind squeezing through a narrow crevice in the rocks, constantly scratching at the eardrums.

Everyone had a furrowed brow and a grim expression.

Xiao Zhou kept raising his wrist, his eyes fixed nervously on the wildly beating pointer on the portable detector. His voice was hoarse: "The energy fluctuations are still intensifying...it's already crossed the critical point! Something has definitely awakened, everyone be extremely careful!"

suddenly!

"Holy shit!!"

The rear guard, Lei Bao, let out a low growl of alarm and anger!

He stepped into a seemingly ordinary but extremely deep puddle. The murky water instantly reached his calves, and the biting coldness spread up his trouser leg.

He didn't even have time to exert force and pull his leg away.

"Crash!!"

Several translucent arms, formed entirely from murky sewage, suddenly emerged from the depths of the puddle!
Those twisted arms, carrying the chilling, deathly aura accumulated underground for thousands of years, tightly bound his ankles and calves like cold, hard iron hoops!
An absolutely irresistible and terrifyingly powerful force suddenly pulled him downwards, trying to drag him completely into that bottomless filth!

Lei Bao was shocked. His fighting instincts made him instantly raise his gun and pull the trigger at the dirty arm!
"Da da da!" The evil-piercing bullets whistled out and easily pierced through the water arm, but only stirred up a few turbid water splashes. The arm instantly returned to its original shape, and the pulling force was not reduced at all. Instead, more arms stretched out from the puddle!

"Cease fire!" Zhang Guisheng shouted urgently.

"Don't move!" Qi Yun's low shout rang out at the same time.

Before the words had even faded, the other person had already swept several meters away like a ghost and appeared beside Lei Bao.

With fingers drawn together like a sword, a wisp of crimson-gold fire flashed from the fingertips, precisely striking the arms that were covered in stagnant sewage.

"Hey!"

Like a red-hot iron plunged into ice water, a piercing vaporization sound rang out, and the arms were instantly burned with large holes, rapidly collapsing and disintegrating into a wisp of white vapor that dissipated.

The remaining part seemed startled and shrunk back into the puddle, disappearing completely, leaving only ripples on the surface of the water.

The entire process was completed almost instantly, and Qi Yun had even set up a very weak barrier of true qi in advance.

The sharp, inhuman scream of pain emitted when the water puppet's arm was evaporated was largely contained, preventing it from causing a wider commotion.

Lei Bao, still shaken, was pulled out of the puddle by Lin Wei beside him.

He slumped to the ground, panting heavily. He rolled up his trouser leg, revealing several bluish-black claw marks on his ankle, deep in his skin, emanating a chilling aura.

Qi Yun continued to burn it to ashes with the Crimson Hunting Fire!
"Thank you... thank you, Abbot Qi!"

Lei Bao was still shaken; his arrogance vanished, replaced by lingering fear.

Zhang Guisheng's face was extremely ugly: "The Evil-Slaying Bullet attack had no effect whatsoever... Abbot Qi, thank you so much."

Qi Yun shook his head slightly, his eyes scanning the flooded road surface warily: "This place is far more dangerous than anticipated. Be careful."

The group continued to proceed cautiously.

At a corner of a tomb passage, Xiao Zhou suddenly squatted down and pointed to the corner of the wall: "Look here!"

On the hard brick and stone, a clear arrow pointing the direction was carved with a sharp tool, and next to it was a letter "L/S" that was carved in a slightly hasty manner.

"It's the marker of the team ahead! The initials of Liu and Song!"

Not far away, Lao Jin also dug a flattened brass cartridge case out of a pile of wet mud. After wiping it clean, he revealed the number next to the primer: "It's standard equipment from the Shancheng Branch, used by Captain Song and his team."

Qi Yun's gaze fell on an inconspicuous charred mark on the wall. He reached out and gently brushed it over, feeling a faint but pure masculine aura lingering on his fingertips.

"Song Dingqian?" he murmured to himself.

Old Jin, after examining the evidence, said in a low voice, "They fought here... Judging from the direction of the arrows and these marks, they were fighting and retreating, forced to go deeper into the tomb."

Just then, Xiao Zhou, who was so focused on recording the coordinates, lost his balance and subconsciously braced himself with his foot, accidentally kicking a loose brick.

"Gurgle..." The sound of bricks rolling was suddenly amplified in the deathly silent tomb passage.

(End of this chapter)