Tomb Raiding: The Bloodline of Dragons and Snakes, Starting from the Kunlun Divine Palace

"But what's the point of their existence if they don't have arrowheads? Are they trying to discourage us? Or is this the first time we've seen a tomb owner like this?"

Giving up when faced with difficulties?

Wu Tianjiao smiled wickedly. Other tomb owners were afraid of being robbed, but Wang Zanghai was terrified that no one would rob his tomb.

This guy wasn't just an architectural genius and a very skilled feng shui master. He was also a brilliant schemer. Before he died, he orchestrated a grand plan, completely outmaneuvering everyone.

The fat man breathed a sigh of relief when he learned that the arrows in their bodies were lotus arrows.

Thank God, they didn't lose their lives. However, he found the lotus arrows quite fun, plunging them in and out repeatedly, thoroughly enjoying himself.

The young man looked at the naive old man with amusement. He observed the environment of the tomb passage as he spoke.

"Should I get you the real one instead?"

"Go away, go away, if you switch to a real one, that fat guy will be completely useless." Realizing what was happening, he added, "Hey bro, why are you here? I don't think you were on this underwater tomb trip."

The fat man stood up and looked at the young man, saying...

“Ah Ning has a problem, so I had to use another identity to get in.” The fat man said irritably, “I knew this girl wasn’t a good person. Luckily it was the Lotus Arrow, otherwise we would all be finished. When I see her again, I’ll twist her head off.”

“She’s not a good person, but are you a good person?” Wu Tianjiao walked over and said.

The fat man was startled, taken aback by Wu Tianjiao's words. The group continued forward, but the further they went, the more something seemed amiss. Wu Tianjiao raised his flashlight and looked at the top of the tomb.

"Looks like we've been sent back again."

"Turn back?" Wu Xie was taken aback.

"What do you mean by that, Brother Tian?" Wu Tianjiao smiled. "Ask Fatty."

The fat man took a flashlight and looked around.

"Wait a minute, Brother Tian, ​​isn't this the side chamber we came into before? How did we end up back here?"

Wu Xie and Fatty both looked at Wu Tianjiao at the same time; they had just fainted and knew nothing.

“We just separated you two, we didn’t do anything to you,” the young man said.

If it's really as the guy said, that would be strange.

They were in the tomb passage, so how did they end up back in the tomb chamber in the blink of an eye?

Wu Xie looked at Wu Tianjiao, hoping to get the answer from him as to why this had happened. Wu Tianjiao smiled.

"Wu Xie, I think with your intelligence you'll figure out the reason. Consider this a test for you." Wu Xie frowned thoughtfully.

"Okay, I accept this test." Wu Tianjiao was about the same age as him.

However, Wu Xie knew that Brother Tian was a senior who was about the same age as his Third Uncle. The reason Brother Tian said that was definitely to mentor him, and it was an honor for him.

Wu Xie squatted down, looking at the spring in front of him.

"Brother Tian, ​​Fatty, did you come up from this spring? Where did my third uncle and the others come up from? From here, or somewhere else?"

"Not this one."

At this moment, Zhang Qiling spoke.

It was a side chamber with a distinctive fragrance. Zhang Qiling recalled what had happened back then. The tomb chamber they had entered not only had a fragrance, but also some very peculiar murals. The murals depicted women, all of them heavily pregnant.

As he spoke, Zhang Qiling's head started to ache, and Wu Tianjiao quickly supported him. "If you really can't remember, don't force yourself."

"Speaking of fragrance, I am reminded of something. I once saw something in Panjiayuan that looked a bit like a small black stone. The owner put it in a sealed box, and when you opened the box, there was a faint fragrance."

"What exactly is that thing?" Wu Xie asked. Generally, tombs reek of foul odors; it's rare to find one with a pleasant fragrance. Therefore, Wu Xie guessed that what Fatty was talking about might be related to the fragrance Xiao Ge mentioned in the tomb.

"I don't know about this fat guy. That boss is very stingy. I only glanced at that thing, and then he wouldn't let me see it again," the fat man said.

"He's not stingy, it's just that smelling that stuff for too long can hypnotize you..." Wu Tianjiao said. "Hypnotize you? Brother Tian, ​​so you know what that little stone with the faint fragrance that Fatty was talking about is?" Wu Tianjiao nodded.

"I know the general idea." The bones of the Forbidden Woman are called Bone Fragrance, and the small stone the fat man mentioned should be her bones. "Forbidden Woman?" Wu Xie muttered to himself. This was the second time he had heard this name today. The white-clad female ghost he had encountered before also called her Forbidden Woman. But Wu Xie still didn't know what Forbidden Woman meant.

"I know, I've heard of Forbidden Women." The fat man immediately became excited, afraid Wu Tianjiao would steal his thunder. "Forbidden Women... well, that's a rather abstract concept. Fishermen who work by the sea often encounter strange things that science can't explain. They call these inexplicable things 'Forbidden Women.'"

Wu Xie frowned.

He felt like he'd heard the scent of bones and the forbidden woman somewhere before. After thinking about it carefully, he remembered that his third uncle had mentioned it to him.

But the young man had just told him that his third uncle had no idea what the fragrance in the tomb was, nor what was painted on the wall.

What are these women?

What's going on? Who's lying?

After Wu Tianjiao's reminder, Wu Xie fully remembered what his third uncle had told him back then, when he was still very young. His third uncle told him that when he joined the archaeological team, he encountered the Forbidden Woman and the Bone Fragrance.

The bone incense was indeed hypnotic, just as Brother Tian had said.

After smelling the fragrance in the tomb, Uncle San fell asleep without realizing it. When he woke up, everything had changed.

Not only were his teammates missing, but even the side chamber he had been in wasn't the same one anymore. After that, Uncle Three never found his old archaeological team comrades again. And Uncle Three permanently retired from the archaeological team. "Wu Xie, what happened to you?"

Wu Tianjiao patted Wu Xie on the shoulder. Wu Xie snapped out of his daze.

Then he looked around at the surrounding scenery. Combining this with the story his third uncle had told him, Wu Xie seemed to understand the workings of the tomb. "Brother Tian, ​​I think I know why this tomb keeps changing shape. It must be based on the principle of an elevator." This underwater tomb must contain some kind of large-scale mechanical device, driven by water currents. As the current in the sea changes, the tomb will move accordingly.

Wu Xie studied architectural engineering in university, so figuring out this principle wasn't difficult for him.

Wu Xie glanced at Xiao Ge.

The young man frowned. "What about the others? They went to the tomb with your third uncle, so why were only they there after they woke up?"

"This is something I've never understood either, so I really want to ask you, where did you go back then? After all, you're the young man..."

“My third uncle actually came to this underwater tomb twenty years ago, and he also encountered this situation back then. Just like what the young man said, the 0.2 section they were swept into by the seawater was another side chamber. There was a faint fragrance in the side chamber, and then my third uncle was affected. He fell into a coma. When he woke up, he found that his teammates and the surrounding environment had changed. This should be the situation my third uncle encountered back then.”

"Your third uncle is alone? If everyone smelled the bone fragrance, shouldn't everyone have fainted by now?"

He was also a member of the archaeological team, right?

Wait a minute, wait a minute, what are you talking about? I don't understand a word you're saying. What archaeological team? What twenty years ago? Wu Xie, are you saying that Xiao Ge was also a member of the Xisha archaeological team twenty years ago? How is that possible?

As they were talking, the fat man inadvertently saw Wu Tianjiao and immediately shut up. How could it be impossible? Anything is possible.

If there's one person in this world who can stay young forever, there will be a second.

At this point, the young man nodded. "That's right, I did come to this underwater tomb with your third uncle twenty years ago, but I don't remember whether I was a member of the archaeological team."

"Because I suffered severe amnesia after coming out of the underwater tomb, the memories I can recall are only fragments."

However, I can confirm that there was a mole within our archaeological team during that trip. Long before we even entered the tomb, one person had already died—none other than a descendant of your Nine Gates, Xie Lianhuan.”

Wu Xie was taken aback. "Brother, do you mean my third uncle is the mole among you?"

“I don’t know either, but as far as I know, of the archaeological team’s expedition, only your third uncle and I survived. So we are both suspects.”

The young man was also very open and honest.

Chapter 157: The Coffin, Too Extravagant

Wait a minute.

At this moment, the fat man stepped forward again.

"There has to be a reason for murder. Whether it's Brother Xiao or Third Master who is the murderer, there has to be a reasonable motive."

The motive was simple: if I wasn't mistaken, this underwater tomb should contain some priceless treasures.

No, perhaps it's not priceless; perhaps this treasure contains some great secret, such as the Snake-Eyebrow Bronze Fish.

Wu Xie finally understood why his third uncle had come to the underwater tomb a second time.

And Ah Ning shot an arrow, shaking off what they were looking for. It's very likely the Snake-Eyebrow Bronze Fish.

It's highly likely that the archaeological team formed by Uncle San and his group twenty years ago wasn't actually for archaeological purposes at all, but rather for tomb raiding.

Third Uncle, Chen Wenjin, Huo Ling, Little Brother, Xie Lianhuan—which one of them seems like a member of the archaeological team? None of them seem like one.

So his third uncle had been lying to him from the very beginning. He had never worked for the archaeological team.

However, Wu Xie still didn't believe that his third uncle would kill someone. At the same time, he also didn't want to believe that his younger brother would kill someone.

Although the young man seemed unapproachable, Wu Xie knew he was a warm-hearted person beneath his cold exterior. He wouldn't do something like murder and robbery.

Most importantly, he felt that Xiao Ge wasn't lying; Xiao Ge really must have lost his memory. Wu Tianjiao walked up to Wu Xie.

"Wu Xie, can you show me the photos you found on that ghost ship?"

Wu Xie nodded, then took out the photo and handed it to Wu Tianjiao.

But then Wu Xie was stunned.

He seemed to have never mentioned the photos to Wu Tianjiao, so the question is, how did Wu Tianjiao know that he found the photos left by his third uncle on the ghost ship?

Wu Xie didn't intentionally try to hide the photos; he just forgot.

He might have a little doubt about others, but he had complete trust in Wu Tianjiao. Wu Tianjiao took the photo Wu Xie handed him.

smiled.

In fact, this one photo can solve all the mysteries left behind by the underwater tomb in the Xisha Islands. First, Wu Sansheng and Xie Lianhuan look very similar; there are simply no two people in this photo who look alike.

Secondly, there isn't a single person here who looks exactly like Wu Xie. That person is Qi Yu, the special agent from back then.

Once you realize these two points, the rest of the puzzle becomes much easier.

"Naive, can I lend you this photo to study? Perhaps you can find some clues in it."