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

"Hey! Little Innocent, why do you always leave things unsaid?"

"Do you know how worried I am?!"

Fatty Wang looked at Wu Xie, who only shook his head and didn't finish speaking, so he reluctantly kicked the Shoushan stone statue next to him.

"If this thing were smaller, I could take you out and let you see the light of day again, instead of keeping you buried underground all this time."

..........

Wang Yueban and Wu Xie walked one in front of the other, while Wu Tianjiao remained to their right. His flashlight beam swayed back and forth as he remained slightly wary of the unidentified figure that had emerged from the corpse of the man in black earlier.

This thing must be a "living creature." Although I couldn't see its exact appearance, its ability to move so quickly and its carnivorous nature greatly increased the danger level.

Just then, a familiar notification sound suddenly rang in Wu Tianjiao's mind.

[Ding! Host detected to be inside the tomb of the Qin Empire!]

[An urgent decryption mission has been triggered!]

[The True Cause of Death of Chang Shiwan, the Famous General of the Empire and the Ever-Victorious General 0/1]

..............

Wu Tianjiao looked at the system notification that suddenly appeared in his mind and subconsciously replied in his mind:

"System, could you change your appearance method next time?"

“Every time I appear, it’s like, ‘Ding! Ding! Ding!’ At least take a look at my surroundings. This is a dark and sunless tomb passage. Your constant startling is going to give me a heart attack.”

Wu Tianjiao suppressed the urge to swear. He decided to try to communicate with the other party properly, and it would be best if they could communicate verbally.

[Host, your request can be fulfilled. To change this, please upgrade your system as soon as possible. As the system level increases, custom message prompts and exclusive voice broadcast functions will naturally appear!]

Alright...

System, are you implying this is a paid feature?

Wu Tianjiao stared for a moment, but the Ultimate Treasure System in his mind did not respond.

hiss...

Still as arrogant as ever!

..............

Wu Tianjiao ignored the anomaly in his mind and looked at his latest mission prompt, which clearly instructed him to uncover the true cause of death of the tomb's occupant.

Thinking of this, Wu Tianjiao subconsciously recalled the last sentence in seal script on the back of the stone brick statue.

[Punished with military discipline and the death penalty]

capital punishment....

Could it be that the information recorded in the text is incorrect?

..........

........ 0 0

The group continued forward, and the air was unusually quiet. Even Fatty Wang, who was usually very talkative, was silent.

The tomb passage of the Qin Empire was much longer than it appeared from the outside of the mountain. After walking for about ten minutes, the walls ahead were still paved with old bluestone bricks.

"Um... when will this end? I observed this mountain from the outside before, and it was only a few hundred meters long at most. We've been walking for several tens of minutes, and we still can't see the end of this tomb passage."

Wu Tianjiao subconsciously spoke up upon hearing Wang Pangzi's complaints:

"Didn't you say you'd been here before? How come you're not familiar with this tomb passage?"

............

"Oh... Brother Wu Tianjiao, how could we tomb raiders openly enter through the main entrance of the mountain? We had a master of geomancy in our team who marked the location on the other side of the mountain. That's where we entered..."

As Fatty Wang was explaining, suddenly his vision blurred and he bumped into Wu Xie's back.

"Ouch... My little darling, you should at least tell me before you stop! My handsome face almost got distorted!"

Wu Tianjiao also noticed the abnormal situation. He subconsciously looked up and saw Wu Xie standing still, his eyes fixed on the wall above him.

Wu Tianjiao was somewhat puzzled, and he also turned his gaze to the top two of the bluestone bricks in the tomb passage.

Chapter 196: The Ultimate Secret of the Blood Jade of the Witch God

Wu Xie's mouth gaped open, his eyes filled with disbelief, and he managed to utter a few dry, labored words:

"In the Qin Empire, five men formed a squad, fifteen men formed a rong, ten rong formed a zu, ten zu formed a brigade, and five brigade formed an army."

"Execute him! Tattoo him!"

Wu Tianjiao's gaze was fixed on the mural above his head.

Describing it as a mural feels somewhat inaccurate, because a mural should be a painted surface, similar to watercolor, applied to the walls of a tomb.

However, a large amount of Shoushan stone was used as raw material in the tomb passage of this Qin Dynasty tomb.

Shoushan stone has a dark brown surface, and at first glance, it has a bluish-green reflection in the sunlight, so it is often called bluestone brick.

However, this cannot conceal the fact that these stones are originally dark in color. Yet, on the surface of these stones, some special reflective materials have been applied.

Under the illumination of the headlamp, the reflective areas appear a faint milky white, while the rest of the area is the dark brown of the Shoushan stone itself. The extreme visual contrast between the two creates a series of images.

In the very center was a burly man in armor, his hair disheveled, kneeling on the ground. Although his clothes were somewhat rumpled, his back was exceptionally straight, without the slightest bend.

Yet this domineering man had his face painted with black ink by another person, while another person held a silver needle dipped in ink and lightly pricked his skin along the writing.

Seeing this scene, Wu Xie finally couldn't help but speak up:

"Just as I guessed, this ever-victorious general of the Wang Qin Empire, even after being framed by a villain, only suffered the most severe punishment in the army: tattooing!"

“Tattooing, also known as ‘ink punishment,’ is the practice of tattooing words on the forehead and cheeks of a person being punished. This ever-victorious general had the words ‘crime and punishment’ tattooed on his face.”

......

Wang Pangzi, standing to the side, curled his lip in disdain after hearing Wu Xie's words:

"You're making it sound so serious, like being smeared with something like this is some kind of extreme punishment. To put it simply, it's like ancient tattooing..."

"It's just that instead of carving dragons and phoenixes on the body, it's tattooing a few words on the face!"

"That's it?"

"Is this what they call the death penalty?"

"Pah! I, Fatty, truly despise this person who recorded the epitaph; he's definitely exaggerating the facts!"

As Wang Pangzi spoke, he pointed to the inscription on the bluestone brick beside him:

"Five men form a squad, fifteen men form a brigade, ten brigade members form a platoon, ten platoon members form a brigade, and five platoons form an army!"

"Look at what you're saying. I used to think that this general of the Qin Empire led an army of hundreds of thousands, which I could calculate with my elementary school multiplication tables."

"One times five equals five, fifteen equals seventy-five..."

"The last army has at most three thousand men!"

"Indeed, the hundreds of thousands recorded in the Qin Empire cannot be compared with the hundreds of thousands in modern times."

Neither Wu Tianjiao nor Wu Xie bothered with Fatty Wang, who was gloating over having exposed a historical lie.

Both of them were drawn to the portraits on the walls of the tomb passage.

Wu Xie couldn't help but take out his phone from his pocket and take a serious picture of the sky above his head, all the while muttering to himself:

"This must be a dance from the Qin Dynasty!"

"The soldiers are about to go to war. Victory or defeat will not only affect the lives of the soldiers going to war, but also the fate of their hometowns. During the Qin Dynasty, once a war broke out, every family would devote all their efforts to it."

"There is an ironclad rule that all men must go to the front lines, while women, the elderly, and children bear the heavy burden of production. At the same time, everyone must pray for the victory of their loved ones and also perform sacrificial dances!"

"The warrior wore 'armor' made of animal hides and a round helmet decorated with a bull's tail and eagle feathers on top."

"They would gather together with knives, spears, guns and other weapons as they walked and danced, all while carrying the money for leaving the city."

"At the end of the dance, the swords were sheathed, the gun butts were placed on the ground, the men were in front and the women were behind, and they drank their courage and strong liquor! It was a tragic scene of facing death before going to war."

As Wu Xie spoke, the camera in his hand flashed incessantly, the gestures perfectly illustrating the farewell ceremonies held in some towns before a nation prepares to go to war.

Fatty Wang, standing to the side, opened his mouth, because the blue stone carving above his head was truly exquisite:

"Sigh! I'm so envious! If I could just chip off a big piece, given how rare this thing is, I could definitely sell it for a good price!"

However, Wu Xie suddenly turned around and seemed somewhat unhappy.

"Ahem~ I was just kidding... I was just joking..."

"Besides, this mural is so tall, and I, Fatty, can't fly, right?"

Wang Yueban turned around and put away the small awl she had just taken out of the painting.

At this opportune moment, Wu Tianjiao put forward his own conjecture:

"Wu Xie followed the pattern on this mural."

"I think that General Chang, who held a high position and great power, must have been deeply supported and loved by his family and friends back home. However, because he was punished with tattooing in the army, leaving an indelible mark of a sinner on his face, he may not have been able to face his family and friends back home. Perhaps he chose to commit suicide in a deserted place afterward..."

Before Wu Xie could respond, a familiar system notification sounded in Wu Tianjiao's mind.

[An urgent decryption mission has been triggered!]