I, a cultivator, have ended up in the world of tomb raiding.

Upon seeing the signal arrow, the impatient band of thieves around them beamed with joy and cheered.

They all crowded around the leader, waiting for the order to be given.

Chen Yulou raised his hand to quell the noise and said loudly:

"Don't be impatient, everyone. I'll take thirty brothers down to investigate first."

Then, Li Yue stood up and prepared to walk over, when he saw someone step in and stop him.

"Wait, are you going down too?"

Li Yue glanced at the man; it was Hua Ma Guai, Chen Yulou's strategist.

The person's complexion was slightly sallow, and his figure was thin, making him look as if he suffered from jaundice and was malnourished.

Li Yue nodded slightly, unsure what he had to say.

Hua Maguai pointed to the already assembled mountain-hanging ladder on the ground and said:

"This thing was modified by our Xieling from the siege ladder of the Red Eyebrow Army in the Han Dynasty. It is made of sections of hard bamboo joined together to form a long chain, which is hung on iron stakes at the top of the cliff and hangs down along the cliff. It can hang down into the clouds and mist. From a distance, it looks like a centipede with a hundred legs sticking to the mountain wall, so it is called the Centipede Hanging Mountain Ladder."

Li Yue looked at him and wondered, "So what?"

Seeing that he didn't react, Hua Maguai had no choice but to continue:

"You may not know this, but although this centipede-shaped mountain ladder can be disassembled and assembled, and is lightweight and easy to carry, and can be lowered into the bucket even from a cliff, it is very easy for an untrained person to slip and fall.

Hua Maguai was supervising the group of bandits assembling the mountain ladder when he noticed Li Yue sitting on the rock watching their actions.

This man, who was used as bait to hang a corpse, not only broke free of his restraints but also survived under such harsh conditions, killing more than a dozen zombies...

This story has already spread throughout the team.

Such a romantic story is bound to pique everyone's curiosity.

What's more, the person involved was right next to them.

Hua Maguai naturally took a closer look at this person.

When they saw Li Yue sitting there watching them assemble the mountain-hanging ladder, and watching for quite a while, they almost thought he was trying to steal their skills.

But he soon realized something was wrong.

Although Li Yue appeared to be looking in their direction, his eyes showed almost no emotion.

The man's focus was not on them, nor on the bamboo ladder.

Instead, he was spacing out.

This realization left him speechless.

He said these words to Li Yue, firstly to prevent the other party from accidentally falling into danger and losing his life in vain.

Secondly...they're used to working together as brothers, and suddenly having an outsider, especially one with outstanding abilities, is a huge inconvenience.

—As the saying goes, capable people often have bad tempers, and their actions are certainly not always in sync. If something unexpected happens, it can easily lead to mistakes.

Thinking of this, Hua Maguai said again, "I think you should stay on the cliff to provide support. After we go down and clear away the hidden dangers, you can come down with the team to carry the supplies."

Not so good... Li Yue thought to himself.

If you had gone down that road, you would have been wiped out by the centipedes below, and you wouldn't have had a chance to move the funerary objects.

However, having heard this far, Li Yue understood what the other party meant.

"Thanks for reminding me." He nodded.

Seeing that Hua Ma Guai's words were not malicious, Li Yue didn't care.

As he continued walking forward, he suddenly paused, then turned his head and glanced at Hua Maguai:

"There are poisonous insects breeding in Ping Mountain. I suggest you cover up your neck, face, and back of the neck completely."

He suddenly remembered that Hua Maguai had died after being bitten by a highly venomous centipede, his body quickly turning into pus, so he casually mentioned it.

As for what Hua Ma Guai was thinking, that was none of his business.

Upon arriving at the edge of the rift valley, the twenty or thirty brothers that Chen Yulou had selected were each tying soft ropes around their waists, while others were distributing five-poison medicine cakes and pigeon cages.

Li Yuejing also took a copy from the past.

These things may not be useful, but he just didn't want to be an exception, so he followed the crowd.

Luo Laowai, however, caught sight of him receiving the items. Surprised, he walked over to the leader of the Unloading Ridge faction, his hands draped over his belt, and said casually:

"Boss Chen, in principle I should go down with you to investigate, but I can't! I have to stay up here and keep an eye on my unruly brothers."

He hesitated for a moment, then said, "How about this, I'll send two of my most capable personal guards down with you to lend a hand, what do you think?"

As he spoke, he glanced at the girl in red who was also preparing to go down and explore, and chuckled:

"Hong Gu, the cliff down there is very steep, the air is heavy with yin energy, and the path is dangerous. This is not a place for a young lady to show off! You stay up here to keep watch and provide backup. If you really want to go down and explore, I, Lao Wai, and the brothers are enough!"

Hong Guniang continued tying the rope around her waist, completely ignoring what he said.

Chen Yulou was assigning tasks to the brothers he had selected when he heard Luo Laowai's words. Without much thought, he nodded in agreement.

The several hundred engineers that Luo Laowai brought, although armed with guns and cannons, were complete novices when it came to tomb raiding and could only do manual labor in this line of work.

Ultimately, the ones who could truly be of use and make decisions were still the hundred or so loyal bandits of Changsheng Mountain.

Li Yue merely glanced at the two bodyguards sent out by Luo Laowai, paying them little attention.

At Chief Chen's command, dozens of people worked in an orderly fashion to set up the centipede-shaped mountain ladder on the steep cliff, securing the top with the mountain-hanging claws.

They simultaneously threw up a soft rope hook, which was then attached to a stable rock above, creating a second layer of safety.

This soft rope hook has a grappling hook at one end and an oil-soaked, pliable rope in the middle, making it very durable.

The other end has a quick-release buckle, and the soft rope hook and the mountain-hanging ladder are used together, which is the standard combination of these tomb raiders.

Li Yue imitated the previous thief, carefully tying a soft rope hook to himself.

These protective measures were insurance measures summarized by the Xieling group at the cost of their lives. He did not look down on these folk wisdoms just because he was once a cultivator.

Furthermore, he is only at the early stage of Qi Refining and does not yet have the ability to levitate. If the cliff is deep enough, he would really have a chance of falling to his death.

After checking that the rope was intact, he stopped holding the Five Poison Cake and followed the person in front of him, climbing down the cliff face and piercing through the clouds and mist.

Each section of this centipede-shaped mountain ladder has interlocking tenons cast at both ends, and the body of the tube also has two round holes about the thickness of a bamboo stick.

When assembling the pole, a main bamboo pole is inserted vertically through it, locking the entire pole tightly so that it cannot be separated no matter how it is shaken.

Short tubes are inserted laterally on both sides for stepping, which can be used as footholds for climbing.

Secondly, it also makes the whole ladder more stable, so that even if two or three people are climbing the ladder at the same time, it will not fall apart.

Li Yue started off relatively slowly, as he was not yet familiar with the climbing equipment and his hand and foot movements were slightly uncoordinated.

But after climbing about fifteen meters, he gradually found the trick.

His body slid down the ladder like a raccoon dog, shifting his weight onto the cliff face, his hands and feet moving with increasing agility and stability.

The first to notice this was the mountain-unloading man who was on the same mountain ladder as him.

While the bamboo ladders on both sides creaked and swayed, causing loose rocks and soil to fall from the cliff face, their hanging ladder remained almost silent and stable.

It's as if someone nailed a ladder to this right-angled mountain wall.