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

A strong, fishy stench was seeping out of the entrance to the tomb.

Li Yue frowned slightly, immediately noticing that the stench was mixed with wisps of faint corpse energy.

"This must be the Yin energy that the panel information says it can absorb."

No wonder these tomb raiders were so afraid.

If a malevolent aura is cultivated, there's a high chance that a powerful zombie will emerge from below.

Zombies...evil aura...

A thought flashed through Li Yue's mind in a split second:

The panel instructed him to cultivate by drawing upon the Yin energy and to temper his body with the blood and energy of demons.

The evil energy belongs to Yin, and zombies are also pure Yin in nature, so could he give it a try?

He immediately stopped focusing on spiritual energy and instead actively guided the wisps of deathly energy around him.

After all, if he didn't recover some strength, not only would he have trouble protecting himself once he reached the bottom of the tomb, but these tomb raiders in front of him could easily crush him.

Li Yue silently circulated the Qi-guiding technique within his body, absorbing the surrounding deathly energy and corpse turbidity.

After about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, he could clearly feel that energy was flowing through his meridians again.

However, what flows through the meridians to the dantian is no longer spiritual energy, but yin energy.

However, it will take some time before we reach the initial stage of Qi cultivation.

It would be better if the yin energy were a bit stronger...

As Li Yue thought to himself, the tomb raiders over there had already finished resting.

These people tied ropes to the bamboo basket and lowered him in through the entrance.

The tomb passage was narrow and damp, with rainwater and rotten leaves accumulating on the stone steps. The further down you went, the heavier the yin energy became, and the more pungent the stench of decay grew.

"The coffins here are probably all soaked in water, no wonder it smells so bad."

Li Yue was still being carried along, observing the surrounding environment while conserving his strength.

The group of people were all covered in black veils, holding guns and knives, and holding miner's lamps. The leader even had a black donkey hoof in his hand.

Seemingly avoiding something, no one in the group spoke, for fear of waking the creatures there.

This ancient tomb was quite large; it took us more than ten minutes to finally enter the main burial chamber.

In the center there is a square well the size of a bathtub, and the smell of rotting corpses comes from below.

Upon landing, the stench was so strong it almost made people faint.

Li Yue was dumped directly from the bamboo basket by them.

Fortunately, the burial chamber below was very low, only a little over a meter high; otherwise, his broken body would have been shattered from the fall.

He bent over and scanned the area.

There was also water in the well, and at the bottom there was a layer of slippery silt, which was disgusting.

A dozen or so wooden coffins were arranged in the shape of the sun around the perimeter, most of them submerged in shallow water, and the stench was emanating from the cracks in the coffins.

The smell was probably like a dead fish that had been trapped in a truck for three days and three nights during the hottest days of summer, then taken out and left to dry in the sun for a day—a concentrated version.

[An increase in the concentration of Yin energy in the surrounding area has been detected...]

[Analyzing... Yin energy concentration 28%... Corpse energy component 21%... Evil energy component 7%...]

Upon seeing the new prompt appear in his mind, Li Yue thought to himself, "Just as I expected."

"This tomb must be the source of the eerie energy emanating from outside."

In the blink of an eye, a thick rope snare was lowered from the wellhead above his head, and several beams of flashlight shone on him, as if waiting for some prey.

Although Li Yue had lived two lives, he had never raided a tomb. His knowledge of ancient tombs came only from online novels such as "Ghost Blows Out the Light" and "The Grave Robbers' Chronicles".

Li Yue guessed that they wanted living people to lure something out of the room, then lower a rope to trap and suspend it. This was indeed a method of catching corpses.

In the cultivation world, most of the time, corpses are captured for the purpose of extracting corpse pills for alchemy, or to create puppets as weapons of mass destruction.

These petty thieves clearly didn't have that ability; they just wanted to use him as bait to lure out the zombie, then put a rope over his head, hang him up, and kill him so they could safely loot the funerary objects.

However, after waiting for a long time, there was still no movement from below.

These people probably found it strange, so they picked up some stones and branches from the side, threw them down, and hit Li Yue on the ground, while shouting for him to yell a couple of times.

Li Yue completely ignored it, rolled over, and avoided the well opening.

Yin energy was continuously flowing into the dantian.

The devoured Yin Sha corpse energy was filtered layer by layer, transforming into wisps of relatively warm and mellow gray energy that slowly circulated through the meridians.

He ignored the people above him, focusing his mind on circulating the Qi-guiding technique, absorbing the dense Yin energy around him.

And the body seems to be a bottomless pit.

No matter how much Li Yue absorbs, it can accept it all and then slowly transform it into pure energy for Li Yue to circulate and absorb.

[In progress: 1%...2%]

Just as Li Yue was silently recovering his strength, a hoarse "hoh—" suddenly came from the darkness.

His breathing was heavy and his steps were slow.

A lizard, covered in black fur and as large as a black ape, emerged from the shadow of the coffin.

Those people immediately became alert, held their breath, and tried to lasso the rice dumpling.

Li Yue was still being held by the ropes above him, which severely limited his range of movement.

He cursed inwardly.

Fortunately, in their haste, the tomb raiders managed to lasso the zombie's neck.

Only then was Li Yue able to see the shape of the zongzi.

It was covered in black fur, with a strong build, like a black ape. Its silk and brocade robes were dull and tattered, making them unrecognizable.

The rice dumpling was incredibly strong; despite the disturbance, the people on top of it pulled until their faces turned red, but they still couldn't pull it up.

This enraged the black-haired rice dumpling, which quickly tore off the rope.

Seeing this, the leader panicked, shrugged, took off the old pistol from his back, and immediately fired several shots at the people below.

Gunshots echoed in the low-cemetery, making Li Yue's eardrums vibrate.

The black-haired zombie was shot several times, its body shuddered violently, and it collapsed to the ground with a thud.

After observing for a while and seeing no movement, they forced one of their underlings to come down and check.

The younger brother first stuffed the black donkey hoof he had brought down into the mouth of the rice dumpling, then shakily circled it once, his face as white as paper by the end.

"Old...Old Song and Erleng and the others..."

The leader, seeing him stammering, wondered what was wrong. Had those people who died here last time come back to life?

Gua Song, his voice trembling, told his superiors that their bodies had disappeared. Upon hearing this, the superiors' expressions changed, and they looked extremely grim.

The leader gritted his teeth and told him to continue observing.

Guasong then continued to wander around with his head down, carrying his miner's lamp. Finding nothing else amiss, he reported back to his superiors.

The leader breathed a sigh of relief and waved his hand, signaling to get to work.

They prepared the ropes, pried open the coffin, and searched the corpse.

At first they were very cautious, only daring to push the coffin open a crack, but then they saw that the body inside was not moving.

Gradually, they grew bolder, prying open coffins, turning over corpses, and taking funerary objects.

But before a few items could be hoisted up, something unexpected happened to the men who were looting the corpse.

Someone was screaming in agony beside the coffin, clutching its arm. When they finally managed to pull it out, the entire arm was gone, and blood immediately gushed from the severed wound.

The others were terrified and turned to run away.

But it was too late.

The coffins around them, as if summoned at the same time, all crawled out of the rice dumplings.

The coffins that hadn't been opened were shaking violently, making loud banging noises, clearly unable to resist the urge to come out and join in the fun.

In an instant, the tomb became a living hell, with screams echoing everywhere.