Ancient tomb excavation traces

When the two girls and I arrived at the wooden door, Miss Chu said that the material of these wooden doors was "lightning-struck wood". I had heard that "lightning-struck wood" was a kind of wood that could ward off evil spirits. It was said that the wood changed after being struck by lightning and contained spiritual energy to ward off evil and bring good fortune. Therefore, the ancients especially cherished it and often placed it in their homes, and also made it into wooden pendants to wear on their bodies.

Upon closer inspection, the wooden doors here are made of wild peach wood. Peach wood is considered a sacred wood for warding off evil in Taoist rituals, and the peach wood here has a superior color, having absorbed the essence of heaven and earth, bathed in sunlight, starlight, and dew… Furthermore, peach wood becomes more spiritual with age; having been tempered by nature for many years, it combines the five elements, making it a powerful tool for warding off evil and impurities. In carving these doors, the craftsmen utilized its different textures and colors to create different scenes, much like carving chrysanthemum stones—creating from form, a truly profound art!

The rear chamber had a wide door made of about ten meters of lightning-struck wood. What could be inside that required so much wood? Was it just for show? I felt uneasy, but I had no other choice. Whatever was inside, I had to find the "Dust-Avoiding Pearl." Thinking this, I snapped out of my reverie and noticed patterns resembling door gods at the joints of the doors. The patterns were about the size of a palm, carved with two ferocious-looking door gods, each holding a spear, their hands crossed in an "X" shape, like seals, giving off an eerie feeling.

Between the two doors were some words, which Miss Chu said read, "A forbidden place; entry means certain death."

I gave a bitter laugh. This girl was pretty and charming, but none of her words were pleasant. Even warriors say something exciting before fighting. However, she had already been cursed several times before coming to this ancient tomb. One curse was that her bones would rot, another was that she would be struck by lightning and burned by flames. I didn't know how I would die, but at this moment I was very clear that if I couldn't destroy Sima Yan, my final fate would probably be torn apart alive.

Thinking this, I reached out to push the door, only to find it locked from the inside. I took out the red copper scimitar my ancestor had given me, found the bolt through the crack in the wooden door, and was about to chop it down when I heard a creaking sound coming from inside, like the strange sound of a door opening in the attic at night when I was sleeping.

Suspicious, I immediately stopped what I was doing and listened intently. My nerves were on edge, but I forced myself to control my fear, not wanting to jeopardize anything. After a while, however, there was silence. I peered cautiously into the openwork wooden door, but after the commotion, it was completely silent inside, chilling to the bone. I shivered, turned back to see Chen Yi and Chu Ba locked in a fierce battle, and with a determined bite, broke the bolt.

And so, the door, sealed for a century and untouched by anyone, creaked open on its own. I was stunned; I hadn't expected it to be an automatic door, and a sense of foreboding crept into my heart.

At the same time, a bone-chilling cold swept over me, and I thought to myself, "These are all openwork doors, not sealed ones, so why is it still so cold inside?"

Before I could think any further, Miss Chu went inside without a second thought, and Lan Quexi and I followed. We heard the old door creak shut again, as if some unseen figure was standing there. I swallowed hard; I had never experienced anything so eerie before, and my heart pounded wildly.

The rear chamber was bathed in a serene white light, very faint, like a layer of white gauze floating in the air, unable to illuminate anything clearly, cold and serene. A putrid stench permeated the air. I looked up to observe my surroundings, and to my surprise, I saw an extremely tall tree! Around the tree were specks of eerie green, like will-o'-the-wisps, creating a chilling and sinister atmosphere.

The tree was very tall, completely black, and leafless. Its branches stretched out into the rear chamber, crisscrossing like a giant thousand-armed monster, giving off a sense of oppression and gloom. Because it was dark inside, we couldn't see the higher parts of the tree clearly, but we could vaguely see what long, thin objects were placed on the thick branches. There were many of them, and we couldn't guess what they were for the time being.

Lan Quexi told me this is called the "Netherworld Tree." These past few days, I've seen all sorts of wondrous things I'd only ever seen in books. Each surprise has calmed my heart considerably. But does the "Netherworld Tree" really exist? I've only read about it in ancient books, which say it has a spring every five hundred years and an autumn every five hundred years… Could it be that this tree actually existed, but after a thousand years, it became extinct like many other plants and animals?

I suppressed my wildly pounding heart and took a deep breath. Like the main coffin chamber, the rear chamber had a large hole in the ceiling, which must have been an opening in the mountain. It was unbelievable that a tree could grow so tall in such a place. As Miss Chu had said before, there was a dust-repelling pearl here, so there was no rain or dew to nourish it, let alone much ventilation in the ancient tomb. At most, it could only absorb the essence of the sun by relying on the light shining in through the mountain opening when the sun was high in the sky.

Even with such harsh living conditions in our eyes, this tree still grows strangely. Could it be that there really is a tree of the underworld? Able to connect with the earth's energy and reach another world? And that opening in the mountain is actually the gate to heaven?

This reminds me of what the young Taoist priest once said: the mountains and rivers here possess a reddish-yellow aura, a clear and refreshing energy, a noble quality. The mountain is said to be adorned with a true dragon, its breath rising straight up in the shape of an oil-paper umbrella, hence the lush trees and delicate flowers—the very essence of the dragon's true energy. But like the old cedar coffin I saw earlier, such a thousand-year-old tree would disrupt the feng shui of a tomb. Why did Sima Yan choose to place it in the rear burial chamber?

Miss Chu looked up at the tree, lost in thought, and said, "Netherworld spirit..." Then, she slowly reached out her hand and approached. I was afraid that she would be tainted by the tree's evil power, so I immediately pulled her back and said, "Hey, don't touch it."

When Miss Chu heard my shout, she was startled as she was lost in thought. She immediately withdrew her hand and took one last longing look at the Netherworld Tree, her expression indescribably strange.

Looking at her, I became more cautious. After all, she had been immersed in Sima Yan's pursuit of immortality for more than ten years. It would be quite a while for her to completely wake up. If she were to play a double agent with us, it would be a waste of our efforts.

With that in mind, I said to the two girls, "Forget about the tree for now. This place is eerie, and we can't see anything around us. It's best to be careful. The three of you should stay together as much as possible and not touch anything."

Miss Chu lowered her head, lost in thought. When she realized what was happening, she gave a faint reply.

The floor of the rear chamber was covered with a thick layer of soil, which had a particularly strong earthy smell. It was unclear why such a thick layer of soil was found in the ancient tomb.

Stepping on this soil that nurtures all life, I didn't feel any sense of grounding. Instead, I felt uneasy, and my feet kept getting cold. I was afraid that some ghostly figure might silently grab my leg as I walked.

This is a cave-shaped mountain, which shouldn't have soil in the first place. It's estimated that the craftsmen and some poor people spent a lot of effort moving it here to plant this Netherworld Tree. Judging from the height of the tree, its root system must be very extensive. The height of the mound might even be the distance between here and the sacrificial site below.

The tangled roots of the Netherworld Tree were exposed, and it was easy to trip over them if you weren't careful. The three of us walked cautiously, and there were layers of eerie green flames on the ground, like the ghost lanterns carried by Yama, the King of Hell. I had thought before that these were phosphorescent lights, but there were no corpses here, and I didn't know where these eerie lights came from or why they kept following us.

Although I was scared, what bothered me most right now was the suffering of Chu Ba and the others outside. The Dust-Avoiding Pearl was their only hope of saving them, but this back chamber was taller and bigger than I had imagined. I didn't know where it was hidden. If the Dust-Avoiding Pearl was on the Netherworld Tree, how easy would it be to find it?

Strangely, ever since I entered the back chamber, all the noise outside seemed to have stopped. I stopped and listened carefully, but there was still no sound—no fighting, no shouting…it was eerily quiet outside. My heart tightened, and I strode towards the door, but at that moment, I tripped over something and fell face-first into the mud.

I mistook it for a tree root, clapped my hands, and was about to get up when I heard Miss Chu shout, "Hand...hand!" Hearing this, my hair stood on end, and I immediately turned around to see a pale, bare hand exposed above the soil, its skin mottled and rotting. This sight sent chills down my spine. I suddenly realized that besides nurturing the Netherworld Tree, this soil might also be used to bury the dead. I didn't know the identities of these dead, but if my suspicions were true, the number of corpses beneath the soil would be horrifying.

First, rotting corpses can be used as fertilizer to nourish the tree. And just now, Miss Chu said that the Netherworld connects to the underground, which means this tree is a channel connecting the spirits of the dead to the underworld. Could Sima Yan have planted this Netherworld Tree to raise a group of resentful ghosts? After all, "old trees accumulate souls, which linger for a long time." I recalled the eerie scene of the door closing by itself earlier, and imagined the unseen things grinning and staring at me from the shadows of this tree branch. A chill ran down my spine. This isn't some hidden chamber; it's a place for raising corpses and accumulating souls!

Just as I couldn't believe it, several white corpse worms crawled out of the rotting flesh. I covered my mouth and nose, immediately stood up, and suddenly felt my legs go weak, because beneath my feet was a large burial pit, a dark and long-standing place.

I panicked, and to my surprise, I found myself cut off from the outside world. I looked up, intending to ask Miss Chu what was going on, but saw her standing coldly behind Lan Quexi. Lan Quexi looked at me silently and said, "Young Master Feng, what's wrong?"

Just as she was asking the question, the girl from behind her, surnamed Chu, grinned and smiled sinisterly, staring straight at me. When I saw the sharp knife in her hand, a chill suddenly ran through me.

She is… she is the woman who tried to kill me in my hallucination, in front of the four bronze witch statues! What exactly happened? Was all her behavior just now premeditated? Was it all an act? If so, how deep is her cunning? But what was her purpose in doing this? To separate me from the ancestors? Is the existence of that Dust-Avoiding Pearl real or fake?