Ancient tomb excavation traces

(After the book was published, I wanted to thank all the readers and friends who subscribed. I was deeply moved and wanted to express my gratitude in words.)

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The sight of Sima Yan turning to ashes was heartbreaking. We stared blankly at it, feeling as if we had just woken from a dream, and our hearts felt empty.

I stood on the stone curtain, looking down. The corpses had been charred by the powerful lightning strikes, and I feared that once the next rain came in, they would melt into the mountain.

The acrid smell in the air grew stronger, the smoke thickened, and the branches hissed and cracked. The soldiers' dreams ended here; nothing in this world, however powerful, can overcome fate. At the moment Sima Yan awaited his century-long awakening, heaven bestowed upon him immense despair. The embers of the fire on the branches drifted through the rear storage chamber, like a dream…

Struck by lightning and split in two, the Netherworld Tree was supported by its massive trunk. One half of its branches fell in front of us. Our ancestor said we had a slim chance of survival, and we had to get out no matter what.

Soaked by the rain, we walked through the burning flames to the thick, unburnt branches. The thunder had faded, and layers of rosy light peeked through the thick clouds, breaking the oppressive atmosphere. The outside world filled me with longing. I didn't have the courage to look down at the somber ancient tomb again, for the feeling of escaping death was indescribable. For those of us living in a peaceful society, having experienced such a harrowing ordeal, the lingering embers of exhilaration mixed with fear, would possess a deep, dark power, pulling us downwards until I was swallowed by terror, as long as I remained in the rear chamber. So I wouldn't look back; I just wanted to leave this place of chaos as quickly as possible.

I clung to the grappling hook, the air outside was incredibly fresh and alluring, and a near-mad excitement filled my heart. The ancient ancestor outside reached out to me, and every cell in my body was throbbing with excitement. My heart kept shouting, "Finally, I'm going out! Finally, I can see the light of day..." These few days felt like an eternity.

As I reached out and was pulled up, the four of us—me, my ancestor, Chen Yu, Bao Cai, and I—knelt on the ground, huddled together, and wept with joy…

Bao Cai cried the loudest, repeatedly yelling, "Damn it, I thought I was going to die this time! I can't believe I'm still alive!"

Chen Yi hugged us, and although he was usually very talkative, he was a little choked up this time. We had never experienced anything like this before, a near-death experience with so many injuries, but we survived. Although the process was extremely difficult, we never let go of each other's hands.

Unlike us, the ancestor wasn't moved to tears. At his age, he had seen his share of storms, but seeing us like this still touched him. We were all immersed in the joy of escaping, as if we had climbed Mount Everest, survived countless life-threatening dangers, and ultimately all lived. Lan Quexi and the young Taoist priest watched us from the sidelines. Although they weren't part of the excitement, their expressions revealed a deep sense of relief...

The last one clinging to the rope was Chu Ba. The rosy glow of the sunset made his and Mi Ling's cheeks flush red. The pale-faced Princess Chu was the one Chu Ba had brought out of the golden nanmu coffin. We had seen her true face, so we couldn't imagine this mummified corpse as her. This makes one sigh, life is but a fleeting dream, a mere illusion in the end.

Just as everyone was marveling at this, the smiles on their faces vanished. Behind Chu Ba, Mi Ling was bathed in rosy light, her skin, including her hair and clothes, slightly flushed red. In an instant, she burst into bloom like a brilliant firework...

Tiny specks of ash swirled in the breeze above us like delicate butterflies… Looking at Chu Ba again, his back was now empty. We hadn't fulfilled Princess Chu's last wish when she vanished…

We gazed silently at the sky, and Chu Ba, still on the rope, was equally astonished. But as we looked down from the mountain's edge, the ethereal figure in purple robes reappeared. She smiled slightly at us, a touch of desolation welling up in her eyes. She seemed to have seen through the fleeting glories and vicissitudes of life, looking at us sadly before turning and disappearing into the dark rear chamber, leaving behind a fleeting, breathtaking glimpse.

At this moment, a single sentence echoed in the heavy air: "Thank you..."

After a long silence, Lao Tiao was the first to react. He asked in bewilderment, "What happened... what just happened?"

"She dismembered the body..." The ancestor gazed heavily into the dark cave, then stood up and said, "She decided to stay here..."

Stay here? My heart skipped a beat. Although I hadn't had much interaction with Princess Chu, she had waited for a hundred years, and we had gone to great lengths to fulfill her dream. Why?

The young Taoist priest said calmly, "She knew her sins were unforgivable, so she gave up the chance to be with the musician forever, punishing herself with eternal loneliness..."

"This...this is too tragic. She's already dead, and she still has to punish herself?" Bao Cai muttered.

"Sigh... I also feel this is too tragic. We've come to this point, what's the point!" Chen Yi put his arm around Bao Cai's shoulder, his face extremely pale.

The young Taoist priest said, "The past is gone like smoke. Though their love was deep, their fate was shallow... This is their destiny... Princess Chu has already made her choice..."

Before the young Taoist priest could finish speaking, he began to sway precariously. Seeing that the situation was dire, I reached out to support him, but in that instant, everything went black, and I lost consciousness.

When I woke up again, I was in a cave. My first thought was that I was still in the ancient tomb and that everything was just a dream. But when Lan Quexi appeared with wild fruit, I breathed a sigh of relief and realized that this was where her parents used to live.

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The chill in my body had dissipated at some point, but my throat was very itchy, and I couldn't stop coughing. I coughed so hard that my lungs felt like they were going to come out. Bao Cai was lying on the bed in the same situation as me.

I carefully stepped outside. The air was fresh, the flowers were in full bloom, and their fragrance was intoxicating. Magpies sang in the trees, their calls clear and melodious. Because of the rain, there were glistening water droplets on the leaves, and a thin layer of mist hung among the surrounding low trees. A simple wooden shed stood at the entrance of the cave, with green vines twining around it.

Lan Quexi and Lan Youyu used to make this their little hideout, and it was fully equipped with all their daily necessities. A clear stream flowed in the distance. This scene reminded me of a classmate who, after completing his design studies in Japan, returned to his hometown and secluded himself in the mountains. I visited him once; the mountain environment was nice, but if he were with me today and saw such a livable place, he'd probably have to move.

Although my muscles and skin ached and I was exhausted, I had never felt so relaxed. The distant mountains, the big trees, the flowing water, the little flowers... all seemed especially dear and lovely to me at that moment.

Lan Quexi prepared herbal medicine for each of us. Chen Tan was the most seriously injured, and a large patch of it was applied to his body. He couldn't move around much or get out of bed. Except for when Lan Quexi came, he would wake up briefly. Otherwise, he would lie in bed and sleep soundly. Judging from his appearance, he probably wouldn't wake up until he was completely asleep.

Right now, my biggest worry is the young Taoist priest. My ancestor told me he had completed the exorcism ritual and removed the chill from the ghostly soldiers. He's exhausted and lying by the stream. When I saw him, he was leaning against a wooden stake, resting with his eyes closed. I thought to myself, "The ancients were so adaptable! With all these wounds on my body, I definitely needed to lie in a soft and comfortable place."

I looked at the shocking wounds on his body and felt extremely distressed. Lan Quexi applied a greenish-blue paste to him, and seeing that he was breathing smoothly, I felt a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. Then I helped Chu Ba prepare food.

Chen Yu woke up when he smelled the aroma of meat. He wolfed down the pheasant and asked the ancestor about the antidote. The ancestor took out a small jade coffin, removed the contents, and Chen Yu and I were both stunned…

The item in our ancestor's hand was a silk scroll. We first saw this scroll in modern times, in the possession of seven tomb raiders; it turned out to be a relic of Liu Hua's ancestor. Now, after all this time, we've unexpectedly found it again. I felt a mix of emotions, thinking to myself: This is too much of a coincidence… Could it be that everything we experienced during our time travel was inevitable?

The small jade coffin was passed up from a hidden compartment in the wooden coffin where Mi Ling lay when they carried her body on the eighth day of the lunar month. It seems to be a mechanism, and it's likely that even Sima Yan was unaware of its existence.

Chen Yi trembled as he took the object he had once been obsessed with. He opened it, and its contents astonished us. The gist of it, translated, was:

I know I won't be buried with my beloved after I die, but on this day, I experienced a wonderful surprise. I divined that one day, someone will take me to fulfill an extremely luxurious dream. Although the wait will be long, I feel it will be well worth it for us to meet again.

I am not afraid that you will break your oath if you take the antidote, for if anyone does, they will live under the curse for eternity...

The following content describes how the Chu princess poisoned both the bamboo slips and silk scrolls in the musician's possession. The two poisons counteracted each other, meaning that the poison in the ancestor's body was neutralized when he held the silk scroll.

As for the curse, I think Princess Chu eventually chose to give it up, so it shouldn't still be haunting us. However, what's hard for us to believe is that someone can actually predict the future. It overturned my understanding. I thought, "Could our appearance really have been within Princess Chu's expectations? If she's not a deity, then what is she?"

The ending of the story was perhaps beyond even Princess Chu's imagination. During her centuries of waiting, she saw through everything. For the sins she herself had committed, she sacrificed herself, her soul forever condemned, to appease the wronged spirits who had been buried alive with her. As for her feelings for Sima Yan, the intelligent and virtuous Princess Chu probably knew all along, and foresaw everything he would do. Therefore, her choice was that everything that began with her would also end with her. As an outsider, I can only sigh—fate, after all, can be so cruel.

Seeing that he was cured of the poison, Chen Tiao went back to sleep without a care in the world. He had been through too much these past few days, and even his ancestor, who was made of iron, was now exhausted. He said that he would go to sleep as soon as I woke up.

Suddenly, three people crowded into the shop: Chen Yu, Bao Cai, and the Old Ancestor. Bao Cai's sleeping posture was particularly unsightly; one leg was draped over Chen Yu's wound. I moved it away, and soon after, his hand was back on Chen Yu's face. Ironically, the Old Ancestor was even worse than Bao Cai; he had only been lying down for a few minutes when he started snoring. Soon, the cave was filled with the thunderous snoring of the three men, a truly comical sight.

I shook my head helplessly, intending to help Lan Quexi grind some herbs. Just as I reached her side, I noticed she was looking down, her face pale. I wanted to ask her about her future plans, but she lowered her voice and said to me, "Young Master Feng, don't look up, someone's watching us!" (To be continued.)

I like tomb raiding.