Tomb raiding: Carrying a coffin during a funeral procession, rewarded with the Dragon Elephant Prajn

Seeing this, Wu Xie secretly groaned inwardly.

He glanced furtively at the mountain temple not far away, and regretted even more that he hadn't brought the Chicago typewriter with him.

But there was no time to regret it now, because Professor Sun also took out a homemade pistol, pointed it at Wu Xie's back, and forced him into the secret passage in the gourd's crack.

Below the crack in the gourd-shaped stone carving is a secret passage leading underground.

Wu Xie walked for about several dozen meters before finally catching up with Li Changsheng.

They were standing in a ditch.

Both sides were ditches, piled with countless animal bones and ivory.

At this moment, Sun Xiaomei took out a cold sparkler from her backpack, lit it, and threw it forward.

This burial ditch is over two hundred meters long, and the piles of animal bones are countless.

Putting everything else aside, these ivory tusks, each over a meter long, alone represent an immense fortune.

Of course, that was in the past.

In order to protect elephant populations, China has banned the trade in ivory for more than a decade.

In a few years, even the ivory trade with foreign countries was banned.

So Wu Xie just glanced at it and marveled at the sheer size of the burial ditch.

Li Changsheng and Wu Xie walked in front, while Professor Sun and his daughter walked behind.

Anyone would be terrified if a gun were pointed at them.

Wu Xie was no exception, and he was also thinking about his old classmate Ma Liang, wondering how he was doing.

To avoid having any unfounded thoughts and causing trouble in this underground tomb passage, he had no choice but to force himself to speak.

"Brother, judging from the ivory and bones, there are probably no fewer than a hundred elephants, and the bones and teeth are all intact. It's obvious that they were slaughtered outside and then transported in."

Li Changsheng didn't respond, but Sun Xiaomei asked curiously.

"Is there any difference?"

"The difference is huge!"

Wu Xie shook his head and explained, "Such a large elephant herd is unprecedented in modern times, even after the Tang Dynasty! According to ancient records, the world was divided into nine provinces. Today's Henan was called Yuzhou. The 'Yu' in Yuzhou actually refers to the habitat of the elephant herd."

Are there elephants in Henan?

Upon hearing this, Sun Xiaomei was filled with surprise.

Elephant herds are very rare in Yunnan, and every single one is documented by the government.

But unexpectedly, there were elephants in ancient Henan.

"That's right. Henan was already called Yuzhou around the Xia Dynasty more than 5,000 years ago. It wasn't until the Han Dynasty that the name Yuzhou was gradually replaced. This is because after the end of the Han Dynasty, due to hunting and the climate, it was no longer suitable for elephants to live, so the elephants gradually migrated to Southeast Asia."

The main reason is the climate.

The Ming Dynasty experienced the Little Ice Age, a fact that is well-known to later generations.

There is a pattern to the Little Ice Age; almost every major upheaval in Chinese history was related to the Little Ice Age.

During this period, solar activity decreased, the weather turned colder, and grain production declined, leading to widespread poverty and hardship, which in turn spurred numerous peasant uprisings.

This cycle has occurred at least four times in history.

For example, the late Shang Dynasty, the late Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period, the late Tang Dynasty, and the late Ming Dynasty.

Of course, modern people don't need to worry about the Little Ice Age.

Leaving aside the advanced technology that can cope with the production reduction caused by the Little Ice Age, based on the time intervals of the previous ones, the next Little Ice Age will be at least around 2600 years from now.

Wu Xie paused, his gaze sweeping over the stark white elephant bones at his feet, and continued, "Therefore, the scale of this burial pit can be traced back to at least the Han Dynasty. To demonstrate his power and status, King Xian did not hesitate to use such a large herd of elephants to be buried with him, which shows the extent of his extravagance."

Sun Xiaomei listened blankly, clearly not interested in this kind of archaeological knowledge, and just nodded perfunctorily.

Professor Sun, who was walking at the back, had a glint in his eyes and sneered, "You know quite a lot, but kid, I advise you to focus on figuring out how to solve the mechanism and stop showing off your knowledge here."

Wu Xie pursed his lips, then asked in a low voice, "Little sister, are you and Professor Sun from Zhelong Village?"

Before he could finish speaking, Professor Sun interrupted him fiercely.

"Don't ask questions you shouldn't ask!"

Helpless, Wu Xie could only ask, "Then can you tell me where Ma Liang is right now?"

Sun Xiaomei hesitated for a moment and said, "He's fine, he was just knocked unconscious by my dad."

Hearing this, Wu Xie felt relieved, but he wondered what Professor Sun and Sun Xiaomei's purpose was.

He didn't believe in immortality at all.

The biggest joke in the world is probably going to a tomb to find immortality!

If the tomb owner could live forever, why would they need to build a tomb for themselves? That's nonsense.

The group continued along the burial ditch, and after walking about a hundred meters, the river suddenly narrowed. The walls on both sides were no longer natural rock, but showed signs of artificial construction.

The walls were carved with all sorts of strange patterns, including winged snakes, monsters with human faces and bird bodies, and some bizarre creatures whose names were completely unknown.

After walking several dozen meters, water from an underground river began to appear in the burial ditch.

The further in you go, the higher the water level becomes, sometimes even submerging the ridge of the ditch.

The four of them had to wade through the icy underground river, moving forward step by step.

After walking another hundred meters, the underground river became increasingly deep. It was already above my neck, so I had to swim across.

Sun Xiaomei lit another cold firework and threw it out, after which everyone witnessed a shocking and indescribable scene.

Within this underground river, countless stone pillars stood tall!

These stone pillars are not the rocks that the people imagined, but fossils of plants and animals. The textures of the plants and the teeth of the animals can even be clearly seen on the stone pillars.

Wu Xie exclaimed in surprise, then couldn't help but say, "According to geological principles, fossils take millions or even tens of millions of years to form. There's only one possibility for so many fossils to form at the same time!"

"What's possible?"

Sun Xiaomei asked instinctively.

Even Professor Sun perked up his ears, clearly very curious about the matter.

He was, after all, a specialist in folklore research and knew nothing about geology.

Wu Xie knew these things because of his family's tradition of learning.

His father did not participate in the Wu family's tomb raiding business, but instead became a geology professor after graduation.

Wu Xie didn't spend much time with his father, but through exposure, he still learned some geological knowledge.

"Zhelong Mountain was an active volcano millions of years ago, and it experienced a massive eruption! The volcanic lava buried countless plants and animals underground, and the temperature was rapidly cooled by the backflow of underground rivers, which formed this spectacular fossil forest. In the 1980s, geologists discovered a similar fossil forest under a volcano in the El Nido Islands."

At this point, Wu Xie shook his head again, looking quite regretful.

"Unfortunately, the El Nido volcano erupted again more than a decade ago, burying the fossil forest. Because too much lava had accumulated and the volcano was unstable, the fossil forest can no longer be seen."