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

The gourd-shaped cave is narrow at both ends and wide in the middle.

After Ma Liang joined the team, they started chatting animatedly with Wu Xie.

These two are a perfect match, evenly matched, and adept at entertaining and relieving boredom.

Before long, the three of them arrived at the end of the gourd cave.

The underground river water in the cave converges here into a trickle, flowing out along a cave entrance hidden by vines.

Ma Liang volunteered and took out the shovel he was carrying to clear a path.

In no time, they cleared a hole large enough for one person to pass through.

He poked half his body out, glanced at the scene outside, and suddenly let out a scream.

"Holy crap, there's a palace floating in the sky outside!"

Upon hearing this, Wu Xie was somewhat incredulous and exclaimed in surprise, "Ma Liang, are you kidding me?"

"Don't believe me? See for yourself!"

Ma Liang angrily stepped aside, and seeing his expression, Wu Xie was also undecided, so he quickly leaned half his body out.

He leaned his upper body out of the cave entrance and soon saw that outside the gourd cave was a valley with sheer cliffs on both sides, hundreds of feet high.

And in mid-air above the valley, there really is a magnificent palace suspended!

Below the palace, the valley is filled with clouds and mist, which looks like a dream, as if it were a celestial palace!

A flash of inspiration struck Wu Xie, and he instantly recalled the altar stone pillars he had seen in the previous section of the gourd cave!

There does indeed appear to be a scene above where King Xian sits in his palace, which is suspended in the clouds.

At the time, he thought it was just artistic embellishment, but who knew that the old bastard King Xian would actually build a Lingyun Immortal Palace!

For a moment, Wu Xie was so shocked that he was speechless and couldn't say a word for a long time.

However, after he calmed down and observed carefully, he realized that the Lingyun Immortal Palace was not actually floating in mid-air.

Below the celestial palace, there is another protruding rock bridge that supports the entire palace.

However, the rocky walkway is surrounded by clouds and mist, appearing and disappearing intermittently, which makes it look like a floating palace.

Seeing this, Wu Xie secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

If the King of Xian really had the ability to build a floating palace, then he really wouldn't dare to go any deeper.

After all, the elder brother was only a half-immortal, but if the Prince of Xian had achieved this level, wouldn't he have truly become an immortal?

After Wu Xie returned, he told them what he had discovered.

"Although it's not a floating celestial palace, the cliffs on both sides of the valley seem to have been carved out by human hands. I estimate that back then, King Xian had his craftsmen carve out this valley."

Upon hearing this, Ma Liang couldn't help but gasp.

This amount of work, let alone in ancient times, would be a huge undertaking even in modern times with all kinds of large machinery. It would take tens of thousands of people and several years to complete.

In the Han Dynasty, relying on human labor and horses, it's impossible to know how many people sacrificed their lives to achieve this level of capability.

After a moment of reflection, Ma Liang quickly asked, "Is there a road leading down there?"

"I just checked, there is a path. The rocky walkway is three or four meters above the cave entrance, you can just use a rope to go down."

As Wu Xie spoke, he quickly took out a rope from his backpack and tied one end to a large rock inside the gourd cave.

He then tested the rope's sturdiness and was the first to hang down along it.

Seeing this, Ma Liang looked at Li Changsheng with a fawning expression.

"Brother Li, why don't you go first?"

Li Changsheng glanced at the climbing rope that Ma Liang handed him and shook his head.

"No need for that trouble."

Before Ma Liang could react, Li Changsheng walked out of the cave and jumped.

"Holy shit!"

This scene prompted Ma Liang to swear again.

My scalp tingled instantly!

He quickly leaned out to look, only to find that Li Changsheng had landed steadily on the rocky bridge, even before Wu Xie.

"Damn, that's insane!"

Ma Liang couldn't help but mutter to himself!

He could jump from a height of three or four meters without hesitation, with a bottomless cliff below. In his eyes, Li Changsheng was simply a superman!

However, at this moment...

Sun Xiaomei's voice suddenly rang out behind Ma Liang.

"Brother Ma..."

Looking at the delicate and frail Sun Xiaomei, whose eyes were full of pleading, Ma Liang froze.

After a long while, he scratched his head hard, muttering to himself with a hint of annoyance, "My life is ruined by a woman!"

Despite his words, he did not abandon Sun Xiaomei and her father, but instead stepped forward, bent down, and carried Professor Sun on his back.

"Alright, I'll carry Professor Sun down, and you can come down after we're done."

Sun Xiaomei's eyes welled up with tears, and she couldn't help but murmur, "Brother Ma, you're a good person."

"No, I can't afford that."

Although Ma Liang was furious with Professor Sun's actions and wished he could abandon them, he still felt a pang of pity after hearing Wu Xie's account of the extermination of the Zhelong Village clan during their journey.

Ma Liang carried Professor Sun, who was blind, and struggled to reach the stone pier.

It felt like my lungs were on fire; I collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath.

After resting for a while, and waiting for Sun Xiaomei to come down, he finally recovered.

At this moment, Ma Liang looked around and found that several people were standing on a stone pier that was more than two meters wide.

At the end of the pier stands a magnificent palace perched high in the valley.

The celestial palace is shrouded in the clouds and mist of the valley, appearing dreamlike and ethereal, as if it were truly the heavenly palace of mythology.

Ma Liang was momentarily stunned by what he saw, secretly thinking to himself, "If this were developed into a tourist attraction, the ticket sales would be phenomenal!"

This is way more awesome than any temple or Taoist monastery!

Of course, he only thought about this idea in his head.

Zhelong Mountain is too primitive and dangerous. There is no way of knowing if there are any escaped Gu infants or other ancient creatures.

It seems that tourists will have to fill the monster's belly before they even reach Lingyun Immortal Palace.

While Ma Liang was still in a daze, Sun Xiaomei told Professor Sun what she had seen.

Professor Sun slapped his thigh excitedly after hearing this, exclaiming, "That's it! This is the Hall of Meeting Immortals, the palace where King Xian hosted banquets for the immortals! Little sister, quickly take me inside to see it!"

Sun Xiaomei nodded and helped Professor Sun carefully step onto the pier, walking slowly towards Lingyun Immortal Palace.

Seeing this, Ma Liang muttered a few words and followed.

The celestial palace before us is complete with divine walls, stele pavilions, and corner towers.

The Qin and Han dynasty bricks and tiles, reflecting sunlight through the clouds and mist, appear dazzling and radiant.

More importantly, it is unknown what techniques and pigments the ancient Dian Kingdom artisans used two thousand years ago, yet the palace's colors remain vibrant.

Ma Liang was dumbfounded. He turned around and saw Wu Xie, who had arrived earlier, already raising several cameras and snapping away at the palace.

Wu Xie couldn't contain his excitement and exclaimed, "Old Ma, we're going to be rich! We're the first to discover such a massive Lingyun Immortal Palace. If word gets out, it'll shake the entire archaeological world!"