Tomb raiding live stream: Starting as the mute Zhang

A massive bronze gate.

Majestic as a mountain, cold as a prison.

The countless overlapping eyes on the door seemed to come alive under the beams of several flashlights, their pupils all "staring" at the intruder. The huge vortex symbol at the center of the door, with its rotating patterns, seemed to possess a kind of hypnotic magic; looking at it for too long would make one feel dizzy.

The air seemed to freeze. Even the ubiquitous dust seemed to stand still in the beam of light. Only the sound of a heartbeat pounded in the chest.

"How do I open this door?" Fatty Wang asked in a low voice, as if afraid of disturbing something.

Zhang Qiling and "Zhang Qiling" had already reached the door. The two did not make a move immediately, but stood side by side, looking up at the dazzlingly intricate reliefs on the door and the central vortex.

After a moment, Zhang Qiling withdrew his gaze and looked at "Zhang Qiling". "Zhang Qiling" nodded slightly.

The two made a move at the same time.

Zhang Qiling took out the unified jade eye. "Zhang Qiling" took out the black bone fragment.

This time, they didn't press the object directly into the center of the vortex. Zhang Qiling's finger moved slowly along an extremely fine engraving on the edge of the vortex, almost blending into the surrounding patterns, and finally stopped about a palm's width above the vortex—where there was an exceptionally large, deep-set eye.

He gently placed his jade-like eye against the pupil of that enormous eye.

At the same time, Zhang Qiling attached the black bone fragment to the pupil of another equally large eye, which was symmetrically positioned below the vortex.

Perfectly fitted.

There was a few seconds of silence.

"Click... Cack cack cack cack..."

A deep, rumbling sound, seemingly emanating from the depths of the earth, accompanied by the deafening clang of countless intricate gears meshing and turning, emanated from within the massive bronze gate. The entire gate, along with the surrounding expanse of rock walls and the bronze plaza, began to tremble slightly.

Starting with two enormous eyes adorned with jade eyes and bone fragments, the dark gold patterns on the door seemed to come alive, quickly "lighting up" and spreading and connecting along the outlines of all the eye patterns on the door, finally converging on the vortex symbol at the center!

The vortex symbol suddenly burst forth with a dazzling, eerie blue light! The light did not spread, but instead condensed within the vortex, spinning at high speed to form an eerie blue vortex.

Then, amidst a deep, teeth-grinding metallic scraping sound, the massive bronze door, several meters high and incredibly heavy, slowly, very slowly opened inward.

No dust rose, no musty smell wafted out. Behind the door lay a deeper, purer darkness. Only the floor inside, at the edge of the flashlight beam, faintly reflected a cold, smooth texture, like some kind of black stone.

The light gradually stabilized. The door opened wide.

The scene behind the door exceeded everyone's expectations.

It is neither a tomb nor a palace.

Instead, it is an indescribably huge, cylindrical vertical space.

They stood at the bottom edge of this enormous cylindrical space. Beneath their feet was a polished black stone floor, extending several meters ahead into a bottomless, seemingly bottomless, pitch-black abyss. On the other side of the abyss, an unreachable, arched rock wall disappeared into the darkness.

In the very center of this cylindrical space, from the endless abyss of darkness below, stands a "pillar" that is straight, silent, and upright.

That's neither a stone pillar nor a bronze pillar.

That was the real, complete, and breathtakingly powerful trunk of the "Bronze Tree" they had seen in the cave before!

Rising abruptly from the depths of the abyss, its diameter several times greater than what had been seen in the cave, its surface no longer a rough, knotted mass, but covered with intricate, precise, and layered bronze reliefs. These reliefs were no longer simple bark patterns, but countless twisted human and animal figures, indescribable geometric symbols, and… countless pairs of eyes, some open, some closed, some sorrowful, some joyful, some angry, some indifferent. All the reliefs subtly pointed upwards to the part of the trunk that disappeared into the endless darkness above.

The trunk itself emits an extremely faint, yet constant, almost breathing, eerie blue glow. This glow illuminates the chilling reliefs on the trunk's surface and provides an unnatural light source to the enormous cylindrical space, making it appear even more bizarre and mysterious.

"My God..." Fatty Wang plopped down on the ground, not caring about the dirt, tilted his head back, opened his mouth, and completely lost the ability to speak.

Wu Xie was stunned, his glasses slipping down to the tip of his nose so low he forgot to push them up. The impact of this scene was more direct than any terrifying monster. Was this something humanly possible? Was this a sacrificial site, a tomb, or... something else entirely?

Xie Yuchen and Huo Xiuxiu also lost their usual composure, their faces pale, gazing up at this miraculous (or rather, demonic) creation, forgetting to even raise their cameras.

The blind man's eyes narrowed to slits behind his sunglasses. A Ning gripped his crossbow tightly. Jiang Xun Gu's Adam's apple bobbed.

The levitating livestream sphere flew to the edge of the abyss, recording the vertical drop, the glowing bronze pillar in the center, and the tiny, ant-like figures in the crowd in panoramic mode. The livestream chat went completely wild; the scrolling was so fast it was impossible to read, only a barrage of "!!!" and "Oh my god."

Zhang Qiling and "Zhang Qiling" were the only two people who could remain calm. But their gazes were also fixed on the central bronze pillar, their eyes deep and unfathomable.

"This...this is a tree? This is clearly the Tower of Babel!" Fatty Wang finally found his voice and shakily got up.

"Fatty, can't you be a little more cultured?" Wu Xie snapped out of his daze, adjusted his glasses, and tried to analyze the situation using his professional knowledge. "This is clearly an extremely complex, multi-layered sacrificial or ritualistic structure. It utilized a huge natural vertical fissure in the ground to cast this...this 'core pillar' along the central axis. The reliefs on it probably record a complete sacrificial ritual, or their worshipped mythological system. Looking at the arrangement of those eye symbols, there seems to be some kind of pattern..."

"A pattern?" the fat man interrupted him. "All I see are eyes everywhere, it's giving me trypophobia! How much bronze did they use? How many mountains did they hollow out?"

"It might not have been dug," Zhang Qiling suddenly said. He walked to the edge of the abyss, squatted down, and carefully looked at the boundary between the black ground and the abyss. "It's 'grown'."

"Long?" Wu Xie and Fatty looked at him at the same time.

"Hmm," Zhang Qiling walked over, his fingers tracing the area where the ground met the base of the bronze pillar. There was no obvious seam there; the bronze and rock were "fused" together in a strange way, as if the pillar had truly grown from the stone, or perhaps the rock had been "assimilated" by the pillar. "Bronze has permeated the rock. It's very old. Much older than the ones outside."

This statement startled everyone again. Older than the Shang and Zhou dynasty relics outside, or even earlier? What era was that? Ancient times? Early inhabitants?

"Look there." Xie Yuchen forced himself to remain calm and pointed to a spot about ten meters above the ground on the bronze pillar. There, through the gaps in the reliefs, one could vaguely see the outline of a protruding, square platform. On one side of the platform, a stepped shadow seemed to spiral upwards, clinging to the surface of the pillar, extending upwards and disappearing into the darkness.

"There's a way up!" Huo Xiuxiu's eyes lit up.

"How do we get up there?" Fatty Wang looked at the steep, smooth, ominous-looking giant pillar and the bottomless darkness below, his legs starting to tremble. "Fly up?"

"There's a trap." Zhang Qiling walked to the side of the base of the giant pillar. There, on the ground, was an inconspicuous pit about the size of a bowl, with smooth, dark red walls. Beside the pit, a small bronze figurine, only knee-high, knelt down, its hands outstretched, holding an empty bronze bowl of the same size.

"Blood sacrifice." Zhang Qiling looked at the dent and the bronze bowl and uttered two words in a calm tone.

"Not again?" Fatty Wang's face fell. "Why do the people around here always have a blood feud?"

"It might not be just any blood," Xie Yuchen pondered. "Looking at the corresponding positions of the bronze bowl and the dent, and the direction in which the terracotta figure is kneeling... it might require a specific bloodline, or blood containing specific 'information'."

Several gazes involuntarily fell once again on Zhang Qiling and "Zhang Qiling".

Zhang Qiling didn't speak, but walked to the dent and rolled up his left sleeve. He then lightly ran his right hand along the inside of his left wrist.

A thin line of blood appeared. The dark red blood, which appeared somewhat black under the eerie blue fluorescent light, dripped into the crater in the ground.

The moment the blood dripped in, two crimson lights suddenly shone from the eyes of the small bronze figurine! The bronze bowl it held in its hands also trembled slightly, and fine runes similar to those on the giant pillar appeared on the bottom of the bowl.

Immediately afterward, a slight tremor ran beneath everyone's feet. From the base of the giant pillar, near the beginning of the spiral staircase, a rectangular bronze plate silently slid open, revealing a dark opening beneath. A faint stream of air flowed from the opening, carrying an even stronger aura of bronze and time.

At the same time, a low, muffled sound, like the clanking of metal chains, came from the darkness above. A moment later, a narrow bronze staircase, just wide enough for one person to pass through, slowly descended from above, its end stopping precisely in front of the open opening. The staircase, also cast in bronze, was rusty and did not look very sturdy.

The levitating live-streaming sphere captured the entire process of activating the blood sacrifice mechanism and lowering the suspended ladder. The comments section was already divided into two camps: one camp was screaming, "This guy is bleeding again!", while the other camp was worried, "Is this ladder reliable?"

"Let's go." Zhang Qiling lowered his sleeve, quickly treated the wound on his wrist, and was the first to walk towards the suspended ladder. He tested the stability of the ladder, and then stepped onto it without hesitation.

"Zhang Qiling" followed closely behind.

Wu Xie took a deep breath and followed. Xie Yuchen, Huo Xiuxiu, Hei Xiazi, A Ning, and Jiang Xun Gu followed in turn.

Fatty Wang walked last. As he stepped onto the suspended ladder, it creaked and swayed with a sickening groan. Fatty's face turned green, and he gripped the bronze chain beside him tightly.

"Fatty, you should lose weight," Wu Xie said, turning around as he walked ahead.

"Bullshit! This broken ladder is old and in disrepair!" the fat man cursed, but he moved even more carefully.

The suspended ladder snaked upwards, clinging to the surface of a massive, cold bronze pillar. Below lay a bottomless abyss, above, an unknown darkness. Only the cold, rusted chains in his hands and the occasionally creaking footsteps beneath his feet were his only support.

A ghostly blue glow emanated from the central pillar, illuminating the nearby reliefs. The distorted faces, eerie eyes, and incomprehensible symbols appeared even more menacing and oppressive at such close range, as if they might leap out of the bronze walls at any moment.

As Wu Xie climbed, he couldn't help but examine the reliefs closely, trying to decipher them. "Look at this pattern, this human figure, holding... isn't that a jade eye? And this, doesn't it look like the star map we saw in the Xisha Islands?"

"Tianzhen, can't you concentrate on climbing the ladder?" Fatty Wang panted below him. "I'm about to collapse, stop swaying!"

"Who's wobbling? You're just too heavy!"

"I'm just being composed! What do you know!"

"You two," Zhang Qiling's voice came from above, calm and even, "be quiet."

Wu Xie and Fatty immediately shut up.

Zhang Qiling turned around and glanced at them indifferently. His gaze was devoid of emotion, but Wu Xie and Fatty inexplicably felt a chill run down their spines, as if they had been silently warned by some large feline.

Hei Xiazi chuckled softly above Wu Xie: "Dumb Zhang is cursing with his eyes: You two idiots, if you keep making noise I'll throw you down."

Wu Xie and Fatty: "..."

The group continued their ascent in silence. Only heavy breathing and the groans of the suspended ladders, strained under their weight, echoed around the massive, eye-filled bronze pillars.