Tomb raiding live stream: Starting as the mute Zhang

The stone steps lead downwards.

It's very steep; each step is higher than normal, so you have to step sideways and be careful.

The stone surface was slippery and covered with a layer of dark green moss. It felt soft underfoot, like stepping on rotten meat.

The fishy smell in the air had faded, replaced by another scent—the earthy smell of bygone years mixed with the coldness of the stones themselves, and an indescribable odor, similar to the rust of old metal.

The beam of the headlamp cut through the darkness, illuminating the rough rock walls on either side of the stone steps.

The rock face is not natural; it has obvious man-made chisel marks, one after another, very neat, but in a random direction, as if many people had haphazardly hammered it with chisels.

The procession moved very slowly.

"Zhang Qiling" led the way, his steps steady, each step landing perfectly in the center of the steps.

The black gold ancient sword in his hand was not drawn; he was only holding the hilt loosely, but his whole body was taut, like a fully drawn bow.

Zhang Qiling followed three steps behind him, also holding a knife, his eyes constantly scanning the rock walls on both sides and the top of his head.

His observation method is more meticulous. He will pause for half a second in front of a chisel mark to judge its direction, depth, and type of tool, and then continue.

Following them are Wu Xie, Fatty Wang, Xie Yuchen, Huo Xiuxiu, A Ning, Jiang Xun Gu, and Hei Xiazi.

Nine people lined up in a row, their footsteps echoing and overlapping on the narrow steps, sounding like a large number of people walking.

The levitating live-streaming ball floated in the middle of the group, with the camera focused on the back of "Zhang Qiling" in front, and occasionally turning to the back.

The silvery-white sphere emitted a faint self-luminescence in the darkness, like a silent eye.

In the live stream, the scrolling of comments was slower than before.

"These steps look difficult to walk on."

"These two guys are very vigilant."

The atmosphere was a bit oppressive.

"Did the people from the other families follow?"

After walking for about ten minutes, the stone steps were still extending downwards.

Looking back, the light at the entrance was no longer visible; only an impenetrable darkness remained.

"How deep must it be..."

Fatty Wang took a breath, his voice echoing between the stairs.

"At least fifty meters."

Xie Yuchen glanced at the altimeter on his wrist.

"And it's still falling."

"Is there such a large space beneath the island?"

Wu Xie asked.

"It may not have been formed naturally."

Huo Xiuxiu shone her flashlight on the rock wall.

"Look at these chisel marks. Although they're messy, you can tell they're from different stages. The earliest marks are very shallow, and the tools were rough; then there are a few deeper ones, and the tools were more refined; the top layer... looks like it was done recently."

"recent?"

Jiang Xun Gu frowned.

"Within a few decades."

Huo Xiuxiu touched the edge of a chisel mark with her finger.

"The marks are fresh, with no moss covering them."

"Someone has been here."

Black Bear's summary.

"More than one batch."

Xie Yuchen added.

The line continued downwards.

After walking for about five more minutes, the stone steps finally came to an end.

In front of you is a platform, about half the size of a basketball court.

The ground was flat, paved with neatly cut stone slabs, with dark red moss growing in the gaps, resembling blood vessels.

The platform is surrounded by rock walls on three sides, with an archway directly in front.

The door was made of stone; it had no doors, just an archway.

The lintel is inscribed with characters, a crooked script that looks like insects crawling across it.

Zhang Qiling stopped in front of the door and looked up at the words.

"Can you recognize it?"

Xie Yuchen asked.

"Sacrificial text".

"Zhang Qiling" said.

"What did you write?"

"Zhang Qiling" paused for a few seconds before slowly reciting the name.

"This place is sealed off. Do not enter without permission. There is something strange inside; touching it will result in death. If anyone comes here, leave immediately. If you insist on going forward, you will be responsible for your own life or death."

After reading it, he looked at "Zhang Qiling".

Zhang Qiling nodded, indicating that he recognized the same person.

"Banned..."

Wu Xie repeated these two words.

"Ban what?"

"have no idea."

"Zhang Qiling" said.

"Shall we go in and take a look?"

Fatty Wang asked.

"Enter."

Zhang Qiling was the first to enter the doorway.

Behind the door is a passageway, wider than the stone steps, wide enough for two people to walk side by side.

Murals began to appear on the rock walls on both sides of the passageway.

The mural is very simple, painted directly on the stone with some kind of dark red pigment.

The lines are rough and the image is distorted, but you can still make out the general content.

The first picture shows a group of people kneeling on the ground, bowing in one direction.

They were not worshipping a god, but a huge eye painted on the rock face.

The eyes have vertical pupils with swirling patterns drawn inside.

The second image: The eyes come alive, with countless tentacle-like things extending from the pupils, entangling the kneeling worshipper.

Those people looked pained, but no one struggled.

The third image shows people entangled by tentacles beginning to change, their bodies contorting, growing extra limbs, some sprouting horns on their heads, and others growing wings on their backs.

The fourth image shows people who have completed their transformations lining up and entering a cave.

Deep inside the cave, the outline of a door can be vaguely seen.

The mural ends here.

The rock face behind is empty; it's not painted.

"The vortex of the eye..."

Xie Yuchen said in a low voice.

"The same as those in Jingjue Ghost City and the Tomb of King Xian."

"But it's more direct here."

Huo Xiuxiu shone her flashlight on the mutated people depicted in the mural.

"In the records of Jingjue and the tomb of King Xian, the 'eye' is more like a symbol or a passage. Here... it seems to be some kind of 'transformation ritual'."

"Turning people into monsters?"

Wu Xie's face turned pale.

"possible."

Zhang Qiling did not participate in the discussion.

He walked to the end of the mural, where there were several deep scratches on the rock wall, as if they had been carved with a sharp tool.

The scratches formed a line of text, the same type as the text on the door, but even more illegible.

"What did you write?"

"Black Bear asked."

"Zhang Qiling" recognized him and spoke.

"The seal is about to break. We will use our bodies as a lock to guard it for another hundred years. Anyone who comes after us and sees this message, leave immediately. If you insist on going deeper, you will surely suffer a terrible disaster."

"Using myself as a lock..."

Jiang Xun Gu repeated.

"Does that mean someone has identified themselves as part of the seal?"

Aning asked.

"possible."

Zhang Qiling nodded.

He continued walking forward.

The passageway began to turn; it was no longer straight.

After turning two corners, a light appeared ahead.

It wasn't the light from a headlamp, but another kind of light—a pale, faint green, but definitely bright.

Everyone slowed down and turned off their headlamps.

At the end of the passageway was a huge space.

It's too dark to see how big it is.

All that could be seen was a flat stone slab ground that stretched into the depths of darkness.

The light source comes from the center of the space—

There are several stone pillars standing there.

Each stone pillar is as thick as two people can hug and is five or six meters high.

The pillars are covered with the same sacrificial texts as the entrance, as well as some distorted, talisman-like patterns.

There are some things embedded on the surface of the stone pillar.

bone.

Human bones.

Hand bones, leg bones, ribs, skull... were sealed on the surface of the stone pillar by some kind of translucent, amber-like substance.

The eerie green light emanates from these pieces of amber.

The bones are very well preserved, and every detail can be seen clearly.

Some bones still had dried skin and flesh attached to them, and some bones had strange growths at the joints, as if they had grown an extra section.

In the central open space surrounded by several stone pillars, several people were kneeling.

To be precise, there were several corpses.

Wearing tattered clothes of indeterminate age, they remained in a kneeling posture, facing the stone pillar.

Their bodies did not decay, but instead turned into something resembling wax figures, with grayish-white skin clinging tightly to the bones.

His facial expression was calm, even somewhat devout, with his eyes closed and his hands clasped together.

"Is this... using one's body as a lock?"

Wu Xie's voice was dry.

"possible."

Zhang Qiling walked to a kneeling corpse and squatted down to examine it.

A wooden sign was hanging around the neck of the corpse, tied with a rope.

The wooden sign has turned black, but the words on it are still legible.

Zhang Qiling picked up the wooden plaque and read out the words on it.

"Lin Zhong, the seventh-generation guardian of the Wuxian tribe, voluntarily became the lock to guard this door. If future generations see that my body is not yet decayed, the seal is still intact; do not disturb it. If my body has decayed, the seal will break; leave quickly."

He then examined several other corpses, all of which had similar wooden plaques around their necks with different names written on them, but the content was largely the same.

The pillar guardian of the Wuxian tribe.

Voluntarily acting as a lock.

This gap in the gate is sealed.

"The gap in the doorway..."

Xie Yuchen walked to a stone pillar and shone his flashlight on the inscription.

"It is written here: 'If the door is unstable, evil spirits will leak out. Put a human pillar to suppress it, and you can ensure peace for a hundred years.'"

"Human pillar?"

Fatty Wang swallowed hard.

"It's about using living people as pillars, nailing them to the key points of the seal."

Hei Xiazi explained.

"It was used in some evil sealing techniques in ancient times. People were buried alive at the core of the formation, and their life force and resentment were used to strengthen the seal. These people... did it voluntarily."

"Would you willingly bury yourself alive here?"

Wu Xie found it hard to believe.

"Reading the words on the wooden sign is voluntary."

Zhang Qiling stood up.

He stared at the kneeling corpses for a long time.

Then, he walked outside the circle formed by the stone pillars and sat down cross-legged.

Zhang Qiling also sat down next to him.

Neither of them spoke; they simply sat quietly, gazing at the glowing stone pillars and the kneeling corpse in the center of them.

The others also found places to sit down, rest, drink water, and eat energy bars.

In the live stream chat, the chat was buzzing with discussion.

"Voluntarily becoming a human sacrifice...that takes immense resolve."

"The Wuxian tribe, the one mentioned before in the southwest for raising Gu poison tombs."

"What exactly is the 'gap' in the doorway? It's mentioned in every tomb."

"What are you two doing, meditating?"

"Perhaps sensing something."

After sitting for about ten minutes, "Zhang Qiling" opened his eyes.

"The seal is still there, but it's loosened."

"How much has it loosened?"

"Zhang Qiling" asked.

"Thirty percent."

"How much longer can we hold out?"

"several years."

Zhang Qiling stood up, walked to a stone pillar, and placed his hand on the pillar.

The light from the stone pillar rippled slightly, spreading out like water.

He could sense a faint but definitely active power sealed within the pillar.

That is the core of the seal, sustained by the lives and will of these "pillar guardians".

But now, this force is waning.

Like a lamp that's almost out of oil, the light is still there, but it's already dim.

"Do we need to reinforce it?"

Xie Yuchen asked.

"Won't."

Zhang Qiling shook his head.

"What should we do then?"

"Find the source."

Zhang Qiling withdrew his hand and looked into the depths of the space.

There is still a road there.

A downward-sloping road, hidden in the darkness.

"Walk."

The team set off again.

As Wu Xie left the area around the stone pillars, he looked back once more.

In the dim green light, the kneeling corpses knelt silently, like a few silent statues.

How many years have they been guarding this place? Decades? Centuries?

In order to suppress that "gap," they voluntarily became like this.

He felt a little upset.

Don't overthink it.

Fatty Wang patted him.

"Everyone has their own choices. They chose to be the lock, we chose to go inside. It's all our own choice, so we can't blame anyone else."

The slope was very steep, and you had to hold onto the protrusions on the rock face to go down.

After walking about twenty meters, the slope turned into a downward staircase, as steep as the entrance, but narrower, allowing only one person to pass at a time.

"Zhang Qiling" leads the way, with "Zhang Qiling" bringing up the rear.

The people in the middle moved down one by one.

Suddenly, very light footsteps came from above.

It wasn't their footsteps; the sound came from above—from the direction of the passageway.

Everyone stopped and looked up.

The footsteps stopped.

But you could hear very faint breathing sounds and the rustling of clothes against the rock face.

More than one person.

"They followed us."

Jiang Xun Gu said in a low voice.

"The Wang family, the Luo family."

Black Bear sneered.

"Should we handle this?"

Aning asked.

"Need not."

"Zhang Qiling" said.

"Let them follow."

"Zhang Qiling" added.

The two continued walking down.

The others followed.

The footsteps above resumed, following at a distance, neither too close nor too far.

The stairs extended downwards for about thirty meters until they reached the bottom.

It's another platform, but smaller than the one above.

At the end of the platform is a door.

This time it's not a stone door, it's a bronze door.

The door wasn't big, only the size of an ordinary room door, but it was very thick, and its surface was covered with raised patterns—all of them eyes.

Eyes, densely packed together, some closed, some half-open, some fully open.

A dark green stone was embedded in the pupil, reflecting a cold light under the flashlight beam.

The door was closed, but unlocked.

A gust of wind blew through the crack in the door.

It was very faint, but there was definitely a breeze.

It has a...sweet, cloying fragrance, like the smell of some kind of rotten flower.

Zhang Qiling walked to the door and pushed it open.

The door was heavy, but it could be pushed open.

He exerted force, and the hinges creaked open slowly inwards with a harsh grinding sound.

Behind the door was a room.

It's not big, about ten square meters.

The four walls are made of stone, and there are no windows.

In the center of the room was a stone table with some items on it.

An open book.

A pen.

An oil lamp, the oil has dried up.

Behind the table sat a corpse.

He was wearing a Taoist robe, his hair was styled into a bun, and a wooden hairpin was inserted into it.

The body did not decompose but became a mummified corpse, with the skin clinging tightly to the bones and turning dark brown.

He sat in the chair, head down, as if reading a book.

Zhang Qiling walked into the room, and the others followed.

A levitating live-streaming sphere floats at the entrance, with the camera pointed inside the room.

The number of comments in the live stream increased again.

"This body is very well preserved."

What's written in that book on the table?

"Was this person reading here while the oil lamp was still lit?"

"It feels so eerie."

Zhang Qiling walked to the table and looked at the open book.

The book was handwritten; the paper had yellowed and become brittle, but the handwriting was still legible.

It is a more formalized sacrificial text that records certain events.

He quickly scanned a few pages, then spoke, reading out the key points.

"I am the High Priest of the Wuxian tribe, and I have been ordered to guard this gap for thirty years. The gap is unstable, and evil spirits often seep out, disturbing the living beings. I consulted ancient books and learned of the method of 'human pillar sealing'. I selected seven warriors from the tribe to volunteer as locks and nail them to the eye of the formation. The seal was strengthened, and peace was temporarily restored."

"However, this method is not a long-term solution. The life force of the human pillar will eventually run out, and the seal will also wear away with the years. I have calculated day and night and found a glimmer of hope—the source of the gap in the door is deeper. If we can seal the source, we may be able to solve the problem once and for all."

"I will delve deeper to find the root cause. This book will remain here, so that future generations who see it will know that I have already faced death. This matter concerns the well-being of all people; I urge you to treat it with utmost care."

The book broke at this point.

The last few pages were torn out, leaving only jagged edges.

"He went inside."

Xie Yuchen looked into the depths of the room.

There was also a small door there, hidden in the shadows.

Zhang Qiling walked to the small door and pushed it.

The door is locked and cannot be opened.

He took a step back and looked at "Zhang Qiling".

Zhang Qiling stepped forward, placed his hand on the door, and closed his eyes to sense it for a few seconds.

There's something behind us.

"Living creature?"

"It doesn't look like it."

"open?"

"open."

Zhang Qiling stepped back, raised his leg, and kicked the door.

"Bang!"

The door panel shattered and collapsed inward.

Behind the door, there was another downward passage.

But this time, there was light in the passageway.

It wasn't a ghostly green light, but a dark red one, like congealed blood.

Light shone from the depths of the passage, turning the entire passage a dark red.

In the red light, you can see something moving.

shadow.

A person's shadow.

In the red light, I slowly stood up, turned around, and faced the door.

Then, he stepped forward and walked towards them.