Tomb raiding live stream: Starting as the mute Zhang

Behind the bronze door is a very wide tomb passage.

The ground was paved with bluestone slabs, with black mold growing in the cracks. The walls on both sides were made of whole blocks of bluestone, covered with reliefs of birds, beasts, insects, and fish, which looked as if they were about to come alive. There was a smell in the air that was a mixture of old ash and rust, and it felt cool to breathe in.

The flashlight beam swayed back and forth, only illuminating a small section ahead. Beyond that, it was pitch black, like a hole.

Zhang Qiling and Zhang Qiling walked side by side at the front, an arm's length apart. Their footsteps were silent. The people behind them followed, their steps uneven, their breathing low.

I walked about a hundred steps.

Zhang Qiling stopped.

Zhang Qiling also stopped at the same time.

The two listened intently. From deep within the tomb passage came a very faint sound, like metal scraping against stone. Creak, creak, rhythmic, growing closer.

"Something's coming," Zhang Qiling said.

"There's more than one," Zhang Qiling added.

The voice just fell.

In the darkness ahead, two rows of eerie green lights appeared. One pair, two pairs, three pairs… a full ten pairs. The green lights swayed and moved toward this side. The sound of metal scraping grew louder, mixed with heavy footsteps.

Shine the flashlight beam over.

The photo reveals ten "people".

They wore tattered ancient armor, rusted to pieces. The exposed skin was bluish-black, shriveled and clung to the bones. Their faces were devoid of flesh, only skeletal outlines remained, with two clusters of green fire flickering in their eye sockets. They dragged rusted iron swords and long spears in their hands, their steps stiff, yet each step caused the stone slabs to tremble slightly.

They're zongzi (sticky rice dumplings). Judging by their armor, they're soldiers from the Warring States period. But they feel different from the white-haired and green-haired zombies we encountered before. These zongzi move more coordinatedly, vaguely resembling an army advancing in formation.

"Iron Corpse." Black Bear's voice came from behind, tinged with seriousness. "He was an elite soldier in life, and after death he was refined using a special method. He has a body of copper and iron, great strength, and simple coordination. Troublesome."

Ten iron corpses stopped about twenty meters away from the group, their green eyes fixed on them. Then, they raised their rusted weapons, took a step, and charged forward at an accelerated pace! Their footsteps pounded the ground, making the entire tomb passage tremble.

"Fire!" Lin Guoce roared.

The soldiers had already raised their guns and aimed, unleashing a deluge of bullets. The bullets struck the Iron Corpse, sending sparks flying and clanging. They only left a few white dots on the armor, failing to penetrate it at all. The Iron Corpse's charge showed no sign of slowing.

"Retreat! Find cover!" Lin Guoce felt a chill run down his spine.

The crowd hurriedly retreated, but the tomb passage was straight and the walls on both sides were smooth, leaving nowhere to hide.

Seeing that the two iron corpses at the front had rushed within ten meters, the rusty sword was raised high and was about to be slashed down at Zhang Qiling and Zhang Qiling who were standing at the front.

Zhang Qiling came to life.

He didn't draw his sword, nor did he unsheathe it. The instant the iron sword fell, he took a half-step to the left, shifting his body to the side to avoid the blade. His right hand shot out, grabbing the iron corpse's wrist as it held the sword. He tightened his grip and twisted with force.

"Snap!"

A piercing sound of bones cracking filled the air. He had forcefully snapped the Iron Corpse's wrist bones. The rusty sword slipped from his hand and clattered to the ground.

Zhang Qiling didn't stop. He used his right hand, which had been twisted in the wrist, to lift up the iron corpse's chin and forcefully pull it to the left.

"Crack!"

The sound of a neck bone breaking. The iron corpse's head lolled to one side, the green flames in its eyes flickered a few times, then went out. Its massive body crashed to the ground.

From grabbing the wrist to snapping the neck, it took less than two seconds. The movements were swift and decisive, all based on solid grappling and explosive power.

Almost at the same time that Zhang Qiling dealt with the first one, he also faced off against the other one.

The iron corpse wielded a long halberd, aiming straight for his chest. Zhang Qiling neither dodged nor evaded; at the very moment the halberd tip was about to touch him, his left hand flashed out, grabbing the halberd shaft and pulling it sharply to his side. The iron corpse's forward momentum was deflected, and it staggered.

Zhang Qiling raised his right foot and kicked the side of the Iron Corpse's left knee hard.

"Bang!"

A muffled thud. The Iron Corpse's knees bent in the opposite direction, and he knelt on one leg. Zhang Qiling released the halberd, clenched his right fist, tensed his forearm muscles, and delivered a vicious elbow strike to the Iron Corpse's temple.

"Thump!"

Like striking a broken gong. The Iron Corpse's helmet dented, and the green flames in its eye sockets went out with a thud. Its body slumped to the side.

The two men, one on each side, instantly felled two more. But eight iron corpses had already rushed in from behind, wildly swinging their weapons, sealing off all the space in front of them.

"Fatty, Wu Xie, step back!" Hei Xiazi roared, and darted forward. He didn't draw his gun, but held a specially made military dagger in his hand. Facing an iron corpse wielding a knife that was slashing at him from the left, he ducked to avoid the blade, and thrust the dagger upwards, piercing into the gap in the iron corpse's armor, all the way to the hilt. Then he twisted his wrist and pulled horizontally with force.

"Sizzle—" The sound of metal scraping against bone. The iron corpse froze, and the green flame went out.

Xie Yuchen and Huo Xiuxiu stood guard to the side and in front of Wu Xie and Fatty. A metal corpse swung a hammer at Xie Yuchen. Xie Yuchen moved nimbly, dodging to the side. A pair of fine steel spikes had appeared in his hands without him noticing. The moment the metal corpse withdrew its hammer, the spikes, like venomous snakes, precisely pierced the gaps between the metal corpse's shoulder joints and twisted.

The iron corpse's arms immediately went limp. Xie Yuchen kicked it in the chest, sending it flying backward.

Another iron corpse lunged at Huo Xiuxiu. Huo Xiuxiu remained calm, and as the iron corpse drew near, she suddenly crouched down, her dagger slicing across the corpse's ankle. The dagger was so sharp that it severed the hardened tendons. The iron corpse collapsed forward. Huo Xiuxiu rose, reversed her grip on the dagger, and plunged it into the back of its neck.

Lin Guoce and his soldiers fought the Iron Corpse in close combat with rifle butts and entrenching tools, but it was very difficult. One soldier was grabbed by the shoulder by the Iron Corpse and was about to be torn apart.

Zhang Qiling kicked away the iron corpse blocking his way, and in a flash, he appeared next to the soldier. He grabbed the iron corpse's wrist with his left hand and chopped at its elbow with his right.

"Crack!" The Iron Corpse's forearm snapped in the opposite direction. Zhang Qiling followed up with a side kick, sending it flying.

Zhang Qiling was simultaneously surrounded by three iron corpses. One was stabbing him in the face with a sword, another was sweeping his lower body with a halberd, and the third was smashing his back with a hammer from behind.

Instead of retreating, Zhang Qiling advanced, meeting the sword thrust head-on. Just as the tip of the sword touched his throat, he tilted his head to the left, the blade grazing his neck. He grabbed the wrist of the sword-wielding iron corpse with his left hand and slammed his right shoulder into its chest.

"Bang!" The iron corpse was sent flying backward by the impact, knocking over the one behind it who was swinging the hammer.

At the same time, he raised his right foot, heel down, and stomped hard on the sweeping halberd, pressing it to the ground. Then his left foot sprang up and kicked the iron corpse holding the halberd in the jaw.

"Crack!" The jawbone shattered. The iron corpse fell backward, head tilted back.

His movements were wide and powerful, each strike landing squarely on the Iron Corpse's vital joints, making him extremely efficient.

Hei Xiazi took down another one, plunging a military dagger into its eye socket and shredding what was inside. He withdrew the dagger and looked at the battlefield. Zhang Qiling and Zhang Qiling were like two red-hot knives cutting into butter, tearing two gashes through the horde of iron corpses. Those impervious to blades and spears, those incredibly strong iron corpses, appeared clumsy and fragile before them.

"Damn, that's fierce." Black Bear spat and pounced on another one.

The battle was swift.

In less than two minutes, all ten iron corpses lay motionless on the ground. The tomb passage reeked of rust and dust.

People were panting heavily, looking at the mess on the ground, still shaken.

The comments section was flooded with messages:

[ID Prophet: Iron Corpse! Invulnerable to blades and spears!]

[ID: The real experts are outdone! It has to be the guys! Head-to-head!]

[ID Guy Fan Club: My husband is so handsome even when he's fighting!]

[Did Fatty Lose Weight Today?: Blackie and Flower Master are amazing too!]

[ID: Chicken You're Too Beautiful: The soldiers are starting to struggle.]

"Check for casualties!" Lin Guoce shouted, wiping his sweat.

The inventory revealed that three soldiers were injured by the Iron Corpse; their bones might be fractured, but none were dead. Kun Ge had a minor cut on his arm. Chen Man and Wang Yihan were pale with fright but unharmed. Wang Lei, Liu Min, and Zhou Ting stayed far away and were unharmed. Sun Shuanzhu was being dragged by a soldier and had fainted again.

"These iron corpses seem to be guarding this tomb passage." Professor Zhou Xu'an, still shaken, looked at the armor on the ground. "Judging from the style, they're elite troops from the Warring States period. To use this method to guard a tomb..."

"There are definitely more ahead." Jiang Shouyi's face was grim.

Zhang Qiling and Zhang Qiling had reached the end of the tomb passage. There, another door appeared. The stone door was ajar, and an even colder wind blew out from inside.

Zhang Qiling pushed open the door.

Behind the door was a huge square burial chamber. In the center of the chamber, seven enormous stone coffins were placed side by side. The coffins were identical, arranged in the shape of the Big Dipper. Each coffin was covered with a thick layer of dust, obscuring the details.

Seven Stars Suspicious Coffin.

At each of the four corners of the tomb chamber stood a bronze human-shaped lamp slave, with black residue still inside the lamps. The walls were covered with murals, but the light was too dim to see them clearly.

"We've arrived," Zhang Qiling said, his voice echoing in the empty tomb chamber.

People walked in one after another, and as the flashlight beams swept across the seven coffins, they all felt a chill run down their spines.

"Seven bites...which bite is real?" Kun's voice was weak.

"According to the murals and records we just saw, the true body of King Lu Shang, and the jade figurine possessed by Iron-Faced Man, should be inside one of the openings," Professor Zhou Xu'an said, trying to remain calm. "But choosing the wrong one could trigger a deadly trap."

Wu Xie looked at the coffins, then at the murals, trying to recall the scattered notes about the Seven Star Coffins in his grandfather's notebook. "The arrangement of the seven stars corresponds to celestial phenomena. The gate between life and death is unpredictable. We need to find the coffin corresponding to the gate of life..."

The fat man scratched his head: "How the hell are we supposed to know where the gate of life is? We're not fortune tellers."

Xie Yuchen walked to a coffin, carefully examining the gap between the lid and the body, and then looked at the dust on the ground. "The dust is even, with no signs of recent movement. All seven are the same."

Black Bear wandered around, tapping the walls and floor with his military dagger, listening for the echoes. "The tomb chamber is solid, with no hidden compartments. The mechanism should be in the coffin itself, or a chain reaction after it's triggered."

Huo Xiuxiu was looking at the murals on the wall, but the light was too dim, and she was having difficulty seeing them. "These paintings... seem to be about coffins and jade figurines, but the order is a bit messed up."

Zhang Qiling and Zhang Qiling remained silent. They split up and slowly walked along the seven coffins, their eyes scanning every detail. Zhang Qiling's shoulder tattoo felt slightly warm, reacting more strongly to the third coffin slightly to the left. Zhang Qiling stopped in front of the rightmost coffin, his finger lightly pressing against the lid, as if sensing something.

The two turned their heads almost simultaneously, looking at each other, their gazes pointing at different coffins.

The third bite, and the seventh bite.

Opinions differ.

Just then.

"Cough...cough cough..." Sun Shuanzhu, who was in the corner, woke up somehow, coughed a few times, and struggled to sit up. His eyes were still a little unfocused, and he stared blankly at the coffin in the center of the tomb, muttering, "Cultural relics...protect cultural relics..."

Suddenly, he noticed something protruding on the lid of the nearest coffin (the second one), something that looked like a jade disc. His eyes lit up, and he struggled to his feet, stumbling over to it.

"Sun Shuanzhu! Don't move!" Lin Guoce shouted sternly.

But it was too late. Sun Shuanzhu only had eyes for the "cultural relic." He stretched out his dirty hand, grabbed the protrusion, and tried to pry it off.

"Click."

A soft sound.

He pressed the protrusion down instead of prying it out.

The entire tomb chamber suddenly trembled.

The lids of the seven stone coffins simultaneously made a creaking sound as they slowly slid back and opened a crack!

A chilling, biting wind blew out simultaneously from the seven cracks, carrying the stench of decay accumulated over a thousand years. The bronze lamps on the walls flickered with green will-o'-the-wisps from their eye sockets, casting a ghastly green glow over the tomb.

"Idiot!" Lin Guoce's face turned ashen with anger.

Sun Shuanzhu was so frightened that he collapsed to the ground, trembling as he stared at the seven dark seams in the coffin.

"Be on guard!" Zhang Qiling shouted in a low voice, his sword already half an inch out of its sheath.

Zhang Qiling also gripped the hilt of his knife, his cold gaze sweeping over the seven coffins.

The sound of the coffin lid sliding open stopped.

There was only deathly silence in the crevice.

But everyone could sense that something was slowly awakening inside that dark coffin.