Card Room

Chapter 396 - Identity of the Tomb Owner

It was confirmed that there were no mechanisms like the rain of arrows below so Yu Hanjiang flew up. Old Mo, Gui Yuanzhang, Long Sen and Qu Wanyue also jumped up. For those without methods such as the light footwork card, Yu Hanjiang lowered the white silk and pulled his teammates up one by one.

The stone room above was twice the size of the previous one. It was a wide space of nearly 200 square meters and the surrounding walls were covered with colorful murals. There was a one meter high stone platform in the middle of the room with a sarcophagus on it. Around the sarcophagus were three full circles of Eternal Flame lamps and there were many yellow charms.

Xiao Lou walked quickly to the murals on the four walls, which fully described the life of the owner.

The owner of this tomb wasn’t a general but the emperor of a small country in ancient times. As a concubine born child without favor from his father, coupled with him not even being the eldest son, made him the perfect target of bullying during his childhood. In order to get the throne, he endured the humiliation. Once he grew up, he killed many of his own brothers and started a mutiny. There was a bloodbath in the palace as he killed his brother who had just become the emperor and took the dragon chair for himself.

Perhaps it was because he suffered too much as a child but his psychology was distorted. During his reign, he was tyrannical and inhumane. Judging from the murals, countless people were killed or injured under his tyranny.

In his later years, he suddenly started to believe in Buddhism. He thought he was sinful and might go to hell after death. Thus, he ignored the daily political affairs and instead stayed in the palace, reciting scriptures while frequently having nightmares.

The national teachers around him gave him the idea to build the ‘Qixing Gongyue’. Look for young men and women of the four major tribes to use as sacrifices, placing them as four stars of the Big Dipper. In addition, find two pairs of virgins and pour mercury into their bodies to preserve the corpses, sealing the ‘immortal energy’ in the corpses for him, the owner, to ascend as an immortal.

The old emperor believed in these words and spent 10 years building the tomb. The entire tomb was a three floor structure and the top floor was his main tomb. It was high above and the location was very hidden.

The -1 floor was an easy place for tomb robbers to find. There were mechanisms and the labyrinthine paths everywhere. If tomb robbers entered then they would die. If they were skilled enough to get through the six realms of reincarnation room and find the sarcophagi in the lower floor, they would be confused when they followed the path to the leaf-like labyrinth.

Moreover, he deliberately made a deceptive coffin and placed a large amount of gold and silver treasures in it. This way, the intruders would think they had found the main room. The moment they relaxed their guard and went down the stairs, they would be shot by poisonous arrows and turned into hedgehogs...

Xiao Lou read the murals on the wall and didn’t know how to evaluate it. He was a materialist and didn’t believe in ‘cultivating to become immortal’. However, many ancient people believed in those legends and burying people alive was just a ceremony for them. Pouring mercury into children under the age of 10 and letting them die a painful death was a good thing from the perspective of ‘preserving their immortal energy’...

Xiao Lou turned back to the sarcophagus. “Open the coffin to see.”

Yu Hanjiang split it open with his dagger. It was just that this coffin was so strong it didn’t respond to his slash. It wasn’t known if the materials used were different or if the keeper deliberately made it so the coffin couldn’t be destroyed.

Xiao Lou leaned closer and examined the charms around the coffin. These charms were very familiar. They looked like the charms in the six realms of reincarnation room but they weren’t quite right, on closer inspection... they seemed to be distorted.

It was similar to the distorted appearance when they looked in the yin yang mirror? Xiao Lou took out the yin yang mirror. He looked with the yin yang mirror and discovered that the patterns of the charms around the coffin were indeed the same as the charms of the six realms of reincarnation room.

Gui Yuanzhang saw it and also took out his yin yang mirror. The two people looked at each other. “The six charms for the realms of reincarnation?”

Xiao Lou examined the top of the sarcophagus carefully and found a petal-like shape on the lid of the sarcophagus. He used the yin yang mirror to illuminate the charms and placed the six different charms on the shape in the order of reincarnation.

A layer of soft light appeared on the mark. Xiao Lou reached out to push open the lid of the coffin. He was just trying it out but unexpectedly, the lid was really opened.

The team members leaned over to look inside the sarcophagus. They saw an old man in his 50s lying inside. He was wearing a dragon robe and had a serene expression. There wasn’t much jewelry, gold or silver in the coffin. Perhaps it was because he was cultivating to become an immortal and didn’t need money.

Curiously, after all these years, the corpse of the tomb owner hadn’t decayed. While the sacrifices who had been buried at the same time as him had already turned into skeletons, his face was only slightly pale and he had some livor mortis on his body. This difference in preservation was simply unreasonable.

Ye Qi asked curiously. “Did he also pour mercury into himself? Wouldn’t it be a very painful way to die?”

Xiao Lou shook his head. “It isn’t like mercury. His body isn’t the same as the boy and girl we found filled with mercury. It feels more like a magic artifact mentioned in fantasy novels to preserve the body.”

Gui Yuanzhang seemed to think of something and abruptly said, “Open his mouth to take a look.”

Fortunately, Yu Hanjiang was right in front of the sarcophagus. Once he heard those words, he reached out and pried open the deceased’s mouth with two fingers. A soft beam of light came from the dead man’s mouth. There was something inside.

Shao Qingge’s eyes narrowed. “Is it the legendary jade cicada?”

During ancient times, they often put valuable items in the mouth of the deceased such as a jade or night pearl. There was also a legend about a jade cicada. A jade that looked like a cicada could prevent the body from decaying after death.

The reason why the body of the tomb owner didn’t corrode was probably due to the ‘jade cicada’ in his mouth.

Xiao Lou suggested, “Take it out and see?”

Yu Hanjiang took out the jade cicada that was the size of a thumb. The next moment, the corpse in the sarcophagus decayed at a speed visible to the naked eye. It was like a wall suddenly falling down. In the end, only the bones were left.

Everyone, “......”

This scene was almost like a horror movie and they felt numb seeing it.

Just then, the entire labyrinth started to shake violently again. Everyone was shaking so hard that they had difficulties staying upright. A door appeared on one side of the stone room and Xiao Lou’s expression changed. “Go!”

Tang Ci sent the mechanical ants to explore the way and everyone ran behind the ants. Behind them, countless rocks rolled down, rubble splashed everywhere, dust flew in the air and the vibration caused by the collapse of the tomb was more terrible than a major earthquake!

Yu Hanjiang flew while hugging Xiao Lou’s waist tightly and the other team members also used their own skills. Everyone was busy escaping and simply couldn’t care about the others. There was only one thought in their minds—run!

They finally saw the light ahead. As everyone jumped out, a loud bang was heard from behind them. The entire tomb collapsed and the three-storey labyrinth was instantly buried by boulders and dust.

Xiao Lou stared back at the completely buried labyrinth, his heart beating quickly. He was so nervous that he could barely breathe just now when he was taken out by Yu Hanjiang. Fortunately, he escaped at the last moment. A lingering fear filled him at the thought.

Xiao Lou looked around. “Is everybody okay?”

The dust that had flown when the labyrinth collapsed made everyone’s heads grey and their clothes were so dirty that it was like they rolled around on the burial mounds... Fortunately, they ran fast enough and no one was hurt.

“We’re fine!”

”There are no injuries.”

Xiao Lou was relieved when he heard the confirmations of his team members. Just then, the shiny, floating boxes popped up in front of everyone simultaneously.

[Congratulations to Xiao Lou’s team for successfully clearing the World Weekly ‘Headless General’s Tomb’. The ranking is being settled...]

[In this labyrinth challenge, your team took a total of 4 hours, 38 minutes and 44 seconds.]

[You are ranked number 1 in the world.]

[Please find the Diamonds keeper to receive the rewards.]

Everyone was stunned seeing the last few lines. First in the world? It seemed that it was a blessing in disguise!

The hunters exploded bombs in the labyrinth which caused the entire tomb to crumble. In order to escape with their lives, they had to abandon the method of testing out the forked roads and risked it all on their desperate reasoning.

As a result, they became the team that took the shortest time and was the first to leave the World Weekly labyrinth?

Third entry by B.K0036: ATM Queen

CG 10K event

Proofreader: Fictional Reality & Paranoid Kitten