The scale of the architectural complex was beyond my imagination. If there really is an underground palace beneath these buildings, then the scale here could rival that of the Qin Emperor’s mausoleum.

According to the images in the underwater tomb shadow painting, the real Cloud Top Heavenly Palace should have been above our heads. After the avalanche, the spiritual palace above may have collapsed entirely. I wonder how deep the snow above us is, serving as the burial earth for this underground palace.

The signal flares we fired were extinguished in the darkness, and the darkness closed in again. Our light sources turned into a few obviously underpowered flashlights in our hands.

Except for Shunzi, everyone else had a look of almost frenzied excitement on their faces. Tomb raiding represents one of humanity’s most primitive desires—to seek wealth and explore death. This thrill is something that people cannot avoid.

It took a full ten minutes for us to recover before we prepared to go down. Chen Pi Ah Si said to Master Hua, “Leave behind the useless stuff and prepare the ropes. We’ll go in light.”

Master Hua immediately began to get ready. We organized our gear, leaving behind some unnecessary items on this platform to avoid the risks of excessive weight during the climb.

Next, we all put on gas masks and, following standard mountaineering procedures, began to rappel down the cliff step by step with ropes.

Below were numerous dead trees, permeated with a strange odor that even the gas masks couldn’t filter out. After everyone descended, we heard Panzi say, “This is a dead pit; we need to hurry. If we stay too long, we might suffocate. I heard in the army that birds can’t even fly over places like this.”

That was the sulfurous toxic gas released by volcanic activity. Its toxicity was hard to imagine.

Master Hua lit a cold smoke flare with strong illumination to light up the surroundings. We looked around; below our feet was a stone path two carts wide, almost straight ahead. This was the sacred path leading to the tomb’s main entrance. We could faintly see a large black shadow at the end.

Master Hua asked Chen Pi Ah Si, “How do we go?”

“Follow the sacred path; let’s head into the royal tomb first,” Chen Pi Ah Si replied.

None of us had experience dealing with royal tombs, and at that moment, we had no other ideas, so without further ado, we followed behind and jogged along.

After climbing over many fallen dead trees on the sacred path, we quickly arrived at a stone gate. The stone was high, somewhat resembling the archways we saw in the ancient village. This was the first stone gate of the royal tomb, called the Heavenly Gate. After passing through the stone gate, numerous stone carvings would appear on both sides of the sacred path.

As we passed through the stone gate, Chen Pi Ah Si said, “Remember to walk backward when we come out to avoid hitting the decapitation gate.”

I had read about this in my grandfather’s notes. This first stone gate had a very strange significance; it was where the coffin bearers and funeral procession were slaughtered. After the burial ceremony was completed, everyone who exited through this gate would be struck down, so this gate was essentially a portal between the yin and yang realms. If tomb raiders entered along the sacred path or through the first grand entrance of the underground palace, they had to exit backward; otherwise, it would be very troublesome.

Of course, very few tomb raiders ever have the opportunity to enter the imperial tombs along the Sacred Way; we might be among the extremely rare few. Throughout history, those who have been able to loot the imperial tombs have either been warlords or notorious figures, and they certainly aren’t afraid of the so-called “decapitation gate.”

After passing through the Heavenly Gate, on either side of the Sacred Way, there are white stone figures of humans and horses every five meters. We aren’t here to conduct archaeology, and these things can’t be moved anyway, so we just ignored them and headed straight ahead.

As we were running, suddenly the fat guy in front of me stopped. I ran into him from behind and fell to the ground.

This was quite abrupt, and the fat guy almost stumbled as well. I quickly asked him what was going on.

He turned his head to look behind him, his face pale, and whispered, “It seems like there’s someone standing by the roadside.”

The few people ahead noticed we had stopped and turned back. Panzi asked, “What’s going on?”

The fat guy explained what he had seen, but the others seemed a bit skeptical. Panzi said, “It must have been a stone figure; maybe you saw it wrong?”

The fat guy shook his head. “It flashed by so quickly. By the time I reacted, look at me—I was covered in cold sweat. I shouldn’t have seen it wrong.”

“Did you see it clearly?”

“It seemed like a woman, but I can’t be sure,” the fat guy said. “I was running too fast, and I didn’t get a good look.”

We all pointed our flashlights toward the stone figures behind us. There’s one every five meters, and we had just passed six or seven of them in an instant. Within the range of our flashlights, there was no sign of the woman the fat guy mentioned; maybe she was further back.

Hua Heshang asked, “Old man, should we go back and take a look? It might be that woman from their group?”

Hua Heshang was referring to Aning. I thought to myself, how could that be possible? They took the main entrance of Yunding Tiangong, and even if they had successfully crossed the border, they should still be above us digging a tunnel. There’s no way they could have gotten here this quickly.

The fat guy also said, “That definitely isn’t her. If it were that woman, I would have recognized her at a glance.”

Chen Pi Ah Si hesitated for a moment and then said to Hua Heshang, “You and the others go ahead first,” and then patted Shunzi, “You come with me to take a look.”