Zhang Haike thought a lot at that moment. The ruins themselves had passages, which were obviously more convenient than digging them out himself. Since the “Muddy Oil Bottle” was so familiar with this place and mentioned that he was also present at the time, it was possible that the mud in this passage was cleared by him.

This passage could only be entered by children, but it was clearly unrealistic for him to clear all this mud alone. There should have been more than just him among the Zhang family children who were clearing the passage with him. However, this was against the family rules of the Zhang clan; allowing such young children to enter the ground was inherently a violation of those rules.

Earlier, the “Muddy Oil Bottle” mentioned that his father was what they referred to as their father, a statement that seemed devoid of emotion. Perhaps he was one of those orphans whose biological parents died in the struggle, without anyone in the Zhang family to protect him, forcibly used by others to do these dark and underground tasks.

In the profession of tomb raiding, regardless of how skilled one is, there are always casualties, and the Zhang family was no exception. The children of these people lived in a completely different state of existence from their parents.

To be honest, Zhang Haike had never cared about the fate of these children. These poor kids lived in an isolated courtyard, cared for by designated individuals, completely cut off from the outside world. Each generation of the Zhang family had a group of such children; some Zhang family members without offspring would adopt a few and recognize them as their own. Was the “Muddy Oil Bottle” perhaps one of those adopted by his so-called father, trained by him, and sent into ancient tombs to engage in these tasks, entering those narrow spaces that adults could not?

Darkness and coldness—an eight or nine-year-old child had to face all this. No wonder he had such a personality.

In any case, they could not pass through this passage; there was another theft hole nearby, which should have been excavated later for adults to use. These two passages should lead to the same place.

Zhang Haike shone his flashlight and took a look; the directions of the two holes were indeed quite similar, so he led the way into the larger theft hole next to them and crawled forward.

Zhang Haike said to me, “This is a preconceived error. We crawled in for nearly a hundred meters before seeing the exit. After we got out, we realized that these two theft holes led to two different places, and we had become separated from him.”

After they crawled out of the theft hole, they entered the second temporary checkpoint, which was also the fourth room they reached. This one was much more rudimentary than the previous one; it was clear that it should be a small land temple.

The place was small, with a layer of yellow earth about half a palm deep on the ground. Digging through the yellow earth revealed a blue brick floor.

The temple had Buddha statues on all four sides; one side featured a statue of the Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, with land gods on the left and right, and on the opposite side was the temple door. On either side of the door stood a statue, likely of Taoist origin. The temple door had been broken through, and dirt had entered through the door, forming a steep slope, but because such temples were quite sturdy, the dirt only blocked the entrance without collapsing the temple.

Inside this small land temple, there were many items hanging from the ceiling, densely packed, while on the ground were water jars and some miscellaneous objects, with clear water inside the jars that had come from an unknown source.

A few people quickly rinsed themselves off and sat around on benches to rest. Zhang Haike noticed something drawn on the ground nearby. Judging by the marks around the benches, it was clear that someone had been sitting here resting and had casually sketched something in front of them with a knife or a stick.

Upon closer inspection, Zhang Haike realized that it was a map of the ancient city, with clearly marked areas of both explored and unexplored regions. What surprised him was that while drawing the map, the person had added a boundary around the entire city, which now looked remarkably like the shape of a scorpion.

In the unexplored area, there was a point marked by a stone, which evidently indicated the place they were supposed to reach.

They were struggling to move through this ancient city, and everything they encountered along the way was hanging, indicating that they were in a high-frequency area of tremors. However, what exactly were these tremors? Since entering, they hadn’t encountered anything related to this speculation.

“The deeper we go, the further we are from the exit, and the more dangerous it becomes,” one of the Zhang family children suddenly said. “I find it strange that if this place is so worth exploiting, why not just take down the Ma family above? Our Zhang family is so powerful; those deserters would definitely be no match. We could simply eliminate the local gentry and take their place, doing whatever we want.”

“If that’s the case, then the Zhang family might as well become bandits,” Zhang Haike replied.

“Have you all noticed something strange about your bodies?” another person asked. The group turned to see him touching his hand, which was covered in many red rashes.

He scratched at the rashes and thought for a moment before saying, “The water is problematic.”

“It’s not the water; I’ve checked that,” another person suddenly said with a serious expression. “It’s the silt. There’s something wrong with this mud.”

Zhang Haike said nothing and returned to where they had been cleaning the silt. He dipped his fingers in, brought them to his nose, and sniffed carefully, then said, “There’s mercury in the silt.”

The Zhang family children carried detoxifying supplies with them, and they immediately took out small bottles to apply to themselves. One of them said, “Isn’t this an ancient city? Why would there be mercury in the mud, which is often found in ancient tombs?”

Everyone started to feel puzzled. Suddenly, the person who had first complained of itching collapsed on the ground. The child next to him rushed to help him up and saw that he was shaking uncontrollably, and the rashes on his hands had not only persisted but had worsened.

“Why is he reacting so severely when none of us are affected?” the person helping him asked.

Zhang Haike inserted his finger into the person’s throat and forcefully scraped it, causing the silt to be vomited out.

“He swallowed a few mouthfuls of mud; let’s give him some egg white water to cleanse his intestines.”

Perhaps this Zhang family kid wasn’t a strong swimmer and had swallowed some mud while coming down. To avoid embarrassment, he had held it in and managed to swallow it.

The smell of the silt was already extremely foul, and the vomit mixed with stomach acid made several people’s faces turn slightly green. One person went to give him egg white water, while Zhang Haike immediately began shoveling dirt to cover the mess. After a few shovels, he suddenly noticed that the vomited silt had something moving in it.