These insect eggs were stuck to the inside of the cranial cavity, gray in color, densely packed one by one. Upon closer inspection, they were extremely disgusting, resembling bee larvae in a beehive.

Uncle San was not like ordinary people; at this moment, he was not afraid at all, but rather more intrigued, so he got up and took a closer look. Under the beam of the flashlight, the insect eggs appeared blurry and translucent. Uncle San poked at them with his dagger; they were hard as shells and seemed to be completely dried out.

What are these things? he wondered. How could there be so many insect eggs in the cranial cavity? Could they be parasites? It was plausible for ancient corpses to have parasites, as they were often found on the Loulan ancient corpses, but generally, parasites were found in the internal organs, so how could insect eggs appear in the cranial cavity? Moreover, to fill the cranial cavity with eggs, what kind of insect could that be? It was quite impressive…

At that time, Uncle San’s scientific knowledge was very limited, and in terms of culture, most of what he knew was superficial knowledge learned from Wen Jin. When it came to insects or ancient insects, the images that came to his mind were similar to caterpillars. He thought and speculated that when this kind of insect was parasitizing, the host must have already died; otherwise, having insects grow in the head would probably be excruciatingly painful, which might mean these were the eggs of carrion insects.

This was a major discovery, Uncle San thought to himself. He recalled what Wen Jin had told him about the non-material value of archaeological discoveries. In archaeology, if one discovers ancient texts, customs, or burial traces that previous generations had not found, it would be considered a significant discovery. While this discovery was of no interest to Uncle San, for the entire archaeological community, it would mean immense fame and status, something that would be recorded in history.

He had no personal interest in this matter, but at that moment, being in love, he immediately thought of Wen Jin. He thought that if he gave this to her, she might find it useful, and since it was worthless, it would be of no use just lying here.

With that in mind, he took out a leather bag, which was used to salvage things while diving. The bottom had a hole that could be sealed; when he pulled it up, the water would drain out. Uncle San closed the hole and removed the skull, stuffing it along with some other fragments of bone into the bag, which became bulging. He then slung it over his shoulder.

After finishing, he climbed out of the iron vat and went to find Jie Lianhuan. After two scares, he was already on edge, and his greed had vanished. He no longer dared to touch the coffin; this tomb was just too eerie. He didn’t want to stay there any longer. If Jie Lianhuan finished taking photos, they should leave immediately.

At that moment, he also forgot about the insufficient oxygen in Jie Lianhuan’s oxygen tank. If he had remembered, he would have realized that getting out was already going to be a problem.

However, when he climbed out of the iron vat and returned to the copper figure’s iron coffin, he immediately noticed something was wrong. First, he couldn’t see Jie Lianhuan; he was not in his original position, and a sweep of the flashlight revealed nothing. Second, Jie Lianhuan’s flashlight had fallen to the ground, illuminating a side wall painting, flickering dimly.

Uncle San was stunned for less than a second before breaking into a sweat, because he had seen this kind of scene too many times. In ancient tombs, whenever something happened to someone, the flashlight would definitely fall to the ground. In the past, when dealing with the lamas, many had fallen, so as soon as he saw the flashlight on the ground, his heart tightened.

Could it be that when Jie Lianhuan went into the vat, something happened that triggered a mechanism? Just now, I didn’t hear any noise, but I was indeed not paying attention to what was happening outside while I was in the vat.

What is experience? This is experience. If it were me, I would definitely have run over to pick up the flashlight and called out a few times. However, my third uncle had already confirmed that something was wrong, even though he didn’t know what it was. He pulled out the dagger again, and his whole demeanor shifted as he walked towards the iron coffin to find out where Jie Lianhuan was.

He hadn’t been in the iron vat for long, so if Jie Lianhuan had been hit, he should have collapsed near the iron coffin. Cautiously but quickly, he circled around to the back of the iron coffin, and sure enough, he saw Jie Lianhuan lying there, curled up and motionless. My third uncle shone the flashlight on his face; there was no reaction. He scanned the area but didn’t find anything unusual nearby.

Strange, it seemed there were no signs of a mechanism being triggered. How did he fall? My third uncle was a bit surprised and looked around; indeed, there was no movement. He quickly stepped forward and helped Jie Lianhuan up.

Jie Lianhuan had lost consciousness and felt heavy and limp. My third uncle checked his neck and found that he wasn’t dead. When he touched a few vital points, he discovered that the back of his head was burning hot, and when he turned his hand over, it was covered in blood.

Damn! My third uncle was stunned. How could this be? This guy looked as if he had been knocked out. But this is inside an ancient tomb; no mechanism in an ancient tomb is designed to knock someone out. The zongzi (mummy) wouldn’t be so kind as to just knock you out either; the only one who could knock someone out is another person.

Thinking this, my third uncle suddenly felt an extreme chill. He hurriedly turned to look into the surrounding darkness, thinking, no way, could there be someone else here?