My gaze was suddenly fixed, unable to move away. I wasn’t sure if it was due to the armor plates on my belt, but even though I couldn’t turn my head, I surprisingly didn’t experience any hallucinations. My vision was hazy, but my thoughts were very clear.

At that moment, I suddenly heard the voices of my third uncle and the others rushing over, and I thought to myself, “This is bad.” They hadn’t experienced the fox corpse’s supernatural powers and didn’t know how dangerous it was; if they rushed over carelessly, something terrible would definitely happen. I wanted to shout a warning, but it felt like my throat was blocked by something, and even though my mouth was wide open, I couldn’t say a word, nearly bursting with anxiety.

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck me, and I realized I could still move my hands slightly. Immediately, I made a gun gesture with both hands, pointing the “barrel” at the fox corpse’s head and kept tapping it, thinking, “Panzi, you better be smart this time; if you can’t understand this gesture, you might as well go eat shit!”

Just as I tapped a few times, a gunshot rang out from behind me, and the head of the green-eyed fox corpse exploded right in front of my eyes. At that moment, I had my mouth open, and the corpse’s fluids almost splattered all over my face and into my mouth. I immediately vomited; this was even more disgusting than eating shit. I almost emptied my stomach before turning around to see Panzi in the distance, one hand covering a wound and the other giving me an “OK” gesture. I cursed under my breath and wiped the corpse’s fluids off my face with my sleeve.

There was quite a distance from my third uncle to the sacrificial altar, and the path was filled with vines, making it very dangerous. However, my third uncle was quite resourceful; he used stones to first divert the vines before making his way over. Before long, they had climbed up to the sacrificial altar. He was very worried about me and immediately came over to check if I was okay. As soon as he caught a whiff of the smell on me, he frowned and nearly vomited. I was already feeling unwell, and seeing him like that made me rush over and give him a hug, causing him to feel so disgusted that he almost fell over.

Seeing that they were all safe, I remembered something and questioned, “Third Uncle, why did you leave me behind in the main tomb? Damn it, you scared me to death! How could I possibly stay there alone in that ghostly place?”

Upon hearing this, my third uncle slapped Da Kui on the head and exclaimed, “I told this kid not to touch anything, but he just wouldn’t listen.” He then recounted what had happened to them. It turned out that they had seen a tomb wall in another chamber of the tomb; generally, if there was a tomb wall in an ancient tomb, there would definitely be a hidden room behind it. However, they hadn’t expected that in this ancient tomb, all hidden doors opened downward. My third uncle, being quite sharp, quickly found the mechanism, but unfortunately, Da Kui was too quick; before my third uncle could figure it out, Da Kui had already pressed the mechanism, and like us, they fell into the next layer of the Western Zhou tomb. The subsequent events seemed very convoluted and bizarre, and my third uncle’s story grew increasingly absurd. I saw he was almost getting off track, so I hurriedly asked him to stop.

My third uncle said, “You really shouldn’t doubt me; just look at these guys.” He pulled out a black box from behind him, and with a click, the box magically transformed into a gun. I had some knowledge about guns, and this one was quite famous; just one look at it startled me.

This is a folded submachine gun, caliber 9mm, firing pistol bullets. It’s about the size of a Chinese cigarette, weighing less than six pounds, making it very easy to handle. Of course, due to its small size, the gun is also quite unstable.

My uncle said that they found several corpses in the tomb passage, and this gun along with some explosives were taken from those bodies. Not only that, but the place was riddled with bullet holes, indicating that a fierce battle had taken place.

I examined the gun carefully, feeling puzzled. It seemed that the previous group of tomb raiders who came in were very well equipped, at least much better than us. I wondered who they were. None of those people had come out after entering; had they all died here? If they hadn’t died, where could they be now?

As I pondered this, I leaned against the sacrificial altar, only to find that this seemingly sturdy stone platform couldn’t support me. Before I had even put my full weight on it, the altar suddenly sank, lowering by half. We were startled and thought we had triggered some trap, quickly crouching down. We heard a series of mechanisms activating, starting from beneath our feet and echoing out, culminating in a loud bang from the distant stone platform. Peering over, we saw that a large crack had formed in the trunk of the giant tree behind the stone platform, and from that crack emerged a massive bronze coffin secured with iron chains. The chains had fused with the tree trunk and wrapped around the top of the bronze coffin several times.

My uncle was stunned and exclaimed, “So this is where the real coffin is!”

Big Kui shouted excitedly, “Wow, such a big coffin must be worth a fortune, right? Finally, it wasn’t a wasted trip!”

My uncle slapped his head and said, “Worth money, worth money, but stop thinking about money all the time! Even if it’s valuable, you can’t take it away. How many times do I have to tell you? This is called a coffin, not a casket! Stop embarrassing me!”

Big Kui rubbed his head and didn’t dare to speak again. I took a closer look and felt something was off. I said to my uncle, “It’s strange; other people’s coffins are nailed shut with no intention of being opened again. But look at this setup; it seems like the mechanism of this stone platform was originally designed for someone to find this coffin. Did the owner of the tomb intend for someone to open their coffin one day? And look at these iron chains; they are tied so tightly that they don’t seem to be for securing it, but rather to prevent whatever is inside from coming out.”

My uncle examined it closely and confirmed my observation. We exchanged glances, realizing that we had encountered countless unbelievable things on our journey. Was there some kind of monster inside? Should we open it or not?

My uncle gritted his teeth and said, “I estimate that the valuable treasures in this tomb are all inside. If we don’t go in, wouldn’t that be a wasted trip? So what if there are zongzi (rice dumplings) inside? We have guns and cannons now; if it comes to it, we can just fight it out.”

I nodded, and my uncle continued, “Besides, it’s not very likely we could go back the way we came. Every hole in this cliff almost leads into that stone maze. Who knows how long it would take to get out from there? The best way is to climb out from above.”

We looked up and saw the cracks at the top of the cave, with moonlight shining down from the opening, creating a very desolate atmosphere. Uncle San pointed at the giant tree and said, “Look, the top of this giant tree is very close to the cave ceiling, and there are many vines extending from the tree to the outside of the cave. It’s practically a natural ladder, and with so many branches on the tree, it’s very easy to climb, which is perfect for us to get out.”

Panzi said, “Third Master, why are you talking nonsense here? That tree is a man-eating tree; climbing it is just asking for death!”

Uncle San laughed heartily, “This tree is called the Nine-Headed Serpent Cypress. I’ve thought of this long ago. Didn’t you see how those vines don’t dare to touch the stones here? This stone is called Tianxin Rock, and it specifically targets the Nine-Headed Serpent Cypress. If we smear some stone dust on ourselves, we’ll be just fine.”

Daqi worriedly asked, “Will it really work?”

Uncle San shot him a glare. I knew he was about to start cursing, so I quickly said, “Alright, we’ll know if it works once we try!”

Without further ado, we sprang into action. Daqi carried Fatty on his back, Uncle San helped Panzi up, and I tidied up my gear. I turned back to glance at the cave, wondering about the situation with the Muffled Oil Bottle. Uncle San noticed my concern and said, “With his skills, he can definitely protect himself, so don’t worry.”

I nodded. To be honest, I really had no right to worry about the Muffled Oil Bottle; his skills were far beyond mine, and he seemed to possess strange abilities. If anyone should be worried, it should be him about me.

I held my gun and walked in front while they followed behind me. We slowly ascended the high stone platform. Earlier, we had rushed down without looking closely, but now I realized that this platform was made up of large chunks of Tianxin Rock stacked together. I wondered how such large stones had been brought in. There were also carvings of deer heads and cranes on the steps, which were quite rare. I couldn’t help but wonder what kind of lord King Lu Shuang was to have such an unusual burial standard.

At that moment, we had reached the entrance of the tree hole and could see clearly that the opening hadn’t formed naturally; it had been torn open by several iron chains inside. The massive bronze coffin was right in front of us, at least 2.5 meters long, and it was densely covered with inscriptions.

The script from the Warring States period is quite complex, and the characters used in Qi and Lu were commonly employed by scholars at the time. After the Chu State annexed the Lu State, it also absorbed a lot of Lu’s culture, and the writing was quite similar to that of Lu. Most of the rubbings I had from the Warring States period were from that era, so I could understand the general meaning of these inscriptions.

At this moment, for some reason, everyone fell silent, as if afraid to wake the owner of the tomb. Uncle San took out a pry bar and knocked on it; a dull echo came from inside, indicating that it was definitely filled with something. Knowing that I was interested in such things, Uncle San quietly asked me, “Can you understand what’s written on it?”

I shook my head and said, “I can’t understand the specifics, but I can be certain that the owner of this coffin is the King of Lu, Lu Shang, whom we are looking for. The text on it should detail his life. It seems he died before reaching fifty, without any sons or daughters, and the circumstances of his death, as I’ve learned before, were that he suddenly sat down and passed away in front of the Duke of Lu. The rest should just be some accounts of his life.” I wasn’t interested in the culture of the State of Lu at that time, so I just glanced at it a few times and stopped looking.

“What do these few characters mean?” Da Kui asked me. I looked at the center of the coffin, where the character “Qi” was written, followed by a long string of characters: Zi, Chou, Yin, and Mao. These characters were particularly large and stood out. I knew these were dates, but during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, the Zhou dynasty was in decline, and the feudal lords acted independently, leading to a chaotic calendar system, so I didn’t know which day it referred to. I said, “This should indicate the date of burial. But I also don’t know what day that is.”

While I was studying the inscriptions, my third uncle was figuring out how to open the coffin. He shook the iron chains; each of these chains was about the thickness of a thumb. At that time, China had just entered the Iron Age, and such items were considered luxury goods. After so many years, most of them had aged and were basically only useful as decorations. I asked them to step back, pulled the trigger, and with a few shots, the iron chains broke apart, leaving only a few to secure the position.

My third uncle told me to step back, saying, “Don’t study it anymore; let’s get it open first!”

Just as he finished speaking, the coffin suddenly shook by itself, producing a muffled sound from inside. At first, I thought I had misheard, and just as I was about to ask others, it shook again. This time, I heard it clearly, and I couldn’t help but feel a chill run down my spine, thinking to myself, “This is bad! Damn it, there really is something wrong inside!”