I said to him, “Who knows what you’re really up to? You can say whatever you want, but don’t forget that we’re still in a dire situation. If it’s about those irrelevant matters, let’s skip it.”

The fat guy replied, “Don’t rush me. What I want to say is very much related to our current predicament. Didn’t you hear that young man say just now? The passage to the Heavenly Gate is an uphill walk, and that big room with the model of the Heavenly Palace is extremely high. With the height added on, it must be at least ten meters high. Just think about it—the total depth of this ancient tomb isn’t that much! I estimate that the dome of that room should be at the very top of the entire tomb. If we want to get out, we should focus our efforts there!”

Hearing this, I felt a spark of realization and quickly calculated. When I first descended into the underwater tomb passage, I checked the pressure gauge, and at that time, we were already thirteen meters underwater. Now, the bottom of this pool has gone down another ten meters or so, which means we should be between twenty and thirty meters underwater. By this calculation, the top of the room with the model of the Heavenly Palace is no more than ten meters from the seabed, which indeed confirms what the fat guy said.

I had been so focused on listening to the story that I hadn’t noticed these details. I couldn’t help but look at the fat guy with newfound respect. He seemed reckless, but he was quite perceptive. It appeared that I shouldn’t hide things from him in the future. With this in mind, I said to them, “The fat guy has hit the nail on the head this time. However, knowing this now doesn’t help much. We’re empty-handed; not only would we struggle to climb up to the ten-meter-high dome, but even if we did, without any tools, how could we break through the layers of bricks above? I think we still need to find some decent metal funerary objects first to quickly implement our plan to counter the thieves’ tunnel. If we delay any longer, we might miss the low tide.”

Though I said this, I felt uncertain inside. Throughout this journey, the only funerary items we had seen were porcelain and stone artifacts; there wasn’t a single metal object, which seemed illogical. I vaguely felt that perhaps this was deliberately arranged by the tomb’s owner. We could only go to the back hall to search; if we found nothing there, then it truly would be the end for us.

The fat guy laughed heartily at my words and said, “I’ve thought this through too. Isn’t there a gilded copper mirror with the character ‘Fu’ on all four sides in that big room? You deal in antiques, so you should know what that mirror looks like, right? If we take the legs off that mirror, it’s really heavy and could definitely be used as a hammer!”

As soon as I heard that name, it sounded familiar. When he mentioned it, I remembered that I had indeed handled such items before, but I couldn’t recall exactly what they looked like. Seeing the fat guy so confident, I felt reassured and said to him, “Alright then, let’s go with this plan. We shouldn’t delay; we need to act immediately. But once we get to that place, don’t touch anything—absolutely nothing! This place is full of traps, and we have plenty of years ahead of us. There’s no need to risk our lives for a few dead people’s belongings!”

The fat man nodded in agreement, insisting that he wouldn’t touch anything other than the bricks. I was worried he might still be eyeing those luminous pearls, so I emphasized this point several times, which only annoyed him. I clarified the specific structure of that place, outlined the possible situations we might encounter, and the necessary measures we should take, explaining everything one by one. Then the three of us followed the plan: we first found the Heavenly Gate, with the fat man leading, the silent oil bottle behind him, and I sandwiched in the middle as we walked straight into that narrow path of the Heavenly Way.

I had already heard about the scene in the Heavenly Way from the silent oil bottle’s narration, but entering it myself was a different experience altogether. At first, I didn’t feel anything special; it just felt like walking in the stone lanes of Xitang in Jiaxing at night, a bit narrow, that’s all. However, after walking for a while, I realized there was no end in sight ahead or behind, and I started to panic. I was in the middle; I wasn’t afraid of the darkness, but the surrounding silence was unsettling. We were all wearing flippers, and the sound of our footsteps echoed strangely in the narrow passage, making it seem like some monster was following us. The fat man, being thick-skinned, didn’t feel anything unusual, but he complained about how uncomfortable the narrow path was, saying, “Who the hell built this stone path? It’s clearly discriminating against us fat guys. How can the Heavenly Way leading to the Heavenly Gate be this shabby? If the path to the heavens is like this, even Maitreya Buddha won’t want to step out!”

I replied, “You can’t say that. There must be a reason for this design. This is a ship burial; no matter how big the ship is, there are limits. I guess they had to save space to highlight their heavenly palace. Besides, historically, tomb raiders have always been short and thin. Who would expect a fat guy could do this job?”

The fat man, feeling quite proud, said, “That’s right! When it comes to the Tomb Raiding sect, throughout history, if we don’t mention anything else, in terms of build, I, Fat Master, am definitely the best. But being fat doesn’t affect my skills at all. This is called—hey!”

Suddenly, the fat man froze and couldn’t move. I looked over and realized that his shoulders were wedged against the stone walls on either side, stuck in the passage. I burst out laughing, “Serves you right for bragging; you’ve slapped your own face!”

The fat man tried to move forward but couldn’t get through. Confused, he said, “Xiao Wu, don’t laugh yet; something’s not right. I was walking fine just now; how did I get stuck?”

I looked around and said, “It seems this stone path isn’t uniform in length and width. The section we just entered might have been a bit wider, but it’s gradually narrowing now. Why don’t you take a few steps back and see if you can free yourself?”

The fat man twisted his big butt and tried to move back a few steps, but it was still the same. He said, “No, no, that’s not it. This path is obviously narrower than before. I think there’s something strange about the walls. Xiao Wu, I’m afraid this situation isn’t good.”

Having been focused on moving forward, I hadn’t paid attention to the walls. After he mentioned it, I also felt that it seemed to be narrowing a bit. So, I pressed my hands against both walls, and a strange feeling surged through me. I exclaimed, “Not good! It seems like these two walls are closing in!”

The silent oil bottle also felt the walls and nodded, saying, “It looks like something has changed. We don’t have time; let’s retreat and come up with a new plan!”

As soon as I heard that, I thought this was no joke. If those two walls pressed down on us, we would probably end up as three pancakes. So, I turned around and ran for it. Seeing us run so fast, the fat guy quickly turned sideways, panicking and shouting, “Wait for me, don’t just think about yourselves!”

I had never run so fast in my life, practically rolling and crawling, using every ounce of strength I had. By the time I reached the exit, the two walls had clearly closed in a lot more; I had to turn sideways to squeeze through, and the fat guy couldn’t manage at all, almost having to move sideways like a crab. The quiet oil bottle reached out to open the hidden door, fiddled with it a couple of times, then suddenly cursed and turned to me, saying, “Someone outside has jammed the door hinge!”

The fat guy turned pale at this and cursed loudly, “Damn it! This is it! You guys better think of a way out, or we’re done for today!”

I was so anxious that my heart was racing as I watched the stone walls inch closer. It felt worse than death itself. But what could we do? Unless there was some miraculous escape, even a deity wouldn’t be able to help us. I said, “What can we do? Just keep running forward; if we run fast enough, maybe we’ll find a chance!”

The quiet oil bottle grabbed me and shook his head, saying, “It’ll take at least ten minutes to get through; we won’t make it. Let’s see if we can go up!” Saying that, he braced his feet against the walls and started climbing. I looked up and saw that the top was just as dark, with no sign of it widening. I didn’t know what good climbing up would do, but at this point, it was better than waiting to die here, so I signaled for the fat guy to climb up with us.

The passage was narrowing, and climbing was almost as easy as walking. We climbed straight up for several meters in just a few minutes. The fat guy couldn’t help but exclaim, “This guy’s quick thinking is impressive! Now we can jump off before being squished into pancakes! Better than suffering that kind of pain.”

I couldn’t tell if the fat guy was joking or serious, but thinking about being squished into meat patties made me feel nauseous. That was not a pleasant way to die; you might even hear the sound of your skull cracking. I would rather die from a fall than be crushed alive. At that moment, the quiet oil bottle called from above, “Don’t think about that yet; we still have time. Do you remember the thief’s tunnel under the coffin?”

The fat guy replied, “Of course I remember, but what does that have to do with us?” As soon as he said it, he realized, “Oh, I get it! You mean we should learn from his spirit and never give up until the last moment, right?”

The quiet oil bottle said, “No, it’s not that. No tomb raider would leave the underground palace untouched and instead drill holes in the walls. If that’s the case, there’s only one reason: he encountered some dilemma and had to drill a hole in the walls to escape.”

As soon as I heard that, I understood and felt a spark of inspiration. I said, “Are you saying that the person who drilled that hole, just like us, was forced to dig it out in a situation like this?”

I couldn’t help but admire the quick thinking of the quiet oil bottle and realized why he wanted to climb up. The floor and the two walls were made of oak stone; unless we had explosives, there was no way to drill a hole. The only place we could potentially take action was where the ceiling was out of sight.

As we spoke, we had already climbed to the top. Above us was a layer of blue bricks. I knocked on it and couldn’t help but feel delighted; our guess was correct—it was hollow. These bricks could be compressed but not chiseled, and with the right tools, making a hole should be very convenient. However, I glanced around and saw nothing but darkness; there were no signs of a thief’s hole. The胖子 said, “Oh no, little brother, what if the entrance is at the other end of this long stone path?”

The 闷油瓶 said, “Anyone encountering this situation would first run towards the exit. If they found the exit door jammed, they would resort to digging a thief’s hole as a last resort. Therefore, the entrance must be nearby. If it’s on the other side, we’ll have to accept our fate.” His words were very persuasive, and both the胖子 and I nodded, steeling ourselves to search the area. At this moment, my situation and that of 闷油瓶 were still manageable; we could still fit a fist in front and behind us. The胖子 was almost at his limit, having to suck in his stomach to move in this narrow space. I could see the pressure it put on him. I tried to comfort him, saying that the compression ratio of fat was quite large, and as long as the walls didn’t press against his bones, it wouldn’t be a big deal. After hearing this, his face turned pale, and he waved his hand, telling me to stop talking nonsense.

We started crawling from the outermost point and went in for more than ten meters, but found nothing. In fact, crawling sideways consumed more energy than climbing up. My legs were starting to feel weak, and I almost slipped several times. I knew that if the walls closed in a bit more, I wouldn’t be able to bend my knees, making movement even more difficult. Ahead was pitch black, and I had no idea where the thief’s hole might be. If, as 闷油瓶 said, it was at the other end of the path, I really wouldn’t know how to face such a death.

If I had known it would come to this, maybe it would have been more straightforward to be bitten to death by a sea monkey. People often talk about how terrifying zongzi ghosts are, but right now, I would rather encounter a dozen zongzi than be crushed to death here without any way out.

At that moment, 闷油瓶 suddenly shone his flashlight on me, signaling us to come over. The胖子 and I thought we had finally found something and were overjoyed, scrambling to squeeze to his side. When I looked up, I was taken aback. I saw a line of blood written on the blue bricks above us: “Wu Sanxing harmed me, with no way out, wronged and dead, heaven and earth as witnesses—Jie Lianhuan.”

I felt a chill run down my spine and thought, this isn’t a martial arts novel. I asked, “What does this mean? Who is this person? Why does he say San Shu harmed him?”

闷油瓶 replied, “This Jie Lianhuan is also from the archaeological team; he’s the one who held the snake eyebrow copper fish and died in the coral reef.”

I gasped, my mind racing. 闷油瓶 pushed me and said, “Since he left a message here and wasn’t crushed to death, it means the thief’s hole must be nearby. We don’t have time to ponder what he meant; we need to move forward quickly.”

I crawled a few steps, suddenly remembering the name Jie Lianhuan. Why did it sound so familiar? It seemed like I had heard my grandfather mention it before.