Before he finished speaking, I kicked someone without knowing who, hitting them right in the face, almost knocking them out. Immediately, I heard a series of crackling sounds, like bones breaking. I had no idea what was happening. In a panic, I quickly lit a torch and focused my eyes to see Lao Yang wrestling with something, having rolled into a pile of corpses. A whole row of bones was knocked about, and skulls were scattered all over the ground.

I rushed over to help, only to find I couldn’t assist at all. The creature was small but incredibly strong. Even with Lao Yang’s weight of over a hundred kilograms pressing down on it, it couldn’t be subdued. The two bodies were tangled together, crashing around, and I couldn’t get close. I risked getting kicked if I wasn’t careful. After several attempts, I couldn’t join the fray and could only stand outside watching helplessly.

After a while, Lao Yang was about to give in. The creature had almost managed to escape a few times. I realized I had to act, so I called over Liang Shiye. The two of us, one on top and one below, pounced on Lao Yang, pinning him and the creature down. Lao Yang didn’t expect this move, and he was squished enough to shout, “Watch it! You’re gonna break my back!”

I pressed down hard on Lao Yang, putting all three of our weights onto the creature below, and noticed it had gone quiet. I then asked, “How is it? Is that thing dead?”

Lao Yang squeezed out a few words through gritted teeth: “I don’t know! But if you don’t let go, I’m gonna die!”

Seeing his face turning red, I quickly eased up. Lao Yang flipped over, took a deep breath, and said to me, “You—you’re way too rough! Don’t think just because we piled up a bunch of people when we were kids that it’s no big deal. Luckily, my back is tough; otherwise, I’d be paralyzed!”

I replied, “What are you whining about? If you could handle that thing, would I need to pile up like this at my age? If you get hurt, I’m not going to be any better off!”

Hearing this, Lao Yang rubbed his waist while cursing me for being ungrateful. I ignored him and turned to Liang Shiye, saying, “By the way, what exactly is that thing? It’s small but incredibly strong; we need to take a closer look.”

At my words, the three of us snapped back to attention. We leaned in and saw that in the pile of bones was a clump of gray, furry something, roughly the size of a lynx, flattened under us and still trembling.

Lao Yang picked up a human thigh bone and flipped the clump over. I looked and exclaimed, “Damn! After all that commotion, it turns out to be a giant rat.” I glanced at Lao Yang and Liang Shiye, and they looked back at me, all three of us laughing. No wonder we couldn’t find the attacker earlier; it was like this. After the rat attacked us, it must have just scurried into any skull’s eye socket and vanished. We were a bunch of idiots, thinking we encountered a ghost—just like a hen calling its own mother—scaring ourselves.

But then I thought again and felt it was quite inappropriate. This rat was way too big; I didn’t even know what species it was. It might have been feeding on corpses, and I had no idea how many of these rats were in the cave. If we ran into a group, we’d be in serious trouble.

Lao Yang had the same thought as I did. After a brief smile, his expression changed, and he said, “Not good. This rat emperor has crushed us. I wonder if his rat offspring will come looking for trouble. I think we should retreat quickly and not stay at the crime scene.”

I nodded in agreement. Lao Yang turned around and had only taken a few steps when he suddenly said, “Hey, oh no—where should we go now?”

I looked up and realized that during the chaotic battle earlier, we had been tossed around so much that I couldn’t distinguish where we had come from or where we were supposed to go.

Although I had a faint feeling that I could vaguely identify the correct direction, it was so weak that I could hardly be sure if I was thinking of the right way. Once I hesitated, that feeling vanished completely.

Lao Yang looked around at least a dozen times, and seeing no other option, he said to me, “Forget it, let’s just charge straight ahead.”

I looked around and still felt something was off, so I wanted to ask Master Liang for his opinion. But when I turned to look, I found he wasn’t even listening to us; he was intently picking up the bones scattered on the ground.

I found it strange and grabbed Lao Yang, both of us leaning over to see what he was doing.

This battle between humans and rats had involved over a dozen corpses, which had long since decayed to the point of being like dust. So upon impact, they had completely disintegrated, most of them shattering into small bone fragments, leaving the ground in disarray. For some reason, Master Liang was picking up the remaining intact bones one by one and setting them aside.

Most of these bones weren’t whole either; they had likely been used by the large rats as chewing tools, with pits and hollows all over, making it impossible to distinguish which part of the human body they belonged to.

Seeing that Master Liang was deeply engrossed in his task, Lao Yang, curious, asked him, “Master, what are you up to?”

Master Liang paused for a moment, turned to me, and said, “Incredible! In the chaos caused by these rats, I’ve stumbled upon a big secret.”

I noticed his eyes were gleaming with excitement, which made me even more curious about what secret these bones could possibly hold.

Master Liang urged us to squat down and handed us a bone, asking, “You two, take a look. Can you discern anything from it?”

Lao Yang and I exchanged glances, unsure of what he was getting at. Lao Yang made a strange smile and said, “Aren’t you making fun of us? We’re dealing with dead people’s things, not with living ones. Just tell us directly, and then we can hurry on our way.”

Master Liang smiled sheepishly and said, “I’m just too excited; I can’t even express myself properly. Please bear with me. Let me think about how to explain this. Uh—look closely at this part of the bone.”

I took the bone and looked closely at the spot he indicated. There was a very smooth notch, and the cut was the same color as the bone, suggesting it was quite old. However, I couldn’t figure out what Master Liang intended to show me with this.

The cool master looked at me with a puzzled expression and said, “It doesn’t matter if you can’t tell; let me explain. This bone is a human clavicle, right here.” He pointed to his neck and continued, “This notch is called an old bone injury, caused before death. You see how sharp the cut is, and there’s no sign of bone healing, which indicates that the time of this injury is very close to the time of death.”

Old Yang, upon hearing this, thought it was something serious and, feeling impatient, said, “What kind of secret is this? It’s just a bone injury—how pitiful. But let’s hurry up; the torch is almost burnt out.”

The cool master hurriedly waved his hand, saying, “Just give me three more minutes; I’m almost done!” I could see he was very excited, and he wouldn’t stop until he clarified everything. Old Yang’s rambling was only wasting time, so I quickly signaled him to keep quiet and turned to the cool master, saying, “Don’t mind him; please go ahead.”

He swallowed and said, “Where was I? Oh, right, the timing of the injury and the time of death are very close. I can roughly conclude that this injury is likely the cause of this person’s death. The reason it’s in this position is probably because someone cut the carotid artery from above the clavicle. The cut was so swift that it hit the bone.”

I was puzzled and asked, “So, according to you, the owner of this bone was killed by having their throat slit?”

The cool master gave a strange smile and shook his head. “Not just this one; all the bodies here died this way. Look, there are seven clavicles here, all with similar cuts. Generally, in ancient sacrificial rites, the sacrificial victim would kneel in front of the offerings, and the priest would slit their throat from behind. However, these people had their throats cut in front of them. So, I believe that most of these people were not sacrificed alive but died in battle.”

After saying this, the cool master looked at me with piercing eyes, making me feel uneasy. I thought to myself, what’s with this guy? So what if they died in battle? Does he have to be this excited? I hurriedly asked him, “Cool master, is this big secret what you’re referring to?”

The cool master pretended to be mysterious and said, “No, no, this is just the prologue to the big secret. What I’m about to say next is the main topic.”

As he spoke, he pulled out another piece from the remains of the corpse and said to me, “The big secret is hidden in this thing.”

I took it and looked closely; it was an indescribable object that seemed like a straw hat but also looked like part of armor. Since this object wasn’t bone, it must be a ceremonial item. I held it up to the torch and examined it carefully, exclaiming, “Is this a piece of bronze armor?”

The cool master nodded. “Exactly.”

At that moment, whether it was due to the cool master’s eccentricity or my own intuition, I had a vague feeling that what he was saying might indeed contain some earth-shattering elements, and I suddenly broke out in a cold sweat.

Master Liang continued, “This style of armor only appeared after the Han Dynasty. Look at this piece; it has no lining, which indicates it’s summer armor. The person died in summer. And what’s even stranger is this.” He carefully peeled away a fragment from the armor, saying, “Look, this piece may seem unremarkable, but it’s crucial. Xiao Wuge, you’re an insightful person; you’ll know right away what this is.”

I felt a chill run down my spine. Following his line of thought, I quickly understood that the piece was nothing other than a small fragment of silk, likely stuck to the armor plate by body fluids as the corpse decayed.

All of these are artifacts from the Han people. How could they possibly appear in a burial pit of the She people, who went extinct thousands of years ago?

Master Liang glanced around and said, “If I’m not mistaken, this isn’t actually a sacrificial burial pit, but a battlefield. The bodies here belong to two factions: one is the guardian of this ancient tomb, and the other is a Han army.”