“What kind of monster?”

“Quick, get out of the way!”

“Damn it!”

Several exclamations rang out, and the team of twelve death row prisoners immediately fell into chaos. At the forefront, Linghu Cang thrust his sword towards the charging monstrous dragon.

“Boom!”

A muffled explosion sounded, and to everyone’s terrified and disbelieving eyes, the monstrous dragon charged straight through their bodies.

A violent wind swept forth, mixed with a huge amount of dust, instantly blinding everyone.

The entire team immediately descended into panic, with many stumbling backward.

But they quickly realized something was wrong; this was not a monster, but a strange whirlwind!

Mixed with a lot of dust, this hurricane swept in and almost knocked over more than a dozen people.

“What kind of monster is that?”

“It’s not a monster! It seems to be a whirlwind?”

“What should we do…?”

From behind them, Hu Bafeng’s voice rang out: “Don’t be afraid, everyone, that’s not a monster. It’s dust formed from the wind erosion over hundreds of years on the pigments of some carvings in the mausoleum.”

“When we opened the tomb door, that dust storm came rushing out. It’s harmless!”

“Keep moving forward!”

The twelve looked at each other, carefully checked their bodies, and found nothing wrong, so they continued forward.

This was a dim and wide staircase leading downward, like a coiled giant python. The twelve carefully explored forward with their weapons.

Strangely, there was no one behind them!

In front of the grand tomb entrance, Hu Bafeng lay on the ground, listening carefully to something.

Beside him, Chen Liancang stood quietly.

“Eunuch, they’re still headed down. The tomb passage seems to be a downward spiral staircase… still going down… hmm?”

“Not good! They triggered a mechanism!”

“Whoosh!”

“Whoosh whoosh!!”

At that moment, piercing sounds echoed from the tomb passage, followed by the screams of the death row prisoners and the clash of weapons.

Not long after, frantic footsteps rushed out from the tomb passage.

Chen Liancang waved, and hundreds of Embroidered Uniform Guards appeared behind him, bows drawn, aimed at them from afar.

Originally twelve death row prisoners, only nine remained, each with injuries.

As for the three who didn’t make it out, they were surely dead.

“Do not come out, all of you get back in!”

“Eunuch!”

Linghu Cang stepped forward, with a noticeable injury on his left shoulder, clearly wounded by the mechanism inside the tomb passage.

“Inside the tomb passage, there are mechanisms everywhere, and a rain of arrows attacked us.”

Linghu Cang said, “To complete the eunuch’s task, could you provide us with shields?”

Chen Liancang said, “Give them shields.”

“Yes!”

The leading Embroidered Uniform Guard Thousand Households, Zhang Jianping, gestured, and a team of Embroidered Uniform Guards immediately found several shields and threw them over.

These shields belonged to the Imperial Guard, half-body shields about three feet in length. They could cover the whole body if the user crouched behind them.

Looking at the nine shields on the ground and the fully armed Embroidered Uniform Guards waiting around, Linghu Cang reluctantly picked up a shield.

“Gentlemen, if you want to survive, you must continue downward.”

“Damn it!”

“They might as well just kill us!”

“Being in prison is death; here it’s still death…”

“Who said that? At least there’s a slim chance!”

The group muttered in low voices, but ultimately under the threat of the Embroidered Uniform Guards’ arrows, they reluctantly picked up the shields and retreated back into the tomb passage.

Hu Bafeng continued to lie on the ground, listening to the commotion inside the tomb passage.

“They’ve gone back in!”

“They’ve triggered another mechanism!”

“It’s the simplest crossbow mechanism that can fire powerful crossbow arrows from the walls!”

“They’ve engaged it…”

The piercing sound of arrows hitting the shields was audible even without lying on the ground. Everyone standing at the entrance of the tomb passage could hear it.

“Ding ding ding…”

Occasionally, screams echoed, but this time, no one ran out.

This sound continued for the time it takes to drink a cup of tea before gradually subsiding.

“The sound has weakened, they have successfully passed through this mechanism.”

Chen Liancang immediately said, “Everyone, into the tomb passage!”

“Yes!”

Over a hundred Embroidered Uniform Guards immediately entered the tomb passage in succession, with guards at both sides carrying shields to ward off any sudden traps.

In the middle were Chen Liancang, Chen Zhong, Hu Bafeng, and other Shadow Guards and Tomb Raider Captains.

The staircase led downward, the surroundings silent except for the sounds of moving footsteps.

Soon, a monster appeared before the group, and the team suddenly halted.

“Eunuch, we have found their bodies, along with many arrows.”

“How many corpses?”

“Seven!”

“Throw it aside, everyone keep moving down.”

“Yes!”

The team quickly continued forward, and Chen Liancang and the others encountered the corpses.

The ground was covered with arrows, the corpses looked like porcupines bristling with arrows.

On the walls and ceiling on both sides, there were dense, dark holes, all hiding various crossbow mechanisms behind them!

“Where are the others?”

“Ahead!”

The group continued forward, and the remaining five members of the death row prisoners also noticed them.

A few of them glanced back with a strange look but continued on with stiffened resolve.

The distance between the two teams was about a hundred meters, slowly creeping forward.

The death row prisoners were moving very slowly, testing each step before proceeding.

Chen Liancang did not hurry them and just walked quietly.

Finally, after the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the speed of the death row prisoners suddenly increased, as if they had discovered something.

Everyone else also quickened their pace, soon rushing out of the tunnel into a different world.

“Wow…!”

Exclamations arose immediately, and even the numerous Embroidered Uniform Guards on the scene couldn’t help but gasp.

What appeared before them was a huge underground palace!

The underground palace was shaped like a city, vaguely resembling a miniature version of the Capital City.

Having lived in the Capital City for over fifty years, Chen Liancang immediately recognized it.

The underground palace before him was a replica of the Capital City!

But it was reduced by countless times, replicated after the appearance of the Capital City more than three hundred years ago!

Everyone instinctively looked into the distance, the underground palace was dark and visibility was limited, but vaguely, they saw a tall building looming ahead.

“Where are the death row prisoners?”

“Where are those death row prisoners?”

“Gone!”

“I seem to have seen them just now, running into the underground palace!”

Chen Liancang frowned and said, “Don’t worry about them for now, let them go.”

“Luminous Pearl!”

A team of Embroidered Uniform Guards ran out from the rear of the group, taking out goose-egg-sized Luminous Pearls from their chests, taking a deep breath, and then throwing them far around!

With the help of the faint light from the Luminous Pearls, everyone could finally see clearly that this indeed was a gigantic underground palace.

Chen Liancang even personally took out a Luminous Pearl, infused it with True Qi, and then fiercely tossed the Luminous Pearl in his hand toward the massive building hidden in the darkness ahead.

The Luminous Pearl almost turned into a beam of light, disappearing in a flash, and then with a ‘bang,’ it crashed heavily into a wall.

It was even embedded into it!

At this moment, Chen Liancang’s pupils constricted, because the Luminous Pearl he threw had embedded itself on a huge stone step!

It was a grand altar surrounded by the Capital City!

Under the faint light, on the towering stone step, there stood a miniature palace.

It was the palace where the Great Yu’s founding Grand Ancestor, Zheng Mingsen, lived more than three hundred years ago, unexpectedly replicated here!

Grand Ancestor Zheng Mingsen, not only did he want to be Emperor when he was alive.

Even in death, he wanted to remain Emperor!

“A palace in this underground city, and the residence of the Grand Ancestor. Could it be that the Grand Ancestor’s mausoleum is inside the palace on the altar?”

Chen Liancang pondered for a few seconds but noticed several Tomb Raider Captains running over from a distance.

“What are they doing?”

Hu Bafeng explained, “Eunuch, this is an old tradition of tomb raiders passed down by our ancestors.”

“Whenever we enter a large tomb, before opening the coffin, we have to light a candle in the southeast corner of the burial chamber.”

“If the candle goes out when opening the coffin, it means the tomb owner does not welcome us, and we must seal the coffin and leave immediately, or something major will happen.”

“But if the candle stays lit, it means the tomb owner knows we’re coming and has prepared some gifts for us, which can be taken.”

Chen Liancang scoffed, “Do you tomb raiders really believe in such things?”

Hu Bafeng awkwardly explained, “Eunuch, in our line of work, all we seek is peace of mind.”

“Whether we believe it or not, it’s a rule handed down by our ancestors, and it has indeed saved many lives.”

Chen Liancang said, “Lighting candles is your business and I won’t interfere with you, but… we are not yet at the mausoleum, why are you lighting candles?”

Hu Bafeng swallowed, instinctively looking at the massive altar in the distance, then at the nearby underground palace, and said in a low voice, “Eunuch…”

“This is not only the Grand Ancestor’s tomb but also the tomb of many eunuchs, palace maids, guards, and even the craftsmen who built this underground palace and mausoleum.”

“This place, this is the grand tomb!!!”

“Hmm?”

Meanwhile, inside the underground palace.

Linghu Cang was leading four other lucky survivors through the underground palace, each of them carrying injuries, pierced by crossbow arrows.

Even Linghu Cang himself was in the same state, his face pale.

Finally, Linghu Cang found a building with an open door and, after a few moments of observation, went inside.

“Brother Linghu, are we staying here?”

“Yes!”

Linghu Cang tore off a sleeve to bandage his wound, “These Embroidered Uniform Guards’ target is the depths of the underground palace, whatever they’re up to has nothing to do with us.”

“Luckily there are many buildings here, we can just hide here and quietly retrace our steps after they enter.”

“In this Imperial Mausoleum, we face certain death!”

“Even though that old eunuch promised to let us go, who knows if he’s deceiving us?”

“Regardless, I won’t leave my fate in others’ hands.”

“After they go in, we’ll break out of Celestial Longevity Mountain, better than dying here!”

The four were silently bandaging their wounds when someone suddenly said, “Brother Linghu, this is the Grand Ancestor’s Imperial Mausoleum, do you think there will be many treasures?”

“There must be! Maybe even many Martial Dao secrets!”

“It’s rumored that Emperor Zhengyong was obsessed with Immortal Cultivation; could it be that he excavated the Grand Ancestor’s Mausoleum for the legendary Immortal Cultivation Technique?”

The more they talked, the more excited they became, their eyes full of greed.

Linghu Cang thought for a moment but quickly reacted.

“Our goal is to survive; we must not go deeper into the underground palace… ka!

All five froze, Linghu Cang swallowed and said, “What did you do?”

“What was that sound just now?”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep