Tomb raiding: Today is another day I don't want to go home.

Chapter 39 Reencounter in the Underwater Tomb

Under a starry dome, with the sun and moon alternating, a massive palace model was built in this side chamber, just like the one carved on the stone door, only more three-dimensional and intuitive.

Yan Huai took in everything around him, then turned to Wu Sansheng and asked, "What is the name of this palace?"

"Heavenly Palace on the Clouds!"

"have you been there?"

“That was almost twenty years ago.” Wu Sansheng said this in a strange tone, which Yan Huai didn’t quite understand.

"What? You want to go?" Wu Sansheng asked again.

"It's not that I want to, I will go."

Yan Huai somewhat liked this palace, and it seemed vaguely familiar to him...

Wu Sansheng chuckled and patted Yan Huai on the shoulder, raising his chin slightly: "Over there."

Following Wu Sansheng's gaze, Yan Huai saw the tomb chamber corresponding to the side chamber, and he could vaguely glimpse a shadow sitting on a coffin.

"This underwater tomb was probably built by Wang Zanghai for himself, but whether this person is actually him is uncertain."

Yan Huai walked to the front of the shadow, which was a weathered mummy. It was incredible that a mummy could still exist in the damp underwater tomb.

"When did you pull the body out of the coffin?" Besides this reason, with Yan Huai's current experience and memory, he really couldn't think of any other reason.

Upon hearing this, Wu Sansheng clenched his fist. He understood why Yan Huai had asked the question, so he squinted at him and said, "The surface of the corpse was coated with a preservative!"

"Oh, I see..." Yan Huai nodded, turning his gaze back to the mummified corpse.

Its face was expressionless, and its sitting posture was similar to that of Taoist meditation, but its hands were somewhat different. Its right index finger pointed to the sky, while its left hand was clasped together.

Yan Huai turned his head to look and saw a small fold of skin on the back of the mummified corpse's right index finger. Unlike the folds that naturally formed on the knuckles, this fold seemed to be caused by the finger being both vertical and parallel, and it appeared to have formed after death.

"You figured it out?" Wu Sansheng joked.

Yan Huai straightened up, nodded slightly, and looked to his right. Where there should have been another side chamber, there was now a tomb wall blocked by a bronze mirror: "Point the way."

Wu Sansheng watched Yan Huai walk towards the bronze mirror, standing still without saying a word. He knew what was there and what it contained, and that was the real reason he had asked Yan Huai to follow him.

The bronze mirror was only about two meters tall. Yan Huai looked down at the faint scratch marks on the ground, reached out and moved the bronze mirror a little. Behind it, on the tomb wall, an archway smaller than the bronze mirror was revealed.

There was no light inside, but from Yan Huai's perspective, he could see a coral tree covered with bronze bells in the side room that resembled a secret chamber.

As Yan Huai approached, he could clearly sense that the humidity in this side room was much higher than in other places, and that the bronze bell... was very similar to the bronze bell on the tail of the corpse beetle he had caught in the corpse cave, so there was probably some connection between the two.

Yan Huai did not easily reach out to touch the bronze bells. While thinking, he walked around the coral tree in front of him.

Wu Sansheng stood leaning against the archway entrance, still silent.

When he and the real Wu Sanxing came here, they dug a tunnel under this coral tree, but they did not dig directly up, because once these bronze bells were vibrated and made a sound, they would cause people to lose their minds, which had a similar effect to the bronze bell at the tail of the bronze bell corpse beetle.

To avoid any unexpected incidents that would allow others to take advantage of the situation, he and the real Wu Sansheng abandoned this route into the tomb. But now... if Yan Huai has a way, this route can be used as a secret passage to make their plan more successful.

Yan Huai was unaware of Wu Sansheng's thoughts. He was recalling what Wu Sansheng had mentioned about the symbiotic system: the bronze bell corpse beetle last time existed for symbiosis, so what about these bronze bells? Could they also be in symbiosis with something?

Thinking of this, Yan Huai turned his gaze to the trunk of the coral tree. The copper bell is used to ward off evil spirits, suppress evil, and attract wealth, but in folk legends, it also has the function of gathering water, which may be the reason why this side room is so damp.

Water and fire are incompatible... no wonder the system's rewards include an inextinguishable flame.

Yan Huai turned to look at Wu Sansheng and asked, "Third Master, is there a fire?"

"Yes, what do you want?" Wu Sansheng took out a tinderbox from his waterproof and sealed backpack and threw it to Yan Huai.

“It’s useful. Go out and wait for me. I’ll call you back in a bit.”

Wu Sansheng made a raised eyebrow gesture that Yan Huai couldn't possibly imitate, then turned and left the side room, standing next to the large bronze mirror.

Let him look! He won't be able to tell anything anyway!

Yan Huai found it amusing, but his hands didn't stop. He faced the coral tree and, under the guise of lighting a tinderbox, released the inextinguishable flame rewarded by the system.

In an instant, the temperature inside the ear chamber suddenly soared, almost drying up all the moisture in the air. Before long, this small space formed a vacuum-like state, and even Wu Sansheng outside felt suffocated.

By the light of the flashlight on his backpack strap, Wu Sansheng looked at the tinderbox in Yan Huai's hand, his heart filled with doubt and surprise: Is this thing really that powerful?

Yan Huai didn't notice Wu Sansheng's expression. He stared intently at the coral tree in front of him. Its trunk and the hanging bronze bell began to tremble together, but pitifully, it didn't make any sound.

And as the cracks on the coral tree grew larger, the bronze bell began to disintegrate and disappear silently.

In the side chamber, Yan Huai stood amidst the dissipating smoke and dust, silently holding a tinderbox. His demeanor carried a hint of bewitching allure; compared to the sound of the bronze bell he had heard before, he seemed even more captivating…

Zhang Qiling and Black Glasses, who arrived from another passage, walked to Wu Sansheng's side. They looked up slightly and saw the scene they had just witnessed.

Zhang Qiling felt his ear tips burning, and he awkwardly looked away, using his black gold ancient sword to block the view of Black Glasses and Wu Sansheng.

The two of them snapped out of their daze, their eyes meeting in awkward silence. They could only cough lightly and turn away, focusing their attention on the pile of black coral tree debris in front of Yan Huai.

Yan Huai put away the inextinguishable flame, covered the tinderbox, and waited a while until the air in the side room had recovered a bit before turning to call Wu Sansheng over.

But to my surprise, this glance revealed two unexpected people!

"Zhang Qiling!"

Zhang Qiling was taken aback upon hearing this. He didn't seem to have mentioned his name before, so how did Yan Huai know? Oh, perhaps Wu Sansheng had mentioned it...

"Tsk tsk tsk, didn't you see that this is a grown man, Mr. Black? Why are you calling him 'Mute' instead of 'Mr. Black'? That's so rude, Yan Xiaohuai!"

Yan Huai couldn't help but roll his eyes (he learned it from Wu Sansheng). He raised his hand and punched the man in black glasses on the shoulder, then turned to look at Zhang Qiling in front of him and asked with a smile, "Why are you here?"

Didn't the system say that Black Glasses would come to meet them, and Zhang Qiling would protect Wu Xie?

"With their involvement, the chances of success in this project are much higher, so I contacted them a couple of days ago."

Wu Sansheng's words made Yan Huai pause. "A couple of days ago?"

"Host, you and Wu Sansheng have been in the underwater tomb for a day and a half."

Yan Huai: "!" It's been so long!?