Chapter 32: The Bronze Seal

Under our astonished gazes, the cultivator wearing the bronze mask stepped inside first, with Li Yiran following closely behind.

The stone door closed behind us, and the air grew somewhat stifling. Yet, the great cultivator strode forward with ease, as if completely unaffected. That was impressive!

Behind the Bagua platform lay a corridor. Unlike the Kan-position entrance we had passed through earlier, this corridor was lined with enormous, grotesque stone statues, one appearing almost every two meters.

"Judging by the craftsmanship, these must be from the Ming Dynasty," the old man muttered as he leaned in toward one of the giant stone figures.

"You know about this stuff?" I asked, curious.

"Well, I used to study antiques back in the day. These shouldn't be stone statues; if they were porcelain or something similar, they'd be worth a fortune. As stone statues, a piece this size should fetch a few tens of thousands," the old man replied.

Carved stone statues aren't usually profitable unless someone is laundering money or artificially inflating the price. Still, there were a vast number of them here—at a glance, there were at least a hundred. Even at ten thousand a piece, that would add up to over a million! A Ming Dynasty tomb is only two or three hundred years old; it isn't truly ancient.

We finished walking the long corridor and encountered another stone door. As we reached it, the bronze-masked cultivator stopped. "There is danger behind this stone door. Tell your people to be careful."

"Quiet!" Li Yiran barked at the group. "There’s a problem behind the door. Watch yourselves and make sure you don’t touch anything."

They could sense danger while still outside the door? Were they that good? Did they have x-ray vision?

"Young Brother Jiang, it’s best to be cautious," the old man whispered, nudging me.

I nodded. I wasn't being defiant; I was just curious. But that man was a great cultivator—a powerhouse capable of pushing open stone doors weighing hundreds or even thousands of pounds—so I certainly wouldn't doubt his word.

*Creak...*

The heavy stone door was pushed open once more. Inside was a massive space. The ground appeared to be covered in something pitch-black, and in the air, eight chains suspended a coffin.

The bronze-masked cultivator walked forward step by step. With every step, a "squelch" sound came from the ground, as if he were crushing tiny insects. It was only then that I realized the pitch-black floor was actually covered in countless beetles.

I had watched a few tomb-raiding television shows; could these be corpse beetles? Those things are quite fierce. A single one might not be much, but gathered in such massive numbers, they are like a swarm of locusts—everything they touch is devoured.

The bronze-masked cultivator reached the coffin, leaped into the air, and stood atop it. He extended two slender fingers and thrust them directly into the wood.

*Crack!*

As if split by an axe, the coffin lid flew off instantly. Because the coffin was suspended, I couldn't see what was inside. The man retrieved a brass box from the coffin and leaped back down.

"Help... help me!"

Just as I was focusing intently on the brass box, a scream erupted from behind me. A young man, roughly my age, had begun to convulse, blood dripping from between his fingers.

What was going on? Li Yiran’s gaze snapped toward him.

"Move!" the bronze-masked cultivator roared, appearing at the corridor entrance in a few leaps. He was so fast I hadn't even had time to react. Li Yiran had no choice but to lead everyone in a hasty retreat.

The insects on the ground seemed to catch the scent of blood in the air and grew increasingly active. *What the hell is happening?* I grabbed the old man’s sleeve and fled toward the corridor. As for the screaming youth, the elderly man and the middle-aged man standing beside him managed to drag him out.

The great cultivator stood at the corridor entrance, facing the overwhelming wave of black insects, and casually threw out a few talismans.

*Boom...*

In an instant, a roaring fire ignited at the mouth of the corridor, temporarily sealing off the black beetles.

Inside the corridor, Li Yiran clicked on her flashlight, took out a small knife, and plunged it into the young man's arm. With a flick of the blade, she pried out a black beetle.

"Bandage him up!" Li Yiran glared coldly at the youth. "I told you not to mess around. Why didn't you listen?"

"I was curious. It looked like the corpse beetles from *The Grave Robbers' Chronicles*, so I picked one up to look," the man replied weakly, his face pale.

"These are blood-sucking insects; they are extremely sensitive to blood," Li Yiran explained, then turned to the old man. "Keep your people in check, or get out."

"Understood, Miss," the old man replied, though his expression was sour. He was sixty or seventy years old, yet he was being scolded by a woman in her twenties; I’d be upset too. But his people were clearly in the wrong.

Watching this, Qin Wuran walked over to me and whispered, "Don't get too close to that family. They seem like idiots."

"Brother Qin, do you know these people?" I asked.

"I do. They used to be from Gansu, but they had a falling out with the Chen family there. They couldn't stay in Gansu, so they came here to make a living. The old man leading them is Taoist Song; the middle-aged man is his son, Song Fei. The two young men are their juniors—the injured one is Song Haitao, and the other is Song Jian," Qin Wuran explained.

So that was it. Even though the Qin and Gan regions are neighbors, they are distinct circles. If you can't survive in your own circle and come to the Qin region to steal bread, you won't be welcomed.

I had finally gotten to know the members of the team. With the incident over, Li Yiran opened the brass box, which contained a small bronze seal.

"The items are collected. There should be other things in the remaining passages. If you want them, you can come back and get them later, but we have a mission to complete on this trip!" Li Yiran warned. "The next stop is the Qinling Mountains. The road conditions won't be good, so get some rest while you can. As for the injured one, I suggest you return to the ancient capital as soon as possible."

Li Yiran had issued a dismissal. The old man could only grit his teeth and agree. According to her, there were still treasures in the tomb, but I suspected that if there were anything truly valuable left, she would have taken it herself rather than waiting for us.