Chapter 31: Rising Internal strife
"Yes, Third Prince stole it from the palace. It was said to be a treasure passed down from generation to generation in the royal family," Yue Qinghai said, "Do you remember the Gu user before? He kept instigating me to take the Red Emperor Gu. This was what I found from his corpse."
"Corpse? Did you kill him?"
"He wants to use a gu on me and steal my Gu Experience. How hilarious. Would I be afraid of Gu’s bite?"
He was proud. "How about it? Do you want to take me with you? I promise that I want to get rid of the Gu in my body and will never think of using the Red Emperor Gu."
Chai Qi frowned and pondered deeply.
Now it seemed that Yue Qinghai had to be taken along.
"Yue Qinghai, Liu Shu, and I will go to the Emperor Gaozu's tomb." Chai Qi decided, "The others will stay here and wait for news."
Little Xiaoyu hurriedly said, "I will follow you!"
Chai Qi waved his hand, "You stay and take care of Mister Shi. Your martial arts are too weak and you don't know how to raid tombs. You will only be a burden if you go."
Little Xiaoyu wanted to say something, but Chai Qi gave him a gaze, eyes filled with majesty. He lowered his head and dared not speak.
When Luo Jin heard that he wasn't going to take her with him, she said anxiously, "I want to go too! I want to save the Princess!"
"You don't know martial arts, what's the point of going? Stay!" Chai Qi ordered.
Yue Qinghai was stunned, wondering what Chai Qi meant by that. He said Luo Jin didn't know martial arts? Was Luo Jin hiding it from him on purpose?
He naturally hoped that Luo Jin would go with him, so that the chances of winning would be much greater. Although it would be impossible for him to get the Red Emperor Gu, it wasn't that important compared to saving his life.
He didn't dare to say anything to upset Luo Jin and hurriedly said, "Let Miss Luo go with you. Isn't she... a lucky mascot? Tomb raiding is mysterious. It's not bad to bring a lucky mascot."
Luo Jin was a little surprised. Yue Qinghai actually spoke for her?
Chai Qi still shook his head, "How can you let her, a person who doesn't know martial arts, take risks for such a ridiculous reason? Absolutely not!"
Luo Jin pulled Chai Qi at the side and whispered, "This Yue Qinghai isn't easy to deal with. What if he steals the Red Emperor Gu? How can you deal with him alone? Liu Shu is from Xiyuan and can't be trusted at all. Even if you use ‘Thousand Tribulations’ and barely subdue Yue Qinghai. And the aftereffects of the secret medicine are strong. You can't get out by yourself. At this time, you must have someone to carry you back?"
Chai Qi was silent for a while, "Then I might as well take Little Xiaoyu with me. He at least knew a little bit of martial arts. "
Luo Jin said anxiously: "He can't be trusted! He’s still Liu Shu's apprentice. Think about it, if Liu Shu tell him to help rob the Red Emperor Gu, would he listen to you or his master? He is the kind of person who can die for his master. "
"You... can be trusted? I have other subordinates in Xiyuan..."
"I am the Princess's person. Of course I can be trusted. Is there anyone more trustworthy than me in this world? What if your subordinates betray you?"
"..."
Chai Qi lowered his head and thought. He didn't want to believe Luo Jin. But she was willing to go to such a dangerous place as Gaozu's tomb, a place that even Long Ying didn't dare to go!
He had to go for his younger sister, but Luo Jin obviously didn't have to go. She was risking her life by going.
She was obviously such a weak person. He finally stated, "Okay, you go with me."
Chai Qi told the group to prepare some useful items. In addition to some medicines made by Mister Shi to deal with gu insects, they also needed to bring food and water. Just in case, they even brought clothes.
Luo Jin saw Liu Shu with empty hands and found it a little strange. She asked him, "Elder Brother Liu, where are your professional tools? Compass, rope, shovel and other things... Don't you need to bring them?"
"No." Liu Shu said.
"Awesome!" Luo Jin gave a thumbs up. "Real masters don't need these equipment, right? Like high-level alchemists don't need to draw alchemy arrays, and high-level mages don't need to sing."
Liu Shu: "..."
Luo Jin noticed that Liu Shu had some scars on his face that had appeared recently. There were also many scars on his exposed hands. She remembered that he had fallen into Chai Qi's hands before and Chai Qi had tortured him many times in order to make him tell the secrets of Xiyuan. These scars probably were left from that time.
Liu Shu noticed Luo Jin's gaze. Frowning slightly, he met her gaze. There was slight displeasure.
Luo Jin retracted her gaze. It was impolite to stare at other people's scars, not to mention that these scars were caused by her master Chai Qi.
Fortunately, these scars didn’t leave a psychological shadow on Liu Shu. When he saw Chai Qi, his expression was always cold and indifferent, without any fear.
The things were loaded on the carriage. The group got on the carriage and drove toward the tomb of Emperor Gaozu.
The carriage passed through the woods and stopped at the entrance of the tomb.
The location of Emperor Gaozu’s tomb had excellent feng shui and mountains and rivers, but it was far away from the town. There were originally tomb keepers here. But many years ago a group of powerful tomb raiders killed the tomb keepers, opened the tomb door, and entered the tomb, but never came out again.
After that, the royal family sent another group of tomb keepers, but for some reason, these people didn’t live long. Later, no one dared to guard the tomb. So the royal family stopped sending people to guard it and only wove nets around it. In fact, these nets couldn't stop anyone at all.
Later, batches of tomb raiders entered the tomb, but no one came out alive. This place gradually became a terrifying legend and no one came here again. Although tomb raiders were greedy and covet the wealth in the tomb, their lives were more important. No one was willing to take such a big risk to enter the tomb.
The door of the tomb was open, probably because the last group of tomb raiders did it. The surrounding area was overgrown with weeds. It seemed that no one had set foot in it for many years.
Surrounding trees blocked the sky and the sun, so the light in the forest wasn't good. It was even darker when looking inside from the cave entrance.
After the carriage stopped, the coachman was left watching at the door. The group got off the carriage together, took some personal belongings, and walked toward the tomb.
Liu Shu walked fast and entered the tomb first. With him walking in front, the others weren't in a hurry. There must be a mechanism in the emperor's tomb, so it was safer for professionals to explore it first.
Chai Qi took two steps and saw Luo Jin following behind him. He stopped and waited for her to catch up, saying, "Follow me closely."
Luo Jin was slightly startled, let out an ‘oh’, and followed Chai Qi closely.
The three of them lit torches and entered the tomb one by one.
As soon as they entered, Luo Jin was nauseated by the fishy smell.
Under the light of the torch, she saw that it wasn’t a large stone chamber. But there were nearly a hundred dry bones on the ground. Some of the bones were stained with black dried blood. Many bones were covered with fragments of clothes, but the flesh on the bones had disappeared. No meat residue could be seen.
She finally understood what the three words ‘corpse-eating Gu’ meant. She involuntarily touched the sachet on her waist and her breathing became a little rapid.
Luckily, she had this sachet, otherwise she would have been dead as soon as she entered the door.
"Where is Liu Shu?" Luo Jin asked. She saw that there was a door on the left, right and front of the small space in front of her. Yue Qinghai walked in front and must have seen it.
"I saw him enter on the right." Yue Qinghai replied.
"You judged the correct direction so quickly? As expected of a professional!" Luo Jin couldn't help but praise. She thought Liu Shu would have to ponder for a long time! She had read novels about tomb raiders. Professional tomb raiders often infer the correct direction from various aspects such as Feng Shui, geography, Yin and Yang, and the Five Elements. It was a job that required a lot of brainpower.
At this time, she heard a series of "ding-dong" and "clang-dong" noises coming from the passage on the right, like the sound of some mechanism being triggered and hitting the wall. Then, Liu Shu flew out of the passage on the right and went to the passage on the left.
"..."
The professional method was exhaustive, right? Trial and error one by one will always be right, right?
Then, the same commotion came from the passage on the left.
Luo Jin: "I think we should go to the tomb in front."
"..."
Chai Qi: "Does he understand tombs? Has he ever raided tombs before?"
Yue Qinghai said: "Say, did he find the right way?"
Chai Qi: "..."
Liu Shu flew out of the passage on the left again and firmly entered the passage in front.
There was still a stone room in front. The bones in this stone room weren’t as many as those outside, but there were still many. Obviously, some people were bitten to death by the corpse-eating insect after entering this room. But the bones here were strange. They were not put together as well as those outside. Many of them have traces of fractures, while some were broken.
"Did they fight after entering?" Luo Jin asked.
"But this fight was too tragic, wasn't it?" Yue Qinghai observed the bones, "What kind of weapon can be used to fight like this? Some of them were broken into pieces! How can they be beaten like this?"
There were a few rope rings that could be pulled in this stone room. It seemed that the method to crack it was simple: pull the right rope ring and it should be fine.
But if the wrong one was wrong... won't they be a goner on the spot?
Everyone looked at Liu Shu.
Liu Shu said: "You guys step back."
The three of them complied with his words and stepped back a few steps.
Liu Shu said again: "Retreat again."
The three of them retreated to the door of the stone chamber together. Liu Shu stretched out his hand to pull the first rope ring.
Suddenly, the floor of the stone chamber flew up and hit the roof in an instant. In the astonished eyes of everyone, Liu Shu quickly rushed out of the stone chamber before the floor flew up, clapped his hands, and concluded: "Not the first one."
"..."
If his body movement was a little slower, he would have been squeezed into a pulp by the stone slabs on the ground, right?
Yue Qinghai couldn't resist praising: "Good body movement!"
With his ninth-level strength, he couldn't do such a neat body movement and couldn't help but compliment.
After waiting for a while, the floor fell back to the ground and returned to its original state. The bones on the ground fell back and became more broken.
"..."
Finally, they knew how these bones were broken.
Liu Shu walked in again. Everyone stood far away and watched.
Liu Shu pulled the second rope ring at a fast speed and then flew out of the stone room. His movements were so fast that it was difficult to see clearly.
But this time no mechanism fell, but a hole was cracked in the middle of the room.
Liu Shu said: "The second one is right."
Everyone: "..."
Did he need to say that?
The hole was dark. Chai Qi picked up a bone and threw it down. It took a long time to hear the echo. Clearly this hole was deep.
Liu Shu said: "You stay here, I'll go down and take a look first."
He said and jumped down.
Yue Qinghai wanted to make a contribution and also said: "I'll go too!"
Then he jumped down. Soon, Yue Qinghai shouted from below, "It's safe, you can come down."
Liu Shu's voice also sounded, "It's fine."
Chai Qi grabbed Luo Jin's arm, "I'll take you down!"
Luo Jin was pulled by him to jump down the stone cave. Her vision was pitch black. She could only hear the whistling of the wind in her ears. Although she couldn't see anything, she subconsciously closed her eyes until her feet stepped on the ground.
Chai Qi gently dropped a palm on the ground the moment they landed, removing the force of the fall and allowing them to stand steadily on the ground without any diving force.
Liu Shu and Yue Qinghai, who came down first, were looking for the next entrance with torches. This stone chamber was empty and surrounded by stone walls. It was unclear how to proceed to get to the next one.
There were also some bones on the ground, but the number was small, much less than when they were up there. It seemed that someone had come down, but was still eaten by the corpse-eating Gu.
Yue Qinghai said: "There are paintings on this wall. I don't know what they mean."
Under the light of the fire, one could see the exquisite murals carved around, depicting pictures of battles, with swords and horses, and full of murderous aura.
Luo Jin said: "The clue is in this mural. Speaking of which, the eyes in these paintings... are a bit strange. Is it a clue?"
As she was pondering, she saw Liu Shu walk to the mural, suddenly raise his palm, and hit the mural. The wall that was hit was dented, while the surrounding murals dropped a lot of stone chips due to the vibration.
Everyone: "..."
Luo Jin wanted to shout "Help."
This time it wasn’t the exhaustive method, but a miracle with great force, right?
He actually wanted to use brute force to find the hidden doors hidden around!