Volume 6Chapter 4: The Bloody Corpse Tomb

Instinctively, Uncle San kept pushing the soil around him, trying to stick his head out to breathe or grab something around him. However, it was in vain. In about two or three seconds, he felt his body fall into a void, and then he felt a chill, and he fell into the water along with the mud that was wrapping him.

The cold water washed the mud off his face, and he coughed and struggled to get up. It was pitch black, and he didn’t know where he had fallen. He could only feel that everything below his waist was water, and there was a peculiar rotten smell all around.

The flashlight was still on, but now it was submerged in water, and only a small amount of light was visible. Third Uncle leaned over and reached for the flashlight, but it went out as soon as he touched it. He shook it twice, and the light came back on, but it was noticeably dimmer.

He shone the flashlight around and found that he had fallen into a brick room. The walls were made of four-sided green bricks. Looking behind him, he saw a large hole in the green brick wall that looked like it had been artificially dug. Obviously, he had just slipped in through this hole.

After looking around, Uncle San understood what had happened. The place he had just dug was problematic. It seemed to be an empty hole covered with soil. His weight had pressed down on it, and there was no support underneath, so the soil below the entire tunnel had collapsed and rolled into the tomb chamber below with the mud.

Who had dug the hole in the tomb wall? Had he accidentally dug into the tunnel that the old man and his men had used to enter the tomb? Could there be such a coincidence?

Uncle San thought about it. He thought it was possible that this was the case. He had learned his skills from the old man, and the old man had learned his skills from the previous generation. Because burials had been degenerating since the Qing Dynasty, tomb-robbering techniques had been based on the old ways, with no further development. Where and how to dig a tomb-robbering hole were all fixed rules. Apprentices taught by the same master would probably dig the tomb-robbering hole in the same place.

Putting these thoughts aside, he looked around carefully. The entrance at the back was completely blocked by the mud that had fallen in, and he didn’t know where the shovel was buried in the mud. It would be difficult to get back the way he came. But he wasn’t worried. He had explosives with him, so if he really couldn’t get out, he could blow a hole in the ceiling.

The tomb chamber was a regular square shape with a vaulted ceiling, and there were simple reliefs all around. The tomb chamber wasn’t very big, but it was tall. The water in the tomb chamber had reached his waist, and the burial objects should be underwater. But the black water made it impossible to see anything below.

On the left wall, there was a door, which seemed to be the tunnel of the tomb.

It was impossible to determine the dynasty and status of the owner of the tomb from these alone, but judging from the height of the tomb chamber, it was clear that the owner of the tomb here was not a member of the royal family.

Generally speaking, the size of a tomb with a burial chamber is already not low, because in ancient times, not many people could afford to live in a brick structure. If you want to use bricks to build a tomb, the tomb owner needs to be a member of the official class. There is no deep cloud. However, even among the officials, most of the ancient tombs will not have too many evil mechanisms, because their abilities are limited. Throughout the dynasties, the top craftsmen, especially those who master the architectural knowledge of the tombs, have only served the emperor. Moreover, they can only serve once in their lifetime. A large number of top craftsmen died inside the imperial tombs when they were closed. This is also why so many things in China have been lost.

Uncle San calmed down a bit and waded into the dark tunnel. The water was cold and had a lot of resistance, making it difficult to walk. It made a very unpleasant sound as it rippled.

The floor of the underwater tomb was not flat, and he almost fell down several times when he stepped on something. At this time, he could not think about what he had stepped on. If this was the ancient tomb recorded in the notes, then what he had stepped on, in addition to the burial goods here, might also be the remains of his elders. This kind of thing was too exciting, and the best solution was not to think about it.

The tunnel was about 20 meters long and he quickly walked through it. Behind the tunnel was another larger tomb chamber. There were no other tunnels around it. Uncle San knew that this was the back hall. He walked a few steps closer and saw a coffin bed in the middle of the tomb chamber, above the water.

Uncle San’s flashlight shone on it, and he swallowed his saliva involuntarily. His legs were a little weak.

He saw a stone coffin on the coffin bed, and the lid of the coffin had been flipped to an unknown place. This situation was not uncommon, but what made him a little frightened was that there were two other decayed skeletons leaning against the lidless coffin. The clothes on their bodies were already in tatters, and the two bodies had completely decayed. The flesh and skin had already been glued to the stone coffin. From a distance, it was unclear what dynasty they were from, but they were definitely not slaves who were buried with the dead.

Uncle San stood there for a while, feeling cold all over, not daring to go over. He thought to himself, could these two be my own relatives who died in the ancient tomb?

This was not the first time he had entered an ancient tomb. He had long since developed a mindset of ignoring the corpses in the tomb. To him, these corpses were just objects. But this time he might have encountered the corpses of his own relatives. He felt an inexplicable fear in his heart and his heart was pounding.

He slowly walked up to the stone platform in the middle of the tomb room. He was trembling and couldn’t hold the flashlight steady. He first looked at the sarcophagus and saw a dried blood clot coagulating at the bottom of the coffin. There seemed to be silk wrapped inside, but there was no corpse. When he looked at the two corpses, he saw that the corpses were completely rotten and the heads were already skeletons. He couldn’t tell if they were his relatives, but he saw that one of the corpses was holding a box cannon in his hand.

Uncle San’s knees went weak and he knelt down, and then he bowed his head twice. Uncle San is not a person with many delicate emotions, so his behavior at this time should be instinctive.

After bowing his head, Uncle San suddenly felt much more relaxed. He looked at the box cannon, which had already been embroidered and was no longer usable, so he threw it aside and went to see what was in the sarcophagus. He put on gloves and reached into the coffin, pressing on the silk at the bottom of the coffin.

Generally, few people study the placement of the Mingqi in the coffin. In fact, the coffin is divided into many layers. The corpse is only in the middle, and there should be several layers of satin and Tencel cotton bedding above and below.

After pressing it, San Shu knew that the corpse was not under the rotting satin, but rather he felt that under the mess of filth on the ground of the coffin, there was a ring-shaped object. He reached in and felt it. To his surprise, it was an iron ring, which was attached to the bottom of the coffin.

He placed the flashlight on the edge of the sarcophagus, then clasped the iron ring with both hands and pulled hard. Suddenly, the coffin floor lifted up on one side, and a secret door appeared at the bottom of the coffin.

Uncle San’s forehead jumped up. He didn’t expect that there was more than one layer of tombs. He immediately took out a firecracker and just wanted to throw it into the secret door below to see what was underneath.