A journey through ancient times, a journey of exquisite divine skills

Chapter 376 Empty, Waterway Map

She took several leaps, each step landing precisely on the gap, and in no time she reached the archway.

"Look, are you alright?"

She turned back and waved the torch at the two of them.

"Follow my steps, and be careful not to step on the wrong one."

Zhang Sanfeng and Leng Xiyue exchanged a glance and each used their lightness skills.

Each step he took landed on the cracks in the ground, making almost no sound when his toes touched the ground.

In a few leaps, he arrived beside Yun Dan.

"Although this mechanism is simple, it is the best test of eyesight and footwork."

After Leng Xiyue stopped, she looked at the stones embedded in the ground, still feeling a little scared.

"If someone had recklessly stepped on it, they would probably have been hit by an arrow by now."

Yun Dan laughed and said, "It must be that the owner of this royal tomb didn't want anyone to steal his burial treasures."

Then she turned to look at the arched stone door.

There were some blurry patterns carved on the door, resembling some kind of animal pattern.

"This door looks heavy; I don't know how to open it."

Zhang Sanfeng approached the stone door and reached out to touch the depths of the patterns.

"There's a groove next to this door knocker, like you can insert something into it."

Leng Xiyue also noticed something: "Look at the eyes of this beast pattern, they're empty. Maybe they're the key to the mechanism."

As the three were studying the object, they suddenly heard a faint "click" sound behind them. When they turned around, they saw that the stones embedded in the ground were slowly sinking into the ground, revealing a smooth rock.

Clearly, this mechanism is only triggered when someone approaches, and it will automatically reset after a certain time.

"This will save future generations from taking the same detours."

Yun Dan joked, her gaze returning to the stone gate.

"Let's think of a way to open the door first; we can't just stay here blocking the way."

The torchlight flickered on the stone gate, reflecting the focused expressions of the three people.

There may be even more obstacles ahead.

But by this point they had already figured out some of the patterns.

Although the royal tomb has many traps, it is not without ways to break through them. As long as you are careful enough, you can always find a way out.

The three continued along the passageway, the torchlight flickering on the rock face, reflecting the mottled carvings on both sides.

Having learned from her previous experience, Yun Dan walked with extra care.

She would check the patterns around her every now and then.

He would immediately signal the two to stop if there was even the slightest difference.

"The stone slabs here are a bit darker in color, so there might be some flipped slabs."

She pointed to a spot on the ground, and sure enough, when she probed it with a stick, a hollow echo came from under the stone slab.

After bypassing the ramp, a fork in the road appeared ahead, where two stone figures stood.

Yun Dan looked at the two stone figures for a while and said, "We should be there soon!"

The three of them had a series of close calls but no real dangers, and finally arrived at the last checkpoint.

This is a huge square stone door. There is no keyhole on the door, only nine neatly arranged grooves, each groove is carved with a different animal pattern.

Dragon, tiger, bear, sparrow, snake, wolf, leopard, deer, rabbit.

Leng Xiyue stared at the groove and said, "This is the 'Nine Beast Lock'."

"Legend has it that the Great Yu Kingdom uses nine beasts as totems, and only by presenting tokens in a specific order can the stone gate be opened."

Yun Dan noticed a line of small characters carved on the edge of the stone gate and studied them for a long time by the light.

"'Act in accordance with the seasons and follow the earthly branches'... Earthly branches? Are they Zi, Chou, Yin, Mao, and the like?"

Zhang Sanfeng suddenly said, "The nine beasts correspond to the earthly branches, so they should probably be ordered according to the time of day."

He pointed to the groove, "Look at this tiger-striped groove, and there's a '寅' character engraved next to it. The hour of Yin corresponds to the Tiger, so this should be the third one."

Upon his suggestion, Yun Dan suddenly realized: "The dragon corresponds to the Chen hour (7-9 AM) and is ranked fifth; the snake corresponds to the Si hour (9-11 AM) and is ranked sixth!"

"Try following the order of the Earthly Branches!"

As each component rotated and was inserted, the stone gate suddenly began to vibrate.

With a "boom," it slowly rose upwards, revealing the dark passage behind it.

The three exchanged a glance, then carried their torches inside.

At the end of the passage was an extremely spacious triangular cemetery, with the ground paved with bluestone slabs and neat edges, clearly carved out by hand.

The cemetery was empty, with neither coffins nor burial objects.

Only three stone pillars, each about half a person's height, stood in the corner, giving off an eerie emptiness.

"strangeness."

Yun Dan frowned and held up the torch, shining it around.

"Why is it so empty? There isn't even a single earthenware pot?"

Leng Xiyue walked to the stone pier and touched the dust on it.

"You think this is an ordinary tomb? The royal family of Dayu Kingdom believes in 'the soul returning to heaven and earth,' so perhaps there were no physical objects buried with them."

"That's too shabby..."

Before Yun Dan could finish speaking, she was suddenly tapped on the forehead.

She covered her forehead as she watched Zhang Sanfeng glare at her.

"Hey, Junbao, what are you doing?"

"What are you thinking about, little girl?"

Zhang Sanfeng said helplessly, "We've come to find a way out, not to plunder the burial goods."

"I know!"

Yun Dan muttered, "But what if there's gold and silver jewelry? Then we'll never have to worry about anything for the rest of our lives!"

Leng Xiyue laughed from the side: "With your strength, you'll never have to worry about not having food to eat."

"I'm afraid that all that gold and silver will come knocking on your door and be given to you."

"This is completely different!"

"This is the anticipation of digging for treasure, you know?"

The two were arguing when Zhang Sanfeng suddenly called out in a low voice, "Come and see!"

He stood in front of the western rock face, holding a torch. In the firelight, the carvings on the rock face were clearly visible.

It was a picture of flowing water, with winding lines extending from one corner of the cemetery, ending with waves and the sun, and several ancient characters carved beside it.

Yun Dan and Leng Xiyue quickly went over.

Yun Dan stared at the map for a long time, then suddenly clapped her hands and exclaimed, "This is an underground river! Look at these waves, it's the ocean!"

This map is like a guide; following the river leads to the sea—that's the exit!

Leng Xiyue leaned closer to examine it closely. Although the ancient characters were blurry, she could still make out one of them that looked like it contained the character for "river".

A look of wild joy flashed in his eyes: "Little Yundan, now that you mention it, she does look somewhat like her."

And these characters, though I don't recognize them, do look a bit like the sea.

"It can't be wrong!"

Yun Dan pointed to the starting point of the water flow diagram.

"We haven't seen or heard any water at the entrance to the underground river marked on the map, but we haven't been able to find it along the way..."

She suddenly slapped her forehead, exclaiming in annoyance, "Oh dear, I'm so stupid!"

Zhang Sanfeng and Leng Xiyue asked in unison, "What's wrong?"

"The pool we came in from!"

Yun Dan stamped her foot and said, "I only checked the entrance to the cave before. There might be other hidden currents that I haven't discovered yet!"

Zhang Sanfeng nodded and said, "Then let's go back and look again."

Since there are no other clues in this cemetery anyway, we might as well go back and take a closer look.

The three of them hit it off immediately and decided to return to the pool first.

Before setting off, Yun Dan took out some dry rations and water from her spatial storage and said with a smile, "Let's eat our fill first, otherwise how will we have the strength to find the underground river?"

The three were indeed hungry, so they sat around the torch and ate dried meat with cold water.

The tension of the past few days has finally eased a little.