Chapter 504

"I said the triple gate, and it has nothing to do with Han Han, this is a layout used when ancient constructions were made, also called the triple illusion. It completely reverses the order of Yangjian, placing hell above, coffin tomb in the middle, and heaven below." I explained, saying this is equivalent to the Yang family's ancestral tomb actually having three layers: entering the first layer means you definitely go in and never come out; the second layer, although said to be heaven, I estimate it's certainly not anything good; and the third layer is the Yang family's coffin tomb.

The text on the broken stone tablet is definitely the sacrificial text for constructing the triple gate. However, this ancestral tomb has three entrances; without a blueprint, no one can guess which is hell, which is heaven, and which leads directly to the coffin.

"Leave it to fate!" I took out a coin and said to Yao Wenju: "If the coin lands flower-side up, we'll enter from the southwest entrance; if it lands character-side up, we'll enter the southern entrance into the tomb."

"What about this entrance? Have you given up on it?" Yao Wenju asked curiously.

His words left me stunned for a moment; indeed, are we just going to abandon this opening like that?

Of course not. I thought about it; besides flower and character, the coin has a third possibility: standing upright, neither side up. However, this possibility is minuscule, weaker than winning the lottery.

"If the coin stands upright, we'll choose this entrance!" Saying that, I didn't waste words and threw the coin straight up.

One second later, both I and Yao Wenju stared in astonishment at the ground; the coin fell from the sky, spun several times, and then stood upright motionless, as if it had sunk into the soil, not falling to either the character or flower side.

"Heaven's will," I glanced at this entrance with a complex expression; once we go in, whether we live or die, reach heaven or hell, depends on luck.

Saying that, I stepped forward, walking ahead toward the opening.

"Wait..." Yao Wenju shouted at me: "Isn't there a saying, 'humans light candles, ghosts blow them out'? Isn't it a bit childish to go in like this, without even a Luoyang shovel?"

I... damn it, you've watched too much!

Since that conversation in the basement of Yao's ancient castle, I've been convinced Yao Wenju is a total control freak; I just didn't expect that besides watching martial arts, he also dabbles in tomb raiding.

But his remark did remind me: although there are three openings, the triple gate, it might be a maze set up by the Yang ancestors themselves, giving a one‑third chance to enter the tomb. However, there's no doubt that the tomb has existed for many years, and underground must have accumulated thick miasma; to get in, we really need to do full preparatory work.

After thinking, since I had no prepared talismans on me, I drew two talismans, folded them into triangles, and stuffed them into my mouth. The contents of the talismans are said to ward off yin and evil qi, though I haven't tested their effect; I just hope the ancestral master doesn't screw me over.

I stuffed a charm into Yao Wenju's mouth, telling him to hold it under his tongue, took a strong-beam flashlight from his car, and I led the way into the looter's tunnel.

It sounds strange, but according to unofficial histories or oral tales passed down by elders, the tomb should be extremely hard to enter; even if you find the opening, digging with a Luoyang shovel would take at least several days or half a month. Moreover, the elders' stories say that the graves of officials and nobles always contain some kind of maze or extremely troublesome ghostly demon tomb.

But this time, Yao Wenju and I proceeded without obstruction; this damn thing doesn't resemble a tomb at all—it looks more like a naturally carved cavern.

The passage's environment is unusually damp and gloomy; from time to time we encounter some white bones. Strangely, these bones are not human but the remains of small animals.

Of course, this is just what we encountered shortly after entering. Going deeper, as we pressed further into the tomb, the flashlight revealed more than one skull.

"It seems those who want to rob the Yang family tomb aren't just us two; long before us, countless people tried to enter the Yang family's ancestral tomb through these passages! I admire Yao Wenju—he's holding Ye Qi with one hand, covering his mouth with the other, clamping the strong-beam flashlight under his armpit, and yet he still manages to speak while moving."

I extended my index finger, shook it a few times, strongly disagreeing with Yao Wenju's remark: what's called grave robbing? We're entering the Yang family's ancestral tomb to find someone—it has nothing to do with grave robbing, okay?

"Brother Wen, be careful—those people died before even reaching the Yang family's ancestral tomb; they must have met with an accident. You're carrying Yang madam, so you need to be even more careful. For some reason, I always feel this Yang family ancestral tomb is weird." I felt uneasy deep down, but couldn't put my finger on it.

I crouched down and examined several sets of white bones outside the passage; their clothing was either completely rotted away, leaving nothing, or only a few fragments remained. Analyzing the fabric remnants, they appear to be from before the 1960s.

"From outside the passage to inside, two or three people have died along the way. What danger did they encounter?" I was puzzled and couldn't figure it out; after all, since entering the Yang tomb, Yao Wenju and I haven't faced any danger at all—not even ghosts, and even if we met snakes, insects, rats, or ants bred in the tomb, they're just the dead white bones and remains.

Having entered the tomb, the dim surroundings need no further mention; the earth and rock walls feel like they'd collapse at the slightest touch. So Yao Wenju and I tread very carefully. Moreover, what makes us impatient is that the Yang family tomb is like a maze: numerous branches, and some passages interconnect, so we've gone back and forth several times, starting from the origin only to return to it.

"Going on like this isn't a solution!" Yao Wenju wiped sweat from his forehead; the deeper we went into the tomb, the thinner the air became, making breathing difficult.

"Not going isn't an option either!" I said, drenched in sweat and panting. But nobody expected that after saying that, I would suddenly collapse flat on the ground.

I didn't collapse from lack of oxygen; according to my own feeling, it was a sudden wave of weakness throughout my body, limbs going limp, as if all my strength had been drained, leaving me unable to move.

I struggled to get up, but Yao Wenju grabbed me and held me down.

"Don't move," Yao Wenju said, pressing me down, he seized my arm, undid my belt and tied it around my biceps. Then he gripped the muscles below my shoulders with both hands and pulled down hard.

As he performed this unorthodox massage, I suddenly noticed a small raised circle on my arm.

Yao Wenju seemed to have extracted something from my arm through the massage.

Taking a closer look, damn it, these raised dots seem to have something wriggling inside them; even though my arm is numb from Yao Wenju's massage, I still have that strange sensation.

I was about to speak when Yao Wenju drew a dagger from his waist. The blade flashed with a cold light—damn, is he trying to kill me to silence me?

A flash of the blade, and before I could react, Yao Wenju gouged a hole in my arm.

Amid the spraying blood, I saw a scene I'll never forget for the rest of my life.

After Yao Wenju pried open the opening, a worm jumped out of my arm with great speed, disappearing into the tomb's soil in an instant.

However, when I lifted my head, I still saw the worm's true form—because Yao Wenju's dagger tip was impaling one.

It is a uniformly dark, long worm, like the maggots you find in a toilet, except its hairs are much longer than those of dung‑channel maggots, and the hairs are stained with my fresh blood, making it look exceedingly eerie.

Staring at that disgusting worm, I shivered, my hair standing on end, my heart convulsing—I almost couldn't hold back vomit.

"What the hell is this!" I asked Yao Wenju in terror, suppressing the urge to retch.

Yao Wenju turned the blade and gouged another blood hole in my arm, speaking calmly: "This should be a maggot unique to this tomb, specialized for burrowing into human skin to suck blood. Just now your hand touched those skulls; I think these maggots got into your arm at that moment."

"Damn, if you're right, will these worms suck my blood dry and kill me?" I trembled twice, picturing the worms burrowing through my body, draining my blood, devouring my organs—my fate would end up like those white bones we saw in the passage.

Just imagining that scene is too beautiful—beyond horrifying, to the point that even a forensic pathologist performing an autopsy couldn't bear to look.

"We don't even know where these worms have crawled in your body; I hope they haven't wandered through your arm, because then you might still be saved!" Yao Wenju pondered bitterly.

I said, "If there's a cure, hurry up and apply it; if not, just call 120—I absolutely won't give up treatment."

"Calling 120 won't help if we can't get out," Yao Wenju said with a dismissive smirk, "using the knife to pick them out isn't an option—better to burn them with fire."

Saying that, Yao Wenju formed hand seals, murmured an incantation, then fiercely struck his own chest, spouting a amount of hot blood.

With a puff, the hot blood splashed onto Yao Wenju's middle finger; then he let out a loud shout, and his middle finger ignited with a flicker of scarlet flame.

Watching that flicker of flame, I instinctively wanted to flee, but my limbs were powerless—I could only watch helplessly as Yao Wenju raised his flaming middle finger and moved toward me.

Damn, even if they're maggots, you don't need to use heart‑fire. Is it because you have blood you can't spit out, or because you dislike me and want to roast me to death?

"Don't move, I'm going to burn it now—endure it." Yao Wenju, expressionless, seized my shoulder; under my terrified gaze, the flame crept slowly toward my arm.

It's over—this time I'm really being roasted like a sea cucumber! I covered my eyes, unable to watch as my arm was about to be placed on the fire, silently awaiting Yao Wenju's ravaging; my anxious feeling was like that of a criminal about to be executed.

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