Chapter 354: Time Waits for No One!

Su Ming raised his eyebrows.

Alive?

These folks, each one more outrageous than the last.

Before the altar appears.

Someone who talks like that has most likely already been sent to register at the psychiatric ward.

"What sort of way to live?"

"Simply put, the positions of the Life Gate and Death Gate are no longer fixed."

Shu Chong swiped his finger across the tablet, bringing up a densely packed inference diagram.

Red markings represent the Death Gate.

Green markings represent the Life Gate.

The two colors flicker and shift continuously on the screen.

It's like a game of chess that's forever being disturbed.

"According to my repeated calculations using the art of the Hidden Gate over the past two days, the Life Gate and Death Gate undergo a major flip roughly every half‑hour."

"One second you're stepping on a path to life, the next the ground beneath your feet turns into a meat grinder."

"Besides that, countless variables keep emerging!"

He nudged his glasses, and the lenses reflected the wildly flashing light dots on the screen.

"Moreover, the pattern of the major flips is extremely bizarre; it's not a simple swap."

"It's more like... something is pulling the strings behind the scenes."

"According to some logic I still haven't grasped, it's shuffling randomly."

Su Ming stared at the red and green markings on the inference diagram for two seconds.

Good.

I don't understand a bit.

It's like he's watching Huochai Ge and the others—

knowing they're badass.

But exactly why they're badass, he can't pin down at all!

However, there is one thing he understood.

This formation isn't a fixed mechanism.

It's alive.

A living thing has a brain.

If it has a brain, it can be beaten.

Su Ming remained silent, signaling Shu Chong to continue.

Shu Chong swallowed, swiped his finger, and switched to the next set of photos.

The image became even more blurred.

Some were reduced to only half a picture.

The other half was pure black, as if the camera at that instant had been smashed by something.

"These photos are the last few frames our drone frantically transmitted before it completely lost contact."

Shu Chong pointed to one barely recognizable aerial shot.

"Mr. Su, take a look at this."

Su Ming leaned in a bit closer.

In the photo, the faint outlines of underground figurine pits can be seen.

A dense dot pattern, looking down from above, resembles pieces on a chessboard.

One next to another, perfectly orderly.

"The underground terracotta army of the Qin Emperor's Mausoleum should have been arranged strictly according to the Great Qin army formation."

Shu Chong's speech unintentionally slowed.

"Rows straight and columns straight, the array clear."

"Infantry in front, crossbowmen behind, chariots in the middle, generals leading the formation."

"It's been over two thousand years."

"The positions have never changed."

He paused for a beat.

The air in the tent seemed suddenly tightened by someone.

"But in this photo—"

Shu Chong's finger pointed to a spot on the screen.

"The arrangement of the pits... has shifted."

The tent fell completely silent.

Only the hum of the cold light's current remained, buzzing like flies circling a corpse.

"It's not a physical displacement caused by an earthquake."

Shu Chong shook his head, his tone firm.

"An earthquake would topple them and shatter them into fragments."

"But these figurines..."

"They are perfectly orderly. Not a single one missing, just oriented differently."

He paused.

A gust of wind sounded outside the tent.

It seemed to be blowing from the direction of Lishan.

Dark and oppressive.

"It's as if someone issued a military order."

"Then, they walked over on their own."

That sentence slammed down, and the already low temperature inside the tent dropped another two degrees.

Zha Yao instinctively brushed the explosive device hanging at his waist.

The detonator's throat rolled once, but made no sound.

Su Ming leaned back against the chair.

His fingers unconsciously tapped the metal armrest of the folding chair.

He didn't even lift his eyelids.

But in his mind, he had already chewed over this information three times.

The Terracotta Warriors were walking on their own…

It sounded somewhat similar to the earlier Wuhou Shrine.

However, these elites…

They were probably much stronger than those Shu Han soldiers!

Is the First Emperor staging a military parade?!

Shu Chong's voice kept going.

"It reached last night…"

He closed the tablet.

"All the equipment was completely lost."

"Drones, detectors, remote sensors… each one exploded upon entry."

"The signal couldn't even get out for half a second."

Their gazes met.

"What's happening inside—"

"We have no idea."

The voice was heavily hushed.

As if fearing that speaking loudly would rouse the thing beneath Lishan that was turning over.

"But one thing is certain."

Outside the tent, on the distant horizon toward Lishan, thick black vapors churned endlessly.

From Su Ming's perspective, the piled black mass had a terribly strange shape.

It didn't look like a cloud.

It resembled a gigantic beast curled up.

It had been coiled for two thousand years.

Now, its limbs were stretching out inch by inch.

"The thing beneath the First Emperor's Tomb…"

"is no longer sleeping!"

No one spoke inside the tent.

The cold light buzzed, as if providing cheap background music for the silence.

All five people's gazes were fixed on Su Ming.

Waiting for him to make a decision.

Su Ming withdrew his gaze.

"Who among you smokes?"

Lao Gou froze for a moment, then instinctively pulled a crumpled pack of Red Mountain cigarettes from his combat suit's chest and handed it over.

Su Ming took one out and put it between his lips.

It wasn't lit.

He just held it, his incisor slowly crushing the filter tip, before speaking.

"I understand the situation."

"To summarize—"

"The ground outside can suck a person dry."

"Inside, the formation flips its pattern after a while; step wrong and you die."

"The mud figures below haven't moved for two thousand years, and now they've suddenly changed formation on their own."

"All electronic devices become useless within seconds of entering."

He pulled the unlit cigarette from his mouth, slipped it back into the pack, and brushed the ash off his hand.

He stood up.

"Then what are we waiting for?"

The five of them looked up together.

"Mr. Su, you mean… now?"

Tu Bo Shu's voice went hoarse.

"Now there's no other way, so we have to go explore ourselves!"

"When dawn breaks we set out, when night falls we camp; time waits for no one!"

Su Ming walked toward the marching cot.

"Do you still need to be taught this simple principle?"

He crouched down and gently patted Zhao Xinghe's small body, wrapped in a blanket, twice.

"Girl, get up."

Su Ming lifted her from the cot, and casually took a towel to wipe her face.

Zhao Xinghe let out a tiny half‑yawn, nuzzled in Su Ming's arms, and finally opened both eyes fully.

Beside them, Tu Bo Shu watched the scene, and his mouth twitched.

We set out now.

To that terrifying First Emperor's Tomb.

Even bringing a little schoolkid.

This vibe… how should I put it?

It's like someone carrying a vegetable basket into a haunted house, with a kid munching chips sitting inside the basket.

But to get back to the point—

The arrow is on the string; it must be released.

Waiting longer and making more preparations would of course be safer.

But do they really have that time?

That thing underground grows stronger every day.

If we don't go in now, tomorrow we might not even find the Gate.

Even if it means nine deaths to one life, or even ten deaths with no life.

We can't let it ferment any longer!

Lao Gou was the first to act, pulling his gear pack from the tent corner and slinging it onto his back in a flash.

"Go."

Just one word.

Straightforward!