[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-the-grave-robbers-chronicles":3,"chapter-the-grave-robbers-chronicles-the-grave-robbers-chronicles-chapter-293":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","The Grave Robbers' Chronicles",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":20,"prevChapterSlug":21,"totalChapters":22,"novelImage":23},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":16,"volume":17,"translator":18,"content_hash":19},16150,44,"Chapter 293: End of the Mark","the-grave-robbers-chronicles-chapter-293",293,"\u003Cp>I quickly grabbed Fatty and turned to look at Wenjin; she was busy with a worker uncovering equipment sent down from the rope ladder and didn't notice Fatty's move.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I asked the worker: \"Why did you come down? Aren't you supposed to look after my Third Uncle?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He grinned and said: \"Third Master has someone taking care of him—I came down to see if I could help.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Judging by his expression, something felt off. I thought to myself, not good—this bunch of bastards are a ragtag mob, and the one thing a ragtag mob is best at is scattering at the first sign of danger and turning on each other when there's profit. This guy's look suggested some kind of ulterior motive.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Soon three more men climbed down. Seeing this huge circular tomb chamber, their eyes lit up with greed. Third Uncle had lied to them before setting out, telling them how rich this tomb was. They'd been scared out of their wits the whole way, but the moment they saw the chamber, all that was forgotten. Even though they were all greenhorn grave robbers, a grave robber is a grave robber—their greed for ancient tombs was even stronger than ours. Wenjin climbed down the rope ladder, saw the situation, and looked displeased. She said to me softly, \"Let them go. These people are desperadoes. They're only polite to 'your Third Uncle' on the surface; all they care about is loot. They're all armed. Falling out with them would be very bad for us. If they find anything, just give it to them. We can't stop them now.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I figured she was right. Third Uncle was in no shape to move now, and even if he could intimidate these people, he couldn't right now. I'm just Little Third Master, and when these guys said that, there wasn't a shred of respect in it—it was nothing but mockery. I couldn't do a thing about them. When I thought back to our glory days in Changsha, I realized I was coasting on my Third Uncle's reputation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I felt a little down—we, instead, were being held in check. I had a premonition these people might ruin our whole mission.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fatty, who was very sensitive to this sort of thing, tensed up, gripped his hunting rifle tighter, and signaled us with his eyes to walk faster and shake them off.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all the dangers along the way, to find at the end that the biggest threat came from our own people—what an irony. And if all they wanted was treasure, fine, but if they were ruthless enough, they might even kill us. For them, they'd never known wealth in their lives; morality and merit were just bullshit. This was a huge worry hanging over us.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Poker-face also brought equipment down the rope ladder. We stopped paying attention to those people and began to move forward, groping our way. The 卐-shaped corridor soon came to an end, and in front of us appeared a cavern. At the end of the corridor were steps built along the cavern wall, spiraling downward.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Miner's lamps weren't enough here. Third Uncle and the others had plenty of spare gear, so Fatty immediately fired a flare.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Third Uncle had prepared several kinds of flares. Fatty used a low-altitude flare, meant for caves—not a long range. The fireball flew into the darkness and soon burst open, illuminating the cave brilliantly. Fatty fired two more, also lighting up the blind spots. This was a bit extravagant, but we'd never had such abundant supplies before. Anyway, this was the final stage, so why not use them?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fatty dropped the shell and was about to load another round when Wenjin stopped him: \"No matter how well-stocked we are, you can't use them like this. It's already bright enough—any brighter and we won't be able to see. Be careful not to burn our eyes.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fatty finally stopped. We waited for the most blinding phase to pass, and as the light shrank, the surroundings became clearly visible.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was indeed the deepest part of the city beneath Tamutuo. The cavern wasn't natural; it had been dug out by men. The ceiling was high, too high to see clearly, but we could see the cavern walls had been carved into tiers like the seats of a sports stadium. On every tier were rows upon rows of black, bloated-looking statues, densely packed, circle after circle, not a single empty spot.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because they were black, we still couldn't make out details. I felt I had never seen anything like them before. Were they secret statues, or royal totems that outsiders were not allowed to see or possess?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I thought of the corpse storage hall in Cloud Summit Palace—same layout. I guessed these statues might not be stone; they could be specially treated corpses. Maybe this was the royal corpse storage cave, where lower-ranking royals were left to air-dry naturally. The flare fell lower and lower, revealing signs of human activity below. I saw a stone disk at the very bottom, surrounded by dozens of bronze vessels of peculiar shapes and various sizes. Everything was very crude. Looking at the rock walls, there was no obvious way to continue forward. We had truly reached the end of the road. All the mysteries should be solvable here.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fatty was awestruck. It was impossible to say how deep this place was. The Queen Mother's tribe might as well be called the Mole Tribe—they were so obsessed with digging holes. Why did they dig such a deep place under the royal city? Wenjin said, \"This might be the holy land of the Queen Mother's kingdom, a venue for the royalty's secret activities. They might have held some extremely confidential ceremonies here, or practiced a certain kind of religious cultivation.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fatty said, \"Damn, this holy land is too shabby. So disappointing. These Queen Mothers were also dim-witted. What are these bronze vessels, and these stone carvings… My God! Little Wu, look what those stone carvings are!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fatty was always so jumpy, and he startled me. By then the flare had fallen to the ground and was still burning, but its range was greatly reduced. I raised my miner's lamp to shine on them, looked closely, and almost screamed—turns out those \"stone carvings\" lining the cave walls weren't stone carvings at all, but rows upon rows of jade burial suits! I couldn't stop gasping. Memories of the Lu King's Palace flooded back like a tide. At the same time, Poker-face let out a groan, clearly greatly disturbed, his brow deeply furrowed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sure enough, these points are all connected. So many jade burial suits here—does each one contain a living corpse?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fatty, bold as ever, immediately scrambled up the wall to a tier. Afraid he'd cause trouble, I grabbed him and said we should go down to the bottom level to look, no need to waste effort.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We calmed ourselves and quickly descended the stone steps. When we reached the last step, Fatty jumped down and went up to a jade burial suit. Shining his miner's lamp on it, he saw the corpse inside—completely dried up, a mummy. The gaps were too narrow to see details. He shone the light along, one after another; every suit had a corpse inside.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Looks like Big Sister was right,\" Fatty said. \"This really might have been their cultivation site. Damn, these dried-up things—are they the immortals under the Queen Mother of the West in Chinese mythology? That's way off.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"But these jade burial suits are a bit different from the ones in Lu King's Palace,\" I said. \"In Lu King's Palace, the corpses inside were still alive. These seem to have all dried out.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"That's because of time. This cave was probably dug during the heyday of the Queen Mother's kingdom, around five thousand years ago. After such a long time, even something with moisture would have dried out.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fatty reached out to touch the black outer shell of the jade suit. Poker-face grabbed his hand to warn him. I said, \"Better not touch that stuff. Remember, Brother, if the timing is wrong, it could be extremely dangerous to take off the jade suit.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fatty grumbled, \"I just want to touch it a little—let me have a memory, okay?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I said, \"Don't forget your pain just because your body's better now.\" I figured talking was useless, so I ignored him. Meanwhile, Wenjin had been drawn to something else and was walking toward the area full of bronze vessels.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I followed and was surprised to find these bronze vessels were huge—standing below them, they were taller than me. Their shapes were bizarre, and I couldn't name a single one. But each one clearly had its own function; I could see shocking corrosion and obvious signs of use. This place was clearly not for display. If this cavern was where the Queen Mother's tribe once cultivated or held religious ceremonies, then these items should also be related to cultivation and religious rites.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then I heard Wenjin murmur, \"Heavens—this is the Queen Mother of the West's alchemy chamber. It really exists.\"\u003C\u002Fp>",1519,"2026-05-28T17:14:01.101Z","2026-06-01T04:28:20.357Z",1,"deepseek-v4-flash","0d0d2488210410d9e40a9cc775b5d15c9b6b68e2262d3bb76a1406c5f1da895b","the-grave-robbers-chronicles-chapter-294","the-grave-robbers-chronicles-chapter-292",513,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-grave-robbers-chronicles-cover.jpg"]