Chapter 681: Four Beauties

The evening of August 28th.

Outside the suburbs of the ancient capital of the Six Dynasties, at the entrance of a Sihe Courtyard.

A young man wearing a black overcoat knocked on the door.

The knock was three long and two short, a total of three times.

The gate suddenly opened.

The young man in black handed a slip of paper inside.

After the other party received it, the door immediately closed.

The young man in black stepped back a few paces, looked around, turned, and quickly vanished into the darkness.

Behind the gate, an old man hurried into the room.

After opening it, the old man unfolded the slip of paper.

It bore a string of numbers.

The old man picked up an ancient edition of Dream of the Red Chamber from the bookshelf and began translating according to the slip.

How many pages, how many lines, which character…

After translating it, the old man widened his eyes, his face full of shock.

After a moment, he sighed, and his expression turned to one of relief.

Taking advantage of the night, the old man found an iron shovel in the storage room, came to the courtyard, and began digging beneath an old osmanthus tree.

He had figured out the direction and was digging diagonally toward the osmanthus tree.

After more than an hour, having dug over three meters deep, he finally struck a stone slab.

He pried open the stone slab, revealing a pitch-black opening.

The old man then found a length of rope, tied it to the osmanthus tree, and, holding the rope, descended into the hole.

On the courtyard wall, Liu Huixi and her subordinates widened their eyes.

"Should we follow him in?"

A nearby teammate gestured in sign language in the darkness, asking Liu Huixi, who shook her head.

"We've already found the spot; we just need to watch and see what happens."

The shaft below the hole was like a deep well.

It was indeed a well; after descending several meters, groundwater appeared.

Although it was hot weather, the cool air rising from the well water seemed to seep into the marrow.

The old man shivered, then shone his flashlight on the water surface.

Next, he saw a ring of square tiles around the water surface, one of which bore a "~" mark.

The old man pressed the tile to the left, then counted three tiles and pressed another.

Suddenly, with a boom, the well water dropped two meters, exposing an opening.

The old man descended two meters, bent his waist to enter a passageway, walked forward a few meters, and a stone door appeared.

The stone door also had a mechanism; after pressing it a few times, the door opened, revealing a rectangular corridor behind.

After walking forward along the corridor for over ten meters, another stone door appeared.

The stone door had no mechanism, but it opened with a firm push.

Immediately, his eyes lit up!

It turned out that behind the stone door was a stone chamber; more accurately, a tomb chamber.

The lamps in the tomb chamber had already lit up, releasing bright light.

At this point, one could see four crystal-structured coffins placed in the center of the tomb chamber, faintly revealing figures lying inside.

Besides the coffins, the walls around the tomb chamber were filled with all kinds of… antiques!

"The entrance is actually here! How could I not have thought of that?"

The old man widened his eyes and muttered to himself.

He had been assigned here many years ago.

Although those above hadn't said anything, the old man also guessed that this courtyard must contain treasure!

But after searching for over ten years, having dug up the entire courtyard, he still hadn't found the entrance.

Now thinking about it, it turned out he simply hadn't dug deep enough.

But to dig down nearly ten meters couldn't be done in a single night.

Come daytime, if someone came on patrol and saw him digging in the courtyard for treasure, he'd be done for!

His duty was to guard this place; he was the master of this courtyard.

If any abnormal situation arose, such as demolition, he would have to report it immediately.

If there were no one, it would likely have been requisitioned long ago.

The old man sighed, "If only I had found these antiques this morning…"

For example, the blue-and-white porcelain, Tang three-colour pottery, Xuande furnace, and jade-carved ornaments displayed on the walls… imperial green!

Even a random piece taken out could fetch hundreds of millions.

In this tomb chamber, there are several hundred pieces!

They are all rare treasures, worth at least tens of billions of US dollars!

Possibly even more!

This is one of Eunuch Shi's treasure vaults!

Of course, there is more than just this one.

Such vaults exist in various places around the world; who knows how many.

Even Eunuch Shi, if he doesn't look at his own little notebook, would think it's incomplete.

Even the over-two-thousand-year-old old monster, long ago, would hide his everyday items.

Nowadays, they're all worth a fortune.

If you had found this place earlier, you could casually take a few items, sell them, and find a place to live in seclusion.

But now, there's no chance.

His current task is to open these four coffins before him.

The old man put down his flashlight, and the coffin lid carved with a fish was pushed open.

After opening it, a puff of white vapor rose from the coffin.

The old man who wanted to see who was inside was hit by the white vapor, and his eyebrows and beard instantly frosted over.

He was frozen and stepped back a step.

After waiting several minutes for the vapor to dissipate, the old man stepped forward again to examine it curiously.

Inside the coffin lay a young woman dressed in dark red Hanfu.

She was truly beautiful!

Although she was a corpse, she looked as if she were asleep.

Her lips still bore a faint smile.

The old man's face showed astonishment; he couldn't help reaching out to touch the beauty's face.

Just before his hand touched her, the woman suddenly opened her eyes.

Their eyes met, and the old man froze as if immobilized by a spell, unable to move.

He was frightened.

The woman raised her hand and tapped the back of his hand.

"Hehehe..."

A series of crisp sounds.

A strong chill spread from the old man's hand to his arm, then throughout his body.

Soon the old man was frozen into an ice sculpture.

The beauty pointed again, the old man fell backward with a bang, shattering into countless ice fragments.

"Huh~"

The beauty sat up and stretched lazily.

What a long nap that was!

She remembered that before her last slumber, the sky was full of planes that daily dropped bombs on a nearby city.

Now, listening closely, the rumbling sound had long disappeared, leaving things very quiet.

The beauty crawled out of the coffin.

She glanced at the burial chamber and approached the coffin carved with a great goose.

The coffin she herself lay in was carved with a carp.

But on closer look, it resembled a fish frozen solid in a freezer.

Or perhaps a petrified fish.

A stone-made fish, when dropped in water, isn't that a "sinking fish"?

As for the "landing goose".

After the coffin was opened, it likewise released a puff of white vapor.

Inside lay another beauty.

The beauty wore Tang-era clothing; even lying flat, she had something that made Chen Yu envious.

This is Luoyan.

Luoyan opened her eyes.

Seeing that it was Chen Yu, she slowly sat up.

Chen Yu emanated a chill; Luoyan shivered, then waved her hand.

Her long sleeves shook out a puff of smoke, which then ignited in the air.

"Boom~"

Chen Yu dodged to the side.

The goose fell because it had no feathers left—they were burned away.

"Ugh! I'm not playing with you anymore!"

Chen Yu said that, turned, and walked out of the burial chamber.

Luoyan shook her head and opened Bi Yue's coffin.

Bi Yue wore late-Tang attire; after opening her eyes, Luoyan quickly averted her gaze.

Bi Yue is a hypnosis master; locking eyes with her easily causes one to lose oneself.

Then Luoyan opened Xiuhua's coffin.

A puff of toxic mist poured out from the coffin.

Xiuhua does not make flowers shy and wither; rather, she herself withers from poison.