The person left, but the machine remained. It was an excavator, and at that time, there was no Blue Arrow (a Chinese brand). I didn't know which company's excavator technology was stronger. I could drive a car, and the things on this excavator were all foreign codes, imported goods. Fortunately, my brain wasn't stupid, and after fiddling with it for a while, it actually started moving. My technique wasn't great, but it was better than manual labor. After three or two scoops, the stone carving of that person's face became somewhat clear.

  It looks a bit like the Bull Demon King in Journey to the West, with a ring on its big nostrils, a green face and sharp teeth, but its eyes are quite small. It's a bit like an ox and a bit like a wild boar, which is roughly what ancient people thought demons looked like. The stone as a whole covers nearly twenty square meters, looking like a single piece, but upon closer inspection, you can see many white lines on the surface, which are actually parts that were cut off and reattached from behind. This discovery made Zhang Wenbin feel a bit better, at least it wasn't as mysterious as he had imagined.

  The head of the tomb is arranged in an east-west direction, with a compass set up, and the standard meridian orientation. However, this type of layout is rarely seen, whether it's a yin or yang house. Generally, only temples, Taoist temples, or imperial palaces use the meridian orientation, because the meridian direction in the eight trigrams has no word, which means there is no door god.

  Temples and Taoist temples are for worshiping gods, so they don't need anyone to guard the gate. The imperial palace is where the true dragon son of heaven resides, with a majestic aura that surpasses all else, making it even more unnecessary to have words. However, if you see this orientation used in a yang dwelling, then the person either doesn't know or is a high-ranking individual who needs someone with a strong eight-character birth chart and a robust personality to withstand such a trend. If a yin dwelling uses zi-wu, it means that the descendants will not be blessed, commonly known as not being prosperous, unless only those who coincidentally encounter zi-wu in a chaotic burial. But since Jiang's ancestors were so meticulous about their tombs, it's clear they didn't overlook this; they must have done it intentionally.

  Looking at the statue, Cha Wenbin judged that the entrance to the tomb was in the open mouth of the devil king pattern. He said: "The things are subordinated to the demon's entrance, this person really thinks he is offering himself to the demon king Ah Ren, and he doesn't fear that he can't reincarnate."

  "Never mind the gods or ghosts, I'll just take a shovel and strike down. Under this bright sky and in broad daylight, even if there's some trickery involved, it won't amount to much. In my opinion, if we're going to take action, we should do it sooner rather than later. What do you think?"

  "It can only move during the day, and at night I'm not sure, but first let's ask Zi Hao, after all, it's his ancestor."

  Zhu Zihao's grandson is simply an unfilial son, waving his hand repeatedly: "I am a Hong Kong person, and have nothing to do with these eight poles, you can do whatever you want, don't need to consider me."

  Zha Wenbin directed me: "Look at the position of the thief cave, it's quite accurate, it's going in along the mouth. Xiaoyi, can you expand this mouth a bit?"

  "No problem." I slightly moved the gear lever, and with a "bang", the iron claw danced down, smashing those stones into pieces. With a swoosh, that gap was completely opened up.

  Jump down and dig a bit, good guy, a row of stairs appeared all the way to the underground, and it was dark and couldn't see the end.

  The passageway was paved with long strips of stone, about half a meter wide. I poked my head inside and tried it out, and there was a musty smell mixed with the smell of gunpowder. It seemed that those people had used explosives to blast open this entrance. There were shoe prints at the entrance, which were Liberation shoes, and the pattern was easy to recognize. However, the direction of the shoe prints only went inwards, without any going outwards. I exchanged a glance with Cha Wenbin, and we both had a rough idea - this person probably didn't come out alive.

  "Shall we go in?"

  "Then don't go in, you'd better think of a way to directly smash open the treasure top. This is an upright and honest relocation of the tomb, there's no need to sneak around and take that risk. Smash open the treasure top, let light shine in, and minimize the danger as much as possible."

  The excavator roared to life, its machinery colliding with the solid granite once again. The ancient defense system met the unreasonable modern equipment, and the gap between the ages was fully revealed at this moment. The steel claws smashed mercilessly into the intricately carved stone, each collapse leaving behind shattered remnants of the past. I don't know if it's true that our ancestors' spirits really appeared, but I remember the sky suddenly darkening with thick clouds, flashes of lightning shooting out like a thousand arrows, and the color of the sky above the wall turning pitch black. The thunder rumbled with an overwhelming force.

  The sky changed in an instant, and everyone's mind was shrouded in a sense of foreboding. Through the glass of the cockpit, I had already smashed the treasure top to pieces. With a loud crash, a bolt of lightning struck the Dragon Head Mountain on the west side, and the mountain top suddenly caught fire. At the same time, I also smashed through the treasure top here.

  Cha Wenbin said without any concern: "When there are strange signs in the sky, there must be great chaos."

  I jumped off the car and said to him: "Don't mess around, the coffin is exposed, go find a rope to tie it up, I'll pull it back up directly."

  Looking down from the broken dome, about 5 meters deep, a large black coffin lid is exposed halfway, with scattered rocks around it, nothing else can be seen. From here, I can directly go down and hang on the excavator with ropes, I only need to reverse the car to make the coffin stand up, and it will take at most one cigarette's time to lift it to the ground.

  Cha Wenbin thought for a moment and finally said: "Give me the rope, I'll go down, you hurry up."

  He grasped the rope and jumped into the collapsed pit of the treasure, back and forth once, and he reached the bottom. The rope hadn't even been tied yet when he heard him shout from below: "Pull me up!"

  "What's wrong?" I asked him after coming over.

  He panted and said: "You put the diesel oil in the car directly into this below, and set it on fire with a match."

  "What's going on?" I thought to myself, "I've gone to so much trouble just to get a little, it's all been for nothing."

  "It's going to rise from the dead! A stone has smashed through the coffin lid, and when I went down, I could hear movement inside. You don't even look up at the sky? This is called 'Black Dragon Pressing Down', it's always been an omen of evil spirits emerging. If we don't take action now, it'll be too late!"

  I unscrewed the cap and used a hose to suck out some diesel fuel, but it tasted so bad that I couldn't help but spit it out. The diesel fuel also gushed into the hole with a gurgling sound. I estimated that about half of the oil barrel had been poured in. As the lightning flashed more frequently in the sky, I quickly got back in the car and reversed the excavator, saying "That's enough, let's get out of here!"

  A match flew towards the big tomb, I heard a loud "boom", followed by flames shooting up into the sky. At this moment, the old sky seemed to have been holding its breath for a long time and finally poured down heavy rain, with raindrops as big as weights. We ran like flying into a nearby car. Watching the flames shoot out several times, I thought, now everything is ruined.

  "Going back?" I asked Zha Wenbin, who was staring out of the window, his face filled with a desolate expression that couldn't be put into words.

  "Uh-huh." He said in a low voice: "Let's go home tomorrow."

  "Home?" I was taken aback: "Which home?"

  Hongcun Village

  "Are you giving up?" I asked.

  "I give up!"

  Raindrops hit the glass, wipers are already working at full capacity, I still can't see the road ahead, fortunately here is Gobi, you can drive however you want. What's off-road? Many people have never really experienced it in their lifetime, then go to Gobi, on the endless sandy beach, in the stormy rain, that's what wild means!

  After returning to the countryside and having dinner, Zhu Zihao and I played cards to pass the boring time. Cha Wenbin leaned against the headboard, carefully wiping the General's sword. I know him well, he has always been someone who doesn't give up until he reaches his goal, how could he just leave like that?

  "It's gone, it's gone. Even if we find it, what's the point? If it's meant to be, it will come looking for us, right?" He said this with a hint of self-mockery, and seemed to have suddenly come to a realization. Then he hugged the sword and fell asleep.

  That night was hard to sleep, it rarely rains so heavily here, the tiles on the roof were like being hit by sand and gravel, "ding ding dong" making a racket nonstop. I got up wanting to smoke but found out there were no more cigarettes, had to pick some cigarette butts from the ashtray, take out the tobacco and roll it in paper, this method was often used when I and Fatso first arrived in Shenzhen, back then conditions were really tough.

  This method of smoking is not good at mastering the fire, it's easy to choke, I took two puffs and put it down, threw it in the ashtray and said: "Brother, if you're really still here, the remaining one will be given to you." The remaining half of the cigarette was still emitting smoke, I turned over and returned to my bed, this damn weather won't stop until tomorrow, can't even walk properly.

  Zhu Zihao was snoring again, this guy not only had a Hong Kong foot but also a true pig-like snore, his snores could shake down the ceiling. The sound of his snores echoed with the rain outside the window, it was like beating drums and cymbals, how could I sleep? I got up to get a slipper to hit Zhu Zihao, just as I stood up, I suddenly saw that cigarette butt I had thrown into the ashtray "light" up...