Chapter Thirty-Seven: The Resentment Stone

  "Could it be that there is another ancient tomb below!"

  Li Yang immediately thought of this possibility, turned his head to look at the ancient tomb where he was currently located. This ancient tomb also had stone walls, but they were all rough grey stones stacked together, and very small, completely different from the green bricks that appeared underground, otherwise it wouldn't have been dug open so quickly.

  Zhao Lao was still lowering his head to study the small stone in his hand, while Li Yang's face showed a hint of hesitation.

  If what's down there is really an ancient tomb, it'll definitely be much better than the one we have now. The idea of using a fake tomb to conceal the real one is absolutely brilliant. In ancient times, burial objects were incredibly valuable, and when unearthed, they become antiques. Last time, Li Yang dug up a jade snuff bottle that earned his family enough money to build a school. Who knows how many treasures this mysterious tomb will bring them?

  "Whatever!"

  Li Yang shook his head and sighed, the unearthed cultural relics cannot be sold at will, otherwise it would be a great sin.

  The last time that jade snuff bottle would not have been sold smoothly if it had not been wrapped in oil paper in an iron box, the good preservation made the jade snuff bottle not carry any traces of coming out from underground, but that jade snuff bottle was indeed not a burial object.

  At present, this is indeed a real ancient tomb. No matter what's inside, as long as the experts take a look, they can tell it's a burial object. By then, you won't have made any money and will first enter the Public Security Bureau.

  Moreover, Li Yang is not short of money now. His brother was injured while protecting cultural relics. The personalities of Li Yang and Li Cheng have always been similar. What Li Cheng can do, Li Yang can also do.

  In a short time, Li Yang made a decision. After making the decision, Li Yang's mood was very calm. For others, whether they can give up or not is an unknown number. Few people can resist the temptation of an unknown great treasure.

  "This is just an ordinary stone, isn't it, Old Man Zhao? What kind of profundity could be inside?"

  Wu Xiaoli looked at the stone for several minutes, and couldn't help but ask, others including Deng Ming, the director of Licheng Cultural Relics Bureau, had also wanted to ask, but they were all too embarrassed to speak up, Wu Xiaoli's question just followed their hearts.

  More than a dozen pairs of eyes were fixed on Old Zhao's body, Li Yang had already understood everything and stood behind with a smile.

  Zhao Lao shook his head: "This is not an ordinary stone, it's a resentment-stone. However, this resentment-stone is too small, and resentment-stones have not appeared for a very long time, so at first I couldn't make up my mind!"

  "Grandfather Zhao, what is a Huà Yuàn Shí?" Wu Xiaoli asked with wide eyes, this was the first time she had heard of such a thing.

  "The Alchemy Stone is also called the Alchemy Injustice Stone, its original meaning is to eliminate injustice, let the soul not carry resentment, and be able to continue doing what it did when it was alive after death!"

  Zhao Lao shook his head again and stood up to carefully examine the surroundings of the ancient tomb, occasionally picking up a handful of dirt and sniffing it in front of his nose.

  "Alas, I remember now. It seems like I've seen a description of it in a book. If I'm not mistaken, that's something from the Spring and Autumn period or the Warring States period!"

  Deng Ming suddenly said a sentence, and more than a dozen people were stunned, looking at Old Zhao in surprise. The Huà Yuè Shí (化怨石) is something from the Spring and Autumn period or the Warring States period. Doesn't that mean this ancient tomb is also from the Spring and Autumn period or the Warring States period? The gap with their previous inference of the mid-Qianlong period is too large.

  "Yes, Huai Gu Shi was a product of the Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period, but this piece of Huai Gu Shi is not from that period. The ancient tomb is indeed from the mid-Qing dynasty!"

  Old Zhao nodded and said, he seemed to understand everyone's thoughts, so he explained it to everyone.

  Mr. Zhao's words made everyone who had just raised their hearts put them down, if a complete ancient tomb of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period was destroyed like this, they would regret hitting the wall.

  "Speaking of the tombstone, it is inevitable to mention the practice of burying people alive. This bad habit appeared in the Shang and Zhou dynasties and reached its peak during the Spring and Autumn period. At that time, kings, nobles, and slave owners would almost always bring living people with them when they died."

  Old Zhao said slowly, everyone's attention was focused on Old Zhao, and Li Yang was no exception.

  "When burying living people, some people worry that these people will die and their resentment will be too heavy to backfire on the master. So they use a large stone to draw talismans and make them into 'Huan Yuan Shi' (stones that dispel resentment) to be buried together. They think this will dispel the soul's hatred and continue to serve the master. Look, these stripes are actually talismans!"

  Old Zhao handed the small stone to everyone in front, and indeed they all saw faint symbols on it. If Old Zhao hadn't reminded them, they might have thought these symbols were just ordinary stone patterns and wouldn't have paid attention.

  "Who would have thought, such a small piece of stone could be so cruel!"

  Wu Xiaoli first said, still shaking her head, staring at the small stone in Zhao Lao's hand with dead eyes, as if that stone was the culprit.

  Small stones are inanimate objects, how can they be cruel? Cruel is human nature itself. The practice of burying people alive was curbed after the Spring and Autumn Periods and the Warring States Period. During the Qin and Han dynasties, live burials were rarely seen. It wasn't until the early Ming dynasty that this cruel system reappeared. After Zhu Yuanzhang's death, a large number of concubines followed him in burial. The next few emperors also had people buried alive after their deaths, until the practice was finally abolished during the reign of the Ming Yingzong Emperor. However, by then, the practice of using "comfort stones" had already disappeared, and it never reappeared since the Qin and Han dynasties.

  Old Zhao said slowly, Li Yang also nodded involuntarily, and in his heart, he joined everyone in detesting this cruel system.

  "Now that the Qin and Han dynasties are gone, how can this stone appear here?" Wu Xiaoli asked again, everyone's eyes lit up, and Wu Xiaoli asked what was on everyone's mind.

  "I don't know either, why this miniature version of the cursed stone would appear here. I'm afraid we can only ask the owner of this tomb!"

  Zhao's face revealed a faint bitter smile, he was also very suspicious of the appearance of Huā Yuè Shí in an ordinary tomb, this thing had not appeared for thousands of years, yet it appeared at this time in a small grave, and it was even made so small, there was no doubt that something fishy was going on.

  "Could it be that this burial was actually a sacrificial object, and the tomb owner intentionally did so to cover up something, fearing that the person who was sacrificed would not get along with the real tomb owner after death, so they used a resentment-stone?"

  Li Yang, who had been silent all along, suddenly said a sentence, and everyone was taken aback. Li Yang's statement can indeed explain why the Huai Gu Shi appeared in such an inconspicuous single-person tomb.

  "The young man is right. If that's the case, then the person buried in this tomb now may not be the real owner of the tomb. It's very likely that this is just a..."

  Deng Ming nodded and said, by the end he was no longer speaking, basically everyone has reflected on this now.

  "What a tomb!"

  The last to speak was Old Zhao, who nodded as he spoke. The others looked around in all directions, while Deng Ming imitated Old Zhao's actions earlier and grabbed a few handfuls of dirt to sniff, trying to see if he could smell anything.

  "Hey kid, you can take charge of this place, right?" Zhao Lao suddenly asked Li Yang, who subconsciously nodded.

  "That's good, can we dig around here and see if there is another tomb? I suspect that this ancient tomb was set up to conceal the other one!"

  Zhao Lao looked at Li Yang's eyes, which still held a hint of expectation. After all, it was rare to see a fake tomb, and usually only wealthy families would set one up to prevent grave robbery. However, even if they did set up a fake tomb, the real burial site wouldn't be too far away. In history, there was only one person like Cao Cao who had set up numerous fake tombs, as many as 72 of them.

  "Go ahead and dig!"

  Li Yang smiled and nodded, earlier he spoke up to remind them just so they could dig out the tomb below as soon as possible, solve the ancient tomb's problem early, and their school could proceed normally.

  Long before Zhao Lao talked about the tomb of Huai Guo, Li Yang had already thought that this was just a fake grave for burial, in order to cover up the real grave below. However, Li Yang did not expect that he would mention it and they would guess everything, experts are indeed experts, if Li Yang didn't have special abilities, he wouldn't have thought of so much.

  When the cultural relics bureau people came, they brought tools such as shovels and iron trowels. This ancient tomb was completely cleaned up by them, and now these tools are all in use. Several people under Zhao Lao's guidance chose a place to dig non-stop, Li Yang took a look, and the place Zhao Lao pointed to happened to be right above the real tomb, and Li Yang is now convinced of Zhao Lao.

  "Li Yang, you said there might really be another ancient tomb, and it's a big one?"

  Wu Xiaoli left Zhao Lao and left the ancient tomb with Li Yang. The excavation inside the ancient tomb is currently underway, making it inconvenient for them to continue staying inside.

  "Maybe so, you should ask Old Zhao about this, he's the expert!" Looking at Wu Xiaoli's obviously excited face, Li Yang couldn't help but smile.

  "This is something even Old Zhao wouldn't know, I hope there's a big ancient tomb down below that hasn't been robbed yet, then I'll have something to brag about in front of my uncle!"

  Wu Xiaoli rubbed her hands and said loudly, Li Yang shook his head and smiled again. At this time, Wu Xiaoli looked more like a little girl, completely without the appearance of a strong woman in the company. However, such Wu Xiaoli gave people a kind of closeness and natural feeling, compared to before, Li Yang was more willing to contact with the current Wu Xiaoli.

  "Bricks, tomb bricks, Old Zhao, we've dug up tomb bricks!"

  A loud shout of excitement immediately caught the attention of Li Yang and Wu Xiaoli, Deng Ming was downstairs waving his hands loudly, his face turned bright red with excitement, a man in his fifties still looked like a child, making people want to laugh when they saw him.

  "Alright, let's clean up along the tomb bricks first and see if there are any signs of theft!"

  Old Zhao hastily walked to the front of the tomb and said loudly, even Old Zhao, such an old expert, showed an excited expression at this time, enough to see how great the mysterious ancient tomb below was attractive to them.

  They dug up the tomb bricks, and the people from the Cultural Relics Bureau were even more energetic, regardless of whether they were from the county or city bureau. They were all enthusiastically digging around the soil surrounding the tomb bricks. Deng Ming also made a call to the Public Security Bureau, although there were no longer any workers in the area, but as a precaution, it was better to get the public security personnel over early, this could very likely be a large tomb that had not been looted before.

  ……………………………

  Thank you, especially thank you, I was a bit busy today, and Xiao Yu just saw that there were so many rewards and updates tickets until just now.

  Thank you (Scarecrow) for the three 588 rewards today, thank you book friend 100529091614071 for another 1888 reward, Xiao Yu thanks you.

  And also, those 12,000 "hurry-up" votes are making me anxious, I've lost my appetite, it's so painful!!!!!!