Gun smoke still lingered in the air, visibility was limited to only a few feet. Several people were desperately trying to disperse the surrounding fog with their palms, this environment had a somewhat eerie feeling.

  "Woof woof" Heizi barked twice, and the echo in this ancient tomb lingered for a long time. Cha Wenbin stopped him in time, and when the smoke had dispersed, he walked out of the burial chamber.

  That large gate, if calculated by Chaozi, was blasted with a big hole on the thick door panel, large enough for an adult to crawl in. Chaozi volunteered to be the first to enter, citing his numerous experiences exploring ancient tombs. However, he still drew out the dagger that never left his side and held it in the palm of his hand.

  The remaining few people entered in a line, and the situation inside was indeed different from the outside.

  It has to be said that the designer of this tomb is a genius. In the main chamber, a small pool was built with an area of about four by four meters. The ingenious part of the design lies in the fact that you can't see where the water comes from or goes to. From one end of the main chamber, a sheet of water appears on the ground and flows along the terrain to the middle, forming a circle. Then, at the other end of the garden, an outlet was built, and the water recirculates back to the starting point, with the sparkling water flowing slowly and silently within it.

  Zha Wenbin took a step forward, looked down at the "stream" under his feet, and suddenly shouted: "This is not good, we may not be able to stay here for long. This is not water, but mercury!"

  What is mercury? We all know that the thing inside a thermometer is it, which is the only liquid metal in nature, highly toxic. The mercury vapor produced can penetrate into the mud around the tomb and will not disperse for a long time, indirectly killing bacteria that may affect the corpse. Therefore, ancient people often used mercury to preserve corpses. However, before the development of metal smelting technology over a thousand years ago, only royalty could obtain such a large amount of mercury. Combined with what the woman said, Cha Wenbin judged that this person's mercury was given by the emperor at the time to show his recognition of his filial piety.

  Cha Wenbin took a step back, his eyes gleaming with a hint of excitement: "The use of mercury has three purposes. Firstly, it's for the sake of atmosphere; secondly, to ensure that the corpse doesn't... and thirdly, it's used to deal with grave robbers. Over time, the mercury will evaporate and seep into the tomb. Anyone who enters the tomb without knowing will unknowingly inhale this gaseous metal, which can be fatal. From now on, everyone must cover their faces with a wet cloth."

  Regarding the burial of mercury, China's most famous one is that of Qin Shi Huang. It is said that he used mercury to create rivers and lakes in his mausoleum, with experts estimating the amount used to be around 100 tons. However, it was not uncommon for aristocratic tombs during the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period to have "mercury pools". But this is the first time we've seen one that can circulate like this today. Without any external force acting on it, the flow of liquid mercury is equivalent to a perpetual motion machine - at least, no external force driving its flow has been discovered yet. However, history becomes history because we will never truly understand what really happened in the past.

  On the branch of that pool, a huge coffin was placed horizontally on it, and below were two wooden logs as thick as water buckets. The coffin lay quietly on them.

  This is strictly a coffin, that is, the outer layer of things wrapped around the coffin. This coffin is made of natural wooden boards joined together with mortise and tenon joints, without any paint or varnish, but keeping the original color of the wood. Although simple, it makes people feel very solemn.

  Zha Wenbin stretched out three fingers and then crossed his hands, meaning that they could only stay here for half an hour at most, otherwise they might be poisoned by mercury.

  "Open the coffin!" Zhang Wenbin shouted, and three men carefully walked over to the wooden plank, preparing to climb up. Chaizi inadvertently looked down and saw that there were chains under the coffin, all the way to the pool. This guy liked to cause trouble, and this time was no exception. He easily took out the crowbar in his hand and hit it once, but the chain didn't budge.

  "Wen Bin Ge, I dare say there's something hanging down below." Although the conversation through the fabric wasn't very clear, his movements were visible to Wen Bin.

  "Wait a minute, Chaozi, pick up the chain and take a look." After that, he added another sentence: "Be careful."

  Zhen Cha Wenbin was scolded for the first time, not because of his own clumsiness, but also with a few words of praise. Chu Zi was supported by Zhuo Xiong and Heng Roulian, bent down to pick up the chain.

  It's so heavy! This was his first feeling when he touched the chain, and he let the two of them hug their waists, with both hands grasping the chain together. "Heave ho!" After a loud shout, the chain was slowly lifted up, and everyone's eyes were focused on the water in the pool, rippling with circles of water marks, making people very expectant.

  The first thing to emerge from the water's surface was a gigantic head, mercury began to fall continuously, followed by a huge mouth. What made Cha Wenbin astonished was that there was still an apple in that mouth! It was indeed the same apple he gave to that girl that night! How strange it was to appear here, but as the body slowly tilted, the apple fell back into the pool. By the time the thing was completely pulled out of the water, Cha Wenbin's Seven Star Sword almost fell to the ground. What was this thing? Three of them had seen "Tàotiè" before!

  That's right, this is a Taotie, it looks like it was cast in crude iron. It was extremely difficult for Zuo to move it outside. The sheep's body, the tiger's teeth, and those human hands, under the huge head, the eyes were shrunk into the abdomen. This is exactly the same as the one carved on the copper lock in the village. Taotie is born cruel and very gluttonous, eating everything, it is said that he has no body because he eats too much, to the point of eating his own body, leaving only a big head and a big mouth, seeing what to eat what.

  This scene, Zha Wenbin seemed to feel very familiar. If he considered the coffin as a building, then was the pool of water not far away truly the lake where his dream girl had been struggling? Almost subconsciously, Zha Wenbin glanced at his lower right side, and indeed there was an inconspicuous stone monument standing there!

  With a nervous heart, Cha Wenbin slowly walked over, holding the flashlight to take a look. The stone tablet was left with only half of it remaining. The remaining incomplete part still had two words, "Tong Quan" and "Kuang Dang". With a loud noise, Cha Wenbin fell to the ground along with his sword. The remaining topmost half word was the lower half of the word 'Yong'. The blood-red characters were exactly the same as what he saw in his dream.

  "Ah, Tong Yuan! The deepest part of hell!" Zhang Wenbin sat on the ground, recalling his own dream, that place which had been entwined in his mind for a long time and couldn't be dispersed, that place which had haunted him for so long, that place where he couldn't sleep day or night. Now it appeared, right under his daughter's grave, in this damned Han tomb!

  When Cha Wenbin arrived at the scene, the three of them also rushed over. As for the meaning of that stele, only Cha Wenbin could read it.

  "What's wrong?" Zhuo Xiong asked as he helped Cha Wenbin up, he was very afraid because Cha Wenbin's body had not fully recovered and there was a large amount of mercury here.

  "I've been here before," said Cha Wenbin, looking ahead, "in a dream."

  "What? In a dream?"

  No more hesitation, he had something even more important to do. Because in his dream, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't reach the center of that pond, just pacing back and forth on the spot. If that dream was always guiding him to track himself down, then it's finally here, let's see if he can walk out!

  Cha Wenbin pushed away their support, stubbornly taking big strides, the scene of his daughter being dragged into the water by the ruffians was forever etched in his memory. What's even more terrifying is that feeling of being unable to escape. He didn't know why, but he turned back for a glance...

  It's gone! What's gone? The way in is gone! Clearly, they had entered through that tomb gate, but when Zhang Wenbin turned his head to look back, there was no longer any sign of a gate. Outside the hard stone wall, everything was gone! He didn't make a sound; he knew this was just an illusion meant to trap people's minds. The three of them simply focused their attention on themselves. Alright, since that's how it is, then bring it on!

  Tian Gai's nine steps, foot treads on seven stars. Cha Wenbin's right hand flips once, and the Seven Stars Sword shines out of its scabbard, horizontal across his chest. His left hand quickly forms a complex knot, 'Hidden Armor': his left index finger and middle finger stretch straight, ring finger and little finger bend towards the palm, thumb presses against the tip of the ring finger and little finger's fingernails, tightly suppressing the two fingers' fingernails so they don't show.

  Slowly closing his eyes, a blackness appeared before him. Cha Wenbin calmly pulled out his own face veil and muttered: "Those who are about to fight, all line up in front!" The nine-character mantra! This is the true Nine-Character Mantra of the True Sect, with the first four and last five characters divided into two segments, rather than being spoken one character at a time like usual. At the same time, his right hand's Seven-Star Sword made nine slashes in mid-air, four vertical and five horizontal. After finishing the last character, the Seven-Star Sword returned to his waist, and his body suddenly shot out, charging straight towards the gluttonous creature...

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