Chapter 17: 'The Empty Tomb'
As soon as he entered the tomb, Xu Tianchuan first felt a burst of coolness, the temperature in the tomb was at least several degrees lower than outside, as if he had entered an ice cave, and at the same time, he smelled a stronger fishy smell in the tomb.
This is not simply the foul smell emitted by the decomposing corpse, but a special fishy odor, a bit like the smell of old salted fish.
Xu Tianchuan held the miner's lamp in his hand, almost holding his breath, cautiously, and extremely cautiously walked forward in this corridor of the tomb, and even took every step forward, he took the miner's lamp in his hand to illuminate both sides.
Because this corridor is very long, the miner's lamp does not shine at all, and the light is reflected on the smooth brick walls on both sides, unlike other ancient tombs, this tomb corridor does not have any reliefs or murals.
Generally speaking, the corridor of the ancient tomb will carve some relief murals on both sides, so as to basically determine what age the tomb is, and then deduce the general pattern of the tomb according to the age of the tomb, and even the possible tomb mechanism and so on.
But there is no information at all, and until now, Xu Tianchuan only knows that this is a coffin tomb built in a corpse raising place, and he doesn't know anything about this tomb other than that.
It is this ignorance that makes Xu Tianchuan extra vigilant and cautious.
The further he went, the wider the road became, and Xu Tianchuan also felt that it was getting cooler and cooler inside, and the frozen Xu Tianchuan was even getting cold all over his body, with goosebumps all over his body, and his hair was standing up.
After walking for five minutes, Xu Tianchuan had been counting the steps in his heart, and he had just walked a hundred steps, about fifty meters away, and the miner's lamp in his hand finally came to an end.
It's a burial chamber!
Before Xu Tianchuan could see the entire tomb clearly, the pillar of light from the miner's lamp in his hand broke through the darkness of the tomb and happened to shine on a coffin.
It was a coffin with a black lacquer surface, placed vertically with its back against the wall of the burial chamber.
The strange thing is that this coffin placed vertically does not use sealing nails or rivets to seal the coffin, but is tied to the coffin with an ink fountain line criss-crossing and entwined, and a very eye-catching yellow charm is pasted in the middle.
That's the Zombie Talisman! Maoshan Taoist priests are specially used to subdue zombies!
Hiss......
Xu Tianchuan subconsciously gasped, just looking at the ink fountain line binding and the coffin with the corpse talisman, you can feel that this tomb is not simple.
What surprised Xu Tianchuan even more was that with the movement of the miner's lamp, there was more than one coffin, almost every one meter, and it was also placed vertically against the wall of the tomb, tied with an ink fountain line, and a corpse talisman was pasted on it.
At the same time, Jiao San in the back also followed with his men, and they all took the miner's lamps in their hands and shone them around the entire tomb.
Under the illumination of more than a dozen miner's lamps at the same time, the light was flourishing, and the entire tomb was illuminated instantly, and Xu Tianchuan could see it more clearly.
The whole burial chamber is about more than 100 square meters, the north and south sides and the east wall directly opposite are all erected and placed the same size coffins, the spacing of each coffin is about one meter, it is estimated that there are about twenty or thirty tombs in the whole tomb, the shape of the coffins is all exactly the same, painted with black paint, tied with ink fountain wires, and pasted with corpse charms.
If it weren't for an ancient tomb, Xu Tianchuan really thought that he had come to a special store for corpses and coffins.
"What kind of burial method is this Nima?"
Xu Tianchuan subconsciously scratched his scalp, although he combined all kinds of tomb robbing knowledge and the burial customs of the past dynasties, he couldn't see at all what kind of burial method came from which dynasty.
At most, I can only guess a few possibilities in my mind.
For example, this may be a burial tomb, only the ancient burial system, there will be so many coffins in the tomb at the same time, but if this is really a burial tomb, then this place should not be the main burial chamber, because no matter what kind of burial system, the coffin of the martyr cannot be placed in the same burial chamber as the tomb owner.
For example, it may also be a collective burial tomb, that is, a group or group dies at the same time and then buries them together.
But no matter what the possibility is, it is impossible for the ancients to put the coffin vertically for no reason, and then tie it with an ink fountain and paste it with a corpse charm, which is definitely directly related to the place where the corpse is raised.
So for Xu Tianchuan, these coffins in front of him are time bombs,
"Shopkeeper Xu...... Can you see what that means? β
At this time, Jiao San next to him came back to his senses in a burst of surprise and cautiously asked Xu Tianchuan.
Listening to the tone of Jiao San's question, to be precise, it should be a consultation.
Xu Tianchuan also did not hide the disdain in his eyes, and glanced at Jiao San.
These three sentences are inseparable from his more than 20 years of tomb robbing career, and he is obviously now confused by the twenty or thirty coffins with corpse charms in front of him.
"Obviously, this is a funeral!"
Xu Tianchuan narrowed his eyes, pretended to be calm, and looked around carefully.
"Law...... Legal burial? Shopkeeper Xu, what is a legal burial? Jiao San subconsciously raised his eyebrows again, and hurriedly asked.
"As the name suggests, the funeral is the funeral that has been done by the Maoshan Taoist, this is a place to raise the corpse with a very deep yin qi, and the Maoshan Taoist priest must be in order to prevent the corpse from harming the world, so he tied the coffin with an ink fountain line, and also pasted the corpse charm!"
Xu Tianchuan's statement is also based on his own guesses.
But whether it's true or not, it's all for Jiao San anyway, and it doesn't matter if he believes it or not.
"Shopkeeper Xu, since you are afraid of cheating the corpse, why do you have to build the tomb in this corpse gathering place? Isn't that redundant? β
Jiao San looked at Xu Tianchuan with a question mark on his face and asked.
Xu Tianchuan turned his head and glanced directly at Jiao San: "I didn't build this tomb, how do I know?" β
"You ......"
Jiao Sanqi raised his eyebrows and glared, but he felt that Xu Tianchuan did know a little more than himself, so Jiao San endured it.
"Don't touch the coffin yet, look for funeral goods, be careful with me!"
Jiao San turned his head and snorted at the subordinates behind him.
Under Jiao San's order, the more than 20 people under his command quickly dispersed around the tomb with miner's lamps, looking for burial goods.
Generally, as long as it is an ancient tomb, there must be burial goods, even ordinary poor people, when they are buried, they will put two clay pots as a burial, and this is still a brick tomb.
No matter what dynasty it is, brick tombs are an exclusive burial style for wealthy status.
But after everyone searched around the tomb, they found that there were no funeral goods in the entire tomb, and even the horns were searched, not a copper plate, not a single piece of broken silver, even cleaner than everyone's faces, only these twenty-eight coffins placed vertically, as if they were standing and watching the jokes of Jiao San's gang of tomb robbers!
"Nope! It's a fucking impossible! β
Jiao San's eyes widened, looking at these coffins with corpse talismans, and his face was blue with anger, originally Jiao San planned to make a windfall with this tomb, but he didn't expect to toss it for so long, and it was actually an 'empty tomb' after opening it.
This huge sense of disparity made Jiao San unable to accept it.
"Look for me again and see if there are any other traps and secret passages!"
Jiao San gritted his teeth again and snorted.
This burial chamber is intact, and Jiao San doesn't believe that there are really no funeral goods at all, because this is completely out of line with convention and logic.
So Jiao San's thinking direction is right.
It's very likely that this burial chamber was not the main burial chamber!
Xu Tianchuan also held the miner's lamp, carefully observing every detail of the tomb, if there were really other passages in this tomb, there would definitely be cats, it was just a hidden problem.
"Third Master Jiao, the brothers have searched all over the place, all the walls are solid, and there are no secret passages at all."
After about twenty minutes, Black Spot held the miner's lamp and said to Jiao San with a helpless expression.
Didn't find the secret passage?
At this time, Hei Banzi deliberately lowered his voice again, and stood beside Jiao San and said tentatively: "Third master, you say...... Will all the funerary goods be in these coffins? β
It just so happened that this sentence was being heard by Xu Tianchuan not far away.
It seems that these people finally put their minds on these coffins in frenzy.
In fact, there is no need for Black Spot to say this, Jiao San has already had this idea in his heart, but these coffins are tied up with ink fountain wires, and they are also pasted with corpse suppression talismans, and the treacherous momentum makes Jiao San feel a little weak.
After all, this is still a place to raise corpses, and his two subordinates buried them during the day, and they cheated the corpses in less than the middle of the night.
If there is really any powerful big meat dumplings in this coffin, the consequences will be unimaginable.
Jiao San understands all the truths, but he returns empty-handed, where can Jiao San be willing!
So after repeated thinking and struggle in his heart, Jiao San finally made up his mind, threw Xu Tianchuan a pair of probing claws, and said, "Shopkeeper Xu, do me a favor, go and open the coffin for me!" β
It seems that Jiao San really used Xu Tianchuan as a 'tool'.
But this time Xu Tianchuan did not have any grinding and refutation, but the corners of his mouth raised slightly, showing a treacherous smile on his face, and he turned around directly, with the help of the sharpness of the probe claw, cut through the ink fountain line tied on one of the coffins, and inserted the probe claw into the gap in the coffin lid.
Since Jiao San wants to play exciting, let's play together!
With Jiao San and more than 20 of his subordinates by his side, Xu Tianchuan didn't think that the person who died first would be himself!
Boom......
Because the coffin lid was only tied with a slender ink fountain line, and the coffin was not nailed with coffin nails or rivets, so when the ink fountain line tied to the coffin was all cut off, and the coffin itself was placed vertically, Xu Tianchuan just gently pried it outward with his probe claw, and the entire coffin lid was instantly pried open and smashed heavily on the ground.
What's inside the coffin?
Are there any zongzi?
Everyone, including Xu Tianchuan, stared wide-eyed at the same time, looking towards the coffin with vigilance and precautions.
I saw a dried corpse standing upright in the coffin.
This dried corpse has a wrinkled face and deep sunken eyes, and is wearing an official uniform of the Ming Dynasty, an official hat, and a corpse suppression talisman on his head!
Xu Tianchuan felt that it would be more appropriate to call the dried corpse in the coffin a 'zombie'.
Because the zombies in many film and television dramas are shaped like this.
"So, this is a tomb from the Ming Dynasty?"
Xu Tianchuan looked at the corpse in the coffin with the corpse suppression charm on the door, and secretly pondered and muttered in his heart.
At least from the official uniform worn by this dry corpse, it can be determined that this is a tomb of the Ming Dynasty, and it is also a third-grade official.
It is now the early years of the Republic of China, and it is counted according to the earliest time, which is a history of several hundred years.
γDing Dong...... System prompt: The host successfully pries open a coffin of the Ming Dynasty, and rewards 50 experience points]
At this moment, Xu Tianchuan heard the prompt sound from the system in his mind.
Sure enough, it is a tomb of the Ming Dynasty, but because the history time is too short, the system only gives 50 experience points for tomb robbery, and there are no other additional rewards.
At the same time, after making sure that there was no danger, Jiao San was the first to rush over, and at a glance he took a fancy to a jade bead on the hat of the dry corpse and a string of pearls hanging around his neck.
However, other than that, there were no other funerary goods in the coffin.
This time, without waiting for Jiao San to speak again, Xu Tianchuan moved a small step to the side, stared at a coffin next to him, and without hesitation, he pried open the coffin again in the same way as just now.
γDing Dong...... System prompt: The host successfully pries open a coffin of the Yuan Dynasty and rewards 80 experience points! γ
Sure enough, just like Xu Tianchuan's inner vision, the main purpose of the task of the tomb robbery system is to pry the coffin, so every time a coffin is pried, there will be a reward.
This is also why Xu Tianchuan came over so decisively to pry open the coffin next to him, just to test the reward system of the system.
But...... Xu Tianchuan felt that he had heard it wrong, or that the system had reported it wrong, what the hell was the coffin of the Yuan Dynasty?
Isn't this Nima a tomb of the Ming Dynasty?
How could there be a coffin of the Yuan Dynasty in the tombs of the Ming Dynasty?
There are hundreds of years between these two dynasties!