The Lost Tomb : Sea Of Sands

Chapter 150: Fight

Li Cu had seen street confrontations more than once, so he wasn't very worried. He just hoped his side wouldn't lose; otherwise it would be too painful trying to escape on the mountain road in a wheelchair.

The grave robbers gathered together and began negotiating with the black-clad leader in the local dialect. After half a cigarette's time, the merchant impatiently looked at his watch.

Li Cu was a little sleepy, so he secretly lit one of the cigarettes Wang Xiaoyuan had given him and took two puffs. When he leaned his face against the window again and looked outside, it had already started.

The speed of these black-clad men was really too fast. The merchant in front reached out and directly grabbed the collar of the other side's leader. The other side swiped his knife at the merchant's lower abdomen, but the merchant twisted and dodged. At the same time, he took advantage of this move to flip the grave robber over his shoulder, and knocked him to the ground.

He did all that with only one hand, while his other hand simultaneously slipped off his belt and swung it like a whip. The other person who had been rushing over was hit head-on, and fell to the ground.

The belt buckle was obviously very heavy, because the man didn't move once he hit the ground. The merchant pulled the belt back and let the third person pass, suddenly ducking down so he could strike the back of the fourth person's knee. Because the third person was blocking the fourth person's view, the other party didn't see the merchant's action at all, and fell to one knee.

The merchant turned around, swinging his belt from behind the man's head so it would make an arc and smack him in the face. The belt was instantly pulled back, and pushed away the approaching knife that was in the fifth person's hand. The merchant then pressed in close to the person's chest, gave his ribs two solid punches, and then hit his collarbone.

After so many direct blows, the other party stepped back and bent down in pain. The merchant went up and elbowed him in the temple, and other party collapsed to the ground, no longer moving.

There were still two people left, including the third one who could do nothing but stare at the merchant's lightning quick moves. Neither of them reacted, and merely stood frozen on the spot.

The other black-clad men remained motionless, and simply watched the merchant sweep away the rabble in five seconds, and then put his belt back on just as quickly.

Li Cu was stunned, feeling like what he had just seen couldn't be martial arts at all. The movements were very simple, but extremely effective. Compared with the bravado on the other side, each strike from this guy was a powerful blow intended to make the other side immediately lose its fighting capacity.

It was a calm observation, and then reaction to the other party's actions.

The merchant stepped away from the light— belt safely back on— and pointed to the two men who hadn't been beaten. The two men stepped back and started to run down the mountain, but their escape was blocked by the young man and another black-clad man.

The merchant pulled the other party's leader up from the ground, and pushed him to the front of the car where he continued to negotiate with him in the Changsha dialect.

This time, the atmosphere between the two sides was much better. The other side's leader kept nodding as the merchant continued talking. Eventually, the both of them began laughing and shook hands, and the merchant patted the leader on the shoulder. The leader touched the part of his neck that had just been injured, and went straight into the pond without any hesitation.

The leader of the black-clad people looked at his watch, pulled open the car door, ripped the cigarette out of Li Cu's mouth, and then held out his hand. Li Cu had to hand over the whole pack of cigarettes, and watch as the black-clad person ripped them in half and tossed them into the nearby grass, "I'll cut off a finger next time I see them."

Li Cu took a deep breath, knowing he wasn't joking. He gave a quick laugh and said, "Were you bargaining just now?"

"Sort of."

While they were talking, the farmer-like young man took some tools from the trunk of the car and threw them to the merchant. Several of them gathered around the coffin and used a hand saw to start removing the sealant that was holding the two urns together.

Once it was off, they opened the urn that was on top and shined a flashlight inside, revealing a large amount of cotton wool that had rotted into silk threads.

Li Cu was very curious, but he couldn't see clearly from the car, and wanted to get out. One of the black-clad people standing nearby picked him up, carried him over, and let him get a closer look.

Like the grave robbers, the young man wasn't afraid of getting dirty either. He put on gloves and rolled the cotton wool into a ball and threw it into the grass on one side. Li Cu thought it looked like some kind of insect cocoon, as layer after layer was peeled off, and the body inside was revealed.

The body had completely decomposed and become a pile of bone fragments. The only complete one was the frontal bone, which was quickly picked out. It turned out that there were burial objects placed in a circle underneath the bone.

As expected, this simple burial method actually had valuable funeral objects.

The first thing they took out was a gold bracelet. The bracelet was very thin and used relatively cheap material, but the gold appearance was quite exaggerated, which showed that this person had come from a wealthy family. And wealthy families used coffins, not urns, so it must have been stolen.

The second thing they fished out was a lacquered wood box, which was in good condition. When the brass lock was opened, they found that the box was filled with beads of various colors, including cat's eye, old tourmaline, jade, and pearl.

This was used for beading. They turned the lacquered box over, and saw the stamp of a foreign business on the bottom. They couldn't make out what the specific words said, and could only guess.

"The decorative patterns and textures look like they're from the late Qing or early Republic era. Bracelets and bead boxes are all women's things." The merchant said. "The value of these beads and bracelet is the same, so they probably came from the same tomb. But I don't know if they're from the one we're looking for."

Their previous theory was that the body in the urn coffin was also a grave robber, so these funerary objects may have come from the thieves who robbed the tomb. Li Cu heard this and asked, "Right, if this person was a grave robber, then they may have stolen from many tombs during their lifetime. How do you know that these buried objects are from the tomb you want to find? Don't you think you're making such a big fuss over a mere gamble?"

"These people weren't professional grave robbers. As long as they kept grave robbing, their lives would certainly improve within two years. But after they died, these people were buried in urns, which shows that their living conditions didn't change when they died. Their grave robbery must have been a one-time accident. All the clues point to this. For example, so many funerary objects showed that they were still afraid of grave robbing, so they didn't dare sell most of the stolen goods. They kept them until they died, and put them in their tombs."

"You're bullshitting me, right?" Li Cu asked. "Although it makes sense, this kind of thing isn't certain. It's also possible that the person had a long life, and stole these things from other people."