The Lost Tomb Vol. 1

Chapter 12: Door

I remembered that there were some map-like sketches on many of the papers in the bag which belonged to the guy who had scared us. Maybe there would be some clues on them. At this time, I was willing to try anything. There were Seven Star Deceptive Coffins in front of me and a monster behind me that even had Poker-Face kowtowing to it. I couldn't go either way so this place was the safest.

I sat on the ground, spread out the papers, and looked through them. I could see that one of the pictures was a design drawing of the tomb before the grave robbers' tunnel had been dug. A lot of ideas were written below—in particular, there was speculation about the design of the blood corpse tomb—but I couldn't really understand any of it because the handwriting was so messy. All I could make out were a few words like "ceramic glazed ceiling" and so on. They seemed to have put in a lot of effort thinking about how to destroy the mechanisms in the blood corpse's tomb, but I didn't know if they had implemented any of them in the end. Then there was another paper with a picture of something that either looked like a tree waving its branches around in a threatening manner or a ghostly claw.

I flipped through the papers again and finally saw something substantial—a map with a bird's-eye view of the tomb. There was a tomb passage below the lake and the room where the Seven Star Deceptive Coffins had been placed. The map was very clear, but I didn't see a drawing of the tomb chamber where we had first entered. It seemed they hadn't been there yet. I also saw the grave robbers' tunnel that I just crawled through, along with the fork in the tunnel that was clearly marked. The word "collapsed" was written next to the other tunnel, indicating that I would have reached a dead end if I had chosen to take it earlier.

I was very clear on what this meant and my hope of returning to the surface through the grave robbers' tunnel was completely dashed. I examined the map again and saw the strangest thing. There was a tomb chamber drawn to the left of the place where I was currently standing, but I didn't see a passage connecting it at all. Instead, a dotted line had been drawn connecting this tomb passage with the tomb chamber. It almost seemed like the tomb chamber was in another area. I couldn't help but touch the wall behind me. Was there a secret passage behind this wall?

I carefully observed the wall and recalled the structure of those stone trapdoors my grandpa had written about in his notes. Generally speaking, if this kind of mechanism was to last for thousands of years without decaying, then the device used for opening it had to use stone and mercury. And the trigger of this opening device was probably a flat plate. The walls were covered in inscriptions and carvings, so if there was a hidden door, then one of them must be able to move. But this movable piece would be located in a place that was very difficult to notice.

Following this train of thought, I leaned down and looked at where the stone wall met the floor. Sure enough, there was a square slab connected to the floor that seemed very suspicious. I pressed on it but nothing happened. It definitely felt loose, though, so I pressed on it again. Still, nothing happened. Feeling a little annoyed, I stood up and kicked it, only to hear a rumbling sound.

At that time, I was thinking that it would be like a typical foreign movie where the wall would rotate open and take me to the other room or it would open like a door. As a result, I wasn't prepared when the floor under my feet suddenly went out and I started falling. This kind of design wasn't a hidden door but a trap!

Not good, I thought to myself. This might really be the end! I didn't know what was waiting down below, but an image of steel knives sharp enough to cut bone suddenly popped into my head.

Everything happened as quick as a flash, and my butt hit the floor before I even finished thinking. But before I could rejoice in the fact that I didn't fall to my death, the miner's lamp I had been holding slammed into the ground. The battery flew out and the lamp shut off, suddenly plunging me into complete darkness.

Under the current circumstances, the miner's lamp was as important as my own life. In this ancient tomb where there weren't any light sources at all, no light was tantamount to death. I rushed over to grab the miner's lamp—I remembered where it had fallen very clearly—and quickly found it. I knew that the battery should be somewhere to the left of it, so I started feeling around. But at this time, I suddenly touched a cold hand.