The Lost Tomb Vol. 3

Chapter 20: Palace Hall Entrance (Part 4)

Fatty immediately raised his hand, "Me!"

"And me!" Pan Zi also raised his hand.

I didn't know why, but Shunzi suddenly had a serious look on his face, like he wouldn't take any objections. Then he waved his hand and said, "Those who fired have to stay! Everyone else run! Run straight ahead and don't look back!"

I looked around and counted the number of raised hands...ugh, everyone on my team would have to stay. What should I do? If I followed Chen Pi Ah Si, wasn't I just waiting to be slaughtered? Coming to a decision, I hurriedly raised my hand and said, "I...I forgot. I also fired!"

Ye Cheng and the others didn't know how to react, but at this time, we suddenly heard the sound of tiles breaking overhead—it seemed like countless creatures were walking on the palace hall's roof. We all froze, not knowing what was going on.

"There's not much time. Go!" Shunzi shouted.

Chen Pi Ah Si glanced at us and then waved his hand at Monk Hua and Ye Cheng, "Let's go!" Then the three of them quickly ran out of the front hall.

I found the whole situation strange, but there wasn't enough time to think about it—we could hear more and more tiles breaking overhead. Fatty reloaded his gun and then threw his bullet bag to Pan Zi so that he could reload as well. As we all formed a circle, I asked Shunzi, "What the hell is up there? What should we do?"

Shunzi lowered his voice and said, "I don't know."

Pan Zi gave him a questioning look, "Then why did you tell them to run?"

"I just wanted to separate you guys from the old man," Shunzi replied. "It's not my idea—it's your Uncle Three's orders."

As soon as we heard this, we all turned to look at him. What? My Uncle Three's orders? "Who are you?" Pan Zi asked.

"Enough questions," Shunzi said. "I'll take you to see your Uncle Three now. You can ask him when we get there."

My whole body tensed up, and I was about to ask if my uncle was also in this imperial tomb right now, but then there suddenly came a series of cracking sounds overhead, and the tiles came pouring down like rain. We covered our heads and looked up, only to see countless shadows darting in and out of our flashlights' beams—they seemed to be the same kind of creature we fought just now.

Shunzi waved his hand and said, "When you guys fired your guns, the sound echoed throughout the whole forest and drew these things here."

"Then why don't we run as well?" Pan Zi asked nervously, listening to the shuffling sounds of an indistinguishable number of creatures closing in around us. "If we stay here, aren't we just waiting for death?"

"We have to wait for the others to go a little further," Shunzi replied as he turned and looked behind him. Apparently deeming Chen Pi Ah Si and the others to be far enough away, he turned to us and said, "Let's go!" Then he took the lead and ran towards the front hall's exit, the three of us following closely behind.

Outside the palace hall, we could see the second hall at the end of the spirit path, but there was a long white marble bridge in front of it, made up of twenty arches. Two dragons made from some unknown material were coiled around the railings on both sides of the bridge. They were the color of pure jade, and didn't appear to have any cracks or seams in them, as if they had been carved from a single piece of stone. Under the bridge was a moat separating us from the inner part of the imperial tomb, but I didn't know if there was water in it or not.

As we ran a few steps towards the bridge, a strong wind suddenly blew up from behind us and we immediately dropped to the ground. Fatty raised his gun and blindly fired a few shots behind him—a quiet screech came from somewhere in the darkness. I didn't know what he hit, but I saw something fall into the abyss under the bridge.