The Lost Tomb Vol. 3

Chapter 40: Nest of "Guardians"

The corpses were all dressed in tattered armor, some so dry from the wind that they had turned into mummies, while others had already turned into half-skeletons. I figured they were the Jurchen warriors who had been attacked while scouting the way so long ago. Their weapons at that time were too primitive to do them any good, but we at least had a lot of firepower with our M16 and Type-56 rifles, which made me feel a lot more at ease.

We entered this part of the ravine with the hanging corpses, and continued climbing down for another fifty meters. Countless corpses surrounded us on all sides, their empty eye sockets seeming to stare right at us. That, coupled with the gloomy atmosphere, was really starting to make me feel uncomfortable.

In order to ensure that there weren't any blind spots for something to sneak up on us—or maybe it was just to dispel their fear—several people set off cold fireworks, increasing the surrounding brightness to an unprecedented intensity.

Surprisingly, none of those strange birds appeared. I didn't sense any movement in the air to indicate that they were flying close by, and it was unusually quiet all around.

Fatty pointed to the bodies hanging close by and said softly, "They're all old; none of them appear to be fresh. Do you think those creatures abandoned this place?"

I shook my head, silently telling him to be quiet. It was possible, but those strange birds could go out to hunt, which meant that there must be an exit nearby. The hope I had been harboring that we might be able to get out of here started to grow much stronger.

Of course, it was also possible that their absence was only temporary, like swarms of bats that all flew out of the cave at the same time to go hunt. If that was the case, then it would be better for us to pass through this area quickly, so I motioned for the others to speed up.

At this time, Kirk and Pan Zi down below suddenly stopped, and Pan Zi turned and beckoned me over.

I told the others to rest where they were, and then took a few leaps down to where Kirk was standing about a dozen chains below. Once I reached him, I looked down and saw that the light of his powerful headlamp was able to reach the bottom of the huge rift. It seemed that our careers as Spider-Men were coming to an end.

But the light of his headlamp was too diffused, which made it difficult to see what was below. After experiencing the strangeness of this ancient Chinese tomb, the German had clearly lost confidence in his own judgment, and was looking to me for direction before making any decisions.

This underground rift was so big that it was useless to try and look at it with a flashlight. We could tell that there was something below, but it was too difficult to make out. All we could see was a vague green silhouette through the night vision binoculars.

We still had a few flares left, which I would have liked to save, but that just wasn't possible in this situation. I asked Fatty to find a way to fire a flare in this environment while trying to make the light last as long as possible.

A Ning's flares were more advanced than ours, and Fatty knew his stuff, so he quickly made an OK gesture and got to work.

He lit a glow stick, cut it open with a knife, poured the liquid on the flare cartridge, and then threw the cartridge into the abyss below. We watched the fluorescent dot plummet like a meteor, hit the ground below, bounce twice, and then stop.

Fatty then picked up his rifle and fired three shots at the flare cartridge below. It immediately ignited, its light brightly illuminating the bottom of the rift.

Sure enough, we really had reached the bottom. The area below was full of jagged black volcanic rocks and bones that had fallen from above. There were so many layers of bones and black feces piled up that it was almost impossible to see the rocks. Further off in the distance, we could see a huge bronze double door on the side of the cliff.