Chapter 1379 — The Death Tomb

The stone pillars of the great hall, however, still hung vertically from its ceiling; and only now did anyone understand that those pillars had never been meant to bear the hall's weight—they were nothing more than the levers that set the mechanism in motion.

Wei Zhao, Chen Yutian, Qiu Lingshan, Old Hei, Elder Yu, and General Weiwu stood on one side of the floor; Yu Xiaoke was alone on the other.

Still, though Wei Zhao's shout of "Danger!" came a beat too late, none of them were weak of hand or foot, and at the last critical instant they all caught hold of the floor's edge. Vertical though the panels now were, there was yet some friction where the two met along the side seam, and so every one of them hung suspended from the rim of the upended floor.

Wei Zhao glanced at Yu Xiaoke and saw that she too had prepared well in advance, hooking her eagle-claw onto the edge of the floor—which set his mind at ease.

Old Hei was the only one among them with no martial skill at all. When he saw the others react, he could do nothing; the floor turned vertical, and Old Hei dropped straight down.

"Aah—help me...!"

Qiu Lingshan frowned, and instinctively made to let go and leap down after Old Hei. Her purpose in coming this time had been to capture these tomb robbers; several had already died, leaving only Old Hei, and if he died too, what meaning would the whole operation have left?

But Wei Zhao knew what was in her mind and would not watch her take the risk. "I'll go!" he said quickly.

With that, Wei Zhao released his grip and dropped, his hand shooting out to seize Old Hei; then, kicking off the stone wall at his side, he swung back to the edge of the floor. The whole motion was one seamless flow, not a trace of clumsiness in it.

To Wei Zhao this was a simple enough matter, but Qiu Lingshan lacked experience, and he feared she might come to grief.

Old Hei, snatched back from the very brink of death, felt his gratitude toward the Male Robber surge like a great river. He drew an eagle-claw hook from his breast and, following Yu Xiaoke's example, hooked it onto the edge of the floor.

"Male Robber, my thanks!" Old Hei said, his heart still pounding with fright.

"You still have your uses. Right now every person here is a measure of wit; things have come to this, and we must conserve our strength." Wei Zhao spoke lightly. In truth, had it not been for Qiu Lingshan, he would not have cared whether Old Hei lived or died.

"What's going on here? Why is it so black and deep below, like a bottomless pit?" Elder Yu frowned and demanded, "We haven't triggered some death-wish of a trap, have we?"

Wei Zhao too was uncertain; he could not judge whether this was truly the right entrance to the underground palace. But plainly, whoever built this tomb could never have meant it as the way down to the palace—if an ordinary man fell in there, what chance of life would he have?

And more than that, Wei Zhao could distinctly feel a dangerous presence below him; the jade pendant's warning had not ceased.

In ordinary circumstances, now that he was hanging from the edge of the floor, a single leap would carry him back up into the passage they had come by, and there should be no danger at all. Which meant the only danger could be the bottomless pit beneath his feet.

"This could well be the entrance to the underground palace." Old Hei pondered for a moment, then said, "This place... it's rather like the death tomb of legend."

"Death tomb?" Elder Yu was startled. "What do you mean?"

"A death tomb is a tomb you can enter but never leave. When it was designed, no exit was ever planned. Such tombs were built from the outside in; once you're inside, you can't get out—you can only remain with the tomb forever..." Old Hei explained. As he spoke, cold sweat broke out on his brow. If that was truly the case, then this trip would cost them their lives entire.

"Then what are we to do? Doesn't that mean once we go in, we never come out?" Elder Yu snorted.

"I don't know either... it's only a thing of legend. This is the first time I've ever laid eyes on an entrance like this..." Old Hei smiled bitterly.

Just then, the mechanism that had fallen still seemed to start up again; the two panels, already vertical, suddenly began to rise slowly, as though they meant to join together once more.

"Bad. The mechanism is resetting," Wei Zhao said. "Do we go down, or not?"

Wei Zhao had already made up his mind: even if none of the others would go, he would. Even if it was a death tomb, he must walk it once. Even if he truly could never come out, so long as he obtained the medical notes, with General Weiwu at his side, he would blast a road open with true-qi bombs if that was what it took.

"This..." Elder Yu and Old Hei hesitated as well...

Qiu Lingshan and Chen Yutian, meanwhile, looked wholly to Wei Zhao; if he meant to go down, they would not shrink from it.

"This is indeed a death tomb, I think, but once we descend here, we ought to be able to get out," Yu Xiaoke spoke up now. "Only the place where the coffin truly rests is a dead end, a way in but no way out. The other places should be no trouble."

"Oh? You're certain?" Old Hei was taken aback.

"Essentially certain. First, Zhang Liju was a physician, and a physician's heart is humane; even facing death, he would never have been so vicious as to have the workmen who built his tomb buried with him..." Yu Xiaoke reasoned. "Second, if every path truly were a dead end, a way in but no way out, then what use would the tomb-guarding spirit beasts at the entrance be? Would that not be a pointless effort?"

"Hmm... you have a point!" Old Hei nodded. He was an experienced tomb robber himself, so after hearing Yu Xiaoke's words his heart at once felt steadier. "Good, we go down!"

"Heroine Yan, when the floor is about to close, let go then—that way you'll be nearer to me, and we'll go down together, which will be a little safer!" Wei Zhao said to Yu Xiaoke.

"All right!" Yu Xiaoke agreed without hesitation. She knew the danger that lay below, and Wei Zhao treated her with a certain particularity; in any case, he would never do her harm.

This time, Elder Yu and Old Hei found nothing improper in Wei Zhao's concern for Yu Xiaoke. Since Wei Zhao had even saved Old Hei, what was so strange about his fretting over Yu Xiaoke's safety?

"The two of you, hold on to me when the time comes, one on each side, and do not let go." Wei Zhao instructed Qiu Lingshan and Chen Yutian, then said to Old Hei, "If you don't want to die, then hold fast to Elder Yu; he won't leave you behind."

For the fastest updates, please read without pop-ups.