Discovery

Dark. Pitch-black and utterly silent.

The paper umbrella lit the courtyard, where ceramic figurines of every pose and appearance stood everywhere. They looked like maidservants and attendants, sweeping, serving tea, or carrying fruit. It was deeply eerie—their expressions were lifelike, as though they were living people, displaying the exquisite craftsmanship of fired clay bodies from those days.

Relying on her supernaturally greedy nose to catch the scent of gold, her red eyes turned toward the houses.

She sent the paper umbrella farther away.

She gently shifted aside the badly corroded bronze door and slipped inside. Red light flared from her eyes, illuminating the tiny room. On the bed in the deathly silent chamber lay a golden person, realistic in appearance and wearing an agonized expression. Its entire body was covered in gold, gleaming red and yellow beneath the crimson light.

"Ancient people were ruthless enough, huh~ A True Person plated in gold. Rich~"

The flood dragon's eyes saw through the golden figure and found the decayed corpse within. Perhaps because the gold plating had sealed it so well, some bones still remained.

Those who lived in these rooms were all concubines. This one had been a young woman entirely plated in gold. If she had guessed correctly, the woman had been killed and then gold-plated through some special process. As for why her expression was so anguished, it was probably because her soul had been sealed inside her body, struggling desperately in despair. The metal seal had blocked her soul from reincarnating, leaving it to serve the tomb's master, imprisoned without mercy.

Never underestimate desire and ambition once they had swelled beyond control, and never expect kindness.

In the Old Era, human lives were the cheapest things of all. Perhaps even a cricket or a talking bird had been worth