Then he ran out of the greenhouse and called softly to Jia Xiaowu, "Brother Wu, something seems to have happened down there."
Hearing this, Jia Xiaowu immediately jumped down from the earthen wall, slung the imitation Type 56 Semi-Automatic Rifle over his back, and charged into Greenhouse No. 4 with Zhang Changgui.
At the same time, two kilometers away, Li Zhi, who was lying at an angle beneath an earthen cliff, saw Jia Xiaowu jump down from the earthen wall of the Vegetable Greenhouse.
Li Zhi immediately patted Ye Fan on the arm and said, "Little Leaf, let's go. It's our turn to act."
Having cultivated the Breathing Method, Li Zhi had extraordinarily sharp hearing and vision.
Even at night, he could still clearly see what was happening two kilometers away by the faint moonlight.
Such terrifying eyesight was practically comparable to an eight-times scope.
Ye Fan had been lying on the ground, gazing absently toward the Big Dipper in the night sky. He instantly rose and asked eagerly, "Brother Li, have they started carrying the artifacts out?"
Li Zhi shook his head. "Not yet. But those two lookouts have gone back, so their excavation today should be over."
Ye Fan asked, "Then are we going over there to rob the robbers? Or force them to sell?"
When it came to this sort of thing, Ye Fan still had limited experience. He was not yet the future Ye Hei, bold enough to sell the heirs of the various holy lands in the Ancient Realm.
Nor was he yet the Ye Fan who, at Ascension Cliff on Ziwei Ancient Star, would dare snatch food from the jaws of the Ming Ridge Ancient Longevity Temple and Human Monarch Hall, successfully robbing Yin Tiande, the number-one Heavenly Pride of Ziwei Ancient Star, of the Divine Scripture.
His acceptance of such probing operations was not yet that strong.
Hearing this, Li Zhi gave Ye Fan a meaningful look and thought, So this brat's way of doing things was developed on Earth.
"We're respectable people. How could we do anything illegal? We merely happened to pick up some things others had discarded while out sightseeing. As for why those things are so valuable, how would ordinary commoners like us know? We're not professional archaeologists."
Li Zhi began spouting nonsense with a perfectly serious expression, portraying his actions as so noble and righteous that Ye Fan was left completely dumbfounded.
He had nearly forgotten that, when the two of them had chatted beneath the earthen cliff earlier, Li Zhi had told him about those cases of robbing the robbers in the "archaeological world."
Seeing the profound look in Ye Fan's eyes, Li Zhi immediately said, "All right, I've said a little too much today. You can mull it over later."
The more time he spent with Li Zhi, the more Ye Fan felt that this Li Zhi, who always wore a lazy expression, was unfathomable.
The two of them slung their bags over their backs and swiftly ran toward the Vegetable Greenhouse.
For an ordinary person running outdoors, covering two kilometers would take around ten minutes.
But Ye Fan and Li Zhi, carrying their bags, finished the distance in only six minutes. Even after reaching their destination, neither of them showed any sign of being out of breath.
At the fence surrounding the outskirts of the vegetable base, the two composed men took a short run-up and directly vaulted the nearly three-meter-high iron railing.
Then, like felines, they moved silently through the greenhouse vegetable base.
They soon arrived behind the earthen wall of Greenhouse No. 4.
The two nodded at each other, then used the wall for leverage and climbed over it.
Afterward, they lay behind a rolled-up grass mat on the wall and began listening carefully to the movements inside.
More than ten minutes later, an excited conversation suddenly came from inside the greenhouse.
"Brother Wu, the two of us are going to get rich this time." The voice was somewhat muffled, as though the speaker was wearing a thick mask.
"Changgui, hurry up. The air below might be poisonous. Our gas masks won't last much longer." Another muffled voice reached Ye Fan and Li Zhi's ears.
"Brother Wu, there's quite a lot of stuff. Throw two more bags down for me." Zhang Changgui, wearing a gas mask, seemed to be below the vertical shaft.
"Changgui, don't put the broken pieces in the bags. Pick up the intact ones." Jia Xiaowu, holding a rope outside the shaft, shouted toward the inside.
"Brother Wu, don't worry. Almost none of the artifacts are broken this time." Zhang Changgui's voice came from below the shaft.
Hearing the conversation inside, Li Zhi and Ye Fan, lying atop the wall, did not dare make a sound.
About half an hour later, several gunshots suddenly rang out from within.
Ye Fan was startled, but Li Zhi shook his head at him, signaling him to remain calm.
Soon afterward, the two heard Jia Xiaowu groan. He seemed to have been shot.
Zhang Changgui's voice, however, had completely vanished.
At this moment, Li Zhi pulled two hammers from his bag. He handed one to Ye Fan and gestured for him not to hold back.
Then they used a knife to slit open the plastic sheeting, grabbed the rope, and climbed into the greenhouse.
After landing, Li Zhi moved with incredible speed. Like a fierce tiger pouncing on its prey, he swung his hammer and charged at Jia Xiaowu, who was bandaging his left arm.
With his back to Li Zhi, Jia Xiaowu seemed to sense the danger. He immediately bent down to grab the Type 56 Semi-Automatic Rifle he had propped against the wellhead.
But Li Zhi had already hurled the hammer.
"Thud!"
Like a watermelon bursting, Jia Xiaowu's head exploded.
Ye Fan looked at the hammer in his hand, somewhat shaken.
Li Zhi turned and shouted to Ye Fan, "All right, Little Leaf. It's our turn to act now. Put on the protective suit first."
Ye Fan then followed his example and put on a medical protective suit.
The two of them also put on gas masks.
Then Ye Fan followed Li Zhi down into the vertical shaft.
At the bottom of the vertical shaft, they first saw Zhang Changgui, whose head had been blown apart by a bullet.
Then, in the inclined shaft, they saw two corpses dragged to the side.
At the entrance to the Main Outer Coffin Chamber, they saw Xu the Scholar, whose head had been pierced through by sword qi.
After entering the coffin chamber, they saw Brother Qiang, whose head had been severed, and the tomb robber whose heart had been pierced from behind with a chisel.
Li Zhi explained in detail to Ye Fan how those people had died.
Seeing this scene, Ye Fan sighed, "People die for wealth, just as birds die for food."
Yet there was little fear or panic in his voice, and his body showed no sign of nausea or discomfort.
Li Zhi said, "Now you know why tomb robbers are usually father-and-son teams, right?"
Ye Fan nodded. "These people truly have no humanity."
Li Zhi glanced at the Horseshoe Gold and Bronze Ritual Vessels on the ground, then suddenly asked, "Facing so many treasures, don't you have any other thoughts?"
"Brother Li, you're teasing me again. I may be poor, but I still have some basic discernment. These people must have touched something they shouldn't have, and that's why they met with disaster. They definitely didn't die merely for wealth."
As expected, Ye Fan had some understanding of the taboos concerning things beneath the ground.
Li Zhi nodded. "You observed very carefully. The wound on the head of the man who died from having his skull pierced by a sharp blade was definitely not caused by an ordinary weapon. The owner of this great tomb is no simple person."
Ye Fan asked excitedly, "Could this be a great tomb left behind by ancient cultivators?"
Li Zhi pondered for a moment before saying, "I'll need to study it before I can be sure."
In fact, he had already discovered the peculiarity of this coffin chamber.
Under normal circumstances, it could not possibly have been preserved so perfectly. It must have been protected by a Formation for a very long time.
Ye Fan had not yet come into contact with the cultivation world.
Although Li Zhi had not come into contact with it either, he knew that cultivators existed in the world.
When considering matters, he naturally took the methods of cultivators into account.
Thirty meters underground, inside the Main Outer Coffin Chamber within the Huangchang Ticou.
After Li Zhi and Ye Fan searched carefully,
they found only some strange powder beside Xu the Scholar's corpse.
After that, they found no other traces of supernatural power.
Although the Bronze Ritual Vessels also bore Inscriptions, there were very few words—only a handful of names.
They had no practical significance to the two of them.
There were quite a few bamboo slips, and their contents had all been carved in Clerical Script, making them very easy to recognize. They mainly described the general's life and had practically nothing to do with cultivation. After roughly flipping through them, the two stopped paying attention to them.
Archaeologists might have been interested in those bamboo slips, but Li Zhi and Ye Fan were only mildly interested.
Then, at Li Zhi's suggestion, the two dragged all the corpses into the coffin chamber.
Afterward, they carried the Bronze Ritual Vessels and Horseshoe Gold that Jia Xiaowu and Zhang Changgui had already moved outside back into the Main Outer Coffin Chamber.
Although Ye Fan was curious, he did not ask why while they were moving the things.
Only after they had returned everything to the tomb chamber did Ye Fan ask, "Brother Li, you don't want these things?"
Li Zhi shook his head. "Profiting from the dead isn't so easy. If your life isn't tough enough, you'll meet with disaster. Even if your life is tough enough, but the lives of your blood relatives aren't, you'll still meet with disaster."
Seeing how calm Li Zhi was, Ye Fan instantly realized that Li Zhi had only said that profiting from the dead was difficult—not that it was impossible.
There had to be knowledge in this that could not be found in books.
Sure enough, Li Zhi continued, "If you want to profit from the dead, you must first have a sacrifice. Then you must obtain the owner's consent. Only then can you ensure that there will be no trouble afterward."
Ye Fan seemed to understand. Pointing at the corpses, he asked, "Is that why we moved all seven corpses into the tomb chamber?"
Li Zhi nodded. "That's right. Although it looks somewhat cruel, sacrificing human lives to the dead is, in fact, a very effective form of ritual."
Before you continue