Yi Yun's Tomb

In this era, it was not easy for people to stay alive. Yi Yun understood that deeply, but he had never imagined that, in the prime of his life, a day would come when he was truly about to die.

That morning, Yi Yun had arranged to climb a mountain with two close friends. One of them was a pretty girl, which naturally made it a wonderful outing.

Young people always liked excitement, and Yi Yun was no exception. Climbing those neatly developed tourist mountains was too dull, so they chose a deserted mountain rarely visited by humans.

When they reached the mountainside, they discovered a cave.

The girl who had come with them immediately became interested and insisted on going inside for a look. But who could have expected that something would go wrong the moment they entered?

Inside the cave, Yi Yun discovered a square purple crystal. It looked like a crystal card from a science-fiction movie. Just as Yi Yun thought he had found a natural amethyst and reached out curiously to touch the card, the cave suddenly began to tremble. Then it collapsed!

It was difficult to describe how Yi Yun felt when he saw tens of thousands of tons of rock crashing down. If he had to sum it up in one sentence, it would be: only when you were about to die did you know what it meant to be about to die.

He was still young, his looks were passable, he had a healthy body, and he was still a virgin...

There should have been countless beautiful things waiting for him in the rest of his life, but now they would all be gone.

That sorrow and despair left him suffocating.

The rocks did not crush Yi Yun, but they sealed off his way back.

Buried alive in an enclosed space within the mountain, with no food, no water, and even a limited supply of air, Yi Yun understood perfectly that this place was probably going to be his grave.

Yi Yun stared blankly at the thick stone wall. In the light of his phone's built-in flashlight, the rough rock face looked like row upon row of demon and monster faces. Its icy touch made Yi Yun's heart sink bit by bit.

He did not know where his companions had gone. Logically speaking, they had followed him in, one in front and one behind. When the cave collapsed, the three of them should have been trapped together. But... they were gone.

It was as if they had never entered the cave with Yi Yun at all. Yet Yi Yun clearly remembered that, just half a minute before the cave collapsed, he had still heard the girl behind him speaking. She had asked nervously whether there might be snakes in the cave.

How could two living people suddenly disappear?

How had the cave collapsed for no reason?

There was no signal on his phone, and his two friends' lives were unknown. He truly found himself calling to Heaven and pounding on the earth, with neither answering. Yi Yun did not want to sit around and wait for death. He had even thought about digging his way out—if the rocks from the collapse formed only a small blockage, there might still be a sliver of hope that he could dig through.

When people were about to die, they could always erupt with powerful will and fighting strength. Even the tiniest hope was worth trying.

Yi Yun acted as soon as he thought of it, but digging with his bare hands was obviously impossible. He had not brought a dagger or any similar tool. Just then, a flash of inspiration crossed his mind, and he thought of the crystal card.

It looked somewhat like a small shovel. Although it was a little small and had no handle, it was still far better than digging with his hands.

Yi Yun turned to look at the mysterious crystal card in the cave, and his heart gave a thump. Thinking about it carefully, the cave had collapsed at the very instant he touched the crystal card.

What were the odds of that?

What was even more incomprehensible was that his two friends had also vanished into thin air.

A series of unbelievable phenomena combined together, causing an inexplicable thought to rise in Yi Yun's heart: could everything that had happened today have been caused by this crystal card?

He looked at the purple crystal card. It rested on a slightly raised, perfectly flat rock and gave off a faint glow. The nightmare-like purple crystal card was lying there intact.

Yi Yun hesitated for a moment before switching off his phone's flashlight. He discovered that, in the pitch-black cave, he could actually make out his surroundings dimly by the purple card's faint light.

Yi Yun knew that the crystal card might not be amethyst. Crystals did not glow. In nature, however, some minerals containing radioactive elements did possess the ability to emit light.

At that moment, Yi Yun had no time to worry about whether radiation from radioactive elements would harm his body. He picked up the purple crystal card and wanted to study it. If this crystal card had caused the collapse, could it perhaps become his opportunity to escape alive?

Yi Yun knew that his hope was slim, but with death already at his door, he could only try to make a last-ditch effort.

The crystal card felt icy cold in his hand. That chill seemed to travel along the veins in his arm toward his heart. It was only slightly larger than an adult's palm, and a little thinner than one.

The crystal card was purple all over, with mysterious patterns carved across its surface. These patterns were clearly not formed naturally. They looked as if someone had engraved them by hand.

Who had carved them? Could these patterns be ancient totems, or perhaps a mysterious language?

It might even have come from beyond Earth. Could it be the product of an extraterrestrial civilization?

After experiencing such a bizarre event, Yi Yun's imagination grew wilder and wilder. He was certain that the cave's collapse was connected to the purple crystal card. Otherwise, with no earthquake occurring, how could a natural cave suddenly collapse?

Holding the crystal card, Yi Yun discovered that all four of its sides had edges as sharp as blades. Hope flared in his heart. At the very least, using it to dig through the earth would save him some effort.

Yi Yun stopped hesitating. Holding the crystal card, he walked toward the earthen and rocky wall whose thickness he could not even guess.

He gripped the edges of the crystal card with both hands and forcefully thrust it into the wall. Then something unbelievable happened. The rock and soil, originally hard as iron, were cut open beneath the palm-sized card as easily as tofu. Yi Yun had used too much force, and with nothing resisting it, he pitched headfirst into the rock wall.

Yi Yun was stunned. Ignoring the skin already split on his forehead, he stared blankly at the purple crystal card in his hand. After his shock came overwhelming joy.

This was practically a laser knife straight out of a science-fiction movie.

At that moment, Yi Yun had no interest in studying how it had become so sharp. His only thought was to dig his way out.

Gripping the crystal card tightly with both hands, Yi Yun began boring through the earth like a mole. The crystal card was unstoppable. Even hard granite was sliced open with a single cut.

Yi Yun was a little excited. He felt as if he had found a treasure!

If he could truly get out alive, this thing might change his fate. It might even contain the technology of aliens!

Yi Yun did not know how long he had been digging. Nor did he know whether it was merely his imagination, but whenever he felt utterly exhausted, the crystal card in his hand seemed to transmit a faint, elusive chill that restored a little of his strength, allowing him to continue digging with stubborn, tireless determination.

There was no telling day from night inside the cave. Yi Yun neither slept nor rested. His instinct to survive drove him forward, farther and farther.

His phone had long since run out of power, completely losing its usefulness as a measure of time. Three days? Five days? Seven days?

Yi Yun did not know. He had not eaten a single grain of rice or taken one drop of water, yet miraculously he had not died. It seemed that some unseen power from the crystal card had prolonged his life.

If one looked back at the tunnel Yi Yun had dug, they would find it terrifyingly long. Yi Yun, however, no longer paid any attention to it. His vision had already blurred.

He could not see what lay ahead or distinguish the soil and rocks. Only the icy sensation transmitted by the purple crystal card in his hand remained crystal clear.

He seemed to be gradually losing all sensation, digging onward in a daze, relying solely on a thread of willpower and tenacity. Then, at a certain moment, he suddenly felt the space before his eyes brighten slightly. It seemed that a faint light had filtered through a gap in the soil and fallen across his face.

Like a comatose person doused with a basin of cold water, Yi Yun suddenly shuddered and came fully awake!

Light!

There was light!

Yi Yun had never imagined that one day light could be so beautiful. Tears streamed uncontrollably down his face. The strength he had lost seemed to return all at once, and he gritted his teeth as he began digging frantically.

At last!

Yi Yun suddenly felt empty space open up before him. Then bright, dazzling light poured down, making it almost impossible for him to open his eyes.

He had crawled out from underground!

"I did it!"

"I survived!"

Yi Yun wanted to shout three times. Without experiencing darkness, one could not know how precious light was; without experiencing death, one could not understand the value of life.

Yi Yun lay on the ground, gasping greedily. Looking at the azure sky and leisurely drifting clouds, he had never thought the blue sky could be so beautiful.

Although his body was utterly exhausted and desperately hungry and thirsty, Yi Yun did not rest for long. He gritted his teeth and struggled to his feet. He had to contact his two friends.

Yi Yun had escaped death, but he did not know what had happened to his friends.

But... his phone was dead.

Yi Yun looked around, hoping to find some trace of human habitation. Yet the moment he swept his gaze around, he froze.

This... how was this possible?

Yi Yun clearly remembered that he had been buried alive in a cave while climbing a mountain. The cave had been halfway up the mountain, so after crawling out, he should still have been halfway up the slope.

Yet Yi Yun was actually standing in a vast plain. There were mountains in the distance, but they were so far away that one could run a horse to death trying to reach them. Yi Yun absolutely did not believe he could have dug a tunnel that far.

Around him were several mounds of earth. A wooden stick had been casually planted in front of each mound, with strange characters written on it in charcoal. They were incredibly crude...

Could these be... graves?

Yi Yun froze. How had he ended up among several graves? He had already technically died once, so his nerves had become much stronger. Even faced with something so unreasonable, he managed to calm down and carefully examine the mounds.

These graves were absolutely not modern cemeteries. In modern cities, which cemetery did not have marble or granite tombstones arranged in neat rows?

But the graves before him... even the graves in the most remote mountain ravine would surely look better than this.

Wait...

Yi Yun suddenly noticed something. Looking down, he saw that the "tunnel" he had just crawled out of was still there. Its exit was directly in front of one of the earthen mounds, and beside that mound stood a wooden board serving as a tombstone.

The same strange characters were written on the board. Yet, for some reason, a flash of inspiration crossed Yi Yun's mind, and he suddenly understood them.

They read—"To my beloved little brother, Yi Yun's Tomb."

Beside it were five more characters—"Eldest Sister Jiang Xiaorou."

Yi... Yi Yun...'s tomb!?

Yi Yun was completely dumbfounded. What kind of supernatural event was this? He had clearly been buried alive in a cave on a deserted mountain, yet he had crawled out of a grave—and that grave was his own!

What kind of international joke was this?!

Moreover, these characters were neither Chinese nor English. So how did he recognize such inexplicable writing?

This had to be a dream...

Yes, it definitely had to be a dream. It was an incredibly realistic dream... It seemed... Yi Yun looked around again, feeling a little guilty. It was almost too realistic!

He pinched himself hard. The result... it hurt.

He pinched himself again. It still hurt!

"This isn't a dream? What the hell, this really isn't a dream?"

Yi Yun felt as if ten thousand grass-mud horses were galloping through his heart. Who could tell him what was going on?

Yi Yun had already begun cursing inwardly.

Could he have died when he was buried alive in the cave, then been dug out and buried afterward? Could all that digging have been an illusion he experienced before death?

But... what exactly did the words "beloved little brother" mean? He did not have an elder sister. If he had to count someone as one, he had only one female cousin who lived in another city. They rarely kept in touch and had barely met a few times. No matter how he calculated it, there was no way she would have erected a tombstone for him!

If the "Yi Yun" on the tombstone merely shared his name, and it belonged to another person, that was naturally impossible as well. What were the odds that he would happen to crawl out of the grave of someone else named Yi Yun?

Yi Yun felt completely muddled. Just then, he suddenly froze and stared blankly into the distance. On a muddy country path, a little girl in coarse cloth clothes was walking toward him with a bamboo basket strapped to her back...