The Tomb Palace's Secrets

Not long after everyone had finished packing, it started to rain.

The sun was nowhere to be seen early this morning, and now the sky is overcast with dense rain, which is pattering on the soil.

"Why did it have to rain now of all times? It's infuriating!" Shi Jiu didn't want to participate in the bizarre competition between Yu Xing and Carlos, so she stood by the door early and vented her anger at the heavens.

She hadn't stood there for long when a loud rumble of thunder sounded from the sky, and the rain suddenly began to pour down.

"Damn it." Shi Jiu rolled her eyes, walked back with her hands in her pockets, and plopped down on the floor. "Fine, just you wait."

The team had umbrellas, but in the dangerous mountains and forests, umbrellas were only suitable for blocking the rain when the team stopped. If they needed to move forward, using umbrellas was too cumbersome, and the rain would obstruct their vision, which was too unsafe.

The rain in the mountains is both regular and unpredictable; sometimes it rains for a few hours, and sometimes it rains for several days in a row. Only those who live at the foot of the mountain year-round can predict the timing.

There are clearly no permanent residents on Heavy Yin Mountain, so only a few people can say for sure when the rain will stop.

Fortunately, there were a few "minorities" in the team.

"Lin, aren't you a geography student? Look at the environment and make some guesses?" Unica leaned against the pile of luggage with a relaxed posture, running her hand through her golden curls.

The bandage on her abdomen had been changed, and she looked perfectly fine, as if she wasn't in pain at all.

Lin, who was usually aloof, blushed slightly when he saw Unica. He looked away before saying, "The terrain of Heavy Yin Mountain is too complex. I haven't taken any measurements, and I don't have any data, so I can't calculate it."

Unica said "Oh," and then looked at another middle-aged man. "What about Will? Want to have your fortune told?"

Will is the team's fortune teller. He has deep-set features, a high nose bridge, natural dark brown hair, and is tall and imposing.

Will wasn't too fond of Unica. He looked at the dark clouds in the sky and listened to the pattering rain, feeling quite relaxed.

The air pressure has been low these past few days, making it hard to breathe. This rain will make things much easier afterwards.

He said, "I can tell by divination, but since there's thunder, it'll probably just be a shower. By the time I get the result, the rain might have already stopped."

"People who frequently consult the oracle often have very accurate premonitions, even if they don't specifically seek them out," Carlos chimed in from behind, laughing. "I believe Will's words will come true. We can wait a little longer; we'll set off as soon as the rain stops."

"Perfect timing, could you help me catch up on some information while we have this time?" Yu Xing had just mocked Carlos, followed along, his expression normal, as if he were a respectable person.

Even without this rain, he would still be on the road, trying to get the information about the tomb while everyone was still awake. Otherwise, once he reached the Live Tail Lake, he would have to lead his men into the water, and he felt like he was missing a bargaining chip.

"San doesn't know any of this yet?" Unica asked languidly, playing with the ends of her hair, which were upturned and quite alluring. Unfortunately, the team members were already used to her constant seduction and had developed a strong immunity to it. As for the newcomer Yu Xing, she wouldn't take her seriously at all.

Yu Xing smiled at her. He knew from casual gossip that this woman was a social butterfly, very popular among the men in the team, and had been involved in relationships that went beyond friendship with five or six men, yet she was not anyone's girlfriend.

She's the kind of person who only enjoys happiness and doesn't need anyone else to take responsibility. This way of life is hard to judge, but it's not necessarily wrong. As long as she doesn't hook up with married men or women, there's no problem.

Yu Xing knew that this woman was probably testing him, but he wasn't interested in her and didn't plan to do anything inappropriate.

"Yes, sister, I'm very curious about your experiences around the various ancestral halls. Now that I've been invited to join the team, you don't need to be wary of me anymore, right?" He's much better looking than Unica, and I'm sure Unica herself isn't too confident. Knowing he has no ulterior motives, she shouldn't be so coy with him anymore.

"Of course, I promised to share information with you." Carlos dusted off his sleeves, glanced at his teammates, and saw that no one objected.

He had previously mentioned that a friend who had participated in the Coffin Village incident was very capable, and when he wanted to bring him into the team, some people disagreed, believing that it was too easy to trust and accept outsiders, which would only increase instability within the team and that a lack of understanding between them could lead to problems in times of crisis.

However, Carlos persisted and used his eloquence to persuade most people. Yu Xing's reminder to him was originally very subtle, and it was all thanks to Carlos's high level of understanding. But in the team, he also attributed all the credit to Yu Xing, and now the last dissenting voices were gone.

Carlos was certainly not a good person; he was simply driven by efficiency. With Yu Xing around, the chances of survival were much higher than without Yu Xing, so he had to bring Yu Xing over. If she became his opponent, he would be in real trouble.

She's just a new teammate. In the past, when we went into tombs separately, we would hire complete strangers as helpers. Once you understand that, it'll be fine.

Uncle Zhang is the most senior person here, and his opinion is usually sought before any decision is made. After Carlos said that, Uncle Zhang was the first to speak.

Amidst the pattering rain, Uncle Zhang's voice was slightly distorted, carrying a hint of reminiscence and longing. "Our team was assembled half a year ago, after Carlos and you went through the Coffin Village incident. To be precise, some of us have known each other for years, but it was because of this incident that we formed a fixed team with a common goal. In this regard, I am very grateful to this tomb palace for allowing me to reunite with many old friends I parted ways with when I was young."

The old friends he was talking about were two people from a family of tomb robbers. One was a man with glasses, and the other was a somewhat decadent middle-aged man who had not had much contact with Yu Xing.

The middle-aged man chuckled, his voice weathered yet powerful. "That's right, Zhang Chengyuan is so hard to hire these days. I can't even afford his high prices, so I wouldn't dare come to you again."

The bespectacled man slapped him on the shoulder. "Nonsense, it was clearly you who was too scared to see him before."

Yu Xing raised an eyebrow with interest. Shi Jiu had no interest in playing games with them; everyone present had a life-or-death bond with each other, and they all knew each other perfectly well. She stated directly, "When Master Li and Uncle Zhang were young, they both fell in love with the same woman and fought over her for several years. In the end, the woman chose Master Li, and Uncle Zhang left. Who knew that Master Li would discover not long after they got together that she was just looking for someone to take over his old ways? He couldn't stand it and broke up with her."

Master Li is a decadent man. Master Li, Li Zhiming, is very famous in the northern region of this world. He looks a few years younger than Uncle Zhang.

Looking at the nonchalant expressions of his two uncles, Shi Jiu chuckled, "Master Li feels ashamed. He's been fighting with his good brother for years for this thing, and it almost caused a huge conflict. He's too embarrassed to go to Uncle Zhang's place, and he's still stubbornly insisting that it's too expensive to hire Uncle Zhang to go to the cemetery now."

Master Li coughed and said, "Nineteen, why are you saying so much? You've gone off-topic."

Shi Jiu rolled her eyes at him and personally steered the conversation back to Yu Xing, saying, "After the incident in your Coffin Village was exposed, Master Li noticed a tomb recorded in the family history. He conducted an on-site investigation and discovered the ancestral hall in the forest, confirming that it wasn't the tomb mentioned in the records. At that time, Unica also came from abroad to join in the fun and discovered the true purpose of the ancestral hall. She also deduced that there was more than one such ancestral hall. She ran into Master Li's team, and after some discussion, they reached a preliminary cooperation agreement."

"I've seen that shrine in the murals of another tomb. The tomb's occupant was a fan of the demon daoist, and he designed his own tomb to pay homage to demon daoist. It's filled with elements of flowers, insects, and bird corpses—all things the demon daoist supposedly loved most." Unica, being one of the initial team members, should be the one to explain the beginning. "After seeing the shrine in Coffin Village and learning about the Coffin Village's seemingly resurrected dead, I've already guessed it's related to the infamous demon daoist."

"If we can follow the clues to find the great tomb, it will definitely accelerate my research on that period of history. I don't want to miss out." Unica smiled and looked at Carlos. "So, after reaching an agreement with Master Li, I found Carlos. I originally only wanted to interview the victims, but I didn't expect Carlos to be such a complicated person."

Carlos turned around and said in a way only those who could deduce the truth, "That's when I started following up on this. I didn't do anything else during that time; I was completely focused on it, and it felt like time flew by."

His tone was casual, and no one else noticed anything unusual.

When Yu Xing heard this, he learned that after arriving in Coffin Village, Carlos had almost entirely devoted himself to investigator-type deduction games and had hardly participated in any other types of deduction Yugi. Moreover, the flow of time here was faster than in the real world. Yu Xing had only been here for a month or two, while half a year had already passed in this world.

Carlos, a playing card seemingly appearing out of nowhere, fiddled with it as he spoke, "I heard it was a large tomb, and I was quite interested, so I joined the team. Master Li found Lin to deduce the location of the second shrine. Initially, there was very little information, and it took Lin over a month to get a rough estimate. I went with Master Li's team, along with Unica and Lin. Around that shrine, terrifying events resembling the dead also occurred."

"Tell me about it?" Yu Xing asked.

"That place used to be a remote outskirts of a small town, with hardly anyone around. But then the city government planned to develop the suburbs, and the construction crew drove there, only to disappear near the ancestral hall."

"Later, people kept going missing there. The townspeople were saying that the construction crew had disturbed the spirits on the ancestral tablets in the ancestral hall. When we rushed over, we found an extra mass grave not far from the ancestral hall. Every night, we could see the corpses in the mass grave crawling out of the graves and wandering around."

"The construction crew is among them, along with many recently missing people. They light candles from who-knows-where at night and wander around all night, killing anyone they encounter. And at night, the mass grave becomes a maze of ghosts, and we can't find our way out no matter which way we go," Carlos recalled. He was incredibly optimistic, just like when he was in Coffin Village and managed to cross the mountain to the town to kidnap Zhou Qinghai. He checked the information on the mysterious gravekeepers in the mass grave, searched for corresponding features, and dug up graves.

"Of course, when we finally got the clues and left, we discovered that the mass grave had never existed. There was only the grave of the gravedigger, and it was in the state of being dug up by me. Just like the Coffin Village, it was impossible to tell which parts were real and which were illusions."

Yu Xing asked thoughtfully, "Where are the construction team members?"

"They were buried deep under the gravedigger's grave, crammed together in a heap," Carlos chuckled. "We called the police for them. Master Li has connections; he covered up our purpose and kept the news about the hallucinations and wandering corpses under wraps."

"That trip was extremely dangerous. Many people were injured, and some brothers died." The bespectacled man took out a cigarette from his pocket, lit it, and put it in his mouth. "So we went to find Master Zhang. You can call him Uncle Zhang if you like. Anyway, with him around, we feel more at ease."

Carlos nodded. "Unica recommended Will, and with Uncle Zhang, we went to the third shrine that Lin had calculated. This time, Will helped with the divination, which narrowed down the possibilities considerably. I won't go into the details, but it's still a tragedy stemming from the idea of resurrection. This time, several people with average skills were killed, so we hired two mercenaries, one numbered ten and the other numbered nineteen."

Now all the members present have gathered. The one who betrayed the information about the family incident was someone from Master Li's side, and they've already left.

Carlos said that there are seven shrines in total, arranged in an irregular arch shape, scattered throughout the mountains across the country, like stars surrounding the moon.

Each paranormal event never occurred inside the ancestral hall, but rather at a certain distance away. The ancestral hall remained indifferent, like a bystander watching from the sidelines.

Therefore, Master Li deduced that the ancestral hall served as a protective barrier for the surrounding area.

Since the ancestral hall is represented by stars, then the position of the "moon" must point to the demon daoist's tomb.

Lin spent half a month confirming the location of the tomb palace in Heavy Yin Mountain.

The Heavy Yin Mountain range is actually all wild mountains without names. Only the Heavy Yin Mountain peak has a named legend. Since ancient times, the legends of Heavy Yin Mountain have never stopped. It seems that in ancient times some people could enter Heavy Yin Mountain, but now anyone who steps in will die.

After careful research, Unica concluded that Heavy Yin Mountain was indeed special, and its earliest legends predated the birth of the demon daoist.

The demon daoist chose to build the tomb here precisely because of this unique feature.

At this point, Yu Xing instinctively felt a sense of disapproval.

He didn't know why, but he had a latent impression of something he knew absolutely nothing about. The time of its birth was fine, but the motivation for choosing the location...

There must be something in Heavy Yin Mountain that caused so many mutated species to appear there. Did the demon daoist really come here because they learned of this special thing?

Yu Xing's mind raced; he never ignored the abnormalities in his own consciousness.

Could it be... that he has forgotten something?