corpse mountain, Many Azure Jade, Its Beasts Many Elks

Hearing this, everyone was slightly surprised.

After all, Qu Yuan was a famous figure even in the real world.

As for Jiang Ran, he frowned slightly.

In reality, the ancient tomb here was supposed to be that of a Tang Dynasty general; how could it be from the Warring States period!?

Moreover, the tomb of Qu Yuan...

There were supposedly only twelve suspicious mounds, with no specific burial site.

Zhou Yuan seemed to perceive everyone's confusion and continued, "We weren't certain at first.

But initial scans of the tomb passage structure and the characteristics of the funerary objects point to the mid-to-late Warring States period, with a distinct Chu cultural style."

He paused, his gaze sweeping over those present: "Of course, we must enter the main burial chamber to confirm it definitively."

"..."

"Our goal for this exploration is to collect intelligence and traces of civilization; we will not participate in any competition for resources.

If Divine Ability Seeds, Spirit Crystals, artifacts, or other items are discovered in the tomb, they will be awarded to the team or individual who first discovers them and clears away the guarding threats."

"Therefore..." Zhou Yuan looked at Jiang Ran, Manager Sun, and Qian Laojiu, "Once we enter the tomb passage, you will be responsible for the initial exploration and clearing.

We will follow behind to conduct mapping, recording, and provide security.

If you encounter dangers you cannot handle, report them immediately, and we will provide support."

The terms were clear.

The Inspection Team wanted information, while the explorers risked their lives for resources.

Hearing this, Manager Sun nearby smiled and said, "Rest assured, Captain Zhou. Unlike some people who only have eyes for loot, we guarantee you'll be perfectly safe in the rear."

As he said this, he cast a mocking glance at Qian Laojiu.

Qian Laojiu snorted coldly and didn't respond, though his expression darkened further.

Seeing this, Captain Zhou nodded and said, "Very well, we depart in half an hour. Everyone, take some time to adjust your state."

With that, he allowed everyone to move about freely.

Seeing this, Old Qian turned and led his men to the edge of the woods, whispering instructions to them.

The others did the same, scattering to make their final preparations.

Jiang Ran stood where he was.

He took out his phone and searched the forums for news about the ancient tomb.

Previously, he had only assumed there would be some kind of anomaly inside.

He hadn't expected the owner to have changed.

Could the feng shui be so good that someone else moved in later!?

Half an hour passed quickly.

Everyone gathered in front of a cliff face.

The number of people was even higher than Jiang Ran had imagined, and the Inspection Team included several fully armed squads carrying highly professional equipment.

Jiang Ran even spotted an acquaintance among them.

It was Liu San, whom he had met at the police station during his first time entering.

The man was wearing an Inspection Team uniform and helping to move equipment. He noticed Jiang Ran's gaze and nodded with a sheepish smile, his eyes filled with awe and sycophancy.

Seeing this, Jiang Ran walked toward him.

He had a question he had been meaning to ask him lately.

However, at that moment, Captain Zhou suddenly shouted sternly from the side, "It's opening!!"

As the words fell, the seemingly solid mountain face suddenly began to vibrate slowly.

Solidified earth fell away in sheets.

Revealing an artificially excavated opening beneath.

The entrance was about two people high with neat edges, clearly the mouth of a tomb passage.

Seeing this, Captain Zhou immediately said sternly, "Move out."

With that, he took the lead toward the entrance.

Several fully armed Inspection Team members entered first, weapons drawn.

Seeing this, Jiang Ran had no choice but to temporarily shelve his plan to question Liu San and followed the crowd into the entrance.

Upon entering, the people around immediately turned on their flashlights.

Jiang Ran only needed to glance at the surroundings.

To know that Captain Zhou and his team had pinpointed the tomb passage with precision.

The tomb passage was about three meters wide and two and a half meters high, with walls constructed of blue bricks.

Upon entering, some of the staff members from the Deep Realm Inspection Team immediately set down their equipment and began recording the murals on both sides of the passage.

Jiang Ran followed their gaze and took a few looks as well.

The colors of the murals had faded and become mottled, but the general outlines were still discernible.

The figures in the paintings mostly wore ferocious or eerie masks, dressed in wide robes with wild postures, as if they were dancing or performing some kind of ritual.

Some held ritual implements in their hands, while others carried offerings.

This was to be expected.

The State of Chu, where Qu Yuan lived—also known as the Jingchu region—was one of the important birthplaces of Nuo culture.

In Chu culture, shamanistic customs were prevalent, and traditions such as sacrificial rites, divination, and singing and dancing to communicate with the divine were of great importance.

The murals in the tomb passage likely reflected the shamanistic Nuo sacrificial scenes of that era.

After the surrounding staff began their work.

Captain Zhou looked at Yuan Hang, Jiang Ran, and the others, saying softly, "You should start moving as well. We will advance slowly; if you encounter any problems, communicate in time."

Everyone nodded upon hearing this.

Manager Sun smiled and said, "Then let's go, everyone. I hope we don't have to resort to lethal force later."

Old Qian snorted coldly at this, ignoring Manager Sun. He took his own people and walked forward on his own, quickly disappearing into the darkness ahead of the tomb passage.

Manager Sun did not mind and gestured for Jiang Ran to proceed.

Jiang Ran did not stand on ceremony and stepped forward.

The tomb passage extended downward with a slight curve.

After walking about two hundred meters, the first fork in the road appeared ahead.

There were three passages.

They extended to the left, center, and right, respectively.

Their width and construction looked almost identical.

Qian Laojiu's group had already stopped at the fork. A thin man wearing glasses was holding a compass and comparing it to a hand-drawn map, his brows tightly locked.

On Manager Sun's side, an elderly man who looked like a feng shui master was also making calculations.

Jiang Ran did not rely on those methods.

Instead, he walked to the entrances of the three passages.

He carefully observed the details of the floor, walls, and ceiling.

Then, he crouched down, pinched a bit of dust from the ground, rubbed it between his fingertips, and brought it close to smell.

By the time he stood up.

He already had a rough judgment in his mind.

According to the common layout of large-scale tombs from the Warring States period to the Han Dynasty, the main tomb chamber is usually located at the rear of the central axis of the tomb, and often features distracting forks and traps.

The fishy smell in the middle passage could be the residue of burial pits or sacrificial animals, or it could be corrosive substances from traps.

The metallic traces in the left passage were likely arrow or crossbow mechanisms.

The dampness and smell of rotting plants in the right passage.

This could mean there was groundwater seepage or an early tomb-raiding tunnel.

But it might also be closer to the real tomb chamber area, because large tombs took feng shui into account when selecting a site.

As the saying goes, water is paramount.

There were often underground water veins or artificial pools near tomb chambers.

Thus, Jiang Ran took the lead and walked toward the right passage.

Over at Qian Laojiu's side.

The bespectacled man seemed to have calculated a result and whispered a few words to Qian Laojiu.

Upon hearing this, Qian Laojiu looked to the right, but ultimately chose the middle passage.

Seeing this, Manager Sun followed without hesitation.

The teams split up at this point.

The right passage was initially straight.

But after walking a few dozen meters, steps leading downward began to appear.

The air became increasingly humid, and water droplets even condensed on the walls.

There were nine steps in total, after which the passage turned level, but the width narrowed to only allow two people to walk side by side.

After advancing another fifty meters or so, the space ahead suddenly opened up.

A tomb chamber of about a hundred square meters appeared before their eyes.

The tomb chamber was square, with a black-lacquered wooden coffin placed in the center.

The surrounding walls of the chamber were likewise covered in intricate murals.

Jiang Ran did not rush to inspect the contents of the coffin, choosing instead to walk toward the walls.

The content of these murals was not limited to mere illustrations; there were even inscriptions accompanying them below.

Jiang Ran frowned, carefully deciphering the text.

He was very fortunate that, while studying artifact appraisal, he had also taken an interest in learning a great deal about ancient scripts from his teacher, Li Baishi.

Among these, he had studied the ink-written bamboo slips unearthed in recent years from Wuwangdun Tomb No. 1.

He possessed a certain understanding of the variant scripts from the Chu region of the Warring States period.

He moved slowly along the wall, the beam of his flashlight illuminating the murals and the inscriptions beneath them in sequence.

The first painting depicted a person wearing a tall crown and ornate robes, standing before an altar, holding a ghost mask in both hands.

In the second painting, that person had donned the ghost mask and was dancing before a roaring bonfire, surrounded by countless kneeling figures.

The scene of the third painting shifted immediately to a battlefield.

The Chu army had been routed, with corpses strewn across the fields.

The masked figure stood looking up at the sky, the mask appearing both to weep and to laugh.

Finally, the person stood by a river, holding the original ghost mask in their hands, facing the surging waters.

Jiang Ran looked at the murals, mentally translating the characters one by one, and read them aloud in a low voice:

"Qu Zi, Great Shaman of Chu, carved a Nuo Opera Mask, communicating with spirits and banishing plagues.

The mask could capture souls, and dancing with it could shake the heavens and earth.

Yet, as the nation's tragedy deepened and grief became unbearable, he finally took his most bizarre and divine mask and drowned himself in the Miluo."

Drowning himself in a river—it truly aligned with the historical records.

It was just that this characterization was somewhat different.

Just then...

A faint sound of wood rubbing against wood came from behind him.

Jiang Ran snapped out of his focus on the mural's text and turned around calmly.

He saw the black-lacquered wooden coffin in the center of the chamber; the lid was shifting back and forth, emitting a creaking sound.

It was as if something inside was about to push the lid open and crawl out.

Jiang Ran walked toward the coffin, extended his right hand, and pressed it onto the vibrating lid.

He exerted force from his palm, his lifeblood surging slightly.

He forcibly pressed the lid, which was about to be pushed open, back into place.

He spoke softly to the coffin:

"Pardon the intrusion."

As his voice fell, a muffled thud came from within the coffin.

The vibrations did not cease; instead, they became even more intense.

The next second...

The black-lacquered coffin lid suddenly shattered violently from the inside.

Amidst a thick mist, a figure slowly rose from within the sarcophagus.

It was about two meters tall, its frame slightly hunched, wearing dark-colored fabric that had long since rotted into tatters.

Its face was covered by a colorful Nuo Opera Mask that completely obscured its head; the oil paint on the mask seemed to flow in the dim light, appearing both to weep and to laugh.

Jiang Ran looked at this thing and couldn't help but sigh.

"This time, I really am intruding."

Almost the very instant his words fell.

A pillar of lifeblood smoke erupted from Jiang Ran's body.

He pushed Eight-Step Cicada Chase to its limit.

In the blink of an eye, Jiang Ran crossed several meters and appeared before the masked monster.

Without the slightest hesitation or probing, he launched a right fist from his waist.

A dragon-shaped phantom coiled around his arm.

It slammed solidly into the center of the mask!

Crack!

The immense force caused the monster's neck to emit a crisp snap.

The next second, the head wearing the multicolored mask detached from its neck, spinning as it flew off and slammed into the corner with a thud.

The headless corpse swayed before toppling back into the coffin.

The tomb chamber instantly fell silent once more.

Seeing this, Jiang Ran immediately walked toward where the head he had blasted away had landed, intending to dissect it to see if there was anything inside.

However, as he drew near...

He saw the multicolored mask on the head dissolving at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Within a mere two or three seconds, the Nuo Opera Mask completely vanished into nothingness, revealing the withered, decayed features beneath...

The mask is the true body?

Jiang Ran mused, just crouching down to examine it more closely.

BOOM!!!

A deafening roar suddenly erupted from the tomb passage he had come through.

Even the floor began to vibrate slightly.

Jiang Ran's expression shifted; he immediately abandoned his inspection, stood up, and looked toward the entrance of the tomb passage.

He saw a pair of soft, white lights rapidly approaching from the corner of the passage.

Only when they were closer did Jiang Ran clearly see the source of those white lights.

It was a pair of antlers.

But the size of this deer... was as massive as an elephant.

With murky, grayish-white eyes locked onto Jiang Ran, it lowered its head and charged wildly toward him.

At this moment.

The utility of the ancient texts Jiang Ran had studied over the past two days finally manifested.

Information regarding the giant deer before him automatically surfaced in his mind.

"Ten miles east of Li Mountain lies corpse mountain, rich in pale jade and inhabited by many deer. The Corpse River originates there, flowing south into the Luo River, which contains much beautiful jade."