Everyone was slightly surprised to hear this.
After all, Qu Yuan was a well-known figure in the real world, too.
Jiang Ran, however, furrowed his brow.
In the real world, the ancient tomb here was the tomb of a Tang Dynasty general. How could it date back to the Warring States period!?
And Qu Yuan's tomb...
There were supposed to be only twelve suspected tombs, with no actual tomb identified.
Zhou Yuan seemed to see the confusion on everyone's faces and continued, "We weren't sure at first, either.
"But our early scans of the passage's structure and the characteristics of the burial goods pointed to the middle and late Warring States period. The Chu cultural style was unmistakable."
He paused, his gaze sweeping over the group. "Of course, we won't know for certain until we enter the main burial chamber."
"..."
"Our goal this time is to gather information and traces of civilization. We won't take part in any competition for resources.
"If we find Divine Ability Seeds, Spirit Crystals, artifacts, or anything similar in the tomb, they'll go to whichever team or individual finds them first and clears away the dangers guarding them."
"So..." Zhou Yuan looked at Jiang Ran, Manager Sun, and Qian Laojiu. "Once we enter the passage, you'll go ahead and explore and clear the way.
"We'll follow behind to survey, record, and ensure everyone's safety.
"If you encounter anything you can't handle, report it immediately. We'll provide support."
His meaning was clear.
The Inspection Team wanted information, while the explorers risked their lives for resources.
Hearing this, Manager Sun smiled and said, "Don't worry, Captain Zhou. Unlike certain people, we don't have our eyes fixed only on the loot. We'll make sure you're perfectly safe in the rear."
As he spoke, he shot Qian Laojiu a faintly mocking glance.
Qian Laojiu snorted and said nothing, but his expression darkened.
Seeing this, Captain Zhou nodded. "All right. We'll set out in half an hour. Take some time to get yourselves ready."
Then he let everyone move about freely.
Old Qian turned and led his people over to the edge of the woods, where he quietly gave them instructions.
The others did the same, splitting up to make their final preparations.
Jiang Ran stayed where he was.
He took out his phone and searched the forums for information about the ancient tomb.
Until now, he'd thought there might be some sort of mutation inside the tomb.
He hadn't expected it to have a different owner.
Could the feng shui have been so good that someone else moved in later!?
Half an hour passed quickly.
Everyone gathered in front of a certain cliff face.
There were even more people than Jiang Ran had expected. Quite a few members of the Inspection Team were in fully armed squads, carrying highly professional equipment.
Among them, Jiang Ran even spotted someone he knew.
It was Liu San, whom he'd met at the police station the first time he'd come here.
Wearing an Inspection Team uniform, Liu San was helping carry equipment. He noticed Jiang Ran looking at him and gave him an ingratiating, respectful grin and a nod.
Jiang Ran started toward him.
There was something he'd been wanting to ask Liu San for a while.
But just then, Captain Zhou suddenly called out from nearby, his voice stern. "It's open!!"
As soon as the words left his mouth, the seemingly solid mountainside ahead began to shake slowly.
Clumps of packed earth slid down.
Beneath them, an artificially excavated opening was revealed.
It was about two people tall, with neat edges. It was clearly the entrance to the tomb passage.
Seeing it, Captain Zhou said sternly, "Move out."
With that, he led the way toward the entrance.
Several fully armed Inspection Team members went in first, guns raised.
Jiang Ran had no choice but to put aside his questions for Liu San for the moment and follow the others into the opening.
Once they entered, the people around them immediately switched on their flashlights.
Jiang Ran glanced around.
He could tell that Captain Zhou and the others had pinpointed the tomb passage with great precision.
It was about three meters wide and two and a half meters high, with both walls built of blue bricks.
As soon as they entered, several Deep Realm Inspection Team staff members set down their equipment and began recording the murals on either side of the passage.
Jiang Ran took a closer look as well.
The murals' colors had faded and mottled with age, but their general outlines were still discernible.
Most of the figures wore fierce or bizarre masks and loose robes. Their poses were wild, as if they were dancing or performing some kind of ritual.
Some held ritual implements, while others carried offerings.
That made sense.
The state of Chu, where Qu Yuan had lived, was also known as the Jingchu region and was one of the important birthplaces of nuo culture.
Shamanistic customs had flourished in Chu culture. Sacrifices, divination, and songs and dances to communicate with the gods were important traditions.
The murals in the passage likely depicted nuo rituals performed by shamans of the time.
Once the staff around them began their work, Captain Zhou turned to Yuan Hang, Jiang Ran, and the others and said quietly, "You can get started, too. We'll continue forward slowly. If you run into any problems, let us know right away."
The group nodded.
Manager Sun smiled. "Let's get going, then. Let's hope none of us has to get rough later."
Old Qian snorted and ignored him. Leading his people, he headed off on his own and soon disappeared into the darkness ahead.
Manager Sun didn't seem bothered. He gestured for Jiang Ran to go ahead.
Jiang Ran didn't hesitate and stepped forward.
The passage curved gently as it descended.
After about two hundred meters, they came to the first fork.
Three passages branched off.
One went left, one straight ahead, and one to the right.
They looked almost identical in width and construction.
Qian Laojiu's group had already stopped at the fork. A thin, bespectacled man was comparing a compass with a hand-drawn map, his brows knitted together.
Over with Manager Sun's group, an old man who looked like a feng shui master was also making calculations with his fingers.
Jiang Ran didn't rely on any of that.
He went to the entrances of the three passages.
He carefully examined the details of the ground, walls, and ceiling.
Then he crouched down, pinched up a little dust, rubbed it between his fingers, and brought it close to his nose.
When he stood up again,
he already had a rough idea.
In large tombs from the Warring States period through the Han Dynasty, the main burial chamber was usually located at the rear of the tomb's central axis. Such tombs often included misleading branches and traps.
The stench from the middle passage could have come from a burial pit or the remains of sacrificial animals. It might also have been corrosive substances from a trap.
The metallic traces in the left passage likely came from a crossbow-type mechanism.
The dampness and smell of decaying plants in the right passage,
on the other hand, could mean groundwater had seeped in or that there was an old looters' tunnel.
But the passage might also be closer to the actual burial chamber, since feng shui would have been considered when choosing a site for a large tomb.
As the saying went, water was best.
There were often underground water veins or artificial pools near burial chambers.
So Jiang Ran headed down the right-hand passage first.
Over on Qian Laojiu's side,
the bespectacled man seemed to have reached a conclusion as well. He said a few quiet words to Qian Laojiu.
After hearing him out, Qian Laojiu glanced to the right, then ultimately chose the middle passage.
Seeing this, Manager Sun followed without hesitation.
The group split up.
At first, the right-hand passage was fairly straight.
But after a few dozen meters, steps began to descend.
The air grew increasingly damp, and beads of water even formed on the walls.
There were nine steps in all. Beyond them, the passage leveled out, but narrowed until only two people could walk side by side.
After another fifty meters or so, the passage opened up suddenly.
A burial chamber of about a hundred square meters appeared before them.
It was square, with a black-lacquered wooden coffin at its center.
The walls around the chamber were also covered in detailed murals.
Jiang Ran didn't hurry to examine the coffin. Instead, he went over to the wall.
This time, the murals weren't just pictures. They even had text written beneath them.
Jiang Ran furrowed his brow and studied it carefully.
He was glad that, while studying artifact appraisal,
he'd also learned quite a bit about ancient writing from Teacher Li Baishi out of personal interest.
He'd even studied the ink-written bamboo slips unearthed from Wuwangdun Tomb No. 1 in recent years.
So he was familiar with variations in the writing of the Chu region during the Warring States period.
He moved slowly along the wall, shining his flashlight on each mural and the inscriptions beneath it in turn.
The first mural showed a man wearing a tall crown and fine robes, standing before an altar and holding an eerie mask in both hands.
In the second, the man had put on the mask and was dancing before a roaring bonfire, while countless figures knelt around him.
Then the scene in the third mural changed to a battlefield.
The Chu army had been routed, and corpses covered the ground.
The masked man stood with his head tilted toward the sky, the mask's expression somewhere between weeping and laughing.
In the final scene, the man stood by the river, holding the original mask and facing the surging waters.
As Jiang Ran studied the murals, he matched each character to its counterpart in his mind and translated the inscription aloud:
"Qu Zi, the great shaman of Chu, carved the Nuo Opera Mask with care, communicating with the gods and driving away pestilence.
"His mask could seize the soul and spirit; when danced with, it could shake heaven and earth.
"But the nation's suffering grew ever deeper, and his grief and fury became impossible to bear. At last, he took the most uncanny of masks and sank into the Miluo River."
He'd jumped into the river and killed himself. That really did match the historical accounts.
But the story behind him was quite different.
Just then...
A faint scraping sound came from behind him.
Jiang Ran came back to himself and calmly turned away from the writing on the mural.
The black-lacquered wooden coffin in the center of the burial chamber was shifting, its lid scraping with a creak.
It was as if something inside was trying to push it open and climb out.
Jiang Ran walked over to the coffin, reached out with his right hand, and pressed down on the shaking lid.
He exerted pressure, a faint surge of vital energy flowing through his palm.
He forced the lid back down just as it was about to be pushed open.
Facing the coffin, he said softly,
"Sorry for the disturbance."
As soon as the words left his mouth, a dull thud sounded from inside the coffin.
The shaking didn't stop. Instead, it grew even more violent.
The next second...
The black-lacquered coffin lid suddenly exploded outward from within.
Amid the thick fog, a figure slowly rose from the coffin.
It was about two meters tall, with a slightly hunched frame, and wore dark fabric that had long since rotted into shreds.
A colorful Nuo Opera Mask covered its entire head. In the dim light, the paint on it seemed to flow, its expression both weeping and laughing.
Looking at the thing, Jiang Ran couldn't help sighing.
"This time, I really did disturb you."
Almost the instant the words left his mouth,
a pillar of vital energy erupted from Jiang Ran.
He unleashed the Eight-Step Cicada Chase at full force.
In the blink of an eye, Jiang Ran crossed several meters and appeared in front of the masked monster.
He didn't bother testing it. His right fist shot out from beside his waist.
A phantom Dragon Form coiled around his arm.
His fist slammed squarely into the center of the mask!
Crack!
The force made the monster's neck give a sharp snap.
The next second, the head wearing the colorful mask tore free from its neck, spun through the air, and slammed into the corner of the wall.
The headless body swayed, then fell back into the coffin.
The tomb chamber fell silent once more.
Seeing this, Jiang Ran immediately walked over to where the head he had blasted away had landed. He was about to dissect it and see if there was anything inside.
But when he drew closer...
The colorful mask on the head was rapidly dissolving before his eyes.
In just two or three seconds, the Nuo Opera Mask vanished completely, revealing the withered face beneath...
"So the mask was the real body?"
Jiang Ran pondered this as he crouched down to examine it more closely.
Rumble!!!
A sudden crash came from the passage they had entered through.
Even the floor trembled slightly.
Jiang Ran's expression changed. He immediately abandoned his examination, got to his feet, and looked toward the entrance to the passage.
A pair of soft white lights came hurtling toward him from around the bend.
Only when they drew a little closer did Jiang Ran make out the source of the lights.
A pair of antlers.
But the deer they belonged to... was as huge as an elephant.
Its murky, gray-white eyes fixed on Jiang Ran as it charged at him with its head lowered.
At that moment,
the purpose of Jiang Ran's two days of studying ancient texts finally became clear.
Information about the giant deer before him surfaced automatically in his mind.
"Ten li east of Li Mountain lies Corpse Mountain, rich in blue jade and home to many deer. Corpse River rises there and flows south into the Luo River, where much fine jade can be found."
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