The tomb passage was not very long. At its end stood a half-open stone door, with four ancient characters carved into it.
Wang Zhenshan approached to examine them and said, "Death to trespassers! Looks like the tomb's owner was no pushover."
He was about to reach out and push the door when Su Qianxue suddenly stopped him.
"Wait, Group Leader Wang." She closed her eyes and sensed her surroundings for a moment, then pointed at the walls on either side of the doorframe. "There are hidden compartments inside these walls. Their internal spatial structure is wrong. Something is hidden inside." With that, she reached out, pressed an unremarkable square brick on the right-hand wall, and pushed hard.
The instant the square brick sank inward, a mechanical clattering came from inside the wall, then everything fell silent again.
"This is a linked tilting-plate trap. If anyone steps on the threshold, both walls will fire crossbow bolts simultaneously, covering the entire doorway without a single blind spot." She withdrew her hand. "It's fine now."
"Thanks for the warning, Group Leader Su." Wang Zhenshan nodded. "Let's keep moving."
They pushed open the stone door to reveal a spacious antechamber paved with blue stone slabs. A stone pillar stood in each corner, with lifelike stone Jiaolong coiled around them.
Seven or eight corpses lay scattered haphazardly in the center of the chamber, dressed in clothing from different dynasties. Some had already rotted down to bare bones.
The corpse nearest the entrance wore a modern outdoor jacket. Something had bitten off its lower half at the waist, leaving a ragged edge. A bloody drag trail stretched all the way through a side door at the other end of the antechamber.
"This body was probably one of those tomb robbers," Han Yi said after a glance.