The Informal Tomb Raiding Diary: She is the occupant of the tomb!-Chapter 21: Sometimes You Have to Do Charity

Chen Qinghan took me on a path I had never taken before—the lower path!

The entire labyrinthine tomb path was like a carousel, with a main axis supporting it below, but there was a distance between the tomb path floor and the actual ground.

We crawled into this lower path, Chen Qinghan said that only half of this path was passable, although difficult, it was very safe, allowing us to crawl directly down to the main tomb chamber.

Because I couldn’t move, he tied me to his back, crawling like a snail.

And I was the heavy shell, upon crawling in, I realized that this lower path was actually the connecting area for the tomb’s mechanical traps.

To crawl through smoothly, Chen Qinghan had to know the order of movement for the traps.

As the various sections of the labyrinthine tomb path moved on a timer, one small mistake and we could be crushed to death.

I lay quietly on his back, not daring to disturb him for fear of affecting his calculations of time and direction.

Ten minutes later, we finally crawled to the base of a pillar, this pillar was rotating slowly, it turned slower than other mechanical parts, seemingly the axis of the labyrinthine tomb path.

There was still space beneath the pillar, and Chen Qinghan’s miner’s lamp shone below, revealing that the pillar and the ground were not one, with a gap between them.

"I’ll put you down, don’t move."

Beneath the pillar was a large gear, and Chen Qinghan intended to lower me through the gap in the gears.

If I got stuck, I might be torn apart.

"Don’t worry, I’ve got this." Chen Qinghan said, gently lowering me down.

For the first time since I died, I was doing something so risky, nervousness was inevitable, my whole body was tense, almost turning into a ’stiff’ corpse.

Passing through the gap between the pillar and the gear, the moment my feet hit solid ground, my muscles relaxed, and with a thud, I sat on the ground.

Chen Qinghan jumped down, looked around at the surroundings, and continued to lead me through the mechanical parts.

It felt as though we were inside a watch’s casing, my sense of direction was long gone, yet Chen Qinghan’s steps were firm, each one filled with confidence.

When he led me into a hollow in the ground, I finally had a semblance of familiarity.

The hollow layer was just like the one I crawled out of in the main tomb chamber; they should be interconnected.

After much struggle, I was back in the familiar ’bedroom’, a place where I lived for thousands of years, wanting to leave completely, but when the moment to leave came, I felt a bit reluctant.

I told Chen Qinghan there was vinegar in the antechamber, left by a Shanxi tomb robber; I thought it too sour and sealed it well, kept it as a memento for several years.

Chen Qinghan used it to untangle the net on me, granting me freedom, and I ran into the antechamber to start packing things.

I had to bring my treasured clothes, and the thank-you gift for Shunfeng too.

"Professor Chen, didn’t you say you came to find the Nine Nether Flower? Have you found it? It’s not the power source, right?" I wanted to pack some gifts for Chen Qinghan too but didn’t know what he liked.

"We thought initially the Nine Nether Flower was in the power room." Chen Qinghan sized up the empty tomb chamber, "we were all wrong, it actually is..."

He paused, saying no more.

"Do you like this? The great treasure sword!" I was busy packing things, not carefully pondering his words, pulled out a full-body black, blue-glowing Meteorite Iron Sword from the pile and handed it to him.

This thing is a treasure, not only cutting iron like mud but also with a cooling effect; no matter how hot the summer is, just carrying it ensures a chilling breeze and a spirited heart.

Chen Qinghan accepted the treasure sword, seemingly quite fond of it, and I tossed him the sheath.

The two antechambers were filled with my collected ’treasures’, but we had limited time and limited space to crawl out, couldn’t bring too much.

In the end, I only packed one backpack, handing the items for Shunfeng to Chen Qinghan to carry.

"Change your clothes." Chen Qinghan reminded me as I was about to carry my packed items, "There are bullet holes in your clothes."

With him saying this, I was sure he had already figured out my identity, as no ordinary person could be shot multiple times and not spill any blood.

Chen Qinghan noticed the bullet holes in my clothes and didn’t ask a thing before urging me to change, clearly not wanting others to suspect me.

I changed into another set of identical clothes and climbed out of the main tomb chamber with Chen Qinghan.

We returned to the edge of the sand sea, Wen Jing and the others were already out of sight, and Chen Qinghan found an abandoned backpack on the sand, it looked like it belonged to Boss Lu’s group.

Someone from Boss Lu’s team had exited the labyrinthine tomb path, and the sandy ground bore clear footprints as there was no wind or sand in the underground sand sea.

"Not good, there’s a living creature here!" As Chen Qinghan inspected footprints, I sensed a signal, it was the Water Monster calling to me.

It was sending a warning, saying there was a living creature in the sand, very dangerous; it and the humans were trapped.

As the power source was about to cease functioning, the underground tomb was to collapse, and the lake water no longer suited its survival, so the Water Monster decided to follow us out, and I arranged it to go with Wen Jing and the others.

Luckily, having it with them, when human communication methods failed, such silent calls became extremely important.

"Wen Jing and the others are trapped, over there." I recognized the Water Monster’s direction, pointing it out to Chen Qinghan.

He took out a spare compass, looked ahead, and then at my pointed direction, saying: "They’ve deviated from the route."

He drew the great treasure sword from his back, running first toward the direction I pointed.

Grinning, I followed, finding his sword-drawing move particularly suave, like a Dragon Slayer from a fairytale; adventuring with him would certainly be interesting.

After running about a hundred meters, we found a corpse in the sand; its chest had a hole as big as a washbasin, pierced through.

"One of Boss Lu’s men." Chen Qinghan looked around, "His blood is all drained."

Yet the sandy ground was clean, without a trace of blood; this person had come to the sand sea after we returned to the main tomb chamber, his death would not have been longer than half an hour ago, and fresh blood wouldn’t vanish so swiftly, even if absorbed into the sand, would leave traces.

"Boss Lu had a compass, but even they deviated." Chen Qinghan’s words seemed not addressed to me but more like talking to himself.

While he pondered, I squatted by the corpse, rummaged its pockets; there was no backpack by him, only an unloaded gun.

A disposable lighter, electronic watch, car keys, an empty wallet...

It seemed working for Boss Lu didn’t earn much; as an outlaw, this man’s belongings were quite shabby.

I used to find a piece or two of valuable items from tomb robbers, seeing such frugality was rare.

I took a gold necklace from my pocket, put it in the corpse’s pocket; over the years, tomb robbers had brought me considerable wealth, so I did some charity, giving this poor tomb robber a ’worthy burial’...