The Informal Tomb Raiding Diary: She is the occupant of the tomb!-Chapter 45: One Buried in the East, One Entombed in the West

Chapter 45: Chapter 45: One Buried in the East, One Entombed in the West

What on earth is this Nine Nether Flower?

Why does it keep appearing sometimes as an engine, sometimes as a human?

"Almost every Heavenly Maiden Tomb has murals about it. Sometimes it’s an energy source, sometimes it’s a weapon, sometimes it’s a humanoid living creature."

"How many Heavenly Maiden Tombs are there exactly?" Do ancient tombs come in bulk?

"There are 108 known ones, and 99 have been excavated. Among them, 81 have been looted, heavily damaged, with practically nothing of research value left."

"Ah... so there are that many, what about the remaining nine?"

"Can’t get in, can’t open them."

"More formidable than my tomb?"

"The internal situation is unknowable. The exterior of the tomb is a whole entity. Forcibly destroying it could cause incalculable damage."

"Wow, that’s so miraculous..." I’m really tempted to take a look. Unknowable means they don’t know what’s inside. "Do you think there might be zong... ahem~ ’patients’ like me inside?"

Qinghan knows my identity, but others don’t, so I must correct myself to avoid trouble from slipping up.

"Maybe," Qinghan replied ambiguously.

Before the ancient tomb is opened, saying there are zongzi or no zongzi inside is correct, what’s that theory called again? Tomb Robber’s zongzi?

Just explaining one Nine Nether Flower has taken quite some effort, and Qinghan checked the time and continued driving.

This Heavenly Maiden Tomb issue isn’t something that can be explained in a few words. From what Qinghan says, these tombs are scattered all over the world, with one buried in the east and another in the west.

If we tomb owners were originally a gang, we must have been very uninterested in group activities, staying far away from others even after death.

A group of reclusive weirdos...

"So, then? Weren’t we just talking about the Gate of Death?" I almost forgot we started talking about the grooves inside the Gate of Death.

"In the center of the groove is the Nine Nether Flower pattern. This time, it’s not a mural but a groove. I suspect that groove is the place to put the Nine Nether Flower."

"Huh? Wait, when I saw Boss Lu, there was only a groove, nothing else. Could she have taken it away?"

"Perhaps it’s exactly the opposite."

I was bewildered, and Qinghan glanced at me with a meaningful look, making me even more confused.

What does he think I know but am pretending not to, while I truly don’t know?

"Alright, up ahead is the processing plant. I told Chairman Cheng you’re my assistant, monitoring data in the basement. Don’t slip up in front of others."

"Got it."

Qinghan parked the car at the plant’s front gate. The electronic gate immediately opened, and someone walked out from inside.

"Professor Chen, the factory space has been cleared, and the equipment set up. This place is yours now."

This person had a slight Tibetan accent, but it wasn’t strong. He obviously knew Qinghan, and after giving instructions, he walked to another car parked outside the gate.

Simple and straightforward, with no unnecessary questions or pleasantries; they completed the handover.

There were no other buildings around the factory, the nearest village was an hour’s drive away.

If something happened here, no one would notice. Even if Eyes of Golden Flame came to demolish the place, no one might hear a thing.

"Come on, you hide first." Qinghan saw me touring the factory and beckoned to me.

This was a beef jerky processing plant, with a two-story factory painted in blue and white.

The basement Qinghan mentioned was in the finished goods warehouse, where all the goods had been moved out and a pile of instruments was placed.

"It’s true monitoring, but it doesn’t require anyone watching." Seeing me staring at the pile of instruments, Qinghan explained.

He told Chairman Cheng I was here to monitor data, but it was a half-truth. I walked down the ladder, took a look at the set-up instruments, and didn’t recognize any of them.

"It seems Chairman Cheng’s people have arrived. I’ll go check it out." Qinghan said, closing the basement door.

The basement was lit, and the scent of beef jerky lingered in the air. A pile of instruments operated on their own, small lights flashing on and off.

I sat on an empty shelf, put on a pair of headphones, and kept an ear out on my phone while observing outside.

There were quite a few of Chairman Cheng’s people; from the footsteps, there were probably about forty. They circled the warehouse, hearing from Qinghan there was only one assistant in the basement monitoring data, then turned and left.

Their web was planned for the factory yard and both inside and outside the walls, intent on turning the entire factory into an impenetrable heavenly net.

With welding and electrification work, they hammered and banged the whole afternoon, finishing renovations by dusk.

I couldn’t see outside changes from the basement, but with a forty-plus crew working all afternoon, the trap’s quality must be solid.

When Qinghan reappeared at the basement door, he had changed into work clothes, the common blue-gray workwear seen on construction sites, with a yellow hard hat on his head.

"The outside’s all set up. Lock the basement door from the inside. Remember, no matter what sounds you hear, don’t come out."

"What if they don’t come tonight?"

"Then you’ll have to endure for a couple more days."

"Okay, help charge this for me." I handed him a nearly dead power bank. Everything else was minor, keeping the phone charged was the big deal.

Qinghan took the power bank, gave me a bag of food, and with Chairman Cheng’s people around, I had to continue pretending to be a normal person.

We got through the first night safely. Out of boredom, I dug out chocolates from the food bag to eat.

A long time ago, I tried eating human food repeatedly, vomiting each time until I found that only sugars could be absorbed by my body.

But since sugar was a high-calorie survival essential, Tomb Raiders themselves barely had enough to eat, and I rarely found any to scavenge.

Over time, I lost interest in it since not eating wasn’t fatal.

On the second night, something strange happened at the factory. The person on the outer guard vanished.

They had disguised themselves as truck drivers, staking out in the truck outside the factory gate. When the shift change occurred in the latter half of the night, they were found absent from the truck. After searching nearby areas thoroughly, no one was found, neither dead nor alive.

They immediately contacted Chairman Cheng, brought in reinforcements, and on the third night, the missing count multiplied. I suspected those reinforcements came deliberately bringing themselves as more missing, but I found no report button.

Qinghan remained at the warehouse door. Even when Chairman Cheng’s people went missing, and others invited him to help search, he paid them no mind.

I secretly sighed, thinking it’s thanks to such loyal guardians of treasures like him that large amounts of valuable cultural relics have been preserved by the state.

To the point where, knowing Qinghan was blocking the door, a powerful monologue resounded in my mind—Protecting cultural relics benefits future generations!

Of course, what’s meant to come will come. Before dawn, I heard someone asking Qinghan if he heard singing.

Qinghan said he hadn’t, but he immediately locked the warehouse door from outside. If not for it being a wooden door, I suppose he would have welded it shut.