Chapter 2369: Chapter 2272: Simple and Direct

Huo Sining stood by, sweating like a waterfall, secretly thinking that even Ge Hong probably wouldn’t have guessed that the painstakingly acquired stone door weighing over a ton could be opened so easily by someone.

Even the tomb-robbing pioneers Cao Mengde and Sun Dianying, when they encountered obstacles in excavating the thousand-year ancient tomb, wouldn’t have imagined such a simple and crude method to unlock the stone door mechanism.

It’s known that when Sun Dianying was excavating Cixi’s tomb, he was worried about damaging the treasures inside. He cautiously mobilized dozens of people and used sturdy large logs to forcibly break open the large stone door, expending significant effort and finally breaking the huge stone door into several pieces before being able to enter the tomb.

Compared to Sun Dianying’s method, the Oil Rat’s strategy is child’s play.

After all, no matter how formidable ancient people’s imagination was, they certainly wouldn’t expect someone to use such means to open a door. The key point is, in such a narrow gap without leverage, it is impossible for a normal person to lift such a heavy stone door.

But technological development is beyond imagination; a door that perhaps a dozen people can’t lift can be solved with a cheap jack a thousand years later.

However, Xie Daoyuan completely agrees with the Oil Rat’s method. Forcibly breaking open the stone door is clearly unwise, but by levering and pushing it open like this, it preserves the door’s structure, keeps its integrity intact, and allows for smooth entry into the ancient tomb—this is exactly the method commonly used by archaeological teams.

With the stone door opened, a massive space revealed itself, a tomb chamber spanning two to three hundred square meters appeared before everyone’s eyes. Huo Sining was the first to see, right in the center, a gigantic jade carving.

The jade carving, like the bronze statue embedded in the previous stone door, was a depiction of a red-crowned crane.

But the one inside the burial chamber was obviously carved more completely and delicately, more lifelike than the two outside the door.

This red-crowned crane stood at a height of two to three meters. The key thing is that the jade is quite intact; touching it feels very smooth and delicate. Despite being over 1700 years old, the jade still displays a crystalline quality, clearly indicating that it was made from top-quality jade.

Creating such a red-crowned crane required a chunk of jade two to three meters high, which was definitely a grand gesture. This clearly shows how substantial Ge Hong’s wealth was.

The crane is the divine pet and mount of alchemists. Ge Hong carving such a divine beast inside the burial chamber is unsurprising, but seeing the jade carving standing in the chamber, anyone can tell it’s highly valuable. Yet the Oil Rat, upon entering the chamber, doesn’t seem to covet the crane but instead carries out a medicine cauldron that looks dull and uncertain in value, which is peculiar.

And it wasn’t just Huo Sining; even Xie Daoyuan and Ding Liang were suspicious of the Oil Rat:

"This crane jade carving is the valuable thing, isn’t it? Since you’ve come in, why not take a good piece with you? A Medicine King Cauldron, without finding a suitable buyer, is just going to rot in your hands. What’s your game?"

The way these people looked at him was almost as if they were looking at a fool. The Oil Rat was feeling both amused and contemplative; while appreciating that these righteous people didn’t reject him as a tomb robber and joked with him, he was also worried they might misunderstand, so he hurriedly explained:

"I really wasn’t lying. After entering, I genuinely just took the Medicine King Cauldron. I didn’t touch anything else."

"It’s not that I don’t want to take it; in fact, the moment I came in, the crane caught my eye."

"But I’m just one person, dug a tiny hole, and even if I wanted to take the thing, I don’t have the ability."

"Besides, the Medicine King Cauldron is just that big. You can fit it in a backpack and carry it out. But the crane jade carving is too noticeable; I don’t have the capacity to get it out quietly. Even if I did, I’m likely to be caught before leaving Luofu Mountain!"

Huo Sining instinctively glanced at the Oil Rat upon hearing this, a faint smile involuntarily appearing on his lips.

Meanwhile, Ding Liang and Xie Daoyuan couldn’t help but twitch their lips, looking at the massive jade carving, then back at the thief hole that could barely accommodate a person’s form. They had to admit, what the Oil Rat said made sense.

"It’s been 1700 years; geological changes have occurred with the sinking of the mountain, altering rock layer distribution. The ancient tomb also underwent several changes, yet you managed to find this passage entrance, which is commendable."

Xie Daoyuan paused to think, then nodded to acknowledge the Oil Rat’s skill in excavating the thief’s tunnel.

He’s explored many ancient tombs, and some have undergone geological changes even within fifty years, making previously accessible entrances narrow and impassable.

This mountain isn’t entirely rock layers; Huo Sining and the group noticed on their way in that many areas of the mountain are clay, a geology prone to change. In another decade or two, as erosion continues, this mountain might become even more solid, making the ancient tomb more deeply buried and harder to excavate.

This chamber should be the formal entrance of the ancient tomb, so there actually isn’t much inside—just a stone bed, the crane jade carving, and several stone pillars supporting the chamber.

The pillars are square and also made of serpentine stone. They appear smooth and flat, seemingly designed to strengthen the chamber’s load-bearing capacity to ensure it doesn’t collapse.

This two to three hundred square meter chamber is otherwise empty, essentially devoid of anything worth photographing. But on the chamber’s stone walls are several tightly closed stone doors, likely serving as entryways to the main chamber, auricle chamber, and burial pit.

Seeing Huo Sining and others notice those stone doors, the Oil Rat urgently reached out to stress again:

"I haven’t gone into those doors. When I grabbed the Medicine King Cauldron, it was near this stone bed. I’ve never seen such a weird chamber, so I didn’t dare linger, fearing I might trigger something. I picked up the Medicine King Cauldron and ran, barely had the guts to look into those chambers."

Xie Daoyuan ignored the Oil Rat; he could see with his own eyes the stone chamber doors bore no signs of tampering, obviously untouched by tomb robbers, indicating the Oil Rat spoke truthfully.

Taking out a simple testing device from his backpack, Xie Daoyuan examined the air quality inside the chamber, frowning as he saw the results.

"The air index is a bit high; it seems the situation inside isn’t great. Our oxygen supply might run out soon; we probably need to exit first."

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