Chapter 2380: Chapter 2283: Deciphering

Upon seeing everyone’s reactions, Zhou Shitao couldn’t help but reprimand:

"Ancient people didn’t study chemistry, so they didn’t understand the principles involved. That’s why they made erroneous associations between these phenomena and superstitions like ghost possessions."

"But all of you grew up studying chemistry and physics, even if you don’t understand the principles, surely you wouldn’t link such matters to ghost tales?"

"Where in the world are there ghosts? You’re just scaring yourselves!"

Zhou Shitao’s words were decidedly blunt, causing the team of archaeologists to blush with embarrassment, unable to meet Zhou Shitao’s gaze, as they all lowered their heads.

These personnel were not direct employees under Zhou Shitao, so he couldn’t be bothered to argue further. He simply signaled to Huo Sining to extinguish the oil lamp and protect it with a preservation device.

As though to verify Huo Sining’s previous words, within a short period, seven or eight oil lamps around the outer chamber of the ancient tomb lit up simultaneously.

Apparently, the sealed tomb was initially oxygen-deprived. When the "Oil Rat" pried open the stone door, air rushed into the tomb chamber, causing the white phosphorus and sodium peroxide to react and ignite the oil lamps immediately.

Similarly, when people leave the tomb chamber and close the stone door, after a while, the oxygen inside depletes, and the oil lamps naturally extinguish, waiting for the next opening of the stone door.

With seven or eight oil lamps lighting up simultaneously, although their glow was dim, the combined light brightened the entire outer chamber substantially. At this moment, Zhou Shitao suddenly seemed to remember something and gestured to the group:

"Turn off your headlamps and handheld lights!"

The group was puzzled, but upon Zhou Shitao’s instruction, they stopped questioning and turned off their light sources.

Once these light sources were off, the four large pillars previously seen by Huo Sining, along with the carvings on the ceiling and stone walls, began to emit a greenish glow in the dark tomb where one couldn’t see their own hand.

Especially those carvings, which appeared even more prominent under the eerie glow, their bizarre and mysterious designs creating a striking visual impact.

"Wow... so beautiful!"

Several accompanying female team members couldn’t help but exclaim in admiration.

Meanwhile, Zhou Shitao first spotted the inscriptions on the pillars and eagerly urged the staff member with the camera: "Quick, capture all of this!"

Looking at those inscriptions, Huo Sining couldn’t quite describe her feelings.

In private, she didn’t actually want these inscriptions to be discovered by outsiders, but these were official civil servants led by Zhou Shitao, and she had no legitimate reason to prevent them from conducting archaeology.

Therefore, she could only watch as the staff carefully and thoroughly recorded the scenes into the camera.

Next, Zhou Shitao arranged for the team to conduct a thorough survey of the outer chamber. After confirming that besides the jade carving and stone bed, there was nothing else to be found, he proceeded towards the unopened stone doors.

This ancient tomb was after all a one-thousand-seven-hundred-year-old tomb, and with Ge Hong being a renowned figure from Luofu Mountain, such a tomb in the future could certainly serve as an archaeological exhibit of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and even be directly converted into a museum as a tourist attraction.

Thus, under these circumstances, Zhou Shitao couldn’t treat these stone doors as crudely as the "Oil Rat" had opened the outer chamber door.

If the stone door were damaged, it would be difficult to restore the door lock mechanisms inside, and even a door lock in a one-thousand-seven-hundred-year-old tomb holds significant archaeological value.

"Teacher, which door should we start with?"

Seeing Zhou Shitao wandering in front of the stone doors, Huo Sining couldn’t help but ask.

She had explored these stone doors and found them all to be groove mechanisms, with no trap connections, similar in principle to the outer chamber’s stone door lock.

However, she could sense a very strong and rich Spiritual Energy behind these stone doors, indicating many historically valuable relics buried with the tomb.

Even she felt an overwhelming urge to know what lay behind these stone doors, let alone the team of archaeologists behind her.

Of course, Huo Sining’s mindset differed somewhat from that of the archaeologists; she simply wanted to know what peculiar items were hidden within the tomb that compelled Fujiwara Seiho to go to such lengths to find them.

"Let’s start with the Auricle Chamber."

After careful consideration, Zhou Shitao made his decision and spoke to Shi Qingyun beside him.

In a tomb chamber, the most important areas are the main chamber and the burial pit.

The main chamber contains the most valuable items, including the tomb owner’s coffin, crucial for identifying the tomb owner’s identity;

The burial pit is the essence of the tomb chamber, reflecting the era the tomb owner lived in and items documenting the tomb owner’s life, offering artifacts with tremendous historical research value to the archaeological team.

As for the Auricle Chamber, it serves as the tomb’s annex, typically storing the tomb owner’s daily items like clothing, shoes, or spittoons. These may not be valuable items during burial, but if preserved for over a thousand years, they may not lack valuable items.

However, compared to the main chamber and burial pit, the Auricle Chamber’s items aren’t particularly noteworthy.

This is why Zhou Shitao suggested opening the Auricle Chamber first — starting easy and moving to hard, accepting impact step-by-step, allowing the team to gradually get into work mode without making mistakes from overexcitement.

Because Xie Daoyuan previously brought Ding Liang and Huo Sining to explore the tomb once, the recorded video provided some guidance.

Thus, this time descending into the tomb, the archaeological team brought in a specialist in ancient tomb stone door studies. After inspecting the stone doors shortly after entering the tomb, the specialist deciphered the door passwords.

Once the door lock passwords were confirmed correct, Zhou Shitao agreed to open the doors:

"Everyone, put on your gas masks and stand back a bit when the doors open. Let the air inside circulate before going in; there’s no rush."

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