"Are you all right?"
Xian Qianling looked at you with an anxious expression and a tension that naturally conveyed concern and worry, causing your heart to tremble involuntarily, and then you wiped the bloodstains at the corners of your mouth and shook your head slightly, "I’m fine, just a bit shaken."
Above the pit, Du Xishan hurriedly asked, "Mu Yun, what happened all of a sudden?"
You shrugged slightly and didn’t delve deeper but instead turned and climbed up to level ground.
"This passage is full of forbidden chanisms, whoever enters dies," you said, turning to Xian Qianling who had also co up, "Luckily you didn’t send anyone in before, or the consequences would have been unimaginable."
Xian Qianling and Hu Qing exchanged glances, both with horror in their eyes.
"Forbidden chanisms?" Du Xishan’s brows imdiately furrowed, as he had so understanding of the taphysical, and upon hearing your words, he couldn’t help but ponder, "If this Stone Forest is the point, the passage is southwest, leading to northeast. It seems the tomb is not here, but... "
Seeing Du Xishan turn to look at the forest to the right of the Stone Forest, you naturally continued, "Divine Wood Forest."
"Yes, the Divine Wood Forest," Du Xishan said to you, "Mu Yun, speaking of the Life and Death Gates of the tomb, this passage should lead to the Death Gate, shouldn’t it?"
"Yes, whoever goes in will surely die!"
Hearing your words, Xian Qianling couldn’t help but be astonished, "Is it really that terrifying?"
"Nonsense, do you think the one sleeping below is just any minor lord? In life, this person plotted against innurable people. Just the fact that he, a king, willingly served as a slave for three years, tasting dung and drinking urine, sleeping on firewood and tasting gall, was a stratagem unmatched by a second person in the world!"
If the tale of "serving as a slave for three years" was not well known to everyone, then the phrase "sleeping on firewood and tasting gall" imdiately brought to mind a na — Goujian!
"This, this is Goujian’s tomb?" Sun Mingyu exclaid in shock.
You ignored everyone’s surprise and turned to Du Xishan, "Lao Du, although we’ve found the location, actually carrying out the dig is going to be very troubleso. The Divine Wood Forest is a national park, with many protected thousand-year-old Fragrant Torreyas, Zhuji would absolutely not allow an excavation here."
Hearing this, Du Xishan couldn’t help but laugh, "I never thought about excavating Goujian’s tomb."
"Hm?"
"Mu Yun, it seems you still don’t understand the true purpose of our archaeology," said Du Xishan as he took out a sketchbook from his backpack and handed it to you, "I have no control over how others act or think, but as my student, you must know. The true aning of archaeology lies in the inheritance of culture, not a group of people brandishing iron bars to dig up the graves of our ancestors. In a way, we are digging our own ancestral graves!"
You were all taken aback by Du Xishan’s sharp words of "digging our own ancestral graves" and fell into silence.
Indeed!
The history of China is a history of blood and tears; it had changed hands several tis, suffering devastation.
The Chinese boast daily about their 5,000 years of historical civilization, but in truth, it too is riddled with scars.
Chinese people value the peace that cos with burial, and today’s popular tales of tomb raiding are carried out by those who betray their ancestors and obliterate conscience.
Digging graves, whether of ancient sages or ordinary people, is inherently not a good deed.
"However, if you don’t dig, soone else definitely will—that can’t be denied," Du Xishan sighed lightly and said, "Looking at the past and present, both dostically and abroad, few have managed to avoid being dug up. Right now, what we can do is to explore without causing damage. If Goujian’s tomb shows no signs of being robbed, then I will imdiately apply to the governnt as the Honorary Chairman of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang Archaeology Association, to pinpoint the tomb’s location via satellite and establish a surrounding wall, marking it as a military restricted zone."
Hearing these words, everyone couldn’t help but feel a deep respect for Du Xishan.
"You’ve been to Chang’an, you know that several famous emperors from the Western Han have their tombs listed as military restricted areas, monitored in all directions by satellites and guarded by special personnel," you said.
Perhaps so might think of the issue with Zijin, hmph, two words, tourism!
Just co up with so gimmick, and the tour groups of uncles and aunties will arrive, take a glimpse at the monunts erected later, look around, and each visitor ans tens of yuan in revenue.
Well, I digress.
"Lao Du, this is quite a conundrum you’ve given ," you said, scratching your head with a bit of distress. "The tomb of Goujian is far from as simple as we imagined. Just the passage leading to the Death Gate has so many enchantnts, if we actually get inside, hehe, we’ll have our hands full."
Du Xishan glanced at you sideways: "Don’t you think it’s a bit late to be saying this now? Everyone’s already here, do you expect to turn around and take a ride back? Besides, didn’t you say before coming that you wanted to..."
At this point, Du Xishan suddenly stopped talking, as it wouldn’t do to speak of things like reviving Hong Xiu from the dead with Xian Qianling and the others around.
"Alright, let’s head to the Divine Wood Forest first."
Saying that, you walked towards the Divine Wood Forest on your right.
Divine Wood Forest, this kind of na is found all over China, it could be said to be a very common na.
The Divine Wood Forest that currently lay before you was just like that, with a na that sounded nice and mystical, but upon actually entering this so-called Divine Wood Forest, you felt nothing special—it was quite unremarkable.
This vast Divine Wood Forest possessed only one kind of towering tree among the shorter bushes and herbaceous plants—the Fragrant Torreya, and what’s more, it was a Thousand-year-old Fragrant Torreya Forest!
The six of you walked leisurely through the Thousand-year-old Fragrant Torreya Forest, the nose filled with a unique, faint scent of grass and trees.
"Hmm?"
After walking a short distance, you suddenly stopped.
"What’s wrong?" Xian Qianling’s gaze had been on you all along, even when looking around elsewhere, her attention would always return to you, as if you were the only compass in her life.
"Stop walking for now."
Upon hearing this, everyone imdiately halted and turned to look at you.
"Did you find sothing?" asked Du Xishan.
Given the current situation, it seed unlikely.
"Why?"
Ignoring Hu Qing’s question, you turned to observe several Fragrant Torreya trees in front of you that had an unusual shape. Unlike the Fragrant Torreya trees behind you, which typically had a solitary trunk before branching out, these trees each possessed five trunks.
"What do those trees resemble to you?" you asked.
Xian Qianling and Hu Qing exchanged glances, and the forr replied without hesitation: "Hands, human hands."
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