It wasn't just Liang Bo who had this doubt. After scanning the area, the people who had followed them found only a relatively clean patch of land with few trees and bushes, but no signs of a tomb. Usually, tombs were discovered because rainwater exposed part of the structure, sothing was accidentally unearthed during excavation, or a robber's tunnel was found. To claim there was a tomb here today, without any such clues, was almost beyond the imagination of the entire archaeology departnt.
"Could it be," Liang Bo pressed, "that you've seen sothing about this in historical records, Doctor Wang?"
"No." Wang Jian shrugged. He glanced at Zhang Haiyuan, who shook his head. Since Zhang Haiyuan clearly didn't want him to reveal anything about his Yang Soul, Wang Jian said directly, "Don't you have equipnt with you? Just scan the area, and you'll know. I'm not lying to you. The place I told you about is right below us."
Liang Bo chuckled. He could tell Wang Jian was hiding sothing, but since they weren't law enforcent, he didn't press the matter. With a wave of his hand, he began directing everyone who had arrived to set up a temporary camp. In less than half an hour, nurous tents had been erected around the periter of the area Wang Jian had described. Without delay, Liang Bo then called over his students and colleagues to begin scanning the ground.
With such modern instrunts, they could create a digital model of the underground structures simply by scanning the surface. The tis had changed; this was a far cry from the ancient arts of geomancy.
Within just a few minutes, a rough model of the cave appeared on their screens. That was only the beginning. They drilled a hole through the cave's ceiling and lowered a robot inside, which checked the air content, used lasers to generate a more detailed model, and took infrared photographs of the interior. With that, the first phase of their work was complete.
"It seems Doctor Wang was right," Liang Bo said, studying the video feed and the models. He quickly located an unmarked stone door. "This tomb door is the sa as the one we found before. You all, go scan the surroundings and confirm the full extent of the tomb complex."
At his command, several team mbers fanned out across the mountainside.
The shape of the structure within the mountain gradually took form on the computer screen, and the more it was revealed, the more astounding it beca. Its basic shape was a square, and it appeared the entire mountain had been hollowed out to create it. It resembled an inverted pyramid but was entirely different, as the scanned model showed nurous structures inside that looked more like ancient buildings than a traditional tomb. This was the first ti such a structure had been discovered in the country.
"There's a problem," Liang Bo said, approaching Wang Jian and Zhang Haiyuan to explain the situation. "Although we have a rough model, more than half of it is blank. I suspect the materials in that section are interfering with the scanner. But even with what we have, one thing is clear. I don't think this is a tomb. It might be ancient ruins. The interior looks more like a collection of buildings, perhaps a place where people once lived in seclusion."
Wang Jian was taken aback, then grew even more excited. "Can we go in now?"
"As soon as we finish the prep work," Liang Bo replied.
As he spoke, arrangents were already underway. The team included not only Archaeological Experts but also specialists in military engineering. An hour later, the small probe hole had been expanded into a large, three-ter-diater shaft, complete with a service elevator. The engineering specialists remarked that if not for the ti constraints, they could have built an entire makeshift base on-site, but that was beside the point.
With the elevator installed, the rest of the work beca much easier. Military engineers had already descended to set up powerful lights, illuminating the cave's interior. By the ti Wang Jian and the others went down, the entire space was clearly visible.
Liang Bo exclaid with admiration, "This cave is man-made. It isn't sealed, either—the air content we tested is the sa as the outside, which ans it's ventilated. The ingenuity of our ancestors was truly extraordinary!"
"But now we have a problem," Liang Bo said with a wry smile, pointing to a massive Stone Gate not far away. "My students have already done a preliminary sweep. For now, we can't open this door. We haven't found any kind of chanism, so we have no idea how it operates. The door is 2.3 ters high, and our instrunts have asured its thickness at over thirty centiters. I can't imagine how such a heavy stone door could be opened without a chanism."
Zhang Haiyuan pondered, "Could the chanism be on the inside?" He then added, "Following the logic of the ancients, it wouldn't be strange for them to create a secret base that could only be opened from within. Perhaps they were hiding from soone. Or perhaps they were simply recluses, trying to escape the world."
Although the speculation seed far-fetched, it was a possibility.
Liang Bo sounded despondent. "So what now? Do we just blast it open?"
Listening to their conversation, Wang Jian fell into deep thought. They have no idea that for soone who can project their Yang Soul, passing through this Stone Gate is a trivial matter. The fact that it can't be opened from the outside isn't the real problem. I can't get in because the protective asures inside have been activated. Blasting the door is out of the question. What if that triggers a chain reaction of traps inside?
"Can we dig through the wall instead?" Wang Jian asked.
"Unlikely," Liang Bo lanted. "The anti-theft chanisms in our modern safes are just hand--downs from our ancestors. If I have soone try to drill the door, it could trigger a chain reaction in an instant."
With no other choice, Wang Jian said, "If we can't touch the door, can we get in from sowhere else?" If my Yang Soul wasn't being blocked, I wouldn't need to rely on this group at all.
Liang Bo looked around, his eyes landing on a young man about 1.5 ters tall. "Xiao Cao!" he called out. "Co here, I have a job for you."
Xiao Cao wasn't one of Liang Bo's ordinary students. He was the descendant of a family of tomb raiders whom Liang Bo had discovered in a village and specially recruited. He possessed both professional archaeological knowledge and the authentic skills passed down through his family. His short stature wasn't his most defining trait; rather, it was his heterochromatic eyes, which he usually kept hidden behind colored contact lenses.
At Liang Bo's call, Xiao Cao ran over with his toolkit, a broad smile on his face. "Teacher, is it my turn?"
"Yes," Liang Bo explained. "We can't open this Stone Gate from the outside. We'll have to rely on your tomb-raiding expertise to find another way in."
"Alright. I've already taken a look around," Xiao Cao said, removing the colored lenses from his eyes. "I found a spot we can dig. We can just start right here."
Only then did Wang Jian and the others see Xiao Cao's heterochromatic eyes, and they watched in astonishnt as he drew a circle on the stone wall next to the Stone Gate.
"Drill a hole here," Xiao Cao declared. "It will lead straight inside."
It really was a job for a professional. When Liang Bo ordered his team to start digging, they breached the wall with surprising ease, creating a new opening.
However, just as they were about to enter, Wang Jian held them back.
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