novelBurial Grounds (XV)
| ← Ch.068 | Ch.070 → |
Editor: Kitty
However, since the statue was fixed to the ground, did it mean that it was a mechanism? Or was it some kind of switch? There may be a hidden door in this mystical treasure cavern. He immediately knelt on the ground and tried to rotate the little wolf statue that had a green face and ferocious fangs, but the statue remained fixed. No matter how hard he tried, it stayed fixed to the ground.
At that very moment when Luo Jian was at a loss, the situation he was facing changed. Suddenly, Luo Jian heard the enemies, who were separated from him by that wall, take any action. There was a loud knocking sound that came from the other side of the wall, and it sounded just someone was hitting the wall with a sledgehammer! The thump, thump, thump sound could be heard!
Luo Jian was so frightened by the deafening sounds that he turned to look at the wall. Luo Jian was not sure how to trigger the revolving door mechanism. At that time, he had merely leaned back against the stone gate and felt its slight vibration. After that, the whole wall flipped over.
If those enemies outside the wall had discovered this mechanism and also found the way to activate it, their goal right now would not be to destroy the wall by force, but rather to start the mechanism and flip the wall.
That was to say, Luo Jian still had a few moments to find the hidden door that may exist in the treasure cavern and escape from this narrow space before the enemies destroyed the wall.
But here was the problem.
Luo Jian lowered his head and glanced at the small statue that remained as unmoving as a mountain in his hands.
He was absolutely sure that the statue was the mechanism to open the hidden door! The reason why he was so sure was that he just circled around in this small treasure cavern and found that everything here was covered with a thick layer of dust. No matter whether it was the clothes on the shelf, ceramics, gold and silver treasures, or other things, all of them were covered with a thick layer of dust. However, only this little statue appeared clean...... No, it was not correct to describe it as clean; It was better to describe it as something that someone had used!
It was as if before Luo Jian came to the treasure cavern, someone had come in and used the mechanism of the statue to open some door! As a result, some of the dust on the statue was wiped off.
Luo Jian thought that when he had accidentally kicked the statue, the dust on the statue scattered. But when he tried to move the statue with his hands, he found some traces of human touch on the statue. Because of these traces, Luo Jian was quite sure that someone did come into this small treasure cavern before him.
Just how could he activate the statue's mechanism? Who came in first before Luo Jian and activated the mechanism? Sadly, Luo Jian had no time to guess on the identity of the person who had entered this treasure cavern.
He turned his head again to look at the wall that was being pounded violently on. As a result of being hit continuously, cracks had begun to appear on the wall, and small stones had fallen out of the cracks and onto the ground. With a clatter, stones scattered all around the ground. Luo Jian also heard the loud voices of the enemies coming from the opposite side of the wall. They were very bold and decided to use whatever means they had to forcibly destroy the blockade in order to find Luo Jian!
Luo Jian's back was drenched with cold sweat. He tried to ignore the sound of the pounding on the wall and carefully observed the statue on the ground. He tried to rotate the statue to the left and to the right, but it did not work. He also tried to press the statue down or pull it up, but that did not work.
Luo Jian swallowed a mouthful of saliva, climbed up, and fell flat on the ground beside the statue. Although the treasure cavern was illuminated by phosphorite and luminous pearls, it was still quite dim. Therefore, Luo Jian casually plucked a small luminous pearl from a nearby metal appliance to illuminate the statue in front of him with its light. Luo Jian had to carefully observe the statue and find out what would allow him to activate the mechanism.
Luo Jian would only be able to survive in this manner.
Under the light of the luminous pearl, Luo Jian found that this statue was very delicate. Its height was only about 30 cm. It was a statue of a ghost-headed, wolf-bodied creature that Luo Jian did not know the name of standing on a mountain. This animal had a ghost face, and its head was raised high as if it were a lone wolf howling at the moon.
Luo Jian stared at the statue for a second, and all of a sudden, it seemed that Luo Jian realized part of what the statue was trying to imply! He turned around, raised his head, and looked at the other wall. This wall was covered with calligraphies, paintings, and the like. All kinds of colorful calligraphies and paintings were hung neatly on the whole wall.
Yet, Luo Jian's line of sight unconsciously stopped at one of the huge paintings.
Yes! In front of this immobile, ghost-headed, wolf-bodied little statue that was facing upwards and making a howling motion was this painting! The statue was indeed a mechanism, but it was only a hint that indicated the location of the exit!
Shortly after, Luo Jian looked at the extremely huge painting. It hung vertically on the wall and was about two meters long and one meter wide. There was a big moon in the painting, and under it, there was a pack of wolves and...... a woman who was cornered by wolves on the edge of a cliff. The woman was at wits' end while standing at the edge of the cliff and holding her baby girl.
For a moment, from the contents of the painting, Luo Jian felt something within him stir. It reminded him of the murals he had seen in the tomb vaults that he was previously in and the stories depicted by the murals. At that time, Luo Jian thought it was just a story of an abandoned baby raised by the wolves, but in fact, the story seemed to be different from what he'd thought. For example, the baby's mother did not abandon her.
There may have been many versions of the story, such as the pair being driven into a desperate situation by a group of hungry wolves. In order to prevent the wolves from eating her child, the mother placed the baby on the edge of the cliff and charged towards the wolves herself. It was also possible that the mother abandoned the baby and jumped off the cliff by herself, or that she had held the baby and jumped off the cliff together.
But regardless of the versions of the story, its end was most likely that the mother had died and the baby was raised by the wolves.
As for why the wolves would raise a human child, one could only admire nature because of how incredible it was.
Luo Jian took a deep breath and did not continue to stare at the painting. He headed closer to the edge of the painting, reached out, rolled the painting aside, and found that behind the painting was a rectangular entrance hole that could fit one person. It was pitch-black inside and seemed to be another tunnel, but similar to his past experiences, he did not know where the tunnel would head towards.
"No hidden door, just a tunnel's entrance?" Luo Jian frowned, but at this moment, he had no time to waste. The wall had almost been destroyed by the enemies, and Luo Jian felt glad that the walls in this tomb were very solid and thick. No matter how the earth trembled and the mountain swayed, this ancient tomb had remained here for a thousand years and still had yet to collapse. It must be said that the structures that the ancients built...... were quite miraculous.
Without delaying further, Luo Jian immediately climbed into the tunnel behind the painting and, in passing, released his grip on the painting, fixing it so that it would not sway. Just as Luo Jian finished doing this, he heard the sound of the wall collapsing. It seemed that those enemies had finally destroyed the wall and chiseled a big hole into it! But because there were so many cracks in the wall, the whole wall collapsed!
The collapse of the entire wall seemed to have caused some changes in the tomb. Deep underground, the sound of a mechanism activating could be heard and was accompanied by faint vibration, as if there was an earthquake.
Luo Jian was a little thankful that due to the wall's collapse, the treasure cavern might be largely destroyed, and many things in it would be covered by stones and rocks. To some extent, it would pose as obstacles for the enemies outside. In other words, since the wall was smashed into smithereens, these people could not enter the treasure cavern for the time being.
On the other hand, if Luo Jian did not discover the tunnel behind the painting, it was likely that he would have died quickly if he was smashed under the falling rocks and stones the moment the wall collapsed.
Luo Jian did not dare to remain here any longer. When the wall collapsed, the paintings hanging on the other wall did not seem to be affected much by it. However, Luo Jian, who remained behind the painting, swallowed a mouthful of saliva, laid on the ground in exhaustion, and was careful not to make any sound.
Following that, after entering the passageway, Luo Jian climbed deeper into the tunnel! This tunnel was very small. How small was it? It was so small that Luo Jian could only crawl like a caterpillar as he moved forward!
Luo Jian had no flashlight this time. The narrow and cramped tunnel was dark. Fortunately, he had previously dug out a luminous pearl in the treasure cavern. Although it did not shine brightly, it was better than not having it. The pearl was also not too big, so Luo Jian was able to hold the pearl by grasping it with his lips. Therefore, he simply bit down on the luminous pearl as he held it in his mouth. With his hands on the ground, he started to move forward slowly.
After crawling for some time, it seemed that the enemies outside had entered the treasure cavern, because Luo Jian heard footsteps and coughs. Luo Jian speculated that the dust might have scattered too much when they smashed the wall, and that had hindered their vision. But as for when they would discover the tunnel behind the painting, Luo Jian was not in a position to make such speculations.
Luo Jian needed to crawl faster and get out of the narrow tunnel as soon as possible. But it was really too narrow here. The more he climbed forward into the tunnel, the more depressed he felt. Also, he might have been mistaken, but Luo Jian felt that the narrow tunnel was getting smaller and smaller. When he had crawled in earlier, he felt that the tunnel was not so cramped, but as he crawled deeper, Luo Jian felt like his body was being pressed down by rocks in all directions.
"Damn it." Luo Jian did not know how long he had crawled. He spit out the luminous pearl and glanced at the depths of the tunnel. It was pitch-black.
It was laughable that the tunnel really had become narrower. Now, Luo Jian could not even turn his head to look back. He did not know whether the enemies had climbed into the tunnel like him or whether those people had even found it behind the painting.
"What should I do? This tunnel is getting narrower and narrower. If I continue to crawl forward, I may get stuck in it and become unable to move. But I cannot retreat. Behind me, there are enemies waiting for me."
Luo Jian's face was covered with sweat, and he started taking heavy breaths. It might be because the tunnel was too narrow, but Luo Jian felt like there was no airflow. Luo Jian found that he was experiencing slight hypoxia symptoms, which included his feeling dizzy, and he started to black out.
"No...... No......" Luo Jian shook his head hard, hung his head lower, and bit the back of his hand to keep himself awake using pain. He knew that he could not retreat. Even if he really was stuck in this tunnel, Luo Jian could not retreat.
"I'm sure I can go out. Luo Jian, didn't you realize it just now? Someone had come to the treasure cavern before you. He also found the tunnel behind the painting, and he should also have climbed into this tunnel. I just need to crawl forward...... forward..."
Luo Jian comforted himself as he continued to crawl. After crawling for a long while, he had to stop because something in front of him blocked his way. The luminous pearl in his hand illuminated both the thing in front of his eyes and also his pale face.
"I'm gonna die...... gonna die......"
Luo Jian stared at the corpse in front of his eyes, dumbstruck. Cold sweat flowed down his forehead. At this very moment, Luo Jian almost stiffened in shock!
Yes, in the tunnel that became narrower as one crawled deeper into it, a corpse blocked Luo Jian's way!
He could not see the face of the corpse or even its upper body because this corpse was blocking the tunnel. He only saw the legs and shoes of the corpse! Due to its rotting, only white bones were left of the corpse. The clothes and pants that it wore did not look like what any modern person would wear, so it might be a tomb robber who had come in previously or a dead funeral accompaniment who was sent into the tomb. He had crawled out of the coffin and wandered around looking for an exit, but he ended up stuck in the tunnel and died here.
But no matter what had occurred, for Luo Jian, the presence of the corpse here meant that yes, the end of the tunnel would be a dead end!
The corpse was blocking Luo Jian's way. Ah...... perhaps in front of the corpse, there would not be any space to crawl! But he could not retreat. Luo Jian did not know how long he had crawled in this tunnel, but it may not be that far from the treasure cavern. He could still vaguely hear someone's voice! What should I do? This...... he was completely being driven up against a wall.
T/N:
Announcement: CG is hosting another giveaway-Almost 5, 000 Summer Party to celebrate CG almost reaching 5000 members on discord! The theme for this giveaway is summer.
To join, you can:
Write a NU review on any CG novels (ongoing, dropped or completed). 3 winners of this category would be chosen, and they'd receive 1 month of discord nitro. ~Limited to 1 entry/person~, Create a fanart of any CG novels (ongoing, dropped or completed). There would be 1 grand prize and 2 runner ups. Fanarts can be NSFW, but the bits must be censored, Write a fanfiction of any of the CG novels, (ongoing, dropped or completed) and publish it on AO3. There would be 1 grand prize and 2 runner ups.
Submission dateline: Aug 20, 2020, 11:59PM, (+8GMT)
Please read this for more details, or alternatively, you can head to CG's discord #cg-5k-event-channel for more details!
(If you liked EIC, you can leave EIC a review on NU to join the giveaway as well)
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