The current situation of everyone doesn't allow for further delay; after all, the supply of dan is exhausted, but resources are depleted. The sooner they get out, the better. Da Guo Guo also realized he was rambling a bit, grabbed an entrenching tool, and declared, "The main chamber is directly below!" With that, he jammed the tool into the mouth of the funnel, immediately felt his footing slip, and was sucked straight down.

After a period of struggling, Young Master Liu finally landed on solid ground. Looking up, he saw there was a hidden door at the opening of the funnel. Da Guo Guo's insertion had just triggered it. Liu looked down at his feet—a pile of fine sand. He hadn't expected the soil above to conceal yellow sand, which explained the excellent cushioning effect.

At this moment, everyone picked themselves up from the ground, brushing off the sand. Those with flashlights pulled them out and switched them on. They realized they were truly in a tomb chamber, one that was not axially aligned with the one above. They had dropped into a corner of this new chamber.

In the center of the chamber rested a sarcophagus, appearing quite ornate. There were no accompanying burial objects nearby. A sweep of the flashlight beam across the walls drew everyone's attention to a mural behind the coffin.

Several flashlight beams shot directly onto the wall. They were a bit far, so they could only make out the general shape. Da Guo Guo waved his hand, signaling everyone to gather closer for a detailed look. The five slowly approached the mural, and its content immediately came into view.

The mural depicted a figure in the center, wearing Taoist robes and a golden mask, facing them in profile. Who else could this attire belong to but Zhang Jiao? Zhang Jiao stood upon an altar, one hand resting behind his back, the other holding aloft a yellow scripture scroll. The moment Liu saw the scroll, he grew slightly agitated. Wasn't this the Taiping Jing? Seeing this brought him a surge of joy; they had genuinely found the right place to search for Zhang Jiao’s sarcophagus.

Liu’s eyes remained fixed on the scripture scroll for a long time. After observing for a while, he noticed that the scripture seemed intentionally rendered in great detail; the texture was vividly depicted, with even the minute details clearly visible. It was easy to imagine this scripture must have been something Zhang Jiao treasured deeply.

Liu was about to observe other details more closely when Fan De Biao suddenly shrieked, "Isn't this altar the same stone slab from above?"

Hearing Fan De Biao’s words, Liu looked again carefully. The background setting in this mural bore a striking seven or eight-tenths resemblance to the environment upstairs. Since the drawing leaned towards an artistic representation, a similarity of that degree confirmed it was the same location.

Just then, Liu recalled the horrifying hole he had seen earlier. He searched the mural and, sure enough, found the opening of the cave directly in front of Zhang Jiao. However, the scene depicted there left Liu stunned.

It showed numerous tendrils continuously crawling from the surrounding stone walls toward the cave opening, while countless Zhi Bing also crawled from the water in the direction of the cave. Most astonishingly, a massive tongue emerged from the cave opening, wrapping around both the chu and the Zhi Bing near the entrance.

Liu sucked in a sharp breath and exclaimed, "What kind of monster is this? Such a huge tongue."

Because this scene was in the most concealed part of the mural, everyone only noticed it after Liu cried out. Hearing him, they crowded over.

Jackson exclaimed first, "A dragon! That’s a dragon’s tongue! Oh, how sinister!"

Fan De Biao retorted, "What? You say dragons are sinister? Everyone here, except you, is a descendant of the dragon. If they were truly evil, you wouldn't have lasted this long; you’d have been sent to see whatever gods you worship by now." He then pointed at the mural, "See? This tongue is clearly eating these bugs. Why would a dragon eat bugs? That’s just messed up."

Unlike China, legends of dragons in Western countries usually portray them as evil. Fan De Biao’s lack of understanding amused Liu slightly. This time, Jackson didn't bicker with Fan De Biao. He pulled a cross from his pocket, held it to his chest, and mumbled continuously under his breath—an unintelligible stream of words.

Seeing Jackson’s action, Fan De Biao found it somewhat funny: "Damn, are foreigners still into this voodoo stuff?"

Jackson shot Fan De Biao a sideways glance without saying anything, then turned back to his muttering, perhaps performing some ritual that required him not to chat much.

Liu turned to Da Guo Guo and asked, "Da Guo Guo, you’ve seen more strange things than I’ve eaten meals. Can you make sense of what kind of creature this tongue belongs to?"

Da Guo Guo said, "That tongue looks somewhat familiar to me. But trying to recall it consciously scrambles my thoughts. However, it appears Zhang Jiao was feeding the thing in the cave with chu and Zhi Bing, which suggests this entity is far from ordinary."

Fan De Biao walked over and said, "Why guess? In my opinion, that tongue belongs to a snake."

Hearing Fan De Biao suggest it was a snake's tongue, Liu was speechless: "Damn it, where did you ever hear of a snake tongue being this spectacular? Look how it extends and retracts. If you weren’t calling it a frog’s tongue, only someone as simple-minded as you would come up with such a basic idea."

Fan De Biao scratched his head after hearing this and said, "Who cares what monster it is? Zhang Jiao has been dead for thousands of years. Without food, that thing must have died long ago, maybe even its bones have dissolved by now."

Suddenly, they heard a soft 'thud.' Turning around, they saw Cai Qing Chong, who had been standing behind them, collapse stiffly. Da Guo Guo quickly lifted Cai Qing Chong onto his lap, checked his pulse, and said the situation was unclear; Cai Qing Chong was experiencing severe exhaustion.

Hearing Da Guo Guo’s assessment, Liu asked, "He was fine just a moment ago, how could he be exhausted now?"

Da Guo Guo replied, "When we were upstairs, I noticed something was off with him; maybe he lost too much blood. We need to get him to a hospital quickly."

"Everyone, come help," Da Guo Guo said while beginning to push against the heavy-looking lid of the sarcophagus. Seeing Da Guo Guo’s urgency, Liu understood they needed to treat this seriously. Everyone rushed to the coffin, placed their hands upon the lid, and with a synchronized heave, a loud 'boom' signaled the lid being pushed off. Liu glanced beside him—someone was missing. Where was Jackson?

Looking forward, they saw Jackson awkwardly sprawled across the coffin, his posture quite comical. Perhaps he had pushed too hard earlier and been flung out. The atmosphere was too tense for anyone to laugh. Liu and Fan De Biao each grabbed one of Jackson’s hands and pulled him down forcefully.

Da Guo Guo pulled gloves from his pocket, put them on, and began tending to the funerary objects. The others gathered around him.

Da Guo Guo took a look and announced, "A boat burial. Correct, this was a popular burial method during the Three Kingdoms period."

At that moment, Liu also leaned over the coffin. Inside, there was indeed a small boat, over a person's length long. Funerary objects were placed at the head and tail of the boat. Lying within the hull was a tall figure, estimated to be around 1.8 meters (six feet) tall, clad in an eight-trigram Taoist robe and wearing the golden mask—this was Zhang Jiao.

The robe wrapped the body very tightly, and the mask covered the face, making it impossible to tell if the corpse was well-preserved.

The burial objects were all implements commonly used by Taoist masters, made of gold and bronze, likely quite valuable. However, Liu only took a small yellow booklet from among them, because he saw the vertical line of traditional Chinese characters written on it: Taiping Qingling Shu: Ren Juan (The Scripture of Pure Governance of Great Peace: Volume on Humanity). The moment the booklet was in his hand, Liu felt a jolt, as if massive amounts of data were flooding his brain. But when he tried to recall it a moment later, it was like scattered chicken feathers—completely incomprehensible. He didn't dwell on it and slipped the booklet into Fan De Biao's backpack.

Da Guo Guo, being an experienced hand, could clearly identify all the artifacts. He selected two that seemed valuable and easy to sell and placed them in his backpack, then turned and said, "Hurry, everyone needs to get out quickly."

Fan De Biao exclaimed, "Damn, this is too anticlimactic! It’s over just like that? No way. Even if we’re done digging, I have to see what Zhang Jiao looks like." He then moved to remove the mask.

Liu thought to himself, this guy must want the mask; he should just say so instead of pulling these dramatic stunts.

Fan De Biao placed his hands on the mask and pulled. Perhaps his grip wasn't firm enough, as it didn't come off, making him slightly uneasy, so he yanked harder.

Suddenly, everything went dark before his eyes, followed by Da Guo Guo shouting in alarm, "Bad news! The candle in the southeast corner just went out!" Liu’s heart seized; the corpse was about to undergo shibian (corpse transformation).

Liu quickly switched on his flashlight and shone it toward Fan De Biao, asking, "Fan De Biao, hurry up and dodge! The 'zongzi' is coming out!"

Fan De Biao retorted, "What nonsense? This mummy isn't reacting."

Liu couldn't help but mock himself upon hearing that. The stories from Ghost Blows Out the Light were apparently unreliable, yet Da Guo Guo and the others believed them implicitly, sweating profusely with palpable tension.

Liu couldn't stand watching any longer and urged Fan De Biao to hurry. Waiting any longer wouldn't be good.

Fan De Biao kept saying "okay" while reaching in to work on the mask. Just as his hand went in, they heard Fan De Biao scream, "Ah!"