Uncle Diao offered little explanation, merely pulling a gas mask from his bag and stating plainly, "Put this on before you go in!"

No one pressed him for a reason. Quietly, everyone retrieved their own gas masks and fitted them over their faces. After a brief fuss, Uncle Diao took the lead and strode forward.

Diao had changed, truly changed. Young Master Liu felt a sense of confusion. The Uncle Diao who used to jest freely with him was now taciturn and reserved. Why the insistence on gas masks? If danger lay ahead, why not explain it clearly?

Could he have regained memories from his time in the great desert? Did he know what lay ahead?

"Young Master, keep up!" It wasn't Fan DeBiao, but Wang Feifei urging him on.

Young Master Liu didn't dwell on it further. He nodded, adjusted the mask on his face, and jogged to catch up.

He had assumed this tomb passage would be labyrinthine, like the tomb of Zhang Jiao. But after walking for a while, Young Master Liu realized his assumption was wrong. More than ten flashlights pierced the darkness ahead. These foreign-made lights had incredible penetration, revealing the end of the passage to be a burial chamber. Due to the limited view within the corridor, they only knew it was a chamber, but couldn't ascertain its exact size.

Now, Young Master Liu had two confirmations: first, his initial thought was incorrect; second, the group's decision to follow this path was right—this was the correct tomb passage. The next step was to reach that chamber, rest, and wait for the others—or perhaps not wait at all.

They were about thirty meters from the chamber, feeling pleased about having chosen the correct revolutionary path. But what no one expected was that danger would strike precisely then.

With a deafening boom, everyone reacted instantly. At first, they thought it was just a normal loud noise, but that notion quickly dissolved. Through both sensation and sight, they realized the passage had visibly narrowed. No, it had also become shorter. What did this imply? It meant the four walls of the passage were pressing inward toward the central axis. And the speed was increasing.

"Run!" A rush of wind passed by, followed by Fan DeBiao's shout. Looking over, the scoundrel was already several meters ahead. Such a situation hardly required his reminder, and instantly, everyone tensed up and bolted.

They hadn't run ten meters when they heard Fan DeBiao cry out, "Aiya!" Before anyone could process it, they saw Fan DeBiao hurtling back towards them. He slammed into Young Master Liu. A man of that bulk hitting him was no small matter; not being killed was a miracle. Young Master Liu was instantly knocked down onto the ground.

"What the hell are you running back for? Did you see a ghost?" Young Master Liu cursed Fan DeBiao in exasperation.

"Damn, that’s worse than a ghost, far more trouble," Fan DeBiao gasped in reply.

Before Young Master Liu could demand further explanation, he saw Old Rat and Old Wu supporting the Big Fellow, who was running back. Young Master Liu noticed something clearly protruding from the Big Fellow's back. At first glance, it was an arrow. Young Master Liu immediately understood the situation: there was an arrow mechanism in this passage. But how could a passage from over a thousand years ago still house a functional arrow trap? Yet, the evidence was there, impossible to deny.

Once again, tension gripped their hearts, but this time it was tempered with a newfound calmness, perhaps born from having endured so much already.

Despite their composure, the reality of their danger remained. They needed an immediate solution. Retreat was impossible; they’d be crushed into patties halfway back. Ahead lay the arrow trap. Damn it, they were truly caught between a rock and a hard place.

The four walls continued to contract. There was no time for prolonged discussion. After a quick consensus, they decided to charge through the arrow array—it offered the only chance of survival. If their speed was sufficient, the arrows wouldn't hit them. The Big Fellow seemed the most vulnerable. Unexpectedly, the Big Fellow pulled the arrow from his back and said, "It’s fine. This arrow didn't go deep. My speed won't be any slower than yours."

Hearing this, Young Master Liu instantly recognized him as a true man, placing him on the same level as Big Gourd in his estimation. With everything decided, they quickly gathered their gear and, without further exchange, sprinted toward the chamber. The passage grew narrower, yet they could still move their bodies relatively freely. For a mere twenty-odd meters, they had no inclination to count the seconds it took. All they heard were continuous swoosh... swoosh... sounds near their ears. Uncertain if he or anyone else had been struck, he leaped forward upon seeing the end of the passage, tumbling several times on the rough floor, even losing his gas mask in the process.

Then came a loud boom from behind, and the passage completely sealed shut. The sound made his heart drop. He shuddered, realizing that a moment slower, and he would have been a flattened mess—a scenario he dared not fully contemplate.

Young Master Liu immediately worried about the others. He certainly wasn't the slowest; what about Wang Zhicai and Lin Miaoke...? He forced the thought away, immediately taking a headcount. His eyes immediately found Wang Zhicai and Lin Miaoke sitting on the ground, panting heavily. Only then did Young Master Liu slightly relax. But when his gaze shifted to where the passage had closed, Young Master Liu froze. Time seemed to stop.

Fan DeBiao and Wang Feifei were dead!

Blood. Vivid, scarlet blood flooded Young Master Liu’s vision. Blood constantly streamed from the sealed junction of the passage. Fan DeBiao’s and Wang Feifei’s heads were exposed just outside the closure—only their heads!

Their bodies were trapped inside the compressed passage. He couldn't bear to imagine what lay behind those heads. He refused to think about what remained of their bodies in the passage, but his thoughts escaped his control, gradually conquering his mind—mangled, pulpy remains, as if churned in a blender. No, Young Master Liu fought to suppress it; he struggled hard to break free from the vision.

Snapping back to reality, Fan DeBiao and Wang Feifei were dead. "Illusion, illusion," he muttered repeatedly, but his subconscious demanded he face the truth. Finally, reality asserted itself.

Fan DeBiao, Wang Feifei—they were gone. Truly gone.

Fan DeBiao’s dear, comical face; Wang Feifei’s pure yet elegant features—both were frozen in the final, agonizing grimace of death. Seeing their faces, Young Master Liu deeply felt their pain. And what about his own?

He didn't feel like crying. His entire nervous system was completely numb. The moment he had looked at Fan DeBiao and Wang Feifei, the paralysis had set in. Had he cried? Yes, Young Master Liu’s tears fell silently while he felt nothing at all.

No heartache, no tension in his nerves, not even the stinging pain from the scrape he got when he fell earlier—Young Master Liu felt nothing.

Time instantly ceased. The tears stopped flowing in that same instant. Had Young Master Liu’s tears run dry? Despair. This was the feeling of utter despair. He had completely collapsed.

Without warning, without sensation, Young Master Liu fell unconscious.

Fuzzily, Young Master Liu regained consciousness. The first face imprinted on his sight was Fan DeBiao’s, followed by Wang Feifei’s. Was he dead too? Was this Hell?

Young Master Liu looked around. Uncle Diao, Old Wu, Wang Zhicai, and the others were all watching him. This was the passage. Young Master Liu was holding his gas mask.

This was not the chamber, but the passage! The walls hadn't closed. Fan DeBiao and Wang Feifei weren't dead. It had all been a dream. Yet, why did Young Master Liu feel as though he had lived through every second of it—the exhaustion of a hundred-meter dash, the stinging pain of skin scraped raw from a fall?

"What just happened?" Young Master Liu asked the group with a look and tone of pure bewilderment.

Fan DeBiao rushed forward first to answer, "Young Master, you just put on a live-action Superman performance for us! Running back and forth, rolling around—that display was no less impressive than those acrobatics you see in American shows."

Hearing Fan DeBiao, Young Master Liu knew the rogue was taking a jab at him. If he knew that in his "dream," he had wept tears for him, Fan DeBiao would have teased him to the heavens. But honestly, seeing everyone safe brought an indescribable joy.

Because the preceding "dream" felt so intensely real, Young Master Liu was still quite shaken. However, Fan DeBiao’s teasing missed the crucial point. "Why did that happen?" Young Master Liu directed this question to Wang Feifei, who was generally more serious and required a direct approach.

"We don't know the reason, just as Advisor Fan said—it was sudden," Wang Feifei shook her head.

"Put on your gas masks," Uncle Diao suddenly commanded.

Though uncertain of his intent, two reminders from Diao indicated the situation was genuinely serious. The others had just taken off their masks and now quickly placed them back on. Young Master Liu still held his in his hand; it was conceivable that his lapse in wearing the mask had caused the earlier incident.

"Listen here, nephew, be careful. Ancient tombs are not as simple as you imagine," Uncle Diao specifically advised Young Master Liu before leading the way forward.

Hearing this, Young Master Liu felt aggrieved. He had only lost control once! Did Diao think he was some kind of fool? Who didn't know that ancient tombs were complicated? Carrying a stomach full of resentment, he followed the others.

This passage was indeed just long—purely long—not the complex structure Young Master Liu had envisioned leading to the chamber, the 'Mysterious Gate' from his 'dream.'

Fan DeBiao was ecstatic upon seeing the chamber, his eyes gleaming. It seemed his moment of great revolution was at hand.

Impatient, Fan DeBiao took a step toward the chamber but was stopped by Uncle Diao: "Hold it! There’s something tricky here."

As soon as Uncle Diao spoke, Fan DeBiao froze mid-stride, one leg raised, arms positioned as if taking flight, his expression utterly awkward, stuck there like a statue. Seeing that pose, Young Master Liu couldn't help but feel amused.

"Come back!" Uncle Diao roared at Fan DeBiao.

"Didn't you tell me not to move? Now you tell me to come back—aren't you just messing with me?" Fan DeBiao maintained his ridiculous posture, afraid to move.

Hearing this, Uncle Diao felt a flush of embarrassment. "Damn it, I meant don't walk forward, not hold that ridiculous pose!"

Diao was back; that tone was the familiar one.

Fan DeBiao let out a breath of relief, then tiptoed backward, wiping sweat from his brow. "Uncle Diao, what trickery did you spot?"

"You can't even see the mechanisms in this passage, and you call yourself a master tomb robber from the Northern School!" Old Wu immediately started badgering Fan DeBiao.

The friction between the Northern and Southern Schools of tomb raiding had never truly subsided. Although Fan DeBiao claimed lineage from the South, his tutelage was Northern. Hearing Old Wu slight the Northern School, he felt compelled to retort, "What? Mechanisms? That’s something they do in Song or Ming tombs. This Golden Ancient City is from the Han Dynasty. I’d believe you if you said a dinosaur could jump out of this passage, but mechanisms? I, Fan DeBiao, don’t quite grasp that."

"Stop arguing," Old Wu was about to snap back at Fan DeBiao but was silenced by Uncle Diao. "What era are we in? Why are we still fighting over North and South Schools?"

After Uncle Diao spoke, Wang Feifei, Jackson, Wang Zhicai, and Lin Miaoke all looked at Diao and the others with surprise. Diao, feeling awkward, quickly changed the subject. "Look, what’s different about the next section of the passage?"

Uncle Diao’s deflection worked perfectly. Instantly, everyone focused their gaze on the approaching segment of the corridor. The difference was stark. The walls of the passage they currently occupied, and the section behind them, were built from large, single slabs of stone, with only minor cracks—undeniably flagstones. However, the floor in the section ahead was paved with Han Dynasty bricks, confined only to the floor; the other sides remained flagstone. This final stretch was clearly out of the ordinary.

Fan DeBiao looked at the brick-paved section and shook his head repeatedly. "What's so strange about that? Maybe they ran out of material and used Han bricks to top it off."

"Ran out of material!" Fan DeBiao’s comment made Young Master Liu feel short of breath. "Whose tomb is this? The tomb of the Golden Queen! Thinking they’d run out of material, the nerve!"

"I think they didn't run out of material; they just lacked sense," the Big Fellow, who had been silent, suddenly chimed in.

"Go to hell, I think you lack a dick," Old Rat immediately retorted to the Big Fellow. From such exchanges, it was clear their relationship resembled that of Young Master Liu and Fan DeBiao.

"Old Rat, Zhong Kui, quiet down! This group is educated and refined; mind your language," Old Wu quickly interrupted, perhaps knowing that once these two started, their bickering would never cease.

Still, regarding "educated and refined," Young Master Liu truly didn't believe those two belonged in that category.

Uncle Diao remained focused on the Han bricks in the passage floor. Heaven favored the diligent; Uncle Diao finally had a lead. Young Master Liu quickly asked what he had discovered.

Uncle Diao straightened up and stated solemnly, "This passage indeed has mechanisms." Hearing this, Young Master Liu felt depressed, ashamed to face his ancestors, and nervously turned aside, sweating profusely.

"Doesn't everyone present here know this passage has mechanisms? Are you trying to fool us?" Young Master Liu muttered, breaking out in a cold sweat.

Uncle Diao realized he had just made a lame joke and immediately salvaged the moment with his expertise. "I understand this mechanism."

Saying this, he stepped forward onto that section of the floor. "Just follow my footprints." He then continued walking forward.

Old Wu and the others followed suit. Young Master Liu now understood the mechanism; it was like playing Minesweeper, except Minesweeper was blind, while this had a clear objective. Once the key was grasped, they shouldn't hit any 'mines.' However, this mechanism was quite complex. That Diao could figure it out after just a brief inspection showed how profound his knowledge in both archaeology and tomb raiding was—at least far more impressive than Young Master Liu had imagined.

"Young Master, hurry up!" Young Master Liu thought, as Fan DeBiao urged him from behind. Young Master Liu lifted his foot and followed closely behind Wang Feifei. Fan DeBiao was right behind him.

Though confident in Uncle Diao's ability, walking on a passage floor resembling a minefield still induced some heart palpitations. Every step was taken with extreme caution, walking on tiptoes, terrified that a careless misstep might trigger something disastrous, leading to an eternal regret from one fatal slip—dying so unjustly.

Soon, Uncle Diao safely reached the chamber, followed by Old Wu. When it was Zhong Kui's turn, the man stopped. "Oh! I forgot the sequence of steps."

Hearing this, Young Master Liu cursed internally, Damn, what is this guy thinking? While Young Master Liu thought this, Old Rat voiced the same sentiment aloud.

Fortunately, Uncle Diao had an excellent memory; he could recite a book backward after reading it a few times, meaning he certainly remembered the sequence in reverse. He went over and guided Zhong Kui, who finally made it to safety after much effort.

Young Master Liu waited behind, breaking into a cold sweat. Seeing Zhong Kui across, he let out a sigh of relief. Old Rat, living up to his name, crossed in just a few moves. Next was Wang Feifei.

Just as Young Master Liu, excited, prepared to "reach the shore," Fan DeBiao called everyone to a halt and asked, "I wonder if this mechanism is affected by gravity?"

Affected by gravity? Young Master Liu hesitated, then immediately understood—Fan DeBiao had stirred up trouble again. His heart sank. Before he could ask Fan DeBiao what the situation was, a click sounded from beneath his feet.

Young Master Liu panicked. This Fan DeBiao truly generated endless trouble; he was going to get everyone behind him killed.

Suddenly, he heard swoosh... swoosh... sounds from under his feet, like something spinning violently. Young Master Liu was only a meter from the finish line. He dared not delay. Since the mechanism was already triggered, he had no choice but to rush forward. The sound beneath his feet suddenly changed. Young Master Liu couldn't tell if anything had flown out, but with one hurried lunge, he tumbled into the chamber. Applying too much force, his head slammed against the wall. Even through the gas mask, Young Master Liu grimaced in pain, nearly fainting.

This was no time to lose consciousness. Fan DeBiao and the others were facing life or death. He didn't know if the people behind them had avoided the trap. He shook his head to clear it and quickly looked back down the passage.

The scene before him recalled a war drama he had once seen. Fan DeBiao, Jackson, Wang Zhicai, and Lin Miaoke were frozen on the passage floor, like actors suddenly paused mid-scene, resembling statues. Their mouths were wide open, eyes bulging as if about to pop out. They were all caught in different stances, Fan DeBiao's being the most comical.

Yet, Young Master Liu was certain they weren't dead; they were simply scared senseless. Muffled sounds still emanated from the floor of the passage, punctuated by sharp hiss... hiss... noises.

Though Young Master Liu didn't know what was happening, the position of Fan DeBiao and the others was too perilous. Seeing that they seemed paralyzed by fear, Young Master Liu roared, "Get over here, now! What are you doing, daydreaming at a time like this!"

His shout seemed to snap them out of their stupor. They all jolted and then rushed toward the group.