Lu Zong chuckled, watching the fatty continuously grunt and dig with his rear end stuck in the air, which immediately brought to mind the sight of pigs rooting in the countryside.

After a while, a metallic clang echoed from where the fatty was working. Realizing instantly what had happened, he asked, "What is it, Fatty? Did you hit something up ahead?"

Fatty replied, "Looks like we've hit the Gold Layer. Damn it, Lu Zong, do you think this is Cao Cao’s decoy tomb or the real deal?"

Lu Zong pondered for a moment. Cao Cao possessed such immense capability, and he was the founding master of tomb raiding; who knew where he would choose to be buried, or whether this was genuine or fake? He answered plainly, "I don't know. The outside world is making a huge fuss about it anyway. Whether it's real or fake doesn't matter. As long as it makes us rich."

Fatty roared with laughter. "It'll be hard for us not to strike it rich this time." With that, Fatty shifted his body slightly, revealing a small gap ahead of him. A sliver of bright light shot onto Lu Zong’s face, startling him so much he had to squint to examine the scene closely. His heart nearly hammered itself into failure from the shock. What he saw were heaps upon heaps of gold and jewels buried in the massive pit before them.

"This... what is going on?" Lu Zong muttered to himself.

Fatty saw Lu Zong’s utter bewilderment and a hint of mockery crossed his face. "What? The great corpse expert doesn't know what we’ve just unearthed? Don't you have any knowledge of ancient Chinese tombs at all?"

Lu Zong shook his head. "I'm only interested in the corpses."

Fatty sighed, thinking the tomb-raiding world had no worthy successors. He picked up a gold ingot from the front and said to Lu Zong, "This is the Gold Layer, part of Cao Cao's tomb. Actually, this entire massive tomb, from head to toe, from front to back, is lined with gold bricks and jewelry as a deterrent. It warns tomb raiders: be content with the silver you find here, and never dig further, or you will meet a horrific end."

Lu Zong’s interest was piqued. "A horrific end? How horrific?"

Fatty shifted his weight and pulled out a piece of jewelry from the pile. "Look here, doesn't this piece look a bit darkened?"

Lu Zong took it close to his eyes and indeed, beneath the brilliant gold, there was a faint, subtle blackish tinge, not very prominent, as if it had been soaked in poison and then oxidized in the air. He glanced at Fatty and nodded.

Fatty grumbled curses, "Damn this old man, how so stingy! He robbed so many tombs, brought all their treasures here, yet he clings to them tightly. Lu Zong, I bet you anything, if we keep digging, we’ll find a corpse. Believe it or not."

Lu Zong asked curiously, "Fatty, how far do you think we are from Cao Cao’s main tomb? I feel like we still have a long way to go. Surely we shouldn't see a corpse this early, right?"

Fatty chuckled slyly. "Of course, I know we're far from Cao Cao's actual coffin. The corpse I'm talking about isn't the one in Cao Cao's tomb, but one that was drowned alive right here in this tunnel."

"Drowned in the tunnel?" Lu Zong inquired, intrigued. "What do you mean, drowned? Why would someone die in the tunnel?"

Fatty shook his head, giving Lu Zong a helpless look, and said with a smile, "Forget it, trying to explain it to you is useless. Just figure it out yourself. Let's get out of here quickly. I’ll give you the answer tonight. Go prepare yourself; it seems I’ll have to pull out my real skills as a professional tomb raider."

Lu Zong looked around the tunnel. Those diagrams showed solid tamped earth. For Fatty to have dug this far so easily with only his Luoyang shovel was truly impressive, and his face hadn't changed at all, nor were there any cuts on his hands. He couldn't help but feel a surge of admiration for Fatty. But Fatty seemed entirely unconcerned, impatiently urging Lu Zong to hurry. "You’ll see tonight!"

Lu Zong smiled ruefully at Fatty’s eagerness and turned to leave.

Suddenly, a glimmer caught his eye behind the pile of jewels. He quickly turned his head back, fixing his gaze intently on a piece of jewelry behind Fatty. His complexion slowly turned ashen.

Seeing Lu Zong's strange behavior, Fatty quickly asked, "What's wrong, Lu Zong? Did you see a ghost?"

Lu Zong nodded and pointed behind Fatty.

Fatty looked back but saw nothing at all. He couldn't help but dismiss Lu Zong as overly superstitious and timid, scolding, "What’s there to be afraid of? It’s just jewelry! It won’t eat you. If you don’t want it, I’ll take it. Forget it, I can’t explain things to you scholars. Let’s go."

Saying that, he started pushing Lu Zong to retreat.

But Lu Zong seized Fatty's arm, his eyes locked unwaveringly on the spot behind Fatty, his voice clearly trembling. "Fatty, look at that jade, that piece of crystal—isn't that the Ice Crystal Fetus?"

"Ice Crystal Fetus?" Fatty mumbled, then lazily turned his head back to Lu Zong. "Looks like you still haven't returned from that backwater in Xinjiang. We're currently in... Ah! Holy crap, what else could that be but the Ice Crystal Fetus?"

While Fatty frantically searched, he too spotted that strangely shaped, sparkling crystal lying quietly in the yellow layer of earth. The exposed upper portion clearly displayed its complete outline—it was an intact Ice Crystal Fetus, identical to the one he had seen in Xinjiang. However, because part of it was still buried, the contents inside were completely obscured. It was unknown if there was still a woman within.

Fatty also grew agitated. "Lu Zong, let's go, don't stay here too long. This place is starting to feel wrong to me. Damn it, those things..."

As he spoke, Lu Zong suddenly spun around and scrambled up, shouting loudly, "Fatty, climb out! Behind you..."

Fatty didn't catch the latter half of the sentence due to the urgency. But judging by Lu Zong's tone, it was unlikely to be anything auspicious. He didn't dare look back, fearing he might be terrified by whatever was there.

The saying goes that three fires rest on a man’s shoulders; every time one turns back, one fire goes out. He had already turned back twice. If he turned back again now, his final spark of vital energy might be extinguished. He dared not think further, instead fleeing alongside Lu Zong.

In the vast tunnel, only the sound of two men gasping for air could be heard, accompanied by a faint hissing sound from behind, which sounded vaguely like a snake, yet not quite. It was more like the hoarse shriek of a person. Sweat beaded on his forehead without him realizing it. He felt a surge of panic; if they didn't hurry now, they might never get out. The tunnel was simply too narrow to maneuver properly. If he could just stretch out... Oh my god, just as this thought crossed his mind, he felt something sticky latch onto his ankle, even feeling the bone beneath the decaying flesh. Fatty kicked the hand away fiercely and scrambled forward in sheer haste.

Perhaps because of the critical situation, or his frantic state, time seemed to accelerate. At some point, a sliver of sunlight appeared ahead, and only then did he relax slightly. Whatever it was—a Zongzi, a Jiangshi, a dry corpse—it was certainly doomed upon meeting sunlight. He breathed a small sigh of relief.

He soon scrambled out of the hole and saw Lu Zong standing there, covered in dust, gasping heavily. He quickly dragged Lu Zong into a tent, telling him to stay put and not move an inch, before grabbing another shovel and heading back out.

Fearing Fatty might do something reckless and expose the tunnel entrance, Lu Zong quickly asked, "Fatty, where are you going?"

Fatty replied, "I'm going to bury this tunnel entrance to prevent that monster from coming out to harm people, especially at night." Lu Zong nodded in relief. Exhausted from the ordeal and still shaken by what he had seen, he drifted off to sleep without realizing it.

When he awoke, Fatty was squatting beside him, panting. His hands were covered in mud, suggesting he had just finished sealing the tunnel.

Seeing Lu Zong awake, Fatty asked, "Lu Zong, did you see something sticky with skin all covered in bright red blood?"

Lu Zong nodded. "Yes. I don't know what kind of monster that was. It nearly scared me to death. But I thought its eyes looked full of pain."

Fatty said dejectedly, "Damn it, why would a thing like that be in Cao Cao's great tomb? That old bastard Cao Cao is truly unfair."

Lu Zong grew increasingly puzzled and quickly asked, "What exactly happened? Tell me about it."

Fatty looked at Lu Zong’s now very pale face and took a breath. "You should rest a little longer first, just in case you get scared tonight. You’ll naturally know everything then."

Seeing Fatty’s firm refusal, Lu Zong didn't press the issue. He figured if Fatty was this frightened, learning the truth might just give him nightmares. He decided to wait until things settled down a bit. However, he still felt uneasy about the clean tent and asked, "Fatty, whose tent is this that you’re just using?"

Fatty looked back. "This is the joint burial tent for Ma Xiong and that fellow, Lu Sha. Damn it, ever since Lu Sha arrived, he kicked me out."

Lu Zong looked at Fatty in disbelief. "What? Lu Sha is here? Didn't he go back to America?"

Fatty grumbled curses. "He did, but he left early this morning. For the past few days while Lu Sha was around, he made me squeeze into a tent with those police officers. But that wasn’t so bad, at least I built a good relationship with those police uncles; they might cover for me if I get caught for tomb raiding later."

Lu Zong saw the way Fatty clenched his jaw and understood the resentment he felt. Who could blame him? Those archaeologists nowadays, hiding behind the cloak of science to blatantly raid tombs—but their skills, compared to Fatty, a self-taught master of tomb raiding, were like a toddler compared to a giant.

Lu Zong looked at the scattered clothes around them and said, "Looks like I'll be rooming with you all tonight."