The group had studied the inscription to this point, still entirely baffled by its meaning. Though they suspected the first two lines might refer to Dongfang Shuo, the confusion only deepened with more questions arising.

Seeing that the deciphering had hit a wall and they could pursue it no further, Ma Xiong stood up and addressed the others. "Alright, let's continue searching for a way out."

Lu Zong turned, surveyed their surroundings, and scratched his head. "Based on past experience, there are two ways we can get out of this tomb chamber. First, we keep looking for the mechanism that opens the door right here. Second, we do absolutely nothing, and maybe the door will open by itself after a while."

Ma Xiong smiled at this. "You've improved, my stepson. That summary sounds quite astute."

Rarely praised by Ma Xiong, Lu Zong grinned proudly as soon as the words left Ma Xiong’s mouth. "Naturally!"

Seeing that he had taken the bait, Ma Xiong chuckled again. "I wasn't finished. It sounds astute, sure, but it seems to lack any practical application!"

Lu Zong, realizing he'd been teased again, cocked his head and pointed his finger right at Ma Xiong's nose, ready to launch a verbal assault. Just then, Liu Quansheng interjected: "I know! No wonder we couldn't find the entrance! Look how the stone chamber is about two and a half times as long as it is wide. With this kind of chamber layout, the exit is most likely on the ceiling!" "The ceiling?" At Liu Quansheng's suggestion, everyone immediately raised their flashlights to shine upward.

A moment later, Ge Mei called out to us, "Look, over there!"

Her flashlight beam pointed toward a corner near the ceiling of the chamber. Following her direction, we immediately spotted it—an opening there indeed. This setup, with the exit overhead, was highly unusual. Our prior thinking had been conditioned to expect passages at floor level, so none of us had noticed the hole open above us.

Lu Zong, seeing a potential exit, immediately exclaimed, "I knew those three monkeys didn't just vanish; there really is an entrance."

Liu Quansheng stated, "This kind of configuration is extremely rare in burial structures from ancient times to the present, so it's no wonder we overlooked it. This chamber isn't an antechamber to the main burial room; it's a subsidiary room branching off the main one. Ordinary tombs don't have subsidiary rooms; only eccentric scholars who practice the Dao arrange a secondary chamber before their main tomb. As of now, the world doesn't know why this layout exists, but the fact that the exit of a subsidiary room opens at the ceiling is certain."

Ge Mei listened with fascination, looking up at Liu Quansheng. "Does that mean the person buried here was a Daoist practitioner?"

Liu Quansheng shrugged and offered no reply.

Ma Xiong then stepped in. "Not necessarily. The layouts in the Four Great Forbidden Zones are a mix of truth and deception. Without concrete evidence, it's hard for us to definitively say whose remains lie in this tomb. Da Di Shu mentioned that the gold cloth he acquired referred to this ancient tomb as a Serpent's Mound, so perhaps this is actually a Great Slumber Tomb, and what's buried here isn't a person, but a snake."

Lu Zong waved his hand dismissively. "Let's not talk about that. For such a massive ancient tomb to hold just a snake instead of a person gives me the chills just thinking about it. Tell me, do you think a snake capable of occupying a tomb this large would be ordinary? Maybe that snake isn't even dead, just confined in here. Imagine, if we go through a door shortly, only to discover we’ve entered a snake's mouth! That thought alone is horrifying."

Seeing that Lu Zong's words had somewhat frightened Ge Mei, Ma Xiong lightly punched him. "Stop scaring others only to scare yourself. Don't you always stress the importance of morale? In warfare, undermining morale is punishable by military law. This punch is a warning."

Lu Zong looked unconcerned and laughed. "Pressure creates motivation!"

Ma Xiong ignored his nonsense and walked over to that corner of the wall, looking up at the ceiling and noting how high the opening was. Liu Quansheng also approached and looked up, saying to Ma Xiong, "We didn't bring any grappling hooks. I guess this time we’ll have to rely on the Great Roc Spreads Its Wings technique of the Ma Xiong family."

Ma Xiong nodded. Great Roc Spreads Its Wings is a technique unique to our Ma Xiong family, integrating principles from ancient martial arts' Qinggong (lightness skill), allowing one to jump to great heights using external force. Fortunately, I practice this skill often, and now it finally has a use. Lu Zong, of course, knew Ma Xiong was about to use the technique, so he came over, helping Liu Quansheng create a springboard for Ma Xiong while remarking, "You just finished playing the charlatan, and now you’re turning into a bird-man."

Ma Xiong, hearing Lu Zong take any opportunity to needle him, laughed and scolded him, "Be a good bridge and stop wasting breath. Be careful, once Ma Xiong gets up there, I might just leave you down below."

Lu Zong, however, seemed utterly unbothered. He stood beneath the opening with Liu Quansheng, one on each side, extending their palms and stacking them at waist height. Then he announced to Ma Xiong, "Bird-man, we’re ready. Come on."

Ma Xiong cursed Lu Zong as a rascal, then took the rope from his backpack, tied it around himself, and tossed the pack to Ge Mei. Seeing Ma Xiong prepare to jump, Ge Mei looked up at the height of the opening, and a flicker of doubt crossed her face.

Ma Xiong stretched his joints briefly, then told the two men, "Here I come!"

With that, Ma Xiong suddenly accelerated and bolted forward. As he neared Lu Zong and Liu Quansheng, Ma Xiong leaped with all his might!

Ma Xiong’s body shot upward, landing squarely on the palms of Lu Zong and Liu Quansheng. Knowing Ma Xiong’s technique required leverage, they both strained with their utmost strength to push him higher. Ma Xiong seized the moment, using the greatest point of purchase, roared, and gathering his qi, he pushed off again, launching himself further into the air.

It was the first time Ge Mei had witnessed an ordinary person make such a prodigious leap, and she couldn't help but gasp in astonishment.

Ma Xiong's body ascended straight up, darting into the opening above. He tumbled a few times in the passage inside before stopping. Only then did Ge Mei's surprised, joyful shouts drift up from below: "Wow, Brother Ma Xiong, you're amazing!"

Ma Xiong crawled back to the edge of the opening and shouted down to the others, "Ge Mei is the lightest. I’ll hold the rope, you come up first."

Ge Mei nodded to Ma Xiong. Ma Xiong then lowered the rope, bracing his hands against the stone walls on either side, before calling down to Ge Mei, "Okay, come on up." Soon, Ma Xiong felt the rope grow heavy, meaning Ge Mei had begun climbing. Ma Xiong held the passage walls easily with both hands, thinking to himself how slender the girl was—about 1.65 meters tall, perhaps weighing under fifty kilograms.

A moment later, Ge Mei's small head popped out of the opening. She ducked her waist and slipped lightly into the passage. Then, Ma Xiong wrapped the rope around himself and Ge Mei, and with the two of us supporting, we helped the lighter Liu Quansheng ascend.

The moment Liu Quansheng grabbed the rope, Ma Xiong clearly felt a very strong pull of gravity transmitted through it. Although Liu Quansheng was lighter than Lu Zong, his weight was certainly no less than sixty-five kilograms. Ma Xiong strained his hands bracing against the passage walls, still finding it difficult.

Ge Mei was also sweating heavily from holding the support and couldn't help complaining, "Brother Ma Xiong, Brother Liu doesn't look tall, but he’s really heavy, isn't he?"

Ma Xiong shook his head with a wry smile. "He is a bit overweight..."

Once Liu Quansheng was up, it was much easier for the three of us to pull Lu Zong up. After some effort, all four of us gathered in the passage.

Ma Xiong then shone his flashlight deep into the tunnel.

This passage wasn't long, ending about ten meters in. Although they knew there was something extraordinary outside, they couldn't see what it was yet.

When everyone finally climbed to the end, they discovered that the bottom of the opening led to a downward slope, and at the base of the slope lay a long cavern that had clearly not been artificially developed! The cavern was both wide and long, with a bumpy, uneven floor. Around them stood many strange, upright stones. Honestly, if they hadn't noticed the absence of stalagmites, Ma Xiong would have thought they had entered a limestone cave.

Liu Quansheng was startled by the sight outside. "That’s wrong. Logically, this subsidiary room should connect to the main burial chamber. How did we end up in a cavern?" Lu Zong gave Liu Quansheng a look as if he had never seen the world. "Of course it's wrong! If it were right, would it still be called one of the Four Great Forbidden Zones?"

Ma Xiong shrugged and then told the group, "We can go down this slope. Let's assess the situation once we're down."

Saying that, the group slowly descended the gentle slope into the cavern. Ma Xiong swept his flashlight around and noticed that this cavern wasn't the only one. Beside this main cavern were many dark, large openings, and behind each of those lay another long tunnel.

"What's going on? Did the tomb builder suddenly become generous? We were just trapped, and now we're suddenly given so many paths to choose from?" Lu Zong scanned left and right with his flashlight.

Ma Xiong shook his head with a faint smile. "More roads aren't necessarily a good thing. Which way do we go?" They had passed through the tunnel only to arrive in a vast cavern system where the paths crisscrossed confusingly. The group froze in place, unsure which direction to take.

At that moment, Ge Mei seemed to spot something and called out, "Look, there are stone carvings over there, too."

Hearing this, everyone turned to look.

Indeed, near a stone wall in the distance, stood several sculptures, large and small. From afar, it was impossible to tell what these sculptures depicted, but since the ancients placed them there, they must have served a purpose. Since they didn't know which way to proceed, Ma Xiong led the group over to examine the carvings.

When they got close, they realized that every single sculpture was a human head on a serpent's body. Furthermore, each one differed in appearance and attire, and they were not uniform in size. Their arrangement was also completely random, looking as if they had been casually placed there.

Lu Zong stepped forward and picked up a snake-tailed stone figure about the height of a calf’s leg, asking Ma Xiong, "Say, this thing might be valuable. Let's take the smaller ones!"

Ma Xiong gave a wry smile. "If you don't find it tiring, then move it. I have no objection."

Lu Zong shrugged, about to put the small stone figure down, when he suddenly cried out and quickly put his thumb into his mouth.

Seeing this, the others asked what happened. He pulled his thumb out to show them: the tip of his thumb had somehow been cut, and blood was flowing.

Liu Quansheng laughed heartily, saying Lu Zong deserved it. "See? I told you long ago, greed never ends well. Cut by this stone figure, huh?"

Uncharacteristically, Lu Zong didn't snap back at Liu Quansheng. Instead, he frowned. "I have a strange feeling... this stone figure cut Ma Xiong."

Liu Quansheng found Lu Zong’s statement odd and countered, "If it wasn't this stone figure, what else could have cut you? You better not touch them randomly; they probably have sharp edges."