A sudden, nameless rage flared within me, and I spun around, grabbing Azhuo by his collar and shouting, "When you told me to put on my leather coat before entering the sinkhole, you must have known something was strange down here, didn't you! Why didn't you step forward earlier and tell everyone about the danger! So many people wouldn't have died!"

Azhuo offered no resistance, only falling into a heavy silence.

Then, abruptly, he seized his own hair and pulled hard, tearing off his entire facial skin to reveal another face beneath.

This new person was quite handsome, with fair skin, large eyes, and eyebrows arched in a way that was remarkably pleasing, possessing a delicate allure that seemed almost too feminine for a man, especially paired with his tall, slender build.

"Hello everyone, my name is Xie Yuting, I'm from Hangzhou..." As he spoke, he extended a hand towards me for a shake, but I did not reciprocate.

Xie Yuting didn't seem bothered, offering a slight smile as he retracted his hand. He walked over to Dongzi, knelt down, and began searching through the fallen man's belongings, murmuring, "You don't mind if I look through his things, do you?"

I was startled by his disguise technique, thinking how just a few days ago I had seen an advertisement online for such materials, never imagining I'd encounter the real thing today.

I frowned and asked him, "Why did you disguise yourself as the innkeeper?"

Xie Yuting continued sifting through Dongzi's possessions, replying, "Nothing much. That Old Huang recognizes me, and I didn't want him to know I was here. My Agong was an antique dealer, and when he was younger, he used to dig around in the earth—yes, I mean grave robbing. You'll have to ask your grandfather why I'm here. Ten years ago, your grandfather hired my Agong to enter a cave together once." Xie Yuting pulled a mobile phone from Dongzi's pocket and pressed a button.

I was taken aback by his background. People involved in tomb raiding deal with the dead; while not exactly organized crime, it’s illegal business. This man certainly wasn't a model citizen, so I decided to remain cautious.

After a period of silence, seeing him still examining Dongzi's things, I couldn't help but ask, "What are you looking for?"

Xie Yuting tossed aside a soggy wad of tissues he'd found in Dongzi's coat, telling me, "Nothing important, just searching for clues, to see what their objective was in coming here."

Seeing no further valuables on Dongzi, Xie Yuting stood up and addressed me: "As far as I know, there are at least five different groups entering this ancient tomb with various objectives. The first group is you two—rookies tricked into coming here to save someone. The second is me, here to protect you and your grandfather. The third is Old Huang’s team; he is the Chinese head of an international thieves' organization. The fourth is that woman named Liang; I don't know her exact purpose, but I can confirm she is not with Old Huang. The fifth group is your survey team; your grandfather and my Agong found something in this cave back then, but because they couldn't take it at the time, they returned..."

Daxiong snorted dismissively and said, "Why should we believe you?"

Xie Yuting smiled faintly and pulled a newspaper from his backpack. It was written in Arabic. Though I couldn't read it, the accompanying photograph showed several armed men: two Middle Easterners, one Westerner, and the last one was Old Huang!

With a cheerful expression, he said, "This is a UAE newspaper reporting on an international arrest warrant for these thieves. They stole a batch of national treasures from the Emirates. Shall I translate the whole thing for you?"

I took the newspaper and examined it closely, confirming the man was indeed Old Huang. My surprise was immense; I thought, how dare this guy impersonate a soldier of our great People's Liberation Army.

Xie Yuting casually remarked to me, "Do you know who used to live in this cave?"

I shook my head. "Based on the coffin we saw just as we entered, I only know this place must have been constructed before the Warring States period..."

Xie Yuting nodded. "To be precise, this was where the people of the Wei Kingdom once lived."

"The Wei people?" I exclaimed in shock. "As in the Wei Kingdom from the 'Great Wilderness' section of the Classic of Mountains and Seas? Did such a race truly exist?"

Xie Yuting laughed. "Not bad, you have some knowledge. This tribe didn't just exist; they thrived until the Tang Dynasty, then suddenly vanished for some unknown reason... and this place is where they once lived... that's all I know."

The Classic of Mountains and Seas records the Wei people as an ancient race covered in hair, capable of taming wild beasts and venomous insects. I truly couldn't fathom how such beings could have subsisted.

I fell silent. Daxiong was also frowning, deep in thought; it seemed we both needed time to process this influx of information. Xie Yuting didn't appear to be lying, and I decided, for the moment, we could trust him.

Seeing our silence, Xie Yuting walked to the pile of corpses and began tossing out items like shovels and ice axes, treating the bodies as if they were just discarded plastic waste, showing absolutely no hesitation.

I realized then this man was definitely not ordinary; he seemed accustomed to such scenes.

If it had been me, I would never have gone near that pile of dead bodies.

"I didn't expect to find such good things here!" Xie Yuting pulled out a dark object from the heap of dead bodies, about a meter and a half long, resembling a rod.

However, as he gripped both ends of the rod and yanked, a flash of gleaming cyan cold light cut through the cave, blindingly bright.

"Holy crap! What a beautiful blade!" Daxiong exclaimed.

My eyes lit up too. The knife was incredibly slender, its edge tinged with a pale blue hue, as if covered in a layer of frost, suggesting unparalleled sharpness. The blade was slightly curved, featuring a simple, recumbent tiger totem near the hilt.

The scabbard was thin, made of the same black, specialized wood as the handle, causing the whole assembly to look like a simple stick—truly hiding its quality.

Xie Yuting looked delighted. He wiped the blade with his sleeve and said, "This is the Yi Clan's Crouching Tiger Evil-Slaying Blade. It wards off evil spirits; ordinary Zongzi [dried corpses] and demons wouldn't dare approach. It's a treasure used by Bimo-level Yi people to guard their homes."

I knew that what he called Bimo was the Yi term for their shamans. The Yi people were known for curses and exorcism rites, and Bimo figures always held an air of deep mystery.

Daxiong, perhaps out of jealousy that Xie Yuting had found a treasure, grunted, "What good is warding off evil? That Bimo is still dead in this cave. I bet my sledgehammer is more useful than that knife."

Xie Yuting ignored him, slinging the sword diagonally across his back. He then tossed two more guns from the pile of corpses, jumped out, and said, "There really is every kind of person down here—ancient Yi tribesmen, Nationalist soldiers from the Anti-Japanese War, explorers who arrived at some unknown time. The span is too wide. This isn't a desert; why haven't corpses hundreds of years old decomposed?"

I shared that very question, but neither of us had an answer.

I picked up a black pistol from the ground and examined it closely. "I recognize this gun. The old Eighth Route Army relied on these to conquer half the country. This is called a Xiezi Pao [Box Cannon]."

It was called a Xiezi Pao because the magazine was a box clipped onto the belly of the gun. When fired, the recoil was strong, and the sound was loud, like cannon fire. In reality, this weapon only had a range of a few dozen meters, wasn't terribly powerful, and was prone to catastrophic failure.

The other gun was a military rifle with a wooden stock, standard issue for the Nationalist Army back then. It held four rounds at a time, had good range, and decent stopping power, but unfortunately, it was too heavy—I handed it to Daxiong.

After testing the guns, I was relieved to find they still worked. However, after all this time, there was no guarantee they wouldn't blow up in our faces, so I was reluctant to fire unless absolutely necessary. Daxiong, perhaps holding a firearm for the first time since his discharge, slung it onto his back and started singing: "Shoulder high, chest out, crossing the Yalu River."

I retorted, "Go to hell! That's the victory song of our great People's Liberation Army! Right now, you look more like a fat, decadent, minor warlord grunt!"