I took four steps forward, then retreated. Daxiong asked what I was doing, wondering if I'd dropped money, but I ignored him.

I pulled open the stone door only to find the same room as before and quickly backed out. Then I muttered to myself, "It wasn't four steps, so what does that mean?" Daxiong interjected from the side, "Lost forty yuan?

Forget it. Escaping is the priority right now." I shot him a look and snapped, "Can you just stop interrupting, you bastard!" I paused, then switched on the flashlight and began searching the wall.

When I'd first entered, the stone walls of the corridor seemed bare, completely empty. Now, upon closer inspection, I realized there were protruding sconces, but they were set very high, more than three meters above the ground, and their color blended perfectly with the stone, making them incredibly hard to spot.

I shouted excitedly, "Got it!" Then I grabbed Daxiong and ran forward, sweeping the flashlight beam across the sconces as we moved. Daxiong, confused, kept muttering his complaints beside me, but I truly had no patience to entertain him.

We reached the fourth sconce after running about four or five hundred meters. At this point, I was certain these weren't just ordinary sconces, because no one would place them so sparsely; they offered virtually no illumination.

Past the fourth sconce, I led Daxiong and turned to head back. Daxiong protested, grabbing my wrist and saying, "Hey!

Comrade Xiaochuan, you really can't let go of that forty yuan, can you? Fine, fine, I'll give it to you!" I ignored him, pulled my hand free, and walked back a few steps.

Sure enough, I saw the stone door, so I pulled it open quickly and slipped inside. The moment I entered, I froze.

Daxiong followed close behind me and stopped dead as well. But the little man with the mustache on his back, however, his eyes suddenly lit up, as if he'd forgotten his illness.

He sighed, "What a treasure..." Before us lay a modest stone chamber piled high with gold bars and porcelain. Against one wall leaned several scroll paintings at an angle.

Next to the paintings was an open ebony coffer, inside which rested an official seal wrapped in red cloth, a suit of silver armor, and a sword whose scabbard was carved from ivory, inlaid with seven gems of different colors—truly a Seven-Star Sword. I recalled the description of returning home in splendor from the Wei King's silk manuscript and guessed that this wealth must have been bestowed by Li Shimin, while the armor and the seal were what the Wei King wore while serving in the Tang Dynasty.

Even a single suit of silver armor was likely a priceless treasure. The little man jumped down from Daxiong's back and said to us, "It would be an absolute crime against ourselves not to take this!" Daxiong cursed, "Damn it, [CENSORED NAME], you look half-cured just seeing funerary objects.

I swear you'll never change your thieving ways. How are we supposed to escape carrying all this weight in gold and silver?" Then he looked at me, coughed, and added, "But, to protect cultural relics, we could certainly take the sword and two of the paintings out to donate to a museum!" Daodou is another term for grave robbing, and I knew that.

I had always been unsure of Daxiong’s background, but seeing him consorting with this tomb robber, I figured I finally understood what he used to do. I wasn't an archaeologist, and even if I were, I was well aware of the unspoken rules; scholars who encountered unowned antiquities in the field held the discretion to deal with them as they saw fit, so I didn't object to it.

Seeing that I, the grandson of an old researcher, had no objections, Daxiong ran up to grab one scroll of painting and that sword. [CENSORED NAME] chose a porcelain vase and stuffed a few jade pendants inside it.

As we were leaving, Daxiong put the helmet from the silver armor on his head and didn't forget to stuff a few gold ingots into his pocket. He said sullenly, "What a shame.

If time weren't so tight, this old Xiong would definitely call for a truck to haul it all away—all of it... all of it donated to the museum?" The last part of his sentence was laced with doubt; clearly, even he didn't believe that sentiment.

I found it amusing and said, "Take what you can and let's go. It's still questionable whether we can even get these things out." Daxiong nodded and said, "Comrade Nie, you shouldn't take anything.

You're clean-cut, an upright fellow; all this gold and silver would only tarnish your cultured, noble hands. Once I'm out, you'll get your share." His words sounded awfully sarcastic, like an insult.

I kicked him in the backside and roared, "Eat shit! Hurry up and scram!" Following the numbers my grandfather had hinted at, I returned to the stone door at the tenth sconce and found myself in a stone room crammed with weaponry.

Unfortunately, these iron weapons were nearly rotted away. Leaving that room, we returned to the stone door at the fifth sconce and ended up back in the Wei King's tomb chamber—it seemed this was another crucial room in the maze.

At this, Daxiong brightened up and said to me, "Hey! We're back!

Comrade Xiaochuan, there's a way!" My own heart eased, and I smiled back, "Yeah, we're almost there finding those forty yuan." Following the last number my grandfather gave—three—we arrived before the final stone door. This door was the same one engraved with the conch pattern.

The natural crack splitting the surface suggested it was no different from the others. I placed my hand on the stone door, and a chill permeated my entire palm.

I took a deep breath and, putting our combined strength into it, Daxiong and I pulled the door open. A blast of cold, fresh air rushed in from beyond the door, a vast improvement over the putrid atmosphere of the corridor.

Daxiong and I cheered. Before us, the ancient ruins of the Wei State finally appeared.

Bright moonlight poured down from a massive hole overhead, illuminating the circular plaza before us, carved entirely with ice pictures. In the distance, dark shapes loomed—the ancient architectural complex of the Wei State.

The three of us reached the center of the plaza and looked up at the surrounding stone walls. After observing for a long time, our initial judgment proved correct: there was absolutely no way for us to exit through the giant hole above.

The space we were in resembled an overturned bowl, and the gaping hole was like a straw stuck into the bottom of that bowl. To enter the hole, we would need to grow eight legs.

Daxiong studied the scene for a moment, sighed, and said, "Freedom is right before our eyes, yet dawn seems impossibly far." After a pause, he added, "Why don't we try mimicking the castaways in Island Drifters? We can draw an SOS on the ground and see if anyone comes to save us." I told him, "Drawing an IOS won't help.

Setting aside whether a plane could even fly over that hole, even if someone was above, all they’d see is pitch black." Daxiong countered, "Alright then, we can use candles to spell out an SOS, surely that would work!" I laughed, "Why don't you arrange some candles into a heart shape and propose to the almighty Sister Feng, see if she'll come down and take you in? Keep talking nonsense and I'll light you up first." Daxiong glared at me, clutching his wrist, "Comrade Nie, are you deliberately trying to pick a fight with me today?" I shot back, "What of it!

The Master is gone, and now the Pigsy wants to bully the Eldest Brother? Believe it or not, I can subdue you, Black Bear Spirit, with a single strand of my monkey hair." The little man on Daxiong’s back nearly rolled his eyes listening to our bickering.

Seeing he couldn't bear it, we stopped talking, and without yielding to the other, we walked toward the Wei State ruins at the far end of the plaza. As we reached the edge of the ruins, despair washed over me.

The centipede-spiders were clustered thickly on the ceiling, waving their antennae to test the air, beginning to stir restlessly. Just then, the cavern shook violently again.

Quite a few centipede-spiders were knocked loose from the ceiling and started roaring furiously at us as they fell. Daxiong fired two shots at the centipede-spiders attempting to close in, then pulled me back, returning to the center of the plaza.

The centipede-spiders remained wary of the moonlight, confining themselves to roaring at us from a distance. Daxiong set the little man on the ground and plopped down beside him.

Standing beside them, I fell into a helpless silence. After a moment, I said to him, "Alright, I think spelling out an SOS with candles is actually quite feasible." Daxiong’s eyes widened into saucers when he heard me say that, and he sprang up from the ground with an overly dramatic movement.

I chuckled, "Enough with the theatrics, your acting is too fake. Was such a big reaction necessary?" Daxiong gestured wildly, stammering out one sentence after a long pause: "Th-this ice surface...

why is it warm?"