Since I know the Wei people are not fish and cannot reside in the Dragon Palace of the East Sea, and given that Lop Nur had refilled with water, it meant that if the Wei people were to continue living in the underground tunnels, they absolutely had to prevent the lake water from entering.

I didn't doubt the Wei people's ability to seal off the tunnels, but in such a confined space, how did those people from Lingyu Temple manage to get in?

*Laughed, saying, "That’s easy. Look at how benevolent the Wei people are; they surely treated the ambitious and heroic Emperor Qin Shi Huang as a friend. When the group from Lingyu Temple arrived at Yanze with a large number of gifts, claiming that the Qin Emperor didn't have much time left and, recalling their friendship from back then, they had specially brought grand offerings—how could the Wei people refuse them entry?"

"Then, Lingyu Temple placed all the venomous insects and ferocious beasts they had prepared inside the gift chests. The Wei people would never have imagined that the Qin State would scheme against them."

I nodded and then asked, "If the Wei people were defeated, why did these few people from Lingyu Temple commit suicide here?"

*Sighed and said, "You've hit the key point. I suspect these people must have been trapped and died here."

I frowned and asked, "How so?"

*Showed a puzzled expression again and said, "Haven't you noticed? There is no exit here."

I found *'s words quite amusing and asked him, "No exit? How did you get in?"

*Said with a tinge of annoyance, "Damn it, I wish I knew how I got in, but I just scoured this entire room inside and out, and there is absolutely no exit!"

He looked at me and then asked, "You said a girl in white saved me earlier—who exactly was she?"

I didn't have time to answer his question because I had clearly entered through a passage leading to a lower level, so why would * say there was no exit?

Saying that, I walked toward that spot purely by instinct.

*Called out twice from behind, not knowing why, and followed me over.

The more I walked, the more astonished I became, because what had felt like a rather large room earlier, I now reached the opposite tree-wall in less than a dozen steps. The weapon racks and the scattered armaments from before were gone; only the corpses lying on the ground remained.

Naturally, I couldn't find the entrance hole I had used earlier either.

So, I stopped in front of the tree-wall, and the more I thought about it, the more something felt wrong. It wasn't just that the exit had vanished; when I entered, there was definitely no mural on the inside of this tree-wall, or I would have noticed it immediately.

And that statue carved from white marble seemed to have suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

This reminded me of the labyrinth I encountered beneath the Black Bamboo Gully; that situation also lacked a reasonable explanation.

But back then, entering different rooms caused everything to change, so why was it that only the couch and the ancient corpses hadn't moved now? This was truly bizarre.

I believed this was some kind of architectural technique employed by the Wei people, but I genuinely could not fathom the underlying principle.

"Did you perhaps see that white marble statue come to life? I was actually severely wounded before, and although my consciousness was unclear, I vaguely remember seeing a woman saving me," *said as he walked over to me.

I nodded at him and said, "Believe it or not, I distinctly remember there being no mural when I entered. That means the mural and the statue appeared only after I woke up. That statue must hold some clue."

*Agreed and followed me back to the white marble statue.

Seeing the statue before me, I couldn't help but look at her face.

This face was almost identical to my cousin's—the second face resembling an ancient person I had found since Liang Qian. This made one doubt: does reincarnation truly exist in this world? Or was my cousin genuinely connected to this woman?

Next, examining the maiden's posture, I observed that her right hand was held flat against her chest, palm up, supporting a plate. In the center of the plate was a thumb-sized indentation, seemingly meant to hold a bead-like object previously. Her right hand was posed with the four fingers curled and only the index finger extended—a mudra gesture usually only seen on statues of immortals.

I presumed that when carving this statue, the artisan must have revered her as a deity. This suggested either the worship of a leader, or perhaps this maiden was a spiritual figure within the clan, like a shamaness.

Carefully observing the statue's details, I noticed that the white marble had become brittle and porous due to extreme age; touching it caused white dust to flake off, and the natural holes were unusually large.

Overall, this statue seemed to be carved from a single block of stone. The lines flowed seamlessly, and the details were lifelike, meaning the carver must have been a true master craftsman.

But since it was one solid piece of stone, the statue didn't appear to have any mechanisms or secret doors built into it.

*And I murmured a silent "Amitabha," apologizing to the female figure, and felt over the statue from top to bottom, yielding no results.

Then we tried pushing the statue forcefully, but it wouldn't budge, indicating no mechanism was connected underneath.

I brushed the stone dust off my hands and said to *, "It seems the statue itself isn't the problem."

*Nodded, then began searching the area with his flashlight.

I asked what he was looking for, and * replied, "Don't you find it strange? This statue isn't placed in the center. That means there should be two statues here; otherwise, it wouldn't be symmetrical."

I looked at the placement of the maiden statue. Using the couch as a reference point, it was indeed not perfectly centered. Furthermore, based on the mural's content, there should be a statue of a young man here—the principal figure of the Wei State.

*Walked to the spot where the second statue should have been, using the couch as a guide—directly to the right of the maiden statue.

*Stopped at that location, facing the same direction as the maiden statue, and adopted a posture as if casting a spell.

I stepped back to look; it was indeed symmetrical. In terms of height and build, * would have been a fitting representation of the Wei leader.

Just as I was about to share this "good news" with *, the entire cavern began to tremble faintly.

I guessed that *'s position might have triggered some mechanism, so I shouted, "Get out of there quickly!"

But it was too late. I saw * drop low, sinking straight through the floor.

However, * was an experienced tomb robber, possessing excellent agility. As he fell, he pulled his military knife from his waist and jammed it fiercely into the cavern wall, preventing him from dropping further.

But looking at him from a distance, only his head remained above the ground.

*was injured and, though momentarily suspended, was already drenched in sweat.

Seeing this, I immediately rushed over, grabbed *'s hand, and pulled him up.

*Escaped the trap, kneeling on one knee, breathing heavily, but he couldn't help looking back down into the pit, saying to me, "There's something down there…"

What could be so captivating to *? I couldn't help but become curious and leaned over the opening to peer into the pit.

Before I could clearly make out what was inside the hole, I noticed a faint yellow glow emanating from within the pit—it was quite magical.

When I finally saw what was in the hole, I was so astonished my jaw nearly dropped.

The pit was about five meters deep, its inner walls extremely smooth, unlike the wooden structure of other parts of the cavern; they seemed almost like skin, with a clear, viscous fluid constantly seeping from the dermal walls, forming a pool nearly a meter deep at the bottom.

And lying horizontally in that pool was a statue about 1.8 meters tall.

The statue was neither bronze nor stone; it was translucent like jade but distinctly different from jade because the entire figure emitted a faint yellow light.

*Though he hadn't fallen into the pit, his clothes were now covered in the transparent mucus.

I dipped a finger in some of the fluid and sniffed it; it carried a faint scent of wood, the same scent as the substance I encountered earlier on the floorboards between levels.

Clearly, this transparent secretion was non-toxic and non-corrosive.

This meant the trap wasn't designed with fatal poison gas, spikes, or other mechanisms—it was merely quite deep.