Page 78: Tomb
"Senior Cuifen, it looks like there's someone in front of us. By the way, what is that structure? It doesn't look like anything I have seen before."
"Hm? There are three of them. Those must be Yusheng and his company. Let's hurry." Cuifen replied.
Cuifen and his two juniors increased their pace as they neared the structure where Yusheng was located. While they are traversing the area with careful steps, their eyes could not resist looking at the triangular structure ahead of them. After running for almost five minutes, they reached the place where Yusheng was at.
"Heyo! If it's not Yusheng and company. What is this?" Cuifen asked as he looked at the structure with interest.
"Cuifen, where are the other two from the merchant union? I thought they were with you?" Yusheng asked curiously. Knowing the two came from a family who deals with a lot of things in the market, they might have some things also that would allow them to break the seal of the tomb's entrance.
"Ah, those two? They went on their own after following us in a short while. Maybe they thought there are no real dangers here and just proceeded with what they wanted. Why do you ask by the way and what is this thing in front of you?"
Of course, Cuifen who was used to not have regards for others can easily say such words despite the real thing that happened. On the other hand, the two juniors behind Cuifen were showing some signs of anxiousness. However, before they can make things more obvious, they remembered what Cuifen said about being killed in case they would spill something about what happened.
Yusheng answered Cuifen's question but did not tell him about the potential of the tomb. Since he is a competitor, it would be better to have the upper hand all the time specially when dealing with Cuifen.
"So what now? Are we going to stand here and wait? We don't have much time to be idling here if this tomb is not accessible. Knowing that this is a grade 5 array, there won't be anyone from us who would be able to decode it."
Cuifen tried to give a strong punch on the wall to test it but the wall even did not receive any damage or crack. It looked like the whole tomb was being protected and jot just the door. After being convinced that their situation was helpless, Cuifen decided to move on.
"Yusheng, I know you learned some few things about arrays but if you are not capable of opening it, then just give up. Have you forgotten about the alchemy competition? We only have few hours left. We will be moving on and try our on the east side. We haven't scoured that area yet so we might be able to find a lot of herbs from there. Later then!"
Cuifen sped of towards their next destination while Yusheng was still on hos thoughts. Indeed, he almost forgot about the competition due to the idea of treasures inside it but no matter what he would do, his ability was nit just enough to support his desire. With one final thought, he took one last glance unto the tomb's entrance before he called his juniors and resumed their herb seeking quest.
Not far from the tomb's entrance, more or less half a kilometer, Long Bai and Zhang Li had just spotted the unique architecture. In Long Bai's sight, he couldn't just deny what he saw and not be curious about it.
"Senior Li, look! There's something ahead of us. It looks like a structure of some kind. Do you know what that is?"
Long Bai has an idea what it might be but for an additional insight, he asked his senior. Zhang Li immediately focused her eyes on the structure ahead of them remembered the texts she read a ling time ago.
"Junior Bai, I think I have an idea what it is but it looks so small from here. Let's go and take a closer look."
The two approached the structure and there they were standing in front of a 5 meter high protruding structure with a triangular shape. Long Bai suddenly had an epiphany. He remembered the textbooks he read one time on a history class when they were learning about early civilizations. From the looks of it, the rock in front of him resembled the pictures from the book except the steps. Here, there were no steps and instead, it looked like a one gigantic rock sliced to that shape. The sides and edges were smooth as if one huge and sharp blade was used to slice a mountain and was made into this. While both were scrutinizing the the structure, Long Bai noticed the damaged concealing array that was supposed to hide the entrance. The inscriptions were shattered as if a strong lightning has struck on it from a long time ago.
"Senior Li, I found something. There's an entrance here but it is sealed with an array. Have you found out something?"
"Hm. I think this is a tomb. If I'm not wrong, this is a burial chamber of a certain clan leader of the distant past and in the deepest layer, there you'll find the bed of the honored dead laying on a garden of precious herbs and plants. Junior Bai, though this structure seemed to be small on the outside but this is actually just the tip of it. This gigantic structure has three chambers; 1st, the most shallow contains the workers that would be buried with the leader; 2nd, the gallery where it contains the wealth of the deceased; and 3rd, houses a small garden death bed. In the deepest chamber, we might be able to find precious herbs. The herbs they grew there are usually to help keep the body of the deceased intact. They believe that if they keep the body safe, his next life would be at peace together with the wealth he was buried with. The problem is that tombs like this one won't come easy. Inside, there will always be a guardian that would be installed to keep plunderers away."
After hearing Zhang Li's words, Long Bai had also thought of the same thing. The only difference is the presence of danger with the existing one. Since this is a cultivation world, all sorts of danger may occur inside but still, it was not enough to stop his curiosity. He heard someone say that "to gain something, one must risk a lot of things" and he believe this works too well in this world.
"Senior sister, if I can open the door, will you come with me to explore the inside?"
Long Bai was waiting for her answer. Zhang Li was taken aback and stunned for a while then smiled in reply.
"Quit joking. Although if it would come true, I'll definitely not waste such chance. True treasures comes together with great risks. What we aim is to go against the heavens and what is a little danger compared to that?"
Long Bai smiled and gave an approving look.
"Well said, senior Li. I can't agree more with you."
Just after his last word, the seal of the door lit up and shot up a bright white beam up to the skies. The entire area where they were standing became bright like a daylight and illuminated a wide area around it.
"What is happening? Junior Bai, what have you done?",
While Zhang Li was explaining a while ago, he was already using the system to analyze the array. Just when Long Bai received Zhang Li's approval, the system also just finished the analysis.
"Senior sister, the door opened. If we don't hurry, the others will arrive and might steal what we came for. The beam is too bright. They would have noticed it by now. Senior sister, let's enter!"
Although Zhang Li had many questions, she put it aside first since they can't let the others catch up. Before she followed inside the tomb, she saw Long Bai put 5 high grade shards and one red core on six points.
"Junior Bai, why did you put those crystals there?"
"Senior Li, those crystals will keep the door open while we are inside. Just to be sure that we won't be trapped inside."
As they stepped inside, they felt a constricting force. It was preventing them to move fast inside the structure. It was like the tomb was designed to prevent any activities that would desecrate the place.
[System alert: A restrictive array has been detected. Your movement will be reduced to a walking speed. Running, jumping, and flying are restricted.]
Zhang Li panicked from the development but then Long Bai calmed her down by telling her that they can still nove. The two continued going down the stairs that appeared to be oriented on a spiral manner. The stairs are located on the edge of the triangle while the rest was a hollow space. Reaching the 13th meter deep area, they saw the first junction. It lead to the first chamber. From their position, the chamber looked like a suspended wide closed room on the upper middle of the pyramid.
"Should we check that room senior? It looks like there's something in it."
"We better not. Most likely that the room would be the servant's chamber. We need to reach the deepest chamber as soon as possible. I think they are already here."
While trying to be in a hurry, they heard Cuifen and Yusheng's group who just arrived. Cuifen's group and Yusheng's group entered hurriedly with the excitement of a possible treasure that they can find inside.
*A few minutes ago
After the tomb flashed a beam of light towards the skies, the two groups who abandoned the area stopped from their tracks. Yusheng who was closer to the area immediately ordered his juniors to run towards it. Cuifen who was still in awe was distracted by his companion and immediately ran towards the tomb without saying a word.
Yusheng arrived at the area first and saw that the entrance was opened. Above the entrance, he saw the essence shards and a beast core supplying energy to the array.
"Is there an array master amongst us? Who would that be?"
Before Yusheng can enter the door, Cuifen came screaming his name asking to wait.
"Yusheng! How come it opened? Did you deceive me and waited me leave before opening it?"
Cuifen was full of questions but Yusheng ignored it. Instead, he asked him to make a deal. Since he knew some of the tomb's secrets, he would like to maximize his benefits out of it.
"Cuifen, listen, there will be chambers inside and in it will be unknown treasures. Let's make a deal. How about we split everything after dealing with the ones who are inside. What do you say?"
"Ha! Yusheng, I know you're too sly to be kind. It's first come first serve for us."
After hearing Cuifen's words, Yusheng smiled inwardly. Knowing Cuifen's attitude, he was waiting for this moment. Acting like he was in a rush to enter the tomb, this triggered Cuifen to dash towards the entrance in a hurry. Knowing what the first chamber can possibly contain, he aimed that Cuifen will take the bait and enter it first.
Just when Cuifen was about to dash downward and skip some stairs, the restriction array inside the tomb detected his movement and immediately pinned him down. This startled the group but when they saw Cuifen get up, they at least understood what was happening.
"Yusheng! you bastard! You knew this will happen!"
"I knew it or not, I was not the one who rushed recklessly."
Yusheng was about to pass him but Cuifen immediately reacted and continued walking. Inside, the two groups were still trying to move in a hurry down the stairs when they spotted two people ahead of them. Because it was too deep, they only saw the figure of two people moving downwards.