The Tenth Tomb

I agree with Rosa's view. Now, other than entering the ancient tomb and using the tomb door to fend off these pig-faced giant bats, we really have no better way out.

Even so, entering that ancient tomb doesn't necessarily mean we'll fare any better!

Based on my impression of the entire Qinling Dragon Land, the scale of this Dragon Land is actually immense. Although we have retreated quite a distance after coming out of the Gao Xianzhi tomb, we definitely haven't left the Dragon Land. That is to say, the ancient tomb we stumbled upon is essentially built on the Dragon Land, and it's likely not going to be peaceful inside.

But, we truly have no other options. As soon as Rosa's bullets run out, we'll be devoured by these pig-faced giant bats.

Because of this, after Rosa and I blocked the entrance of the narrow path, we started to deliberately conserve bullets. I mostly relied on swinging my broadsword like crazy, while Rosa occasionally fired a shot or two from behind to help me take down the pig-faced giant bats in the blind spots I couldn't reach.

Overall, our cooperation was quite in sync. However, after the main burden of resisting the pig-faced giant bats fell on my shoulders, my already depleted strength became even harder to sustain. Soon, I was gasping for breath, just gritting my teeth and persevering. I've been holding out at the entrance of this narrow path for a good ten minutes or more, and I couldn't help but roar, "Fatty, what's the situation on your side? Why is it so hard to pry open a tomb door?"

"You know nothing!"

Fatty cursed rudely, "The damn door is bolted from the inside, and the cracks are sealed with molten iron. It's completely sealed. If we want to get in, we can only dig our way in from the ground. Hold on for another ten minutes, it's almost done!"

Ten minutes?

My head spun for a moment, but given the circumstances, I had no choice but to accept it. Biting my teeth, I kept swinging my sword to cut down one bat after another. The smell on me was so bad that even I couldn't stand it. First, I plunged into a pool of bat dung, then I fought the pig-faced giant bats up close, getting drenched in their blood. If there was a mirror in front of me, I believe my appearance would be extremely ferocious.

After holding on for a while longer, I was already on the verge of collapsing. Rosa also saw that I had indeed reached my limit, so she pulled me behind her, "We don't have much ammunition left, but holding on for ten minutes is still no problem. You rest for a bit!"

I felt relieved and leaned against the wall behind Rosa, gasping for air.

At this moment, Fatty's voice came from deep within the narrow path, "It's open! You two, come in quickly!"

With that said, Rosa and I fought and retreated, making our way into the narrow path.

This narrow path wasn't deep, only about thirty or forty meters at most. In the blink of an eye, we saw the tomb door Fatty mentioned. It was a large iron door, covered in rust, with faint carvings of dragons visible on it.

Dragons?

Dragons had a special significance in ancient times. Who would dare to carve dragons on their tomb doors after death? Reporting such a thing would bring disaster to the entire family because dragons were exclusively for the royal family!

Damn, could it be that the tomb we stumbled upon actually contains some royal descendants?

However, these thoughts were just fleeting in my mind. This was not the time to consider these issues. Rosa had already crawled into the hole dug under the tomb door. Without her firepower to suppress them, the pig-faced giant bats flew towards me in a swarm, scaring me into hastily crawling through the hole. Luckily, I was relatively slim. If it were Fatty with his physique, it would probably be difficult even to crawl through the hole, let alone being caught by those giant bats and bitten.

Once I got in, Zhang Jinya used a backpack to block the hole under the tomb door. When I got up, I finally saw the scene behind the tomb door and was immediately stunned!

Our current location should be outside the antechamber of this ancient tomb. The area was dug into numerous trenches, filled with skeletons. These skeletons had no skulls above their necks, and most of their arms were tied behind their backs. Some of the dry bones even had weathered ropes tied around their arm bones, clearly indicating that these people were killed while bound.

Such trenches, one after another, totaled twenty or thirty, all filled with skeletons, numbering no less than ten thousand. Across the trenches, there were two doors made of white marble, tightly closed. Presumably, the real burial chamber was behind these white marble doors, which should be the antechamber of this ancient tomb.

And the place we were in was likely meant for sacrificial burials.

"Damn, who the hell is buried here, and how many people were killed for his burial!"

Fatty gasped in shock upon seeing this scene, "I've been tomb raiding for so many years, and I've seen plenty of human sacrifices, but hundreds at most, or just a few people. I've never seen anything like this, with tens of thousands of human sacrifices!"

I, with my keen eyes, observed the sacrificial pits and then focused on the white marble door. There stood a stele, which likely recorded the information of the tomb's owner. So, I said, "Let's see who this person is, and we'll know."

After saying that, I took the lead and walked over there. Although I was indeed quite exhausted at this time, it really wasn't the time to rest in this unknown ancient tomb. It was better to first figure out whose tomb this was. Fatty and the others closely followed behind me.

As we crossed those sacrificial pits, we were especially careful. These people were wronged in life, so it was best not to trample on their bones. After all, this place was the Dragon Land, and no one knew what could happen.

This ancient tomb seemed to have never been entered before, with no signs of damage inside. The stele in front of the two white marble doors was also covered in a thick layer of dust. I fiercely wiped the dust off with my sleeve before I could clearly see the content on the stele. The content was written in Chinese characters, so it wasn't difficult to recognize.

Just as I expected, the stele recorded the identity of the tomb's owner. I didn't need to look to know, but when I did, I was shocked. The owner of the tomb was Helian Hui, a figure I had despised and hated to the extreme when I first studied history. Or rather, it was his entire clan that I hated, a feeling similar to... how we feel now when reading about the War of Resistance against Japan or the Nanjing Massacre!

Fatty, seeing my face turn pale, asked who this Helian Hui was.

I took a deep breath and slowly began to explain the origin of Helian Hui.

This person lived during one of the most difficult periods in the history of the Han people - the Era of the Five Barbarians and Sixteen Kingdoms, historically known as the "Disorder of the Five Barbarians."

To talk about the cause of this period, we have to start from the Han Dynasty. The Han Dynasty opened the Silk Road, trading frequently with surrounding ethnic groups. During that time, the barbarians continuously migrated to the Central Plains, gradually occupying the North China region and growing in power. By the time of the Western Jin Dynasty, the barbarians had settled in Guanzhong and the basins of the Jing and Wei Rivers, surrounding the Western Jin capital, Luoyang. During the reign of Emperor Hui of Jin, internal strife within the Jin royal family erupted in the "War of the Eight Princes," leading to the division of the Jin Dynasty, national weakness, and the decline of people's livelihoods. The military power of the Jin Dynasty rapidly deteriorated, and the barbarians entrenched in the North China region took the opportunity to rise up, invading the Central Plains and causing great chaos. Over a hundred years, dozens of states of varying strength and size were established by barbarians and Han people, historically known as the "Disorder of the Five Barbarians."

The Five Barbarians refer to the Xiongnu, Xianbei, Jie, Qiang, and Di tribes!

This Helian Hui was a descendant of the Xiongnu who invaded the North China region.

As is well known, during the Western Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu launched military campaigns against the Xiongnu, splitting them into pieces. The Northern and Southern Xiongnu disintegrated, with the Northern Xiongnu fleeing to Europe, indirectly leading to the fall of the Roman Empire in Europe, while the Southern Xiongnu sought refuge with the Han Dynasty and settled in Guanzhong.

Helian Hui's faction was one of the branches of the Southern Xiongnu. After the "War of the Eight Princes," his father, Helian Bobo, led troops into Chang'an and established the Da Xia regime, historically known as the Hu Xia regime. They were extremely brutal. After taking control of Guanzhong, they began the indiscriminate slaughter of the Han people in Guanzhong, becoming one of the main culprits of the mass killing of the Han population during the Disorder of the Five Barbarians. For example, during the continuous wars, farmland was abandoned, leading to severe food shortages and insufficient military rations. Consequently, the Five Barbarians began the history of cannibalism.

This cannibalism was real!

They treated the Han people as military rations, especially favoring women. They drove large numbers of Han women with the army, raping them at night and killing them for meat during the day, even referring to Han women as "two-legged sheep," meaning sheep with two legs...

In short, that period was dark and bloody!

This Helian Hui was the son of Helian Bobo, the crown prince of Hu Xia at the time. It's obvious what kind of atrocities he committed!

However, later, when Helian Bobo planned to replace the crown prince with Helian Lun, Helian Hui was furious. He led seventy thousand troops to attack Helian Lun's thirty thousand troops and personally killed his own brother. After that battle, Helian Hui was severely weakened and was killed by his brother, the Duke of Taiyuan, Helian Chang.

It was essentially a dog-eat-dog situation, a family fighting among themselves.

I never expected to encounter Helian Hui's tomb here. Previously, an ancient tomb was discovered near Bai Futu Temple in Yanchuan County, and many historians speculated that it was Helian Hui's tomb, which even made the news. Now it seems that tomb must have been a fake, or the person buried near Bai Futu Temple was someone else, and the historians were mistaken.

After I finished explaining, the faces of Fatty and the others turned grim.

Needless to say, the people in these sacrificial pits in front of us were definitely the common Han people from back then, brought here by Helian Bobo for his son's burial.

"Damn, it turns out to be a beast in human skin!"

Fatty cursed immediately, "Although I'm a tomb raider, I hate those who harm the common people for no reason the most. You say you're fighting for your own territory, why harm the common people? No doubt, this time I must strip Helian Hui, this bastard, clean!"

"Right, right! We should have done this long ago. Gao Xianzhi was a loyal and famous general, and we tomb raiders don't touch his tomb, but Helian Hui's grave can be dug, right? Otherwise, our trip to the Qinling Mountains would have been in vain."

Zhang Jinya grinned and then took out a compass from his bag, saying he wanted to check our current location. But when he looked, his face changed immediately, and he exclaimed in shock, "Oh my god, I've found the tenth evil burial site. This tenth grave of the ten most evil graves is Helian Hui's tomb!"