Humans light the candles, ghosts blow them out.

I understood what Fatty meant. He was probably saying that the air inside Helian Gui's tomb wasn't as good as the air in Gao Xianzhi's tomb. This is actually common knowledge. Back when my father was still alive, although I couldn't get involved in the family business due to my weak Yang energy in my birth chart, I often chatted with the tomb raiders who sold artifacts in my father's shop. I frequently heard them say that ancient tombs buried underground for many years have very poor air quality. Because they are well-sealed, the various stenches from decomposing corpses can't escape, and over time, the air becomes toxic. If the tomb is opened without airing it out, it can be lethal. That's not even the worst part—the most malicious are those vacuum tombs, which have structures very similar to the Egyptian pyramids, with no air inside. It's said that the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang is like this; once you go in, you can't come out, which is quite frightening. Tombs like Gao Xianzhi's, with good ventilation, are actually very rare because poor air quality in tombs is also a form of theft prevention. Those ancient dignitaries would have loved to sprinkle arsenic in the air when they were buried; why would they consider ventilation? So, tomb raiders always test the air before entering a tomb. Fatty's method of throwing a matchstick is one way to test if there's enough oxygen in the tomb, but it's flawed and crude. Some tombs have the worst air quality in the burial chambers, while the corridors are no different from the outside world. Therefore, most tomb raiders use the "bird release" method, which involves tying a string to a bird's leg and controlling its flight direction by adjusting the string's length, like flying a kite. This way, they can survey the air quality deep inside the burial chamber. If the bird stops pulling the string, it usually means it has been poisoned or suffocated to death in the tomb, which makes the tomb unsafe to enter.

Of course, these are all traditional methods I've heard about, passed down from our ancestors since ancient times. As for modern methods, I'm not sure. I've heard that many large foreign tomb raiding groups use high-tech equipment, sending remote-controlled robots to explore. That stuff is too advanced for me to understand.

Fatty is an expert in this field, so we definitely need to consider his opinion. He said to rest, so our team could only rest, sticking to the old rule—taking turns on watch.

Of course, taking turns doesn't include Princess Kinskaya. After all, the living and the dead are on different paths, and we still have some reservations about this former princess of the Stone Kingdom. Although she hasn't harmed us, we can't be so trusting as to close our eyes and let a ghost guard us.

To be honest, this is my first time sleeping in a place filled with dead bodies, and it's a mass grave at that. I definitely couldn't sleep well, with all sorts of messy thoughts filling my head when I closed my eyes. I thought of my father and was curious about what kind of image he had in front of others, aside from being a single father to me. I thought of the honest and simple Uncle Li and the stories he must have had in the past. I also thought of the mysterious woman who saved me at the ancient temple. What kind of existence was she? What did she look like? For some reason, I had an inexplicable feeling towards this mysterious woman, a feeling I couldn't even understand myself. I really, really wanted to see her. In such a dazed state, I managed to sleep for three or four hours before being woken up by Zhang Jinya—it was my turn to keep watch.

Although this was a mass grave, we didn't encounter any strange incidents throughout the night. At around seven o'clock the next morning, Fatty threw another matchstick into the tomb corridor, and this time it didn't go out.

"It's fine now, let's enter the tomb!"

Fatty let out a long breath and called us over. We shouldered our backpacks and plunged into the grave.

Helian Gui's tomb was actually quite similar in structure to Gao Xianzhi's, with a corridor leading to an antechamber, followed by the main burial chamber, two side chambers, and an annex. It seemed that after he was killed by his brother, Helian Chang, his father Helian Bobo did give him a grand burial and killed many Han people for his sacrifice, but ultimately he didn't give him the rites of a crown prince. He was buried according to the standards of a Han noble, as by that time, the Xiongnu had been conquered by the Han dynasty and had migrated inside the Great Wall for many years. Aside from their inherent savagery and ferocity, their burial rituals had become heavily Sinicized, following Han customs.

Because Helian Gui was notoriously infamous, we were here to rob the tomb. After passing through the corridor, we headed straight for his annex to see what burial goods he had. Unfortunately, we were a bit disappointed. This barbaric nation was just that—barbaric. The annex contained nothing but swords, spears, and horse bones, all oxidized beyond recognition and worthless to sell.

Then we headed to the side chambers. As soon as we entered, even Zhang Jinya started cursing the Helian family as beasts, because both side chambers were filled with human bones, obviously those who had been sacrificed. The bones were delicate, with smooth surfaces, clearly all women's bones, as men's bones are much thicker and longer, with a rougher surface and more pronounced contours. Clearly, the people buried in these side chambers were Helian Gui's wives and concubines, likely numbering over a hundred. He was truly a beast, not even sparing his own wives after death.

However, Zhang Jinya, the scoundrel, just cursed a few times before starting to pick out the gold and silver jewelry mixed among the bones. In no time, he had filled a backpack, his mouth grinning so wide it almost reached his ears, especially with that gold tooth he had pried from the mouth of a rice dumpling... His appearance was indescribably lewd...

After turning over Helian Gui's tomb, we finally arrived at the main burial chamber. According to Zhang Jinya, the evil energy point in Helian Gui's tomb was also in the main chamber, right in the center!

In the center of the burial chamber, where the tomb owner's coffin usually lies!

This meant that Helian Gui's tomb was like Gao Xianzhi's, with the evil energy point inside the coffin. We had to place the gold talisman that suppresses the evil energy into the coffin to seal the point.

Realizing this, we knew that the secrets of Helian Gui's tomb must be in the main chamber. So, from the moment we started prying open the tomb door, we were extra cautious. After all, since entering the tomb, we had been too lucky, so lucky that we couldn't believe this ancient tomb was the tenth of the ten most dangerous tombs, with no sign of the overwhelming evil energy.

Opening the tomb door was certainly no challenge for Fatty, the tomb-raiding captain. It was still that capstone design. Fatty wedged the key in and quickly dismantled the mechanism inside.

Boom!

With a loud crash as the capstone fell, Helian Gui's main burial chamber was finally revealed to us.

Inside, there was a coffin and a four to five-meter-tall bronze tower. Because the chamber was well-sealed, the bronze tower still emitted a shiny metallic luster!

"My goodness, what's going on here?"

Zhang Jinya gasped at the sight and poked Fatty: "Fatty, have you ever heard of a tower inside an ancient tomb?"

Fatty didn't speak, staring at the bronze tower for a long time before frowning and saying, "This damn thing... looks like a soul-suppressing tower!"

A soul-suppressing tower?

I had never heard of such a thing, so I asked Fatty what it was all about.

"Mass burial pits, soul-suppressing towers, a night parade of a hundred ghosts, even celestial masters retreat!"

Fatty let out a long sigh and said solemnly, "This soul-suppressing tower is actually similar in structure to a mass burial pit."

I knew about mass burial pits; they were burial tombs from the prehistoric cultural period, about five thousand years ago, and very rare. Life was difficult for people in that period, and slave dynasties hadn't been established yet, so there was no capacity to build tombs. Therefore, the burial practice was "tombs upon tombs," where the dead were buried in layers, one on top of the other, with only a layer of soil in between.

These mass burial pits, because they contained so many dead, were especially prone to problems. Particularly when buried in places with heavy Yin energy, as soon as they were dug up, filthy things would swarm out, leaving no chance for survival.

"Mass burial pits have the dead buried in layers, and the soul-suppressing tower is also stacked layer by layer, each layer containing countless trapped souls. If the soul-suppressing tower is destroyed, the souls will swarm out, which is deadly!"

Fatty continued, "If I'm not mistaken, the souls trapped inside this tower are those from the sacrificial pits outside. That beast Helian Bobo not only killed those people for his son's burial but also trapped their souls in the soul-suppressing tower, condemning them to never transcend and stay in the tomb to guard his son's grave. If anyone ignorant enough disturbs this tower, they will be devoured clean by the souls of those who were buried with him!"

With Fatty's explanation, we all felt a bit uneasy. After Helian Gui's death, tens of thousands of Han citizens were beheaded and buried with him. If we were to open this soul-suppressing tower, wouldn't that release tens of thousands of souls? Just the thought of it was chilling.

"Don't worry, this soul-suppressing tower is meant to deal with those ignorant mud-legged tomb thieves. As long as we recognize it and don't touch it, we'll be fine."

Fatty chuckled and walked into the main chamber with his backpack. After lighting a candle in the southeast corner, he put on white gloves and hopped onto the coffin to start prying it open. While busying himself with the crowbar, he muttered, "You better leave me a couple of good items. As the saying goes, gold has a price, but jade is priceless. Leave me some jade, and I might just spare you from being turned upside down. Otherwise, I won't be polite to you, you Tartar, and I'll have to whip your corpse..."

I was speechless, seeing Fatty's attitude and knowing he wouldn't let Helian Gui off easily. He was probably going to do something despicable because the most valuable things in the chamber were definitely on the tomb owner's body. Any dignitary would be buried with jade in hand, a pearl in the mouth, and something inserted in the anus. However, to retrieve these items from the tomb owner's body, some degree of desecration was inevitable. For example, to extract the pearls inserted in the anus, given that the body had long lost its elasticity, the buttocks would have to be torn open...

But I wasn't opposed to Fatty's actions. After all, Helian Gui was no good; he had killed so many innocent people of the Han dynasty during his life. It wouldn't be too much to dig up his ancestors' graves and whip their corpses. If it weren't for my weak Yang energy, which could easily cause the dead to rise, I would probably have joined in the desecration myself!

Pfft!

Just as Fatty was busy opening the coffin and searching for treasure, without any warning, the candle Fatty had lit in the southeast corner of the chamber went out.

Ghost blowing out the candle?

I was quick to notice this and felt a sudden jolt in my heart. Could it be that Helian Gui, after being dead for so long, still refused to go to the underworld and was guarding his treasures in his own tomb chamber?

I was about to warn Fatty, who was engrossed in his tomb raiding, when suddenly a chilling, sharp laughter echoed through the chamber.

Gaga gaga gaga...

The laughter was cold and piercing, making one's skin crawl with goosebumps.