"Xiaolan... should we stop hitting it? It seems like it's really almost dead."
Ah Qing looked on in amazement as the cats banded together, shoulder to shoulder, forming a grand team, frantically kicking at the leech. The leech curled up and bounced, then hit the ground and curled up into a ball again, wailing uncontrollably.
The cries, landing in Ah Qing's ears, automatically translated into the standard dialect of Xia Country.
"Bro, I was wrong..."
"Although I don't know what I'm wrong about, I'm truly regretting from the bottom of my heart right now, please stop, ah—"
"You have to trust the vitality of the Spirit Beast." Ansheng strolled forward, glanced at the leech, and confidently said to Ah Qing:
"Later on, when its pupils dilate, just send it to the ophthalmologist for a shot, we're all professionals."
"Pupil dilation..."
Ah Qing nodded vaguely upon hearing this, but only realized what the little fox was talking about after barely nodding her head.
"Isn't pupil dilation basically death? Would sending it to the ophthalmologist do any good?" Ah Qing exclaimed, stunned.
"I trust its will to survive."
Ansheng, with a carefree expression, shook his head and ambled around Ah Qing's leg before speaking: "We've taken care of the roadblock Evil Beast, let's continue our treasure hunt!"
Ah Qing and her crew embarked on a grand treasure-hunting adventure, only to encounter the death of a gatekeeping golden-thread leech right outside.
With the leech settled now, Ah Qing could rely on some mysterious sixth sense, heading to the spot where treasure lies in wait to open the box.
Ansheng was curious too, keen to see just what was constantly tantalizing Ah Qing.
"Hmm, over here..."
Ah Qing pondered silently for a moment, picked up the little fox and hugged him close to her chest, supporting his butt with one hand, inviting everyone else to join her as they entered the forest.
Ah Qing turned in a direction, and there was a deep groove of tire marks on the dirt road among the woods, stretching toward the forest, with small trees and stones flung aside along the path.
At the end of the path was a deep pit. Inside the pit was dark, yet gusts of chilling wind blew out, carrying a damp, moldy smell from rotting objects.
"Is it here?"
Ansheng, with his excellent night vision, lay at the edge of the pit, peering into the collapsed pit.
A car lay silently at the bottom of the pit, its front bumper and hood already crumpled, resembling a box, and beside the fallen car lay a completely wrecked coffin.
The pure electric car fell from the ground, collapsing the support structure atop the ancient tomb, directly smashing down on the tomb owner, shattering the stone coffin along with the wooden coffin inside.
The tomb owner experienced the principle of leverage, flying out of the coffin and crashing into the wall, ending up half-embedded in the tomb chamber wall.
"This ancient tomb seems a bit off..."
The construction date of the tomb is unknown, but regardless of the era it was built, Ansheng didn't believe that an ordinary person's skeleton could pierce through a wall after their flesh had weathered away.
"Beep beep—"
As Ansheng frowned in thought, Momo walked to the edge of the pit, lay down, took out her car key, and unlocked the door of the electric car inside the tomb, causing the scrap car to illuminate the tomb space with its welcoming and headlamps.
"Ignorance is forgivable, I hope the distinguished senior won't trouble my ancestors, later on, I'll definitely burn paper money as an apology..."
Momo clasped her hands together, reciting in front of the wall where the tomb owner's posterior protruded.
The tomb owner looked too pitiful after death, so naturally, Momo wasn't worried it would come back to life and kick her.
Yet, without a bow, Momo felt the tomb owner might cause trouble for her deceased ancestors.
"Ah Qing, the voice you mentioned, was it from this ancient tomb's owner?"
Ansheng glanced at the tomb owner, turned his head to ask Ah Qing.
Although archaeological exploration hadn't begun yet, merely from the current signs, it was clear this tomb had something related to Spiritual Particles, or perhaps the tomb owner possessed Spiritual Particle items during their lifetime.
Just like the Security Bureau once said, there's a case of an unnamed kingdom sovereign not recorded in history, whose body decayed after death but whose skeletal strength was incredibly bizarre.
"Hmm... The caller wasn't the tomb owner, that thing isn't even on this level, there might be an interlayer underground."
Ah Qing sensed carefully, raised her hand pointing to the spot under the coffin, indicating the call came from there.
"Then let's go take a look, meanwhile, send a message to Wang Qiqi telling her perhaps the Security Bureau's archaeologists need to sweep the area..."
Ansheng spoke to Ah Qing, then turned his attention to the Lingren carrying a small backpack.
"You secure the rope, I'll go take a look first."
Ansheng spoke, then flipped down into the pit, ran to the coffin's location, lifted his paw to push aside the electric car and coffin.
With both moved aside, a cover unlike the stone floor was exposed in the tomb chamber.
On the cover, hundreds of inscribed pictographic script adorned the surface.
"Uh..."
Ansheng glanced at the cover, although he hadn't deliberately studied ancient script, he once saw similar translation comparison charts in Wang Ya's office, retaining related memory in his mind.
[In life, I had no noteworthy accomplishments, but the gentleman once said after death, I would face a catastrophe, and should I smoothly survive it, I would be renowned, with the whole world admiring my splendor.]
[Although I don't know where my splendor lies, the gentleman wouldn't deceive me idly...]
[If any grave digger sees this stone tablet, please kindly refrain from messing up my hairstyle, all my burial items are upstairs, only my underwear remains in the coffin.]
"...Truth be told, the gentleman was quite accurate in predicting your fate."
"However, your fame might differ from what you envisioned."
Ansheng's expression was peculiar as he extended a claw to lift the cover along its edge.
An ancient corpse suspected of Spiritualization landing in the Security Bureau's hands would indeed attract hundreds and thousands of researchers, documenting in textbooks.
Fame was assured indeed, though its name was etched in textbooks.
With the cover lifted, faint Spiritual Particles hovered in the refuge layer at the tomb's base.
A male corpse, dressed in long white trousers, hair neatly arranged, lay in a stone bathtub, filled with a layer of transparent yellow liquid, completely fixing the corpse in the tub with no items around.
"Ah Qing, there's no danger here, you can come over!"
Ansheng called out to Ah Qing, examining the items in the tomb, finding no peculiar objects.
Ah Qing descended the rope, came beside Ansheng, gazed at the refuge layer, eyes slightly brightened, pointing to a stone shelf in the front of the Crystal Coffin of the tomb owner.
"It's that, its butt has been wriggling."
Ansheng followed Ah Qing's direction, looking at the offering table's incense burner, revealing a bewildered expression.
Calling it an incense burner might be inaccurate, as it was actually a beast's skull.
Under the stare of Master Fuli, the skull felt uneasy, extending black whiskers to hold the shelf, slightly turning away, unwilling to meet Master Fuli's gaze.
Prolonged mutual gaze amounted to provocation, the skull sensed Master Fuli might gnaw it apart.
Thus, it subtly evaded the scorching stare.
"Moving... it moved! Xiaolan, look, it moved!"
Ah Qing exclaimed with shock and warned the little fox.