Chapter 1 The Approaching Sound

The sounds in the tunnel grew closer, and the unknown fear made them panic.

Fatty pounded the wall beside the stone door in frustration. Suddenly, he felt the bricks under his hand loosen.

He tapped the brick and pushed it inward, discovering that it was movable. Fatty quickly asked Professor Chen to come and take a look.

Professor Chen told Fatty that the brick might be a mechanism.

Professor Chen pressed the brick, and a grinding sound came from behind the stone door. Fatty tried to push the door, but it remained motionless.

"Could the mechanism be broken?" Fatty asked Professor Chen.

Professor Chen said, "No, the mechanism has been triggered. This may be a combination mechanism. Quick, look for similar bricks on the wall."

Under Professor Chen's instructions, everyone began searching for mechanisms on the stone wall.

Rouyi found the second one and pushed it in under Professor Chen's direction. The grinding sound came from behind the stone door again.

They found a total of four mechanism stones. After the last brick was pushed in, in addition to the sound of grinding stones, there was also the sound of rolling stones. Professor Chen said, "The mechanism should be unlocked. Let's push the stone door open!"

Sure enough, after the mechanism was unlocked, Fatty alone could easily push the stone door open. With a "creak, creak" sound, the stone door was successfully pushed open. Only then did Fatty discover that there was indeed a groove behind the stone door, and there was a stone ball in the groove. It was this stone ball that had blocked the stone door, preventing him from pushing it open.

The eerie sound in the tunnel was getting closer and closer to them. Without delay, everyone immediately entered the other side of the stone door.

After arriving on the other side of the stone door, everyone glanced in the direction of the tunnel they had just come from. They saw a large number of dried corpses swarming towards them in groups. The stride and frequency of the dried corpses were consistent, and their speed was moderate, dragging one line after another, feeling extremely eerie.

The dried corpse at the front was holding the crystal skull head with a faint green glow.

"Close the door quickly," Professor Chen said.

Fatty did not dare to delay and immediately pushed the stone door. Just as the group of dried corpses was about to arrive, he slammed the stone door shut. At this time, the mechanism restored, the stone in the groove under the ground sank, and the stone ball returned to its original position, jamming the stone door.

Fatty collapsed under the stone door, panting heavily. Pushing a stone door weighing more than a ton was not something ordinary people could do.

A rustling sound came from behind the stone door, indicating that the group of dried corpses had arrived at the door.

Everyone waited nervously for the group of dried corpses behind the door to take action. After a while, there was another dragging sound behind the door, as if the group of dried corpses had gone in another direction.

The group of dried corpses did not activate the mechanism, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Only Professor Chen looked worried: "Alas, once the stone door is closed, we can't go back to the tunnel we came from. This door is a one-way door, only opened from the outside."

Fatty waved his hand and told Professor Chen, "Anyway, there are a bunch of walking corpses and a glowing skull head on the other side of the stone door. It's good that we can't go back, so we don't get attacked again."

The space behind the stone door was connected to a tunnel, but this tunnel was wider than the one they had just passed through. Obviously, the further they went, the closer they would get to the very center of the ancient tomb.

After the group of dried corpses left, there was no sound behind the stone door. Only then did Fatty lead everyone into the tunnel.

The tunnel was very dark, and the end could not be seen at a glance. Fatty used a flashlight to light the way while holding a gun to be on guard in case of unexpected situations.

After walking for about ten minutes, everyone saw the light at the exit of the tunnel.

Light is hope, so everyone quickened their pace and ran towards the exit.

When they arrived at the exit, Fatty, Professor Chen, and the others were shocked by the sight before them. The coffins and dried corpses in the stone chamber had already opened Professor Chen's eyes, but compared to what was in front of them, the stone chamber was just an appetizer before the main course.

What came into view was a magnificent underground city.

Professor Chen's lips trembled, and he slowly uttered a few words: "This... this is not an ancient tomb at all... but an underground city..."

In the underground city, various buildings were scattered in a well-organized manner, like a huge ancient city kingdom. The ancient city shone brightly, without any signs of abandonment or decay.

An underground river, originating from an unknown source and flowing to an unknown destination, ran through the entire underground city. Water and air meant that this underground city had not been abandoned. Professor Chen was the first to realize this, so he expressed his thoughts and told everyone to be careful.

Building such a magnificent underground city under the desert, and with an underground river that has never dried up running through the entire underground city, indicates that this type of construction was intentional. Although Professor Chen did not know how the people in the underground city did this, since they could do it, then this underground city must have its secrets. Thinking of the resurrected walking corpses just now, Professor Chen felt a chill run down his spine.

At first glance, there were no signs of human activity in the underground city. The houses were basically well-preserved. Although there was a river passing through the city, the climate in the desert was still too dry, and cracked walls could be seen everywhere. Several circular-domed, temple-like buildings stood out from the crowd, easily catching the eye. With different shapes and styles, Professor Chen and the others could not tell which sect these temples belonged to.

"That religious building looks a bit like a Taoist temple," Liu Xiaojuan said, pointing to a building in the distance that resembled a Taoist temple.

The others looked in the direction Liu Xiaojuan pointed and found that, as Liu Xiaojuan had said, there was indeed a Chinese traditional ancient building with green tiles and flying eaves standing in the city. The dark cyan tiles topped the building, and the vermilion stone walls supported it, giving people a direct feeling of a Taoist temple.

However, what made it most obvious that this was a Taoist temple was the bronze incense burner, more than one person tall, placed in front of the hall.

The appearance of a Central Plains-style Taoist temple in an ancient underground city in the Western Regions aroused everyone's interest.

"Let's go take a look," Professor Chen said.

Entering the ancient city, the group found a path leading to the Taoist temple from among the scattered folk houses. Along the way, when they reached the river, Duan Pengfei finally couldn't bear it anymore and said to everyone, "My fingers are very itchy now, and they are accompanied by a burning sensation, which is very uncomfortable. I want to wash them with river water."

Fatty walked to the river and checked. The river water was flowing, had no odor, and the water quality seemed to be fine. However, there were too many strange things in the ancient city, and it was hard to guarantee that there would be no problems with the river water.

Sweat kept pouring out of Duan Pengfei's head. He gritted his back teeth and said, "It's too uncomfortable. I've endured it for a long time. If you give me a knife, I'd rather chop off these two fingers."

Seeing that Duan Pengfei was in so much pain, Fatty no longer stopped him from washing his fingers with river water.