Chapter 1 They Already Changed

Ye Tao absolutely didn't mean to interfere with Commander Qin's judgment, nor was he worried about his own safety. In fact, from the moment this group of guards protected those young masters and misses as they left the unsafe imperial villa and headed into the dense forest of the valley, leaving behind the imperial guards who were somewhat powerless in their defense, their fate had already quietly changed.

Although Ye Tao and Tan Weixin only had Liu Yong, Jin Ze, Guan Huan, and Zhou Rui with them, and they also had to protect Tan Weixin, who had no ability to protect herself, and the maid Sisi, these four—Liu Yong, Jin Ze, Guan Huan, and Zhou Rui—were all first-class experts. Even saying that Liu Yong was a first-class expert was an understatement. There were only a handful of people in the world who could beat him, and none of those people were in their sight. Otherwise, no one would have been unable to see the level of martial arts of Liu Yong, Guan Huan, and the others.

By night, most of the creatures in the valley were sound asleep, but many nocturnal creatures were starting to become active. In the darkness, the occasional rustling caused by animals used to harvesting food in the dark was even more frightening. Seeing the frightened expressions of those young masters and misses, Ye Tao couldn't help but sigh inwardly. Granted, those who hung around Princess San, a princess without much power, desire, or influence, were all relatively idle playboys in Anqing, and their minds might not be so steadfast, but compared to the aristocratic children of Dongping, there was still a big difference. In Dongping, most of those aristocratic children had to pass a series of training and assessments at home before they had the opportunity to enter the social scene, meet various friends, and make friends with all kinds of interesting and uninteresting people. When Ye Tao was in Yicheng, he could run around everywhere and meet all kinds of people, but Peng Can, the son of Governor Peng Detian's family, could only do his homework at home in a regular manner, both literary and martial. And most of the aristocratic children Ye Tao knew might not have outstanding talents, but they certainly wouldn't be too unsightly. For example, Feng Zi, no one was more playful than Feng Zi, playful to the point of changing his name and hiding to avoid going home, but no matter how outstanding Feng Zi's talent was, he was carefully considered by his family before he was allowed to go out.

"Come here," Commander Qin led everyone at the front of the group, carefully assigning the few people he had in his hands and spreading out the two wings for searching. On the one hand, it was to prevent those thieves from pursuing them, and on the other hand, it was also considering that if any wild beasts appeared in the mountains and forests, the guards with good skills and reactions should be able to resist for a while. Suddenly, Commander Qin saw a small path in the mountains and forests that looked relatively flat, as if it led to the top of the mountain. Looking at the traces on the road, it should be regularly maintained, and there were stone foundation lampstands moved everywhere on both sides of the road. Although none of them were lit at the moment, it at least showed that there must be something at the top of the mountain.

Although Commander Qin didn't know much about the terrain of this valley, he at least understood that with the small number of guards and attendants guarding the imperial villa, unless there was a place to go on the top of the mountain, they would never do such a time-consuming thing.

The mountain road was indeed repaired, and there were no steep slopes. Instead, it slowly went upward along the curvature of the mountain road. On their way, although they encountered a small group of wolves who didn't know whether to live or die and launched an attack, they didn't encounter any other dangers. They arrived at the top of the mountain with thrills but no danger. Looking back at the imperial villa, although it couldn't be said that there were fires everywhere, the situation looked quite serious. The outermost walls and those gate towers were all occupied, and the tallow lamps were lit one by one, and the light was projected towards the imperial villa with copper mirrors.

"Let's go, it'll be fine if we're further away. Someone has already gone to send a message to the nearby army for reinforcements. With Princess San here, those guys will definitely rush here day and night." Commander Qin comforted everyone, and then he ordered two guards to return along the way they came and see if any bandits were following them.

On the top of the mountain, there was an entire idle sentry tower and signal station. Although Xiling was behind Dongping in terms of sending messages, they had been using pigeons for many years. There were only two old, dim-sighted soldiers cleaning and maintaining the place, and usually no one was there. Only when the lord or other important figures came to the imperial villa for a big hunt would a team of soldiers be stationed here. The sentry station also had another road that led along the mountain to another palace in the valley. That palace was built on the ruins of a very, very old former dynasty's imperial villa and was used for the hunting team to spend the night in the valley. Usually, there was even less people there. But in order for those six or seven soldiers to resist the attacks of wild beasts, there was a wooden stockade wall built of huge trees. It was very suitable for them to defend now.

After briefly telling everyone, everyone felt that the sense of security brought to them by a circle of stockade walls was much stronger than staying in the sentry tower on the top of the mountain. As for the fatigue of trekking there from here, everyone didn't have time to care too much at this moment. After all, even if they didn't know the situation, they knew that now was not the time to be spoiled.

In fact, the寨子寨子 (zhai zi, stockade) built on the ruins was also very crude. Except for the houses for the lord to rest when he came to hunt, everything else looked like temporary buildings, all built with logs and cowhide, looking more like tents than houses. But it looked a bit like the architectural style of Leiting Cliff or Dongjia 集 (ji, settlement). This place was indeed very rustic, but perhaps too rustic. It was said to be built on the ruins, but in fact, it only used the original location of the ruins. A large number of huge bricks and exquisitely carved stone structures, although sorted out, were still somewhat scattered. And a three-story palace foundation was surrounded by wooden fences. According to the people who usually maintained this place, there was an underground passage in the middle, and there was a rusty bronze door that couldn't be opened...

Hearing what those people said, Ye Tao looked at Liu Yong, and the two smiled knowingly. This was the place. This door was not rusty. Ye Tao knew the mechanism of this door clearly. After the treasures were emptied, even though he knew that this door led to the ground, which had no practical use for their relocation of the treasures, Suo Yong, who was eager to hunt, still spent two whole days exhausting all his skills to crack the password, and then restored the door to its original position. The soldiers who usually maintained this stockade might not even come to see it even once every ten days or half a month, so naturally they knew nothing about it.

After the guards dispersed and stationed, everyone was relieved and began to tidy up some food and drink, and then discussed their current situation. And finally, someone proposed to go and see the bronze door left over from the previous dynasty.

Although he had already read the documents of the entire treasure-robbing plan written by Suo Yong and others, Ye Tao was still surprised that the bronze door was very clean except for the thick green color. Even the combination lock on it had symbols of the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches, gods, demons, and ghosts on each ring. Everyone looked at this beautiful door in amazement, and for a moment they even forgot their dangerous situation.

"This... has no one ever opened it before?" Princess San asked.

"Reporting to Your Highness, since our country occupied the valley, successive lords have sent people to crack this lock, but they have never succeeded. Each time, they only removed some of the rust on it. Otherwise, this door would probably have rusted into a whole copper block long ago." The soldiers stationed in the寨子寨子 (zhai zi, stockade) were also imperial guards of Xiling, although they were the kind that were not favored and were sent here, but they were still loyal to the royal family. And this soldier who was reporting the situation to them was originally a lieutenant in the imperial guards and was very capable, but he offended someone and came to this place. Being very bored here, they had figured out these situations very clearly.

"Can't it really be opened?" Ye Tao approached the door, carefully stroking the bronze animal head on the door. "It's a pity... this door is so exquisite, it must have taken a lot of effort to make it. What's hidden inside must be extremely important and precious. It would be a pity if it was always locked inside."

"Yes, yes," several playboys immediately echoed.

"Why don't we just fiddle with it a bit and see if we can open this door? Anyway, there's nothing to lose if we can't open it, right?" Princess San suggested.

Ye Tao quickly nodded in agreement: "Yes, yes, it's been so many years anyway, let's just mess with it."

Ye Tao knew the password to this door very well. The inside and outside of this door were the same. Back then, after emptying the treasure, even though he knew that this door led to the ground, which had no practical use for their relocation of the treasure, Suo Yong, who was eager to hunt, still spent two whole days exhausting all his skills to crack the password, and then restored the door to its original position. The soldiers who usually maintained this stockade might not even come to see it even once every ten days or half a month, so naturally they knew nothing about it.

After Ye Tao's active instigation and several coincidences, the bronze door opened...

"Step back, step back, let the decaying air inside dissipate first." Liu Yong quickly pulled away the people standing in the front, carefully suggesting.

"Yeah, yeah, that makes sense." In this era, tomb-robbing novels had not yet become popular, and everyone did not have so much experience in dealing with caves, tombs, and underground palaces, but seeing Liu Yong, a stout and experienced man, say this, everyone was very convinced.

However, there would be no decaying air inside the bronze door that had just been opened for not too long. After everyone looked at it, they told Commander Qin about it and took a bunch of torches into the underground palace. Commander Qin ordered only a dozen reliable people who did not know the password of the underground palace to stay outside, and everyone else entered the underground palace together and closed the bronze door again. In his opinion, this place was temporarily much safer than outside.

The ventilation in the underground palace was surprisingly good, and there was even a slight cool breeze passing through. After turning two passageways and walking down a spiral staircase for a while, the passageway suddenly opened up, and the situation that appeared surprised everyone. It was actually an entire hall made entirely of stone. Huge square columns supported the steadily curved穹窿 (qiong long, dome). And those columns were actually plated with gold, a scene of luxury.