As Yan Shouyi issued his warning, strange sounds suddenly emerged from the otherwise silent corridor of the outer city.
The sounds were like boiling water, gurgling and bubbling.
Upon hearing the sounds, everyone immediately turned to look at the mercury river.
There was no other water in the corridor; it was the mercury river beneath their feet!
Gurgle, gurgle…
The mercury river appeared to be boiling, continuously bubbling.
Liang Yinqiu quickly called Xia Qi and Li Yang to her side. She had a premonition that danger was imminent. As their teacher, she had to protect her students no matter what, ensuring that what had just happened to Xia Qi would not be repeated.
Wang Sihai signaled his team members to draw their weapons.
Unfortunately, their weapons were nothing more than daggers, shovels, and spades. Compared to Yan Shouyi's Zanpakuto and Lin Zitong's Red Divine Umbrella, they were vastly inferior.
Yan Shouyi silently unbuckled the Zanpakuto behind his back and held it in his hand. Lin Zitong also shifted into a more advantageous stance, gripping the Red Divine Umbrella tightly.
Then, from the boiling mercury river, numerous corpses slowly surfaced!
These corpses seemed to have been submerged at the bottom, only now being released. Despite varying in height, build, and weight, their sex-identifying organs had all vanished. Their bodies were wrapped in tattered cloth, resembling mummies to some extent.
However, mummies were entirely wrapped, while the corpses in the mercury river were only half-covered. The exposed, gaunt, and withered faces were a thousand times more terrifying than those of mummies!
"How can there be so many corpses? Qin Shi Huang already had the Terracotta Army buried with him, so why are there burial corpses here too!" Xia Qi was utterly bewildered.
Yan Shouyi shook his head and said solemnly, "These fellows are not burial objects; they are the guards of the outer city of the imperial tomb."
"Guards?"
Xia Qi couldn't comprehend it at first, but she quickly understood, and her face turned even paler.
The corpses in the mercury river were the same as the terrifying zombie from earlier!
In other words, the corpses now emerging from the mercury river were all zombies!
As expected, the corpses floating on the mercury river soon stirred.
They emitted "ga ga ga" sounds from their throats, like colliding pieces of wood, not sounds a living person could make.
They began to swim towards the shore, one after another, a dense mass crawling ashore like a swarm of cockroaches avoiding heavy rain!
"Captain Wang, quickly get the experts to retreat. I'll hold them off!"
Without a word, Yan Shouyi charged forward with his Zanpakuto, Lin Zitong closely following.
They each guarded one side, kicking the zombies that crawled ashore back into the mercury river. With swift strokes of their blades, they decapitated many zombies.
But the zombies in the mercury river seemed inexhaustible. Before long, the moat beneath Yan Shouyi and Lin Zitong's feet was piled high with corpses. The zombies behind didn't even need to swim over anymore; they climbed directly over the piles of bodies!
There was no particularly effective method for dealing with zombies other than hacking them down one by one, so facing the endless zombie tide, Yan Shouyi and Lin Zitong were struggling to fend for themselves.
"Captain Wang, how are you doing!" Yan Shouyi shouted.
By then, Wang Sihai and his team members had already carried all the experts on their backs.
He shouted as he ran, "We're fine, we're retreating the way we came!"
However, as soon as Wang Sihai finished speaking, Yan Shouyi yelled, "Wait, the way back is not that simple!"
If returning the way they came meant safety, then the two cave exploration experts wouldn't have died, and the three rescued experts wouldn't have gone mad.
Therefore, Yan Shouyi deduced that there might be reverse traps on the way back, mechanisms that weren't triggered on the way in but would be encountered on the way out!
Indeed, before Wang Sihai had run a few steps, he suddenly discovered that countless black insects were pouring out of the triggered hidden compartments from earlier.
Li Yang immediately recognized these insects, "They are the Gu worms that can drive people mad!"
Wang Sihai gritted his teeth. Facing the surging tide of Gu worms, he could only lead everyone to retreat.
Now, with zombies in front and Gu worms behind, everyone was forced to the inner city gate.
There was only one path left for them; unless they could find a way into the inner city, they were all doomed!
Seeing the Gu worms behind, Yan Shouyi gritted his teeth and summoned Yan Gui. Lin Zitong also called out Tao Hua Ying to help.
With the assistance of the Faceless Ghost and the Ghost Queen, the Gu worms were temporarily held back, but the situation remained perilous.
While fending off the incessantly crawling zombies, Lin Zitong shouted, "Professor Liang, we have no retreat. Please check if the inner city gate can be opened!"
Liang Yinqiu also realized this was a life-or-death moment. She immediately called Li Yang and Xia Qi to try and push the gate.
However, the outer city gate was a staggering twenty meters high, and with just the few of them, it was impossible to budge.
"Professor Liang, what do we do!" Xia Qi asked anxiously.
Liang Yinqiu remained relatively calm. She smoothed her hair and said, "These gates must have mechanisms. Let's quickly search for them!"
The three of them immediately turned on their flashlights and, heads lowered, searched everywhere for mechanisms.
However, this method was somewhat primitive.
Liang Yinqiu suddenly had an epiphany. This was the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor in history. He would never be content to be behind others or inferior in anything he did.
If there were mechanisms, they had to be above their heads!
So, Liang Yinqiu immediately looked up, searching for the mechanism above the city gate.
Sure enough, above the gate, she spotted a hanging iron chain. At the end of the chain was a box. Everyone had been focused on the ground and hadn't noticed this detail.
"The mechanism must be that iron chain!" Liang Yinqiu pointed at the chain and shouted.
Yan Shouyi turned his head and saw the chain.
However, the chain was too high for an ordinary person to reach.
But this was not a problem for Yan Shouyi!
He raised his left hand and activated the mechanism in his sleeve. A grappling hook immediately shot out from his sleeve!
At the end of the grappling hook was an iron claw, which firmly grasped the iron chain hanging above everyone's heads.
Yan Shouyi's heart filled with joy, thinking, "Thank goodness for the flying tiger claw given by the Ma siblings; this thing is truly useful in the tomb!"
He pulled hard, yanking the iron chain. The box at the end of the chain fell directly, and the city gate, sealed for over two thousand years, began to tremble and open.
Gravel and dust constantly fell from above their heads, but no one cared. They helped each other up and entered the inner city!
They knew nothing about the situation within the inner city. Perhaps even more terrifying things awaited them, but compared to being bitten to death by zombies and Gu worms outside the city, everyone preferred to give themselves a fighting chance.
Seeing everyone retreat into the inner city, Yan Shouyi and Lin Zitong did not hesitate. Abandoning the zombies, they turned and rushed into the city gate…