Chapter 1 A Joyful Atmosphere

After Uncle Mei found the precious ancient Shu jade slip, the entire tomb chamber was filled with a joyful atmosphere.

Xiao Liang happily said, "That's great, now we don't have to worry about Master Gao selling the ancient Shu jade slip to the stealing country."

I also breathed a sigh of relief and said, "I was worried that the ancient Shu jade slip would disappear along with the tomb owner's coffin."

Jiang Yongguang also said with relief, "Thank goodness, we found the most important cultural relic."

At this moment, I lowered my head to look at the text on the ancient Shu jade slip, or rather, those complex and mysterious symbols.

I saw that those symbols were indeed very abstract. Some looked like triangles, some looked like several English letters put together, some looked like tents, and some looked like beetles...

I asked Jiang Yongguang, "Do you recognize these characters?"

Jiang Yongguang laughed on the spot and shook his head, saying, "Xiao Chen, you think too highly of me. If I recognized these characters, I could simply go to the museum as a researcher."

Xiao Liang immediately gave a science lesson:

"The ancient Shu kingdom has only discovered seven written symbols so far. These seven symbols have too little information and cannot be deciphered by experts. But I think there are more than seven characters on this jade slip, maybe it can become the key to deciphering the ancient Shu characters!"

Jiang Yongguang immediately nodded and said, "Xiao Liang is right! The text information on this jade slip is huge, and it is likely to play a decisive role in deciphering the ancient Shu characters. If this jade slip is a history book of the ancient Shu kingdom, then the information it contains is even more crucial."

I sincerely exclaimed, "It seems that this jade slip is really a treasure. No wonder Master Gao is so eager to get it."

At this time, Uncle Mei said somewhat impatiently, "Alright, now that the main tomb chamber has been found and the ancient Shu jade slip has been obtained, can we go back? This mausoleum is so gloomy! It makes my back feel cold! I don't want to stay for another minute!"

Jiang Yongguang quickly nodded and said, "Of course, of course. Thank you, Third Brother and Xiao Chen. Don't worry, I will pay you both the labor fee as soon as we get back. I will never let you make this trip for nothing."

Looking back, during this trip to the tomb, I helped them cross the undercurrent, and also caught Tu Xingsun, the big rat. Uncle Mei helped them find the ancient Shu jade slip. Both of us have made great contributions.

It's no wonder that Jiang Yongguang is so eager to pay us the labor fee.

Uncle Mei is not the kind of person who only recognizes money. He waved his hand and said, "Don't worry about the labor fee. The main thing is that this tomb is too dangerous. Don't let any more accidents happen..."

As a result, Uncle Mei's mouth seemed to be blessed. Before he finished speaking, a cough suddenly came from outside the main tomb chamber.

"Cough cough!"

As soon as we heard this, we immediately became alert!

Because we have always been acting collectively, all the team members are standing together at this time, so this cough must not have been made by one of us!

There is someone else outside this tomb chamber!

According to Tu Xingsun, this person is probably a rat!

However, we have the advantage in numbers, and the Xiaoling Guards are a group of well-trained people. They are not afraid of hearing this cough. Jiang Yongguang took a step forward and sternly asked, "Who is it?!"

From outside the tomb chamber, in the deep and dark tomb passage, came a hoarse and low voice:

"Partridge splits the mountain armor, goshawk disassembles the hill gate, one river has two banks of scenery. May I ask you gentlemen, where did you split the mountain armor and how many hill gates did you disassemble?"

These words made me confused, and I didn't understand what they meant at all, but I soon realized that these people probably regarded us as tomb robbers, and they were exchanging code words with us.

Jiang Yongguang knew these code words like the back of his hand. He sneered and whispered, "He mistook us for rats and is trying to find out about our gang."

Then he raised his voice and said in a deep voice, "Long live the song and dance sink into the tomb, the nine-layered temple ascends to Kunlun. Have you ever heard of the Xiaoling Guards?"

The man in the tomb passage suddenly "tsk" and asked back in a slightly flustered tone: "People from the government?"

Jiang Yongguang smiled proudly and said loudly, "Since you know, why don't you surrender early? Confess and be lenient, resist and be strict!"

Unexpectedly, a burst of laughter suddenly rang out in the tomb passage. The laughter was dense and noisy!

Only then did I realize that there was more than one rat in the tomb passage!

This is a whole group of rats!

The leader laughed in a hoarse voice: "Hahaha...surrender? Since we are doing a business that will cost us our heads, there is no such thing as surrendering! Outside, cats catch rats, but in this underground, rats specialize in eating cats!"

As he spoke, the rat took a step forward and appeared in the dark tomb passage. Although I couldn't see his facial features clearly, I could tell that he was a tall and thin man.

I saw him slowly hooking his fingers at us and saying, "As the saying goes, harmony is the most valuable thing, and it is better to do less than more. As long as you obediently hand over the ancient Shu jade slip, I will let you go. You take your sunny road, and we cross our single-plank bridge, how about that?"

Jiang Yongguang immediately laughed, spat fiercely, and said, "Bah! A rat still wants to bargain with a cat? I think you're daydreaming!"

The tall and thin man sighed upon hearing this and shook his head, "Alas... since you are courting death, don't blame us for being rude!"

Before he finished speaking, I suddenly heard a strange sound in the tomb passage. It was a "whoosh" sound, a bit like the slingshot we used to play with birds when we were kids!

The next second, I saw a cold light shoot out. I quickly shouted, "Be careful!"

Jiang Yongguang is indeed a trained person with keen ears and eyes and quick reactions. He also heard the movement and reacted almost subconsciously. He did a back bridge on the spot and quickly dodged!

This move saved his life!

I saw that the cold light was a sharp crossbow bolt, which quickly passed by his stomach! If he hadn't dodged fast enough, the crossbow bolt would have hit his Tanzhong point!

That's not the end of it!

Following the first sound, there were immediately second, third, and fourth sounds in the tomb passage!

These rats don't just have one crossbow! I'm afraid they each have a crossbow, and they are hiding in the dark and shooting at us!

"Everyone, hide!"

I quickly shouted nervously.

As I spoke, countless crossbow bolts shot out from the tomb passage, shooting at us with the sound of the wind. I never expected that these rats would be so ferocious and would carry such powerful long-range weapons with them!

Fortunately, I was standing at the other end of the tomb chamber, and there was a bronze dragon skeleton in front of me to shield me, so I was temporarily safe.

But the Xiaoling Guards standing in front were not so lucky, and two of them were directly hit by crossbow bolts!

Jiang Yongguang cursed as he dodged, "Damn! I knew I should have brought a gun down here! Kill this bunch of bastards!"

Seeing that the rats' crossbow bolts were getting denser and denser, and several Xiaoling Guards were injured, Uncle Mei had a flash of inspiration, broke off a piece of bronze dragon bone, and held it in front of him as a shield, then beckoned to the others and said, "Use the bronzeware to block it!"

The Xiaoling Guards were hesitant at first out of their instinct to protect cultural relics, but then they thought that if they were all shot to death, these cultural relics would fall into the hands of tomb robbers.

At that time, even the cultural relics would be gone, so what was the point of protecting them?

So they immediately followed Uncle Mei's example, broke off a few pieces of bronze dragon bone from the dragon skeleton, and held them in front of them.