126: The Secret of the Round Mound Tomb and the Bluestone

Going down the mountain was more exhausting than going up. Following their general direction, the two of them trekked through rugged volcanic rocks and dense vegetation. Stumbling along, it took nearly two hours for them to finally descend from the southern slope of Jiuzhou Ridge and arrive at the foot of that circular hill.

Upon closer inspection, the "man-made" feel of this hill was even stronger.

It was like a giant steamed bun placed squarely upon the earth. The slope of the hill was gentle and even, its surface covered with a thick layer of humus and overgrown with waist-deep weeds and low shrubs. Wang Dalong walked a circle around the base and roughly estimated that the diameter of this "tomb" was at least a hundred meters.

"My goodness, if this really is a tomb, what rank of person would be entitled to use it?" Wang Dalong clicked his tongue while capturing aerial footage with his drone. "The burial mound of the First Emperor of Qin's mausoleum is only about three hundred meters in diameter. Although this is quite a bit smaller, it would be too exaggerated even for burying a general, wouldn't it?"

"This isn't a tomb for just one person." Lin Feng's voice came from nearby. He was squatting on the northern slope of the hill, carefully parting the weeds at his feet.

Wang Dalong piloted the drone over. On the screen, he saw a corner of a flat stone slab exposed on the ground in front of Lin Feng.

He immediately ran over.

"Is this... a tombstone?" Wang Dalong looked at the dusty stone slab, feeling uncertain.

"It's not a tombstone. A tombstone should be standing upright." Lin Feng shook his head. He wiped the dirt off the slab with his glove, revealing more of it.

It was a massive, rectangular Bluestone Slab, laid perfectly flush with the slope as if integrated with the surrounding soil. The surface of the stone had been polished extremely smooth; even after centuries of wind and rain, the original level of craftsmanship was still palpable.

Most importantly, its orientation. This stone slab was facing directly north.

"If this were the entrance to the tomb, it should be at the start of the tomb passage. According to ancient burial systems, the passage is usually on the south side of the mausoleum." Wang Dalong brought out the knowledge he had gleaned from various grave-robbing novels. "This slab is on the north side, facing the Wangbei Terrace on Jiuzhou Ridge. It doesn't feel like an entrance."

"It's not an entrance; it's a 'seal'." Lin Feng narrowed his eyes, his gaze repeatedly scanning the stone slab. His brain was working at high speed, connecting all the clues.

The ritual at Wangbei Terrace was for "looking north." And this tomb—or rather, the protective structure of this treasure—had its key node set in the north as well. There must be some kind of correspondence between them.

This was a ritualistic design. Every time someone offered sacrifices at Jiuzhou Ridge and looked south, they were seeing not only the treasure's location but also the final resting place of the Guardians. And from this resting place, one could similarly gaze back at the high ritual platform. Life and death gazing upon each other, their duty eternal.

"Brother Feng, this slab is completely smooth. There isn't a single word or even a pattern on it. How do we open it?" Wang Dalong circled the slab twice and gave it a kick. The stone didn't budge an inch, emitting a dull thud that suggested it was incredibly thick and heavy.

Lin Feng didn't answer. He squatted before the stone slab, reached out, and slowly ran his fingertips across the smooth stone surface.

It felt icy and hard.

His movements were very slow, as if he were caressing a peerless treasure. He pushed the system's perception ability to its limit. At this moment, his fingertips were the most precise probes, sensing the tiniest differences in the stone's internal structure.

Minutes passed. Wang Dalong didn't even dare to breathe loudly, only able to record Lin Feng's mysterious behavior through the livestream camera.

Suddenly, Lin Feng's finger stopped at a position on the lower right of the slab's center.

From the surface, that spot looked no different from anywhere else. But in his perception, the density of the stone here was slightly lower than the surroundings.

He extended his index finger and lightly tapped that spot three times with his knuckle.

"Thud... thud... thud..."

The sound was crisp, starkly different from the dullness elsewhere.

Wang Dalong's eyes widened. "It's hollow?"

Lin Feng didn't stop. His fingers continued to move, finding similar crisp-sounding tapping points at the other three corners of the slab. These four points formed an irregular quadrilateral.

"This isn't a mechanism; it's a type of 'Mortise and Tenon'." Lin Feng explained in a low voice. "When the ancients built large-scale projects with stone, they would create interlocking Mortise and Tenon structures inside the blocks to make the structure more stable. This Sealing Stone should be locked to the structure below by internal Stone Tenons. These four points are the locations of those tenons."

"Then how do we open it? Use explosives?" Wang Dalong said instinctively.

Lin Feng shot him a look. "Su Xian left this hoping that future generations would find it, not for it to be cracked with brute force. The mechanism must be somewhere else."

His gaze returned once more to the direction of Jiuzhou Ridge.

Looking north... ritual... a thought flashed through his mind like lightning.

What was the most core action of an ancient ritual?

Kowtowing!

Lin Feng stood up, took two steps back, then knelt on both knees toward the Bluestone Slab. Leaning forward, he pressed both hands against the upper edge of the stone.

His movements mimicked a standard kowtowing posture.

Wang Dalong watched, dumbfounded. "Brother Feng, what are you doing? Will the door open on its own if you just give it a bow?"

Just as he finished speaking, an accident suddenly occurred!

Under the pressure of his body weight, the upper edge of the stone slab where Lin Feng's hands were pressed actually sank down an inch without a sound!

Immediately after, the grating sound of mechanical friction echoed from deep underground.

"Clack... clack-clack... Rumble!"

That massive Bluestone Slab, weighing several tons, actually split right down the middle! The gap widened rapidly as the entire slab divided in two, flipping and sliding open to the sides.

A pitch-black, bottomless sloping passage abruptly appeared beneath their feet!

It all happened too fast!

"Holy crap!" Wang Dalong only had time to let out a cry of surprise.

The ground beneath them suddenly vanished. A powerful sensation of weightlessness hit them. Before they could even react, they tumbled down into that dark abyss along with the soil and gravel.

Their vision spun wildly. Only the clattering of rolling stones and Wang Dalong's pig-like squeals filled their ears.

After an unknown amount of time, with a dull "thud," Lin Feng felt his back slam heavily against a hard, flat surface, and the tumbling finally came to a stop.