190: Chapter 190 The Archaeological Team Opened a Door That Shouldn't Have Been Opened

Gu Changan was sitting in the cabin of a military helicopter. The roar of the rotors was deafening, constantly pumping the high-altitude cold air into his clothes.

Chen Xiaobei was holding a tactical tablet painted in camouflage, the image on the screen flickering due to signal interference.

That was the real-time surveillance footage transmitted from the archaeological site in the Qinling Mountains, Northwest China.

"Director Gu, this situation is incredibly sinister." Chen Xiaobei pushed the tablet toward Gu Changan and zoomed in on a specific area on the screen.

On the screen was a provincial archaeological team's camp.

Inside the temporary isolation ward of the medical tent, six archaeological researchers wearing hospital gowns were tightly bound to iron-framed beds with restraints.

They were not struggling violently; they were just staring straight at the ceiling, their mouths constantly opening and closing, making chewing motions.

On the iron table next to the beds lay several plates of raw beef with bloodstains, already gnawed into tatters and covered in bloody tooth marks.

Indistinct, strange syllables were emitting from their throats.

After the System performed noise reduction, Gu Changan clearly heard the constantly repeated phrase.

"Offer the body to the tripod."

"At 3:00 PM yesterday, these six people went down to the lowest level of a Qin Dynasty Ancient Tomb."

"They used percussion drills and crowbars to chisel open a sealed pig-iron gate."

"Behind the door was not the main tomb chamber, but a small side chamber of only six square meters." Chen Xiaobei pulled up another piece of on-site survey footage.

The side chamber was empty, with no burial jade or bamboo slips.

Standing alone in the center was a massive bronze tripod. The tripod was over two meters tall, and its body was covered in eerily twisted Taotie patterns.

The surface was pitch black, without a trace of the verdigris rust usually found on items buried underground for years. Instead, it exuded a bone-chilling cold that made one feel extremely uncomfortable.

"When this tripod saw the light of day, the temperature in the entire side chamber instantly plummeted by seventeen degrees Celsius."

"At the time, they thought it was the cold air from an underground river flowing backward, so they didn't pay it any mind."

"As a result, that very night, all six people who entered the side chamber went insane." Chen Xiaobei quickly flipped through the hospital's medical examination reports.

"Brain waves are normal, blood markers are normal, no heavy metal poisoning, and they didn't inhale any hallucinogenic gases used in ancient preservation. Medically, there is simply no explanation for this collective madness."

Chen Xiaobei swallowed hard and pulled up the third surveillance video. "Just three hours ago, the youngest researcher broke free from the restraints. He ran to the camp's exhibition room and tried to shove his entire right arm into the 3D-printed, to-scale model of that bronze tripod. Several armed police rushed up and could barely hold him down."

Gu Changan leaned against the cabin wall, his eyes devoid of any ripples.

The helicopter began to land. The yellow sand of the Northwest was whipped up by the rotors, blotting out the sky and sun.

The site had been completely taken over by the military. Hundreds of armed soldiers had set up three layers of red and yellow caution tape amidst the sandstorm.

The person in charge of the Northwest branch of the Bureau of Anomalies, Old Li, came up to greet them, carrying a heavy equipment case.

"Director Gu! You've finally arrived. The situation below is still deteriorating." Old Li opened the case, which contained a set of extremely thick, heavy-duty biochemical protective gear.

Gu Changan waved his hand to refuse. "No need for that. It's too bulky and will hinder movement. Lead the way, straight to the entrance."

The archaeological shaft entrance was built under a huge rain shelter. Standing here, one could even see their exhaled breath instantly turn into white mist.

Gu Changan walked down the iron scaffolding stairs. The further down he went, the dimmer the light and the colder the air became.

Upon reaching the seventh underground level, the military thermometer at the tomb passage entrance showed that the temperature here was a full twenty-two degrees Celsius lower than on the surface. When the flashlight shone, thick frost covered the bluestone walls.

Gu Changan stopped and shone his flashlight at the stone wall.

Patches of black markings had grown on the previously smooth stone bricks.

These markings did not look like the moss commonly found in tombs; they looked more like veins protruding from a human body.

They presented a strange, viscous appearance under the light and were extending outward at a speed visible to the naked eye. Wherever they passed, the rock surface emitted a very faint corrosive sound.

"What is this thing? I've never seen it before." Old Li hid behind Gu Changan, not daring to take another step forward.

"This is not fungus." Gu Changan reached out and hovered his hand over the black markings to feel them. There was no ghostly Qi from the underworld, nor any Evil Qi produced by corpse transformation. "This is appetite. Pure, materialized greed."

Gu Changan closed his eyes. The muscle under his right eyelid twitched slightly.

He opened them abruptly.

[Yin and Yang] activated.

In Gu Changan's vision, the originally dim and cold tomb passage instantly changed its appearance.

At the end of the tomb passage, in that six-square-meter small side chamber, a massive black energy field was coiled.

The energy field was as thick as undiluted ink, constantly rolling and contracting in mid-air.

This was not an ordinary wandering ghost. This was an ancient consciousness that had survived for thousands of years. It was breathing; with every contraction, it was actively releasing that Qi of greed that could drive a human brain insane.

Gu Changan continued walking forward along the tomb passage. Old Li stopped completely in his tracks, his legs trembling uncontrollably.

Arriving at the entrance of the side chamber, Gu Changan stopped.

There was no artificial light source in the side chamber, but that massive bronze tripod emitted a dull, ghostly glow.

An even more bizarre scene appeared.

The iron tripod, weighing several thousand catties, had actually left the ground and was floating ten centimeters above the floor, rotating extremely slowly.

Surrounding the tripod, dozens of twisted faces were floating densely.

There were alchemists wearing Qin Dynasty attire, generals wearing tattered Han Dynasty armor, and people dressed like modern grave robbers.

These faces had long lost their physical form, leaving only the last remnants of spirit left after being completely drained by greed.

They were trapped around this tripod for eternity, opening their deformed mouths and screaming silently, seemingly wanting to devour this tripod alive.

That sense of extreme repression, the urge to destroy everything, rushed straight at Gu Changan's face.

Gu Changan stood outside the threshold and did not step in.

He coldly watched the rotating tripod, then took a step back.

He turned around and gave an order into his headset: "All personnel withdraw from the seventh underground level. Seal the entrance to the sixth level. Establish an absolute quarantine zone."

Gu Changan returned to the temporary command post on the surface via the iron scaffolding stairs.

Chen Xiaobei had already connected to the highest-level internal network.

"Director Gu, what exactly is that thing down there?" Chen Xiaobei pulled over a chair.

Gu Changan picked up a cup of hot tea from the table and took a big gulp to dispel the chill.

"Confirmed. It is an ancient consciousness. It uses 'greed' as its energy core and is attached to that bronze vessel. Its Rank is currently impossible to evaluate; it is extremely high. It is currently in the Early Stage of awakening after a long slumber. If we wait for it to wake up completely, this level of mental pollution could cause the people of an entire city to kill each other."

Chen Xiaobei's hands paused on the Keyboard. "How do we handle it? Should we call in two bombers and level it directly?"

"You can't blow it up." Gu Changan set the teacup on the table.

"This thing is a pure mental entity attached to an object. If you blow up the bronze tripod, it will lose its carrier and disperse directly into the air. By then, it won't just be these few people who are infected. Besides, that bronze tripod is a national treasure."

Chen Xiaobei scratched his head: "Then we have no way to deal with it?"

Gu Changan pulled up a folding chair and sat down. "First, check the literature. This thing was sealed in by people of the Qin Dynasty. The alchemists of the Qin Dynasty worked with extremely rigorous logic. Since they could lock it underground for over two thousand years, they must have left clues. Only by figuring out how they sealed it back then will I know how to talk to this thing."

"Talk?" Chen Xiaobei's eyes went round. "Director Gu, are you planning to negotiate with an ancient monster?"

"What else should I do, chant the Great Compassion Mantra for it?" Gu Changan tapped the tabletop. "Connect to the National Cultural Heritage Administration's top-secret Qin Dynasty database. Use the keywords: 'Seventh Underground Level Ancient Tomb', 'Bronze Taotie Tripod', and 'Alchemist Seal' for a global cross-search."

Chen Xiaobei immediately snapped back to reality, his fingers typing on the Keyboard, creating a blur. The Bureau of Anomalies had extremely high clearance, and data from the national supercomputing center poured down immediately.

Eight minutes later, a high-definition scan of a severely damaged ancient bamboo slip popped up on the screen.

"Found it. Director Gu!" Chen Xiaobei quickly translated the complex ancient small Seal script on it. "This is a secret scroll left by an alchemist in charge of building the mausoleum during the time of Qin Shi Huang. The file says that when they were digging the foundation, they dug up this tripod of an ancient disaster beast. The tripod could stimulate the appetite and greed of living people, causing hundreds of craftsmen to eat each other alive."

"Tell me the core." Gu Changan stared at the screen.

Chen Xiaobei zoomed in on the end of the ancient slip. "Shi Huang ordered it to be burned with raging fire, poured with molten copper, and even used heavy crossbows to bombard it, but it was all useless; the consciousness was unscathed. Finally, that alchemist left the most critical sentence."

Chen Xiaobei pointed at the line of text and read it word for word: "This object cannot be destroyed, only bound. Establish a covenant with the power of order, only then can its greed be locked."

The command post fell silent. The sandstorm whipped against the canvas of the tent, making a flapping sound.

Chen Xiaobei grabbed his hair, full of confusion. "Establish a covenant with the power of order? What was the order of the Qin Dynasty? Did Qin Shi Huang sentence it with the laws of the Great Qin back then?"

Gu Changan looked at the six characters on the screen and was silent for a few seconds.

The rhythm of his fingers tapping on the tabletop stopped.

"I understand." Gu Changan stood up and walked to the equipment case that Old Li had brought over earlier.

He opened the lid and began to put on the thick, special-purpose anti-psychic protective gear.

This suit had built-in lead plates and inscribed micro-Formations, specifically designed to deal with high-intensity mental radiation.

"Xiaobei." Gu Changan held the special sealed helmet in his arms. "Help me turn the external amplifier on this suit to maximum power."

"Director Gu, are you really going in yourself?" Chen Xiaobei stood up to stop him. "The ancient slip said it, even the million-strong army of the Qin Dynasty couldn't do anything about it!"

"The Qin Dynasty couldn't destroy it because the power of order in their era was still very singular." Gu Changan put on the helmet and connected the internal power source.

His voice came out through the external amplifier, carrying a cold, metallic texture.

"Establish a covenant, right? I will go in and tell it what the rules are that must be followed in this current era."