Chapter 13: The Skeleton

As soon as Lao Qifeng spoke, the expressions of several people darkened. They had all pooled their resources to enter this place; it was at most a cooperative partnership. Since when did he have the authority to issue orders?

However, no one spoke up to refute him. Some acted as if they hadn't heard, while others stayed where they were, tapping their weapons against the stone walls or inspecting the markings. Lao Qifeng was not in a hurry; he stood with his arms crossed, watching them busy themselves.

He did indeed intend to seize control, and he had intentionally omitted any polite pleasantries. If he could establish a precedent, the Beggar Sect would naturally become the guiding force in this venture, which would be advantageous for the subsequent struggle over the "Wedding Dress Divine Skill." Moreover, his words were not entirely without merit. Trapped in this tomb with no way up or down, no matter how much they stalled, they would eventually have to follow his lead.

Li Miao, however, had no patience to play games with these people.

"Let me take a look," Li Miao said.

He stepped forward, walked to the edge of the stone wall, and said to Lao Qifeng, "Chief Lao, move aside."

Lao Qifeng’s expression turned sour, but he stepped aside, wanting to see what trick Li Miao was up to. When he had struck the wall with his palm, he could only tell that there was a mechanism inside. But Li Miao’s auditory skills were such that he could eavesdrop on conversations through two or three floors of wooden doors; he had long since discerned the general shape of the mechanism.

Li Miao scanned the wall from top to bottom, then walked to the edge and struck the wall with a single punch. It was not a heavy blow; at least to the observers, it looked like the strike of an ordinary second-rate martial artist. Yet, this single blow created a commotion ten times louder than anything Lao Qifeng had produced.

*Click—click—*
*Boom, boom, boom—*

A series of sounds erupted from within the stone walls, like heavy objects hitting the ground, accompanied by the grinding of winches and chains. The noise lasted for a moment before slowly subsiding. However, the stone wall itself remained motionless.

Lao Qifeng breathed a sigh of relief from the side and said, "Does Hero Li also understand the art of mechanisms?"

"A little, a little," Li Miao laughed. "As a wandering martial artist, I’ve grown accustomed to relying on myself, so I have to know a little bit of everything."

Lao Qifeng turned to look at the wall, then faced the others and said, "Since Hero Li has tried, and none of us are experts in mechanisms, everyone, please follow my lead."

Before he could finish his sentence, a deep, rumbling sound echoed from behind them, and the expressions of everyone present shifted in unison. Lao Qifeng spun around, struck speechless just like the rest. They saw Li Miao insert one hand into the base of the wall, and without any visible exertion, he "lifted" the stone wall, revealing a pitch-black passage behind it.

That was a slab of bluestone three or four feet thick and ten feet wide! It weighed tens of thousands of pounds! How had Li Miao lifted it as if it were a simple curtain?

"Hero Li, you, you—"

Li Miao turned and smiled. "Ah, there is no need for surprise. This wall rose on its own; I merely gave it a nudge."

Luo could not lift a multi-ton boulder by brute strength alone. His punch had been a technique of "striking the ox through the mountain," precisely destroying the "lock" of the stone wall from within. By giving it a slight lift, he had triggered the mechanism, causing the wall to rise naturally.

Once he offered this explanation, the others calmed down. Lao Qifeng quickly recovered, adding, "It is fortunate that Hero Li is here, otherwise we would have wasted much effort. Everyone, since the path is open, let us enter quickly."

With that, he led the group into the dark tunnel. Once everyone was inside, Li Miao let go and flashed into the passage. As soon as he released his hold, a loud *thud* echoed as the stone wall slammed shut, sealing off their retreat.

The group’s faces changed instantly. "Hero Li, this!"

Li Miao clapped his hands. "Ah, I forgot. If no one keeps holding this wall up, the closing mechanism triggers automatically. The opening mechanism is on the outside. I’m afraid we’re trapped; this is bad!"

Hearing him say this, the group fell into a panic. Lao Qifeng, noting Li Miao's casual tone, asked urgently, "Hero Li, this is no time for jokes. If our retreat is sealed, even if those outside realize it and begin to dig, it won't be cleared in ten days or half a month. We didn't bring enough food for that long. Even if we have internal energy to regulate our breathing, half of us will likely die!"

Li Miao waved his hand. "Chief Lao, there is no need for alarm. Though our path back is cut off, I can faintly feel a breeze coming from ahead. There must be a way forward; we only need to continue exploring."

He was doing this on purpose. Although Li Miao knew a bit about mechanisms, he was no expert in grave robbing. According to the group’s original plan, they would explore little by little, retreating if they encountered danger to discuss further strategies. But Li Miao had no patience for that. He had simply severed their retreat, forcing them to explore together. No matter how high his martial arts were, he could not be in two places at once. If they encountered situations requiring them to split up, these experts would prove useful.

Lao Qifeng, sensing that Li Miao was not joking, felt a growing sense of wariness and suspicion, but he could only sigh in resignation. "In that case, we have no choice but to follow this path to the end."

The group nodded, taking torches and lamp oil from their satchels to illuminate the surroundings. While they had been talking, they had relied on the sliver of light filtering through the crack in the stone wall, seeing only the silhouettes of their companions in the surrounding darkness. Now, as the firelight flooded the area, they all gasped in unison.

They were in a narrow passage, far tighter than the outside, sloping downwards as far as the torchlight could reach. The walls on either side were no longer covered in poisonous insects; instead, they were embedded with items that protruded slightly from the stone surface.

As they focused their eyes, they realized the walls were studded with countless bleached white bones!

Lao Qifeng forced himself to remain calm. He stepped forward to inspect them and let out a sigh of relief. "They aren't human. They look like the bones of livestock—rats, chickens, ducks, and the like."

As he examined them, he took a few more steps forward, but his brow soon furrowed. "This isn't right. These bones... there seems to be a method to this."

The head of the Qingcheng Sect asked, "Chief Lao, if you have discovered something, please speak plainly."

The two were usually at odds, having argued over dinner just the night before, but in the current situation, Lao Qifeng could not afford to bicker.

"Headmaster Hao, come and see," Lao Qifeng called out, pointing to the wall. "From the stone wall to here, they are all rat bones. And from here to here, they are fish bones. Further back, they are birds—chickens, ducks, geese. The sections are distinct, as if arranged by size."

Lao Qifeng looked toward the deep, dark passage ahead. "Judging by this distance, the tunnel is far longer than one or two hundred meters. If we extrapolate from the increasing size of these animals and the distance along the wall, I fear that further in, there will be a section where the bones are the size of a human."