Merchant of the Underworld

I was shocked by the murals in front of me. I stood stunned for a while before I recovered.

Although the withered bones under his feet have long since decayed, no matter whether he is the ancestor of China or not? Just because he drew such precious records with his own hands is enough to gain the respect of the world!

I bowed deeply to the corpse, my chest was full of something, but I couldn't even say a word!

At the end of the mural is a small narrow door. In fact, it is a bit inappropriate to call it a door. It is still a hole cut by Taoist Baihe on the stone wall.

He was rushing all the way, splitting mountains and rocks one after another, and it must have been more than just his strong temperament.

Does he want to chase something, or does he want to stop something?

Since Li Shimin's guilty edict was carried on the yellow-robed Taoist priest, it also shows that he is the de facto leader of this group of people.

But Taoist Master Bai He had already killed him, and he was still rushing forward in such a hurry. Why?

I was thinking and walking forward when suddenly my flashlight caught sight of something.

When he looked down, he saw it was a gun.

The gun was very primitive, a single-shot front-loaded fire tunnel gun, but the body of the gun was very luxurious, with gold carvings and jade, and a pair of small goldfish hanging on it.

Judging from the shape and craftsmanship, it should be a product of the mid-Ming Dynasty.

It must have been brought in by William's ancestors. These guys have been here before?

Before I took two steps, I discovered something else.

At first I thought they were pebbles and didn't pay much attention to them, but then I found several scattered on the ground. They were white and eye-catching, and their shapes were extremely weird.

When I picked it up and took a look, I discovered that it was teeth. Several of the teeth were stained with black and red blood.

These fangs are short or long, with different thicknesses. The only thing they have in common is that they all have a small hole drilled into their roots, which must have been penetrated by something.

This is...animal tooth necklace!

I immediately remembered it!

This is next to the mural gallery. Since they walked here, the necklace depicting the old man wearing around his neck must have been taken away by them.

Most of the necklaces at that time were made of animal skins and tendons. They rotted away over time. These guys picked up all the teeth.

But why did it end up here?

Even the gun fell and they didn't have time to pick it up. What happened to them again?

It didn't take long for me to wonder, and I soon discovered the answer.

On the ground more than ten meters away, five corpses were scattered, lying or curled up.

Two were wearing tuxedos and three were wearing Taoist t-shirts.

Obviously, the people wearing tuxedos are foreigners, and the people wearing Taoist blouses are Chinese Taoist priests.

The appearance of death of these people is also different. The bones of the Taoist priests are all black, and even the teeth seem to be brushed with a thick layer of ink. They are exactly the same as the guy holding the iron box I saw in the rat hole. Obviously Died of poisoning.

The bones of the foreigners were somewhat imperfect, especially the throat bones and ribs on the chest, which were all broken. It was obvious that they had been killed by weapons.

When I thought about the last words written on the stone wall by the guy in the rat hole, I immediately understood!

They brought it upon themselves, colluding with foreigners to steal the belongings of their ancestors. Later, for some unknown reason, the two groups broke into internal strife and killed each other.

In addition to some daily necessities, several Taoist priests also had two bundled water hyacinths.

Without this thing, foreigners would not be able to get out at all, and not to mention the deep water pressure, even if they swim to the bottom of the river, they will not be able to open the seal.

This is exactly what I don’t understand. Why do these foreigners insist on taking action among the monuments when they know this?

I walked some distance further, and after turning around a very short corridor, the flashlight suddenly illuminated a golden light. Upon looking closely, there were more than a dozen corpses scattered on the ground. The cause of death of all of them was obvious at a glance. Their heads were all chopped off, and they were all missing.

There is no doubt that this is the work of Taoist Master Bai He.

Among the many dead bodies, several large boxes were overturned, and the lids of the boxes had been pried open, revealing patches of golden light.

It is filled with all kinds of jewelry, jade, and coral agate. This must be Li Shimin's sacrifice to the dragon.

Next to a large box near the door, three corpses with complete heads were lying.

The cause of death of two foreigners and a Taoist priest was no different from what they had seen before.

Among them, the Taoist priest was still full of bulging treasures, and even when he died, he still held a handful of gems tightly in his dark, withered hands.

The two foreigners were lying on the ground, their back spines were all broken, and there was a flying crossbow stuck on them.

It seems that the internal strife was started by this Taoist priest.

He must have been greedy after seeing the treasure, suddenly became murderous, and secretly killed the two foreigners from behind.

Several people outside didn't know what was going on, and they immediately took action after hearing the screams.

During the fight, the Taoist priests gained the upper hand and killed all the foreigners.

Unexpectedly, this group of foreigners had already been prepared, or had malicious intentions, and secretly poisoned several people.

The end result was that both sides perished, and all died violently - only William's ancestor and the mysterious man who died in the rat hole escaped from here.

But one of them died of poison, and the other was trapped alive in the ruins because of his inability to break the forbidden formation and remove the water pressure!

In other words, this internal strife was caused by the greed of the Taoist priest who died next to the treasure chest. Both sides were caught off guard. At least these foreigners did not want to take action in the ancient ruins.

Since only a foreigner like William's ancestor escaped from here, the gun that fell by the door must have belonged to him. After all, for Taoist priests, guns may not be as useful as darts, and the guns are so luxuriously decorated that they don't look like Taoist priests' weapons.

In this case, the beast's tooth necklace must have been picked up by him. He was also injured in the subsequent fight and dropped it to the ground in panic.

I see!

I took another look at the blood stains on the fangs, and suddenly it dawned on me.

After William's ancestor was injured, blood stuck to his teeth.

The beast tooth necklace is a great witch ornament inherited from blood, and naturally has some yin energy.

And the foreigner happened to be a Buddhist believer. When the two offset each other, a strange influence was formed - the blood-sucking dream, which was what William called the family nightmare.

It turns out that this is the reason!

There was a mess behind the treasure chest and corpses. I didn’t know what they were originally, but now they were burned to ashes. Thinking about it, the fire must have been extremely fierce. Even the stone floor was burnt to create a big crater.

It seemed that this was also done by Taoist Master Bai He.