CHAPTER 1234: CHAPTER 1234: WHO ARE THEY? (4)

"What’s wrong?" Gu Yelin keenly noticed her change.

"It seems like someone’s coming," An Yiqing twitched her ears slightly, a hint of uncertainty in her eyes.

This is the Situ Family’s ancient tomb—not just anyone can enter here. She clearly heard the sound of flowing mercury; someone must have made it through the traps.

Could it be...

An Yiqing’s eyes flashed, and the picture of the Island Village villagers being massacred collectively surfaced in her mind.

"Could it be the ones who slaughtered the Island Village villagers that day?" An Yiqing frowned and asked.

"What?! Them?! Those bastards!" Ah Mi and Dashan were furious, their hearts burning with rage. Just mentioning those people made them wish they could flay them alive!

An Yiqing tightly held Ah Mi’s trembling small hand. "Ah Mi, Brother Dashan, calm down! The dead cannot be brought back to life, and now is not the time for reckless emotions. Once we get the artifact and escape safely, we’ll have plenty of opportunities to deal with them. But for now, the priority is to pass the next three checkpoints and enter the main tomb. If those people have bad luck, they’ll die in the mercury. But if their luck holds, we might still have to expend some effort to deal with them. We need to quicken our pace and try to reach the main tomb before them to secure the artifact!"

While speaking, An Yiqing joined the team searching for the mechanism. Both Ah Mi and Yin Xilin quickly joined in as well after seeing her take action.

As everyone anxiously searched for a way to open the stone door, the sound of flowing mercury grew louder and louder. At the same time, chaotic running footsteps and frantic screams echoed in their ears.

Frowning deeply, An Yiqing calculated the time. Based on their earlier pace, it would take approximately fifteen minutes to traverse the entire passage. Her hearing range was limited, but judging by the speed of the mercury flow, it must have been flowing for seven or eight minutes by the time she heard it. That means they only had about five or six minutes left to open the stone door before encountering those people.

At this moment, An Yiqing could only hope that group would drown in the mercury.

Time ticked away second by second, and sweat started gathering on everyone’s foreheads. Even Ah Mi and Yin Xilin, who lacked Inner Breath, began to faintly hear the sounds of mercury flow and the shouts of those people.

Suddenly, a voice of surprise broke through the tension.

"Found it! I found the mechanism!"

Everyone froze for a moment, then rushed toward Cao Xiaosha, dropping whatever they had been holding.

Cao Xiaosha knelt on the ground, and before him was a smooth grey stone slab—seamless, unmarked.

Just as everyone was filled with doubt, Cao Xiaosha took a small knife and lightly scratched the stone surface. The seemingly seamless stone slab suddenly cracked open. The sound of the stone door opening rumbled loudly.

"Quick! Get inside!"

Gu Yelin grabbed An Yiqing, Tan Yulin carried Yin Xilin, Dashan dragged Ah Mi, and Cao Xiaosha, along with An Zhiying and An Zhifeng, swiftly entered through the stone door, waiting for it to close automatically.

But as fate would have it, before the stone door could fully shut, those chaotic footsteps echoed through the hall.

"Finally out! Damn it! What is this hellish place?!"

A coarse voice roared out, followed by a man with a scruffy beard charging out of the passage. His face was fierce and menacing, with seven or eight bedraggled men trailing behind him.

They were all dressed in green camouflage outfits, carrying large backpacks on their backs, and each one held a gun!

Cao Xiaosha and Tan Yulin subtly moved their hands behind their backs, gripping the bottoms of their backpacks tightly.

At that moment, the sound of the stone door grinding began again, slowly closing. Upon seeing this, the men didn’t hesitate—they dashed toward them, shouting vile curses at An Yiqing and the others.

Cao Xiaosha and Tan Yulin exchanged a glance and firmly nodded. From beneath their backpacks, each drew out a submachine gun and leaned against the slowly closing stone door, opening fire wildly.

These intruders were far from friendly; only people from the Situ Family could access the main tomb—outsiders were absolutely forbidden!

The group of men was caught off guard, stunned to find An Yiqing and her team were armed too. Cao Xiaosha seized this moment to eliminate two of their men.

"Damn it! You’re looking for death!" The bearded leader raised his submachine gun, striding forward while firing at the closing stone door.

In just a breath’s time, the bearded man’s group had already lost four people!

The remaining men boiled with rage, their faces twisted in fury as though they wanted to eat An Yiqing and her team alive. Braving the hail of bullets, they desperately rushed forward, trying to squeeze through the last sliver of the closing stone door.

But Cao Xiaosha and Tan Yulin’s firepower was overwhelming. By the time the stone door had shut completely, the intruders hadn’t managed to get through.

Glaring furiously at the firmly closed stone door, the bearded man unleashed his rage by firing his submachine gun wildly at the wall. Then, with reddened eyes, he turned to the lifeless bodies of his fallen comrades on the ground. Without a word, he raised his submachine gun and began spraying bullets at the corpses in a frenzy, his expression deranged, showing not a shred of pity for the dead.

The few surviving men who saw the bearded man’s actions didn’t utter a word. Instead, they also raised their guns and joined him in shooting the corpses madly.

In mere moments, the defenseless bodies on the ground were utterly unrecognizable, reduced to nothing but shredded remains.

Meanwhile, on the other side, An Yiqing and her companions—lucky to have kept their enemies at bay with the stone door—had barely begun to catch their breath when an eerie, nerve-wracking scream suddenly echoed around them.