Chapter Fifty-Two: The Painted Wall

“Ouch.” Lin Ran felt as if he had fallen from dozens of meters high, his whole body aching as though it might fall apart. Groping through his bag, he managed to find his flashlight. When he switched it on, he was relieved to see it still had power—thank goodness he’d brought his police-issue torch when leaving the station.

It took Lin Ran quite a while to recover and get his bearings. Only then did he carefully examine his surroundings. He realized he was indeed inside a tomb raider’s tunnel, one that had clearly existed for a long time—his clothes were smeared with dirt from the fall. Judging by the scale of the tunnel, Lin Ran guessed this was a grand tomb, likely a feng shui burial site built for someone of great wealth or royal lineage.

Steeling his nerves, Lin Ran followed the tunnel deeper. Before long, he found the entrance to the tomb proper: a bronze door over two meters tall. At the sight of it, Lin Ran knew his guess had been correct—this was a significant tomb, and the tomb raider who found it must have been quite skilled. Ordinary tombs didn’t have such bronze doors; this indicated the person buried here was of no ordinary status.

Passing through the bronze door, Lin Ran found himself not in a burial chamber, but a long corridor. Along both sides, strange and vivid frescoes adorned the walls. The paintings depicted a general hunting, mounted on a tall steed, surrounded by followers and soldiers cheering him on. Yet, the more Lin Ran stared at these lifelike scenes, the more something felt wrong—they were too real, as though the figures might step out at any moment.

As he continued to look, Lin Ran suddenly felt as if soldiers really were cheering around him. Glancing about, he was shocked to find himself surrounded by soldiers, who raised their spears and shouted in acclamation. Looking ahead, he saw a general in golden armor, seated on horseback, slowly lowering his bow.

At that very moment, a deer darted out from the woods ahead. The general calmly drew an arrow, notched it, and let it fly. The arrow hit the deer square in the belly; it collapsed with a thud.

“Bravo!” Lin Ran couldn’t help but applaud at the sight.

Suddenly, everything fell silent. The general in the golden armor slowly turned his head to look at Lin Ran, and Lin Ran’s heart skipped a beat. For some reason, an ominous feeling gripped him. His eyes widened in horror—the general, whose head had turned toward him, had no face!

Every hair on Lin Ran’s body stood on end. Looking around, he saw that not only the general, but all the soldiers nearby, were faceless.

“Damn!” he cursed. He’d stumbled into a den of ghosts! Lin Ran had dealt with ghosts before, but this was truly terrifying. The golden-armored general began walking toward him, and Lin Ran’s heart sank. Without thinking, he turned and ran for his life. Fight? That was a joke—one against so many spears, he’d be skewered in an instant.

As soon as he moved, Lin Ran suddenly realized he was still standing in the corridor, staring at the murals on the wall. Touching his forehead, he found it slick with cold sweat. Was what he’d just seen an illusion? It had felt so real!

He dared not linger any longer, terrified he’d fall deeper into whatever this was, and hurried further inside. What he didn’t notice was that, on the mural, the figures had turned their heads to look at him—without faces. The corridor stretched on, lined with such murals. Every few dozen meters, the scenes changed: hunting, military campaigns, court audiences—each different from the last.

Suddenly, Lin Ran heard a blood-curdling scream. It sounded like Er Fool’s voice. Alarmed, Lin Ran rushed toward the sound, but it seemed to come from the far end of the corridor, out of sight. Had Er Fool run into danger? After sprinting some ten meters, Lin Ran arrived at the entrance to a burial chamber.

He quickly pushed open the door and entered. The chamber wasn’t large, nor was it filled with the lavish grave goods legendary tombs were said to hold. Instead, the room was empty, save for a single coffin at its center. Lin Ran looked around, but there was no sign of Er Fool. This was odd—if this was the only burial chamber at the end of the corridor, where could Er Fool have gone?

Just as Lin Ran puzzled over this, he noticed a candle in the southeast corner of the chamber. He walked over and picked it up; it was thick with dust, but showed clear signs of having been burned. Suddenly, Lin Ran recalled something—tomb raiding had flourished in the Three Kingdoms era, when the warlord Cao Cao had a corps of professional tomb raiders, whom he titled “Gold Touch Commanders.”

Among these raiders, there was an unwritten rule: whenever they entered a burial chamber and prepared to take grave goods, they would light a candle in the southeast corner. If the candle burned steadily, it meant the goods could be taken safely. But if the candle was blown out, the raiders had to leave immediately, or their lives would be in danger.

No wonder Lin Ran saw no grave goods here; they had already been removed. But where had Er Fool gone? Lin Ran was at a loss. Even though Er Fool was a ghost, Lin Ran should have been able to see him in his current state—they were practically kindred spirits now. Unless Er Fool wasn’t here at all? Or perhaps there was more to this burial complex than met the eye.

After all, with such a long corridor outside, the main tomb couldn’t be so simple. With this thought, Lin Ran hurried to open the coffin at the center of the room, only to find it completely empty. It had been placed there just to fool tomb raiders into leaving empty-handed.

Lin Ran noticed something odd about the dust at the bottom of the coffin—it had clearly been disturbed, as if the coffin had been moved. Could the real burial chamber lie beneath? Pushing the coffin aside, he found, sure enough, a passageway beneath it—a stone staircase.

There were footprints on the stairs, and not just one set—someone had gone down and come back up. Had Er Fool run into trouble? The footprints themselves were strange: each one was followed by a long dragging mark!