Super Zoo

"Don't let the size of the tomb fool you. Though it looks shabby and the cauldron seems shoddily made, what we're seeing here is far beyond what an ordinary wealthy person can afford. Besides, a cauldron is a cauldron, no matter if it's mini-sized. You can't disregard its importance just because it's small!"

"In ancient times, a cauldron was an item of great significance to a country. Even a miniature one wasn't something an average person would be qualified to use. At the very least, it belonged to a noble, if not a self-proclaimed one. Otherwise, it was a destitute noble, but definitely not somebody common."

Several long-eared foxes emerged leisurely from the inner chamber of the tomb, each holding various small objects in their mouths. Places with heavy yin, like tombs, tend to attract animals like weasels, foxes, and hedgehogs. It seems these foxes had turned this tomb into their den."

Suming directly sent out several waves of spiritual power, making the little critters drop what they were holding, while Zhao Yun threw the remaining instant noodles in front of them, and then led Suming to the mini cauldron.

"Let's go, let's go. Let's check out the coffin first!"

Suming said impatiently. What was so exciting about a broken cauldron? The real thrill lay with the dead inside the coffin. There might be valuable burial objects to find and, after discussing with Zhao Yun, sneaking one or two pieces as family heirlooms wouldn't be too bad—even without selling them, keeping them as heirlooms would be quite nice.

Zhao Yun, however, was much more circumspect, "No rush, let's first examine the inscriptions on the cauldron to figure out who is actually buried here."

Upon hearing this, Suming noticed the dense array of tiny characters on the surface of the mini cauldron and patiently squatted down to wait for Zhao Yun.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

The cauldron was filthy, making it difficult to read many characters. Zhao Yun took a small brush to clean off the dust. Suming sniffed and was about to spit on it to help clean when Zhao Yun almost jumped out of his skin stopping him. He took out a bottle of mineral water instead, pouring a bit on the cauldron's surface before gently wiping it with his sleeve.

"Saliva is corrosive; this thing is a treasure. Ruining it would be considered damaging a national relic," Zhao Yun half-jokingly explained, then leaned over to study it through a magnifying glass.

Suming couldn't understand the characters and grew restless waiting, so he decided to inspect the chambers on either side himself.

The side chambers were small, about the height of a person and a couple of square meters in size. One had a few rows of broken pots and jars piled in a corner, while the other scattered around its floor were some of the coins like the ones he'd seen earlier, but not many—just a few dozen, with not a single golden or silver ingot in sight. Definitely a sign of poverty.

"Mr. Zhao, are we done?"

Luckily, the cauldron wasn't too ancient, and the inscription wasn't obscure, at least not enough to stump Zhao Yun. He nodded, about to reply to Suming when he saw that the latter's face had gone pale and his legs were tightly pressed together, his body slightly bent and leaning against the wall as if in great discomfort. Through the simple gas mask, Suming's face was crumpled in unease.

Zhao Yun was immediately alarmed, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing serious, just a really urgent need to pee! Seeing those jars inside made it worse, but I didn't want to urinate into them; they're cultural relics. What if the state finds out one day that I pissed on cultural relics? That wouldn't be good," Suming said, twisting his legs.

"Why don't you just go against the wall? We've had foxes living here, after all. When the archaeological team arrives and notices an ammonia smell, they'll just blame it on the foxes. Hurry up and pee; once you're done, we'll check out the inner chamber of the tomb."

"Mr. Zhao, you're bad," Suming chuckled and quickly turned to face the wall to relieve himself.

As he was making hissing sounds, he heard Zhao Yun explain from behind, "It's clearly written on the cauldron that this village is called Chen Family Village, secretly established by a subordinate of Chen Youliang, as a place for his descendants to guard his tomb."

"Ah?" Suming shivered, feeling suddenly at ease as he zipped up and said, "That can't be right. Isn't Chen Youliang's grave under the Yangtze River Bridge? I even visited it once when I passed by."

"There's a legend that after the battle of Poyang Lake, Zhu Yuanzhang never found Chen Youliang's body. Some say it was washed away by the water, others say it was snatched away by his men. To stabilize the morale of his troops and the people, Zhu Yuanzhang built a cenotaph for Chen Youliang."

Zhao Yun walked up to the corridor, "We'll find out once we go in."

"There won't be any traps, will there?" Suming suddenly said.

"Hmm, being careful is always right," Zhao Yun nodded, took off his backpack, tied it with a rope, threw it forcefully to the other end of the corridor, and then slowly pulled it back.

That backpack was filled with various equipment and was quite heavy—easily over twenty pounds. When Zhao Yun had pulled it halfway, the ground in the middle of the corridor creaked open, revealing a flipping board trap. The backpack immediately fell through.

Suming looked over the edge, and his face turned green. Below the flipping board was a large pit over a meter deep, with densely packed swords and spears pointing up from the bottom.

The foxes were small and light, so they could walk over it without triggering the flipping board. If two people had walked over carelessly, falling in wouldn't have been fun. If the fall didn't kill them, an injury like a shattered egg or a burst chrysanthemum would ruin the rest of their lives.

"Stick to the edges!" Such flipping board traps were common in ancient tombs and posed no challenge to Zhao Yun. He pointed with experience to the sides of the corridor.

The flipping board took up about eight or nine-tenths of the corridor's width, but there was still about half a foot of space on each side safe for footing. Therefore, the two of them moved slowly forward, with their backs against the corridor's walls, and safely passed through the corridor.

The tomb chamber inside was slightly larger than the outer chamber. Thick layers of hay and dead branches were piled on both sides, probably moved in there by the foxes as they made their home. But the tomb chamber appeared very empty, with just one coffin in the center. The outer layer of the coffin had rotten beyond recognition, and the coffin's lid had already been pried open during the play of the foxes.

A light from a flashlight revealed the inside of the coffin in disarray, the silk used to wrap the body was as rotten as a pile of mud, lightly covering the bottom of the coffin; among it lay a sparse number of burial objects like pearls and copper coins.

Judging from the burial objects in the coffin and previous signs, the subordinate tasked with guarding and repairing Chen Youliang's tomb wasn't wealthy. After Chen Youliang's forces perished, there wasn't much of value left for burial objects. Constructing such a large tomb was already the limit.

Some bones were scattered throughout the coffin. Zhao Yun, wearing gloves, gently picked up half a skull and blew on it, revealing a hole the size of a fingertip on the side of the skull.

"There's no mistake, Chen Youliang died from an arrow to the head!" Zhao Yun said excitedly.

Suming's attention was on the burial objects. His sharp eyes caught something strange in the corner of the coffin. He picked it up and wiped it clean. It was a stone sphere the size of a thumb, resembling a Luminous Pearl, but it did not emit any light.

"Another counterfeit Luminous Pearl," Suming said with a wry smile. Chen Youliang would probably die of anger if he were alive; the burial objects in this tomb were all shoddy, cut-corner fakes.

However, the surface of this Luminous Pearl was covered with dark red stripes.

Suming thought about keeping the Luminous Pearl as a souvenir, considering it looked worthless. However, before he could discuss it with Zhao Yun, a very familiar sensation came from inside the Luminous Pearl—it was as if a strange power surged into his body.

This feeling was extremely similar to the time he first realized his 'Friend of Animals' ability!

**********

PS: Ah, it's almost 3 AM! Exhausted, but my mind is very excited!

The goal of ten chapters is within sight, I'm going all in! I'll pull an all-nighter and sneakily catch up on sleep at work tomorrow! I'll write the next day's manuscript when I come back tomorrow night! Lucky it's Sunday. I wrote quite a bit during the day, or else it would be the death of me~~~