Tranxending Vision - Chapter 343

Chapter 343: 343

There was no light beyond the stone slab; it was absolute darkness . Xia Lei’s left eye could see in darkness but this light-less environment affected his ability too . He could only see close to 20 metres of the passage behind the stone slabs .  

There wasn’t anything much in the stone passage . Floor, walls and roof were the same stone slabs, plain and bare without engraving . An oil lamp was placed every few metres on both sides of the passage walls . The lamps were Pashtun-style duck-billed oil lamps, like the Aladdin lamp in ‘The Arabian Nights’ .  

He did not know if the lamps were a few hundred years old or over a thousand years old . The copper was covered in corrosion and would obviously never light up again .  

Xia Lei stopped using his X-ray vision since he could see no further . He reached out to push at the stone slab before him but it was held together with mortar and wouldn’t budge . Xia Lei turned back and got the impact drill . He drilled some holes into the gaps between the slabs to destroy its stability before pushing at the slab again . He managed to push it in, revealing an opening big enough for him to enter .

He did not go in immediately but used the lighter to test the air inside . The flame of the lighter was normal and it moved a little as a result of a bit of an airflow in the passage .  

‘Is there a vent?’ Xia Lei was awash with curiosity . There was no problem with the air, so he entered the stone passageway . He organised his backpack after entering and followed the stone slabs further in .  

He could see 20 metres in the dark but Xia Lei did not waste his energy . He turned on the tactical torchlight provided by Bureau 101 . The torchlight could ‘see’ places further than his eye could in this complete darkness, and he was glad to let his eye rest .  

Tip-tap, tip-tap… 

Xia Lei’s footsteps echoed in the stone passageway and it sounded like several people were walking . A strange shadow appeared occasionally in the torchlight’s radius as if there was a ghost lurking in the dark . The hair of even the bravest of men would stand on end if put in an environment like this .  

The stone passageway was not level but slanted downwards . Xia Lei counted his steps as he went and only saw the end after counting over a thousand steps . 1,400 steps - this stone passageway was 700 metres long! It was not to the point of being perpendicular but the incline of the passageway was easy enough to calculate . The end of the passageway was located 100 metres underground! 

700 metres long and a drop of 100 metres was nothing much on the ground but underground, this was a great feat of engineering . It was difficult to imagine how people hundreds of years ago were able to built this underground world .  

At the end of the passageway was a thick stone door two metres high and 1 . 5 metres wide and it looked to weigh at least a few tonnes .  

Xia Lei glanced at the compass in his hand . The needle of the compass was pointing straight at the stone door and trembling more violently than before .  

‘The thing I’m looking for must be behind the stone door . ’ Xia Lei was excited as he walked to it .  

There was a relief sculpture on the stone door of a girl from ancient times . The sculpting was exquisite; the girl was vividly lifelike, poised, graceful and elegant, and it looked like she would step out of stone at any moment .  

Two Chinese characters were carved over the door: Mei Mound 

‘This mound means a tomb . Mei Mound - is this Princess Yong-Mei’s burial tomb? If it is, then this stone girl must be Princess Yong-Mei, Zhu Ning-Yue . ’

There was no lock on the door or any sort of latch . Xia Lei examined it closely, then went close to the stone door and called forth his X-ray vision to look beyond it .  

The stone door was about a foot thick and was of normal stone so he was able to see through it easily with his power now . However, something strange happened . The back of the stone door seemed to be covered with a layer of black glue and his vision was ‘stuck’ in it right after it went through, like it had gone into mud . It was difficult to even keep his vision there, and it was costing him a lot of his energy .  

What was this? 

Xia Lei was stunned . He stopped using his X-ray vision .  

This was his first time ever encountering something like this since he got his X-ray ability .  

‘Who would put glue on the back of a tomb door?’ Xia Lei could not think of a reason why .  

He was unable to see through it and unable to open it - Xia Lei was left with only extreme options . He pulled his backpack off his shoulders and took out the explosives which Bureau 101 had air-dropped to him . This was the most advanced adhesive blasting device . He put four of these units in four gaps around the door and backed away . He detonated the device .

Boom! There was a dull boom as the huge stone door thudded to the floor .  

Squeaking came from the darkness the instant the door fell . A large, black mass suddenly rushed at him from behind the door .  

‘That’s… Bats!’ Xia Lei had goosebumps and he held his head with his arms as he threw himself to the floor .  

The bats did not let him off and had him surrounded in the blink of an eye . He felt every bite and every grab at his clothing while flat on the floor, and all of his exposed skin became the target of the bats’ attack . The bats bit at his flesh and sucked at his blood! 

Xia Lei snatched up a can of fuel from his backpack in a panic and splashed fuel all over the bats on him . He then lit his lighter . Boom! Flames burst from his body and a large group of bats were set alight along with his clothes . The bats were afraid of light and the sudden flames scared them; whether on fire or not, all flew away .  

Xia Lei swiftly removed his burning clothing and put the flames out on the floor . Several holes had been burnt in his clothing but he could still wear them . A defence of an extra layer of clothing was very important in this underground tomb .  

Dozens of bats had dropped to the floor, still alight, screaming, struggling . Xia Lei’s gazed went to a bat and he discovered that the bats here were different from bats he’d seen . They were twice the size of ordinary bats and were black all over except for a circle of white on their heads which looked like a halo; it was very strange .  

Xia Lei’s gaze went to the door again to look at its back but there was no black glue on it . It was the same material as the front of the door . He was surprised . ‘Does this mean that these bats were hanging onto the stone door and blocking my vision? They cannot be seen through?’

Xia Lei looked back at a dead bat and called forth the power of his eye . The result shook him . His X-ray vision could not penetrate the bat . Its black ‘garments’ seemed to be impenetrable to his X-ray vision and his vision was ‘stuck’ when he looked at it, just like in the earlier situation .  

This place was full of strange surprises .  

Xia Lei picked up the torchlight he’d dropped on the floor and speared the dark space behind the stone door with light . The darkness was dispelled and an oval chamber met his eyes . It was hundreds of square metres large, so large it was shocking .  

The light uncovered exquisite stone carvings, terra cotta, as well as artifacts like weapons and ceramics . A white jade coffin was positioned at the centre of the tomb, quiet for long centuries but it still reflected a faint light when the torchlight shone on it; there was not much dust on it .  

Xia Lei stood in the stone doorway and sniffed . What surprised him most was that the tomb had no smell of decay at all . The air in the tomb was the same as the air in the passageway . The ventilation here was excellent, but he still had not found where the vents were located .  

Xia Lei stepped on the stone door and forward . His foot stepped on the first stone tile .  

Swish, swish, swish! Dozens of crossbow bolts came shooting from the walls on the sides . Xia Lei hurriedly lay flat and rolled backwards . Dink, dink, dink! The bolts hit the spot where he’d stepped, sending up sparks!

Cold sweat was shocked from Xia Lei’s body . First was flesh-biting, blood-sucking bats, and now it was murderous hidden traps . Danger hid everywhere in this place and one could end up buried here if not enough attention was paid!

Xia Lei did not dare to be negligent anymore . He climbed to his feet and called up the power of his left eye to look at the floor . He quickly discovered that the floor of the tomb was not a simple floor . There were triggers under most of the stone tiles . Some stone tiles covered pits ten metres deep, full of iron thorns . Even celestials wouldn’t be able to save him if he fell in!

There were normal tiles too, with plain ground underneath . Xia Lei quickly found a safe route and he stepped cautiously on a normal stone tile, testing it . There were no bolts, and no hidden traps were triggered .  

He took a deep breath, then went over two stone tiles with triggers below them, jumping to a safe tile . Nothing dangerous happened this time either .  

Xia Lei would absolutely have to come to a tomb like this with a map of the safe route if he did not have X-ray vision or he’d perish in a few steps . Regular tomb raiders could just forget the idea of getting through this .  

He quickly moved to the central area close to the jade coffin .  

The terra cotta around the jade coffin were all of Ming dynasty soldiers, with weapons and armour in the style of the Ming dynasty . The soldiers looked fairly realistic, every one of them with a cold and imposing expression . It felt like he was being stared at by the undead, and Xia Lei found it eerie indeed .  

He jumped towards the coffin, and the needle of the compass in his hand trembled even more . A faint buzzing could be heard from inside the compass, like the buzzing of bees’ wings . It was fairly quiet but it rang clear in this place of absolute silence .  

Was what he was looking for in that jade coffin? 

Xia Lei bent his waist in a jump, passing two stone tiles with triggers under them and arriving next to the jade coffin .  

There was a white marble platform at the head of the coffin and a jade memorial tablet on it . The memorial tablet was inscribed with the words ‘Resting place of Her Highness Princess Yong-Mei’ .  

So it was indeed the tomb of Princess Yong-Mei .  

Xia Lei got close to the jade coffin and awakened the power of his eye . His X-ray vision pierced the coffin…