Tomb Raider: What the hell is this strange commission?

Wu Sanxing and Jie Yuchen were walking in the tunnel.

After they started looking for a way out, there was no more verbal communication between the two. Wu Sanxing didn't know what to say to Xie Yuchen, and Xie Yuchen had nothing to say to Wu Sanxing.

Silence spread between them, but no one was willing to take the initiative to break the frozen atmosphere.

Xie Yuchen looked back and forth at the surrounding environment.

He and Wu Sansheng had been walking forward for a long time. The traces originally dug out by humans gradually became rougher as they went deeper, until they later connected to a karst tunnel that seemed to be naturally formed.

The humid environment provides good growth conditions for algae and fungi. The two combine to form unique lichens that cover the cave. At this time, they are emitting a warm luster, adding a bit of color to the path ahead for Xie Yuchen and Wu Sanxing.

But lichens are not anaerobic; the fact that these symbiotic organisms thrive underground just means they have fresh air.

The closed mausoleum certainly cannot meet the survival needs of lichens, so the only way to provide them with oxygen is to connect to other outlets here.

Thinking of the one-way street that Chi Yu had hinted to him before, Xie Yuchen snorted and silently made a note of Wu Sansheng in his heart.

Wu Sansheng didn't know that his vest had been completely stripped off by the other party. He was a little puzzled when he heard Xie Yuchen's snort. He hesitated for a moment, and then asked Xie Yuchen: "Are you injured?"

"No." Xie Yuchen glanced at Wu Sanxing, "Master San, instead of asking me, you should pay attention to your own condition."

Previously in the Ascension Hall, Wu Sansheng had suffered some injuries from the attack by the blood corpse. Although he had treated the wounds urgently himself, Wu Sansheng's condition still deteriorated visibly.

But for an old man who has been in the underworld for many years, this is not a big problem. Wu Sansheng has encountered more difficult situations than now, but he still lives well to this day.

So Wu Sanxing smiled at Xie Yuchen and said, "The injury is not a big deal."

The two returned to their previous state of silence.

They followed the path in the cave forward, using their previous experience to pass through several cave entrances, and finally successfully left the tunnel and entered a huge cave.

Looking at the scene in front of him, Xie Yuchen took a few steps forward.

In this naturally formed cave, he saw a platform that was obviously created by man.

There was the sound of gurgling water in my ears, and the number of lichens had increased a lot. The originally faint light gathered together and became a natural light source in the cave.

"It seems that the water that was poured in from Tianhu Lake has finally seeped in here."

Xie Yuchen analyzed: "The sandstone on the upper layer of the tomb passage transported water here, and then passed through the limestone layer here - perhaps some water from the outside - I seemed to hear the sound of waterfalls, they gathered together and were locked by the granite deep in the mountain, and finally formed a small underground lake here."

"Your speculation is correct. It seems that there should be other ways out here." Wu Sanxing said with understanding, "I was thinking before that we poured so much water in when we came down, but we didn't see any water until we reached the Ascension Palace. It turns out that we ended up here."

After saying that, Wu Sanxing shone his searchlight towards the platform and suddenly said, "Xie Yuchen, look, is there a person on that platform?"

Hearing this, Xie Yuchen sneered in his heart, but still shone his searchlight over as he was told.

In the center of the platform, a man was sitting cross-legged with his hands together, forming a strange seal.

The figure's face was blurry and Xie Yuchen couldn't see his face clearly, but the mark on the other party's hand was clear to him - it was a Taoist seal.

Xie Yuchen did not have a deep knowledge of seals, but he soon realized the identity of this person. He was most likely the Taoist priest recorded on the relief who guided Emperor Yongli to arrange the Ascension Hall. Otherwise, it would be difficult to explain why this person appeared here.

However, Emperor Yongli's ascension ceremony had obviously failed, and the bloody corpse they encountered was the best proof.

And this Taoist priest now appears at the bottom of the mausoleum... It seems that he had a deeper purpose when he appeared in front of Emperor Yongli and brought him the method of ascending to immortality.

Wu Sansheng observed the surroundings of the cave, picked up a few pebbles and threw them onto the platform. He waited quietly for a while, and when he found no unusual movement, he walked towards the platform.

As he walked, he said to Xie Yuchen: "Some things, just thinking about them is not enough, you have to see them in person to understand the key."

"Really?" Xie Yuchen asked, "Since you have already gone deep into it, what have you discovered?"

"This is the Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams." said Wu Sanxing.

So Xie Yuchen also went to the platform and began to look out at the surrounding situation from the center of the cave.

"Including the road we came from, there are a total of 17 cave entrances here, nine open and eight closed. Water is drawn into the pond to form the shape of the Nine Palaces and Eight Diagrams."

Xie Yuchen murmured, and he turned around to look at the blurry figure, and found that Wu Sansheng had already approached the man while he was observing the environment, and was now holding an open silk book, reading its contents.

"What are you looking at?"

"A note." Wu Sanxing said, pointing to the person sitting cross-legged on the ground, "This is the note he left behind."

Xie Yuchen walked over and asked Wu Sanxing, "What's written on it?"

"It's written that he attracted a branch of the southern dragon vein to Tianhu Lake and specially set up a Feng Shui arrangement to help people become immortals."

Wu Sanxing replied, but he did not continue. He just handed the silk book to Li Yuchen and said, "As for the rest, you can read it yourself."

Xie Yuchen took the silk book. After years of weathering, the surface of the silk book had turned slightly yellow, but fortunately the handwriting was still well preserved, enough for him to clearly recognize the contents.

"Now the South Heaven Gate is closed, the path to immortality is cut off, and the way is hard to find. Humans have no chance to become celestial immortals, and the spirit of earthly immortals still exists, but they don't know how to do it. The only way is to transform corpses into corpses and live again after death, and there is still a chance."

But the process of corpse transformation into immortality was too slow and uncertain, and the Taoist priest could not make up his mind.

Until one day, he found a silk book from the Warring States Period from somewhere else. By interpreting the contents on it, an idea gradually took shape in his mind.

The Taoist found Tianhu Lake according to his own ideas - there was no lake here at that time, but he thought that this place surrounded by mountains was the most suitable place to set up the plan, and he happened to meet a man with dragon energy.

He had a premonition that this person would be the biggest help in his journey to becoming an immortal, so he gave the other person a beautiful dream, and sent him the determined method. With the help of the man's financial resources, he easily changed the direction of the land veins.