The graveyard was dark, damp, and gloomy, filled with a stuffy and oppressive feeling.

The tunnel ahead was a deep, profound black. No one knew how long it was or exactly where it led.

Mo Hua held a compass and led the group through the narrow darkness. Hui Er Ye and the others occasionally looked around, guarding against the strange corpse spirits in the tomb.

Along the way, corpse spirits did appear, but not many, mostly one or two. They quietly jumped out of the darkness to bite people’s heads. However, because the group was well-prepared and had seven experts in the Golden Core stage guarding each other and watching the blind spots, these corpses were quickly killed as soon as they appeared. No one was bitten by the corpse spirits.

Mo Hua secretly felt it was a pity. No one being bitten meant fewer samples for observation, which in turn reduced the references for his plan to poison with evil spirits. He didn’t know if anyone had done this before, but if he wanted to succeed, there would likely be many difficulties. Just sealing, storing, raising, shedding, cultivating, and applying the evil spirits would require a long period of research. Therefore, he really needed someone to be bitten by corpse spirits several times so that he would have some references when the symptoms appeared.

However, everyone was still cooperating and exploring the tomb together. The final burial chamber of the tomb hadn’t been found yet, so there was no need to rush. Mo Hua put aside other thoughts and focused on leading the way.

The road was long. After walking for an unknown amount of time, the tunnel suddenly widened. The scene ahead was different again.

Mo Hua, who was walking in the front, immediately stopped and slowly retreated to the center of the group, ensuring he was heavily surrounded by a group of Golden Core cultivators. He then fixed his eyes and saw that the tunnel ahead led to a spacious stone chamber. The stone chamber was simple, with some murals carved on the walls. These murals were all very crude, and the content was mostly scenes of ox-headed and horse-faced beings wearing Dao Court Si Dao robes imprisoning, punishing, and executing sinners.

Mo Hua carefully looked at them once, then perceived them with his divine sense, and frowned slightly. These murals were truly just pure murals. They were neither viewing diagrams nor contained formations, and there didn’t seem to be any other mysteries. However, the sight of these ox-headed and horse-faced beings and the various punishments gave Mo Hua an extremely unusual feeling.

Mo Hua vaguely had a feeling that these murals seemed to be ‘copied’ from somewhere, a ‘copy version’. However, the person who copied this mural fundamentally didn’t understand its deeper meaning, only roughly copied a shape and carved it into this tomb to fill the stone walls.

Even in this ‘copy version’, Mo Hua could already feel the gloomy and stuffy atmosphere. If he were to personally see the true ‘body’ of these murals, it might be even more terrifying.

Mo Hua’s eyebrows furrowed, and his expression was solemn.

But Hui Er Ye beside him had a changed expression upon seeing these murals. He turned his head and said to the crowd: “These are the outer murals of the underground palace. We are now in the underground palace. After passing through the underground palace and entering the deep tomb chamber, we can see the coffin. The treasures of the tomb are all buried in the coffin in the tomb chamber. As long as we enter the tomb chamber, take the things, and return the same way, this trip will be a great success.”

The gazes of the crowd were all somewhat eager.

Mo Hua thought for a moment, and finally asked the doubt in his heart: “Whose tomb are we stealing? What is buried inside?”

Mo Hua lowered his voice, but everyone in the crowd could hear him. However, among the cultivators present, everyone seemed to ignore him, and no one answered him. Mo Hua found it boring and curled his lip.

“It’s not early, let’s continue forward,” said Hui Er Ye, pausing slightly before saying with a solemn expression: “However, since we have arrived here, I must remind everyone that the underground palace is used to protect the tomb chamber, with killing formations and mechanisms everywhere. It is very dangerous, and everyone must be extra careful from now on.”

The black-robed young master nodded.

Then the group crossed over the outer murals of the underground palace and walked forward for nearly a hundred steps. The wall structure changed, and in front of the spacious underground palace, five fork in the road appeared.

“These forks in the road are used to confuse outsiders and protect the tomb,” said Hui Er Ye.

The black-robed young master nodded slightly and asked, “Which one do we take?”

Hui Er Ye and the others were silent for a moment and all looked towards Mo Hua. The task of exploring the tomb and discerning positions was originally the responsibility of Mr. Pi, who was proficient in earth formations. But Mr. Pi was now dead, so this duty naturally fell on the only array master present who understood earth formations—Mo Hua. Even if his earth formations were learned on the spot.

Mo Hua’s face showed a thoughtful expression. It was also his first time tomb raiding—no, he was ‘forced’ into the tomb. There were many things he didn’t quite understand. Especially the various applications of earth formations, many of which he was seeing for the first time and had no experience with.

The five fork in the road ahead, in his divine sense perception, were almost identical. Even the earth formation patterns and the formation aura inside were as if cast from the same mold. For a while, Mo Hua couldn’t distinguish which one was the real path leading to the tomb chamber.

“Wait a moment, let me study a bit more…” Mo Hua said.

Hui Er Ye’s eyelids twitched. The black-robed young master looked at Mo Hua with an even stranger gaze.

Mo Hua didn’t care about them and started flipping through Mr. Pi’s storage bag again. Inside Mr. Pi’s storage bag, besides array books and diagrams related to formations, there were also some miscellaneous books and notes. A part of the notes contained his insights into entering tombs. The main content of the insights discussed the coordination of formations and the tomb, as well as the application of most formations, including the Five Elements Formation, the Eight Trigrams Formation, and secret earth formations, in tombs. If problems were encountered, how to solve them through formations, etc.

Mo Hua’s divine sense was strong, and his thinking was agile. He read books extremely fast. With a flick of his fingers, he quickly went through all the relevant books and jade slips, and then he had a general idea in his mind. This was the method of ‘false formations’ in the tomb. The five fork in the road were identical, and the formations inside seemed to be the same, but four of them were ‘false formations’, where the formations were idle, and only one was real. This was also a trick used in earth formations.

Mo Hua nodded, and then began to deduce the truth and falsehood of the formations based on Mr. Pi’s insights and the aura of the earth formations. He had to say, Mr. Pi’s death was quite necessary. If he hadn’t died, Mo Hua wouldn’t have obtained these array books and jade slips, and would fundamentally not have figured out the way here. And since the way was clear, the rest was easy to handle.

Mo Hua used his strong divine sense as a foundation, borrowed deduction, and after a brief moment of deduction in his mind, he distinguished the truth and falsehood of the earth formations. Mo Hua stretched out his hand, pointed to the path on the far right side, and said, “Let’s go this way.”

“Calculated it?”

“Yes.”

“Really?” Although Hui Er Ye was very much looking forward to Mo Hua’s talent and even planned to take this talent for himself, talent was just talent after all. Looking at Mo Hua’s ‘learn on the spot, use on the spot’ appearance, which seemed like a guess, Hui Er Ye always felt it wasn’t very reliable.

“Just this way.” Mo Hua had a look of “believe it or not”.

Hui Er Ye frowned.

The black-robed young master looked at Mo Hua subtly and slowly said, “This little brother has never made a mistake in discerning positions and solving formations along the way. What he calculates shouldn’t be wrong, let’s go.”

Mo Hua looked at the black-robed young master strangely. The black-robed young master looked at Mo Hua and outlined a shallow smile at the corner of his mouth. Mo Hua confirmed it and his heart sank slightly, feeling somewhat strange.

Hui Er Ye hesitated for a moment, then nodded. He had to follow Mo Hua’s calculation. Mo Hua was a young array master, and this path was calculated by him. If they didn’t believe Mo Hua, then they could only guess themselves. Guessing themselves was obviously less reliable.

“Okay,” said Hui Er Ye.

So the group walked towards the fork in the road that Mo Hua had pointed to. After entering the fork in the road, the atmosphere suddenly changed. The stone walls were more solid, carved with various punishment and prison diagrams, and the atmosphere was also more solemn and strict. The group also became more careful.

But unexpectedly, there were no mechanisms or traps inside the tomb path, and it was unusually safe all the way. They walked like this until the end. Ahead was a bare stone wall with no other exits. Hui Er Ye walked up, knocked on the stone wall, and then punched it. The formation lit up and then shattered. Hui Er Ye’s fist penetrated the stone wall, but behind the stone wall, there were no other passages, only the thick mountain body that couldn’t be seen to the bottom.

“It’s a dead end,” Hui Er Ye turned his head and said.

So the group’s gazes were again cast towards Mo Hua.

Mo Hua touched his chin and muttered, “How could it be a dead end… Did I calculate wrong?”

“What do we do now?”

“Let me take another look—”

Then Mo Hua checked the surroundings again and found that although the formations here were not wrong, behind the formations was indeed a thick mountain body, which was a dead end.

“Even people make mistakes, and horses stumble.” Mo Hua said calmly, not feeling at all embarrassed because he had calculated incorrectly. Hui Er Ye and the others also had no way to deal with him. After all, the ‘professional’ Mr. Pi was already dead. Mo Hua was just pressed into service and could calculate this much, which was already not bad.

“Let’s go back,” said Hui Er Ye.

So the group spent some time returning the same way and stood at the fork in the road again.

“Which road do we take this time?”

Mo Hua again re-deduced based on Mr. Pi’s insights on entering tombs, but no matter how he calculated, he still found that his calculation was correct. Mr. Pi Er Ye saw Mo Hua hesitating and guessed that Mo Hua’s formation deduction might have problems and was no longer effective. He gradually lost his patience.

“This delay is not a solution. Let’s try the middle path.” “If we can’t get through, we’ll come back and choose another one. There are five paths in total, even if we try them one by one, it’s not a problem.”

Hui Er Ye then said, “Gu Shan City is a third-grade territory. We are a group of people, full of seven Golden Core cultivators. Even if we encounter some danger, we can handle it.”

Mo Hua also had nothing to say. If it were Five Elements or Eight Trigrams formations, he would have absolute confidence. But the formations used in this tomb were mostly earth formations, which he hadn’t delved deeply into. He still had to learn and use them on the spot, so for a while, he wasn’t sure whether he had calculated incorrectly. Since he wasn’t sure about the formations, he could only let Hui Er Ye, the ‘senior’ tomb raider, make the decision.

So Hui Er Ye led the way, and the group walked towards the middle tomb path. Mo Hua was also more relaxed. Because he didn’t need to lead the way, he didn’t have to walk in the front. Mo Hua chose a safe position and blended into the crowd, ensuring that no matter where the danger attacked from, there would be people to act as his ‘arrow shields’.

From the appearance, the middle tomb path was almost no different from the fork in the road on the far right that Mo Hua had chosen. But as they walked, the darkness suddenly lit up with dense fire. An unknown number of sharp crossbow arrows, condensed like substantial flames, like a rain of fire, directly shot towards Hui Er Ye, who was in the front. The speed of these fire crossbows was extremely fast. Hui Er Ye couldn’t dodge in time and immediately crossed his arms, unfolding an earth shield to protect himself. The dense fire rain bombarded the shield. For a time, spiritual power surged, and firelight leaped, appearing extremely dazzling in the pitch-black tomb.

Not only Hui Er Ye, but others were also affected. The scorching fire rain surged and attacked, killing towards the other people. Stone condensed a layer of earth and stone on his body, Mouse dodged strangely, and the several black-clothed people also used their own means to resist the continuous fire. This was a third-grade fire rain, and its power was very great.

Mo Hua had been aware of it early and knew he couldn’t resist it, so he had hidden behind the two tall black-robed cultivators. These two black-robed cultivators stood still in the middle of the fire rain like two small mountains. When the fire rain stopped and the smoke dispersed, Mo Hua poked his head out.

In front of the tunnel, Hui Er Ye and the others who had been hit by the fire rain all looked somewhat embarrassed. There were also some burn marks on the robes of the four black-robed cultivators. Hui Er Ye withdrew his earth shield and gasped for breath, obviously struggling to cope with the fire rain. But on his face, instead of surprise, there was joy, “There are tomb path mechanisms, so the road is correct.”

Hui Er Ye turned around and admonished, “Everyone be more careful and continue forward.”

Thereafter, the group continued forward. Along the way, they successively encountered poisonous gas, quicksand, stone burials, miasma, knife formations, and other killing arrays. These tomb mechanisms were varied and looked extremely ferocious, vicious, and insidious, making it difficult to guard against.

But Hui Er Ye and the others were experienced hands. Tomb mechanisms were a common occurrence for these tomb raiders. Therefore, being a little careful allowed them to cope, but they inevitably felt some anxiety.

After walking for a while and experiencing various mechanisms, Hui Er Ye frowned and said, “Strange, the floor underfoot has no unusual features. How are these mechanisms triggered?”

Hui Er Ye didn’t understand, but Mo Hua knew. The mechanisms inside this tomb path were coordinated with earth formations and controlled through the ‘induction’ of the earth formations. As long as people walked over, they would be triggered. This departed from the category of general tomb mechanism techniques and involved more advanced uses of earth formations. It was not strange that Hui Er Ye didn’t know.

And with the premise of understanding formations, it wasn’t actually difficult to remove these mechanisms. But Mo Hua didn’t say anything or do anything. An array master must know how to keep secrets. If only he understood formations, then no matter what he did, what he said, what was right, and what was wrong, only he would know. If he wanted to kill people, trap people, or black eat black, he could follow his own heart. This was what Mr. Pi had just taught him not long ago. Mr. Pi had been in the cultivation world for so many years and had rich experience. Mo Hua felt that what he said was very right.

Moreover, Mo Hua was also very curious and wanted to see what kinds of mechanisms were inside the tomb so that he would be prepared if he encountered these killing moves alone in the future.

Just like this, the group triggered mechanisms while walking deep into the tomb path. But they walked for a long time and still didn’t see the end of the tomb path. Furthermore, the deeper they walked, the narrower the tomb path became, and there were more separated forks in the road. After walking for a while, when they looked back, they fundamentally didn’t know where they were.

Hui Er Ye had to stop, stand still, and say in a low voice, “Not right—this road is also not right.”

“What do we do now?” Mouse said.

“Go back?”

The black-robed young master looked around and frowned, “So many forks in the road, how do we go back?”

The crowd hesitated for a moment and then, by agreement, looked towards Mo Hua. After all, among the crowd, Mo Hua was the only array master. At this time, Mo Hua again deeply realized why Mr. Pi always insisted on the criterion of ‘one array master’ every time he entered a tomb.

Cultivators relied on cultivation as their foundation, but cultivation was just cultivation. For most cultivators in the world, powerful cultivation only meant killing power and destructive power. But there were still many problems that couldn’t be solved by cultivation alone. And an array master was different. Formations manifested the way of heaven and encompassed everything. Array masters were proficient in formations, understood ten thousand principles, and could solve problems that ordinary cultivators couldn’t. When they encountered a small matter, everyone would beg you.

Mo Hua sighed, pretended to be difficult, took out Mr. Pi’s compass, and then began to discern the direction according to the flow of earth formations. A moment later, Mo Hua pointed to the left side, “Here.”

The group then honestly followed Mo Hua. Along the way, the forks in the road gradually converged, and they also encountered some triggered mechanisms, which was obviously the way back. Hui Er Ye breathed a sigh of relief, and his gaze towards Mo Hua was also more ardent.

Thereafter, Mo Hua continued to discern positions based on formations and walked for a while. Just as he was about to walk out of the fork in the road, Mo Hua’s expression suddenly changed, and he stopped.

“What happened?” Hui Er Ye asked.

Mo Hua’s face was somewhat ugly, “Something’s wrong…”

Hui Er Ye was stunned and then instantly understood. “Corpse spirits!”

The crowd heard this, their hearts sank, and they immediately became guarded. Mo Hua also quietly retreated to the back of the crowd.

After a while, inside the pitch-black fork in the road, from the profound darkness, soundlessly, a head suddenly popped out. This head was deformed and ugly, its features squeezed out of shape, making it impossible to distinguish a face. Its mouth was split into three cracks, like the teeth of a ground insect. At this time, this head’s three-petaled mouth cracked open, exposing wriggling fleshy teeth, like a fleshy red carnivorous flower.

As soon as Hui Er Ye saw it, he felt nauseous. The scene of being bitten on the face by this corpse spirit was still vivid in his mind, and he fundamentally didn’t want to experience that disgusting taste a second time. Hui Er Ye drew out his knife, wanting to chop this corpse spirit. But the knife was halfway through when he suddenly stopped, his pupils constricted, and his face instantly turned pale.

In front of him, it wasn’t one ‘carnivorous flower’ blooming, but one after another. Fleshy red gums and white teeth successively bloomed in the darkness. With just a glance, there were already about twenty more. The faces of the crowd all changed.

“Retreat!” Hui Er Ye shouted.

As soon as he finished speaking, these ferocious and smelly corpse spirits cracked open their bloody mouths and pounced towards the heads of the crowd. Hui Er Ye chopped off an arm of a corpse with one knife. Stone punched and sent a jumping corpse spirit flying. Others also used knives, swords, and spells together, chopping or knocking away the rushing corpse spirits one by one. But as long as the corpse spirits weren’t completely dead, even if they only had a breath of evil qi left, they would continue to pounce.

The crowd could only fight and retreat, retreating back into the darkness in the middle of the fork in the road. An unknown number of corpse spirits rushed up like a tide, one after another. Rotten flesh, blood, severed limbs, knife light, blood light, spells, mixed together. The scene was chaotic to the extreme for a time.

Mo Hua could only try his best to hide in the middle of the crowd, letting these Golden Core cultivators act as his ‘corpse tide shields’. But the forks in the road were chaotic, the passages were narrow, and there were too many corpse spirits. Unconsciously, the group was scattered. After Mo Hua displayed his movement technique, dodged the pounces of several corpse spirits, and used fireball technique to blast away several jumping corpse spirits, he turned around and found himself alone.

“Finished, scattered?” Mo Hua’s heart was shocked. They couldn’t scatter now. If they scattered, his Golden Core ‘arrow shields’ would be gone.

“Must meet up with them.” Mo Hua said silently in his heart.

Fortunately, they had only been scattered for a short time, and some of the corpse spirits had also been killed, so they could still reluctantly sense the aura of people nearby. Mo Hua followed this aura, dodging corpse spirits on one side and mechanisms on the other. After walking for a while, he indeed found someone ahead. It was the tomb raider called ‘Mouse’.

Mouse was just entangled with several corpse spirits. His magic treasure seemed to be a shovel, which could dig soil but also chop people. After about ten rounds, Mouse chopped all the surrounding corpse spirits to death. The surroundings became slightly quieter, and Mouse also saw Mo Hua and asked, “Where are the others?”

Mo Hua shook his head, “We need to find a way to meet up with them.”

“Okay.” Mouse nodded.

So the two of them walked forward along the fork in the road, wanting to find traces of the others. But as they walked, Mo Hua’s heart was shocked, and he immediately jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding a thick, long hand.

Mo Hua said in shock, “What are you doing?”

The one who made the move on him was none other than Mouse. At this time, Mouse’s face was gloomy, and a green light emitted from between his eyebrows. His long, narrow eyes stared dead at Mo Hua. One hand went to pull Mo Hua’s shoulder, and at the same time, his voice was hoarse, “That thing—give it to me.”