Volume Two – The General’s Tomb Chapter Thirty-One – Li Kun Struck by an Arrow

On the left side of the wall, we suddenly heard a heavy thud as a hidden door reverberated and a long crack appeared along the wall. Then, with the grinding sound of stone, a stone door about a meter wide swung open along the fissure.

Seeing this, I nodded at Li Kun and said, “That’s it. Let’s go, but be careful.” Li Kun agreed, and only then did I cautiously step forward.

When we reached the stone door, it was half-open. To go in, we’d have to pull it further. I said to Li Kun, “Old Li, let’s pull this door open.”

Li Kun nodded. Together, we grasped the door and heaved it outward. With a harsh scraping noise, the stone door slowly moved, and we managed to open it.

Once the door was open, I said, “Old Li, I’ll go in first. If there’s no problem, you can follow me.”

Li Kun nodded, “Alright, but be careful.” I acknowledged and cautiously stepped inside.

Once through the stone door, I saw a long corridor extending to the right. Although the doorway was small, the passage inside was surprisingly wide—about three meters across, by my estimate. On both sides of the passage, dragon heads jutted out, their jaws slightly open and facing downward.

I swept my flashlight through the corridor and immediately drew a sharp breath. There, scattered along the passage, lay seven or eight decaying corpses, each in varying stages of decomposition.

Li Kun entered behind me and, upon seeing the corpses, broke into a cold sweat. “Damn it, there really are traps here. So many people died in this corridor.”

I took a deep breath and looked more closely at the corpses. The floor was littered with densely packed iron arrows about ten centimeters long—thin but evidently deadly. The bodies were riddled with these small iron darts, some pinned so hard their very bones were nailed to the ground.

I grew tense; this trap was going to be difficult to cross. One misstep, and we’d end up like the mummified remains littering the ground.

Li Kun asked, “Old Liu, what do we do? It looks like those arrows came from the dragon heads above. This isn’t going to be easy.”

I didn’t reply immediately. Instead, I scanned the area with my flashlight, then crouched and inspected the floor closely. If I wasn’t mistaken, the trigger mechanism must be in these stone slabs.

After examining them, I said, “These floor tiles are where the trap is set. We don’t know which ones are safe, so if we want to cross, we need to trigger the trap first.”

I turned to Li Kun. “Old Li, hand me the entrenching shovel.”

He nodded, pulled the shovel from his pack, and handed it to me. “Stick close to the wall and don’t move,” I told him.

Li Kun hurriedly said, “Old Liu, don’t risk your life. Be careful.”

I nodded. Fortunately, where we stood there weren’t any iron arrows on the ground, so it seemed relatively safe.

Drawing a deep breath, I took a few steps forward, standing beneath the first dragon head, braced myself, and smashed the small stone slab with the shovel.

The blow rang out with a bang, echoing through the tomb passage, but to my confusion, the dragon head above didn’t react at all.

I paused, thinking it through, and a realization dawned on me. I moved to the next slab, raised my right hand, and struck the second stone slab hard, then immediately pushed off with my legs and leapt backward.

The moment I retreated, Li Kun and I witnessed a startling sight: a mechanical whirring erupted almost simultaneously from the dragon heads on both sides of the passage, and a volley of tiny iron arrows shot out from their mouths, slamming into the floor where I had just been.

Both of us broke into a cold sweat. The power of the trap was terrifying—after all these years, it could still drive iron darts into the stone with such force. What craftsmanship! How had the ancients managed such things?

Li Kun muttered beside me, “Damn, this trap is insane. Just one of those arrows and you’d be pinned to the ground. No wonder so many died here.”

I nodded in agreement, pondering for a moment. “I think there’s a pattern to the way these traps operate.” I picked up the shovel and approached the slabs again.

Striking the first slab had done nothing, but hitting the second had triggered all the traps above. What about the third?

Standing on the first slab, I struck the third one hard, then quickly retreated again. To Li Kun’s surprise, nothing happened—no reaction from the dragon heads.

He exclaimed, “What’s going on? The trap triggered before, but now it doesn’t work?”

“It’s not that it’s broken,” I said, “the trap has conditions for activation.” I stepped forward again, ignoring Li Kun’s shouted warning.

I motioned for silence, stepped onto the first slab, then jumped to the third, bracing myself. Taking another deep breath, I bent down and struck the fifth slab hard with the shovel, but this time I didn’t dodge—just listened intently.

As I waited, there was no sound above. No trap triggered.

A smile crept onto my face. My heart finally settled. I hopped back to the first slab and handed the shovel to Li Kun, who returned it to his pack.

I said to Li Kun, who was still dumbfounded, “I’ve figured out the pattern: start with the first slab, then the third, then the fifth, seventh, and ninth. We need to step over two slabs at a time. If we make a mistake, we’ll end up like the others.”

Li Kun stared at me in amazement, giving me a thumbs-up. “Old Liu, your guts are something else. You don’t just risk your life—you don’t seem to care for it at all!”

I punched him lightly, “You’re the one with no sense of self-preservation. Enough talk. I’ll go first, you follow my steps exactly. Don’t mess up, or we’ll both end up as victims of the first trap in this tomb.”

Li Kun nodded, “Relax, Old Liu, I’m not an invalid. If I can’t follow you, I’d be a real idiot.”

I laughed, “You’re pretty dumb as it is.”

With that, I stepped onto the first slab, then the third, the fifth, the seventh, and the ninth.

As we moved along, the dragon head traps remained dormant. Li Kun said behind me, “Old Liu, you’re amazing.”

I smiled, “Good thing there’s a pattern to this, or we’d have to go back and look for another way.”

We continued our awkward hopping down the long passage until, before long, a massive double stone door adorned with red symbols appeared ahead.

I stopped and pointed it out to Li Kun. “Look, Old Li.”

He looked up. About ten meters ahead, a great stone door loomed. “Old Liu, what do you think is behind it?” he asked.

I rolled my eyes, “I’m no tomb builder—how should I know? Let’s hurry up. The longer we stay here, the less confident I feel.” Li Kun nodded, and we started hopping toward the door.

The closer we got, the nearer the stone door loomed—just five or six meters to go.

But fate always finds a way. Suddenly, I heard Li Kun behind me take a few deep breaths. I thought something was wrong and turned to look.

The moment I glanced back, Li Kun let out a huge sneeze, spraying spit all over my face—I was right in front of him, and we were still within the trap’s range. I had no choice but to take it.

But my heart seized in the next instant. As soon as Li Kun sneezed, his head snapped back, his feet stumbled, and he stepped back—right onto a stone tile that sank slightly beneath his foot.

Before we could react, the mechanical clatter of the dragon head traps sounded above us.

My face went pale as I shouted, “Li Kun, you damned fool, run!”

Without hesitation, I ducked down to minimize my exposure, then threw myself forward, landing right in front of the great stone door.

But even as I landed, the sharp clatter of iron arrows striking the ground erupted behind me.

My heart lurched—Li Kun!

I spun around and saw Li Kun, in the same crouched position, hurling himself forward, but it was already too late. Since he was behind me, the volley of iron darts had already rained down, and I saw one of them strike hard into his back as he dove.

I squatted there, crying out in dismay—this was a disaster!