约瑟夫往后退了一步，“哦……队友们，我收回刚才的话……”

“应该……”项宇皱眉，“这个是改装的吗？”

“没有，它把我们当成了可疑的墙。”郑荣回答道，“红外防护罩的信息显示一片空白，周围都是泥土……那是什么意思？”

郑容话音刚落，兰斯就快速的将自己的核磁炮甩出肩膀，发射出去！

一声震耳欲聋的爆炸声中，机械螳螂被轰得四分五裂，锋利的钢肢四处乱飞，剩余的本体则被抛向了隧道的尽头。

就在这时，散布在古墓各处的机械昆虫全部收到了警报，嗡嗡的警报声响起，古墓内的所有昆虫全部调转方向，涌向了侧道！

金普爱慌张地打开笔记本电脑，“上百个点正在向我们靠近！”

“我们报警了！”兰斯收起核磁炮，大喊道，“我来挡住他们！项羽，把他们带出去！”

“不！”郑容大叫，“继续前进！”

约瑟夫大喊：“你疯了！”

郑荣跃过机械虫的尸体，向着隧道的尽头飞奔而去，项羽大步追了上去，兰斯大吼一声：“回来！太危险了！”

曾经是田径短跑运动员的郑容很快就把其他人甩在了后面，项宇和兰斯紧随其后，其余队员也赶紧追赶。

项羽一边冲过通道，一边随手掏出一颗磁力手雷，扔进了螳螂挖出的洞里，引发了又是一声震耳欲聋的爆炸。

灰尘弥漫，兰斯猛打了个喷嚏，而郑容则继续全速奔跑，冲出了隧道。

“回来！”兰斯大喊。

隧道尽头，是一间宽敞的石室，石室中央是一个巨大的深坑，兰斯冲了进去，伸手去抓郑容，却不料一脚踩空，从高处摔了下去。

郑容保持冷静，在兰斯跌倒的瞬间，伸手去抓……

兰斯的手臂猛地伸出，但郑容却没有要去接他的意思，而是瞄准了兰斯背上的露营包上的手电筒。

郑容熟练地夺过氙气手电，在空中优雅地旋转了一下，然后紧紧握住，打开开关，将光束对准了石室的天花板。

兰斯一声怒吼，猛地坠落。

“啊啊……”

项羽第二个冲出坑道，差点滚进坑里，被郑荣一把抓住腰带，及时拦住了。

“你太快了！”项羽无奈一笑。

“我以前经常和李影、兰斯、我哥哥一起参加接力短跑比赛。”郑荣说。

他指着上方。“你够得到那个东西吗？”

郑容所指之处，是一座手握长戟的兵马雕像，矗立在石室内壁高处的石台上。

“That’s the mechanism?” Xiang Yu said. “I see...”

Before he could finish speaking, the third team member, Li Ying, charged out of the tunnel and accidentally knocked Xiang Yu with his shoulder, sending Xiang Yu falling into the pit.

Lance, dizzy from his fall, had just stood up when the tall Xiang Yu collided with him, knocking him back down again. He roared in anger, “Zheng Rong!”

Li Ying said regretfully, “I’m sorry.”

Zheng Rong said, “Go on, jump onto the platform.”

Still wearing handcuffs, Li Ying raised his arms, bent his body, closed his eyes, and muttered, “Alright, baby.” Then, with a swift leap, he lunged at the wall about five meters away, his fingers hooking into the cracks between the bricks. With his long, agile body, he swung beautifully in an arc.

Zheng Rong applauded and asked, “What was the hand signal for a Qin dynasty military commander to issue a defense order?”

“Point the halberd horizontally toward the enemy,” Xiang Yu answered.

Li Ying swung back and forth along the chamber wall, with the beam from Zheng Rong’s flashlight following him until he bent his body in one fluid motion, landing on one knee on the stone platform.

Zheng Rong glanced back into the tunnel and saw Joseph, Hugo, and two female team members finally rushing toward them, the sounds of machinery drawing closer behind them. Calculating the distance in his mind, Zheng Rong ordered, “Li Ying! Activate the mechanism!”

Li Ying elegantly spun around and kicked the commanding Qin soldier statue. Instantly, the halberd-holding statue’s wrist rotated, its halberd pointing to the tunnel entrance.

With a thunderous crash, a massive stone fell.

“Ahhh—” Joseph screamed in terror, “Zheng Rong! You bastard!”

Joseph dashed into the stone chamber, with Hugo tumbling in behind him. The two of them rolled together into the pit of terracotta soldiers, as the two women shrieked and rushed in.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

The giant stone fell with a heavy thud, causing the ground to shake violently.

Jin Pu’ai fell forward, her laptop snatched mid-air by Zheng Rong. Lainey screamed, her slender leg doing a split as she slid down, the tearing sound of her skirt resounding—“riiiip”—as the fabric split.

“I told you not to wear a miniskirt,” Zheng Rong jeered.

Behind the stone wall, the sound of a metal drill whirred constantly. A moment later, there was a loud boom, then silence as the mechanical mantis left.

Walking along the edge of the pit, Zheng Rong ignored the angry shouts of his teammates below. Lighting a match, he said, “We can rest here for the night.”

He went around lighting the oil lamps around the stone chamber, and the others, having yelled enough, dusted themselves off and got up.

One by one, the lamps lit up, illuminating the massive stone chamber—a pit of terracotta soldiers the size of a football field, with ranks of soldiers and chariots standing in orderly rows, covered in dust. When the lights came on, the pit seemed like an overwhelming army of thousands, its grandeur unmatched.

Lance leaned against one of the terracotta soldiers, catching his breath. “No enemies chasing us?”

“That was the tomb’s ten-ton stone of the gods,” Zheng Rong explained. “It’s nearly ten meters thick, and there are twelve such stones throughout the entire Emperor’s mausoleum. According to ancient records, once the severing stone is activated, the tomb is divided into many isolated spaces.”

Li Ying squatted on the high stone platform. “And then?”

“Then,” Zheng Rong continued, “according to legend, these terracotta soldiers will all come to life to attack any enemies who dare to disturb the Emperor’s peace.”

“That joke isn’t funny at all,” Hugo grumbled angrily as he got up, wiping his glasses. “You’ve dragged the entire expedition team into danger! You must apologize and pay compensation!”

Zheng Rong nodded. “How about money?”

Joseph, pale-faced, looked at Lance, who was leaning against a terracotta soldier. “Dr. Hugo, I’d advise you not to—oh no...”

The terracotta soldier supporting Hugo couldn’t take the weight and toppled backward.

Hugo let out another scream, barely steadying himself.

The first terracotta soldier slowly toppled backward, crashing into the second.

“Perfect,” Zheng Rong said.

Crash! Crash! Crash!

An ear-splitting clatter echoed through the stone chamber as one terracotta soldier after another fell like dominoes, a single misstep triggering a chain reaction that quickly spiraled out of control. In less than two minutes, the entire last row of soldiers had fallen, leaving the floor covered in debris.

“One hundred by one hundred,” Zheng Rong counted on his fingers. “That’s ten thousand soldiers. You destroyed a hundred of them, with each worth 400,000 universal currency. Dr. Hugo, you owe China 40 million.”

Hugo, head spinning, stammered, “I... I take back what I just said, Mr. Zheng Rong.”

The expedition team huddled in a corner of the terracotta soldier pit as Lance started a fire with solid fuel. Zheng Rong handed the laptop back to Jin Pu’ai, who angrily snatched it, sitting on a camping chair and rebooting the computer on her lap.

Lainey glared at Zheng Rong as she used medical stitching thread to sew up the slit in her miniskirt.

Xiang Yu handed a cup of coffee to Zheng Rong, who thoughtfully gazed at the terracotta soldiers.

“What were you looking for when you first came here?” Zheng Rong suddenly asked.

Xiang Yu did not answer.

Zheng Rong narrowed his eyes and pressed further, “Were you also seeking the elixir of immortality?”

Xiang Yu slowly shook his head.

“There’s no such thing,” Joseph said helplessly. “Immortality defies biological rules.”

“To be precise,” Hugo added, “it defies the natural laws of Earth.”

Lance’s eyebrow twitched. “Why do you say that?”

“Be quiet, Rain is thinking,” Zheng Rong interrupted.

“No, no, please continue,” Xiang Yu said.

“But from a biological perspective, it’s entirely achievable,” Zheng Rong continued. “Just modify a few small segments of DNA, decipher the genetic code...”

“Why?” Xiang Yu asked.

Lainey chimed in, “Yes, there is indeed a theory; without external harm, not only humans but all living beings could theoretically achieve immortality or evolution or employ other means...”

“The reason we age is genetic,” Lainey said. “This natural law has governed the world from the moment life began on Earth. Purines, pyrimidines, ribose, deoxyribose, and fatty acids—the moment the first cells formed through amino acid polymerization, the biological clock for aging was set.”

“What is this lock?” Xiang Yu asked. “Unlock it, and humans could live forever?”

“Maybe,” Lainey interjected. “Who knows? Our cells divide and regenerate, progressing through different stages as we age.”

“From birth to middle age, cells grow and divide. After middle age, the rate of new cells gradually falls behind the aging of existing cells. This constant decline eventually leads to death.”

“There are exceptions,” Zheng Rong added, “such as cancer cells.”

“Yes,” Lainey nodded. “So by altering genetics, controlling all cells to divide at a steady rate, balancing new and aging cells, one would never grow old or die.”

“So you mean humanity will move toward this in the future?” Lance asked in a deep voice.

“Most people believe so,” Lainey said, “but personally, I think humans will never achieve immortality. A medical expert once wrote a report on this topic: if humans achieved eternal cellular division, that would also be the day when new births cease.”

“No one would die, and no one would be born. The entire species would gradually decrease in number due to other factors until they are completely extinct.”

“Why?” Xiang Yu asked in astonishment.

“Where there is life, there is death,” Zheng Rong said. “It’s fair—a truth of the universe. If intelligent beings never die and continue to be born endlessly, they would fill the entire universe.”

The team members chuckled, and Zheng Rong said blandly, “Of course, it’s also likely that they’d end up destroying themselves on a planet too crowded to accommodate them. Now, back to my question, Brother, were you also searching for the elixir of immortality? Since we’re in the Emperor’s mausoleum, the only possibility is that thing. But Ying Zheng is already dead, which means it’s useless...”

“No,” Xiang Yu interrupted. “We weren’t looking for Xu Fu’s elixir of immortality. Xu Fu never returned in the end. We were searching for a drug that drives people mad, makes them bloodthirsty, and fearless in battle.”

Zheng Rong frowned, muttering, “Such a thing exists?!”

Xiang Yu fell into distant memories and said slowly, “It was said that Xu Fu sailed to find the Immortal Mountain, but even by the time of Ying Zheng’s death, he had not returned.”

“In the years after Xu Fu’s departure until Zhao Zheng’s death, perhaps Ying Zheng received guidance from above.”

“That’s precisely why I set the second exploration site as the Emperor’s mausoleum,” Zheng Rong said.

“Do you truly believe in divine intervention?” Xiang Yu asked, rubbing his forehead.

“你先告诉我，”郑容说道，“你要的药，也是神灵赐给他的吗？”

项羽不解道：“只说秦军无所畏惧，多半是受了那药的功效。你也在找那药？”

“不知道。”郑容回答，“我根本没听说过这种药，我要找的是别的东西，据说也是仙人送给秦始皇的东西——十二铜人。”

“后来毒品找到了吗？”郑容喝完了一半咖啡，将已经冷掉的那一半倒进李英的嘴里，然后把杯子塞进了露营包里。

“没有。”项羽说道，“当初我们走到这条路的尽头时，就再也走不下去了。据说那药就被封在嬴政棺材里的一个金盒子里。”

“太好了。”郑榕站起身，“我们目标一致，收拾东西准备继续探险吧。”

“我们怎么出去？”雨果惊讶地问道。“我们来的路被封住了。我们不应该找个出口吗？”

“办法总是有的，”郑荣回答道，“皇陵不止一个出口。”

项羽点头，“里面应该还有其他的路。”

约瑟夫理解的拍了拍雨果的肩膀，“哥们，你肯定明白，古文明的墓葬是不一样的。”

“他们喜欢把自己的坟墓布置成迷宫，地下城……”约瑟夫语带漫不经心的说道。

队员们纷纷站了起来，“玩过英雄打魔王的游戏吗？魔王总会故意在迷宫里留下一些法宝、宝箱、药水，让英雄找到，然后让他自杀。”

“是啊，皇帝们确实无聊，”郑荣说。“如果我们出不去，也不用担心。我们中间有男有女。你可以模仿亚当和夏娃，创造一个新的种族，甚至不用担心近亲结婚。”

兰斯：“……”