It was too late to say it, but it was too fast. The cold killing intent rolled into the sky, but it was held back. Only a dull crash was heard in front of him. It was estimated that the other party was forced to stop halfway, causing the backlash against him.
Li Manzheng felt that this hostage was really useful. Before he could put his hand on Tang Fan's neck, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his back. He couldn't help screaming, and he used it as a shield in front of him. The person was gone, and his wrist was hit so hard that he couldn't help letting go of the dagger in his hand.
In an instant, the situation has changed dramatically.
Li Man was originally a businessman, and his skills were no better than Tang Fan's. Otherwise, he wouldn't have used an axe to slash people, and he didn't have a good grasp of his strength. However, his two men were much stronger than him. The siege, and struggling for a while, had to be captured.
"Why are you here!" With his hands roughly tied behind his back, Li Man stared at the person in front of him in disbelief.
Good luck tricks people, the taste he just let Tang Fan taste, and he used it on himself in a blink of an eye.
A Jin Yiwei walked over and slowly pushed the stone door open.
Under the stares of Li Man and the others, Pang Qi brought Qian San'er and the others in from the outside generously.
The stone gate closed again.
The imminent threat of the monster they felt just now seemed to be just an illusion.
Suizhou loosened Tang Fan's tie with his own hands, and said with concern, "Are you okay?"
"It's okay." Tang Fan shook his head and looked around.
From the layout point of view, the hall they are in is actually the center of Gonghou's tomb. The coffin in the middle is where Gonghou's body is placed. The pattern on the coffin proves Tang Fan's previous conjecture. This is indeed a The tomb of the pre-Qin Junhou.
However, because the main hall has a relatively large space, there are side halls imitating the tomb owner's previous residence on the left and right, and Li Man and the others only lit a candle, so that except for a small area around the candle, the rest of the place is very dark. .
Being in it, tending to the bright and avoiding the dark, it is easy for people to subconsciously look at the place with the candle, so that when the eyes look to other places, there will be temporary blindness.
Suizhou and the others took advantage of this. They hid in the side hall beforehand, held their breath, and took advantage of Li Man's slack defenses to hit him.
Although Li Man also figured this out, he still felt that he couldn't believe it. He was always conceited about his own arrangements, but it seemed that Tang Fan had been planted in his hands many times.
"It's impossible, our people clearly attracted you! How did you get here from there!"
Suizhou ignored him, and instead looked at Tang Fan first.
Tang Fan joked: "Because Sui Zhenfu is wise and talented, Feier and other mortals can figure it out!"
There was a hint of amusement in Sui Zhou's eyes, but when he turned to Li Man again, his face had returned to a cold and unwavering expression: "We almost knew the layout of this tomb before we came down..."
Before he could finish speaking, Li Man shouted, "Impossible!"
He said it was impossible, of course, for a reason.
Nobles were buried. In order to prevent tomb robbing, not to mention that they could not leave any handed down materials, and sometimes they would kill the craftsmen who helped build the tomb, and even like Cao Cao, they would create some 72 mysterious tombs, in order to play a role. Confuse future generations, the role of complete anti-theft.
Although this may not be effective, it has been done since ancient times anyway, and it is always right to be cautious.
This tomb is located under the Yonghou Mausoleum, and few people know about it, let alone know its layout in advance.
Facing Li Man's expression of "I have culture, don't lie to me", Tang Fan patiently explained to him: "Before I became an official, I traveled to study the world and went to the area of Shaanxi, where there are many grave pits, it is said that The contents of the tomb of the Zhou royal family have long been robbed and emptied by the locals, but the burial pits and ruins are still there.
"Yonghou Mausoleum only has two floors above and below the underground palace. This is clearly written by the predecessors. Song Yingzong was buried in a hurry, and it is impossible to make any more secrets. Although you are not the real Liu Daniu, but in order to lead us down here, it can be said that painstakingly."
"What you said, of course, can't be all false, at least half true, and Qian San'er didn't lie, then combining the words of the two of you, it is not difficult to come to a conclusion: the so-called third floor of the underground palace in your mouth must be It's another princely tomb."
"So I kept a secret in my mind, and after reading the county annals, I found that this place was the former site of the former Gong Kingdom, which belonged to the land of Zhou Tianzi Wangji, and the state of the Zhou family. Tombs are no exception."
Li Man took up his words: "So you copied the layout of the Zhou Dynasty tombs you saw in Shaanxi."
Tang Fan nodded: "Yes, but after all, I'm just drawing tigers and cats. Every tomb can't be exactly the same. Even if we know the general layout, there will definitely be mistakes. For example, we can't know the organs in this tomb in advance. But This time, you did us a favor."
Li Man's voice was hoarse: "What are you busy with?"
Tang Fan: "After we came down, we found that there were only scattered gold and silver jewelry here, but no corpses. If it is said that the monster swallowed the flesh and bones, it would be understandable. But from Qian San'er's description, we can know that, Li Kui and the others came down and fought the monster again. There must be a fierce battle in the middle, so it is impossible for the places we passed to be cleaned up so cleanly. If things are abnormal, they are demons, and this place must have been deliberately cleaned up in order to lead us down."
Li Man: "Very reasonable, what else?"
Tang Fan: "Since it's intentional to bring us here, then you must ensure your own safety first, and you can't be tricked by those agencies first, so Suizhou and I will take people down with confidence."
Li Man frowned: "I remember when I was about to kill you just now, that monster screamed."
Tang Fan snorted: "Qian San'er."
When Qian San'er was called by his name, he rushed out of the darkness, gave Tang Fan a dog-legged smile, and put his hand to his mouth.
A chilling voice sounded, it was the ghost cry they heard just now!
Li Man and his two men widened their eyes.
Qian San'er puffed out her chest and was quite proud: "It's not like I'm just a mere stalker!"
You must know that his ventriloquism is also a must in the Yellow River Gang, otherwise he would not have been brought over by Master to help Wangfeng. Although he could not be of great help, it is not impossible for him to come in handy at critical moments. No, Li Man and the others were deceived. .
The matter is actually very simple. Li Man designed to lead Suizhou and his party away, and prepared to start one by one, killing Tang Fan and Yin Yuanhua first. Unexpectedly, Suizhou and the others were prepared, and they planned their plans. Through the White Lotus Cultist who wanted to lure them away, they found out the organization here.
Coupled with the preparations Tang Fan had made earlier, they knew the layout of the environment here before they came down. As long as they walked around a little, they would no longer be confused by those obscure mechanisms.
At this time, Suizhou and the others had already discovered that Tang Fan and Yin Yuanhua, who were following behind, were gone.
Just as Tang Fan knows Suizhou, Suizhou also knows Tang Fan. He knows that Tang Fan will definitely try his best to delay time and wait for them to come to the rescue. The only question is how they will meet.
So Suizhou asked Qian San'er to simulate the monster's cry with ventriloquism and lead Li Man and the others into the hall all the way.
So there is the previous scene.
Li Man laughed loudly: "I once heard Lao Li say that you are very smart, and your case is judged like the sky. Now, when I see it, it really lives up to its reputation. I was planted in your hands before, so it's not wrong to lose!"
The old Li in his mouth was the housekeeper of the Li family in the past, and he had a good relationship with Tang Fan, but unfortunately he was burned alive in Li's house.
Tang Fan shook his head: "I don't feel honored to be praised by you at all."
Li Man laughed: "Unfortunately, you guessed wrong. This is not the base camp of the White Lotus Sect. At best, it's just a division of the altar. If you want to use this to get promoted and make a fortune, I'm afraid you will be disappointed!"
Tang Fan: "It's not necessarily disappointing, it's not indecent to come and go, I just confessed to you in the future, now it's your turn?"
"Just ask, I know everything." Li Man was quite straightforward, and became very happy when he found that he had no way to resist. Jin Yiwei was staring at him, and he didn't want to try their methods at all.
Tang Fan didn't want to ask him why he appeared here with such nonsense. Those can be left for later. The most important question right now is—
"How many White Lotus believers are hidden here, and where are the others except you? Also, did you put the monster in there?"
Li Man said: "We originally had more than 30 people, but after discovering this place by chance, we also lost most of the battle with the monster. Now there are only five people left, three people are here, and two are outside. They just led you away."
"As for that monster," he glanced at Tang Fan and the others, and said slowly, "It's the tomb-suppressing beast here."
From Li Man's remarks, Tang Fan and the others knew that there was indeed a passage between this tomb and the Luo River, and there was a stone gate in the middle, which was opened or closed by a mechanism.
Whenever the water level of the Luo River drops, the stone gate is opened, the tomb-suppressing beast returns to the Luo River from the tomb, and the stone gate is closed.
When the water level of the Luo River rises, the stone gate will be opened again, and the tomb-suppressing beast will return to the tomb from the river.
Of course, the tomb-suppressing beast was not originally a tomb-suppressing beast. It was estimated that it was a beast in the water that swam into the Luo River from the Yellow River. It was only used by the ancients two thousand years ago as a tomb-suppressing beast to guard the tomb and prevent tomb robbery.
Li Man and the others wanted to rob tombs to make a fortune, but they accidentally discovered this Gongguo tomb here.
Although everyone was tossed by the tomb-suppressing beasts and suffered heavy losses, there is an extremely rich collection of funerary objects here, not to mention those bronzes that they think are worthless, just gold and silver jewelry, which can be piled up in a heap. room!
Wealth and silk are heartwarming, not to mention that after the White Lotus Sect lost the Nancheng Gang's financial resources, they needed a lot of money to supplement them. Li Man and others were eager to make contributions. After losing so many people and horses, they finally figured out the regularity of the appearance of the tomb-suppressing beasts. , and managed to gather those treasures together and prepare to smuggle them away.
However, the ferocity of the tomb-suppressing beast has been awakened by them, so since a year ago, people in Luohe Village can always hear the strange cries from time to time, and that cry is the tomb-suppressing beast.
Tang Fan and the others had long known that in order to find out the source of the cry, Luohe Village dispatched two groups of people. The first group of six people went and didn't return. Everyone thought it was the river god. But in fact, they were because of After discovering the movements of Li Man and others, they were killed and silenced.
The second group of people who went there included the catchers from the county town and the village chief of Luohe Village. Those people were led into the robbery cave. Li Man originally wanted to use them as food for the tomb-suppressing beasts, but he was afraid that these people would go there. There was no return, which attracted the attention of the government, so he deliberately released a mad hunter to go back with the old head of Luohe Village.
He also threatened him with the old village chief's son, and told him to pretend to be crazy to tell the world that there was a river god in the river, so as to divert the world's attention and prevent them from paying attention to the bottom of the robbery hole. More time to move belongings.
But they did all the calculations, and they didn't calculate that Master Qian San'er's group of tomb robbers would come to dig graves at this time, and then opened another entrance to enter the Song Emperor's Mausoleum, thus discovering the tomb of Gongguo under the Emperor's Mausoleum.
The next thing is logical. Li Man and others used the same method to kill the tomb robbers, but they forgot that there was Qian San'er who slipped through the net. As a result, Tang Fan and others dug up a lot of money from Qian San'er. Clues, go to the tomb in person to kill the tomb-suppressing beast.
These things were all things that Li Man had not thought of.
If Tang Fan and the others came two days later, Li Man and the others would be able to transfer their belongings and run away smoothly. After Tang Fan and the others came down, they would only encounter the ferocious tomb-suppressing beasts.
But man's calculation is not as good as heaven's calculation. Even if Li Man is exhaustive, it is impossible to cover everything. Some negligence in details has become the cause of today's failure.
He didn't expect that the imperial envoy sent by the imperial court was "an old acquaintance" Tang Fan.
He also didn't expect that Tang Fan and the others would be willing to risk their lives to go to the grave with the huge pile of dead people in front of them, not afraid of death.
He didn't even think that Tang Fan and the others had already made sufficient preparations, and before they came down, they even had a rough idea of the layout of the tomb.
He was stabbed on the back, and the feeling of blood loss made Li Man's eyes turn black.
Suddenly, Yin Yuanhua raised his foot, kicked him fiercely, and asked sharply, "Where are all those belongings hidden by you!"
Li Man's hands were tied, and he was kicked to the ground unexpectedly. He was not angry, but gasped and said, "If I say it, can you spare my life?"
Yin Yuanhua resented the fact that they had just tied him up, and sneered when he heard the words: "You guys intend to rebel and bring chaos to the world. It would be good if you didn't kill the nine clans, and you want to save your life. If you don't talk about it, you will die here today!"
Li Man seemed to have heard a big joke, and suddenly burst into laughter, the pain in the wound made his smile more and more distorted.
"What are you laughing at!" Yin Yuanhua was so terrified by his smile that he wanted to kick again, but was stopped by Suizhou.
Li Man couldn't hold back his laughter, and even burst into tears, showing a gloomy smile at Yin Yuanhua: "Laughing at you so stupid! All I say is just to delay time, so that I can live longer One point, then your time of death will come!"
As if to echo Li Man, just after he finished saying this, a strange cry came from outside Shimen.
Everyone's expressions changed slightly.
Li Man laughed loudly: "I've already said that the tomb-suppressing beast moves when it smells blood, and is most sensitive to the smell of blood. My blood attracted him, you know what all this is about, and it's not going to die here in the end! "
There was a thumping sound from the outside of the stone gate. It seemed that some external force was hitting. At first, it was just a tentative force. As the other party found that the stone gate was strong, it became more and more forceful. , a lot of ashes fell down.
Li Man is still laughing: "The secrets here will always be covered up, and none of you can escape!"
The back of his head was slapped heavily by Pang Qi: "You're not going to die here yet, what rude words are you talking about, think of a way!"
Li Man grinned: "The Holy Religion has given me a mountain of grace. Without it, there would be no Li Man with great wealth. Now it's finally time for me to repay my kindness. If I can have so many of you buried with me, I will die well!"
While speaking, Shimen was hit hard again!
This door was originally opened by skill, so it is not difficult for humans, but for the beasts, the stone door is an obstacle in front of the eyes, but the tomb beast outside is obviously wise. After using it, it gradually stopped the offensive and turned to other various attempts.
The people in the stone room originally thought that although they were temporarily unable to get out, the tomb beast outside could not enter either. As long as they waited patiently for a while, it would leave automatically when it lost patience. However, when they saw the stone door outside from the outside. When he was slowly pushed away, he couldn't help being a little frightened.
A black claw that was sharp as a bird's claw, but several times larger than an ordinary bird's claw, came in through the crack of the door.
With the strength of this monster outside, being caught by such a claw, it is estimated that the head will bloom on the spot.
Thinking of this, everyone's heart trembled fiercely.
Sui Zhou shouted, "Go up and hold the door!"
In fact, there is no need for him to say that many people have already rushed up and blocked the stone gate with their bodies.
However, the force outside was simply too great, and everyone tried their best to push the door back.
Before they could breathe a sigh of relief, Shimen was hit again!
Many people were still sticking to the door, and their limbs were numb from the shock on the spot, and they lost their strength.
Another hit outside!
a bit!
again!
Sui Zhou said solemnly, "Prepare the fire gun!"
Being reminded by this sound, many people remembered that they still had fire guns next to them, and Jin Yiwei, who was carrying fire guns, hurriedly filled it with gunpowder, and aimed extremely nervously at the stone gate, just waiting for the stone gate to collapse if it couldn't hold back...
However, bad things always seem to come as soon as they want. Before they were ready, the Shimen couldn't bear the huge impact force. It shattered into two pieces and collapsed back. was suppressed.
Along with the complete destruction of Shimen, a gust of stench hits the face, causing everyone to almost vomit!
The only candle in the hall was completely extinguished.
But fortunately, before that, Suizhou had ordered four or five fire sticks to be thrown in various corners, so at this moment, a black shadow rushed in with the wind, and they were finally able to see Li Man's mouth. The face of the tomb-suppressing beast.
In fact, this monster is not tall, but it is very thick and has a long neck. Its entire body is about three or four times the size of a middle-aged man. It is covered with black scales, and its white teeth and huge mouth show it to everyone. He had two blood-red eyeballs embedded in his raised head, turning slowly, staring at all the people in the hall with resentment, as if he had treated them as a meal on a plate.
It has scales but no horns, but its limbs have claws. It is like a snake but not a snake. It is also several times larger than a crocodile. A name suddenly flashed across Tang Fan's mind, but it was originally only recorded in a novel of the Southern and Northern Dynasties. After that, no one has seen it with their own eyes for hundreds of years, but they did not expect to appear here today.
However, he didn't see the excitement of the legend at all now, and the hall was already in chaos because of the appearance of this monster.
Its body was blocked in the doorway, and just by moving its head and tail, it had already disturbed everyone.
The sharp embroidered spring knife slashed on the black scales, and the scales were unscathed, but the embroidered spring knife that could be used for chopping firewood was slightly curled.
The monster's tail swept away, and a Jin Yiwei was instantly swept away and fell to the ground again, not knowing whether he was alive or dead.
Suizhou took advantage of the monster to deal with other people, and jumped on its back. The monster seemed to be provoked. It opened its mouth and let out a shrill cry, but it was not a roar, but Tang Fan and the others who had heard it countless times. ghost cry.
The sound ran back and forth in the stone room, making the eardrums hum and creepy.
With a dull loud noise, the gunpowder in the four fire guns was ignited, and the flames shot out, all hitting the monster.
However, under the eyes of everyone's expectations, the monster just made a sharper cry, and became more and more irritated, and with a thunderous momentum, it approached one of the Jinyi guards holding a fire gun, and opened the stench. mouth.
"Ah!" The screams of Jin Yiwei came to an abrupt end. One of his arms and half of his shoulders were torn off, and blood spurted out in an instant, splashing the faces of his companions who were caught off guard.
Everyone stopped involuntarily and stared blankly at this scene.
With such a terrifying attack power, I am afraid that everyone will be able to attack it, and it will not be its opponent!
Previously, they were scornful when they heard that Li Man had damaged more than 20 people, but now it seems that the other party's statement is not an exaggeration at all.
"Fire gun!" Sui Zhou shouted sharply, calling out the people who were still stunned.
Pang Qi grabbed the fire gun of a subordinate next to him and shouted at him, "Fill the medicine!"
The next moment, the monster's tail swept over, and they had to roll sideways with the fire guns in their arms, avoiding them in embarrassment.
In this chaos, people like Tang Fan and Yin Yuanhua who have no time for themselves can only hide everywhere, try not to cause trouble for Suizhou and the others, otherwise if they are also in danger, more people will be affected .
Tang Fan saw that the fire books were about to be extinguished, so he took time to order a few more and threw them away.
On the other side, the fire gun fired again, hitting the monster's tail hard.
The fire blazed into the sky, and there was another muffled sound!
Although the monster has scales to help it and is not afraid of firearms, the impact still makes its huge body shake.
Taking advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Sui Zhou, who had been working hard on the monster to stabilize his figure, jumped onto the monster, raised the Embroidered Spring Sabre high, and inserted it into one of its eyeballs!
"Hey!!!" A shrill cry resembling a woman's howling sounded, and the furious monster threw Sui Zhou down.
"Attack its belly!" Sui Zhou shouted.
Pang Qi and the others stepped forward with the knife, and when the monster was blind in one eye and suffered excruciating pain, and his movements were disordered, they slashed the blade of the knife into its softest abdomen.
Although the agility of the injured monster was not as good as before, its strength was stronger than before. Under its crazy swing, Pang Qi and the others could not get close at all. Many people were even stepped on or swept by the monster's claws, vomiting blood and breaking. bone.
The power of the two is not at the same level at all. Even if there are many people on their side, the situation is quite dangerous.
Although they came here, they originally wanted to destroy monsters, so Suizhou also brought fire cannons for this purpose.
In this era, with firearms in hand, it is basically equal to invincibility, even the Mongolian cavalry.
But no one thought that even a fire gun would not work in front of this monster.
The opponent is protected by scale armor, and the only weak points are the abdomen and eyes, and its body is large and agile, and its attack power is so strong, it is difficult for them to find a chance to start, and it is difficult to abolish it. It has an eyeball.
But now that the weaknesses are known, there is finally hope for the next step.
I saw that the monster opened one eye that was even more bloodshot than before, roaring wildly in the hall, waving its tail and claws, and harvesting creatures wherever it went like a sickle.
Yin Yuanhua was leaning against the wall and trembling, when the monster's claws swept over, his face was pale, and he watched helplessly, forgetting his reaction.
At this time, Tang Fan next to him stretched out a hand and pulled him over.
Yin Yuanhua stumbled and narrowly avoided the claw. The sharp claw peak slashed across the wall, leaving three deep scratches.
If he was still there, there would be a dismembered corpse there at the moment.
Yin Yuanhua leaned against the wall for breath, as if he couldn't believe that he had just escaped.
"Go to the side hall!" Tang Fan shouted, contrary to the usual gentleness.
He just put a lot of effort into dragging Yin Yuanhua, but at this time his face was not much better than the other party's.
But the next moment, the danger came again.
The tomb-suppressing beast seemed to have noticed that there were two better people to deal with. With a turn of his head, his mouth opened wide, and his white teeth were close at hand.
From Tang Fan saving Yin Yuanhua to the monster turning his head, all this happened in the blink of an eye!
There is no way for the tomb-suppressing beast to bite down two people at once, and its target is Yin Yuanhua first.
Yin Yuanhua's face was still pale, but his reaction this time seemed to be faster than last time.
It was too late to escape, the monsters were much bigger than them, and they had already blocked their retreat.
This time Yin Yuanhua finally reacted.
He chose to drag Tang Fan while hiding behind him, preparing to use Tang Fan as a shield, first to slow down the monster's coming, and then try to leave.
Between the lights and flint, no one expected him to do this!
Tang Fan couldn't dodge in time!
Seeing that his shoulder was about to be bitten off by the monster just like the Jin Yiwei before, a knife flashed in front of Tang Fan's eyes, but the monster's teeth were just biting on an embroidered spring knife!
It's Suizhou!
At the critical moment, Suizhou rushed over, and with all his strength, he blocked the monster's approach with the embroidered spring knife in his hand!
The mouth of the knife stained the monster's soft mouth with blood. It furiously bit the edge of the blade and threw it fiercely, instantly knocking Sui Zhou up against the wall.
The latter fell heavily and vomited another mouthful of blood.
"Guangchuan!" Tang Fan rushed over to help him, his eyes were splitting.
Sui Zhou's face was like golden paper, and his eyes were tightly closed. I was afraid that he had already hurt his internal organs, and he didn't even have the strength to speak for a while.
The warm body in his arms was so close, but at that moment, Tang Fan had a sense of panic and hesitation that he was about to lose him.
In the first half of his life, his parents passed away early, and his elder sister married far away. He thought he was alone, unconcerned, and unrestrained. He thought that even if he didn't become an official, he would at most leave with a crown, and he might not have it in this life. What could make him unable to let go.
But only at this time did Tang Fan realize how much this person held in his heart.
It was so heavy that he couldn't bear the fact of losing the other party.
At this time, Yin Yuanhua was overjoyed when he saw that the monster had left the position of the door, and hurriedly ran towards the door.
Seeing this, Pang Qi shouted: "This monster is too powerful, let's retreat first, and then look for the people and horses..."
Before he could finish speaking, a shrill scream came from outside the door.
It's Yin Yuanhua!
Before everyone could react, a head flew in from the outside and rolled in circles on the ground.
It was Yin Yuanhua who was dead.
"There's another one outside!" Pang Qi shouted sharply.
Outside, the corridors were shrouded in thick darkness, and there seemed to be unknown dangers buried in them.
Just one here is hard enough to deal with, is there another outside
That monster was so cunning, one swept inside and the other kept outside, trapping them here, with no way to escape.
A shadow suddenly appeared in everyone's heart.
Yes, Li Man only said that there are tomb-suppressing beasts, not how many there are!
Tang Fan realized that he had made a mistake.
He underestimated Li Man too much, because last time the other party was planted in his hands, he really regarded the other party as an ordinary person, but he didn't know that behind the "confession" that the other party seemed to show weakness, there were many things hidden at all.
If the strength of the White Lotus Sect is really only that weak, how could the imperial court have a headache in order to completely destroy them
I'm afraid Li Man had expected this scene long ago and was waiting for all of them to die here!
And what about Li Man
At this time, Li Man took advantage of the chaos in the scene and when everyone had no time to pay attention to him, he ran to the coffin in the main hall and tried to push the upper coffin lid with his upper body.