Earlier, outside he’d seen hundreds of wooden barrels. With four burial chambers plus Zhuge Liang’s own tomb, the oil they’d actually used was less than half a barrel.

Most likely the rest had been hidden underground by Zhuge Liang. Now that the bomb’s power had been unleashed, the fire spread and ignited the oil deeper below the ground.

Once the oil down below caught fire, the heat it gave off had no way to dissipate, and that’s what caused the explosion.

"Zhuge Liang is really fucking ruthless, he’s trying to wipe this whole place out."

Xia Liang thought to himself.

The man was ruthless enough: lure everyone into the deepest part, then destroy the place. No matter how fast you were, there’d be no way to escape.

The ground was still shaking. Everyone was climbing out along the guiding ropes they’d set up earlier, but they were still too slow.

And the ropes could only bear so much weight; they couldn’t all go at once, especially with the two dead weights, Kawai Matsutake and his partner, hanging on.

"Move, this place is going to cave in."

Gunpowder shouted as he grabbed the rope with Xia Liang; the two of them were the last group heading back.

"Boom......"

Just as the two of them grabbed the ropes, the mountainside behind them started to collapse, and the ropes began to sway wildly.

"Crack......"

When Xia Liang and Gunpowder had just reached the middle section, one end of Xia Liang’s rope suddenly came loose, and he dropped straight down.

"Guardian!"

Seeing this, Gunpowder cried out in shock. He and Xia Liang weren’t on the same rope; he wanted to try and save Xia Liang, but there was nothing he could do.

Xia Liang hadn’t expected to be this unlucky—the rope had actually pulled free from the rock.

Fortunately he reacted fast, grabbed tight to the rope, and swung outwards; in a moment he was right up against the cliff face.

And to his surprise, there was actually a cave in the cliff.

"How the hell is there a cave here?"

Curious, Xia Liang used his momentum to reach the cave entrance, rolled his body, and tumbled into the cave.

"Guardian, are you okay?"

He had just steadied himself when Gunpowder’s voice rang out again.

"I’m fine."

Xia Liang called back, and glanced downwards.

He was halfway up the mountain; below was pitch-black, bottomless darkness. If he fell from here, he’d be dead for sure.

"Wait there, we’ll drop a rope down and pull you up."

Hearing Xia Liang’s voice, Gunpowder let out a breath of relief and quickly climbed up himself.

While he waited, Xia Liang turned to look into the cave in front of him. How could there be a cave halfway up a cliff like this?

The cave wasn’t large. Xia Liang walked forward a few steps and saw a Stone Gate appear ahead, with a mechanism beside it.

"Could there be another tomb here?"

With that thought, Xia Liang pulled the mechanism.

"Rumble rumble rumble

The Stone Gate slowly opened. Nothing dangerous happened; Xia Liang waited a few seconds, then looked inside, and what he saw made his expression turn strange.

Inside was another chamber, not very big, about a hundred square meters. The surroundings weren’t lavishly decorated; the most striking thing was right in the center—a white stone tumulus, shaped almost like a turtle shell.

"What kind of stone is this?"

Coming closer, Xia Liang was a bit puzzled. With all his experience, he still couldn’t tell what this stone was made of.

It looked like jade but not jade, like marble but not marble—completely unlike any stone material known today.

Aside from the tumulus, there was actually a skeleton in front of it. Judging from the posture, the person had been sitting when they died.

"Could some enlightened monk have sat in meditation and passed away here?"

Xia Liang was even more surprised and began to examine the surroundings, but found no other information—not even whose tomb this white stone tumulus was.

"Thud....."

As he was walking, his foot suddenly caught on something. Xia Liang looked down and saw that the spot he’d nearly tripped over revealed a little black corner.

"This..."

Xia Liang squatted down and wiped the dust clean. A black, mysterious stele more than a meter long appeared before his eyes.

On the stele were carved many characters.

"This, this?"

When he saw the writing, Xia Liang’s face slowly showed surprise. He looked at the white stone tumulus, then at the skeleton, astonishment in his eyes.

"So this skeleton is actually Zhuge Liang’s?"

Xia Liang swallowed. He’d never imagined that Zhuge Liang’s true remains were here, and from the look of it, he had died in a seated meditation.

As for the white stone tumulus, once Xia Liang learned its origin, he was even more shocked.

"How is this possible?"

"This is actually Peng Zu’s tomb?""

Peng Zu’s surname wasn’t Peng; his clan name was Ji, and his personal name was Jian Kang. He was a great-grandson of Emperor Zhuanxu.

It’s said Peng Zu lived eight hundred and eighty years, but that age was recorded using the system of sixty-six days to a year at the time. Converted to today’s calendar, it was actually about 159 years.

Even so, a hundred and fifty-nine years would still count as extreme old age even now.

But there are other accounts claiming he really did live more than eight hundred years, from the time of Emperor Yao and Emperor Yu... all the way to the Zhou Dynasty, a true Living Immortal.

The dark stele before Xia Liang had been carved by Zhuge Liang. From what was written on it, the white stone mound in front of him was Peng Zu’s tomb.

It also recorded that Zhuge Liang had once sought to use the Seven-Star Lamp to prolong his life, and that this Seven-Star Lamp had been obtained from Peng Zu’s tomb.

Furthermore, this entire mountain range of tombs hadn’t been built by Zhuge Liang at all, but by Peng Zu himself. Zhuge Liang had merely rebuilt and modified the site over Peng Zu’s tomb later on.

After using Peng Zu’s Seven-Star Lamp to successfully extend his own life, Zhuge Liang had used his own body to conceal Peng Zu’s tomb.

At this point Xia Liang fully understood why Zhuge Liang had managed to gather so much gold and silver—most of it must have already been here before.

The man wanted intruders to think this was only his own tomb, so they wouldn’t disturb Peng Zu. It was his way of settling the karmic debt.

"No wonder Zhuge Liang first tried to persuade people to just take the treasure and leave, but later every step was a killing trap, and in the end he even planned to destroy the entire mausoleum."

It suddenly made sense to Xia Liang: the man didn’t want anyone to discover Peng Zu’s tomb.

"If I hadn’t been lucky enough to end up here, I really wouldn’t have known there was another layer to all this."

Xia Liang muttered to himself, and his gaze returned to the stele.

The stele also contained records about the Seven-Star Lamp. Zhuge Liang had indeed succeeded in prolonging his life through it, but afterward the Seven-Star Lamp shattered and no longer existed in this world.

"I didn’t expect there really to be a life-extending treasure in this world."

Xia Liang couldn’t help sighing. Maybe Zhuge Liang had just rallied for a final burst and managed to hang on twelve more years before dying, but it still felt uncanny.