Super Zoo

The pearl itself was not so rare, and one the size of a thumb, even of excellent quality, wouldn't be worth much, at least not to Suming at that time; its value was not too high.

But if placed hundreds of years ago, in a small village of just a few dozen families, it would have been a treasure!

Suming and Zhao Yun looked at each other and had the same thought: Could these foxes be thieves, stealing valuable things from the village and hiding them in their dens?

No wonder this large village didn't have a single valuable item left—it turns out the Big-eared Thieves had stolen everything!

This was truly a case of the mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind. Suming laughed heartily and gave the Big-eared Thief a big kiss, while Zhao Yun, excited, had already climbed down and was shining a flashlight into the hole, peeking in from the entrance.

"See anything?" Suming had just peeked into the hole when he was hit by the pungent stench of fox, forcing both men to cover their noses and frown.

Just then, another long-eared fox emerged from the hole, this time with something flat in its mouth.

Suming felt his pockets, "Shoot, nothing to eat left," and Zhao Yun volunteered a box of chewing gum... but then thought better of it and broke off a small piece of instant noodles to give to the newly emerged fox, trading it for what it was carrying in its mouth.

A copper coin. Zhao Yun quickly spat on it, rubbing it vigorously, and then under the light, pulled out a magnifying glass to examine it closely, mumbling as he looked, "Da... Yi... Tong Bao..."

The characters on the coin were the reign title of the emperor who had the coins made, such as Yongle Tongbao and Qianlong Tongbao. Hearing Zhao Yun say this, Suming couldn't help but laugh and said, "Da Yi Tong Bao? Mr. Zhao, are you sure you're not seeing things? There was no such reign title called Da Yi during the Ming Dynasty, right? Or during the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, or Qing Dynasties for that matter. The Da Yi Emperor, that's a new one on me."

Zhao Yun lifted his head, carefully pulled out a sealable bag, placed the copper coin inside, sealed the bag, and placed it reverently in his backpack.

After this, he finally said, "That's because you're uncultured. Just because you haven't heard of it doesn't mean it doesn't exist."

"There really was a Da Yi Emperor?" Suming was skeptical, pouting, "It couldn't be one of those rebel leaders who crowned themselves emperor, right? The name of that reign sounds like one picked by a makeshift emperor."

"This time you're half right. This emperor did indeed proclaim himself, but he was no ordinary rebel leader."

Zhao Yun pointed to a nearby stone stele and said, "You know who Chen Youliang is, right?"

"Yeah, the eighth generation disciple of the Beggars' Sect, Cheng Kun's student, who almost killed Zhang Wuji... Okay, okay, Mr. Zhao, please don't look at me like I'm illiterate. Chen Youliang, the one who nearly destroyed Zhu Yuanzhang. At that time, the land was divided between three: one part to him, one to Zhu Yuanzhang, and one to Zhang Shicheng. Chen Youliang had the greatest power and established the Great Han, but what does that have to do with this Da Yi thing?"

"Da Yi was Chen Youliang's first reign title, and it was during a time when his forces were at their strongest, and he was at the height of his power," explained Zhao Yun, pointing towards the fox den. "I'm going to go down there and take a look. Stay at the entrance and back me up."Nôv(el)B\\jnn

"No, no, no, let's go down together. Su Meng, you stay at the entrance and back us up. Anyway, with your size, you won't fit down there."

Suming couldn't miss out on such an exciting adventure, and since the den was already a fox lair, all the foxes inside were 'friendly,' so there wasn't any danger.

So the two men put on simple gas masks—not because they feared a lack of oxygen; if foxes could survive inside, it meant there would be enough oxygen below.

The main issue was that the fox den smelled so awful, one whiff at the entrance and you could be knocked half dead; without a gas mask, I reckon you'd vomit outright.

After preparing themselves, the two hooked their flashlights onto the miner's helmets they wore on their heads, muttered a dull 'OK', and then crawled into the hole one after the other.

The entrance of the fox den was like a twisty, slanting slide, leading steeply downward. The cave was so narrow that there was no question of standing, you couldn't even sit up straight. Zhao Yun was in front, sitting on the ground with most of his body lying in the hole, holding a gun pointed downward at an angle, inching himself further down, with Suming following right behind him.

About seven or eight meters later, Zhao Yun called out that they had arrived. His feet touched ground, and he straightened his body and climbed out of the hole to stand up, followed closely by Suming.

Upon landing, Suming felt something was off.

Ever since arriving in this underground complex, all the floors were made of dirt. In an ancient village, there was no money to pave the streets with tiles, and even most of the house floors were just compacted earth.

But now, there was a hard sensation underfoot, clearly indicating the presence of floor tiles!

A few swings of the flashlight beam allowed them to get a rough look at the surroundings, leaving Suming and Zhao Yun stunned!

Before them was a stone chamber of about a dozen square meters, floored with fish and dragon patterned tiles. The floor was rather clean, not at all like the mess of fox feces they had imagined.

In the center of the stone room was a stone platform about a meter high, and on that platform sat a small three-legged bronze tripod.

The tripod, about half a meter tall, appeared quite 'miniature' and seemed out of place.

It was as if a poor man wanted to pass for rich but didn't have the money, so he skimped on materials and ended up with this tiny tripod instead.

"This is too unserious, burial is a significant event in one's life, how can it be treated so carelessly?" Suming couldn't help but criticize internally.

Looking to both sides, there were two small side rooms that one could see the end of with just a glance, inside which were various vessels piled up. A slight shine with the light revealed that most of them were already broken, probably smashed by foxes playing around here.

Directly in front of the stone chamber was an arched corridor, about three meters tall and two meters wide!

The corridor seemed to be seven or eight meters long. The light from the Wolf's Fang flashlight pierced through the passage, revealing another room inside. The full picture was indistinct, but merely peering through the corridor, directly opposite the entrance, stood a coffin!

"Damn, it's really an ancient tomb!"

Suming immediately got excited. His initial goal for this trip was to explore an ancient tomb. It was only after descending that he realized it was just a cluster of ancient dwellings, and his enthusiasm had waned significantly. If it hadn't been for that large group of foxes and the Yangtze alligators stirring things up, this trip would have been too lackluster.

He never would have thought that beneath this cluster of dwellings lay an actual tomb! Although that little tripod wasn't very serious and completely disrupted the solemn atmosphere of the ancient tomb, at the end of the day, it was still a tomb.