Murano Momo is a cunning doctor

Chapter 1257 Sustainable Tomb Raiding

When he turned around again, he found that Lao Liu had disappeared.

"Lao Liu?"

Jiang Xiaochuan called out tentatively.

"Hey Jiang, what are you standing there for? Get in here right now!"

From deep within the hole came the echoing voice of the sixth brother, which also carried a hint of anxiety.

Jiang Xiaochuan then realized that Lao Liu had already crawled into the bowl-sized hole.

He was puzzled. The hole was only about the size of a bowl, and Lao Liu was not thin. How could he have squeezed in?

"What are you daydreaming about? Hurry up!"

The sixth brother's urging voice came again, "...Don't tell me you don't know the art of bone shrinking?"

Jiang Xiaochuan was taken aback; he had never actually practiced this skill before.

Martial artists who practice bone-shrinking techniques mostly need to start from childhood, using special methods to stretch bones and contract muscles to make the body flexible and resilient, thus enabling them to pass through narrow spaces.

This skill emphasizes "bones as soft as cotton and muscles as contracted as ants." Once the bones are fully formed after adulthood, it becomes extremely difficult to cultivate this skill.

The principle is similar to contortionism, but it places more emphasis on the application of internal energy, requiring the concentration of internal energy between the bones and muscles to forcibly change their shape.

Now that he wants to practice, it's obviously too late.

Fortunately, the tradition records a method called "Breath Condensation and Muscle Contraction Technique".

Although not as sophisticated as the Bone Shrinking Technique, it can still achieve a similar effect by compressing muscles and adjusting bone position through internal energy.

Jiang Xiaochuan took a deep breath, circulated his spiritual energy, and slowly contracted his muscles. His bones adjusted their posture slightly under the influence of the energy, and his whole body seemed to have become thinner.

He bent down and first stuffed his head and shoulders into the narrow opening.

The cramped feeling inside the cave was far greater than I had imagined.

The cold, damp stone walls clung tightly to my body; the passage was not only narrow but also crooked and winding.

He could only move little by little using his elbows and knees, combined with the strength of his waist and abdomen, inch by inch inward.

After an unknown amount of time, Jiang Xiaochuan finally felt that the space in front of him had become slightly more spacious.

Then suddenly, the ground beneath my feet gave way, and I landed on a cold patch of ground.

He had barely steadied himself when he heard Lao Liu's scolding.

"I really don't know how you became a grandmaster. You don't even know how to shrink your bones. You've been climbing this passage for so long. I was almost falling asleep waiting for you."

Old Six squatted to the side, looking disgusted. "Back in the day, when I was six, I started practicing Bone Shrinking Technique. When I first entered the martial arts world, I could sneak through dog holes and steal people's treasures. Your skills are truly..."

Jiang Xiaochuan dusted himself off and didn't say anything.

If he were to tell Lao Liu that he had only been involved in the martial arts world for half a year...

I wonder what kind of expression this fat man will have after cultivating all the way from an ordinary person to the Grandmaster realm.

He simply didn't bother to explain, and looked around before realizing that he was in a stone chamber that wasn't exactly spacious.

The dark blue rocks are jagged and interlocked, forming the four walls.

The air was filled with a smell that was a mixture of rotting bones and a faint stench of blood.

In the corner, a skeleton was curled up in a ball, with a gruesome cut on its sternum that was so deep that the bone was visible. Beside the skeleton was something that looked like a pickaxe.

It is likely that the craftsmen who built the passage were killed by the Crimson Blood Cult and then carelessly abandoned here, becoming eternal living sacrifices, serving as a warning to intruders of their tragic end.

Directly in front of the stone chamber was a heavy stone door, tightly shut.

A blood-red bat with outstretched wings is carved on the surface of the stone gate.

The bat's eyes were inlaid with two pigeon-blood rubies, which gleamed with an eerie red light in the dim light.

No matter which angle Jiang Xiaochuan looked from, those 'eyes' were always staring at him, by sheer coincidence.

The sixth brother seemed oblivious to the eerie scene, strode towards the skeleton, and bowed respectfully to the skeletal remains.

"Thank you for watching over things these past few days, brother. I've come to pick up my things today. Please forgive the inconvenience."

Jiang Xiaochuan raised an eyebrow, a hint of doubt rising in his mind. What was this fat man up to?

Before he could think it through, Lao Liu had already reached out his chubby hand, grabbed the skeleton's shoulder blade, and with a little force, moved the skeleton aside.

The bones made a crisp "crackling" sound as they rubbed against the ground.

Where the skeleton had been lying, a cleverly concealed groove was now visible, inside which was a long object tightly wrapped in oilcloth.

"Hey, this place is still the most reliable."

Old Liu grinned, bent down to pick up the oilcloth bag, flicked his wrist to brush off the dust, and casually tore off the rope.

The moment the oilcloth was unfolded, the talisman paper with a yellowish tinge came into view.

Jiang Xiaochuan glanced around and saw that the room was densely packed with tomb raiding tools.

Seeing this, Jiang Xiaochuan instantly understood. This fat man wasn't unprepared at all; he had clearly hidden his trump card better than anyone else!

Even the hiding place exudes a cunning, unconventional approach, using the "warning skeletons" that the Crimson Blood Cult uses to deter intruders as natural cover.

What made him even more amused and exasperated was that after taking the necessary tools, Lao Liu carefully arranged the remaining items, wrapped them tightly with layers of oilcloth, and stuffed them back into the groove intact.

Then, he gently moved the skeleton back to its original position, his fingertips adjusting the curled-up posture of the skeleton, and even bending down to rearrange the surrounding rubble.

Jiang Xiaochuan's lips twitched uncontrollably as he watched, a hint of helpless exasperation flashing in his eyes.

That fat guy is really cunning beyond belief!

Judging from this, he clearly treats the Crimson Blood Sect's thousand-year-old sacred tomb as a private reserve for him to take whatever he wants and repeatedly "fleece"!

They've mastered the art of "sustainable tomb raiding."

The Crimson Blood Cult, a thousand-year-old sect, must have had terrible luck to encounter such an unconventional and habitual tomb raider.

After finishing these tasks, Lao Liu dusted off his hands, turned around, and walked to the stone door directly in front of the stone chamber.

He stretched out his finger and gently stroked the blood-red bat pattern on the surface of the stone door, his brows furrowing slightly: "This 'Blood Bat Door' wasn't like this last time I came."

He pointed to an inconspicuous indentation on the right side of the stone door, pressed down hard with his fingertip, and said in a deep voice:

“This used to be a keyhole. You could open it with the bronze bat key I found last time, and it would click.”

"It's now sealed with a special alloy and polished to look exactly like the surrounding rocks. Those bastards from the Crimson Blood Cult have really put in a lot of effort."

Jiang Xiaochuan took a closer look and indeed saw that the rock texture in the depression was slightly different from the surrounding area.

There was an extremely subtle metallic reflection at the edge, almost imperceptible in dim light.

He gathered a wisp of spiritual energy at his fingertips and gently touched the indentation, feeling a cold, metallic sensation.

Before he could even sense it properly, the spiritual energy was rebounded by a hidden malevolent aura.