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The matter was urgent, and Yao Yao didn't even have time to ask for the reason before she was hurriedly pulled into the car by her Second Brother and driven away.
Gu Yu, on the other hand, lagged behind. He deliberately didn't follow immediately, slowing down by half a beat to pack pastries into a food box for his sister. Anyway, he knew the way.
He would go over directly later and bring the food to his sister.
After all, who knew if Second Brother's matter would be difficult to handle? He couldn't let his sister go hungry!
In the car, Yao Yao also learned the general gist of the matter from her Second Brother.
It turned out that the archaeological team Second Brother was on had entered an ancient tomb some time ago.
Based on clues within the tomb, the archaeological team deduced that the tomb's owner was Emperor Ai of the Jin State from several hundred years ago.
Emperor Ai was the most controversial emperor in the several-hundred-year history of the Jin State because, after him, the Jin State began its decline from prosperity. In just twelve short years, the vast dynasty fell apart.
Some scholars had said that the reason the Jin Dynasty declined so quickly was precisely because this "Emperor of Decline" was on the throne, implementing tyrannical policies and causing widespread suffering among the people.
Before his death, Emperor Ai even engaged in large-scale construction of his mausoleum, sacrificing tens of thousands of living people.
In addition, more than half of the national treasury was buried with him. This left his successors unable to build up the national army, which in turn gave various feudal lords the opportunity to overthrow the Jin Dynasty's rule.
Because too many items were buried with him, countless people throughout history had coveted Emperor Ai's mausoleum.
If it weren't for the numerous mechanisms in Emperor Ai's tomb, it would have been excavated by later generations long ago.
But after repeated explorations, the mechanisms within the mausoleum had almost all lost their effectiveness.
After learning this result, the archaeological team was overjoyed.
One had to know that Emperor Ai's tomb contained too many precious burial goods. These artifacts, hundreds of years old, were enough to cause a major earthquake in the archaeological world.
The result was as they had expected; they unearthed dozens of extremely valuable artifacts.
But before they even had time to rejoice, all the scholars who had come into contact with the artifacts collapsed strangely.
Gu Mian took a deep breath and said in a heavy tone.
"This happened too suddenly. The scholars were sent to the hospital for examination, but no illness could be found."
"But they are weakening day by day. For several severe cases, the doctors have already issued critical illness notices."
And among those fallen scholars was his own mentor.
He hadn't gone down into the tomb with his mentor because he was on a business trip.
Gu Mian initially thought these people had been affected by unknown bacteria in the tomb. After all, in a tomb sealed for hundreds of years, no one knew what kind of bacteria or microorganisms might have bred.
He hadn't even considered ghosts or gods until last night when he was keeping vigil for his mentor and encountered something abnormal.
It was a shadowy figure whose form he couldn't make out clearly. It was Lying down on his mentor, seemingly devouring something.
When he stumbled upon it, it suddenly looked over at him.
It was a face without ears or a nose, with a vertical pupil in the center of its forehead, and a ghastly, wide mouth that stretched as wide as its face.
When it grinned, one could see the densely packed sharp teeth inside.
"It lunged at me..."
"If it weren't for the protective amulet Yao Yao gave me, Second Brother, I'm afraid I would have been in trouble."
Gu Mian still felt a lingering fear when he spoke of this.
That ghostly thing was incredibly fast; he couldn't dodge it at all. Just as he was about to be hit, the purple jade gourd he wore on his body suddenly heated up intensely.
This jade gourd was given to him by his younger sister, who said it was for self-protection, and all the brothers in the family had one.
Gu Mian knew his sister's abilities, so after receiving it, he had always worn it.
He hadn't expected it to work this time. He hadn't even reacted before he heard it let out a terrifying scream.
The commotion it made was huge, directly alerting the Xuan Master sent by the Special Operations Unit.
The man and the ghost fought. Just as the Xuan Master from the Special Operations Unit was about to capture the ghostly thing, its body suddenly dissipated without any warning.
At that moment, he knew he had underestimated the situation.
"That Xuan Master said he couldn't find the cause and asked me to go back and ask you to come over."
Because so many colleagues and his mentor's life were involved, Gu Mian dared not delay at all.
"Second Brother, Yao Yao isn't sure right now either. I'll have to wait and see before I know."
Yao Yao shook her head, not giving an immediate response.
The Xuan Masters sent by the Special Operations Unit to protect her brothers and parents were all at the third or fourth tier of cultivation. Coupled with the temporary magical artifacts she had given them, they had the ability to fight even a Red Ghost.
Winning might be difficult, but disappearing without a trace was almost impossible.
There was definitely something hidden here, which was why Yao Yao hadn't given her Second Brother a definite answer.
"Okay, no rush. We'll talk after you've seen it!"
Gu Mian also knew that relying on his description alone wouldn't solve the problem; she had to see it with her own eyes.
He drove all the way, familiar with the route to the hospital, and then took his sister to his mentor's ward.
Actually, it wasn't just his mentor here; the members of the archaeological team occupied the next two or three wards.
Yao Yao followed her Second Brother into the ward and saw an old man, over sixty, lying in bed.
His hair was gray, but his features were well-defined, and he carried an air of scholarly elegance.
However, what was strange was that his skin was shriveled and sallow, not at all like someone his age should look, but rather like a dying person on the verge of death.
"Little Mian, you're here!" The latter's voice was already as faint as a thread.
Hearing the sound of the door opening, he stiffly turned his head. After recognizing the visitor, he called out softly.
"Mm!" Gu Mian nodded upon hearing this, his expression involuntarily growing heavy.
Before his business trip, his mentor had been in high spirits, even frequently staying up all night working on archaeological materials. Now, let alone staying up all night, he barely had much time awake during the day.
All this was a disaster brought by Emperor Ai's tomb. If he had known, he should have gone with them.
With his amulet for protection, perhaps his mentor and the others could have escaped this calamity.
"Well, have you seen anything?" Gu Mian knew there was no medicine for regret; thinking too much was useless.
Right now, the most important thing was undoubtedly whether his sister could find the root of the problem.
Yao Yao had activated her ocular technique as soon as she entered the door. When she clearly saw the old man's face, her gaze immediately fell on the black qi at the center of his forehead.
Under the investigation of her ocular technique, the secrets of the black qi naturally had nowhere to hide.
Beneath the black qi, there was actually a complex pattern. It was like a burning lamp, scorching and scalding.
However, it wasn't burning lamp oil, but the old man's lifespan.
"The Art of Blood Curses!"
Seeing this, Yao Yao also recognized the origin of this black qi. Her expression became solemn, and she stated its origin, word by word.