What does it mean to be a man who can be killed but not humiliated? You biting just leaves two holes, but licking makes the whole beast feel dirty.

The tomb-guarding beast rolled its eyes, looking like it was about to faint.

Tan Xiao was afraid it would fall and break, so he rushed over and took out a wet wipe to clean its head. This was originally meant for wiping cinnabar and lime used in the ritual process, but now it was used to wipe the saliva of Xiong Hui. What a sin, look at how angry the tomb-guarding beast was.

As soon as Old Ji saw Tan Xiao holding the tomb-guarding beast, he couldn't help himself and stepped forward to hug the beast.

Tomb-guarding beast: "?"

What's with these people, each one more perverted than the other.

Tan Xiao also looked at Old Ji in surprise, "Teacher Ji, it's not really fainted, no need for a princess carry, right?"

Old Ji struggled to turn the tomb-guarding beast over, "No, I'm checking the bottom mark."

Tan Xiao: "..."

Tomb-guarding beast: "..."

There's a saying that for jade, look at the skin; for porcelain, look at the bottom. In addition to examining the craftsmanship, the tombs where tomb-guarding beasts usually appear also have a certain level. Some bottoms also have inscriptions, which are extremely interesting to Old Ji.

The tomb-guarding beast was like someone whose privacy was being peeped at in the toilet, and it screamed, "Stop staring at me there!!"

Mu Fei handled things better. She took out her ID and waved it in front of the tomb-guarding beast, "I heard you talking just now, and that you've also secretly gone out to see the world, so you should know about our Bureau 404, right?"

If it were a creature like Xiong Hui before, this would be useless. But the tomb-guarding beast paused when it saw it, no longer wailing, though it didn't speak for the moment. It actually couldn't distinguish the documents, but if these people had ill intentions, they wouldn't specifically make fake documents to deceive it, right?

Mu Fei pointed to Aperture, "And this is my law enforcement recorder."

Aperture quickly cooperated by revealing a lens. He was indeed responsible for recording and making a ledger to take back, so he wasn't lying.

Only then did the tomb-guarding beast completely relax a lot. "So what exactly are you here for? If it's just for archaeology and not treasure hunting, why are there so many powerful people?"

"That's a long story, but as it relates to you... we just need to register how many new demon tribes are in your tomb, and see if excavation protection is needed. If not, we'll protect it on site." Mu Fei explained simply. If she started from the Huodou, the story would be too long.

"Last time I was just passing by here on law enforcement duty. I'm part-time and don't have an ID to show you... only a student ID." Tan Xiao also added, "I'm really sorry for restraining you here."

Seeing that the tomb-guarding beast was relatively calm, he finally released it.

Meanwhile, Old Ji had already looked at the bottom. Sure enough, there was an inscription. Combined with the text content beside the stone portrait statue, the identity of the tomb owner could be confirmed. It was a duke buried in Nanchu during the Tang Dynasty.

This duke, rather than being interested in politics, was more fond of cultivating immortality. He even specially selected an auspicious feng shui spot in Qiyun Ridge, which is why there were so many human statues in his tomb, filled with traces of magic arts.

For example, under the stone portrait statue of the tomb owner, there were even words engraved: If the stone decays, people will come to replace it.

Mu Fei then picked up the stone tablet that Xiong Hui had swallowed the black qi and digested earlier, "There are really a lot of things here. This contains the black blight sealed by your master, right?"

The so-called black blight looks like a black dense fog, but is actually a kind of monster that can transform into various shapes, from beasts to humans. Encountering it is like encountering miasma, causing one to faint.

Since this duke had attained the Dao, he couldn't help but imitate the Chu emperor in refining Xiong Hui, making his own tomb-guarding items. However, what he sealed were the monsters he had subdued.

The stone tablet commanded these black blights he had captured to transform into a hundred mounted soldiers to guard the tomb. There was actually some more text after that, agreeing that if the black blights guarded his tomb for two thousand years or recited scriptures ninety thousand times, they would gain their freedom. This duke was indeed softer-hearted than the Chu emperor.

The tomb-guarding beast knew this was for registration, so it revealed the truth. Not only that, many of the human statues actually also contained spirits or souls. They weren't necessarily all sealed evil beings; some were artifact spirits that had developed a bit of weak consciousness and were being protected.

Hearing this, Tan Xiao couldn't help but realize, "I was just saying, even if buried in an auspicious feng shui spot and constantly absorbing the imperial dragon essence, it's impossible for every being in this tomb to naturally develop spiritual awareness. That success rate would be too high. Higher than the college entrance exam rate at our school, haha..."

Mu Fei: "..."

"There are still many talented people everywhere. I didn't know there was such a predecessor in Nanchu's history." Mu Fei sighed with emotion, "But there are quite a lot of you. Only you went out before?"

"I've never gone out... Our family naturally keeps the door closed to visitors." The tomb-guarding beast said gloomily, "My master even cried that he was poor at the main entrance, afraid of people coming to the door."

Everyone: "..."

What a way to keep the door closed to visitors. Too bad they didn't enter through the door.

The tomb-guarding beast's mention of crying poor was actually an ancient method to prevent grave robbing. The old duke used both hard and soft tactics. The hard ones were various tomb-guarding beasts and mechanisms. The soft one was writing some pleading text at the entrance, expressing that he was really poor, and instructing his descendants to have a simple burial, asking everyone not to open his tomb - of course, the more they said this, the more burial goods there were inside.

And they didn't enter through the door, so naturally they couldn't see the little "crying poor" essay at the entrance.

"If you haven't gone out and no one has come in, how did you learn so much modern knowledge?" If the tomb-guarding beast said it like this, a questionable point would emerge. Its repeated words were different from Xiong Hui who was also sealed in the tomb for thousands of years.

The tomb-guarding beast blinked, "The eavesdropping statue heard it and relayed it to us."

Old Ji exclaimed, "Ah, it's the one that rolled its eyes at me before?"

At that time, he had introduced it to everyone, saying that the purpose of this pair of human statues might be to gather information about the netherworld and the immortal realm for the tomb owner. This made Old Ji a bit excited, because this was also one of the guesses, and now the usage was confirmed.

And from the situation below, it was unknown if the eavesdropping statue had heard any news from the heavens and earth for the old duke, but it had started live broadcasting for its brothers and sisters.

The sky-observing statue had no consciousness, and the images it saw were also difficult for others to fully share. But the information conveyed by sound was much easier to relay. This was no different from having a radio station.

With the tomb-guarding beast saying this, everyone looked at each other. Wasn't this...

"It's good that we came down," Mu Fei said with excitement, "Can you ask the eavesdropping statue if it has heard of a Huodou appearing nearby Qiyun Ridge since it has been here for so long?"

"They really came to investigate the case..." the tomb-guarding beast muttered, and went to communicate with the eavesdropping statue.

The eavesdropping statue could only make subtle, strangely intoned sounds that basically only its companions in the tomb could understand. The tomb-guarding beast translated for it: "A Huodou did indeed appear in Qiyun Ridge. It dug around everywhere, dug many holes, and finally it dug up a substitute in the dragon lair."

"We know about this, it was the bramble substitute." At the time, they had speculated that other masters had encountered and fought with the Yorkshire Terrier.

"Right... that bramble was from a while ago, no, even earlier..." With no sun or moon in the mountains, their perception of time was obviously quite dull.

"Anyway, it was a great master who used the mountain as an altar to set up a sealing mechanism and maze to prevent future generations from accidentally triggering it."

"Seal?" Mu Fei was a little surprised. Indeed, Huodou enjoyed devouring, and everyone basically determined that it came to Qiyun Ridge to hunt. They even agreed that something that could make Yorkshire take the risk must be a "good ingredient."

But to say that there was a seal in Qiyun Ridge that they couldn't detect at all, and that someone had once performed magic here, it was no wonder that after many days of visiting, they still couldn't find Yorkshire's target. Even Yorkshire itself was fooled.

"What's so strange about this? There are many hidden sages and immortals in China's famous mountains, rivers, blessed lands and heavenly caves. We've been here for many years without anyone discovering us either." The tomb-guarding beast said casually, "Just take Qiyun Ridge. For thousands of years, there have always been masters and shamans coming and going, either seeking blessed lands or pointing out dragon lairs for others. It's a basic operation for the sages."

Just like this old duke, or the Moon Dharma Master who had once sheltered Fang Zhu in Yunmeng Marsh, this Chu predecessor who used this place as an altar to perform magic countless years ago was also not widely known. Their names were unknown, but they were still influencing the world many years after their passing.

Or, like Tan Xiao, even if he could be considered to have a little fame, how many people knew that his magic was real?

Tan Xiao was touched, but also wary. "Although the Yorkshire Terrier has been brought to justice, we still need to be careful. After all, there are still other Huodou at large. It's not about fearing thieves stealing, but fearing thieves coveting."

"Mm, we'll pay more attention." Mu Fei glanced at the ceiling. Although she couldn't see through the soil layers to Qiyun Ridge, it didn't prevent her from revering the old cultivation. "I'll go back and check the county records again to see if there are any clues, and I don't know what the predecessor actually sealed here."

"You don't have any other questions, right?" The tomb-guarding beast asked uneasily, "We've told you everything we should say. You won't dig us out and put us in a museum for viewing, right? I'm an introvert."

Everyone looked at Old Ji.

"No, just answer a few more questions for me..." Old Ji indicated that this place was quite good and didn't need to be opened.

The others also comforted the tomb-guarding beast one after another, saying that they had scared it today.

"It's nothing then, fortunately it was just a false alarm and not grave robbers." The Tomb-guarding beast said, resentfully glaring at Xiong Hui. Compared to Tan Xiao who had shackled it, Xiong Hui was more hateful. After all, it was used to standing still, while Xiong Hui was humiliating it.

Xiong Hui said indifferently, "Then lick back." It said, shaking its nine heads, "Guess which head licked you just now - you can lick all nine if you want."

Tomb-guarding beast: "Blargh!!" There was no way to argue with its thick skin!

......

After asking what needed to be asked and registering what needed to be registered, this trip had some small gains. Moreover, after returning, everyone's bodies didn't feel unwell, and Old Ji was even more excited.

Facts proved that non-invasive tomb opening really had a promising future. Tan Xiao recorded the magic methods, and next was the coordination and cooperation between the Bureau 404 and the archaeological community. It could be imagined that with the Bureau 404's cross-border assistance, archaeological progress would definitely be quite gratifying.

Tan Xiao promised to provide technical guidance if needed in the future, and then rode his bicycle back.

When Mu Fei saw them off at the door, she sighed, "Old Ji is still going strong in his old age. Brother Tan Xiao, Peacock God, you exercised so much that day, and can still ride a bicycle."

She remembered when she was in school, she would feel weak for a few days after the physical fitness test.

Actually, Mu Fei was mainly talking to Old Ji and Tan Xiao, politely including Kong Xuan in one sentence.

Kong Xuan smiled coldly.

Old Ji also praised, "You can tell at a glance that they are veterans of the battlefield."

"Yes, yes," Tan Xiao stepped on the bicycle, "I'm also a veteran of the sports field, bye bye."

Kong Xuan: "..."

A few more days until the weekend, the class Tan Xiao had scheduled also began. Tan Chunying took on a job and happened to teach him to mend wooden masks.