On the border of the Dayu State.
Prince Rong, Mo Chenfeng, was retreating deep into the mountains with the last few of his Secret Guards and four of his sons, protecting a young girl. Pursuers were hot on their heels when the group suddenly plunged into a large pit. The cavern instantly collapsed, and they vanished without a trace. As the leader of the pursuers hesitated over whether to dig up their bodies, a flare suddenly burst into the night sky, and the commander immediately ordered a retreat.
The group who had fallen into the pit tumbled instantly into an empty cave. Rising to their feet, they checked each other for injuries. Mo Chenfeng looked at the girl beside him and asked, "Shuang'er, how are you? Are you hurt?"
"Father, I am fine," Mo Wushuang replied. "I'm sorry. If I hadn't been careless, they wouldn't have tracked us down."
Mo Chenfeng sighed, his gaze darkening. "It is no fault of yours. I simply never expected so many spies from the Yueshi State to have infiltrated the border. To discover our whereabouts so quickly and dispatch assassins on our trail—it seems the Yueshi influence here has already grown beyond anything I anticipated."
Mo Liufang looked around the space, then turned to Mo Chenfeng. "Father, I believe we have fallen into an ancient tomb."
Hearing this, Mo Wushuang looked anxiously at the brocade-robed youth before her. "Eldest Brother, we're in an ancient tomb? Can we still get out?"
"Don't worry, Shuang'er, there's nothing to fear," the third son, Mo Liujin, said, brushing dirt from his clothes. "The craftsmen who built ancient tombs usually left escape routes behind. We just need to search for one."
"Indeed." The fourth son, Mo Liuchen, and the sixth son, Mo Liuteng, nodded in agreement.
"Let's search around." With those words from Mo Chenfeng, the group rose and walked further inward.
At that moment, Chu Qingmeng was walking stealthily about, holding a flashlight in one hand and an entrenching tool in the other. She had completely lost track of where that group of tomb raiders had gone. The tomb was eerie, gloomy, and deathly quiet, every step echoing the sound of her own heartbeat. On one hand, she was terrified of being discovered by the tomb raiders; on the other hand, she was afraid of the dark, though holding the flashlight gave her a shred of comfort. After emerging from a pitch-black corridor, Chu Qingmeng came upon a massive stone gate. The greenish stone was covered in moss, and on either side of the gate stood a bizarrely shaped flying bird holding a "stone ball" in its beak.
Left speechless by the giant stone gate before her, Chu Qingmeng couldn't help offering a bitter laugh to herself. Looking at the obvious signs of damage in front of the gate, it was clear the tomb raiders had already broken inside. Unfortunately, they were a large, well-coordinated group familiar with the tomb and capable of opening the gate, while she was entirely on her own—she was utterly doomed. Today, she was surely going to die right here. Thinking this, Chu Qingmeng sat down in a corner and prepared to take a sip of water. The moment she brushed against the wall, a black hole opened beneath her feet, and the hapless girl plummeted down yet again...
Meanwhile, the sky outside the ancient tomb was whipped by fierce winds and choked with roiling dark clouds. The sky, bright a moment before, instantly plunged into pitch blackness as torrential rain poured down. Yet behind the layers of piled-up clouds, a breathtaking sight appeared in the sky: one yellow moon and one red moon hung glaringly side by side. Twin moons in the sky meant spatial chaos. The bizarre phenomenon of the twin moons lasted less than five minutes, but the torrential downpour continued through the night.
Following the fall into the pit came a flight of stairs, and Chu Qingmeng tumbled down them in spectacular fashion. Bashing into a wall at the bottom, her brain went blank for a brief moment, leaving her completely dazed. Lying on the ground to recover for a few minutes, she began to feel aches all over her body, especially a sharp pain in her head. Having endured this unbroken chain of misfortunes, Chu Qingmeng could no longer muster any optimism. She sat right where she was and began cursing the heavens: "What in the world did I do to deserve this treatment?! All I wanted was to earn a living! Was it really necessary? Did you have to hound me to my grave?! Ah?! How did I offend you? You took both my parents, and after I finally managed to grow up in an orphanage, you threw me out at fifteen. I scraped by with my life just to finish junior high, and right when I started making my own money, you drop me into this ghost place! You sent me straight to a tomb before I'm even dead... Sob, sob..."
Just as Chu Qingmeng was crying with all her might, she suddenly heard a rustling sound. Terrified, she instantly clamped her mouth shut and stopped crying, pricking up her ears to listen closely. What was that noise? After listening for a moment, it sounded like something crawling. Chu Qingmeng shivered. No! How could a crawling creature make such a heavy sound? Unless... Damn it! It was a swarm of crawling creatures! At that thought, she scrambled to her feet to check if she could climb back up the way she had rolled down. The walls around the opening were smooth stone with no handholds. Looking up at the flashlight beam filtering down from the entrance some three meters above, she knew she could never climb it. Hearing the rustling sound draw closer, Chu Qingmeng realized she had to find another exit immediately. She had dropped her flashlight near the upper opening, and all she had left was a backup cigarette lighter. Remembering the lighter, she quickly fished it out to survey her surroundings. About two meters up and to the right of the spot where she had fallen, she spotted a small opening. Without caring where it led, running came first! Just as she pulled out a length of rope and tied it securely to her entrenching tool, she beheld a sight that she would never forget for the rest of her life!