"Holy shit, the Eighteen Arhats!!" Arata was startled. He tossed out a few more glow sticks to light the way. The faces that had flashed in the dark just a moment ago made Arata think he was about to face the statues of the Eighteen Arhats.
But upon closer inspection, he realized they weren't. Although there were exactly eighteen of them and they were crafted with some care, the statues lacked any divine aura and their postures were incredibly stiff. Their weapons were just superficial imitations missing the real essence. They were nothing but Terracotta Warriors wearing the skins of the Eighteen Arhats.
The floor of this grand hall was also different from the tomb's tunnels. It was completely covered in damp soil. He could even see small bugs crawling over the glow sticks he had just thrown.
"Might as well just clear the room." Arata took a massive breath. An ultrasonic blast instantly swept through the grand hall, blowing all eighteen Terracotta Warriors into piles of crushed rubble.
"Well, that was pretty easy." With that, Arata stepped forward. But the moment his foot touched the soil of the hall, the piles of rubble suddenly began to move. Realizing something was wrong, Arata immediately pulled his foot back. The moment he did, the crushed stone on the soil went completely still again.
"Knew there was a catch. You, go take a look." Arata ordered one of the rats to scout the path. As soon as the rat stepped onto the soil, the rubble started violently shaking again. The further the rat walked, the more intense the shaking became.
"Run!" Arata shouted. The rat picked up its pace, sprinting toward the exit of the hall. Right then, the crushed stones rapidly levitated, and the eighteen statues instantly reformed themselves in mid-air. Boom! One of the statues slammed down with incredible speed, crushing the rat to death.
The second the rat died, all the statues froze in place once again. "If the enemy doesn't move, I don't move?" To test his theory, Arata slowly placed his foot on the soil. The statues, which had been staring at the ground, all raised their heads in unison. Their stone faces twisted around, locking their eyes exactly on the spot where Arata's foot rested.
"Thought so!" Arata pulled his foot back, finally figuring out the gimmick behind these statues. The stone stele at the entrance was a literal hint. "The Living Are Forbidden" meant that any living breathing thing stepping into the hall would trigger the wrath of the eighteen Terracotta Warriors. But inanimate objects like the glow sticks didn't activate them at all.
Arata casually scooped up the remaining rats and stuffed them into his pocket. He then activated a double speed boost using the Leopard Devil and the Wind Devil. Swoosh!! His body basically flew inches above the ground as he bolted straight for the exit.
In the blink of an eye, he reached the other side. However, the tunnel ahead was bottomlessly dark, and he was running dangerously low on glow sticks. If he kept going blindly, his visibility would only get worse. Arata glanced back over his shoulder.
Most of his glow sticks were still lying right at the feet of the eighteen statues. He scratched his head, his expression looking like this was barely an inconvenience. "Guess I'll have to go back and grab them." Blasting an ultrasonic wave to clear the path, he fired up his double speed boost again and snatched up every single glow stick scattered on the soil.
Even though the statues reformed instantly, their punching speed was completely laughable. The eighteen statues threw punches almost simultaneously, but they all just smashed into the ground or directly into their allies' faces. Arata safely collected all his glow sticks without a scratch and arrived back at the exit. The second he stepped off the soil, the statues froze in place again.
This time, he had one of the rats carry a glow stick in its mouth to scout the path ahead. Along the way, he noticed numerous weapons and pieces of armor from completely different historical eras scattered across the ground. After walking for another twenty meters, Arata could tell from the way the air currents bounced back that he had entered an even wider space.
Two massive twenty-meter-tall statues stood on either side of this new grand hall, their craftsmanship significantly more detailed than the last ones. Arata tossed a glow stick into the air. Under the dim light, the ferocious, demonic expressions on the statues looked incredibly lifelike. Not really caring, Arata kept walking forward, only to be blocked by a massive locked gate. The gate had a keyhole, meaning it clearly needed a key to open.
Arata glanced back. He figured the key was definitely being held by one of the Heng and Ha Guardians, and trying to grab it would absolutely activate them. "Sorry, but I never need keys." Just as he finished speaking, heavy grinding noises suddenly echoed through the room.
It sounded like the statues were moving. It seemed these two were triggered by sound. "See ya!!" Arata screamed at the top of his lungs into the hall. The Heng and Ha Guardians rapidly smashed their giant fists down toward where Arata was standing, but by the time they lifted their hands, Arata had already phased his body straight through the locked gate.
"With this many traps and guards, there's definitely a huge secret hidden inside this tomb." Arata picked up his pace and hurried deeper. But as they ran, the rat taking the lead suddenly vanished into thin air. A second later, the rest of the rats disappeared too. "Stop!!"
With a single shout, the remaining rats froze in place. Arata pulled out a glow stick and tossed it forward. The glow stick plummeted straight down, as if it had fallen into a bottomless pit. Arata used the dim light to probe the area ahead, finally realizing that the path had completely ended. Since he couldn't see the glow stick that just fell at all, he concluded that the drop below was insanely deep.
"The secret has to be down there." Even if it was an abyss, Arata had to brave it. A pair of bat wings sprouted from his back as he gripped his flashlight and flew down, hugging the wall. As he descended, he kept the beam trained on the stone surface. Once he dropped about ten meters down, Arata noticed the walls were densely packed with identical tunnels.
Each tunnel entrance was two meters high and half a meter wide. Hovering in front of one, he shined his flashlight inside but couldn't see the end. "Why the hell would they carve so many holes into the wall?" Confused, Arata continued his descent, making sure to keep a close eye on the surrounding tunnels as he flew. By the time he hit twenty meters deep, Arata heard the sound of footsteps.
Tracking the noise, Arata flew over to one of the tunnels, confirming that the footsteps were echoing from inside. Carrying his light, he flew into the tunnel. The deeper he went, the closer the sound got, until his beam illuminated the face of a Terracotta Warrior. But the Terracotta Warrior didn't react to Arata at all; it just numbly marched forward like a zombie.
Arata quickly pressed his back against the ceiling of the tunnel, watching the Terracotta Warrior march right underneath him. Right behind it was another one, and then another. A continuous, single-file line of Terracotta Warriors was marching toward the exit of the tunnel. Once the leader stopped, the rest spaced themselves out perfectly and halted, looking as if they had been specifically stationed here.
He swept his flashlight over the heads of the Terracotta Warriors before flying deeper into the tunnel, his chest nearly brushing against the tops of their heads. The tunnel was shockingly deep; he only reached the end after flying a full hundred meters inward. "Stairs!!"
Arata was completely caught off guard to find a set of stairs at the end of the tunnel. The footsteps from earlier must have come from them walking up these steps. Thud!! Thud!! The sound of perfectly synchronized marching rang out once again. Flying down along the staircase, Arata saw numerous Terracotta Warriors marching up the steps, filing into the various tunnels one by one and standing at attention.
"Don't tell me..." Sensing something was wrong, Arata flew out of the tunnel and decided to dive straight down the main abyss again. By this point, he had lost track of exactly how deep he was; he just wanted to reach the very bottom as fast as possible. Thud!!! He finally felt solid ground beneath his feet.
After landing, the flashlight's beam seemed to grow even weaker, barely illuminating the space from his hand down to his feet. Just then, the sound of marching echoed out again. Tracking the noise, Arata walked toward the center of the cavern. To get a better look, he strapped all of his flashlights together to strengthen the beam, continuously tossing glow sticks ahead of him to light the way.
Thud!! Thud!! The synchronized stomping was now mere inches away. His makeshift spotlight quickly locked onto the source: a full row of Terracotta Warriors marching directly toward him. Just like the others, this squad showed absolutely zero hostility. Arata easily stepped aside and let them march right past him.
These entirely mechanical soldiers thoroughly piqued Arata's curiosity. He walked in the exact opposite direction of their marching path until he spotted a raised platform protruding from the ground. The platform was surrounded by numerous planted flags. Arata shined his light on them one by one. Yuan, Ming, Qin, Shu, and so on, flags representing various ancient dynasties and kingdoms.
Arata stepped up onto what looked like a sacrificial altar. Right in the very center was a muddy bog. Before his eyes, a brand-new Terracotta Warrior was slowly pulling itself out of the mud.
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