Chapter 132

Main text Chapter 134 One Divides into 3

The countless horrifying floating corpses made my chest feel as if a huge stone were pressing on it; suddenly I felt utterly still, wanting to make a noise, so as not to be infected by the resentment in the gourd cave.

Facing this mysterious bronze box, Pangzi also became excited, immediately pulling out the 'golden beast-head short staff' from his pack and shouting: 'Party... no no, it's the golden key here!'

Both ends are a dragon head and a tiger head, the golden short staff slightly curved in the middle; in the cool, dark environment of the gourd cave it emits a brilliant golden glow. This golden staff, together with the golden mask and several other gold items, are the burial goods we poured out from the jade coffin of the Xian King's high priest; this should be a complete set of ancient golden ritual implements, the most noticeable of which are the mask and the staff.

Unexpectedly, this beast-head golden staff is actually related to the large bronze lump spat out from the mouth of the 'Huo immortal worm'; I saw Pangzi fumbled, trying to insert the dragon head of the golden short staff into the hole on the bronze lump.

I felt an indescribable curiosity about this square bronze lump, or rather the 'bronze box'; I was eager to open it and see what's inside, but deep down I vaguely felt something was off—what if there were something dangerous inside?

Shirley Yang also acted very cautiously, reminding me and Pangzi: 'Be careful—the bronze box might contain hidden arrows, poison gas, or similar traps.'

Although Pangzi was reckless, he also knew how to cherish his own life; hearing Shirley Yang's words, he couldn't help muttering, thought it over, and came up with an idea: 'In my opinion, naturally we should preserve our fighting strength as a principle, we cannot take this pointless risk, so the safest way is to blow it up with a detonator—you all stay far back in a safe spot, watch me carry out the demolition.'

I thought Pangzi, this guy, usually relies only on brute strength and fierce courage; if there really were some trap mechanism inside the bronze box, his rashness would be hard to deal with, and he'd just lose his life pointlessly, so I said to him: 'If there's something important inside, using a detonator couldn't preserve it; I've always been lucky, I think I should handle this myself—you stay behind and keep watch for enemy movements.'

Pangzi argued: 'It's not that I'm cowardly; the box is probably also a burial item—Han dynasty artifacts are gold, jade, bronze—even if smashed to pieces, it wouldn't greatly affect the value; if you're reluctant, I'll risk my life and just open it directly.'

Without further ado, I snatched the golden staff from Pangzi's hand, had him and Shirley Yang hide behind the nearby boulder; Shirley Yang handed me the 'Vajra Umbrella' and warned: 'Judging from what we've encountered on this way, the king's tomb area has many sinister and vicious installations—you must be extra careful.'

I said to Shirley Yang: 'Chief of Staff Yang, rest assured—I have no other strengths; I'm like a power pole tied with chicken feathers, just bold enough, not only bold but also careful-minded, unlike Pangzi who covers his dick while crossing the river, being pointlessly cautious.'

Pangzi had already lain behind the stone; hearing my words, he immediately poked his head out and shouted: 'Hu Baitian, you little grandson, again badmouthing me behind my back—if you're not daring, hurry back and let me open the bronze box; but we agreed beforehand, everything inside belongs to me.'

I waved at Pangzi, indicating to stop the nonsense and get down to business; although what I just said sounded light, I was merely trying to ease my overwhelming psychological pressure—when I actually approached the bronze box, beads of cold sweat began to appear on my forehead and temples.

With the Vajra Umbrella and a gas mask, I wouldn't fear even the most dangerous mechanism, but having seen many horrifying sights these past days, my heart has suddenly become fragile; I just want to shout out loud to vent the immense pressure inside—I truly dread that the bronze box might reveal some horrifying corpse, for I can hardly bear to face again the miserable deaths of those slaves; this would easily drive me mad.

But to uncover the secrets of the Xian King's Tomb, I had no choice but to grit my teeth and press on; I took a deep breath, turned on the tactical searchlight on my mountaineering helmet, focusing the light on the two holes on the side of the bronze box, and compared them with the 'dragon-tiger double-headed golden staff' in my hand—the outlines of the two holes matched the staff's ends exactly: left is dragon, right is tiger.

If we insert according to these two holes, with the dragon and tiger heads facing the correct direction, then after activating the internal spring lock, the bronze box should open either vertically or horizontally; there is currently no visible seam on the bronze box, so I don't know whether our guess that this is a bronze box is correct—if it isn't a 'box', what would this mechanism be used for?

Moreover, this double-headed golden short staff cannot be split in the middle; it is a single piece, meaning at one time we can choose only the dragon or the tiger head, and cannot insert both beast-head-shaped keys simultaneously— which one first? Which one second?

I couldn't help cursing: this is literally like cutting the red and green wires on a timed BoB!!! —'dragon head', 'tiger head'—does the order matter? What happens if the order is wrong?

Suddenly it occurred to me: the burial grounds behind Cover Dragon Mountain are half natural, half artificial in their feng shui layout; one could say these treasure chambers are all produced by altering the layout—this is what is meant by 'defying heaven', an act that goes against natural law. In feng shui esoterica, regarding the alteration of feng shui, there is a doctrine of the dragon and tiger holding fast, which respectively represent the regulation of the yin and yang qi: tiger crouching, dragon dwelling, Xuanwu repelling corpses, dragon and tiger lowering their heads, the situation rising, dragon grieving, tiger weeping, flowers before, false after, left and right kneeling falling chambers—all indicating that the dragon head and tiger head are not prominent, which is called dragon depression, tiger deficiency, mismatched teeth and tusks, the four beasts not responding.

According to the theory of the azure crow, it would be advisable to first take the clear yang qi and move this relatively safe 'dragon head'; but this is merely my guess—this box, resembling a heavy copper casting, has no other features besides these two holes, and whether it is related or not remains unknown.

According to the Azure Crow's principle, it's not a bad idea to first take the clear yang qi and move this relatively safe "dragon head", but this is only my guess; this box, similar to heavy copper casting, aside from these two holes, has no other features, and it's also unknown whether it's unrelated to this.

My mind was in turmoil; I knew that guessing further would be useless, all I could do was take one step at a time; I then held my breath, hid behind the "golden steel umbrella", aimed the dragon head of the "golden short staff" at the position, and pushed it into the slot on the side of the "copper box".

I only heard a light "click", and just from the feel in my hand I could tell it fit very well; I turned my head and looked at Shirley Yang and Pangzi hiding behind the rock, they were also attentively staring at me, I gave them a thumbs-up, immediately lowered my head, and turned the "double-headed golden staff" left and right with my hand, but it wouldn't budge an inch; I secretly wondered, could it be that our assumption was wrong—isn't this a keyhole?

I casually twisted the "golden short staff" randomly, but it had no effect at all; I was somewhat impatient, poked my head out from behind the "golden steel umbrella", intending to first pull out the golden staff and think of another method, but unexpectedly, in the slot of the "copper box", it turned out to be a mechanism where a spring compresses on insertion and engages on withdrawal.

With a strong pull backward, the mechanism inside the copper box was triggered; from the empty tiger-shaped hole, a stream of black water flowed out—I thought it was poison, so I hastily flung away the golden staff in my hand to avoid it, ran back to behind the rock, and observed together with Shirley Yang and Pangzi.

That black water was not much; it had completely drained away in a moment, and the entire "copper box" then shuddered—as if its internal mechanism had moved—and immediately everything returned to as it was, with no further movement.

I let out a breath; Pangzi also lowered the M1A1 gun aimed at the box, but he still didn't dare be careless—I still approached the "copper box" alone again, and this time I gave the "double-headed golden staff" a tug with my hand and easily pulled it out.

The "copper box" truly is just a copper box, except that the seam at the box opening is made very tightly wedged, and because too much time has passed, substances of the same nature above and below have permeated each other and grown together—thus keeping its interior items in an absolutely sealed environment, so they won't be corroded by the giant insects' digestive fluids; the "double-headed golden staff" activated the mechanism inside, and the lid of this "copper box" should have popped open upward, but because a large part of the seam is fused together, only a thin slit is revealed on the box body.

It seems that to open this "copper box" we still need to apply a bit of external force; I held the "golden steel umbrella" in one hand and the hardened steel blade of the "engineer's shovel" in the other, pried at the box seam—without even the effort of blowing away dust—I had already opened the box lid, and just to be safe I went around to the back and pried open the "copper box" lid.

The hidden-blade and poison-gas mechanisms we had worried about most beforehand were not inside the box; Shirley Yang and Pangzi saw that there were no hidden weapons, and, both armed, they walked over from behind the rock to see what exactly was inside the copper box.

The three tactical spotlights on the mountaineering helmets all shone inside the opened large copper box, instantly illuminating it completely; the first thing seen was that most of the box contained black water—the same kind that had flowed out from the tiger-shaped lock hole—this might be the gastric fluid of the "Huo's immortal worm" that seeped in when the box seam hadn't yet closed, and the material of this "copper box", over time, did not turn green; instead, the inside showed countless white spots, and it seems that some mixture like "stop jade" was added, giving it anti-corrosive properties.

However, facing the objects soaked in the black water inside the box, we were completely at a loss; the interior of the copper box is evenly divided into three compartments, half-filled with black water, each compartment soaking a strange object; the three of us stared dumbfounded, and after a long while we still didn't know how to proceed—Shirley Yang and Pangzi both looked at me, and I spread my hands and said to them: "There's nothing we can do; we can only examine them one by one—who knows what these are used for."

Pangzi had actually long wanted to flip the copper box upside down, but he found these things indistinct and unclear, feeling they didn't look like valuable items, so he could still bear it for now; upon hearing me speak at this moment, he took out the "probe yin claw", assembled it into a hook shape, reached it into the large box, casually selected a compartment, and hooked out one of the wax-made egg-shaped objects inside.

This thing looks like an egg in shape, but that's only saying its outward shape is oval—compared to a chicken egg it's actually much larger; it's wrapped in a layer of melted wax, where damaged some jade stone is exposed, and under the light it appears very crystalline and lustrous—Pangzi saw that inside the wax shell there was actually a layer of fine jade, so without a word he immediately brought the engineer's shovel down, at once smashing the wax shell into countless fragments; he intended to shovel away the outer wax to see the jade inside, but unexpectedly the oval-shaped jade inside was also just a thin shell, and a single strike with the engineer's shovel broke them all together.

Seeing that I couldn't stop it in time, I stood aside with my arms crossed and watched, wanting to see, beneath these layers of wrapping, exactly what strange and precious artifacts are contained.