Chapter 149: Main Text Chapter 151: Entrance

Main Text Chapter 151: Entrance

Pangzi explained: "Actually…… at that time…… at that time I also concealed something, no no, I didn't mean to conceal it, I just had no chance to say it, and besides I thought our expenses have been high lately, just spending without income isn't good…… okay okay, I'll say the useful part: I climbed over the beams, went to burn the set of clothes hanging in the corner, at first I was pretty startled by that thing that looked like a human skin mask shaped like a head, but when I thought of Dong Cunrui and Huang Jiguang, those heroes, I forgot about myself, I grabbed the mask and pulled it off, intending to use it as a fire source—light it first then toss it to scorch the clothes below—who knew that inside the dead skin a piece of stone fell out, I picked it up, it was black and slick, like jade, I learned from that bastard Da Jin Ya to habitually smell it with my nose, then lick it with my tongue, and it was terribly bitter, maybe it wasn't jade, I thought it was just a smelly stone from a latrine, but since we often buy fake medicine at Panjiayuan, I figured this black stone could probably pass as black jade and sell for a good price, so I slipped it into my hundred-treasure bag, later I even forgot about it myself, when I came down from the plank road I suddenly felt an intense itch on my tongue, as if something were boring into it, and by the time I entered the tomb passage I could no longer speak, I had to cover my mouth, otherwise it would laugh on its own, scaring me quite a bit, and I also had an overwhelming urge to eat human flesh, I couldn't control myself……"

Shirley Yang interjected: "I think our speculation is completely correct; we have indeed been afflicted with a Southern Dian evil art such as tongue lowering or tongue gu. The clothing hanging from the hall's ceiling definitely belongs to the many corpses in the six-legged fire cauldron; they are all leaders among the Yi people, meeting such a fate is truly pitiful. Everywhere above and below in the Xian King's Tomb there is strange eeriness; before his death, the Xian King must have been preparing a grand ritual, but he exhausted his yang lifespan before it could be completed."

I said to Shirley Yang and Pangzi: "Although these witchcraft sorceries are strange, after all there are still traces to follow; I think the unusual things in the king's tomb are too many—the bronze beasts and bronze figures in the heavenly palace are puzzling; I feel I've seen them somewhere, but I can't recall no matter how I try. Also, take a look at the bronze chariots and horses in the tomb passage of the underground palace, and beside the earthen mound at the far end there are over a hundred desiccated corpses that suffered cruel torture; even if they were all slave sacrifices, they shouldn't have been killed so brutally—this place hardly resembles a king's tomb at all; it's clearly an execution ground."

After resting a moment, we could no longer hold back; we all rose to examine those desiccated corpses and the bronze chariots and horses on the stone platform. Since the corpses were wrapped in wax, Pangzi had just licked his tongue over them for a while but couldn't break through that hard wax layer—this is fine, at least it lets us feel a bit relieved in our hearts; otherwise, truly no one would want to eat a meal with him.

Now, focusing carefully, we saw that the terrifying desiccated corpses included the old, young, and able-bodied; they appear to be slaves, though we don't know why they were subjected to such severe punishment, but one thing is certain: in ancient times, living human burials never involved pouring hot wax over the head, cutting off ears, gouging out eyes; if they were not slaves, they must have been criminals guilty of heinous crimes.

Looking again at those bronze figures and horses, they are indeed missing something: first, the persons hold no weapons, the horses have no whips; second, the numbers are wrong—ancient people placed great importance on the numbers two, three, six, seven, and nine, especially six; according to regulations, when nobles of king‑or‑duke rank travel, at least thirty‑six riders clear the way, the next rank down has sixteen riders, yet this bronze troop has fewer than thirty.

Most importantly, aside from the bronze horses being relatively intact, these bronze figures are severely decayed, with some spots already softened and flaking (no tone on shi). I have seen some records; many Han tombs have unearthed bronze burial goods, and although they suffer corrosion from air and water, producing verdigris, they are nowhere near as severely corroded as these bronze figures and horses.

Although the tomb passage has been invaded by pond water, the humidity here is absolutely not high; this phenomenon is very hard to understand, and for a moment I had no clue.

Shirley Yang thinks quickly; after a moment's thought she said to me: "If we look from another angle, it's not hard to understand. We initially assumed this place was the underground palace where the Xian King's coffin was laid, but we may have been wrong from the start—this is not an underground palace at all, but a workshop for casting bronze figures and carving stone beasts for the king's tomb. These bronze figures are so severely decayed, I suspect it's due to an imbalance in the copper‑tin alloy ratio. The tomb is quite large; surely the Dian Kingdom alone could not have built it, so the project must have employed large numbers of slaves captured from neighboring countries, and some of them were surely trained as skilled artisans. However, this group of artisans selected from the captives got the material proportions wrong, wasting much time and raw material. Since ancient times there has been the saying of the 'six balances' (or 'six proportions') for copper‑tin, and for gold as well: six parts gold to one part tin is called the 'bell and cauldron proportion'; five parts gold to one part tin is the 'axe and halberd proportion'; and so on. Although they are all bronze ware, different proportions yield vastly different performance. If the six‑balance standard is lost, the cast items become defective, so those slaves who made the mistake were brutally executed—kill one to warn a hundred—and afterwards the workshop was sealed."

I slapped my own climbing helmet: "Exactly, I was just about to realize that when you said it—no wonder this place doesn't resemble the mysterious palace of an ancient tomb at all; but if it isn't, then where is the entrance to the king's tomb passage?"

Shirley Yang said to me: "Under heaven, nobody who knows the secret art of dividing gold to locate the tomb can surpass you…… Of course, this is your own self‑praise, so I have to ask you—we don't have much time; we must find the tomb passage entrance as soon as possible."

The so‑called "Dividing Gold to Locate the Tomb" is a secret art mastered by only a few Gold‑Probing Colonels; by discerning the feng shui elements of "form and momentum, dragon sand, cavity water," using a compass's gold needle, one can confirm the exact placement of an ancient tomb's coffin, with an error no greater than the diameter of a single gold needle—hence the name "Dividing Gold to Locate the Tomb."

But the current situation really puts me in a bind—if I could directly use Dividing Gold to Locate the Tomb to find the king's tomb chamber, I would have done so already; however, the problem is that the compass fails as soon as it enters the Insect Valley, and this "Water Dragon Halo" exists only in legend; my Sixteen‑Character Yin‑Yang Feng Shui Secret Technique merely mentions it in passing, and the book only presents later people's viewpoints, analyzing its layout from one angle without detailed discussion.

After years of study, I have determined that this family‑heirloom fragment dates from the late Qing period; its theory is mainly based on the Tang dynasty's astrological stars in feng shui, but the "Water Dragon Halo" deep in the Insect Valley belongs to the immortal caverns mentioned in ancient feng shui—later feng shui masters mostly believe such immortal caverns do not exist in the world, so the fragment of my Sixteen‑Character Yin‑Yang Feng Shui Secret Technique that I have relied on is of little use here.

If one wants to rob a tomb, one must first find the tomb, yet some imperial mausoleums and kings' tombs just sit there, never having been looted; this is mainly due to two reasons. First, since ancient times the looting of super‑large tombs such as imperial mausoleums has usually been carried out by warlord or peasant rebel groups, because those imperial mausoleums are carved out of mountains, sunk deep underground, and are hard to excavate—digging is not as simple as scooping soil; the workload is comparable to boring a tunnel out of a big mountain. Moreover, even if one can dig a tomb passage, failing to locate it means one might have hollowed out half the mountain and still not find the tomb gate; anyone who has seen a real great mountain knows the difference between a mountain ridge and a slope.

Second, no matter how sturdy an imperial mausoleum is, it cannot deter tomb robbers; no matter how strong or concealed it is, it has no legs to run away, so it can only ever hide in one place. Even if a large crew cannot dig it, there will be another group willing to spend ten or twenty years digging it out, and eventually they will loot it. However, those who can practice Dividing Gold to Locate the Tomb know that the earth's veins run crosswise, and important offshoots of the ancestral vein affect the natural pattern and balance; therefore they absolutely refuse to disturb imperial mausoleums built on major dragon veins, lest they damage the great feng shui and cause a major calamity in the world.

In this Xian King's Tomb we cannot directly confirm the coffin's position, so we have to resort to the crudest method—namely the tactics of warlords or peasant rebels—to find the tomb passage. In imperial mausoleums, layer upon layer of thousand‑jin stone gates in the tomb passage are designed to thwart this crude method; for once the passage is found, one can follow the vine to locate the tomb gate and chamber. But when I first noticed the mountain gap smashed by a crashed aircraft, it turned out not to be the tomb passage—so where exactly is the tomb passage hidden?

Although we know it must be at the deepest part of this valley, not exceeding one li below the Soaring Heavens Palace, yet this green, huge funnel‑shaped cliff‑encircled deep pool—if we three slowly search it, we might not find it even in ten years.

I suddenly had a brainwave and thought of a place; I immediately told Shirley Yang: "Water Eye! That black whirlpool—I think it is most likely where the Xian King's remains are laid, and it is also the place most likely to be overlooked; the underground palace must be inside the mountain mass, but its entrance is like a ghost cave—a water eye."

Shirley Yang wondered: "Are you saying there is a coffin beneath that water eye? You had better tell me clearly how confident you are in this judgment; the undercurrents and hidden surges there are extremely dangerous—do we really need to take this risk?"

I told Shirley Yang: "Even if the Xian King isn't in the water eye, that place should be the entrance to the tomb passage; I have at least seventy percent confidence. This all‑or‑nothing gamble is worth a try, but although we three are all expert swimmers, I have already experienced how fierce that water eye is—even if I were willing to take a hundred percent risk, it's not easy to go down."

Shirley Yang looked around at the bronze figures and said: "I have a way to increase the safety factor; we still have three thick reinforcing ropes, each capable of bearing the weight of all three of us. To ensure safety, we can fix them at three points—if one breaks, two remain. If we drag only the heavy bronze horses to the pond bottom, they won't be easily swept away by hidden currents; thus descending into the water eye and later retreating after finishing work is not impossible."

I said to Pangzi and Shirley Yang: "Then let's carry out the plan—let Pangzi redeem himself through merit, and be the first to plug that water eye."