Chapter 151

Main text Chapter 153 Knocking Open Heaven's Gate

I asked Shirley Yang: "You've always been science‑first; why suddenly ask such a weightless question? If you say this person has a soul, I completely believe it, but when it comes to immortals… I think that's all nonsense."

Shirley Yang said: "I also have religious faith; I believe there is a God in this world, but…"

Pangzi suddenly slurred his interjection: "What but, let me tell you, immortals—hasn't a philosopher said that killing one person makes you a criminal, killing a million makes you a king, and being able to kill everyone makes you a god?"

I pulled the waterproof backpack out of the water, then distributed the weapons and tools, and said to them: "You also shouldn't think too much. We tomb‑raiders have no taboos; immortals and gods—don't waste time on those deceptive god‑making theories for the common folk. Times have changed, and views on gods and immortals differ too. I think in modern times, gods are merely a cultural element, a symbolic existence, can be seen as a spiritual reliance. Of course there's also another view: humans can become gods; those who create miracles are gods, so some great figures are also enshrined as deities. But no matter how great or outstanding they are, they cannot escape birth, aging, sickness, and death. So from a purely biological perspective, there are no gods in the world—people are still people."

Pangzi had just finished packing, smiled and said: "All right, Commander Hu, your theory's improved lately— as the saying goes, you bring nothing at birth and take nothing at death. This Xian King has been dead for two thousand years; becoming an immortal and not dying is out of the question. Not rotting into mud would already be good. The burial goods in his underground palace have been lying with the dead this long; it's time to take them out to bask in the sun and catch the breeze. What are we waiting for? Let's grab our gear." I rubbed the Mojin Talisman at my neck and said: "Fine. May the Founding Ancestor show his power and bless us with smooth sailing—still the same saying. Ten thousand years is too long; we strive for each dawn and dusk. Let's now knock open Heaven's Gate, tumble headfirst, seek gold, gain office and wealth."

Shirley Yang gritted her teeth, whispering: "Our Father in heaven, let us hallow thy name, please bless us…" She finally made up her mind. This resolve wasn't easy; upon entering the ancient tomb, she was destined to bid farewell to her innocent past and become a true Mojin Colonel, forever bearing the title of tomb‑robber.

Shirley Yang took out the Flying Tiger Claw, threw it up. It caught on the lintel of Heaven's Gate; she pulled down, it held fast, so she climbed up first, waved at me from above, and I also grabbed the chain of the Flying Tiger Claw. The second person to climb onto Heaven's Gate.

As soon as I stepped onto the lintel, I carefully examined the cast‑carved Heaven's Gate for any mechanism; finding none, I took out the Mojin Colonel's 'Black Fold'—its name sounds mysterious, but it's actually a specially made pry bar that can extend and retract, and can be folded for carrying. It's specially used to pry tomb doors and walls, or tomb bricks, and can be used together with the coffin‑prying 'Probing Yin Claw'.

The gate of Heaven's Gate was originally movable, like a real city gate—could be pushed open from inside to outside—but it had been locked shut. After prying with the Black Fold seven or eight times, it finally loosened. Just then Pangzi came up panting; I handed the job to him, and I supported his back from behind so he wouldn't overexert himself and fall off the lintel.

Pangzi rallied his strength, exerted the power of a mighty ox, and with a 'crack' finally pried open the bronze door. I quickly pulled him aside. The tomb's underground palace is in a completely sealed environment; the air does not circulate, and the accumulated yin and corpse vapors inside are highly harmful to the body. Da Jin Ya's father, Old Jin Tou, not only had his legs frozen paralyzed, but his lungs felt like a broken bellows—each breath sounded like a steel brush scraping copper, and he often spat black phlegm. Although he claimed he got frostbitten on the Korean battlefield, we all know he never smoked; this condition came from when he was young and looted tombs, inhaling the stench of corpses trapped in coffins, which left him with this incurable ailment.

After waiting a few minutes, Shirley Yang lit a candle, placed it on an engineer's shovel, and shoved the shovel into the dark Heaven's Gate to test whether the tomb's yin energy was severe. The candle kept burning, though its flame flickered in the wind, never going out. Shirley Yang said: "There's a chilling yin wind in the tomb, mixed with an intensely rotten, damp smell. For safety, we should all put on gas masks before going down."

According to my estimate, the tomb gate is probably located in a funnel‑shaped cliff, carved and chiseled from a natural rock cavity. Ages have passed so long that perhaps some spots seep water, but this 'well'‑shaped or 'return'‑shaped large tomb has a special structure: each section can form a sealed space, and the proportion of non‑circulating air is great. Without gas masks, entry is absolutely forbidden. So the three of us each took out a gas mask, put it on our heads, let down a climbing rope, and flipped from Heaven's Gate into the inner side of the great tomb door. The space behind the door isn't large; this segment is called the Inlaid Passage, connecting the burial chamber and the gate. Therein are rows of bronze chariot crews; the bronze horses are all stalwart and tall, heads raised forward, their quality and craftsmanship far surpassing the first batch we saw. The terracotta warriors all wield the Dian Kingdom‑style 'hollow‑socket axe' and 'convex‑blade axe', each face different. Yet their expressions are stern and valiant. This silent brigade of bronze warriors stands thus, quietly before the Mysterious Palace, awaiting to open the way and guard the tomb lord on his ascent to immortality.

The terrain here is extremely narrow. If we want to go deeper, we must weave through these bronze warriors. Their long weapons held high seem ready to fall at any moment, ready to strike our heads; we felt our hearts rise to our throats. We quickly slipped past the bronze soldier formation. I told Pangzi and Shirley Yang: "I think there won't be any hidden‑arrow or poison‑gas traps in this tomb, but we'd better be careful—never disturb anything in the Mysterious Palace, lest we stir up some grass‑ghost woman's tongue, which is no joke." Pangzi and Shirley Yang nodded in agreement, but I still felt uneasy, so I placed Shirley Yang and Pangzi on either side of me. Feeling our way forward, we continued deeper, searching for the burial chamber within the Mysterious Palace.

Inlaid Way forward, there was another level tomb passage; on both sides of the passage were several stone chambers, each filled with various burial objects—bronzeware, bone ware, multi‑ear pottery jars, gold cakes, silver cakes, jade articles, and animal bones. Judging by their shape there were horse bones and many unidentified birds, all apparently prepared to be taken to heaven; the chambers holding the burial goods were propped up with copper rings, but two of them had collapsed, and a lot of yellow water had seeped down from above, eroding and damaging many of the burial objects inside.

Pangzi saw this scene, anxious and scratching his ears and cheeks; unfortunately he only had two hands, and everything looked good. But he really couldn't move the burial objects from one chamber to the next. Moreover, Pangzi also knew clearly that only the burial objects inside the tomb owner's coffin were the most valuable and important, so he forced himself to suppress his greedy longing and turned a blind eye to the treasures filling the chamber. Ahead of the tomb passage appeared three connected short narrow stone bridges; beneath them lay deep gullies filled with turbid yellow water, unknown how deep, with no visible flow, like a pool of dead water.

I said to Shirley Yang, "This is the Three Worlds Bridge; in ancient Chinese legend, after a person dies and becomes an immortal ascending to heaven, they must first step across this Three Worlds Bridge to free themselves from worldly entanglements, only then can they undergo a metamorphosis, wander the Great Void, and become a carefree immortal."

Shirley Yang said, "You sure know a lot about these spooky tricks; look, opposite the bridge there seems to be a white wall—what is that place?"

I said to Shirley Yang, "After crossing the Three Worlds Bridge, it must certainly be the Xian King's coffin chamber, but you see the animals carved in relief on the bridge are all male‑female pairs, so the coffin chamber there likely holds two coffins—those of the Xian King and his wife—this is a joint burial tomb."

Shirley Yang said, "I always feel that since we entered the Heavenly Gate, things have gone too smoothly; given the complexity of the Xian King's Tomb, how could his coffin be found so easily?"

Pangzi said to Shirley Yang, "You probably caught Lao Hu's skeptical line of thinking; just now I already gave you my guarantee—opening that old zongzi's coffin lid, I alone am enough, you just watch from behind."

Pangzi said this, stepped up onto the "Three Worlds Bridge" and went ahead; I thought, is finding this coffin easy? Anyway, we should still look on the bright side—according to tomb specifications, once you cross the bridge you must reach the coffin chamber, which is definitely correct—so I told Shirley Yang not to doubt; no matter what, only after we open that coffin will we know whether it contains a "Dust‑Pearl"; rather than torment ourselves with wild speculation, we might as well go up and pry open the lid to see for ourselves.

I saw Pangzi walking too fast; while I was talking with Shirley Yang, he had already reached the foot of the white wall, afraid he would start opening the tomb before I finished preparations, so I had to pull Shirley Yang along and chase after him from behind.

After passing the Three Worlds Bridge, the cavern suddenly opened up; in the natural cavern a yin palace had been built for the tomb's owner to rest in. Snow‑white walls stood out sharply in the darkness; this whiteness was not Han white marble but seemed to be a kind of quartz white, extending straight up to the cavern ceiling six or seven meters high, merging with the cavern as one. In the wall there was a doorway with a large wooden door studded with thirteen copper rivets; Pangzi was prying the door open with a "black folding plate". The wooden door was already mostly rotted, only the copper rivets holding it together, and with little effort he broke the door open.

I knew that beyond the door must be the burial chamber holding the coffins; if there were any traps they would be near the doorway. Moreover, the space inside the door was spacious and high, and the tomb was pitch‑black. Since nothing could be seen from the doorway, I had Shirley Yang fire an illumination round into it to have a look first.

Shirley Yang took out the signal gun, raised her hand and fired a blinding white illumination round into the tomb chamber; the pallid light instantly dispelled the heavy darkness. In the strong light, only see that inside the tomb chamber, in an extremely strange and utterly unique manner, three large coffins were laid out in a "person"‑shape. Each coffin was completely different—not only in shape, material, and style, but also in the way they were placed. The outermost one was suspended in mid‑air by a large copper ring; being closest to us, it was visible most clearly. All three of them involuntarily sucked in a breath of cold air; nobody had expected to encounter such a coffin. 7 Pangzi, at a loss for a moment, asked me, "Lao Hu, how did that blind man's few lines go again? Could this be what he called some kind of cellar coffin?"

I said to Pangzi and Shirley Yang, "What defies reason is a demon; this time we are going to dismantle three demonic coffins."