Chapter 159

Legend has it that during his tour, Qin Shi Huang once saw an immortal mountain appear in the sea by the coast, with immortals holding the elixir of life in their hands, which is why he firmly believed in the legend of immortals and eternal life, spending his entire life searching for the elixir of immortality on the Three Divine Mountains.

I think this matter is mostly true in history; I grew up along the Fujian coast since childhood, and heard old fishermen by the sea say that there are three great wonders at sea, called: Hai Zi, Hai Shi, and Ping Liu Wu.

Among them, "Hai Shi" is also known as "Chen Qi," the most fantastical and marvelous, where cities, mountains, and figures miraculously appear out of thin air on the vast sea surface, yet no one can ever find a real-world location corresponding to this "Hai Shi" wonder; Emperor Qin probably saw the "Hai Mou" of the Three Divine Mountains, otherwise, with his experience, how could he so easily believe the words of a few sorcerers?

Additionally, in Tibet there is a mysterious secret activity: whenever a living Buddha passes away, the leading figures among the lamas go to the edge of the holy mountain and holy lake to "view the lake scene," which is also a wonder similar to "Hai Mou," from which they gain inspiration to search for the reincarnated soul child of the living Buddha.

The Xian King's divination heaven-pole chart we are seeing now is almost exactly a scene of the esoteric Buddhist "viewing the lake scene," except the location has changed to the Deep Pool in Chonggu, with neon lights enveloping the pool and endless visions appearing above it.

However, what the Xian King saw was not an immortal mountain, but a castle built on a mountain peak, with white clouds circling below, and in the central palace, a giant eyeball-shaped totem was enshrined, surrounded by attendants wearing strange clothing.

This is probably the fairyland in the Xian King's eyes; he hoped to go to this true heavenly palace after death. Shirley Yang muttered to herself: "This city…… is not Jingjue State, but what place is this?"

I said to Shirley Yang: "This place might be a forbidden zone in Tibet; although I have never seen this divine palace, I once saw in Kangba Qingpu ancient corpses wearing such strange clothing. After seeing those bronze men and bronze beasts in Lingyun Palace, I felt like I had seen them somewhere before, but at the time I felt both familiar and unfamiliar, so I didn't think much about it, because ancient corpses and bronze men are ultimately quite different. Now looking at this mural, it is definitely in Tibet, though this story is long to tell; let's first find the Hunchen Pearl. The detailed account, I will tell you all when we return."

The three of us then walked forward a few steps, the scene changing with our steps, and the murals on the wall still depicted the "Tan Jing" scene, but now it resembled the murals in the main hall of Lingyun Palace, showing the Xian King ascending to heaven on a dragon, except the composition was much simpler, with three guiding children added in the image. Seeing this, I immediately broke out in a cold sweat; the three children or envoys in the picture were kneeling and unable to rise, lying prone on the ground, with the back of their necks exposed, each bearing an eyeball-shaped mark.

This is certainly no coincidence; we almost simultaneously reached out to touch the back of our own necks, silently thinking it was not good, and likely Pangzi's crow's-mouth prediction had come true—those three guiding children's "Longevity Candles" represented us three Tomb-Robbing School Officers.

Pangzi pointed at the painting and said: "Damn it, this is really pissing me off, actually so ugly a depiction of us, lying there like three dogs, I curse his ancestors' pure melon seeds—after giving that old thief a whole corpse, now seeing he is unkind, we shouldn't blame ourselves for being unrighteous.? BR>

Shirley Yang said: "This actually confirms one thing: the prophet of Zegelama can accurately predict events a thousand years ahead near the ghost cave, but once leaving the holy mountain ghost cave, this ability is lost. Legend says the Hunchen Pearl was taken from the bottomless ghost cave, and it may also display special omens under certain special conditions; perhaps precisely for this reason, the Xian King could see some anomalies through viewing the lake scene. I believe the Hunchen Pearl must be in this tomb chamber."

I looked around and said to Shirley Yang and Pangzi: "Do you guys feel anything abnormal here? We've walked around this tomb chamber like plowing a field, making a full circle, yet we still haven't seen the Xian King's coffin."

This natural cave of white quartzite, in mausoleum systems, chambers like this that preserve the cave's original state are called "cave tombs," and this "cave tomb" is already the last burial chamber of the Xian King's tomb. According to burial canons and geological vein structure, there cannot be any additional secret chambers, yet this tomb chamber lacks the Xian King's coffin entirely; the only things present are two ancient swords, several scattered bamboo tubes, and in this vast royal tomb, in this final burial chamber, there isn't even a decent funerary object.

Pangzi again tried to be clever and said to me: "I think the coffin might be hidden in the tomb chamber's wall— isn't that female corpse full of moths exactly like that?"

I said to Pangzi: "That entrance was blocked later by humans; this kind of white quartzite takes at least ten thousand years to form naturally, with no signs of chiseling, so it's impossible to hide inside the rock. Let's search again; if we really can't find it, we'll have to chisel open the stone according to the position of the shadow bones."

Shirley Yang tugged my sleeve, signaling me to look at the corner of the tomb chamber. I raised the "Wolf Eye" and shone the beam there; in the corner was a half-person-tall large-bellied bronze elixir furnace. Since it was in the wall corner and relatively low, I hadn't noticed it earlier. This might not be an elixir furnace—it could be some special kind of coffin. So the three of us walked forward side by side to examine it.

But upon approaching, we found it probably wasn't a coffin: the furnace had three legs, a large belly and wide mouth, capable of holding two adults without issue, but inside were only purple-and-white mottled soil, likely the decayed residue of some elixir. Pangzi gradually grew anxious, summoned his strength, lifted his leg, and kicked over the furnace, spilling the rotted golden elixir onto the ground.

It seems we must prepare for the worst: there is no Xian King's skeleton in his tomb, only a shadow bone, and certainly no Hunchen Pearl. Looking back at the path we came, blades flashing and swords clashing, it was all in vain—aside from an ownerless phoenix coffin and this elixir furnace, there were only the artifacts of the Nan Yi and Ye Lang peoples, all spoils of the Xian King's wars, and nothing else remains to be found.

On the white quartzite in this corner, there are also some colored tomb paintings. We had been ignoring this area, so we might as well check if these paintings contain any clues. However, the local customs here are clearly different; Shirley Yang judged that these should have been painted by the high priest, depicting how the priests planted corpse moths into the bodies of the buried queens for preservation, and sealed the bodies within the "cave tomb" to fill the humanoid gap. This was done because the main tomb chamber cannot contain funerary objects outside the royal family, and also to maintain the natural state of the "cave" terrain—inside there is only an empty phoenix coffin, with the queen waiting in the doorway for the Xian King's corpse to dissolve and ascend to immortality.

The more I looked, the stranger it seemed; these contents appear to carry deep hidden meaning: first, that female corpse has been sealed in the doorway for a thousand years without a coffin for protection—why has she not decayed yet? Even if she held anti-corruption beads in her mouth, and (I suspect a typo) wore a peacock jade lingxi box, then placed in a sealed coffin, after two thousand years, exposure to air should have turned her black like rotten tree bark, but just before seeing her body swell, her appearance was indistinguishable from that of a living person. Moreover, since she is already dead, how could she use corpse moths for preservation, and what do the moth eggs inside her body feed on?

Shirley Yang's words interrupted my train of thought: "The Xian King's tomb is a joint burial tomb for the king and queen; Lao Hu's judgment earlier is now confirmed—we entered to find the tomb chamber still perfectly sealed, indicating the Xian King's body should still be here, but even if he underwent corpse dissolution, some traces should remain, after all, as a ruler of a state, he should at least have a set of coffins."

I said to Shirley Yang: "We've overlooked one thing—do you remember the ten Longevity Candles in the middle-level tomb chamber?" The three of them were made to look like guiding children, possibly to scare us; besides, there are seven more Longevity Candles, six of which are black-scaled merpeople, respectively representing the remains of the Xian King's first three lives, his shadow bones after passing through the three hells, and his wife. Although we haven't yet found the Xian King's true body, counting this way, everything now has a corresponding match.

Only that largest one remains, shaped like an ancient and sturdy bronze ox lamp. Based on the previous two types of Longevity Candles, this ox-head Longevity Candle must represent something special—it is the tenth corpse in this tomb. I think perhaps we must first find this tenth corpse to locate the Xian King's true bones.

Pangzi said: "Commander Hu, let me give you some advice—who let me be so straightforward? I think your reasoning is too illogical—you say there are ten corpses in this tomb, does that not mean we three are also counted in……"

I quickly stopped Pangzi from continuing, otherwise he would never stop, but this is not the time for nonsense. I said to Pangzi and Shirley Yang: "Save your opinions for the meeting; even if I used the wrong words, let's for now call this mysterious tenth corpse a code name. I believe the corpse corresponding to the ox-head Longevity Candle is certainly not ordinary—perhaps it is an existence transcending our consciousness, and precisely because of its presence, we seem to have been blindfolded, unable to see the Xian King's true bones."

I was about to continue speaking when suddenly my mountaineering helmet was struck from above, as if hit by a small stone, the sound deep and muffled. Shirley Yang also seemed to be attacked; she suddenly lowered her head, and in the flickering light of the swaying lamp, I saw more than ten corpse moths flying and throwing themselves at us, repeatedly striking the lamp opening on our helmets. I hurriedly used my gloves to swat them, and in the rush asked Shirley Yang: "Was the entrance not sealed properly, leaving some gap?"

Shirley Yang wondered: "Impossible, didn't we already check?" Saying this, she flicked away several corpse moths, casually bent a glowing green fluorescent tube, and tossed it toward the humanoid gap blocked by the phoenix coffin.

The flashlight beam showed a line, suitable for moving forward in darkness, while fluorescent tubes and cold smoke fire, as lighting tools, can illuminate a surface; when the fluorescent tube was thrown at the wall, its cold green light reflected off the white rock, instantly lighting up a large area. Originally, the phoenix coffin blocking the tomb chamber entrance was gone, and the humanoid-shaped opening was now wide open.