Chapter 185

Everyone was drawn to this strange and mysterious cave, gathering close and shining flashlights inside to peer within—what lay behind the black iron door? Why were so many sutras pasted upon it?

Shirley Yang said that after Professor Du Qi, an Italian Tibetology researcher and explorer, discovered the ruins of Guge, he made a conservative estimate of the scale of the preserved remains here: there were approximately five hundred halls and temples, sixty blockhouses and watchtowers, thirty Buddhist pagodas of various types, and several lines of defensive and parapet walls; among these, the most numerous were the underground caves of the royal city, numbering nearly a thousand.

This indicates that the underground facilities of the Guge dynasty's castle covered an area and scale that far exceeded even the above-ground structures. The people asked the lama: in this cave, there is a silver-eyed Buddha statue—is it a sutra cave, or a cave-shaped Buddhist hall?

The Iron Staff Lama did not answer, but strode straight through the broken wall into that hidden space. Worried there might be danger inside, I also gripped my Remington and followed closely behind.

The Buddha statue in the secret cave was not tall—only about a foot high—but its color gleamed with golden light, though it was not cast from pure gold or pure copper; rather, it was separately forged from five metals combined, yet formed as a single piece—only the Guge people could produce such craftsmanship, its secret formula now lost. Statues of silver-eyed golden Buddha are rare in the world, and this one is of considerable value!

The Iron Staff Lama paid his respects to the Buddha statue before continuing to examine the rest of the cave. The silver-eyed Buddha was almost fused with the base of the iron door behind it, artificially fixed in place. The black, tightly shut iron door was covered with the six-character mantra of Vajrayana Buddhism: "Om, Ma, Ni, Pad, Me, Hum."

Although this six-character mantra is common, I did not know its meaning, only feeling it might be similar to "Amitabha Buddha," and that ordinary doors would not need such things pasted on them. I asked the lama what these six characters signified, whether they were for exorcising demons and evil spirits, and it seemed the iron door could not be opened.

The Iron Staff Lama told me: "The meaning represented by this six-character mantra is truly vast—ordinary disciples who recite it achieve union of mind and Buddha; however, the profound power of Vajrayana practice requires daily manifestation of cultivation accumulated over time, just as the quality of milk-sponge cake depends on constant churning of ghee, and one cannot expect merely reciting the six-character mantra to yield results. If these six characters were translated into your Han language, the meaning would roughly be—Om! The precious jewel in the lotus, Hum!"

Religious sects in Tibet are numerous, and even within Buddhism there are many branches, so the Iron Staff Lama's knowledge of the Reincarnation Sect is limited. According to his speculation, this cave hidden beside the Reincarnation Hall might represent the sect's hell—where the souls of those who committed great sins and evils after death cannot attain liberation, but are instead locked behind this black door, enduring the torment of hell, so the door must not be opened; inside may be evil ghosts of the underworld, or perhaps demons of the netherworld.

As I was examining the cave with the lama, suddenly something "whooshed" past the top of my foot—I hastily lifted my foot and kicked wildly, while the people outside shone their flashlights on the ground—turns out it was only a small black musk deer, shaped like a kitten, which, seeing the flashlight beams swaying, panicked and scrambled into the space beneath the black door.

Only then did we discover a large gap beneath the black iron door. I shone my flashlight inside—it was too deep, and I could see nothing. I and the Iron Staff Lama lingered no longer, then returned by the same path to the cave's exterior. This secret cave has no relation to the silver-eyed coordinates; better to do less than more. As for what lies inside, let it be left for future archaeological or expedition teams to uncover.

Pangzi and Ming Shu were both drooling over the silver-eyed Buddha statue, but with the Iron Staff Lama present, they dared not act rashly, forcing themselves to restrain. Ming Shu seemed to be comforting himself, only heard muttering: "Those who achieve great things are not bound by trivialities! Our expedition this time to dig glacial crystal corpses is a tremendous venture! Though this silver-eyed Buddha statue is worth a few coins, compared to that, it's hardly worth lifting a finger for!"

The Iron Staff Lama instructed everyone to move some earth and stone, then re-cover the broken wall, after which all stood outside the temple; since a pillar had collapsed in the Reincarnation Temple's Buddhist hall, no one dared to risk entering the hall again. That fallen pillar was due to the cave beneath it—part of the underground cavity—and had been installed as a dummy pillar to maintain layout order, belonging to the cold dish of New Year's Eve—having it or not makes no difference, and it does not affect the overall safety of the building.

Ming Shu took out the ancient Tibetan sutra scroll obtained from an overseas museum, compared it with the silver-eyed mural on the ceiling, studied its mysteries. With the Iron Staff Lama's assistance and my grasp of feng shui principles, there was basically no obstruction—effortlessly, he combined the map in the sutra scroll with the silver-eyed coordinates.

The Reincarnation Sect's worship of eyeballs may trace its earliest roots to the Demon Kingdom; even after the Demon Kingdom's fall, it left behind many lingering calamities in the world, and the Reincarnation Sect gradually declined in later history. Its unique silver-eyed relics are preserved only in this one place in the Guge royal city—if this too is destroyed, then even with the map in the ancient sutra scroll, the demon pagoda of the Demon Kingdom cannot be found.

The author and origin of this ancient sutra scroll cannot be verified; it is only known that a foreign expedition team unearthed it from a sutra cave in some part of Tibet in the 1920s or 1930s, initially attracted no attention, merely gathering dust in a museum basement. Later, a manager with deep religious research happened to discover it by chance. Due to the extraordinarily strange content recorded within, it remained difficult to understand until recent years, when, with accumulated data, it became possible to analyze that this scroll likely records information about a nine-story demon tower. This demon tower is a tomb, containing the crystal corpses of the evil gods worshipped and enshrined by the Demon Kingdom. If found, it would be an earth-shattering discovery for archaeology, and the mythical, seemingly impossible mysterious history of ancient Tibet would finally be deciphered.

After their repeated verification, this ancient sutra scroll is highly likely to have been authored by the surviving lineage of the Demon Kingdom, and its credibility should be high. However, the only regret at the time was that although it contained a map of the Demon Kingdom's territory, all mountains, rivers, and streams were marked using beasts or divine spirits, differing greatly from common geographical maps, and due to its great age, many mountain ranges and river systems have changed in name and symbolic meaning today, making confirmation even more difficult.

The large mural in the Reincarnation Temple is the key to deciphering ancient Vajrayana feng shui, because the directional indicators in the painting are extremely precise—each different color, divine beast, or heavenly deity points to its corresponding direction. With this directional coordinate, and by comparing ancient and modern maps, even if it cannot match the precision of "dividing gold to locate the nest," it still provides a rough region—far better than searching for a needle in the ocean.

The feng shui tradition passed down in the Central Plains holds that the ancestor of all dragon veins is Kunlun Mountain, which differs greatly from Tibetan Vajrayana feng shui, but ultimately, the essence is much the same. In Tibetan Vajrayana feng shui, Kunlun Mountain is described as the land of the phoenix, while the other two major mountain ranges are respectively the land of the peacock and the land of the great peng bird.

The most important nine-story demon tower of the Demon Kingdom lies in the Phoenix Divine Palace. The sutra describes: the Phoenix Palace is a mountain range formed by the accumulation of four kinds of treasures—gold, silver, crystal, and glazed tile—from the heavenly realm; on the mountainside are separate snow peaks, each representing one of the Demon Kingdom's four guardian deities.

The Iron Staff Lama said: if Kunlun Mountain is described as the phoenix, then it must conform to the long war poem of the World-Conquering Pearl Great King. Thus, the location of the Phoenix Divine Palace, according to the poem's description, is at the Kalamaili Mountain Pass, where Qinghai, Tibet, and Xinjiang meet. That direction corresponds to the white and silver as the maternal principle—white represents snow mountains, silver represents glaciers.

I told Ming Shuang and the Iron Staff Lama my assessment result: the land surrounded by four peaks is called "Shumiu" in Qingwu feng shui, "Dragon's Peak" in the Dragon-Seeking Manual, and can be regarded as the spine of heaven and earth, where the ancestral dragon first arose—its "formation" is extremely rare. As long as we can confirm the general area is at the Kalamaili Mountain Pass, plus the assistance of local guides, finding it will not be difficult.

Seeing that the location had finally been confirmed, Ming Shu rushed over, pulled me aside, and took out paper and pen. Before he could speak, I already knew what he wanted to say, so I told him: "Rest assured, we will never abandon you to carry the burden alone—though we have not signed a contract, I have already accepted two pieces of Runhai Stone as a deposit. A gentleman's promise is spoken, a villain's promise is written on paper. A gentleman does not make promises and will not break them; a villain makes promises and still breaks them. Whether a promise is kept depends on the person, not the paper."

Ming Shu then relaxed, his face lit with joy—his altitude sickness seemed to have lessened, as if he were already holding the glacial crystal corpse in his arms. I advised him not to get too excited yet, for this is merely the first step of a ten-thousand-mile journey. Only when we reach Kunlun Mountain's Kalamaili Pass, excavate the nine-story demon tower, and then celebrate, will it be timely. Before seeing it with our own eyes, who dares to guarantee that the contents of this sutra scroll are truly reliable? Perhaps it is merely some ancient person, stuffed full, playing around for fun.

Shirley Yang took more photos as future reference materials. This time, seeking the Vajrayana feng shui coordinates went much more smoothly than we expected—aside from the fallen pillar and collapsed wall that gave everyone a fright, there were hardly any setbacks. May our future journeys be just as smooth.

As we descended the mountain, the sun was already slanting westward. Nights on the plateau are bitterly cold, so there was no need to rush back by night. Thus, everyone rested in a forward outpost blockhouse a few li from the Guge royal city ruins. The accompanying guide arranged dinner and butter tea, then gave a bowl of cold remedy to several with weaker constitutions. In this natural environment, the greatest fear is catching a cold—even a highland cold can be life-threatening. That night, everyone was utterly exhausted. There was no danger here—wolf packs had long been eradicated, so no one was left on watch. Two or three people squeezed into a watchtower to sleep, while Shirley Yang, Han Shukna, and Axiang slept in the innermost room, and I and Pangzi slept in the outer stone house. After nightfall, we fell asleep one after another. I have not slept soundly at night in these years—by day I am somewhat better, but even when dreaming at night, I sleep with one eye open. Shirley Yang said I suffer from "post-war mental tension syndrome" and need nerve-calming medication, but I fear taking such drugs would make me stupid, so I have never taken them. In that half-awake, half-asleep state, I suddenly heard an extremely faint string of footsteps outside. I instantly opened my eyes. From the watchtower hole came a cold starlight and moonlight. By this faint light, I saw only a black shadow flash swiftly past the doorway.