Chapter 196

We stood on the ice layer looking down, and it seemed this ice pit was not a natural formation; the corpses frozen in the ice all assumed mysterious postures, standing with heads bowed, gazing obliquely downward. Pangzi laughed and cursed after seeing them: "Even at death, they don't forget to bow their heads and pick up their wallets."

I waved my hand at them, saying, "No more discussion—we must hurry down to rescue Han Shuna. No matter what, this ice cave exudes a heavy evil aura; it is certainly no holy ground."

So everyone hurriedly lowered the ropes. I grabbed an ice pick, took hold of the climbing rope, and slid into the ice cave. Shortly after, Shirley Yang followed down. We two didn't have time to look at the private individuals in the surrounding ice walls; we hurried to check Han Shuna's condition first. Her body showed no obvious external injuries, only a few light abrasions on her face from the hard ice. She had merely fainted.

I took out saltpeter and rubbed it under her nose; Han Shuna immediately sneezed and woke up. I asked if she was injured. Han Shuna shook her head. It turned out her shoe had come loose earlier; she lowered her head to retie it and had already fallen behind the group. At that moment, everyone, upon finally finding the Dragon's Peak, was so excited that no one noticed someone had fallen behind. When Han Shuna caught up, she strayed from the route, stepped through the ice crust with one foot. This place was pitch black, so she turned on her flashlight to illuminate it, then prepared to send a distress signal. But before she could speak, she discovered the surroundings were full of ancient ice corpses. Although she had encountered many ancient corpses before, in this special environment, with no mental preparation, she fainted from fright on the spot.

Seeing Han Shuna was uninjured, I relaxed and raised my wolf-eye flashlight to look around at the corpses in the ice layers. They did not resemble the bronze figures seen in the Heavenly Palace of the Xian King's Tomb; these corpses might have been frozen in the ice wall while alive. Lifelike as if still living, they lay in layers, packed tightly, making it hard to estimate exactly how many corpses were in the ice. But what could be seen was no less than ten. Although they wore ancient clothing and headdresses, they were not the attire of the Demon State.

Shirley Yang hooked Han Shuna up with a "quick hang," preparing for Uncle Ming, Pangzi, and others above to pull her up. As the two lowered their heads to prepare, they both suddenly gasped and leapt backward, as if they had seen a poisonous snake on the ground.

I hurriedly lowered my head to look down, shining my flashlight on the smooth, flat ice surface below. Inside, I saw only a vague black shadow, curled up like a human body, shrunk into a ball, lying sideways in a hole in the ice layer beneath. A cold glance might make one think it was a frozen super-large shrimp.

I said to Shirley Yang: "What's there to fear? It's just a frozen corpse. But how did it end up in such a strange posture?"

Shirley Yang shrugged and said: "I didn't even get a clear look at what was below. I was just startled by Han Sister."

Han Shuna said: "When I first saw that shadow below, curled up like a ball, I thought of a fetus. But then it suddenly struck me—what fetus could be this big? So I jumped back in fright."

I let Han Shuna go up first; her specialty is ancient corpse appraisal, but here she couldn't help much—she'd only add confusion. After she went up, Shirley Yang and I discussed a few sentences in the ice pit. This might be the mausoleum of a leader of the Reincarnation Sect. This glacier burying an evil god demon tower must be a holy ground in the eyes of later Reincarnation Sect believers. Their generations of sect leaders and followers likely were buried here after death. This ice pit is one such place. The black, curled-up shadow underground is probably one of the sect leaders; the surrounding people are funerary followers. The glacier encircles nine layers of demon towers, and who knows how many such ice-cellar tombs there are. It wouldn't hurt to dig up this sect leader's corpse beneath the ice and see if there is any information in the funerary goods.

After their discussion, the two also climbed back up from the parallel cellar, laid out the plan to everyone. Our current position can be said to be where the glaciers of the four snow peaks converge, forming a large, thick, deep "ice tongue." The terrain here is uneven, with ice gullies and fissures crisscrossing. Since when the demon tower was built, the sect's feng shui theory had not yet formed, and that era was truly ancient, so the method of dividing gold to locate the spot could not be used. Rather than searching for a needle in a haystack on the ice tongue, it's better to first dig up the tomb of the Reincarnation Sect leader to determine the exact location of the demon tower.

Uncle Ming and the others had no experience in this, so naturally I said how it would be, and it was done. Arrangements made, we planted a wind horse flag beside that ice pit as a marker, then set up camp on the spot. Peter Huang and guide Chu Yi were responsible for sentry duty to prevent wolf packs from sneaking attacks. Uncle Ming and Han Shuna were in charge of the expedition team's food and drink. I brought Ah Xiang, Shirley Yang, and the shed, and after eating, we entered the ice pit to begin work.

At this time, dusk was approaching. From the deep forest in the distance came waves of wolves' mournful howls—it seemed the wolf king had also gathered the pack and was trailing behind. Hearing the wolf howls, I recalled the green intestines of the Ge Ma military doctor, gritted my teeth in hatred, and ordered Chu Yi and others to be careful and on guard. Then I carried the equipment down into the ice cellar.

Uncle Ming hung up a fluorescent lamp above for lighting. He is an old hand at handling ancient corpses. Seeing this corpse beneath the ice layer with such a strange posture, his curiosity was piqued. He said maybe this could dig up a glacier crystal corpse worth a fortune, so together with Han Shuna, he watched from above.

Bringing Ah Xiang along is more convenient than lighting candles, but Ah Xiang is very timid. To prevent her from being frightened silly and unable to speak, we followed the old rule: we lit a tallow candle in the Life Gate at the southeast corner.

Pangzi, as I said, poured ginger juice into a pressure sprayer, sprayed it a few times on the ground ice layer, and then all that was needed was to wait slowly for it to seep in.

The corpses frozen in the surrounding ice walls all lowered their heads, staring at the ice surface we were about to dig open, as if a crowd of onlookers had gathered around us, silent, cold eyes fixed on us—this made one feel very uncomfortable. Pangzi said: "This is too damn awkward; why don't we find a cloth to block off the surrounding ice walls? Really, looking at it makes one's scalp crawl."

I said to Pangzi: "You're not a young lady—why fear being looked at? Just pretend those corpses don't exist..." Although I said that, I also felt this ice pit was extremely evil; I had never seen such a burial method before, and the tomb owner had no coffin, but was laid out like a large shrimp in a hole below. What exactly would be dug up later? It's really hard to say.

Shirley Yang probably noticed I was hesitating and said to me: "The Reincarnation Sect preserved many demon state heretical traditions. In the Hero King's ballad of poetry, the demon state is a nation that worships abysses and caves. The surrounding funerary figures, making a posture of gazing down into the abyss, are likely related to their religious beliefs—no need to make a fuss."

At this time, the ginger juice had mostly seeped in, so we used ice picks and wind drills to dig. Ginger juice is the nemesis of hard ice; even ten-thousand-year-old black ice yields easily. This ice layer wasn't very thick either; soon we chiseled out a square ice lid. Below it, there was no ice. We discovered that beneath the ice layer, fish bladders were stuck, and the corpse was wrapped inside.

Upon seeing the corpse, everyone felt greatly startled. Ah Xiang trembled all over with fright. Shirley Yang could only hold her in her arms and ask if she had discovered anything. Ah Xiang shook her head—she just felt the corpse was truly too terrifying.

I turned my head to look at the candle; it burned normally, seeming fine. Then I calmed myself and observed the corpse revealed beneath the ice. Before breaking the ice, what was seen was a black shadow. But now, upon looking, the corpse was truly enormous, entirely white—not the kind of corpse change that grows white hair, but as if the whole body had developed a thick, hard cocoon. In several places, the white cocoon shell had peeled off, revealing golden, radiant light within, as if the inside were entirely made of gold.

The corpse's hands clasped its knees, curled into a ball—this might also relate to the evil teachings of the Reincarnation Sect: after death, rebirth will occur, so the dead are posed in the posture of a fetus returning to the mother's body.

Uncle Ming, looking down from above, saw clearly: "My goodness, this is a snow mountain mummy! Unbelievable—this snow mountain golden corpse mummy is worth over a million!... Only, the age is too recent. If it were older, it would be comparable to a glacier crystal corpse."

I raised my head and asked Uncle Ming: "What snow mountain full-body mummy?" Regarding these "antiques," none of us knew as much as Uncle Ming and his concubine.

Uncle Ming, to see more clearly, also descended into the ice cellar. Fortunately, in this ice pit there was relatively more space; adding one person didn't make it feel too cramped. Uncle Ming took out a magnifying glass and examined it for half a day, then reached out to touch the white cocoon shell of the corpse, licked his finger, and said: "Not bad—it's definitely a snow mountain golden corpse mummy."

The treatment of such corpses is very complex: first, the dead must be posed in a specific posture, placed in a stone coffin, and the coffin filled with salt, left for about three months to allow the brine salt to fully penetrate every part of the body, replacing all moisture in the corpse. After proper curing, a layer similar to cement is applied—this substance is made from sandalwood powder, spices, soil, and various medicines compounded together.

Then this substance gradually solidifies and hardens; all sunken or wrinkled parts on the corpse—such as eyes, cheeks, abdomen—will naturally swell outward, forming natural and harmonious proportions. Then a layer of molten gold lacquer is applied externally—this is the golden body. Finally, another layer of brine salt is wrapped around it. Only some religious sect leaders and leaders are eligible for such treatment.

I and Pangzi were stunned—we never imagined zongzi could have such a complex production process. Uncle Ming said: "Let's move the snow mountain mummy up," but when we tried, we found it couldn't be moved; the corpse's base was still ice layer, frozen into a solid unit, extremely sturdy. I shone my flashlight deeper—beneath the ice there seemed to be many things, but obscured by the ice layer, they weren't clearly visible.

So we took out the sprayer again, sprayed ginger juice on the ice layer, waited a while, estimated it was about right, then drove an ice chisel down—unexpectedly, as the ice chisel pierced through the ice layer, a long, huge blue flame suddenly burst out, accompanied by a piercing shriek that could rupture human ear bones, shooting straight up from the deepest part of the ice pit into the sky.