Chapter 28

Main Text Chapter Twenty-Eight Eyes

Sand Sea Demon Lair 18

Just as we were about to set out, Ye Yixin was blown by the morning wind from the tower and suddenly came to. Shirley Yang took out a water flask and gave her some water to drink. She was still very weak, but compared to when she was unconscious, she was now much more reassuring. Her dehydration was still obvious, but for the time being we didn't have to worry about her life. Since she had woken up, treating her with plenty of saline water over the next day or two would be fine.

We were all eager to know what strange things were on the tower, and incidentally to look for the entrance to the underground palace of the ancient city, so we supported her and went together to the fifth level of the Black Tower.

During the brief process of going up to the fifth level of the Black Tower, I imagined various possibilities, but I never expected the fifth level to be empty—there wasn't even a pedestal for the stone statues; only the inscriptions on the walls were more numerous.

I asked Professor Chen, "Was this level destroyed? Or looted?"

Professor Chen hesitated slightly, then said, "Hard to say; we'll have to look at the level above to see what's really going on here."

The stone statues inside the Black Tower aroused everyone's curiosity, and they eagerly climbed the tower's steps to the top level, where a black throne stood in the highest part of the tower, with a female statue seated on it, dressed in splendid attire, her face carved with a veil, so her features could not be seen, but at a glance it was clear that this statue was exactly the same as the Jingjue Queen depicted in the murals of Prince Pumo's ancient tomb; it was a full-body stone statue of the four queens.

Everyone talked excitedly, all guessing what the queen actually looked like.

I couldn't figure it out, so I asked them, "What medicine is the queen selling in her gourd? Why not even show the statue's true face?"

Pangzi said, "In my view it's just pretense—claimed to be the first beauty of the Western Regions, but most likely an ugly freak nobody wants to see; otherwise why hide it so carefully? Still, her figure is passable—no board, but the strip is smooth."

I said, "Watch your mouth—this person has been dead for two thousand years, and you're still judging her figure? Look at the things in this city, how similar they are to the legends; if this queen really were a demon, who knows when she might pop out and bite you, so let's stop guessing and just hear what the professor has to say."

Professor Chen, since he went up to the sixth level of the Black Tower, had not spoken a word, constantly connecting these clues in his mind; by now his thinking was almost complete, and when we asked him, he said: "Earlier I said this stone tower could very well be a spiritual symbol, with obvious rank characteristics—high to low, noble to humble. The people of Jingjue Kingdom are mainly made up of the Ghost Cave Tribe; this ethnic group has long been extinct, and no remains of any of them have been unearthed so far, so we cannot infer their origin and background. Up to now, our greatest discovery is that this tribe uses the eye as its totem—this is absolutely a major breakthrough in the study of ancient Western Regions civilizations. With this basis, many problems that have puzzled scholars for years will be readily solved."

Pangzi again asked, "Then why is the fifth level empty?"

I suddenly recalled what Shirley Yang had said when we were in Prince Pumo's ancient tomb, and I blurted out, "Imaginary space."

Professor Chen nodded slightly and said, "Exactly—above the guardian god is an indescribable imaginary space, and the queen stands above it, as if she completely controls this unknown space; there is also an eye-shaped totem on the tower's summit, indicating that the queen's power also comes from her eyes."

Hearing this, everyone inevitably felt a creepy sensation—could such a space beyond human common sense really exist in this world? And if the queen could control that other world through her eyes, wouldn't she truly be a monster? Fortunately she is already dead.

Professor Chen saw that everyone was worried, so he continued, "You don't need to be nervous; ancient rulers often used these myths to deceive the people, thereby consolidating their rule—just like the emperors of the Central Plains, who all claimed to be true sons of heaven, mandated by heaven, but in reality it was merely a method of fooling the populace. The queen never showed her face, playing mysterious tricks, which is not surprising at all. However, these antiquities are of extremely high value for researching ancient history and culture, and the significance of this stone tower is tremendous."

Seeing that there was nothing else in the Black Tower besides the stone statues, we overlooked the whole city from the tower, and observed that the entire Jingjue City blended with the desert's yellow sand; even the outline of the ruined ancient city formed the shape of a huge eye.

After Professor Chen finished looking, he asked me, "Old Brother Hu, your insight into feng shui is quite profound—what do you think of the feng shui of this city?"

I thought the first priority now was to find the water source in the palace; why is this old man testing me again? Could the professor believe that the queen's tomb lies beneath the palace? So I carefully examined the surrounding terrain.

I pointed to the Zhagelama Twin Mountains to the north and said: "Professor, look, that black mountain range looks like a black dragon in the desert, only it seems to have been broken in the middle, turning one dragon into two snakes. In my humble opinion, this valley between them was artificially carved out; the stone quarried from the mountains might have all been used as material for the black tower and stone statues in the city. In ancient times, emperors, as soon as they ascended the throne, would immediately begin preparing their tombs for a hundred years later. If this ancient city truly has an underground water vein that corresponds to the Zhagelama from afar, forming a dynamic of stillness and motion, then surely the Queen Jingjue must be a person of extraordinary talent and wisdom. Knowing that the black dragon is an ill omen, she mobilized manpower to chop it down and pin it, letting it forever guard her tomb. Thus this city becomes an excellent treasure trove. If the queen's tomb really lies within the city, its scale must be considerable. So there's one thing I don't understand: Professor, you said her palace is underground; I think the ancient tomb is also underground—wouldn't that be a bit cramped?"

Professor Chen praised: "Indeed, high praise. I think the palace and the ancient tomb are indeed both underground in the city, but not crowded together; they could be divided into three layers: the upper layer is the castle, the underground layer is the palace, and the deepest part is the tomb of Queen Jingjue. The Kingdom of Jingjue is powerful, driving a hundred thousand slaves from the surrounding small states, even able to carve a valley out of the Zhagelama Mountains by sheer force. Though the project of the underground palace and tomb is huge, it could still be accomplished."

Legend has it that explorers have visited this ancient city more than once, but the shifting yellow sand blown by the wind has completely erased their traces; some of them may have even entered the underground palace, yet there is no way to confirm it, and naturally we cannot see how those people entered the underground palace.

Being inside the ancient city of the Kingdom of Jingjue, knowing full well that the royal city lies right beneath our feet yet unable to find an entrance, it is truly maddening. We searched street by street on the tower, ruin by ruin, and finally discovered a stone building that stood taller than ordinary houses, its surface also covered with a layer of yellow sand; without close inspection, it was really not easy to spot.

It seems this is the only clue, so we hurried over. The building appears to be a temple, also constructed from Zhagelama black stone; the stone door is shaped like the gaping maw of a huge beast, with a large amount of yellow sand piled up at the entrance. I and Pangzi dug out a passage, everyone put on gas masks, and we moved forward with the light of cold fire.

The stone hall is magnificent, with thirty-two massive stone pillars, though the entrance is blocked by yellow sand, and there is no sand inside.

On the floor at the innermost part of the hall is enshrined a jade-made eyeball; within the stone there are naturally formed red threads, and the pupil is blue, distinct in layers, almost lifelike.

I was stunned, good heavens, this thing must be worth a city; even just looking at it or touching it would not have been in vain for risking life and death to venture into the desert—it is truly a divine artifact. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I could never have imagined that such a treasure exists in the world.

Pangzi couldn't restrain himself; he wanted to move the jade eyeball into his backpack, but after exerting force several times, the eyeball seemed to have taken root in the floor, utterly immovable.

Professor Chen feared Pangzi's brute force would damage this ancient divine object, so he quickly pulled him away, telling him not to move recklessly. Shirley Yang noticed a groove on the jade eyeball, oddly shaped, which closely resembled Pangzi's jade pendant, and said to Pangzi: "Try inserting your family heirloom jade pendant into it; this seems to be a mechanism."

Pangzi was overjoyed; he took out his jade pendant from his bosom, pushed everyone aside, and personally inserted the pendant into the groove on the jade eyeball: "If it fits, this big eyeball will be mine. Whoever grabs it, let them hurry—don't blame me for being rude. Damn it, this is really a great thing. Lao Hu, this time we've really struck it rich."