Chapter 31: Main Text Chapter Thirty-One: Underground Palace

Main Text Chapter Thirty-One: Underground Palace

"When dragon energy enters the cavity, yang contracts with just one meridian; yin does not unfold without five parts," using the 'Shaking Dragon Technique' to calculate, it is actually nothing more than reversing the order of turning the stone disk that was done earlier in the Divine Hall and doing it again.

We finished turning the last slot of that stone disk, and the Celestial Brick Wall in front of us opened with a sound. Pangzi picked up an assault rifle, took the lead and went out through the Celestial Brick Warrior Passage, and the rest of us followed in single file.

Everyone came outside and used flashlights to look around. Although it was an underground structure, the surrounding space was vast; the carved beams and painted pillars, though peeled, still revealed the former grandeur. Indeed, we had truly entered the Underground Palace.

The place we were in seemed to be the main hall of the Underground Palace. The brick wall we came out of was behind a throne carved from jade stone. This secret wall was exquisitely crafted; inside the hall, one could not see at all that there was a hidden door behind the throne.

We had finally arrived at the Exquisite Absolute Palace, which had existed only in legend. To examine it closely, we used all the lighting equipment we carried. We saw that the throne and floor of the hall were made of jade stone, the lamp chains on the ceiling had rotted and broken, falling to the ground. In every corner, a few desert rats were crawling about, indicating that the air circulated. Apart from some jade products, pottery, wood, iron, bronze, silk and other items had been severely corroded by the air.

For us, this situation was a mix of joy and worry. The joy was that since there was flowing air in the Underground Palace, it indicated a connection to the underground water vein, so Ye Yixin's little life was saved.

The worry was that the antiquities in the Underground Palace were severely damaged. Some pottery jars had rotted to the point of being unrecognizable, turning to powder at a touch. All around lay countless rusted and mottled armor and weapons, such as antenna-shaped curved swords, crane-beak giant axes, and arc-backed concave-blade knives. The armor bore various ethnic-style strange plaques and buckles, while the owners of those round shields and bent knives had no bones left; with careful searching, perhaps a few fragmented skulls could still be found.

Because the age is extremely ancient, the cause of corrosion by air is one factor; also, unknown when, many desert rats burrowed in. Desert rats normally feed on desert plant roots and underground insects, and they like to gnaw on hard objects to wear down their teeth. Many things in this Underground Palace have been gnawed away by them.

The best-preserved item in the main hall is this jade stone throne. On the top of the throne is carved a red jade eye; the throne's body is entirely inlaid with gold and silver, engraved with immortal mountain clouds, flowers, birds, fish, beasts, and so on. The base is a large piece of jade as white as goat's milk, and in the hall dominated by black tones, it stands out strikingly.

Pangzi, seeing this utterly dilapidated state, felt greatly disappointed. He plopped down on the jade throne, slapped the armrest, and said: 'Only this is worth a bit of money; the rest should just be contacted with the scrap collectors and sent to the recycling station.'

I thought this brat could never change his carefree temperament anywhere, being undisciplined and unorganized. I needed to scare him a bit, lest Shirley Yang and the others laugh at me, so I said to Pangzi: 'I say, Comrade Wang Kaixuan, this throne is the seat of the exploiting class of a feudal dynasty; don't forget you also come from a revolutionary cadre family. Sitting there, do your principles and stance still hold?'

Pangzi laughed loudly: 'Come on, Lao Hu, still playing the political commissar? What era is this, still worrying about stance? You say this jade stone throne could be worth a million US dollars? … Hey, this head is too big; if we don't take it apart, it really won't be easy to move back.'

I then said to Pangzi: 'Don't first think about how to move it back; let me tell you, don't disbelieve—this throne is where the Exquisite Absolute Queen sat in life; perhaps her wandering spirit is still drifting in this Underground Palace. After thousands of years, she is lonely and solitary, and just now you sitting here might let that queen catch sight of you. She would surely think, hey, this big fatty is not bad, with all that fat all over—well, let him stay as the son-in-law who marries into the Exquisite Absolute Kingdom, and he can gnaw on something to wear down his teeth when bored.'

These words did not scare Pangzi at all. Ye Yixin had already come out of her coma and could barely walk, with Shirley Yang continually supporting her. When she heard me say that the spirit of the Exquisite Absolute Queen still lingered in this Underground Palace, Ye Yixin's eyes rolled up and she fainted again from fright.

Shirley Yang stamped her feet anxiously: 'Can you two quit messing around? Don't you see what time it is? Hurry up and help.'

Seeing that we had caused trouble again, Pangzi and I dared not argue further. We went over, lifted Ye Yixin, and placed her on Pangzi's back for him to carry. Pangzi, having just said one less sentence, felt it was not quite worth it, and he kept muttering: 'Son-in-law who marries into the family? I've never seen someone as uncultured as you; you think the queen is a country widow, and the queen's husband should be called… what is it? Probably not 'fuma,' right?'

Seeing Pangzi still nagging, Shirley Yang could not hold back and said angrily: 'Call him a eunuch.'

If it weren't for the death of Hao Aiguo in the archaeological team, the atmosphere would be very oppressive; laughing now would be utterly inappropriate. I forced myself to hold back, and together with everyone, we searched the spacious Underground Palace for a place with a water source.

The underground palace of the Exquisite Absolute Ancient Kingdom was not as large as I had imagined; only the main hall was of considerable size, while the side annexes were relatively simple. The front hall's gate and stone steps were completely sealed off by sand. *At the place entering the front hall's gate, a black stone slab was destroyed by explosives, indicating that people had previously entered this Underground Palace. Judging by the damage and traces on that stone door, it was not recent; at least several decades have passed. It is very likely the doing of the owner of that black-and-white photograph, and now this gap has long been buried by yellow sand.

After examining the two side annexes, we turned to the rear hall, which was where the royal family rested and lived. There were several jade stone railings with fountains, but they had long dried up. As we walked and looked, Shirley suddenly said: 'Listen, do you hear the sound of flowing water?'

I pricked up my ears to listen, and indeed, not far away, the water sounded gurgling. Looking in that direction, everyone quickened their pace, following the sound of water to a cave behind the hall.

The cave floor was extremely low; after walking deep downward, we arrived at a natural stone cavern the size of a sports field. Although it was natural, it was obviously artificially leveled, the ground being very flat. Inside the cavern there is a small underground lake, with a raised bulge in the lake like a little island in the center, only ten square meters in size; the calm lake is like a mirror, surrounded on all sides.

Our group had been drinking only the minimum standard water ration for a week straight—not even in the desert, but even normally a day's worth of this little water would be enough to endure. Now, seeing the cool underground water, we all rushed to dunk our heads in and gulp it down greedily.

Shirley Yang stopped everyone: 'This water source has been abandoned for many years; we don't know if it's dead or living water. Moreover, underground rivers constantly shift their courses, so present groundwater may not be the same as two thousand years ago. The underground nitrate and sulfate in the western regions are the highest; if the water happened to be poisonous, what would we do? Let's first check and then decide.'

I took a close look nearby and saw several small colorful fish swimming in the lake water, so I laughed: 'After filtering, this lake has fish; there must be a spring eye in the depths, so it's living water and won't be poisonous.'

As soon as I said that, the other several people could no longer care about anything; they rushed to the lakeside and gulped down water in big mouthfuls, filling their bellies round and full, still feeling they hadn't drunk enough, until moving caused water to flow out of their mouths, and then they stopped.

Ye Yixin had dehydration symptoms and could not drink large amounts of clear water directly; Shirley Yang mixed a pot of water with salt and gave her a little at a time. We had drunk too much water, unable to move, and could only rest where we were.

I had never felt water to be as delicious as now; lying spread-eagle on the ground with my belly protruding, I closed my eyes to rest. At this moment, everything around grew quiet, and I seemed to hear the sound of water flowing in the distance, indicating that the Underground Palace's water veins were not limited to this one spot. The little lake where we drank water was very tranquil; the water sound heard in the rear hall came from a more distant source, which should be a large underground river, possibly the Zidu Dark River that bypasses Zhagelama Mountain.

Just as I was idly thinking, I suddenly heard Shirley Yang utter a 'yi' sound, her voice full of surprise. I quickly propped myself up with both hands on the ground and sat up, asking her what was happening. Shirley Yang pointed with her hand at the bulge in the lake's center, indicating for me to look over there.

Professor Chen and the others also rose from the ground one after another, and everyone followed the direction Shirley Yang pointed to see, witnessing an unbelievable sight.

On the bulge in the lake, at some point, a dense layer of azure mayfly phosphorescent worms had crawled over, numbering in the tens of thousands. Their bodies gradually turned grayish-white, each one wriggling out of its shell; after molting, the worm bodies seemed to have many phosphorescent spots, flashing and glowing like the stars across the sky. The worms unfolded the wings they had just obtained, and before long they would be able to fly up to the heavens.

At that very moment, countless large rats leapt into the cave from all directions; these rats showed no fear of humans, ignored us completely, and without hesitation jumped into the lake, heading for the water, scrambling to climb up the central bulge, greedily seizing the freshly molted worms and continually stuffing them into their mouths to eat. In the blink of an eye, they devoured every last one.

Seeing so many large rats swimming in the lake, it seemed they must often feast here; otherwise they wouldn't be so practiced. Thinking of this made us feel indescribably nauseous; we opened our mouths and vomited loudly, bringing up the lake water we had just swallowed, exactly as it was.