Chapter 57: Main Text Chapter Fifty-Eight: Sunken Void

Main Text Chapter Fifty-Eight: Sunken Void

Sunken Void

I stood on the ridge, pinpointed the rising and falling qi of the mountains and rivers, noted down the possible location of an ancient tomb with my pen, marked the distance and direction, then turned to look at Pangzi and Da Jin Ya on the other side.

They were both circling the Fish Bone Temple looking for a looter's hole, I put my finger in my mouth and whistled loudly at Pangzi and Da Jin Ya.

Pangzi and Lao Hu heard the sound, lifted their heads and shrugged at me, indicating they still hadn't found the entrance to the looter's hole, then they lowered their heads and continued searching, turning the Fish Bone Temple inside out over and over.

Going up the mountain is easy, coming down is hard. I looked at the place I had climbed up; it was too steep, difficult to descend the same way. I glanced around and saw that on the left-hand slope not far away, wind and rain had eroded it, causing a large chunk of the slope to collapse; going down there would be relatively easier.

So I walked left along the ridge for a stretch, stepping on the collapsed clods of earth and descending slowly; this slope remained hard to keep footing on, slipping with each step. Seeing a slightly level spot nearby where I could plant my feet, I leapt over to it.

I hadn't expected that after standing firm, having taken just two steps, the ground suddenly gave way beneath me and my lower half fell in instantly. I thought to myself, 'Not good,' I had stepped on a soil shell.

I heard from nearby villagers that this Pan She Slope is full of such man‑trapping pits; I had thought this edge area was still safe, but I was careless. At this moment my waist had completely sunk into the dirt hole. I realized that under these circumstances I must not struggle at all, for the geological structure here is much like quicksand in a desert, except there is less sand and more fine soil. The harder you struggle, the faster you sink. In such a situation you can only wait for rescue; if you are alone, you just wait to die.

After I had sunk a considerable length into the soil shell, I tried to keep my body as still as possible, not even daring to take a breath, fearing that any movement would sink me further; if it went past my chest, it would be serious trouble.

I lightly braced myself with both hands, keeping the forces on my body even, waited a dozen or so seconds, seeing that I was no longer falling, then freed one hand, took the whistle from my neck, brought it to my lips, ready to blow it to call Pangzi over for help.

But blowing the whistle requires exertion from the chest and abdomen, and I am now in a delicate balance of forces; I dare not move even slightly, otherwise this slab of slope could collapse at any moment and bury me alive. Of course, sinking does not necessarily mean being buried alive—below might be a large cavern—but worse would be to sink halfway, seeing neither sky nor earth, and suffocate to death; that feeling would be truly awful.

That thought crossed my mind, but I still decided to blow the whistle; otherwise, by the time Pangzi and the two of them remembered me, even the old lady's cucumber dish would be cold. I hoped they would hear it and come to my aid quickly; otherwise, I, Lao Hu, would truly meet my end this time—I've seen plenty of big winds and waves, and I really don't want to die just like this on this slope.

I blew the whistle; my chest and abdomen moved slightly, my body gave a little jerk and sank another bit, just enough to press against my chest, making breathing increasingly difficult. If one is to be buried alive, it's usually not necessary to cover the head—once the soil reaches the chest, suffocation follows.

I am now in this situation, both hands stretched out outside; I am clearly suffocating in discomfort, yet I feel no urge to struggle. This is a test of one's endurance. I try to stay as calm as possible, and must not, because my chest feels tight and I am about to suffocate, try to push out with my arms—doing so would only kill me faster.

For my current predicament, a second feels longer than a year. Damn it, why isn't that dead Pangzi hurrying over? If they didn't hear the whistle, then I'm as good as done for.

Just as I was holding my breath and letting my mind wander, I saw Pangzi and Da Jin Ya slowly, chatting and laughing, coming up from below.

Upon seeing my condition, they were both startled, kicked off and ran over; Pangzi, while running, untied the rope lock he carried, and he was still bearing a bamboo basket containing two large white geese, which were frightened by his sudden acceleration and began to honk loudly.

Pangzi and Da Jin Ya feared there might be more soil shells nearby, so they dared not get too close; they stopped a dozen or so paces away and threw the rope over. I finally grabbed this lifeline, wrapping the rope around my hand twice.

Both sides pulled together, hauling me out of the soil shell; as I came up, my legs completely crushed that chunk of soil, leaving a large hole on the slope, with loose earth continually falling in.

I gulped great lungfuls of air, unscrewed the water flask, took a few swigs, then poured the rest over my head, wiped my face with my hand, looked back at the collapsed pit behind me, and I myself couldn't say how many times I've now slipped back from the gates of hell; I was genuinely shaken and dared not dwell on it.

Pangzi lit a cigarette for me to calm my nerves; I was still shaken, took two puffs, and it made me cough violently. This experience differed from before—previously life and death came in an instant, leaving no time to fear; this time death approached step by step, slowly tightening its grip. Nothing in the world tortures one's nerves more than this.

My three hun and seven po had probably already lost two hun and six po; a full twenty minutes passed before those two hun and six po slowly returned.

Seeing my face turn deathly pale, Da Jin Ya and Pangzi dared not speak; after a while, noticing my gaze was no longer blank, they asked how I was.

I nodded, had Pangzi fetch the baijiu, took a few sips, and only then did I feel fully recovered.

We three went to look at the pit I had just stepped into, and Da Jin Ya asked, 'Could this be a looter's hole?'

I said, 'No, the edges of a looter's hole aren't this loose; this is the result of erosion from an underground cavern within the mountain. The outer mountain is left with only an empty shell—thin in some places, thick in others. It seems the cavern beneath Dragon Ridge is actually quite large.'

I told them what I had just seen on the ridge: over there in the mountains there must be a large tomb, and its straight‑line distance from the Fish Bone Temple is about a kilometer.

If the Fish Bone Temple has a looter's tunnel leading to that ancient tomb, this distance and direction make perfect sense; digging a kilometer‑long tunnel would be no trouble for an expert, just a bit more time‑consuming.

Pangzi asked, 'This guy must be bored stiff—since he can pinpoint the tomb's exact location, why would he run all the way out here to dig a tunnel?'

I said to Pangzi, 'The senior who built the Fish Bone Temple is far superior to you in geomancy; he naturally had his reasons. I suspect he wanted to enter the underground palace from below.'

Da Jin Ya said, 'Oh? Enter from below? Could it be that this tomb's surroundings are built too solidly to break into, so one has to go up from the bottom? I've heard this move called "Toppling Palace".'

I said, 'That's right. In the Tang dynasty tombs were always built in the mountains, and during the prosperous Great Tang, with abundant national strength unrivaled under heaven, the tombs were certainly made extremely solid; the underground palaces are constructed of large stones stacked and reinforced with iron bars, making it hard to breach the tomb walls. However, no matter how copper‑walled and iron‑clad an ancient tomb is made, it is still not a seamless egg—every tomb has a void. From a feng shui perspective, this void is meant to conceal wind and gather qi; if a tomb lacks this void, even the best auspicious site is useless.'

Pangzi asked, 'So it's just a back door?'

I said, 'No, it's about "form stops, qi direction accumulates"—to preserve the shape and momentum of the feng shui spot, keeping the auspicious land unchanged; the hall layout of a tomb must not be completely sealed, it needs qi to gather and flow, and usually the spirit‑way or rear hall serves as the place where qi converges; such a place cannot be sealed too tightly, or it will be harmful to the occupant.'

There is also another saying: large tombs are much like palaces; when the entrance is finally sealed, to keep the secrets of the underground palace, they would bury alive the last batch of workers left behind. Those experienced workers, during construction, would always leave themselves a back way, secretly building a hidden passage, and such passages are usually located beneath the underground palace.

However, these escape tunnels that the workers secretly built for themselves have no basis in feng shui at all; they are constructed however they can be concealed, greatly affecting the tomb's layout, yet they can never be fully prohibited.

Therefore, when encountering such a tomb with extraordinarily solid walls on all sides, after the Grave Robber Officers discuss the situation, they will choose to act from below.

We three briefly discussed it and felt it was worth the effort to venture into the great tomb of Dragon Ridge, because the tomb's location is very special—the mountain's aspect is no longer what it used to be; anyone who can discover a tomb here must be an expert among the Grave Robber Officers, and he will surely follow the rule of taking neither one nor two, but only one. For such a huge tomb, even if he took just one or two treasures, or even if he stole a hundred or so, the rest of us could casually pick up a couple and still reap a considerable gain.

We decided to still start from the looter's tunnel of the Fish Bone Temple, as this would be comparatively easier. First, the temple's looter's tunnel is only a few decades old, so it hasn't changed much; even if there are collapsed sections, we can dig a short detour around them. Second, Dragon Ridge has these man‑trapping soil shells; walking the ridge carries some danger—I just ran into one and nearly suffocated inside—so we should avoid danger as much as possible.

With the plan settled, we turned back to the Fish Bone Temple; Pangzi and Da Jin Ya had already spent half a day searching and still found no looter's tunnel. This temple is neither against mountain nor water, and its layout is hardly discernible; from the outside it's extremely hard to judge where a tunnel might be. This tunnel is too important for us, and all my deductions presuppose that the Fish Bone Temple was built by the Grave Robber Officers.

I suddenly had a brainwave and called out to Pangzi and Da Jin Ya: 'Let's check the old altar where the clay statue of the Dragon King used to stand; if there is a tunnel, it's very likely hidden beneath the altar.'