Chapter 70: Main Text Chapter Seventy-One: Missing

Main Text Chapter Seventy-One: Missing

The sound coming from beside the stone coffin was like a night owl calling, making the scalps of us three go numb. By rights there shouldn't be any zongzi in a ghost tomb, for this stone coffin is a thought-form that no longer exists in the world, and the remains of its owner are long gone, so what exactly is this sound…?

Moreover the sound sounded like some animal desperately struggling, could it be those two geese? No, it shouldn't be a goose call, a goose call is nothing like this, the sound is too harsh, as if the windpipe were blocked, low and mournful yet piercing.

Pangzi, Da Jin Ya and I originally didn't want to cause trouble, just wanted to slaughter the two geese early so that this Western Zhou ghost tomb would disappear and we could get away quickly, but things went against our wishes—the two big white geese ran off without a trace, and that Western Zhou stone coffin that shouldn't exist in the world suddenly emitted a strange sound, so we had no choice but to nervously go over to check it out.

We came down from the Soul-Hanging Ladder; the stone coffin was not far away, about fifteen or sixteen steps. Each of us grabbed a weapon: I held the paratrooper knife, Da Jin Ya gripped the golden Buddha in one hand and pinched a black donkey's hoof in the other, while Pangzi carried an engineer's shovel, and we slowly approached the stone coffin.

Pangzi walked in front, encouraging himself as he went: "It must be those two geese causing trouble; once I catch them, I'll make them look bad."

The three of us, mustering our courage, flanked to the rear of the stone coffin, but saw nothing there; the earlier mournful cry had also stopped. That sound had clearly come from here just moments ago—how could it suddenly vanish? I cursed: "Damn it, yet again it's playing tricks."

Pangzi patted the stone coffin and said: "Could the sound be coming from inside this stone box? Since this Western Zhou tomb can exist as a ghost, perhaps even the hairy zongzi inside the stone box could have come alive together."

Da Jin Ya said: "You really are a grandpa, but please don't say that—you've scared me so much my heart feels like it's about to jump out of my mouth. May the Greatly Compassionate and Merciful Guanyin Bodhisattva who saves from suffering bless us…" Da Jin Ya chanted Buddha, wanting to hold the trinket in his hand up to look at it for courage, but found he was gripping not a jade Guanyin but a gilded Tathagata statue, so he hastily chanted the Buddha's name a few more times.

I said to Pangzi: "That sound just now didn't seem to come from inside the stone coffin; I clearly heard it coming from behind the stone coffin, and besides this…"

Just as I uttered the word "this", a white light flashed before my eyes and something fell, landing right on the stone coffin. I jumped back in fright; upon closer look it was one of the two missing geese. It landed on the human face carved on the coffin lid, unharmed, spreading its two large wings and wandering dazedly across the stone coffin—I had no idea how it had suddenly dropped from the tomb roof, nor how it got up there.

The first thought that crossed all three of our minds was: "What's up there?" Since we had always thought the sound came from below, our flashlight beams were pointed low; as soon as we considered that something might be above, we simultaneously raised our flashlights and shone them upward.

The Tang Tomb Netherworld Palace, with its circular heaven and square earth, had a domed roof like a pavilion covered in auspicious stars, showing nothing unusual—except that some spots had changed, and the edges of the palace's ceiling walls now bore rows of stone walls from ghost tombs. This strange phenomenon of two tombs merged into one is probably witnessed by no more than three people in the present age.

Seeing nothing abnormal above, we caught the white goose on the stone coffin, but the other one remained missing. With only this one goose left, we searched everywhere in the Netherworld Palace, yet still found no trace. Though the Tang Tomb is vast, the Netherworld Palace covers over a hundred square meters; it is still unfinished—when completed, a stone room should be added at its center, making the palace take the shape of a "return" character, intended specially for placing the tomb owner's coffin, while the periphery is for important burial goods.

At present, no side halls have been built beside the Netherworld Palace, the rear hall hasn't started work either; only a ghost tomb's Soul-Hanging Ladder has appeared. The front area is larger, with an underground palace constructed, and before it lies a pond—presumably when finished it will be made into an imperial garden.

We are only three, with scarce lighting equipment; trying to find a lively big goose in such a huge place cannot be said to be like looking for a needle in the ocean, but it's pretty close.

Thinking of all the strange things in this ancient tomb, I didn't want to waste another moment, and told Pangzi and Da Jin Ya: "Since we've caught only one, we must absolutely not let it escape again; we needn't bother with the other goose—first slaughter this one, drip its blood onto the robber tunnel's exit to see if it works; if not, we'll go catch the other one."

Pangzi lifted the goose to the robber tunnel's mouth, drew the paratrooper knife, slit its trachea, held the goose upside down in midair, and the blood flowed steadily down the windpipe. The goose kept thrashing, but Pangzi gripped it tightly, draining every drop of blood before tossing the carcass aside.

Da Jin Ya asked me: "Old Hu, will this really work?"

I told Da Jin Ya: "Whether it works or not, this is our last resort; after all, we've thought of everything we could, so it shouldn't be wrong. I'll go check if there's any change. By the way, I don't know if goose blood can ward off evil—let's smear some on our faces."

I went to the robber tunnel's entrance and shone the wolf-eye light down; the place that had originally become a tomb passage had completely vanished, the tunnel now filled with dirt—it was exactly the earlier robber tunnel.

Whether it was a lucky hit or a mistake, somehow the robber tunnel had returned, but now was not the time to celebrate—our flashlight batteries were nearly exhausted, so each of us swapped in the final spare batteries, then we jumped into the vertical shaft of the tomb passage.

This time I led the way, and I told Pangzi and Da Jin Ya: "This time we won't stop; let Golden Grandpa follow behind me, Pangzi bring up the rear—if Golden Grandpa can't climb halfway, Pangzi you must push him out, and that's your responsibility."

Pangzi asked: "What's the rush? Why not just inch our way out? Anyway, the robber tunnel is already out."

I said to Pangzi: "You don't understand—we've only slaughtered one goose, the other's run off who knows where; maybe the ghost tomb will yet erupt again, so we must leave now while we can; if we get stuck halfway, we'll just damn well smash our heads against the wall."

I didn't want to say more, greeted them, and slipped into the front of the robber tunnel; Da Jin Ya and Pangzi followed behind, each keeping about two meters distance.

I switched on my flashlight and crawled forward in the robber tunnel; this reminded me of my army training days, and thinking of that I quickly shook my head, trying not to dwell on unrelated matters—what I needed to do now was to hurry out of the tunnel, a top priority.

After climbing a stretch, I looked back at Da Jin Ya behind me; he was exhausted, panting heavily, but to leave the tunnel as soon as possible he gritted his teeth, summoned every ounce of strength, and stayed close behind me.

The robber tunnel had fully returned to its original state, and I secretly wondered: the key is that those two geese earlier were off; we surmise that these two live geese disturbed the ghost tomb, causing it to appear where the Tang Tomb originally stood. We should have slaughtered both geese to make the ghost tomb fade gradually—how could killing just one restore it to normal? Could the other goose already be dead?

Recalling the goose we had slaughtered, which had suddenly fallen from the tomb roof onto the stone coffin, together with that earlier strange sound, the more I thought about it the more my scalp tingled; I stopped thinking further and kept crawling outward through the tunnel.

After crawling another twenty-odd meters forward in the tunnel, dripping sounds began to echo, indicating we were about halfway; ahead lay the tunnel's cross-section. I reached the mouth, dropped down from above, waited for Da Jin Ya to climb to the mouth, then caught him as he came down.

Da Jin Ya sweated like rain, beads rolling down his face, panting heavily he said: "Re… really… I can't… go on… these… two years… I've been terribly weakened… I need to catch my breath first."

Seeing that Da Jin Ya truly couldn't continue—after having given his all just now, climbing that fast had already reached his limit—and I couldn't carry him in the tunnel, I had no choice but to let him sit down to rest.

I told Da Jin Ya: "Golden Grandpa, rest a bit first, take deep breaths; once Pangzi climbs out we still can't stop—we must immediately keep crawling out. When we're outside you may rest however you like, relax for days, but now isn't the time—you'll have to grit your teeth and persevere a while longer."

Da Jin Ya could no longer speak, mouth wide open, he weakly nodded; I then looked at Pangzi, who still hadn't emerged from the tunnel—he was about twenty meters short, his bulky build making climbing arduous, so he lagged behind.

It looks like Pangzi will need a bit more time to get out; I feel a creepy chill about this ancient tomb and the tunnel, my biggest worry being whether the stone wall in the final stretch of the tunnel is still there—if I don't climb up to have a look, I simply can't put my mind at ease.

I walked to the other end of the robber tunnel and raised the wolf-eye to peer inside; this section is cut off by a void within the mountain, belonging to a karst landscape. In recent years, natural influences have been severe, the mountain full of fissures, and this crack connects to the deepest cavern below the mountain, unfathomably deep—if a stone wall still blocks the way ahead, we'll have to descend into the cavern to seek an exit.

As I was peering into the tunnel, Pangzi called from behind: "Old Hu, what are you looking at? Has Golden Grandpa already gone in? Hurry up, let's both enter and get out quickly—this damned ghostly place, I never want to come back in my life."

I turned back and saw Pangzi standing behind me, but Da Jin Ya was gone; I hurriedly asked Pangzi: "Where's Golden Grandpa? Didn't you see him?"

Pangzi replied: "How so? He didn't go in? When I came out I saw only you."

At that moment a strange sound came from not far away in the mountain cave; I hastily aimed the wolf-eye that way, wanting to see if Da Jin Ya was there—if I didn't look it would be fine, but once I did I was stunned wide-eyed: there stood a person in the cavern, a huge face devoid of any human color, his face exactly like the weird, bizarre face on the Western Zhou stone coffin.