Chapter 73: Hundred Treasures Pouch

Pangzi spoke while pulling a silk pouch from the desiccated corpse's embrace, shaking out its contents one by one onto the ground to see if anything valuable remained.

Da Jin Ya lay on the ground, his eyes wide and unblinking, clearly overcome by fright and not yet come to his senses; I felt sore all over, nearly falling apart, and although I worried that more human-faced giant spiders might be nearby, I couldn't leave immediately. Seeing Pangzi suddenly find a Mojin talisman on a nearby corpse, he tossed it over for me to examine.

Pangzi hurriedly examined the corpse's belongings and casually tossed the Mojin talisman toward me. I picked it up and examined it closely: the talisman was jet‑black and translucent, flashing a lustrous sheen in the firelight; its tip was sharp and pointed, the conical base inset with several coils of gold wire forming a "penetrating earth" pattern, and the body bore the two ancient seal characters "Mojin". Holding it, I felt a faint chill and a superb texture.

This is unquestionably a genuine Mojin talisman, made from the sharpest claw of a pangolin, first soaked in cinnabar for forty‑nine days, then buried eight hundred meters deep in Dragon‑Loom earth to draw vein‑spirit energy for eight hundred days; it is the authentic credential of a true Mojin Colonel. I have only ever seen a genuine one in Shirley Yang's possession, while Da Jin Ya once gave me and Pangzi two forgeries; compared to the real thing, the fake is instantly obvious.

This Mojin talisman was worn by that corpse, so perhaps he was a predecessor who dug the Fish‑Bone Temple tomb; he must also have been trapped in the Phantom Mound, with no way forward or back, and eventually discovered the secret of the living creatures, intending to retreat from the tomb, but on the way he, like us, was ambushed by that "black armored beetle". Being alone, once struck he had no recourse, and he met an obscure, miserable death here. Thinking of this fills me with sorrow.

Engaging in the grave‑robbing trade of overturning tombs and seeking gold may easily bring riches, but wealth and risk go hand in hand; the dangers in ancient tombs are manifold—not only the man‑made traps and ambushes, but also many unpredictable perils. In many excavated great tombs lie the remains of tomb robbers, among whom some kill each other, yet many Mojin Colonels have met miserable ends there. Their deaths are utterly strange and bizarre: some are crushed by falling stones when opening coffins to seek gold, while others perish in the tombs with no external wounds and no sign of poisoning—what they encountered and how they died is known only to the dead themselves.

Pangzi strode over holding a bundle of things and said, "Lao Hu, what the hell are you thinking? Quickly look at what this stuff is—it all came from that corpse."

I took the items Pangzi handed over and inspected them one by one. This cloth bag seemed to be a Hundred Treasures Pouch, filled with assorted bits: seven or eight candles and two stacked paper lanterns. To us those candles are worth a fortune; aside from a lighter we have no other lighting gear, so I told Pangzi to keep the candles and lanterns safe—we'll rely on them when we leave the cavern later.

The pouch also contained several old‑style German dry cells, but no flashlight, plus three tiny red pills. Seeing them, I was startled—could these be the secret medicament concocted by ancient Mojin Colonels? Ancient tombs harbor corpse poison; generations of Mojin Colonels have passed down a full set of formulas to produce red cinnabar, taking one pill before entering a tomb to neutralize the corpse poison. It works only in stagnant air, effective when opening a coffin and contacting corpses closely, to ward off corpse‑poison invasion. Unlike today, where gas masks can protect the eyes as well, ancient protections were crude; even tightly wrapped, the eyes must remain exposed. If the coffin is well sealed, the corpse's putrefaction lingers inside, and this corpse poison travels through the five senses and seven apertures, inflicting severe harm on the body.

However, it only neutralizes corpse poison; other harmful gases still require different measures, such as blowing a horn to ventilate the tomb or sending in a live animal to probe the air, and so on.

But the principle of this medicine is to fight poison with poison; it itself carries some toxicity, and long‑term use can reduce bone density. Though the effect on the body is not huge, it is still harmful with no benefit, so unless absolutely necessary, it should be avoided.

These red pills are called red cinnabar, also known as Red Silk Marvelous Heart Pill; their exact formula has been lost, a fact tied to the development of anti‑poison masks. Some veteran Mojin practitioners still habitually place a Red Silk Marvelous Heart Pill in their mouth before opening a coffin and then proceed with the gold‑seeking.

The pouch also held a few items I couldn't name, plus a simple compass for positioning and a lump of niter, which in herbal medicine is also called earth frost or northern dark pearl, its nature being "pungent, bitter, greatly warming, non‑toxic." This is to counteract poor air quality in ancient tombs that can cause headache and fainting; in such a case, inhaling a bit of powdered niter can relieve the symptoms, similar to the effect of Shirley Yang's alcohol‑stained gills.

Finally I saw that the pouch still contained a length of fine steel wire, a small knife over three inches long, a tiny bottle of Yunnan Baiyao, a bottle of borneol, and something I know best—the black donkey's hoof from the pouch, plus a roll of ink line; both the ink line and the black donkey's hoof are used to deal with corpse transformations.

Pangzi asked, "Lao Hu, do any of these curious oddments have any value?"

I shook my head. "Nothing here is worth money, but a few items are quite useful. From this Hundred Treasures Pouch I can picture the bearing of a Mojin Colonel from long ago—surely the predecessor who dug the Fish‑Bone Temple tomb, whose conduct matches ours, making him a fellow disciple. It's a pity he met a miserable end here; it must have been thirty‑odd years ago. Since we've come across him, let's not leave his corpse exposed. Lift his remains into the fire and cremate them, hoping his spirit will bless our safe departure from this place, and burn his belongings with him."

Pangzi said, "All right, I'll cremate him now. Though we burned those few human‑faced giant spiders today, that's revenge for him, so the contents of this pouch can be our thank‑you gift—perhaps we can take them back to Beijing and fetch a good price in the antique market."

I told Pangzi, "Doing that wouldn't work anyway, since none of this is valuable—especially this Mojin talisman, which water and fire cannot harm and cannot be melted by flame; we actually need it, so I'll take it. The rest truly lacks value, those few Red Silk Marvelous Heart Pills are probably expired and useless to us, so let the Hundred Treasures Pouch go with its owner."

When Pangzi heard there was nothing valuable, he lost interest; the corpse was hardly any weight left, so he took the Mojin Colonel's Hundred Treasures Pouch, tucked the corpse under his other arm, and walked to the vicinity of the burning temple, where he flung the Colonel's corpse onto the edge of the fire.

I turned my neck; my abrasions and bumps still ached, but my hands and feet could move freely, so I nudged Da Jin Ya beside me and asked how his injuries were and whether he could still walk.

Da Jin Ya's wounds were much like mine—mainly abrasions, with a heavy blow to the head. He half‑conscious, half‑dazed, nodded slightly, moved his jaw a little, and winced, sucking in cold air.

I called Pangzi back, and the three of us discussed how to leave the cavern. That black armored beetle had dragged us far away, and judging by feel it wasn't a straight line—we'd twisted and turned, completely losing our bearings. Now we only know we're somewhere beneath the many hills of Dragon Ridge, unable to pinpoint the exact spot. Locals say the ground under Dragon Ridge is entirely solution caves, but I observed our surroundings and found we are not in typical karst terrain; instead we are in a hollow of yellow‑earth layered rock, relatively dry. Thus this place appears to be a composite landform where multiple geological structures mix.

Folklore is mostly hearsay, but people and livestock often go missing around here, possibly because the lair of a black armored beetle is nearby; the missing persons and sheep are dragged in and eaten, rather than being trapped alive in a maze‑like cavern.

We now have no rations, no clothing, and no equipment; every minute delayed adds to the difficulty of getting out. In this underground shrine stands a gigantic human‑faced bronze cauldron. Such cauldrons were used in the Western Zhou dynasty to sacrifice ancestors or record major events for posterity, suggesting a link between this subterranean deity and Western Zhou tombs. Perhaps the tomb's owner, in life, worshiped the black armored beetle, and thus built a shrine near his tomb to raise a brood of human‑faced giant spiders. After his tomb was destroyed, no one fed the spiders with slaves anymore; they now hunt and breed on their own to this day. We don't know whether besides these few in the shrine there are others; if another one or two appeared, they could easily kill the three of us.

By now the fire had dimmed, but its glow let us faintly see a dozen or so tunnels leading up and down around us; we certainly had to pick a way out, though we hadn't agreed on which tunnel to take. However, I reasoned that since the black armored beetle must go out to forage, there must be an exit nearby.

I had Pangzi light a candle, and the three of us walked to the nearest tunnel, placing the candle at its entrance. I observed the flame—it rose straight up—and told Pangzi and Da Jin Ya, "This tunnel is a dead end; there's no airflow. Let's check the next opening."

Having said that, I and Da Jin Ya turned and left, but Pangzi stayed put. I turned back and asked him, "Are you coming or not?"

Pangzi pointed at the cavern's entrance and said to us, "Lao Hu, take a sniff with your nose—what's that smell? It's quite strange."