Chapter 1626: [Looters' Tunnel] (Part 1)

Hu Xiaotian nodded, looked ahead, and saw the undulating ridges indeed like a camel's back, except that because the winter snow had not melted, the hills were all covered in white snow; now they should be called White Camel Mountain more aptly. However the place name seemed somewhat familiar, Hu Xiaotian couldn't recall where he had heard it.

Zong Tang said: "The Ghost Doctor Fu Luo is buried here."

Hu Xiaotian heard the name Ghost Doctor Fu Luo and immediately recalled that Liu Changsheng had mentioned before that he told him Ghost Doctor Fu Luo was buried in Black Camel Mountain after his death, though that Black Camel Mountain was outside Yan Prefecture; he hadn't expected it to be so close to Yongdu.

Zong Tang continued forward on horseback; Black Camel Mountain's terrain was not steep. They arrived at an abandoned Medicine God Temple on the mountainside, tied the two horses inside the main hall, and found fodder in the kitchen.

Hu Xiaotian secretly thought that it seemed impossible to return to Yongdu tonight.

Zong Tang brought him to the Medicine God Hall; beside the Medicine God statue, a small hole appeared. He took out a strangely shaped key from his waist, inserted it into the hole, turned it left and right; after a moment, a creaking sound came from nearby, accompanied by a tremor of the ground, and the Medicine God statue shifted aside, revealing a pitch-black opening.

Hu Xiaotian blinked his eyes, never expecting such a mechanism to be set up in these wild mountains.

Zong Tang lit a torch and said to Hu Xiaotian: "Let's go down and talk!"

Hu Xiaotian looked outside and said: "Will anyone come here?"

Zong Tang shook his head and said: "It's been abandoned for years, the incense has long been cut off, and it's a world of ice and snow—who would come to such a place?" He had already taken the lead into the underground passage.

Hu Xiaotian couldn't suppress his curiosity and followed Zong Tang inside. The passage went straight up and down; the uneven walls allowed climbing up and down, though it would not be easy for an ordinary person to descend, but both Zong Tang and Hu Xiaotian were martial arts masters, so it posed no obstacle for them. Reaching the bottom of the passage, a horizontal opening appeared. Zong Tang inserted the medicine key into the hole in the wall, turned it, and the Medicine God statue above returned to its place—this was a precaution to prevent anyone who might enter from discovering the secret.

At first the opening was narrow; they walked bent over for over fifty steps, then the passage suddenly widened. Zong Tang straightened up and said to Hu Xiaotian: "This secret passage was discovered by my father when he oversaw the construction of the Imperial Mausoleum. Emperor Jingde's tomb had already been built thirty years ago and was put into use nineteen years ago. Empress Dowager Jiang, for her posthumous affairs, repeatedly proposed renovation plans. While my father was renovating the Imperial Mausoleum, he discovered a looters' tunnel."

Hu Xiaotian exclaimed in surprise: "Someone robbed a tomb?" Tomb robbery occurs in any era, but for the Imperial Mausoleum to be robbed, and moreover during the current dynasty, is rather unusual.

Zong Tang nodded and said: "Exactly! After discovering this, my father dared not publicize it, because the Imperial Mausoleum was his design; if the court learned that the mausoleum had been robbed, he would inevitably be held responsible. So he gathered his trusted disciples to repair the tunnel, and in the process uncovered many of its secrets."

Hu Xiaotian secretly thought that Demonic Artisan Zong Yuan's action was understandable; anyone would do the same. If the matter were exposed, they would likely face the punishment of confiscation and extermination of the clan; needless to say, the work of repairing the tunnel naturally included Zong Tang.

Zong Tang held the torch and continued forward, saying to Hu Xiaotian: "When the court initially asked my father to design the Imperial Mausoleum, he politely declined, because everyone knows that building an imperial mausoleum brings no good reward. Emperor Jingde died early, and at that time my father feared he would be silenced, so he had already prepared to send me away from Da Yong. However, Empress Dowager Jiang later had him renovate the mausoleum, which temporarily spared him. As the renovation concluded, my father also knew his time was near and repeatedly urged me to leave Da Yong."

Hu Xiaotian nodded; Old Master Zong indeed had foresight. The best way to keep a person from revealing a secret is to kill him, and Empress Dowager Jiang, for the sake of her posthumous peace, would certainly not allow the designers and builders of the mausoleum to remain alive in this world.

Zong Tang said: "My father has always wanted me to stay away from mausoleum construction. Even so, the court would not easily let us off. His severe illness this time was not due to old age and frailty, but when the mausoleum was nearing completion, Empress Dowager Jiang bestowed a banquet, and the wine was laced with poison." Saying this, his tiger eyes flashed with angry light.

At this moment Hu Xiaotian finally realized that Zong Tang harbored hatred toward the Da Yong imperial family in his heart. He sighed and asked: "Did Old Master Zong die from poisoning?"

Zong Tang said: "My father understood this, but he told me not to make a fuss. On his deathbed he informed Empress Dowager Jiang that the mausoleum was still unfinished and needed me to take over his work. Perhaps because of those words, the Empress Dowager abandoned her plan to kill me right away."

Hu Xiaotian said: "Empress Dowager Jiang is now dead; she should no longer threaten your safety."

Zong Tang said: "Even if she is dead, we artisans who participated in building the mausoleum, especially those who bore important tasks, will certainly not meet a good end. Before his death, my father urged me to delay the mausoleum's completion as much as possible, seek an opportunity to flee Da Yong, for only by leaving here could we preserve our lives."

Hu Xiaotian said: "Brother Zong, to be frank, I came to see you this time because I want to invite you to go with me to Dongliang Jun to build a great undertaking; I was just worried you would refuse me, so I hesitated to bring it up."

Zong Tang said: "Da Yong has treated me this way, poisoning my father—this is an irreconcilable enmity. Even without a brother's invitation, I have already resolved to go and seek refuge." Da Yong's conduct has already made Zong Tang utterly disillusioned; he believes that to survive he must leave Da Yong, otherwise sooner or later he will face the fate of being silenced.

Hu Xiaotian was overjoyed; Zong Tang has truly inherited his father's teachings, and with Zong Tang's help he will surely advance further in weapon development, his strength capable of improving in a short time. However, Zong Tang bringing him here today is certainly not just for saying those few words.

Zong Tang said: "The looters' tunnel runs from Emperor Jingde's Imperial Mausoleum all the way to the northwest. The Medicine God Temple we just entered is an outlet my father later excavated; another outlet lies ahead." He pointed forward; Hu Xiaotian walked up and saw a fork, but the entrance had been sealed from inside.

Zong Tang said: "This passage leads to the foot of Black Camel Mountain; its outlet is the grave of Ghost Doctor Fu Luo."

Hu Xiaotian stared in astonishment: "Ghost Doctor Fu Luo is already dead, isn't he? Could he have faked his death to divert attention, actually secretly digging a tunnel here to rob the Imperial Mausoleum?"

Zong Tang nodded and said: "Based on what we know, that seems to be the case. We followed that looters' tunnel all the way to Ghost Doctor's tomb and found that Ghost Doctor Fu Luo's coffin was empty." He pointed to the blocked passage and said: "When my father discovered the tunnel, it had been exactly five years since Ghost Doctor Fu Luo's death. Judging from the traces of the mausoleum robbery at that time, the intrusion into the mausoleum had occurred three years earlier. So we patched things up after losing the sheep—first we sealed this tunnel, then my father gathered his trusted disciples and reopened a new secret passage, namely the one we just passed through, as a precaution; if one day the imperial family turns against us with lethal force, perhaps we can leave a path to survival."

Hu Xiaotian had also heard many such stories; throughout history and across the world there are precedents of killing laborers en masse after completing an imperial mausoleum, both to bury the dead ruler with them and to erase all secrets. The looters' tunnel was entirely carved through the mountain, the surrounding rock walls smooth and neat—obviously not the work of ordinary grave robbers. Hu Xiaotian said: "Ghost Doctor Fu Luo could hardly have accomplished such a massive project by himself."

Zong Tang said: "This is also what baffles us. The secret passage we broke through is only about one li in total length, yet it took us six years of intermittent work. Ghost Doctor Fu Luo at most used two years to break through from his tomb a passage straight to the Imperial Mausoleum; this passage is about twelve li long, entirely through hard rock, and carved with such precision." Zong Tang reached out to touch the rock wall; even to this day he remains puzzled. Such a project, logically, one person could not complete it, and even with many hands, how could such a huge undertaking leave no trace?

Although Hu Xiaotian had never seen Ghost Doctor Fu Luo, he had heard many legends about him: Ghost Doctor Fu Luo had treated many people, and he was also the creator of the Ten Thousand Forms of Heaven and Man diagram. From various signs, Ghost Doctor Fu Luo should be a master of medicine, possessing modern medical knowledge, even understanding surgery like himself; he remembered that Ghost Doctor Fu Luo had once commissioned Demonic Artisan Zong Yuan to craft surgical instruments, so the two must have had some acquaintance.

Zong Tang said: "He is extremely familiar with the internal structure of the Imperial Mausoleum, knows where its weaknesses lie, and understands my father's design as well as the back of his hand."

Hu Xiaotian asked: "Has anything been lost from within the Imperial Mausoleum?"

Zong Tang nodded; a stone gate appeared ahead. Zong Tang opened the stone gate, and the two continued forward. At this moment they had re-entered the region of the Imperial Mausoleum, except that earlier they had entered from the ground surface, whereas now they entered the Mausoleum Underground Palace directly via the secret passage.

Ahead they had reached the end; it seemed there was no way forward. Zong Tang handed the torch to Hu Xiaotian, then bent down, used his sleeve to sweep away the dust on the ground, revealing several stone slabs. He raised his fist and slammed it hard onto the slabs—*Peng! *—dust flew up, the stone slabs collapsed under his iron fist, exposing a square opening just large enough for one person to pass through. Without sufficient knowledge of the Imperial Mausoleum's internal structure, even walking above would not suggest there was a passage below.

The two entered the lower passage one after another, walking bent over for several dozen steps. Judging by the excavation style, this passage should be the work of Demonic Artisan Zong Yuan. Hu Xiaotian asked Zong Tang and indeed verified: originally, Demonic Artisan Zong Yuan had sealed all the entrances and exits used by grave robbers to access the Imperial Mausoleum, and taking advantage of the mausoleum renovation opportunity, he left a secret passage below. However, Old Master Zong did not do this for future tomb‑robbing convenience; he did it as a precaution, to leave a way of survival for himself and his disciples. (To be continued~^~.)