Chapter 1627: [Robber's Tunnel] (Part 2)

Through this secret passage one can directly reach Emperor Jingde's tomb chamber. Emperor Jingde and Empress Jiang were both exceptionally wise and deeply scheming individuals; during their lives they never paid any attention to these petty artisans. To prevent these insignificant people, like ants, from disturbing their peace after death, they conceived the most thorough method: exterminate them all. Yet where there is oppression, there is resistance; even under high-handed oppression, these artisans secretly left themselves a way out.

Only the demon craftsman Zong Yuan never got the chance to use this back route.

Emperor Jingde's tomb chamber was also extremely luxurious; the ceiling was carved with dragons soaring over clouds of sea, dotted with night pearls that illuminated the whole chamber. Around the platform holding the coffins, clouds were carved, symbolizing early arrival at bliss and entry into heaven.

The two coffins were one old, one new; the old one belonged to Emperor Jingde, the new naturally to Empress Jiang. Zong Tang took out a cotton cloth, wrapped it around his mouth and nose, and handed another piece to Hu Xiaotian.

Hu Xiaotian carried a mask with him; he took it out and put it on. For him, tomb robbery was a completely new experience, though he did not know Zong Tang's purpose in coming here.

Zong Tang was well versed in the route. He told Hu Xiaotian: 'After my father discovered that the imperial mausoleum had been robbed, he followed the robber's tunnel and found this place. All the burial objects inside the mausoleum remained untouched, with no signs of damage.'

Hu Xiaotian laughed: 'Did Ghost Doctor Fulou go to all that trouble digging a tunnel just for a sightseeing trip?'

Zong Tang shook his head: 'Of course not; his target is…'

Hu Xiaotian's gaze fixed on Emperor Jingde's coffin; in fact he had already realized that Ghost Doctor Fulou's target should be this coffin. Could there be some secret hidden inside? Surely it must contain some priceless treasure, although even if there were such treasures, Ghost Doctor Fulou would have stolen them.

Zong Tang walked around Empress Jiang's coffin once, not even glancing at Emperor Jingde's coffin beside it. Hu Xiaotian secretly thought: surely Zong Tang had already inspected the contents of Emperor Jingde's coffin earlier, so he felt no curiosity about it; what truly aroused his curiosity was Empress Jiang's coffin, since she had just been buried not long ago.

Zong Tang appeared to have come prepared; using the tools he carried, he pried open the nails on Empress Jiang's coffin one by one. In his mind, Empress Jiang was the enemy who had killed his father, so he naturally felt no respect or reverence for this old woman.

Hu Xiaotian even worried that Zong Tang might sneak in to take revenge, chopping off the old woman's head with a single blade to vent his hatred.

Zong Tang quickly opened the nails; Hu Xiaotian helped, and together they moved the coffin aside. Although the mausoleum was full of mechanisms, to Zong Tang, who knew its internal structure like the back of his hand, they were essentially meaningless.

By the light of the night pearl they looked inside the coffin and saw Empress Jiang wearing a phoenix crown adorned with pearls and jade, her features lifelike as if she were merely asleep. Although her corpse had been taken by Xue Shengjing, it had been recovered in time; moreover, it was winter, the weather freezing, so the body did not easily decay. However, Empress Jiang's complexion had been made up; otherwise she would not look so good.

Inside the coffin lay countless burial goods worth a fortune, but Hu Xiaotian had little interest in them, feeling that the dead's belongings were unlucky. Zong Tang also had no intention of stealing the funerary objects; he reached out to lift Empress Jiang's body from the coffin and signaled Hu Xiaotian to help steady it.

Hu Xiaotian did not know what he intended to do, but having come this far he could only follow his lead. Then he saw Zong Tang draw a dagger and actually rip open Empress Jiang's funeral garments. Hu Xiaotian stared, stunned. Even though Empress Jiang's cruel methods had killed Zong Tang's father, for Zong Tang to strip a dead old woman of her clothes was utterly shocking. He was about to speak out to stop him when he heard Zong Tang suck in a cold breath and say: 'Indeed so!'

Hu Xiaotian poked his head forward and saw that a whole patch of skin was missing from Empress Jiang's back, a truly shocking sight. Zong Tang had come all this way into the mausoleum just to verify this.

Hu Xiaotian asked: 'Who peeled off her skin?'

Zong Tang placed Empress Jiang's body back properly, then together with Hu Xiaotian they closed the coffin lid, and only then said: 'She must have been skinned before entering the mausoleum; Emperor Jingde suffered the same, though it happened after he entered. When my father discovered the mausoleum's robber tunnel years ago, he tracked it all the way here, saw that Emperor Jingde's coffin had been tampered with, and together we opened it, finding that a large piece of flesh had been cut from Emperor Jingde's corpse, in the same spot as Empress Jiang's.'

Hu Xiaotian secretly thought: there must be a secret hidden in the skin on the backs of Emperor Jingde and Empress Jiang; otherwise why would their skins have been flayed after death? The person who peeled their skin might be the same individual.

Zong Tang sighed: 'I had thought we could still find a secret on Empress Jiang's body, but I did not expect someone to have gotten there first.'

Hu Xiaotian turned his gaze toward Emperor Jingde's coffin; having just witnessed that scene, he also felt strong curiosity about Emperor Jingde's coffin. Moreover, the chance to come to the Da Yong Imperial Mausoleum Underground Palace might occur only once in a lifetime; since we are here, we might as well examine it thoroughly and see with our own eyes what Emperor Jingde has become.

Seeing Hu Xiaotian walk toward Emperor Jingde's coffin, Zong Tang could not help reminding him: 'It's just a corpse that has been skinned.' Although he thought reopening the coffin for autopsy was unnecessary, he did not stop Hu Xiaotian's curiosity.

The two of them joined forces to lift the coffin lid. Emperor Jingde's corpse, having been dead for a long time, was desiccated. Earlier, tomb raiders had entered the mausoleum and stripped his skin; after doing so they did not dress him in his burial garments, leaving his naked body lying in the coffin. The demon craftsman Zong Yuan and his son discovered the robber tunnel, followed it deep into the mausoleum, opened the coffin, saw that the skin on Emperor Jingde's body had been peeled off, and dared not disturb it, simply closing the coffin as it was.

Emperor Jingde never imagined that after his death his coffin would be opened repeatedly, his corpse even flayed; yet he still wore a crown on his head and a pure gold collar around his neck.

Zong Tang saw the dried corpse inside the coffin and could no longer recognize Emperor Jingde's original appearance; it was merely a wind‑dried skeleton. He secretly lamented that Emperor Jingde could not rest in peace even in death.

Hu Xiaotian pulled the corpse upright and saw that a large patch of skin was indeed missing from its back. Suddenly the skull drooped down; to his astonishment, the skull cracked with a 'ka‑cha' and snapped clean off at the neck, the head rolling like a ball into the coffin, while the gold collar clattered to the floor.

Hu Xiaotian and Zong Tang exchanged a glance, their expressions rather innocent; indeed the head had not been torn off by him. He examined the fracture in Emperor Jingde's cervical vertebrae and found the cut surface smooth and even, clearly severed by a single blade. Zong Tang obviously noticed this as well, and, puzzled, remarked: 'As far as I know, Emperor Jingde died of illness, not by murder.'

Hu Xiaotian said: 'That means his head was cut off after death; I wonder what deadly grudge he holds against Ghost Doctor Fulou.' He lowered Emperor Jingde's body, reached out and seized the skull inside the coffin. Since a person is already dead, he could not leave him headless; instead, kindly reuniting head and neck to give Emperor Jingde a whole corpse, he noticed a stick placed in the corner. Picking it up, he saw it was not a stick at all, but the hilt of a light sword he had seen before.

The light sword he had obtained previously was from the underground palace of the Dragon Ling Shengjing within the Dakang imperial palace; later Hu Xiaotian gave that sword to Ji Feihua. He never expected to see another one in Emperor Jingde's coffin in the Da Yong mausoleum.

Hu Xiaotian picked up the light sword; it was almost identical to the one he had owned before, except for the different characters engraved on the hilt, indicating that the two swords likely belonged to different masters. Although he could not read the characters, he guessed they probably bore the previous owner's name. He twisted the hilt, which emitted a crisp 'ka‑pa' sound, but no light blade emerged from the sword; turning it several times produced no response, apparently because the energy stored inside had been exhausted over the years, or perhaps the sword itself was damaged. Hu Xiaotian put the sword away and then examined Emperor Jingde's corpse once more.

Emperor Jingde was probably not the sword's owner; if he had possessed such a formidable weapon in life, he would surely have wielded it to conquer all directions, or perhaps the sword was already damaged when it came into his hands.

Hu Xiaotian searched the coffin a while longer, convinced there were no other special burial goods, then lifted Emperor Jingde's skull, intending to set it back on the neck, but he discovered something odd: the fracture surface of the skull did not match that of the neck, the two bone breaks were vastly different, and he reported his finding to Zong Tang.

Zong Tang whispered: 'Could it be that his head was cut off beforehand?'

Hu Xiaotian said: 'It cannot be ruled out that his head and body do not belong to the same person.'

Zong Tang did not understand Hu Xiaotian's meaning, and blinked his eyes.

Hu Xiaotian speculated: 'Someone has already stolen Emperor Jingde's corpse, fabricated a fake body and sewn his head onto it; in fact this mausoleum contains only his head, meaning his skin had long been peeled away.'

Zong Tang asked: 'Who could it be?'

Hu Xiaotian glanced at Empress Jiang's coffin beside him and said: 'The person who stole Emperor Jingde's body is likely the same one who peeled Empress Jiang's skin; according to what I know, Empress Jiang's corpse had once been taken by Xue Shengjing, so the most likely culprit is Xue Shengjing.'

Zong Tang stared, speechless: 'His own parents, how could they be so cruel?' His gaze then turned to Emperor Jingde's corpse: 'If they were after his back skin, they need only have peeled it off; why go to the trouble of stealing his entire body?' (To be continued~^~.)