Chapter 10: Seven Stars: Shadow

At first I thought he was deliberately trying to scare me, but given his expression and personality, he didn't seem like that kind of person. That Poker-face kept making a "ge-ge" sound without moving his lips. The four of us watched him, feeling a chill, thinking to ourselves, "No way, could Poker-face actually be an undercover zombie?"

Third Uncle saw his terrifying expression and pulled Panzi out in one go. Suddenly, Poker-face stopped making sounds. The tomb chamber was utterly silent. I don't know how long passed; I was getting impatient and was about to ask what was going on when the coffin lid suddenly flipped up and began to shake violently. Then from the stone coffin came a sinister, bone-chilling sound, very similar to the description in my grandfather's notes—it really sounded like the croaking of a frog.

Seeing this, Da Kui was so scared he fell on his butt. My legs also went weak, and I almost sat down. My Third Uncle, having seen the world, though his legs started trembling, somehow didn't fall.

After hearing the sound, Poker-face's expression turned very grim. He fell to his knees and knocked his head heavily against the coffin. Seeing this, we immediately imitated him, kneeling and kowtowing. Poker-face raised his head and let out a series of strange sounds, as if reciting some incantation. Third Uncle broke out in a cold sweat and whispered, "He's not talking to it, is he?"

The stone coffin finally stopped shaking. Poker-face kowtowed once more, then stood up and said to us, "We must leave here before dawn."

Third Uncle wiped his sweat and asked, "Little brother, so you were bargaining with this zombie grandpa just now?"

Poker-face made a "don't ask" gesture. "Don't touch anything here anymore. The master in this coffin is extremely powerful. If this thing is released, even the greatest immortal couldn't get out."

Panzi, not knowing better, laughed and asked, "Hey little brother, what kind of foreign language were you speaking just now?"

Poker-face ignored him, pointed at the passage behind the coffin, and said, "Go quietly, and don't touch that coffin!" Third Uncle steadied himself. To be honest, having this person by our side made us much braver. So we packed our gear, Third Uncle leading, Poker-face at the back, and we turned on our miner's lamps and went straight down into the tunnel behind the coffin. When Da Kui passed the coffin, he pressed his back tightly against the wall, trying to keep as much distance as possible. It looked very funny, but at that moment I had no interest in laughing at him.

This tomb passage sloped downward. Both sides were carved with inscriptions and some stone reliefs. I took a look but didn't understand the meaning. Actually, I deal in rubbings and antiques, so I have some research on these things—I could recognize a few words.

But I can say that even if I understood all the characters, since there is no punctuation, it's very difficult to grasp the meaning. The ancients spoke very concisely and skillfully. For example, the word "ran". I remember a king of Qi asked his advisor a question. The advisor nodded with a smile and said, "Ran." The king then went home and pondered for ages whether this "ran" meant agreement or disagreement. In the end, he fell ill from overwork. On his deathbed, he told the advisor the answer he had come up with and asked if that was what the advisor meant. The advisor chuckled and said, "Ran." The king immediately breathed his last.

Third Uncle walked very carefully, taking a long time with each step. The miner's lamp didn't have strong penetration; it was pitch black ahead and pitch black behind. This feeling was the same as in the water cave—I found it very uncomfortable. After walking for about half an hour, the tunnel started to slope upward. We knew we should have completed half the journey. Just then, we saw a grave robber's tunnel. Third Uncle was startled—he feared someone had beaten us to it—and hurried over to check.

This tunnel was definitely dug recently; even the soil was relatively fresh. I asked Third Uncle, "Old man said a group entered this valley two weeks ago. Could it be that they dug this?"

"I can't tell, but this tunnel was dug in a hurry. It doesn't look like a tunnel made for entering, but rather one for escaping! I'm afraid someone really got ahead of us."

"Don't lose heart, Third Master. If they had successfully looted the tomb, they would have left by the original route. It looks like something went wrong. I think the treasure should still be here," Panzi consoled.

Third Uncle nodded. "Then we'll keep going. Since someone has already tested the dangers for us, we don't need to be so hesitant."

We sped up. After another fifteen minutes of walking, we reached a wider corridor. This section was more than twice as wide as the one we came through, and the decorations were much more elaborate. It seemed we had reached the main tomb area. At the end of this corridor was a huge jade door, very translucent, and now wide open—apparently someone had opened it from the inside. Beside the jade door were two statues: two hungry-faced ghosts, one holding a ghost claw, the other holding a seal. Both were pitch black all over.

Third Uncle checked the jade door and found that the mechanism had been destroyed. We entered through the door crack

But we could already roughly make out the general outline; this should be the main tomb. Panzi swept his miner's lamp around and shouted, "How come there are so many coffins!" Without a strong light source, it was very difficult to see clearly what was in the tomb. I glanced over and sure enough, in the middle of the burial chamber there were many stone coffins, and at a glance you could tell they were arranged in some sort of order, not in a very formal or neat arrangement. Above the chamber was a large dome covered with murals, and on all sides were solid stone slabs densely packed with characters. I put my miner's lamp on the ground to the side, and Panzi placed his lamp in a cross direction to mine, illuminating the general area. We saw that there were also two side chambers on the sides of the burial chamber.

Third Uncle and I walked over to the first stone coffin. He lit a firelighter. That stone coffin was completely different in quality from the one we saw when we descended the tunnel. This one was fully carved with inscriptions. I looked at it and was surprised to find I could understand part of it!

The text above recorded the life of the owner of the stone coffin. It turned out that the tomb owner was a feudal lord of the Lu State. This man was born with a Ghost Seal that could borrow ghost soldiers from the underworld, so he was invincible in battle. He was granted the title King Lu Shang by the Duke of Lu. One day, he suddenly requested an audience with the Duke of Lu, saying that after many years of borrowing troops from the underworld, now the Lord of the Underworld had a rebellion of minor ghosts, and he must return to the underworld to repay the Lord of the Underworld's favor (of course the original text was not written exactly like this). He hoped the Duke of Lu would allow him to return to the underworld to report. The Duke of Lu granted his request on the spot. King Lu Shang kowtowed and then passed away in meditation.

The Duke of Lu thought he would return, so he built this underground palace here to preserve his corpse, hoping that when he returned he would continue to serve him. And so on, very wordy, also detailed descriptions of the battles he fought, almost all of them featuring his Ghost Seal flashing and the underworld sending out large numbers of ghost soldiers to seize people's souls. Panzi heard my explanation and sighed, "So formidable. Lucky he died early, otherwise the one to unify the six kingdoms would have been Lu."

I laughed loudly, "That's not necessarily true. Ancient people were good at boasting. Your King Lu Shang could borrow ghost soldiers, but so-and-so from the Qi State could borrow heavenly soldiers. I even remember there was a general who could fly. You've read the Classic of Mountains and Seas, haven't you?"

"Anyway, at least now we know whose tomb we're robbing. But with so many coffins here, which one is his?" Panzi asked.

I also looked at the inscriptions on the other coffins; they were mostly similar, all the same content. We counted and there were seven coffins altogether, exactly like the Big Dipper. None of the seven coffins had any revealing records. Just as I was studying some other inscriptions I couldn't understand, Da Kui shouted from the side, "Look, this stone coffin has already been opened by someone."

I walked over and looked. Sure enough, the coffin lid was not completely sealed with the coffin body, and there were many fresh pry marks on the coffin. Third Uncle took our crowbar from the bag and slowly pried the coffin lid open. Then he shone a light inside. Panzi made a strange noise, looked at us, and said with complete confusion, "How come there's a foreigner inside?"

We looked and indeed there was a foreigner inside. Not only a foreigner, but also very fresh, dead for less than a week. Panzi wanted to reach in and grab something, but Poker-face grabbed his shoulder with what seemed like great force, causing Panzi to wince in pain. "Don't move! The real owner is underneath him!"

We looked closely, and sure enough, there was another corpse beneath the foreigner, too unclear to see clearly. Third Uncle took out a black donkey hoof and said, "It should be a black-haired corpse. Strike first to gain the upper hand."

At that moment, Da Kui tugged at my clothes from behind and pulled me aside.

He was usually quite straightforward, so I found it strange and asked him what was wrong. He pointed at the wall opposite, where our shadows were cast by the miner's lamps, and whispered, "Look, this is your shadow, right?"

I said impatiently, "What, now you're even afraid of shadows?"

His expression wasn't good. When I said that, his lips trembled. I thought, No way, is he really that scared? He waved his hand for me to be quiet, then pointed at the shadows again. "This is mine, this is Panzi's, this is Third Master's, this is Little Brother's. You can see them, right? Including yours, that's five total, right?"

I nodded. Suddenly I seemed to notice something too. Da Kui swallowed his saliva, pointed at another solitary shadow that was not with us, and asked, almost crying, "Then whose shadow is that?"