Chapter 145: Volcanic Crater (2)

According to the images in the underwater tomb mural, the real Cloud Summit Palace should have been above our heads, but after the avalanche, the spiritual palace up there might have completely collapsed; we don't know how much snow is above us serving as seal earth for this underground palace. The signal flares we fired again all died out in the darkness, and the dark closed back in, our light reduced to a few flashlights that were clearly low on battery. Except for Shunzi, everyone's face carried a near-fanatical excitement. Grave robbing represents one of humanity's most primal desires—seeking wealth and probing death—a thrill that probably no one can avoid. It took a full ten minutes for us to recover, and then we prepared to go down. Chenpi A'si said to Monk Hua, "Leave behind anything useless, prepare the ropes, we'll go in light."

Monk Hua immediately started preparing. We reorganized our gear, discarding unnecessary items on the platform here to avoid the risk of climbing with extra weight. Then we all put on gas masks and, using standard mountaineering steps, rappelled down the cliff one by one. Below were a large number of dead trees, emitting a strange odor that even the gas masks couldn't filter out. After everyone had descended, we heard Panzi say, "This is a dead pit. We need to hurry; if we stay too long, we might suffocate from lack of oxygen. I heard in the army that birds can't even fly over this kind of place." It was sulfurous poison gas from volcanic activity, incredibly toxic. Monk Hua lit a powerful cold flare, illuminating the surroundings. We looked around; underfoot was a stone road wide enough for two carts, paved with slabs, stretching almost straight ahead. This was the spirit path of the tomb, leading directly to the main gate. In the distance, we could vaguely see a huge black shadow. Monk Hua asked Chenpi A'si, "Which way should we go?" "Follow the spirit path, and let's get into the imperial tomb first," Chenpi A'si replied. None of us had experience dealing with imperial tombs, and we had no other ideas at the moment, so without further talk, they followed behind and trotted forward.

We climbed over many dead trees that had fallen on the spirit path and soon arrived at a stone gate. The stone was very tall, somewhat like the memorial archways we had seen in the ancient village. This was the first stone gate of the imperial tomb, called the Heavenly Gate. After passing it, the spirit path would be lined with numerous stone carvings. As we passed the gate, Chenpi A'si said, "When we come out, remember to walk backward, to avoid hitting the beheading gate." I had read about this custom in my grandfather's notes. This first stone gate had a very eerie significance—in front of this gate was where the coffin bearers and funeral procession were slaughtered. After the encoffining ceremony ended, everyone who exited through this gate would be chopped with a blade, so this gate was essentially the gate of yin and yang. If a tomb robber entered along the spirit path or through the first gate of the underground palace, they had to exit backward, or else they'd be in trouble. Of course, almost no grave robber had the chance to enter an imperial tomb via the spirit path to loot it; we were probably among the extremely few. Throughout history, those who managed to plunder imperial tombs were either warlords or overlords, and they naturally weren't afraid of the so-called beheading gate.

After passing the Heavenly Gate, the spirit path had white stone figures and stone horses every five meters on both sides. We weren't archaeologists, and these things couldn't be carried away, so we didn't even look at them and rushed straight ahead. As we ran, suddenly, Fatty, who was running in front of me, stopped. I was right behind him, crashed into him, and fell to the ground.

This was so sudden that Fatty was almost knocked over by me. I hurriedly asked him what he was doing. He turned to look behind us, his face pale, and said softly, "It looks like someone is standing by the roadside." The people ahead noticed we had stopped and all turned back. Panzi asked, "What's going on?"

Fatty told them what he had seen. The others were a bit skeptical. Panzi said, "It was a stone figure, you must have been mistaken?" Fatty shook his head. "It flashed past, I just reacted. Look at me, I'm drenched in cold sweat. I shouldn't have been mistaken." "Did you get a clear look?" "It seemed like a woman, but I can't be sure," Fatty said. "I was running too fast, I didn't see clearly." We all shone our flashlights toward the stone figures behind us. The stone figures were every five meters, and we had already passed six or seven in that instant. Within the range of the flashlights, there was no woman as Fatty described; maybe she was further back. Monk Hua asked, "Old man, should we go back and check? Maybe it's that woman from the other group?" Monk Hua was referring to A Ning. I thought to myself, how could that be? They were taking the front gate of Cloud Summit Palace. Even if they had successfully crossed the border by now, they should be above us digging a tunnel, definitely not this fast. Fatty also said, "That's definitely not it. If it were that bitch, I'd recognize her at a glance." Chenpi A'si hesitated for a moment, then immediately said to Monk Hua, "You and the others go ahead first," then patted Shunzi on the back, "You come with me to check."