Chapter 146: Gate Hall

Shunzi was startled by the pat and didn't know what was going on. Not only him, but the others were also startled. They didn't know what was wrong with Chenpi A'si.

At that moment, I even thought Chenpi A'si wanted to send us away and kill Shunzi to silence him, but on second thought it didn't make sense. For one, he was over ninety years old, and even if he tried a sneak attack, it wouldn't necessarily succeed against a former regular soldier in his prime. For another, our way back still depended on Shunzi, so he probably wouldn't take this chance to kill him.

I didn't quite understand Chenpi A'si's action, so I patted Shunzi to warn him to be careful.

Shunzi, whether he fully realized it or not, glanced at me and then followed Chenpi A'si.

We immediately turned back and continued running forward along the spirit path. Fortunately we had discarded a lot of gear; otherwise, no one could have endured such intense activity.

This spirit path had six stone gates, representing the Six Paths of Reincarnation in Han Buddhism, but the Jurchens believed in shamanism—traces of Han design were everywhere.

I was running so fast that I couldn't help feeling a bit dizzy, and the exposed skin on my body began to itch, showing that the air around was indeed terrible.

Unconsciously, the circle of light from my flashlight began to illuminate some black ruined eaves and broken walls. Soon we reached the altar at the end of the spirit path. Behind the altar, up sixty dilapidated stone steps, was the main gate of the imperial tomb.

In traditional burial concepts, "ling" and "mu" are often confused, but actually they are two different things. Ling refers to the above-ground structures used for sacrifices and encoffining ceremonies, while mu refers to the underground palace.

The ling and mu do not have to be together; many are far apart. For example, Genghis Khan's ling is in the middle of the Ordos grassland in Inner Mongolia, but the coffin in the ling only contains camel hair imbued with his soul. Where his body and burial goods are hidden on the prairie is unknown to anyone.

This Cloud Summit Palace has a three-layer structure. The palaces we saw above us in the Underwater Tomb are symbolic spirit palaces, together with the underground imperial tomb and the king's tomb deep below, forming the Three Thousand Worlds, and also symbolizing the identity transformations of the King of Ten Thousand Slaves among god, human, and ghost.

The architectural style of the entire imperial tomb was very similar to the Ming Palace. When viewed from the cliff, its scale was immense and exuded an imposing imperial aura. Because large amounts of that black stone were used, besides its magnificence, it also appeared somewhat eerie and mysterious. But as soon as we entered the tomb palace, that feeling disappeared. All we saw was desolation and ruin. If not for some large temple-like halls still standing there, we would have been disappointed.

The air here doesn't circulate, and there is no strong wind or sun exposure, so the buildings should be very well preserved. How could they be in such ruins?

We stepped onto the massive tomb steps, wide enough for ten carriages to drive side by side, and entered the main gate of the imperial tomb. That huge gate had long collapsed, with the nail-studded door panels lying on the ground. We walked in as if no one was there.

After entering the main gate, we were in the gate hall of the tomb palace. According to the ancient burial text "Imperial Tomb Chapter": "Four dragon towers surround the precious hall, nine-tailed immortal chariots enter the Yellow Springs." This was the first hall among the four dragon towers. By now, I felt a burning sensation inside my mouth and nose, so I urged the others to hurry up.

The gate hall was about the size of two basketball courts. On both sides were bronze carriages for welcoming the emperor. Along the deep walls at the back, there were two black statues on each side, covered in dust. The statues had ferocious faces, cold and glaring, seemingly shaman totems. The auxiliary beams and pillars above had collapsed, and tiles had fallen everywhere. Fortunately it didn't rain here, or this place would have been flooded long ago.

Seeing nothing particularly eye-catching, we wanted to pass through the gate hall and head toward the center of the imperial tomb. After only a few steps, suddenly Fatty slipped on something—he didn't know what—and with an "Ouch!" he fell flat on his back. The floor of the gate hall was covered with broken tiles, and that fall nearly killed him; he bared his teeth in pain.

I immediately found it strange. With such a floor, tripping would be understandable, but how could he slip? Fatty himself also found it odd. Holding his backside, he went back to look at the spot he had stepped on.

That spot only had a mark made when he fell. The thing he stepped on was gone. He followed the mark and turned over a few tiles, but still nothing.

"You weren't tripped by a ghost, were you?" Panzi asked Fatty.

Fatty shook his head. Suddenly sensing something, he waved for us to stop, then crouched down and examined one of his shoes. We gathered around and saw that a bullet casing was actually stuck in the cleats of his hiking boot.

Everyone's expression changed. Panzi took it, sniffed it—then suddenly realized he was wearing a gas mask—and pinched it with his fingers, saying: "Still warm. Damn, it was fired from a gun not long ago."

"Someone got here first?" I was startled. Could A Ning and her group be so resourceful as to arrive even faster than us?

But why would they fire a gun here?

"Light a fire and look around to see what else there is," Panzi said.

Monk Hua immediately lit a cold flare, increasing the illumination intensity. We looked around; the gate hall was in total chaos. We spread out, and soon found a series of bullet holes from continuous firing on a pillar, shooting straight upward.

"It looks like something came down this pillar, and the bullets followed it down."

Panzi walked over, looked at the bullet holes, dug into one, and shook his head: "No, just the opposite. Look at the angle of deviation—the gun muzzle was swung upward along the pillar."

Fatty shone his flashlight along the bullet holes, looking bit by bit, until finally his light reached the high crossbeam above. We immediately saw a black shadow hanging from that crossbeam.

Judging by the posture of the shadow, it should be a dead person, seemingly from A Ning's team, because I saw a gun hanging from his shoulder, his entire body hanging limply there.

Everyone was startled, unable to understand how this person died on the crossbeam. We shone our flashlights over and saw the man's face. The dead man wore a small nasal inhalation respirator (this device was very advanced, light in weight, and more effective than the ones on our faces; I had only recently heard of it, never expected to see it today). Judging by his facial features, he seemed to be of Slavic descent. We didn't know how he died; his eyes were wide open like a cow's, but because of the mask, we couldn't see his expression.

The corpse was suspended from the crossbeam by something; it was too far away to tell if it was a rope.

A few people wanted to climb up, but Panzi stopped them. These people died so strangely; there must be a problem. Just then, Fatty patted me and pointed to elsewhere on the crossbeam: "Everyone, there's more than one."

We looked over and saw that in other parts of the crossbeam, there were six or seven more corpses, all hanging in midair like ghosts from a noose.

These dead people were all in identical mountain-climbing gear and had guns on them. I felt a sense of unease. Guns have great destructive power; with such weapons in hand, even a zombie couldn't withstand a dozen bullets. What could have killed them? And even if there had been a gunfight here, how did the bodies end up on the crossbeam? The more I thought about it, the more wrong it felt. This place was not good to linger. I called to the others to quickly pass through the gate hall—this place was eerie.

But when I turned around, I found Fatty was gone. Then, shining my flashlight again, I saw that Fatty had somehow already stepped onto one of the statues and was climbing toward the crossbeam.