Chapter 149: Gate Hall (4)

Fatty immediately raised his hand. "Me!"

"And me!" Panzi also raised his hand.

For some reason, Shunzi suddenly took on an aura that brooked no argument. He waved his hand and said, "Anyone who's fired a gun stays! The rest of you run! Keep running forward! Whatever you do, don't look back!"

I looked around and counted. Damn, all our people were staying. What should I do? If I followed Chenpi A'si, wouldn't I just be waiting to be butchered? Hurriedly I also raised my hand. "I... I forgot, I fired too!"

Ye Cheng and the others didn't know how to react for a moment. Right then we heard the sound of roof tiles shattering from the top of the hall entrance. It seemed like a great many things were crawling up onto the tiles—the number was unimaginable. Several of us were shocked, not knowing what had happened.

"There's no time! Why aren't you going?" Shunzi yelled.

Chenpi A'si glanced at us, waved his hand, and said to Monk Hua and the others, "Let's go!" With that, the three of them quickly ran out of the front hall.

I felt it was strange, but the situation didn't allow me to think more. The sound of shattering tiles overhead grew louder. Fatty tossed his ammo belt to Panzi, and both of them chambered their guns. We formed a circle and asked Shunzi, "What the hell is up there? What do we do?"

Shunzi said in a low voice, "I don't know."

"Then why did you make them run?" Panzi blinked.

Shunzi said, "I just wanted to separate you from that old man. This wasn't my idea. It was your Third Uncle's instruction."

When we heard that, we all turned to look at him. What? My Third Uncle instructed him? Panzi asked, "Then who are you?"

"Don't ask so many questions," Shunzi said. "I'm going to take you to see your Third Uncle now. You can ask him yourselves then."

I tensed up and was about to ask, "Is my Third Uncle also in this imperial tomb right now?" when suddenly a series of shattering sounds came from overhead, and tiles rained down like a downpour. We shielded our heads and all looked up. In the beam of the flashlight, we saw countless shadows moving—all seemed to be the same kind of things as before.

Shunzi waved his hand and said, "As soon as your gunshots went off, the dead forest was filled with sounds everywhere. They've all surrounded this place."

"Then why don't we run?" Panzi listened to the dense, indistinguishable crawling sounds all around and asked nervously, "Aren't we just waiting to die here?"

"Wait until they get a bit farther away." Shunzi glanced behind him—Chenpi A'si seemed to have run far off—then turned and said to him, "Go!" With that, he slapped us on the back and took the lead, running toward the exit of the front hall. We followed closely.

Outside the hall entrance, we could see the spirit-way's extended hall. Ahead of us appeared a long white marble bridge with twenty arches. On the bridge hung two coiled dragons of some unknown material, winding along the railings on both sides. The jade color was superb, without a single crack, as if carved from a single piece. Beneath the bridge was the inner imperial tomb's moat; we couldn't tell if there was water underground.

We had only run a few steps when a gust of wind rose behind us. All of us rolled aside. Fatty turned and fired a blind shot. In the darkness, we heard a faint hiss; we didn't know what he hit, but a mass of something fell into the abyss below.

A restless agitation filled the darkness. I vaguely sensed that these things could fly, but even when we wildly swept the flashlight around, it caught nothing.

We got up and kept running. Overhead, there were intermittent sounds, as if something was circling just above our scalps. Fatty fired at the sky while running. Soon we reached the bridge. Suddenly I felt something snag my back, and I fell hard. I flipped over and scrambled to my feet. Before I could react, Fatty swung his rifle butt past my ear, and I felt something thrown off my back.

I turned to look and saw a black shadow struggling to get up. Panzi raised his gun and shot it in two. Then Fatty fired a few wild bursts at the sky. The tracer rounds flashed, revealing countless shadows circling overhead.

"What the hell are these?" I stammered.

"Too many! We can't kill them all. How do we get out of here?" Panzi shouted, then asked Shunzi, "Where exactly is Third Master? How do we get there?"

Ahead was the second of the four Dragon Tower Halls. If we went there, we'd inevitably run into Chenpi A'si again. To be honest, being around those people put a lot of pressure on me. And now that we had news of Third Uncle, I was dying to find him immediately and ask him what this whole thing was about.

"Your Third Master should be in the underground palace by now," Shunzi said.

"Underground palace?" Fatty swung his rifle butt again, hitting something unknown. "Great! That saves us trouble. Where's the entrance to the underground palace?"

Shunzi said, "I don't know." Everyone froze for a moment and looked at Shunzi. One look at his expression told us he wasn't joking. Fatty cursed, "You don't know? Then you say you'll take us to see him? This imperial tomb is huge! How are we supposed to find him?"

Normally, the standard entrance to the underground palace is inside the third Dragon Tower—the Celestial Hall—along the spirit way. But it would definitely be buried under a bronze tripod, with over seventy layers of blue bricks and armor of lead mortar and molten iron waiting for us. Even a modern engineer corps couldn't dig through it in less than ten days or half a month. However, there must be a secret entrance to the underground palace, likely within the imperial tomb complex itself, on the central axis. The entrance to Empress Dowager Cixi's underground palace was inside the spirit wall of the tomb. But under these circumstances, when would we have time to dig a hole?

Shunzi was very calm. He ducked low and said to me, "Your Third Uncle said this is a place of Black Tortoise Rejecting the Corpse. He said that if he told you that, you would naturally know where the entrance to the underground palace is. Think about it—do you recall anything?"

I found that strange. "Black Tortoise Rejecting the Corpse" was a joke concept—in feng shui theory, it described a place that combined the worst feng shui in the world. Such a place was like the ultimate treasure acupoint "Nine Dragons Coiling Flowers" in theory—something theoretical that wouldn't actually exist in the world. I asked, "Did he really say that? Did he say anything else?"

The Burial Classic says: The earth has four postures, the qi comes from eight directions. The sand to the left is the Azure Dragon, to the right the White Tiger, in front the Vermilion Bird, behind the Black Tortoise. The Black Tortoise bows its head, the Vermilion Bird dances in flight, the Azure Dragon winds sinuously, the White Tiger crouches submissively. If the form is contrary to this, the rule is ruin and death. Thus, a crouching tiger is called "holding the corpse," a coiling dragon is called "resenting the master," a Black Tortoise that does not bow its head rejects the corpse, a Vermilion Bird that does not dance takes flight...

Shunzi ducked his head,

I was listening, but suddenly stopped in my tracks, laughing bitterly in my heart. If this really was the "Black Tortoise Rejecting a Corpse," then it would be no surprise for those buried here to have descendants die out and wives cheat—anything could happen. Did Wang Zanghai and Emperor Wannu hold such a deep grudge?

But according to what Old Man Chenpi said, the feng shui here should have been extremely good. How could it be the "Black Tortoise Rejecting a Corpse"? I suddenly regretted not paying more attention to these things before. If I had been able to understand some of it when I came here, I'd probably be able to figure out what it meant right away.

Fatty knew something about these things too, and in some respects even knew more than me. At this moment he was also puzzled. He shouted, "Bullshit! Impossible! The imperial tomb's underground palace—how could it possibly be a place of 'Black Tortoise Rejecting a Corpse'?"

Panzi swept the area with another burst of gunfire, driving back whatever was pressing in, and turned to say, "It's not impossible, you know. Feng shui is meant for humans. Didn't you hear what that monk said? What's buried in this imperial tomb isn't human. Maybe this strange difference in the layout has something to do with that!"

I knew Panzi's words were purely out of anger. Given the meager national strength of the Dongxia Kingdom, they must have poured all their energy and resources into constructing these buildings. The only person capable of initiating such a massive project was Emperor Wannu himself. And I didn't believe that the last Emperor Wannu of that time still had such authority. There had to be some religious element mixed in with the construction of this imperial tomb. During that period, Emperor Wannu was very likely a religious idol combining human and divine aspects.

The copper fish said that successive emperors Wannu were all monsters that came from the earth. I thought it couldn't be understood literally. The information on the copper fish must have had other hidden meanings. As to what exactly, I'd probably have to decipher the two copper fish I had to find out.

But Fatty wasn't buying it. Hearing Panzi say this, he angrily said, "Don't pretend you know something when you don't, you son of a bitch. If it's not human, is it a dog? No matter what is buried in a tomb, according to feng shui, one should not choose a 'defeated acupoint' location. You think the coffin contains a demon, so the feng shui for burying it should be the opposite? That's not how it works! And look at the scale here—at least it's city-state level. Why would anyone build such a grand tomb for a demon?"

Panzi's professional knowledge wasn't as extensive as Fatty's, so he was momentarily at a loss for words, unable to think of a rebuttal.

Shunzi said to us, "Bosses, I can't understand what you're talking about. Don't spout all that nonsense. What's really going on? Whoever knows, speak up—quick!"

Fatty said, "Isn't this simple? Ever read the Book of Burial? You know what it means by 'The earth has four forces, and energy comes from eight directions. In front is the Vermilion Bird, in back is the Black Tortoise.' The Black Tortoise means 'behind,' and 'rejecting the corpse' means there's no corpse. Put together, it means there's no corpse behind, so it's obvious—the corpse is in front!"

When I heard that, I thought, Damn, is that what that phrase really means? If Guo Pu (author of the Book of Burial) heard that, he'd crawl out of his grave and strangle you.

Shunzi didn't understand any of this and actually believed him, saying, "That's too vague. If you say 'in front,' in front of what? We can't find the entrance based on that alone."

I told him not to listen to Fatty's nonsense, that's no way to interpret the Book of Burial. I said, "Since Third Uncle didn't directly state the location of the tomb's entrance, it must be because saying it straight out would make it impossible for you to convey. So we can't take his words literally. Guessing like Fatty is useless." Fatty was unconvinced. He asked, "Then do you have any clue?" I shook my head, saying I didn't have any leads for now and needed to think carefully. Third Uncle was well-versed in ancient codes and ciphers, so we should focus on that angle. And since he thought I could understand, he must have had his reasons. But now was clearly not the time for thinking. As we spoke, we had already retreated to the end of the stone bridge. Beyond that was the mausoleum's square. In the darkness, we could see two parallel stone steles at the end of the bridge, each over ten meters tall. One was already broken, supported at the base by a huge black bixi (tortoise-like creature). Not far behind the steles was a towering, massive black shadow. I knew this was the "imperial tomb boundary stele!" Beyond the steles should be the "Longevity Steps" leading to the "Hall of Rebirth," which is the gate to the underworld. The "imperial tomb boundary stele" could be said to be the true dividing line between the human world and the underworld. Because beyond the "imperial tomb boundary stele," even the tomb guardians could not enter. Hundreds of years ago, from the moment the imperial tomb was sealed, no one had set foot in the area beyond the stele. The moment I saw the stele, I suddenly had a very ominous premonition, as if something in that huge black shadow ahead, in some corner of this deathly silent inner imperial tomb, was waiting for us.

Just then, Fatty, who was running ahead, suddenly stopped and spread his arms to block us. I went up to see—the end of the stone bridge had actually collapsed. Between the stone bridge and the opposite "imperial tomb boundary," there was now an abyss about five or six meters wide. When we shone our flashlights down, all we saw was a murky blackness, impossible to tell how deep it was. "What do we do?" I looked at Panzi. Panzi didn't hesitate, raised his gun and said, "What else can we do? Jump over one by one. Hurry up!"

I looked at the distance and couldn't help swallowing. How far could Olympic athletes jump? Around eight meters? Three meters wasn't that far, but for someone like me who didn't exercise regularly, jumping over it easily made me a bit nervous.

Fatty, on the side, had already handed his gun to Shunzi. He stepped back a few paces, took a running start, and leaped, sailing through the air and landing with a roll on the stone ground opposite. Shunzi tossed the gun back to him, then threw our gear over first. Next, Shunzi jumped over as well. Panzi wanted to cover the rear, so he told me to jump first. I looked at the abyss ahead, steeled myself, thought, "Come what may," and shouted loudly to Fatty on the other side, "Catch me!" Fatty agreed readily. I stepped back a few paces, steadied my nerves, and took a sudden sprint. But unfortunately, just as I was about to jump, Panzi suddenly shouted from behind, "Wait—!"

By then, I couldn't stop. I leaped high into the air, heading toward the opposite bank. Out of instinct, I turned my head back to see why Panzi had called me. That's when I saw a huge black shadow swooping down from my upper left. It grabbed the back of my collar midair, its claws hooking into my clothes, and yanked me sideways. I lost control of my posture in the air. Then the claws released, and I tumbled into a somersault, falling straight into the abyss.

For an instant, my mind went blank. I had no idea what to do. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion—I saw Fatty charging over, leaping in an attempt to catch me midair, but his hand just brushed past my collar. Then Panzi raised his gun and fired three rapid shots above my head, the bullets whistling past. And then I plunged into a sea of darkness. The light from their flashlights vanished instantly.

The fall was incredibly fast. I spun several times in the air while a series of thoughts flashed through my mind. What was down there? A moat. How deep was a typical moat? Was there water? Would I die from the fall, or be dissolved into a pile of bones by the sulfuric water here? Before I could even think of the answers, my back slammed into something like an iron chain. I was almost snapped in half, the pain making my vision blur. Then my body twisted around the chain, and I fell further. Before I could recover, I crashed into another chain. This time, thanks to the previous cushioning, the impact wasn't as hard. I reached out to grab it but missed, and I continued falling.

This series of collisions left me dizzy and disoriented, even knocking me out of the curled-up posture I'd tried to maintain during the fall. Then I landed hard on my back, facing upward. I could hear the dull thud of all my bones in my body, and then my ears rang as I went completely deaf.