Chapter 167: Serpent Brow Bronze Fish

I really didn't want to hand over the snake-browed copper fish, but remembering Third Uncle's instructions, I got hot-headed and took it out. I never expected A Ning and the others to react so strongly.

After a long pause, one of them finally came to and asked me, "Where did you get that? You… you're practically a god! Could it be that you found it in Lu King's Palace… This is the Dragon Fish Secret Script! I always thought there was only one, never expected—"

I had no mind to discuss that with them, so I waved my hand and said, "Does anyone here know how to read it?"

A Ning immediately shouted, "Wu Lao Si!" A Chinese man nearby walked over, looking confused. When he saw the fish in my hand, his expression changed. He rushed over and shouted, "Heavens!"

I said to him, "Can you translate it?" He nodded vigorously, took it like it was a sacred relic, and began shining a flashlight on the fish's scales. Soon a great deal of Jurchen script appeared on the ground, and someone immediately started copying it down.

A Ning's people were truly skilled; as they copied, they translated on the spot, far better than Monk Hua. After they finished copying, I basically understood the meaning. At first it sounded completely baffling, vague and ambiguous, but the more I listened, the clearer it became—it was like a narrative poem. I couldn't record it all, but certain passages left a deep impression on me.

The entire text was very concise. It opened with a few sentences stating that the secret hidden in this Dragon Fish Secret Script was extremely important. He had carved it down, hoping it would never see the light of day, but if someone did find it, he hoped that person would be Han Chinese rather than Jurchen, and so on.

Later, it recorded what happened after he was captured by the Eastern Xia. It was very similar to what was depicted in his murals, but only a few sentences mentioned that to obtain treasures that the Eastern Xia didn't have, he had led people to rob many ancient tombs. At the places with the strongest spiritual energy, he secretly placed the copper fish so that this secret might have a chance to be discovered.

I let out an "Ah" and thought to myself, So that's how it was. But I had guessed a bit already. Looking further, the content that followed was utterly astonishing to me—it recorded that during his modification of the Eastern Xia royal mausoleum, he gradually discovered a bizarre secret of the Eastern Xia king.

The reason I found it so terrifying was that Monk Hua had already told me the first half of this story—that the Wan Nu King of Eastern Xia was a monster crawling out from underground, an evil creature. And when I heard this part, it exactly matched what Monk Hua had said.

It said that Wang Zanghai had been trapped there for ten years. He was once taken to see an underground door known as a miracle. Legend had it that the successive Wan Nu Kings were not hereditary, but after the previous one died, they would crawl out from that underground door. And that underground door could only be opened when the previous Wan Nu King passed away; otherwise, the karmic fire of hell would burn everything from the door opener, ensuring that Changbai Mountains would never have a white peak. I felt that sounded like a volcanic eruption, and thought to myself, Was the Wan Nu King crawling out of a volcano? And he had the chance to witness one such succession of kings, and what terrified him greatly was that the Wan Nu King that emerged from the underground door was a monster, not human at all.

According to the record, this underground door lay beneath the royal mausoleum, at the bottom of the Changbai Mountains. Its origin dated back to ancient times, likely a product of the Xia dynasty. The passage leading to the underground door was guarded by birds with human heads.

Just thinking of those strange birds made me break out in a cold sweat, but even more bizarre content was yet to come. On the third copper fish, he recorded his experience sneaking into the underground door. That part was completely incomprehensible—I had no idea what they were talking about. Clearly, the third fish was carved after he returned, in a state of extreme terror, and his words were incoherent.

Fatty was also listening, and couldn't help but interrupt: "Didn't you say the karmic fire of hell would burn everything from the door opener? How come nothing happened to him when he went in? That's bullshit if you ask me."

I thought to myself that he must have used some method unknown to us, but the record here was too chaotic. Just then, someone came to report that they had found another mark.

We went over to look and saw that several coffins in the coffin well had been opened, with their contents all laid out. On one side of the coffin well, someone had discovered a hidden door. Inside that door was another mark, unmistakably Poker-face's.

"Didn't you leave that mark?" A Ning asked.

"No. We're baffled too," I pretended not to know.

Meanwhile, someone reported: "All the coffins here are shadow coffins—fakes. They only contain jade corpses; the real coffins aren't here. When we opened one, we triggered the mechanism of the insect-incense jade, and a bunch of centipedes crawled out. After carefully searching, we didn't expect to find a secret passage here. And someone has already entered it. It looks like this is a double-layer tomb; the real coffins might be further below. This was a popular burial style during the Yuan dynasty."

Staring at the huge jewel-encrusted glass coffin, I felt a chill. Looking toward the opened hidden door, I noticed it was quite unusual because the passage was extremely steep, as if it were designed to go as deep as possible. I gasped inwardly. It seemed that the place Poker-face didn't want me to go was right here.

A Ning looked at me; I guessed she was thinking the same thing. She waved her hand to send someone down, but no one moved. Everyone looked at me and Fatty.