Chapter 396: Qionglong Stone Shadow: The Largest Tomb Raiding Operation in History (Part Three)

Jin Wantang was a cultured man, with neither the guts nor the physical strength to go down and work underground. By the time he entered the mountains, he was already half dead, and there was no way to force him to go any further. So he could only stay in the surface camp, while the others began searching everywhere and brought things back every now and then, mostly silk manuscripts and bamboo slips, asking him to identify and classify them. Therefore, he didn't know the true background of that ancient tomb, and he didn't dare to ask either. He could only infer some things from the items he was asked to identify.

What he could confirm was, first, that the ancient tombs here seemed not to be just one, because the batches of silk manuscripts and bamboo slips he was asked to identify had vastly different states of preservation, and their contents covered a wide range—letters, ancient texts, and silk documents. Many of the letters had different recipients, so he felt there must be a huge cluster of ancient tombs here, and this group was excavating a large area of tombs.

Second, he was the only one in the entire team doing classification and appraisal, and almost all the items stolen and brought up for him to look at were documents and ancient texts. It seemed that their ultimate goal might be the ancient texts within this tomb cluster.

Third, the team size often decreased, and there were frequent fights in the camp. From the content of the arguments, it seemed that accidents often happened while working, and they were blaming each other and shirking responsibility.

The restoration and identification of ancient texts consumed a lot of time, and what he hadn't expected was that the job he thought would take one or two months lasted for three whole years. For three years, he continuously deciphered those difficult ancient texts, inferred their dynasties and uses, and tried to translate their meanings. The entire team seemed to be under enormous pressure, with almost no communication between them. Everyone worked silently and desperately. He was extremely anxious, his teeth began to fall out, and his weight dropped from 150 jin to 70 jin. If that day hadn't come, he might have died there.

It wasn't until the Dragon Boat Festival of the third year that this huge sense of oppression and isolation was suddenly broken. No more ancient texts were delivered to him, and he finally didn't have to crouch in the tent every day doing those extremely tedious tasks.

This sudden liberation was disorienting at first, but two days later, his anxiety began to slowly ease. He had time to step out of the tent and wander around the camp. Only then did he realize that he was in such a beautiful place.

They were in a rare flat area within the mountains. If it were near a village, this flat land would probably be cultivated into farmland, but now it was covered with towering ancient trees, indicating that it was far from human habitation or that transportation was extremely inconvenient. Gazing at the distant mountains, he could see at the horizon four huge connected snowy peaks, majestic and pure, shrouded in clouds and mist. In front of the snowy mountains stretched lush green mountain ranges. That shade of green was not the light green of Longjing grass in Jiangnan nor the brilliant emerald of Beijing's glazed tiles, but a deep green as dark as ink. Every color in the entire area displayed the vigorous vitality of the plants.

The air in the mountains was extremely fresh, and he suddenly felt as if he had shed his old self, as if it were an epiphany. The darkness of the past three years was swept away.

Afterward, his body gradually recovered, and he began to dare to take an interest in his surroundings. He started to regain many normal sensory thoughts. He discovered that nowhere around was there any trace of excavation. The tomb cluster he had inferred seemed not to exist, or if it did, it was not on this flat land. However, the surrounding mountains were very steep, with cliffs as if carved by axes and knives. The probability of a large-scale tomb cluster appearing in such terrain was very low.

Because he had nothing to do and was curious, one day he secretly followed a group of people into the mountains from a distance. After climbing to the mountainside, the terrain suddenly turned into a continuous stretch of bare rock cliffs. The part of the mountain above the waist seemed to have been vertically cleaved by a knife, cutting away all the curves, leaving only almost perfectly vertical uneven rock faces. Grotesque trees stood in the crevices of the rocks, and a small waterfall cascaded from the top of the cliff, hitting the canopy of the giant trees below and splashing everywhere.

Such cliffs often appear by rivers. The famous cliffside carvings along the Yangtze River are etched into these kinds of cliffs. The cliff here probably existed because this area was once the riverbed of a major river that later changed course and dried up. Looking ahead, it was indeed so. The cliffs here stretched for at least ten kilometers, completely endless.

On these cliffs, he saw countless ropes and pulley devices. Like the cliffs famous for bird's nest production, they were covered with people. At the same time, he noticed that many ropes were being dismantled, clearly having completed their historical mission. He immediately understood where the so-called ancient tombs and those ancient texts came from. The people of Shu practiced Daoism a lot, especially in the Sichuan area where various religions flourished. It was said that there were many seekers of immortality here who, feeling a divine call, would at a certain time climb the cliffs with only water and no food, look for a cave or crevice, crawl in, cut the rope to cut off their retreat, and perform their final cultivation there. If unsuccessful, they would starve to death inside.

Many people used such drastic means to express their determination to become immortals, especially on some legendary sacred mountains in the area. Most of these people would carry some ancient texts of alchemists. Over generations, these caves often accumulated bones from many dynasties. Those ancient texts were likely found by people climbing these cliffs, searching from hole to hole.

Now some ropes were being removed, clearly indicating they had found what they wanted. However, it seemed they still weren't planning to leave. What else were they going to do?

He looked at the ropes that hadn't been dismantled but rather reinforced, and he felt that besides the ancient texts, there was more to come in this matter.

Unfortunately, Jin Wantang couldn't continue his curiosity here. With his physical ability, he couldn't climb the cliffs to take a look, and he didn't have the courage to ask for specific details. In the following days, he lived very comfortably. It was during this time that, like some people who suddenly came to their senses during the reform and opening up period, he started scheming for his own benefit. He suddenly regretted why he hadn't secretly kept a few of those damaged ancient texts. Even if their condition was poor, they were priceless. He was the only one here with an eye for appraising ancient texts; hiding one or two top-quality pieces would have been easy.

He knew that offending the Old Nine Gates would have serious consequences, but the comfortable life made his greed like a bone-deep maggot, and he regretted it immensely.

People are often like this—after the fact, they think they should have done this or that, but if they really went back to that time, they still might not have had the courage.

But this time God gave him a second chance. In June of the third year, a major incident occurred first. Suddenly there was a clamor, and a large group of people came out of the mountains at noon, hurriedly carrying more than a dozen stretchers. The people on them were covered in blood, and the camp was in chaos.

Then in the evening, a large roll of silk manuscript almost soaked in blood was delivered to Jin Wantang. Three days later, he met Old Mrs. Huo and a group of other Nine Gates people for the first time. All had grave expressions, and the group practically watched him begin the final appraisal work.

That large roll, he recognized it with just one look—it was a Warring States period Lu Huang silk manuscript.