Chapter 59: The Unutterable and the Inexpressible

  "Tomb of Tang, located at the foot of Nanshan Mountain, belonging to a wealthy and noble person. The tomb is one zhang deep, with a coffin made of fragrant purple wood, buried with head facing east. Inside, there is one Dingyan pearl, two jade rings on the hands, several bowls, pots, and chopsticks. The feet are placed on a lotus-shaped box filled with pearls. The head rests on a golden brocade pillow, inside which are stored ten gold bars..."

  I quickly flipped through the translated version of "The Unspeakable", hoping to find a way to open this door. After browsing through it, I found that what was recorded inside were all about the shape and orientation of tombs, with only a few words describing hundreds of different tomb positions. It didn't seem like the kind of academic discourse on geomancy that I was familiar with, but rather like a general record of how people were buried after death. Was it the responsibility of mortals to keep records back then?

  It seems that I have to see the "Ancient and Modern Secret Geography" said by the coffin to understand the true meaning of the two-volume book. Pongpang has already started to take action against Wengzhong, hoping that there will be a mechanism hidden under their feet. Suddenly, I had a playful idea - are the contents in different fonts really the same? After all, the way ancient people and modern people use words is different. I didn't care about Pongpang's actions, but instead combined the two parts together, observing each word carefully. Among them, there were a few words that could be understood because they matched the translated text, so the general meaning could be guessed. Especially the three words "不可说" (cannot say), which I recognized very accurately. However, afterwards I discovered a problem - in the same position, there was no "Ancient and Modern Secret Geography" at all, at least the two characters "古今" should not be too far apart, could it be that the translator intentionally mistranslated, causing later generations to lose their way? While still searching, Pongpang shouted loudly:

  "Got it, got it."

  I had no choice but to roll up the ancient book and prepare to read it again when I have time, and ran towards Pengpeng.

  "Brother-in-law, look at this stone statue's jade scepter, the directions of left and right are not the same. And that stone statue's treasure sword, the hands holding the hilt are also different. I just turned it in the direction indicated by the scepter, and the statue started moving. Let's try following their indications, maybe we can open this door."

  I did as he said, and indeed it was so. Then I came to the other side to turn the hand-held treasure sword of Weng Zhong. After a few circles, I felt that it was no longer under my control, and it started to rotate on its own, getting faster and faster. So I shifted my target to the next one, using the same method to make it rotate. In the end, all the stone Weng Zhongs in the entire corridor were made to spin by us.

  Before long, a slow creaking sound was heard, and the door slowly opened. This made me think of a drawbridge, which needs to rotate its gears to rise and fall, is this the same principle? I and Pengpeng quickly picked up the remaining luggage and ran in. The Wengzhong behind us stopped abruptly from the first one, and returned to the position before rotation.

  Finally, I and Pengpeng saw the first truly ancient coffin. It was a circular tomb chamber with the coffin placed right in the middle. On either side of it were two stone beasts crouching, which looked like neither tigers nor lions but rather some sort of ferocious beast that seemed to be staring straight at the gate with its eyes wide open.

  Pengpeng seemed to have forgotten his worries about losing the coffin and excitedly rushed over. Before I could even open my mouth, he had already arrived in front of the coffin. I immediately reminded him to be careful, as it was written in books that there is corpse gas inside the coffins underground, and one should be careful not to inhale it when opening the coffin. Also, remember to hold your breath when opening the coffin, as the air from a living person's mouth can cause the corpse to explode if blown in.

  Pengpeng immediately stopped examining the coffin and sat down cross-legged with me, starting to sort out our remaining equipment. All I had left was half a ham, while Pengpeng's bag still had a mask and gloves. Apart from that, my knife was broken, and Pengpeng's dagger was nowhere to be found in the coffin. We didn't have any other weapons except for a half-cut backpack strap. Pengpeng emptied out everything in his bag, revealing only a roll of wet toilet paper, several unopened batteries, and fortunately, I had bought him a waterproof flashlight earlier, which he was now using. I thought to myself that if I had brought the flashlight that my future self gave me 30 years later, it would have been much more convenient. Compared to when we first set out with our big bags and small bags, our current situation was really pathetic. Along the way, we had eaten and drunk a lot, and there were many things that we had lost or thrown away.

  I took out that volume of "The Unspeakable" again, wanting to continue searching for records about this tomb inside.

  "Brother-in-law, let me take a look, I know some of these characters."

  "How did you know?" I asked in surprise.

  "I learned calligraphy with a brush when I was young and specially practiced this font, so I should still have some memory of it."

  Peng Peng took over "The Unsayable", looked around in all directions, his expression becoming increasingly astonished. Suddenly he said to me:

  "Brother-in-law, although I don't understand much, I roughly get the meaning. This translation is fake, there are many words that are randomly added in it. Moreover, the book that contradicts it is not called 'Ancient and Modern Secret Geography', but rather 'Unspeakable'."