Volume 1: Ancient Tombs of Jin Country Chapter 23: The Burial Chamber, Shocking!

  "Thief's hole?" Zhu Baozi walked back and asked again, "Could it be that these few words told you that this is the passage to the tomb owner's stone chamber?"

  I nodded and said, "Yes, in ancient times people were superstitious. Tomb raiders believed that the tomb owner's soul was not scattered and was always staring at you. That's why they wrote these things, to tell the tomb owner that his tomb layout had been seen through, so he wouldn't think of ways to deal with himself anymore."

  "If this is written by the tomb owner himself, then it's meant to deceive others?" asked Shi Tou.

  I took a glance at the two of them, and this would soon add up to over 100,000 whys. I explained, "This is not a character from the Spring and Autumn period, but rather one from after the Han Dynasty, similar to those used in Taiwan today."

  After finishing, I pushed it hard again and felt the soil was a bit loose. So I shouted "Come and help!" With the addition of Stone and Zhū Bāngzi, in less than two minutes, we opened up the sealed earth. In fact, the soil layer is not thick, but after so many years, it has become as hard as stone.

  Shi Tou used a small flashlight to illuminate the cave, then squeezed in with his backpack, and I followed closely behind him, while Zhu Bao Zai could only bring up the rear.

  The cave is about one meter high and very long. We crawled for over ten minutes but still hadn't reached the end. Inside the cave, it was sweltering hot, with sweat and dirt mixed together. I reckon both Tao Yu and I looked like brothers by then.

  "There's light," the stone suddenly spoke up and quickened its crawling speed. I also saw a faint yellow glow, and after crawling in for less than two minutes, the yellow glow became very bright. I could clearly see that the stone had turned into mud people. The light from the small flashlight was already useless.

  "We're at the entrance." Shi Tou said with a hint of excitement, after all, in such a narrow place, walking for too long wouldn't make anyone comfortable. But Shi Tou suddenly stopped, and my head bumped into his feet, I looked up and said "Damn it, why aren't you moving?"

  "The stone said 'Damn, this is really... really...' He thought for a moment and didn't say anything else. Then he crawled out of the cave entrance, pulling me along with him, saying 'You'd better see it for yourself!'"

  At first, I only felt that the yellow light was dazzling, but when I crawled out of the hole, I was stunned. The location we are in now should be a natural cave, about half the size of a football field. There are hundreds of small holes on the top of the cave, and moonlight shines through the holes onto the copper mirrors embedded in the wall of the mountain, reflecting bright light that illuminates the cave like daylight. In the center of the cave is a bronze chariot surrounded by giant ceramic dragons, with large dragon-shaped patterns on the chariot. The chariot is pulled by four winged horses that seem to be flying. Next to the chariot are dozens of ceramic warriors. On the wall in front of the chariot is a carved palace, with two pillars standing in front of it, magnificent and beautiful.

  "My goodness, there isn't even a coffin!" Zhu Baozi said, looking around.

  I pointed to the hearse with my hand and said, "I remember Old Man Zhang telling me about this burial form. Although it's a bit different from what we have here, the general idea is the same. The carriage is pulling a coffin, and the owner of the tomb wants to ascend to heaven after death. Those two pillars represent the South Heavenly Gate." As I said this, I scratched my head and thought for a moment before saying, "But this kind of burial shouldn't be found in Jin State!"

  "Go, take a look." Zhu Baozi lifted his leg and walked over, and Shi Tou and I followed closely. To be honest, my curiosity about this place had decreased a lot, after all, the stone chambers I had been to before had already been looted, and the grave robbers had dug tunnels here, so it was likely that anything valuable on the tomb owner's body had already been taken away.

  We soon arrived at the horse-drawn carriage, and Zhu Baozi asked nervously, "These pottery figurines can't come back to life, can they?"

  I shook my head and said, "No way, a grave owner wouldn't raise an undead next to himself."

  On the carriage was indeed a stone coffin, which was also made of green jade. Unfortunately, the stone coffin had been pried open and only a skull remained inside.

  "Damn it, what a bad luck! This time I didn't get anything." Zhu Baozi said gloomily.

  Suddenly, I saw a small green jade piece next to the skull, so I reached out and picked it up. It was only half the length of my index finger, entirely green, and very thin, as if you could see through it to your fingers. There were also two holes drilled into it. I quickly searched the stone coffin again and found three more small jade pieces and a few fine gold threads. I placed them in the palm of my hand and smiled at the stone statues, saying "So that's what those Tang Dynasty people came to steal." The statue manipulated the small jade piece with its hands and asked, "What is this?"

  "Golden silk jade clothes!" I opened my mouth to explain, "According to legend, passing on the golden silk jade clothes can keep the corpse from decaying, and an even more divine explanation is that it can also protect the owner's last breath, allowing him to live forever. The golden silk jade clothes are a national treasure! Even just these two pieces are worth a city."

  Listen to me finish, Zhu Baozi immediately started searching in the stone coffin, muttering "I can't come here for nothing." But I could see that he wasn't looking for the small jade piece, but something else. Because when he looked at the small jade piece in my hand, his eyes revealed not greed and fervor, but anxiety and helplessness.

  I didn't have the mood to help him search, so I just stood by and watched quietly as he rummaged through the stone coffin. Suddenly, I saw a pattern in the stone coffin that was so familiar. I took a step forward to the side of the stone coffin, pushed the tomb owner's bones aside, and found a recess with a running rabbit pattern. My head buzzed loudly, my scalp felt like it was going to explode, and I stared at the recess without moving, my bloodshot eyes fixed on it. Zhu Bajie sensed something was wrong with me and took a step back, probably thinking I had been possessed again. Shi Tou walked over and pushed me, asking "What's wrong?"

  I pointed to the recess with my finger, and Shi Tou lowered his head to take a look. His face also changed color. The running rabbit could only see two legs, its tail was high up, its head was low, and its ears were crossed. This rabbit pattern, both Shi Tou and I had seen it before. To be exact, we had seen half of it - the upper half of my jade pendant, which just happened to be the rabbit's head. I didn't believe this was a coincidence. I hastily used my hand to measure the size of the recess, and cold sweat instantly flowed down. After fiddling with the jade pendant for seven years, I was all too familiar with its size, which was identical to the recess without any difference. Shi Tou and I exchanged a glance, and a chill ran from the soles of our feet straight up to our heads. Had I been here before?

  "What's wrong with you?" Zhu Baozi asked.

  "It's nothing." We both replied at the same time.

  My heart is like a stormy sea, I had long stopped wanting to know about my memories of those two years, nor did I want to know where the half jade pendant came from. But now, this concave pattern has shaken my thoughts, and I am extremely eager to know how the half jade pendant came into being, and even more so, what was I doing during those two years?

  "Not good, let's leave quickly." The stone suddenly spoke up, I came to my senses and took a look, the stone was staring at a mound of earth at the base of the wall that resembled a golden pyramid. It was hesitant because the light couldn't shine there, so we hadn't noticed it before. There were many such mounds standing upright at the base of the wall. The stone said another sentence: "This is an anthill."

  My face and Zhu's turned pale in an instant, we still remembered the ant people, and didn't want to repeat that nightmare. The three of us didn't know where to go, so we retreated back into the cave. We hadn't taken two steps when suddenly two dark shadows blocked out the light above our heads. We looked up to see two blue-skinned women descending from the air, dancing just a short distance away from us. Their skin was pale blue, their faces indistinct, and they were naked, seductive and alluring.

  "My goodness, how can someone still be dancing so energetically? Can't be Mai again!" Zhu Baozi said with a mouthful of saliva.

  "They're invisible, but I don't think they're anything good either." I said as I backed away. The stone had already loaded the shotgun and was warily staring at them.

  They're getting closer, their waists are abnormally soft, taking one step at a time, their waists twist out half a meter far, it makes me feel waist pain just by looking at them. Suddenly, I felt a strong fishy smell coming over, upon closer inspection, something like a toad with its big mouth open came pouncing from the darkness. It turned out that these two blue women were just its antennae. Luckily, I didn't have any perverted thoughts earlier, or else I would've been disgusted to death. I rolled away to dodge it, it's over three meters long and two meters high, just like a giant beach ball, moving slowly but with great elasticity. Once, I almost got caught by its tongue.

  With a loud crash, it hit the entrance of the cave, and a bronze mirror unexpectedly fell down, blocking the entrance. I was so angry in my heart. If we go to move the bronze mirror now, we will definitely not be able to avoid this monster's attack. The stones and Zhu Bajie's gunshots on its body had no effect.

  Suddenly I found that every time it attacked, it would put its antennae behind its head and hide them well. So I immediately shouted "Hit its antennae!" Anyway, there's no good way to do this, so let's just treat a dead horse as if it were alive!