Chapter 28: The Inner Gate

Being face to face with the dead from two thousand years ago was an unsettling experience for me.

The Sun brothers were different. I didn't know what they were thinking, but I could catch a glimpse of it in their expressions.

Third Brother Sun looked at the white bones inside a coffin, sighed, and said, "Dust to dust, earth to earth. We are just passing through these hallowed grounds without intent to offend. Please forgive the disturbance, and may you all be reincarnated soon." He bowed toward the surrounding coffins.

"Be careful, don't touch these coffins. Let's keep moving forward. It’s truly strange, though—why can't we find the coffin of the Jie Marquis? Could the main tomb's sarcophagus have flown up to the heavens?" Third Brother Sun continued to lead the way.

I was still young and had a youthful heart. The Sun brothers were used to seeing the dead—they jokingly called those bones "white chocolate"—but I was different. My heart was filled with dread; after all, I was surrounded by nothing but corpses and rotting coffins.

Keeping my head down, I didn't dare look left or right, nor did I dare to draw a full breath.

Only a few minutes later, we spotted a small stone tablet standing on the ground. There were faint inscriptions on it.

Third Brother knelt down, shone his flashlight on it, and reached out with his right hand to wipe away a thick layer of dust.

"What does it say, Third?" asked "Mole."

Third Brother shook his head. "It's still the Six-Fold Seal script. I can't read it at all. However, I suspect that what is recorded here relates to these female sacrificial victims." He glanced back at the surrounding coffins.

Just then, Mole let out a sudden shriek, startling everyone.

Eldest Brother Sun quickly turned his flashlight toward her. "Stop jumping at shadows! What is it, Xiaohong?"

Mole ran two steps toward us, her face deathly pale.

"There... someone just touched my butt!"

"It was a human hand! Not bones! I could feel it!" Her face turned even paler after she spoke.

Eldest Brother shielded Mole behind him, frowning as he shone his light in the direction she indicated.

"A hand... a hand... it's a human hand, Eldest!" My eyes were sharp; I saw it first.

Behind where Mole had just been standing was a coffin. The lid was slightly ajar, and a human arm, not yet fully decayed, was dangling over the edge, limp and soft.

The arm was in an advanced state of decomposition, with numerous grayish-white maggots crawling in and out of the flesh.

Third Brother Sun pinched his nose and leaned in to look. As he did, his expression darkened significantly.

Judging by the contours and the clothing, the corpse in the coffin appeared to be male. The style of the clothes was clearly modern. Third Brother then pinched his nose with one hand and retrieved a small copper tag with a clasp from the corpse's waist.

Looking closely, three characters were engraved on the front of the copper tag: "Zhiguo Chen."

Third Brother flipped the tag over carefully and turned to look at Eldest Brother.

Eldest Brother nodded with a grim expression. "It’s from the South..."

From their fragmented conversation, I gathered some information.

In the two factions of tomb raiding—North and South—the Northern faction has roles like "Eye-Leader," "Rice-Seller," "Earth-Worker," "Logistics Manager," and "Loose-Soil." By contrast, the "Earth-Diggers" of the South use different jargon. The person responsible for finding the tomb is called a "Zhiguo" (Pot-Holder); before the Qing Dynasty, they were called "Yuanliang." This role is essentially the same as our Northern "Eye-Leader."

Below them are the "Gold-Tip" strikers and the laborers. They also have dedicated personnel for logistics, which is similar to the Northern faction.

The Sun brothers told me some of the underworld slang that had been passed down through the Southern tomb-raiding circles in the old society.

"Today we ask the Yuanliang (Zhiguo): One river of water, two views of the river. Chopping wood on the mountain, burning fire below the mountain. One wouldn't visit the Three Treasures Hall without cause—may I ask, how many tomb gates have you dismantled, and what was your harvest?"

And the answer would be:

"Two views of the river belong to one river of water. We are all one family. Crossing mountains and ridges like the Partridge Whistle, watching the soil to catch the dragon across eleven paths. We have visited the treasure hall many times, and never returned empty-handed."

Hearing what Eldest Brother said, combined with my own analysis, I concluded that this was a case of two peers from different tomb-raiding circles probing each other’s strength and intentions.

After identifying the corpse through the small copper tag, Eldest Brother rubbed his chin and speculated, "Third, in my opinion, could this be a case of 'black eating black'—a subordinate killing a superior? Although we don't know this 'Zhiguo Chen,' the title 'Zhiguo' alone suggests he held a high position in their group..."

"Hmm... it's hard to say... That group from the South got down here before us, but we don't know where they entered from. Now they've lost so many people. Eldest, we must be careful."

"That goes without saying," Eldest Brother agreed with a nod.

The underground palace was rectangular, and there was a vast space ahead. Not knowing where it led, our group passed through the sacrificial area and pushed forward.

After walking for less than two minutes, our path was blocked by another stone door. Unlike the previous one, this door was a size smaller. Standing on the left and right of the door were two strange-looking green stone sculptures.

Let me think—how to describe these two sculptures...

Triangular dog heads, green faces with fangs, Qilin bodies, human ears. A pair of wings were folded against the sides of the Qilin bodies. Their hind legs were pressed firmly against the ground, while their front-left claws were slightly raised. Their eyeballs were bulging. The sculptures were about 2.3 meters tall, and their overall presence was fierce, as if warning those who dared to intrude into the palace.

"What ferocious tomb-guarding beasts..." Third Brother shone his flashlight around.

Tomb-guarding beasts come in all shapes and sizes, mostly imagined by the tomb owners while they were alive. Like the "Flying Celestials," they are part of the inheritance of funerary culture. These strange, fabricated creatures were considered both evil and ugly. In the old antique trade, the two things least favored were tomb-guarding beasts and pottery soul-effigies.

Not to mention national-level bronze treasures; even if these two green stone tomb-guarding beasts were stolen and taken to a museum, I doubt the museum would dare to place them in an exhibition hall, as they might scare children to tears.

"Third Brother, look at the eyes of these two sculptures!" I suddenly noticed a detail: the eyes of both beasts were uneven—one slightly larger than the other. Though the difference was small, it was visible to the naked eye.

Third Brother’s expression turned solemn.

"Cross-eyed tomb-guarding beasts. Highly evil. This is a very bad omen. Stop staring at them; let's get out of here."

"Leave? Where to, Third? Isn't there a broken door blocking our way?" Mole frowned.

"In a palace this large, this is only the second gate; it’s not strange. I am confident I can open it. It will take a day at most," Third Brother said calmly.

"A day?" Mole exclaimed. "Third! Have you lived underground for months and lost your sense of time?"

"Sigh, Xiaohong, you can't say it like that. We aren't Sun Wukong; we don't know how to walk through walls. Third is right. It is rumored that our predecessors could dismantle up to the eleventh tomb gate. We’ve done nothing yet."

Mole rolled her eyes at the Sun brothers and stopped talking.

Peering through a small crack, we could see that this blocking door also had a sealing stone, but its size and weight were far inferior to the previous one. According to the Sun brothers' interpretation, the outer door was the main entrance, while this one was like a bedroom door.

Only by pushing open the "bedroom" door could we hope to see the main occupant.