The Lost Tomb Vol. 1

Chapter 26: Purple Jade Box

Purple jade was the exact same as amethyst, which was generally used to make amulets and objects to ward off evil spirits. Few people would use it to make a box. Moreover, this box looked like it had been crafted from a single piece of purple jade, which was very rare. Purple jade wasn't easy to carve and polish so there weren't any designs on the box, only some gold trim set around the lid. Based on the box's location in the coffin, it appeared to have been used as a pillow for the corpse. Jade pillows were generally considered to be very precious commodities, and purple jade was even more valuable. There was a chance that not even the emperors at that time received this kind of treatment.

When we carefully took out the box and set it on the ground, we found that it didn't have a lock. We opened it and saw that it contained a yellow silk scroll with gold trim around the edges. The golden threads had been woven into the silk, which was well preserved. We unfolded the scroll and saw that the words "The Book of King Shang of the Underworld" had been written on the left, followed by a dense cluster of small characters on the side.

The fat guy was more interested in the jade burial armor than this silk scroll, especially when he looked at the scroll and realized that he couldn't understand it. Mumbling to himself, he went over to study the jade burial armor. Poker-Face pulled his sword out of the tree and then lay down next to the jade bed, silently staring at King Shang of Lu's corpse until his eyes became blurred.

Uncle Three and I sat next to him and carefully studied the text on the silk scroll. At my current level, I could only understand some parts of it, but I could get a general idea of the overall text once I connected enough of these parts together.

The things recorded were simply unbelievable. If it weren't for the fact that I had already encountered so many weird things on this adventure, I really would have found it impossible to believe that such things could exist in this world.

On the edge of this text was a line of small characters that King Shang of Lu had written himself. These few introductory lines were then followed by all the major events that had occurred in his life, from his birth up until his death. If I took the time to translate them all, it would probably take me anywhere from ten days to half a month, but fortunately, I could understand the two most important things.

The first was how King Shang of Lu got the ghost seal. Since it was a relatively brief excerpt in the silk book, I took a moment to skim through it before reading it aloud.

King Shang of Lu had inherited his father's official post when he was twenty-five years old and robbed ancient tombs for the State of Lu, using the gold he had found to pay the army's wages. On one such occasion, he entered a tomb from an unknown dynasty and found a giant snake lying motionless inside the coffin. King Shang of Lu was a very courageous man, so after coming to the conclusion that the snake must be a monster, he immediately chopped it in half with his sword. He then ordered that the snake be disemboweled. That was when the purple-and-gold box was found inside its stomach.

When I read this part, I couldn't help but feel stunned. Was the box I put in my bag earlier the same box that had been cut out of the snake's stomach? Uncle Three saw that I had stopped talking and said impatiently, "Don't stop, keep reading!" I didn't have time to think about it right now so I pulled myself together and continued reading.

King Shang of Lu didn't care much about the box at that time, thinking that it had merely been something the snake happened to swallow. But later that night when he was sleeping, he dreamed of an old man with a white beard who asked him, "Why did you kill me?"

King Shang of Lu was a very ruthless person who had killed a lot of people. He had killed so many, in fact, that he would forget about them as soon as he had slain them. As a result, he didn't know who this old man was.