The Lost Tomb Vol. 3

Chapter 17: Palace Hall Entrance (Part 1)

Shunzi was taken aback when he heard this and obviously didn't know what was going on, but he wasn't the only one—none of us knew what Chen Pi Ah Si was up to.

For a moment, I even thought that Chen Pi Ah Si was trying to separate us so that he could kill Shunzi to silence him. But when I thought about it again, I realized that I was wrong. For one thing, he was over ninety years old—even if he launched a sneak attack, he probably wouldn't be able to kill a retired soldier in his prime. For another thing, we still needed Shunzi to guide us back down the mountain, so it didn't make sense to kill him now.

I didn't understand what Chen Pi Ah Si was planning, so I simply patted Shunzi on the back and told him to be careful.

Shunzi, obviously not knowing how to feel about this, took one last look at me and then followed Chen Pi Ah Si.

The rest of us turned around and continued running along the spirit path. Fortunately, we had discarded a lot of our equipment; otherwise, none of us would have been able to endure such intense exercise.

There were a total of six stone gates on the spirit path, which represented the six realms of rebirth in Han Buddhism.(1) Although the Jurchens practiced shamanism, traces of Han designs could be seen everywhere.

I ran so fast that I felt a little dizzy, and the exposed parts of my skin began to itch—all clear signs that the air around me was really bad.

Before I knew it, some crumbling black eaves and broken walls began to appear in our flashlights' glow, and we soon arrived in front of the altar at the end of the spirit path. Behind the altar, at the top of sixty dilapidated stone steps, was the main entrance to the imperial tomb.

In the traditional concept of burials, tombs and mausoleums were often lumped together, but they were actually two different things. Mausoleums were structures above ground that were used for sacrificial and interment ceremonies, while tombs referred to underground palaces.

Mausoleums and tombs didn't necessarily have to be located in the same place. In fact, many were separated by thousands of kilometers. For example, Genghis Khan's mausoleum was located in the middle of the Ordos grassland in Inner Mongolia, but the coffin in the mausoleum only had camel hair that was said to contain Genghis Khan's soul. No one knew where in the grassland his body and grave goods had been hidden.(2)

The Heavenly Palace on the Clouds had a three-story structure: the first level was the aboveground palace we saw in the shadow paintings in the undersea tomb, which was a symbolic spirit palace; the second level was the underground imperial tomb; and the third level was the underground tomb where the king was interred. Together, these three levels reflected the Buddhist concept of "three thousand worlds",(3) and symbolized the change in King Wannu's identity after rebirth—whether he became a god, a human, or a hungry ghost.

The architectural style of the whole imperial tomb was very similar to that of a Ming palace. When viewed from the cliff, it not only looked huge and majestic, but the extensive use of that black stone also made it seem a little strange and mysterious. But as soon as we entered the tomb, this feeling disappeared—what we saw was nothing more than desolation and ruin. If not for some of those large, temple-like palace halls still standing there, we would have been really disappointed.

There was no air circulation here, let alone wind or sunlight, so the buildings here should have been well-preserved. How could they be so dilapidated?

We climbed up those huge steps wide enough to fit ten carriages side-by-side and then walked through the main entrance of the imperial tomb. The huge doors had already collapsed, their nail-covered door panels lying on the ground. Without an ounce of hesitation, we stepped on them and made our way inside.