The Lost Tomb Vol. 3

Chapter 38: Snake-Eyebrow Copper Fish

I really didn't want to hand over the snake-eyebrow copper fish, but when I remembered Uncle Three's message, I impulsively took them out. I just didn't expect A Ning and Kirk to react so dramatically.

It was a long time before one of them finally came back to their senses and asked me, "Where did you get those? You..... you're like a magician. Did you guys go to the Seven Star Lu Palace...? This is the dragon fish ciphertext! I always thought there was only one, but as it turns out..."

I wasn't in the mood to talk to them about it, so I waved my hand dismissively and said, "Can anyone here read them?"

"Wu Laosi!" A Ning immediately called. A Chinese man started making his way over to us, but as soon as he saw the fish in my hand, his expression changed and he rushed over with a shout, "Oh my God!"

"Can you translate them?" I asked. He nodded, took the two fish like he was receiving some heavenly relic, and began to shine his flashlight on the scales. Soon, a large number of Jurchen characters were projected onto the ground, and someone nearby immediately started copying them down.

A Ning's men were really skilled—not only could they translate as they copied, but they did it much better than Monk Hua. After they were done, even I could understand the general meaning of the text. I was initially confused as I listened since the content seemed to be a little misleading, but the more I listened, the clearer it became, kind of like a narrative poem. I can't record the whole thing here, but there are some passages that left a deep impression on me.

The text was very concise, with a few lines at the beginning explaining that the secret hidden in this ciphertext was very important. Wang Zanghai had recorded it in hopes that it would never see the light of day, but if anyone did see it, then he hoped that the person was a Han Chinese rather than a Jurchen.

What followed was a record of what happened after he was captured in Eastern Xia. It was very similar to the depictions on the murals in his tomb, but he also mentioned that in order to get some treasures that Eastern Xia didn't have, he led people to rob many ancient tombs. While doing so, he secretly put the copper fish in the places where the spiritual energy was the strongest so that someone might be able to discover this secret in the future.

When I heard this part, my first thought was, ah, so that's how it is. Looking back on it now, the content that followed was truly unbelievable—it said that Wang Zanghai gradually discovered a strange secret of Eastern Xia's ruler while in the process of rebuilding the imperial tomb.

The reason why I felt so shocked was because Monk Hua had already told me the first part of this story, which stated that King Wannu of Eastern Xia was some kind of monster that crawled out of the ground. What I was hearing now seemed to corroborate what Monk Hua had said.

The text went on to say that during Wang Zanghai's ten years of captivity there, he was once led to an underground door called the Miracle Door. According to legend, the Eastern Xia throne wasn't passed down hereditarily. Instead, the new rulers would crawl out of that underground door after the previous ruler died. That underground door could only be opened by the previous ruler before he died; otherwise, the flames of hell would incinerate the person who opened the door, and the white peaks of Changbai Mountain would disappear forever. That sounded like a volcanic eruption to me, which left me wondering if King Wannu had crawled out of a volcano.

Wang Zanghai was lucky enough to witness the transfer of the throne once, but it left him feeling terrified because the new ruler who crawled out of the underground door wasn't human at all—he was a monster.

According to the text, this underground door was located under the imperial tomb, at the bottom of Changbai Mountain. It dated back to ancient times, and was probably a product of the Xia Dynasty.(1) The passage leading to the underground door was guarded by birds with human heads.

I broke out in a cold sweat when I remembered those strange birds from before, but even stranger content was yet to come.

On the other copper fish was a record detailing how Wang Zanghai secretly made his way through the underground door. It was written in such a confusing and incoherent manner that I couldn't understand it at all, but it was obvious to see how frightened he had been after coming back.

Fatty, who had also been listening, couldn't help but interrupt at this time, "I thought that the flames of hell would incinerate anyone who opened the door. How can he be fine after going in? This is fucking bullshit."

I figured Wang Zanghai must have used some method we didn't know about, but the record was too confusing to understand it. At this time, someone suddenly came over and reported that he had found another mark.

We walked over to take a look and saw that several coffins in the coffin well had been opened, and all the contents inside had been placed beside them. On one side of the coffin well, someone had actually found an open trapdoor, which had a mark on the inner wall.

"Did you guys leave this mark here?" A Ning asked.

"No, we don't know anything about it," I lied.

"The coffins here are all shadow coffins—all fakes," a person standing nearby reported. "There are only jade statues inside of them. The real coffin isn't here. When we opened these shadow coffins before, we triggered a mechanism that released insect fragrant jade into the air, which drew all the centipedes here. After carefully searching the area, we were surprised to find this trapdoor, which someone had apparently already entered. It seems this is a double-layered tomb, and the real coffin is somewhere below. This type of burial method was popular in the Yuan Dynasty."(2)

I looked at the huge translucent jade sarcophagus in shock, and then glanced back at the open trapdoor. I found that the passage beyond the trapdoor was very unusual in that it seemed to be very steep, as if the person who made it was trying to dig as deeply as possible. I couldn't help but sigh to myself as I realized that this was the place Poker-Face had warned us not to go.

A Ning looked at me, seemingly thinking the same thing I was. Then she waved her hand, ordering her men to go down. But instead of moving, everyone just looked at me and Fatty.
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TN Notes:

(1) The Xia Dynasty (c. 2000 BC) is the first dynasty in traditional Chinese historiography. More info here.

(2) Yuan Dynasty (also known as the Mongol Dynasty) was from 1279-1368. It was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division.