The Lost Tomb Vol. 8

Chapter 43: Yangshi Lei's Mirror Magic

This was actually a very simple trick, and originated from Persian magic. In fact, it used a gem from the Western Regions. Mirrors made of this gem were dim in sunlight, but especially bright in moonlight. Hence, this gem was called moonstone.

The reason for this phenomenon was that this gem could only reflect dim cyan light and if the light was too strong, it would be the same as stone. In other words, the stronger the light, the lower the reflectivity.

The mirror in the water was a light concentrator. When our flashlights shined on the mirror surface, the light was vertically reflected to the top of the cave, and then reflected by the small lenses around the model of the ancient building to countless moonstone lenses on the wall.

The reflected light of a single lens was extremely weak and almost imperceptible. However, the accumulation of countless light rays could make the ancient mirror in the water reflect the appearance of the ancient building above. Because it was the superposition of numerous weak reflection points at 360 degrees, no matter where we were, we wouldn't form a shadow on the mirror.

And because moonstone could only reflect cyan light, no matter what color light we used, the image in the ancient mirror would be cyan.

"The principle of a shadow-less lamp." Fatty said, "I've seen the Science Discovery Channel. Then why did I see everyone in the mirror?"

"There must be something strange with this model." I said, "As expected, Yangshi Lei is impressive. This is western technology, and with the development of science and technology in the Qing Dynasty, it's surprising that mechanisms could have been brought to this point."

"What's it for? The designer must be crazy. Did he do it just to scare people?"

"Now I can only use these aspects to guess what the purpose of this mirror here is. First of all, this is probably Zhang Jialou's lighting device." I said, "It's a lighting system. Just think, Zhang Jialou is deep in the mountains and the site must need a lot of lighting if such a huge project is carried out. The lighting couldn't be torches, because in such a remote area, it would take too much manpower to bring grease in, let alone continue construction. These people planned to plant trees nearby, knowing the wood would be needed for the project after nearly a thousand years, so they couldn't have failed to consider the lighting problem."

I calculated that it would take two to three years to complete the construction of this place if they used 200 people and the lighting during that time wouldn't have depended entirely on grease.

I looked up at the top: "At first, the sun would definitely shine down from the top, and it's likely that the lighting mirror set on the top of the mountain was damaged or hidden by them."

When Fatty asked me why, I went to the edge of the cave and said, "It's often rainy here. Sunshine is the most common, lasting, and unreliable light source so they must've had an emergency light source. These fire channels should be the emergency light sources. When they need illumination, they'll ignite the channels here so there must be a passage nearby that sends the firelight into the cave where Zhang Jialou is."

When I finished, I waited for Fatty to praise me, telling me I was good and that my conjecture was impeccable. But Fatty didn't respond, and instead looked around at the fire dragon on the wall.

When I saw his expression change, I noticed the flames on the fire dragon dim at the same time.

"Has the oil burned out?"

"No, it's the oxygen that's suddenly being consumed in large quantities." Fatty stretched out his hand to feel the air flowing around him. "Damn it, what kind of lighting? This is definitely not for lighting."