Chapter 47 Imperial Tomb Dancers

The wall where we came down was six meters high, extended out on both sides, and was nearly thirty meters wide. Except for the entrance blocked by the Diamond Wall that was as big as a giant lunch box, the rest of the wall was covered in murals. There wasn’t even an inch of blank space on it.

The oxidation on the murals had stopped, so the colors were still very vibrant. And based on the hues, it could be inferred that the colors used back then were extremely bold. The painters had picked absolutely gorgeous colors and knew how to contrast them well despite the fact that huge murals could really put people under a lot of pressure.

But the paint on murals would always flake off with the passage of time. Of course, there were some holes in them that had been made by grave robbers who came here in the past.

The content of the murals could be described with one word: party. There was a complete state of revelry all around this huge Corpse Country banquet. Unlike the Han people’s Confucian code of ethics, Mongolian banquets didn’t have a serious and restrained atmosphere to them. Instead, it was more of a frantic state of fully pursuing the senses. In the murals, I could see the maids and common people who had come to watch, the envoys of various countries who had brought treasures and delicacies with them, and all kinds of dancers and musicians. All of these people were walking towards the gate that led to this banquet.

Of course, the murals were divided into sections, so I could see that each section had its own theme and there were even some minor scenarios taking place in them. Each section had been painted by different craftsmen, so some were almost master works of art while others were extremely unimaginative.

When viewed from the front, the mural in front of me had a total of twelve figures, eleven of whom were watching a dancer in the middle. The dancer was pitch-black all over and her head was drooping as if she was extremely drunk. The eleven people around her were throwing wine on her. This wine turned into a rainbow as it fell all around her.

But when I looked at the mural again using my peripheral vision, I could see a thirteenth person.

This “person” wasn’t like the things you’d usually see in traditional myths where something would be hiding behind the dancer and dancing with her. Instead, his existence was very creepy.

He didn’t even show himself in the crowd, but mixed in among the people. His image didn’t have any details and only appeared as a shadow, but when I looked at that outline, I realized that this “person” must have been the thing I saw out of the corner of my eye when we were on the grassland. I didn’t know how the painters could paint something like this.

When I looked at the mural directly, everyone’s expressions were in a state of pure bliss, but when I looked out of the corner of my eye, I saw that the dancer’s expression had changed. She was secretly looking at that extra figure in fear.

She could see it.

But the most frightening thing was that there were people like this everywhere on all of the murals, looking at all the people in various inconspicuous corners. On some of the murals, there were some people who could see, but on other sections of the murals, no one could see at all.

In this way, the general atmosphere of the whole picture had changed. This wasn’t a state of pure bliss but more of a feeling like: I can see ghosts in the crowd, but I dare not let them discover it.

The reason why I described this strange mural in detail is because it’s extremely important for what happens later.

Fatty still couldn’t see it and pulled the corners of his eyes back, thinking that his eyelids were too fat so they were blocking his “psychic eyes”.

As I continued examining the murals, I found that almost all of the people who could see these “supernatural beings” were dancers. I had a puzzled expression on my face as I thought to myself, what does this mean? Do the dancers and I have a similar constitution that’s special or something?

Fatty looked at my constipated-like expression and asked me what was wrong. I told him my suspicions, knowing that he would mock me for ages, but he suddenly hissed and pointed his flashlight at the figurines on the side. I also looked over and immediately understood what he meant.

All of the figurines marked with lipstick were dancing girls—someone had noticed the same thing I did.

“At least one of the people in Shen Qianjue’s group is like you and can see those things,” Fatty said.

Just as I started to think about it, Poker-Face in the distance flashed his flashlight twice, telling us to come over. When we looked back, we found that he had already passed the archway and entered the banquet.

Only the unorganized and undisciplined Poker-Face could make me feel relieved in this kind of environment. When we walked over, Poker-Face was about two or three steps past the archway, but didn’t go any further. There was an open space in front of him.

In fact, the whole banquet was on both sides of the steps and the whole underground palace was on an incline, just like a huge staircase. Each step of the staircase was more than ten meters wide and could hold thirty or forty banquet tables. The middle part of the step was used for walking while the banquet tables sat on both sides. These steps were probably only a palm’s width in height, so the slope was very gentle.

The open space in front of Poker-Face was actually the first step’s walkway. The dust layer on the ground of this underground palace was very thick, so we could see a bunch of footprints. We hadn’t started exploring this area yet so we weren’t in a hurry, but Poker-Face was already staying vigilant.

In this open space, we could see two areas with a dense cluster of footprints. The footprints formed a complex pattern, as if the owners had circled around in a small area.

“Hey, were these people acting like they were a donkey pulling a millstone?” Fatty asked.⁽¹⁾

I squatted down, “This was someone dancing. These are dance steps. Besides, these footprints belong to two girls. It should be Shen Qianjue and her partner.”

The owners of these footprints had been barefoot and had small feet. One set of dance steps looked very clear—the owner obviously had strong control over their body—while the other set was sloppy.

Why would they dance here? Does it have something to do with the dancing girls?

I looked up towards the end of the walkway and could vaguely see a huge coffin lying at the top.

My mood was complicated as I suddenly had a very bad feeling.

<Chapter 46><Table of Contents><Chapter 48>

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