Chapter 26 Mark

I crouched down, once again trying to identify these strange symbols in a foreign language, but it was useless—the lines were too messy. Although I could see that it was the same mark as the one we saw at the square entrance just now, it was impossible to tell which letters had been used. I even started to wonder if it was actually English.

Fatty was also curious, “Are you sure this wasn’t left by that Master Three of yours?”

Pan Zi nodded, showing that he was absolutely certain, “Master Three isn’t this elaborate. If he wants to leave a mark, he usually just makes a small hole. This definitely wasn’t left by Master Three. I think we need to be more careful—these marks might not necessarily be used show the way.”

I knew what he meant—if this mark wasn’t a guide, then it may be a warning that something dangerous was ahead.

However, nothing dangerous had happened after we saw the mark in the undersea tomb, and there were only two tunnels here. If one wasn’t right, we could simply turn around and try the other one. Since it didn’t matter which one we chose, it seemed pointless to stand around here hesitating.

Fatty was the first to enter the tunnel, with me following close behind.

Once inside, I found that it was wide enough for two liberation trucks to drive side-by-side. Fatty said that this was a mule road, which was a road for mule-drawn carts to use during the construction process. I knew that it was indeed possible, because I had never seen such a wide tomb passage before, and there were also faint rut marks on the ground. But strangely enough, it was very cold inside the tunnel. The temperature had dropped several degrees, and there was a cold wind blowing from further inside, as if this tunnel was connected to the outside world. We all knew that no matter what kind of ancient tomb it was, it would have been sealed airtight when it was constructed, so where was this wind coming from?

“This is the wind of eternity,” Pan Zi said to me in a low voice, seemingly affected by the atmosphere here. “Our ancestors called it ghost breath. It often happens in large tombs, but it’s not dangerous.”

“Is there an explanation for it? Where does it come from?” I asked.

Pan Zi shook his head, “It’s just a saying that’s been passed down through the years. No one has studied it, and it’s best not to.”

I figured he was right. At that time, grave robbing was done for the sake of buying food and clothing, so all they needed to know was whether it was dangerous or not. There was no time to figure out where all the various strange phenomena came from.

The first part of the tunnel was fairly flat, but later, we began to see signs of collapse and cracks on ground. Many black stone slabs were sticking up from the ground, which made the floor of the tunnel very uneven—this was the damage caused by movement of the earth’s crust. On both sides of the tunnel were arched support beams placed at regular intervals, each of their cracked pillars carved with the image of a single dragon coiled around the pillar. I knew that without this reinforcement measure, the tunnel would have collapsed long ago.

We all walked in silence for about seventy or eighty meters before Fatty suddenly stopped and said, “A door?”

We all stopped as well, shining our flashlights in front of us—there really was a black stone door at the end of the tunnel. The flying eaves and circular eave tiles were carved with patterns of dragons frolicking in the clouds and grass, as well as two lions playing with a ball.⁽¹⁾ The grooves on the door seemed to be made of metal, with a sheep carved on the left door panel, and some unknown thing carved on the right door panel. Looking closer, we could see that the stone door was tightly sealed—the seams and door bolt had been covered in melted copper. But on the left door panel, a hole as big as a washbasin had been blasted in the spot where the sheep’s stomach was supposed to be. It was from this hole that the cold wind was blowing out of.

“This isn’t a door.” I pushed it. “If you can’t open it, then it’s not a door. This is a sealing stone. It was made from large black stones, and then sealed with melted copper that eventually froze to form a solid mass that looked like a door. Fatty is right—this tunnel is a mule road. The reason it’s so wide is because the mules needed to drag these stones here.”

Fatty squatted down and looked at the hole in the door, “If there’s a sealing stone in the tomb passage, then it seems like this tomb passage should be very important. It might even lead to the center of the underground palace. It looks like we’re on the right path and that mark really is guiding us. Plus, the hole has already been made, and someone has already entered it.” As he spoke, he stuck half of his head into the hole and shined his flashlight in, scoping out the situation inside.

We asked him how it was and whether he saw anything inside.

“It’s another tomb passage,” he replied. “There’s also another sealing stone up ahead. It seems that King Wannu had a deep-seated sense of insecurity.”

“Bullshit,” I said. “Don’t you have three locks on the door of your house? And there should be at least three sealing stones in an imperial tomb. Three thousand worlds, you understand?”⁽²⁾

Fatty wasn’t paying attention to what I said, too busy placing his flashlight inside the hole and then contorting his body to fit through the opening. Once he was completely inside, I heard him mutter, “Fuck, it’s so cold.”

Pan Zi handed him the gun and then followed in after him. I climbed in next, with Shunzi bringing up the rear. Sure enough, there really was a tomb passage on the other side, and the temperature was much lower. We all immediately tensed up. Looking around, there really was another sealing stone in front of us, but this one was relatively simple and didn’t have any flying eaves. A hole had also been blasted in the sealing stone, but this one was bigger than the one we just came through.

Without delay, we quickly climbed through the hole, only to find that the other side was exactly the same—there was another tomb passage with a sealing stone in front of us that also had a hole blasted through it.

“Shit, it’s fucking endless,” Fatty muttered.

“This is normal,” I said to him. “Generally, sealing stones weigh seven or eight tons, and longer tomb passages will have six or seven of them. Seeing these here is a good sign. They’re probably half as thick as normal and already have holes in them. Our ancestors didn’t have explosives, so there wasn’t anything they could do in tombs that were blocked with such stones.”

As we talked, we passed through the last sealing stone and arrived at a crossroads. Another tomb passage ran perpendicular to the one we were in, but it was half as wide as ours and the ceiling appeared to be much higher.

We walked to the center of the intersection and found that this tomb passage wasn’t black like the one we had just walked through. Instead, it was a shade of red. There were a large number of colorful murals on the walls, which were painted in such a way that they almost seemed to be a continuous narrative. They not only covered all the places where our flashlights couldn’t reach, but also covered the top of the tomb passage.

I couldn’t help but sigh in admiration, “This must be the main tomb passage leading directly to the coffin hall. It should be the central axis of the whole underground palace; otherwise, it wouldn’t have been decorated so beautifully.”

“Why are you getting emotional? We’re thieves. Right now, we need to answer the same old question: which way do we go?” Fatty said. “Let’s look around and see if there are any of those marks to guide the way.”

After passing through several narrow tunnels, we had already lost our sense of direction. In order to tell which way led to the center of the underground palace and which led to the main tomb entrance, we could only rely on the clues left by our predecessor. Otherwise, the only thing we could do was toss a coin and guess.

Our flashlights swept around the tomb passage, looking for that familiar mark. The way the red murals reflected the light was so creepy that we all felt a little uneasy. The murals here were done in the same style as the one we saw in the hot spring fissure before we entered the mountain, with immortals in carriages and beautiful ladies soaring among the clouds. They didn’t seem to have any special meaning. Of course, archaeologists would have been able to explain their significance, but to us, murals without a narrative were purely decorative. There was no way we’d be able to understand their symbolic meaning.

After searching for a while, Pan Zi suddenly made a noise and called us over to him.

When we walked over, we saw that he really did find another mark. This one was carved on the corner of the adjacent tomb passage.

“Well, this makes things fucking easy. Did we meet the Lei Feng⁽³⁾ of the grave robbing world or something?” Fatty asked. “Let’s just keep following these marks the whole way.”

I immediately shook my head, because at this time, I noticed that the mark was different from the ones we saw before.

<Chapter 25><Table of Contents><Chapter 27>

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TN Notes:

(1) Flying eaves pics here. Circular eaves are also known as “wadang”, and refer to the round tile at the front of the eaves, located in front of the tube tile (2 pics at the top). Two lions playing with a ball would look like the bottom 2 pics.

(2) I’m assuming it’s a sealing stone for like every 1,000 worlds or whatever.  

(3) Lei Feng (1940-1962), made into a model of selflessness, modesty, and dedication to the Party by propaganda from 1963 onwards.

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Since Syrights asked, here you go (sorry for the poor quality. Their flashlights made it hard to get a good screenshot):

Mark from the bottom of the moat (lost tomb 2.5 ep 19 at the 10:14 mark)

Mark from undersea tomb (lost tomb 2.5 ep 19 at the 10:51 mark)

Mark at the intersection (lost tomb 2.5 ep 19 at the 26:32 mark)