Mark of Chapter 36 of Genting Tiangong Chapter

I squatted down and tried to identify these strange foreign symbols again, but to no avail. The lines were too messy. Although I could tell that they were the same words as what we just saw at the entrance of the square hole, but which words were they? It is composed of two letters and cannot be dismantled. I even doubt whether this is English.

The fat man was also very curious: "Are you sure this wasn't left by your third master?"

Pan Zi nodded, expressing his absolute certainty. "The Third Master is not that fancy. If he wants to leave a mark, he usually just knocks out a hole. This is definitely not left by the Third Master. I think we should be careful. Not all marks are used to guide the way."

I understood what he meant. If this sign was not a guide, it could be a warning of danger.

However, nothing dangerous happened after I saw the symbol in the underwater tomb, and there are only two passages. I could go one way or the other. I was not sure about either one, so it would be the same if I chose any one. There seemed no point in hesitating at this time.

The fat man was still leading the way, and I followed him into the corridor.

It is very wide inside, big enough for two Jiefang trucks to drive side by side. As soon as the fat man went in, he said that it was a mule road, which was the path used by mule carts during construction. This is indeed possible, because I have never seen such a wide tomb passage. I can still vaguely see the traces of wheel tracks from that year on the ground. But the strange thing is that the corridor is very cold inside, and I don't know how much the temperature has dropped. There is also cold wind blowing from inside, as if it is connected to the outside. We all know that no matter what ancient tomb it is, it pays great attention to sealing. Where does this wind come from?

"This is the wind from nowhere." Pan Zi was infected by the atmosphere and lowered his voice to say to me: "Our ancestors called this the breathing of ghosts. This kind of thing often happens in large tombs, but it's not dangerous."

"Is there an explanation? How did it happen?" I asked.

Pan Zi shook his head. "Most of the stories that have been passed down are just theories. No one has studied them. Besides, it's best not to study them."

I thought so too. In that era, tomb robbing was done for the sake of food and clothing. As long as they knew whether it was dangerous or not, they had no time to care about how all kinds of strange phenomena occurred.

The first section of the corridor was relatively flat, but later it began to collapse and the ground broke. Many black stone slabs were pried up from the ground, making the ground undulating. This is natural damage caused by crustal movement. There are reinforced arch beams on both sides of the corridor at regular intervals, and they are carved with single dragons and coiled columns. Many of them are cracked. I think if there were no such reinforcement measures, the corridor would have collapsed long ago.

The group walked quietly for about 70 to 80 meters without saying a word. Suddenly, the fat man stopped and asked, "Door?"

We all stopped and shone the flashlight forward. At the end of the corridor, we saw a black stone tomb door. The eaves and tiles on the door were carved with cloud dragons, grass dragons and two lions playing with a ball. The door scroll seemed to be made of metal. There was a sheep carved on the left door and another unknown object carved on the right door. When we got closer, we saw that the stone door was tightly closed. The gaps and bolts were sealed with copper paste. However, on the left door, on the sheep's belly, there was a hole as big as a washbasin. The cold wind was blowing out from this hole.

"This is not a door." I pushed it. "If it can't be opened, it's not a door. This is a sealing stone. It's made of large pieces of black stone, and then sealed with molten copper to freeze it into a whole, making it look like a door. The fat man is right. This corridor is a mule path. It is built so wide to make it easier for mules to drag these stones."

The fat man squatted down and looked at the hole on the tomb door: "There is a sealing stone in the tomb passage. It seems that this tomb passage should be very important. It can lead to the center of the underground palace. The road is correct. The mark seems to be really to lead us. And the hole is opened, they have already gone in." As he said, he stuck half of his head in, put the flashlight in, and shone it on the situation inside.

We asked him how it was and what was in it?

He said: "It's still the tomb passage, and there's a sealing stone inside. It seems that Emperor Wannu lacked a sense of security since he was a child."

I said, "Bullshit, your door has three insurances, and there are at least three sealing stones, three thousand worlds, do you understand?"

The fat man didn't hear what I said. He put the flashlight inside, shrunk and ran into the hole on the door, and came to the other side of the seal. I heard him stutter and mutter to himself: "Fuck, it's so cold."

Pan Zi handed him the gun and he crawled in. I followed behind him, and Shun Zi brought up the rear. We all crawled into the cave. Sure enough, there was a tomb passage behind us. The temperature was lower than the other side, and we immediately felt tight all over. There was another sealing stone in front of us, but this one was simpler and had no eaves outside. There was also a hole blown in the sealing stone, which was bigger than the previous one.

We didn't stop and continued to climb. The situation behind was the same. The tomb passage continued, and in front of us was another sealing stone with a hole on it.

"Fuck, this never ends." the fat man muttered.

I said, "This is normal. Generally, the sealing stones weigh seven or eight tons. Longer tomb passages may have six or seven layers of sealing stones. These are considered good ones, and the thickness may be only half. Our ancestors did not have explosives, and there was no way to deal with ancient tombs with sealing stones blocking the passages."

As we were talking, we passed the last sealing stone and a crossroad appeared in front of us. Another tomb passage that intersected perpendicularly with the corridor we were in passed in front of us. This intersecting tomb passage was half the width of the corridor we were in and much higher.

We walked to the center of the intersection one after another and found that this tomb passage was not black like the previous one, but a bright red one. It was covered with a large number of brightly colored murals, which were almost connected into one, covering the place where the flashlight could not reach. Even the top of the tomb passage was covered with colorful murals.

I exclaimed in admiration, "This must be the main tomb passage, a straight path leading directly to the coffin hall, the central axis of the entire underground tomb, otherwise it wouldn't be decorated so gorgeously."

"Don't sigh. We are thieves. It's still the same old question. Where should we go?" the fat man asked. "Look quickly. Are there any signs to guide us nearby?"

After several times of crossing the narrow tunnel, we had already lost our sense of direction. To distinguish which end of the main tomb passage led to the center of the underground palace and which end led to the main tomb gate, we could only rely on the reminders of our predecessors, otherwise we could only guess by tossing a coin.

We moved our flashlights back and forth in the tomb passage, searching for that symbol. The red murals emitted a light that made us feel very unsafe. The murals here were of the same style that we had seen in the crevices of the hot springs before entering the mountain. They were all flying chariots and ladies, and seemed to have no special meaning. Of course, if we asked archaeologists, they would be able to give us some idea of what they were, but in our opinion, murals without a narrative nature were purely decorative, and we could not understand the symbolic meaning.

After searching for a while, Pan Zi on the side suddenly said "hmm" and called us over.

We moved closer and indeed found another symbol carved on the corner of the tomb passage.

"This is a big relief. We have run into Comrade Leifeng, the living tomb raider." The fat man said. "We can just follow the path."

At this time, I shook my head, because I found that this symbol was different from the ones we had seen before.