Vollständiges Metamorphose-Handbuch

Kapitel 51

The young master gasped, involuntarily covering his mouth and retreating behind me. I, too, stared in disbelief at what lay before me. What were those things? But I could tell they were internal organs… animal organs, preserved to this day by some unknown method, though now, due to their long immersion in liquid, they had taken on an eerie pale white hue. Those clumps, I could tell, were originally intestines…

In the middle of these intestines, there is a head placed neatly, which should be a human head. In this way, the internal organs in the bottle are from a human.

Who is this person? Why were their head and internal organs cruelly removed and preserved in a bottle after death? This viscous liquid must have some kind of preservative effect, and considering the bottle's airtight seal and its long underground exposure, this thing… this disgusting and wicked substance has been preserved for thousands of years. But where is the remaining part of the incomplete corpse inside the bottle?

"How could such disgusting things be in this bottle?" the young master said, trembling.

I was filled with a thousand regrets. I should never have broken that bottle. Look at the eerie, bright yellow liquid spilled on the ground, a clump of half-rotten intestines and entrails tangled together, and on top of that, a human head. After being submerged in the liquid for so long, its face had turned an eerie pale white, already half-rotten. But for some reason, its eyes were open. It wasn't my imagination; it was staring at us menacingly…

I instinctively touched my stomach, my intestines churning, and I almost vomited. I turned to look at Huang Zhihua standing beside me, and saw that his face was also extremely pale. After a long pause, he finally said, "It's a ghost..."

I smiled wryly. At a time like this, he could have said anything, but he had to blurt out this sentence.

"Clang... clang..." Just as our attention was completely drawn to the disgusting contents of the bottle, suddenly, the sound of an iron chain being pulled rang out, and before we could react, the entire stone door slowly opened.

"The stone gate has opened!" Even the usually audacious young master was startled and whispered.

Huang Zhihua raised his gun and aimed it at the entrance. This ancient tomb was riddled with traps and mechanisms; it was incredibly lucky we'd survived this long. But, to our surprise, the main burial chamber opened without any traps.

The stone door, carved with a girl and a qilin, slowly opened to both sides, revealing an empty, dark interior where nothing could be seen clearly.

I shone my flashlight around; the tomb chamber seemed very large, and I couldn't see anything clearly from the outside...

"Shall we go in?" the young master asked me timidly, clearly terrified.

Now that things have come to this, how could I say we shouldn't go in? If we don't go in, we have no way out. I said, "Everyone, be careful, don't get separated." My worry for the girl grew stronger. We'd been separated for so long; in this pitch-black underground world, I didn't even know if she was alive or dead.

The three of us cautiously stepped through the stone gate, but nothing happened. For some reason, I couldn't help but turn around to look at the entrance. What I saw terrified me. A blurry shadow was hanging behind us, seemingly a person, yet also like some kind of animal.

I suddenly turned around and swung my bronze sword fiercely at the shadow, but my bronze sword struck the air. My sword missed its mark, and I felt a hollow and uncomfortable emptiness in my heart.

"Old Xu, what are you doing?" the young master asked me.

I said, "I saw a shadow following us." Huang Zhihua and the young master turned around and looked, but there was nothing there. They both looked at me at the same time, and Huang Zhihua said, "Maybe we're just seeing things?"

I shook my head, knowing full well that I wasn't seeing things... but what exactly was that shadow? Why was it following us, and what was its purpose?

I gripped the bronze sword tightly, handed the flashlight to the young master, and told him that no matter what, he must not lose the flashlight.

The young master was clearly terrified; his face was pale, and he had lost his earlier ferocity. His hand holding the flashlight was trembling. I looked in the direction of the flashlight beam and was surprised to find that the stone door to the tomb was open. I had assumed that the main tomb chamber was inside, but I never expected that it would turn out to be a long passageway.

The passageway was very wide, or rather, it couldn't be called a passageway. I estimated its width to be about five meters. There were stone pillars on both sides, and the pillars were, needless to say, intricately carved with countless birds and beasts, the craftsmanship of which was exquisite.

I sighed inwardly, recalling Huang Zhihua's earlier words: if this entire tomb were developed into a tourist attraction, it would show those blond-haired, blue-eyed foreigners just how profound and extensive Chinese culture is! But now, we are trapped in this vast tomb, and ironically—to this day, I still don't know who the owner of this ancient tomb is.

That damned old man from the south probably knows something, but he won't say it, and there's nothing I can do about it.

"Mr. Huang, may I ask you a question?" I said, and as I spoke, the three of us walked into the passageway.

"Old Xu is just being polite!" Huang Zhihua said with a wry smile. "We're all in the same boat. At this point, we can't even save our own lives. Why can't we just say what we want to say?"

"Do you know who the owner of this ancient tomb is?" I asked. The old man from the south was clearly unwilling to tell us, but Huang Zhihua's identity was different; he must know more than we did.

A bitter smile appeared on Huang Zhihua's face. After a long while, he said, "I asked him, and he said..." He stopped abruptly.

The young master was very displeased with his behavior and coldly retorted, "We're having trouble even getting out of here now, and you're still hiding it from us?"

Huang Zhihua said it wasn't that he was hiding anything, but rather that the shocking truth was too much for most people to hear. The old man from the south said that this might be the tomb of the Yellow Emperor's woman...

"Is this the Yellow Emperor, one of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors?" I asked curiously. "So what if this is the tomb of the Yellow Emperor's woman? Why is he being so hesitant?"

Huang Zhihua looked at the pillars on both sides, pondered for a moment, and said, "You are right. We may never get out. Even if we do, we don't know how long we can live. That damned Nanpaizi didn't tell me much. He said... the era of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors is too far removed from us, and the records of ancient times are really incomplete. But no matter what the records are, they all mention the great battle between the Yellow Emperor and the Great Demon King Chiyou in Zhuolu. That battle should be the dividing line of human civilization."

“That’s all I know,” the young master interjected, “that battle was indeed the dividing line of human civilization. From then on, the Central Plains people began to unify, and the Chinese civilization was born.”

"No!" I interrupted the young master abruptly. If that were the case, the old man from the South would have no reason to hide it.

“That’s definitely not the case!” Huang Zhihua said, looking at the magnificent tomb corridor. “When that old man told me about it, I didn’t believe him. If the curse of the Yellow River Dragon Coffin hadn’t already formed, if so many people hadn’t died inexplicably, and if you hadn’t brought back a bronze sword from the Guangchuan King’s Mausoleum that we couldn’t explain with science, I would have thought he was just an old lunatic. But after I entered this tomb, I suddenly realized that maybe what he said was true… but this truth shocked me to the core.”

Chapter Four: The Lost Civilization

I looked down at the bronze sword in my hand. Indeed, this ancient sword, which the young master called a divine weapon, appeared to be made of bronze, but what was it actually made of? As we all know, bronze is definitely not as hard as ordinary steel, and the weapons made from it also have the unique flexibility of bronze. It would never be as gleaming and sharp as the bronze sword in my hand. Even weapons made with modern technology cannot compare to it. Moreover, after thousands of years, it still retains its original sharpness.

I don't understand, what method is there to guarantee that a certain metal will not rust for thousands of years?

Huang Zhihua laughed sarcastically: "You've discovered it too? The ancient bronze sword in your hand isn't actually made of bronze?"

I nodded in agreement. I had already studied this bronze sword; it was definitely not an ordinary bronze artifact. But the problem was... its surface was exactly the same as that of an ordinary bronze artifact.

"Even with modern technology, such a tomb would require a huge amount of financial and material resources, including large cranes and mixers. And what about these stone carvings and those mechanisms that we don't know how to control?" As Huang Zhihua spoke, he couldn't help but reach out and stroke a stone pillar next to him. If these exquisite stone carvings were taken out, they would probably drive the entire archaeological community crazy.

I was stunned. I had always been amazed by the grandeur of ancient tombs, but I had never delved into this question. Indeed, how much manpower would it take to build such an ancient tomb, and how was it completed in ancient times without modern technology? How could the mechanisms of an ancient tomb remain intact for thousands of years?

How were the rainy night scene behind the starry sky, as well as natural phenomena such as lightning, imitated? We know better than anyone that there are absolutely no real natural phenomena such as lightning here.

Huang Zhihua added that the stone door he just saw was activated by a sensor. Although he didn't understand the principle, he knew one thing: modern technology probably couldn't control such a stone door to remain intact for thousands of years and still be able to open normally.

I shuddered. What was he trying to say?

He turned to look at me, then suddenly gave a strange, inexplicable smile and whispered, "Don't you understand yet?"

"Understand what?" the young master asked curiously.

"The Battle of Zhuolu was not the beginning of another chapter for the Chinese nation, but the demise of a civilization. The descendants of the Chinese were merely crawling on the ruins of war, picking up bits and pieces of civilization, and rewriting a new chapter... That damned old man said that in that era, perhaps it was a world where many races coexisted. Therefore, while the defeat at Zhuolu was a complete annihilation, the victory was probably hard-won, and it may even have been a lose-lose situation. The civilization of that era was almost entirely wiped out. Afterwards, if you have studied history, you should know about that great flood, the famous Yu the Great's flood control efforts. But where did this flood come from?" Huang Zhihua paused here, turning to look at me.

"Could that flood be related to this?" I asked, puzzled.

"According to that old man, the Yellow River flood was caused by the great battle between the emperor and Chiyou. But I don't know the exact details," Huang Zhihua said, frowning.

"That Yu the Great and the Emperor seem to be from different eras, and not just by a year or two, right?" I asked, puzzled. History may have some discrepancies, but they shouldn't be that far off!

Huang Zhihua angrily cursed, "Who knows what the truth of history is? But there is one thing I can prove now: that old man's words were not unfounded. Perhaps he was right. The great battle between the emperor and Chiyou was just a racial conflict. Moreover, before that, human civilization had experienced an inexplicable period of high development, and the result of that battle was that human civilization began to regress."

My heart was pounding. Human civilization was once highly developed... How could this be?

The young master, who had been silent until now, suddenly shook his head and said, "The four ancient civilizations in history all have a natural phenomenon that is inexplicable. For example, the Egyptian pyramids. I don't believe that the ancients could build such a huge tomb, just as I still can't believe that this underground palace-like tomb was built thousands of years ago. Old Xu, do you believe it?"

I nodded. If this massive underground tomb were to ever see the light of day, it would certainly rival the beauty of the Egyptian pyramids.

Huang Zhihua looked up at the ceiling of the tomb passage, which was also paved with pure white stone slabs carved with intricate patterns. It was magnificent yet had a sense of oppressive eeriness. He continued, "I have researched a lot about the history of the Yellow Emperor and Chiyou. According to legend, the Yellow Emperor's original surname was Ji. Because he invented the wheeled vehicle, his descendants adopted the surname Xuanyuan to commemorate him. However, many ancient books record that he... was a four-faced monster."

"What?" I asked, puzzled.

“He’s a monster with four heads, four different faces facing the four cardinal directions…” Huang Zhihua said in a low voice.

My mind went blank. Monsters all around? Wasn't that the ancient seal? Could it be that the ancient seal was actually an imperial relic? Thinking of this, I couldn't help but feel a chill run down my spine, as if I had fallen into an abyss. What was the truth of history?

"That's all I know. There are many things that the damned old man is unwilling to say. I don't know if he's just being mysterious." Huang Zhihua sighed helplessly, and then said, "However, he vaguely revealed that in order to investigate this so-called historical truth, almost every generation of the Nanpaizi lineage has given their lives in the ancient tomb. It was only after his generation that they were able to figure out a little bit about the rumors about the Shadow Kunlun Wind Eye."

"So, that damned old man from the south already knew that the person buried in the Shadow Kunlun Wind Eye was extraordinary?" I was seething with anger. Damn it, why didn't he come down himself? Why did he have to send us laymen in? For some reason, a wicked fire rose in my heart. If anything happened to the girl, I would use his head to appease her spirit. I would throw his body into the Yellow River to be buried with her.

"So, the one in Huanghe's eyes..." The young master seemed to have thought of something and asked in shock.

"The Guangchuan Royal Mausoleum we visited might be the tomb of an emperor, while the one buried in the eye of the Yellow River might be Chi You. That ancient seal isn't a river-suppressing seal, but rather a seal to suppress a demon king," Huang Zhihua sighed. A sudden thought struck me; I remembered the few lines left by the old man who committed suicide up there. Could it be that he, too, had discovered something?

The shadow of Kunlun is broken, the Yellow River's eyes are dry, the ghost coffin is opened, and the Demon King appears?

Now, we are in the Shadow Kunlun Wind Eye. How can we break through? And even if we do, what then? I don't want to investigate the truth of history, but I want to get out alive. Life is short, and I don't want to waste my life here, to be buried with some dead person from thousands of years ago.

"What... is that?" Suddenly, the young master pulled me aside and stammered.

"What?" I hadn't recovered from the shock just now, and my mind was a little confused. I seemed to have grasped something, but when I tried to think about it carefully, I couldn't remember anything. As I spoke, I slowly walked into the passageway. The pace wasn't fast, no, it should be said that it was very slow, because the young master had been studying the carvings on those large stone pillars for a long time along the way.

"It looks like there's someone..." the young master stammered, pointing ahead.

"A person?" Huang Zhihua and I were both taken aback. We looked in the direction he was pointing and saw a black shoe peeking out from behind a large stone pillar in front of us. It looked like someone was lying on the ground.

Could anyone be here? I was shocked. I gave Huang Zhihua a wink, and the three of us tiptoed over. The closer we got, the clearer it became that it was a pair of sneakers.

“Those are… the girl’s shoes.”

"Girl?" Upon hearing this, the young master rushed over. Afraid he might cause trouble, I quickly followed, as this place was shrouded in mystery. When I turned the pillar, I was stunned. Good heavens—those were indeed the girl's shoes, and not only shoes, but also her waterproof gear, gas mask, backpack, and so on, all neatly placed behind the pillar. But the girl herself was nowhere to be seen…

"Girl..." the young master couldn't help but exclaim, his voice echoing hoarsely in the empty tomb passage.

I looked at Huang Zhihua, and he was looking in my direction too. The girl had actually run into the tomb chamber before us, but where was she? All her things were here. No—it's impossible. In a tomb chamber like this, the girl couldn't have even lost her flashlight. I saw the young master rummage through the girl's backpack and find the flashlight and other things. In fact, all of the girl's belongings were here. She actually threw away all her tools and weapons?

Could it be that she no longer needs lighting? In this pitch-black underground, if she doesn't need lighting, there's only one possibility: she's dead?

I shuddered at my own deduction and couldn't help but look around. The passageway to the tomb was almost at its end, with two stone doors ahead, also carved with reliefs of a qilin and the girl. The carving was exquisite. Perhaps... the real tomb was just ahead?

As I looked at the relief sculpture of the girl who resembled Ya Tou, I felt a strange, inexplicable feeling. If Ya Tou had truly perished, what happened to her body? Why were only her belongings left behind, but not her?

"Something's not right," Huang Zhihua suddenly exclaimed.

"What's wrong?" I was already annoyed by the girl's situation, so I asked her irritably.

“Look—” Huang Zhihua picked up the girl’s flashlight from the ground, turned it on, and shone it on the ground, saying, “Look, these three rows of footprints are where the three of us entered, but—if the girl entered, why are there no footprints on the ground?”

I looked in the direction of the flashlight beam and sure enough, the pure white stone ground was incredibly smooth. Although it hadn't been opened for thousands of years and was covered in dust, this only made our footprints clearer. However, there were only three rows of footprints on the ground, and apart from that, not even a speck of dust was stirred up.

Unless the girl grew wings and could fly in, how did she get in? Not only were there no footprints on the ground, but there was also no trace of anyone walking on the ground where the water bottle and shoes were placed. How could this be?

I turned around and looked at the stone gate at the end of the passageway not far away. The more I looked, the more terrified I felt. It seemed that the girl carvings on the stone gate were smiling at me, which was indescribably eerie and unpredictable, and faintly revealed a demonic aura.

"Never mind all that, let's go into the tomb and take a look." I stared intently at the tomb entrance not far away and said fiercely. If anything really happens to that girl, I'll dig up the tomb's owner and grind his bones to dust.

Young Master and Huang Zhihua agreed with my opinion. After all, too many inexplicable phenomena had already occurred in this tomb, and we could accept it even if some more strange and unpredictable things happened. But the problem is, concern can cloud judgment. Originally, we were studying this ancient tomb from an outsider's perspective, but now we are shocked to discover that we seem to have some kind of special connection with it.

I couldn't help but think of the bronze human figures tied to the four pillars below the water platform, and that indescribable feeling of familiarity... as if I myself were the one tied there.

I closed my eyes, trying hard to recall everything that had happened since I entered this place. It all seemed to be related to the girl relief, but I wondered if she was the female owner of this tomb? The emperor's woman?

Soon, the three of us walked quickly to the stone gate. I looked around and saw that there were no decorations, no Qilin, and no stone bottle in front of the gate. It looked empty and a bit desolate. Most importantly, I looked around and couldn't find the mechanism to open it.

The stone door was tightly shut, and opening it would definitely not be an easy task.

"Use explosives?" I turned to Huang Zhihua for his opinion; I remembered he had brought explosives with him.

"No way, I'm afraid it might collapse and bury us all alive." Huang Zhihua shook his head with a wry smile, refusing my request. He looked around and said, "There should be a mechanism that can be activated."

Damn it, I know there should be a mechanism to activate it, but the problem is—I can't fathom the thinking of the ancients from thousands of years ago. Heaven knows where they installed the method to activate the mechanism? Suddenly I remembered something. It seems that since we entered the Shadow Kunlun Eye of Wind, all the stone doors and mechanisms in the tomb chambers have opened by themselves, not because we found the method to activate them.

Why? Are we just incredibly lucky? That can't be right, can it? Or is there some kind of arrangement in the dark that we don't know about?

"Old Xu, look here!" The young master suddenly shouted as he groped around on the stone door with both hands.

"What are you looking at?" I was startled by his sudden shout and asked with a frown.

"There's a gap here, inside the Qilin's mouth. Come and take a look!" the young master said. Curious, I walked to the stone door and looked in the direction the young master was pointing. The Qilin's mouth was slightly open, and because it was in relief, its two fangs were exposed, looking extremely terrifying and realistic. However, the inside was empty, with a deep gap about two fingers wide, but the depth was unknown.

"This might be the mechanism that opens the stone gate," Huang Zhihua added, joining in.

I nodded, thought for a moment, and said, "There's probably a key or something, but where do we look for the key now?" As I spoke, I looked at the stone gate again. The stone gate was empty, there was nothing there, not even a piece of gravel, let alone a key.

"What should we do then?" The young master was clearly anxious, pacing around in circles, urging me to think of a solution quickly.

I was even more anxious than the young master, staring intently at the stone door. The key… the notch in the Qilin's mouth was definitely the keyhole, but where was the key? After thousands of years, perhaps the key was long gone? If the key hadn't been left in this underground tomb, even searching the entire ancient tomb wouldn't be able to open the stone door. Oh well, might as well try anything, modern lock-picking techniques are quite advanced.