Ghost Blows Out the Light Fanfiction Fragments of the Hidden Scriptures - Saving San Francisco

Chapter 7

The fat man shouted, "How can I dig? I can't free my hands!"

No sooner had the words left his mouth than the ground gave way to our weight. The Swiss Army knife, which had been deeply embedded in the ground, tilted and dug up a fist-sized piece of ore, which, along with us, was sucked into the mouth of the ice fish outside the door.

The gale suddenly stopped, and I felt a chill run down my spine as the cold, fishy teeth pierced my skin. Suddenly, the strange fish let out a pig-like scream, and Fatty and I were thrown into the tunnel.

A large chunk of dark green ore fell into the strange fish's mouth, emitting white smoke as it corroded and rotted away any part of Ice Enchantress's body it touched. Ice Enchantress, in pain, no longer resembled the strange fish's head; only a large mass of ice remained, writhing and struggling on the ground before the rest burrowed into the earth.

I grabbed the fat man, shouted "Run!" and dashed into the bronze door.

The fat man was a little slow, and his calves were encased in the rapidly changing ice layer, blocking him outside the door. He stumbled and fell into the hall along with the thin ice membrane.

When I turned around, I saw that the ice mass had quickly reformed and was now lodged in the passageway. I hurriedly pushed the bronze door open, but before the wind had even picked up, I had already slammed it shut.

Ice Fairy screamed wildly outside the door, the sound shaking the entire hall.

The fat man and I collapsed to the ground, panting heavily with fear.

Volume 1 Ancient Tomb at the Cape, Chapter 20: The Thousand-Year-Old Ice Tomb

Outside the door, Ice Enchantress screamed repeatedly. Fatty and I collapsed to the ground, unable to move for a long time.

I stretched out my legs, and some icy teeth had already torn through my pants, broken off and lying inside the trouser legs, chillingly cold.

The fat man picked up the wolf-eye flashlight from the ground and shone it into the depths of the underworld palace. Inside, eight enormous bronze pillars stood in two rows, each carved with decorative patterns resembling sharp weapons and auspicious clouds. The pillars themselves were a deep, gleaming bronze, giving off a majestic and solemn atmosphere.

In the very center of the main hall, a small bridge spans a stream, leading to a magnificent bronze throne, gleaming and spotless. Beside the throne stand two bronze cranes, one on each side, their wings outstretched in graceful flight—clearly a feature of the court of some ancient king or emperor.

Fatty and I staggered over. Fatty plopped down on the bronze couch, exclaiming how comfortable it was. We were so tired that we simply lay down on the bronze couch, half-asleep, listening to the howling of the ice beast outside the door, and then fell asleep without stopping until the world seemed to end.

I awoke in a daze, not knowing how much time had passed. It was quiet outside; Ice Enchantress had stopped howling. I felt around me; Fatty was gone. The night was dark and heavy, so thick it was hard to breathe. I tiptoed to the bronze door, opened it, and found the passageway bubbling with red blood, flowing like a river of blood, eerily visible against the ice. Ice Enchantress was nowhere to be seen. I let out a long sigh and was about to close the door when suddenly a large amount of ice membrane surged from the doorknob, piling up layer upon layer. A huge, monstrous ice fish head emerged from the door and pressed against my nose. Strands of black human hair remained between the dripping ice teeth—Fatty's hair. Deep within the giant fish's throat, half of Fatty's bloodied, grinning face was faintly visible. My legs went weak, and I cried out, "Fatty!" The monstrous fish head had already bitten my cheek, and I screamed in terror...

A hand reached out from the side, grabbed my ear, and twisted it hard. A familiar voice called out, "Old Hu, Old Hu, wake up, are you having a nightmare?"

I opened my eyes, and a wave of dizziness washed over me; the light was blinding. It turned out that Fatty Wang was shining a wolf-eye flashlight into my eyes.

I wiped the cold sweat from my forehead and breathed a sigh of relief; thankfully, it was just a nightmare.

I glanced at my watch; it was already past midnight. We'd slept quite a while. Apart from the beam of the flashlight in Fatty's hand, everything was pitch black. Thinking about the nightmare I'd just had, my heart pounded again.

Damn it, how could I have such a dream? It's terrifying! It's like a person scaring another person, enough to kill them. I cursed myself inwardly.

Suddenly, a series of gurgling sounds came from the fat man, who muttered, "Damn it, I'm starving, and there's nothing to eat."

That's when I realized I was also starving and feeling unwell.

With nothing to eat right now, I had no choice but to tell Fatty to pack our bags and continue exploring the underground palace so we could get back to the surface as soon as possible. This place is fraught with danger; we need to find Shirley Yang quickly to ensure our safety.

Holding the Wolf Eye flashlight, I scouted ahead, with Fatty close behind.

Before he had taken two steps, he suddenly heard a loud crash. It turned out that the fat man had accidentally bumped into the bronze crane on the right side of the bronze couch.

Just as I was about to pull him up, I faintly felt the sound of a spring engaging. I knew something was wrong and yelled at the fat man, "Get down!"

I fell forward, sprawling on the ground.

A sudden gust of wind, like a torrential downpour, rushed past my scalp and thudded against the bronze couch.

About two minutes later, there was no sound. I was about to get up when I had a bad feeling, so I pressed down on the fat man behind me and made him crawl back to the ground.

Then came another sudden downpour, the sound of rain scattering the lotus leaves. Something whizzed overhead, hurtling around as if it were in an empty space.

When the noise stopped, the fat man quietly asked me, "That's all, right?"

I said, "Don't move. This is a typical 'three-barreled crossbow' from the Qin Dynasty tomb's mechanical system, capable of unleashing a rain of arrows." As the name suggests, there should be another volley of arrows.

About five minutes later, the springs clicked slightly, and an even denser rain of arrows pierced the air, its force extremely sharp.

In the darkness, I felt a tingling sensation on my scalp. A sharp arrow grazed my scalp, and blood gradually seeped out, stinging slightly. Thankfully, the stinging meant it wasn't a poisoned arrow.

At the same time, the fat man groaned as his anti-slip boots were pierced by an arrow, injuring his toes.

After the third volley of arrows, there was no movement for a long time. I groped and nudged the bronze crane, but there was nothing unusual.

I breathed a sigh of relief and said to the fat man, "That's enough, get up."

I turned on my wolf-eye flashlight, shone it around, and got up first. The fat man, clutching his foot, took off his boots, tore off a piece of his underwear, bandaged his wounded toe, and then put his boots back on to stand up.

I turned around and shone my flashlight on the bronze couch where I had just slept. It was covered with tens of thousands of long-feathered silver arrows. There wasn't even room for a fly to hide on the couch. I don't even want to think about what would have happened if they had hit us.

The fat man pulled out a long arrow; its bronze triangular arrowhead was incredibly sharp, heavy, and gleaming coldly. He tossed it lightly, and the arrowhead instantly embedded itself in the surface of the ink mine, leaving no trace.

The fat man exclaimed, "Damn, that's amazing!"

We walked towards the rear of the palace, one after the other.

Conventionally, the tombs of royalty and nobility are arranged in three sections: front, middle, and rear. The front section is the main hall (also called the underworld hall), which is arranged according to the living quarters of the deceased during their lifetime; the middle section is...

The main hall, or burial chamber, was where the coffin was placed; behind it were side halls used to store burial goods.

However, after turning around the hall, we found only a narrow passageway formed by the screen wall behind the bronze couch and the rear wall of the palace. After passing through the narrow passageway, we returned to the burial hall we were in. There was no three-courtyard tomb structure as we had imagined, and therefore no sleeping chamber or side halls.

I carefully tapped on every inch of the wall in the alley and found that it was a solid back wall of the underworld palace, with no mechanisms or space behind it.

This was completely unexpected. I couldn't immediately figure out the logic behind the tomb's layout.

According to the "Sixteen-Character Yin-Yang Feng Shui Secret Techniques", although the thousand-year-old ice tomb is a rare find, it is also designed by a feng shui master based on the geography, and it is probably of one of three types: the "回" shape, the "井" shape, and the three-entrance palace shape.

The peculiarity of the millennium-old ice tomb lies in its essential geographical location; it must be built around an ice core. Legend has it that the ice core is the ultimate yin point in the universe, from which all the cold and dampness of nature originates, evolving through the winds and clouds into snow, rain, ice, and frost. There is only one ice core in the entire universe, corresponding above to the twenty-eight constellations, symbolizing the winter season, and below to the eighteen levels of the underworld, symbolizing the seventeenth level, the icy hell. The ice core is the yin eye of the earth, capable of storing the earth's cold essence, freezing all living things, balancing the sun's fire essence, and harmonizing yin and yang in the universe.

It is said that if one can find the Yin Eye of the Earth and build a thousand-year-old ice tomb accordingly, the descendants of the tomb owner will be able to control the Yin and Yang forces of the world, possess supernatural powers in the underworld, command the world, and control the Earth (human) and Ghost realms of the three realms of Heaven, Earth (human), and Ghost, becoming extremely powerful.

Throughout history, only Solomon the Great, the wise king of the ancient Jewish kingdom in the mid-10th century, is known to have achieved this. In the Song Dynasty of China, it was only because Bao Zheng, the "Judge Bao," obtained the Yin-Yang Pillow, which absorbed the essence of ice cores, that he was able to barely glimpse the Yin-Yang arts of judging injustices in the mortal world by day and judging the ghosts of the underworld by night. Later attempts often fell short, let alone those concerning the ghosts.

The most regrettable aspect is the extreme difficulty in constructing a thousand-year-old ice tomb. Every ice core, the earth's yin eye, must be located in an extremely yin place, deeply buried within the earth's veins. If it is excavated, the icy air will kill anyone who touches it, wither any wood, dry up any metal, seal any water, flood any fire, and penetrate any earth element, making it extremely difficult to predict. Even if the tomb were to be successfully built, an extremely yin ice and snow demon—the Ice Enchantress—must be captured to guard it, nourish life, and maintain the remaining spiritual energy of its yin eye, thus condensing the yin and yang feng shui of heaven and earth to ensure the prosperity of future generations. From these two perspectives, even if the earth's yin eye were found, it would be impossible to create a thousand-year-old ice tomb.

Furthermore, once the ice tomb is formed, the person who selected the burial site, having revealed a heavenly secret, must sacrifice themselves as a "human offering" to the earth's yin eye, dying from the poison of yin cold. If the ice tomb is destroyed within a hundred years, the person who selected the burial site and the descendants of the tomb owner will suffer the calamity of extermination due to the alternation of yin and yang in heaven and earth. Therefore, even the most top-tier feng shui masters keep this a secret from the world and will not easily seek out the ice core.

In the book "The Sixteen-Character Yin-Yang Feng Shui Secret Techniques" by the patriarch Zhang Sanye Zhang Sanlianzi, he had never heard of a thousand-year-old ice tomb in his life. It was only recorded in the records passed down through generations. I never expected that I would stumble upon it here by chance.

Volume 1, Ancient Tomb at the Cape, Chapter 21: The Earth's Yin Eye (1)

Fatty and I circled around and around, but we still couldn't determine the location of the main hall and the side halls, which didn't conform to the common sense of traditional tombs at all.

The bored fat man touched the bronze crane from left to right and asked me with great interest, "Old Hu, if the bronze crane on the right can activate the 'Three-Shot Crossbow,' what is the function of the bronze crane on the left?"

I replied casually, "A crossbow that can shoot your ass through."

A repeating crossbow, a mechanism—a thought struck me. I walked to the bronze bed and glanced sideways. The repeating crossbow was firing from the top beam of the nearest huge bronze pillar.

After testing the firing direction and distance of the repeating crossbow, I said to Fatty, "Let's try the bronze crane on the left."

The fat man, always eager for chaos, nodded repeatedly and said, "Okay, let's give it a try."

After saying that, he asked worriedly, "Is it really just a repeating crossbow?"

We hid in a blind spot where the crossbows couldn't reach us, and the fat man stabbed the bronze crane hard with his military knife.

There was a hissing sound, but no repeating crossbow bolts were fired; instead, a wisp of white smoke rose from the bronze crane's beak.

It was poisonous smoke. I pulled the fat man away.

It seems time truly is the world's greatest expert at deciphering traps and hidden weapons. No matter how ingenious the mechanism was initially, it cannot withstand the erosion and test of centuries. Due to its age and ineffectiveness, only a wisp of poisonous smoke remained.

We dispersed the toxic fumes and walked over. Fatty's old habit of greed resurfaced. He stroked the exquisitely crafted bronze crane and said to me, "Old Hu, these two bronze cranes are quite old; they should be worth a few taels of silver."

I nodded and said, "Yes, at least we can exchange it for a courtyard house in one of Beijing's Eight Great Hutongs. Once you defeat Bing Meier outside, you can confidently carry it home."

Upon hearing this, the fat man looked dejected, as if he had a headache.

As I spoke, I touched the entire body of the bronze crane. When I pressed my hand on the crest of the crane, the bronze crane suddenly sank downwards, and a rusty, rattling sound came from beside me. The bronze bed then slowly shifted outwards by half a foot.

We went behind the bronze bed and found that a dark cave was exposed on the base of the bed, with wisps of cold air escaping from the opening.

I nodded to the fat man and said, "We may have found the entrance to the sleeping quarters."

It turns out that this thousand-year-old ice tomb was constructed by extending from the surface to the ground, meaning it is a three-chambered tomb structure resembling an upside-down onion.

The fat man shone his wolf-eye flashlight into the cave entrance and saw a spiraling copper staircase descending into the earth from the inside of the cave wall.

I broke off a cold firework and threw it down. The cold light bounced and tumbled down the steps, about several dozen meters deep, with only enough space for one person to pass at a time.

Fatty and I each held a wolf-eye flashlight. I jumped down into the cave first and bent over to scout ahead.

The temperature inside the cave plummeted, and the steps were covered in a thick layer of frost, making them almost impossible to stand on. The cold air seeped into my gloves, sending shivers down my spine.

We carefully descended several dozen meters into the cave, then the path turned diagonally to the right. Just as I raised my flashlight, I was suddenly struck by the sight of a golden-armored warrior at the corner, brandishing a gleaming spear and thrusting it straight at me.

I was startled, leaned back, and fell onto the steps, frantically waving my black folding staff to parry the spear.

The golden-armored warrior remained motionless. The fat man shone his flashlight carefully and was shocked to find it was just a corpse leaning against the corner of the tunnel.

I used a black folding tool to peel off the gold mask from the corpse's face. I could see that the deceased was in his prime, with a purplish-black complexion, a topknot at the back of his head, and his face covered with bluish-green ice crystals—typical features of an ancient West Asian. Because he was underground in the ice layer, the corpse was well frozen and hard, showing no signs of decay.

His cause of death was likely poisoning or ingestion. His face was contorted in a grimace, and strangely, his eye sockets were empty; his eyeballs were missing. He just stared at us blankly like that.

The fat man removed the helmet and spear from the frozen corpse. Because it was inconvenient to remove the armor and clothes, he couldn't immediately determine the cause of death by poisoning.

I walked around the ice corpse and said to the fat man, "Let's go."

I saw the fat man following behind me, casually picking up the gold mask from the ground and stuffing it into his backpack.

After walking about twenty meters to the right, a four-foot square bronze door appeared on the ground at the end of the tunnel.

I tentatively turned the handle on the bronze door, then pulled it up forcefully. The door creaked open. A large cloud of eerie energy rushed towards me, sending a chill down my spine.

This time, we don't need to throw cold fireworks in. Looking down from the cave entrance, we can clearly see that inside is a sacred temple. The entire temple is made of thick, transparent ice stone, or rather, it was carved out of a huge, millennia-old ice cave. The ice and snow shimmered, making the whole thing sparkle and dazzle the eyes.

The cave we were in was located diagonally above a huge ice pillar at the front of the Ice Palace.

The fat man took out a climbing rope, secured one end tightly to the ice beam, and we slid down the rope.

Standing in the ice palace, I felt as if I were in a giant mirror. On the smooth, polished ice walls and the ice floor, the shadows of me and Fatty flickered, varying in height. At first glance, it looked as if we had the ability to be in two places at once.

The ice palace was empty. Apart from the enormous ice pillars, a rectangular ice jade coffin sat on a huge ice platform in the very center of the palace. Through the ice jade layer, one could see that inside was a coffin made of dark green mineral.

Fatty and I walked around and discovered that the ice jade coffin was actually a single piece, without any gaps, and couldn't be opened at all. The dark green mineral coffin was stored inside this crystal-clear ice jade coffin, and from different angles, it flowed with a deep and colorful luster, like a heart core wrapped in amber, perfectly integrated and lifelike.

After thinking about it, I understood. Every part of this sleeping chamber, including the ice jade coffin, must have been created by the builder using the cooling properties of the earth's Yin Eye (i.e., the ice core). They placed pre-made molds filled with water near the ice core, froze each piece individually, and then poured them out. The coffin must have had its bottom layer frozen first, the dark green mineral coffin placed inside, and then the molds were fixed around it, filled with water, and frozen into a single, seamless coffin.

Because the ice core is also called the Earth's Yin Eye, it belongs to the core of the Earth's extremely cold ley lines. The icy energy it emits is enough to forge any perfect ice palace, which can stand for thousands of years.

Given the current situation, I boldly analyze that this Yin Eye of the Earth is clearly located beneath the dark green mineral coffin, suppressed by the dark green mineral. Therefore, this dark green ore is most likely a meteorite that fell from the sky, rich in special cosmic yang minerals, capable of effectively resisting the cooling and mutation of the Yin Eye of the Earth. Using it to make a coffin could not only subdue the icy demon beast Ice Enchantress, but also potentially prevent the tomb owner's corpse from being brittled by the Yin Eye's cold energy, thus preventing eternal damnation.

The ice palace was filled with a chilling, poisonous aura that could penetrate to the bone; staying there for too long would surely harm one's health. I called to Fatty to first find the entrance to the rear hall, then return and break open the ice coffin to release the extreme cold energy of the earth's yin eye.

Thanks to our experience finding the main hall earlier, we easily located the entrance to the rear hall. It turned out the entrance was in a corner behind the huge ice pillar that led us down to the main hall; it was an ice cap with dark green mineral stones inlaid at its four corners.

Open the ice cover, and an endless treasure trove appears inside.