El beso inolvidable de Ghost Lips

Capítulo 15

All my energy was focused on my hands and feet, and just as I was about to touch a protrusion on the pool wall, I suddenly heard a very faint sound coming from very close by.

At first, I thought it was my ears that were malfunctioning due to the sound of the water, because in such a noisy environment, you shouldn't be able to hear anything.

After climbing a few more steps, I found that the sound suddenly came out again. Although it was faint, I was sure it was there. It was a clattering sound, like something tied with iron chains was twitching.

I remembered the people with chains on their feet that the girl had seen, and a chill ran down my spine. I broke out in a cold sweat. After carefully judging the direction, I realized it was coming from my left. I peeked over and saw a crack in the pool wall, covered with many plant vines. I hadn't noticed it when I climbed over earlier.

The young master yelled at me, asking why I wasn't moving. I was curious about the sound; it seemed like some living thing was tied to the chain and was struggling to break free. I gestured to them to stop for a moment, and then I started to move closer to the gap.

A breeze was blowing out of the crevice, which might be connected to some mountain cave. As I got closer, the clattering sound grew louder and louder, making me nervous. In the deafening environment, my mind went blank, and I could only hear the rattling of the chains.

I crawled into the crevice and saw that it was surprisingly deep. I put one foot in, and the young master outside was still yelling. I thought to myself, "What's the rush?" I ignored him and went in.

Many vines had grown into the crevice, completely covering both sides. I took a few steps, and the light dimmed. I raised my flashlight and shone it in little by little.

There was indeed something deep inside the crevice, which looked like a person leaning against it. There seemed to be the sound of water inside, but the clanking of chains was no longer heard.

I held my breath and shone my flashlight on myself. My heart skipped a beat, and I felt a chill run down my spine.

At the end of the crevice was a small puddle of water, in which lay a dead body. It was almost completely rotten from being submerged in water, and its skin had turned white. Its face was covered by its hair, so it was impossible to see what it looked like. However, judging from its appearance, it must have been dead for a long time.

I instinctively covered my nose and bent down to take a closer look. I noticed that the person was dressed similarly to us, probably no more than ten or twenty years ago. How could there be a modern person here? I found it very strange. Could he be a lost mountain dweller from the surrounding area? Or perhaps one of our fellow travelers?

I rummaged through his clothes and found a lot of mushy scraps of paper, so mushy they were practically mush and unrecognizable. However, I did find some plastic food coupons and similar items, indicating he was definitely from our time. I tossed the scraps aside, kept the food coupons, and then examined his body again. Something seemed off. Hadn't I heard the sound of chains earlier? This person wasn't wearing any chains.

At that moment, I suddenly realized something, shivered, and involuntarily stepped back.

Beneath the corpse, there seemed to be something pressed tightly against its back.

Upon closer inspection, it appeared to be another corpse, submerged in water, its entire body blackened and its shape obscured. For some reason, the two corpses were pressed tightly together, as if the one behind had grown out of the back of the one in front.

A black iron chain was fastened to the spine of the "black corpse," and the sound just now may have come from this thing.

I had a bad feeling. I didn't know why this person died here, but the way he died was so bizarre, it couldn't be a good thing. It was best not to meddle.

Just as I turned to leave, a sudden clattering sound of chains came from the puddle. At the same time, I heard an indescribable scream, like the sound of someone suffocating.

Looking back, I saw that the "black corpse" that had been submerged in the water had actually started moving. The clattering of the chains was incessant. I looked up and saw that the end of the chains was a stone hole. Whenever the black corpse pulled on the chains, more chains would be pulled out of the hole. But whenever it loosened its grip, the chains would pull the mechanism inside back into the stone hole.

I knew something was wrong, but I couldn't tell what was getting up. I touched behind me and found the crossbow on the young master. I cursed under my breath and turned to run.

I had only run a few steps when suddenly, something pounced on me from behind, and a stench hit my back. It was incredibly fast.

In a split second, I gritted my teeth, pressed myself against the side, and the thing behind me missed its target. I didn't have time to look back; I dashed through the gap, grabbed a vine, spun around, and flipped onto the pool wall, yelling, "Young Master, cover me!"

Before I could finish speaking, a black claw suddenly shot out from the gap and lunged at me. I quickly swung away, narrowly avoiding being caught. But the chain was clearly at its limit, so the thing inside could only extend one hand to grab me, its body unable to escape.

The young master, who was quite far away from us and couldn't see what it was clearly, yelled at me, "Old Xu, get out of the way!"

I saw the vines beside me, gritted my teeth, turned around, grabbed another vine, and slid down to make room for him. The young master immediately drew his bow and nocked an arrow. With a snap, a bamboo arrow flew like lightning, heading straight for the black claw at the crevice.

I thought to myself, "You're not going to fall for it this time." I was just waiting for the scream as the bamboo arrow pierced the gap. But before I could react, I felt a jolt in my shoulder, and the flying bamboo arrow had actually pierced my shoulder.

When I looked, I thought to myself, "My God, you son of a bitch, what kind of aim is that?" But before I could say anything, a sharp pain in my shoulder made me let go. Suddenly, I couldn't hold on to anything and felt like I was losing gravity, falling straight down.

Time was extremely short, and I didn't think about anything at the time. My only thought was that my life, Xu Sanqing's life, would end in this Jiulong Pit.

In the blink of an eye, just as I was plummeting downwards, I crashed into the mouth of a waterfall. I immediately felt myself fall to the ground, felt a sharp pain, and was then swept away by the powerful current.

In my panic, I grabbed at something haphazardly and ended up pulling on a protruding rock bud, which hung on the side of the waterfall's mouth. When I looked up, I saw that the rocks at the waterfall's mouth had been shaped into the form of a dragon's head, and the waterfall's water was coming out of the dragon's mouth.

The young master on one side yelled at me, telling me not to move, and then moved towards us with the maid. I couldn't hold on any longer. Everything went black, and I slipped and fell straight into the clear water of the pool below.

With a snap, I fell several meters into the water. Suddenly, I couldn't hear any sound around me. I hadn't adjusted my posture properly when I entered the water, and the shock made me vomit blood. Luckily, I didn't faint. I struggled to try to surface, but the water from the waterfall above was pressing down from dozens of meters in the air, and I couldn't float at all.

Just then, two jets of water suddenly shot into the water from the side. I turned my head and saw that the maid and the young master had also jumped in. When they saw me, they immediately swam towards me, supported me, and then the three of us struggled to rise.

Their hands weren't injured, but even so, it took all our strength to break through the water. They pushed me onto the round rock in the middle first, then climbed up themselves. I clutched my hands and yelled at the young master, "You monkey, do you want to kill me?"

He tore off his clothes to look at my wound. A genuine crossbow can pierce a human body within 200 meters. This one was obviously not that powerful, but it still went in very deep. The young master felt excruciating pain whenever he touched it.

The girl was heartbroken to see this, and tears streamed down her face. When the young master tried to remove the arrow, she stopped him, scolding him, "What kind of brother are you? How can you hurt your brother like this!"

The young master kept apologizing to me, saying, "You don't understand, I aimed very accurately, I don't know how it turned. It must be because of the wind."

I told you to stop making excuses and just get rid of it for me.

The arrow was stuck in my shoulder blade, so it didn't go all the way through. The young master pulled it out in one go, which hurt me terribly. Then he applied Yunnan Baiyao and covered the wound. After they finished, I was covered in cold sweat and almost fainted.

After bandaging myself, I checked my watch. I'd thought it would take at least a morning to get here, but it was only a little past nine. Looks like it's better to be more direct. The young master asked if I wanted to rest, since there was still time. I thought about it for a moment, but decided against it. Who knows what might happen in the tomb? I should just keep working.

The young master helped me up. The round rock in the center of the pool was very large, and there were waterfalls on all four sides, which had been eroded into waterways, but the middle of the waterfall was relatively dry.

As we walked further in, according to feng shui theory, the best feng shui position should be at the very bottom of this rock, but it appears to be a single, unaltered rock.

We searched carefully several times but couldn't find it. The young master muttered to himself, "Could it be that what we're looking for is under this rock beneath our feet? They've sealed the entrance with the whole rock."

Looking at the size of the rock, I said it was impossible. This rock weighs at least several thousand tons, and even with current technology, it's impossible to move it around. Besides, we just saw it underwater; this rock is a natural rock, and its weathering and corrosion are very similar to the materials here. It can't be what he said.

So, there's no ancient tomb here? I suddenly exclaimed, "Oh dear!" All our evidence so far has been based on speculation. It seems like we've been on the right track every step of the way, but if even one of our speculations goes wrong, we're doomed.

But according to common sense, there should be something here. The map should point to this place. If this is just a rock, can this rock really save our lives?

Just when I was racking my brains trying to figure it out, I suddenly remembered the stone dragon mouth at the waterfall above my head. The main feature of the Nine Dragons Pit layout is that it looks plain, but it is solid and windproof, and it is internally connected without being released. The nine dragons are united, like a cage that traps the spiritual energy of the earth and mountains. In other words, the nine water dragons symbolized by the waterfall are the cage. All the feng shui energy is drawn here from them. If something is to be built below, such as an ancient tomb, the location of the tomb entrance will inevitably be the place where the nine dragons gather.

I looked around and saw that the nine dragons had almost all been washing over the rock beneath my feet. If they were to converge, this should be the place. Looking down at my surroundings again, I suddenly realized the problem.

Chapter Twenty-Five: The Jade Corpse

If there are any buildings below, they were built thousands of years ago. The terrain and environment at that time cannot be verified, but what we do know is that there was definitely no "Mankola Reservoir" upstream at that time, so the water volume of the waterfall must have been much greater than it is now.

When I saw this rock, I knew what had happened because of the depressions in the center and around the edges. The water flow was very strong at the time, and the nine waterfalls must have converged into one, collided in the air, and then fell down. The place where the nine dragons met should be the depression in the middle of this rock.

I shared my idea, and a few of us ran to the recessed area to take a look. The rock was intact, with no sign of a hidden door whatsoever.

What's going on? I was immediately puzzled, because my deductions are usually correct.

The young master touched the rock beneath him and suddenly asked me, "Old Xu, why isn't this rock covered in moss?"

I was taken aback. Yes, why? I bent down and touched it, then licked the stone with my tongue. It was astringent.

I immediately realized that this was a stone skin made of Tianxin rock powder and lime mixed together, a kind of primitive cement, and that this stone was artificially created.

"Do we have any more explosives?" I asked the young master. "There's definitely something down there. Let's blow it up first."

The young master touched his backpack and found only one detonator left, the one he had planned to use to commit suicide. Luckily, he pulled it out of the two bundles of detonators, otherwise we would have had to smash it with a hammer now.

The young master immediately took out a hammer and chisel. The cement wasn't hot enough, but it was extremely hard. It took a long time to drill a hole and put the detonator in. The girl and I hid in the water. The young master pulled the fuse and ran into the water as well. There was a loud bang, and the boulder we were leaning against shook violently. A lot of broken stones were blown up and fell into the water.

When the tremors subsided, I climbed up and saw that, wow, the power was immense. A huge crater had been blasted into the middle of the rock. At the bottom of the crater, I saw a lot of carbon ash and gypsum under the cracked rock layers. Inside, I could see two huge bluestone slabs, one of which had been blasted open, revealing a small opening. Inside, there seemed to be a staircase leading straight down into the dark darkness below.

I couldn't contain my excitement. This feng shui theory really does have some merit. The young master saw the entrance and wanted to go down, but I stopped him, saying, "Wait, you're not a boy anymore. Why are you still so reckless? Be careful, it might be a trap."

Wang Ruonan's eyes lit up. "This definitely isn't a sealed pit," she said. "This must be a tomb! This kind of passageway is called a 'guide passage,' not a proper tomb passage, just a passageway used by the craftsmen. The tomb entrance is inside. Let's go in quickly!" We were overjoyed and asked, "Then are we sure this is Liu Qu's royal tomb?"

Wang Ruonan said she didn't know, because the structure of the tomb passage here seemed different from that of the Western Han Dynasty. But even if it wasn't, this should be the place we were going to.

I was stunned by what she said, so I carefully followed her and stepped down.

The passageway was pitch black; we couldn't see anything. We turned on our flashlights and saw that the walls on both sides of the tomb passage were made of dark blue-black stone, carved with numerous cranes. It seemed this path held some symbolic meaning. We carefully descended a dozen or so steps, and the massive white jade tomb door came into view. Wang Ruonan took out the Myriad Manifestations Hook she had brought from the institute, preparing to open the natural stone behind the door. Suddenly remembering something, I stopped her, saying, "Wait a minute, we can't go in yet."

We kowtowed and bowed before the tomb entrance, and then I had the young master bring out the prepared incense and light it to keep track of time. According to the rules of the Nanpaizi, we had to come out of the tomb within one incense stick's time. This would prevent us from inhaling a lot of tomb fumes, reduce the chance of being discovered, and the lit incense would also serve as a disguise.

Wang Ruonan said, "Old Xu, this is our first time here. Won't we be too late in such a short time?"

The young master laughed and said, "Don't worry, Old Xu is a stubborn man, but I, the young master, am a smart man and have already thought it through." After rummaging around for a while, he actually took out a long-lasting incense stick from a temple, as thick as a wrist, from his waterproof backpack.

This incense burns extremely slowly, sometimes even taking two or three days. I couldn't help but chuckle, "Damn, even cheating has its morals! This is way too much!"

The young master said, "You're doing this just to put your mind at ease, aren't you? Don't worry, feudal superstition is just a psychological effect. If everything were done according to your so-called rules, then the Southern Crawler entering the tomb would be speaking barbaric language. Would you speak it?"

I said, "They say this because they're afraid the dead will hear them. We can speak English when we go in, for the same reason!"

Wang Ruonan patted us twice and said, "Stop arguing." The young master then took out the Wanxiang Hook, inserted it behind the tomb door, and started to open the self-locking stone.

The self-closing stone is a very famous artifact, a royal secret at the time, but its principle is actually quite simple. The ancients first crafted the top and bottom ends of the stone door hinges into spherical shapes. Then, at the same point between the two stone doors, aligned with the door seam, they carved a raised groove. Next, on the stone paving not far from the central axis inside the door, they carved a groove that was shallower at the front and deeper at the back. Before closing the stone door, a fairly wide stone strip was placed in the groove in the ground and slowly tilted forward until it contacted the door. When people withdrew from the underground palace, the stone strip, using the pressure of its tilt and the "ball bearings" at the hinge ends, automatically pushed the door closed until its top fell into the raised groove on both sides of the stone door.

This allows the door to be sealed from the inside. Many large tombs have this structure. Early tomb raiders did not understand this principle, and many of them returned empty-handed in front of this door or forcibly broke it down.

The Wanxiang Hook is a tool specifically designed to deal with this type of door. Once it's inserted into the door crack, a clever push will move the door open.

Neither of us had ever used this thing before, and we both worked on it for ages without making a move. We were sweating profusely with anxiety. In the end, with Wang Ruonan's guidance, I managed to push the stone away in one go. Then, the young master pushed the door hard, and the gate to the underground palace slowly opened.

A huge tomb passage appeared before us, pitch black inside. We turned on our flashlights and peered inside.

The tomb passage was much smaller than that of the regular Huangling tombs, but for someone like Wang Ruonan who frequently visited earthen pit tombs, such a tomb was already a great luxury for her. Her face was now filled with a mixture of happiness and excitement.

There are no murals on either side of the tomb passage, but there are numerous relief carvings, which are common in Western Han tombs. The ground is covered with bluestone slabs every two meters. Based on general experience, such places would not have any traps or mechanisms. As long as the tomb is located in a mountain, it is generally very difficult to excavate. If it weren't for the later development of the explosives industry, these mountain tombs might have been among the most solid structures in the world.

We lit candles and walked into the tomb passage while looking at the reliefs. Soon, the candles in our hands began to change color, which was a sign of marsh gas in the ancient tomb, but there wasn't much of it. We put on gas masks and continued on.

Each relief has a different design, many of them depicting ferocious Rakshasa deities. We didn't examine them closely; instead, other things caught my attention.

There are two drainage ditches on both sides of the tomb passage, which connect to the drainage system under the ancient tomb. The most difficult problem to solve for this kind of ancient tomb in the mountains is the surface water. Ancient tombs are rarely completely sealed (if they could, they would become fire pit tombs, and the accumulated marsh gas inside would be released naturally when the tomb is opened, which is very dangerous). Rainwater will seep into the tomb and must be drained, otherwise the coffin will be floating in the water after hundreds of years.

After walking for more than a hundred meters, we came to another crossroads. The road ahead clearly led to the rear hall, with passageways on either side leading to the burial goods. The young master wanted to go and take a look, but I stopped him and told him that time was running out and we didn't know what trouble might come ahead. We should use our time to save our lives and hurry up to check Liu Qu's coffin and see if there was an epitaph or any written records.

After walking another thirty meters, a row of enormous eternal lamps appeared at the end of the tomb passage. Each lamp was as large as a water tank, lined up in the middle of the passage. We went up and lit them, and they actually burned. The lamp jars were filled with clear oil, and we could see some human-shaped figures inside, possibly human corpses. I've heard that many eternal lamps were made from corpses. Many nobles kept a lot of mentally challenged people in their offices. These were disabled or intellectually disabled children taken from the countryside all over the country, fattened up, and then used to render eternal oil after their masters died.

Wang Ruonan felt nauseous and wanted to vomit after looking at it, so I told her to stop looking. At the end of the ever-burning lamp, there was a large gate, with a huge stone Arhat sculpture on each side. The Arhats were all black, and I didn't know what kind of stone they were made of. Their expressions were vivid and very frightening.

Behind the door is the rear hall, where the coffin of the ancient tomb is located. According to Wang Ruonan's idea, if a mechanism were to be set up, it should be here, because the space here is large enough, and it is very likely that the launch port of the mechanism is on the Arhats on both sides.

I climbed up to examine the Arhat, and sure enough, the Arhat's navel was hollow. If the mechanism were activated, poisonous sand would shoot out from inside.

When soldiers come, we'll block them; when water comes, we'll dam it. My son and I used military-grade super ducting tape to completely seal the navels of the two Arhats. This tape is a temporary tool used to repair tanks or ships; it's extremely tough and has incredibly strong adhesive properties. I estimate that the Arhats can only hold about two or three cubic meters of sand, and with the tape, they absolutely won't be able to get out.

Just in case, I had the young master and Ruonan step back to the doorway, while I stood in front of it. I inserted the Wanxiang hook into the door crack and, following the same method, pried open the door lock with a snap. Then, with a strong push, the heavy stone opened a gap big enough for one person to pass through.

At the same time, the tape on the two Arhats suddenly bulged, and sure enough, something was trying to come out. However, it was wrapped in several layers of tape, so it had to stop.

The stone door was too heavy, and the hinges hadn't been moved for hundreds of years, or perhaps the mechanism driven by the hinges hadn't been activated for too long, so the door could only be pushed open a little before it wouldn't budge any further.

We had no choice but to squeeze through the crack in the door, sideways. As soon as we entered the back room, the candle in our hand went out. We tried to light it with a lighter, but it wouldn't work. So we threw the candle away and used a flashlight for light.

The tomb chamber was enormous; a flashlight could barely illuminate the murals on the walls. The surrounding area was filled with gold-inlaid wooden boxes used as burial goods. The floor was made of yellow, burnt clay bricks, indicating a very high standard. In the center of the chamber was another burial pit where the coffin was placed. From here, we could only see the upper part of the coffin.

The young master really wanted to see the boxes containing the burial goods, but time was running out, so we went straight to the coffin and jumped into the grave.

The coffin was made of stone and built in the shape of a palace, with the South Heaven Gate carved in relief on the front and back, symbolizing that the soul can freely return to heaven. The four corners of the coffin lid were decorated with flying eaves. When the young master and I tried to lift it, we found that it was no use. Perhaps something had been done to the inside of the stone coffin lid. The lid was glued to the coffin, and it did not budge when we tried to lift it.

Stone objects are the most troublesome; we took out the pry bar, but couldn't even find a gap. Finally, Wang Ruonan, with her sharp eyes, looked down and said, "Stop wasting your time. This coffin is upside down; the lid is thicker than the body. Let's use the hammer."

I looked down and sure enough, the gap in the coffin lid was at the bottom. Because a small part of the coffin was in the pit, even if a pipe could be pried in, a person wouldn't be able to exert any force.

I don't want to damage the coffin, as that's against the rules of the Nanpaizi, but the coffin lid weighs at least a ton, and two people simply can't lift it.

The young master took out a hammer and, using a pry bar as a cover, began to wreak havoc. The stone coffin was made of Tianxin Stone from the Western Regions, as hard as iron, but it had one drawback: it couldn't crack. Once it cracked, it was very easy to smash down along the crack.