Chapter 56
There is almost no burial custom in Tibetan areas because of beliefs, geography, and living habits. In a place without burial customs, if there is a spatial building similar to a tomb underground, it must be because this spatial building appeared earlier than the belief.
At that time, people in Tibet were called barbarians, and it was difficult to enter and exit, so few people chose to invade this place. The Shu area alone was difficult enough to conquer. The Yuan Dynasty was able to rule later because it hoped to surround the Southern Song Dynasty and eventually destroy it by siege.
After unifying Tibet, the Yuan Dynasty established the chieftain system, taking into account the special circumstances of the Tibetan area, allowing the Tibetan area to govern itself in a way that combined politics and religion. A region that cannot be unified without forced change by an external regime is itself full of disputes and differences.
In such places, due to the struggle for resources, various ethnic beliefs and cultural differences will arise, which will lead to the lack of communication between the cultures of the Central Plains and Tibet. At the beginning, only the imperial teacher of the court entered the Tibetan area to assist the Xuanzhengyuan in governing, but because of ethnic and cultural issues, friction never stopped.
Due to various special reasons, the underground cavities can only be counted as early as possible or later. After the Tibetan area was unified and Han people gradually moved in, cultural communication became much more convenient, so the appearance of tombs was not surprising.
But the map drawn by Che Xuming shows a huge old dragon vein, which must be too early. The early maps of Tibet were very chaotic, and due to geographical reasons, it never achieved true unification, so it was naturally difficult for cultural integration to occur.
If it goes back even further, it involves another culture - sacrifice.
Before it evolved into the later funeral culture, people believed that there were gods in heaven above and gods in the ground below, but the gods worshipped by different parties were not the same. When people could no longer live on their own, they would choose to pray to the gods, thus developing a sacrificial culture.
When people are short of food and disasters are rampant, they will choose to offer sacrifices to the gods, hoping that the gods will have mercy, eliminate the disasters, and ensure a good harvest every year.
The ancient sacrificial culture was quite cruel. They pushed the blame for the gods’ failure to help them onto the offerings. At first it was food, and when that didn’t work they switched to prey. If prey still didn’t work they switched to more precious things, and finally they became boys and girls, women, and sinners.
The only thing she wouldn't do was have sex with men, simply because in an era when force was supreme, men were tall and could use their strength to make many people obey them.
There are also situations where men control tribes and ethnic groups, but when disasters do not stop and the harvest does not improve, they wonder if the tribute is not enough?
Therefore, if a similar situation occurs underground, it is basically a sacrificial tomb or a sacrificial pit.
There may not be many precious things in this kind of place, but they are very old and the finished products are very expensive, so it is easy to be imprisoned for a few years if you take them.
Su Yun looked at the dragon vein map, hesitated for a while, and said: "If it is really that old, and it is a sacrificial pit, it is probably a raw pit that no one has touched. The things are probably still very old. I am afraid it is easy to get in but difficult to get out?"
"It's possible. Once you enter the sacrificial pit, there's no way out. There are all kinds of death devices inside. We went in without any knowledge of the situation. If we want to get out later, I'm afraid we can only destroy the underground pit." Che Xuming said with concern.
The country has done its utmost to protect this type of underground building, but it is still not enough to keep up with the various tomb robbers and criminals who resell national treasures and cultural relics from destroying the tombs. If they go down directly and can't come out and want to destroy the tomb, then what's the difference between them and tomb robbers?
Even if you take orders for money, you cannot ignore the law and morality. It is best to balance the two.
Su Yun was also very worried. After thinking for a while, he asked, "Master, have my parents ever encountered this situation before? How did they deal with it?"
Instead of working hard on your own, it is better to stand on the shoulders of giants to see the scenery. Su Yun has always been aware of the times.
The chef recalled for a while and said, "When the old curator and his team encounter such a situation, they usually ask for help from the locals, such as the mountain gods, land gods, guardian gods, and monsters that protect the locals."
In history, some monsters lived with humans and there are legends about them, but people try not to mention them. This is a little secret between humans and monsters. There are also ghosts that live secretly in people's homes, and they only leave with the ghost after they realize that they will kill the people who take them in.
"But we just can't find anyone local who can understand the wolf girl, so we plan to go under the dragon vein to find someone who has lived longer. If there are people on the ground who can understand the wolf girl, why should we go down?" Su Yun spread his hands.
The question comes back to the point. The most important thing is that we have not found anyone who can understand the truth. We have not seen any monsters or demons. It seems that it is an iron rule that one cannot become a spirit after the founding of the People's Republic of China, which leads to everyone trying to hide themselves if they accidentally become a spirit.
Su Yun thought about it for half the night, and the next morning he said to everyone: "Let's go find the entrance first to see what's going on. If we can't get in, and we don't find the mountain god or something like that, we'll go somewhere farther away, like into the rain forest. There are many living things there, and maybe we can run into one or two that live longer."
The route they are taking now is relatively safe. It is not yet the rain forest, but just an ordinary mountain forest. It is not difficult to walk around. If they enter the rain forest, they will have to experience the daily life of Xin Dechang's soldiers back then.
Even if it is a tomb-robbing mercenary group, they would not want to go to the rain forest. Any extreme environment in the world can destroy a person's spirit and psychology first, and physical pain is secondary. Therefore, few mercenary groups are willing to go to the southern water holes. The worst thing they can do is die underwater. Only tomb-robbing families with a long history can give it a try.
Since he had decided to find the underground entrance to the dragon vein, Che Xuming had to do a lot of calculations. He called Lin Lang to help him calculate. After all, he was not a professional Feng Shui master, so it was a bit unconventional for him to do this. In addition to using his meager Feng Shui knowledge, he actually used modern archaeological knowledge to determine which way to go.
Che Xuming was about to collapse halfway through the calculation: "Why is it so big? Director Su, you have the means and money, why don't you get a machine? Many people use machines now. Although they may not be more accurate than the old methods, they save trouble!"
The machines are restricted underground. In fact, any experienced person will rarely bring too modern machines underground. If the machine is affected by the magnetic field and makes mistakes, it will be impossible to get out without basic skills.
Su Yun felt a little guilty: "I'm not specialized in this, how do I know that I need a machine? Master and Second Master, how did my parents work in the fields back then?"
"Great strength makes miracles happen." The cook said coldly and firmly.
“……”Everyone was silent for a moment.
Su Yun calmed down for a while and said to Che Xuming: "You see, the strong never complain about the bad environment."
Che Xuming wanted to throw the blueprints at her head: "Are you crazy? Great strength makes miracles happen. In their time, if they did this kind of work, they would at least bring a tomb raider and a feng shui master. If one of them is fake, they won't come back. Who in our team can do this?"
Su Yun scanned the present dragons and phoenixes one by one, and pointed directly at Che Xuming and a group of ghost employees: "You, the Feng Shui master, and them, the tomb raiders, if they can come out alive, it will be a victory!"
After hearing this, Che Xuming didn't want to talk to her anymore, and not a single word he said was reliable.
"Oh, Master Che, Master Che! You are a master, you can definitely do it!" Su Yun tried to flatter him.
"Please be quiet for a moment. Even if I want to be a master, I'm not a Feng Shui master. I study the Five Elements and Eight Trigrams to deduce destiny, focusing on celestial phenomena. Look at what's underground. Do I have the right to touch it? What's more, when I go down to the ground later and there are no stars, I will be blind when I open my eyes." Che Xuming said, putting on a mask of pain.
Su Yun thought about it and felt that it was a bit embarrassing for Master Che, but there was no better way now, so he asked: "Master Che, do you have any reliable brothers to introduce? Maybe if we ask them to come and help, we can save a lot of trouble?"
Speaking of fellow apprentices, Che Xuming actually started looking through his address book and chat apps, trying to find a reliable one, but was disappointed: "It seems that there is no one who specializes in Feng Shui. The closest one we have is someone who studies architecture and formations. Do you think it's okay?"
Architecture and formations essentially use Feng Shui to achieve one's own goals, but it does not mean learning Feng Shui completely. The knowledge schools in Taoism are divided into very detailed but not so clear-cut. It is like learning the introductory knowledge together, and then choosing the specific ones when you get a job in the future.
Just like the subject of architecture, what you need to learn at the beginning is how to build a house, but when laying the foundation you also need to know about Feng Shui issues. Conversely, if you are a Taoist who studies Feng Shui, you will learn architecture as introductory knowledge at the beginning, and then there are the mountain terrain, the placement of items, fortune and destiny, etc., which can all be explained from the perspective of Feng Shui.
In other words, in Taoist knowledge, these are all things that can be integrated, but there are some emphases. If Che Xuming could reach the pinnacle of his ability, he could also calculate the dragon veins and feng shui here, but the bad luck is that he has not reached the level where he can integrate all the knowledge.
Su Yun looked at him quietly and said, "I don't know why, but every time I meet you, I feel sorry that you are too young. Why didn't you give birth a few years earlier?"
If he had been born a few years earlier, he would not have been unable to save Mo Qingtao, and he would not be helpless now.
Che Xuming didn't like to hear this: "Why don't you say that you always come to see me too early? Why don't you wait until I'm 40 or 50 and have some achievements before coming to see me? Then there will be no problem, right?"
"You are really good at thinking. Maybe Lin Lang will be able to replace your job in a few years. He is too young." Su Yun looked at them disappointedly.
Lin Lang turned his head and glanced at her silently, not understanding why she was brought back to him: "It can still be calculated, but it's a little troublesome."
Su Yun liked such obedient employees, and immediately said to Che Xuming: "Look at them, the strong can only change the environment. You try harder, and I will try my best to find someone."
Seeing Su Yun's relieved look, Che Xuming gritted his teeth and said, "Don't hide. Didn't you say that your parents forced you to learn all the basics? I don't believe you don't know anything. Besides, you are professional funeral professionals, so you must know more than us."
After saying this, the ghosts who were observing the environment looked at Su Yun and felt that this seemed to be the truth.
Before Su Yiling and Ji Weitang went out for their honeymoon, Su Yun memorized books for a long time and even did training that would absolutely allow her to protect herself. Even though her body was not fully recovered, she still had to learn. This was her ability to make a living and protect herself. Su Yiling and Ji Weitang would not be soft-hearted on this point.
Su Yun spread his hands and said, "I'm looking, but there's nothing there. That's why I kept going forward. The feng shui, topography and even the environment here are not suitable for a mausoleum, but if we want to make one..."
Su Yun hesitated for the following words and didn't say them out loud, but from their expressions, everyone understood that Su Yun already had a guess in his mind, but that guess might not be good, so Su Yun placed all his hopes on Che Xuming and Lin Lang.
Che Xuming's heart sank. "Director Su, what did you figure out? Just tell me directly. It will give Lin Lang and me a heads-up. Otherwise, we may not want to believe what we calculated later, which will be a waste of time."
Seeing Che Xuming say this, Su Yun did not hesitate any longer and said in an uncertain tone: "In fact, after Lin Lang reminded me that people in Tibetan areas all perform cremation and sky burial, I thought of a process in sacrifice and funeral, called site selection."
"Site selection? You mean choosing the location for the mausoleum? Isn't that just looking at Feng Shui?" Che Xuming is not a professional, so this is all he could think of.
"Yes and no," Su Yun shook his head slightly. "In the tomb-robbing and archaeological industries, there is a saying that goes 'a thousand years dry, ten thousand years wet, and half a year neither dry nor wet'. So, when choosing a mausoleum location, before looking at Feng Shui, you have to choose dryness and wetness first. There is less water in the north, so tombs are specially chosen in places with beautiful mountains and clear waters, just for this saying of ten thousand years wet."
Tombs are all for burials, and they can indeed be preserved for about a thousand years in a dry place. Because of the dryness, the buried objects will not be damaged by moisture and repeated drying. However, if the environment is humid, or a sealed oxygen-free space is created using a special environment, the things in the tomb will not oxidize and thus can be preserved.
This is like vacuum packaging and pickling vegetables, where either the air is extracted or water is used to isolate them to prevent bacteria and oxygen from entering, and the food inside will naturally not go bad.
Many ancient tombs rely on various methods of isolating oxygen to keep everything in the tombs well preserved. Many things can even be said to be "fresh" when they are first unearthed, and only gradually turn pitch black when exposed to sunlight and oxygen.
If there is really no condition to create an environment where water is used to isolate oxygen, one can also wrap the tomb with mercury like Qin Shihuang did, absolutely isolating the oxygen. This is an anti-theft mechanism and also a way to preserve one's own tomb fresh.
Che Xuming was not stupid. He knew what Su Yun meant as soon as he heard it, and then he related it to the current environment: "So, judging from the environment here, we have to look for it in the mountains? Don't say we have to look for it in the rainforest. If you go in there, there will be leeches everywhere. The locals feel miserable."
"Unfortunately, I think we probably really have to make a trip there, because the sacrificial pit that has survived to this day must have been able to last forever, and the sacrificial offerings must be prevented from escaping. The best way... is to use water to seal the entire sacrificial pit." Su Yun expressed his guess in a cruel yet calm tone.
When everyone heard this, they could already imagine how difficult it would be. Going into a tomb is already a life-threatening experience, and now they had to enter an underground water pit in the rainforest. Even a monster might not be able to come out alive, let alone a human.
Che Xuming moved his lips several times but couldn't find his voice.
Su Yun knew that this guess was hard to accept, and he didn't want to say it at first: "If you don't want to go through the rain forest in the end, you have to figure out an entrance that doesn't require going through the rain forest, even if it's a little closer to the top of the mausoleum, where the rock formation is not that thick, and where you can dig a hole to steal. Otherwise, we have to follow a path that no one has ever walked on alive to find the answer."
Why is it that Xin Dechang has been looking for many years but no serious team is willing to take it? It is because once everyone hears his story, they know how many extra clues there are behind it. What if it involves special religious beliefs and requires going underground?
Even the most courageous people in the industry have a basic fear. Only those mercenary groups who are willing to sacrifice their lives will fill this void, and the things they bring out can almost always be sold at sky-high prices.
Comparing the two, human life is the least valuable thing.
Su Yun had some guesses in his mind, but he still held on to a glimmer of hope, thinking, what if?
What if we can actually calculate another location that’s slightly closer?
Che Xuming stopped talking and continued calculating with Lin Lang in silence, while Su Yun was also observing the surrounding environment.
As they walked and counted as they went deeper and deeper into the southwest, Su Yun's heart sank a little bit - they were getting closer to the rainforest, and the surrounding environment was getting more humid. The dryness and stuffiness that they had felt after arriving in Tibet gradually disappeared, and instead people began to feel as if their breath was full of water vapor.
The humid environment means that the humidity here is very high, so high that... it can wrap up a huge mausoleum and keep it from being destroyed for thousands of years.
After walking for another three days, they stopped, because if they went any further they would reach the rainforest. If they were not prepared, going in would be seeking death. Many people die while exploring the rainforest every year. When there were no roads built in the country, many people wanted to go on pilgrimage to Medog and Lhasa, and the road they walked was through the rainforest. They did not die from altitude sickness, but instead suffered various strange phenomena.
Rainforests have always been places where people are eaten since ancient times.
Even if they set up camp outside the rainforest, they still have to leave someone to guard the camp every day, as well as spray medicine and burn incense over and over again. Otherwise, all kinds of snakes, insects, rats and ants will come and eat their nutritious and large portions of food. After eating it, they will thank nature for the gift.
Since she stopped, Su Yun took Yan Gui and the cooking master for a walk every day, but she would come back around 3:30 in the afternoon. She went to see the surrounding terrain and environment. In the rainforest, someone had to act as a pathfinder.
Now Che Xuming and Lin Lang have reached the critical point and cannot be allowed to go. As the only person with knowledge reserves, Su Yun can only go there in person.
After resting for about two and a half days, Che Xuming and Lin Lang finished their calculations. Their expressions were equally heavy, except for Su Yun, who had the same expression. She knew the result just by taking a look at the drawings.
"It seems that God is not favoring us." There was no disappointment in Su Yun's tone, as if he already knew this would be the result.
"Director Su, you knew this would be the result long ago, right?" Che Xuming looked at Su Yun with bloodshot eyes. He seemed to have aged several years and even had a beard.
Su Yun didn't mean to discourage him, but seeing the result, he could only nod his head: "Almost the same, any designer who wants to build a large mausoleum on a mountain will choose to build it at the bottom of the mountain, and hollow out the middle of the mountain to make an anti-theft mechanism. What's more, you and Lin Lang have been walking towards the rain forest all the way. Coming here means that the people who chose the site back then were looking for groundwater."
This phenomenon is very interesting. Unless there is really no suitable water to surround the underground mausoleum, the area with groundwater will be chosen. On the one hand, the water flow can be used to drive the operation of the mausoleum's mechanisms. On the other hand, after the groundwater spreads, it can block all exits.
Many adventurers died while exploring underground caves. Besides the fact that it was cold and narrow deep underground and they were unable to turn around, another reason for death was the spread of groundwater. Some ancient tombs even used the circulation of groundwater as a timekeeping mechanism.
That is, according to the law of the rise and fall of groundwater, the operation and unlocking methods of the mechanisms in the mausoleum will be different at every hour, so as to achieve the purpose of theft prevention.
That's why it is said that whenever you go underground, you must bring a tomb raider and a Feng Shui master. The tomb raider has experience, and the Feng Shui master has skills. Once you go underground, no machine can save your life. Only this kind of practical knowledge can bring you out.
After hearing this, Che Xuming looked up at the rainforest area in the distance and sighed, "I aspired to be a shaman, but I didn't expect to be tricked into coming here to rob tombs. My reputation has been ruined."
"Don't say such harsh words. What's the use of tomb robbing? We are here to find the truth, okay? What's more, we don't dig a hole. We go in openly, so it doesn't count as tomb robbery." Su Yun was right but still confident.
"Director Su, stop talking nonsense. You've been out a lot these days. What do you know? Tell us all in one breath before you go down, so that we won't be scared when we go in." Che Xuming just gave up. They were going to play for their lives anyway, so it didn't matter how they played.
These past few days, Su Yun had been taking Yan Gui and the cook to check the terrain nearby, but she never said anything after coming back. Now that the dust has settled and Che Xuming and Lin Lang can't calculate a better location, she can only tell them everything she has seen.
Su Yun sat directly on the small stool and said, "Everyone come over here, I will briefly explain the current situation."
The other ghosts and the slightly older Youlan came over from around the tent. They gathered around the simple fire and looked at Su Yun. Once they entered the rain forest, they estimated that they would not have the opportunity to sit together and warm themselves by the fire like this for a long time.
After checking the heads and confirming that there was no problem, Su Yun said directly: "I won't keep you in suspense. Since the results calculated by Master Che and Lin Lang are no different from what I expected, there is nothing to hide. There is indeed a hole leading to the underground nearby, which are the two eyes of the dragon vein."
Hearing this, everyone's faces changed.
As a description, the word "eyes" makes people think of two round things. However, in the rainforest, there are only two things that can look round and similar to eyes on the map - swamps and lakes.
"From my perspective as the director of a funeral home, the location of this sacrificial pit is actually very standard and beautiful. This dragon vein is like a complete dragon. As a living creature, the dragon has seven orifices, which are the seven entrances and exits left by the craftsmen who built the mausoleum. To enter normally, one should actually go through the dragon's mouth." Su Yun said as he took the dragon vein that Che Xuming had drawn earlier.
Comparing with the pictures, Su Yun explained the relationship between this dragon vein and the underground sacrificial pit from the perspective of funeral culture.
First of all, in ancient times, when building such a large tomb with only entry but no exit, no one would leave any survivors. In other words, in order to keep it secret, the craftsmen would directly destroy the drawings and only leave a loophole for themselves and the tomb owner.
In ancient times, there were even emperors who, in order to keep their secrets, killed all the craftsmen, thinking that this way no one would be able to steal their burial objects.
But there is a huge difference between a sacrificial pit and a normal tomb. In a normal tomb, a person will be left alive. There are various reasons for leaving a person alive. For example, the craftsman does not want to die, or he wants to leave a person alive for future generations. If they cannot make it in the future, they can use this person to steal the burial objects and sell them to sustain their lives.
Some craftsmen are craftsmen as their main job and tomb robbers as their side job, so they will leave some people alive to steal from, and sometimes they will do this for many years.
There are many reasons for keeping people alive, but in a sacrificial pit, no one will be left alive. This kind of tomb is built with the sole purpose of sealing everything off, no matter if it is the offerings put in at the time or the tomb robbers who will enter in the future. Once inside, there will never be a chance to get out. Some of the mechanisms are even designed to ensure a life-and-death struggle.
This kind of mechanism makes it very difficult for archaeological teams to explore the secrets of some tombs, because they cannot get in. Once they force their way in, either they will die or everyone will die together, and both sides will suffer. It is better to wait and explore again when the technology is better in the future.
"As for the dragon vein we are looking for now, when I look left and right, it looks like a sacrificial pit. Such a sacrificial pit will leave no survivors. Among the seven positions, the mouth must have the most traps. According to the characteristics of dragons, the two ears cannot reach the real tomb location, so the road is wrong. The same goes for the nose. So we only have the eyes to try." Su Yun said, lightly tapping the position of the dragon's eyes.
Che Xuming looked at her in confusion: "Is this how the dragon vein underground pit is explained? The dragon vein is not a real dragon, how can it be designed according to the seven orifices of an animal?"
Su Yun put the drawing on the small table and said, "It's just an analogy. It's about the location. Look at these seven orifices yourself. Except for the eyes, the positions of the rest are not very clear. I suspect that this dragon vein has been broken because of too many years."
The continental plates are always moving, whether it is the ocean or the land. Some maps actually change every year, but the updates are not so fast. This old dragon vein in Tibet is really too old, and even a new dragon vein has emerged, which shows that the old dragon vein is no longer effective.
In a broken dragon vein, a vague position is equivalent to being wrong, and the specific mechanism cannot be found. Looking for such a position is completely useless.
Everyone leaned over to look at the dragon on the small table at the same time and discovered that Che Xuming's painting only had the two eyes in very clear positions, while the rest of the mouth, nose and ears were quite abstract. It was definitely a dragon, but as mentioned at the beginning, this dragon vein was so winding that it looked like a giant dragon.
Previously, it could be explained that this dragon vein was making a unique shape, but now after Su Yun’s explanation, there is another idea - the dragon vein was broken during thousands of years of movement, so the entire head and neck are coiled together.
Che Xuming frowned. "If the dragon vein is broken, then the new dragon vein is easy to explain. The earth has its own ideas. When the old one dies, the new one will be born, just like the Jurassic and Ice Age. This old dragon vein that has been squeezed and broken cannot support such a large Tibetan area, so let's change it."
"That's true. But in the same way, the sacrificial pit built relying on the dragon vein, the original road left behind has been fractured to a certain extent due to the movement of mountains and continental plates. The underground buildings, passages and even mechanisms have been damaged. So the only entrance we have left is the two eyes that have not changed." Su Yun said, suddenly feeling a little worried.
Are these two seemingly unchanged eyes the entrance that allows them to enter, or are they a dead end deliberately left for those who come later?
Why have the shapes of the mountain and the dragon vein changed, but the two eyes remain intact?
It can't be that the endless flow of water and swamps has preserved the only remaining entrance and passage?
[End of this chapter]
Su Yun: I want to go, but I’m scared to death QAQ
I made it through! Things have been really weird lately. I bought some unclean noodles, had diarrhea and took a lot of anti-diarrhea medicine. My period came early, and then I was in severe pain for three days. I was dying and almost had to stay in a rental house.
I didn’t feel anything today, so I happily opened the document to write an update, but after writing just a thousand words, my wisdom tooth got swollen!!!
It's really outrageous. I didn't feel anything when my wisdom teeth were growing. They've been growing for several months. Tonight, I was eating happily with big mouthfuls, and suddenly my mouth became swollen. Now I can't close my mouth. It hurts when I close it. It's really weird. I feel like I can't touch it, but the main plot outline is like this. It's simply unavoidable. I'm bald QAQ
I will finish writing according to the outline as soon as possible, in case something goes wrong.
Thanks for watching, happy reading.
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