These corpses were all swollen from being soaked in water, floating on the surface in various shapes.
At this point, we had no choice but to slowly paddle over. The stench was overwhelming, so we quickly plugged our noses and used our hands to carefully separate the bodies.
With a "splash," a splash of water suddenly appeared in front of them, as if something had fallen into it.
When I shone my headlamp, I saw a huge fish head floating there. It was a catfish, at least three meters long, with its mouth full of sharp teeth.
I'd heard before that catfish in some polluted rivers can grow very large, especially those that have eaten human flesh; they're practically ferocious beasts of the water.
The tomb of the emperor of Later Shu, number sixty-five.
I gasped in shock; if this thing were to attack us, it would definitely be dangerous.
Xiang Fei and Black Cat also noticed this. Black Cat pulled out a dagger and dived into the water. A moment later, huge waves rose in the water, and Black Cat's body floated up and down, clearly indicating that the two were fighting.
"Hopefully there's only one like this in the river, otherwise we'll be in big trouble."
The two sides fought fiercely, and the surrounding corpses were washed over by the waves, encircling us in the center.
My gaze shifted and I saw a corpse with black liquid flowing from its wide-open mouth, and gradually black liquid flowed from all seven orifices.
Suddenly, an incredibly strong stench of corpses hit my nose, and I almost couldn't help but vomit.
"Oh no, this thing attracts man-eating catfish, we have to get out of here right away!" Xiang Fei exclaimed.
At this moment, the fight ended, and the black cat emerged from the water, followed by a gush of blood that quickly spread outwards.
"Get out of here right now!" This time, I noticed even the black cat's expression changed.
So the four of us put all our strength into paddling forward, and finally we saw a riverbed ahead with obvious signs of artificial excavation. We were overjoyed, knowing that we had a chance.
At this moment, Xiang Fei shouted, "Hurry up and get up there, damn it, a swarm of man-eating catfish is coming from behind!"
When I looked back, I saw that the water was covered with fish fins, so I quickly and desperately scrambled to the shore.
Just as we climbed up, the man-eating catfish arrived, filling the surface of the water; there were probably forty or fifty of them.
Ignoring all that, we began to explore the riverbed, which was clearly formed by the erosion of water over many years, but we still found traces of human activity on it.
A set of decaying skeletons was half-buried in the mud and sand. Unlike the other corpses, this skeleton was still wearing armor. Although it was also badly corroded by time, it was still roughly recognizable.
The armor appears to be from the Tang or Song dynasty. The old blind man squatted down to examine it, pondering, and said, "Could this tomb belong to that dynasty?"
"How so?"
"Hmm, judging from this armor, it should be from the period between the Tang and Song dynasties, that is, from 907 to 960 AD. The Tang dynasty was on the verge of collapse, and various forces carved out their own territories and proclaimed themselves kings. Among them, two states emerged in Sichuan, called Former Shu and Later Shu, but in fact, it was also a single state. Although it existed for a short time, it was very prosperous. In unofficial history, we also call it the Barbarian State. Perhaps this tomb belongs to the founding emperor of the Barbarian State. It is said that he claimed to be a descendant of the ancient Shu people and wanted to restore the Shu Kingdom. Unfortunately, for some unknown reason, it declined rapidly, like a flash in the pan, and soon disappeared into the long river of history, mysterious and alluring."
The Former and Later Shu kingdoms of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period were real entities, as clearly documented in history.
"But could it be a descendant of the ancient Shu Kingdom?"
"Why worry about so much now? We'll know once we get into the imperial tomb," the old blind man urged.
We turned on all four miners' lamps, illuminating the entire cave. Finally, Xiang Fei discovered the situation: a hole two feet wide was exposed in the cave's rock.
We climbed up in unison and started hammering with the hand hammers we carried with us. Gradually, the opening got bigger and bigger, until it was big enough to fit a copper coin.
Xiang Fei gestured, and he climbed in first. We followed behind. As soon as we climbed in, we saw a skeleton, with iron tools in its hand.
"Could these be tomb raiders trapped here?" "It shouldn't be. These should be the laborers who built this place back then. They wanted to escape from the tomb, but they were just one step away from succeeding. They died at the moment when they were about to see the light."
Since it was dug out by the laborers who built the imperial tomb back then, it must have been dug out from inside the tomb. It's like a tomb robber's tunnel, preventing them from escaping but enabling us to do so.
The cave gradually grew larger, and several more skeletons appeared, clearly belonging to laborers who wanted to escape.
"We're almost there," Xiang Fei's voice rang out from ahead, and our hearts tightened. This was an emperor's tomb, albeit one from a small country, but it was still enough to make our hearts race.
Xiang Fei stood up and shone his headlamp. We saw that we had arrived at the tomb passage. This hole was dug out from inside the tomb passage, and the sides were filled with remains. The tomb passage went all the way up.
All of them were cast from granite. We walked up to the top, and the tomb door was at the end of the tomb passage. When we saw the tomb door, we were all shocked.
This tomb door was probably made from a whole piece of white jade, and it shimmered with sparkling light under the lamp.
It is about three meters high and two meters wide, with a giant dragon carved on it, winding and coiling as if about to take off, with its head sticking out.
As early as the Qin and Han dynasties, the dragon had become a symbol of the emperor and a totem of the country. The Shu Kingdom during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period should have been Sinicized, so it was no exception that they worshipped the dragon as a totem. Moreover, the dragon is also a mythical creature, just like a deity.
My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com