Zhang Fan was somewhat disheartened. He had thought that after meeting the Tang King, he would be able to obtain clues about the location of the "Star Core," but he did not expect the Tang King to meet him in this manner.
Don't you have anything to say to me?
What can someone who has been dead for a thousand years say?
It seems like this trip was a waste of time.
"What's wrong with you?" Qiu Wanlan also climbed onto the coffin lid and sat down next to Zhang Fan.
"It's nothing, I just wanted to talk to him, but he didn't respond to me," Zhang Fan said with some resentment, looking at the bald man inside the coffin.
"After a thousand years, how can the Tang Emperor speak to you?" Qiu Wanlan looked at Zhang Fan as if he were an idiot. "If the Tang Emperor were to speak now, you and I should run away immediately, okay?"
"Hahaha." Zhang Fan laughed self-deprecatingly. "I know the dead can't talk, but before I came here, I still had some expectations, especially after hearing your legend about immortality, my expectations were even higher."
"You actually believe that? There are people in the world who can live forever?"
“Of course I don’t believe it. There are plenty of emperors who want to live forever, but I’ve never heard of any of them succeeding.” Zhang Fan shook his head, somewhat puzzled. This Tang King doesn’t seem like a tyrant at all, so why would he pursue something as ethereal as immortality?
"Could you explain in detail where the claim that the Tang Emperor's tomb contains something that can grant immortality came from?"
"It is said that Emperor Tang spent his later years searching for the elixir of immortality," Qiu Wanlan replied. "I don't believe it. If he had truly found it, how could Emperor Tang have died?"
"However, the people of Xiliang spread rumors that when the Tang King found the way to immortality, the Queen had already died. The Tang King was disheartened and did not want to live alone, so he was buried with the way to immortality in the royal mausoleum after his death."
"Oh, I see..." Zhang Fan looked down at the bald head inside the coffin. "Then why did you call me here?"
"You didn't just do this to feed me a handful of dog food, did you?"
"Are you still bragging that you eventually married the Queen of the Women's Kingdom? Did someone else actually go on the pilgrimage?"
Zhang Fan sat on the coffin lid, muttering to himself, while Qiu Wanlan sat quietly beside him, not disturbing him.
"Um?"
While staring at the bald, mummified corpse inside the coffin, Zhang Fan suddenly felt something was amiss. So he jumped into the coffin, walked to the top of the bald corpse's head, squatted down, and examined it closely, even touching the bald head with his finger.
"What are you doing?" Qiu Wanlan stared at Zhang Fan. She dared not jump into the coffin, so she climbed down from the lid and walked from the outside to the top of the coffin to see what Zhang Fan was doing.
"Was the Tang Emperor seriously injured in the head before his death?" Zhang Fan asked, pointing to the head of the bald, mummified corpse.
Qiu Wanlan looked in the direction Zhang Fan was pointing and saw a centipede-like scar on the back of the bald mummy's head. She wondered how serious the head injury must have been to leave such a huge wound.
“No.” Qiu Wanlan shook her head in confusion. “Strange, how come there’s no record of the Tang King suffering such a serious injury?”
“No.” Zhang Fan pressed the wound gently with his fingers. The sutures that had been stitched up were already rotten. “The wound shows no signs of healing. This wound was created after the death of the Tang King.”
"After death?" Qiu Wanlan was shocked and furious. "Who dares to break open the Tang King's head after death? Are they out of their minds!"
"I'm so sorry for offending you." Zhang Fan clasped his hands together and bowed to the bald, desiccated corpse in apology. Then, he placed his palms behind the corpse's head, gently lifting it and prying open the wound with a little force...
"Are you crazy!" Qiu Wanlan slapped Zhang Fan on the back, but it was too late to stop her.
"Empty."
Zhang Fan fell silent.
"Empty?" Qiu Wanlan was stunned. "What do you mean by empty? What's empty?"
“It means the Tang Emperor’s brain is empty.” Zhang Fan clapped his hands, stood up, and jumped out of the coffin.
"You mean the Tang Emperor's brain was taken away?" Qiu Wanlan asked in surprise. "Who has the audacity to take the Tang Emperor's head!"
“Who else could it be but himself?” Zhang Fan pointed to the bald head inside the coffin. “Such an obvious scar, anyone who isn’t blind could see it. Since there’s no record of it in historical documents, that means he ordered it to be done before he died.”
"Why would the Tang Emperor do this?" Qiu Wanlan still didn't understand.
"I don't know." Zhang Fan gripped the handle on the coffin lid. "Let's close it first. What we're looking for isn't inside."
Click, click, click... snap!
With both of them pushing hard at the same time, the coffin of the Tang emperor was closed again.
"And then what? What should we do now?" Qiu Wanlan asked. "The spirit coffin has been opened, and we've met the Tang King. Should we take some jewelry or other souvenirs and go back?"
“That’s the work of tomb raiders, and I advise you not to try it.” Zhang Fan said, stroking his chin as he examined the coffin. “If I’m not mistaken, there should be a gravity sensor under those jeweled dishes. If we take the treasures from them, we won’t be able to leave.”
"That's just your guess. How will you know if you don't try?" Qiu Wanlan glared at Zhang Fan defiantly, but despite her words, she dared not touch the burial treasures around her.
"What does this look like?" Zhang Fan pointed to the circular pattern in the center of the coffin.
"That one?" Qiu Wanlan stood on tiptoe to take a look. "It looks like a clock."
“That’s called the corona, the corona at noon.” Zhang Fan nodded and said, “Our previous thinking and direction may have been wrong. Let’s try again.”
At Zhang Fan's signal, the two men gripped the handles on the coffin lid again and pushed them clockwise, not outwards.
Click, click, click—
The coffin slowly began to rotate clockwise in place. The two exchanged an excited glance, then stopped after rotating the coffin 45 degrees.
Snap! Rumble...
After a loud noise, the coffin was moved aside, revealing a hexagonal opening underneath.
The two of them squatted down at the entrance of the cave and peered down.
The cave is another world.
A world that moves upwards.
It's practically a real rooftop garden, surrounded by lush greenery, abundant vegetation, verdant leaves, and blooming flowers.
The disorientation of space made Qiu Wanlan feel dizzy. She had never imagined that there would be such a place within the Tang Emperor's mausoleum. The place she and Zhang Fan were currently in was actually below this world.
Zhang Fan's gaze was fixed on the center of the mysterious garden.
In the center of the Mysterious Garden is a floating island with a large banyan tree growing on it, and under the banyan tree is something that looks like a cocoon.
"Let's go in." Zhang Fan stood up, clapped his hands, and straightened his clothes.
"How do we get in?" Qiu Wanlan stared wide-eyed. "There's no staircase down at the cave entrance, and we don't have a rope. Are we supposed to jump down?"
"You're so smart." Zhang Fan was too lazy to explain to her, so he pulled her along and jumped.
"ah!"
The two fell from the cave entrance, and Qiu Wanlan screamed in surprise when she was caught off guard.
However, not long after falling, Qiu Wanlan found herself rising in the opposite direction, and finally crashed onto the ground near the cave entrance.
Before me was a white fluorescent dome, just like the fluorescent domes underground on Mars.
The only difference is that this is a circular dome, and the opening where the two are located is a hexagonal notch in the dome.
Upon closer inspection, Qiu Wanlan discovered that the dome was actually composed of countless hexagonal pieces, forming a circular underground space, and in the center of this circle was a small island floating in the air.
The lush, verdant, and flower-filled sky garden seen from the cave entrance is this very sky island.
"Let's go." Zhang Fan walked forward along the dome.
"Where to?" Qiu Wanlan looked around at everything with curiosity.
"There's a stone staircase leading to an island over there, didn't you see it?"
When the two reached the bottom of the stone steps, Qiu Wanlan discovered that the steps were connected by vines, but the bottom of the stone steps was empty, and the steps were floating in the air without any support.
"Can you walk on these stone steps?"
“Why can’t we walk?” Zhang Fan casually stepped onto a stone step. “Actually, it’s similar to the South Heavenly Gate we passed through. You can think of these as magnets floating in the air, and that sky island is a big magnet.”
Upon hearing this, Qiu Wanlan boldly grabbed Zhang Fan's clothes from behind and followed him up the steps. Although the stone steps swayed slightly, they did not fall down.
After walking several dozen steps, Qiu Wanlan finally mustered up the courage to walk alone.
Walking on the suspended staircase can make you lose your sense of direction because you are surrounded by circular domes on all sides.
After climbing about a hundred stone steps, the two arrived at the floating island in the very center of the dome. Under the banyan tree, a smooth, white "cocoon" lay there, surrounded by tree roots as if protecting it.
The two walked up to the "cocoon," whose surface was smooth and opaque, resembling a giant egg.
"What should we do? Break it open?" Qiu Wanlan asked Zhang Fan.
Zhang Fan touched the "cocoon" with his hand, not daring to forcefully open it before figuring it out.
In the very center of the cocoon, there is an egg-sized indentation, which is the only rough spot on the surface of the cocoon.
"Does the Qiu family have anything that can be put in here?" Zhang Fan asked Qiu Wanlan, pointing to the egg-shaped indentation.
"How am I supposed to answer you when you ask that?" Qiu Wanlan rolled her eyes at Zhang Fan. "Should I go back and get you a basket of eggs?"
"This..." Zhang Fan was speechless for a moment.
"Didn't you say that the Tang King guided you here?" Qiu Wanlan said somewhat irritably. "Then you should have this thing too."
A single word awakened me from my dream.
Zhang Fan paused for a moment, then reached into his close-fitting clothes and pulled out the pendant.
"What is this?" Qiu Wanlan asked curiously.
"Key." Zhang Fan pressed the pendant in his hand, and the cap of the pendant opened, revealing the "stardust" inside glowing.
Zhang Fan removed the stardust from the pendant and placed it into the groove of the "cocoon".
Click!
The two fit together perfectly.
A beam of light emanated from the "cocoon," illuminating the entire dome. Zhang Fan and Qiu Wanlan couldn't help but squint.
The scattered, intense light, after being reflected by the dome, converged in front of the two people, forming a ball of light that constantly changed color, like small cubes being arranged and combined.
The ball of light eventually shrunk into a human shape.
A boy of about seventeen or eighteen years old sat there with his legs crossed, fiddling with the prayer beads in his hands, and there was a wooden fish in front of him.
The boy's clothes were ordinary and looked as old as the straw hat on his head.
The boy seemed troubled by something. He took off his straw hat, revealing his bald head, and touched the back of his head with his hand, looking rather simple-minded.
As the two slowly approached, Zhang Fan saw the boy's face clearly. He was too young; he didn't seem to be the person he was looking for.
Zhang Fan reached out his hand, which passed through the boy's body as if it were passing through air.
"Holographic projection?" Zhang Fan was somewhat disappointed.
Just as Zhang Fan thought the bald boy might not know he was there, the boy looked up and gave him a simple, honest smile.
"Hello, my name is Tang Sanzang."
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