Wei Shengnan's spirits had plummeted because of the empty tomb, but after hearing my words, she instantly perked up: "Did you find something?"
"No, I just don't believe this tomb could be so simple."
I walked along the edge of the tomb chamber, examining places where there might be mechanisms or secret passages: "Don't forget, we came here based on a map left by our ancestors. Although I don't know what their original intention was in drawing the map, we did find this tomb using it. Do you think our ancestors would be so bored as to send us all this way to find a single-chamber earthen tomb?"
After listening to my words, Wei Shengnan fell into deep thought and remained silent.
I continued, "And then there's the epitaph on that stone tablet. Naravana was buried in Magadha, such a remote place. Why would he have the epitaph in Chinese characters? It shows that he knew Chinese people would definitely come looking for his grave! Writing these things makes it seem like he's trying to hide something!"
What I'm saying are all reasonable and well-founded guesses.
As for what wasn't mentioned, it was naturally about encountering the ghost temple.
Although Wei Shengnan and the others said that my condition was due to hallucinations caused by marijuana and datura, the teeth marks on my arm were real.
I was able to find the location of this earthen tomb because I left my backpack outside the Ghost Temple.
A series of events made me suspect that this was not a coincidence.
There's always a reason behind unusual events.
If Nara-er-sa-po-mei's actions were truly as written on the stone tablet, sacrificing himself to suppress the evil land, how could strange things happen so frequently here?
Xu Hu confirmed that there were no traps in the tomb chamber. He took out his lighter and tried to light it twice, but failed. "Miss, the oxygen level here is too low. Since we haven't found anything yet, let's go upstairs first!"
After we returned to the ground, everyone gathered together, and Wei Shengnan recounted what had happened.
Old Song licked his lips and said, "The stone tablet below reminds me of the hundredth stone tablet in the tomb of Liu Zhu, the sixth King of Chu in the Western Han Dynasty. There was a stone tablet in his tomb that complained about poverty, saying that he was buried in plain water and had nothing. Unfortunately, it had no effect, and the tomb robbers still robbed his tomb! But his stone tablet was placed in the tomb passage, while this evil monk's tomb has nothing. How is that possible?"
Wei Shengnan also asked me, "Since you are so certain that there is something wrong with this demonic monk's tomb, can you point out where the problem lies?"
I turned my gaze to Qu Ruilin: "You measured the height of the tomb before. How deep is this tomb?"
Qu Ruilin glanced at Wei Shengnan, whose face was filled with anxiety: "520 centimeters. The soil layer within five meters of the burial chamber is sedimentary soil, and the rest is silt. One zhang in the Tang Dynasty was approximately equal to 307 centimeters today, which means that when this tomb was buried, it was 12 zhang above the ground, and the mound above it had already disappeared!"
"That's right!" Hearing Qu Ruilin say this, I already knew what was going on: "The tomb we're standing on is a fake tomb, a decoy!"
A false tomb is an archaeological term and a type of secret burial method, also known as a fake grave, a false tomb, a false burial, a hidden burial, or a hidden burial.
To put it bluntly, it means building several fake tombs and hiding the real burial site to prevent future generations from robbing it.
The most famous of the legendary false tombs are the five false tombs built by Confucius' disciples. There were five fake tombs on the west side of Confucius' tomb, all made of stone.
In addition, Shi Le, the founder of the Later Zhao dynasty during the Sixteen Kingdoms period, also set up fake tombs for his mother and himself to confuse tomb robbers.
Later, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, had his coffin carried out from thirteen city gates. Whether this was influenced by Shi Le's secret burial method is uncertain, but their inspiration for preventing tomb raiding should be consistent.
My deduction failed to ignite everyone's fighting spirit; instead, it left them all dejected and defeated.
Xu Hu said with a mournful face, "The terrain here at Hengji Mountain is a dragon-slaying platform, and we must coordinate with the celestial phenomena to find the dragon's lair! But the new moon has already passed, which means we have to wait another month?"
"No need! Historically, false tombs were scattered throughout the land to make it impossible to find the real tomb. The false tomb we are standing on should be a two-story structure, with the real tomb located beneath this earthen chamber!"
I explained to everyone: "The 'Records of Strange Things' in Volume 13 of 'New Tales of the Tang Dynasty' states that after the death of Cen, the wife of Xu Jian, a scholar of the Jixian Academy, he consulted Zhang Yue about the rules for choosing a burial site. Zhang Yue said: 'Twelve feet below the ground is the earth boundary, and another twelve feet is the water boundary. The earth boundary is guarded by an earth dragon, and the water boundary by a water dragon. The earth dragon comes out to bask in the sun once every six years, and the water dragon comes out to bask in the sun once every twelve years. The grave should not be too close to the earth boundary or the water boundary, otherwise the grave will not be stable.' This depth was also the standard for burial during the Tang Dynasty. In the Central Plains, when digging a grave, water mixed with loess was sometimes found like a spring. Therefore, the Yellow Springs area, the underground world where people reside after death, is called the Three-Zhang Yellow Springs."
"If this is true, the height of the demon monk's tomb is indeed incorrect. It is four meters above the ground, which is only one zhang and one chi, far from meeting the standard of three zhang and one chi for a tomb."
Wei Shengnan thought for a moment: "In other words, we need to dig down about five meters to reach the standard burial depth of the Tang Dynasty?"
"But this will make things very complicated."
Xu Hu drew a square on the ground with his knife: "The tomb chamber below us is five meters below the ground, and the air is thin, making it very difficult to work. Even if we can overcome this difficulty, we won't be able to secure the edges and shape it. We can only dig in this narrow space, which is too difficult! Even if we manage to dig the tunnel through, it will be very dangerous for the rest of us to wait inside the tomb."
Old Song yawned: "That's easy, just dig up the fake tomb! Anyway, this tomb is fake, and there's no one around here. Just fill the hole with explosives and blast it into a pit, then dig down!"
“Demolition won’t work. Once the top layer of soil collapses, the false tomb will be buried underneath. Besides, we are righteous thieves and cannot destroy the tomb ourselves.”
Qu Ruilin drew a diagonal line next to the square: "We can dig a ramp connecting the tomb chamber at an angle, like the entrance to an underground parking garage, and carry out side work. This will ensure air circulation and allow people waiting up there to stay for a long time."
Qu Ruilin was an expert in construction, and since he had come up with the idea, the others had no choice but to follow it.
Although all the electronic instruments we brought malfunctioned, the impact drill and electric hammer were unaffected, and the people Wei Shengnan brought were quite professional.
After a busy day, by sunset we had dug a sloping passage leading to the suspected tomb, and the brick with cadaveric alkaloids inside had been removed and buried.
As night fell, the valley gradually darkened.
The thought of being in the same spot where the ghost temple had appeared yesterday filled me with unease. I approached Wei Shengnan and said, "Since there's a decoy tomb here, and only one downward passage, there might be traps or something. Digging at night is too risky. Why don't we leave for now and come back tomorrow morning?"
“I just spoke with Qu Ruilin, and his opinion is similar to yours, but there’s no need to change camps.”
Wei Shengnan instructed Xu Hu to continue setting up the tents and said to me, "Time is of the essence. Now that we have found the location of the demon monk's tomb, let's camp here tonight and continue our work as soon as it's light. We must find the real tomb by tomorrow no matter what!"
Just as I was about to say something more, I suddenly saw a flickering light appear next to the newly erected tent in the distance.
Immediately afterwards, a monk carrying a lantern peeked out from behind the tent, revealing half his face and giving me a strange smile.
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