Chapter 56

S u Jingmo said that every 16 zhang ¹ there will be a mechanism, which is similar to the slates on the ground, so it’ll be difficult to distinguish. Su Jingmo’s sarcophagus is 8 zhang long, and Qin Cheng had used a tape measure to calculate that the size of 1 zhang in the Xu Dynasty was 30,09 cm (present time). So, 16 zhang = 494,4 cm, which is around 5 meters of the present time.

The position from where Wu Hai and Qin Cheng had jumped off wasn’t far from the entrance of the tomb. After measuring the five meters distance, Qin Cheng came to the conclusion that their current position was at 2,63 meters, meaning that at 2,31 meters ahead, there was a good chance of meeting the first mechanism….

Looking at the data measured by Qin Cheng, Wu Hai frowned.

“Is this really accurate?” Looking at the ground with the flashlight, where there was clearly nothing noticeably wrong on the surface, Wu Hai shook his head, and said: “I still can’t believe that there will be mechanisms leading to traps in this place.”

“I don’t know if it’s accurate or not, but I can only believe in it.” After saying that, Qin Cheng took that first step.

Seeing Qin Cheng going forward, Wu Hai sighed, and followed him to the depths of the tomb with his bag on his back.

Every 5 meters they would make a mark, before and after the row of white stone slabs. Qin Cheng and Wu Hai would cross directly, don’t daring to touch too much as they passed by.

As they carefully went forward, and even though they walked a distance of 30 meters, their hearts were always worried. They didn’t dare to lower their guard, making it particularly difficult for them to walk those 30 meters.

At the bottom of the tomb passage there was a half-open small stone gate, which was merely a meter and a half long. The gap between the half-open stone gate was big enough for one person to pass sideways.

“Careful.” Qin Cheng pulled Wu Hai, who wanted to push open the stone door, and looked up and down at it. No matter how small the stone gate was, it still weighed a lot, and if you looked closely, you’ll find that the bottom of the stone door was close to the ground. If you were to push the stone gate, the weight will at least rub the ground, leaving behind some traces. But there weren’t any traces of friction at the bottom of the stone gate…..

Qin Cheng squatted down and carefully stretched out his hand to wipe away the dust accumulated in the gap between the half-open stone gate….

When he saw this, Qin Cheng said solemnly: “I’m afraid this gate was deliberately left half-open when the Mausoleum was built. See this, the floor is smooth as new, so it’s obvious that this gate wasn’t pushed open by the grave robbers.”

As Qin Cheng said this, Wu Hai nodded his head and replied: “This is…. Ah, is there anything written about this in your drawing?”

“No.” At first, Su Jingmo only told him that he should be very careful, not only at the possibility of a supernatural phenomenon, but also when it comes to meeting unusual situations like this one.

“Hey….then let me see what’s inside.” After saying that, Wu Hai looked up and down the 40cm wide opening for a while. Since he didn’t see anything unusual, he could only pay close attention to his steps as he leaned over carefully, and moved the flashlight through the gap. However, when the light caught something in front of him, Wu Hai saw a human head covered in blood!

“Shit!!”

The sudden presence of a human head made every hair on Wu Hai’s back stand up, as well as make his body tremble. His face suddenly turned gray as he subconsciously stepped a few steps backwards.

However, at this sudden movement, he didn’t watch his steps and stepped on something. His left foot lost its force, and he fell backwards violently!

Immediately, the tomb’s tunnel suddenly produced a loud bang! The ground of the tomb’s passage divided into ten pieces, like a seesaw, and suddenly began to tilt from left to right!

This sudden movement changed Qin Cheng’s expression.

“Quick! Quickly come here!” Before his mind could understand what was going on, he hurriedly grabbed Wu Hai’s arm and strode onto the smooth ground in front of the stone gate.

Wu Hai steadied himself. The white marble was already extremely smooth, but combined with the accumulated dust over the years, the surface was even more smoother. Wu Hai tried his best to borrow Qin Cheng’s strength before he finally managed to jump at his side, in front of the stone gate.

“Phew–” After experiencing such a shock, Wu Hai sat paralyzed in front of the stone gate. As he sweat nervously, his heart thumped like a loud drum. His face had turned red as he stared wide-eyed at the frightening sight in front of him.

Pull one hair and the whole body moves ² ….. Qin Cheng was dumbfounded as he looked how the 30 meter tomb path in front of him had turned into ten moving stone slabs. In less than a minute, these stone slabs had turned over. In that short time, Qin Cheng was able to see that under the floor, there were sharp bronze spikes….

And…. a large number of white bones, as well as corpses that haven’t completely decomposed yet…..

If those corpses hadn’t completely decomposed…. then that means that someone has been here in recent years. Also…. there were quite a lot of them…..

The stench of the decomposing corpses emitted by the movement of the stone slabs was too disgusting, meaning that the rats have died ages ago, and there wasn’t anything else to clean those corpses into white bones.

“One step… if we had taken one more step…. if we weren’t at the edge of the tomb’s passage…. we would’ve died….” After saying this, Wu Hai fell forward, into the once again calm floor. He stood silent for a moment, and then said with a wry smile: “Heh, after the floor rotated inside out, I’m afraid that the suicide note we just wrote also fell down….Bah! Who the hell would’ve thought that this tomb would actually have this…. a dead man’s head, fuck!”

“It’s alright.” After calming down, Qin Cheng patted Wu Hai on his back, and looked back at the dead man’s head hanging in the doorway. The human head was hanging from a metal wire in front of the stone gate. The moisture of the skin had long since dried up, so this should be the head of a dry corpse….

“It’s not a fake head. This one is real.” Qin Cheng said, but his mind was even more puzzled. How could there be the head of a man hanging in this tomb?

“Yes, it looks like this head should’ve been kept for a long time.” While suppressing the sensation of nausea, Wu Hai carefully observed the terrible head. Then, he continued: “This was treated deliberately. The upper side seems to be…. wrapped in wax?” Wu Hai let out a light sigh.

“Wax?” After hearing what Wu Hai said, Qin Cheng also turned on the flashlight and took a closer look. After observing for a while, he said: “Indeed, it should’ve been dried, then waxed, and then hung up.”

“What’s the meaning of this? Is it possible that this was deliberately done at that time to scare away the grave robbers? Like a warning of some sorts?”

“I don’t know….” Qin Cheng thought about it, squatted down through the stone gate’s gap and observed the situation inside. As expected, there were several heads with the same treatment placed on the ground…..

“It seems that there should’ve been a lot of heads hanging in front of the gate, but a lot of the metal wires got broken, so the heads fell off.”

The dark gap of the stone gate was unfathomable, just like the ferocious mouth of a fierce beast quietly waiting for the prey to be delivered.

Wu Hai bit his lower lip, and said: “There should be a passage ahead, right? Since we’re already here, we’d better go in and see what’s there.”

Qin Cheng nodded and took out an incense stick from his bag. After the lighter was lit, he approached the stone gate with the incense stick in his left hand as he grasped the jade pendant, which was inside his pocket, with his right hand.

If there were fierce ghosts around, the incense would naturally stop burning, which is why incense can’t be lit inside Su Jingmo’s tomb.

After quietly observing for several minutes, nothing happened. Qin Cheng then instructed Wu Hai to raise the flashlight at the sides and the back of the stone gate, while he was clinging to the innermost side of the stone gate. “If there’s a trap here, then there should be a crossbow behind the door, to guard against the grave robbers.”

Great Xu studied the crossbow thoroughly. They were not only good at building crossbows, but they were also quite good while using them.

As far as Qin Cheng knows, as early as 2000 years ago people began to set up active defense facilities inside tombs, which were not only to serve the purpose of shooting grave robbers, but also to set an example and scare people who had the intention of robbing the tombs.

Crossbows appeared in the Spring and Autumn Period. The crossbow machine that could control the shooting was already a relatively dexterous mechanical device. Crossbows and bows have the same firing principle, but the crossbows can shoot farther and it’s more lethal than a bow and arrow, overcoming the weakness that physical strength is limited and can’t be sustained when pulling the bow.

The killing power of the crossbow was so powerful that Ying Zheng ³ used this device when he created his Imperial Mausoleum to shoot at people who would try to enter through the tomb passage. According to “The Records of the First Emperor of Qin ⁴ ”, written by Sima Qian: “As soon as the First Emperor succeeded the throne, he built an Imperial Mausoleum for himself. After the unification of the land under Heaven, 700.000 men were sent from all over the world to excavate Mount Li. Deep under the three layers of Spring Water, and underneath the coffin surrounded by bronze water. The Palace of the Civil and Military Officials, as well as rare and valuable treasures, were moved to fill the Underground Palace to the brim. The craftsmen were ordered to build a crossbow launched with a mechanism to shoot at anyone who dared to come near.”

Su Jingmo said that the crossbows inside the tomb were huge and heavy, built with a type of wood that would rot easily. At that time, the skilled craftsmen made a crossbow out of metal, which was too heavy to transport, and couldn’t be used in the battlefield. However, it could be placed inside the tomb. The range of this kind of crossbow should be greater than 800 meters, with a tension heavier than 700 jin ⁵ . With such a strong crossbow, it’ll be difficult to rely solely on the strength of the human arm to “tense the bow” to be effective. In other words, the crossbow was fired by stepping on a mechanism with the foot. If the crossbows equipped with arrows are connected one by one, they can be fired together or continuously by a mechanism, and the purpose of keeping the place untouched and guarded can be achieved. The Xu Dynasty called it the “Yin Crossbow”. Because it was only used in the Netherworld ⁶ .

In order to prevent theft, the Emperor, who ordered the construction of the mechanism, placed the triggering weapon at the entrance of the tomb, the passages, and other places. Once a grave robber entered the tomb, he would bump into a trip wire connected to the trigger of the crossbow, and he would be shot violently.

The only way to avoid this kind of crossbow is to stay close to the tomb’s door, and push it open by the edge, so that the crossbow wouldn’t hurt anyone due to the angle.

Qin Cheng took out the drawing from his backpack, and handed it to Wu Hai: “Step back, I’ll try to push open the door.”

“Push open the door? Didn’t you say that there were hidden crossbows there?”

“That man taught me how to avoid the arrows, and I think his instructions should be quite useful. You saw what happened just now, didn’t you?”

Qin Cheng thought about something for a brief moment, and then continued: “How long do you think it’ll take Jiang Ping to find this place?”

Qin Cheng’s words made Wu Hai speechless.

“…. Even if we sent an SOS message to Jiang Ping, whether he took it seriously or not is still to be seen. If he does, it won’t be easy for him to find this mountain, am I right? It’s not like we haven’t seen the news everyday. It will still take that Police officer at least half a month to search the mountain, if he’s lucky. Moreover, everyone in the village is from a sect of grave robbers. With his upright appearance, how could they lead him towards the right path? My gut tells me that those grave robbers would kill him first.” Speaking of this, Qin Cheng’s mind was also very complicated. In this way, Wu Hai and Qin Cheng have only one way to ‘die’…..

Wu Hai also thought the same thing as what Qin Cheng had said. No matter what righteous words he said before knowing the situation they’ll be in right now, that even if they were to die, no one would retreat….

But it was too late to retreat now….

When Qin Cheng didn’t hear Wu Hai’s reply, he clenched his fists, and sighed in a low voice: “I’m sorry…. for dragging you into this mess.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Wu Hai looked at Qin Cheng with a complicated expression. “If it weren’t for you, I would’ve died a long time ago…. It’s just, Qin Cheng, you don’t look like the kind of person who would risk his life. In the past, you gave me the feeling that you would never put yourself in danger. The first time I remember meeting you, was in that social class where you said that you would be the first one to run away in case of a big earthquake. Fuck, your remarks at that time were extremely selfish and conceited. And don’t get me wrong, you’re indeed an extremely self-centered person.”

Qin Cheng made sure to remember what Wu Hai had said, but he couldn’t help but laugh: “Then what else can you do if you don’t run?”

“Until now, I always thought that you were egoistic, selfish, conceited….”

After hearing this, Qin Cheng couldn’t help but interrupt him, and said helplessly: “Hey, you do know that you’re saying all that in front of me, right?”

“But…” Wu Hai continued without replying to Qin Cheng’s words: “But what the hell is wrong with you now, that you’re not afraid of death? You think that I wouldn’t notice? Qin Cheng, it almost looks like you want to die…… or, in other words, like you’re simply ignoring life and death altogether….”

“…..”

Seeing that Qin Cheng was silent, Wu Hai thought of the suicide note Qin Cheng wrote as a joke, and remembered the last sentence. Wu Hai then opened and closed his mouth for a while before continuing: “Are you really–….?”

“Alright, that’s enough.” Qin Cheng made it clear that he didn’t want to talk about it, took a deep breath, and said: “Step back, it’s useless to say anything now. The only thing we can do, is to go forward.”

Wu Hai stared at Qin Cheng, and quietly closed his eyes: “… Then, you better be careful.”

Although the stone gate was small, it weighed quite a lot, and Qin Cheng was still clinging to the most difficult corner.

As he gritted his teeth, he tried his best to push the stone gate. The stone gate moved little by little, and the ground slab rubbing against the stone gate issued a harsh creaking sound.

As soon as the stone gate opened a little bit more, several arrows flew out with a snap!

Qin Cheng imeddiately clung close to the stone gate and didn’t dare to move!

‘Choose the most difficult corner to open the stone gate ’, that’s what Su Jingmo had taught him. As long as there’s a mechanism inside the tomb, the other side of the stone gate would never be safe to pass by.

“I think it’s fine now.” Qin Cheng glanced at the gap, and after seeing that there was no movement, he breathed a sigh of relief. He took two steps back, away from the stone gate.

Qin Cheng was far away from the center of the stone gate, and according to what Su Jingmo had said to him, he should touch the mechanism and let the arrows shoot. This way, it should be reasonable that the arrows wouldn’t hit him. However, the crossbows haven’t been touched for thousands of years, and some have decayed, while others have failed to shoot. When Qin Cheng walked away from the stone gate, and without anyone pushing the gate, the stone gate shook slightly. This slight shake just happened to trigger the only crossbow mechanism left.

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“Qin Cheng!” At the same time as Wu Hai screamed his name, there was the sound of an arrow cutting through the air.

Defenseless, the arrow flew out at an extremely fast speed. As if hearing the cry of a bird cutting through the sky, the crooked arrow passed through Qin Cheng’s waist, cutting through his skin.

“Shit!” The blood splashed out in an instant, and Qin Cheng felt such a horrible pain that he quickly covered up the wound.

Wu Hai hurriedly ran towards Qin Cheng.

“How is it?!”

Qin Cheng took off his jacket, and his clothes have long been dyed red by the flowing blood. Qin Cheng lifted his shirt to look at the wound: “Only the amount of blood coming out looks frightening. Fortunately, it’s not a deep cut…. It doesn’t even hurt.”

Although it wasn’t a deep cut, the wound was 5 cm long. “The blood loss is severe, we still need to deal with it….”

“I have gauze in my bag, and some anti-inflammatory medicine. Take them out for me, grind the anti-inflammatory pills into powder and sprinkle it on the wound. Then, cover up the wound with the gauze…. I think I brought some tape, juck stick it with it.”

Fortunately, Qin Cheng was lucky that the wound produced by the arrow wasn’t deep. After applying the anti-inflammatory powder and wrapping the wound with the gauze, it didn’t take long for the wound to stop bleeding.

At this moment, the two of them weren’t paying attention to the other side of the door, which had just opened….

With a flashlight, they could vaguely see that the ground was covered with gold bricks. But there was also a layer of something black, some kind of unknown substance.

By definition, this was supposed to be the entrance of a chamber. But there weren’t any terracotta warriors, only dried up terrifying corpses and severed heads…..

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The walls of this ‘chamber’ weren’t painted with beautiful paintings like the tomb passage. On the contrary, there were a large number of words engraved, and the few paintings present were as gloomy and horrifying as the Avici Hell ⁷ ….. Everything in front of them was like the horror land of an amusement park…. Just that the horror land was decorated with fake dolls. This place, on the other hand, was filled with real human corpses….

Why is there such a horrifying chamber built inside this tomb? What happened back then?!

Damn! This tomb is really dangerous… And quite creepy (๑°ㅁ°๑)‼

The protagonist halo is strong in this one, if that arrow was aimed at WH, he would be dead by now, but since it was aimed at QC, he was barely cut (ﾉД｀)!

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ヾ(´︶`♡)ﾉ

Footnotes

<ol><b>丈</b> <b>zhàng</b> ; Measure of length. It’s 3,3 meters officially, however, remember that in this story this measure of length is from an ancient time where 1 zhang equals to 30,09 cm (0,3 meters). <b>牵一发而动全身</b> <b>qiān yī fà ér dòng quán shēn</b> ; Chinese idiom, it means that a small influence will affect the whole situation / A slight change will affect everything else / The butterfly effect. From <b>《自春徂秋偶有所感触》</b> by ( <b>龚自珍</b> <b>gōng zì zhēn</b> ) Gong Zizhen [1792-1841], a poet from the Qing Dynasty [1644-1911]. <b>嬴政</b> <b>yíng zhèng</b> ; Ying Zheng [260-210 BC], personal name of the first Emperor ( <b>秦始皇</b> <b>qín shǐ huáng</b> ), founder of the Qin Dynasty [221-207 BC]. <b>《史记·秦始皇本纪》</b> <b>shǐ jì qín shǐ huáng běn jì</b> ; An historical chronicle of the main events in the life of the First Emperor of Qin, Qin Shihuang, and the Second Qin Emperor, Zhao Huhai [229-207 BC]. Reflecting the changing historical events during the 40 years before and after the establishment of the Qin Dynasty. By ( <b>司马迁</b> <b>sī mǎ qiān</b> ) Sima Qian [145-86 BC], an historian from the Han Dynasty [206 BC-220 AD]. <b>斤</b> <b>jīn</b> ; Weight equal to 0,6 kg. So, 700 jin = 420 kg. <b>阴</b> <b>yīn</b> ; Yin = The negative principle of Yin and Yang. <b>阴间</b> <b>yīn jiān</b> = the Netherworld / Underworld. The title of that crossbow could also be translated as “The Crossbow of the Netherworld”. <b>阿鼻地狱</b> <b>ā</b> <b>bí dì yù</b> ; Sanskrit: Avīci. In Buddhism, it’s the lowest level of the Naraka or “Hell” realm, with the most suffering, into which the dead who have committed grave misdeeds may be reborn.</ol>