Chapter 1345 - 1021: Tomb Passage

In the instant she had just leapt down, all she felt was a pitch darkness in which the eye could see nothing; but once she landed, she saw the torches lit by those who had jumped down before her. Their feeble light barely pushed back the surrounding gloom, and Lu Xiao at once made out that this was a fairly spacious stone chamber.

To call it a stone chamber was somewhat forced; in truth it was merely a stone cave, yet it was clearly cut by human hands. Though the surrounding walls of rock were not smooth, one could see deep grooves running in lines along them, plainly the marks left by axe and chisel.

Yet they also understood that there was certainly more here than a single stone cave.

Lu Xiao lifted her head and indeed saw that the men in front holding torches had found a way out and were groping their way forward. The wavering flames cast light ahead, revealing a passage roughly a man and a half high, less than one zhang wide, likewise hewn by human hands like this cave. On both sides the stone walls bulged with jagged, grotesque rocks; under the torchlight they looked like Fierce Beasts that might at any moment leap from the walls, enough to strike fear into the heart.

But by this point, even if there really were some monster on the walls, even if they truly felt fear within, they still had to go on.

So two soldiers raised their torches high and opened the way at the front. Ashina Zhuxie kept Lei Yu and Wang Shaoqiu close behind him, several soldiers walked to either side, while Lu Xiao and two young guards brought up the rear. The party advanced step by cautious step along that passage that seemed to plunge endlessly into the depths.

The oppressive, cramped feeling made it hard to breathe. Lei Yu looked around and could not help but knit her brow tightly. "What kind of place is this, exactly?"

Ashina Zhuxie kept his eyes on the way ahead and said nothing.

He was unfamiliar with the customs of the Central Plains; he had come with only one thought—to find that so‑called Left General’s Tomb in which countless treasures were said to be buried. So to him, this place was most likely just a treasure‑storing hole in the ground. By contrast, the soldiers who had followed him down—men as eager as he to make a windfall from this venture—spoke excitedly: "Is this that... what do you call it, that Tomb?"

"Could there be treasure up ahead?"

"Excellent, let’s hurry!"

All of them chattered at once as they walked forward, still advancing carefully step by step. The farther Wang Shaoqiu went, the more wrong it felt. He took a torch from the hand of a soldier beside him, examined closely this pitch‑dark passage and the walls on either side, then said, his tone tinged with doubt, "This... this doesn’t look like a tomb passage."

"A tomb passage?"

At this Ashina Zhuxie turned his head and gave him a glance. "Why?"

Wang Shaoqiu said, "If it is a tomb passage, men must carry the coffins down. In life, Zuo Chen An was Marquis Xiao Shan; when buried he ought to have three coffins and one outer coffin case. There is absolutely no way a passage like this could accommodate coffin sets of that scale passing through."

Lei Yu, hearing this, nodded.

Born into an official family, though still young, she knew something of funeral rites. For example, at burial the Emperor had five coffins and two outer cases; Dukes and Princes of the Blood had four coffins and one case; and Zuo Chen An, being a Duke, by rite could only have three coffins and one case. Even so, those coffin sets were enormously large. This narrow passage could at best barely be stuffed full by one; to have men carry them in would be nearly impossible.

She furrowed her brow and said, "You mean this is not Zuo Chen An’s resting place?"

If so, then the Left General’s Tomb was not here—what were they doing coming down at all?

At her words, those around them also showed hesitant expressions, but Wang Shaoqiu at once said, "It appears it is not. But that ’Young Master Jia’ must know something of the clues to the Left General’s Tomb; that is why he slipped away without a word. We must find him if we are to profit from this. He cannot have gone elsewhere—he must be somewhere in this mountain cave."

Ashina Zhuxie nodded as well. "We’ll speak after we find him."

As they spoke, they had already gone more than ten zhang ahead. The way was not long, but because of the utter darkness and the passage’s extreme narrowness, they walked with great care.

Just as Ashina Zhuxie’s words fell, one of the Turkic soldiers in front suddenly stopped short.

The people behind hastily halted as well, eyeing him warily. "What is it?"

The soldier tilted his head, listening ahead. "It sounds like... wind."

"Wind?"

This was a lightless cavern deep underground—where could any wind come from?

Though filled with doubt, once they fell quiet, even unconsciously holding their breath, they did indeed hear a faint whooshing sound coming from the other end of the cave. Moreover, the torches in their hands were trembling slightly, clearly feeling the force of the air.

Could it be that there was another world beyond the far end of this cave?

Hope again rose in some hearts. Even if this was not the Left General’s Tomb, no one would trench out a cave in the mountains for no reason; likely there were still some valuables hidden here.

Thinking this, they urged one another forward. Walking at the rear, Lu Xiao unconsciously clenched her sleeves tight.

Just as Wang Shaoqiu had said, on the way she’d just come along, she too had realized this was probably not Zuo Chen An’s tomb passage—unless he cared nothing for the regulations governing his burial and had merely done things sloppily. Yet clearly that was not the case. Since this man had gone so far as to set up so many疑塚 to protect himself, he would by no means use some flimsy coffin to gloss over his affairs after death.

And yet, whether it was some womanly intuition or not, she had an instinctive feeling that this place did seem like a tomb passage.

For when the wind blew in, it brought not only the peculiar dampness and earthy tang of the deep underground, but also a kind of indescribable, heavy breath of death. But if this was not Zuo Chen An’s resting place, whose could it be?

At that thought, her anxiety tightened further.

Just then, the soldier walking foremost suddenly halted again. "Ai-yo!"

The people behind were startled by him and hastened to ask, "What is it?"

"Did you hear something again?"

"Don’t be so jumpy."

The soldier had stopped and lowered his head to look at his feet. "What’s this?"

At his words, everyone instinctively crowded closer. Someone lowered a torch, and at once it lit up the ground under his feet: in the corner of the passage lay a heap of rotted wood.

It looked as though it had been split and worked by someone; not only were there planks and sticks, there were also thin wood shavings planed off by a carpenter’s tool. No one knew how long they had lain here—most had already decayed into powder.

How could such things be here?

Though they were not dangerous in themselves, the more ordinary a thing appears in a strange place, the more uncanny it feels. The crowd grew all the more wary and walked forward another two paces. Suddenly they felt a chill rush at them from ahead—a gust of wind blew past.

The torches in their hands flared up at once, flames leaping wildly. Their eyes blurred for an instant, and all at once the way ahead opened wide before them.

There, ahead, was actually a vast stone chamber!