Five decades prior, Changsa Dart Summit.

Foursome tomb robbers were crouching on a heap, all of them were quiet as they looked at the Luoyang shovel on the earth.

The shovel contained an old soil that had been dug out of the ground. Weirdly enough, the soil was continually dripping a scarlet liquid, as if it had been soaked in blood

"I think we're in a critical situation here." Lao Yantou said as he tapped his tobacco out onto the ground. "There's blood corpse underneath. We are all going to meet our demish beneath if we are reckless."

"Are we going to descend or not? Just give us a reply - yes or no. Don't prolong!" A one - eyed young lad said. "If your gams make it too troublesome for you, then just don't descend. Otherwise, my brother and I will go. Whatnot, we will just going to blast it."

Rather than getting mad, Lan Yantou burst out laughing and said to the whiskered man beside him, "Your lad is a bit hotheaded and boastful. You have to discipline him more. Or else something plausibly happen. In this kind of job, don't just depend on guns."

The unshaven man scowled at the young lad, "You rude brat, why are you talking to the older people like that?! You were still inside your mother's womb when he was raiding tombs."

"Why am I...mistaken? Didn't old tomb burglars use to say that blood corpse are a good sign? There must be a presence of valuables down there. If we don't climb down now, for sure we will regret it."

"How dare you speak to me like that?!" The whiskered man raised his hand to hit him but Lao Yantou obstructed it with his pipe.

"Don't hurt him, he's the same as you when you were younger. This is what we call, "Bad examples breed bad habits."

When the one - eyed lad saw his dad was being lectured, he bowed his head and smirk. Lao Yantou cough and then strike the one - eyed lad upside the head with a stick, "What are you smirking at? When it comes to blood corpses, no fixed outcome is determined. In the past, your uncle excavated such things in Luoyang and has been insane ever since. No one knows what became of him.

Afterward, I will descend first and then you follow behind me. Er Yazi, you get the tuhaozi and be last in line. San Yazi you will stay here. If all of us go down at once and something occurs, we won't be able to get out right away. You will grip onto one end of the tuhaozi's rope and tug things out as soon as we give a signal."

The youngest lad was hesitant, "I don't want to! You're playing favorites! I will tell mother about this!"

Lao Yantou laughed, "Look, look San Yazi is still such a brat. Stop making a fuss and you wait here. I will find you an ornate blade later.

"I don't want you to find it. I want to find it myself."

The one - eyed lad instantly became furious and grasped his brother's ears, "You idiot, are you looking for problem? Are you purposely annoying me?"

The youngest lad appeared to have been hit a lot and often. When he saw that his brother was really furious, he became too frightened to say a word. He looked straight to his father for help, but his father ignored him and went to put their equipments in order instead. His brother seemed pleased with this and added, "Why are you such a bummer? Father won't help you this time. If you try and start a fuss again, I'll beat you up!"

Lan Yantou spanked him on the shoulder and yelled, "Sonny, let's get our stuffs!" With that said, he began shoshovelingil like a tornado.

Thirty minutes thereafter, a boundless tunnel had been dug out. Other than his brother who came up occasionally for air, the youngest lad couldn't even hear any noises coming from the hole. He became irritated and shouted into the hole, "Grandpa, did you dig through?"

A few seconds passed, a hush voice came from the distant core, "We're not...sure... You remain in your place and fasten....the rope!"

It was his brother's voice. Then he heard Lao Yantou cough, "Be quiet... Listen! There's a movement!"

Then, there was dead silence.

The young lad was too frightened to talk, knowing that there must be something wrong below. All of a sudden he heard a terrifying gege sound coming from the hole, almost like the guttural calls.

Then, his elder brother shouted from below, "San Yazi, pull!"

He didn't hesitate a bit, he tugged on the tuhaozi's rope and pulled. But he had only pulled it a bit when something suddenly seemed to grab the rope from below. The opposing factions even started pulling the rope towards the grave robber's tunnel. The young lad didn't expect this to happen so he was almost pulled into the hole as well. He used his quick - thinking to swiftly tie the rope around his waist and then inclined his whole body rearwards until his back was almost at a thirty - degree angle to the ground. This was a trick he used when he was playing tug - of - war with his friends in the village. With all of his weight on the rope, even a donkey couldn't beat him.

Sure thing, in this way, he was capable to hold his self against the thing in the hole.Each sides continued to struggle, but none of the parties could gain the upper hand. A moment later of this tug - of - war, he heard a gunfire come from the hole and then his father shouted, "San Yazi, run!!!"

He felt the rope released and then the tuhaozi emerged of the hole with a whoosh. There seemed to be, something hanging on it, but the young lad didn't have the time to look at it now. He knew that something must have happened down there, so he grabbed the tuhaozi and turned to run.

He didn't dare to stop until he was more than a few miles away. When he held the tuhaozi out in his arms to take a look at it, he suddenly cried out in fright. As it turned out, a bloody severed hand was hooked onto the tuhaozi. He recognized that hand and couldn't help but start crying. It was clearly his brother's hand. Even if he wasn't dead, it seemed that his brother had been crippled.

When he thought of this, he couldn't help but clench his teeth. He wanted to go back and save his father and brother but as soon as he looked back, he saw a blood - red thing crouching behind him and looking right at him.

The young lad wasn't an idiot. He had followed his father to many graves before and had seen a lot of unusual things. He knew that anything could happen underground. The most important thing was to not make a fuss and to be realistic. You had to know that no matter how dangerous a ghost was, it wasn't more powerful than a living person. Whether it was a black bear or white bear, it had to accept the law of physics. If a bullet hit and destroyed it, then there was nothing to be afraid of.

With that thinking, he soothed his nervous heart and begin pulling back. He pulled the box-gun from his waistband and got ready to fire a few shots sequentially. As long as there was any movement from that bloody hell thing, he would rain it with bullets.

But he didn't expect that bloody thing to suddenly stand up at this time. When the young lad took a closer look, he felt his scalp go numb and his stomach churn. This was clearly a person who had been skinned! He was covered in blood as if he had squeezed himself out of his skin. But it was truly a miracle that such a person could still walk around in that condition. Was this the true face of a blood corpse?

As he was pondering, the blood corpse abruptly leaned forward and rushed towards him. The young lad was immediately face-to-face with it, the smell of that face dripping with blood and its pernicious scent storming to his nostril. The young lad took advantage of the situation and fell backward while firing a bullet into that thing's chest at close range. The distance was so close that all the bullets packed a big punch, causing that thing's blood to fly everywhere. As it took several steps backward, the young lad felt a flash of triumph. He once again pointed his gun at that thing's head and pulled the trigger, but then he heard a click.

The gun was stuck!

His great-uncle had dug up this old box-gun from a warlord's grave back in the day. It hadn't been used in many years, but unfortunately, he had been running around with his father over the past few years and didn't have time to maintain it. There were very few opportunities to shoot at ordinary times, so who would have expected to stuck now?

But the young lad wouldn't give up so easily. When he saw that the gun wasn't working well, he immediately pulled his arm back and threw the gun at the blood corpse with all of his strength. Regardless of whether he missed or not, he turned his head and ran away. This time, he didn't even dare to look back. He saw a big tree in front of him and immediately started running towards it, thinking that the bloody thing wouldn't be able to climb trees. But at this time, he suddenly tripped and fell. His whole face smashed up against a stump and his nose and mouth were filled with blood.

The young lad slapped the ground hard, feeling fierce anger in his heart. Why the hell was he so unlucky?!

At this moment, he heard the sound of the wind behind him and knew that King of Hell had come to collect him. I'm going to die, so be it, he thought harshly. He remained lying on the ground, not bothering to get up.

But in an unexpected turn of events, the blood corpse stepped on him as if it hadn't seen him at all, its bloody footprints immediately leaving marks on his back. The blood corpse was surprisingly heavy, and as soon as it put its weight down, the young lad felt a tickle in his throat, as though all of the bile in his stomach was about to come up. Moreover, the place on his back that was stepped on immediately became itchy and his eyes became hazy. He quickly realized that he might have been poisoned, and the toxicity was very high. In a daze, he saw that his brother's severed hand, which was lying not too far away, actually seemed to be holding something.

He blinked hard, took a closer look, and discovered that it was an ancient piece of silk. Whatever brother was so desperate to bring out definitely isn't ordinary, he thought to himself. And now I don't even know what happened to them. In any case, I have to take good care of this so that even if I really die, they can find it whenever they find my body. That way, brother's hand won't have been severed for nothing and I won't have died in vain.

As he thought this, he struggled to crawl over to his brother's severed hand. When he finally reached it, he forcibly opened his brother's clenched fist, took the piece of silk out, and then stuffed it into his sleeve.

At this time, there was a buzzing sound in his ears, it felt like his eyes were covered in a layer of gauze, and his hands and feet began to feel cold. Based on his previous experiences, the crotch of his pants must be covered in urine and feces right now. After all, people who died from corpse poisoning suffered very ugly deaths. What he hoped for the most right now was that the girl in the next village wouldn't see him like this.

His muddled thoughts were running wild and his brain had stopped listening to him, but at this time, he began to vaguely hear the strange gege sound he had heard in the grave robber's tunnel earlier.

He vaguely felt that something was wrong. After fighting with the blood corpse for so long, he hadn't heard it make that noise, so why was it making it again now? Could it be...that thing he saw just now wasn't a blood corpse? But then what did he see?

It was a pity that he could hardly think at this time. He raised his head out of reflex and saw a huge, strange face leaning down and looking at him. Those two pupilless eyes were completely empty and didn't have a spark of life in them at all.

Five decades later, at Xiling Seal Art Society in Hangzhou, my imaginations were abruptly disturbed by an elderly man. I closed my grandfather's notebook and looked up at him.

"Do you buy rubbings here?" He asked me.

It sounds that he was just asking casually, and I was very experienced in this kind of work, so I gave him a hasty answer, "Yes, but the price isn't high." This obviously meant that, if you don't have anything valuable, you better disappear and don't disturb my reading.

In this trade, I could lock for three years and then open back up and quickly make enough money to close for another three years. I was used to being lazy and don't like talking with customers who were half-knowledgeable. Later, whenever I encounter those kinds of people, I would just act like I had nothing to offer them and would drive them away. But I recently had too much free time on my hands, and seeing that the peak season was almost over without anything good coming in, I was feeling a little uneasy.

"Then I'd like to ask if you have any silk book rubbings from the Warring States Period? There's one in particular that a grave robber stole from a tomb in Changsha fifty years ago and then got swindled out of by an American." The man asked this while looking at the collection of things on my counter.

"If it was taken by the Americans, then why would I have it?" I became irritated as soon as I heard his request. "Of course, if you're looking for rubbings, then you can just go to the market to find them. But how can you expect to get hold of a certain book in particular?"

He lowered his voice, "I heard you have contacts. Lao Yang recommended you."

Surprised, I immediately became alert. Didn't Lao Yang go to prison the year before last? What, did he sell me out? I became unease and my back broke out in a cold sweat. "Wha...Lao Yang who? I don't know anyone by that name."

"I know, I know," he chuckled and pulled a watch out of his shirt pocket. "Look, Lao Yang said you'd understand once you took a look at this."

The watch had been given to him by his first love when he was in the Northeast. He treated it like it was as valuable as his own life. When he was drunk, he would take it out and look at it while shouting, "Ah, my precious jewel." But when I asked him what the girl's name was, he thought about it for a long time before he broke down crying and said that he'd f*cking forgot what it was. If Lao Yang was willing to give this watch to this person, then that showed that this old man really was someone of interest.

But no matter how I looked at him, I felt that his face was really disgusting. But when someone comes to your door, it's better to speak frankly, so I raised my hand and said to him, "Since you are a friend of Lao Yang's, what can I do for you?"

He smile widely unveil a large gold tooth, "A friend of mine brought something back from Shanxi. I wished you to take a look at it and tell me if it's real."

"I can tell from your intonation that you're from Beijing. A big player from Beijing coming to the south to seek my advice is awfully flattering, but why? Aren't there many experts in Beijing? It seems the wine-lover's heart is not in the cup!"

He laughed, "They all say that southerners are shrewd. It looks like they weren't lying. Even though you're so young, you can still see through things clearly. To be honest, I really didn't come to see you this time. I want to meet your grandfather."

My expression immediately changed, "Looking for my grandfather...what are you up to?"

"After your grandpa stole that Warring States silk book from Changsha Dart Summit, did he leave one or two rubbings behind? My friend just wants to know if it's the same as the one we have."

Before he had finished speaking, I was already yelling at the man who was dozing off nearby, "Wang Meng, see our guest out!"

The old man became anxious, "Why are you trying to chase me out when I'm still talking?"

"What you've said is correct, but it's a pity that you came too late. My grandpa died last year. If you want to find him, you'll have to go back and commit suicide!" I said this while secretly thinking to myself, that incident back then was so big that even alarmed the central authorities. How can I possibly let you flip through the old accounts? My family won't have any peace if I let you do this.

"I say, little grandson, why are you saying something so unpleasant?" The old man showed a sinister smile, revealing his big gold tooth once more. "It doesn't matter if your grandpa is gone. But in any case, I'm not asking a lot, just please take a look at what I brought. That way, Lao Yang won't lose face, yeah?"

I glanced at him and his fake smile. It seemed he really would refuse to leave if I didn't look at what he had brought. I told myself that I would take a quick look just to save Lao Yang some face. That way, he wouldn't have any right to complain once he got out of prison. So, I nodded and said, "I'll take a quick look and see, but I can't guarantee its authenticity."

Actually, there were more than twenty volumes of silk books from the Warring States Period, and each volume was different. The one my grandfather had taken at that time was only a short part of one, but it was extremely important. I currently had a few rubbings hidden away in the bottom of boxes. They were my dearest treasures, and there wasn't enough money in the world to buy them from me.

I saw the old gold-toothed man take out a white sheet of paper from his shirt pocket, and I immediately became angry. Damn, it's a photocopy.

"Ah, it's only natural that this treasure would break apart with a single shake if I ran around with it," he said in a lowered voice, pretending to seem mysterious. "If it weren't for my connections, this thing would have gone overseas long ago. I guess this could be considered my act of patriotism."

I laughed, "You look like a grave robber yourself, no? I bet you're just too afraid to sell it because it's a national treasure and you don't want to lose your head!"

It appeared I had exposed the truth, for the old man's face turned red. But he had to endure it because he wanted my help.

"That's not entirely true," he said to me. "Every businessman has his own methods. I believe that when your grandfather was a grave robber in Changsha, he was also famous..."

Now my expression must have looked ugly. "If you mention my grandpa again, I won't look what you've brought!" I said through clenched teeth.

"Ok, ok, let's stop. Just take a quick look so that I can quickly get out of your sight."

I unfolded the white paper and knew at a glance that it was a well-preserved silk book of the Warring States Period, but it wasn't the one my grandpa had stolen at that time. Although this one was quite old, it looked to be a counterfeit from later dynasties. In other words, this was an antique counterfeit, which meant that it wasn't easy to determine its value. I smiled, "This should be a forgery from the Han Dynasty. How can I put it...it's fake but not fake. It's real but not real. No one can tell if it's a copy of the original or just something someone made up. So basically, I don't know what to tell you."

"Then is this the one your grandfather stole?"

"To tell you the truth, an American swindled my grandpa out of the one he stole before he even had a chance to look at it. I really can't answer your question." I continued to maintain my fake sincerity while thinking to myself, it's not easy to fool you.

But the old gold-toothed man really seemed to believe me and sighed, "That's really unfortunate. I'm afraid it's really hopeless unless I can find that American."

"Why do you care so much about this volume?" I asked him. This whole thing was just too strange. The collection of ancient books depended on fate. You would be considered too greedy for wanting to find a set of twenty volumes from Warring States Period.

"Young man, to tell you the truth, I'm really not a grave robber. Look at my bony old body, it can't endure such hard work. But my friend is indeed an expert. I don't know what kind of game he's playing , but in short, everyone has their own reasons for doing things." He smiled and shook his head. "We're better off not asking too many questions, right? Well, I'll see myself out." After he finished speaking, he left without looking back.

I looked down and saw that I still had his photocopy in my hand. At this time, I suddenly noticed a pattern on the paper. It was a human face that looked like a fox. The two pupilless eyes appeared three-dimensional, as if they were coming out of the paper. I took a deep breath. I had never seen a silk book like this before; it should definitely be a treasure. I figured I could use this photocopy to make a few fake rubbings while I waited for Lao Yang to get out of prison. It would at least be an amusing way to pass time.

I hurried to the door and took a look, only to see that the old gold-toothed man was rushing back.

He must be coming back to retrieve this thing, I thought to myself. So, I ran back inside, picked up my digital camera, and took a picture of the photocopy. Then, I picked it up and walked out the door, almost running headlong into the old man's nose.

"You forgot something," I said to him.

My grandfather was a Changsha "soil master", also known as a "grave robber."

The reason why my grandfather entered this business really isn't all that surprising. In today's terms, it's a family business. When my great-grandfather's great-grandfather was thirteen years old, there was a drought in Central China. In those days, when there was a drought, it was quickly followed by famine. You couldn't buy anything to eat even if you had money. At that time, there was nothing to make a living in any part of Changsha, but there were a lot of ancient tombs.

There was a saying that those living close to the mountains survived off of the mountains; those living close to graves would rob the graves to survive. So, the people in the village banded together and robbed the tombs to make a living. In those years, there was no telling how many people starved to death in Changsha, but none of the people in that village died. In fact, every single one of them was well-fed and well-dressed, which was all made possible by exchanging the items they had dug up from the tombs for food from the foreigners.

After a long time had passed, tomb raiding, like other professions, also developed its own culture. By my grandfather's generation, there were already factions and rules set in place. At that time , the grave robbers were divided into two groups: the north and the south. My grandfather belonged to the southern faction, which was good at exploring the soil with Luoyang shovels. A true master could determine the depth of the tomb and dynasty it belonged to with only his nose.

Now, many novels described Luoyang shovels as a grave robber's staple tool, but in fact, the northern faction didn't use Luoyang shovels at all. They were still good at accurately determining the location and structure of tombs, but their methods was called "Xunlong Dianxue."

But the people of the northern faction were bit strange. How should I put it? In my grandpa's words, their methods were practical, and many of them engaged in cunning plots. When you robbed a tomb, you should just go in, take something ,and leave. But they had lots of complicated rules when robbing a tomb, such as kowtowing once or twice in order to pay their respects. The whole process was very bureaucratic.

The southern faction, on the other hand, didn't have many rules and never worried about ooffendingthe dead. The northern faction condemned the southern faction as a bunch of dogs who destroyed cultural relics. They claimed that none of the tombs survived a visit from the southerners and even the dead were pulled out and sold.

The southern faction called the northern faction a bunch of hypocrites. They were obviously thieves, but they were making themselves out to be something they weren't.

Later, the fight escalated until even a "battle of corpse" occurred. In the end, the two factions drew a dividing line at the Yangtze River. The northern faction referred to their work as "grave robbing" while the southern faction called it "digging up sand" or "digging up soil". The Luoyang shovel was invented after the two factions had divided, but the northerners disdained the idea so much that they didn't bother to use it.

My grandfather didn't know how to read, but then he took a few literacy classes. At that time, he only knew how to rob graves, so learning a new word almost felt like torture to him. But it was thanks to this education that he was able to record some of his experiences. That young boy at Changsha Dart Summit was my grandfather, and he recorded everything down word by word in his old notebook. My grandmother was an educated girl from a wealthy family who was attracted to his stories. In the end, my grandparents got married, moved to Hangzhou, and settled down here.

My grandpa's notebook was considered a family treasure.

My grandpa's sense of smell was completely destroyed after that incident, so he later trained a dog to smell the soil for him. That was how he earned the nickname "Dog King". It's true. Among all the grave robbers in Changsha now, those in the older generation were definitely familiar with this name.

As for how my grandfather survived and what happened to his brother, father, and grandfather, I still don't know. It was something he refused to tell me. But as far as I could remember, I had never seen a one-eyed great-uncle with only one hand. I guess the whole ordeal really did end in disaster.

Whenever this matter was brought up, my grandfather would cry and say, "That's not a story for children to listen to." No matter how I asked or how many tantrums I threw, he wouldn't say a word. But as I grew older, I gradually lost my childhood curiosity.

When the shop closed in the evening, another boring day had passed by and not a damn thing had come in. I went ahead and sent my shop assistant home for the day. At this time, a short text message appeared on my phone: "9 o'clock, Huangsha Chicken-Eye."

It was sent by my Third Uncle. This was a secret code stating that a new shipment of goods had arrived. Then, another message popped up: "Dragon back. Come quickly."

My eyes lit up with excitement. Third Uncle had surprisingly keen eyes. The phrase "dragon back" meant that it must be something good. If even he thought it was something good, then I really wanted to see it.

I locked the shop door and then drove straight to my Third Uncle's house in my worn-out Jinbei. On the other hand, I also wanted him to check out the pattern on the silk book I had photographed earlier today. After all, he was the only person in our generation who still had contact with grave robbers.

As soon as I arrived downstairs at his place, I heard him shout from above, "You dumbass! I told you to hurry up but you took your sweet time getting here! What's the use in showing up now?!"

"Sh*t, are you serious? If you had any good items, you should've set them aside for me to look at first! You sold it too fast!"

As I was talking, I saw a young man walk out of the front door with a long thing on his back that was tightly wrapped in cloth. I knew at first glance that it was an ancient weapon. This thing was indeed very valuable, and if it sold well, the price could go for more than ten times its worth.

I pointed to the young man, and my Third Uncle nodded and made a what-can-you-do gesture. I felt a burst of sadness in my heart and couldn't help but wonder if my little shop would really go bankrupt this year.

I went upstairs, made myself a cup of hot chocolate milk, and told Third Uncle about the old gold-toothed man who came to spy on things today. I thought he would be just as angry as I was, but instead he almost seemed like a different person. He remained silent as he printed out the contents of my digital camera. Once that was done, he held it under the lamp and took a look at it. I immediately saw his expression change.

"What's wrong?" I asked him. "Is there something unusual about this thing?"

He frowned before saying, "No, this looks like a map of an ancient tomb!"

I look at the printed copy of the silk book full of words and then at the expression on Third Uncle's face. It didn't seem like he was joking. Was it possible that Third Uncle had reached such a transcendental level that he could see the image from words? But no matter how you looked at it, it was impossible for this old and unscrupulous guy who ate, drank, gambled, and whored around to have any kind of immortal roots.

Third Uncle trembled with excitement and said to himself, "Where did these people get such an amazing thing? How come I've never been able to find something like this? This time, I'm really fortunate. It seems like they still don't know what this is. We can overtake them before they even start digging."

I was really confused, "Third Uncle, maybe I'm a little stupid but can you really see the map amidst such tiny words?"

"What do you know? It's called script mapping. In other words, the detailed geographical location of that place is written in these words. Most people wouldn't understand this kind of thing, but fortunately, your Third Uncle here has some experience. In this world, I'm afraid there are no more than ten people besides me who can understand this thing."

My Third Uncle didn't have many skills, but ever since he was a child, he had studied a lot of strange and unorthodox ancient texts and code words. To put it simply, he studied anything that was uncommon. Take for example, Xixia's Five Illustrations of the Wooden Text and the earliest Jurchen Ya characters. Third Uncle could understand them and talk about them in great details so it came as no surprise that he knew this thing was script mapping.

But he was the kind of person who liked to take advantage of others, so you had to play dumb in front of him. Otherwise, he'd dismiss you with a single word. So, I put on a naïve expression and asked him, "Oh, does it say go left and then go right and when you see a big tree in front of you, turn right and you'll see a well, at which point you start digging? Is it something like this?"

Third Uncle sighed, "You're such a lousy student. Your comprehension is so bad that it seems our family will be finished with your generation."

I looked at him sighing like that as if he were regretting it from the bottom of his heart and couldn't help but think that it was a little funny. "What are you saying? My dad didn't teach me any of this stuff and it wasn't like I was born knowing it."

He had a smug expression on his face as he started explaining, "This kind of script mapping is actually a kind of secret code. It has a strict format, so as long as you draw what the written text describes according to the format, you'll end up with complete map. So don't underestimate this silk book even though it only has a few words. You don't know how complicated the information it contains is. For all we know, it might even tell us how many bricks were used in certain location."

As soon as I heard this, I immediately became interested. Ever since I was a child, my family wouldn't let me go out on any grave robbing expeditions. But this time, I had to get Third Uncle to take me to have a look and snag some treasures so that I could survive my current economic crisis. As I was thinking this, I asked him, "Then can you see whose tomb it's written about, or whether the person was an influential lord?"

Third Uncle wore a pleased smile on his face, "I can't fully understand it now, but this tomb should belong to a nobleman from the State of Lu during the Warring States Period. The fact that his tomb was recorded in this silk book using this secret script mapping technique shows that this person's position should be quite high. Moreover, this tomb is so heavily concealed that it must be worth a visit."

I looked into his eyes shining with excitement and found it a bit strange. This old guy was so lazy that he normally wouldn't even bother to step out of the door of his own house. Did this mean that he wanted to go out and see the tomb for himself this time? It sounded like it would really be a fantastic story for ages, so I hurriedly asked him, "What? Third Uncle, are you really going to dig this tomb up yourself?"

He patted me on the shoulder, "You don't understand this, so let me tell you something. In the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasty tombs, there are certainly treasures, but they can only be described as wonderful workmanship at best. When it comes to the ancient royal tombs during the Warring State Period, however, you'll never be able to guess what's in them. The tombs of that time period are the places where magical artifacts can be found. They're all things that can't be found in the world! Do you really think I'd want to miss out on this?"

"Are you sure? Maybe there's nothing in it."

"Impossible, didn't you see this pattern?" He pointed to the strange fox face, "This is the mask worn by the earliest people in the State of Lu when they were offered up as sacrifices. There must be someone with a very special identity buried in this tomb. They may have even been more respected than the emperor at that time."

"Maybe it was the emperor's father," I blurted out.

Third Uncle glared at me and tried to put the pictures away, but I pressed my hands down on them and smiled at him, "Third Uncle, don't be in such a rush to put them away. I was the one who brought them here, so take me with you so that I can get some first-hand experience this time."

"That's out of the question!" He shouted. "Digging up this tomb isn't as easy as you think. There's no air conditioning in that place and it will be full of traps. You may die at any time. You are your father's only child. If anything happens to you, he'll skin me alive."

I also started shouting, "Then screw it! Just pretend I never came!" I jerked the papers out of his hand, turned my head, and started walking away.

I knew Third Uncle. Once he came across something he liked---whether it be antique or women---all of his principles went out the window. I was certain I had him at this point, and sure enough, I had only taken a few steps when he immediately surrendered. He caught up with me and grabbed the paper in my hand, "Ok, ok, ok. You've got me. But you have to agree to stay outside the grave robber's tunnel when we go down. How about it?"

I immediately became elated and thought to myself, will you really be able to stop me when I want to go down? But I just quickly nodded and said, "You got it! When we head out, I'll listen to everything you say and do whatever you want me to do!"

Third Uncle sighed helplessly and said, "The two of us can't do it alone, so I'll call in some experienced guys tomorrow. I'll solve this script mapping in the next few days, but you have to help me buy some things." As he spoke, he quickly wrote out a list and handed it to me while adding, "Don't buy any knock-offs. And be sure ti prepare some equipment and clothes that we can use to pretend to be ordinary travelers. Otherwise, we'll be arrested before we even reach the place."

I nodded to show my understanding and then got to work.

The things Third Uncle wanted were a bit tricky to find. I figured he was deliberately trying to make things difficult because the things on the list generally weren't available in stores. They included things like waterproof miner's lamps that could be taken apart, threaded steel pipes, shovel heads that could collect soil, pocketknives, folding shovels, short-handled hammers, bandages, nylon ropes, and so on. I had only bought half of the things on the list and ended up spending nearly ten thousand yuan. Feeling distressed in my heart, I cursed the old fox for being stingy despite being so rich.

Three days later, I met up with my Third Uncle, two of his old grave-robbing buddies, and the young man who had bought my uncle's "dragon back" good that day. The five of us traveled more than a hundred kilometers west towards the Temple of Seeds in Shandong

Speaking of this place, how should I describe it? The best I can say is that it was in the middle of nowhere. We first had to take a long-distance coach, then a long-distance minibus, then long-distance motorcycles, and then an oxcart. When we finally got off the oxcart, we looked all around but didn't see anything. Then, a dog came running towards us. My Third Uncle patted the guide he had hired and said, "Old man, are we supposed to ride this dog next? I'm afraid it might be too much for him to handle!"

"No," the old man laughed. "This dog is a messenger. There aren't any cars on this last leg of the trip, so we have to make do with a boat. The dog will bring the boat to us."

"Can this dog swim?"

"He can swim well, he can swim well." The old man looked at the dog, "Lu Dandan, go and take a swim."

The dog was really intelligent and actually jumped into the river and started swimming around. When he came back up, he shook his fur out and then lay on the ground with his tongue hanging out.

"It's still too early. The boatman definitely hasn't started work yet. Let's take a break and have a smoke."

I glanced at my watch, "If he hasn't started work by 2:00 p.m., then what's your boatman's schedule like?"

"He's the only boatman here, but he's also the best. He starts working whenever he gets up, and sometimes, he doesn't work at all. It really makes people anxious." The old man smiled. "But there's nothing you can do about it. The river god here really favors him. If anyone else enters the cave, they definitely won't make it out, but he's always fine. If you can ride mules, we can climb over the mountain and get there in a day. But you guys have so many things that the mules in our village won't be enough for you."

"Oh," Third Uncle immediately became excited when he heard about the cave and took out the decoded map. He kept treating it like some kind of treasure and wouldn't let me see it. As soon as he took it out, all except for the young man who just sat off to the side without saying a word.

To tell you the truth, my uncle's two buddies were easy to get along with. They were both real people. But this guy was like a tightly sealed oil bottle (mènyóupíng/Poker-Face/expressionless face). He didn't even say a single word the whole way through our journey. He just looked straight up at the blue sky, as if it would suddenly fall down. It was so annoying! I spoke a few words with him at first, but then I got bored and simply ignored him after that. I really didn't understand why Third Uncle had brought him here.

"There's a cave---it's really a river cave---just behind this mountain," Third Uncle said. "How about it, old man? Does this cave eat people?"

The old man smiled, "That's a story left over from previous generations. I can't remember it clearly. The villagers used to say that there was a snake spirit in the river channel, and none of the people who went into that cave ever came out. Then, one day, the boatman's great-grandfather came out of the cave on a boat, saying that he was a peddler from outside. But how could a peddler run around carrying a boat? Everyone said that he was the transformed snake spirit, but he just laughed and said that he had bought the boat in the next village over. If they didn't believed him, they could go to the next village and ask. They ran to the village and asked, and sure enough, it turned out to be true. They believed that the monster in the cave was finally gone, but several brave young people who went to explore the cave never came out. Since then, only the boatman's family could go in and out. Do you think it's strange? As time passed by , their family continued doing this business and have done so up until now."

"The dog the same?" I was little curious. "Didn't you say it's a messenger?"

"This dog was also raised by the boatman's family. But other people's dogs and cows can't leave that place once they go in."

"With such a strange thing occurring, no one from the government has come to investigate?"

"That would require them to believe us." The old man knocked his old tobacco out onto the ground.

Third Uncle frowned and then clapped his hands, "Lu Dandan, come here."

The dog was really obedient and eagerly came running over. When Third Uncle picked him up and smelled him, his face immediately changed, "No way, is such a thing really in that cave?"

I also picked him up and smelled him, but the terrible odor made me choke and start coughing. This dog's owner was really lazy. I had no idea how long it had been since he had given this dog a bath.

One of Third Uncle's buddies, Pan Zi, started laughing loudly, "You want to be like your Third Uncle but you're still too young."

"This damned dog, why is it so smelly?!" I gagged while trying to hold back my nausea.

"This dog grew up eating corpse flesh when he was a pup," Third Uncle said. "That place is a corpse cave. It's not surprising that we have to wait a certain amount of time before entering it. But that boatman, I'm afraid when he was a child, he was also..."

"No way!" I was so scared that my hair was standing on end. Even the silent Poker-Face's expression changed when he heard this sentence.

My Third Uncle's buddy, whom we called Ah Kui, was a big guy who was almost as big as the ox pulling the cart, but he was very timid. "What the hell is a corpse cave?" He asked softly. "Will something happen when we go in?"

"I don't know. A few years ago, I also found a cave like this in Taiyuan, Shanxi. It was a place where the Japanese put the corpse of those they slaughtered. Whenever there's a corpse cave, there must have been a massacre---that's for sure. At that time, it was fun to do experiments there. I'd put dogs and ducks on a bamboo raft, set up a camera into the cave. The cave went on for a little over a kilometer. I prepared a long enough rope, but when I tried to pull it back out, the bamboo raft wouldn't budge. The inside of the cave was pitch black, so I didn't know where it had drifted to. Later, I tried to pull the bamboo raft out again, but I had only tugged on the rope a few times when the bamboo raft suddenly turn over. And then..." Third Uncle spread his hands out. "In the end, I only saw half of a face. But it was too close to the screen to see whether it was a dog or something else.

"In ancient times, if you wanted to go through this kind of cave, then a group of dead and living people would need to pass through together. If it was just a living thing by itself, it definitely wouldn't be able to get out once it went in! But I heard that there's a place in Shanxi where people feed corpse flesh to children at an early age. That way, the corpse scent accumulates in their bodies. By the time they grow up, their bodies smell no different from dead people. Even ghosts won't be able to see them. Old man, is your boatman from Shanxi?"

The old man's expression changed slightly and he shook his head, "I don't know, that was his great-grandfather's time. It was long before my time." He suddenly looked up at the sky and then shouted at the dog, "Lu Dandan, go and bring your boat over!"

The dog whimpered and then jumped into the water and swam to the back of the mountain.

At this time, I saw Third Uncle give Pan Zi a meaningful look. Pan Zi secretly took out a backpack from the luggage pile and put it on his back. The young man sitting off to the side also stood up and pulled his bag out of the luggage pile. Pan Zi walked behind me and whispered in the Hangzhou dialect, "There's something off with this old man. Be careful."