Even though the darkness within the old tomb was enough to scare a snake, after having been pursued by bones and a human head, Yin Xiaoxiao didnât find the darkness to be that frightening.
Yin Xiaoxiao stood and gasped for breath before feeling a little better. In his heart he secretly vowed that, after he left, he would exercise to increase his strength and always follow Heitan around. Itâd be like a comedy routine <sup>1</sup> . It was only then that Yin Xiaoxiao very cautiously looked around himself. A snakeâs night vision was so much better than a humanâs.
As he looked around, Yin Xiaoxiao found that the space he was in now was really quite small and wasnât even smooth. Like this, it looked like-it looked like a pipe, and it was slanted. At the moment, he was at the bottom of the pipe. If he wanted to get out of the pipe, then he could only climb.
Yin Xiaoxiao only hesitated a second before beginning to climb. Currently, this was the only way, right? Still, at the very least he didnât want to return to the area that heâd just been in! Compared to that, it was still better to take the unknown path.
Yin Xiaoxiao didnât know how long he had climbed. When he saw light ahead, Yin Xiaoxiao, without a doubt, saw salvation. Roused and enervated, he accelerated and rushed out of this pipe-like area. He was met with light. Carefully, he looked and saw that he was in the second Mudao through which he had recently passed. Not only that, but he was at the end of the second Mudao. Yin Xiaoxiao looked back. The mechanism that made him fall had already returned to its original state. There was nothing there would would indicate that a snake had fallen into a horrible place.
After Yin Xiaoxiao finished examining this, he again turned around and discovered that, as expected from before, the place that he had come out of had disappeared. The corners of Yin Xiaoxiaoâs mouth twitched. Hey, was someone toying with him?!
Forget it. Yin Xiaoxiao optimistically comforted himself that at least the small hole that had appeared had saved him. He had better not investigate this. What was most important now was to find a way to leave. He didnât know how long he had been in here, but he was already a little hungry.
As Yin Xiaoxiao examined the end of the Mudao, he thought about, after getting out, having Heitan catch him something tasty to eat. Just like the end of the first Mudao, the second Mudao ended in three doors. There was a door in the middle and two additional doors embedded to the left and right on either side. Yin Xiaoxiao waited for half a day <sup>2</sup> but the small hole didnât appear again. Eh? Could it be that he would have to choose the door this time?
As for the main tomb room, generally they were in the middle of the tomb. In other words, if he wanted to go and reach the main grave room, then best choice was the middle door. Even if he opened that door and it didnât lead straight to the main tomb room, then he would unfortunately be there for a while. But Yin Xiaoxiao rejected choosing the main tomb room. Although that room would have the most valuable items that had been entombed with the master of the tomb, Yin Xiaoxiao was currently a snake. Getting hold of valuable treasure was pointless! He would only be satisfying a desire to take a look. Besides the entombed dead body was surely in the main room, and there was surely no need for him to rush to see a dead person! Anyway, he had already seen a bunch of skeletons. If youâve seen one then youâve seen them all. He was a happy snake just from broadening his horizons! Furthermore, Yin Xiaoxiao felt that the small hole that only appeared occasionally mighty be trying to lead him to the main room of the tomb. Yin Xiaoxiao had always felt that there was nothing good in that main room. Since the small hole hadnât appeared, Yin Xiaoxiao didnât want to wait. If he waited, then it might be too late!
And so, minus the middle stone door, Yin Xiaoxiao consciously chose the left stone door and then began to look for a way in. Surprisingly, the mechanism for opening it was the same as the door below. Yin Xiaoxiao again mustered all his strength to open the stone door.
This time, Yin Xiaoxiao remained vigilant and wasnât in a rush to enter. First, he stretched out his neck to peek at what was inside. Only after he discovered that there wasnât anything dangerous inside did Yin Xiaoxiao enter fully. The stone door again closed tightly.
The grave room in which Yin Xiaoxiao now found himself was similar to the grave room that Yin Xiaoxiao had been imagining. As a human, Yin Xiaoxiao had seen this kind of grave room on television. Inside it was full of chariots, horses and soldiers. He had forgotten its exact name. What was it called? Chariot and horse pit or something? Yin Xiaoxiao didnât really pay it much mind. In fact, all of his attention was attracted by the objects in the grave room.
All of the chariots, horses and soldiers inside the grave room were made of bronze. He didnât know how the ancient people had preserved these. These bronze artifacts <sup>3</sup> still retained their original bronze coloration and not that green discoloration that excavated bronze artifacts had after being unearthed. At the head of one of the chariots was a team of twelve pairs of bronze horses pulling a bronze war chariot. There was a man aboard in the front who was holding a horsewhip and appeared to be driving the chariot, but there was no passenger. Behind the chariot were three rows of bronze men riding bronze horses. Each and every one of them had a solemn and respectful expression on their face, so much so that Yin Xiaoxiaoâs senses were assaulted by the austere atmosphere. Yin Xiaoxiao mused to himself that these figures conducted themselves as though they had an official position. If they didnât, why would they be riding horses? What? Youâre asking who said that riding a hose indicates an official post? Look, arenât there soldiers holding weapons behind those people riding horses? And as a matter of fact, behind those three rows of bronze riders there were numerous rows of bronze men who were standing at attention and holding bronze weapons.
Could it be that this was a scene showing the emperor leading his troops into battle <sup>4</sup> ? Yin Xiaoxiao cupped his chin with his tail. Yin Xiaoxiao recalled that, in ancient times, the number of horses used to pull chariots indicated social status. Naturally, the higher ranked the official post, the more horses pulling the cart. Yin Xiaoxiao was only unsure about the specifics, still twelve pairs of horses was really quite a lot. Yin Xiaoxiao had no choice but to suspect that this chariot was meant for an emperor. Oh, the master of the tomb was an emperor.
It was at this point that Yin Xiaoxiao realized that he hadnât seen any other metals in the objects within this tomb. Even the arrowheads on those arrows had been bronze. Then not using other metals, in combination with the identity of the occupant of the tomb, could only mean that society at that time had no other metals. If that were the case, then the occupant of this tomb ought to have lived during the Bronze Age, that was to say during the ancient Chinese Xia, Shang or Zhou period <sup>5</sup> . During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period <sup>6</sup> , iron objects were already being produced. To be exact, the use of emperor as appellation started with Qin Shihuang <sup>7</sup> and before that, during the Xia, Shang and Western Zhou period, the appellation with so-and-so king. So using the title emperor for the occupant of this tomb was wrong. He ought to only be called king!
âŚHey, hey! Yin Xiaoxiao! Now is not the time to debate whether king or emperor was a better appellation! Right now, your goal is to leave this tomb, you know! Whatâs more, you canât keep substituting in the history of your old world! Hello! You donât know what world this is, so how do you know whether there was a Xia, Shang or Zhou dynasty? How do you even know if there was a Qin Shihuang?! As such, we ask that you gorgeously drift by <sup>8</sup> . Look at the sky <sup>9</sup> âŚ
He looked around the room again. As before, there were reliefs. In comparison, however, the reliefs in the two Mudao were normal compared to these reliefs. Engravings of feitian <sup>10</sup> ? Engravings of fine horses and such? Huh? Yin Xiaoxiao approached the relief with the feitian. It depicted a man. A feitian where the feitian was a man? Engraving a woman would have been more appropriate. At the very least engrave some ribbons <sup>11</sup> . Having a man as a feitian â Yin Xiaoxiao felt that Ya Li mountain was big <sup>12</sup> . Like this, Yin Xiaoxiao recalled that he had seemingly seen all the reliefs. Aside from when the delicate and pretty youngster had married a woman, and that woman had been covered with a cloth, had he seen any women in any of the other reliefs?
Yin Xiaoxiao was not prepared to head towards the back of the grave room. Anyway, there were only bronze soldiers and reliefs, so nothing worth seeing. Actually, Yin Xiaoxiao was afraid to go into the back of the room. What if there was another unforeseen misfortune? There wouldnât be enough time to rush back to the door and run out. What? That small hole? What would happen if that small hole didnât appear?? And so Yin Xiaoxiao once again approached the doorway. Naturally, his next target was the stone gate on the right, opposite the left stone door. The stone door opened the same way as before. When Yin Xiaoxiao entered, he gasped. He had entered as a snake. If he were a man, as soon as he beheld those treasures, he would have made off with them!
Yin Xiaoxiao opened the door on the right and his first reaction was this: Bright! Really bright! Too bright! Having adjusted to the illumination of the oil lamps, Yin Xiaoxiao was suddenly blinded after abruptly being exposed to so much bright light. He adjusted slowly. Once he could clearly see in this grave room, Yin Xiaoxiao felt himself drool.
As before, the walls of the grave room were engraved. As before, they were still lit by oil lamps. But in the grave room, there were countless glowingâŚstones?
Naturally, Yin Xiaoxiao didnât consider these glowing stones to be stones. This time Yin Xiaoxiao didnât care whether or not there was danger in this room. Full of joy and expectations, he slithered over to those glowing stones. Oh, this must be gold! This must be silver! Wow, this small stone was a diamond! A diamond! Do you understand?! If he could have sell it for money, this olive-sized diamond could have been sold for a lot!
Even if the people of that time could only cast bronze, it still seemed that they were quite knowledgeable. They had even found gold and silver. Although they didnât know how to use it, they had polished them into pretty âstonesâ and then turned those into funerary objects.
Remember that pile of bones inside one of the grave rooms? Remember? Now, right before Yin Xiaoxiaoâs eyes was gold and silver and diamonds and whatnot, the amount of which was not dissimilar to that of the small mountain of bones! This was really valuable! Ah? What was this? Weâre these the rubies and sapphires so beloved by Westerners? They didnât look that great! Yin Xiaoxiao was disdainful. Hmph, hmph. So many diamonds, so much gold! Compared to them <sup>13</sup> Yin Xiaoxiao was completely uninterested in these gems.
Actually that wasnât to say that diamonds and gold were more valuable than gems, but Yin Xiaoxiao was Chinese! Not a Westerner! As far as Yin Xiaoxiao was concerned, gems were less tempting than silver! Yin Xiaoxiao was the most fond of Chinese jade. There was a saying in Chinese that gold had value but jade was priceless, so in order to get a genuine and nice piece of jade, the price would surely not be cheap.
Now that Yin Xiaoxiao had seen a room filled with gold, silver, diamonds and gems, his mind flew to jade. âIf both gold and silver were found, then it wouldnât make sense to not find jade in the tomb of an ancient Chinese forebear! Since the occupant of the tomb had these âstonesâ which, at that time, didnât have any usefulness, then there is no reason for jade to not be included in the funerary objects! There must surely be jade inside this grave room!â This was what Yin Xiaoxiao thought as he stared at the main grave room. The main grave room was sure to have jade. It ought to have the most jade! What? Why wasnât anything carried out? It doesnât matter, it doesnât matter. Just taking a look!
T/N:
Footnotes
<ol>ĺçłäş: a type of humor in which people donât cooperate with each other or in which meanings are taken literally. Itâs very similar to the Japanese manzai routines idiom meaning âfor a whileâ ééĺ¨: refers to ancient bronze artifacts from c. 2,000BC 垥銞亲ĺž: idiom meaning to take personally take part in an expedition, but in this case itâs probably meant literally the earliest named Chinese dynasties Spring and Autumn Period occurred during the decline/right at the end of the Zhou dynasty then segued into the Warring States Period which then ended with the Qin dynasty 秌ĺ§ç: the first emperor; as his name suggests, founded the Qin Dynasty ĺ丽丽ç ć č§: ć č§ refers to the phenomenon on forums where a reader doesnât respond seriously to the topic and only responds to farm points or exp, which are often used to exchange for things like chapters on flying lines or on jjwxc . ĺ丽丽 was put in front of the ć č§ to make it sound more interesting ć夊ä¸: reference to a webnovel called â俎çč夊瞤âor cultivation group chat . Is used to mean surprised, dumbfounded and speechless éŁĺ¤Š: the Chinese word for flying Apsara; they are beautiful, flying celestial beings, usually women, who are often depicted in Hindu and Buddhist art Feitian/Flying Apsara are often depicted with ribbons fluttering around them é¸ć˘¨ĺąąĺ¤§: internet buzzword used to describe a great amount of physical and mental stress added for clarity</ol>