Without the Jade pendant, Qin Cheng was no different from ordinary people; he was unable to see ghosts, nor could he know about the hidden dangers.
Qin Cheng followed the same path as yesterday, towards the open space in front of the passage that directed towards the Underground Palace, he bent over his waist and directed his flashlight towards the ground, looking for the Jade Pendant.
This was the place they had only reached yesterday, they didnât set foot into the Underground Palace. This area was also where he had tried to tackle the Taoist priest, so this certainly must be the place in which he lost the Jade pendant. However, the ground made out of blue and white stone slabs was smooth and even, and apart from the soil left behind by his team members who came just a few days ago, Qin Cheng couldnât find anything else.
If the Jade pendant isnât here, then where else could it be?
If the Jade pendant really got lost inside the Mausoleum, then the tomb ownerâŠ.. then he will take it, after all, it is his personal belongings.
Actually, in the end, thereâs no definitive answer as to who that Jade pendant belongs to, everything was just something he speculated over. Was even the tomb ownerâs name Su Jingmo? He doesnât even know anymoreâŠ.
So, if that man wasnât named Su Jingmo, then what did the character âMoâ on top of the gate of the Underground Palace represent? AndâŠ..
And what about the âQingâ character on the golden cup with a flat wedge? Could that be an object that belonged to the tomb ownerâs lover?
With this in mind, Qin Cheng stepped forward. The wooden ladder that he used that time to climb over the wall was still in the same position, as if time hadnât passed.
After he thought about what he will do next, Qin Cheng once again climbed over the wall and entered the passage that directed towards the Underground Palace, the place that kept him awake for these few nights.
That day, he didnât observe the passage carefully enough, and after looking at the decorated walls with more detail today, Qin Cheng noticed that the stone carvings towards the Underground Palaceâs gate were similar to the painted patterns on the walls of the empty space at the other side.
On the two sides of the passage were carved some beautifully lifelike mountains, rivers, and fierce, exotic beasts. It seemed that the whole Country had been painted, however, only the sky was missingâŠ..
He had once read an ancient book, who didnât seem to belong to any dynasty, that depicted such patterns!
If you look closely, youâll be able to see that the pattern on the top, although seemingly messy, can be divided into four sides.
âThe four divisions <sup>1</sup> , four beasts, four dimensions, the twenty-eight constellations of the four deities are connected by a single shaped beast.â Qin Cheng whispered a sentence from that book, and then exclaimed: âI was wrong, it wasnât âthereâs no skyâ, in reality, all of these patterns represent the whole sky!â
He gazed up at the relief sculptures <sup>2</sup> with near obsession. The ancients worshipped the Heavens, so these astronomical drawings wouldnât be described without a cause. Qin Cheng guessed that this astronomical phenomena might be the auspicious day of the tomb ownerâs birthday, or perhaps the day when something important happened. Only this kind of astronomical phenomenon can be depicted in an Emperorâs Mausoleum, so that it will accompany him to the afterlife.
Qin Cheng felt that it was a pity that he didnât know anything about astronomy, much less ancient astronomy, so he couldnât read this map to guess the year and the month it was referring to. With a soft sigh, he said: âWhat a pityâŠâ
Qin Cheng then took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. The light from the flashlight was very weak, so his eyes began to hurt after staring at the walls patterns like this, if he really wanted to take a good look at the surrounding stone walls, and observe if there were any records about the Country, or the year of the DynastyâŠ. just relying on the light of a single flashlight wasnât enoughâŠ..
On a second thought, Qin Cheng put down the tool kit he brought with him and looked through the bag for two old-fashioned plugboards. The two copper wires wrapped in blue and red plastic at the end of the patch panel were entangled together like a twist, so Qin Cheng took a pair of scissors and cut off one of them.
The wires pulled by digging the tunnel were only moved until the middle of the tunnel because they ran out of wire. That day, they were hurrying the work, and they couldnât install more electric lamps. This plugboard was about ten meters long, and there are two patch panels of twenty meters or soâŠ. it should be enough.
Wiring up and installing incandescent bulbs is a simple job, but it took Qin Cheng 15 minutes to finish the work. There was no switch on the lighting lamp, so when the work was finished, he directly pulled down the switch on the wooden pole outside the tunnel.
A total of twenty meters of wire were enough just to reach the top of the wall in the empty space outside the Underground Palace.
In the empty space of the tomb, Qin Cheng was holding a flashlight between his shoulder and neck, using the light to fix the wire. The pliers were temporarily acting as a hammer to knock the nails into the cracks of the stone slab. âDing ding ding ding-â the only sound inside the tomb was the sound of Qin Chengâs pliers hammering the nails.
One iron nailâŠ.
Two iron nailsâŠ.
âKnock, knock, knockââ
When the third nail was hammered, Qin Cheng sensed something, and stopped what he was doing right awayâŠ.
There was no sound of iron pliers hitting on the nails now, and the whole tomb was so quiet that not a single noise could be heard. Maybe he heard wrong?
Qin Cheng listened carefully with some doubts, and yet, still nothing was heard. He hit the iron nail tentatively again, and when the iron nail was knocked, it shouldâve made a long and sharp sound, rather than the dull âknock, knock, knock, knockâ sound.
When he struck the nails, the slender sound was accompanied by a dull sound, like a heavy object hitting the groundâŠ.
And this sound seemed to ring out beside him.
His heart beated violently.
Just because he couldnât see it, it didnât mean that he didnât know what might be next to him. He has witnessed with his own eyes those ghosts carrying heavy objects and banging on Zhang Qishuouâs head. When he remembered this, Qin Chengâs hands began to tremble a little.
While taking a deep breath, Qin Cheng abruptly ran towards the tunnel to escape, however, the moment he took the first step, he got strangled by an unknown force!
âAhâ!â
That unknown force that strangled him began to drag him backwards, and Qin Cheng had to retreat due to the pain he was feeling by suffocation.
He got dragged until his back hit the cold stone wall of the tomb, only then did the dragging stopped.
Qin Chengâs face went from pale to livid, and Su Jingmo was able to see everything. It was reasonable to say that this person shouldâve died the first time they encountered each other, even if it wasnât the ghost who killed him, Su Jingmo could also kill him. So, by looking at him about to die by the hands of a fierce ghost, Su Jingmo should feel at ease, since he didnât have to do it himself. But somehow, when he looked at the man that stole his Jade pendant about to get killed, Su Jingmo suddenly stopped it, and with his sword, he cut off the hand of the fierce ghost.
âZhen never lets the people he wants to kill to get killed by the hands of somebody else.â
Jiang Bo had died not long ago, so he was still a newborn spirit that didnât get affected by the ancient tomb who hadnât lost his mind yet. So, when his soul was suddenly cut off, he still knew that he needed to escape right away.
The fierce ghost escaped, and Su Jingmo didnât ever bother to look at it. He glanced down at Qin Cheng, who was kneeling down in front of him due to the suffocation he just suffered. Last time, the sword in his hand shouldâve taken this manâs life, but in the end, only a shallow scar was left behind on his neck. Now Su Jingmo had the theory that it was because this man had the Jade pendant with him that he wasnât able to take his life, thenâŠ..
The corner of his mouth raised in a smile, and his peach blossom eyes that originally seemed to smile, were now overflowing with laughter. The tip of his sword pointed straight at the throat of the man in front of him.
âThen, this time, there shouldnât be anything that can save you.â
As soon as he finished talking, the sword in his hand had already been swung downâŠ.
(ă ËÂłË) âĄ
Footnotes
<ol><b>ćè±Ą</b> <b>sĂŹ xiĂ ng</b> ; The âFour Divisionsâ refers to the four major star regions in the sky, which are the South, North, East and West. In ancient times, the stars in the sky were divided into seven major star regions: the âThree Wallsâ and the âFour Divisionsâ. On the periphery of the Three Walls are the Four Divisions, represented by the four deities: Azure Dragon in the East, Vermillion Bird in the South, White Tiger in the West and Xuanwu (or black tortoise) in the North. <b>æ”źé</b> <b>fĂș diÄo</b> ; Relief sculpture is a type of engraving in which the sculptor carves the image he wants to create on a flat piece of plate so that itâs out of the plane of the original material. Relief sculpture is the product of a combination of sculpture and painting, using compression to manipulate the object, relying on perspective and other factors to represent a three-dimensional space, and is intended to be viewed on one or both sides only. Reliefs are usually attached to another plane, and are therefore more often used in architecture, and can often be seen on utensils.</ol>