The Chronicles of the Tomb Robbers归档 - 第91页共91页

4 3 月 2025

10 Seven Star Lu Wang – Chapter Ten – Shadow

At first, I thought he was intentionally trying to scare me, but looking at his expression and his character, he didn’t seem like that kind of person. The “dumb oil bottle” kept making a “gurgling” sound without moving his mouth. The four of us looked at him, feeling a chill; I thought, surely not, could the dumb oil bottle actually be some kind of undercover agent?

Seeing his terrifying expression, my third uncle quickly pulled Panzi out. Suddenly, the dumb oil bottle fell silent. The tomb chamber was so quiet that there was not a sound to be heard. I don’t know how long it lasted, but I was getting a bit impatient. Just as I was about to ask what was going on, the coffin lid suddenly flipped up a bit and began to shake violently. Then, a chilling sound, so eerie it made one shiver, came from the stone coffin, very similar to what my grandfather had described in his notes, truly resembling the sound of a frog croaking.

Upon seeing this, Daqi got so scared that he sat down on the ground. I also felt my legs go weak and nearly sat down. My third uncle, having seen the world, started to tremble but somehow didn’t fall.

When the dumb oil bottle heard the sound, his face turned very pale, and he suddenly knelt down on the ground, heavily bowing his head towards the coffin. We immediately followed suit and all knelt down to bow. The dumb oil bottle raised his head and emitted a series of strange sounds, as if chanting some kind of spell. My third uncle was sweating profusely and quietly said, “He can’t be trying to talk to it, right?”

The stone coffin finally stabilized and stopped shaking. The dumb oil bottle bowed again and then stood up, telling us, “We must leave here before dawn.”

My third uncle wiped his sweat and asked, “Little brother, were you just bargaining with this ‘zongzi’ grandpa?”

The dumb oil bottle gestured for us not to ask any further questions: “Don’t touch anything here. The being in this coffin is extremely powerful; if we release it, not even the Great Luo Immortal could escape.”

Panzi, still unaware of the danger, laughed and asked, “Hey, little brother, what was that foreign language you were speaking just now?”

The dumb oil bottle ignored him, pointed to the passage behind the coffin, and said, “Go past quietly, and don’t touch the coffin!” My third uncle steadied himself. To be honest, having someone like him around made us much bolder, so we tidied up our gear, with my third uncle leading the way and the dumb oil bottle bringing up the rear. We turned on our mining lamps and headed down the tunnel behind the coffin. Daqi pressed himself tightly against the wall as he passed by the coffin, trying to maintain distance, looking quite funny, but at that moment, I had no interest in laughing at him.

The tomb passage sloped downward, with inscriptions carved on both sides and some stone carvings. I glanced at them but didn’t understand their meaning. In fact, I had some knowledge of rubbings and antiques, so I could recognize a few words.

However, I can say that even if I understand all these words, it is still very difficult to grasp the meaning because there are no punctuation marks. Ancient people spoke very concisely and skillfully. For example, there was a moment when a king from the State of Qi asked his military advisor a question. The advisor nodded and smiled, saying, “Yes.” The king went back and pondered for a long time whether this “yes” meant agreement or disagreement. In the end, he became ill from overthinking and, on his deathbed, shared his considered answer with the advisor, asking if that was what he meant at the time. The advisor chuckled and replied, “Yes.” The king immediately passed away.

My uncle walked very cautiously, taking a long time with each step. The penetration power of the mining lamp was not strong, and it was pitch black ahead and behind us, creating a feeling similar to being in a water cave, which made me very uncomfortable. After about half an hour, the tunnel began to ascend, and we knew we should have completed half the journey by now. At that moment, we saw a theft hole, and my uncle couldn’t help but be startled; he was most afraid of others getting there first, so he hurried over to check.

This theft hole had definitely been dug not long ago, with the soil still looking fresh. I asked my uncle, “The old man said that two weeks ago, a group of people entered this valley; could it be them who dug this hole?”

“I can’t tell, but this hole was dug in a hurry. It seems that it was not made for entry but rather for exit! I’m afraid we have truly been beaten to it.”

“Don’t be discouraged, Third Master. If they did it well, they must have exited through the same route. It looks like something must have gone wrong. I believe the treasure should still be here,” Panzi consoled.

My uncle nodded, and we continued on. Since someone had already cleared the way for us, we didn’t need to be so hesitant anymore.

We quickened our pace and walked for another fifteen minutes until we arrived at a widened corridor. This section was more than twice as wide as the one we had come from, and the decorations were much more elaborate, indicating that we had reached the main tomb area. At the end of this corridor stood a massive jade door, which was very transparent and now wide open, presumably opened by someone from the inside. Beside the jade door were two statues of hungry ghosts, one holding a ghostly claw and the other raising a seal, both entirely black.

My uncle examined the jade door and found that the mechanism on it had been damaged. We entered through the gap, and the inside was quite spacious but completely dark; the mining lamp’s power was insufficient to illuminate it thoroughly.

However, we could roughly make out the scene; this should be the main tomb. Panzi swept his mining lamp around and exclaimed, “Why are there so many coffins!”

Without a strong light source, it was indeed very difficult to see what was in the tomb. I glanced around, and sure enough, there were many stone coffins placed in the center of the tomb chamber, seemingly arranged in some order, though not very neatly. Above the tomb chamber was a large dome covered in murals, and all around were stone slabs densely inscribed with characters. I set my mining lamp down on the ground, and Panzi placed his lamp in the opposite direction to illuminate the area. We saw that there were also two side chambers next to the tomb chamber.

My uncle and I walked to the first stone coffin, struck a match, and found that this coffin was completely different from the one we had seen when we entered the tomb. This one was covered in intricate inscriptions. I glanced at it and was surprised to find that I could understand some of it!

The text described the life of the coffin’s owner, revealing that he was a feudal lord from the State of Lu. This man was born with a ghostly seal, allowing him to borrow ghost soldiers from the underworld, which made him invincible in battle. He was granted the title of King of Lu Shang by the Duke of Lu. One day, he suddenly requested an audience with the Duke, saying that he had borrowed soldiers from the underworld for many years, but now the underworld lord had minor ghosts rebelling, and he had to return the favor (of course, the original text didn’t say it this way). He hoped the Duke would allow him to return to the underworld to fulfill his duty. The Duke granted his request, and the King of Lu Shang bowed his head and passed away.

The Duke thought he would return, so he set up this underground palace for him, preserving his corpse in the hope that he would come back and continue to serve him. The text went on in great detail about the battles he fought, almost all of which involved his ghostly seal shining and a large number of ghost soldiers emerging from the ground to capture souls. After hearing my explanation, Panzi exclaimed, “That’s amazing! Luckily, he died early; otherwise, the State of Lu would have unified the six states!”

I laughed heartily and said, “Not necessarily. Ancient people were great at boasting. Your King of Lu Shang could borrow ghost soldiers, but someone from the State of Qi could borrow heavenly soldiers. I remember there were even generals who could fly; you must have read the ‘Classic of Mountains and Seas’!”

“Regardless, at least we now know whose battle we are fighting. But with so many coffins here, which one is his?” Panzi asked.

I looked at the inscriptions on several other coffins, and they were mostly similar, containing the same content. We counted, and there were a total of seven coffins, exactly like the seven stars of the Big Dipper. None of the coffins had any identifying marks. While I was studying some inscriptions I couldn’t decipher, Da Kui suddenly yelled, “Look, this stone coffin has already been opened!”

I walked over to take a look, and indeed, the coffin lid was not completely sealed, and there were many fresh marks from a crowbar on it. My uncle took out our crowbar from the bag and carefully pried the coffin lid open. Then he shone a light inside, and Panzi let out a strange sound, looking at us in confusion, “Why is there a foreigner inside?”

We looked in, and sure enough, there was a foreigner inside—not only a foreigner, but he was also very fresh, having died no more than a week ago. Panzi wanted to reach in to grab something, but the oil bottle suddenly grabbed his shoulder with great force, making Panzi grimace in pain. “Don’t move, the real body is underneath him!”

Upon closer inspection, we saw that there was indeed another body beneath the foreigner, but we couldn’t make out what it looked like. My uncle took out a black donkey’s hoof and said, “It should be a black-haired one; we should strike first.”

At that moment, Da Kui tugged at my clothes from behind and pulled me aside.

He was usually quite straightforward, so I found it strange and asked him what was wrong. He pointed to the wall opposite us, where our shadows were cast by the mining lamp, and whispered, “Look, this is your shadow, right?”

I replied irritably, “What, are we afraid of our own shadows now?”

His complexion wasn’t very good. When I said that, his mouth trembled a little, and I thought to myself, could it be that he’s really that scared? He waved his hand, signaling me to stop talking, and then pointed at those shadows: “This one is mine, this one belongs to Panzi, this one is San Ye’s, and this one is Xiaoge’s. You see them all, right? Including yours, that’s a total of five, isn’t it?”

I nodded, and suddenly it seemed like I also discovered something. Da Kui swallowed hard, pointed at another lonely shadow that wasn’t with us, and almost cried as he asked, “Then whose shadow is this?”

4 3 月 2025

9 Seven Star Lu Wang – Chapter Nine – Ancient Tomb

The phone must have been dropped not long ago. When I picked it up and saw it smeared with blood, I felt something was off. “It seems that we’re not the only group here; it looks like someone else has been injured. This phone definitely didn’t just fall from the sky.” I opened the phone book and saw only a few numbers, all of them foreign, with no other information. My uncle said, “Regardless, we can’t go looking for them; we need to keep moving.” I looked around and found no clues, so I had no choice but to continue on our path. However, seeing such a modern object in this desolate wilderness felt unbelievable, so I asked the old man if anyone else had entered this forest recently.

The old man chuckled, “Two weeks ago, a group of about a dozen people came through, and they haven’t come out yet. This place is dangerous, gentlemen; we can still turn back now.”

“It’s just a monster,” Big Kui said. “Let me tell you, our little grandpa here can make even a thousand-year-old zombie bow down to him. With him around, no demons or monsters stand a chance, right?” He asked the silent bottle, but the bottle showed no reaction, as if it didn’t even acknowledge him. Big Kui hit a wall and felt frustrated, but there was nothing he could do.

We trudged on until the sky darkened, and before four in the afternoon, we finally reached our destination. We saw more than a dozen nearly intact military tents. These tents were of very high quality; even though they were covered in decaying leaves, the insides were still quite dry and clean. There were quite a few daily supplies inside, and as we rummaged through, we found a lot of scattered gear but no bodies, so the old man must not have been lying.

We even found a generator and a few barrels of gasoline, with the engine wrapped in an oil cloth, though most of the parts were in terrible condition. Fat Kui tried to start it, but there was no response; at least the gasoline was still fine. I noticed that all the items had their labels torn off, even the tents and the logos on their backpacks were missing. I thought it was strange; it seemed these people didn’t want anyone to know where they came from.

We started a fire at the campsite and had a simple dinner. The old man ate while keeping a vigilant eye on the surroundings, afraid that a monster might suddenly jump out and hang him. The taste of the compressed food was really bad; I barely managed to drink a few sips of water.

While eating, the silent bottle was looking at the map. He pointed to a spot on the map marked with the face of a fox monster. “We must be here now,” he said. We all crowded around, and he continued, “This is a sacrificial site; below should be the altar, and the sacrificial offerings might be buried underneath.”

My uncle squatted down, grabbed a handful of soil, smelled it, shook his head, walked a few steps, grabbed another handful, and said, “It’s buried too deep; we need to dig a few shovels down to check.”

We connected the rebar pipes and attached the shovel head. My uncle stomped a few marks on the ground, indicating where to dig. Big Kui first secured the shovel head and then started digging with a short-handled hammer. My uncle rested one hand on the steel pipe, feeling the situation below. After hitting a total of thirteen times, my uncle suddenly exclaimed, “Found it!”

We pulled the shovel up section by section, and finally, with one last scoop, we brought out a clump of soil. Daqi removed the shovel head and walked over to the fire to show us. When my third uncle and I saw it, our faces turned pale at the same time, and even the “Muffled Oil Bottle” gasped. It turned out that the soil looked as if it had been soaked in blood, dripping with a liquid that resembled fresh blood.

My third uncle brought it close to his nose and frowned. Both of us had read accounts of blood corpses, but we couldn’t accurately infer the specifics from my grandfather’s notes. However, since the soil was blood-stained, the tomb below must be extraordinary.

I looked at my third uncle, wanting to see how he would decide. After thinking for a moment, he lit a cigarette and said, “No matter what, let’s dig it open first.”

Meanwhile, Panzi and Daqi didn’t stop working. Daqi took a few more shovelfuls and then handed the shovel head to my third uncle. My third uncle sniffed each shovel head and began to connect the holes in the ground with a trowel. I watched them busily marking the location, and in a short while, they had outlined the general shape of the ancient tomb on the ground.

Locating the burial site is a fundamental skill of a soil worker. Generally speaking, whatever the surface looks like, the tomb below is bound to be similar; it’s rare for a soil worker to make a mistake. However, looking at this outline, I felt something was off. Most Warring States tombs do not have underground chambers, but this one clearly did, and it had a brick ceiling—this was truly unusual.

My third uncle used his fingers to measure and finally determined the approximate location of the coffin, saying, “The ceiling is made of bricks, and I can’t drive the shovel down. I can only mark a rough position based on experience. This underground chamber is too strange; I don’t know how thin the bricks are down there. I can only rely on the experience of Song Dynasty tombs and try to break through from the back wall to take a look. If that doesn’t work, we’ll have to start over, so we need to be quick.”

My third uncle and the others had been digging tombs for over ten years, so they were very fast. Three whirlwind shovels flew up and down, and in no time, they had gone down seven or eight meters. Since we were in the wilderness, there was no need to worry about the soil; we just flipped it out. Before long, Daqi shouted from below, “Got it!”

Daqi had already dug a large hole below the theft tunnel and cleared a big section of brick wall. We turned on the mining lamps and went down inside. The Muffled Oil Bottle saw Daqi knocking on the brick wall and quickly held him back, saying, “Don’t touch anything.” The Muffled Oil Bottle’s gaze was extremely sharp, startling Daqi.

He extended two fingers and placed them on the wall, feeling along the brick seams. After a long time, he finally stopped and said, “There’s a security layer inside. When we move it, all the bricks must be taken outwards; they cannot be pushed inwards, and definitely not smashed!”

Panzi touched the wall and said, “How is it possible that there isn’t even a gap? How could we pull these bricks out?”

Ignoring Panzi, the Muffled Oil Bottle felt a brick, suddenly exerted force, and surprisingly pulled the brick out of the wall. The adobe bricks were incredibly sturdy; it was hard to imagine how much strength it would take to pull a brick out with just two fingers. Those two fingers were truly remarkable.

He carefully placed the brick on the ground and pointed to the back of it. We saw a dark red wax wall behind it. He said, “This wall is filled with alum used during the alchemy process. If we break it, these organic strong acids will instantly pour over us, burning our skin off in no time.”

I swallowed hard and suddenly thought of the skinless monster that Grandpa had seen. I was very shocked. Could it be that what we saw wasn’t a blood corpse, but rather Great-Grandpa who had been doused in alum? Did that mean that the shots Grandpa fired were actually aimed at Great-Grandpa?

The Muffled Bottle instructed Fat Kui to dig a five-meter vertical well below, then took out a syringe needle and a plastic tube from his bag. He connected the tube to the needle and inserted the other end into the deep pit. Panzi struck a match and heated the needle until it glowed red. Muffled Bottle carefully inserted it into the wax wall, and immediately, red alum began to flow from the tube into the vertical well.

Soon, the dark red wax wall turned white, indicating that everything inside had drained away. Muffled Bottle nodded and said, “Alright!” We immediately began to move bricks. Before long, we had created a hole large enough for a person to pass through. Third Uncle tossed a match into the hole and, using the light, observed the environment inside.

We broke through from the north side of the tomb and saw that the ground was covered with large stone slabs, inscribed with ancient characters. These slabs were arranged in a pattern resembling the Bagua, with larger slabs on the outside and smaller ones toward the center. Surrounding the tomb were eight eternal lamps, which had long since gone out. In the middle of the tomb stood a four-legged square cauldron, with the ceiling above it carved with the sun, moon, and stars. To the south of the tomb chamber, directly in front of us, lay a stone coffin, and behind the coffin was a pathway that seemed to lead downward, though we didn’t know where it went.

Third Uncle leaned in to sniff and then waved us over, signaling for us to crawl in one by one.

Third Uncle looked at the characters on the ground and said to Muffled Bottle, “Little Brother, can you tell who is buried here from these inscriptions?”

Muffled Bottle shook his head and didn’t say anything.

We lit several matches and tossed them into the eternal lamps, illuminating the entire tomb chamber. I recalled the monster mentioned in Grandpa’s notes, along with his repeated references to hearing a strange clattering sound, which sent chills down my spine. At that moment, Panzi unexpectedly climbed onto the cauldron to see what was inside. Suddenly, he shouted, “Third Uncle, there are treasures here!”

We all scrambled up to see that inside the cauldron was a headless corpse, its clothes completely decayed. The corpse still had some jade ornaments on it, and Panzi, not hesitating, directly took them off and put them in his hands.

“This should be the remains of a human sacrifice after the head was cut off for a ritual, and the body was placed here as an offering. These must be war captives; slaves wouldn’t have ornaments on them,” he said.

Panzi jumped into the cauldron to see what else was down there, and Muffled Bottle wanted to stop him but was too late. He looked back at the stone coffin, relieved that it showed no reaction. Third Uncle scolded, “You brat, that cauldron is meant for offerings! Do you want to be treated as a sacrifice?”

Panzi chuckled, “Third Uncle, I’m not Da Kui, so don’t try to scare me.” He pulled out a large jade bottle from inside. “Look, there are quite a few good things here. Let’s turn the cauldron over and see what else is inside!”

“Stop messing around, get out quickly!” Third Uncle urged. He noticed that Muffled Bottle’s face had turned pale, his eyes fixed intently on the stone coffin, realizing that something might go wrong.

At that moment, I heard a “giggling” sound. I turned my head to listen, and a chill ran down my spine; the sound wasn’t coming from the coffin, but from the oil bottle instead.

4 3 月 2025

8 Seven Star Lu Wang – Chapter Eight – The Valley

Uncle San frowned and asked, “Just a head? No body?”
The girl replied, “Yeah, isn’t it scary? Ever since that place collapsed, there’s no way to get in. Even the mules can’t go there. If you want to get there, you’ll have to crawl one step at a time. Even if you make it there, you can only look around. A few groups have gone to that place before, and those old gentlemen just shook their heads when they saw the mountain collapsed like that.”
Uncle San glanced at the dull oil bottle (a nickname for someone), saw that he had no reaction at all, and then asked the waiter, “Before the mountain collapsed, did anyone ever go in?”
“There were some, but from what I saw, they only stayed in for a few days, and they came out looking like that, bringing nothing back. They came in all happy, but when they came out, their clothes looked like they were begging, and they stank to high heaven. My grandfather said they probably didn’t even find the fight there. So, are you all interested in trying it out?”
“Look at what you’re saying, we have to go take a look since we’re here. Otherwise, it would be a wasted trip.” Uncle San chuckled and didn’t say anything more.
The waiter went to the kitchen to hurry the food, and Panzi said, “It looks like we must be heading to that big fight, but according to this girl, it’s going to be tough to get our equipment up the mountain.”
“There are ways to deal with equipment, and there are ways to deal with no equipment. This Warring States tomb is usually a straight pit, going straight up and down, without any burial chamber. I don’t know if this one is the same; we’ll have to see it on-site. The size of the tomb and how deep it’s buried might be quite different from those we’ve dealt with before. You see the heads that came out of the mountain? That’s what our ancestors referred to as the ghost head pit; it must have been a burial pit for sacrificial offerings.” Uncle San took out a map, pointed to a circle on it, and said, “Look, it’s this place. This spot is still far from the main tomb. If the people who came here before followed the method of seeking dragons and locating graves, they would definitely have to stop here. This is the dragon’s head. Generally speaking, the tomb should be below this, but look, if you go a little further in, this place is a gourd mouth. You wouldn’t even know there’s a hidden world inside unless you go further in. This is where the real dragon’s head is located. The person who designed this tomb must have been very knowledgeable about seeking dragons and locating graves; they specially set a trap here for them to drill through. If I’m not mistaken, beneath this fake dragon’s head, there must be a heavily trapped false tomb!” Seeing that we were listening intently, Uncle San continued with satisfaction, “If we didn’t have this map, even our ancestors would probably be at a loss. Tomorrow, we’ll take what we must and go in light; we’ll first go check it out. If it really doesn’t work, we’ll just come back for the stuff.”
We nodded in agreement, had a little more to drink, and then all returned to our rooms.

Then it was time to dismantle the equipment. In this day and age, of course, we didn’t use the traditional Luoyang shovel. Uncle San took out an archaeological digging tool. This shovel was made of steel pipes that could be screwed together section by section. You could add as many sections as you needed, making it much more discreet than the wooden-handled Luoyang shovel. The Warring States tombs were usually below ten meters, so there was no way to avoid it. Each person had to carry ten steel pipes and was equipped with a shovel head. Panzi had a short-barreled rifle, which he usually kept securely wrapped in a leather case, and now he took it out. This gun was much shorter than the double-barreled ones sold on the black market and could be hidden in his clothes without anyone noticing. He stuffed this along with several bullets into his backpack. Uncle San said that going down with a double-barreled gun wouldn’t even allow you to turn around. Panzi’s short gun was much more practical. I prepared a camera and a mud knife, and thought there wasn’t much else to bring; after all, I was just an intern archaeologist.

After a night of silence and a day of exhausting travel, I slept soundly. When I woke up, I felt like my joints were all sore. We hurriedly had breakfast, packed some dry food, and set off. The big girl was quite enthusiastic and called a kid from her village to guide us. After walking for more than two hours on mountain trails, that bare-bottomed kid pointed ahead and said, “Right there!” I looked, and sure enough, the mountain ahead was clearly gouged out by a mudslide. We were now standing between two mountain ranges. This canyon was long; during the rainy season, it should be a river, but after being washed away by mud and with these months of drought, only a shallow creek remained in the middle.

The mountains on both sides were steep and impassable, and the riverbed ahead was blocked by rocks that had fallen from the mountains. I patted the kid on the head and said, “Go back and play, and thank your sister for me!” The kid stretched out his hand and said, “Give me fifty!” I was taken aback; the kid didn’t say anything more but just stared at me with his hand out. I asked, “What fifty?” Uncle San laughed heartily and took out a hundred yuan to give him. The kid snatched it and bounced away.

It was then that I realized and laughed, “Even the kids in the mountains are so mercenary now.” “People die for birds—” Da Kui muttered. Panzi kicked him, “Got culture? Go die for a chicken!” Without saying another word, we started climbing. The stones weren’t too loose, and in a short while, we managed to get over. It wasn’t as terrifying as the big girl had said; we didn’t see any of the heads she mentioned. Behind the landslide was initially a canyon, which gradually turned into a forest in the distance, dense and lush. I had no idea how such an ecosystem was formed.

At that moment, we saw an old man down in the canyon filling up water. Upon a closer look, I realized, damn it, it was the old man who had led us into the cave! The old man suddenly saw us and got so scared that he fell into the creek, then scrambled up and ran away. Panzi laughed and cursed, “That’ll teach you to run!” He pulled out his short gun and fired a shot into the sandy ground in front of the old man. The old man jumped up in fright and ran back. Panzi fired three shots, each hitting the footprints left by the old man. The old man was quite clever; seeing that they were just playing with him, he realized he couldn’t escape. With a thud, he knelt down on the ground.

We ran down the slope, and the old man bowed to us, saying, “Great uncles, please spare my life. I, an old man, truly had no other choice but to pay attention to a few esteemed gentlemen. I didn’t expect that you would be such extraordinary figures; this time, I truly have eyes but fail to recognize Mount Tai!” As he spoke, he was sniffling and crying. My uncle asked him, “What’s the matter? You seem to have plenty of energy; what are you unable to do?”

“To tell you the truth, I am really unwell. Don’t be fooled by how robust I seem; in fact, I have to take several doses of medicine every day. You see, I’m just going to boil some medicine,” he pointed to a water barrel nearby.

“I want to ask you, old ghost, how did you suddenly disappear in that cave?”

“If I tell you, will you not kill me?” The old ghost looked at us.

“Don’t worry, we live in a society governed by law,” my uncle said. “Confessing will lead to leniency, while resisting will lead to severity.”

“Yes, yes, I confess,” the old man said. “Actually, it’s not a big deal. Although the cave looks like a straight tunnel, there are many hidden holes at the top. Those holes are very well concealed; unless you deliberately look for them, you wouldn’t notice. I just took the opportunity when you weren’t paying attention and crawled into one of those holes. Once your boat left, I came out. The donkey would hear my whistle and bring over a wooden basin. That’s how I got out. After the job was done, the boatman, Lu Lao’er, would give me my share, but it’s not a lot.” Suddenly he remembered something, “By the way, where is Lu Lao’er? He must have fallen into your hands too, right?”

Panzi made a gesture as if to behead someone. “He has already reported in.”

The old man was stunned for a moment, then slapped his thigh and said, “He died well. Actually, I didn’t want to do that either. Lu Lao’er said if I didn’t do it, I would end up like him. You see, I really had no choice, so please let me go.”

“Stop with the act,” my uncle said. “Where do you live, and how did you come here to fetch water?”

“I live in that cave over there,” the old man pointed to a cave nearby. “Look at me, an old man with no land, my son died young, and I have no house to live in. Now I’m just waiting to die. It’s pitiful.”

“Then you must be familiar with this area. Just right, if you want us to let you go, you have to take us to a place,” my uncle pointed to the forest. The old man immediately turned pale with fear. “Oh my god, you’re here to dig for treasure, aren’t you? You can’t dig there! There are monsters in there!”

Upon hearing this, I knew there was something to it. This old man definitely knew something. My uncle asked him, “So, you’ve seen them?”

“Ah, a few years ago, I took a group of people there, claiming we were going for archaeology. But I could tell they were actually there to dig up graves. However, these guys were different from others I had encountered before. The petty thieves I had seen in the past would just look at the graves and dig them up, but this group—honestly, their demeanor was not that of ordinary people. They didn’t even glance at the nearby graves; they just insisted on going into the mountain valley. At that time, I was the only one from our village who had been there. These people were quite wealthy; they handed me ten big bills right away. Seeing that money, I lost my resolve and led them into the forest. We walked on until we reached a place I had been to before, but they wanted to go further. I refused, saying that even ten big bills couldn’t buy my life. They offered me another ten, and I told them that even if they offered me a hundred, I wouldn’t do it. Their leader got angry and pointed a gun at my head. I had no choice but to lead them deeper inside.”

He scratched his head and continued, “Later, they said we had arrived. These people were so happy, and then they started fiddling with something, saying it was right below us. That night, I got drunk, and we found a spot to set up a tent. I fell asleep and lost all sense of awareness, but when I woke up, guess what? All those people had vanished, but their stuff was still there, and the fire hadn’t gone out. I got scared and called out, but no one responded after a long time. I thought something was wrong, and since they weren’t there, I decided to sneak away and ran.”

The old man seemed to recall some terrifying scene, squinting his eyes as he said, “I had just run a few steps when I heard someone calling me. For the first time, I saw a woman from their group waving at me. I was about to curse, wondering how someone could be missing so early in the morning, when suddenly I noticed a big tree behind her, with its branches reaching out menacingly. When I looked up at the tree, I was horrified; it was densely packed with dead bodies hanging from it, their eyeballs bulging out. I was so scared that I nearly wet myself and ran for a whole day and night before getting back to the village. You tell me, that must have been a tree demon! If I hadn’t grown up eating hearty meat, I surely would have been lured away by that monster!”

Uncle San sighed, “You really are someone who has eaten hearty meat!” Then he waved his hand. Panzi understood and tied up the old man. With him leading the way, we could save ourselves a lot of trouble.

The old man was unwilling but had no choice. According to him, it would take a full day to reach the place he mentioned. Dakuai led the way, and we quickened our pace, looking at the map as we walked, hoping that with the map and the old man’s memory, we could reach there before dark. We walked for half a day; at first, we could still talk, but later, everything turned into a blur of green, and we kept yawning, feeling sleepy. Suddenly, the old man stopped moving.

Panzi cursed, “What kind of trick are you playing now?”

The old man stared at the bushes nearby, his voice trembling, “Wha… what is that?”

We turned to look, and there, in the grass, something was flashing—it was a mobile phone.

4 3 月 2025

7 Star Lu Wang – Chapter Seven – Over a Hundred Heads

I don’t know how long it has been. I repeatedly had all sorts of chaotic dreams. In a haze, I seemed to see a woman in white facing away from me. I wanted to see her face, so I ran in front of her, but I still saw only her back. I kept running, but no matter how hard I tried, I could only see her back. Just as I was wondering what was going on, I suddenly realized that she had two backs. I shouted and woke up. As soon as I opened my eyes, I saw the blood-red sunset and the sky!

“Awake?” Panzi’s big face was grinning at me.

I squinted to adjust to the light, and Panzi pointed at the sky: “Did you see that? Damn it, we finally made it out!”

I touched the back of my head: “You little rascal, did you hit me?”

“How could I not? I told you not to look back, and you almost got us killed.”

My memory came rushing back, and I quickly touched my back to see if that thing was still there. Panzi burst into laughter: “Don’t worry, it’s already gone.”

“What was that thing?” I asked, still feeling uneasy.

“The guy said that thing is called a ‘kui.’ It’s actually the soul of that woman in white, a sort of ghost that borrowed your yang energy just to escape from that corpse hole. But he didn’t tell us the specifics; he fainted after just a few words,” Uncle San said while paddling. “But it seems that guy is quite impressive; even a thousand-year-old ghost like that bowed to him. I wonder what kind of skills he has!”

I sat up and saw that the dull oil bottle and Fat Kui were snuggled up together, sleeping soundly. I smiled; I hadn’t felt much on the way here, but now that I saw the sky, I felt particularly comfortable. I asked, “Who exactly is he?”

Uncle San shook his head: “I really don’t know. I asked a friend in Changsha to recommend an experienced helper, and they introduced him. All I know is that his last name is Zhang. I’ve tried to gauge him several times on the way; he either sleeps or stares blankly. I have no idea about his background, but the person who introduced him has a good reputation in this field, so he should be reliable.”

Hearing this, I felt even more that this person was mysterious. But since Uncle San had said so, there was no point in asking further. I glanced ahead and asked Panzi, “Can you see the village?”

“It seems to be just ahead.”

Uncle San pointed to the scattered lights in front: “It looks like that village isn’t as shabby as we thought; it seems to have electric lights.”

Thinking of a village, I immediately imagined hot showers, stir-fried wild game, and the long braids of the village girls, which made me even more excited. At that moment, taking advantage of the sunset, I saw a group of shadows on the mountain tops to our left and right. They were riding mules and seemed to be heading to the village as well. The mountain wasn’t very high, and I could vaguely tell that these people didn’t look like locals.

We reached the ferry, and a little kid from the village saw us and suddenly shouted, “There’s a ghost!”

We were puzzled, but the child ran away quickly, and we couldn’t do anything about it. The cow stayed obediently on the boat behind us, showing no signs of temper. It was really a good cow. Panzi had raised cows back home, so he took on the role of herding the cow. As we landed, Da Kui woke up, still thinking he had just been dreaming, first getting beaten by Uncle San and then receiving a few kicks from Panzi.

The dull oil bottle seemed to have lost too much blood and had not woken up. I helped him onto the ox cart; the man was really something, his body was as limp as a woman’s, as if he had no bones at all. I settled him down, and my third uncle grabbed a passerby to ask where there was an inn. The person looked at us as if we were crazy: “What do you think this place is? Our village has only about thirty households, and you want an inn? If you want a place to stay, go to the guesthouse in the village.”

We had no choice but to find that guesthouse that looked like a haunted house, but to our surprise, it was not bad inside. At least there was a phone and electricity, and it was a concrete building. The most valuable thing was that there was hot water, and the bedding was very clean. In this village, it should be considered five-star standard.

We each took a shower; it felt great to wash off the stench of death. Then we went to the hall to eat stir-fried dishes. The dull oil bottle finally woke up, looking very unwell. We ordered a plate of pig liver for him to replenish his blood but didn’t ask him anything. After all, he was a lifesaver; some things were better left unsaid until he recovered.

We ordered beer, knowing we had to work tomorrow, so we couldn’t drink too much. While eating, I flirted with the waitress: “Hey, little sister, this place is not bad. Look at the concrete floor and the concrete road outside. How did you guys get all this concrete? Did those mules carry it up from the mountain one load at a time?”

“Of course not! How long would that take? We have had a road here for a long time. Those liberation trucks can come here. But two years ago, a landslide buried that road. A big tripod came out of the mountain, and many people from the province came to see it. They said it was from the Warring States period and a national treasure, so they took it away without caring about the road. Isn’t that infuriating? Later, the village said they would repair it, but what can they repair? They have no money. They started and stopped, and a year later, they are still repairing it.”

“What about the waterway? Don’t you have a ferry here?”

“That’s all from before the liberation. It hasn’t carried a boat in years. If anyone tells you to take the water route now, they are definitely trying to rob you. You outsiders have to be careful. This waterway is very sinister; over the years, a few people have drowned, and not a single body has been recovered. Our elders secretly say that they were swallowed by the mountain god.”

I glanced at my third uncle and thought, what kind of guide did you find? It looks like we’ve just found a thief. My third uncle felt embarrassed, unable to save face, and hurriedly took a sip of beer. He asked, “By the way, are there many outsiders here?”

“Don’t be fooled by the size of my guesthouse. I can tell you, anyone from outside stays here. Ever since that tripod was dug up, more and more outsiders have come here. There are even people planning to build villas on the other side of the mountain.”

My third uncle stood up and shouted, “Damn, it can’t be that bad!” Building villas in this desolate mountain area means they are either overseas Chinese or tomb raiders.

The young lady was startled, and Panzi quickly pulled my third uncle back: “Third Uncle, you’re old enough; don’t be so shocked.” Then he turned to the girl and said, “It’s nothing; Third Uncle probably finds it hard to believe.”

I heard my third uncle mutter a curse under his breath, then awkwardly smiled and asked, “Hey, do you have any famous scenic spots or places that are fun to visit?”

The waitress, smiling brightly, suddenly said in a low voice, “You guys don’t seem like you’re here for fun. I guess you’re here for treasure hunting, right?”

Seeing that we were all silent, she sat down next to us. “To be honest, most outsiders who come here are treasure hunters. If you were really here for sightseeing, wouldn’t all this gear just be a burden?”

My uncle glanced at me and poured a drink for the young woman. “So, does that mean you’re an expert?”

“Well, I wouldn’t say that. I’ve just heard my grandfather and the others talk about it. Over the years, quite a few treasure hunters have come here and found some good stuff, but my grandfather said the really valuable things are deeper inside. There’s a celestial tomb there. Forget about gold and silver; those things are nothing compared to the treasures of the immortals.”

“Oh,” my uncle said with great interest, “so your grandfather has been inside?”

The young woman smiled slightly. “You make it sound like that. My grandfather heard it from his grandfather. I don’t even know when this legend started. It’s said that the immortal was sent down by the Jade Emperor, transformed into a great general to help the emperor of the time fight wars. After achieving success, he ascended to heaven, and his physical body was buried along with the treasures he used in battle. That tomb is even better than an emperor’s; otherwise, how could it be called an immortal’s tomb?”

“Since that’s the case, there must have been many people looking for this tomb, right?” My uncle asked nervously. “Has anyone found it?”

“Ah, you don’t know. That place is basically inaccessible now. The year before last, when the mountainsides collapsed, that area also fell apart. Guess what came out of the mountain?”

“What? Was it some kind of tripod or something?” Fat Kui said.

“What are you talking about? If it were a tripod, it would have been taken away long ago. Let me tell you, but you mustn’t tell anyone else,” the young woman said, taking a sip of her beer. “They dug up over 100 human heads from that place!”

4 3 月 2025

6 Seven Star Lu Wang – Chapter Six – Accumulated Corpse Ground

We stopped the boat; this was probably the most dangerous stretch of the water cave. If we weren’t prepared, we shouldn’t recklessly venture in. Uncle Three glanced at his watch and said, “This corpse cave is the kind of place you can enter but not exit. We’ve been digging sand for so long, and this is the first time we’ve stumbled into a place like this. I think there might really be something strange about this cave!”

Panzi interjected quietly, “Duh, no kidding.”

Uncle Three shot him a glare and continued, “However, this is just the old man’s one-sided story. We have no way of knowing whether this cave can only be navigated by the boatman, and that others can’t pass through. If this cave,” he emphasized, “really is a corpse cave, then there must be dangers ahead. As for what we might encounter, we have no way of knowing. Maybe we’ll hit a wall of ghosts, and the boat won’t know where to go, or perhaps a hundred water ghosts will come to capsize our boat.”

Da Kui gasped, “That can’t be true.”

“Anyway, anything could happen. We’ve already faced so many dangers without even reaching the grave site; it’s really bad luck. But no matter what, if you’re digging for sand, you can’t be afraid of ghosts. If you’re afraid of ghosts, you shouldn’t be digging for sand. Since we’re in this line of work, it wouldn’t be interesting at all if we didn’t encounter some strange occurrences.” Uncle Three called for Panzi to take out the double-barreled shotgun from his backpack. “Now that we have high-tech gear, we’re much better off than our predecessors. If there really are water ghosts, it’ll be their bad luck!”

Da Kui was trembling in fear. I said to Uncle Three, “Your pre-battle pep talk sounds just like a ghost story! It’s actually counterproductive.”

Uncle Three pulled the gun’s strap, “This guy has really embarrassed me this time; I didn’t expect him to be so useless. Damn it, he was bragging like a mighty warrior before we came.” Then he handed the gun to the muffled bottle and said, “It can fire two shots in total; after that, you need to reload. These are all buckshot, so they won’t have much power at a distance. Aim carefully before shooting.”

I was quite familiar with the double-barreled shotgun; I had even won an award for shooting clay pigeons when I was young. So I took it up, while Uncle Three and Da Kui held military knives in one hand and used a folding shovel to steady the boat with the other. Panzi, I, and the muffled bottle held our guns and slowly paddled toward the corpse accumulation area that was glowing green.

Under the weak light of the mining lamp, I noticed that the cave was growing larger, and the green light was getting closer. I first heard the muffled bottle mutter something in English, then I heard Panzi curse. Then I witnessed a scene that I would never forget for the rest of my life.

As we reached the section illuminated by green light, we suddenly found ourselves in a vast natural cave. The waterway had transformed into a river flowing through the cavern. On both sides of the shallow banks, there were greenish corpses, indistinguishable as to whether they were human or animal. We could see rows of skeletons neatly arranged deeper inside, likely placed there by human hands, while those outside were more chaotic, especially near the riverbank, where various actions were taking place. There were many bodies that had not completely decomposed, and each of these corpses was covered in a layer of grayish, film-like substance, tightly wrapped around them like cling film. Occasionally, a few giant corpse-eaters would burst out from the bodies; these were much smaller than the one on our boat but still four to five times larger than an average one. Some smaller corpse-eaters attempted to get a share, but as soon as they crawled onto a body, the larger ones would snap them up and devour them.

“Most of these bodies drifted down from upstream and got stranded here. Everyone, be careful and see if there’s anything strange around!”

“Look!” Da Kui, with sharp eyes, pointed to the cave wall. We turned our heads and were surprised to see a greenish crystal coffin embedded in the nearly vertical wall of the cave. Inside, there seemed to be a female corpse dressed in white, but it was too far away for us to see clearly.

“There’s one over there too!” Panzi pointed to the other side. Sure enough, in a similar position on the opposite wall, there was another crystal coffin, but this one was empty!

Uncle San gasped, “Where did this corpse go?”

“Could it be a zongzi?” Da Kui asked. “Uncle San, there shouldn’t be any zongzi here, right?”

“Everyone be alert. If you see anything moving, don’t ask questions—just shoot,” Uncle San said, keeping a wary eye on our surroundings.

At that moment, the direction of the river turned, and as we navigated around a pile of bones, Da Kui suddenly cried out and fell back into the boat. We focused our gaze and saw a woman in a white feathered dress, her back to us, with long black hair cascading down to her waist. From the decorations on her clothing, I deduced it was from the Western Zhou period. I couldn’t help but swallow hard and said, “The corpse is right here—”

“Stop—stop—” Uncle San wiped the sweat from his forehead. “Da Kui, bring out the black donkey hoof from the bag! This might be a thousand-year-old zongzi; use the hoof from 1923. The new one might not be accepted.”

After repeating this twice, Da Kui remained motionless. We turned to look, and he was frothing at the mouth and convulsing. If the situation had allowed, I might have laughed.

“Panzi, you go get it. Damn it, if I ever bring him out again, he deserves to be eaten by a zongzi,” Uncle San took the black donkey hoof, spat on it a couple of times, and said, “Look at Wu San’s methods. Nephew, pay attention. This thousand-year-old zongzi is rare to see. If I fail to get it, just shoot me in the top of my head and let your Uncle San die a quick death!”

I pulled him, saying, “Do you have any confidence or not?” In fact, I wasn’t particularly scared; after all, I had never encountered such a situation before. I always felt that the slender figure of the woman in plain clothes had a hint of sorrow. However, in horror movies, women with long hair in white dresses usually aren’t that scary when they turn around. It was a psychological effect, but my heart was still racing.

At that moment, the Silent Oil Bottle also tapped my uncle’s shoulder and said, “Black donkey hooves are for dealing with zombies, but this guy is probably not a zombie. Let me handle it.” He took out a long object from his bag, which I recognized as the dragon spine item he had bought from my uncle. He loosened the cloth covering it, and indeed, there was a dark ancient sword inside, seemingly made of black gold.

He made a cut on the back of his hand with the ancient sword, then stood at the bow of the boat and let his blood drip into the water. As soon as the first drop fell, with a splash, all the corpses seemed to see a ghost and crawled out of their bodies, frantically trying to distance themselves from our boat. Suddenly, all the corpses in the water and those in the bodies around our boat vanished without a trace.

Before long, the Silent Oil Bottle’s hand was dripping with blood. He pointed his bloodied hand at the woman in white, and to our astonishment, she knelt down. We were stunned, and the Silent Oil Bottle said to my uncle, “Hurry, don’t look back!”

Although I really wanted to see what that woman looked like, the thought of possibly seeing a dried corpse’s face if I turned around made me decide against taking that risk. My uncle and Panzi rowed desperately, and finally, we saw a gradually shrinking opening ahead, similar to the one we had entered. It seemed that this cave was at the center of the mountain, and after being excavated on both sides, it formed this waterway, creating a narrow capillary structure with both entrances being quite narrow. Even if the water level on both sides submerged the opening, this place could still remain dry.

We gradually sailed into the thief’s cave and had to lower our heads. Before entering the cave, I was cautious; wasn’t it said that we shouldn’t look back? I glanced at the reflection in the water to see if she was following us. It was better not to look; as soon as I did, I almost passed out. In the reflection in the water, something unknown was lying on my back. Just as I was about to scream, I lost control and wanted to turn around. I suddenly felt a heavy blow to the back of my head, and then everything went black, and I knew nothing more.

4 3 月 2025

5 Seven Star Lu Wang – Chapter Five – Water Shadow

“Yo, my little grandpa, don’t scare me. I’m big, and I’m most afraid of things I can’t figure out. You say it’s just a bunch of horse thieves; I, Da Kui, don’t take them seriously. But this thing, I don’t know what it is, and look, my legs are already weak.”

I thought to myself, staying here isn’t a solution, and I had a very uncomfortable premonition that kept coming and going. I didn’t know if it was the oppressive atmosphere of the cave affecting my mind or what. So I said, “No matter what it is, the most important thing now is to get out quickly. Right now, we’re going against the current; it should be faster to go back. I think we’ve been in this cave for less than ten minutes, so getting out shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Right, right, what the Third Young Master said is right.” Da Kui quickly agreed, “Third Master, just say the word. At worst, after we get out, we’ll cross the mountain. I’ll carry everything; I’m strong. Even if we delay a day or two, it won’t make much difference, right? We can dig the cave a bit faster to make up for it!”

The Third Master looked at the oil bottle and asked, “Little brother, what do you think?”

The oil bottle replied calmly, “If we want to get out now, it’s probably already too late. Those two people who let us in must be very confident that we can’t get out.”

“Not going out? Are we just going to wait here until we die?” Panzi looked at him. The oil bottle glanced at him and turned his head away to rest his eyes. Panzi was left in the lurch and could only say to the Third Uncle, “I think this way: we absolutely cannot go forward. Look at Da Kui; he’ll be scared to death. We should go back. The way we came in isn’t complicated; maybe we can get out. If we really encounter some strange tricks, we’ll think of a way!”

“That’s the only way,” the Third Uncle nodded and said to Panzi, “Light up a mining lamp in both directions. You pack up those hunting rifles; Da Kui and I will use them to pole the boat. Panzi and the big nephew will keep an eye on the back, and little brother, you’ll help me find the way.” We all agreed. Panzi took out another mining lamp and shone it behind us. When the light hit the bull on the second boat, it let out a cry, and Panzi cursed, “Third Master, we need to drive that bull into the water; otherwise, we can’t pole the boat!”

Since the mining lamp had been directed forward earlier, we hadn’t noticed that we had forgotten about the boat we were towing behind us. Now seeing it, we couldn’t help but be startled. It seemed that those two old thieves had really thought this through. The height of the cave was such that the bull couldn’t even stand up. Not to mention driving the bull into the water, with the gear and the bull, the water level was already very high. If we got on top of it, not only would we be unable to pole the boat, but it might also sink. In this way, the boat we were towing behind us acted like a cork, blocking our way.

At that moment, I vaguely heard strange sounds coming from the depths of the cave, and they were clearly much closer than the last time. The sound was like the whispering of countless little ghosts, making everyone extremely uncomfortable. Everyone fell silent, and the atmosphere became eerily tense. Suddenly, all my attention was drawn to this sound. I tried several times to pull my mind away, but I was immediately drawn back in. My heart sank; something was off about this sound! Although I was aware of it, I couldn’t snap out of it, and my mind was filled with that sound. Just then, I didn’t know who kicked me hard, and I lost my balance and fell into the water.

Immediately, the sounds in my head vanished. Almost simultaneously, I saw Panzi fall in as well. Then came Third Uncle and Da Kui, and finally, the dull oil bottle with a mining lamp jumped down too. In the water, the sound became much more muffled. We were not much affected, but seeing things with the naked eye underwater was very blurry. I squinted and could only see a rough outline. The dull oil bottle pointed to something underwater, then shone the lamp; the water wasn’t very deep, and I could see a layer of white sand at the bottom. He swept the area and found no plants or fish, etc. I couldn’t hold my breath any longer and poked my head out of the water for a gasp. Just as I shook the water off my eyes, I suddenly saw a bloody face hanging down from above, with two eyes staring intensely at me.

I stared at him, and he stared back at me. I recognized him as the middle-aged man who had been rowing the boat for us. When I looked up, I found that he only had his upper body left. A large black worm on the cave ceiling was gnawing at his intestines, occasionally shaking itself. I was instantly terrified; wasn’t this just a gigantic, horrifying corpse bug? My God, how many dead bodies must it have consumed to grow this big?!

At that moment, Panzi’s head also emerged from the other side. Unfortunately, he wasn’t as lucky as I was; before he could figure out what was happening, the worm let out a screech and flung the corpse directly onto his head, raising a pair of large pincers that “snapped” into his scalp.

Panzi was quite a character; in such a situation, I saw him flip his left hand, and I didn’t know when he had already drawn a military knife. He directly jabbed the knife under the worm’s pincers, effectively digging one of them out. If it were me, after being hit by that giant worm, I would probably have gone to report to the King of Hell. The worm let out a miserable scream, and with Panzi’s forceful punch, the other pincer was pushed away. This whole series of events happened in the blink of an eye. Panzi didn’t even see me; he just pressed that worm onto my face.

I cursed inwardly; this Panzi was really inconsiderate. He usually said how he would protect me, but now that something was happening, he directly threw this deadly thing onto my face. You say you have a military knife, but I only have my hands—this was the end for me. The worm was indeed ungracious, directly using its sharp claws to slice off a piece of skin from my face. I gritted my teeth, trying to shake it off, but I didn’t expect its claws to have barbs that firmly hooked onto my clothes, with several even digging into my flesh, causing tears to stream down from the pain.

At that moment, the Mysterious Oil Bottle surfaced. Seeing that I was about to collapse, he hurried over and quickly inserted two fingers into the back of the worm. With a forceful tug, he pulled out something that looked like a white, hollow pasta. Poor worm, which had just been in the upper hand, was done for in less than a second. I tossed the worm’s corpse onto the boat, feeling as if I had just woken from a dream.

Big Kui gave a thumbs-up to the Mysterious Oil Bottle, saying, “Little brother, I, Big Kui, admire you. You managed to pull out the intestines of such a big worm. I can’t argue with that!”

“Come on,” Panzi, who had two bloody holes in his head but was lucky that the wounds weren’t too big, said while tearing off a piece of cloth, “Look at your knowledge; this is called the central nervous system. This guy managed to paralyze the worm directly!”

“Are you saying this worm isn’t dead yet?” Big Kui, with one foot already on the boat, put it back into the water when he heard that.

The Mysterious Oil Bottle flipped over onto the boat and kicked the worm aside. “We can’t kill it yet; we need it to help us get out of this corpse hole.”

“Do you think the sound we heard earlier came from this worm?” Uncle Three asked him. He had just heard the worm make a few sounds, but it didn’t seem like it.

The Mysterious Oil Bottle turned the worm over, and we saw that on its tail was a fist-sized hexagonal copper bell, sealed tight. We didn’t know when it had been planted there, but it was covered in a thick layer of green patina. Each of the bell’s six sides was inscribed with dense incantations. As Panzi wrapped a bandage around his wound, he kicked it lightly, and suddenly the hexagonal bell started moving on its own!

The sound it produced was the same as what we had heard earlier, but the previous sound was very ethereal, as if it were drifting from another realm. Now, this one sounded very real. It seemed that this bell was the source of that sound, but it needed to be combined with the vast echoes to have a mesmerizing effect. There must be some intricate mechanism inside this hexagonal bell, and it had endured for a thousand years without rotting, likely made of gold or silver. But how could it ring on its own?

As I pondered this, the bell began ringing even more wildly, as if a restless spirit trapped inside wanted to escape from this sealing artifact. Unfortunately, it was so small that it seemed somewhat ridiculous to me. Panzi finished bandaging his wound, doing it so skillfully as if he got injured like this every day. The bell was ringing loudly, and feeling annoyed, he tried to stomp on it. Unexpectedly, the bronze shell had aged terribly, and with a loud crack, the bell broke under his foot. A foul-smelling green liquid burst out from inside.

Uncle Three was furious and wanted to punch Panzi on the head. But then he remembered that Panzi had just had two holes poked in his head, and if he punched him again, he would probably end up like the bell, so he had to give up and switched to scolding: “You brat, can’t you keep your feet to yourself? This thing is at least a magical artifact, and you just went and ruined it with one stomp!”

“Third Uncle, how was I supposed to know this thing was so fragile?” Panzi still felt wronged. Third Uncle shook his head in anger, using his military knife to clear away the bronze fragments. Inside were numerous small bells of various sizes and shapes, all attached to a delicate hollow sphere that was covered in holes. The sphere had been crushed underfoot, revealing a large blue centipede inside, its head flattened. The green liquid was oozing out from the body of the centipede, which was as thick as a finger.

Third Uncle turned the hollow sphere over with the tip of his knife and discovered a tube that connected directly to the part linked with the massive corpse. He said, “I fear this centipede must have drilled into the corpse’s belly through this tube when it was hungry. What a bizarre symbiotic system this is; I wonder how it was conceived.”

The half-submerged corpse of the boatman floated in the water, rising and sinking. Third Uncle sighed, “This is what you call ‘self-inflicted consequences.’ They must have intended to trap us in this corpse hole, waiting for us to die before coming to collect our belongings. Who knew they would meet such an unexpected fate and end up dead at the hands of this giant corpse? They really had it coming!”

“This is what you call ‘no story without coincidence.’ It seems we are quite lucky,” I said.

Panzi shook his head and said, “That creature’s claws probably don’t have the strength to tear a person in half in such a short time. If it did, my brains would have already been scooped out. I’m telling you, there must be more than one of these things. This one likely brought the body over to eat alone after the dismemberment.”

Big Kui, who had been relaxing, couldn’t help but swallow nervously at this.

“Don’t panic. Didn’t this young man just say that we need to rely on this creature to get out of this hole? Let’s put the giant corpse at the bow of the boat and let it clear the way for us. This thing has been eating corpses its entire life, and it carries a heavy yin energy, making it a guest star for those undead creatures. In this corpse hole, they are probably the overlords. With it on our boat, we will definitely be able to get out,” Third Uncle said. “Come on, let’s not turn back; I want to see what lies ahead that could give birth to such a large worm.”

Hearing Third Uncle’s words, I found them reasonable. We had already spent quite a bit of time in this cave, and it was too oppressive to stay in a place where we couldn’t even lift our heads. We took out folding shovels from our luggage at the back and used them as boat poles, pushing against the stone walls as we moved forward.

As I paddled, I studied the cave walls and suddenly had a question, so I asked Third Uncle, “Look at these solid stone blocks. How did the ancient tomb raiders manage to dig them out? Even now, I doubt a few hundred people could excavate such a deep cave.”

Third Uncle replied, “Look how round this cave is; it must be very ancient. The ones who dug this cave were probably government officials, specifically a military team dedicated to tomb raiding. It seems that finding the burial site marked on that map may not be as easy as we thought.”

“Third Uncle, how can you be so sure the tomb is still here? Look, an entire army came and dug such a long tunnel; it’s hard to guarantee they haven’t taken everything away!” Big Kui said. “I think, by the time we get in, there might not even be a coffin board left.”

My third uncle let out a grunt and said, “If this tomb has been robbed thousands of years ago, then we have nothing to say. But you must understand that this cave is indeed marked on the map, which indicates that this robbery tunnel existed when the tomb owner was buried. The age of this robbery tunnel should be earlier than the ancient tomb we are looking for. Moreover, there must be more than one burial site in this area; who knows when this robbery tunnel was dug and which tomb it was targeting?”

“So you mean,” I could already sense a chilling implication in my third uncle’s words, “that everything we are encountering now, including the giant corpse and the age of the hexagonal bronze wind chime, could potentially predate the Warring States period?”

My uncle shook his head. “What concerns me more is why our tomb owner would choose to set their tomb in a location surrounded by already robbed burial sites. Isn’t that a serious violation of feng shui?”

Suddenly, the oil lamp in the hand of the silent man signaled us to be quiet and pointed ahead. We saw a ball of green phosphorescence deep within the cave, where the miner’s light could not reach. My uncle sighed, “We’ve reached the corpse accumulation site!”

4 3 月 2025

4 Seven Star Lu Wang – Chapter Four – Corpse Cave

Throughout this journey, we have encountered quite a few dangerous situations. These guys are really impressive, and I trust them a lot. So when Panzi said that, I had a good idea of what was going on. The tall guy, Aki, also gave me a look, signaling me to stay back and not to peek at any commotion. I couldn’t help but smile wryly. Why should I peek? Aki could knock a cow out with one punch, and as for Panzi, he was a retired soldier with scars all over his body. My uncle had always been a reckless fighter since childhood, and then there was that silent guy, the oil drum, who didn’t seem like a good person at all. And me? Historically, scholars have been the most useless; I felt the military knife my uncle forced on me was too heavy, and I struggled to use it comfortably.

Just as I was thinking about what I should carry for self-defense, the old man came back with a splash, slapping his smoke pipe against his pants. “Let’s go! The boat’s here.”

Sure enough, two flat boats emerged from behind the mountain, one after the other. On the front boat stood a middle-aged man, who was rowing while shouting at us. The boat was quite large, seeming more than enough to accommodate us along with our gear. The old man patted the cow’s neck and said, “Everyone, there’s no need to take down the luggage. I’ll pull the cow and cart onto the second boat, and we’ll sit in the first one. It saves some effort.”

Panzi laughed, “Some things can’t get wet, so it’s better to keep them with us. If that cow jumps into the water later, won’t we be in trouble?”

The old man nodded with a smile, “What you say makes sense, but this cow isn’t a water buffalo; it definitely won’t jump into the water. If it does, I’ll help you all fish it out; not a single item will be lost.”

Saying that, he led the cow to the ferry dock while we each carried our personal belongings and followed behind. The middle-aged man was quite skilled at rowing, and in just a few strokes, he reached the shore.

While the old man was getting the cow onto the second boat, I took a good look at the middle-aged man. His skin was very dark and quite ordinary, but for some reason, I felt he looked a bit sinister. I recalled my uncle mentioning stories about eating human flesh, and suddenly, that man seemed increasingly terrifying.

“Everyone, when you get to the cave, please speak quietly and don’t disturb the river god,” the man said. “Especially don’t say anything bad about the river god.”

My uncle asked him how long it would take to pass through that cave.

“If it’s fast, it’ll take about 5 minutes. The water inside is very swift, quite urgent.”

“Is there a slower time?”

“Yes, sometimes the water flows upstream. You saw me come out with the current just now, but now we’ll definitely be going against the current, so it’ll take longer, probably around 15 minutes. There are a few bends that are quite dangerous.”

“Is it bright inside?”

The man chuckled, “It’s pitch black; how could it be bright? You could say it’s completely dark.” However, he pointed to his ears, “I’ve been rowing boats for over a decade; I can manage just by listening.”

“Can we use a flashlight?” Panzi raised the mining lamp in his hand. “It shouldn’t be a problem, right?”

“It’s no problem,” the man said, “but whatever you do, don’t shine it into the water; it’ll scare you to death!”

“Why?” My uncle laughed. “Are there water ghosts?”

“What’s a water ghost? I can’t even say what’s in this water. If you really have the guts, take a look for yourselves later, but remember, just a glance is enough. If you’re lucky, you’ll see a mass of black water; if you’re not, what you see might scare you to death.”

As he spoke, we could already see the cave. It was hidden behind the mountain wall, and we couldn’t see it from the shore. We always imagined it to be a big cave, but upon closer inspection, I couldn’t help but exclaim in dismay. I didn’t expect the cave to be so small—just slightly larger than the boat by about ten centimeters. The most terrifying part was its height; a person sitting couldn’t even enter without bending down. In such a small space, if someone inside wanted to ambush us, we wouldn’t be able to move at all. Panzi let out a strange cry, “Damn, this cave is a bit too shabby, isn’t it?”

“This is still considered big; there’s a section inside that is even lower,” the old man behind us said.

Uncle Three glanced at Panzi, who forced a smile, “Ah, with such a small cave, if someone inside tries to rob us, we wouldn’t even be able to escape!”

As soon as he said this, I noticed the middle-aged boatman made a very subtle gesture, and the old man’s expression changed. I thought to myself, there must be a problem. Just then, we heard a whistling sound—the boat had already entered the cave.

Panzi turned on the miner’s lamp. The entrance of the cave was bright at first, but soon all the light except for the miner’s lamp disappeared.

“Third Master, this cave is not simple,” A Kui said. “This is a theft tunnel!”

“A water theft tunnel, ancient and round. Look at these marks; this cave has been here for years. It seems there is something else in this cave.”

“Oh, this guy seems to know a thing or two; he’s not wrong,” the middle-aged man said, crouching down on one knee at the bow of the boat, using one hand to push the pole. Strangely, his pole didn’t touch the water at all, and he didn’t even seem to be breathing heavily. He continued, “I’ve heard that this entire mountain is an ancient tomb. There are quite a few water theft tunnels of various sizes nearby, but this one is the biggest and the deepest. You can see for yourself; back then, the water probably wasn’t this high. It must have been a dry tunnel then.”

“Oh, looks like you’re quite the expert,” Uncle Three politely offered him a cigarette. He shook his head and said, “What expert? I just heard about it from those who came here before. After hearing it enough times, I can say a few things, and I know this little bit. Don’t ever call me an expert.”

Panzi and A Kui had their hands on their knives, joking with those few people, and the atmosphere seemed very harmonious. In reality, everyone was quite tense, not knowing how nervous they really were. I thought to myself, there are five of us, and only two of them. If it came to a fight, we might not necessarily lose, but since they dared to act, they must have some thorough preparations.

Just then, the muffled oil bottle suddenly raised his hand, “Shh, listen! Someone’s talking!” We immediately held our breath, and sure enough, we heard rustling sounds coming from deep within the cave. I tried to discern what they were saying, but it felt like I could understand yet couldn’t. After a while, I turned back to ask the middle-aged boatman if such sounds were common in this cave, only to find he was already gone! When I turned around again, damn, the old man was missing too.

“Panzi, where did they go?” Uncle San shouted anxiously.
“I don’t know, I didn’t hear any splashing sounds,” Panzi was also flustered. “As soon as I heard the noise, my mind just went blank.”
“Oh no, we don’t have any corpse energy on us, we don’t know what might happen!” Uncle San became frustrated. “Panzi, you’ve fought in Vietnam, have you ever eaten human flesh?”
“Are you kidding, Third Uncle? Back then, I was in the cooking team washing dishes every day!” Panzi pointed at A Kui. “Fat Kui, didn’t you say your family used to sell meat buns? You must have eaten quite a bit when you were a kid.”
“Bullshit, I was just messing around! Besides, those meat buns were sold to others. Have you ever seen anyone selling human meat buns and eating them themselves?”
I quickly made a gesture to pause the conversation: “The three of you combined are over 150 years old, how embarrassing!”
As soon as I finished speaking, the boat suddenly shook. Panzi hurriedly picked up the miner’s lamp and shone it into the water. With the light, we saw a huge shadow swimming by in the water.
Fat Kui was so scared his face turned pale. He pointed at the water, his jaw dropped for a long time, but he couldn’t utter a word. Uncle San was afraid he’d faint, so he slapped him hard and scolded, “What a useless fool! What are you stuttering about? Those two little ghosts didn’t even make a sound, and you’ve been here for so many years, have you gone mad?”
“Oh my god—Third Uncle, that thing is way too big! We might not even be enough for a meal,” Fat Kui nervously stared at the water. He had originally been sitting at the edge of the boat, but now he had scooted to the middle, as if he was afraid something in the water would suddenly jump out and grab him.
“Bah!” Uncle San glared at him fiercely. “We have weapons if we need them, and we have people if we need them. I, Wu’s Third, have been digging sand for so long; what kind of monsters haven’t I seen? Stop talking nonsense.”
Panzi was also quite scared, but for him, it was more of a shock than fear. In such a narrow space, with something so huge passing through the water, it was no wonder everyone’s mind went blank. Panzi looked around and said, “Third Uncle, this cave is strange and eerie. I’m feeling really uneasy. Let’s talk about things after we get out, okay?”
Fat Kui immediately agreed. In fact, I also wished to get out, but since I was Uncle San’s relative, I felt I should wait for him to express his opinion before speaking.
At that moment, Uncle San surprisingly looked at the muffled oil bottle, as if seeking his opinion. Given Uncle San’s personality, he wouldn’t care about anyone, but now he seemed particularly cautious about this young man. I couldn’t help but wonder. I turned to see how he would respond, only to find that he wasn’t even listening to us. The expression that had previously been as wooden as a stone sculpture was gone; his eyes were fixed on the water, as if he was intently searching for something.
I wanted to ask Uncle San what this person was about, but it wasn’t the right occasion, so I could only discreetly ask Panzi. Panzi shook his head and said he didn’t know, only that this person had some skills. He pointed with his chin at the man’s hands and said, “Look at those hands; how many years would it take to train them like that?”
I hadn’t really noticed the man’s hands before, but now that I looked, I found they were indeed unusual.

His hands, with particularly long middle and index fingers, immediately reminded me of the ancient technique of the “Duo Zhi” (double-finger) used by the legendary tomb raider, Fa Qiu Zhong Lang Jiang. I had seen related notes in my grandfather’s diary. The masters in that field possessed fingers as steady as Mount Tai, with immense strength, able to easily dismantle the intricate mechanisms found in tombs. To master such a skill, one must start practicing from a young age, and the process must be incredibly arduous.

As I pondered what abilities his hands possessed, I saw him raise his right hand and, like a flash of lightning, plunge it into the water. The movement was so swift that it was almost like a white light flickering; his hand was already back, with a dark, slimy bug pinched between his unusually long fingers. He tossed the bug onto the deck and said, “That was the thing just now.”

I looked down and couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. “Isn’t this a dragon louse? So, that large shadow we saw earlier was just a bunch of water lice swimming by?”

“Yes,” he said, wiping his hands on his clothes.

Although I was still somewhat skeptical, we had relaxed a bit. Suddenly, Fat Kui stomped on the bug, squashing it. “Damn, that scared me half to death.”

But then I thought about it and realized something was off. How could so many dragon lice be active at the same time? Besides, these water lice were too large! The “dumb oil bottle” (a nickname for one of the characters) also seemed unsettled, as if he was contemplating the same issue.

Fat Kui continued to stomp on the corpse of the bug, which was now a mushy mess, probably hoping to salvage some dignity after his earlier fright. Third Uncle picked up a severed leg and sniffed it, horrified. “This isn’t a dragon louse; it’s a corpse bug.” We were all stunned, feeling that things were not looking good. The name sounded ominous.

“My grandmother, this thing feeds on decaying flesh. It thrives in places where there are dead bodies, growing large if it finds plenty to eat. It seems there must be a place upstream that’s a mass grave. And it must be quite significant,” Third Uncle said, gazing at the dark hole.

“Does this thing bite living people?” Da Kui asked timidly.

“If it’s of normal size, it definitely won’t bite humans, but looking at the size of this one, I’m not so sure,” Third Uncle replied, puzzled. “This creature usually stays in places with many dead bodies and doesn’t swim around frequently. Why are there so many migrating together now?”

The “dumb oil bottle” suddenly turned his head towards the depths of the cave. “I have a feeling they were just trying to escape.”

“What? Escape?” Fat Kui jolted. “Then what’s inside this cave…”

The “dumb oil bottle” nodded. “I have a strong feeling that something is coming towards us from inside, and it’s not small.”

4 3 月 2025

3 Seven Star Lu Wang – Chapter 3 – Sunflower Seed Temple

I looked at the printed copy of the silk manuscript filled with text, then glanced at my uncle’s expression. He didn’t seem to be joking. Could it be that my uncle had reached a level of enlightenment where he could read maps from words? How could someone who usually indulged in drinking, gambling, and other vices have any celestial roots?

My uncle was trembling with excitement, muttering to himself, “Where did these people find such good stuff? How come I’ve never come across it? This time, it’s really a stroke of luck. It seems they still don’t understand what this is. We can get ahead of them and sift through this batch of sand.”

I was greatly puzzled. “Uncle, maybe I’m a bit slow, but can you really see a map from such tiny characters?”

“You don’t understand. This is called ‘word painting,’ which means the geographical location of that place is detailed in writing. If it were someone else, they really wouldn’t understand it. Fortunately, your uncle has some experience. In this world, besides me, there are probably no more than ten people who can comprehend this.”

My uncle may not have many other skills, but he has studied peculiar and unorthodox ancient scripts and codes since childhood. To sum it up, he researches anything that is obscure, like the Xi Xia’s Five Wood Book Diagram or the earliest Jurchen characters. So, I wasn’t surprised that he could recognize this so-called ‘word painting.’

However, he was the type who would take advantage of others and then pretend to be clever, so I had to play dumb in front of him, or he would dismiss me with a single sentence. I put on a foolish expression and asked him, “Oh, does it say to walk left and then right, turn right when you see a big tree, and then go down a well? Like that?”

My uncle sighed, “A Confucian child cannot be taught. Your comprehension is so poor that it seems our family will end with your generation.”

Seeing him like this, sighing so sincerely as if speaking from the heart, I couldn’t help but find it amusing. “Then what do you think it says? My dad doesn’t teach me, and this isn’t something you’re born with.”

He smugly clicked his tongue and said, “This kind of word painting is actually a form of code. It has a strict format. As long as you draw what’s written inside according to its format, it becomes a complete map. So don’t underestimate these few characters on the silk manuscript; you don’t know how complex the information inside is. It might even specify how many bricks were used.”

I became interested upon hearing this. I thought to myself that I had never been allowed to go out and experience anything in my life, so this time, I must get my uncle to take me to see it, and maybe I could touch some treasures to get through my financial crisis. While thinking this, I asked him, “Can you tell whose tomb it is from the writing inside, or whether it belongs to someone of significance?”

My uncle smiled proudly, “I can’t fully understand it yet, but this tomb should belong to a noble from the State of Lu during the Warring States period. The fact that this tomb’s location is recorded in such a secretive word painting on this silk manuscript indicates that the person’s status must be quite high, and this burial site is surely very secretive and valuable, definitely worth a visit.”

Seeing the sparkle in his eyes, I found it quite strange. This old guy usually doesn’t even bother to step out of his door; could it be that he actually wants to take matters into his own hands this time? That would truly be a remarkable event. I hurriedly asked him, “What’s going on? Uncle San, are you really planning to go and sift through this batch of sand yourself?”

He patted me on the shoulder and said, “You don’t understand, do you? Let me tell you, during the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, there were treasures in those containers, but they could only be described as exquisite craftsmanship. However, during the Warring States period, the ancient royal tombs from that time are far too old; you can never guess what might be inside. Those Warring States tombs are places where artifacts are found—things that don’t exist in the world! Don’t you think I want to see them?”

“Are you so sure? What if there’s nothing in there?”

“Impossible! Didn’t you see this pattern?” He pointed to the strange fox face on the paper. “This is a mask used in sacrifices during the earliest human sacrifice period in the State of Lu. Whoever is buried in this tomb must have had a very special identity, possibly even more noble than the emperor of that time.”

I blurted out, “The emperor’s father.”

Uncle San shot me a glare and tried to take the printed paper back. I pressed down on it and smiled at him, “Uncle San, don’t be in such a hurry to put it away. After all, I was the one who got this. You have to take me along to see it this time.”

He shouted, “No way! Sifting through this sand is not that simple. That place has no air conditioning and is full of traps; you could end up in serious trouble at any moment. You’re your father’s only child; if anything happens to you, I’ll make sure your father skins me alive!”

I shouted back, “Then forget it! Just pretend I never came!” With that, I yanked the paper from his hand and turned to leave. I knew Uncle San well; once he encountered something he liked, he had no principles. He was like this with antiques and women alike. I took advantage of this, and sure enough, after just a few steps, he surrendered, catching up to me and grabbing the paper from my hand. “Alright, alright, you’re impressive. But let’s make it clear: when we go down the hole, you have to stay above. Is that acceptable?”

My heart soared with joy. I thought, “When the time comes, how could you possibly stop me?” I quickly nodded and said, “Deal! When we’re out there, I’ll follow your lead. Whatever you want me to do, I’ll do it!”

Uncle San sighed helplessly and said, “Just the two of us won’t get it done. I’ll bring a few experienced guys over tomorrow. For the next few days, I’ll decipher this painting, and you need to help me procure some supplies.” Saying this, he quickly wrote me a note and said, “Make sure you don’t buy any fakes. Also, prepare some travel gear; otherwise, before we even get there, we might get detained.”

I nodded in agreement, and we both went our separate ways to get busy.

The things Uncle San wanted were quite tricky to find. I felt he was probably trying to make things difficult for me because many of the items on the list were not commonly available in stores. For example, things like a separate waterproof mining lamp, threaded steel pipes, soil sampling shovels, multi-purpose military knives, folding shovels, short-handled hammers, bandages, nylon ropes, and so on. By the time I had bought only half of them, I had already spent nearly ten thousand yuan. I felt a sharp pain in my heart and cursed that old fox, thinking, “Damn it, he’s so rich yet so stingy!”

Three days later, my two old partners from my third uncle and the young man who bought my uncle’s dragon spine goods that day, five of us arrived at a place over 100 kilometers west of the Guazi Temple in Shandong.

How should I describe this place? I can only say it’s just a place with nothing at all. We first took a long-distance bus, then a long-distance minibus, followed by a long-distance motorcycle, and finally, a bullock cart. When we got off the cart, we looked around—front, back, left, right—and still saw nothing. Then a dog came running towards us. My third uncle patted the guide and said, “Old man, are we going to ride this dog for the next leg? I’m afraid this dog might be too much to handle!”

“It won’t,” the old man laughed heartily. “This dog is here to deliver messages. For this last leg, there’s no vehicle available; we’ll need to take a boat, and that dog will bring the boat over.”

“This dog can swim?”

“Swim very well, indeed,” the old man looked at the dog and said, “Donkey, go swim a lap and show us.”

The dog really did seem intelligent; it jumped into the river and swam a circle. When it came out, it shook off its fur and lay down, panting.

“It’s still too early; the boatman definitely hasn’t started working yet. Let’s take a break and smoke a cigarette.”

I looked at my watch: “It’s only 2 PM and he hasn’t started working? What kind of schedule does this boatman have?”

“There’s only him as the boatman here; he’s the best. He starts working whenever he feels like it. Sometimes he doesn’t work at all in a day, which can drive people crazy,” the old man chuckled. “There’s nothing we can do; the river god only shows him favor. Anyone else who enters that cave will definitely not come out, but he’s fine. If you could ride mules, we could go over the mountain, and we’d arrive in a day, but look at all your stuff; even all the mules in our village wouldn’t be enough for you.”

“Oh,” my third uncle perked up at the mention of the cave, pulling out a treasured map he had translated. He treated this map like a precious item, not letting me see it even once. As soon as he took it out, we all rushed over to look, except for the young man, who remained silent on the side.

To be honest, my second uncle’s two partners were easy to get along with; they were straightforward people. But this one person was like a damp squib, not having made a sound the entire way, just staring at the sky as if he were worried it might fall. It was really annoying! At first, I tried to talk to him a bit, but later I couldn’t be bothered to deal with him. I really didn’t understand why my third uncle brought him along.

“There is a cave, and it’s really a river cave, just behind this mountain,” my third uncle said. “So, old man, can this cave eat people?”

The old man chuckled, “Those are just words passed down from several generations; I can’t remember clearly. When the river was not connected, people in the village said there were snake spirits inside, and no one who went in ever came out. But one day, the boatman’s great-grandfather came out of that cave with a small boat, claiming to be a traveling merchant. Tell me, what kind of merchant carries a boat around? Everyone said he must be a transformed snake spirit. His great-grandfather laughed and said the boat was bought from the neighboring village; if they didn’t believe him, they could go ask over there. When they went and asked, they found it was true, and only then did people believe the monster in the cave was gone. But then, a few brave young people went to explore the cave and didn’t come back. Since then, only his family has been able to go in and out freely. Isn’t that strange? After that, their family has been in this business ever since.”

“Is that dog okay?” I asked, puzzled. “Isn’t it supposed to be the messenger?”

“This dog is also raised by his family. In other people’s homes, not even a cow would come out if it went in,” he replied.

“Such a strange thing, doesn’t the government do anything about it?”

“Well, it has to be believable for anyone to take action,” the old man said, tapping his pipe on the ground.

My uncle frowned and clapped his hands. “Donkey Eggs, come here.”

The dog really obeyed and trotted over happily. My uncle picked it up and sniffed it, his expression changing. “No way, could there be something like this in that hole?”

I picked it up and sniffed too, a strong dog smell made me cough. The dog’s owner was really lazy; I wondered how long it had been since the dog had a bath.

One of Panzi’s companions laughed heartily. “You think you can learn from your uncle? You’re still too young.”

“This damn dog, why does it stink so much?” I grimaced in disgust.

“This dog grew up eating human flesh,” my uncle said. “That was a corpse hole; no wonder it takes time to pass through. That boatman probably… when he was young…”

“No way!” I was so scared that my hair stood on end. As soon as this was said, even the usually quiet guy’s expression changed.

Another of my uncle’s companions was a big man we called A Kui, who was about the size of an ox used for pulling carts, but he was timid and asked softly, “What exactly is that corpse hole? Will something happen if we go in?”

“I don’t know. A few years ago, I found a similar hole in Taiyuan, Shanxi. It was a place where the Japanese massacred and piled up bodies. Wherever there are corpse holes, there must have been slaughter, that’s for sure. Back then, it seemed fun, so I did some experiments there. I put dogs and ducks on bamboo rafts, set up a camera, and pushed them in. The hole was just over a kilometer long. I prepared a long enough cable, but when I pulled the cable all the way, the bamboo raft didn’t come out. It was pitch black inside; I didn’t know where it drifted off to. Later, when I tried to pull the raft back, after just a few tugs, it suddenly flipped, and then…” My uncle spread his hands. “In the end, I only saw half a face. It was too close to the screen to tell if it was a dog or something else. To pass through such a hole in ancient times, it was always a line of dead and living people going together. If it’s a living thing, it won’t come out! However, I heard that in Shanxi, there are people who feed their children human flesh from a young age, accumulating the corpse energy in their bodies. When they grow up, they become just like the dead, and even ghosts can’t 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 from his great-grandfather’s time, not even from the same era.” He looked up at the sky and called out to the dog, “Donkey Eggs, go fetch your boatman!”

The dog barked and jumped into the water, swimming toward the mountain behind.

At that moment, I saw my uncle give Panzi a look. Panzi secretly took a backpack from his luggage and put it on his back. The young man sitting next to us also stood up and took his own bag from the pile of luggage. As Panzi walked past me, he whispered in Hangzhou dialect, “This old man has a problem; be careful.”

4 3 月 2025

2 Seven Star Lu Wang – Chapter Two – Fifty Years Later

Fifty years later, at the Xiling Seal Society in Hangzhou, my thoughts were interrupted by an old man. I closed my grandfather’s notebook and sized him up.

“Do you accept rubbings here?” he asked, seemingly just making casual conversation. I’m quite talented in this line of work, so I just gave him a perfunctory reply: “We do, but we don’t pay much.” The implication was clear: if you don’t have anything good, then get lost and don’t waste my time.

In our business, we often go three years without a single sale, then make enough in three years to last. I had grown accustomed to the quiet and hated dealing with those half-informed customers. Eventually, I would just play sad music to chase away any passersby. However, lately, the lack of activity had become a bit excessive; the busy season was almost over, and nothing good had come in, so I was starting to feel a bit impatient.

“Then I want to ask, do you have any rubbings of the silk texts from the Warring States period? You know, the ones that were stolen by those local ruffians in Changsha fifty years ago and then were deceived away by an American?” He asked while looking at the items in my display case.

“You just said they were deceived away by an American, so how could there be any left?” I was instantly irritated. “If you’re looking for rubbings, you should be searching the market; how could you expect to find a specific one?”

He lowered his voice: “I heard you have connections. I was introduced by Old Yang.”

I became alert, my heart racing. Old Yang had been in prison since the year before; how could he have implicated me? I felt a cold sweat on my back. “Which… which Old Yang? I don’t know him.”

“I understand, I understand,” he chuckled, pulling a watch out of his pocket. “Look, Old Yang said you would understand this right away.”

The watch was given to Old Yang by his first love when he was in Northeast China. He treasured it dearly, taking it out when he was drunk and calling out names like “Juan” and “Li.” I once asked him what his lover’s name was, and after thinking for a long time, he ended up crying, saying he had forgotten. The fact that Old Yang was willing to give this watch to this man indicated that he indeed had some connections.

But no matter how I looked at him, I found him quite unappealing. However, since he had come to me, it was better to speak frankly. So I raised my hand directly: “Alright, since you’re a friend of Old Yang’s, what do you need from me?”

He smiled, revealing a gold tooth: “A friend of mine brought something back from Shanxi and wants you to take a look to see if it’s genuine.”

“With your Beijing accent, you come all the way down south to consult me? You’re overestimating me. There are plenty of experts in Beijing; I suspect your intentions are not purely about the wine!”

He chuckled: “They say southerners are sharp, and it’s true. You seem young but quite perceptive. To be honest, I’m not really here to find you; I want to meet your grandfather.”

My expression changed instantly: “You want to see my grandfather? What are your intentions?”

“Did your grandfather leave behind one or two rubbings after stealing the Warring States silk texts from the Biaozi Ridge in Changsha? My friend just wants to know if what we have matches it.”

Before he could finish, I shouted at my dozing assistant: “Wang Meng, show him out!”

The old man with the gold tooth became anxious: “Why are you trying to kick me out all of a sudden?”

“You’re not wrong, but unfortunately, you came too late. My old man passed away last year. If you want to find him, you might as well go back and cut your veins!” I thought to myself: “Back then, that incident even drew the attention of the central government. It was a big deal. How could you bring up old accounts? Is there still anything good in my family?”

“I say, you little grandson, why do you always speak so unpleasantly?” The old man with the gold tooth grinned mischievously. “It doesn’t matter that the old man is gone. I didn’t say anything about that. At least, you should take a look at what I brought. Can’t you give me a little face?”

I glanced at him. His smile was insincere, and it seemed he wouldn’t leave without a glance from me. I thought, since it’s just about giving him face, he won’t be able to complain when he leaves. So I nodded, “Fine, let’s take a look. But I can’t promise anything.”

In fact, the Warring States silk manuscripts consist of more than 20 volumes, each different from the others. The portion my grandfather had copied back then was just a very small part, but it was extremely important. Now, I only have a few copies as treasured possessions, which you can’t buy with money on the market. I saw the old man with the gold tooth pull out a piece of white paper from his pocket, and I immediately felt angry—damn, it was just a photocopy.

“Of course, that treasure can’t be carried around everywhere. A little shake and it would shatter,” he said, pretending to be mysterious and lowering his voice. “If it weren’t for my wide connections, this thing would have been sold abroad long ago. I’m doing it for the people.”

I chuckled, “Look at you, aren’t you just a tomb raider? I think you’re too scared to act. This is a national treasure; do you want to lose your head?”

With my words exposed, the old man’s face turned green, but he had a request from me and had to endure it. He said, “You can’t say that. Every profession has its own tricks. Think about your grandfather when he was a laborer in Changsha; he was also quite famous…”

My expression must have turned ugly as I gritted my teeth, “If you mention my grandfather again, I won’t look anymore!”

“Alright, alright, let’s stop there. Just let me take a look quickly so I can make my escape.”

I unfolded the white paper, and at a glance, I knew this was a well-preserved Warring States silk manuscript, but it was not the one my grandfather had stolen. Although this one was also quite old, it was likely a counterfeit from later dynasties, meaning it was an antique imitation—a very awkward identity for an item. So I smiled, “This should be a counterfeit from the Han Dynasty. How should I put it? If you say it’s fake, it’s not entirely fake; if you say it’s real, it’s not entirely real. Who knows if this is a copy or a fabrication? So I really don’t know how to say it.”

“Is this the one your grandfather stole?”

“To be honest, the one my grandfather stole, he didn’t even get a chance to look at before it was deceived away by those Americans. I really can’t answer your question.” I thought to myself, it’s easy to fool you, while maintaining a very sincere expression. The old man with the gold tooth actually believed me and sighed, “That’s really unfortunate. It seems that without finding that American, there’s no hope.”

“Why are you all so concerned about this volume?” I asked. This was too strange; collecting ancient books is all about fate. Wanting to find a complete set of 20 volumes from the Warring States period seems a bit greedy.

“Little brother, to be honest, I’m not a tomb raider at all. Just look at my physique; I wouldn’t be able to handle it. However, my friend is indeed an expert in the field. I don’t know what tricks he has up his sleeve, but he has his own ways,” he chuckled and shook his head. “It’s best not to ask too many questions, right? I’m off now.” After saying that, he left without looking back.

I looked down and realized that the copy of the paper was still in my hand. Suddenly, I noticed a pattern on it—an image of a fox-like human face with two eyes that lacked pupils, giving it a three-dimensional appearance, as if it were popping out of the paper. I gasped; I had never seen such a piece of silk manuscript before; it must be a rare treasure. I thought that when Lao Yang came out, I could use this copy to make a few fake rubbings, which would be quite amusing. I hurriedly ran outside to take a glance, only to see the old man with the golden tooth hurrying back.

I thought he must be coming back for this piece, so I rushed back, grabbed my digital camera, and took a photo of it. Then I picked up the paper and stepped outside. I bumped right into the old man with the golden tooth. “You forgot your thing,” I said.

My grandfather was a tomb raider from Changsha, commonly referred to as a “grave robber.”

The reason my grandfather entered this line of work is not surprising at all; in modern terms, it was a hereditary profession. My great-grandfather’s grandfather, when he was 13, lived through a drought in the central Huazhong region. In those days, a drought often led to famine, and even if you had money, you couldn’t buy food. At that time, there was nothing in the corners of Changsha, but there were plenty of ancient tombs. So, they relied on the mountains for their sustenance and on the tombs for their livelihood, with the whole village engaging in tomb raiding. In those years, I don’t know how many people starved to death in the Changsha area, but not a single person from their village perished; they were all well-fed, thanks to exchanging the items they dug up for food with foreigners.

As time went on, tomb raiding, like other professions, accumulated culture. By my grandfather’s generation, there were already established rules and different schools of thought. At that time, tomb raiding was divided into Southern and Northern factions. The Southern faction was represented by my grandfather’s group, which excelled in using the Luoyang shovel to probe the soil. Experts could determine the depth and era just by their noses. Nowadays, many novels depict the Luoyang shovel as a common tool, but the Northern faction doesn’t use it at all. They excel in accurately judging the location and structure of tombs, a practice known as “seeking dragons and locating graves.” However, the people from the Northern faction are a bit eccentric. How should I put it? According to my grandfather, they are not straightforward; they have too many tricks up their sleeves. Instead of just taking what they find and leaving, they complicate matters with all sorts of rituals. In modern terms, you could call it a form of bureaucratic behavior.

On the other hand, the Southern faction has fewer rules and never shies away from the dead. Northerners criticize Southerners as “country dogs” who ruin cultural relics, claiming that every tomb they raid collapses and that they even pull the dead out to sell. Southerners, in turn, call Northerners hypocrites, pretending to be something they’re not while being thieves at heart. Eventually, tensions escalated to the point of violence, and there were even incidents of “grave fighting.” In the end, the two factions drew a clear line along the Yangtze River; the Northerners called it “tomb raiding,” while the Southerners referred to it as “sifting sand” or “digging soil.” The Luoyang shovel was invented only after the split, and the Northerners looked down on its use.

My grandfather couldn’t read or write, but later he attended a literacy class. At that time, he only knew how to sift sand, and learning to write nearly exhausted him. Fortunately, he gained some education, which allowed him to document his experiences. The “Old San” from the Biaozi Ridge in Changsha is my grandfather. He recorded all these events word by word in his old notebook. My grandmother was well-educated and came from a respectable family. It was his stories that attracted her, and eventually, my grandfather moved to Hangzhou to settle down.

That notebook is considered a family heirloom. After a certain incident, my grandfather’s nose was permanently damaged, but later he trained a dog to sniff out soil, earning the nickname “Dog King.” This is a true story; anyone from the older generation in Changsha who has worked as a soil master knows this name.

As for how my grandfather survived later on, and what happened to my second uncle and my great-grandparents, my grandfather has never been willing to tell me. In my memory, I’ve never seen my one-eyed, one-armed second uncle, so it must have been a dire situation. Whenever this topic comes up, my grandfather cries and simply says, “That’s not a story for children.” No matter how we asked or how much we pouted, he wouldn’t reveal a single word. Eventually, as we grew older, we gradually lost our childhood curiosity.

In the evening, after closing the shop, another boring day passed with nothing collected. I sent my assistant away, and at that moment, a text message came in.

“9 PM, chicken eye yellow sand.”

It was sent by my third uncle. This was code, indicating that new goods had arrived. Immediately after, another message came: “Dragon spine, come quickly.”

My eyes lit up. My third uncle had an unusually high standard, and “dragon spine” meant there was something valuable. If he thought it was good, I definitely wanted to see it.

I locked the shop door and drove my old Jinbei van straight to my third uncle’s place. On one hand, I wanted to see what he considered a good item, and on the other hand, I wanted him to see the pattern on the silk book I photographed today. After all, he was the only person from our generation still in contact with soil masters.

As soon as I arrived at his building, I heard him shouting from above: “You little rascal! I told you to hurry up, and you took forever! What good is it now that you’re here?”

I exclaimed, “Come on, save some good stuff for me! You’re selling it too fast!”

Just then, I saw a young man walking out of the front door, carrying a long object wrapped tightly in cloth. It was clear that this was an ancient weapon. This item was indeed valuable; if sold well, its price could multiply several times.

I pointed at the young man, and my third uncle nodded, making a helpless gesture. A wave of sadness washed over me, and I thought, could it be that my little stall is really going to go bankrupt this year?

I went upstairs, made myself a cup of coffee, and told my third uncle about the old man with gold teeth who came to pry into things. I expected him to share my outrage, but to my surprise, he seemed to have changed into a different person, remaining silent. He directly printed out the images from my digital camera and placed them under the light. I immediately noticed that my third uncle’s expression changed.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. “Is there something unusual about this?”

He furrowed his brow and said, “No way, this looks like a map of an ancient tomb!”

4 3 月 2025

1 Seven Star Lu Wang – Chapter One – Blood Corpse

Fifty years ago, at Biaozi Ridge in Changsha, four local men were squatting on a mound of earth, all silent, staring intently at a Luoyang shovel lying on the ground. The shovel was still covered in the old dirt it had just been dug from, and strangely, this bad soil was seeping bright red liquid, as if it had just been dipped in blood.

“This is a big trouble now,” said the old smoker, tapping his hand-rolled cigarette on the ground. “Below is a blood corpse; if we’re not careful, we might end up leaving our lives down there.”

“Should we go down or not? Just say it plainly, no beating around the bush!” the one-eyed young man said. “You say you, an old man, have trouble with your legs, so don’t go down. My brother and I will go down; whatever it is, we’ll just give it a burst.”

The old smoker laughed instead of getting angry and said to the bearded man beside him, “Your second son is always stirring up trouble; who knows when he’ll get himself into a fix. You need to educate him more; our business isn’t just about having a box cannon, you know.”

The bearded man shot a glare at the young man. “You brat, how can you talk to the old man like that? When the old man was digging dirt, you were still in your mother’s womb, eating shit!”

“What can I say… I misspoke. The ancestors didn’t say anything wrong; that blood corpse is a good thing. There must be plenty of treasures down there. If we don’t go down, we’ll just be left with a pot of soup.”

“Are you still daring to talk back?” The bearded man raised his hand to hit him, but the old smoker blocked it with his smoking pipe.

“Don’t hit him; you were the same when you were young. This is what they call ‘an unsteady beam leads to a crooked roof’!”

Seeing his father being scolded, the one-eyed young man lowered his head and chuckled. The old smoker coughed and then gave the one-eyed boy a light knock on the head. “What are you laughing at? Encountering a blood corpse can be serious or trivial; last time your second uncle dug one up in Luoyang, and now he’s still raving mad, not knowing what’s hit him. Wait a moment; I’ll go down first, you follow behind me. Second son, you bring a dirt rat to guard the back. Third son, you don’t need to go down; if all four of us go down, there won’t be time to retreat. Just hold onto the dirt rat’s tail, and when we shout inside, you pull the stuff out.”

The youngest boy was dissatisfied. “I don’t agree; you’re biased! I’ll tell my mom!”

The old smoker laughed heartily. “Look at that, the third son is still scared! Don’t make a fuss, and I’ll let you touch a golden knife.”

“I don’t want you to touch it; I can touch it myself.”

The one-eyed second brother got angry and grabbed the youngest brother’s ear. “What are you trying to do, causing trouble for me? Are you trying to provoke me?!”

The youngest boy, who seemed to have taken quite a beating in the past, was frightened into silence when he saw his second brother really angry. He looked at his father for help, but to his surprise, his father had already gone to gather the tools. The second brother was now smug. “Why are you so helpless? This time, the old man won’t help you. If you shout again, I’ll twist your ear into a flower chicken!”

The old smoker patted the second brother on the shoulder and shouted, “Boys, grab your tools!” With that, he swung the shovel, and it began to whirl.

Half an hour later, the tunnel had been dug deep enough that you couldn’t see the bottom. Except for the second brother coming up occasionally for air, the sounds from inside were barely audible. The third brother grew impatient and shouted into the hole, “Great-grandfather, have you dug through yet?”

After several seconds, a vague voice came from inside: “I… don’t know, you… stay up there, hold the… rope tight!” It was his second brother’s voice, followed by a cough from his old cigarette butt: “Keep it down… Listen! There’s movement!”

Then there was a deathly silence.

The third brother knew something must have gone wrong below, and he was too scared to speak. Suddenly, he heard a chilling croaking sound, like a frog, coming from the hole.

Then his second brother shouted from below: “Third kid, pull!”

He didn’t dare hesitate. He pushed off the ground and yanked the tail of the earth rat, pulling it out. Just after a few pulls, it felt like something below had bitten down, and a force began to pull the rope back into the hole. The third brother had never expected this situation; he almost got pulled into the hole. In a moment of desperation, he quickly tied the tail around his waist and leaned back, almost forming a 30-degree angle with the ground. This was a trick he had learned during tug-of-war games with other boys in the village. This way, all his weight would press against the rope, and even if it were a mule, he could hold his ground.

Sure enough, this tactic allowed him to face off against whatever was in the hole. Both sides struggled, but neither could budge an inch. After a tense standoff of several seconds, he heard a loud bang from inside the hole, followed by his father shouting, “Third kid, run!!!!!!” Suddenly, he felt the rope slacken, and the earth rat shot out of the hole, as if something was still hanging onto it! At that moment, the third brother didn’t have time to think; he knew something had gone wrong below. He caught the earth rat and turned to run!

He ran for more than two li before daring to stop. He pulled the earth rat from his arms and screamed in horror: there was a bloody severed hand hooked onto the rat! He recognized that hand and couldn’t help but cry; it was unmistakably his second brother’s. It seemed his second brother was either dead or severely injured. With this thought, he gritted his teeth, wanting to go back and save his brother and father. Just as he turned around, he saw a blood-red figure crouching behind him, staring straight at him.

The third brother was no fool; he had followed his father through many dangers and had witnessed plenty of bizarre things. He knew anything could happen underground, and it was crucial not to panic but to adapt to the situation. After all, no ghost could match a living person. Whatever it was, it had to obey the laws of physics. If he shot it with a gun, it would be nothing to fear.

With this in mind, he steeled himself. As he stepped back, he pulled a box cannon from his waist and got ready to fire. If that blood-red figure made any move, he would unleash a storm of bullets. To his surprise, the blood-red figure stood up. The third brother looked closely and felt his scalp tingle and his stomach churn; it was clearly a person who had been skinned! Covered in blood, it looked as if it had just squeezed itself out of a human skin. Yet, this kind of person could still move; it was truly a miracle. Could this be the true form of a blood corpse?

Thinking about it, that bloody corpse suddenly lunged forward, and in an instant, the third brother locked eyes with it. The blood-soaked face came right up to his nose, and a wave of nausea hit him. The third brother instinctively fell backward, while the box cannon fired a full load of bullets at close range into the creature’s chest. The distance was too short, and the bullets all penetrated, causing blood to splatter everywhere as the creature staggered back several steps. The third brother felt a surge of joy in his heart, and as he turned to aim at the creature’s head, he pulled the trigger, only to hear a click—the gun had jammed!

This old box cannon was dug up by his great-grandfather from a warlord’s grave many years ago; it hadn’t been used much since. Unfortunately, in recent years, he had been running around with his father and had no time for maintenance. There had been so few opportunities to fire the gun that he never expected it would jam at such a critical moment. The third brother was no simpleton; upon realizing the gun was unusable, he swung his arm with all his might and smashed the gun forward, not caring whether he hit anything, and turned to run. This time, he didn’t dare look back. He aimed for a big tree ahead, thinking that surely it couldn’t climb a tree. Suddenly, he tripped and fell flat on his face, smashing his nose against a tree stump, instantly filling his mouth and nose with blood.

The third brother slammed his palm on the ground in frustration, feeling incredibly unlucky. Just then, he heard a rustling sound behind him, realizing that the Grim Reaper was calling for him. He steeled himself, thinking, “If I’m going to die, then so be it,” and simply lay on the ground without getting up. To his surprise, the bloody corpse seemed not to see him at all and stepped right over him, leaving a bloody imprint on his back. The corpse was surprisingly heavy; when it stepped down, the third brother felt a sweetness in his throat, as if his bile had been stomped out. The spot on his back that had been stepped on immediately began to itch intensely, and his vision blurred. He soon realized he might have been poisoned, and the toxin was extremely potent. In a daze, he caught a glimpse of something in his second brother’s hand not far away.

He blinked hard and focused; it turned out to be a piece of ancient silk. He thought to himself, “This is something my second brother risked his life to bring out. It must be something extraordinary. Now I have no idea what has happened to them. I have to secure this item; if I really do die, they can find it on my body. At least my second brother’s sacrifice won’t be in vain, and I won’t die for nothing.” As he pondered this, he painfully crawled over, pried open his second brother’s tightly clenched hand, took the silk from his palm, and stuffed it into his sleeve.

At that moment, he felt a buzzing in his ears, his vision clouded like a layer of gauze had been placed over it, and his hands and feet began to grow cold. Based on his past experiences, he knew he had likely soiled himself; those poisoned by the corpse toxin often died in horrible ways. Right now, he desperately hoped that the girl from the neighboring village wouldn’t see him like this.

As he drifted in and out of consciousness, his mind was no longer responding to his commands, and he began to faintly hear that strange clucking sound he had heard at the entrance of the tunnel.

Lao San vaguely sensed that something was off. He had been fighting the blood corpse for quite some time and hadn’t heard it make a sound, so why was it suddenly calling out now? Could it be that the one he fought earlier wasn’t the blood corpse at all? What, then, was that thing he had seen? Unfortunately, at this moment, he was almost incapable of thinking. Instinctively, he raised his head and glanced up, only to see a gigantic, monstrous face leaning down to look at him, its two pupil-less eyes empty and devoid of life.

Workgram

Workgram

10 Seven Star Lu Wang – Chapter Ten – Shadow

9 Seven Star Lu Wang – Chapter Nine – Ancient Tomb

8 Seven Star Lu Wang – Chapter Eight – The Valley

7 Star Lu Wang – Chapter Seven – Over a Hundred Heads

6 Seven Star Lu Wang – Chapter Six – Accumulated Corpse Ground

5 Seven Star Lu Wang – Chapter Five – Water Shadow

4 Seven Star Lu Wang – Chapter Four – Corpse Cave

3 Seven Star Lu Wang – Chapter 3 – Sunflower Seed Temple

2 Seven Star Lu Wang – Chapter Two – Fifty Years Later

1 Seven Star Lu Wang – Chapter One – Blood Corpse

Workgram

Workgram

分类目录归档：The Chronicles of the Tomb Robbers