This was truly an unexpected situation, and everyone was in a panic.

Panzi flipped open the folding shovel at his waist and jumped into the pit, swinging it to chop, but the fat guy kept swinging his feet around and avoided getting hit. The shovel struck a nearby stone, sending sparks flying. Seeing how much force Panzi was using, the fat guy shouted, “You damn it, aim better, don’t hit my feet!”

Panzi yelled back, “You damn it, don’t move, or I’ll chop off your thigh!” As he swung again, he unexpectedly missed once more.

The fat guy shouted, “Switch, switch! This kid is taking revenge on me!”

Yecheng and Monk Hua jumped down to help, trying to hold the fat guy’s legs, but Yecheng had barely steadied himself when he suddenly sank in; a section of the stone corridor below collapsed, and he was pulled down.

This was just making things worse. Monk Hua rushed over to grab him, but he also lost his balance and stumbled into my hand, which was already at a bad angle to exert force. With a bump, I lost my grip, and the fat guy was dragged down.

Things happened too quickly, and combined with poor lighting, it was all chaotic. The few of us rolled into a pile; the fat guy fell into the pit like a meatball, and I, along with Panzi, fell heavily onto the sloped brick pit. I sensed something was wrong; before I could get up, I heard a series of cracking sounds coming from below the brick layer.

Hearing that, my face went pale. I was all too familiar with that sound; it was the noise of frozen stone materials cracking under stress during our construction tests.

Before I could think clearly, the ground suddenly shook, and the entire pit dropped sharply, causing the stone corridor below to collapse. Everyone lost their balance without realizing it and slid down the slope like they were on a slide, tumbling into a depression created by the fallen wooden corridor.

Before I could even feel relieved about my foresight, my butt went numb as I landed on a slope and started sliding down. Fortunately, I was tied with a rope, which kept me from sliding all the way down, but then bricks started falling around me, hitting my head.

My butt hurt badly, and as I covered my head trying to sit up, the slope beneath me was too steep for my feet to get any leverage. I pushed away the bricks and asked if anyone was hurt. No one answered; all I could hear were curses and the sound of bricks colliding.

After what felt like an eternity, the bricks finally stopped falling, allowing me to lift my head and look around. It was a mess; several flashlights were buried in the bricks, and a few had rolled down the slope into the darkness. Thankfully, these sturdy German climbing lights didn’t break. However, a little light filtered through the gaps between people and bricks, but it was still too dim to see anything clearly; everything around was pitch black.

Above me, I could vaguely see a large hole, the opening of the stone corridor from which we had slid down. We were likely beneath the main hall of the Ling Palace, in that suspended space on the steep rocky slope. We were currently tumbling on the steep slope, and if it weren’t for the rope, we would have rolled all the way down to the bottom by now.

Ye Chengjiu hung above my head, and it hit me pretty hard. I grabbed him and asked if he was okay, and he replied that he had already eaten lunch. I was taken aback.

In the darkness, Huaheshang shouted, “Be careful, there might be a zongzi (a type of dumpling) here. Grab your weapons. If you have hooves, get them out! Fatty, where are you? Is that thing still grabbing your foot?”

Fatty was at the bottom, and we all fell on him along with the bricks, which was quite overwhelming. I could hear his groans coming from the pile of bricks: “I’m still holding on! I’m almost touching my thigh! I’ve got him pinned down; damn it, pull me out, or I’m going to lose my second brother!”

“That’s my hand!” Panzi yelled angrily from the side.

“Damn it!” Fatty retorted, “Can’t you pick a better time to be a pervert?”

Without a flashlight, those who weren’t pinned down had to grope around in the dark to move the bricks, pushing them down the slope. Panzi dug me out first, but his hand got pinched by Fatty and couldn’t be pulled out. We continued digging, and soon Fatty was also freed. Breathing a sigh of relief, he said, “You guys really have the nerve to pile me up like this. Luckily I brought my divine fat, or I would have been done for this time.”

Panzi didn’t have time to bicker: “What about that thing on your foot?”

In the darkness, Fatty moved his foot as if he was checking and said, “It’s gone! With a fall like that, it’s unlikely it could still be holding on. It probably got knocked down the slope. Damn it, how could there be a zongzi in a place like this?”

Huaheshang said, “It must still be nearby. Everyone be careful, hold onto your black donkey hooves, and let’s find the flashlight first!”

I hurried to feel around under the bricks for the flashlight. I searched but couldn’t find it, while Ye Cheng found it on his side. As he pulled it out from the pile of bricks, the surroundings suddenly lit up. He picked it up and immediately shone it down.

I was right below him, annoyed by the glare of the flashlight. Just as I was about to ask him to dim it a bit, I suddenly saw Ye Cheng’s face turn pale.

Seeing his expression, I started to break out in a cold sweat, thinking, could it be right next to me? I gritted my teeth and turned my head to look, only to see a dried, purple-blue, grotesque face suddenly protruding just a foot away from my nose, right beside my shoulder.

I was so scared that I gasped, shrinking back. I grabbed a piece of blue brick with my left hand and swung it over, not knowing if I hit anything, and then turned to climb up.

At that moment, the other flashlights were also dug out, and the surroundings lit up completely. I climbed a few steps up, but since Ye Cheng was right above me, there was no room to pass, and I slipped back down. Looking to the side, I couldn’t help but gasp in shock.

I saw that beneath the Linggong Hall, the steep cliff had been formed into layers of rudimentary terraces, and on these terraces, almost uniformly sat numerous frozen, purple-blue ancient corpses, layer upon layer. They looked like the Arhat Hall in a temple, huddled together, densely packed, their faces twisted in agony. It was clear they had all frozen to death, all sitting there like monks in meditation, the shadows obscured and impossible to count how many there were.

Ye Cheng, who was the most timid here, trembled and said, “Damn, is this the monks’ hidden burial chamber for their golden bodies?” As he spoke, he seemed to go a bit weak all over.

Chen Pi A Si held him down and waved his hand, saying, “Don’t be afraid, it’s just a corpse.” As he spoke, he pointed to the ground beneath my feet. I looked down and saw that among the bricks at our feet, there was actually a mummy that had been crushed into powder.

“The dead here are frozen solid, like stone; they break apart at a touch,” Chen Pi A Si said. “These things can’t transform anymore; there shouldn’t be any zongzi here.”

“What was that thing that grabbed my foot just now?” the胖子 asked.

Chen Pi A Si replied, “Your foot was probably just caught by the hand of a corpse. If it were a zongzi, do you think you’d still have your legs? If you don’t believe me, take a look at your pant leg.”

The胖子 looked down at the pant leg that had been grabbed, and indeed there was a hole, with a dry hand shaped like a hook not far from his feet among the pile of bricks. I picked it up and found it extremely hard; it was impossible for it to stretch out and grab someone’s leg.

Immediately, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Panzi exaggeratedly sighed, “Such a coward, even seeing things wrong.”

The胖子 was furious; he wanted to argue but couldn’t find a reason, so he could only sulk, muttering, “That hand really did grab my foot. How could I not tell the difference between being hooked and grabbed? Damn it, if you don’t believe me, whatever.”

We shone our flashlights around; we were under the main hall, and the space was vast. Because the corpses were densely packed, we couldn’t see the end, but aside from the corpses, there was nothing else suspicious.

Panzi asked the monk Hua, “How could there be so many dead people here? I’ve never even heard of this.”

“From the looks of it, it should be a burial layer for sacrifices. This… I really can’t understand; no dynasty’s royal tomb looks like this… Who are these dead people?” Hua the monk muttered to himself.

I suppressed my fear and shone my flashlight on one of the corpses, discovering that the features were relatively well-preserved. The eyes were closed, the face was wrinkled, but there was no beard, and the entire body was covered with a thin layer of ice. What was frightening was that the skin of these ancient corpses was purplish-blue, and their mouths were wide open, revealing long fangs.

“These might not be human,” the胖子 said, looking at it. “Look at those teeth; one bite could take off someone’s face.”

“Not human?” Ye Cheng’s face turned pale again. “Then what are they? Monsters?”

“They could possibly be the legendary snowmen, but these have no fur,” the胖子 began to ramble.

“Nonsense!” Hua the monk shouted. “What kind of monster snowmen? The teeth of these corpses are sharpened naturally; this is a custom of ancient shamanism. Later, it was replaced by masks because it was too troublesome. These definitely aren’t the Jurchens from the Ming dynasty; look at the clothes of these corpses, they are very primitive, not of Jurchen or Mongolian style. Also, look, some of the corpses are wrapped in hemp cloth. This is a mummy formed by ice burial.”

I remembered the ice burial pits I had seen while camping in the Little Saint Valley that night and said, “Could it be that these corpses are the ancestral remains unearthed by Wang Canghai while digging the mountain for the tomb?”

The monk Hua nodded, “There’s no doubt about it. This particular fetal-shaped cave was likely a burial site in the past, where the ancient locals conducted ice burials. However, it has been repurposed into a mock accompanying tomb for Wang Canghai’s land development. These bodies must have been excavated when the cave was being dug.”

The胖子 (Fatty) asked, “If what you say is true, why not just burn them? What purpose do these bodies serve being placed here?”

“Who knows? Look at these mummies; they are terrifying. Shamanism has many primitive and bizarre rituals and curses, which are said to require the use of corpses. The arrangement here might be related to shamanic magic. Strange things could happen; perhaps we won’t be able to leave no matter how we try, and it’s all because of these bodies. We need to be careful.”

I recalled the corpse formation in the Qinling Mountains, where places with a large number of bodies often experienced phenomena similar to getting lost in a maze. Could it really be that evil magic was at work?

Shamanism is not a complete religion; it is essentially a form of primitive witchcraft, meaning it has practical value and is closely linked to pharmacology and spiritual worship. My understanding of shamans is limited to those portrayed in Qing Dynasty operas. However, it is said that shamanic practices, like the Chinese art of Qimen Dunjia, have been lost in segments throughout history. Some beneficial elements were incorporated into Tibetan Buddhism, while some malevolent aspects simply vanished. Ancient texts show that early shamanic rituals were extremely sinister and bizarre, filled with content related to curses and corpses, closely tied to witchcraft. The Kuren people believe in witchcraft; could there be some commonality between the two?

After listening to the monk Hua, the胖子 suddenly realized, “No wonder it feels like my feet are burning and I feel uneasy here in this spiritual palace. It turns out there are so many zongzi (sticky rice dumplings) buried underneath. That old scoundrel’s conscience really is terribly corrupt.”

The monk Hua said, “That’s what I suspect. Right now, the most important thing is to find a way out. Let’s split up and see if there are any exits around here.”

After saying that, the monk Hua added, “But be careful; this place does seem a bit eerie. There are certainly safety hazards, and the cliffs here are too steep. If something goes wrong, we won’t be able to escape.”

Everyone agreed, and the胖子 could hardly wait. The group unfastened their climbing gear, picked up their flashlights, and dispersed, cautiously searching the steep cliff walls for any signs of an exit.

Moving among so many corpses was not a pleasant experience, but strangely, the more bodies there were, the less anxious one felt. Perhaps it was a form of reverse psychology that set in after reaching a certain level of fear.

The corpses were packed tightly together, with no space left for walking in between. We had to squeeze through the gaps between the bodies. The corpses varied in age, all frozen and resembling bluish-purple rocks. I noticed some still had bronze ritual implements, completely rusted and green with age. Almost all the lower halves of the bodies had fused with the rocks below; to move them would require breaking them apart.

After searching for a long time, I found that my direction yielded no results. Watching myself drift further away from others, I felt increasingly uneasy. Just as I was about to pretend I had finished searching and return to the hole to ask the others for their findings, I heard Panzi call out, “Hey, Fatty, what are you doing?”

Following Panzi’s voice, we looked in the direction where Fatty had been searching. To our surprise, Fatty had stopped searching at some point and was now squatting in front of a pile of corpses below us, facing us with an expressionless face and his mouth agape. At first glance, his face had taken on a bluish-purple hue, resembling the nearby corpses, and I couldn’t tell what he was up to.